Calling Dr. Freud...

...or Novel Writing for Fun and Self-Analysis

by Donis Casey



Over the course of my novel-writing career, it has occurred to me to wonder about the psychology of those of us who create whole worlds on paper and populate them with characters who do exactly what we want them to do. Are we indulging in self-psychoanalysis without being totally aware of it? I’ve often pointed out that what readers say to me about my books tells me more about them than it does about the books. So I’d better admit that what I write says a lot about what’s going on in this unfathomable (to me) little brain of mine.

Things change in the course of a life, and what did the trick for you when you were younger may not fill the bill after a while, and time may come for a change. The one constant in my life has been the love of storytelling. I started writing short stories when I was very small. The first story I remember writing was about a girl who turned into a cat. It had pictures and everything. I was an English major in college, and have always been a prolific reader, but I always felt I had to be practical and concentrate on having a successful career, be self-sufficient, make a living. 
I surely did not want to end up like my mother, who drove herself crazy trying to be the epitome of a perfect 1950s wife and mother. So for the bulk of my life, my fiction writing was just for me.  I have a trunk full of short stories dating from the early 1960s, but  before I wrote my first mystery novel, all my published works consisted of professional articles, including a book on U.S. Government tax publications. I’m sure you remember. It was riveting.

I was always fairly successful at my various career endeavors, but I found none of them particularly fulfilling. It took me half a century to realize that maybe I really didn’t want to be a captain of industry or a leader of men. So the day came when I asked myself, Donis, what has always given you joy in your life?  And I had to admit that I’ve always been happiest when I was telling a story.

So I took a leap. I sold my business and went home to write. And interestingly, the book I decided to put my heart into was entirely different than anything I had ever written before. All the earlier books and stories I had written had to do with cool people, usually unmarried, childless professionals, often scientists, always intellectuals, mostly messed up and angst ridden.

But this time I wrote a historical mystery series set in rural Oklahoma at the turn of the 20th century, featuring a farm wife with a very large family: Alafair Tucker, who couldn’t care less about cool. How I conjured up this character I do not know, for she could not be less like me.  And yet she obviously is me to some extent, since she lives in my head.   

Am I wish-fulfilling? I don’t have the slightest desire to romanticize her lifestyle. It was tough.  Alafair lives the life I never did, or never could. I couldn’t abide it.  However, it seems I imbue her with all the virtues and strengths I do not have.  She knows what she knows and takes action.  Then once she has, she doesn’t second-guess herself.  I agonize over every decision and sometimes take no action at all.  She’s kind and tolerant of human weakness.  She takes care of everyone.  She’s patient with the follies of others.  Me: not so much. She’s a moderately well-adjusted mother of children, who doesn’t worry about her own shortcomings nor her place in the world, instead of what I am, which we won’t go into.

I never set out to deliver a message or make a statement when I write.  I just want to tell a ripping yarn. However, every time I finish an Alafair Tucker novel I do find myself wondering what Dr. Freud would say about the story.  Alafair is always much more successful at confronting her fears than I am. And she is never afraid to fail. She sticks herself out there.

For the first time in my fiction writing life, I created a character who isn’t hip or svelte or rich or independent or even particularly young. Or male. She goes against all conventional wisdom. Yet I had immediate success with Alafair’s first novel, The Old Buzzard Had it Coming.  Why it couldn’t have happened when I was young and thin and beautiful I don’t know, but we come to our authentic place in our own time, I guess.

Maybe I want to spend time with Alafair because she reminds me of some of the women in my past whom I loved, but didn’t fully appreciate at the time. She is funny, reflective, wise to ways of the world and the ways of kids, and a bit sad because of the losses in her life, like my own mother was.  She’s the center of her family, loving and giving to a fault, adored by her children, and a legendary cook, like my late mother-in-law.  With the best of motives, she’s all up in your business and can drive you crazy, too, like a relative of mine who shall remain nameless, lest she recognize herself (though she won’t. They never do.)

I may have created Alafair out of pieces of women I love, but she’s much more than the sum of her parts.  The great British mystery novelist Graham Greene said, “The moment comes when a character says or does something that you hadn't thought of.  At that moment, he’s alive and you leave it to him.”  I first put Alafair on the page, but then she stood up and walked away, and now I just follow where she leads. And what that tells me about myself I do not know.
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Donis Casey is the author of six Alafair Tucker Mysteries, including the recently released The Wrong Hill to Die On.  Donis has twice won the Arizona Book Award and has been a finalist for the Willa Award and the Oklahoma Book Award. Her first novel, The Old Buzzard Had It Coming, was named an Oklahoma Centennial Book. She lives in Tempe, Arizona. Readers can enjoy the first chapter of each book on her web site at www.doniscasey.com.

Samuel Thomas Guest Blogger: Death and the Midwife

Sam Thomas is a fellow St. Martian and I'm pleased to welcome another historical mystery writer to Poe's Deadly Daughters. I met Sam face to face in Cleveland just this year at Bouchercon. In addition to The Midwife's Tale being Sam's debut novel, he teaches history at University School, an independent boys' school outside Cleveland, Ohio. He lives in Shaker Heights with is wife and two sons. Readers can expect a sequel to Sam's debut in 2014.

When I tell people that I’m writing a series of murder mysteries about an English midwife, I often receive the kind of condescension that people reserve for the very young and the very old. That’s nice, they say with an uncertain smile, not entirely sure that they’ve understood me. Actually, that’s not true. They know they have understood me. They’re just not sure that I’m making any sense. After all, what could midwives have to with murder? Lawyer-sleuths? Sure, we’ll believe that. Crime-solving doctors? Absolutely. But midwives?

Yes, midwives. While we (rightly) associate midwives with bringing life in to the world, for several centuries midwives also sent people out. Most obviously, thanks to comparatively high infant and maternal mortality rates, midwives saw their share of death in the delivery room. But this is just the start, for midwives were key players in England’s legal and judicial system, and when a woman came into contact with the law, whether as a victim or a suspect, a midwife often was on the scene.

The most common legal task that midwives faced was to discover the fathers of illegitimate children so that they could be made to pay for the upkeep of their offspring. Midwives did this by – to be blunt – threatening the mothers: If a woman refused to name the father of her bastard child (perhaps she had been paid for her silence), the midwife was supposed to withhold care during the birth.

“You don’t want to name the father?” she would ask. “Then you’re giving birth alone. Good luck and Godspeed.” (It is not for nothing that I opened The Midwife’s Tale with just this situation.) And while most mothers probably relented, there are cases in which midwives did indeed make good on their threat. In thus was the midwife’s job to expose infidelity and lechery to public view – reason enough for some men to kill, no?

