Literary Weekend

As the non-writer of this group, I really had nothing to say for my blog post today. But then I thought about my girl’s weekend and how we met and it was quite literary.

Thanks to Joanna Campbell Slan, Yifat C., Marla H. and I met when Joanna hosted a gathering of her beta readers to explore the setting of her Kiki Lowenstein series. So off I went to St. Louis, Missouri and had a wonderful weekend of exploration and crafting and I’ve bonded with the two women mentioned above. Bonus is that Yifat and I are both from New York and her husband grew up in the same neighborhood as me. We’ve kept in touch and every year when we had a beta babe event, off we went. . .to Florida to check out the location of Cara Mia, Joanna’s other series and last year, we went to Washington D.C. So, as you can see, books brought us together. Literary.

This year it was just us three women headed out to Boston for a girl’s weekend and as we are walking around the hotel’s neighborhood, who should we walk into. . .Joanna Campbell Slan who was meeting a classmate. Since Joanna’s had some spare time, we invited her to join us in our foray of Boston. How does literary work into this scenario. . .well, we took one of those highlights tour and the first statue that we see is Edgar Allan Poe. How appropriate to see this – my first thought was the Raven Award that was in my possession. Literary.

Edgar Allan Poe

One of the sites I’ve wanted to see was Paul Revere’s house. . .so near to closing time, there we are, with no crowd, checking out his house and I was impressed that he had 16 children who at any one time lived in the house. Then we followed the Freedom Trail to see The North Church which was the site of the light, and the “one if by land, and two if by sea” and it is a magnificent building. Literary because of the poem by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.

Paul Revere’s house

Other Boston sightings

Signage on wall in front of Paul’s house

The front of Paul’s house

The North Church steeple

Signage on The North Church
The North Church

And in Boston, one must visit the Cheers bar and if you can, eat there as well. The food was delicious.

Headed to Cheers for dinner

Have you ever visited the location of a book that you’ve read? Did it live up to your expectation?

In Memory of Bonnie (B.K.) Stevens

In Memory of Bonnie (B.K. ) Stevens by
Debra H. Goldstein

In the
movie, It’s a Wonderful Life, there
is a line “No man is a failure who has friends.” The outpouring of testamentary
comments on list servs, Facebook, and exchanged through private e-mails as
people learned of the sudden death of Bonnie
(B.K.) Stevens
demonstrates what a success she was.

Her
success was based on talent as a writer, but more importantly the ability to be
a mensch as a person. Whether through a congratulatory note, post, or other
gesture, Bonnie let people know she cared about them. In a date of social
media, she took the time to use those devices to connect with a human touch.

Bonnie
and I became list serv acquaintances in 2014, but our true friendship began in
January 2015 when, while reading back issues of Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine,
I came across her short story, Thea’s
First Husband
. I didn’t know it had been nominated for Macavity and Agatha
awards, only that it moved me in a way few stories, other than Shirley
Jackson’s The Lottery, had. As a
bottom of the heap short story writer, I recognized I was reading how a master
interweaves plot, dialogue, and setting to escalate tension and intrigue a
reader. I wrote Bonnie a fan e-mail telling her this and asking if she ever
taught classes. I told her I had had some success with having stories and two
novels accepted, but hadn’t had the guts to try for AHMM or EQMM, but reading
her story moved me and I hoped there was a way I could learn from her.

Her
reply was, as I came to learn, classic Bonnie. Humble and a lesson in itself:

Hi, Debra–

Thank you so much for your kind words about “Thea.” My goodness! That
didn’t just make my day–it made my week, possibly my whole month.

No, I don’t teach any online classes. I’m a retired English professor  (at
least a temporarily retired

one–who knows what the future holds?), but even
when I was teaching, I usually taught composition and literature; I taught
creative writing only a few times, and I’m not sure I was very good at it. I
don’t know of any classes to recommend, but I can tell you that my favorite
books on writing fiction are Stephen King’s
On Writing (especially the
second half of the book) and Francine Prose’s
Reading Like a
Writer
. I also like Renni Browne and Dave King’s Self-Editing
for Fiction Writers
–I don’t agree with everything the authors say, but it’s a
thought-provoking book. Blake Snyder’s
Save the Cat focuses on
screenplay writing, but I find the advice on story structure helpful
(especially Chapter 4). And if you’d be interested in some old-fashioned advice
that still seems sound to me, you might look at Anthony Trollope’s
An
Autobiography
, especially chapters 12–14 (though there’s good advice
scattered in many other chapters,too).

