Caroline Taylor: What Are Friends For?

Caroline Taylor's Debut Mystery Tackles the Question: What Are Friends For?

Press Release:
Pittsboro, NC – Award-winning author Caroline Taylor announces the release of her first P.J. Smythe mystery, What Are Friends For? (ISBN 978-1-59414-956-6), a Gale-Cengage Learning publication. An exciting detective tale, What Are Friends For? features P.J. Smythe, an Annapolis "skip tracer," who tracks down loan defaulters. Talked into posing as a novice private investigator by her wealthy friend, Alicia Todd, P.J. is forced into assuming the role of a real detective when her first client, environmentalist Vivian Remington, dies from a suspicious drug overdose. P.J. must dodge a murder charge and wend her way through the treacherous realms of Washington politics and the illegal wildlife trade while attempting to solve the mystery of Remington's death.

Written with classic, hard-boiled "whodunit" panache by Taylor, this first P.J. Smythe adventure is a must-read for mystery lovers who crave masterful character development, outstanding story lines, compelling drama, and a smattering of humorous observations from the heroine. Suspenseful and quickly-paced, What Are Friends For introduces readers to P.J. Smythe, a young, single Washingtonian, who manages to be engaging and likable, as well as gutsy and tough. Although spirited and intelligent, P.J. is also deliciously human, and she struggles to fend off the advances of her ex-husband, Bobby Crane – as well as those of the intelligent and suave attorney, Neal Patterson – while solving her first murder case. As the web of drug-fueled political intrigue tightens and P. J. gets closer to solving her case, her own life is suddenly at risk, making What Are Friends For? the kind of thrilling and ultimately satisfying read that mystery lovers demand.

“P.J. first appeared in Futures Mysterious Anthology Magazine in a story titled, “Beginner’s Lesson’s,” said Taylor. "Once she made a second appearance in an Orchard Press Mysteries story called “Growing Pains,” I knew I’d found a special heroine who deserved a full-throttle mystery series."

Formerly from Washington, D.C., Caroline Taylor is an award-winning writer and editor living in Pittsboro, North Carolina. Her short stories have appeared in The Chick Lit Review, Della Donna Magazine, The First Line, A Fly in Amber, Futures Mysterious Anthology Magazine, The Green Silk Journal, Long Story Short, The Oddville Press, Orchard Press Mysteries, The Dan River Anthology-2009, and Workers Write! Tales from the Capitol. She is the author of Publishing the Nonprofit Annual Report: Tips, Traps, and Tricks of the Trade (Jossey-Bass, 2001) and has written extensively for Humanities Magazine and the Smithsonian Torch.

Welcome to the blog, Caroline. It's always a pleasure to interview fellow North Carolina writers.
I’d be fascinated to know more about you.


Thank you, Susan. I got off to a pretty rocky start in life. As a child, I moved from place to place, my parents often were unable to pay bills, and I was forced to drop out of high school. But I managed to pull myself together enough to finish my education—even get a master’s degree—and pursue a successful editing and writing career in Washington.

How many books have you written? In what genres?

My first book, Publishing the Nonprofit Report: Tips, Traps, and Tricks of the Trade (Jossey-Bass 2001) was easy. I’d been writing and editing nonprofit annual reports for 20 years by the time I decided I had to prove to my then boss that I was more than “a process manager.” The book won the APEX Grand Award for Excellence in Writing in 2002. My first novel, What Are Friends For?, was much harder to write—but also much more fun.

Congratulations on both.What books or authors have influenced you, Caroline?

The literary giants like Faulkner, Welty, Steinbeck, and Durrell, and contemporary authors like Brian Haig, Janet Evanovich, Alan Furst, Sue Grafton, Louis Bayard, and Michael Connelly.

Great influences, indeed.What are your writing goals?

To publish my second P.J. Smythe novel, Who’s Laughing Now?

Okay. Let's back up a second and talk about the first book. Tell us about What Are Friends For? Is it available in print, ebook, and Kindle formats?

What Are Friends For? is a fast-paced, light hearted spoof of the classic hard-boiled whodunit that explores the lengths to which Annapolis skip tracer P.J. Smythe must go to dodge a murder charge, including dipping a reluctant toe into the Washington political scene and looking into the seamy side of the illegal trade in wildlife—all while fending off the attentions of her former husband and a really desperate ex-boyfriend. I hope enough fans will persuade amazon.com to offer it in Kindle.

Can you share how you name your characters?