More dramatic – and mercifully less common –was the midwife’s role in infanticide investigations. When an infant’s body was discovered, the constable would summon the local midwife and she would search out and interrogate suspects. Imagine the scene from the mother’s perspective:

A young woman has given birth to an illegitimate child, and she has done this in secret and by herself. Perhaps the child is stillborn, perhaps not, but the mother panics and abandons the child out of fear of discovery and punishment.

Within days or even hours, the midwife arrives with a dozen women in tow. She corners the mother and squeezes her breasts to see if she is lactating. She then insists on examining the mother’s privities (to use the early modern word) for evidence of a recent birth. Then the midwife and her assistants begin to badger the mother in confessing to a crime which had only one punishment: death by hanging. In depositions from infanticide cases, the language of pressing is ubiquitous: “after much pressing, Jane did confess” or “we pressed her further and again, until Jane did confessed.” There were no lawyers, no Miranda rights, just the mother and the women who would not be denied. Such work was not for the tender-hearted.

Nor was this all. As the local expert on women’s bodies, it fell to the midwife to examine women or girls who had been raped, and to testify against their assailants. If a woman were sentenced to death and claimed to be pregnant (which would prevent execution), the midwife judged whether she was lying. When a woman was accused of witchcraft, the midwife examined her body for evidence of the Witch’s Mark, where Satan’s imp had suckled. Guilt or innocence lay in the midwife’s hands.

Midwives thus dealt in their community’s darkest secrets:  adultery, murder, rape and witchcraft were their stock in trade. And in these cases, the midwife’s word determined who lived and who died.

What more could you want from a protagonist?

Sam Thomas is an author and teacher living in Shaker Heights, Ohio. His debut novel, The Midwife’s Tale: A Mystery, will be released by Minotaur/St. Martin’s on January 8. For more about mysteries and midwives, visit http://www.samthomasbooks.com, http://www.facebook.com/SThomasbooks. The book is available for preorder at Amazon and B&N.

A Bold Heroine in the Georgian Era

Our guest’s Lady Fan mysteries, set in Georgian England, feature the bright and perceptive Ottilia, once a lady's companion and now bride to Lord Francis Fanshawe. The first in the series, The Gilded Shroud, is followed this month by The Deathly Portent. Everyone who leaves a comment this weekend will be entered in a drawing for a free copy of the new book.

by Elizabeth Bailey

How can the female detective cope in the Georgian world?

The short answer is, she can’t, not on her own. Ottilia’s status as a lady of the genteel classes precludes her presence in a great many male-dominated domains, especially if she is unescorted. A female alone in a public place laid herself open both to annoyance and loss of reputation.

Ottilia flouts convention in that she investigates at all. Ladies did not commonly examine dead bodies and question anyone and everyone from upstairs or down as to their movements and motives. People are apt to remark upon these activities, which amuses Ottilia, but tends to put Francis on the defensive.


But Ottilia is not a woman who seeks notoriety by ignoring the rules from a spirit of rebellion. She does it for expedience when nothing else will do. Where she can, she will obey the dictates of society, even if the necessity chafes her. Indeed, she is unscrupulous in making demands upon her husband for assistance in order to get around the problems posed by the constraints of her sex.

Even in the real Georgian era, it is not inconceivable that a woman might absorb medical lore as Ottilia does from her brother, although she is barred from the profession herself. This gives her a solid advantage, but it is the only practical one. For the rest, she must rely on her intelligence, observational skills and her knack of falling easily into intimacy with strangers, whether high or low born.

There are advantages in the paucity of policing during these times, because Ottilia is unhampered by the authority network that your modern amateur sleuth must negotiate. She finds it relatively easy to bypass, or even to use the local authority for her own ends, and if she has to, she is determined enough to go head to head with anyone.

But Ottilia herself recognizes that she couldn’t conduct her investigations without Francis at her back. Apart from the clear usefulness of his sex, he is both companion and stalwart supporter, and is rapidly gaining his own foothold in the game of deduction.

As the writer, I’m familiar with the period from my historical romances, but crime has added new challenges in terms of juggling the freedoms and restrictions imposed by the age, which I have to say I enjoy tremendously. Perhaps it satisfies a little of the rebel in me who burned the bra along with Germaine Greer! To give a woman power at a time when this was socially denied is intensely satisfying.

I’m often asked why the Georgian era attracted me, and it stems purely from a teenage addiction to Georgette Heyer. I think I absorbed from her the idea of creating a flavour of the time in the prose style I use for my own historicals, rather than relying on contemporary dialogue to delineate the period.

It’s more a question of choosing a way of expressing something that feels right for the period. For example, rather than using the simple she liked I might use she favoured or she was partial to. I pick less colloquial language: hastened, whither, I am inclined to think, if you are minded, is it not, befriend, etc. Then when you add all the titles and the accents of the lower orders, it tends to hold together. I’m so used to writing in this way that I no longer consciously make these choices. It’s as though I turn on a Georgian-speak switch in my writing head.

Of course it still has to be readable and understandable to the modern ear. To use fully contemporary dialogue - as found in 18th century letters and diaries, for instance - would sound stilted today. You don’t want to echo the long-winded Victorians which can be tough on readers now, but you still want to evoke the era.

I like to think that Ottilia is as true to her time, despite its inconveniences, as it is possible to be without alienating a modern reader. As a writer, I find I have to tread a fine balance between what might, to a purist, be considered anachronistic and what serves to take a reader, replete with twenty-first century thinking and values, successfully on a journey into the past.
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Elizabeth Bailey’s second novel in her Lady Fan Mystery Series, The Deathly Portent, comes out in April in the US and June in the UK. Leave a comment this weekend and you'll be entered in a drawing for a free copy.

In The Deathly Portent, the blacksmith has been bludgeoned to death and the villagers blame the local witch, a girl with second sight. The Fanshawes have broken down on the road nearby and when Ottilia hears the news, she cajoles Francis into going to Witherley, where a full-blown investigation  leads her into personal danger before she can find out the perpetrator. More details at www.elizabethbailey.co.uk. Order the book at www.amazon.com/Deathly-Portent-Lady-Fan-Mystery/dp/0425245675.

My Two Worlds

Jeri Westerson

I live in two worlds. That of mystery and of historical fiction. I suppose I’m a failed historical novelist. That’s what I slogged away at doing for ten years, writing opus after stand-alone opus with nary a nibble from publishers. “The historical novel is dead!” declared Publisher’s Weekly in the days I was writing and trying to sell them.

Swell.

Ten years of researching and writing about the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, but then I crossed over to the dark side, the side of murder, mayhem, and clever detectives. I left behind the stand-alone for the series and found a new love in episodic storytelling. And with an historical mystery, I found success and a publisher at last! For the most part, I never looked back.


