The Secrets to BLUFFing

HANK PHILLIPPI RYAN: Oh, my gosh. Poker. I am TERRIBLE at poker.  Don't get me wrong, I am very enthusiastic, and go into every game so optimistic, and cannot wait to play, and swoop up all those lovely chips (pennies?) after I slam down my straight flush (or whatever.) 

But that never happens. Fold fold fold. I vacillate between being a chicken and being a huge bluffer, which rarely works.

That's just one of the reasons I am in awe of the amazing New York Times best-selling author  Jane Stanton Hitchcock.  

Her first novel was nominated for the Edgar and the Hammett prize. Her newest, BLUFF--with its cleverly wonderful poker structure and bitingly wonderful wit--is fast-paced, smart, clever and oh-so-knowing. (And look at that amazing cover!)

HANK:  BLUFF grew out of your own mastery of poker. How did that work?

JANE: First of all, I would never say I had “mastered” poker. If anything, the game is my master. It’s taught me a lot about life and how to deal with adversity – namely, there’s no point in dwelling on bad luck or one’s mistakes. 

 Hard as it is, you sometimes have to say “Next Hand” and get on with it. I also realized that at the poker table I was being underestimated just as I had been in life. Players never expect an older woman to play anything but Old Lady Poker—just as the guy who swindled my mother out of millions of dollars never expected me to find out about his larceny and ultimately help put him in jail.

When I made this connection I found a way into the book: Combine being underestimated in life as well as in poker and then write a twisty tale of murder, revenge, and bluffing. Hopefully the reader will be intrigued by the characters and swept up in the twists and turns of the story. The book is one long poker hand with a Flop, a Turn, and the River. As readers play the hand with me, I want them to be thinking: “How the hell does she get out of this?” Only one way: Bluff!

HANK:  “Mad Maud” Warner--amazing-- is a complex character. And a timely one. Do you see Maud as an everywoman? How?

JANE: As I say in the book, “Older women are invisible and we don’t even have to disappear.” Power derived from supposed weakness is the primary theme of BLUFF. In the very first scene, Maud is able to escape because no one can fathom that a woman like her – an older, well-dressed socialite – could have had the balls to commit such a shocking crime in a posh and crowded restaurant.

The book is told in two voices: Maud’s own, as she recounts what lead her to commit murder; and the third person, which details the crime and its aftermath on all the people involved. My hope is that the reader will be rooting for Maud as she explains what has led her to such violence and why she thinks she can possibly get away with it if she literally plays her cards right! I guess she’s a #MeToo murderer!

Hank: High society certainly takes a hit in BLUFF. Do you view humor as a tool for enlightenment?

JANE: I like what Abba Eban said: “The upper crust is a bunch of crumbs held together by dough.” I grew up in so-called “High Society” and, as I say in the book “money is a matter of luck and class is a matter of character.” Maud knows she can trust some of her dicey poker playing pals much more than the “social” friends she’s known her entire life. I also say: “Money exaggerates who people are. If you’re good you’ll be better, if you’re bad you’ll jump right down on the devil’s trampoline.” A lot of people think having money makes them better than other people. I like to aim my pen at such pretension and there’s no better way to do it than with humor.

I’d have to be Dostoevsky to write my own family’s story without humor. As the book shows, money doesn’t save anyone from addiction, swindling, and death. In fact, money often makes things worse. But there’s nothing more exasperating than self-pity. So telling my family’s story was a challenge. It took me nineteen drafts! But the poker theme eventually helped me harness the humor in all the darkness.

HANK: You have a wonderful article in this month's Mystery Scene blog--and you mention your mother taught you the joy of reading out loud--and about Shakespeare. 

JANE: My mother was a wonderful actress. She is chiefly remembered as the voice of the very first Lois Lane on the radio, but she had an amazing stage and television career as well. She was a famous beauty and she had a lovely, melodic voice. She was always quoting Shakespeare to me from the time I was little. I was too young to understand it at the age of four, but the way she read it made me love it.

She kept a book of Shakespeare’s sonnets by her bed. Near the end of her life, she found out she had been swindled out of most of her money by her accountant, whom she had adored and trusted above anyone in the world for over 30 years. The betrayal nearly killed her. 

