Annette Dashofy on Total Immersion Research

DEBORAH CROMBIE: It's such a treat to have Annette Dashofy, one of our favorite Jungle Red guests (and commenter!) here today to talk about two of my very favorite things, research and horse racing. You know this book went on my must-get list as soon as I read about it!  Here's Annette to tell us more about DEATH BY EQUINE! (And so many fun photos, too!)

ANNETTE DASHOFY: Early in my writing career, research intimidated me. I would look up stuff online. Read books. Occasionally, I’d search out a phone number for a public relations connection and ask timid questions with a painfully anxious voice. I was really lousy at the phone call thing. To be honest, I still am.

 However, while writing Death by Equine over ten years ago (yes, it’s been a long time coming), I discovered a different kind of research. Full immersion. Not merely asking questions but jumping in and experiencing the world I was writing about.

 

A friend, who was a trainer at a racetrack about 45 minutes from my home, got me onto the backside with a visitor’s pass a few times. When I proved that I wasn’t going to do stupid stuff around the horses and get someone injured, she arranged for me to obtain a groom’s license. It was like an all-access pass to a different universe. 

I did have some “street cred.” I’d been a horse-crazy kid, who loved horseracing. I’d owned and ridden horses of my own (although no Thoroughbreds) for 25 years, so I knew enough to avoid getting kicked or bitten. I could wield a brush, curry comb, and hoof pick with the best of them. But hotwalking a high-strung Thoroughbred is totally different than leading a lazy Quarter Horse around the fairgrounds. (Walking a Thoroughbred is always a question of who’s walking whom, while walking a lazy Quarter Horse is like taking my cat for a “drag” on the end of her leash.)

 My time as a groom taught me that while I knew a lot, I had no idea how much I didn’t know.

 My main character in Death by Equine is a veterinarian. I may have assisted my own vet with procedures on my horses and cats, but once again, the track is something entirely different. I spent time hovering over the track vet’s shoulder as he treated the horses. I was able to be hands-on, feeling injured horses’ legs for heat and swelling. I learned various treatments for assorted lamenesses and injuries.

I asked questions and took pages and pages of notes.

Something else I learned: I’m horrible at picking winners at the races. Owners and trainers started begging me to not bet on their horses. In a business that is notorious for its superstitions, being dubbed a jinx is not a good thing.

Side note: I had three favorites for the Kentucky Derby this year. None of them finished in the money.

So while the story, the characters, and the setting (and the homicide!) in Death by Equine is all fiction, it is based very much in fact.

Reds, did any of you watch the Kentucky Derby? Or ever been to one? Readers, do you enjoy being totally immersed into a new and different world when you pick up a book? Or do you prefer something more familiar?

Annette Dashofy is the USA Today best-selling author of the multi–Agatha Award nominated Zoe Chambers mystery series about a paramedic and deputy coroner in rural Pennsylvania’s tight-knit Vance Township. Her latest release, a standalone, is Death by Equine, about a veterinarian at a second-rate thoroughbred racetrack seeking the truth about her mentor’s mysterious death. She and her husband live on ten acres of what was her grandfather’s dairy farm in southwestern Pennsylvania with their very spoiled cat, Kensi.

 DEBS:Here's more about DEATH BY EQUINE, which you can order here.

Veterinarian Jessie Cameron agrees to fill in for her mentor, Doc Lewis, at Riverview Racetrack so he can take a long-overdue vacation. When he’s tragically killed by one of his equine patients the night before he’s supposed to leave, Jessie quickly suspects the death is anything but accidental. Her search for the truth is thwarted by everyone from well-meaning friends to the police, including her soon-to-be-ex-husband. Undaunted, she discovers layers of illegal activities and deceit being perpetrated by the man she thought of as a father figure, creating a growing list of suspects with reason to want Doc dead. Too late, she realizes that her dogged quest for the truth has put her in the crosshairs of a devious killer desperate to silence her. Permanently. 

