Danger!!

RHYS BOWEN:  Every one of the Jungle Reds writes books that have a certain element of danger at their core. The central character is a sleuth and therefore puts him or herself knowingly into danger at times. Or in suspense novels the heroine finds herself in danger through no fault of her own and has to discover who wants to harm her. And how to escape. 

I’ve also written several books about WWII in which there is understood background danger apart from the personal story I am telling. My hero has crashed his plane and is hiding out in a bombed monastery. My heroine is stuck as an enemy alien in Venice, or, in the case of the latest book, in the south of France.

I think it’s true to say that all our characters face danger with great bravery. They do not run from it. They do the role they are called to do. But this is fiction. So I’d like to know:  have any of you been in real danger in your lives? 

When  this idea came to me I had to think for a long time. Have I ever been in danger–apart from lying in my pram in a war with no idea what was going on. One occasion did come to mind:

I was a student at the university of Freiburg in south Germany and every weekend a friend and I hitchhiked down to Switzerland. We’d made a bet to swim in every major lake during the summer.  Usually we were picky about rides. We’d take a single occupant, often a truck, preferably a woman driver.  

But on this occasion it was pouring with rain and we were cold and miserable in the middle of nowhere. We were relieved when a  big, black car came to a halt and we piled into the back seat.  It was only as it drove off that we noticed the front seat had two men in it, both wearing the sort of hats that gangsters wear. They were sort of slouched down in the front seat and we couldn’t see their faces. We thanked them, told them how we were students… they didn’t reply.

Then without warning they turned off the road onto a track through a thick pine forest. Now we were really scared.

        “Is this the way to Luzern?” I asked in a trembling voice, “Because that’s where we need to go.” ( I should point out that both of us spoke perfect German)

        “It’s a short cut,” one of them said and they both laughed.. The sort of laugh they laugh in movies before they get out the chain saw in the dungeon.

        Ruth grabbed me. “Get out the fruit knife,” she whispered.  I had been carrying a tiny pearl handled knife to peel fruit. It was totally blunt, rounded blade and would not have defended us against a hamster, but I rummaged for it. My brain was trying to come up with something sensible to do when the car stopped. Could I grab the guy in front of me by the throat? Could we run? The trees grew close together and were thin enough that you couldn’t hide behind one.

After about twenty minutes of holding my breath while Ruth grabbed my wrist so hard that I had a bruise afterward we emerged from the trees onto another road.

        “Short cut,” one of the men said and they laughed again. And it was a short cut. It took about twenty minutes off the trip.

So that is my one brush with danger and I have to confess that I was not cool or brave as my characters have been.

So Reds have you ever been in danger? (We know you have, Hank, but please give us some examples).

JENN McKINLAY: That short story gave me the chills, Rhys. Eeek! After a quick mental review, I realize the only danger I’ve ever been in has been of my own foolish making. Being six feet tall and raised with a brother who taught me how to fight (and win) I’ve never been in physical peril from another person. I have, however, fallen into a frozen river because I was being careless and when I went under the ice the same brother fished me out and saved my life. And, no, I was not brave. I cried like a big baby but in my defense I was only six years old. 

DEBORAH CROMBIE: Gosh, Rhys, I agree on the chills! Your story could have ended very badly–or maybe we just read too many crime novels!

I've had to really think about your question. I was in a car accident when I was fourteen that very easily could have been fatal, but the good thing about that (other than not dying!) was that I didn't have any time to experience fear, and I had no memory of the impact afterwards. Later on in my teens, I was swimming in Acapulco Bay and got caught in an undertow. That was absolutely terrifying!! Another, stronger swimmer, a man, saw that I was in trouble and pulled me out, but I have ever since been afraid of deep water.

RHYS: I was in a horrible car accident also, Debs, but there was nothing I could do about it. I was hit from behind and knocked into oncoming traffic. I was actually a horrified spectator and luckily not badly injured although my car (a one-week old Mercedes) was totalled.

LUCY BURDETTE: I’m thinking and thinking about danger because in every book Hayley and some of her pals end up in a dangerous situation. Yet I am terrified of danger and not the least bit brave. Most of the things I can think of are situations where I was young and too dumb to think through the consequences. One example, going to a gigantic fiddle festival with thousands of drug crazed music people. Many many things could have gone wrong, but fortunately for us they did not. Or how about driving on a sheet of black ice in an old station wagon with wheel drive?? I think this is partly why having children is so scary, because we know what we did ourselves as young people and how lucky we were!

HALLIE EPHRON: Recently I had an Uber driver who ran a nonstop monologue regaling me with how he once had a rider who stuck his arm out the window and … a very bad thing happened… as we’re flying along 93N to the airport. It was unnerving and I think, in retrospect, entirely made up. 

Most scary were the nights when  I waited up for one of my girls to come home from a date as the clock ticked past midnight. One. Two… I do think the ANTICIPATION of something bad happening is its own kind of scariness. Which is, after all, what we call “suspense.”

RHYS: Oh Hallie, this struck a nerve. Yes. Sitting by the window, listening for the sound of a car coming up our steep hill. Huge sigh of relief when the headlights arrived outside.