I wanted my lead character to have a name that could belong either to a man or a woman, so I settled for P.J. and then decided the initials had to stand for two ridiculous names. To find out what they are, read the book.

Okay. My imgination is spinning out of control. LOL.
Do you have specific techniques you use to develop the plot and stay on track?

I’m afraid I’m a bit like Anne Tyler, who has written that she does not plot but just lets her stories unfold. I have tried plotting, but it’s almost like putting myself in a straitjacket. It takes the fun out of creating vivid characters and then seeing where their needs and desires take them.

How does your environment/upbringing color your writing?


At the time I wrote What Are Friends For?, I had been living in Washington, D.C., for years. I did not want to write the typical “Washington novel” with characters at “the highest levels of government.” Not many—if any—mysteries are set in Annapolis, which is small, beautiful, somewhat off the beaten (East Coast) path, and yet still in the neighborhood, as it were.

We all know how important promoting our work has become. How do you get the word out both off and online?

Through my website, http://www.carolinestories.com/, my author’s profile on amazon.com, and, most importantly, my publicist Paula Margulies, without whose efforts on my behalf no one would know about this book.

Tell us more about Who's Laughing Now?

I’m polishing up—mostly cliché hunting—the second in the P.J. Smythe series, Who’s Laughing Now? I’m also working on a novel set in the mid-1960s Midwest called The Typist, and another more contemporary novel set in Washington, D.C., called Climbing Toward the Light.

Where can folks learn more about your books and events?

Visit my website at http://www.carolinestories.com/

Caroline, it has been a pleasure to discover you. I extend my best wishes for your writing success!
Same to you, Susan.

Rose Marie DeHart's The Giveaway Girl

Rose Marie DeHart, author of The Giveaway Girl, is my guest today. She lives about an hour west of me.

It's nice to have you here, Rose Marie. Please tell us a little about yourself.

Thank you, Susan. Well, I am retired from the United Methodist Foundation. My husband, Murry, is a retired Methodist minister and we live in Raleigh, NC. Since my retirement I have participated in the Lifestyle Enrichment Program with Norwegian Cruise Line as a lecturer.

How interesting! What topics?

I have presented lectures on Accessorizing With Scarves and Color Analysis.

We have enjoyed travel since our retirements. We have cruised to Alaska, Hawaii, and the Carribean. One of our travel highlights was the summer we joined Professor Stevens and her students of mystery writing from the University of Wisconsin on a tour of the British Isles. We were treated to a visit/lecture with an English mystery writer each morning of the three week tour. We heard, among others, Edward Marston, Andrew Taylor and Keith Miles.

At the conclusion of the time with the delightful students, Murry and I visited Scotland, Ireland and Paris, France. We have also toured Israel.

I have always loved books. Some of my favorite authors are Pat Conroy, Anne Rivers Siddons, John Dunning, and Nelson DeMille. I also read Patricia Cornwell (although she sometimes tells me more than I really want to know),John Grisham, Margaret Maron, and recently discovered you, Susan Whitfield. Oh, add Lee Smith and Clyde Edgerton to that list.

I was a member of Carolina Crime Writers and published the monthly newsletter for the group. Margaret Maron was a founding member of this group. We met monthy for dinner and a talk by a professional related to crime solving - law enforcement, coroners, detectives, attorneys, bail bondsmen etc. To my sorrow, CCW no longer meets. I was also a member of North Carolina Writers.


Me too.
Rose Marie, what books influenced your reading and writing?

I suppose everything I have ever read has influenced me in some manner.I always received books as gifts at Chrismas and birthdays. In my pre-teen years, I discovered a writer, Grace Livingston Hill. She churned out books as fast as I could read them and I probably read all of them. I come from a background of readers and writers. My paternal grandmother wrote poetry and religious tracts and kept a journal. I have one of her journals. My Aunt Massa Lambert kept journals, also. She taught English at Asheboro High School for over forty years. My Dad was a printer/publisher in Asheboro. William Sidney Porter (O Henry) was a distant relative of my grandmother, although I think they reserved bragging rights during his incarceration in Texas.

In my teens, I received,as a gift, a book written by Hiram Hayden, The Time is Noon. It was, probably, the first grown-up book I ever read. My older sister joined a book club and I began reading all of her books, in addition to the ones in the public library. Books have always been a large part of my life.

What are your writing goals?

