Mystery Times Two... or Three

By Sandra Parshall

More and more mystery authors are producing two or even three series simultaneously, and I have to admit they make me feel like a slug. I admire their hard work and dedication to their writing careers, but I always wonder why they do it and whether it interferes with their personal lives. So I posed those two questions to a few friends who are on the fast track with multiple series.

Deb Baker began with the Gertie Johnson series set in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, then added the Gretchen Birch Dolls to Die For series. She now writes the Queen Bee Mysteries as Hannah Reed. Don’t be surprised if she brings out yet another new series sometime soon. 

Why do you do it? Is your imagination overflowing with ideas that demand outlets, are you just a workaholic, or do you have another reason?

At the beginning, I couldn’t sell a thing and had multiple books circulating. Finally, a publisher offered a three book contract for one of them, and three weeks later another publisher made an offer for three books in another. How could I say no? That decision produced a long period of high stress accompanied by an insidious fear that I couldn’t do it. But somehow I managed. As my writing experience grew and my characters developed, the stories came faster and faster. It now takes me between 3 and 4 months to produce a novel, if I can stay focused.

How does the work load affect your life -- and do you ever wish you had more free time?

I love my work, so it’s all play for me! My family and friends are important, so I make time for them. But I never feel the need to go on vacation to escape my desk. Instead, I’m lucky enough to have arranged a life I don’t need to run from.

Clea Simon writes the Dulcie Schwatrz series for Poisoned Pen Press and the Pru Marlowe Pet Noir series for Severn. Both feature cats prominently.

Why do you do it?  

I began doing concurrent series by accident. I had one ms. out circulating (Shades of Grey - YEARS before the S&M erotica of the same name - my first Dulcie Schwartz feline mystery) and then I finished another (Dogs Don't Lie, my first Pru Marlowe pet noir), because that's what you do while you're waiting for something to sell. Then both sold, and both publishers wanted the books to be the start of a series. I love them both, so I said, sure. At the time, the scheduling seemed reasonable. I do try to keep notes for both series current, because sometimes I'll have a Pru thought while I'm working on Dulcie and vice versa. It's a little difficult to switch between the voices -- I get caught up in whichever I'm working on -- but it does keep life interesting.
How does the work load affect your life -- and do you ever wish you had more free time?

RIght now, I have no life. I have one ms. due May 31 and one due on June 1. I have one ms. fully drafted and another nearly drafted, so I'll switch off and revise one, then revise the other, but it's a little too close for comfort. 

I should have been working on these books much earlier, but I was both waiting for contracts to be renewed and also dealing with some family issues, and so... I put them off. So, well, I guess I had my free time! Once these are in, I'll be able to relax. At least until the edits come back.
 
Sheila Connolly began her career by writing the work-for-hire Glassblower Mysteries for Berkley under the pseudonym Sarah Atwell. The first in the series was nominated for an Agatha Award. Now she divides her time between the Orchard Series, the Museum Series, and a new series set in Ireland. 

Why do you do it?

Multiple reasons. (1) When I first started writing, I had to justify to myself (and probably to my husband, although he didn't voice it) that I was taking the whole writing thing seriously and working hard at it. (2) I wanted to explore different approaches within the genre, which is how I ended up with one series set in rural Massachusetts, one in center city Philadelphia, and one in another country altogether. (3) I think I must be a workaholic, because I feel guilty every time I do something that isn't writing related, like house repairs or gardening. But then, I find most (not all!) aspects of writing fun, so I'm not exactly suffering. 

I have to say, I did not start out with any plan in mind, because I had no clue how long it would take to write a book, much less how time-consuming all the secondary stuff would be. The multiple series kind of came organically, once I figured out my own pacing.

I should add that after the Sarah Atwell series, all mine are ones that I chose and developed. I'm sure Berkley would be happy to have me write another one of their pre-fab series, but I'm not interested.
 
How does the work load affect your life -- and do you ever wish you had more free time?

Not really, because it's kind of a seamless life. Genealogy has long been my primary hobby, and at times my professional occupation, and in all of my books I get to indulge that (although not so much for my own family tree). I love to travel, and I've found a way to visit all my favorite places--and make it tax-deductible! I love being my own boss and keeping my own hours, but in fact that may take up more time than any full-time job outside the home did, since I'm at my desk by eight most days, and I work weekends. But I do it because I love it--and when it all comes together, it's better than sex, drugs and rock and roll. Occasionally.