HANK PHILLIPPI RYAN: Oh, gosh, yes, as a reporter I’ve been threatened, chased, stalked, sued, yelled at, pushed down, and followed home. And caught in a cult church with a hidden camera. But that’s TV.  But in regular life, I always think about how close we come, all the time, and we don’t  even know it. Or when the bus whooshes by, and you realize it missed by inches.

Clea Simon--The Butterfly Trap

DEBORAH CROMBIE: It is always a treat to have the multi-talented author Clea Simon visit here on JRW. Clea writes both cozies and dark psychological suspense, which inspires transports of admiration from me--I can't imagine how you twist your brain into such different shapes! Clea's latest, THE BUTTERFLY TRAP, definitely falls on the suspense side of the ledger, and here she is to tell us what inspired it.

What patterns are playing out in your life?

 

Hi and thanks for having me here today! Or here again, I should say, since you’ve hosted me before. Which brings up the question I’ve been wrestling with lately: What are the patterns you see in your lives? And, maybe more to the point, how do we use them in our writing?

This hit home just last week when I found myself teetering on the verge of an old fight. In brief, I’d been home all day working on the computer, with the exception of a short (and very careful!) walk in the icy day. My darling husband Jon (no relation to Hank’s Jonathan) had gone to the Boston Public Library to do some research. (He’s retired, but that just means more time for his own writing projects.) And so when he came home, I nearly jumped on him, full of things I wanted to tell him. How the writing was going. What the cat did. Thoughts on the day’s news (oh, so many thoughts…). And I could almost see him recoil.

To explain, he’d been at the library, but he’d been dealing with people all day. And I? Well, I’d only been dealing with the people in my head. All of whom were dying to come out.

It was all too much. I caught myself, and he met me halfway, asking about the day’s work and more. But in that moment, I saw a dynamic I recognized.

You see, my mother was an artist – a painter and printmaker, who dabbled in other media as well and who also, of course, had the full responsibility for us kids. My father was a doctor. An internist with a private practice, who saw patients all day. Too often, that meant a conflict at the end of the day. He’d come home, tired and wanting some quiet. And she, who hadn’t spoken to an adult all day, would be bursting with thoughts – with ideas she wanted to share. Ready for contact. Needless to say, it didn’t always end well.

In the worst scenarios, the tension would simmer for about an hour. By then, we’d be sitting at the dinner table – because, of course, despite her own work, my mom had to have dinner on the table at six! At some point, my mother would start to needle my father. Little things. Half-said comments that she wouldn’t repeat. And, inevitably, at some point, my father would blow up. He was a big man with a big voice, so this would be loud and, frankly, scary. My mother would run off to the kitchen, crying. And I, her youngest (and female), would follow to comfort her, leaving my father at the table. But even then I would be aware that he wasn’t really angry. In fact, he’d be confused. What had happened? Why had he exploded? He was like the proverbial bull in the china shop at that point, unable to take another step without causing damage. And as I hugged my Mom in the kitchen, I also felt sympathy for him. They were caught in a pattern that neither had the awareness to break.

In retrospect, so many other factors played into their relationship – and into their fights. Her work, for one, was never taken as seriously as his – by my father, by society at large. It certainly didn’t bring in an equivalent amount of money, which is too often how we measure such things. And there had been an imbalance in the relationship from the start: She’d been the beautiful artist he had pursued, winning in part with the promise of being able to give her a comfortable life – as a doctor’s wife. But was that who she wanted to be? Although he supported her work (and, I believe, was proud when she sold to museums and was honored in juried shows), did he ever understand it?

I confess, it took another friend’s disastrous relationship to make me revisit these old patterns in my own life. He and his then-love had come to visit, and by the third day, while she was sleeping in, he and I were crying at the kitchen table. It was impossible, he was saying. She drank too much. She was crazy. “But R-,” I remember saying to him. “You like the crazy! You’re drawn to it!”

“I know, but…” he replied (at least as I remember it. In truth, he might have resisted my diagnosis a bit longer). And sometime that day, as they both packed to go, it hit me. These patterns of love and anger. Where the fulfillment of one dream means the denying of the other. The way we wreck the ones we adore. And that night, I began to write The Butterfly Trap, a he said/she said tale of love and obsession that explores the dynamics of relationships, gender roles and expectations, along with lots of blood, dirty deeds, and sex (hey, I do write to entertain!).

And me and Jon? I don’t know if I’m any more careful these days. But I’m certainly more aware. Patterns can so easily become habits, treads worn in our minds… leading us down a tragic path.

What about you? Do you see patterns from your family of origins that have persisted in your lives? Are they useful or can you learn from them? Let me know!

 

About The Butterfly Trap:

Anya and Greg seem to be the golden couple, until dark secrets come to light and unleash inevitable devastation in this slow-burn he said/she said psychological suspense novel.

 

Greg has his life all planned out: become a doctor, buy a house, and have a wife and children – and when he meets Anya during his post-doc studies in Boston, all of his dreams seem to come true. It’s love at first sight, and Greg doesn’t shy away from changing his life to provide Anya, his beautiful butterfly, with everything she wants and needs.

