HER PERFECT LIFE--AND A PERFECT LAUNCH!

Jenn McKinlay: It goes without saying that the Reds are each other's biggest fans! So I am just over the moon, ecstatic, and positively thrilled to announce our Hank's latest book HER PERFECT LIFE will be released into the wild TOMORROW!!!

This book has already started to buzz hard with starred reviews from Kirkus and Publisher's Weekly and was declared “A spectacular thriller” in a rave review from Library Journal! It's Hank's second pandemic launch and the publisher says it's her “Most personal book yet.” ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

BUY NOW!!!

HER PERFECT LIFE

It’s about sisters, betrayal, guilt, fame, and revenge. Everyone knows television reporter Lily Atwood, and that may be her biggest problem. She has fame, fortune, and beloved daughter; and her devoted fans have even given her a hashtag: #PerfectLily.  But Lily also has one life-changing dark secret—and if anyone finds out, she fears her career and happiness are over.  Problem is: how do you keep a secret when you’re always in the spotlight? And when an anonymous source begins to tell Lily secrets about Lily’s  own life --she learns the spotlight may be the most dangerous place of all. 

There is a BIG launch party tonight so don't miss out! 

Register here:  https://bit.ly/HPLLaunch 

If you can’t come, boo, but Hank can still sign and personalize a book for you! Just click on the link. 

We all have questions for Hank--and we know you will, too! YAY, Hank--and we know this will be fabulous. Scroll down for the questions--and Hank's insightful answers.

JENN McKINLAY: Congratulations, Hank! This is so thrilling (intended)! We Reds have been fortunate enough to be a tiny bit in the loop during your writing process, and I have to ask is your protagonist television reporter Lily Atwood based on someone(s) that you’ve met during your own illustrious career as a reporter or was she inspired by something else? What was the spark that inspired her story? 

HANK: Oh, thank you! I am overwhelmed and nervous, just saying.  But I know exactly where this story came from.

  

When I worked in Atlanta, in the 80s, I was anchoring the weekend news. I came home after the eleven PM news one night, around midnight or even later, and my house was surrounded by police cars. Someone had broken into my house. The police caught him, and he confessed to them that he had chosen my house to break into--because he knew I was live on television, and not home!  Isn’t that chilling?

Because he knew where I was, he knew where I wasn’t. That understanding of the deep vulnerability of being a television reporter haunted me. And that was the beginning of the story.

And led to the irony in the title.

HALLIE EPHRON: Your titles always have multiple meanings and shades of meaning that reveal themselves to the reader. A case in point: “perfect” paired with “life”? Did the title come to you as you were writing, or did you start with the title and spin a story from there.

HANK: Oh, great question, dear Hallie!  In this book, the title did not emerge until about the middle of writing it. It was initially titled “The Next Caller” because one of the key elements is that an investigative reporter, who gets a lot of news tips from sources, gets a call from an anonymous person who appears to know some secrets about the reporter herself! 

 I thought it would be fascinating to turn the tables--to have someone whose life revolves, in a way, around telling secrets--begin to understand how it feels like to be in the spotlight. 

She has such a perfect public image that her fans have hashtagged her #PerfectLily. But soon she knows her seemingly-perfect life is about to be ruined. And that the spotlight may be the most dangerous place of all.

And once I thought the phrase “Her perfect life..” 

I thought--OH! Of COURSE.

LUCY BURDETTE: Yes big congratulations on everything Hank! Jenn stole my question about your spark, but here’s another one. You’ve talked about not plotting ahead while you’re writing. How much do you know when you start out? Do you use any turning points or character sketches or any kind of structure?

HANK: NO IDEA. Nothing. I know there would be a celebrated reporter who had a dark scary secret. What was it? NO idea! 

 I did have an image of a college freshman, a girl, who comes home for the holidays, and seems sad, and her mom finds her notebook, which has a calendar with the days crossed off.  And I thought--is she counting the days until something? Or after something? 

And that’s all I had.  (And that’s on page one, so no spoilers. ;-0) 

Lily’s seven-year-old daughter Rowen was a huge surprise to me. And she was a joy to write--mischievous, funny, confident, articulate, polite--and she pushes Lily a bit. And Lily pushes right back. And they are wonderful together. Until..what if that spotlight shines on little Rowen?  