Lorraine Bartlett/Lorna Barrett began with the Jeff Resnick series, written as L.L. Bartlett. She now writes the Booktown Mysteries as Lorna Barrett and the Victoria Square Mysteries under her own name.
    

   



















Why do you do it?

I have tons of ideas for new stories/series, and I am most definitely a workaholic. (On my last vacation in January, I wrote 46,000 words spread over four different projects (and in 3 weeks). Three of those projects are already for sale as e titles.)

How does the work load affect your life -- and do you ever wish you had more free time?

What’s free time?

 


Leslie Budewitz, a Montana attorney, won an Agatha Award for Books, Crooks, and Counselors, a guide for authors who write about crime and the law. Her first love is fiction, though, and although her first mystery in the       Food Lovers Village series won’t be out until August, she’s already under contract to write the Seattle Spice Shop Mysteries (coming in 2014).

Why do you do it? 

Ever since I was a small girl, my dream has been to write fiction. Now that I have the opportunity, I want to make the most of it. I have always been a very “placed” writer, aware of how strongly setting influences our perspective and experiences. Writing two series allows me to explore that more deeply.

How does your heavy writing schedule affect your life? Do you ever wish you had more free time?
 
I can write two series only because my day job is winding down and I’d rather write than find another. My conversation does seem to revolve around writing, though! And I’m hoping for a garden fairy to show up soon and plant a few veggies. Truth be told, I’m a better, happier person when I spend a good deal of my time with people who only exist because I made them up. With two series going, I should be really happy –so far, so good!

Small Towns Can Be Deadly

Sandra Parshall

Agatha Christie didn’t have a lot in common with Grace Metalious of Peyton Place fame, but both ladies understood one thing well: the placid surface of a small community can hide some wickedly entertaining secrets. Christie ensured her own immortality by adding murder to this eternally intriguing milieu.

We may joke about Cabot Cove syndrome – an astronomically high murder rate in a tiny community such as Jessica Fletcher’s home in the Murder, She Wrote series – but readers are more than willing to suspend disbelief in exchange for likable characters, an appealing setting, and lots of juicy small town secrets.

“If I had to choose a favorite sub-category in the mystery field, it would have to be small town mysteries,” DorothyL regular Kaye Barley told me. “I get completely caught up in the intricacies, entanglements, and complexities that exist under the surface in simple, small town living. And if it happens to be a small town in the south -- oh my, that can only ratchet things up. I'm a complete push-over for eccentric southern characters found in small town mystery novels.”

The village has always been a favored site for British mysteries, and M.C. Beaton and others continue that tradition, but U.S. and Canadian cozy writers are probably more successful at making readers fall in love with their settings. From coast to coast, North America is dotted with tiny fictional communities so charming that readers long to set up residence despite the crime rate. “If I thought for one minute that this place really existed,” a reviewer wrote of Louise Penny’s Three Pines, Quebec, “I’d be packing the car.”

Most small towns in mysteries are invented, but writers inevitably draw on their fond memories of actual places. "I've set the Orchard Mysteries in a small town that is based on a real one I know, although I take liberties with some details like where the highway is," says Sheila Connolly, whose protagonist winds up in rural Maine after she inherits an apple orchard. "Using this place helps me visualize the story, but I chose it primarily because it is a classic New England town (a town green, big white church, old houses), and the town itself plays a major ongoing role in the books. Now I'm having fun populating the place, a few characters at a time. This parallels my newcomer heroine's process of getting acquainted with her neighbors. So far I haven't created any evil residents--in fact, the ‘real’ police chief wrote me to say he was flattered by my depiction."

Lorna Barrett, author of the New Hampshire-based Booktown Mysteries with a bookseller protagonist, has also consciously created a setting that readers will find welcoming and soothing, even in the middle of a murder investigation. “My little village of Stoneham is like a character itself,” Lorna says. “From its brick storefronts to its little park with gazebo, it’s a throwback to better times.”

The physical charm of the place is only one plus for writers and readers, though.

“The benefits of a small town setting are bountiful for a cozy-style mystery,” says Mary Ellen Hughes, author of the Craft Corner series, set in Maryland. “The suspects are, for one thing, right there, conveniently available to be questioned or watched. Then, your on-going characters get to be familiar and (hopefully) enjoyed, which can bring interested readers back for updates on their lives.”

