Tag Archive for: Kay Kendall

The Vampire Lestat’s Mom and Rambo’s Dad

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By Kay Kendall
Last
week the organization International Thriller Writers (ITW) celebrated its tenth
anniversary. The star power of authors present at the celebratory conference,
ThrillerFest, ran the gamut from supernova to red dwarf. Last year when I went
to my first ThrillerFest as a debut author, I was stunned by the numerous super
stars in attendance, and also by how kind and generous they were. This year’s
meeting was even more jam-packed with sparkling talent.
 

Anne Rice is in center, with her son Christopher the tall man over her shoulder. Others left to right are R.L. Stine, David Morrell, and Scott Turow. 

Anne
Rice wrote her first novel about the vampire Lestat in 1985—she was present. David
Morrell wrote his first Rambo novel in 1972, followed by 28 more novels of
various kinds—he was there. Ditto Lee
Child, father of Jack Reacher, who first appeared in 1997, with his nineteenth tale
out next month. Scott Turow dropped by to pick up his award, Thriller Master
2014. His novel Presumed Innocent put
the legal thriller on the map in 2000, and eleven more novels followed. Other
luminaries who spoke at ThrillerFest (whose books you no doubt either read or at
least recognize) include David Baldacci, Steve Berry, Michael Connelly, Lisa
Gardner, Heather Graham, M.J. Rose, and John Sandford.
Here I am with T. Jefferson Parker.
When
you’re in such company, you can either feel insignificant—or you can choose to
be inspired. I picked the latter. The atmosphere was so supportive, of any
writer at any level, that it was easy not to be intimidated. One of the main purposes of the ITW organization is to
provide a way for successful, bestselling authors to help debut and midlist
authors advance their careers. Judging
from the two conferences I’ve attended, the contacts I’ve made, and the
networking that is ongoing, I can only conclude that this goal is being met
brilliantly.

Ian Rankin with Steve Berry in background

Helping to put the
international in the conference was one of my favorite authors, Ian Rankin. He
flew in from his home in Edinburgh, Scotland, to participate on several panels.
He has written nineteen installments in his bestselling crime series featuring
Inspector John Rebus. Another of my favorites is T. Jefferson Parker. His twenty
crime novels are set in southern California, and his next book is due this
October, called Full Measure.  

I have met Rankin and
Parker at previous book events and corresponded with both of them. They recognize
me as both a super fan of their work and an aspiring novelist. It is
heartwarming and encouraging to be treated nicely by one’s literary heroes. Now
I can’t wait to return to ThrillerFest next year. 
(By the way, I participated on a panel but forgot to ask one of my pals
to shoot the photographic evidence. Darn.) 

Cheers to ThrillerFest!

*******
Kay Kendall set her debut novel, Desolation Row—An Austin Starr Mystery,
in 1968. The Vietnam War backdrop illuminates reluctant courage and desperate
love when a world teeters on chaos. Kay’s next mystery, Rainy Day Women (2015) finds amateur sleuth Austin Starr trying to
prove a friend didn’t murder women’s liberation activists in Seattle and
Vancouver. Kay is an award-winning international PR executive living in Texas
with her Canadian husband, three house rabbits, and spaniel Wills. Very allergic to bunnies, she loves them anyway! 
Her book titles show she’s a Bob
Dylan buff too.
*******