When she got over the initial shock, I asked her if Shakespeare had ever written about an accountant who swindled a trusting old woman out of millions. It was a cheeky question, meant to elicit a laugh. Without hesitation, she opened the sonnets and told me to read the one she pointed at aloud.

The last lines of that Sonnet are: “For sweetest things turn sourest by their deeds; Lilies that fester smell far worse than weeds.”

HANK: Oh, that brings tears to my eyes.  So--In addition to being a novelist, you're also a playwright and screenwriter. Does one teach you about the other?

JANE: Movies are really a directors’ medium so a writer is blessed if he/she has a good director. Enough said. 

 Playwriting taught me about creating scenes and developing characters through dialogue. In the theatre time on the stage grows more expensive with each minute. You have to engage the audience. Therefore, you always have to ask yourself: What’s at stake? Why should people care about these characters, this situation? You have a captive audience sitting there waiting for things to develop in a finite amount of time. 

 The novel has no such constraints. But I confess, I love a good, twisty plot. I like every scene to further the story but I also think it’s important for the reader not to be one jump ahead of me. It’s when surprise meets inevitability that I feel I’ve done my job. I want my readers to say: Wow I didn’t see that coming, but now it all makes sense!

HANK: You're so terrific at dialogue--

JANE: Thank you! I try to give the reader a sense of place without overloading the description. Action is character and I really like writing dialogue, putting myself into all the characters – the good, the bad, and the ugly. It’s fun to create a good villain and more fun to see the villain get his/her comeuppance. But in my books, there is usually an anti-heroine who is, herself, operating in an amoral sphere. In Bluff, I want my audience to be complicit in Maud’s revenge and root for her to earn it.

HANK: Gotta ask about your influences --whose books most influenced you at the time you decided to enter the field yourself?

JANE: To be honest, I didn’t know I was entering the field when I wrote Trick of the Eye. I thought of the book as literally a trompe l’oeil canvas for the readers who are led to believe they are looking at a simple whodunit when, in fact, the real picture is about a dark acquisition. I was thrilled when mystery lovers liked it and it was nominated for both the Edgar and the Hammett Prize. I think those fans made me realize I had a mind for murder!

The writers who most influenced me at that time were Patricia Highsmith, Ruth Rendell, Edgar Allan Poe, and Daphne du Maurier.

HANK Great list! You were on hiatus for nineyears--are things..different in the crimefiction world now?

JANE: A writer never really stops writing. During this nine-year hiatus, I was working on three three books while trying to sort out a difficult family situation. As a writer, I was always used to being an observer of social life. Writing took me away from my problems.

However, with Bluff, I’m not only an observer but a real participant in the story, which is what made it so difficult for me to write. It was painful to look back on the ruins of our family. So I would work on it, then put it away and work on the other books. I knew if I ever published Bluff I’d have to get the tone just right because I hate self-pity.

In writing Bluff, I came to realize how blessed I’ve been. I remembered the words of my stepfather who always said: “Anything you can buy with money is cheap.” That lightened things up for me and made me think: Okay—humor and murder is the only way to go!
I often wish I did have a “technique” because then I might have a road map of some sort. As it is, I write until my characters take over the story. Of the three books I was working on, Maud in Bluff took over the story in a singular way. It took me nineteen drafts to get her story just right. I just hope I succeeded. 

HANK: And I have one bet I know I will win--I'll bet two of you lucky commenters are gonig to be very happy--because you will WIN a copy of BLUFF! 
So tell us, Reds and readers--are you good at poker?
Jane's on book tour now, but she'll still be here to answer all your questions---like: how do you make sure you win at poker? What's the best way to bluff? And is it true that everyone has a "tell"?

Barbara Peters, Jane, and Linda Fairstein at The Poisoned Pen 

Jane Stanton Hitchcock was born and raised in New York City, where she led a seemingly privileged life. Early on, she learned the trappings of wealth and fame are not nearly all they are cracked up to be, themes she has since explored in screenplays, stage plays, and novels dealing with murder and mayhem in high places. She is married to Jim Hoagland, a two-time Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist  ed note: who Hank had a huge crush on in 1972 in Washington,DC, just saying. They live in Washington, DC, and New York City.