Until last weekend.


I attended my first North American Historical Novel Society Conference. And like many of the writing conferences I used to attend in the past, it is chock full of would-be writers, getting a pep talk and some writing advice from their favorite authors in the genre and learning about some new ones. There were also agent and editor meetings, blue pencil sessions where authors critiqued the work of brave writers willing to sit back and take it (which is not to be confused with lying back and thinking of England), and a general chatting away with authors you’d like to know more about while the cocktails flowed.


Historical novelists are akin to literary novelists. Often there is that crossover where publishers give them a little more respect, at least more than they might give to midlist mystery authors. But there are no tagged shelves in a bookstore or library where the historical novels are stored, unlike mysteries. Their novels are generally about famous people from the past. Certainly there is a fair share of the Tudors depicted within these many pages. And the de Medicis. But don’t forget the nautical sagas of tall ships sailing the waves with the smell of gun powder wafting on the breeze (and we were treated to the incredibly loud reports from the cannons on the tall ship/museum anchored just outside our hotel in San Diego Harbor), or the tomes of medieval Mongolia, or even prehistory with such authors as Jean Auel with the newest Clan of the Cave Bear novel. Historical authors span thousands of years of human history between their covers.


But let us not forget those of us who blend mystery with our history. Sometimes we have to get pretty creative with our sleuths. I would say that more than half are of the amateur variety, being that any sort of police force or paid detectives are a modern construct. (Mine is a paid detective, not an amateur, but that was my own “what if” because there were no private detectives in the Middle Ages.) Again, we span all the eras from ancient Egypt and Rome up to the 1960s and all the time periods in between.


My panel was on “Keeping a Series Fresh” with fellow “mystorical” authors moderator Priscilla Royal, Susan McDuffie, Ann Parker, and Judith Rock, writing about thirteenth and fourteenth century England, fourteenth century Scotland, the silver rush boomtown era of the 1880s, and seventeenth century Paris, respectively. That’s a lot of centuries. Besides expressing our opinions on how we use history to twist our plots and our use of minor characters to add interest, we took a few questions from anxious writers hoping to break into the party. In fact, one of the questions was about amateur versus professional sleuth.


I’ve been to many a mystery fan convention, but this was somewhat different. For one, this conference featured a costume parade, authors either wearing the costumes of their protagonists or of suitable characters in their books. From ancient Rome, throughout the Middle Ages and Renaissance, and up to the Colonial period, the American Civil War, and the late 1800s, they showed off their writing and sewing skills! I skipped it this year, but perhaps when the conference rolls around on the west coast again, I’ll dust off my medieval gown and give it a whirl on the catwalk.


Yes, it was lovely being a part of the historical crowd for a change, where dinner table conversations tripped from historical period to historical period, and you could hear the passion in their voices as they plead the case of their pet eras. So many time periods to write about. So little time to do it.

Writing Historically

When I was asked to be a permanent participant on this blog the answer was a resounding “yes!” The five ladies who trade off writing blog posts have established an amazing resource with heaps of good writing advice and information on the ever-changing publishing world. Being a part of that was a no-brainer. But I did point out that on my own website, blog, and on my character blog, I usually spend a lot of time thinking and talking about the Middle Ages. But since most of us on this blog are middle-aged, that was okay by them!

I write a series of medieval mysteries that have a darker bent than your Brother Cadfael type. I call them “Medieval Noir,” hardboiled detective fiction set in the Middle Ages with an ex-knight turned detective as my protagonist. Writing historically is not a challenge, it's part of the fun. Not only are you creating these interesting characters and their situations, but you get to put them into a very real world that you find endlessly fascinating!

When I first began writing historical fiction many years ago, I worried that I would get so wrapped up in the research I’d never get to the book itself. We call that “research rapture.” Well, those days are long gone. But I still enjoy the thrill of researching and discovering that great fist-punch-in-the-air moment when you find out something that will work perfectly for your story. I like to write my stories and characters as if they could have existed, as if they perhaps should have existed.

My hero is Crispin Guest and as I mentioned before, he is an ex-knight turned detective on the mean streets of fourteenth century London. And yes, there were ex-knights, degraded knights, as they called them, but none, as far as I know, ever became a detective (a job that was decidedly of my own fiction for this time period). Most of the degraded knights I came across were degraded right before they met a very ignoble and nasty end. So I had to come up with a plausible way for Crispin to have been degraded and survive so that he could re-invent himself as a medieval PI.

Research into the early court of King Richard II when my books are set gave me the answer. You see, Richard became king when he was ten years old. Can you imagine your own ten-year-old becoming king? This naturally came with its own set of problems. I don’t think “spoiled” really covers it. His reign started with great promise, but later, he was accused of favoring too many hangers on and generally making a hash of it.

Meanwhile, Richard’s uncle, the daunting duke of Lancaster, was the richest man in England and an indomitable warrior and experienced statesman. Parliament feared, and rightly so, that the duke would try to jump the line of succession and take the throne for himself and he made promise after promise that he would not do so. That didn’t stop the conspiracy theorists from hatching plots (of course, who’s to say that there weren’t any?)

So here’s where my fiction kicks into the historical facts. I made Crispin the duke’s protégé, had him raised in the duke’s household since he was seven years old, seeing the duke as a father figure. And so naturally Crispin throws in his lot with these conspirators, thinking that it is for the good of England. The conspirators are caught and all are condemned. Crispin is up for execution, too, but instead, the duke begs for his life. His life is granted but all else is taken from him: land, wealth, status. All that defines him. He’s thrust into the heart of London with nothing but the clothes on his back. Instant angst, instant chip on shoulder. Much can be done with his inability to blend into the lower classes when he clearly is not, and that, in his heart, he is and always will be a knight.

I love it when a plot comes together.

But now comes fleshing out the rest of the world. What are the people wearing? What are they eating and drinking? What are they eating and drinking on? Where do they sleep? What are the customs they encounter? What is the difference between the classes? What does London look like in 1385?

University libraries, archives on the internet, emails to people across the pond. These are the places I find all the bigger facts I need. For some of the smaller ones, I prefer a little hands-on approach. I have a book of medieval recipes from King Richard’s court and I’ve cooked my share of (small) feasts. I’ve brewed my own medieval ale, from preparing the grain and allowing it to sprout, to roasting it, to grinding it, to actually brewing it. I’ve made and worn the clothing. And I’ve collected the weaponry and know how to use it. Having a hands-on approach can give you a true appreciation for the experiences of medieval people.

