Joyce and Jim Lavene: Prolific Writing Team

Just in time for Christmas:  A Spirited Gift by Joyce and Jim Lavene. I'm happy to say that my guests today, the husband and wife team of Joyce and Jim Lavene, are friends of mine who also live in North Carolina. The Lavenes created Carolina Conspiracy, a group of mystery writers from the Carolinas, and we can't thank them enough for getting so many of us together. But more about that later in the interview.

Welcome to the blog, Joyce and Jim. Please have some of my Brittle Bones (peanut brittle from Killer Recipes cookbook) and a beverage.

Thanks, Susan.

I love the cover of your new release! It's quite eye-catching.

We like it too.

How on earth do two married folks write together without a homicide in the house?

You know, people ask us this question more than any other. We’re not really sure why this works for us. Maybe it’s because we worked together for 15 years with our own office supply business. Or maybe it’s because we’ve been married for 40 years. Or maybe it’s because we kill people in our books so we don’t have to kill each other. Of course, we have disagreements sometimes but it works for us.

You have two have written several series. Tell us how you came up with the ideas and a little about each series.

Sheriff Sharyn Howard Mysteries – This was our first. We got the idea from watching the news and seeing the first woman elected as a sheriff in NC. Sharyn was very serious, a little dark. Her father, who’d been the sheriff, was killed in a robbery  and she looked bad in her ugly brown uniforms. She didn’t get along with her mother and had a love/hate relationship with the county ME. We wrote 12 books in this series and hated when it was over. The books are being released now from Harlequin Worldwide in paperback.

Peggy Lee Garden Mysteries – Jim and I have been Master Gardeners for years and thought it would be fun to write about a botanist and botanical poisons. We are good friends with a botanist at the NC zoo who was a big help with these books. Peggy was also an older protagonist which was fun. And it was set in Charlotte so we got to eat out at all the restaurants we used in the book (for research) and had her travel across the state.

Renaissance Faire Mysteries – This is a strange, fun mystery series about a history professor who spends her off time at a Ren Faire in Myrtle Beach where she solves murder mysteries. This was so much fun to write because we love Ren Faires. We made this the best Ren Faire we could imagine with a castle, a lake, a pirate ship and a five acre Sherwood Forest. We’ve had so many people ask us if this is a real place because they want to go there. But it’s not, though we wish it was too! Jessie, our protagonist, apprentices herself and learns a different craft each time she goes to the Faire. So far she’s learned glass making, basket weaving, hat making, sword making and toy making.

The Missing Pieces Mysteries – This is set in Duck, NC and the mayor, Dae O’Donnell, is the mayor of the town. She is a finder of lost things, based a little on Jim’s uncanny ability to find lost things. She’s much more talented since she is also psychic. She has an antique/secondhand shop where she can put all the things she finds. The area is rich with folklore, pirates and ghosts so we wove these into the series as well. Dae finds out in the third book, A Spirited Gift,  that  she is related to the scourge of Duck, pirate Rafe Masterson. His ghost needs her help to clear his name and she needs his help to solve the murder of her friend.

We are currently writing two new series – The Sweet Pepper Fire Brigade Mysteries for Berkley Prime Crime and the Pie in the Sky Mysteries for Pocket Books.

Congratulations to both of you!

Tell us something about yourself that readers might be surprised to learn.

Joyce – I can’t sleep if the closet door is open.

Jim – I have a collection of more than 200 dragons.

How many books have you written?

A Spirited Gift, our December release, will be our 60th published book. We are very excited about it!

WOW! That's fantastic!

Tell us more about A Spirited Gift.

A Spirited Gift is the third book in the Missing Pieces Mysteries. The books are set at the Outer Banks, in Duck, NC. Our protagonist is the mayor of Duck, Dae O’Donnell. In A Spirited Gift, Dae is trying to solve the murder of a friend when she is confronted by the ghostly apparition of a long dead relative demanding justice for his death. The pirate Rafe Masterson wasn’t someone Dae expected to learn she was related to but she has little choice but to help him with him everywhere she turns.