BLUFF is a stunning social noir that begins with an audacious murder in broad daylight which sets off the biggest scandal to hit New York society in years. The unlikely shooter uses her knowledge of poker to play the game of her life with no cards. A bluff to frame her nemesis and exact revenge. Inspired by real-life events, the novel takes the structure of poker at which the author has become adept.

“Jane Stanton Hitchcock pulls off another stunning tour de force in her newest crime novel. Nobody writes high society and its down-low denizens better than Hitchcock – and this book is her best yet. It’s all in the cards – and it’s masterful.”

— Linda Fairstein, New York Times bestselling author

“With the heart-pounding suspense of a high-stakes poker game, Bluff is a vivid, compelling novel about deceit, seduction, and delicious revenge that will have you spellbound and cheering as you turn the last page.“

— Susan Cheever, award-winning and New York Times bestselling author

For more information:

Jane Stanton Hitchcock

www.janestantonhitchcock.com

Let the Games Begin (Not Those Games)

INGRID THOFT

There were many delights this holiday season:  spending time with family, delicious food, a roaring fire.  My family has lots of traditions, including a gingerbread house decorating extravaganza, a viewing of the Grinch, and ice skating, but another holiday highlight was lazy hours spent playing games.  Whether you are twelve or in your seventies (sorry, Mum) there's always someone game for a game in the Thoft household.

Our old standby is Scattergories.  We usually play this in teams, which provides  the opportunity for aunts and uncles and cousins to break off in twosomes and put forth their best efforts, which produce giggling fits and heated discussions.  My husband still argues that there is a vending machine somewhere in the world that dispenses empanadas (category: name a food starting with "e" that you find in a vending machine.)  Is there?  Do tell, Reds!

Have you played Balderdash?  It's a game of creative definitions and bluffing, and hilarity always ensues.  When the younger set was itching for a game, we pulled out Sleeping Queens or Exploding Kittens, card games that never disappoint.  Don't worry, no cats are harmed in the course of Exploding Kittens.

Poker was another option, peppermint candies standing in for money.  My eighteen-year-old nephew, who has a standing Saturday morning poker game at Panera (kids today!), was kind enough to teach the basics to the rookies in the family.  There's nothing like playing stud poker with someone whose diapers you changed!

And if our interest in more traditional games started to wane, at 3:00 p.m. and 9:00 p.m., everyday, most of the family would assemble to play a trivia app on their phones call HQ Trivia.  A series of twelve questions, the game taxed our collective brain power, and we didn't win even once.  I never would have known about this game were it not for the millennials in the family, but I'm in good company on that front.  One night, journalist and broadcaster Dan Rather was among the winners, having been introduced to the game by his grandson.

Reds and readers, do you like playing games?  Tell us about your favorites!  MaryC, you won yesterday's giveaway!  Shoot me your address at ingrid@ingridthoft.com.

And I'm just throwing this in because I can't get over it.  Check out my niece's gingerbread house!

Another favorite Canadian: Owen Laukkanen

INGRID THOFT

It's an embarrassment of riches on Jungle Red this week:  Our own Jenn McKinlay, James Ziskin, and today, I’m welcoming critically acclaimed thriller writer Owen Laukkanen to the blog.

Owen is the author of six novels that feature Minnesota State Investigator Kirk Stevens and FBI Special Agent Carla Windermere.  Nominated for a host of awards, including a Barry, an Anthony, an ITW Thriller award, and a Spinetingler, Owen has been hailed by Kirkus Review for "combining great storytelling with compassion for the underdog."  This is no surprise to anyone who knows him:  He's a terrific guy with a strong commitment to social justice.

Can you give readers the scoop on your latest novel, The Forgotten Girls, which came out in March?

The Forgotten Girls is the sixth installment in my Stevens and Windermere series of FBI thrillers. It's about a serial killer who stalks the wilds of northern Montana and the Idaho panhandle, killing runaways, prostitutes and train-hoppers--the kind of women who seem to slip through the cracks.