DEBS: I've done some fun research but Annette's takes the cake. You can tell this book was a real labor of love. And I, for one, love being totally immersed in a new world when I'm reading. (I bombed out on the Derby, too, Annette!)

Readers, any winning Derby bets? 

 

 

 

Scasscer Hill--The Dark Side of Town

DEBORAH CROMBIE:Anyone who knows me can tell you how much I love horse racing--and especially books about horse racing! I'm so tickled to have discovered Sasscer Hill. Her books take you straight to the track, with the sights, sounds, smells, and the visceral feel of racing. Add in a high-stakes mystery and you've got a sure bet. (Sorry, I couldn't resist...)

So, we all want to know where she got the ideas for her new Fia McKee series. Here's the latest, THE DARK SIDE OF TOWN, set in Saratoga during racing season.

SASSCER HILL: Has inspiration from an agent, friend, or editor ever helped you create a series or story? How about a spark of insight from a law enforcement contact or medical professional?

Back in my other life, when I raised and owned racehorses, I’d heard about the Thoroughbred Racing Protective Bureau (TRPB). I even had a friend who worked undercover for this agency that protects the integrity of horse racing. But it wasn’t until my literary agent brainstormed with me, that I created TRPB agent, Fia McKee.

I loved writing this two-book series! Horses, scoundrels, danger, adrenaline, a dash of sex, and a child in jeopardy with a happy ending. What’s not to like? 

As mystery writers we often meet the most amazing people. Sometimes these folks provide a bolt of inspiration or sneak right into our novel as a great new character. Have you met someone who stirred your imagination or provided you with a gut punch that screams, “Yes! This is just what the novel needs!

While writing the first in the “Fia McKee”series, FLAMINGO ROAD, I researched the drug Demorphin. A painkiller up to 100 times stronger than morphine, it’s made from a peptide found on the skin of South American tree frogs. 

It was used on racehorses until (thank God) pharmacologists created an identifying blood test. But what if some evil person found a new, unknown drug that worked like Demorphin?

I brought this up during a phone conversation with Craig Stevens, Ph. D., professor of pharmacology at Oklahoma State University. Stevens was involved in the race to test for this heinous drug when the Demorphin scandal first broke at Remington Park racetrack in Oklahoma City. He was a delightful voice on the phone–eager to talk, great sense of humor, and smart as a whip. He was fascinated to hear I was using a Demorphin-like drug in a race track thriller. We ended up discussing Breaking Bad, a show we both adored, and how the character Jesse was forced to cook methamphetamine.

Stevens said, “You should have a chemist in our book!”

I almost yelled into the phone, “You’re right! I need a chemist!” And my favorite subplot was born, adding a nice layer to FLAMINGO ROAD.

Another “aha” occurred while interviewing TRPB president, Frank Fabian. He was concerned about young jockeys brought up from South America. These boys don’t speak English and are often kept isolated in rental homes with other Spanish speaking riders. They are brought to the US by South American jockey agents, who control them and may threaten to harm family members back home if these boys don’t do as they’re told. 

Fabian asked me, “If these agents tell a jockey to make sure the favorite horse loses, guess what happens?”

OMG, I thought, this is terrible! I must use it. Following the journalist rule, “if it bleeds, it leads, I worked this into the first chapter of THE DARK SIDE OF TOWN which debuts on April 17.

Have any of you had a lightning bolt experience like this? If so, I’d love to hear about it.

Information and buy links for the award winning Fia McKee series and all of Hill’s multiple award nominated novels can be found here:  https://www.sasscerhill.com/books

Visit Sasscer on Facebook:  https://www.facebook.com/SasscerHill/

THE DARK SIDE OF TOWN is out today, but I was lucky enough to have a sneak peek, and it's a terrific read. 

REDs, tell us about your "aha" moments, and readers, stop in to chat with Sasscer and find out more about Fia McKee.