I hope that’s helpful. Again, thank you for what you said about
“Thea.” I’m going to treasure those words!

Regards,
 Bonnie

We exchanged further e-mails and posts of mutual
encouragement and congrats in the next few months and agreed to meet in person
in Raleigh at Bouchercon. We met, embraced, talked and began a tradition with
Paula Benson and Art Taylor of sharing a meal.

In the months that followed I read more of her stories, as
well as her adult and YA novels: Interpretation
of Murder
and Fighting Chance.
We talked a lot about Fighting Chance,
which I five starred and she wrote a blog about on my personal blog, “It’s Not Always a Mystery.” The book
also was nominated for an Agatha and other awards.

We agreed to have dinner at Malice, but she couldn’t join
Paula, Art and me after she fell and was injured just before the conference. We
toasted her in abstentia, but made up for it with a delicious group dinner at
Bouchercon New Orleans and drinks at Malice 2017.  Because she couldn’t do a private dinner at
Malice 2017 (I sat at her table during the banquet where her novella, The Last Blue Glass, was honored as an
Agatha nominee), we made definite plans for dinner in October at Bouchercon
2017. Malice, in Bethesda, was only drinks because she used her dinners, other
than the banquet, to visit with her daughters Sarah and Rachel.

That brings me to the true passion in her life. Family.
Bonnie was like a school girl in her love and adoration for her husband,
Dennis. Seeing them together at conferences or in pictures she posted on
Facebook from their wedding, there was no difference in the looks of devotion
and joy they shared. Her talk of her two daughters, Sarah and Rachel, and of
Sarah’s children’s accomplishments combined praise, love, and pride. This year,
we compared nachas (happiness) of having our first grandchildren’s bar/bat
mitzvahs and kidded we should introduce her unmarried Jewish daughter to my
single Jewish son.

There won’t be any more dinners or talk of introducing our
children, but what I will remember is a package I received a week after Malice
2017. It contained a note and five copies of the May/June 2017 issue of Alfred
Hitchcock Mystery Magazine
that Bonnie and Dennis collected from their
registration bags and the giveaway room. The note told me she knew I would want
extra copies of the issue that had my name on the cover and my first AHMM
story, The Night They Burned Ms. Dixie’s
Place
in it and that she thought it was an award winning story. Who knows
if it will be nominated for anything at the next events at which it is
eligible, but it won the biggest award in my book – Bonnie’s approval.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
A few other excellent tributes to Bonnie can be found at:
Remembering B.K. Stevens – Art Taylor – Sleuthsayers  http://www.sleuthsayers.org/2017/08/remembering-bk-stevens.html

B.K. “Bonnie” Stevens: True Friend and Good Writer – Paula Benson – The Stiletto Gang https://www.thestilettogang.com/2017/08/bk-bonnie-stevens-true-friend-and-good.html

Clicking Our Heels – Summer Reading List

Summer
is almost over, but there still is time for a few great summer reads before
Labor Day. Here are a few suggestions from members of The Stiletto Gang.

Paula
Benson
:
Gigi Pandian’s Accidental Alchemist
mysteries — The Accidental Alchemist, The Marauding Magician,
and The Elusive Elixir — I love the living gargoyle, Dorian
Robert-Houdin. His vegetarian recipes almost convince me to try that lifestyle.

Anything by Lori Rader-Day — The Black
Hour
, Little Pretty Things, and The Day I Died — Her novels
will all keep you on the edge of your seat.

Lee S. Robinson’s Lawyer for the Dog
and Lawyer for the Cat — two great legal chick lit virtual journeys to
Charleston, SC. They will keep you laughing and turning pages.


Cathy
Perkins
:

I’m a
little burned out on mysteries (perish the thought!) so this week, I’m reading
Kristin Hannah’s Firefly Lane; Lisa
Unger’s Ink and Bone; and Glen Erik
Hamilton’s Past Crimes (because you
can never not read mysteries).