In my neighbourhood in Vancouver, a serial killer operated for decades, and the response to these murders was pretty shockingly apathetic.  This idea that some people, and in particular women, are worth more than others really sticks in my craw. I walk my dog through the neighbourhood daily, and we pass the memorial rock to the missing women, and it's always decorated with some kind of stuffed animal or birthday card, some reminder that these women were more than just streetwalkers and junkies; they were daughters, sisters, mothers. I'm also really into trains, so writing a book about a serial killer who rides freight trains was a pretty good way to get my fix. 

Why did you decide to set your stories in the United States?

It was a threefold decision to set my books in the States. I grew up on the border, closer to Detroit than to any major Canadian city, and nearly all of the culture I consumed came from the States.

Also, the stories I was trying to tell just worked better in the U.S. My first novel, The Professionals, is about a group of itinerant kidnappers who make quick scores for low ransoms and keep moving from major city to major city. We don't have more than a handful of major cities in Canada, and only a couple of major highways, and with our population about ten percent of yours, any crime attracts serious attention, and quickly. I figured it wouldn't take more than a couple of chapters before the Mounties picked up the trail in Moose Jaw and were waiting for my guys in Medicine Hat, and that would be the end of it. It was just more of an American tale, to me.

Finally, and here's where things get awkward, it's nearly impossible to make a living as an artist in Canada if Americans aren't buying your work, and Americans, by and large, don't buy thrillers set in Canada.  Mostly, though, writing about the States means I have plenty of tax-deductible reasons to visit, which is just fine by me!

You’ve also written two YA books (under the name of Owen Matthews,) How to Win at High School and The Fixes.  Tell us about them. 

I wrote the first draft of How2Win when I was a really emo kid in university, believing that it would bring me instant fame and fortune. Needless to say, it did not, and I tucked it away in the proverbial drawer for about ten years, until I was a few books into my career writing FBI thrillers.  I rewrote the heck out of it, and essentially broke every rule I adhere to when I'm writing thrillers. It found a publisher really quickly, and I've since put out another standalone YA, The Fixes, which I pitched as "Gossip Girl with bombs."  I essentially treat the YA stuff as an excuse to go nuts and be wild and experimental, where I write the thrillers hoping to tell a good, straightforward story without the style getting too much in the way.

I know you get asked this question often, but tell me about your experience as a reporter on the world poker circuit.  Has it informed your books?

Ha! That gig came about during the summer after I'd graduated from university with a fine arts degree in Creative Writing, which was about as useful for obtaining gainful employment as you might expect. I found an ad that offered six weeks' paid travel to Las Vegas to write about the World Series of Poker, and though I didn't know a thing about poker, I did know I didn't want to spend my summer working midnights in a warehouse.

I went down to Vegas for a pretty epic summer, at the end of which, the company asked if I'd like to travel the professional poker circuit full time. I was 23 and had never left North America, so the answer was obviously yes, and for the next three years I spent 75% of my life on the road, traveling all over the world to wherever high stakes poker tournaments were played.

I've tried not to focus too much on poker in the thrillers; I didn't want to pigeonhole myself as the guy who only wrote poker mysteries.  I was exposed to humanity's seedier side, and though gamblers aren't all criminals, all criminals are gamblers by nature.  Working the poker gig was kind of a crash course in just how desperation and greed can drive a person to act. 

And now a couple of my favorite questions to ask guests to the blog.  First, what has surprised you most about becoming a published author?

First of all, I've been wonderfully surprised by what a warm, welcoming community the world of crime fiction has turned out to be.  It's a cliché to say that these people are my tribe, but I've been amazed at how at home I've felt in this community and how the community embraces people who want to be embraced.

Second, one of the really hard lessons I had to learn after I was published a few times was that just having a book out, or two books, or six or eight, no matter how critically acclaimed or bestselling, they don't change who you are as a human being, and they don't automatically make your life everything you'd ever hoped it would be.  I had to learn to separate my feelings of self-worth from whatever was happening in my writing career and to learn to be happy with what I was writing if it made me happy and satisfied.

I think most of all, though, what has surprised me is that anything is possible, so long as you're audacious enough to try for it, and dedicated enough to put the work in.  But those of us who succeed aren't necessarily the most talented, but we are the people who were dumb enough to think, "Why not me?" and then bust our humps until we got there.

And now my other favorite question: What are you working on now?  Is there a book you’d love to write if you didn’t have to take agents, editors, and your fans into consideration?  A western?  Romance?