One of the nifty facts I haven’t been able to use yet in my stories was something I uncovered about London. About how a lot of medieval men met their accidental deaths. It seems there was an inordinate number of men dying from falling out of windows. Naturally, I thought this bore more investigation. What I discovered was that, with a fair amount of alcohol involved, these men would get up in the middle of the night to accede to a call of nature. But instead of climbing down long staircases or rickety ladders, they would open the windows (which had no glass, just shutters), stand in the open window, and…well, misjudge. Talk about being caught dead with your pants down! It’s one of those facts I can’t wait to use.

Each fact that’s uncovered unfolds more plot points, more places for the characters to go. I utilize real figures from the Middle Ages. Without telling any spoilers, let me just say that some are very unusual characters indeed, a real case of truth being stranger than fiction. That’s the real joy of writing historically. Rather than limiting, I find it an endless cornucopia of fodder for my stories.

The Distant Roar of Violence

By Mary Reed and Eric Mayer
Guest bloggers

Our guests are the authors of the John the Lord Chamberlain historical mysteries. Visit their website for more information about their work.

Eight For Eternity is darker then the other novels in our series, even more so than Five For Silver, which was set during the Justianaic plague of 542, beginning with a man rescued alive from a pile of victims and including a character who dances with the dead.

We tend to write murder mysteries without a lot of blood. Murder is a messy business but not all mystery readers or writers want to dwell on that reality. Many prefer to concern themselves with the intellectual puzzle resulting from the physical murder.

So generally we keep gruesome events off the page, and those which must be mentioned for reasons of the plot are dealt with briefly. But when we decided to set our latest book during the Nika Riots in 532 we knew it would be necessary to describe the terror and horror inhabitants of Constantinople experienced for days as the city was torn apart by murder, looting, arson, and other crimes committed by mobs seeking to overthrow Emperor Justinian.

How to convey the mayhem without departing too far from the usual tone of the series? We solved the conundrum by placing many scenes at a distance from the rioting, behind the palace walls or several streets away. The violence is depicted as a kind of continual dull, distant roar -- a menacing rumble of an anguished populace gone mad -- with occasional crescendos of noise conveying the menace of mobs running wild as the city turns on itself.

Against that dark aural background we conveyed the horrors being perpetrated by using vignettes described with sparing details, sometimes only seen in passing, but always suggesting worse – a living human torch, a curtain of legs formed by a number of dead men hung from a balcony. This seemed to us to be a strong enough method of suggesting incidents of life and death in a city racked with violence.

History tells us that 30,000 rioters were slaughtered in the Hippodrome in one battle, but it is impossible to describe so many deaths. It is more effective to show individual horrors, one at a time.

There is only a single scene where slaughter is front and center, and that is a brief account of a pitched street, or rather alley, battle between imperial troops and rioters. Neither of us having been in such a situation, we attempted to describe what happens in that brief battle as experienced by Felix, a palace guard, in an almost detached manner, given in such circumstances fighters act from instinct and training and there is no time to think about maneuvers.

We did, however, set the stage for a book in which countless, mostly unseen, people would die, with a prologue from the point of view of a condemned man on his way to the gallows. We therefore dwelled at some length on the terror of death before any killing began.

We now throw open the discussion. Perhaps you agree it is not necessary to go into minute descriptions of blood and pain to convey this type of hellish setting, or do you favor more gore?

Famous Dead People as Sleuths

Sandra Parshall

Jane Austen takes time off from writing to track down criminals.

Queen Elizabeth I skulks around castles and manor houses in search of conspirators and killers.

Leonardo da Vinci solves crimes in 15th century Italy, assisted by his apprentice Dino, who then records their adventures just as Watson chronicled the exploits of Sherlock Holmes.

Dante Alighieri has turned sleuth, Oscar Wilde pursues killers, Elvis enjoys a bit of detecting now and then. As if she doesn’t have enough to do as First Lady, Eleanor Roosevelt goes after bad guys. Now Ernest Hemingway is getting into the act.

What’s going on here? Why are so many famous dead people showing up as amateur detectives in mysteries and thrillers? It’s more than a trend. It’s beginning to look like the way to make a mark in crime fiction these days.

So far I’ve resisted reading any of them because I would bring too much personal bias to the experience. I’ve never been a fan of historical fiction about the lives of real people. Even the use of a historical figure as a minor character, as Caleb Carr used Theodore Roosevelt in The Alienist, automatically stirs my resistance. I’d rather read straight history, with an index and a bibliography of sources. I can enjoy dramatizations, but only if they don’t embroider on the historical record. I’ve never forgiven the makers of the otherwise excellent 1971 film Mary Queen of Scots for the scene in which Mary (Vanessa Redgrave) and Elizabeth I (Glenda Jackson) had a face-to-face meeting. So you can imagine my reluctance to read a mystery series in which a real historical figure plays amateur sleuth.

I seem to be in the minority, though. Karen Harper’s Elizabeth I series gets rave reviews and, aside from the queen’s crime-solving activities, the author is apparently meticulous about the accuracy of period details. Stephanie Barron’s Jane Austen series has a loyal following. At the end of this month, Barron’s The White Garden will launch a new mystery series with Virginia Woolf as the protagonist. The Oscar Wilde series, written by British broadcaster and former Lord Commissioner of the Treasury Gyles Brandreth, seems to be going strong.


I haven’t read any of these books – yet.

Now, though, I’ve come across a historical mystery featuring a real person that I may not be able to resist: The Ninth Daughter by Barbara Hamilton, first in a new series about Abigail Adams. At first, I’ll admit, I was aghast. Abigail Adams is one of our most beloved First Ladies, possibly more admired than her husband, President John Adams. She was an intelligent, strong-minded, politically savvy woman, as well as a warm and loving wife and mother. How could any writer turn her into an amateur sleuth? Learning that “Barbara Hamilton” is actually Barbara Hambly, a graceful and insightful author, reassured me that Abigail is in good hands. And Abigail probably did have what it takes to be a good detective. A few sneak peeks into the book told me the writer has captured the roiling and dangerous atmosphere of pre-Revolution America.

I think I’m going to read The Ninth Daughter to find out how Abigail clears John of suspicion of murder. And it may open my mind to many more mysteries featuring historical figures.

Reading the books, however, won’t satisfy my curiosity about the reason why we’re seeing so many of them published. Is this a reflection of our modern celebrity-obsessed society? Do we want even our fictional characters to be genuine famous people, even if their activities in the books are entirely imagined?

Do you read any crime fiction featuring real people as sleuths? What attracts you to them? Do you insist on accurate historical details in the books?

And the big question: What’s next – or, rather, who is next? Ghengis Khan as a private eye on the mean streets of Mongolia? Lucretia Borgia trying to clear herself of murder charges? Cary Grant and Katherine Hepburn teaming up to solve a murder that a major studio is trying to keep hidden?