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

It is available in every format in print and online everywhere.

What are some of the problems you faced while plotting a series with ongoing characters?

There is always the issue of keeping your characters fresh as well as keeping up with their lives and everything that happens to them. When you write two or three series a year, you have to keep a running tab on what all of them are doing! It helps to get them in, and out of, trouble.

How do you develop characters?

They really kind of develop themselves. Most of the time they form, sometimes with or without, a plot. Secondary characters are often people we know or that we’ve met.

I have trouble keeping up with character ins two books, so I'm awestruck.
How do you choose your setting?

Setting is so important. We choose it as carefully as we do characters. For Peggy Lee, our garden mystery protagonist, she wanted to be in Charlotte, NC in an urban area that loved to garden. Dae O’Donnell couldn’t have lived anywhere but Duck with its legends and history. Our Renaissance Faire could only have survived in someplace like Myrtle Beach where there are plenty of tourists.

Can you tell us about current or future projects?

Right now, we are working on a new series for Berkley Prime Crime. It’s called the Sweet Pepper Fire Brigade Mysteries and it is set in the Smokey Mountains. Our protagonist is a firefighter from Chicago who comes to the Tennessee Mountains to help out a new volunteer fire dept. We are also working on a new series for Pocket Books called Pie in the Sky which is set at Duke University.

Further congrats!

You guys created Carolina Conspiracy, a unique group of Carolina mystery writers who often travel do the same locations for workshops and other book events. Why did you establish this group? And I must add, I thoroughly enjoy being one of the conspirators.

People often comment on how nice it must be to do things together, and it is. We thought it might be nice for other authors to get together and enjoy themselves while they sell their books. It’s been fun for us too and we’ve made many good friends.

Where can folks learn more about your books and events?

The best place for excerpts and news is www.joyceandjimlavene.com but we are also on Facebook and I tweet @author54. Hope to see you there!

So, folks, these two have plenty of great books for your entertainment. What are you waiting for?

How About a Candy Cadillac for Christmas?

My special guest today is Claire Applewhite, whom I've met in person. Claire is a petite beauty with plenty of charm and talent. We have the same publisher, L&L Dreamspell, in common. It's my pleasure to have you on the blog, Claire.

Thank you, Susan. 

Tell us something about yourself that readers might be surprised to learn. 

People may not know that I study piano and music composition. Recently, I’ve written the music and lyrics for my video trailers.  It is an exciting challenge to match the mood of the music to the theme of the story.

Wow! How exciting! I can hardly wait to see the video trailers.

How many books have you written, Claire?

The Wrong Side of Memphis, Crazy For You, St. Louis Hustle, Candy Cadillac.

What books or authors have influenced you?

Books: Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier, A Dark Adapted Eye by Barbara Vine, and authors Walter Mosley, Ed McBain, Mary Higgins Clark.

What has been your most rewarding experience durng the writing process?

When someone emails me or stops me to say that they really enjoyed my book, or especially when they say they meant to read a chapter a night and ended up staying half the night to read more of the book. Or when someone says, “I don’t usually like to read, but I liked your book.”

That IS rewarding.

Tell us about your latest release, Candy Cadillac.

Candy Cadillac is the third in the ‘nam noir series, featuring Elvin Suggs and Di Redding. There was a time in St. Louis history when car bombings were quite active among organized crime figures. Years ago, one of the victims had a girlfriend that lived in our neighborhood, and a detective banged on our door one Sunday afternoon, wanting to know what we knew about her boyfriend, who had, by the way, been blown up when he started his car. By the way, what did we know about her, hmm? This scenario inspired the makings of Candy Cadillac. 

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

It is available in print, ebook and Kindle formats.

Were any of your books more challenging to write than the others?

Candy Cadillac was more challenging to write because it had a ticking clock in it from page one until the end. It was critical that I keep an eye on my timeline. The entire story occurs between a Wednesday and a Sunday evening, and it was the first book that I have written where time lapsed between scenes really mattered.


What are some of the challenges you faced while plotting a series with ongoing characters?