Dru
Ann Love
:

Lowcountry Bonfire by Susan M. Boyer 
The Tell-Tale Tarte by Maya Corrigan 
Death of a Bachelorette by Laura Levine 
Down a Dark Road by Linda Castillo 
Cat About Town by Cat Conte 
Hollywood
Homicide
by Kellye Garrett

Barbara
Plum
:

HOW EMOTIONS ARE MADE by Lisa Feldman
Barrett–a surprising and different twist on the brain and emotions. THE ACHIEVEMENT HABIT by Bernard Roth, a
Stanford engineer who has created a program to harness the wanna-save-the-world
ideals of young students.

Juliana Aragon Fatula:

Sherman
Alexie Memoir You Don’t Have to Say You
Love Me
,
the absolute true diary of a part time
indian
,

by
Denise Chavez: The King and Queen of
Comezon, A Taco Testimony, Meditations on Family, Food,  and Culture, The
Last of the Menu Girls



by Joy
Harjo: A Map to the Next World

by
Leslie Marmon Silko: Storyteller

by
Louise Penny: How the Light Gets In


Linda Rodriguez:

I’ll go
with what I want to read myself (but probably won’t have a chance to until
summer’s gone).

REEK OF
RED HERRINGS by Catriona McPherson
MURDER ON THE RED RIVER by Marcie Rendon
GARDEN OF LAMENTATIONS by Deborah
Crombie
ARACHNID VERVE by Shauna Osborne
CITIZEN by Claudia Rankin
THE OBELISK GATE by N.K. Jemisin
IRRADIATED CITIES by Mariko Nagai
COURT OF FIVES by Kate Elliott

Jennae Phillippe:

Oh man. Whatever makes you
happy? I tend to go lighter in the summer, heavier in the winter. But I find
recommending books really hard. I would suggest people check out The Stiletto
Gang authors. 😛

Sparkle Abbey:


Anita: I
haven’t read as many books as I’d like. I’ve been reading meal prep cookbooks.
I finally finished Death but Tiara and Death of a Bachelorette by Laura Levine.

Mary
Lee
: I’m doing a lot of reading different things this summer. Mysteries,
of course, women’s fiction, and non-fiction. Some I’d recommend are: Flight
Patterns
by Karen White; Death of a Bachelorette by Laura Levine, and The
Knowledge Illusion
by Steven Sloman and Philip Fernbach.

Kay Kendall:

*Trail of Echoes: A Detective Elouise Norton Novel by Rachel
Howzell Hall  

*Kilmoon: A County Clare Mystery by Lisa Alber


*Quiet Neighbors: A Novel by Catriona McPherson
*The Darkest Secret: A
Novel
 by Alex Marwood      

                                                                                                    


Food of Thoughts

By Bethany Maines

Last weekend, I participated in a local author program
called Food for Thought.  Put on by the local
business district in partnership with a local literary group, CreativeColloquy, the program hosts different authors each week at a farmer’s market
for a minimal fee ($5).  These type of
events are great ways to connect with readers, brush up on my “elevator pitch”
for books, and see what’s resonating with the public.  The elevator pitch is essentially a one to
two sentence synopsis of a book.  And
with that many people visiting the booth, I can try out different versions and
wording to see what pitch makes people look interested in a book.  For my Carrie Mae Mysteries, slightly older
ladies resonate with “It’s the story of what would happen if Mary Kay ran an
international espionage organization.”  But
the younger women and men do better with “If James Bond was a woman.”  Even if I didn’t end up selling a good amount
of books, that kind of market research is pretty invaluable.  But, of course, being out in the public is
also a way to connect with the… um… unique individuals that walk among us.
My favorite unique person this last weekend was the
gentlemen who told us a series of stories about his experiences with ghosts
including some “Indians” because he had been staying at a house built on an “Indian
Burial Ground.”  The problem was that as
he meandered on about his experiences, the Native Americans he described
sounded straight on out of the movies, and lacked any resemblance to the actual
tribes that populate the area.  Not all
tribes wear “leathers” crazy face.  Our
tribes used capes woven from cedar bark and a type of fabric woven from the
hair of a now extinct type of dog.  <LEARN MORE HERE>  So…
try being more educated before doing drugs. Also, and not for nothing, if a
housing developer were to find human remains, archaeologists and police would
have to be called and the local tribes would claim the bodies.  Nobody wants to build on top of human remains
– they disintegrate, leaving cavities in the ground and make foundations
unstable.  It’s unsound construction, OK,
nut job?  And also, also, you’re scaring
people away from my booth.

