Jungle Reds' Discussion Questions for Book Groups

HALLIE EPHRON: Whenever I finish a reading a book, I find myself desperate to talk about it with someone else who’s read it. For those of us in a book group or book club, we’re fortunate to have a go-to source of like-minded readers to talk about the books we loved… or hated… or simply stirred us up and got us thinking.

From an author’s point of view, we’re thrilled when a book group decides to read one of our books. We’re often asked for discussion questions, so today we’re offering a list of questions for each of our latest books. And inviting you, please, at the end, to share your own experiences in a book group and what kind of questions you’ve found generate the most interesting discussions when your book picks a mystery novel. 

LUCY BURDETTE: In my ninth Key West food critic mystery, A DEADLY FEAST, food critic Hayley Snow is set to be married to her heartthrob detective Nathan Bransford. But she has a lot of worries because Nathan’s been married before and both sets of parents were married and then divorced. So she canvasses her friends and family about their experiences with marriage. I’m hoping this book might make for a good book club discussion!

1. What’s your theory about what makes for a good marriage?
2. Does it seem to you that Nathan and Hayley are a good match? Why or why not?
3. When you’re reading about a fictional wedding, how much do you like to hear about wedding plans and details?
4. What are your favorite examples of fictional weddings, either books or movies? Explain why you chose them.

And for some non-wedding questions:
5. Have you ever gone on a food tour? If so where? If not yet, what place would you love to eat your way around?
6. Martha Hubbard talks about chefs feeling possessive about the recipes they make and serve—they don’t want diners making substitutions. How do you feel about that?
7. How do you feel about Hayley’s relationship with her mother? And compare this to her relationship with Miss Gloria and Allison, her stepmother.
8. Hayley’s boss Palamina says she never understood why Hayley was living with a senior citizen, until she met Miss Gloria. How do you feel about this character? Does she accurately reflect seniors?

If you'd like to invite Lucy to speak to you group, contact her at RAISLEIB "at" GMAIL DOT COM.

HANK PHILLIPPI RYAN: Has everyone read THE MURDER LIST? If not, get some wine and go into the other room and finish the book! Everyone else...

1. How did you feel about the ending?
2. When you started the book, how did you feel about Rachel and Jack’s marriage? The dynamics of their relationship? What was the balance of power in that relationship?
3. How do you feel about lawyers and what they do? If you’re a lawyer, what parts of the book capture a legal reality for you? If you’re not a lawyer, which lawyer in the obok did you like the most? DId that change as the book progressed?
4. How do you think women’s issues--sisterhood, support, mentoring--change professional relationships? How did Martha use hat? How did Rachel use that? How did Clea use that?
5. We are never in the point of view of the reporter Clea, but we hear her described-very differently by the three characters who deal with her. How do Jack, Martha and Rachel think of the journalist--and what do you think about how different those descriptions of her are?
6. Have you ever been so madly in love with someone that you would do anything to “get” them? Which characters in the book are obsessed with someone?
7. We think about unreliable narrators--but aren’t we all unreliable? Because we’re describing the world the way WE see it? Or the way we want it? And lawyers, especially, have to be able to argue both sides of any story. How does that prism change how you understood the book?
8. Have you ever been on a jury? What did you think about what happened in the deliberation room? If you’re called to jury duty in the future--will this realistic portrayal change how you think about the jury system?
9. If you were a lawyer, would you want to be a prosecutor? Or a defense attorney? Why?
10. The title THE MURDER LIST has at least three meanings--maybe more. What did you think it meant when the book began--and what did you think at the end? 

To request Hank for an event or speaking engagement, please contact hankevents@reganevents.com. 

RHYS BOWEN: These discussion questions for my new book, Above the Bay Of Angels, that will be published on February 11. Maybe you can think about the questions when you read it. 

Above the Bay of Angels is a story of a young girl, cheated out of the life she expected but able to shine when she becomes a cook for Queen Victoria and experiences the delights of French cuisine when the queen goes to Nice. 