(And oh, thank you, Lucy!)

RHYS BOWEN:  Many congrats on the new book, Hank. My question: do you become emotionally involved with your heroine? Identify with her? Or can you remain detached as you do in your job?

HANK: Thank you! Hmm. I BECOME her, as I write.  It’s almost like method acting. I know when I’m  writing Lily, I have good posture, and my brain presents Lily words, and I know what she wants, and her secrets, and I make her decisions. When I write Greer Whitfield, the ambitious/brilliant/complicated producer, my eyes narrow a bit, and Greer phrases come out. . And for college girl Cassie, well, I can’t talk about that. (HER PERFECT LIFE takes place in the past and the present.)  

But I DO identify with Lily’s concern for her personal life in a public arena. People who watch her on television think they KNOW her--she’s in their living rooms every night!--and they think they’re her friend. How dangerous is that? And Lily is an investigative reporter, like I am. She does a lot of good--but someone’s scheme is thwarted in every story she does--so she’s made a lot of enemies. And, like my burglar, they know where she lives.  

DEBORAH CROMBIE: It is such a fabulous cover, Hank! Everytime I see it I have to just gaze at it for a moment. Were you pleased with it? Is that how you imagined Lily? Did the cover design go through many iterations? 

HANK: Oh, totally totally totally. Thank you, dear Debs!  I GASPED when I saw this. And yes, we went through many iterations. I kept saying: elegant, classic, Mona Lisa, Grace Kelly, luminous,  mysterious, sophisticated. And then wow. Designer Katie Klimowicz at Forge hit a grand slam home run. Even the paper stock is incredible. (And here’s a secret--in the original version, her eyes are blue. I asked for green. And poof! Green.)

 

 JULIA SPENCER-FLEMING: After these great questions, I'm afraid anything I might ask about HER PERFECT LIFE will slide into spoiler territory! So I'm going to ask about launching a BIG book in Fall '21 - you're doing a mix of Facebook Live, streaming, podcasting - and of course, you're still blogging here and at Career Authors and highlighting other authors with First Chapter Fun and The Back Room. Just typing that makes me want to lie down with a cold compress. How do you manage such a packed schedule and how - since I've seen this many times - do you keep delivering 100% at every event?

HANK: (Please don't make a list like that! It is a lot, but it's a lot of fabulous. xoxoo) Truly, I adore it, and it's part of the crazy-wonderful life as an author. And these days, all the more necessary to stay connected. And aw, thank you for the wonderful links!

And we all have packed schedules, right? But remember was it--Willie Mays? Someone like that? Who was asked: "Why do you always play the best you can in every game?" And he said: "Because there might be a little boy in the stands who's never seen me before."

Right?

And speaking of schedules:

All right, Readers, it's your turn to put Hank in the hot seat! What do you want to know about HER PERFECT LIFE? 

An Amazing True Story

HANK PHILLIPPI RYAN: Happy Saturday! . And you are about to hear some amazing stuff.  We’re delighted to have Victoria Thompson with us again, (here we are at Malice when she was Guest Of Honor!). And wow-- what she has to tell us today is so timely.

You probably know her as the author of the Gaslight Mystery Series, set in turn of the century New York City with midwife Sarah Brandt and detective Frank Malloy.  (If you don’t, whoa, you are in for a treat!) But grab your coffee or tea--and listen to this.

VICTORIA THOMPSON:  I’m thrilled to be invited back to Jungle Red because I get to tell you about the first book in my brand new Counterfeit Lady Series, City of Lies, which will be out on November 7. 

(Now, before anyone panics, this will be my second series, and I’ll continue to write the Gaslight Mysteries as long as readers will read them, but now my fans will have two books a year from me instead of just one.)

I’d been wanting to write a second series for a long time, so I’d been researching the early nineteenth century in hopes of finding inspiration.  One day, almost miraculously, all that research (and a few odds and ends I hadn’t even considered part of the process) suddenly fell into place and the idea for City of Lies and my heroine, Elizabeth Miles, came to me, full blown.