But he’s just the tiny fly in the ointment. The majority of
people at such events are at minimum polite and usually excited about talking
to an actual author.  And in the end, talking to such enthusiastic readers and writers are what keep me coming back to
these type of events.  So if you see me
out and about, stop by to say hi.  Just
don’t tell me about your ghost experience… unless it’s historically accurate.
***
Bethany Maines is the author of the Carrie
Mae Mysteries
, Wild Waters, Tales
from the City of Destiny
and An
Unseen Current
.  
You can also view the Carrie Mae youtube video
or catch up with her on Twitter and Facebook.

B.K. “Bonnie” Stevens, True Friend and Good Writer

My first panel at Malice with Sally Goldenbaum, Liz Stauffer, Bonnie, me, and Wendy Tyson

by Paula Gail Benson


“It
is not often that someone comes along who is a true friend and a good writer.”
E.B. White,
Charlotte’s Web
When
we learned last week about B.K. “Bonnie” Stevens passing, Shari Randall
(writer, librarian, blogging partner, and friend) reminded me of E.B. White’s
novel and his description of the barn spider Charlotte who, by weaving
carefully chosen words into her web, saved Wilbur the pig’s life.
Bonnie
embodied the phrase, “true friend and good writer.” Her life was a testament
to the importance of constantly reaching out to others, eagerly opening your
mind to learn, and joyously communicating.
Like
Charlotte, Bonnie spoke truthfully, honestly, and with respect for the
complexities of the world. She also understood the power and wonder of
individuals sharing their lives with each other.
Chronologically,
I did not know Bonnie for a long period of time, but our connection and friendship
is enduring. I know that her inspiration, advice, and encouragement are part of
my life forever.
Maybe
one thing that drew us together, besides my great admiration for her prose, was
our backgrounds in and appreciation of education. Bonnie spent a good portion
of her life as an instructor and I came from a family of teachers. From that environment,
you realize how delightful discovering new facts and information can be.
As
I read Bonnie’s longer biography on her website, I realized that her philosophy
of remaining open to whatever life brought her continued to enrich her own experience.
Through her fiction and nonfiction, she passed that joy along to her readers.
While
reading Bonnie’s stories or being able to discuss writing with her were
incredible treats, experiencing her generosity of spirit was truly humbling. I
once got up the nerve to ask if she would read one of my stories and give me
feedback. She did so promptly with excellent suggestions, but also asked what
others had told me about the story. All perspectives of the writing process
were fascinating to her. Later, she asked me to read and react to a play she
had written. I hesitated, wondering if my comments possibly could be of any
help to her. After all, she had won an award for this play. She assured me that
she wanted to hear from me because I wrote plays and directed them for a drama
ministry, and my view, as someone who had staged a play, would give her
valuable insight.
One
of the kindest and most incredible gifts that Bonnie and her husband Dennis
gave me was a phenomenal birthday celebration during Bouchercon in New Orleans.
In advance, Bonnie sent me a list of possible venues, each sounding more
wonderful than the last, and asked me to pick the location. She gathered good
friends Art Taylor, Debra Goldstein, and Riley Miller to join us. By the end of
the blissful evening, we had a table full of desserts (including the most
delicious jalapeno lime cheesecake as well as an Almond Joy chocolate cake) and
the great satisfaction of an unforgettable time spent in lovely conversation. [Please
look for Art Taylor’s “Remembering Bonnie Stevens” message and other tributes by fellow bloggers on SleuthSayers.org
and Debra Goldstein’s “In Memory of Bonnie (B.K.) Stevens” to be posted on
Friday, August 25, 2017, here on The Stiletto Gang.]
Bonnie
gave selflessly to so many. Just recently, I saw Kaye George’s remembrance of
meeting Bonnie when she came to Kaye’s book signing at Malice Domestic. Kaye
asked, “Are you the B.K.
Stevens?” Bonnie said she was and asked Kaye, then President of the Guppies,
the online chapter for Sisters in Crime, how she could join. From the time she
became a member, Bonnie was constantly sending out words of welcome and
congratulations.
When
she began her blog “The First Two Pages,” Bonnie set out to highlight other
writers’ work by allowing them to analyze the beginning of a short story or
novel. Her initial post came from Kaye George and the latest messages are from
the contributors to Kaye’s anthology to celebrate the solar eclipse, Day of the Dark (Wildside Press), some
of whom are making their debut publication.
As
I prepare to post these words on Monday, August 21, 2017, the day our country
experiences the eclipse from coast to coast, I’m reminded of a special theatre tradition
to recognize the passing of well known members of the Broadway community — the simultaneous
dimming of all the marquee lights for one minute at the 8:00 pm curtain hour.
When the lights come back up, the shows go on.