After years of starting stories and rarely ever completing one, I look forward to the publication of The Giveaway Girl. I am working on a second book that is a mystery. I also have one in process about the colorful life of my Dad's youngest sister. I love books. I love words. I regret that I have waited so late in life to finally join the ranks of published authors.

What is your most rewarding experience during the writing process?

I love writing and have a computer full of ideas, a few chapters here and there. My reward is seeing the characters come alive and begin to speak.

Now, Rose Maire, tell us about The Giveaway Girl.

The Giveaway Girl came to me word by word. I had no idea where it was going. Every class I have ever taken says plot, plot, plot but I seem to just let it happen. The idea of meeting at a fast food restaurant came to my mind and I just went with it. I can't explain why I chose those names, Ashley and Scarlet. The publisher said it was too improbable but I overruled them. Here is the quote from the back cover - "Ashley Wilkes and Scarlet O'Hara meet and find love in the foothills of North Carolina. A chance encounter at a fast food restaurant is the beginning. Identifying a photograph leads Scarlet and Ashley on a journey to find the father that Scarlet never knew. The search uncovers long buried family secrets that involve the world of racing and moonshine liquor. Along the way, Ashley discovers that he is not the person he has thought himself to be. The cast of characters includes two dowager sisters, their British chauffeur, a mother on the edge of dementia, a gardener who loves crossword puzzles and a Gulf war hero. Don't miss the surprise that unfolds for Scarlet."

Do you think your writing has improved since your first attempts?


Oh, my yes! My first attempts were so long ago, I hardly remember them. In high school, a friend and I collaborated on a play that our dramatics class was prepared to present and the principal nixed it because the characters were in pajamas at a slumber party. Imagine that. I have a few short stories tucked away that never had a chance for publication.

How do you determine your voice in writing?

I usually stay with third person because it is easier. The mystery I am working on now is in first person. It is challenging, but the character speaks to me. I have come to know him.

Why did you decide to switch, Rose Marie?

When it was in the early stages, several years ago, a friend read it and asked me why I didn't write it in present tense. I decided to try it. I have 18,000 words on it and when I read through it, I see a tense change or two that I have to correct. To make it even tougher, a man is telling the story.

You can do it!

Susan, I appreciate your taking this time to help me as I enter the world of writers. Thank you so much.

You are certainly welcome, Rose Marie. Perhaps we will meet in person one day soon.

Dr. Darden North makes a return visit

A practicing obstetrician/gynecologist in Mississippi, Darden North has written three nationally-awarded hardcover novels, most notably Points of Origin recognized in Southern Fiction by the Independent Publisher (IPPG) Book Awards. North has served as a panelist at “Murder in the Magic City” (Birmingham, AL), “Author! Author! Celebration of the Written Word” (Shreveport LA), “Murder on the Menu” (Wetumpka, AL), “Thriller Author Panel – 2008 Southern Independent Book Association (SIBA) Show” (Mobile, AL), and “The Writers’ Block - 2009 SIBA Show (Greenville, SC) and has exhibited at the Texas, Kentucky Bluegrass, and South Carolina book festivals as well as at the Artists Tent of Mississippi Picnic in New York City. As a speaker and facilitator, he conducted workshops on writing mysteries and promoting authors’ work at the 2010 Southern Expressions Writers Conference. North actively promotes his own writing through television and radio interviews as well as through personal speaking engagements and the Internet. July 2011 marks 25 years of fulltime medical practice, a background that lends unmistakable authenticity to his mystery and medical thriller novels, stories set in the contemporary South with intense character relationships and unexpected plot lines. Darden North’s author website is www.dardennorth.com . He lives in Jackson, Mississippi, with his wife, two young adult children, and three dogs.


Welcome back, Darden.

Thanks for having me back, Susan.

My pleasure. Let's jump right in because I know how busy you are. What books came along at just the right time to influence your reading/writing?

Anything by Greg Iles and James Patterson

We seem to like the same company.

Have you ever used a pen name?

When my first novel House Call was slated for publication originally in hardcover in 2005, we decided to use my actual name (no pen name) along with my professional designation since I was and remain a practicing physician ... so the author of House Call, Points of Origin, and Fresh Frozen is me ... Darden North, MD. Most physicians who write fiction (one very notable example being Robin Cook) have dropped the MD. I believe that including the professional designation has increased local and regional sales of my work. One sort of humorous moment was at a Christmas marketplace in Baton Rouge when I was sharing a signing booth with two cookbook authors. A potential reader browsed through their delicious recipes designed to be healthy, family-friendly, and from scratch and then moved next to my third novel, Fresh Frozen (hardcover 2008, ebook 2010). The reader picked up the novel and noted the Darden North, MD, on the cover. "So this book is for the frozen food?" Frank Vitolo, the film producer of the screenplay adaptation of Fresh Frozen (scheduled to begin production in summer 2011) tells me it’s time to separate the author and the doctor … so my future author’s name most likely will be Darden North.