Next year, I’m putting out a deep-sea adventure story about a female salvage tugboat captain and her crew chasing after a $100m shipwreck. It's a story I've always wanted to write, and I'm so stoked that Putnam seems just as into the idea as I am. 

I've just finished the draft of another departure, something inspired by all the David Joy and Ace Atkins I've been reading, and starring a dog based on my rescue Pit-bull, Lucy. I think my issue is less that I feel constrained and more that I don't have enough time to write everything I want to write!

Another giveaway!  Comment and you'll be in the running to win The Forgotten Girls!

THE FORGOTTEN GIRLS

They are the victims no one has ever cared about, until now. Agents Stevens and Windermere return in the blistering new crime novel from the fast-rising, multi-award-nominated suspense star.

She was a forgotten girl, a runaway found murdered on the High Line railroad pass through the northern Rocky Mountains and, with little local interest, put into a dead file. But she was not alone. When Kirk Stevens and Carla Windermere of the joint FBI-BCA violent crime force stumble upon the case, they discover a horror far greater than anyone expected—a string of murders on the High Line, all of them young women drifters whom no one would notice.

But someone has noticed now. Through the bleak midwinter and a frontier land of forbidding geography, Stevens and Windermere follow a frustratingly light trail of clues—and where it ends, even they will be shocked.

Owen Laukkanen is the author of six critically-acclaimed Stevens and Windermere FBI thrillers, the latest of which, The Forgotten Girls, was released in March 2017. As Owen Matthews, he's also the author of two completely inappropriate young adult novels. A former professional poker journalist and commercial fisherman, Owen lives in Vancouver, BC, with his girlfriend and their rescue pit-bull, Lucy. His next novel, Gale Force, will be published by Putnam in 2018.

Piece (or Two) Of Cake!

HANK:  Why is a raven like a writing desk? The famous riddle, of course, that the Mad Hatter asks Alice.

Today another riddle. An easier one.

First, do you know Debra Goldstein? She’s terrific, and hilarious, and retired from the judge’s bench to be an author.

Hey.  She’s brave –that was quite the life choice, right? And smart, and terrific.

And her essay gave me the answer to this riddle: 

Why is a book like a cake?

THERE WILL BE CAKE

             by Debra H. Goldstein

Celebrate! You can bet if I’m celebrating anything, there will be cake.

Birthdays, weddings, anniversaries, nice weather, rain, and TGIF are all good excuses for cake. 

Some of my favorite “just for the sake of it” desserts include P.F. Chang’s Great Wall of chocolate (chocolate with raspberry sauce) and Cheesecake Factory’s Linda’s Fudge Cake.

 For a quick “invited to dinner at last minute and the hostess requested dessert rather than wine,” my local Publix offers a moist, well-decorated white cake available with a variety of fillings and icings. 

If in doubt, I know I can never go wrong bringing an ice cream cake.

Of course, there are the specialty bakers whose products combine flavor with artistic decoration. 

The tasting process for my daughter’s wedding cake was quite extensive before a final decision was made. Nothing matches that cake, but other ones also have meant a lot to me – my thirtieth birthday surprise road to life sheet cake, the twin cakes my twins smashed on their first birthday, the one my office staff and I shared the day I left the bench, and the cakes I associate with writing.

When my first book, Maze in Blue, was published, I was the keynote speaker for an evening where funds were raised to reopen the library in my old high school.

 In a decision that was a travesty for students, the school system had eliminated all school libraries and art programs to resolve a financial crisis. Community outrage resulted in a wide-spread grass roots campaign to reverse the decision. Volunteers created invitations, flyers, radio and TV spots advertising what time the school band would play, when barbecue would be served, and my talk. 

Every media announcement highlighted “And, there will be cake.”

No matter how I tried, I couldn’t figure out the significance of the cake reference. True, a sweet treat is always a nice way to end an evening, but in this case everyone was receiving a copy of my book. How could there be anything sweeter than that?

As I worked on my remarks on writing, I tried to think of a way to tie them to “And, there will be cake.” There were obvious similarities:

   1.    Cakes are usually made by combining flour, sugar, eggs, butter or oil, a leavening agent and liquid. A written work requires mixing ideas, words, punctuation, grammar, and editing.