1. Do you think Bella made a wise choice when she acted on the letter she found?
2. One of the themes of this book is the British class system. Do you think it right that Bella remains a snob?
3. Food plays a big part in this book. What does Bella learn about food as the story progresses.
4. The journey to Nice opens up a whole new world to Bella. Why do you think she is able to appreciate it more than her fellow cooks?
5. Discuss Bella’s relationship with her sister
6. The story in Nice has its basis in real history. Did the plots and intrigue enhance the story for you?
7. In what ways is this a mystery rather than a simple historical novel?
8. Which character did you dislike most? (There were several really objectionable ones, weren’t there?)
9. What was your impression of Queen Victoria from this story? Did it agree with what you already knew about her?
10. Did you agree with the ending? Were you surprised? Did she make the right choice?

If you would like your bookclub to Skype with Rhys do contact her at authorrhysbowen@gmail.com and visit her website for updates.

DEBORAH CROMBIE: A Bitter Feast

1.Do you think the portrayal of Viv’s experience in the kitchen at O’Reilly’s was realistic? What special challenges do women chefs face in the kitchen?
2.Why do you think Viv cut off all contact with Fergus? How might things have turned out differently if she had not?
3.How do the events of the book change Viv’s relationship with her own kitchen staff?
4.Why did Melody withhold the truth about her family and their circumstances from Andy?
5.Do you feel that Melody’s relationship with Andy can be repaired? How might it be different?
6.What qualities does Kit have that are consequential to the resolution of the story and Grace’s safe return?
7.Do you feel that Melody’s relationship with her parents, and in particular, her mother, has changed by the novel’s end?
8.How does Duncan’s injury affect his handling of the case?
9.Why does Duncan feel driven to learn what happened to Nell Greene?
10. Are there any commonalities in the revelations experienced by the major characters? If so, what are they?

To arrange an author appearance, Deborah's publicist at Harper Collins: danielle.bartlett@harpercollins.com

JENN MCKINLAY:  PARIS IS ALWAYS A GOOD IDEA (July 2020)

Interestingly enough, I have to write reader’s questions for my July book PARIS IS ALWAYS A GOOD IDEA this week. It’s a new genre for me, single title romantic comedy, but I’m having a lot of fun with discussion possibilities. Here’s my starting place, we’ll see which of these make it into the back of the book!

1. What event causes Chelsea to reconsider the path her life is presently on?
2. Do you think revisiting her past will help Chelsea to move forward with her future?
3. What is Chelsea looking for? What does she hope to find in revisiting her post college gap year?
4. Which of the three loves of her postcollege gap your is your favorite? Why?
5. When does Chelsea start to see her work rival, Jason Knightley, in a different light?
6. What happened that kept Chelsea from moving forward with her life? Why?
7. How does grief play a role in both Chelsea and Jason’s lives?
8. How does Chelsea’s relationship with her family change during the course of the book?
9. What does Chelsea learn about revisiting her past? Why couldn’t she be the girl she once was again?
10. What does Chelsea learn about herself during her trip? How is she different at the end of the novel from who she was at the beginning?

To contact Jenn, reach out to publicist Brittanie Black, PRH Publicity: bblack@penguinrandomhouse.com 

HALLIE EPHRON: Careful What You WIsh For

1.There are three couples in the book (Emily and Frank, Ruth and “Murph,” and Quinn and Wally.) How is “stuff” a dynamic in each of their marriages?
2.How did Emily and Frank’s fertility problems affect their relationship? How has it affected Emily’s relationship with Becca?
3. What is Emily’s relationship with her mother? How are they alike; how are they different?
4. At the end of the novel, why do you think Emily goes with Frank to the storage unit?
5. Do you think Frank got what he deserved in the end?
6. What do you collect, and what does it say about you?
7. Have you known a hoarder? What skills do you think a professional organizer needs to help someone like that? 
8. Do you think Emily and Becca made any decisions that a more experienced professional might not have made?
9. What do you think the title CAREFUL WHAT YOU WISH FOR refers to?
10. The author has said that one of the inspirations for this book was the Patricia Highsmith novel, Strangers on a Train. Can you see the similarities and differences?