Ahh. By the way, congrats on the film! That's awesome news.

Please give us a short synopsis of your fourth novel, work-in-progress, Wiggle Room.

My work-in-progress is a true-thriller. I have listened to my readers: There are more murders and more sex in my upcoming fourth novel. However, true to form, my characters remain vivid and southern. In Wiggle Room, Brad Cummins, a young Air Force trauma surgeon, returns to Mississippi from his deployment in Iraq to realize that he is the target of an assassin. In the guise of a university exchange student on US soil, a rogue Iraqi terrorist is not the only one after Dr. Brad Cummins.

How has your writing progressed since your first book, Darden? Has it changed you? If so, how?

Working with a professional editor as I write my fourth novel has forced me to tighten even the earlier drafts, watching point-of-view closely while churning the action constantly. Hopefully, with the help of my seasoned editor, the completed final draft of Wiggle Room will be closer to final than my earlier works!

When do you accomplish your best writing?

Weekend mornings or early AM during the week if I do not have a surgery case scheduled.

After hours of intense writing, how do you unwind?

My wife Sally and I take a daily two- to four-mile neighborhood walk. For me, that exercise along with cutting back at meals has dropped the twenty pounds I gained in front of my laptop writing my first three novels.

Are your books available in print, ebook, and Kindle?

All three novels (House Call, Points of Origin, and Fresh Frozen) are available in hardcover print and as eBooks: including Kindle, iPad, Kobo, Nook, Sony eReader, and Smashwords. House Call is also in paperback and its signed hardcovers, I’m proud to say, have become collectible.

Super!
Where can we purchase these books and get more information about you?

My novels are available through any bricks-and-mortar bookstore via the major book distributors as well as online through Amazon, Barnes and Noble, AtlasBooks.com, Lemuriabooks.com, and others. Also my website www.dardennorth.com offers a BUY IT link for each book that lists bookstores carrying signed copies, some with online access.


The eBook versions are available as well on electronic devices. Readers can find my blog, upcoming book signings, book trailers, media interviews, and other announcements on my website http://www.dardennorth.com/.

Thanks for talking with me, Susan. I enjoyed the visit!

Come back any time, Darden. Let us know when the film version of Fresh Frozen is released.

Frank Mundo's Brubury Tales

Remember The Canterbury Tales? Well, guest author Frank Mundo has created a modern-day version! I'd love to question him in Chaucerian rhyme, but I dare not! I'm reading the work now and loving it. Join me to learn more about this talented man.

Welcome, Frank. I'm super excited to have you here to tell us more about this endeavor. But before we get to the book, tell us what books came along at just the right time to influence your reading/writing. I'm guessing Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales was one of them.

There were two books that really influenced me and made me want to be a writer. The first was Ask the Dust by Los Angeles writer John Fante. And yes, Susan, the second was Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales. I was probably around 18 years old when I read Ask the Dust, and it was a complete shock to my system. I had never read anything so simple and so beautiful. So poetic. It felt like Fante was telling my stories and sharing my life. That was when I decided I wanted to be a writer, and his writing, for whatever reason, gave me the confidence to give it a try. Seven or eight years later, after writing and publishing many short stories of my own, I discovered Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales and finally had the subject for my first book, The Brubury Tales.

I'm quite taken with your array of characters, Frank, but back to a question.

What are your writing goals?

I want to write something that affects people deeply, the way my favorite writers affected me. I don’t want success if success means writing the same old thing in the same old way. I want to challenge people’s beliefs, their morals and their politics with writing that forces them to think, not to escape, but to act, to change, to discover, to question and to challenge everything they think they know. I understand that this is a lofty goal and I may never reach it…but I’m definitely going to keep trying.

Trust me, your writing is not the same old thing in the same old way.
Tell us about your latest book.

My book, my only one so far, The Brubury Tales, is a modern version of Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales in Los Angeles. A group of security guards on the graveyard shift have an impromptu (and hopefully hilarious) storytelling competition in order to win the best vacation time, the week from Christmas to New Years Eve.

I love it!