   2.  Bakers often add flavorings, candies, coconut, or nuts to enhance texture and taste. Dialects, local expressions, expanded descriptive settings, and extra adjectives do the same for writings.

    3.    Cakes can be made in all shapes and sizes. A story can be told in as few words as Hemingway’s “For Sale: baby shoes, never worn.” to the multi-volume, and still expanding, saga of J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter series.

   4.  Rather than make a cake from scratch, one can, as a matter of convenience, use a box mix. Writers often agonize over creating an original work, like the structural twist used in Gone Girl, but they can always rely on the tried and true three act formula.

   5. Writers often embellish characters by adding personality quirks or clothing oddities. In a mystery, clues may be hidden or obscured by red herrings. Bakers do the same thing with frosting. Not only can icing cover imperfections, but balloons, flowers, and other decorations offer personalization of the final product.

   6.  Cake varieties are endless. Sponge, gooey butter, chocolate, layered, and flourless are only a few that exist. Mystery, historical, biography, and literary barely scrape the surface of available writing genres.

I was ready with my comparisons until I saw the cake. At that moment, I understood why they had advertised “And, there will be cake.” Although I viewed the signing as an evening with a mission, the community was celebrating coming together to work for a common goal. They hoped their actions, like the words of a good book, would combine well.

When a prominent wedding cake maker offered to provide the evening’s dessert, it was accepted because her presence added to the credibility of their efforts. 

Although it meant a lot to me that with all the things she could have put on the cake, she chose to commemorate my book, what was more important was the unifying impact her cake had on the volunteers. Because everyone knew the quality of her work and the value of what she was giving, “And, there will be cake,” spoke volumes.

Recently, my second book, Should Have Played Poker: a Carrie Martin and the Mah Jongg Players Mystery was released. I take joy from the positive reviews it has received, but a box of cookies sent to me for the book’s launch and a cake my friends made for a special Mah jongg game playing/signing party captured my ongoing celebration.

The written word is meant to be celebrated. Whether the book being read or displayed is mine or one written by someone else, the words the author strings together create a reason for cake. 

What do you think? Is there a cake or book you particularly enjoyed? For a chance to win a randomly awarded copy of Should Have Played Poker, leave a comment!

HANK: We need cake today! I am having cataract surgery…so I am celebrating Debra’s wonderful attitude. I am celebrating my coming ability to see—crossing fingers. And darling Debra’s continued success!

(And does this mean a cupcake is like a short story?)

(And the answer to why is a raven like a writing desk? I have one idea…although I guess Lewis Carroll meant there to be no answer.)

What’s the best cake you ever had? Any cake secrets?

********************** 

Judge Debra H. Goldstein is the author of Should Have Played Poker: a Carrie Martin and the Mah Jongg Players Mystery (Five Star Publishing - April 2016) and the 2012 IPPY Award winning Maze in Blue, a mystery set on the University of Michigan’s campus. She also writes short stories and non-fiction. Debra serves on the national Sisters in Crime, Guppy Chapter and Alabama Writers Conclave boards and is a MWA member. She lives in Birmingham, Alabama with her husband, Joel, whose blood runs crimson.

J. A. Squires takes a fresh approach: Nepal, poker, and an African Gray

HALLIE EPHRON: It's hard to find something new in crime fiction., But Jeannette de Beauvoir and her collaborator, Susan E. Squires, writing together as J. A. Squires, have come up with something fresh in their series sleuth, Irene Adler. She's an anthropologist-cum-poker player with a pet African gray parrot. Her debut novel: "Assignment Nepal"

Jeanette, are you an anthropologist? Poker player? Have a parrot?

JEANNETTE DE BEAUVOIR: Susan, my co-author, is the professional anthropologist, though I studied it as well. We wanted to come up with a character whose background was familiar to us and whose work could potentially allow for time off to go away on adventures. Unfortunately, academia alone doesn't offer the kind of money that would pay for those adventures, so we were a bit stuck there ...

Then one evening I was watching the movie "Rounders," which is about people who play poker for a living, and that seemed the perfect way for Irene to finance her life: minimum time investment, maximum financial return.