 

Anya is a struggling artist, determined to make it as a painter in Boston’s art scene – but getting involved with shy and sweet Greg could thwart her lifelong ambition. Their relationship unfolds like a classic love story . . . except that Anya seems to be hiding something that unsuspecting Greg soon must face.

 

Are Greg and Anya truly the perfect couple, or will jealousy, uncertainty, and dangerous machinations break them apart in the most dreadful way imaginable?

 

“The theme of fear and control in a relationship emerges in Simon’s slow-burn latest, along with the exploration of the many ways two people can deceive each other.” – Booklist

 

Before turning to a life of crime (fiction), Boston Globe-bestselling author Clea Simon was a journalist. A native of New York, she came to Massachusetts to attend Harvard University and never left. The author of three nonfiction books and 32 mysteries, most recently the psychological suspense The Butterfly Trap, her books alternate between cozies (usually featuring cats) and darker psychological suspense, like the Massachusetts Center for the Book “must reads” Hold Me Down and World Enough. She lives with her husband, the writer Jon S. Garelick (another Boston Globe alum), and their cat Thisbe in Somerville, Massachusetts.

 

 

HOW A GIRL WHO COULD SING BUT NOT TALK, INSPIRED MY NEW NOVEL by Jane Corry

Jenn McKinlay: Today I'm delighted to have a guest author who was recommended by my dear friend Hannah Dennison. When Hannah told me she had a guest for us, I knew it would be a good one as she's never steered me wrong. Please welcome the prize winning author and journalist, Jane Corry.

ORDER NOW

JANE: Nearly fifteen years ago, when running a writing group, I met someone who couldn’t talk after a stroke – but could sing her story instead. She stayed in my mind and emerged out of the blue when I wrote the first line of I DIED ON A TUESDAY. And so Janie was born: a young girl who was knocked off her bike and left for dead, just before she was leaving her seaside town to start a publishing job in London.

My ideas come like a floating feather. I don’t sit down and think ‘What can I write about?’  After the first feather, another follows and another  - rather like layers of millefeuille pastry. I try not to think too hard about them because if I don’t, another idea will come along – often when I’m not in a position to write it down, such as swimming in the sea.

I knew I wanted to write about an historic crime. I’m fascinated by the way in which a crime can be discovered, years after someone thinks they’ve buried it. Perhaps I should say here that I started my working life as a magazine journalist but then became a writer in residence of a high security male prison for three years after my divorce, when I needed money a regular income to bring up my three children. It changed my life. Until then, I’d had some romantic novels published but prison opened my eyes to a world I didn’t know about. 

Stories are often inspired by people you meet and through another area of my life, I was very moved by a woman who’d been a witness supporter – a voluntary role which involves looking after witnesses in court and showing them where to sit; explaining how court procedure works and metaphorically holding their hands. So Vanessa was born: my character whose dead husband had been the policeman in charge of Janie’s accident when the culprit was never found. 

Then along came Robbie. Robbie had been one of the 18-year-olds in the van which had knocked down Janie but didn’t stop. Twenty years later, those boys are famous musicians. ( I know a bit about this because my youngest is a music journalist: his podcast is called ‘101 Part-Time Jobs with Giles Bidder’ about jobs that musicians had before they were famous).  But suddenly new evidence comes up about the accident. Janie, Robbie and Vanessa each have different stories about the day of the accident. Which one is right?

I like to keep my readers guessing because I adore twists. But I am also in love with three-sided characters because no one is a stereotype: not the men I met in prison or the celebrities I’ve interviewed or you or me.  Of course, there’s another character who I’ve mentioned briefly. The sea. I was landlocked in outer London for the first fifty years of my life until I married the best man from my first wedding (long story) and escaped to the sea. It’s where I belong. I hope you enjoy the waves I’ve tried to create in my plot and scenery. I

‘I DIED ON A TUESDAY’ is being published by Penguin Viking on June 6 on Kindle and in audio and on June 20th (paperback). You can also order ‘I DIED ON A TUESDAY’ by clicking https://bit.ly/3SE8UVi. Thank you.

BUY NOW

You can also buy ‘COMING TO FIND YOU’, my 2024 novel about Nancy whose step-brother is sent to prison for murder.  The press believe Nancy was involved so they follow her to the family holiday home in Devon. But what no one knows is that during the Second World War, the owner Elizabeth was a secret spy for Churchill – and committed a terrible crime herself.  Can Nancy learn from a dead woman’s mistakes? You can order now on Amazon.

If you’d like to read more about my books, you can find details on www.janecorryauthor.com.  Thank you.

JENN: Thank you, Jane. These novels sound fabulous! Readers, what are some of your favorite plot twists?  

Annette Dashofy--Suspense versus Mystery

DEBORAH CROMBIE: Welcome to one of our frequent and favorite guests here on JRW, Annette Dashofy! It seems like we've been with Annette's protagonist Zoe Chambers every step of the way, and I have such admiration for Annette stepping off in a slightly different direction with her new Zoe book--the 12th!