Writers’ Lives in the Internet Age

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By Kay Kendall
Once upon a time the
image of a writer was someone who sits in a quiet room all day long and
scribbles, or types away like a maniac. The key point is that writers were seen
as introverts. Even at the beginning of this new century, that seemed to be the
stereotype.
Then as the decade of the
00’s advanced and publishing began to change, the digital intrusion into the
world of writers hit. The difference from 2004 to today is extraordinary. For example,
when I contacted agents in 2004, most of them would not take submissions by
email. Now that trend is reversed. If an agent wanted to see a partial or full
manuscript, then you snail mailed it. Agents’ websites (for the third that had
them back then) warned against sending attachments. They feared viruses.
Now, only ten years later,
each agency has a website. That is, if the agency survived. Literary agencies
have been decimated by the digital revolution. 
Writers can skip them as gatekeepers and submit directly to small
publishers or choose to go the self-publishing route.
I chaired a panel at Bloody Words 2014.
Once you are a published
writer—or about to become one—that’s when you must hit the marketing trail…Facebook,
Twitter, your blog, your webpage, Pinterest perhaps, and many other parts of
the internet world. This is super time-consuming, and if you skip these steps,
your sales will languish and your publisher will not be happy with you.
For those writers who are
true introverts, living in this new world is torture. All they really want to
do is sit at home in a quiet room and compose their stories. So they are torn,
and I do feel for them. I meet authors like this at writers’ conferences, where
they moan and say how shy they are, how they want to retreat to their hotel
rooms.
As for me, I love the
networking and marketing and meeting readers so much that it’s easy to forget
about the writing at the core of it all…which remains sitting alone in that
room and facing an empty screen and throwing type up on it. For me, that is
torture. Once I get past the first draft, then the rest is glorious.

Pictured left to right: Pamela Blance, me, Gloria Ferris, Lorie Lee Steiner, & Liz Lindsay

Last week I attended a
terrific writers’ conference in Toronto, Canada. It was called Bloody Words
2014, and participants came from all over North America. I met many authors who
were Facebook friends and now are real ones, not just virtual. There was a group
of four women—all writers from the province of Ontario—who made my visit
remarkably wonderful. One said she was an introvert, one was clearly an
extrovert, and two I’d judged to be in the middle. Whatever. We all had a
danged good time, and much of our chat was about the rigors of the publishing
world today. I almost called this blog piece “Misery Loves Company,” but nixed
the idea as too negative, especially when the whole conference was so marvelous
that it didn’t deserve any bad connotation.
Gloria Ferris & her book Corpse Flower

As promised here in my
previous post two weeks ago, I have included some photos from the event. Two
interesting twists to the usual mystery conference were the Books on Legs
runway walk. An author who had a book released in the previous half year would
strut her stuff while wearing an enlargement of that book’s cover. There were
no introverts visible on that runway!

The concluding banquet
was also novel. Attendees were encouraged to dress as fictional characters from
mysteries. Our group had these disguises—one biker chick, one hippie chick, one
pathologist named Kay Scarpetta, and two (count ‘em, two!) grieving widows. The
latter duo hinted that perhaps they had done in their spouses, but they would
never tell.
A great time was had by
all. Books were sold and autographed, contacts were established, and promises were
made to continue networking on the internet and at future conferences. 
But now
I’m back in my author’s lair, where the empty PC screen whispers that I’m 4,000 words behind on completing my manuscript by summer’s end. Or, as my grandmother used to
say, “There’s no rest for the weary.”  
*******

Kay Kendall is
an international award-winning public relations executive who lives in Texas
with her husband, three house rabbits, and spaniel Wills. A fan of historical
mysteries, she wants to do for the 1960s what novelist Alan Furst does for
Europe in the 1930s and 1940s–write atmospheric mysteries that capture the
spirit of the age.
http://www.KayKendallAuthor.com/about

Death by Stiletto

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By Kay Kendall

Earlier this
week I was brainstorming with my manager (AKA my husband) about topics for my
next piece here on the Stiletto Blog.

“Eureka,” he said. “Today on the radio I heard about a woman who’s charged with
murdering her lover using her stiletto. At first I figured it meant a stiletto
knife. But no, it was a shoe.”  

Kay & bunny Dusty

“Perfect,” I
said. “I hope I can find the story online.”  And so I began to search, typing in only these
words—stiletto murder. Up popped
pages and pages of articles. Naturally many citations were from local media
outlets, but also from major media like CNN, Huffington Post, and People
magazine.
For lots of detail about this murder, you can Google it yourself. But here is the story in a
nutshell:  
Prosecutors say Ana Trujillo (age 45) was out of control and stabbed her boyfriend Alf Andersson (age 59) at least 25 times, holding him down
until he bled to death. The defense says Andersson was an alcoholic drug user
who was drunk and attacking Ms. Trujillo, and she “did the only think she could
do.”
At least
25 times!
As luck would
have it, the murder took place in Texas. Do you realize how many interesting
(read bizarre) murders occur in this
state? Remember the cheerleader mom contracting out a hit on her daughter’s
rival for a place on the cheerleading squad? Yep, that was Texas all right.