While I experience
this solar eclipse, I’ll remember Bonnie, my true friend and good writer, and
think about all that she has done for the many lives she has touched. Thank you
Dennis and daughters Sarah and Rachel for sharing her with us.

My New Orleans Bouchercon Birthday

When a Writer Faces a True Life Crisis

Recently,
I have been trying to help a dear friend, who’s dealing with major
chronic illness, the results of unhealed traumatic brain injury,
vision problems, flood and tornado damage to her farm and house, and
a right hand where a bone has come completely unmoored, requiring
hand surgery. This woman, almost 70, is a major poet and novelist. In
fact, her most famous and successful novel is often included on lists
of Best Novels of the 20
th Century.
(The problem is that she was robbed of all royalties for this book
that’s just been issued in a new edition after twenty printings.
Never saw a dime, was told it just wasn’t selling, and now has a
lawyer from the Authors Guild working on trying to recover some of
her stolen monies.)
My
friend struggles to deal with all these issues, including massive
amounts of pain, as she lives a financially precarious life based on
reading and workshop fees and visiting writer gigs. She lost her
tenured professorship years ago when she suffered TBI, and they
wouldn’t allow her time for rehabilitation. She has recovered her
ability to write beautifully, to teach, to give talks and readings,
but the executive ability of her brain is permanently damaged,
meaning she can’t organize her papers, she loses track of dates and
commitments, and she basically can’t find what she needs when she
needs it. And now the vision problem and the need for surgery on her
hand have struck.
As
part of what I’ve been doing to help her, other than to be a
shoulder to cry on long distance, I have been researching sources of
help for writers in real crisis like this. And I have discovered that
there are a number of resources out there. I’ve sent them to her
and am now helping her to apply for some financial aid to hire
someone to deal with the tornado and flood damage and to hire a
college student to help her organize her papers, set up a filing
system, coordinate her calendar, and help her with typing on the new
novel she’s been trying so hard to finish during all this.
It
made me think about the knife edge many of us live on as writers. I’d
have been in her situation recently when going through cancer
treatments and surgeries while already dealing with chronic,
disabling illness—if I hadn’t had my dear, supportive, gainfully
employed husband but had been all alone like her. So I thought I’d
post the resources for writers in emergency situations here for all
our readers. Maybe save it for a rainy day—because you never know
when you might be facing similar difficulties.
http://www.pen.org/writers-emergency-fund –
This is the granddaddy of all emergency grants to writers. PEN
realized how vulnerable writers could be many, many years ago and set
up this fund, which has grown through the years and allowed them to
help hundreds of writers in emergency
situations.

http://www.thehavenfdn.org/about –
This is a foundation funded by Stephen King after he was struck by a
hit-and-run driver and lost years of work to surgeries and
rehabilitation. King, of course, was a millionaire, so it wasn’t a
financial hardship for him, but he came from poverty and thought
about what this would have done to him when he was starting out and
hadn’t had a bestseller yet. This fund not only provides a sum up
front for emergencies, but can provide up to $2,000/month for six or
more months while someone is going through a major situation and
trying to get back on her/his feet. Yay, Stephen King!
Change,
Inc.

(212)
473-3742

Change,
Inc. provides one-time emergency grants of up to $1,000 to artists of
any discipline. Applicants must be professional artists who can
demonstrate need. Each applicant must submit a detailed letter
describing the financial emergency, copies of outstanding bills,
medical fee estimates and current financial statements, along with a
career resume, reviews, exhibition or performance announcements, and
two letters of reference from someone in affiliated field. For more
information, write to:
Change Emergency Funds
Change, Inc.
P.O.
Box 54
Captiva, FL 33924
Carnegie
Fund for Authors

The
Carnegie Fund offers grants to published writers who are in need due
to an emergency, whether medical or otherwise. The fund does not
award grants for work projects.
Individuals wishing to apply can
write to the following address to request an application:
Carnegie
Fund for Authors
Post Office Box 409
Lenox Hill Station
New
York, NY 10021
Author’s
League Fund 