Suspense versus Mystery by Annette Dashofy

When I started working on the twelfth Zoe Chambers Mystery, as always, I had a seed of an idea. Honestly, I had several seeds. A flood. A trapped and critically injured father. His kidnapped daughter. They all sounded viable until I started plotting Helpless. That’s when I made a few realizations.

 

1.      The story had to take place within a very compressed timeline.

2.      This wasn’t going to be a traditional whodunit.

3.      Writing suspense is way out of my wheelhouse.

 

I based the flooding on a couple of tropical storms, remnants of hurricanes, that made their way to southwestern Pennsylvania over the last 20 years. Around here, the water rises, coming closer and closer over a matter of hours, and then recedes quickly. Combined with the critically injured father in the story, I knew I needed this book to take place in under 24 hours.

What the heck was I thinking?

Let me tell you about outlining a story that only lasts 24 hours. Getting the timelines to work from both Zoe Chambers-Adams’s and Pete Adams’s points of view was maddening. I used a spreadsheet. I used postcards. I had to calculate how long it took to get from Point A to Point B and then tack on time for traveling through floodwaters and downed trees. Then I had to coordinate what was happening with Zoe and Pete, who were in different locations, but who were in communication with each other. I’d write a scene, calculate how much time had passed, figure out where that fell on the other character’s timeline, and find out it didn’t match.

I lost count of how many times I told my husband, “This book is going to kill me.”

It also soon became apparent this poor man, who couldn’t be moved, had seen the person who kidnapped his daughter. He didn’t know who the guy was, but he’d recognize him if he saw him again. Hence, this wasn’t going to be a traditional whodunit with the usual red herrings and suspects, all of whom might be the killer. The reader would also have an inkling of why this madman had taken the girl.

The narrative questions don’t involve “who is the killer?” Instead, the reader asks, “Where is the child?” “Is she even alive?” And “Will the girl’s father survive?” And the big one. “Will The Bad Guy outsmart Chief Pete Adams and escape with or without the little girl?”

I pondered giving The Bad Guy a point of view in the book, but quickly abandoned that idea.

So, I found myself writing suspense, a race against time in the truest sense. Thanks to modern technology, Zoe Chambers-Adams keeps an eye on her weather app’s radar to follow the progress of the advancing storm. The Bad Guy’s identity eventually becomes known, but it takes a while for Pete to recognize how cunning he is. Call it a chess match or a cat-and-mouse game, the fact is both Zoe and Pete are battling man and the elements against the ticking clock of Mother Nature’s wrath.

DEBS: Okay, the suspense is killing me just from reading this! Here's more about HELPLESS:

As a massive weather system barrels toward them, Vance Township Police Chief Pete Adams and his wife, County Coroner Zoe Chambers-Adams, soon learn how unprepared they really are. A 911 call reports a dead young mother, her critically injured husband, and their missing seven-year-old daughter. Pete and Zoe realize that as the storm moved north from Louisiana, a mysterious killer came with it.  

The wounded and trapped father is Zoe’s friend and blacksmith, and he asks her to stay with him during the rescue efforts. Pete encourages her to oblige, hoping she can uncover clues that might help the investigation. But as attempts to free the victim fail and his condition worsens, Zoe’s questions reveal he doesn’t know why his family was targeted and child kidnapped. Yet he stays alive, hoping for one last glimpse of his little girl.

Pursuing the murderer and the kidnapped child, Pete and his officers battle downed trees, massive flooding, and a widespread loss of communications. They’re isolated with no backup, while facing rising water and impassable roads. The killer faces the same problems, yet somehow stays one step ahead of law enforcement. But he is becoming desperate, and more people are dying because of it. 

As two lives hang in the balance, can Pete win the race against time and weather to stop a savage and cunning predator? And will he and Zoe be able to reunite a family before it’s too late? 

USA Today bestseller Annette Dashofy is the author of over a dozen novels including the five-time Agatha Award nominated Zoe Chambers mystery series about a paramedic-turned-coroner in rural Pennsylvania as well as the Detective Honeywell series set along Lake Erie. Her standalone novel, Death By Equine is the 2021 winner of the Dr. Tony Ryan Book Award for excellence in thoroughbred racing literature. In addition, she is an active member of Sisters in Crime and Pennwriters. Annette and her husband live on ten acres of what was her grandfather’s dairy farm with one very spoiled cat.

DEBS: How about it, dear Reds and readers--what's your favorite book with a ticking clock?

 

Sneezing and Sniffling--What Do YOU Do?

UPDATED Monday morning: How GREAT was it to see Olivia Colman win for best actress? (See below for my Broadchurch "discovery." WOW. (Though I feel bad for the amazing Glenn Close.)
And can we talk about that SONG?? What do you think?

HANK PHILLIPPI RYAN: It's almost over. ALMOST over.  It's almost gone now, but  it started one day last week. At first, I was completely fine. And then, wham. A sniffle. A tiny sniffle. I ignored it. Of course.  I don't have time to be sick! 

This is not me. 

And then, ker-CHOO. Then: ker-CHOO ker-CHOO ker-CHOO. My head hurt, I was sniffing and sneezing and snorking and generally being disgusting. I tried to convince myself that it was an allergy, so I took every allergy medication known to humankind, but they did not work. 