Is it available in print, ebook, and Kindle formats?

It’s available in print at Amazon, Borders, Barnes and Nobles and is also available in eBook format for Kindle, Nook, iPad, Droid and Blackberry products.

I'm reading it on my new Kindle:-))
How do you determine voice in your writing?

The only characteristic I really pay any attention to in determining the voice of a story is humor. The stories have to be funny, which is great for me because humor, I believe, is just on the other side of tragedy. And I always try to explore or exploit that odd relationship, that awkward feeling that sometimes makes us want to laugh at funerals or when joy suddenly and unexpectedly turns to embarrassment. I want readers to laugh, but then question whether or not they should be laughing.

Ahhh.
How does your environment/upbringing color your writing?

For the most part, I grew up in Los Angeles. And I can’t think of a better place to write about. Go five miles (sometimes just 5 blocks) in any direction and you’ll wind up in an entirely different Los Angeles with shockingly different characters, cultures and values. It’s dangerous and fascinating, phony yet so authentic. It’s a city you simultaneously love and hate where no one really knows anyone else and dreams and nightmares are exchanged like commodities. It’s truly a wealth of material just waiting to be unearthed.

What a fabulous description of LA!
Any current projects, Frank?

Currently I’m working on collecting a volume of some of my short stories that were published over the years. Since I use the same main character in all of my stories and in my book, I think these stories are a great introduction to the book. If readers are interested in receiving an email notification when this book becomes available, they can email me at FrankMundo@rocketmail.com

Where can folks learn more about your current and future books and events?

I write book reviews for the LA Books Examiner and the New York Journal of Books. Readers can keep in touch with me and what I’m doing on these sites or on Twitter @FrankEMundo or Facebook.

I'm looking forward to reading the rest of The Burbury Tales. Thanks for coming over, Frank, and I wish you great success with your tales.

Thanks for having me over, Susan.

Arleen Alleman's Currents

Good morning, folks. Have you been on a cruise or are you planning one soon? You may be interested in my conversation with Arleen Alleman, author of Currents Deep and Deadly.

Arleen, welcome and tell us a little about yourself.

Thank you, Susan. I was born in England and raised in New Hampshire and Nevada, but I have lived in beautiful Colorado since 1975. I retired about nine years ago from a 20-year career as an analyst for the Government Accountability Office—the Congressional watchdog agency. My education is primarily in biology, but I am definitely a generalist. For example, I also worked as a fashion model and finishing school instructor, an insurance adjuster, and a jewelry designer. For the past six years, I have owned my own small home décor shop. At heart, I love everything to do with science and nature.

At the age of 14 I read the works of Edgar Allen Poe, while sitting in our backyard tree house. That is when my life-long secret dream of being a novelist was born. Over the years, I often thought how great it would be to write fiction, but never acted on it until about three years ago. Since “retiring”, my husband and I have traveled quite a bit, especially on cruise ships, and this inspired me to write my first novel. Not surprisingly, it takes place on a cruise ship sailing around Cape Horn. I have continued to pursue other interests, which include studying religious history and health and fitness. I have also started a blog about fitness, travel, and my writing experiences.

Tell us about your first novel.

Currents Deep and Deadly, is a unique general fiction story told by Darcy Farthing, a savvy, private, and pragmatic woman who has written the story as a sort of catharsis, in which she describes the horrific experiences she and others endured while on a four-week cruise.

Darcy somewhat reluctantly boards the enormous Sea Nymph with her current boy friend, but instead of a romantic get-away she experiences a huge personal crisis, horrific violence, and also great joy, as her life is forever changed by events that gradually unfold on and off the ship. Darcy tells her side of the story in the first person, but uses her imagination to fill gaps in her knowledge with respect to other characters’ perspectives and motivations. Throughout the book, Darcy weaves a travel log with tidbits of history and geography in Caribbean and South American seaports with her story of murder, mystery, and romance.

Soon after boarding the ship, Darcy overhears conversations that sound like a murder for hire plot, and before she knows it, circumstances spiral into a sequence of unbelievable coincidences somehow related to her past in ways she cannot fathom. Her atheistic belief system gets shaken when she begins to wonder how these impossibly related events could happen without some sort of supernatural intervention.

As members of the crew begin to die under suspicious circumstances on this floating village, questions swirl about the involvement of the stalwart captain of the ship and his mysterious wife, other members of the crew, and a ruthless Las Vegas hotel owner and his terrorized wife.