If you would like your bookclub to Skype with Hallie, please contact her at Hallie "at" HallieEphron.com; check her website for her events.

Now we'd love to hear about your experiences in a book discussion group. We'd love to hear all about it... 
What are the books that were particularly interesting or difficult to discuss? And what kind of questions you’ve found generate the most interesting discussions when your book picks a mystery novel. 

Book pairings: Jungle Red gift ideas

HALLIE EPHRON: One of the most fun events I did for my book launch was book talk paired with a wine, chocolate, and cheese tasting, hosted by Adventures by the Book in San Diego. They do such a great job pairing experiences with books--just for instance, coming up next fall they have a New England Foliage Adventures (Oct 12-20), a four-state journey featuring New England authors.

Their approach got me thinking about how pairing a book with a food, an experience, or another book makes a great gift.

So as we all look toward the Christmas shopping season, we Reds are here to help you with some creative gift giving, pairing our books with… 

I’d recommend pairing CAREFUL WHAT YOU WISH FOR with a copy of Marie Kondo’s THE LIFE-CHANGING MAGIC OF TIDYING UP, and a bottle of Prosecco (just don't drink too much).

DEBORAH CROMBIE: I’d recommend pairing A BITTER FEAST with a bottle of Cotswold Dry Gin (or best substitute available,) a cheese board with artisan British cheeses, and a book on Cotswold Secret Gardens. A plane ticket would be nice, too, for those very special friends!

LUCY BURDETTE: If the person you’re gifting is going to make it to Key West this winter, a perfect gift would be A DEADLY FEAST, plus tickets to the Key West seafood and walking tour that’s featured in the book. Or you could meet the real chef Martha Hubbard at one of her tasting events: http://www.islecookkeywest.com/schedule-of-events.htm

If all else fails, a key lime pie goes with any of the books!

JENN McKINLAY: Well, for the romantics in your life, you could give a copy of THE CHRISTMAS KEEPER with an ugly Christmas sweater, it’s a thing in the book. Or for the mystery lover, a copy of WORD TO THE WISE with a nice charcuterie board or some roses, although they might send a mixed message, so be careful with that.

HANK PHILLIPPI RYAN: Ooh, a copy of THE MURDER LIST feels like it might come with a bit of baggage. So I’d make it fun, and include a gorgeous indulgent notebook--ostensibly for keeping track of the books your recipient reads, or maybe journaling, but maybe for a list of something else….   And a beautiful pen, or a box of those wonderful Blackwing #2 pencils.

RHYS BOWEN: I’m not sure what I could pair with LOVE AND DEATH AMONG THE CHEETAHS, my most recent book. Certainly not a book on how to host a wife-swapping party! Or a bag of cocaine. Or even a pair of tickets to a safari. 

So I think I’ll stick with the safer THE VICTORY GARDEN, my stand-alone from earlier this year. It’s about a garden in Devonshire, herbs, healing, so I think I could pair it with a book on the uses of herbs, plus a jar of Devon clotted cream to have with scones and jam. And I’d throw in a copy of my THE TWELVE CLUES OF CHRISTMAS to make it festive, as that is all about celebrating Christmas in Devonshire.

HALLIE: So wishing everyone a happy Saturday-after-Thanksgiving and JUST THREE WEEKENDS BEFORFE CHRISTMAS!

What We're Reading

LUCY BURDETTE:  I haven’t been reading quite as much as usual because I had some retina surgery last week that’s cramped my style. (It has not however cramped my appetite, as you can see in this photo, which was on the way home from the surgery center.) 

I have read and loved Hallie’s CAREFUL WHAT YOU WISH FOR, and Jenn’s WORD TO THE WISE, and Rhys’s LOVE AND DEATH AMONG THE CHEETAHS, and I have Hank’s and Debs’s new books on my nightstand. Yay! But I wanted to recommend one more nonfiction, non-Red book called MOTHERLAND by Elissa Altman. Altman started out as a food writer and blogger, and has since written three memoirs.

