Why I Love Readers @LucyBurdette

LUCY BURDETTE: I always hold my breath a bit when correspondence from a fan hits my inbox. Will they want the world (including me) to know they hated the book from start to finish, the set-up was preposterous and the character plain stupid, or that an author should never insert her own opinions about ____, just write the damn book? Really, this kind of thing does happen, but luckily not too often. It certainly prevents a writer from suffering of too much head-swelling.

Note from Aunt Flo

When I had my first books published in the early 2000’s, email was only just taking hold. So if someone wanted to write an author, it was longhand, sent through the post office. I still have a few of those I treasure, including this one from an older woman who worried about how much my first character Cassie drank, and how this might affect her golf career aspirations. 

Last summer, one of my readers pointed out how distressing it was to read this sentence in The Key Lime Crime: “But on the other hand, I felt a heavy weight lifting, as though someone had been holding a boot to my neck and I could breathe again.” 

She’d been so upset that she’d had to put the book aside for a while. Of course I’d written that well before George Floyd died and I was as horrified as she to see those words on paper. It was too late to change for the hardcover—already printed. But I was able to remove it for the paperback edition that will be out in July, and I’m grateful to her for pointing it out.

On an entirely different topic, Sue P sent me a note a few years back that absolutely changed the direction I thought I was going with Hayley Snow’s love life:

I recently found this series and love it. I do have a complaint though. I was just getting interested to see how the romance would work out between Hayley and her detective. And you bring back his ex and she gets dumped! I was not a happy camper at this development. I still would like to see where this would go, more so than with her boss, which is where you seem to be leading. I think she needs a challenge and this is not her boss. Bring him back!! Just my opinion. Thanks.

Oh, and sometimes a note is pure joy.  I can’t resist posting this old favorite that had me smiling for weeks:

We are a class of 12 girls in our freshman year at Gymnasium Sylt, a high school which is located in the far north of Germany on the island of Sylt which is surrounded by the North Sea.

We read your book "An Appetite for Murder" in our English lessons (cf. the photo attached) with our English teacher, Mrs Detlefsen. To us it was a really enjoyable book because it is full of romance, action and crime. We particularly liked the Scene with Meredith pushing Hayley off the road and threatening her with a gun. Moreover, we love the different quotations you use, some are so true and fit perfectly.

Though we talked a lot about the characters, the setting and the plot, there are still some questions left we would be grateful for if you could answer them for us. For example, we would really like to know why Hayley just spills the beans about everything (e.g. with the Police) and why she fell in love with that arrogant Person of Chad.

Don't you love that, "arrogant Person of Chad?" 

Writers, what’s the best letter you ever received from a reader? Readers, do you ever send fan or other kind of mail to authors?

Golf? Or Not?

HANK:  Little known fact? Years ago, YEARS, before I knew anything about any of you, I tried to write a mystery—which I titled Greenskeeper. It was about—golf.  The setting was a golf course, and the main character Jane MacAnnally (!) was the first female golf pro in Boston.

What a great idea, right? Wrong. It was hideous, mainly because I had no idea about golf. (Or, as I see now about point of view.) But that’s another story. 

The first time Judy Penz Sheluk joined us was August 2016, when we celebrated the release of SKELETONS IN THE ATTIC, the first book in her Marketville Mystery Series.  Today, Judy (in the white visor) shows she’s nailed the golf world. Her new HOLE IN ONE, the second book in her Glass Dolphin Mystery series, is about to hit the shelves.

Yay, Judy! Tell us a bit about A HOLE IN ONE and the inspiration behind it.

JPS: The title is a play on words. Arabella Carpenter and Emily Garland, the co-owners of the Glass Dolphin antiques shop, decide to sponsor a hole in one contest at a local charity golf tournament. Unfortunately, the positive press they hoped to gain quickly goes south when Arabella’s errant tee shot lands in the woods – next to a corpse with a gunshot wound in his chest.

JRW: Ha. A hole in one. (Ouch.) So do you actually play golf?

JPS: I’ve been golfing for the better part of fifteen years, might even be twenty by now. While I’ve never had a hole in one (hope springs eternal), I’m always dreaming up new plotlines…even when I’m golfing. One day my ball landed in the woods, and while I was rooting around for it with my putter (fearing poison ivy), I thought, “What if there was a dead body in here?” What can I say? My husband tells me he’s taken to sleeping with his eyes open!

JRW: So--who do you play with?