Denise Swanson, author of the Scumble River series set in Illinois and featuring school psychologist Skye Denison, loves to explore what lies beneath the pretty surface. “In most small towns there is a tacit agreement to live as an insular society,” Denise says. “Vital components of this agreement are the secrets, assumptions, and shared background knowledge of the citizens. The interrelationships are more intense, because often entire extended families live within the town's boundaries. For story telling, this setting provides both the mystery and the solution. There is a golden opportunity for a story within a story plot, and the public versus the private details are an ideal way for the amateur sleuth to be a credible part of the investigation.”

In these days when many people don’t even know their next door neighbors, there’s a certain nostalgia in reading about residents of a community going through a crisis together. The impact of murder in a small town creates an immediacy that is often missing in big city settings. “It’s a place where everyone knows your name, knows what you’re up to -- and talks about it,” Lorna Barrett says of her village of Stoneham. “When something like a murder happens, the citizens take it personally, whereas murder in an urban area is just a fact of life.”

To emphasize the unique qualities of a small community, many mystery protagonists are outsiders -- either newcomers to the area or natives returning after a long absence. Some series, such as Julia Spencer-Fleming’s, have both. These characters can view a place with fresh eyes and provide perspective for the reader.

Setting a story in a small community allows the writer to focus more on human relationships and less on technical details. If the police force is small, the investigating officer is likely to know both victim and suspects and may be caught in the emotional crossfire. If there’s no forensics lab on site and evidence has to be sent elsewhere for testing, developments can be driven by personal revelations before the lab’s report comes in.

Cozies may come to mind first when we think of crime novels set in small places, but authors like Julia Spencer-Fleming, Margaret Maron, and Nancy Pickard, whose traditional mysteries have more of an edge, also mine the riches of communities where both loyalties and enmities have deep roots.

Then there are the small towns where no reader in her right mind would want to visit, much less settle down. Karin Slaughter’s dark, violent Grant County series, which has a police chief and a medical examiner as protagonists, uses a fictional Georgia setting far from the bustle of Atlanta. Gillian Flynn’s brilliant and disturbing debut, Sharp Objects, takes place in a hellish little town called Wind Gap, Missouri. Val McDermid’s modern gothic masterpiece, A Place of Execution, is set in a tiny English community so isolated that it might be a medieval village in the thrall of a devilish overlord. McDermid’s chilling tale of twisted desire, decades-long conspiracies, and shocking secrets brings to mind Sherlock Holmes’s observation in Copper Beeches: "The lowest and vilest alleys of London do not present a more dreadful record of sin than does the smiling and beautiful countryside."

For all its creative possibilities, the small community setting does pose challenges for the mystery writer, especially in a series. “Anyone new to town will be automatically suspected,” Mary Ellen Hughes notes. “Plus, we can't have the town population shrinking as the series goes on and murders continue, can we? Or have the town looking like too dangerous a place to live in? That's the tricky path the author of a small-town mystery has to navigate.”

The author won’t be alone on that path. She’ll have plenty of readers eager to keep her company.

An Author's "Mews"

by Lorna Barrett (who also masquerades as L.L. Bartlett)

And the winner of a copy of Lorna's latest release, Bookmarked for Death, is Chris Redding. Chris, please contact me at darlene at darleneryan.com. Thanks to Lorna and cats for joining us this weekend.

Just about every author I know has at least one pet. Most have more than one. Some have more than one species, too. But the majority of us seem to have cats. Or rather, they have us.

I’m currently owned by four cats. Most of the day they lie around the house, snoozing their lives away. This time of year you can find them under incandescent light bulbs or lying with their snoots pointed into the heat run. I swear, sometimes I think they’re going to cook themselves, but cats love heat.

These days, Chester, our dominant cat, seems to be able to find the best source of heat and stick with it. If the sun happens to be out, he’ll follow it to every room in the house. More often than not, it’s just plain gloomy. (We live in Western New York. I think only Seattle has more gloomy days than us. That’s my story, and I’m sticking with it.) Chester’s not much of a lap cat during the summer, but come winter, he might deign to sit with me, but mostly he prefers hanging around with my husband. (It’s a guy kind of thing, I guess.)

Bonnie, terrified over just about everything (except at breakfast time, then she’ll challenge the boys to a fight--and then screams bloody murder if they take her up on it), lives on the heat run behind the couch. She comes out for meals, and likes to watch DVDs with me. (Last week we watched episodes of Star Trek Enterprise and the movie Iron Man. She prefers more quiet shows. And let’s face it, photon torpedoes are a lot more quiet than everything blowing up in a guy flick. After all, I don’t think sound travels through the vacuum of space. Am I right?)