Early in the adventure, Darcy meets Mick Clayton, a man who might be her soul mate until she realizes that he seems to have knowledge about the murder plot, as well as secrets from her past. She literally runs headlong into this hidden past in an exotic South American city, where she encounters the one person in the world who can destroy her fragile psyche. Even as she obtains dramatic closure to one aspect of her life, she and her shipboard friends must battle a psychotic killer with devastating results. In the end the various plots come together with some surprising twists.

This sounds intriguing.
Is it available in print, ebook, and Kindle formats?



Currents Deep and Deadly is available through many online booksellers, including Amazon and Barnes and Noble. Xlibris, the publisher, also sells the book online and I sell personalized signed copies from the book’s website. It is available in hard and soft cover, ebook, and Kindle download. Five independent bookstores in Colorado also have copies for sale, including the Tattered Cover. My local public library has some copies as well. I have had a few book signings in my area, and very successful signings on a Royal Caribbean cruise ship sailing around Cape Horn, the setting of the book.

What are your protagonist’s strengths? Flaws?

Darcy Farthing is a 40-year-old woman who has not always made the best choices in her life. She has harbored a dark secret from her past that literally catches up with her in my first novel. She has built a mental prison of denial in which she keeps unbearable memories, but they inevitably escape, throwing her into a tailspin. A bad childhood and the emotional toll of her early mistakes have so far prevented her from forming any lasting romantic relationships.

However, Darcy is also extremely smart, with a masters degree in biochemistry and a career with a pharmaceutical company. She is tall and very attractive with long blond hair and striking blue eyes. She is also extremely pragmatic and considers herself an atheist. She has strong opinions about many things, including the origin and purpose of religion in human cultures. At the same time, she is philosophical and is a very moral and ethical individual with a strong sense of the necessity for the rules guiding human behavior.

What is your most rewarding experience?

Any positive feedback is very rewarding, since I have come late in life to fiction writing. When the book first came out, most of the people who purchased it knew me personally, and I was anxious to hear their delayed reactions. I have come to realize that many people are not avid readers, and it took months before some of these first buyers read the book and gave it to others to read. Once people began to tell me how much they loved the book and asked when the sequel would be published, it is difficult for me to express the feeling of relief and joy that I experienced.

I’m sure every author understands that no book is going to be liked by everyone, so given my limited sales to date, I am very gratified with the positive feedback I have received from people I know and total strangers alike. We had book signings on a cruise ship sailing around Cape Horn in January, and the positive feedback from onboard readers has been the single biggest encouragement for me to continue Darcy’s story with the writing of the sequel.

Do you think your writing has improved since your first attempt? If so, in what way?

I am about halfway finished with the sequel to my first book, and I have mentioned to several people that I see a big difference in my writing just between the two efforts. I believe one of the reasons is that Xlibris performed an excellent professional copy edit of my manuscript, including written notes regarding rules, preferences, and formatting. These have been very helpful, and combined with my previous extensive non-fiction writing for GAO, I believe I am preparing a much more professional manuscript on my own.

With respect to the writing itself, I have not been able to answer the often asked question, “where do these ideas and the voice come from?” Maybe they come from an amalgamation of the hundreds of novels I have read and from my own diverse background. I see flaws in the first book and I think the second will have fewer of these. I also feel I am editing less this time and the ideas and words seem to flow better. Perhaps this is in part because I know the characters and their personalities better now. Only time will tell whether I am able to improve on or even match my first effort.

Do you have specific techniques you use to develop the plot and stay on track?

I use a big white board to flow chart the plot and sub-plots, show how they relate to one another, and describe each main character’s role and purpose. These can look very complicated with lines and notes all over the place, and my husband looks at it and shakes his head. I am sure this technique is related to my GAO work, where I wrote reports for the Congress on diverse subjects ranging from satellite systems to endangered species, in which every word had to be accurate and defensible. I guess it is difficult for me to abandon the structure that helps me ensure that the relationships among the plots and characters will be consistent and make sense to the reader in the end.

For the first book, I enlisted six lovers of fiction to read the manuscript and give me comments on plot and character development. I chose individuals whom I knew would give me honest feedback. Their input was invaluable and I made a number of major changes as a result. I plan to do this again with the sequel.

Describe your ideal reader.