In MOTHERLAND, her latest, Altman tells the astonishing and poignant story of her troubled relationship with a narcissistic mother. It's beautifully written--alternately funny and tragic. I loved it. And loved meeting her at RJ Julia Booksellers , too, to hear her talk about this intense and complex mother-daughter dance.

Assuming you all have the new Reds releases on your TBR pile, what else are you reading or looking forward to this fall?

JULIA SPENCER-FLEMING: Since my actual TBR pile is literally all Jungle Reds books right now, I'll share what I'm looking forward to. I'm going to use the  descriptions, because they're both tantalizing and compact: First, in mystery, Kopp Sisters on the March by Amy Stewart, who had appeared here on JRW. I've enjoyed her series on the amazing (but based on true life) Kopp Sisters, and this is the fifth. Publisher's Weekly says, "In the spring of 1917, the Kopp sisters sign up for one of the military-style training camps for women who want to serve in WWI. When an accident befalls the matron, one of the sisters reluctantly agrees to oversee the camp."

For science fiction/fantasy, Gideon the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir. It's REALLY hard to describe this sword and sorcery debut set in an interstellar empire - PW calls it "madcap", but I read the first chapters at Tor.com and immediately pre-ordered it from one of my local indy bookstores. Crazy good writing.

My final choice, a thriller, isn't coming out until December, but it sounds so much my cup of tea I'm including it here: Good Girls Lie by J.T. Ellison. SheReads.com says, "The Goode School is an Ivy League boarding school – with only the most elite students – until a stranger shows up and things go from Goode to bad (see what I did there?). In a school where people can’t be bothered to turn their heads or question anything about the evil of some of these students, everything comes to a head when a popular student is found dead…. possibly due to a dark secret." JT, if you read this, send me an ARC!!

HANK PHILLIPPI RYAN: I am on book tour, so lots of flight time, but I need to use the to finish MY new book! Still, you cannot work all the time, right? So I am reading the crazy THE ESCAPE ROOM by Megan Goldin, which is a locked room thriller that absolutely should not work but it absolutely does! I have to keep tearing myself away from it.  I know I should read THE WHISPER MAN, such a fabulous cover, but it sounds so scary. And eager to get started on TURN OF THE KEY by Ruth Ware.  I powered through THIRTEEN (The serial killer is not on trial, he's on the jury, so says the cover). Another book that should not have worked, but did. And THE CHAIN! Shaking head. How do they do this? 

RHYS BOWEN: I have just concluded my book tour, while juggling page proofs of my next book and keeping up my writing requirement for the WIP. So... Not much time for reading. I have just read a stellar Book of WW2 Amsterdam called House on Endless Waters. I'm dying to find time to start Louise Penny's new book. Actually I'm dying to find time to sit and read!

JENN McKINLAY: I belong to a plot group with two insanely talented writers and very dear friends. Because we plot together -- shenanigans and mayhem, as you do -- I get to see the inner workings of their writing and marvel at how they take the random suggestions we throw at each other and then deliver them in twisty turny, compelling mysteries. Both of my partners have books coming out that I am just giddy about. Paige Shelton's THIN ICE, a suspenseful mystery set in Alaska, and the latest offering in Kate Carlisle's ever brilliant series Fixer Upper Seris, SHOT THROUGH THE HEARTH. Trust me, these are two books you don't want to miss!

LUCY: Jenn, you’ve talked about your plot group before—I am lime green with envy!

HALLIE EPHRON: I'm just back from teaching at Book Passage's annual conference for mystery writers where I moderated a panel on creating a main character. There were four authors on the panel, each a fantastic mystery writer, and I went back and found the first time each had put their protagonist on the page. At the conference, they read it aloud and (tried to!) remember why they'd introduced their character in that particular way. One of the authors on the panel was Elizabeth George, and the book where she introduces Lynley and Havers is A Great Deliverance. Well, I could not stop reading. I read the entire book in two days. No wonder that series is such a success.

LUCY: That sounds like an amazing conference panel, Hallie. Such a smart way to run it!

