A Box of Texas Chocolates

As Valentine's Day approaches, I thought I'd repost my first interview with multiple anthology authors. Today’s interview is with A Box of Texas Chocolates authors, Betty Gordon, Laura Elvebak, Cash Anthony, and the team of Charlotte and Mark Phillips. A Box of Texas Chocolates is the third short story collection from the Houston-based writing group, The Final Twist. Since the group is composed of writers of many genres, they decided to try a multi-genre anthology. Each story features chocolate and Texas. The award-winning A Box of Texas Chocolates is published by L&L Dreamspell.


Welcome, folks. Before we get into questions, please introduce yourself and your story.

Betty Gordon’s biography:

Betty Gordon is a native Texan who draws inspiration for short stories and novels from years of experience in the legal arena as a law student, legal assistant and paralegal. She also has extensive backgrounds in dance and sculpting which continually prick her imagination for future creations. Betty holds a B.S. Degree in Professional Writing, University of Houston-Downtown, as well as graduate degrees in Literature (creative writing) and Visual Arts from the University of Houston-Clear Lake. Publishing credentials: “The Journal of Graduate Liberal Studies,” “Murder in the Third Person,” “Deceptive Clarity,” and numerous short stories in L&L Dreamspell’s anthologies. She is past president of The Final Twist Writers, a member of Mystery Writers of America, Sisters in Crime, Writers League of Texas, Ft. Bend Writers Guild, and Bay Area Writers League. (http://www.bettygordon.com/)

Synopsis of “The Cowboy’s Rose”: A rodeo cowboy, Hank, and his girlfriend, Rose, become embroiled in a suspenseful crime puzzle. Hank discovers that sitting on top of bucking bulls is nothing compared to involvement with a box of chocolates. Intriguing mystery leads this hard riding cowboy through nerve-racking experiences.

Laura Elvebak writes: “I write The Niki Alexander Mysteries, Less Dead and Lost Witness. I am past Chapter President and current Treasurer and Newsletter Editor for Mystery Writers of America, Southwest Chapter, a member of Sisters In Crime and The Final Twist.

Synopsis: “Dying For Chocolate” tells the story of a meek child car provider who suspects one of her employers is having an affair with her husband and vows revenge with a special box of chocolates she whips up herself.

Cash Anthony says: “I’m a Houston writer of short fiction and screenplays. I’m a semi-retired attorney and a biker chick. In addition to writing stores, I direct for stage and make short films.

Synopsis: “A Bona Fide Quirk in the Law” features Jessie Carr, the heroine of a series of short stories. This is the third one, and the fourth should be released this year. Jessie is a writer and amateur detective with a sideline as an occasional assassin. In this story, she’s terrorized by a rogue cop while out on her Harley, but she finds a way to get sweet revenge.

Charlotte Phillips writes, “I’m from the Keystone State. In addition to Pennsylvania, I lived in Florida and California before settling in Texas. I’ve always been surrounded by book, and spend a good part of my childhood in the doghouse for making up tall tales. It seemed only natural that I move to Texas and write.
Synopsis for “Books and Bon Bons”: A scrumptious assortment of desserts, a seminar on herbal poisons, and a harridan bent on evil, tempt a waitress towards the biggest mistake of her young life. Young Sassy learns vengeance can have unintended consequences.

Mark Phillips says, “I grew up in central Illinois reading the classis, especially Greek mythology, James bond novels, and Batman comics. I am a graduate of both the University of Illinois and Northwestern University. I live in Houston with my wife, Charlotte, and teach math and philosophy at Bellaire High School.
“You’ll find two of my short stories in A Box of Texas Chocolates. In “Truffles of Doom”, innocent homeless poor have been struck down by poisoned Christmas chocolates. Detective Eva Baum tracks a fiend without conscience or remorse to deliver a present of her own—justice.

“The Invisible Hand Will Smear Chocolate on the Face of Tyranny” finds the Rell buying up the cultural legacy of Earth with the merest trinkets of their advanced technology. Earth monopolists and Rell exploiters beware: rogue entrepreneur Kinkaid will sell Earth’s sweetest secret, chocolate, but only at the price of revolution and freedom.

Okay. Now for a few questions.Do you write any other genres?

Betty: Suspense—paranormal and romantic, and thrillers.

Laura: The fiction I write is all mystery. I have written non-fiction articles for magazines in the past, particularly in the self-help field.

Cash: I write several genres of screenplays. I have written documentaries, an adaptation of a YA novel, and a dark thriller. I have a medic-legal mystery in progress. My short fiction is usually mystery.

Mark: Charlotte and I write the Eva Baum mystery series together. I write science fiction and we’ve experimented with one-act plays.

Is there a different writing process for short stories compared to novel?

Betty: There is a big difference between writing the short story and novel aside from the obvious. Most of my short stories are written in First Person while the novels are written in Omniscient or Third Person. I like both formats, but prefer First Person for a short story as it brings me closer to the reader in a brief time.

Laura: While novels have a wider scope within which to work, short stories have to be concentrated with few characters and certain obstacles that the main character must hurdle to attain a goal that’s set out in the beginning, or having the main character finding an alternate goal more worthy.