In fact, both
the stiletto wielder and the cheerleader mom inhabited my crazy, fast-growing
city—Houston. Oh, it doth make one so very proud. Yes indeed. (All jokes aside, but I
really do love living in Houston.)
I once read an
article that said if you want to publish a bestseller, then just throw the name
Texas into the title. That state name outsells any other. Again, I am so proud. Texas Chain Saw Massacre anyone? 
Seriously, it’s
a good thing that I enjoy unusual human behavior, since I live where I do.
There is so much material just lying all around, material for a mystery author
like myself to pick up and use.
Now, I’m not
going to claim that Texas has a lock on unusual behavior. Immediately other
states come to mind—like California and Florida. Or cities like Chicago and New
Orleans. Places where unusual behavior is more commonplace then where I was
born and raised—Kansas. When all people can say about your state of birth is
that a fictional character named Dorothy wore sparkly red shoes and had a
little dog named Toto, you know they think your state is boring.
No one ever
says Texas is boring. For good or ill, I cannot argue that fact.
Here’s why I’m
telling you all this. It’s because mystery authors have a warped sense of
interest in some things. I am totally curious about all human behavior, what makes
people tick, as we used to say all the time. I could care less how a car runs
or anything else technical. Just bores me to tears. But people, oh how
endlessly fascinating they all are—we
all are.
That’s the kind
of mystery I like to write—when the person “who done it” seems to be a perfectly normal
human being, but then snaps. I don’t care for the serial killers who everyone admits
are out and out crazy. Where’s the interest, the mystery, in that?
The British writer
Anne Perry has produced endless streams of who-done-its, now numbering more
than 60 books that have sold more than 26 million copies worldwide. At least
the first half of them featured killers who were actually nice people, driven
to do the ultimate evil deed, murder.
When I first
began reading her books in the early 1990s, I noted that quirk in her fiction
right away. Then in 1994 a film was released—Heavenly Creatures, an early feature directed by Peter
Jackson, who went on to direct the hugely successful Lord of the Rings trilogy—that let the cat out of the proverbial
bag. 


As a teenager, Anne Perry had helped a friend kill her mother in 1954.
Both teens were imprisoned in their home country of New Zealand, and then
released five years later under the condition that they never see each other
again. Ms. Perry had gone on to adopt a pseudonym and make a new life for herself. I
myself sat beside her during a luncheon at which she was going to speak. (Of
course we were in Houston!)
Now if that
doesn’t tell you truth is stranger than fiction, I don’t know what would.
========

I wonder if any of you are as fascinated by this tale as I am? The teen killers did not use a stiletto. Do you know what weapon they did use to murder the mother in NZ?

For more on
Anne Perry (real name Juliet Hulme, played by Kate Winslet in the film), I
recommend reading these:
http://www.stuff.co.nz/the-press/news/7367284/Perry-biography-breaks-silence
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/arts/books-and-media/when-anne-perrys-dark-past-was-revealed/article4592201/
*******
Kay Kendall is an international award-winning public relations
executive who lives in Texas with her husband, five house rabbits, and spaniel
Wills. A fan of historical mysteries, she wants to do for the 1960s what
novelist Alan Furst does for Europe in the 1930s during Hitler’s rise to
power–write atmospheric mysteries that capture the spirit of the age.





http://www.KayKendallAuthor.com



Stories—Tell Me Yours

/in /by
By Kay Kendall

I write historical murder
mysteries, and my chosen time period is the turbulent era of the 1960s. My work
in progress is set in 1969, entitled Rainy
Day Women. This time my amateur sleuth, Austin Starr, gets drawn into a
murder investigation when her best friend, Larissa Klimenko, is suspected of
killing a leader in the women’s liberation movement. The action takes place in
those notoriously rain drenched cities of Seattle, Washington, and Vancouver,
British Columbia.