DEBORAH CROMBIE: I am all caught up on my fellow Reds fabulous books--such a reading feast! Next up for me is the ARC of Charles Todd's new Bess Crawford, A CRUEL DECEPTION, and I can't wait to dive in. And here are the top four below it on my nightstand: THE HEART'S INVISIBLE FURIES by John Boyne (recommended by our JRW friend Ann Mason), THE SPIES OF SHILLING LANE by Jennifer Ryan, MEET ME IN MONACO by Hazel Gaynor and Heather Webb, and THE PARIS ARCHITECT by Charles Belfoure. Of course, no telling what I'll come across between now and then, or pull off my to-read shelves, or my Kindle. I enjoyed Kate Atkinson's BIG SKY so much that I want to go back and catch up on the Jackson Brodie novels I haven't read.

Okay Reds, your turn! What are you reading?

Clutter inspires and sparks joy

HALLIE EPHRON: I've been talking (and talking and talking) about my book this week, and I often get asked about the serendipity of CAREFUL WHAT YOU WISH FOR coming out when Marie Kondo's philosophy and methodology for decluttering caught fire. (Today Google turns up nearly 48 million hits for the term "decluttering;" 9 million for Marie Kondo; 2.3 million for "spark joy.")

The truth is: pure luck. I started writing about being married to pack rat when Marie Kondo was 14 years old, when I'm sure she had not yet perfected her methodology for folding socks. I started writing this book four years ago.

What inspired me was my husband. 

I'm not a collector. Jerry loves his stuff. He collects old illustrated books, hotel soaps and shampoos, vintage fans, porcelain-based milkshake machines, twist ties, radios... He carries around so many pens in the pocket of his jeans, it amazes me that his pants stay up.

For decades, I've been writing about what my professional organizer friend Kathy Vines calls our "mixed marriage." Foraging around in my hard drive, I found an essay I wrote in 1998. It begins:

This morning my 90-year-old neighbor was up on a step ladder, washing the eight windows that surround her porch. After that, she vacuumed her sidewalk, the cord snaked like an umbilicus up the steps and through the front door.

By the street, she set out tidy rows of paint cans alongside pieces of lumber and plumbing innards. Beside these, she planted a hand-lettered sign: “FREE.”

Just watching her inspires me. Suddenly I’m ready to tackle that walk-in clothes closet I haven’t been able to walk into for months.

I know my husband will be inspired as well – inspired to clean the gutters and rake the lawn so he'll be in position to grab off any of the neat stuff she throws out.

 I never found a publisher for that piece, but many of the things my husband has collected over the years have made it into my fiction. And that 90-year-old neighbor inspired the old woman in my novel THERE WAS AN OLD WOMAN. (For anyone who remembers that book, yes, my husband really did drag home a wicker trunk.)

Our basement is one of the settings in CAREFUL WHAT YOU WISH FOR. I wanted to take pictures to share with you all, but Jerry asked me not to. So you're going to have to use your imagination. Or read the book.

Another setting is a self-storage unit. You know, the kind where Clarice Starling found... never fear, you won't find a jarring discovery like that in one of my books.

Self-storage is a $40 billion business, thanks to baby boomers like my husband and me. Last year, one in eleven Americans were renting self-storage so they could hang onto their stuff. One article reported that the volume of self-storage units in the country could fill the Hoover Dam with old clothing, skis, and keepsakes more than 26 times. 

'Fess up: Do you rent self-storage and what do you keep there?

Free: Chapter 1 of CAREFUL WHAT YOU WISH FOR
Free: Chapter 2 of CAREFUL WHAT YOU WISH FOR
Free: Chapter 3 of CAREFUL WHAT YOU WISH FOR

The Reds Storm the Barricades: It's Book Tour Time

JULIA SPENCER-FLEMING: If you've been reading along the past week or so, you know it's a crazy time for the Reds. In what we think is a record-breaking publishing event, three of us have books out this month - Hallie (CAREFUL WHAT YOU WISH FOR) and Rhys (LOVE AND DEATH AMONG THE CHEETAHS) dropped Tuesday, and Hank (THE MURDER LIST) is releasing in less than two weeks, on the 20th.