Cash: For me, it’s hard to give up the layers of subtext, and the variety of settings and characters that you can have in longer fiction. My writers group has been the main cure for that, and they have been tremendously helpful.

Charlotte: For novels we like to start with an outline of sorts for the plot of the actual mystery. For shorts, we often start with an image or the question “what if?”

How do you discipline yourself while writing?

Betty: Discipline is fortunately not a problem for me. Perhaps my years of work and schooling trained me well. My day begins with getting ready as I would for a job—putting my derriere in front of the computer to check emails, taking care of responding to same, and beginning the day’s project which I have visualized before leaving my warm bed. If research is necessary, I do that first and then move forward.

Laura: I work best when I can close myself up in my office at home. I make myself write and once I get past that first bump, the ride gets much easier.

Cash: If I’m writing a first draft, I try not to read back to far before I continue with the story, or I’ll slip into editing mode. When I’m editing and in rewrite, I try to start at the end and work backwards in chunks, so as not to overlook problems.

Have you participated in any other anthologies? If so, which ones?

Betty: The Dead and Breakfast anthology has two stories: “Dead by Breakfast” and “Veiled Deception”, published by L&L Dreamspell. “Anna Rose” is in the A Death in Texas: The Final Twist anthology, also published by L&L Dreamspell.

Laura: “Searching for Rachel” is in A Death in Texas.

Cash: “The Stand-In” is in the Dead and Breakfast anthology. I wrote “The Best Man” for A Death in Texas.

Charlotte and Mark: We wrote “Death on the Bayou” for A Death in Texas anthology.

When writing, what themes do you feel passionate about?


Betty: who wins, who loses, and why.

Laura: Injustice and the underdog.

Cash: Injustices for which there seems no remedy, injuries to children and animals, the good and the bad in all of us.

Parade magazine recently asked 89-year-old P.D. James why so many women write detective novels. She responded “…women are particularly interested in strong emotions…the reasons people step over that invisible line which separates the murderer from the rest of us.” Please respond to that statement.

Betty: I’m sure most us agree that women are emotional creatures. We learn to control and direct our emotions, of course, but these strong emotional-based reactions play well in detective/mystery novels.

Laura: What fascinates me is what motivates a person to cross that line. What final straw must break before it tips the edge from fury and hate to an emotion that chills the blood and brings that person to a dead end where there is no other way out.

Cash: I believe people are interested in murder mysteries for the intellectual puzzle most of them offer, in terms of discerning motivations and analyzing behavior, as well as the “car wreck response” that draws our attention to anything violent and out of the norm. When a villain has managed to fool his community while planning something intended to destroy it, I think people are deeply interested, especially if they feel they have been fooled.

Other writing projects underway?

Betty: My third novel, Valley of Obsessions, is in the hands of my publisher, L&L Dreamspell. To learn more about my work, please check my website: www.bettygordon.com.

Laura: I am working on the third Niki Alexander mystery, Heartless, and a memoir.
My website: http://www.lauraelvebak.com and my blog, A Writer’s Musings: http://lauraelvebak.blogspot.com

Cash: Always! I’m working on a new feature-length screenplay called “Nailed” which will, hopefully, be a comedy-thriller, and another short story about Jessie Carr tentatively called “The Wild Throbbing Dark”. I also have several scripts to read for friends who want feedback, and I take writing classes year-round with ScriptforSale. You can get the anthologies at Cash’s eShop, from Cash’s Closet, www.cashs-closet.com

Mark: Charlotte and I are hard at work on the next full-length Eva Baum story, tentatively called “The Golden Key”.

Charlotte: Mark is also creating a book on political philosophy called the Water Cooler Dialogues. His hope is to make political philosophy accessible to a general audience.

You can learn more about all our writing projects at MarkandCharlottePhillips.com.

Thanks to all of you for the interview!

Readers can learn about A Box of Texas Chocolates and all the L&L Dreamspell anthologies at http://www.lldreamspell.com/
The print book is available for purchase on Amazon.com, Barnes & Noble.com, and all other online bookstores. It’s also available for Kindle, of course, and in multiple ebook formats at fictionwise.com.

Mark and Charlotte Phillips Answer Questions

Today I welcome the writing team of Mark and Charlotte Phillips. Please tell us about you and your work.

Mark: I’m originally from Illinois. I grew up on the classics: Greek mythology, James Bond novels, golden age science fiction, and Batman comics. In college I majored in philosophy and minored in film. Now I teach high school precalculus and political philosophy in Houston, Texas. I’m a biblioholic and ardent individualist anarchist.

Charlotte: I grew up reading in Pennsylvania. I had wonderful elementary school teachers and librarians who wouldn’t let me get away with reading only Nancy Drew. They challenged me to read books by Louisa May Alcott, Charles Dickens, and Edgar Allen Poe. From these wonderful books I developed a love affair with reading that quickly grew into a love of story telling.

When did the writing bug bite, and in what genre(s)?

Charlotte: I was nine when my youngest brother was born. As soon as he was old enough to understand, I’d invent stories to make him laugh. But when teachers began asking for works of fiction, I returned to my first love, mysteries. I’m sure I wrote more than one very bad Nancy Drew rip-off. I do hope all the evidence is long gone.