In the research, I’d learned a lot about the Women’s Suffrage Movement that they don’t teach in school. I learned that in 1917, women had demonstrated outside the White House every day for the right to vote. Every day! By November (that’s right, November 1917, exactly 100 years ago from when the book comes out!), President Wilson was getting annoyed, so he started having the demonstrators arrested. He thought that would scare them off, but it only made them mad, and even more women came to demonstrate. Finally, he had them sentenced to three months in a workhouse where they were physically abused and served rancid food full of maggots.  They went on a hunger strike and endured abuse for weeks until a judge finally released them.

The stories of the suffragists were amazing, but I’d never heard them before, and nobody I knew had ever heard them before, either. I wanted to put them in a book, but these honorable ladies hardly seemed likely to commit a crime worthy of a mystery novel.  How could I tell their story in an interesting way?

This is where the “odds and ends” came in.  When a writer does research, she often comes across interesting information she can’t use on that particular book, so she files it away in a “just in case” folder, or at least I do.  I thought it might be interesting if a woman joined the demonstrators outside the White House just as they were being arrested in order to escape someone dangerous. Who could this woman be and who was chasing her?

Years ago, I’d researched con men for another story, and I had several books in my library on the subject.  Were there con women, too?  Not many, it turned out, but a few, and Elizabeth Miles was born.  Elizabeth lies well and knows exactly how to pretend to be someone she is not, so she pretends to be a lady and a suffragist. Her deception ends up lasting much longer than she’d planned, however, when she and the others are sentenced to the workhouse.  How long can she be a counterfeit lady?

Like every woman in every age, Elizabeth must pretend to be what others want to see in order to safely navigate her world. She must risk everything—the respect she has earned from the women she admires, the new love she has found, and the one safe place where can finally be her true self.  And, she must trick all these honest, upright citizens into helping her run a con to save her very life.

Remember I told you I learned a lot about the Women’s Suffrage Movement?  One important thing I realized when I saw the date when the 19^th Amendment passed is that when my mother was born, women didn’t have the right to vote!  That’s how recently women achieved this precious right.  Women have come a long way in a hundred years, but in many ways we often still pretend to be something we are not in order to be safe, just like Elizabeth did.

I hope my fans enjoy City of Lies as much as they have loved the Gaslight Mysteries.

HANK: Well, indeed! I can say first hand that this book is terrific! I loved it, and (just between us) was envious of Vicki’s brilliant idea and the execution of it.

So do you think now, 100 years later, and after all that, we take voting for granted? I can say I have never missed an election. Even our little town elections. And I was so angry last November (whoa) when they ran out of I VOTED stickers! I love the see the diligent election workers, and the devoted people with signs, and I love to mark the ballot.

How about you, Reds and readers?

**************

Victoria Thompson:  Edgar®  and Agatha Nominated author Victoria Thompson writes the Gaslight Mystery Series, set in turn-of-the-century New York City and featuring midwife Sarah Brandt. Her latest, Murder in the Bowery, was a May 2017 release.  City of Lies is the first book in her new Counterfeit Lady series, a November 2017 release from Berkley.  She also contributed to the award winning writing textbook Many Genres/One Craft. Victoria teaches in the Seton Hill University master's program in writing popular fiction. She lives in Illinois with her husband and a very spoiled little dog. 

Visit www.victoriathompson.com or follow her on Facebook at Victoria.Thompson.Author or on twitter @gaslightvt.  (That’s not a typo!)

for suffragette magazine: Copyright: gameover / 123RF Stock Photo

Rhys on Research

RHYS BOWEN: Last week Karen gave you her report on our workshop in Tuscany. At the end of the ten days we went our separate ways and I headed north to Lake Maggiore to do research for my next Royal Spyness book.  I thought you might be interested to see what such research entails. When I’ve told people that I was heading to Nice or to Italy to do research, I see them grinning and thinking, “Right. Research. I don’t think.”

                Actually I do work quite hard, albeit in lovely surroundings. When I was writing Naughty in Nice I spent several days in the main library looking through old postcards and maps. After all streets and their names are always being changed in France. Princess Grace Boulevard would not have existed at the time I write about. I spent a fabulous morning at the hotel Negresco, wandering hallways and peering around corners, with the blessing of the management who suddenly decided I should be given free rein when I produced a card that said I was a bestselling author. I took lots of pictures and wandered streets (and ate and drank local food and wine, of course. All part of the research of bringing a place to life!)