Now Betsy, our little Princess, was very ill with cancer in 2007. She had an amazing recovery (sure shocked the heck out of our vet when we brought her in for her yearly shots this past September), although she’s a bit … crabbier … than she was before her illness. Still, she still likes to do her Betsy things -- hanging out under light bulbs (especially if you’re trying to read -- blocking light is No. 1 on her list of things to do) and moving around the house to check out all the heat runs. (Are you seeing a pattern here?)

Throwing a monkey wrench into the works is my tiny son, Fred. (Also known as my Little Prince.) Fred isn’t the brightest bulb on the Christmas tree, but he’s super handsome and he knows it. He also knows that if he’s in trouble, all he has to do is lie down, roll over and look cute. (And darned if it doesn’t work every time.) Fred will sleep under a light bulb, but has never learned that heat runs got super warm. (See dim-bulb comment above.)

I’d like to say that the cats keep me company as I work on my books, but that would be a big fat lie. No, they’re in the next room with my husband (and that 200 watt incandescent bulb). Hubby also works from home, and did years before I did, so the cats have their routine and they’re not changing it just for me. It’s just as well. Sometimes they come in for a visit and like to sit on my arms as I type. This, of course, makes it very difficult to type accurately--which I have a hard enough time doing without their “help.”

I also have a comfy chair in my office, with a nice light. I like to sit there to edit. Unfortunately, the minute my butt hits the chair, some cat will wander in and demand to sit on my lap. Since I keep my drafts in a big three-ring notebook, there’s nowhere to put it if there’s a cat on my lap. So I have to sit, twisted like a cheese straw, and put the notebook on the chair’s arm. Then a cat will get annoyed, stand up, turn around at least three times, nudge the notebook until I move it to the other arm, and then sit down again. I’ll turn the page, make a note, and the process starts all over again.

Of course, cats have other habits. They’re very clean. With all that washing, they ingest a lot of hair. How often have I been working when I heard hubby’s voice call out, “Someone’s puking, someone’s puking.” Since I write mysteries, it’s up to me to play detective to find the culprit and remove the evidence. (Not one of the perks of working at home.)

But would I ever live without cats? Never.

By the way, my new book, Bookmarked for Death, features a cat. Her name is Miss Marple and she steals every scene she’s in. She’s based on my cat Cori, who lived to the ripe old age of 20.

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Lorna Barrett writes the Booktown Mystery series, featuring Tricia Miles and her Haven’t Got A Clue bookstore. It’s available now. Hop in the car and rush right to your local bookstore. Go on! Do it now!

Bookseller and Psychic Sleuth: Interview with Lorna Barrett, aka L.L. Bartlett

by Sandra Parshall

Lorna Barrett debuts this month with Murder Is Binding, first in the Booktown cozy series from Berkley Prime Crime, featuring a New Hampshire bookseller. The writer isn’t a newcomer, though. She published her first novel in the Jeff Resnick psychic sleuth series, Murder on the Mind, in 2005 as L.L. Bartlett, and she has a second installment, Dead in Red, coming out in June. Her real name is Lorraine Bartlett, and she lives in Rochester, NY, with her husband and their four cats. Visit her web sites at www.lornabarrett.com, www.llbartlett.com, and www.lorrainebartlett.com.


Q. Give us your quick pitches for Murder Is Binding and Dead in Red.

A. Murder Is Binding: Two sisters, books, recipes, murder. Who knew the world of used and rare books could be so dangerous?

Dead in Red: Jeff has new digs, a new girlfriend--and a totally new life. That includes coping with the psychic flashes that drive him to seek out a bartender’s killer, and worse, confronting his guilt for compromising the safety of people he cares about.

Honestly, I haven’t pulled together “real” pitches. I’m terrible at it. I’m terrible at writing a synopsis. (I apologize for the above. )

Q. How would you compare the experience of writing as Lorna Barrett to writing as L.L. Bartlett? Do you shift into a different emotional space or mindset?

A. I tend to think of “Lorna” as this abstract person when I promote--but when I’m writing, it’s just me and the keyboard (and a cat or two).

I shift point of view; the Jeff Resnick books are written in first person, and the Booktown Mysteries are written in third person point of view. I also shift genders--or rather I have to focus on thinking like a guy for the Jeff books, and thinking like a business woman for the Booktown books. I have a deeper connection with my Jeff Renick series simply because I’ve been with the characters a lot longer. (I’ve completed five books in the series. It’ll be some time before all the books see print.)