What historical figure would you like to see as a mystery protagonist?

Changing Gears

by Carola Dunn, guest blogger

Last week I finished writing my 52nd book, A Colorful Death, the second Cornish mystery, which also happens to be my 20th mystery. I'm about to start on the 19th book in my Daisy Dalrymple series (just as the 18th, Sheer Folly, comes out, and the 17th, Black Ship, goes into paperback). Not only do I have to come up with plot, setting, and a whole bunch of new characters as well as a host of returning characters, but I have to switch my head from the 1960s (Cornish mysteries) to the 1920s (Daisy).

For some reason this is more difficult than I ever found it to move from the Regency to the 1920s. For many years I dwelled in the early 1800s. I used to find myself using Regency terms in real life late 20th century America. Then I took up with Daisy and for a while I was writing both 1920s mysteries and Regencies. I rarely found myself confusing the language of the two, perhaps because both language and mores changed so much in the intervening hundred odd years. Great though the changes were between the 1920s and the 1960s, the two
periods were much more similar in many ways.

Perhaps another part of the confusion is that the main character in the Cornish mysteries, Eleanor Trewynn, is in her early 60s and so was actually around in the '20s. She's not so old-fashioned (having spent her life travelling the world) as to use '20s slang still, but she's not going to use '60s slang either, or at least not without a certain self-consciousness. Yet other characters around her have to speak the contemporary lingo.

So how do I travel in time? I've found the best way to get inside the language and mind-set of a period is to read the fiction of the period. I have a lot of early Sayers, Christie, Wentworth, and others, but I've reread them too often, so yesterday I spent 2 1/2 hours in the city library hunting down 1920s mysteries and non-mystery novels. Came out with Gladys Mitchell, John Buchan, P.G. Wodehouse, E.C. Bentley, E.F. Benson (if you don't know Lucia, go and make her acquaintance now!), Freeman Wills Crofts and R. Austin Freeman. A few evenings cuddled up with a cuppa and a book and my head will be right back where it needs to be.

Simply ripping, darling!

Come and visit me on Facebook, my website: www.geocities.com/CarolaDunn/ and my blog: http://theladykillers.typepad.com/the_lady_killers/. My Regencies are all available as e-books in various formats at www.RegencyReads.com.

Beverle Graves Myers: Exploring the Mysteries of Venice

Interviewed by Sandra Parshall

Beverle Graves Myers is author of a historical mystery series featuring amateur sleuth Tito Amato, a castrato who sings with the Venetian opera in the 18th century. Beverle made a mid-life career switch from psychiatry to full-time writing. A graduate of the University of Louisville with a BA in history and an MD, she worked at a public mental health clinic before her first mystery was published in 2004.

Bev also writes short stories set in a variety of times and places. Her stories have appeared in Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine, Woman's World, and numerous anthologies. She has earned nominations for the Macavity Award, the Kentucky Literary Award, and the Derringer Award. She and husband Lawrence live in Louisville.

Q. Would you tell us a little about your new book? Who is the mischievous lady in your intriguing title?

A. In Her Deadly Mischief, Tito Amato has shaken off the grief caused by events depicted in the previous book and is once again singing lead roles at the Teatro San Marco in Venice. During an opening night performance, his crystal voice has the packed auditorium entranced. All eyes are on this prince of the stage—except for one fourth-tier box with its scarlet curtains tightly drawn. Miffed, he aims a powerful arrow of song at the box and is astounded to see a woman fall through the curtains like a limp rag doll. For a long moment, he locks eyes with her killer, robed and masked for Carnevale, before the man escapes. Since Tito is the only one to view the murderer, the chief of Venice’s rudimentary police force involves him in the case. They quickly identify the victim as Zulietta Giardino, a courtesan involved in a mischievous wager over a rival’s jewels.

Q. I'm always curious about how writers of historical fiction were drawn to certain time periods. Why did you decide to set your books in the 1740s?

A. I love the 18th century. It’s ripe with conflicts that a mystery writer can work into plots. Absolute monarchy, the culmination of the old feudal system, is sparring with the rise of democracy and individual rights. Science and religion are clashing head-on. The old European world is being challenged by the upstart colonists of the new. These changes affected the mindset of every living person, Tito included.

Q. Why did you want to write about the Venetian opera community? What opportunities for story and character did you see there that felt unique to you?

A. If I recall correctly, I first considered using a castrato protagonist after reading Anne Rice’s Cry to Heaven. That put my proposed series squarely in the 18th century and allowed me to indulge my longtime love of opera. Venice, Naples, and Rome were the three great centers of early opera. No contest—Venice won! It makes such a wonderful backdrop for intrigue—misty canals, a crumbling society, nonstop carnival revelry, a crossroads for scoundrels. And Tito right in the middle of it all, because opera and its stars were the popular entertainment of the day.

Q. I'm sure many people have asked why you made your leading man a castrato. I can see you have fun confounding expectations of such a character – Tito is happily married and passionately in love with his wife, far from being asexual. Is he a realistic character? How much detail about the personal lives of the castrati have you turned up in your research?

A. I started with the idea of Tito being a chaste eunuch, unruffled by the urges of a typical man, and thus able to view the world through dispassionate eyes. He refused to cooperate. He said (yes, I’m one of those authors whose characters talk to her), “The knife that created my voice came nowhere near my heart.” He wanted to find his love and his life’s companion as much as anyone. Surprisingly, my research agreed. Many of the historical castrati were considered great lovers by their contemporaries. The surgery destroyed their ability to father children, but not their potency, at least for some. Tales of scandals, concerning both sexes, abound. And even though the Catholic Church denied them the sacrament of marriage, some castrati moved to Protestant countries and married there. Tito’s marriage is unsanctioned. Since Liya holds to Italy’s old pagan religion, they merely “jumped the broom.”

Q. Speaking of research, I envision you writing in a room overflowing with history books, architectural drawings of Venice, illustrations of 18th century Italian clothing styles, and so on. Have you absorbed everything you need to know about the setting and era, or does each book require additional research? How much research did you do for the new book?

A. You’ve pretty much described my office, minus the dust, of course. When I begin a scene, I try to find a painting of the location, indoor or outdoor, or at least something similar. I prop the art book up by the computer, get a baroque opera CD going, and start writing. I make a binder for each book that contains helpful articles and news clippings, portraits of the main characters, maps, and photos of period-specific weapons and other implements, etc. I researched the basics—the theaters, modes of transportation, clothing, and so forth—at the beginning of the series. But each book presents at least one new avenue of research. For Her Deadly Mischief, I had to get up to speed on Murano glass as much of the action takes place at a glass maker’s fornace.