This is an interesting challenge. I would like to think that my ideal reader likes general fiction and mysteries; is curious and open-minded; and loves a quick, fun read. From feedback I have received from readers, I am finding that Currents Deep and Deadly is perceived as being more complex than I had realized. Several different things are going on at the same time and the chapters switch between the travel log and individual characters’ roles in the murder, mystery, and romantic aspects of the story. One reviewer suggested that the complexity and number of characters was detrimental, but many readers have said that this is what they liked most about it. One woman who has owned bookstores all her life gave me a wonderful compliment when she said that the book pleasantly surprised her as a first novel, and that she really enjoyed it because it was not only a fun read, but also very “intelligent.” I guess that is because Darcy, in her own words, is “a pretty smart cookie.”

Where can folks learn more about your books and events, Arleen?

Googling the title or my name is probably the best way to access all the places where the book is discussed. People can go directly to the book’s website, http://www.currentsdeepanddeadly.com/, or online booksellers, like amazon and barnesandnoble. Twitter, facebook, or my blog: www.lifeinsynergy.blogspot.com are the best to learn the status of my writing and any planned events.    

Thanks for the interview, Arleen. We wish you much success!

Heidi Thomas: Follow the Dream

Do you love horses?

Heidi M. Thomas grew up on a working ranch in eastern Montana. She had parents who taught her a love of books and a grandmother who rode bucking stock in rodeos. Describing herself as “born with ink in her veins,” Heidi followed her dream of writing with a journalism degree from the University of Montana and later turned to her first love, fiction, to write her grandmother’s story.

Heidi’s first novel, Cowgirl Dreams, has won an EPIC Award and the USA Book News Best Book Finalist award. Follow the Dream is the second book in the “Dare to Dream” series about strong, independent Montana Women.


Heidi, welcome back to the blog! Congrats on the new book.

Thanks, it's good to be back.

Can you tell us what books came along at just the right time to influence your reading/writing?

Ivan Doig’s books based in Montana inspired me, Wallace Stegner’s Angle of Repose, Jane Kirkpatrick’s historical fiction.

 Please give us a short synopsis of Follow the Dream.

Nettie Moser’s dreams are coming true. She’s married to her cowboy, Jake, they have plans for a busy rodeo season, and she has a once in a lifetime opportunity to rodeo in London with the Tex Austin Wild West Troupe.

But life during the Great Depression brings unrelenting hardships and unexpected family responsibilities. Nettie must overcome challenges to her lifelong rodeo dreams, cope with personal tragedy, survive drought, and help Jake keep their horse herd from disaster.

Will these challenges break this strong woman?

Heidi, how has your writing progressed since your first book? Has it changed you? If so, how?

I’ve learned so much since the very first book I wrote (not published) and even though I’m more critical of my writing than anyone else, I can tell I’ve improved. In some ways, what I’ve learned has made things easier—developing rounded characters, a true sense of place, etc., with perhaps fewer rewrites. However, in my naïve ignorance, I wrote the first book much faster. Now I seem to struggle and take much longer to finish a book.

Is there another book on the horizon?

Yes, I’m working on the third in the “Dare to Dream” series, with a working title of Nettie’s Cowgirls.

After hours of intense writing, how do you unwind?

Usually by reading and watching TV with my cat on my lap.

Are your books available in print, ebook, and Kindle?

Both books are available in print and e-book form. Follow the Dream is on Kindle.

Where can we purchase these books and get more information about you?

 For autographed copies, go to my website

http://www.heidimthomas.com/ My books are also available from my publisher, Treble Heart Books, http://www.trebleheartbooks.com/SDHeidiThomas.html  

Heidi, thanks for stopping by again, and continued success!

J.C. Guest: Baseball and Books--What could be better?

Good morning, everyone! Grab a cup of coffee and join J.Conrad Guest and I for a little chat.Conrad Guest is here today to discuss baseball and books, two of my favorite activities.

Welcome, J.C.
Tell us a little about yourself.

JCG: I’m the author of Backstop: A Baseball Love Story in Nine Innings, through Second Wind Publishing. Backstop was nominated as a 2010 Michigan Notable Book and this year was adopted by the Lewis Department of Humanities at the Illinois Institute of Technology as required reading for one of their courses—"Baseball: America’s Literary Pastime"

Cool!

Last year, I completed The Cobb Legacy, a murder mystery written around baseball legend Ty Cobb and the shooting death of his father by his mother. I just completed my sixth novel, A Retrospect in Death. One Hot January is hot off the presses, to be followed later this year by its sequel, January’s Thaw. My short fiction, non-fiction and sports writing can be found on the Web and in print publications. Available for author readings and writer workshops, I also provide editorial services.