.

                This time in Stresa I was most interested in finding a villa and gardens that matched the setting I wanted for Lady Georgie’s stay. I was fascinated by some of the villas that must once have been grand and have now been allowed to fall into ruins. (Tempted to buy one and restore it!) But I did see one lovely villa that would fit the bill and then there were gardens at Villa Tarranto and on the Isola Bella, both of which are incorporated into my Villa Gloriosa.

Also I was interested in the details of the conference that took place in Stresa in 1935 between Italy, France and England, deciding what to do about the Nazi threat. Where was it held? Who was there? I always like to bring real history into my stories and this conference was a gift—right time, right place. Then there was the train and steamer up to the Swiss part of the lake, as that also has to be part of my story. Where might there have been a famous clinic in 1935? And of course the Grand Hotel where Ernest Hemmingway stayed when he wrote “A Farewell to Arms”. Surely there was a way to bring that into the story!

                Above all I try to get the feel of a place: when I sit in the little square and drink coffee what do I see, hear, smell? It is deliciously cool in the shade of the sycamore trees. Sound echoes from the surrounding alleyways. Italians in conversation always sound as if they are about to break into a fight. And then there is the weather: morning clouds draped over the mountains. Wisps of cloud attached to the peaks like strands of sheep’s wool caught on a fence. The far side of the lake swallowed into blackness during a storm. Weather is always important in a story so I take pictures and make notes of every weather change.

                When I write a book my aim is to take my readers there, not tell them about it. If I’ve experienced it then hopefully they will took.  Watch out for the book next year. It’s called “On Her Majesty’s Frightfully Secret Service.”

Get Gaslight-ed!

HANK: Today we welcome a newbie to Jungle Red. Well, hardly a newbie author, but a newbie visitor! Victoria Thompson is the Agatha and Edgar® nominated author of the Gaslight Mystery Series.  And we do mean SERIES. There are seventeen Gaslight books now! And, TA DAH! She’s just been named the Guest of Honor for next year’s Malice Domestic!

Her latest is Murder on Amsterdam Avenue, and she wants your opinion on a very important topic. (And she’s giving away her newest to one lucky commenter!)

HANK: For those just joining Gaslight--tell us about it a bit! Where'd the initial idea come from?

VICTORIA: Oddly enough, the idea was generated by Berkley.  They did that a lot in the early days at Berkley Prime Crime.  My agent called me one day to tell me she’d just had lunch with a Prime Crime editor who was looking for someone to write a series set in turn-of-the-century New York  City where the heroine was a midwife.  My agent thought of me, since I’d recently written a book set in that time period and I had been putting mystery subplots in my historical romances for a while.  

They sent me their ideas for the series.  I liked some of them and threw out a few others.  Then I realized that my midwife, Sarah, would need a male cohort, preferably someone who would logically be solving murder mysteries, so I created Police Detective Frank Malloy. Berkley had suggested that Sarah be a poor relation of a rich family, but I made her the rebellious daughter of a rich family, which would give her entre into all levels of society.

HANK: So-- does it feel as if you're spending much of your time in the past?  You must have to think about reality in such a different way...

VICTORIA:  It’s funny, I’ve tried writing contemporary fiction.  I’ve had several really cool ideas and even started the books and finished one, but I just couldn’t love writing them the way I do my historicals.

 Last night I was watching Call the Midwife, a series set in the 1950’s and 1960’s.  Afterwards, one of the cast members said in an interview that she’d been in many historical shows, but she’d grown up in the 1950’s and it was weird acting in a “historical” era she knew all about first-hand, so she guessed she was historical!  I also grew up in that era, so maybe I’m a historical person, too.

I know I feel more comfortable with the language and the manners of the past.  I also love discovering over and over that people are still the same after a hundred years.  Our technology is different, but we’re still concerned with the same things:  finding Mr. Right, spirituality, assimilating immigrants, the media’s role in criminal prosecution, stalking, the proper way to help the poor, and the theme I return to again and again, women’s role in society. I really enjoy reminding readers that we really haven’t made much progress in any of these areas, in spite of the efforts of many well-meaning people.