Q. Both books will be new at about the same time. Do you plan to promote them together or do completely separate signings, etc.?

A. Both. I’ve had separate bookmarks made up for both books, and I’ve had postcards made up that showcase both books. The postcards will be sent to out-of-town fans/booksellers/libraries. I’ve sent bookmarks to readers, conferences, and reader groups.

Q. You have a fairly rigorous schedule for the Lorna Barrett books, don’t you? How much time do you have to write each book? Has it turned out to be easier or more difficult than you expected?

A. I have nine months between books. It’s been a lot harder than I envisioned. Now that I no longer have a day job, I seem to have a lot more distractions. I devote a lot of time to my elderly parents, which also cuts into my writing time.

Q. Does promotion make a serious dent in your writing time? Have you found a way to overcome that? (If you have, I can name several thousand writers who would pay for the secret!) Do you think it will at least be easier to manage this time, since you’ve been through it before?

A. Some weeks I devote far more of my time to promotion and networking than I do to writing. I don’t like to travel, so a lot of my time is spent looking for promotional opportunities on the Internet. I send out a lot of material to individual readers, conferences, and book groups. Sometimes I think I’m personally keeping the US Postal Service in business.

Q. Did one of your own cats serve as the inspiration for Miss Marple, the bookstore feline in Murder Is Binding?

A. Yes, my late cat Cori. I was surprised when the artist commissioned to do the cover of Murder Is Binding included a gray cat. It looks nothing like Cori did, but the sentiment was there. Miss Marple tends to steal every scene she appears in. I have a page up on my website devoted to Cori. http://www.lorrainebartlett.com/lorraine/pg.cori.html

Q. Have you picked up any interesting tidbits about bookselling while doing research for your Berkley series? Anything you didn’t know before?

A. I’d been selling used books in my booth at a local antiques arcade for several years before I contracted to do the series. I interviewed the community relations manager at my local Barnes and Noble and she shared a lot of wonderful (and some frightening) anecdotes about working in a bookstore. Rather than get into the nitty gritty of bookselling, I prefer to concentrate on the relationships between the characters. In a cozy, you tend to have a lot of characters, and making sure each has a unique voice is a challenge.

Q. In Murder on the Mind and Dead in Red, you write from a male POV, and the main relationship in the books is between two brothers. What drew you to explore the way brothers interact? Did anyone you’ve known inspire
either character?

A. I’ve always been a fan of “buddy” stories. (The Classic Star Trek “triad,” Starsky & Hutch, Sam and Al in Quantum Leap.) When I decided to write from a male point of view, I wanted the characters to have more at stake than just friendship, so I made them brothers with a lot of baggage. It didn’t hurt that I grew up with two brothers. I got to observe firsthand the ups and downs of that kind of a relationship.

I didn’t base either character on any one person. They both came to me as unique individuals. I wish that would happen more often.

Q. What kind of comments have you had from readers about your portrayal of male characters? Have you had any feedback from your husband or your own brothers?

A. A lot less than I would’ve thought. Being published by a small press probably had a lot to do with that. Most of my readers have been women--which is not surprising, since women buy more books than men. They’re attracted by the relationship between the brothers, and between Richard and his significant other, Brenda.

My husband is long-suffering. He helps me assemble my promotional material (he’s a former graphic designer) and he proofreads my work. He doesn’t like to offer criticism. I don’t believe either of my brothers have even read my first book, despite the fact I dedicated it to one of them. They’re just not fiction readers. I was hurt, but I got over it.

Q. Your Jeff Resnick books are set in Buffalo, the Booktown mysteries in New Hampshire – both places with cold, cold winters and tons of snow. Does the harsh winter play any part in your stories, either the books you’ve already written or those you’re planning?

A. Winter played a part in Murder on the Mind, my first published novel. One Buffalo book group pleaded for me to set the next installment in summertime. Little did they know, I’d already done it. Since I’ve never experienced winter in New Hampshire, I’ve decided to stick to warmer times of the year. The first book takes place in September; the second in April, and the third in the summer. (I’m still working on the timing of that one.)

Q. Tell us about your road to publication. Along with the disappointments, can you remember any incidents or feedback that encouraged you to keep going?

A. My Sisters In Crime chapter, the Guppies, has been a constant source of inspiration and enthusiasm. More than once I wondered if I had it in me to persist. The entertainment industry as a whole, be it acting, singing, writing, etc., is a tough business to crack. You’d better get used to rejection. Something that’s easier said than done.