What are your writing goals?

JCG: For me writing is like a career in baseball but in reverse. Ballplayers reach their primes in their mid to late twenties and their careers are over before they turn 40. I didn’t start writing my first novel until I was thirty-six—about the time most ballplayers hang up their spikes. Having written three novels in the last three years after having written three the previous fifteen years, I’d have to say I’m hitting my prime at age fifty-four.

As for goals, I just want to continue to improve, write quality fiction for as long as I can and enjoy the process. Oh, and that readers continue to find me.

What is your most rewarding experience during the writing process, J.C.?

JCG: I realized I was a writer the day I gave up fretting over publication—the dreaded rejection letter—and learned how to enjoy the process. I really enjoy it all, from rolling out of bed to hitting the shower, making breakfast and putting on coffee; heading over to the humidor to select a cigar, unwrapping it, inhaling the fragrance of the wrapper, snipping the foot and lighting the head and watching my den fill with smoke. It’s all in the process. But it all comes down to arranging words on a blank monitor—crafting that sentence I love to read in other novels, the one that leaves me thinking, I wish I’d written that. And then I read it again, and later I reread it to a friend over the phone.

It’s a shame that writers today are advised against writing anything that risks taking the reader out of the story because those are the moments, the passages, for which I live. To me how something is said is just as important as what is said. So writing a paragraph, a piece of narrative, or an exchange of dialogue that really nails it, that brings tears to my own eyes … well, that’s what I find most rewarding. It’s what brings me back to my den each Sunday morning.

Tell us about your latest book.

JCG: The first of a science fiction/alternate reality diptych, One Hot January is based on a theory that Winston Churchill and Franklin Delano Roosevelt conspired to allow the Japanese a preemptive strike at Pearl Harbor, thereby enabling Roosevelt to declare war openly, without political repercussions. In my revised historical account of events, Churchill alerts Roosevelt that his code breakers have learned of the Japanese plot. The U.S. is thereby able to thwart the attack, delaying involvement in World War II long enough for Germany to grow too strong to be defeated.

A century later, Hitler’s successor continues to eradicate entire races and cultures to ensure German supremacy. A small sect of genetically engineered beings sees the flaw in selective breeding and extermination, and so they travel back in time, to the events just prior to the attack on Pearl Harbor, to achieve the successful conspiracy that leads to the reality in which we live today.

In One Hot January, Joe January, an emotionally aloof private investigator from the South Bronx, gets more than he bargains for when he uncovers this seemingly impossible plot of time travel and alternate realities by grudgingly agreeing to help a pretty young woman locate her missing father. Her father, a Professor of Archeology from Columbia College, must prevent the secret location of Hitler’s body, which lies in a cryogenic state awaiting a cure for cancer, from falling into the wrong hands. By the end of the novel, January is thrust one hundred years into the future, where he must survive on a century-old sagacity as he endeavors to find his way back to his own time and the woman he loves but lacked the courage to tell. The tale concludes in January’s Thaw, to be released later this year.

Filled with mystery and intrigue, action and romance, the January series is speculative fiction on a large scale.

Is it available in print, eBook, and Kindle formats?



One Hot January is available through my publisher, Second Wind Publishing, and will soon be available from Amazon in both book and Kindle formats.

 Do you think your writing has improved since your first attempt? If so, in what way?

JCG: If my writing hasn’t improved over the years I don’t think I’d still be writing. I think my writing has improved in just about every aspect of the craft: my dialogue is more real than it has ever been, my narrative is more compelling, and overall, my story-telling has improved.

Raymond Chandler said, “Everything a writer learns about the art or craft of fiction takes just a little away from his need or desire to write at all. In the end he knows all the tricks and has nothing to say.” I still have plenty to learn, and plenty more to say, so I plan to be around for a while longer.

After hours of intense writing, how do you unwind?

JCG: My most intense writing sessions are on Sunday morning—four to six hours of intensity with coffee brewing and a cigar between my teeth acting as muses. Some of the most productive marathon sessions result in 3,000 words or more. Afterward I often kick back to sip a beer, watch a ballgame and maybe take a nap. Other times, if I’m still feeling my creativity flowing, I’ll go back after an hour or two and set about revising what I’ve just written.

Where can folks learn more about your books and events?

JCG: You learn more about me and my literary world at
http://www.jconradguest.com/

Thanks for dropping by, Conrad. Much success with your books!