HANK: Before you started writing the Gaslight Series, you published 20 historical romances. Whoa.  Was it hard making the transition from romance to mystery?

VICTORIA:  Not as hard as I thought it would be, except for one thing. I had created two wonderful protagonists for the Gaslight series, Frank Malloy and Sarah Brandt.  They were about as opposite as two people living in New York City in that time period could be, so naturally they were the perfect protagonists for a romance novel.  They should have spent the entire first book overcoming everything that kept then apart, fallen in love, and lived happily ever after.

HANK :  And why didn’t they?

VICTORIA:  Because everyone told me (and told me!) that mystery readers don’t like romance in their mysteries.  My editor and my agent and other mystery writers all warned me.  This is why I put so many barriers between Frank and Sarah. They could never get together, so I made it impossible for them to get together.

Then a strange thing happened. I started getting fan letters.  They would say something nice about the book and oh, by the way, when are Frank and Sarah going to get together?”  Everyone wanted to know about a romance between Frank and Sarah.  So obviously, mystery readers don’t mind a little romance in their mysteries at all!  And after fifteen years of keeping them apart, the fans were getting angry!  

So I knew something had to happen. The problem was that I’d put up so many barriers between them, I couldn’t figure out how to get them married without ruining the series.  Fortunately, one of my writer friends, who had never read a single one of the books, came up with the perfect solution, which I won’t mention in case somebody hasn’t read that book yet.

HANK: Is it a spoiler to ask if they finally get married in this book?

VICTORIA:  I don’t think so. They’ve been engaged for two books now, so it’s certainly time!  Of course they solve a mystery first and it’s a dandy, but then they finally do tie the knot.

HANK: Uh-oh. Is this the end of the series?

VICTORIA:  Not at all!  In fact, the next book is already written, and I’m contracted for at least two more after that (that’s me signing the contract in the picture!). Frank and Sarah will keep solving mysteries as along as readers keep buying the books. 

HANK: What's the secret to your series longevity?

VICTORIA:  An excellent question! 

I actually teach mystery writing in the Seton Hill University’s MFA program in Writing Popular Fiction, and I cover this very topic.  I always tell my students that readers will pick up your book because they want a good mystery, but they’ll keep coming back to your series time and again because they care about your protagonists.  

I learned this secret from fans themselves.

They write me letters, saying how much they loved this or that about a particular book, but they always ended by asking when Frank and Sarah would get together.  That was when I realized they really cared about Frank and Sarah as people, so I have tried to make their personal journeys as interesting as the mysteries they solve. So far so good!  I just hope they’ll be equally as interesting now that they’re married.

HANK:  My books don't have to be read in order, even though they star the same two main characters.  Do you have to read the Gaslight books in order?

VICTORIA: Not at all, and many readers who have discovered the series recently tell me they read them out of order. I was very careful not to give anything away about past cases, so you don’t have to worry about spoilers.  Frank and Sarah’s relationship does grow and change through the course of the series, of course.  They don’t like each other much in the first book, and in the new one, they get married!  I’d call that progress.  

  You can read the Gaslight Series in order or not, depending on how important it is for you to see the growth and character development of the protagonists.

HANK:  So Reds, some people feel as if they MUST read a series in order, no matter what the author says. How about you?   And a copy of Victoria’s new mystery to one lucky commenter!

***********************************************

Victoria Thompson writes the Agatha and Edgar® Nominated Gaslight Mystery Series, set in turn-of-the-century New York City featuring midwife Sarah Brandt.  The 17^th book in the series is MURDER ON AMSTERDAM AVENUE.  She also contributed to the award winning MANY GENRES/ONE CRAFT. Victoria teaches in the Seton Hill University MFA program in writing popular fiction. She lives in Central PA with her husband and a very spoiled little dog. She is a member of Sisters in Crime.  You can find her at www.victoriathompson.com.

Murder on Amsterdam Avenue

Frank and Sarah put their family business on hold to investigate the death of an old family friend.  As they unravel secrets that reach back to the War Between the States, they also discover that they are in the company of a very present danger…”