What does this mean? Well, in addition to making sure you all have some great reads in time for your August vacations,  it means these ladies are on the move. Yes, it's book tour time! (Pro tip: if you are going on vacation, check your favorite authors' websites for their events. You may find someone appearing near your resort or Air BnB.)

 Every few years, one article or another declares the book tour to be a dying vestige of an earlier, outdated era of publishing. (Recently, the gloom and doom has spread to the blog tour, which has been proclaimed dead as well - although we all still seem to go around begging friends and acquaintances to appear on their blogs, so take that with a grain of salt.) By 2020, we were told, authors would be meeting exclusively with readers in streamed events, chatting screen-to-screen and signing books remotely with Margaret Atwood's remarkable LongPen. Like the glorious revolution in ebooks, which would see authors unshackled from publishers, uploading our art directly to the masses online, this is a case where the technology is willing, but the consumer isn't. 

It turns out, readers like meeting authors face-to-face, taking pictures together and getting books personalized. And so all across this land, authors rise up early and head to the airport, clutching their signing pens and bookmarks, ready to fly cross country in confusing and geographically illogical patterns to appear, first in Arizona, then in Portland, OR, then back down to Houston, then to Detroit, then back west to LA. "Why do the writers fly to and fro? Do not ask. You cannot know." ( An excerpt from the children's story about book tours I've just this moment decided to write.)

I believe I speak for all authors when I say we honestly love meeting and interacting with readers. It is, bar none, the best part of book tour. Other highlights include: time to read books during the plane rides, watching "Say Yes to the Dress" while eating room service Chicken Caesar Salad, getting surprising recommendations from local booksellers (I was introduced to Joshilyn Jackson's work while signing at a now-defunct Montgomery, AL store) and relaxing in the rocking chairs in the Charlotte airport. 

Less entertaining aspects of book tour: going to last night's hotel room number and having to explain why you're trying to open a stranger's door, getting up at 5am every morning for a week or two (every flight is a morning flight so the author can be on a local midmorning radio or TV show, sign stock at bookstores all over town, appear at a library at noon or at tea-time, and then check into the hotel before the evening's performance.) Not to mention dealing with airport security and car rental agencies.

Still, we do it, and readers, when we smile and thank you for coming out to the library or bookstore to meet us, we mean it - we're doing it for you. No one in publishing knows exactly what drives sales, and no one will ever say, "Personal appearances boost a book onto the bestseller list," or, "This writer is a success because she does so many events." But we all know the connection between readers and writers is a special one. 

So we hope you'll come and bring a friend or two. Get a bite to eat or a drink; make an evening of it. "Where?" I hear you ask? Well, I just happen to have the schedules right here:

Hallie Ephron's events

Rhys Bowen's appearances

Hank Phillippi Ryan's events

Dear readers, these three are criss-crossing so much of the country, you'll have to go out of your way to miss seeing a Red in person. Tell us about some of the memorable author visits you've been part of - and the writer's you'd love to see come to your home town!

Double header: Rhys Bowen's and Hallie Ephron's BOOK LAUNCHES!

TODAY is the book launch for both Hallie and Rhys! 

Lady Georgie goes to Kenya in Rhys’s Love and Death Among the Cheetahs.

Emily Harlow goes to the storage unit in Hallie's Careful What You Wish For. 

So as we both prepared to hit the road and sign a zillion books we took a moment to have a telephone chats and compare notes:

HALLIE EPHRON: Love and Death Among the Cheetahs—great title, and quite a departure for Lady Georgie, isn’t it?

RHYS BOWEN: This is book thirteen and in the Royal Spyness series I wanted Lady Georgie to have an exciting honeymoon somewhere. So I put it to my fans, where should she go? Suggestions ranged from Minneapolis to India. 