JPS: I belong to two ladies golf leagues, one of which is called the Lady Duffers, an apt description, I assure you. The thing is, the Duffers put their names in a random draw, so each week you play with different people. One week, I’m playing with three ladies I’ve never met before, and there are homes all around the perimeter of the golf course, and the roofs are being re-done. There’s this pop-pop-pop of a pneumatic nailer and I turn to these ladies and say, ‘You know, you could shoot someone and everyone would just think it was the roofers nailing.” Let’s just say they wondered about me…

JEW: Seems like there’s a theme here. How did you end up writing two different mystery series? This and the Marketville mysteries?

JPS:  Ha! Here’s the truth: I was shopping around for a publisher for THE HANGED MAN’S NOOSE, the first book in my Glass Dolphin Mystery series, and facing the usual rejection. Everyone told me I should write book 2 in the series, but I couldn’t bring myself to write the second book in a series no one seemed to want. Writing SKELETONS IN THE ATTIC was such a different experience from writing NOOSE. It was told in first person, vs. alternating third person, and it’s more of a slow burn suspense than a traditional amateur sleuth mystery. Happily, I sold the Glass Dolphin series too, and NOOSE was released in July 2015.

JRW: The really scary thing about a new book—you have to ask your fellow authors for blurbs.  It’s incredibly nerve-twisting. You send a request, and then..you wait. It’s such a big dealt to ask-it takes a chunk of time to read a book. And it’s their name on the cover!

JPS: Yes, I’m still pinching myself.

I first met Ellen Byron at Bouchercon Raleigh when we were both debut authors, and of course, I’m a huge fan of her award-winning Cajun County Mystery series. I met Jane K. Cleland at Malice Domestic in 2016. During the banquet, I sat at her table, and she won the Agatha for Mastering Suspense, Structure & Plot. It was such an honor to be there while she celebrated with her husband, and of course, I’ve been reading her Josie Prescott series forever. So imagine my surprise when she turned to me and said, “Send me your book when it’s ready. If I like it, I’ll blurb it.” Talk about a generosity of spirit.

 I’ve loved Lea Wait forever, too, but I’ve never met her. I decided to take a flyer and emailed her, asking if she’d read my book. Honestly, I didn’t expect a yes, but nothing ventured and all of that. To my surprise, she replied within hours with a “love to.” It seems she reads New England Antiques Journal (I’ve been the Senior Editor for NEAJ since 2007). The mystery community is so wonderfully inclusive.

JRW: Oh, so true. If you had one piece of advice for aspiring authors, what would it be?

JPS: I love this quote from the legendary Arnold Palmer: “The most rewarding things you do in life are often the ones that look like they cannot be done.”

JRW:  So we know about Lucy/Roberta, who wrote about golf out of love and passion. And who actually played! Then, as you know there’s gold-baffled me. Then—Judy! Another aficionado.

How about you, Reds and readers?  Tell us what you think about golf—and Judy’s here to answer your questions about the mysteries of slices and hooks. And mystery!

Find Judy on her website/blog at http://www.judypenzsheluk.com, where she interviews and showcases the works of other authors and blogs about the writing life.

An Amazon International Bestselling Author, Judy Penz Sheluk’s debut mystery novel, The Hanged Man’s Noose, the first in the Glass Dolphin Mystery series, was published in July 2015. The sequel, A Hole In One, is scheduled for Spring 2018.

Skeletons in the Attic, Judy’s second novel, and the first in her Marketville Mystery series, was first published in August 2016 and re-released in December 2017. Past & Present, the sequel, is scheduled for early 2019.

Judy’s short crime and literary fiction appears in several collections.

In her less mysterious pursuits, Judy works as a freelance writer and editor; her articles have appeared regularly in dozens of U.S. and Canadian consumer and trade publications.

A HOLE IN ONE is available for pre-order at all the usual suspects, including the publisher, https://barkingrainpress.org/a-hole-in-one/ - 1473022241950-de2dbbf6-9e98, and will be released on March 6^th in trade paperback and all eBook formats.

Reds on #Writing: @LucyBurdette aka #RobertaIsleib

LUCY BURDETTE: You may well have read on Facebook that Penguin Random House is not renewing the Key West foodie mystery series. Though I’m sad about this, I’m not taking the news personally. Here’s why:

1. I don’t think it has much to do with either the quality of the books or the sales. Lots of mass-market cozy folks are ending up in the refugee boat with me—it’s a mysterious corporate decision over which we have no control.