31
East 32nd Street, 7th Floor
New York, NY 10016
Fund offers
interest-free loans of between $2,000 and $3,000 to writers with
severe medical/health-related problems and other serious misfortunes.
No membership necessary. Application and details available on web
site: 
www.authorsleaguefund.org Most
supportive of older authors
American
Poets Fund- Emergency Funds

The
Academy of American Poets
584 Broadway Suite 1208
New York, NY
10012
The fund assists poets of demonstrated ability who are in a
state of urgent financial need. Grants cannot be used to promote or
otherwise enhance literary talent or reputation, and applications are
not accepted. Academy Chancellors, Fellows, and prize winners must
bring the circumstances of qualifying poets to the attention of the
American Poets Fund committee by sending a letter of nomination,
including specifics about the nominee’s current financial situation,
to the Executive Director of the Academy. For more information,
please visit:  
www.speculativeliterature.org/Writing/medical.php 
I
hope none of our readers or bloggers ever need these resources, but
even then, one of our friends might, so I’d suggest you save this
information somewhere permanent. Often people like my friend will
struggle alone in silence through heartbreaking circumstances because
they have no idea that such help exists.

Linda Rodriguez’s Plotting the
Character-Driven Novel,
based on her popular workshop, and The
World Is One Place: Native American Poets Visit the Middle East
,
an anthology she co-edited, are her newest books. Every Family
Doubt
, her fourth mystery novel featuring Cherokee campus police
chief, Skeet Bannion, will appear January 17, 2018. Her three earlier
Skeet novels—Every Hidden Fear, Every Broken Trust,
and Every Last Secret—and
her books of poetry—Skin Hunger
and Heart’s Migration—have
received critical recognition and awards, such as St. Martin’s
Press/Malice Domestic Best First Novel, International
Latino Book Award, Latina Book Club Best Book of 2014, Midwest Voices
& Visions, Elvira Cordero Cisneros Award, Thorpe Menn Award, and
Ragdale and Macondo fellowships.
Her short story, “The Good
Neighbor,” published in the anthology, Kansas City Noir, has
been optioned for film.

Rodriguez is past chair of the AWP
Indigenous Writer’s Caucus, past president of Border Crimes chapter
of Sisters in Crime, founding board member of Latino Writers
Collective and The Writers Place, and a member of International
Thriller Writers, Wordcraft Circle of Native American Writers and
Storytellers, and Kansas City Cherokee Community. Visit her at
http://lindarodriguezwrites.blogspot.com

Wedding Countdown

Wedding countdown is in full swing in the Perkins’ homes!

My daughter and her fiance have handled most of the planning (thank goodness!) allowing me to play with the fun parts. Don’t worry, there’ll be no spreadsheets and seating charts, they aren’t as much fun to look at.

Things were much simpler when my husband and I got married – well, the ceremony part was simpler, but that’s a different story. For this couple, the planning started last year. Seattle has a really short “wedding season” given its intensely beautiful summers and the kids’ preference for an outdoor wedding. Once they decided on a venue, the adventure began.

We shopped for the dress – no, she didn’t select this one, but I love the swirl of the train – and sipped champaign to celebrate when she found The Perfect Dress.  

Wine tasting in Woodinville is always fun. The wine for the reception dinner? Cases and cases stacked and ready. Caterer? Check. DJ? Check. Flowers? Check.

On and on.

And so their list of tasks clicked into the “done” column.

I got to do more of the fun stuff.

Shower with her Besties? Oh yeah.

Shower in the most beautiful backyard of my new… what do I call the mother of the groom…?

Wonderful Woman 🙂

I’ll see her at the wedding 😊






Did you do most of the planning for your kid’s wedding or let them handle it? Or does a quick trip to the courthouse sound like a better plan? Your turn! 

Cathy Perkins
started writing when recurring characters and dialogue populated her day job commuting
daydreams. Fortunately, that first novel lives under the bed, but she was
hooked on the joy of creating stories. When not writing, she can be found doing
battle with the beavers over the pond height or setting off on another travel
adventure. Born and raised in South Carolina, she now lives in Washington with
her husband, children, several dogs and the resident deer herd.

Her next book, DOUBLE DOWN, releases in September – after the wedding is over and all the guests have gone home. 

Storylines from the Past Offer Lifelines Too

by Kay Kendall

“I tried so
hard to sleep last night, but kept getting up to read more of Kay Kendall’s
DESOLATION ROW. It resonates powerfully in these troubled times . . . .”