Q. What aspects of writing craft have you struggled with? What do you consider your strength as a writer?

A. I struggle with writing “long.” My contracts say I will write a book of a specific length. I tend to write short. Jeremiah Healy said I have a “stark, spare style.” He’s right. I took to heart Elmore Leonard’s advice to leave out the parts people skip. That means I often end up rewriting to add in one or two more subplots after I’ve written my first draft of a book. Then I’ll have to go back to pump up the description. I had pacing, Pacing, PACING drilled into my head by an early mentor. It makes for a fast read, if nothing else.

My greatest strength is never giving up. That makes it quite difficult to face the fact that certain of my unpublished novels must remain so--at least for the foreseeable future. I’m not a patient person, and my characters keep calling to me from the closet shelf, telling me not to forget them--reminding me that I once loved them best.

Q. What writers have you learned from? If you could meet any writer you admire, who would it be?

A. Maybe it sounds corny, but I’ve learned more from my critique partners than any class or book that I’ve read, be it fiction or how-to. Discussing what works and what doesn’t work with fellow writers has been a wonderful experience. That said, you can’t remain in one group forever. And, I don’t even belong to a group anymore. These days I share my work--entire manuscripts--with other (mostly) published authors. I no longer like to critique a book/story in a piecemeal fashion.

I’m not a celebrity chaser, so there’s no big name I’m eager to meet. That said, I want to meet two of my fellow bloggers on Writers Plot--Kate Flora and Jeanne Munn Bracken. We’ve never met in person. I’m looking forward to having dinner with them sometime in the near future.

Q. What advice do you have for aspiring writers?

A. Keep writing. Keep sending out queries. Keep striving to improve your work. That’s how you get published.

Identity Crisis

Lorraine Bartlett (Guest Blogger)

Who am I today? Most of the time I'm me, Lorraine. (Sweet Lorraine, actually. Yes, named for the Nat King Cole hit. Does that out my age, or what?) But I've also got two other identities.

My first novel, Murder On The Mind, was published under the name L.L. Bartlett. My protagonist is a man, and my (then) agent felt it would be better to disguise my gender so that men might be enticed to pick up the book and read it. Hiding gender isn’t so easy when your publisher says "give us a bio." If you're writing short, it works. (“L.L. Bartlett has done it all from typing scripts in Hollywood to drilling holes for NASA and writes a life of crime in Western New York.”) It gets sticky when you have to add more details. How can you disguise gender when you need a pronoun? ("S/he's married and lives with four nutty cats.")

(Yes, I really did drill holes for NASA, subcontracted through a local machine shop, and my cats are absolutely nuts. Or maybe it's us: after all, they trained US to feed them on demand.)

Now I've got a contract to write cozy mysteries. The cozies are a lot different from my L.L. Bartlett books, which could be classified psychological suspense, amateur sleuth, or paranormal thrillers, take your pick. So I'll be writing the cozies under a pseudonym: Lorna Barrett.

Although the first book in that series won't be out for another year (actually, 13 months), it behooves me to get the name out there. But what do I say about Lorna? My publisher has no problem with me saying: Lorraine Bartlett, writing as Lorna Barrett ... but who the heck knows who Lorraine is? My readers know me as L.L. Bartlett.

Do I concoct a fake history for Lorna? How about: she graduated, with honors, from Stanford and recently cured an obscure form of cancer while piloting the shuttle to the International Space Station? And she'll be a mere 21 when her first book is published in April 2008. (That is if they don't change the pub date...again.)

I've given Lorna a MySpace page and have mentioned her "alter ego" (L.L.) but I haven't filled in much concerning her personality and interests. I've also bought a domain name for her, but haven't done anything with that yet, either.

Who is this woman? Is she a part of me? Does she like martinis and flaming finale spices on her popcorn, too? Or does she sit and eat Lorna Doones simply because she was named after the cookie? When I do book signings will I have to pretend to be her, or do I bill myself like the guy on Hawaii Five-O: "Zulu as Kono?" (Did I mention I was in the womb when H-50 was originally on the tube?) Maybe I should get a blonde wig. (They do say blondes have more fun.)

Meanwhile, it's Lorraine who gets to do the laundry, clean the toilet and, oh yes, do all that writing for L.L. and Lorna.

Lorraine Bartlett will see two of her books published next year: Murder Is Binding under the Lorna Barrett nom de plume and Dead In Red, under her L.L. Bartlett moniker. You can check out all her personalities at www.LorraineBartlett.com.