2. It’s happened before and I’ve survived and thrived.

3. I will most likely continue the series in another form in the future.

4. The support and enthusiasm of readers has been a huge comfort!

But I thought it might be interesting to look back on my reaction to the news that the golf lovers’ mystery series was not getting renewed. (Hint: devastated.) I called this essay “Character Assassination.”

Losing a special friend hurts, even if you’re mourning a figment of your own imagination.

I’ve been getting to know my protagonist, professional golfer Cassie Burdette, since scratching out the opening paragraphs of my first mystery in January 1998. As with most fictional detectives, Cassie wrestled with skeletons in her closet: her father’s desertion, a melancholy, alcoholic mother, a fog of self-doubt. Ambivalence infused her relationships with men and she tended to defer soul-searching in favor of the anesthetic effects of Budweiser.  Notwithstanding these conflicts, I imagined Cassie eventually thriving on the professional golf circuit through a combination of talent, spunk, and the right friends.

With five golf mysteries in print by March 2006, Cassie and I have spent the better part of eight years together. I finally talked her into starting psychotherapy (with the help of a couple of other characters) to address her low self-esteem and self-destructive tendencies. She began to play better golf, choose kinder men, drink less, and reconnect with her dad.

Roberta/Lucy with LPGA golfer Kate Golden

Meanwhile, researching Cassie’s world took me on some amazing adventures. I spent most of my first (modest) advance paying to compete in a real professional-amateur LPGA tournament so I could absorb the correct ambience for book two.

And I played golf at Pinehurst, Palm Springs, and in the Dominican Republic—all tax-deductible without stretching the IRS code. I met and corresponded with professional golfers, and many fans—mystery fans, golf fans, and best of all, fans of both. These people worried about Cassie: how can she drink that much before a tournament? How can she eat like that and stay in shape? Lose the boyfriend—he’s a bum! Over coffee, my friends were more likely to ask what was new with Cassie, than with me. And reviewers hailed Cassie as “a character readers can root for.”

I’d begun plotting the skeleton for the sixth installment, involving a golf reality show, a hunky cop, and murder, of course.

Then the word came from my editor: “We’d rather see a new idea—the numbers just haven’t been that good…”

Surprised or not, I was flooded with sadness and disappointment. No more Cassie Burdette mysteries? Like the end of a souring romance, I wished I’d been the one to call it quits.

H.R.F. Keating

Days later, waiting to sign books at the Malice Domestic mystery convention, I sat next to an older man with a soft voice and a full beard. He introduced himself as H.R.F. Keating—the Malice honoree for lifetime achievement, including twenty-five novels in his Inspector Ghote series. In response to his kind interest, I spilled the news that Cassie’s series was being killed. I'm quite certain that I cried. He assured me that he’d often thought his series went on too long, that perhaps years ago he’d said all he really had to say, and that seven books might be the optimum length for a series. Then the doors opened and a crush of fans queued up to have him sign books that spanned forty years.

Twenty-five novels, each one nudging back a little further the curtain obscuring Inspector Ghote’s personality: I realized there are many things I’ll never know about Cassie. Will she win a tournament? Have a relationship with golf psychologist Joe Lancaster? Get married?  Overcome her fear of kids? Hey, I’ll never know if I’m a grandmother.

But life in the publishing business lumbers on: I’ve signed a contract for my next writing adventure. The new series will feature psychologist and advice columnist, Dr. Rebecca Butterman, a woman who made cameo appearances in several of the golf mysteries. 

 Cassie wasn’t crazy about her—I can hear her voice now: “You’re writing about a psychologist? Rebecca Butterman? Bor-ing.”

And PS, back to me in the present, wasn't I so lucky to be seated next to that sweet man at the exact moment I needed his calm? And ps, Cassie did make a brief appearance in ASKING FOR MURDER and DEATH WITH ALL THE TRIMMINGS. I am a fictional grandmother.  

Meanwhile, I am working madly on several projects, but I'm feeling very superstitious. So I decided not to say much about them…I'm not being a tease, I swear, just nauseously nervously anxiously cautious.

Reds and Red readers, how long do you think a series should run?

Reds on Writing: Trunk Novels @LucyBurdette

When the subject of trunk novels (finished or unfinished manuscripts that have been stashed away before publication) comes up, I have plenty to say. The first book I ever wrote, FINAL ROUND, lives in a trunk. As it was told, Cassie Burdette, a lady golfer whose personal baggage limited her professional success, had the bad luck to get involved with the murder of a superstar golfer. 