Like my debut book, Desolation Row, this second one takes
its name from the title of a famous Bob Dylan song. Dylan’s oeuvre is so vast
and so comprehensive that I can find almost anything I need to illustrate among
his song titles. Luckily for me, titles of creative works are not covered by copy
write law. When members of the boomer generation see the titles of my mysteries,
almost all of them will know that the books will either take place in the
sixties—or at minimum evoke them.


If you are reading this,
you may scoff when I say that what I write is historical fiction. It’s not that long ago, you may think.
Why, perhaps you yourself lived during that time. That cannot be history.

But, no, it is history.
That time is dead and gone. Five decades gone.

Last week I spoke to
classes at a community college in Alabama. Only about two in one hundred
students had heard the name of Bob Dylan. 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.”

Yep, stick a fork in the
sixties. They are done.

One reason I choose to
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.

The other reason 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. We have only to watch TV news to see the rage called forth by the
changing, broadening roles of women to realize that these ideas are not yet
settled.

While Desolation Row looks at the consequences of the Vietnam War, the
anti-war movement, and personal outcomes from military service…in Rainy Day Women, I explore the hopes for
female improvement held by early members of the women’s liberation movement.



Participating in that
movement was one of the most important intellectual endeavors I ever undertook.
The magnitude of changes that the movement made in me cannot be underestimated.
In my daily life, I speak occasionally about this, but I seldom hear others do
so.

I know that there are other women whose lives
were changed as mine was. I would love to hear your stories.

In my first book I used one
real military tale from World War II. I felt it was almost a sacred experience
that I didn’t want to disrespect by making up events…although I certainly fictionalized
them enough so that no one can tell whose stories they were.

Similarly, in my new
book, Rainy Day Women I would like to
include a few real memories from real women who participated in women’s
liberation groups.

Whatever you’ve got to
share, I am eager to listen. Rest assured, I will not incorporate your words
into my writing without asking your permission. I hope you will let me hear
from you. 

*******
Kay and her bunny Dusty
Kay
Kendall is an international
award-winning public relations executive who lives in Texas with her husband,
five house rabbits, and spaniel Wills. A fan of historical mysteries, she wants
to do for the 1960s what novelist Alan Furst does for Europe in the 1930s
during Hitler’s rise to power–write atmospheric mysteries that capture the
spirit of the age.

Discover more about her at 
http://www.KayKendallAuthor.com




What I’ve Learned So Far

/in /by
By Kay Kendall

Are you writing
a book…or contemplating doing it? If so, here are things I’ve learned since
finishing my debut novel. Maybe these tips will help you, or at least you’ll
find them interesting.

1. Keep reading.
Just because you’re writing your own book, that doesn’t mean you can stop
reading other ones. In fact, I’ve read more, not less, since I began to write
fiction. I submerged myself in the mystery/suspense genre for almost two years
before I started Desolation Row—An Austin
Starr Mystery. Picking up the tricks of the trade by osmosis suits me
better than gulping a dozen dry how-to tomes. Of course, I read those too!

2. Keep a writer’s
notebook. Brilliant thoughts are fleeting. You need to pin them down before
they get away. Because I write about the sixties, I often find character traits
and plot points when reading obituaries in the New York Times, for example, and if I don’t capture those flashes
of insight, they will leave me. I annotate my clippings and put them in my
bulging notebook. Some ideas are for the second book I’m writing now, while
others will fit in the third or fourth of my Austin Starr series. I’ll be
delighted to find the clippings a few years from now when I start writing the
relevant stories. My mind is like my bulging notebook, and sometimes things
fall out because of crowding. It’s far easier to keep the physical clippings
together. Or online digitally.

3. Keep note-taking
material beside your bed. Lesson learned the hard way. Early in my
transition to becoming an author, I’d be on a hot streak writing a first draft,
go to bed, wake up at two in the morning, have a fantastic revelation about
plot, turn over and go to sleep, confident I’d recall everything in the
morning. Wrong! Scintillating night thoughts went poof in the light of day. Twice was enough to teach me to keep
paper and pencil on the night stand. Whatever the technology you choose, be
sure to keep it handy. A tiny voice recorder works too, or making notes on your
cell phone or tablet.