Of course, then I had to actually *learn* about poker! I'm so grateful to the myriad people who have taken time to teach me about it, including the folks at Foxwoods Casino ... I understand the milieu now, but am personally still a terrible player!

And, finally, I had a brief relationship once with someone who had an African Gray. Smart bird. Incredibly obnoxious bird. Bird whose personality could fill a stadium. We didn't want Irene to have a permanent love-interest, but we did want her to have someone to come home to ... and so Corey was created.

HALLIE: Jeannette, I know your character in "Assignment Nepal" isn't Holmes's Irene Adler, but tell us why you used that name (I've always loved that character)?

JEANNETTE: Susan is the one who came up with that. Our Irene is, of course, named after Conan Doyle's Irene Adler; it seemed a nice connection to make, since she was the only person to have outsmarted Sherlock Holmes! I then gave Irene eccentric parents who named all their children after famous people, which might allow for some word- and name-play down the road.

HALLIE: Tell us about you and your co-author, and how this collaboration came about?

JEANNETTE: Susan and I have been friends for more years than I care to count; we met when both working for the Department of Mental Health in Massachusetts, which probably says something about us, though I'm not sure exactly what! We've always had similar interests, and early on collaborated on a photography project as well as some journal articles ... and that seemed to work well, so we started talking about what else we might try.

Susan had been to Nepal, and experienced a great deal of what Irene experiences there (sans the murder and mystery, of course!), so we decided to try our hand at collaborating on a mystery. Almost immediately we knew that we didn't want it to stop there, that Irene was interesting enough to grow into a series, so ...

HALLIE: How do you partner in the writing, and how is it different from writing solo?

JEANNETTE: By and large, Susan is the plot person. She's really good at figuring ways out of the corners I often paint us into, at seeing inconsistencies, at making the story make sense. She never panics, a trait I admire and cannot for the life of me emulate. I do all the writing—while this is my first adventure in *mystery* writing, I've been published (mostly in historical fiction) under a couple of other pen names, so the writing part and character development come easily to me.

When I was first starting out, I did some work-for-hire ghostwriting assignments (I guess you could say they were my equivalent of playing poker for a living!): the publisher gave me a detailed plot, character sketches, etc., and I connected the dots and put the book together. In some ways, working with Susan is similar: we work from a detailed plot that I deviate from as little as possible, and always at my peril!

This is very different from the way I work alone. I start out with a general idea of where things are going, but I get immersed in my characters, their dialogue, their interactions, and almost always they lead me somewhere else. I can generally come up with a plot summary for my novels—but only *after* they've been written!

So this is a challenge to me, as I'm sure it is to Susan, who's far more analytical than I am!

HALLIE: Your decision about how to publish this book is still a bit unusual. Tell us about it.

JEANNETTE: I should start by saying that I am a collector of books. I have a study that could easily double as a library. I love books and I agree that there really is nothing like holding a hardcover book in one's hands. That said, we decided to publish this series with Echelon in ebook format only. I'm not going to get involved in the electronic versus paper argument that's being waged every day across the internet (does anyone see just a little irony in that?): I think there's a place for both, and I'm excited about the convenience of ebooks—I carry about a hundred around with me every day. That continues to amaze me.

Here's the thing, Hallie: crime fiction is a crowded field, and its devotees devour books (I know: I'm one of them) more quickly than said books can come off the presses. So the flexibility of not *including* presses at all appealed to us. Ebook sales are skyrocketing, and it seems a format that more people might be willing to take a chance on a new author/character/series with, as it's generally less expensive and more quickly available.

HALLIE: What's next for Irene Adler an J. A. Squires?

JEANNETTE: Irene's off to Oxford, England, where a professor with a murky past has just been murdered, which may have to do with a cult, or his recent academic work around the "real" Robin Hood, or ... stay tuned and find out! We are expecting Irene to have a number of "assignments" that will take her to interesting places (I spent three happy weeks in Oxford this past summer researching the milieu for the second book) and, hopefully, show her growth both as a person and as an amateur detective.

HALLIE: Thanks, Jeanette! Hoping this venture deals you a winning hand!

Chime in if you want to talk about collaborating, or going digital, or African Grays, or winning at poker.