Then I had to admit--it's a cold. Oh. NO. What do I usually do for a cold? I could NOT remember.  It was as if I'd never had one before, I was baffled and confused. Because, of course I had a cold,  SO frustrating, and that makes it impossible to think. 

 I rattled around through the medicine cabinet and pawed though the bathroom drawers and scouted the linen closet to see what there was, and found this array of half-used over the counter stuff. SOMETHING had to work, right? SOMETHING?  You can't just have a thing that you can't cure. 

I didn't really have a cough or a sore throat, so all the cough stuff I rejected. And no fever.  So I took a little of one, then four hours later, a little of the other. It was probably expired, but I don't believe they really expire.  I looked up on Google: can you take Allegra and Tylenol at the same time? (Apparently you can.)

Just sniffles and sneezes, SO annoying, I couldn't even finish a whole sentence without sneezing

(And I read somewhere that if you think you're going to sneeze, you can stop it by quickly saying "pickle." You can imagine how intelligent I sounded during the time I was trying that.)

Plus, I was walking around carrying whole boxes of tissues and leaving little shards in my wake. I took a hot shower. Sinus rinse. Water water water, and sleep. 

I pretended I was fine, to see if that would work, but it usually didn't.  Praise the writing gods I had no book or personal events. (Because nothing worse than having a sick person go out in public, right?)  Soup, and oscillococcinum and nose spray.

Ka-CHOO!

(The only good thing was that I found Broadchurch, which I watched, endlessly, blanketed on a big chair with glazed eyes and cups of tea. But how did I miss that? It's fabulous.)



I counted the hours until I could take Nyquil . But after about day three, I felt like my whole body was full of medicine, and I was spacy and goofy and hyper-medicated so I stopped taking everything.

Ahhh. What cold-eradicating hints do you have I can use next time? Have you had this scourge this season?

JULIA SPENCER-FLEMING: Oh, God, I had the cold that would not end earlier this winter.I was hacking and horking for THREE WEEKS. It was the worst. 

Honestly, my number-one treatment is the one hardest for adults to do: go to bed! I'm convinced resting your poor, beleaguered  body is the most effective way to shorten your cold. Look at children: when they're sick, they fall like stunned sheep. They sleep, and sleep, and sleep. Every parent knows you can tell your child is getting well when he or she actually starts to move around again. 
 But it's so difficult for grown-ups. We're all convinced the world will end if we don't get to work. (Leaving aside the unfortunate workers who MUST show up, sick or well, or face docking their pay or losing their jobs because we don't have a sane sick policy in this country.) 

So we slog into the office and spread our illnesses around to our grateful coworkers, and the cold lasts a week longer

than it might have.

LUCY BURDETTE: John is now going through this exact sequence – thinking he must have an allergy! Hoping hoping fingers crossed that it isn’t a dreaded cold. I think Julia is right, the smartest thing is going to bed or sitting in front of the TV as Hank did. Otherwise everyone else in the world gets the darned germs. 

Not so sure there’s anything that can be done to avoid this completely, but I am hooked on something my naturopath suggested. It’s a combination of mushrooms called Immune Renew that boosts the immune system. You take them when you’re either around sick people, or when you feel the earliest signs of a cold. I swear I’ve beaten a few back this winter…

DEBORAH CROMBIE: Oh, poor Hank. I had it at Christmas (the worst!) and it lasted for three weeks, then again the first of this month. My not-terribly-effective remedies are to start taking cough syrup right away, the kind that has Mucinex in it, and to use saline nasal spray to flush out the congestion. 

Colds are just miserable, and the fuzzy-headedness makes accomplishing anything almost impossible. I really think the best thing to do is to rest as much as possible, stay home (don't spread it!), drink lots of liquids and watch TV.

 Rick had it too--he swears hot and sour soup got him over the hump. I'll go with that, and try Lucy's remedy, too! And crossing fingers that twice is enough for one winter!

HALLIE EPHRON: I had that cold for two weeks - started and I thought it was an allergy! Then it hung around and hung around, sneezing and clogging my head so I couldn't breathe. Coughing and hacking. I am finally over it now. I'm limited in what over-the-counter drugs I can take because of meds that I take regularly, so I try to make due with plenty of liquids and sleep. Oh, and I try to sleep slightly sitting up -- it helps with breathing.

I was lucky this came at a time when I didn't have any commitments to speak because I sounded like a frog and would have infected the audience. Yes, Debs, ONCE is plenty for one winter. And spring.

RHYS BOWEN: I hardly dare to write this because it will probably jinx things but so far the dreaded cold has escaped us. This must be because moving house has required such physical labor and stress that no self respecting cold would want to hang around. First we carried across box after box of stuff before the move. Then We assembled new furniture, hung pictures on high walls, dug out plants, put up hooks etc etc. And these are things that the parade of contractors, electricians, landscapers etc didn't do!

But my go-to recipe for a cold is to make soup of a whole chicken with lots of onions and garlic. Also drink hot lemon and honey with some rum. The more rum the better you'll feel! And Cold Ease works if you take it soon enough. Also when you tell yourself firmly you have no time to be sick. That works too!