Q. Have you visited Venice? How much has it changed since Tito's time? Is the modern world becoming intrusive – do you see cell phone towers, for example, or TV satellite dishes?

A. My husband and I spent an idyllic eight days in Venice several years ago. It has probably changed less in the last 275 years than any other European city, but it is no longer Tito’s Venice. People have been living there the whole time, and they do tend to change things little by little. That’s just the way of the world. The two most glaring intrusions were the huge, totally out-of-scale cruise ships in the basin by the piazza and the awful graffiti defacing many of the old buildings. That graffiti just made me sick.


Q. Psychiatry and mystery writing may seem to be utterly different pursuits, but your work as a psychiatrist must have given you insights that are useful in writing about murder and other devious behavior. Do you take an analytical approach to your characters, tracing their behavior back to its roots, even if you don't include all the details in the story?

A. While plotting out a book, I do what psychiatrists call a detailed medical and psycho-social history on each major character. I pay especial attention to the villain—the motivation to kill has to be believable. Purposeless, random evil doesn’t work for me. I also include at least one character with what we would call a mental illness in each book. Tito’s youngest sister suffers from Tourette’s syndrome, for instance.

Q. Had you written fiction before you began writing about Tito? What led you to write mysteries?

A. Not one piece of fiction! The smart thing would have been to hone my craft with a few short stories, at least, but I’ve always been impatient. Why mysteries? Except for some non-fiction history and biography, mysteries are all that I read. To me, what is labeled as genre often rises to great literature.

Q. Would you tell us about your road to publication? Was it harder than you expected or easier?

A. I started the agent search as soon as I’d finished Interrupted Aria, the first Tito novel. I was extraordinarily fortunate to find a good agent with my first volley of queries. That set me up for unrealistic expectations. I thought connecting with a publisher would be just as easy. Boy, was I wrong. After many rejections, Tito found a publishing home at Poisoned Pen Press. Working with the folks at PPP has been a delight—it’s the perfect place for a series about a Venetian castrato singer/sleuth, not exactly mainstream material.

Q. Have you learned anything about the publishing business, or the life of a published writer, that has surprised you?

A. Like most writers, I had no idea the level of promotion required. I admit it’s not my strong suit. While I love to have one-on-one discussions with readers, most marketing techniques go against my southern upbringing. “A lady never toots her own horn” sort of thing.

Q. One thing I love about your writing is your attention to details – for example, the row of pins in the opera company costumer’s dress bodice. Are you the kind of writer who “sees” a scene fully, down to the smallest detail, before you begin writing, or the kind who does several drafts, further enriching the scene with each pass?

A. I probably “see” the scenes too fully. My challenge is to pare the details down to what the reader needs to “see” it—those small things that define time and place. So my revisions involve taking way rather than enriching.

Q. How long do you typically spend writing a novel? What is your writing routine like?

A. Each book in the Tito Amato series has consumed a year of my writing time, those golden four to five hours of the morning, five or six days a week. I’m slow and a bit of a perfectionist. I don’t like to go on if I’m not happy with the previous work, so I revise as I go. Then, when I reach the end, I just need to do one more quick run though before I send it to my editor.

Q. Who are your favorite writers and what do you most admire about their work?

A. There’s so many. Going way back, Agatha Christie and Dorothy L. Sayers made me fall in love with mysteries. Over the years, Robert Barnard, Steven Saylor, Sarah Caudwell, P.D. James. All very different—the one similarity is that their books draw me into a fully realized world that I hate to leave. I literally cried when I read the last Sarah Caudwell, because I knew there would be no more. Just now I’m enjoying The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie by Alan Bradley.

Q. Will we see Tito age as the series goes on? Historically, what became of the castrati as they aged? Did they continue to sing into middle age and beyond?

A. Something about the hormonal derangements graced the men with longer than average lives. I expect Tito to live to a ripe old age. When he is no longer able to thrill audiences, age fifty or so for most singers, he can always teach at one of Venice’s famous music schools, direct operas, or use his many artistic and governmental contacts to indulge his taste for sleuthing.

Q. Do you plan to write about Tito indefinitely, or do you want to explore different characters – and perhaps a different era – at some point?

A. Funny you should ask! While I haven’t abandoned Tito, I do feel the creative need to explore other times and places. An author friend (Joanne Dobson, author of the Karen Pelletier mysteries) and I are working on a suspense novel set in the 1940s.

Q. What advice do you have for aspiring writers who may feel discouraged by today’s tougher-than-ever book market?

A. Be persistent. Don’t let yourself get bogged down by rejection. It saddens me when I see a fellow writer consign a good book or short story to the drawer after a few turn-downs. Make sure your work is top notch, believe in it, and keep it circulating.

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Beverle's books, in order, are Interrupted Aria, Painted Veil, Cruel Music, The Iron Tongue of Midnight, and Her Deadly Mischief. For more information, visit her web site at www.beverlegravesmyers.com.

A Conversation with Ann Parker

Interviewed by Sandra Parshall

Ann Parker has deep family roots in Colorado, the setting of her acclaimed Silver Rush historical mystery series – her ancestors include a great-grandfather who was a blacksmith in the silver boomtown of Leadville, a grandmother who worked at the bindery of Leadville's Herald Democrat newspaper, a grandfather who was a Colorado School of Mines professor, and another grandfather who worked as a gandy dancer on the Colorado railroads. When she decided to write mystery novels, her family history made Leadville a natural choice for her setting.

Ann’s first novel, Silver Lies, won the Willa Award for Historical Fiction and the Colorado Gold Award. The second in the series, Iron Ties, won the Colorado Book Award. Both books were short-listed for other awards and appeared on various best-of-the-year lists. Leaden Skies, out this month, is already receiving rave reviews.

Ann writes fiction at night and spends her days earning a living as a science, technical, and corporate writer. She lives in the San Francisco Bay area.

Q. Tell us about Leaden Skies.

A. With pleasure! Leaden Skies is the third in the Silver Rush historical mystery series; it picks up just about where Iron Ties (the second book) leaves off.

It's July 22, 1880, and Ulysses S. Grant—former president and Civil War general—has just arrived in Leadville for a five-day visit. He's in town to visit the silver mines, with an eye to investment, to meet with the city's Union veterans, and be feted by Leadville's upper crust. As his visit commences, Inez Stannert, part-owner of Leadville's Silver Queen Saloon, strikes a backroom deal with upscale brothel madam Frisco Flo. The deal turns deadly when one of Flo's women turns up dead and Inez discovers that Flo has a secret third business partner. Meanwhile, some folks are "playing politics"—at the local level and much higher—and some are playing for keeps. The title refers not only to the darker atmosphere that permeates the book, but the weather as well. According to historical records, the weather during Grant's visit was truly nasty for those five days: lots of rain, some hail, and unusually cold for late July.