That's Amore--but this is A Murder

Tattoo artist Brett Kavanaugh inks high-class clientele in her Las Vegas shop, The Painted Lady. And when she's not on the job, she sets her designs on catching killers. . . .
Las Vegas is a rocking place where impersonators of the legendary Rat Pack - Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, and Sammy Davis Jr. - are alive and well and performing nightly at clubs all over town. Except they're not all. Alive, that is.

( ...to be continued...see below)
**Driven To Ink

Well, ain't this a kick in the head? Karen Olson is back--she's such a pal of Jungle Red--and we are thrilled that her newest book is out. (How many is this now? Seven?) Now Karen's gone all Vegas, baby, and probably has a cigarette in a long holder and long white gloves and a sllinky red dress and shakes a mean...martini. (And knows the rules of blackjack, which are obviously incomprehensible.)

But her inspiration is from the golden age of Vegas. Like Dino himself sings, er, sang: memories are made of this. Volare, everyone. Now, take it away Karen.

THAT'S AMORE...but this is--a Murder

KAREN: I’ve always had this thing for the Rat Pack.

Ever since seeing Ocean’s 11 for the first time, the original one, not the one with George Clooney (although admittedly, the George Clooney version is very easy on the eyes), but the one with Frank Sinatra and Dean Martin. The Rat Pack, which also included Sammy Davis Jr., Joey Bishop, Peter Lawford, Shirley McLaine, and Angie Dickinson, really were Vegas in the late 1950s and early 1960s. The group, brought together by Sinatra, were all around town, drinking and performing and having a blast.

They became legend.

So when I was trying to come up with a plot for my third tattoo shop mystery, DRIVEN TO INK, set in Vegas, I knew I had to pay homage to this bit of Sin City’s history.

So what did I do? I killed off a Dean Martin impersonator.

And not just any Dean Martin impersonator. A Dean Martin impersonator whose job was to serenade couples getting married at the That’s Amore Drive-Through Wedding Chapel.
Okay, sure, Dino wasn’t the most famous Rat Packer. Frank was. But Frank seemed so clichéd, so done. And I’d already used Frank in my Annie Seymour series, in which private eye Vinny DeLucia bears a striking resemblance to the old crooner (not the fat Frank from his later years, but when he was younger, with Ava).

That was in part for my husband, who is a huge huge HUGE Frank fan. So much so that if we hear a Frank song on the radio, we have to stop for a moment of silence to honor his memory. I’m totally not kidding. I don’t know how many times I’ve heard my husband say wistfully, “He can sing like that because he’s loved and lost.”

So Dino it was for this new book. And not just one impersonator. No. I had to do it right. There is a whole stable of Dinos at That’s Amore. And someone seems to be targeting them.


My editor was concerned that my readers might not know what the Rat Pack was. I found that a little hard to believe. I mean, who hasn’t heard of Frank Sinatra? Or Dean Martin? Maybe they haven’t heard of Peter Lawford, he’s a little more obscure. But regardless, I had to put a sentence explaining the Rat Pack to my readers, just in case they live under a rock.

Or get them confused with the Brat Pack. Remember them? From the ‘80s? Emilio Estevez, Rob Lowe, Robert Downey Jr., Judd Nelson. That dreadful movie St. Elmo’s Fire. The Rat Pack they weren’t.
But I digress.

If you were going to write a book set in Vegas and had to pick one of the Rat Pack to put in it, which one would you choose?

HANK: Angie Dickinson! That's who I'd be. I mean, choose. How about you?

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Karen E. Olson’s newest tattoo shop mystery, DRIVEN TO INK, is now available. Visit her website at http://www.kareneolson.com/

...continued from above..

When Brett lends her car to Sylvia Coleman and Bernie Applebaum for a drive-through wedding, she's not expecting to get it back with a dead body in the trunk - much less one who looks like Dean Martin and sports a clip cord from a tattoo machine around his neck.
As for the newlyweds, they vanish before they can start their honeymoon, so Brett and Jeff, Sylvia's son, go undercover as bride and groom to sniff out the rat who seems to be targeting the impersonators. Whatever's going on, it's not amore. . . .

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And we're quiet for a moment, today on September 11....

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