JENN McKINLAY: So far so good here. Of course, Hooligan 1 was felled with a fever this morning and stayed home from school and work. I refuse to go near him unless I am masked and gloved - kidding! - bit I did do a copious amount of hand washing every time I brought him medicine or soup or whatever. I'm pretty sturdy and rarely get sick. *knocks wood* 

When I do, I put myself on a strict schedule of Dayquil/Nyquil until the ick passes. When I was in college I was convinced that shots of whiskey cured the common cold. Not sure it cured it so much as made it bearable.

Riiiight.

HANK: Ker-Choo! And how about this photo--supposedly a "woman with a cold." I have NEVER looked anywhere near that good with a cold. I would call this: model with a tissue. 
How about you, Reds and readers? have you been felled by the cold bug this season? What are your tricks for fighting back? 

Who are You Today?

HANK PHILLIPPI RYAN:  When I was, oh, eight, I used to read Photoplay (anyone, anyone?) and look at photos of movie stars. Back then (imagine old woman voice) you could send in for eight-by-tens glossies of the stars, and they would send them to you. Free, if you sent a stamped self-addressed manila envelope.

That was irresistible to star-struck me, but I thought my own name, Harriet Ann, was not cool enough to entice a movie star to send me their photo. So I made up a name. A cooler name.  And my secret identity is the one who sent in my request to Photoplay.

Time went by. Some weeks later, my mom came into my room holding a manila mailing envelope. With our number, street and city. Strangely, in my handwriting. But to someone she did not realized lived with us at 4102 North Ritter. 

“Who,” she inquired in a bewildered but amused voice, “is Rita Capri?”

Erica O’Rourke totally understands. She's the award-winning author of young adult fiction, and she needed a new name too. But not to snag movie star photos. 

Here’s the scoop on how she handles her secret identity…and then we want to know: what would you do?.

The (Kinda) Secret Life of Lucy

In publishing, “debut” is a big word. So big, it should be surrounded by lights, perhaps posted on a marquee. Many of the (very nice) reviews I’ve received for my new book, TIME OF DEATH, mention that it’s a debut.

And technically, it is. TIME OF DEATH is Lucy Kerr’s debut novel.

But it’s not my first book. It’s my first adult novel, my first mystery. But I’ve published two entire series of books already. How do I put this gently? I am the publishing equivalent of “a woman of a certain age.”

And yet, that word keeps cropping up. “Debut.”

The trick, of course, is that I’m Lucy Kerr – but I’m also Erica O’Rourke. Like Clark Kent and Superman, Diana Prince and Wonder Woman, and countless other superheroes, I have a secret identity now. (Technically it’s a pen name. A nom de plume. A pseudonym. But I have a superhero-obsessed eight-year-old, so secret identity it is.)

What prompts a mild-mannered suburban mom to take on a secret identity?

The first reason is practical: Lucy and Erica write different books. Erica writes young adult books with a strong element of magic or science fiction, and an equally strong romantic bent. Lucy’s books are traditional adult mysteries. My teen readers know what to expect when they pick up a book with my name on it—and it’s not a thirty-two-year-old emergency room nurse who solves mysteries. The same applies to my adult readers: picking up paranormal romance when they’re expecting an amateur sleuth mystery might be an unwelcome surprise. Using different names for such different genres means my readers can easily find the types of books they’re interested in.

The second is psychological. When I sit down to write a Lucy book, my writing process is different, my authorial voice is different, my entire attitude changes. If you’re a crafter, maybe this will make sense: imagine knitting a sweater, and then crocheting one. Both times, you start with yarn and end up with clothing. But the stitches, the tools, and the directions are distinct. Even the way you hold the yarn changes. (Admittedly, I don’t enjoy crochet. This metaphor only works so far.) Using a pen name actually helps me shift my thinking as I write—it’s an outward symbol, but it still seems to reset my brain.

The other question my friends had, of course, was how I’d make the switch, particularly in cyberspace. Would Erica and Lucy have separate webpages? Twitter accounts? Facebook pages?

The answer was no, no, and definitely no. (I have three children, an elderly cat, and I’m a full-time author. Simple is the watchword at my house, whether we’re talking about author profiles or meal planning. We can talk about meal planning in the comments, if you like.)

Instead, I made four small changes:

• I had a new author picture taken—one that was considerably sunnier than my very dramatic young adult picture.  
• I added Lucy to my social media profiles, so they all say “Erica O’Rourke/Lucy Kerr.”
• I made sure LucyKerrBooks.com connected to EricaORourke.com.
• I had my graphic designer come up with a cute header for my newsletter incorporating both names. (and those author pics!) 

The result: Lucy Kerr and Erica O’Rourke peacefully coexist on the Internet and in my office. Unlike Batman and Bruce Wayne, you’ll often see us in the same room. And in the end, it doesn’t feel odd to have two writing names, because the stories I write and my connection to my readers doesn’t change, no matter what they call me.

The last question I get is a simple one: How’d I land on Lucy Kerr? I wish I had some sort of fancy story, but in fact, I went with old family names—and my grandfather’s love of Lucille Ball, which my children seem to have inherited, made Lucy the obvious choice.