4. Keep up with your
pals. Writing can be a lonely pursuit, and trying to get published these
days is a killer. I needed all the support I could get, and my friends stepped up
and stayed there right beside me on my journey. They kept me going through the
darkest days and have been my staunchest supporters and shared my joy upon
publication. I’ve also made new friends as I’ve joined writers’ critique groups
and associations. Many writers are said to be introverts, but I’m not. Two new
pals who write mysteries are extreme introverts, and I keep in close touch with
them and actively encourage them to mingle with other writers. I’m a staunch
believer in the truth of what Barbra Streisand sang back in the sixties.
Remember this? “People who need people are the luckiest people in the world.”

5. Keep walking
the dog. Or running, spinning, or dancing.
Whatever exercise you used to do before you became an avid or full-time writer,
don’t stop. Health gurus are adamant that sitting all day is a terrible habit
that can lead to early death and/or dementia. Besides, when I’m on my exercise
bike, I zone out and then, given enough time, ideas for my writing zone in. The
mind-body connection is worth protecting with sufficient exercise. Even when
I’m on a deadline, I try to stick to this rule. However, it’s time for a true
confession. I have trouble with this one, actually walking the talk.


6. Keep the faith.  Ralph Waldo Emerson wrote, “Go confidently in the
direction of your dreams. Live the life you have imagined.” When I first saw
that quote on a coffee mug for sale at Whole Foods a decade ago, I was too
scared to pick it up. How dare I think I could write a novel? But I forced
myself to buy that mug, and after using it for two years and writing my first
manuscript, I began timidly to call myself a writer. I began to have faith
that I would finish a book and eventually get it published. When the first one
didn’t sell, I wrote the second. My friends (see #4 above) helped keep me
going. I persevered until the second manuscript sold and became Desolation Row. Now my work in progress
is Rainy Day Women, and I’m outlining
the third, Tangled Up in Blue.  I
have faith I will complete those because I’ve pushed through the dark times,
“getting by with a little help from my friends.” Footnote to the Beatles for
that one, plus maybe you can tell by my book titles that my amateur sleuth
Austin Starr is a huge fan of Bob Dylan.

7. Keep on keeping on. Once I found what works to make my writing life roll along
as smoothly as possible, I’ve kept on doing it. Sometimes I find guidelines in
how-to articles suggesting that my
way is not the right way. The best writing coaches add the caveat, though, that
there is no perfect method of writing a novel.
I’ve
now been at this venture long enough that I’ve come across some authors who do
have habits similar to mine. While most experts advise that a first draft
should be done as rapidly as possible, without editing as you go. I find I
cannot do that. Just can’t. Feeling a little guilty, I wrote my way through Desolation Row, editing obsessively,
until one day—lo and behold—I found an interview in which the bestselling
author explained that he always began his writing day by editing what he’d
written the day before. Well, what a relief! I was okay. Now I count this as a
lesson learned. As we used to say back in the day, just keep on truckin’. 

~~~~~~~
Kay Kendall is an international award-winning public relations executive who lives in Texas with her husband, five house rabbits, and spaniel Wills. A fan of historical mysteries, she wants to do for the 1960s what novelist Alan Furst does for Europe in the 1930s during Hitler’s rise to power–write atmospheric mysteries that capture the spirit of the age.

Discover more about Kay’s debut book, DESOLATION ROW, here at
http://www.KayKendallAuthor.com

Fashions of the Times

/in /by

By Kay Kendall

I adore fashion. I can’t help it. It’s genetic. Both my grandmothers and my mother enjoyed clothes, jewelry, and dressing up. At the age of ten I had a weekly hair appointment at a salon. Shopping trips to the big city of Wichita from my hometown of 12,000 were a monthly highlight. In early years Mother and I even donned gloves for the 25-mile trip. When my Texas grandmother took me to the original Neiman Marcus in downtown Dallas, I almost swooned.

Now, flash forward to the eighties. Shoulder pads made the scene. Love at first sight! They helped balance my proportions, counteracting my hips. My mother, however, was appalled. “My dresses had big shoulders in the forties, and I’m not excited about things I wore before.” I didn’t understand. How could she be so stuffy?

With this new millennium, boho chic arrived. But it’s all sixties fashion to me. Retro hippie would be an even better name. The first time I saw nouveau bell-bottom trousers in an issue of Vogue ca. 2003, I groaned. Oh, surely that will never catch on again, I mused to myself, throwing the magazine aside in disgust. Then came the beads, the peasant blouses, and all the other hippie accouterments. The only thing not seen in redux-land is a version of my old macrame purse.

 Soon celebrities in the under thirty-five age group staked out hippie chic as their own look. Try an online search of images for entertainers Nicole Richie or Sienna Miller, and fashion stylist and designer Rachel Zoe. Every image of them is heavily influenced by the sixties. Nicole even wears macrame occasionally.

At first, like my mother twenty-five years ago, I spurned the return of styles I’d worn before. But boho chic gained strength and crept into more and more clothes. I’ve been thinking about this a lot since Stairway Press of Seattle published my debut mystery set in the sixties. Desolation Row—An Austin Starr Mystery features a young bride from Texas who gets swept along by the tides of history during that turbulent time.

The choice of cover was tricky. The design had to evoke the Vietnam War era without turning off potential readers. Real photos from the period are too grungy, but countless current pictures are for sale of young female models dressed like hippies. We chose one of those photos, and the result has drawn raves. “Isn’t she, er, fetching?” a bestselling male author gulped as he stared at my book cover, almost drooling.

To set the mood at my book signings, I often wear blouses and boot-cut pants (not bell-bottoms) like those I wore back then and throw on some beads and ethnic-y earrings to complete the effect. Luckily for me, there’s no dearth of such clothes and jewelry to choose from.

How about you? Are there styles that have returned (from the dead, as it were) that delight you? That you are happy to wear again? Or are there other styles that have as yet to resurface and you wish they’d hurry and return?

Personally, I think how one dresses is a great form of self-expression. I love playing with style. Sure, it’s vain, I guess, but it is still fun!