Q. It seems like a big leap from writing about science to writing mystery fiction. Had you tried to write fiction before? Were you an avid reader of mystery novels?

A. I've always been a reader since those synapses "clicked" in first grade. I can still remember reading the word "morning" and having some amazing switch flip in my mind. After that, there was no stopping me. I read anything and everything—including an entire set of children's encyclopedias bought one volume at a time from the grocery store. I recall I was a big and early fan of Edgar Allen Poe and Sherlock Holmes. I wrote my first novel when I was about 12 years old. It was a pseudo-Western, strangely enough, featuring a woman physician, circa 1880, set in … of all places … Maine. (I guess Maine sounded pretty exotic to a kid who'd never been further east than Colorado!) I didn't turn my hand to fiction again until I was in my forties.

Q. What prompted you to write historical mysteries? Were you already a history buff? And why did you choose Leadville, Colorado, as your setting?

A. I've read all over the map throughout my life, including historicals. (I recall with great fondness the "We Were There…" series as a youngster, particularly "We Were There on the Oregon Trail.") I wasn't a history buff per se, although I loved digging in the trunks full of old photographs, letters, clothes, hats, fans, etc., in my maternal and paternal grandparents' basements in Colorado.

I came to writing mysteries set in Leadville through my family history, actually. When I was about 45 years old, there was a family reunion in Colorado (my grandparents on both sides were Coloradans of various degrees). At the reunion, my Uncle Walt told me that my paternal grandmother—the original Inez Stannert—had been raised in Leadville. Now, Granny had NEVER talked about Leadville, although I'd heard plenty of stories about Denver. Surprised, I asked Uncle Walt, "What the heck is Leadville?" He got very excited and told me a bit about Leadville's silver-boom and mining history, then said, "Ann, I know you've been thinking about writing a book. I think you should research Leadville and set your novel there."

Well, I followed Uncle Walt's advice and that's what led to the Silver Rush series. I was simply seduced by Leadville's stories and history and, later, by the physical beauty and depth of the place itself.


Q. Did you visit Leadville before you started writing? Were any of your characters inspired by your research?

A. I wrote about half of Silver Lies before I finally visited Leadville… and boy, am I glad I finally did! Even though I had photographs and maps, it turns out I had formed an entirely erroneous mental picture of the topography. Just goes to show, all the paper research in the world can't supplant being "on the ground."

As for the characters, I certainly drew on bits and pieces of the people I read about. I very much admired Mary Hallock Foote and her writings. Many of the women who came early to Colorado had fascinating stories and amazing resilience: Dr. Susan Anderson ("Doc Susie"), Isabella Bird, and others. Malinda Jenkins (whose story is told in Gambler's Wife) was quite the tough, resourceful woman. My fictional city marshal Bart Hollis has many similarities to real-life Mart Duggan, who was Leadville's city marshal in 1879. Other characters are similarly an amalgam of real folks and my imagination. And I was inspired to add a few "real people" here and there as a result of all that research. In Silver Lies, Bat Masterson makes an appearance as does Denver madam Mattie Silks. In Iron Ties, the chief engineer of the Denver & Rio Grande Railway, J.A. McMurtrie, wanders through. Ulysses S. Grant is much in evidence throughout Leaden Skies. I take my character inspirations wherever I find them…

Q. You set a daunting task for yourself – not just writing a novel for the first time, but making it a mystery with all the demands of the genre, plus giving it a historical setting that required extensive research. Which has been most challenging for you: learning to write fiction after a career as a science writer, mastering the mystery form, or transporting yourself imaginatively to a different time? Which has been the most fun?

A. Actually, science writing uses many of the same writing tools and mindset as fiction writing, only in a different venue. As a science writer, I had to quickly come up to speed on new scientific or technical subjects to the point where I could write articles that were accurate and engaging to a general audience. I learned early in the profession to interview experts, listen closely to what they say, and look for that "hook" that will bring the topic to life. As for imagination, well, I've always been a daydreamer (check the reports from my first-grade teacher Mrs. Kildebeck…), so transporting myself mentally to a different time and place is no problem. Probably the most difficult part of the whole writing process for me is getting the clues right (not too many, not too few, not too obvious, not too obscure) and making sure the mystery—the "who done it and why"—holds up under scrutiny. It's a learning process with each book.

What's the most fun? Entering that magic state where the scenes, dialogue, and action are rolling through my brain faster than my fingers can type. I love being in "the zone." And I've come to enjoy my interactions with readers. It's fun to hear what they get out of the books. Creating a story is like creating a painting or any other work of art: the artist may have one thing in mind during the creation; the observer/reader brings his/her own interpretation to the finished piece.

Q. Your protagonist, Inez Stannert, is a saloonkeeper who’s having a secret affair with the town’s preacher. Why did you develop this type of main character instead of using, for example, the wife of a Leadville prospector or businessman (or the preacher)? What possibilities does a character like Inez open up that you wouldn’t have with a more conventional woman of that era?

A. There are always, of course, many choices when starting something like this. I knew from the start that I wanted a protagonist who was a woman in a "man's world." (In the 1880 Leadville census, three women were listed as saloonkeeper/bartenders, whereas 288 men laid claim to that occupation.) I initially considered having Inez be a member of the "fourth estate," working on or perhaps publishing a small newspaper, rather like Serena Clatchworthy in Leaden Skies. (This would have also fit my initial criteria, as there were 30 male journalists to the single female inkslinger in town, per the census.)

I finally decided I wanted a female protagonist who, while originally from a higher social strata, had easy access to the "seedier" side of town and could also be, in some ways, "invisible" to a large swatch of society while still in their midst (think of what people say as they drink and how much attention they pay to the person behind the bar…). I wanted my sleuth to be morally ambiguous, sometimes leaning toward the light, sometimes shifting toward the dark. In some ways, Inez is much like the Silver Queen Saloon itself, which stands at the intersection of Leadville's red-light and business districts. I have plenty of precedent: the heady atmosphere of a boomtown in boom times encourages folks to believe that anyone—including themselves—can become rich overnight. People take chances and gamble on long shots that they might not even consider under more sober circumstances.

Q. What does your research tell you about law enforcement in the time and place you write about? Did the real Leadville have a functioning justice system, or was it pretty much anything goes?