I decided that Kenya would be a great setting. I’ve always been fascinated by the “Happy Valley” set, and I thought, wouldn’t it be nice if Georgie, who is the most naïve of people, finds herself among these aristocrats who live the most dissolute lifestyle. That set all had farm properties in Kenya and lots of Kikuyu tribesmen working for them. The way the British spoke about the natives was so offensive, even toning it down I had to put in a forward apologizing and explaining.

HALLIE: So Georgie goes there on her honeymoon?”

RHYS: Georgie can’t believe her luck, that Darcy is taking her to Kenya on honeymoon. But as soon as she gets there she realizes he may have had an ulterior motive. He might be on some kind of undercover assignment. 

Georgie’s lived a very sheltered life, and at the start of the series she doesn’t have much self confidence. In this book she’s starting to feel her value as an equal. At the end of the book she doesn’t wait to consult anybody, she makes a decision that shows that she has guts.

HALLIE: This novel really emphasizes the whole British class differences that you like to feature, doesn’t it?

RHYS: It does. This is aristocrats behaving badly! One of the reasons I write the series is to satirize the British class system. 

(We’re talking on the phone and Rhys’s husband chimes in from the other room, “Nothing wrong with the British class system!”). Sorry. He’s a left-over from the glory days of British aristocrats!

But let’s talk about Careful What You Wish For.  (I love your titles, by the way, because they say suspense and creepy from the outset!).  Your novel is scary in part because the setting is so unexotic. 

HALLIE: Unexotic in the extreme! I try to write books with situations that seem utterly believable. Yes, this could happen to me, I want the reader to think. And shudder. 

My new book’s setting is more Minneapolis than Kenya--a Boston suburb that feels an awful lot like where I actually live. And “Minneapolis” can be pretty scary.

Though we don’t have ‘class’ differences the way the Brits do, we certainly have economic differences that are just as telling. The action takes places in two ordinary houses, one over-the-top mansion, and a storage unit. What professional organizer Emily Harlow is hired to sort out in that storage unit drives the story. Stuff my husband would die for: old books, prints, doorknobs.

Like me, professional organizer, Emily Harlow, is married to a packrat. She’s come to terms with it and knows he’s unlikely to change.

RHYS: The person I’m married to saves everything because we might need it some day. You’re married to the person who’s still looking for that wonderful bargain or that special thing at garage sales and always brings home stuff you don’t need.

Did you find writing a professional organizer made you more conscious of your own organization. Did you find yourself folding your socks?

HALLIE: I did. My socks. My T-shirts. My underwear. And it is very pleasing to open that drawer and find all my things neatly rolled and standing at attention. Not so much fun, putting the laundry away. 

RHYS: It hasn’t spread to this house yet. Probably never will. Do you find when you’re writing you take on the characteristics you’re writing about?

HALLIE: I don’t think so. But I test the believability of whatever I’m having the character do. I don’t become them, but I do try them on. Don’t you do that?

RHYS: Sometimes I even get involved in their lives. For example if I’m writing a scene in the middle of winter, I feel really cold. Even if it’s summer. There are times when I’ve snapped at John and then realized I’m not angry at him, it’s Molly Murphy who’s angry with Daniel.

HALLIE: When we started talking I was thinking how different our books are. You write wonderful, tongue-in-cheek, British flavored historical mysteries. I write domestic suspense set in any-suburb USA. 

But this time out I realize we’re both writing about marriage, and the kinds of compromises and tradeoffs that ensue. 

RHYS: You’re right. It’s interesting that settings can be so different but human problems and dilemmas have always been so much the same. So wishing you every success with the new book, that has already garnered such great reviews. I’ll raise a glass to you at my own launch party tonight at Book Passage in Corte Madera and look forward to seeing some friendly faces as I set out around the country this week.

HALLIE: Toasting you back! And hoping to see some friendly faces from Jungle Red at my book launch events: 

Wednesday August 7 @7PM at Brookline Booksmith in conversation with professional organizer Kathy Vines

and
Thursday August 8 at RJ Julia @7PM in conversation with Lucy Burdette.

Where to find us... 