Before I begin writing, I try to decide how much time/space each character will occupy during the story. For example, will it center on the growth of a particular character this time? What role will the others play? Will they all appear or only some of them? How much of a subplot will they offer?

How do you develop characters?

First, I line up 3-5 of the most interesting people I know and select a strong characteristic from each one. Then I blend them into one person. I ask what does this person want more than anything in the world? Who or what is in their way? What are they most afraid of? And then, I make sure that thing happens. The character is definitely different in the end than they were in the beginning of the story.

How do you choose your setting?

For me, the story chooses the setting. I look for the theme or mood of the storyline and it tells me where to set the plot.

Any current or future projects?

Currently, I am working on the fourth in the series, Tennessee Plates, in which Elvin goes returns to Memphis and finds romance—with the wrong woman.

Where can folks learn more about your books and events?

 My website is www.claireapplewhite.com

Claire, thanks for taking the time for an interview about your new release. Have a wonderful Christmas!

Thanks for having me, Susan. Wishing you a memorable holiday season as well.

Mary L. Tabor: Sex After Sixty

 My guest today is Mary Tabor, author of (Re) Making Love, for those of us over 60.

Welcome to the blog, Mary. Tell us something about yourself that readers might be surprised to learn.

I say, It ain’t over till it’s over. I published my first book when I turned 60.

Congratulations!

How many books have you written?

Three: two published and one not: My first book is The Woman Who Never Cooked, connected stories Mid-List Press, winner of the First Series Award. I then wrote a novel entitled Who by Fire (excerpts have won prizes, but the book has not found a publisher yet. My most recent is the memoir (Re)Making Love: a sex after sixty story, published by the fab Anthony Policastro, CEO of Outer Banks Publishing Group.

What books or authors have influenced you?

 A: Nabokov, for the beauty of his prose, his love of games, and his depth of feeling. Speak, Memory is my favorite memoir. Joyce because of the humanity of Ulysses. Folks read all the glosses, try to get all the allusions and get mired in the complexity of the tale when its power is its pure simplicity: one day, two men, each on a separate long journey and a meeting that changes them both and the reader for ever.

 I don’t write like either of them but their power over me has been undeniable.

 What has been your most rewarding experience during the writing process?

My readers when the book was a blog: They shored me up. I forged ahead on the sea of their belief.

 Tell us about your latest release, (Re)Making Love.

 I wrote this memoir live as a blog while I was living it. My husband of 21 years, Oh so Greta Garbo said one day, “I need to live alone.” I cratered. And then I wrote. The journey of the good, the bad and the oh so foolish is my story. But ultimately, the journey turned into a love story I could never have imagined. In this way, the old saw truth is stranger than fiction became a reality.

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

Yes, all three. Check out Amazon here: http://amzn.to/nqg0yo but you can also read it on your iPad through Smashwords.

Were any of your books more challenging to write than the others?

The memoir was the most challenging because I left the cover of fiction. I do think all heartrending and deeply moving fictions come from the writer’s willingness to venture into the unconscious and that is true of my short stories and the unpublished novel. But with the cover of fiction, I could be as bare as I am in the memoir but never have to say it was true when much of it actually is. With the memoir, my heart, my life and stuff I would never tell you in conversation get revealed. It was hard to do but hard not to do. I suspect that paradox is the artist’s burden.

How do you develop characters?

All my writing begins with a character. Henry James in his preface to The Ambassadors talks of the novel’s “strong stake.” I think what he means is that we must know the trouble that drives the character, but the strong stake is ultimately the fullness of that character’s life on the page. In his preface to The Golden Bowl, he admits how he inexorably chooses to move closer. “There is no other participant, of course, than each of the real, the deeply involved and immersed and more or less bleeding participants….”

In the case of the memoir—and maybe all my work—I grapple with the question, Who am I?  Here’s something I say in the prologue of the memoir, now in its second edition, that might explain better what I mean:

For this second edition that comes now one year after its first publication, I would like to share with you as you embark on the journey of (Re)Making Love what I have learned about living within time’s limits from writing this book and from living beyond its first publication. Rabbi Hillel, who spoke these words 2,000 years ago, has been widely quoted ever since, perhaps most notably in my lifetime by the ilk of Primo Levi and Robert F. Kennedy.