If you could create a secret identity for yourself, who or what would you turn to for inspiration? 

HANK: And what name would you choose?
 Share it in the comments! (We promise not to tell.)

 Lucy Kerr is the pen name of Erica O'Rourke, an award-winning author of young adult fiction. Her debut adult mystery, TIME OF DEATH, launched with Crooked Lane Books on December 13, 2016. Lucy lives outside Chicago with her family, her cat, and many, many piles of books. She likes strong coffee, rainy days, old buildings, and fresh-baked cookies -- but she likes telling stories best of all.

TIME OF DEATH

 It’s been twelve years since ER nurse Frankie Stapleton fled her hometown, but with her sister’s pregnancy taking a dangerous turn and a string of failed relationships in Chicago hanging over her, Frankie is back–and hoping to put the past behind her. Within minutes of arriving at Stillwater General Hospital however, she ends up saving a man’s life, only to have him turn up dead hours later—and the hospital blames Frankie. With her career–and future–on life support, Frankie must catch a killer, clear her name, and heal the wounds of her past.

What Makes a Psychological Thriller Psychological? A guest post from Holly Brown

RHYS BOWEN: One of the fun aspects of being a Jungle Red is meeting new-to-me writers. And when I was introduced to Holly Brown I found out that she lives in San Francisco, so we're almost neighbors! So I'm welcoming her today to share her insights into psychological thrillers. And it turns out that her pet peeve is mine too! Is it yours as well?

HOLLY BROWN: I’m a therapist who writes psychological thrillers (or domestic suspense, if you prefer.) And I have to confess to one of my pet peeves in the genre: When after a novel full of fascinating twists and turns, the final answer turns out to be, “The sociopath did it” (or “the psychopath,” if you prefer.)

It’s just such a cop-out. I mean, humans are inherently fascinating, full of complicated and contradictory motivations. Good people do bad things all the time. Why? The simple answer is: the unique psychology of the characters, plus enormous stress. That intersection is where a truly great writer of the genre can work magic.

I’m lucky in that I hear all sorts of stories all the time in my therapy office. So I’m constantly reminded of people’s vulnerabilities, struggles, and resilience. The struggles might start with the external circumstance, but then become internal, with the stereotypical angel versus devil on their shoulder. They might know what they should do, but they have all sorts of rationalizations that lead them to do something else. Or sometimes, people are just presented with exceedingly hard choices, and what’s right is not nearly as clear. In times of extreme emotional or physical pain, or intense fear, or rage, people can become capable of what they never thought possible.

That’s where some phenomenal fiction is born—with real people in crazy-making circumstances. My favorite suspense books make me believe that this particular person, when under these particular stresses, with that particular history would have taken a particular action that makes all hell break loose, credibly.

That’s the kind of novel I tried to write with THIS IS NOT OVER, my next release in January. And below are three of my favorite examples of psychological thrillers made psychological (or psychology made thrilling, if you prefer):

1) Turn of Mind, by Alice LaPlante –

Dr. Jennifer White, once an accomplished surgeon, is now afflicted with Alzheimer’s. When her neighbor and friend is found dead with four fingers severed at the joints, Dr. White is the logical suspect. But did she commit the crime, or is she being framed? And how can she piece it together with a crumbling memory?

It’s as good as it sounds. Alice LaPlante works in enough medical data and information about how memory operates (and how it begins to fail) to ground the story without diluting the suspense. I was totally caught up, and I believed it all.

2) Under the Harrow, by Flynn Berry

Nora goes to visit her sister Rachel in the countryside outside London, and discovers that Rachel has been murdered. It’s a mystery because we want to know who did it; it’s also a thriller as Nora is in danger herself and harboring various secrets, her own and her sister’s. It’s a short book and a fast read, but a powerful one. The sisters’ relationship and Nora’s grief packs an emotional and psychological punch.

3) A Line of Blood, by Ben McPherson

Alex Mercer loves his 11-year-old son Max and his wife Millicent. They’re his whole world. But after a neighbor is found dead, Alex faces a reckoning in the most important relationships in his life. How far would you go to protect those you love?

Max is precocious, as children often are in thrillers, but not beyond the pale. The marital and the parental relationships are expertly drawn, and the tensions ratchet beautifully. These are flawed and difficult personalities, and no, they’re not always likable, but they’re intriguing.

So that’s my short list! What’s on yours?

Holly Brown lives with her husband and daughter in the San Francisco Bay Area, where she’s a practicing marriage and family therapist.  Her blog, “Bonding Time”, is featured on Psychcentral.com, a mental health website with 1.5 million visitors per month. Her novels from HarperCollins/Morrow are: DON’T TRY TO FIND ME, A NECESSARY END, and the forthcoming (in January) THIS IS NOT OVER. She also has an e-book only novella called STAY GONE available now from Harper Impulse.

RHYS: If you are dying to find out about Holly's upcoming novel, here is the scoop on it: THIS IS NOT OVER:

A chance encounter through a vacation home rental site leads to an escalating game of cat-and-mouse between two very different women. Two very different women, that is, with one thing in common: Each knows they're right, and they're determined to win this battle of words and wills and (eventually) worse. No one can yield, not before they’ve dredged up hidden secrets, old hurts, and painful truths that threaten to shatter the foundation of their lives.