~~~~~~~
Kay Kendall is an international award-winning public relations executive who lives in Texas with her husband, five house rabbits, and spaniel Wills. A fan of historical mysteries, she wants to do for the 1960s what novelist Alan Furst does for Europe in the 1930s during Hitler’s rise to power–write atmospheric mysteries that capture the spirit of the age.

The Generosity of Mystery Authors

/in /by
by Kay Kendall
The first conference for mystery fans that I attended
was Bouchercon 2011 in St. Louis. Previously I’d only attended writers’
conferences where would-be authors pitched manuscripts to agents and sat at the
feet of those hallowed gods/goddesses called published authors. Bouchercon,
billed as the “World Mystery and
Suspense Conference,“ was an entirely different breed of cat. I couldn’t
get my mind around what was going on.  
And then I got it! The published mystery authors weren’t there to tell us
how to write, how to sell, or how to win an agent. No, they were there to talk
about their writing and their writing worlds. Once I figured that out, I soaked
up every tiny detail that came my way. And I loved it.

I’m holding Charlaine’s LIVING DEAD IN DALLAS,
 the second Sookie Stackhouse book,
and she holds my debut mystery, DESOLATION ROW. 

The session that stands out, still to this day, was an
afternoon panel of new authors. One man exclaimed his astonishment over the
generosity of mystery writers. He said they supported each other and even him—a
newbie. But he was shocked to discover that mystery writers do so little
backbiting. Then he leaned over and leveled a hard look at us in the rapt
audience. “Poets are not like that,” he said. “I’ve attended meetings of poets
with a relative, and they’re just awful.” The audience howled.
While I can’t comment on poets, I can say from experience
that mystery authors are indeed generous. At Bouchercon 2012 in Cleveland I met
two authors who later agreed to blurb my debut mystery, Desolation Row. First,
thriller writer extraordinaire Norb Vonnegut gave key advice that helped me through
final edits. Whenever I need advice from
a seasoned pro, I still turn to Norb. Janet Maslin, influential book review at the
New York Times, calls him “the author of three glittery thrillers about fiscal
malfeasance” in which “he is three for three in his own improbably sexy genre.” 
The second author was Hank Phillippi Ryan, to whom I
was introduced only in passing. Yet brief as that encounter was, this
multi-award winning mystery author agreed to blurb my debut effort when I asked
her. 
As well, Stiletto Gang member Linda Rodriguez reached
out to me as an online pal to offer help setting up a bookstore event in the
Kansas City area. (Her writing career began as a poet so she may disagree with
the opinion I quote above.)
I could go on and on, but you get the idea. Mystery
authors are a benevolent group. At heart they love the genre we write in and
seem to understand that the success of one does not take away from the others. In
fact, a whole organization has been founded on that principle, the
International Thriller Writers. After attending Bouchercon 2004 in Toronto, ITW
founding members decided to reach down and pull up writers who needed help in
climbing the slippery slope to publication, “providing opportunities for mentoring, education and
collegiality among thriller authors and industry professionals.” 
A much older organization is the Mystery Writers of America founded in 1945. It underwrites MWA-University, one-day seminars led by
experienced authors who share their how-to advice for a minuscule fee. The session
I attended last weekend in Dallas was, as the under-30s would say, “awesome.” The
attached photo of me with Charlaine Harris was taken at that event. When this
creator of the Sookie Stackhouse series of paranormal mysteries (on which the
HBO series True Blood is based) wished me success like hers, I almost fell
over. In truth, I’d be pleased with one percent of her enormous fan base.

Traditionally the holiday season is when we are encouraged
to be more big-hearted and giving than usual. As I contemplated blogging about generosity, I remembered the mystery authors I’ve been privileged to meet. While I can’t
thank each one individually because they’re too numerous, I can offer this
posting as an ode to them collectively. Both their writing and the generosity
of their spirit serve to inspire me. 