Rhys’s schedule 

Hallie’s schedule 

Read excerpts from CAREFUL WHAT YOU WISH FOR

Read Chapter 1

Read Chapter 2
Read Chapter 3

Read an excerpt from LOVE AND DEATH AMONG THE CHEETAHS

Read Chapter 1 

Talking about fictional couples whose differences were a driving force in the story, what books, TV shows, movies come to mind? Rhett and Scarlet. Elizabeth Bennet and Mr. Darcy. Jim and Pam. And...

What we're writing week! Hallie's churning out press releases...

HALLIE EPHRON: It's' WHAT WE'RE WRITING WEEK, and boy howdy do I wish I could tell you I'm working on a new book. But instead I'm churning out press releases and guest blogs and generally flailing about in an effort to promote CAREFUL WHAT YOU WISH FOR which I finished almost a year ago and which comes out next week. 

It's very gratifying when a press release actually gets picked up in a local paper. Yes, there are still local papers. Lucy submitted this to her local Shoreline paper, humping my event at RJ Julia with Lucy on August 8, and voila...

Then there are the 37 other press releases I sent out to local media, talking up my event at Brookline Booksmith on August 7 in conversation with professional organizer, Kathy Vines (Clever Girl Organizing). So far, bupkes.

And I apologize if you're on my newsletter list. Though I promised you not more than a few newsletters a YEAR, last month alone I sent two.  (If you're NOT on my newsletter list, by all means go to my web sign and for heavens sake, sign up!)

I know, all of this smacks of desperation. But such is the world I live in.

As everyone knows by now, the main character (Emily) in CAREFUL WHAT YOU WISH FOR is a professional organizer who's married to a packrat. This is something with which I have firsthand experience since I'm happily married to a man who’s happily wedded to his stuff and spends his Saturday mornings yard sale-ing.

Here are my very own tips for decluttering your spouse:

- Pick your battles: If his bureau drawers and closet doors shut, what’s inside them is not your problem. Your challenge is to stop thinking about it.

- Catch him unawares: At a quiet time, say, “Honey.” Pause and wait. “I need to ask you something.” Pause. “You know that pile on the basement stairs…”

- Bring in reinforcements: Got any grown children up your sleeve? Enlist them to help execute whatever plan to which you get Honey to agree. Your help will probably not be welcomed.

- Bribe, barter: The promise of homemade lobster bisque or a back massage can be a powerful incentive.

- Sublimate: It will be much easier to write a book about his clutter than to get him to change.
- And finally, if he speaks to your heart, keep him.

My good news is the book got a full page review in TIME. Yup, that TIME. The review was written by (drumroll) Jamie Lee Curtis. Click here to read it! 

I am over the moon. I am such a fan of JLC. Adored her in A Fish Called Wanda. I was in wildly applauding when (in 2002) she posed in her skivvies in an unretouched photograph for MORE Magazine looking normal--aka not perfect! That went viral before there was such a thing as going viral. Then she made waves when she let her hair go gray. And she became a WRITER! 

She is, in short, a girl after my own heart. And she loved my book. SHE LOVED MY BOOK! I am over the moon.

More good news: A STARRED review in PUBLISHER'S WEEKLY. The reviewer called it. “Outstanding… may be the first domestic thriller to weave in Marie Kondo’s decluttering theory about discarding things that don’t spark joy.”

Please forgive me my frenzy of shameless self-promotion. It will pass.

In the meantime, please check out my brand new web site (another reason I've not written anything) to see where I'll be speaking (Brookline Booksmith August 7, RJ Julia in Madison CT (with Lucy!) August 8.  And if you can stand to hear more about me me me and my book book book, go to my web site and sign up for my newsletter.

If you want to read the first two chapters gratis, go here. And here.

Okay. Now I'll shut up.

Or not...

Are you a neatnik? Organized in the extreme? A saver? A collector? A packrat? Do you live with someone who has, let us say, different priorities when it comes to keeping stuff. Any tips for negotiating those differences?  

GIVING AWAY MY LAST advance reader's copy to one lucky commenter.