Mark: I got the writing bug early, when I was seven years old. I still have all my juvenile manuscripts. Most are pale imitations and pastiches of authors I admired. I loved humorous adventures of lovable rogues. I have numerous failed attempts to mimic Keith Laumer’s Retief stories and Harry Harrison’s tales of Slippery Jim di Griz. I also greatly admired and tried to pastiche the Fafhrd and the Grey Mouser stories by Fritz Leiber. Only a wet-behind-the-ears kid would try to mimic any of these authors. I soon learned that their magic was not only beyond my juvenile abilities, but also beyond all but a few masters of their genre. But the biggest influence had to be the writings of Robert Heinlein. I was about seven or eight when my mother bought me Podkayne of Mars. After devouring his juveniles, I quickly moved up to his classics. His The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress set my political views on the path towards individualist anarchism. His I Will Fear No Evil opened my mind to the possibilities and complexities of gender. He was an author of ideas, integrity, and just plain fun to read. I tried to evoke a little of the spirit of Heinlein in my science fiction novel The Resqueth Revolution.

How do you develop characters? Setting?

Mark: We use our own personalities. Steve Marks, the first person protagonist of The Resqueth Revolution, is definitely a version of me. The Eva Baum character is an amalgam of character traits from Charlotte and me as we were in our youth. As both characters react to events in their respective novels, I think you will notice that both have major issues with authority. We haven’t yet had to work out those issues as violently and decisively as Steve and Eva, but who knows what the future may hold.

Who’s the most unusual/most likeable character?

Mark: I think we both enjoy writing about Shade, a mentally unstable, homeless street-artist who is a continuing character in the Eva Baum series. He has a fascinating personality, and it took us a long time to get his voice just right. I think we both feel he has a lot of possibilities for substantial character development as we get farther into the series. A new character, Janet Ives, will, hopefully intrigue our fans as well.

Do you have specific techniques to help you maintain the course of the plot?

Mark: We hammer out the outline carefully so that we can work on different parts without too much danger that they won’t fit together later on. But sometimes I get pulled into new directions while I’m immersed in writing. I’ve occasionally thrown some monkey wrenches into the process. But one ignores one’s muse at one’s own peril.

Charlotte: When Mark changes the outline on the fly, well—I have a mantra, “Don’t hurt the people you love. Be flexible.”

Do you have a specific writing style? Preferred POV?

Charlotte: Yes. Most of my favorite mysteries are written in first person POV. That writing style comes naturally to me, so I much prefer it. I’ve been challenging myself to learn to write engaging third person POV stories. I think I did a credible job in “A Cave in the Canyon,” a story in the soon to be published Twisted Tales of Texas short story collection.

Mark: First person seems more honest for detective fiction. If the reader sees and hears only what the detective does, there’s less opportunity for the writer to cheat.

How does your environment/upbringing color your writing?

Charlotte: I grew up in the inner city and had to suffer bullies most of my childhood. Bullies don’t usually survive in my stories. The same is true for anyone who abuses power. I really enjoy beating them up and/or killing them off – fictionally, of course.

Mark: I agree. I have a deep loathing of anyone who uses force or intimidation to control others. Anyone who pretends to have the authority to wield such power is evil (though I hope not irredeemably so). Criminals who prey on innocents disgust me. Politicians who oppress and exploit people from behind the cover of law enrage me. I am an individualist anarchist because I believe government authoritarians, kleptocrats, and the people who bribe them are the source of most pain and misery in the world. One of the characters in The Resqueth Revolution extols Bugs Bunny as being our most profound political philosopher. When someone tries to oppress or threaten Bugs, or when he simply comes across anyone pompous enough to think he has any authority, Bugs’ reaction usually involves anvils and explosives (and, bizarrely enough, dressing up as a woman).

Share the best review (or a portion) that you’ve ever had.

For The Resqueth Revolution, we were thrilled to read the Midwest review that said, “The premise is thrilling and readers will be so intrigued with this well-written sci-fi they will be reluctant to put the book aside once it's finished.”

We thoroughly enjoyed reading what one Hacksaw reviewer said: “Beginning on page one, Hacksaw is one mystery/thriller that the reader won't want to put down - not for food, sleep or even sex.”

What are your current projects?

Charlotte: We are anxiously awaiting publication of Twisted Tales of Texas, a short story collection that contains three of our stories. We are also busy putting the final touches on several stories we plan to submit for the next mystery anthology from The Final Twist, and working out final plot details for The Golden Key, an Eva Baum mystery.

Mark: Eva Baum fans will love the next installment. The Golden Key has our plucky heroine mixed up with spies, gunrunners, counterfeiters, bikers, and anarchists. We’ve got a first draft, but Charlotte had a brilliant idea about how to add a layer of emotional subplot that will require some rewriting—so not all the deviations from the agreed outline are my fault.

Where can folks learn more about your books and events?

Please check out our website at www.MarkandCharlottePhillips.com.

Thanks so much, Susan for inviting us to your blog.