Kay Kendall
~~~~~~~
To celebrate the conclusion of 2013, the year in which my debut mystery was published, I will give away one copy of Desolation Row to someone who leaves a comment here about the joys of reading mysteries . . . or how you feel about mystery authors . . . or, heck, anything that you think is related! 

The Oldest Web Mistress in Captivity!

/in /by
By Kay Kendall
Once upon a time—let’s
say 1994—I directed public relations for a science institute that developed the
second website in all of the great state of Texas. The scientist who designed this
strange bird was proud, knowing it was The Future. However, try as he might, he
could not get the other scientists to understand how important it was, this new
wave of communication.
Finally, at long last, a
second scientist got with the program and complained in a Faculty Meeting,
august body that it was, how sad this institute’s website was, how deplorable,
how it needed so much work to become great. Yada yada yada. Ego being what it
is, scientist #1 got furious, said, “Fine Then you run the danged thing. I quit.” And so he did.
Suddenly the scientists
realized their website was indeed a precious commodity and needed tending…but
who was to do it? Certainly they
could not do the work. They were far too important for such a mundane chore. So
the scientists looked around and found, lo and behold, the PR lady, beavering
away in her office. She only wrote news releases and newsletters, such silly
little things. Surely SHE had time to do a website, even though SHE was not at
all technically inclined. (Yes, of course there was an IT department, but those
folks also were far too busy and important to manage a website.)
And that is the tale of
how I—a liberal arts person to the core with nary a technical bone in my body–got
dragged kicking and screaming into the digital world. The journey was arduous
and the climb to competence was steep, but eventually I learned to develop and
maintain this website. I confess I knew all along in my
non-technically-inclined bones that this endeavor would be good for me. What I
never suspected, however, was that it would turn out to guarantee my job
security.
Soon I began to joke about my web work. I called myself…The Oldest Web Mistress in
Captivity. I often wondered how many other aging baby boomers were handling institutional
websites circa 1995. Not many back in the day, I bet.
Recently I got to musing
about my dalliance with all things digital as I fiddled with my author
homepage, placed ads for my mystery DESOLATION ROW on my Facebook page, and
Tweeted about an online interview I’d done. If I had not been forced into the
digital world almost twenty years ago, how would I be doing today? Would I be
like so many of my friends and age-mates, scared of All These New Things?
I am reminded of my
mother and how she never learned how to operate the new hi-fi that my father
brought home as a surprise for her one day in the 1950s. If she wanted to
listen to a 33-rpm LP, then she had to ask him or me to do it for her. Now, she
was not a stupid woman, far from it. Yet she would just throw up her hands, say
“I can’t do things like that” and add “Please do it for me.” I believe some of
that wariness towards all things technical rubbed off on me, made me scared. Alas,
I’m sure I lost many decades of growing competence that way.
Now of course I thank my former scientific colleagues who insisted I do the institute’s web work. And thank heavens I’m
comfortable in this digital new world order.
And my mother? Shortly
before her death at age 91, she confided to me that it had all been an act,
pretending not to understand how to use various machines. Grinning, she told me, “That
way, I could always get someone to do it for me.” But, as for me…well, I’d rather do
it myself! 