A. Certainly at the beginning, it was "anything goes." Fortune seekers flooded in from all parts of the world: Leadville was the place to be in the 1879, 1880 time frame. Leadville had a police force and a justice system—how well it functioned is another story … there were many instances of corruption. Police and the appointed city collector collected fines. There was an interesting relationship between the law, the justice system, and the prostitution "industry," for instance. Basically, prostitutes and the madams paid monthly "fines" and the law looked the other way (unless things got too rambunctious). Another strange thing: Gambling was, technically, illegal in Colorado, but it went on, every hour of the day, in Leadville. There was also a "Vigilantes Committee," 700 strong, who took justice into their own hands more than once, so apparently a number of locals felt that the law wasn't doing its job.

Q. Did you ever watch the HBO series Deadwood? What did you think of it? Was it historically accurate?

A. I loved Deadwood! I think it presents a different side of the "Old West" that counters what we saw on TV in the 50s and 60s. If I were to draw a spectrum, the older, squeaky-clean, morally black-and-white Westerns would be at one end, with "spaghetti Westerns" (sometimes called anti-Westerns or revisionist Westerns) of the mid-1960s and early 1970s claiming the morally ambiguous middle ground, what with their anti-heroes and more cynical view of law and the West. Deadwood is the antithesis of the early Westerns, occupying even darker regions still. Was it historically accurate? Heck if I know. The producer claims so. Some of the things I've read about and researched have me believing that the language used in the series was probably authentic (although I don't know about the frequency and ease with which it was bandied about).

Q. Poisoned Pen Press has a well-deserved reputation for publishing superior books that, for one reason or another, the big New York publishers thought were too risky to take a chance on. Was that the case with your series? Did you try the NY route first, or did you approach PPP without submitting to the bigger houses? What do you feel are the advantages of being published by PPP?

A. I did indeed try to break into New York first. I had an agent who submitted to the major houses—they all passed. (However, I do have some very encouraging, nicely worded rejections on fancy letterhead in my files!) Then, my agent went out of the agenting business! I was faced with either 1) putting Silver Lies aside and moving onto the next or 2) trying to find a home for it myself. I tried to "move on," but my heart wasn't in it. So, I researched smaller presses, asking those I knew in the mystery field what publishers they'd recommend. Poisoned Pen Press was always at the top of everyone's list. When I saw they were located in Arizona, I thought, well, maybe they'll understand this book. I went through the submittal process, and boy, was I thrilled when I got that great email from Barbara Peters, saying, "Yes, we want Silver Lies. Are you working on a sequel?"

I love the sense of camaraderie and community among the Poisoned Pen Press authors, as well as the accessibility to the folks who run the company. Some more tangible advantages: the backlist doesn't go out of print, so it's always possible for a reader to start at the beginning of a series, and PPP is always trying new things, such as offering books on Kindle and audio and so on. Plus, my editor is Barbara Peters … I count myself lucky in that regard: editors don't get any better or more insightful than Barbara!

Q. Are you still working as a science writer? How much time are you able to devote to fiction writing? Do you have a writing routine, or do you fit it in whenever you can?

A. I'm still working as a "word slinger," although I'm now a contractor/consultant with my own business. In this particular incarnation, I'll tackle anything to do with words: employee handbooks, patents, web content, science or technical writing and/or editing … you name it, I'll do it. That's what 30 years of writing and editing experience provides, and believe me, these days, I don't complain in the least. You could say that, instead of having one employer or client, I now have several that I need to juggle along with everything else. The time I can devote to fiction varies greatly. I usually end up writing late at night … right about now, actually. (It's 11 p.m. and here I am, still cranking out the words).

Q. What do you see as your greatest strengths as a writer? Are there any aspects of craft that you’re still trying to master?

A. Hmmm. I'm not certain I have the right perspective to answer this. It's rather like trying to perform surgery on oneself. I'd have to fall back on what reviewers and others say are my strengths: bringing the time and place "alive," and creating convincing characters. The thing I need to work on: writing faster!

Q. Mystery authors whose books are set in the present day have to worry about getting police procedure and forensic details right so their stories will be believable and they won’t face the wrath of sharp-eyed readers. Does setting your books in the past free you from such worries, or do you still have to deal with a certain amount of crime scene and forensic detail?

A. It's true I don't have to worry about sending DNA samples out for analysis. But the details still need to be correct. Inez may not know about "blood splatter pattern," but if we're looking at a scene through her eyes, it's nice to get that part right, just so the scene is more or less "real." I also try to keep in mind other, simple things, such as not sending a character reeling backwards when shot with a Colt 45 (or some such). Doesn't happen; the bullet doesn't have that much momentum. (Don't believe me? Check out Mythbusters Episode 25 http://mythbustersresults.com/episode25 ).

Q. What fiction writers, in any genre, have inspired you and taught you by example? Whose mysteries do you rush to read as soon as they’re published?

A. Picking favorites is difficult, given that I read so widely and voraciously. I was a big fan of the Lord of the Rings epic fantasy … loved the world that J.R.R. Tolkien created (I wasn't big on The Hobbit, though). I very much enjoyed Dianne Day's Fremont Jones historical mystery series. One current-day mystery writer I admire greatly is Martin Cruz Smith—I'll drop everything to grab a new one by him!

Q. Do you hope to continue the Leadville series indefinitely, or do you have a plan for concluding it after a certain number of books?

A. I don't have a specific number of Inez books in mind. But there are certainly "variations on the theme" that might be fun to explore, such as taking a secondary character from the series and creating a story around him/her.

Q. Are you working on a new book now? Can you give us a hint of what it’s about?

A. I'm stepping into the shallows of the fourth book … haven't started swimming yet. It's hard to provide a hint without giving away spoilers about Leaden Skies!

Q. Where can readers find information about your signings and conference appearances?

A. My website has all that at http://www.annparker.net/app.htm.

Q. In parting, do you have any advice for aspiring writers?

A. If you are aspiring to write, my first bit of advice is: Read. Read the kinds of books you want to write. Silly, I know, but I've run into plenty of folks who want to be writers but … don't read.

Second bit for writers: Write the story that you feel passionate about. And then be willing to revise and "kill your darlings."

If you are aspiring to be published and you have the writing part of the job wired, my advice is: Learn all you can about marketing, promoting, branding … all those things that published authors these days must do in addition to writing a great story. If you have a background in marketing, PR, advertising, you already have an advantage. (Many pre-published hopefuls hate to hear this, but … sorry! It's true!)

My second bit of advice to those who want to be published: Persevere. It's not easy to find an agent or publisher in the best of times, and these are definitely not the best of times. Be prepared to collect a stack of rejections, and remember: Every "no" you get brings you closer to "yes."

Ann wants to alert readers that an Author's Note which should have appeared at the end of Leaden Skies sadly went astray in the printing process. Those who are curious about the story behind the novel (and what's real and what's not) can download a copy of the mysteriously missing Author's Note at www.annparker.net/book.htm.