So begins
the newest reader comment on Amazon about one of my mysteries. Of course any laudatory
review is a pleasure for an author to read about one of her book babies. However,
while I was thrilled to see five stars, I was surprised to see an emotion
expressed about reading my fiction that I never expected.


The reviewer concluded a personal email to
me by saying, “I realized that the
ideas/ideals are as compelling as the plot in your books, just what we need
right now.”
I write
historical murder mysteries, and my chosen time period is the turbulent era of
the 1960s. Back in 2012 when I finished writing DESOLATION ROW and then when it
debuted in 2013, I had hoped that setting my first book in a fraught time of
extreme unrest would be interesting. I thought it would help readers of the
baby boom generation remember their salad days and younger readers might read
and learn what it was like. The plot is fiction. The background is not. DESOLATION
ROW looks at the consequences of the Vietnam War, the anti-war movement, and
personal outcomes from military service. In RAINY DAY WOMEN published in 2015, I explore the hopes
for female improvement held by early members of the women’s liberation
movement.
One reason I
write about that time period is to describe its importance to those who know
nothing about it. Reading fiction is an easy way to learn about history.
After both
my mysteries were in print, I spoke to classes at a community college in
Alabama. Only two in one hundred students knew about Bob Dylan—my book titles
come from his songs. Moreover, none of them knew why the United States
was drawn into fighting a war in Vietnam. And none of them had ever heard of
the “domino theory.”
Another
reason I write about the 1960s is to commemorate and revivify a part of
American history that has had far reaching effects. Societal upheaval was so
intense in the 1960s that the aftershocks still are felt today. Until very
recently, that past seemed dead and buried.
Yet only two years since I spoke to those Alabama students and right now, right now the
1960s have gained new relevance. The era is evoked often on television news stations. Old battles are
being fought again in the streets of America. And readers are telling me that
my books bring them hope.