 If I am not for myself, then who will be for me? And if I am only for myself, then what am I? And if not now, when?

 Truly knowing what these words mean has come from the place of not knowing. And by this I mean that I have had to live this journey without the full understanding of their plain spoken sense. I have had to learn the hard way: through the good, the bad and the foolish that this memoir recounts.

 Where can folks learn more about your books and events?

My website: http://maryltabor.com

Blog: http://maryltabor.blogspot.com

FB: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Mary-Tabor/125813534105239

Twitter: http://twitter/com/maryltabor

Continued success, Mary, and Merryu Christmas!

You too, Susan.

Margaret Millmore's Doppelganger Experiment



Margaret A. Millmore was born and raised in Southern California, moved to San Francisco in 1991 and currently resides there wsband.  Reading is an addiction for her, and one she’ll never give up.  She has an active imagination and often made up stories as a child.  After ending a successful career, she found herself with the time to pursue those stories, and the floodgates opened.  She loves just about every kind of story, but especially fiction. "Throw in some supernatural or paranormal overtones and I’m in heaven," she adds. She is the grandniece of Irish author Benedict Kiely and the second cousin of Irish author Sharon Owens. So writing is certainly in her blood. 

Margaret, welcome to the blog. May I pour you a cup of tea?

Thank you, Susan. Yes, you may.

Tell us what books or authors have influenced you.

My earliest love was CS Lewis’ Narnia books, but I’ve been a die-hard Stephen King, Ray Bradbury and Dean Koontz fan for as long as I can remember. I read a great deal, and almost every author I read inspires and influences me.

 

Tell us about your latest release.

Doppelganger Experiment is psychological thriller based in San Francisco with a touch of the paranormal: After more than four weeks in a coma, Jane woke up to find several things wrong; she didn’t remember the last three years, she was married to a man she didn’t know, and frightening dreams were infiltrating her sleep. But were they dreams or memories? As she struggles to recapture a life she doesn’t remember, she discovers clues that lead to flashes of memories and the discovery of horrific experiments that end in murder... and something worse than murder.  She must uncover the secret to the experiments to recover her life and end the horrible things that are happening.

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

Yes, the book is available in both formats at most on-line retailers.

How do you develop characters, Margaret?

I usually develop the main character(s) when the story idea comes to me, from there the characters develop with the story itself, they sort of write each other.

 

How do you choose your settings?

I’ve lived in San Francisco for the last twenty years, so it was just natural to use the City as the setting.

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

I use as much social media as I can and of course I shamelessly ask friends and family to spread the word. It’s very difficult to promote, but you really have to put your all into it, I also do a ‘featured authors’ page on my website, this is to help promote my fellow authors and more often than not they kindly reciprocate.

Can you tell us about current or future projects?

  I’m working on a new thriller, but it’s in the very early stages, so at this point, there isn’t much to tell.

Where can folks learn more about your books and events?

  You can visit my website at www.margaretmillmore.com, or the following links: http://www.facebook.com/#!/profile.php?id=100002915649470

http://www.linkedin.com/pub/margaret-millmore/4/a6b/6a9

http://www.barnesandnoble.com/s/margaret-millmore?store=book&r=1

http://www.amazon.com/Doppelganger-Experiment-Margaret-Millmore/dp/1937593207/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1318857839&sr=8-1#_

 

Here's a blurb for her novel, Doppelganger Experiment:

After more than four weeks in a coma, Jane woke up to find several things wrong; she didn’t remember the last three years, she was married to a man she didn’t know, and frightening dreams were infiltrating her sleep. But were they dreams or memories? As she struggles to recapture a life she doesn’t remember she discovers clues that lead to flashes of memories and the discovery of horrific experiments that end in murder... and something worse than murder.  A psychological thriller based in San Francisco.

 Margaret, it has been a pleasure to have you over. Continued success with your writing endeavors.

Thank you, Susan.