Recognize anyone?

On the basis of that manuscript, I landed an agent and she sold a 3-book golf lovers mystery series to Berkley Prime Crime. But FINAL ROUND was rejected because Cassie was serving as a caddie, carrying the bag for a man on the PGA tour. They wanted her to be shown as a golfer, not a caddie, in the first book of the series. 

    "But she has issues," I explained, "that prevent her from playing at that level."

    The publisher didn't care. 

    So FINAL ROUND went in the trunk.

    During the time I was waiting and hoping to hear news of a sale, I wrote a second installment in the series in which Cassie falls for a gorgeous professional golfer in the Dominican Republic. Tropical setting, voodoo, a dangerous romance: What was not to like? But my new editor determined that foreign settings weren't selling. Into the trunk it went.

photo by Daniel Johnson

    
After eight mysteries published, I attempted a non-mystery "breakout" book, featuring a jilted real estate agent and the detective from my advice column mysteries. My agent felt it wasn't representative of my strongest work. Thunk, went the manuscript, into the trunk.

 

photo by Greg Wagoner

   
Next I started a book about a psychologist who was tricked into co-leading a happiness group and finally found happiness herself. I got involved in writing something else and didn't finish it. Thud: on the pile, in the trunk. 

    And then came the book I fondly call "the homeless baby thriller." But three-quarters of the way through, I got distracted by writing a proposal for the Key West food critic mystery series. And that led to a gallop through seven published novels. So the thriller went to gather dust with the other trunk inhabitants. (Help, help, it's getting very crowded in here!)

Poco, the original zany Aussie

    
Oh, and don't let me forget the children's book about a zany Australian shepherd who gets in trouble with all the neighbors. Trunkward bound after a clumsy first draft.

    

So though I recently celebrated the publication of my fifteenth book in fourteen years (KILLER TAKEOUT), I've actually written parts or all of 21 books. But there's very good news in this: I've learned more about writing well with each book. And all but the first two are still interesting ideas that I'd love to go back to one day, if life ever slows down. (In truth, I’m working on three things that I feel a little superstitious about, so I’ll wait to tell.)

    Someone told me once that he'd pitched a golf mystery to an editor who told him that writing about golf would kill his career. But I’ve survived. And honestly, I don't have a moment of regret. And here I give you the opening of my first ever novel-fresh from the trunk:

FINAL ROUND by Roberta Isleib, circa 2000

    The first streaks of sun lit up the golf course like a carpet of emeralds.  I rolled my neck in slow circles, easing out kinks left over from a long drive and a series of lumpy mattresses.  A palpable hum of excitement and hopefulness hung over the practice range, which teemed with golfers grooming their swings for today's tournament.

    Despite the pastoral backdrop, I knew the tension that permeated these early minutes would surge over the next few days.  For professional golfers, competition was more than just a game.  Take the first tee, where a crowd of fans narrowed the hole to a chute with living, breathing walls.  And suppose the only image that flashed through your mind was shanking the ball off the toe onto some spectator's bald head.  Or worse yet, making no contact at all.  Or maybe the guy you needed to take apart that day was your best buddy off the course.  Even so, you had to grind away without a thought about how he felt.  No question about it, competition could be murder.   

    I'd worked hard to get here.  Except I never imagined I'd make my appearance carrying someone's bag, not using the clubs myself.  And there were things I missed about playing.  Like the feeling of striking a shot so pure, so perfect, you knew it was your best.  Or say you were playing an opponent who had the game to kill you, but you'd clawed a path to two holes up anyway.  Or maybe you were coming down the home stretch all square and your hands felt like concrete blocks, but you needed to chip close to give yourself a chance for bird.  And you knocked it stiff.

    Yeah, I missed it.  Gods knows, I grew up in a family that could make eating mashed potatoes into a contest.  Even our dog was competitive:  you had to fight him for a place in the front seat of the car.  But right now, my job as Mike's caddie was to stay in the background.  Kind of a Hillary Clinton to her Bill, only without the humiliating Monica Lewinsky part.
  
Well, now that I look it, there was a lot of golf in them there pages! I think I improved as I went along:). 

Cassie's first published adventure on the LPGA tour, Six Strokes Under, is still available as an ebook.

Jungle Reds, anything in your trunks? Doesn't have to be writing--could be any project you started and didn't quite finish...