After all, they say, If we Americans got through such troubled domestic times once, we can do
so again. But hang on, dear readers, we may be in for a long and bumpy ride.

 ~~~~~~~

Read the first 20
pages of Kay Kendall’s second mystery, RANY
DAY WOMEN here!
http://www.austinstarr.com/ 
That book won two awards at the Killer Nashville conference in August 2016—for best mystery/crime and also for best book.  Visit Kay at https://www.facebook.com/KayKendallAuthor

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Running on Empty

by J.M. Phillippe

I have been trying to write this blog for several hours now. I wanted to write something about Charlottesville, VA, and about white nationalism (how it came to be, and why we can’t just abide it). I wanted to write about meeting anger with compassion, and the struggle to do that.

I also really want to write about Game of Thrones, because the last two episodes have been amazing, and it’s one of my favorite shows (in part because I also write fantasy). And it would be easier to write about that than pretty much anything else I could come up with.

And I also want to write about my struggle at work with clients who have little to no tolerance for the fallibility of others (including their therapist) and how hard that is to hold, again, with compassion.

But I just feel so bleh about it all. I am trying to hold on to the idea that what I write matters, both in this blog and in my fiction. I have been struggling to hold on to the idea that art matters, that novels matter, when I feel like I should be out marching instead of writing, or calling more senators and house representatives.

I am struggling to have enough energy to balance out all the things I want in my personal life with the national tragedy that is all around us. I am really struggling with dealing with the fact that so many people (again, including clients) don’t believe there is a national tragedy or fear the rise of white nationalism (and literal Nazis!) in our country.

I know that art matters. I know that it doesn’t have to be high and mighty, capital A Art to matter either. I know that distraction is not a bad thing when there is so much bad news happening all the time. And I know that for myself, I do best when I engage actively in creativity on a consistent basis.

And I also know that I am not the only one struggling right now, so I’m just going to put this here:

I’m going to go practice some art — even if I do it badly — so that I can refill my compassion well. It’s been on empty for a while.

***

J.M. Phillippe is the author of Perfect Likeness and the short story The Sight. She has lived in the deserts of California, the suburbs of Seattle, and the mad rush of New York City. She works as a family therapist in Brooklyn, New York and spends her free-time decorating her tiny apartment to her cat Oscar Wilde’s liking, drinking cider at her favorite British-style pub, and training to be the next Karate Kid, one wax-on at a time.

Road Trip!

A bit more than a long weekend, a bit less than a
full-fledged vacation. We recently took off for Bentonville, Arkansas—an easy
drive from Kansas City.
My plan, carefully thought out, was to leave at two and miss
the afternoon traffic. With two teenage daughters, that plan was a pipe dream.
We left at four and everyone but me in the car seemed
bemused by the number of cars on the road.
Really? Had they never heard of lake traffic? It was a
Friday.
I sat in the passenger seat and pressed an imaginary gas
pedal. Our tickets were for 8:30. Yes, tickets. We had tickets to the Chihuly
exhibit at Crystal Bridges.
Thanks to the traffic, a three-hour drive was much longer
and there were rumblings from the back seat about dinner. Loud rumblings.
Rumblings I ignored. We did, after all, have tickets.
We checked into the hotel and hurried down the outdoor trail
to the museum where we presented our tickets and viewed the Chihulys held in
the museum. Then it was outside to see the Chihulys in the forest. Needless to
say the exhibits were breath-taking. They would have been even more fabulous if
my youngest hadn’t taken to calling Chihuly Chilupah.


Apparently the child had Mexican food on her mind. That or the glass in the boat reminder her of hot peppers.
We followed the dark path away from the Chihulys. The very
dark path. So dark we got lost.
The forest had thrown off our sense of direction and we
emerged far from where we wanted to be.
I ignored the peanut gallery—“We’re hungry,”—and waved down
a shuttle.
I stuck my head inside the little bus. “Excuse me, we’re
lost.” I got no further.
“Julie?”
What were the chances of running into someone I knew?
We climbed onto the never-so-grateful-to-climb-on-a-bus
bus which took us back to the museum.
“All the restaurants will be closed,” said Miss Chilupah. “What
are we going to eat?”
“We’ll order room service.” Did room service deliver stiff
drinks?
From the museum, we took the mile-long trail back to the hotel.
We ended up eating at the hotel restaurant. They served
stiff drinks. It was marvelous.
The next morning, the Bentonville square was filled with
farmers selling produce, artists and artisans selling their wares, and all
sorts of people. My husband and I sat in the shade, drank coffee, and watched.
Eventually our daughters dragged themselves out of bed and
joined us. They had the audacity to tell me they were hungry. We got in line at
the creperie across from the hotel and the girlies happily downed fruit crepes.
Next on the itinerary was Hot Springs.
Here comes an admission. I drive on inter-states. It never
crossed my mind that there were roads of less than four lanes. I was wrong.
Very wrong.
The road from Bentonville to Fayetteville was easy.
The road from Fayetteville to Hot Springs winds. And twists.
Then winds some more.
My husband wasn’t happy. Not at all.
The situation wasn’t helped by my explanation that one could
drive anywhere at 70 miles per hour. To my way of thinking that meant 140 miles
should take two hours.
Not so on this trip.
When we finally arrived, the first thing the girls said was,
“We’re hungry.”
How did people travel without smart phones? Oldest daughter
picked a restaurant in downtown Hot Springs and the food was delicious.
We fell into bed that night.
I woke up early and wrote (deadlines are inexorable), we
went out for breakfast, then we piled into the car for yet another drive down
twisty roads.
We dug for diamonds. It was…fun. I never thought I’d enjoy
sitting in the dirt sifting through rocks. I did. We all did. We didn’t find
any diamonds.
Back to the windy road. Back to hearing, “I’m hungry.”
That night we promenaded around Hot Springs. The Grand
Promenade, then a walk past the eight bathhouses that line Central St., and
finally a visit to the Arlington Hotel (“Why aren’t we staying here, Mom?”). We
should have. My mistake.
And, unbelievably, Miss Chilupah said, “There’s the place I
want to go for breakfast.”
None of this has anything to do with mysteries or writing or
the book that’s coming out in October. Except is does. Creativity springs from
seeing new things, eating new foods, and, apparently, driving twisty, turning
roads.

Hope the remainder of your summer is filled with adventures!
Julie Mulhern is the USA Today bestselling author of The Country Club Murders. 

She is a Kansas City native who grew up on a steady diet of Agatha Christie. She spends her spare time whipping up gourmet meals for her family, working out at the gym and finding new ways to keep her house spotlessly clean–and she’s got an active imagination. Truth is–she’s an expert at calling for take-out, she grumbles about walking the dog and the dust bunnies under the bed have grown into dust lions.

Her latest book, Cold as Ice, releases October 17th.