Kay Kendall is the author of Desolation Row–An Austin Starr Mystery. You can view the book’s trailer on YouTube or catch up with her on Twitter, Facebook,and Goodreads. Kay blogs here with the Stiletto Gang every first and third Wednesdays of each month. 

Fall — And More New Beginnings!

/in /by
Author Kay Kendall & her bunny Dusty
I wonder if you, dear readers,
are old enough to recall an expression from back in the day—sometime in the
80s—when we said this: “Well, color me _____.”
That saying no doubt linked to
having your colors done. When this was all the rage, I’d walk into a clothing store
and a saleswoman would often ask or state…”Are you a summer?” “You must be a
winter.” 
Myself, I skipped the color consultants, figuring out my best colors were
those I wore when friends said, “You look good in that.” (A magazine article
advised that was the easier way.)

I hark back to that time now,
and to that expression, since I wish to state two things:  Color me thrilled + Color
me fall.

My name is Kay Kendall, and as a debut mystery author, I’m thrilled to be joining the
Stiletto Gang and doubly delighted that two previous posters were
rhapsodizing about my favorite season, fall.

Last week Dru Ann Love asked what
readers’ favorite things were about the autumnal season. I will share mine now,
if a bit belatedly. It is the colors of fall that most beguile me.

Oh my, there is that word again. Colors. The trees are
vivid, in some falls more than others of course, but their leaves seem to come
alive in the crisp air and in the slanted light. Sunshine itself has a
different radiance in the fall. The sun’s light is not harsh, not coming
straight down from the sky but aslant. This light is softer and bathes things
in a kinder glow.

Even in south Texas where I live, where signs of autumn aren’t as profuse as in other parts of the US, fall is still my favorite
season. The light changes even here; the air cools some, gets a bit less
humid. The trees, however, rarely turn to orange and red. It’s estimated that once every seven years or so this corner of Texas will have some
fall color. That happened my first season here. I thought it would happen each time October came around thereafter. But nope, no such luck.


Fall of course is a prelude to winter, which I no longer
dread. Being married to a Canadian, I spent fifteen long winters in Ontario.
Not for the faint of heart. And mind you, those years were before global
warming altered things. Now in Texas I can look forward to the dark velvet
nights of winter when holiday lights shine, and they do not bounce off snow
banks down here. Hooray. As The Husband is fond of saying, “You don’t have to
shovel heat and humidity.”


My having lived in Canada explains why my debut mystery, Desolation Row, is set in Toronto. I
learned a lot about our peaceful neighbor to the north and in my book treat it
as a foreign country, not the fifty-first state that Americans often assume it
is. But I have plenty of time to get into all that in the months to come.




With my first post this fall, I start on my journey as a
member of the Stiletto Gang and look forward to many, many seasons to come of
sharing thoughts with you and the other gang members.

I’m just glad that it’s not a requirement that we wear
stilettos. At five foot ten, I’ve no need of extra height, putting it mildly.
My poor toes seem to shriek in horror whenever that Stiletto Gang logo pops up
on my computer screen. I assure my feet that never again will they be stuffed
into a tortuous shoe, a pointy-toed, high-heeled stiletto, all in the name of
glamour.

Have you given up anything since you left your teens,
twenties, or so on, and thereby become more comfy—if a pinch less glam? I
propose a new expression. Instead of saying “sadder but wiser,” let’s say “more
comfortable and wiser” as our years progress. What do you think?