Follow Holly on Facebook at 

https://www.facebook.com/hollybrownauthor/

or her website

http://hollybrownbooks.com/

Holly will be giving away an advance copy to one lucky commenter today. So do share your favorite psychological suspense novels with us.

We've Got Your Number

HANK PHILLIPPI RYAN: Happy back to school (notebooks!). Happy back to work (progress!). Happy end of summer (sweaters!). Happy everything.   And what’s your must-have item for all these great beginnings? 

Yup. Your cell phone.

The brilliant and wonderful Laura DiSilverio has been a treasured friend of mine for—gee, I don’t know how long. She’s a retired Air Force intelligence officer (is anyone ever retired from that?) and a devoted mom and wife and an astonishingly prolific and successful author (ooh, and see below for an amazingly generous giveaway of her newest CLOSE CALL!) 

 But. Up until very recently, she didn’t even…

Well, I’ll let her tell you.  And, because it’s back to school after all, here’s a quiz!

appy back to school. happy end of summer, happy back ot work, happy everything.

 Close Call

          by Laura DiSilverio

Most of us have them. Some of us think we couldn't live without them. Some of us wish we could chuck them down the nearest sewer grate. What am I talking about? Cell phones, of course.

In my new release, CLOSE CALL, my heroine, Sydney, picks up the wrong phone and stumbles on a plot to assassinate a Congressman. Since a cell phone plays such a central role in the book, I thought it might be fun to do a little cell phone trivia quiz on JRW today. For instance, did you know that the first commercially available cell phone came out in 1984 and cost almost $4,000 dollars? That's a long dang time ago and makes the latest iPhone look cheap!

Guzzle some caffeine now and put on your thinking caps. Free copies of CLOSE CALL to everyone (okay, max of five winners) who gets 100% (without cheating). I'm counting on your integrity while taking the quiz and reporting your scores! 

Answers on the comments page.

We'll start with some matching. 

Match the number in the first column with the fact it goes with in the second column.

1. 340,000                     A. Percent of mobile phone malware aimed at Android users

2. 18                             B. Number of iPhones sold every day in 2012

3. 250,000                  C. Number of times the avg person unlocks her Smartphone each day

4. 110                                    D. Number of cell phones dropped in UK toilets every year

5. 100,000                    E. Percent more bacteria on cell phones than toilet handles

6. 99                             F. Number of separate patents for technologies in your Smartphone

Now for some true/false.

7. More people in the world have cell phones than have toilets. True or false?

8. Scientists have invented a way of charging mobile phones using urine. True or false?

And we'll finish with a couple of multiple choice.

9. Who invented the mobile phone?

         a) Anderson Cooper

         b) Martin Cooper

         c) Cooper Cronk

         d) Alexander Graham Bell

10. In what country is mobile phone throwing an official sport?

         a) Finland

         b) Ghana

         c) New Zealand

         d) All of the above

Tell us how you did (if you want to) on the comments page. 

Otherwise, when did you get your first cell phone? (I confess that I didn't get a Smartphone until this year.)

 Are you one of those people who suffer from nomophobia, the fear of being out of mobile phone contact, or are you just as happy to leave your phone at home?  

What's your biggest pet peeve about cell phones?

CLOSE CALL comes out in two days. Preorder now! 

HANK: Oh, dear, don’t even ask me. I actually, seriously, get nervous if I can’t find my phone on the first pawing through my purse. I know this is bad.  I am trying to calculate how often I unlock my cell phone each day, And I can’t. 

But hey, Reds and readers, how about you?

About Laura:
A retired Air Force intelligence officer, Laura DiSilverio is the national bestselling author of 19 mystery, suspense, and YA novels (including the Lefty- and Colorado Book Award-finalist Swift Investigations series, the Readaholics Book Club series, and the Mall Cop series). Her standalone suspense novel, The Reckoning Stones,was a Library Journal Pick of the Month and won the Colorado Book Award for Mystery in 2016. Incubation, the first book of her young adult dystopian trilogy debuted in April to rave reviews. A Past President of Sisters in Crime, she pens articles for Writer’s Digest, and teaches writing in various fora. She plots murders and parents teens in Colorado, trying to keep the two tasks separate.

CLOSE CALL

Living through the media shaming of a political sex when she was in college, Sydney Ellison fears notoriety above all. So when she stumbles onto a plot to assassinate a senator, she resists telling the police. Before she can make herself do the right thing, the hit man tracks her down and kills her fiancé.  Now a murder suspect and a killer's target, Sydney needs help. She reluctantly enlists the aid of an investigator, the estranged sister who betrayed her fifteen years earlier. Sydney must overcome her distrust and put all she has worked for on the line to stop the hit man and his employer before more people die.

“DiSilverio’s excellent plotting in her stand-alone thriller will keep readers on the edge of their seats rooting for Sydney to triumph. A treat for Megan Abbott fans.” (Library Journal, starred review)