J.M. Cornwell: Among Women

J. M. Cornwell lives in the Rocky Mountains of Colorado where she shares bits and pieces of her past in Chicken Soup and Cup of Comfort anthologies and searches for the perfect place to build a cabin by a lake.

Welcome, J. M. That setting has to be inspirational!

It certainly is, Susan.

How many books have you written? In what genres?

There are 14 books: two novels and 12 anthologies. 22 if you count the eight books I ghostwrote before I decided to write my own books, and one bio-bibliography, on Charlton Heston, that never was published because the company was bought out and the series shelved. I worked for a year on that book.

What books or authors have influenced you?

Almost everyone I read influences me in some way, sometimes with what not to do, but most especially Marion Zimmer Bradley, Andre Norton, Michel Montaigne, and Algis Budrys. They took the time to let me know what was good and bad about my writing – often in great detail – and became good friends, except for Montaigne, who is a little before my time.

What are your writing goals?

To keep writing and publishing until I close my eyes for the last sleep.

What is your most rewarding experience during the writing process?

When everything is effortless and I can hear and see everything going on. It’s what Andre Norton called looking at the inside of the donut. Telling a story is like standing in the middle of a donut. Whichever way you turn you see or hear or sense something new and the writer’s job is to get it all down.

Tell us about your latest book. Is it available in print, ebook, and Kindle formats?

Among Women is my latest novel and is available in ebook from Smashwords, Amazon and Barnes &Noble and will be out in print this week.

Among Women is about a woman who is stranded in New Orleans. Everything she owned was stolen and she is homeless, but she keeps going. Just when she’s about to make it back into the mainstream she is arrested and put in jail without a lawyer or having gone before a judge. She doesn’t know how long she will be stuck in jail and she’s scared. A murderer reaches out to her and offers to help. As she gets over her fear, she begins to see all the women are really not that different than she is and she begins to listen to their stories. Pearl becomes a modern Scheherazade telling her own story and the stories of the women in order to survive.

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

I should hope so. I’m no longer eight years old and I have lived a bit. Even what I wrote a few years ago is different than what I write now because I have changed. The most obvious evidence is in Among Women. I’ve written and rewritten the story dozens of times in the past 30 years, but this time it finally came together.

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

Every book provides its own challenge. Finding the right voice, the right format to tell the story, researching and getting the details right. I check calendars for books that have a more contemporary setting and I read a lot of science and history to get the little details right. It’s all in the details. That’s what sets a good book apart from a mediocre book, when the details are so real you are transported to whatever world or period in history and you believe in what is being written. Of all the books I have written, and I include the eight books I ghostwrote for others, Among Women was the most challenging because I had to let go of the facts sometimes in order to make the story more interesting and to make it work. I stuck pretty close to the real events, but I did allow myself some license in going off the track. Merging fact and fiction and making it into a good story was my biggest challenge. Once I was able to get lost in the story, it finally came together.

How do you develop characters? Setting?

I see situations and the characters are developed from that initial idea. The same for setting which is inextricable from the characters. I’m working on a new novel set in Victorian England that began as a question about why Dr. Jekyll decided to split himself in two to get rid of his darker nature. Robert Louis Stevenson never gave a motive, and that always intrigued me. I asked what would make a man want to get rid of his emotions and the answer I kept coming back to was a woman. Delilah Makepeace was born.

In Among Women, I was dealing with personal experience and telling the story of women I had met, so the process was a little different as the book was born of my own trials and tribulations in New Orleans in 1984. There is quite a bit of fact in the book, but also a healthy dose of fiction.

Can you share how you name your characters?

Baby books. For instance, I wanted a Korean name for one of the characters in Among Women so I went through pages and pages of Korean names and came up with Joo-Eun, which means Silver Pearl. In some ways, she is a mirror for Pearl Caldwell, the protagonist, in that she, like most of the women, has been betrayed by her brother. Pearl is betrayed by her lover and in both cases the charges are false.

What are your protagonist’s strengths? Flaws?

Pearl is from a middle class background. She has had it easy and she thinks she knows how to survive, but it all comes from books. She begins by seeing people in black & white until she opens up and begins to listen. Her curiosity and desire to right the wrongs she sees are flaws as well as strengths and they lead her deeper into the lives of the other women. It is her need to know why things happen and what she creates out of them that are her salvation and her biggest flaw because she gets to a low point where she just wants to go to sleep and never wake up. Pearl is compassionate even though she is afraid of the women and she is also a bit of an elitist when she wakes up in jail because she sees the women as faceless and not worth her time. They scare her almost as much as they begin to intrigue her.

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

I just keep writing and then go back through when I’m finished and reread everything. I also have a great editor who reminds me when I have gone off the path or lost a character somewhere. It was easier with Among Women because I already knew the story, but I had rewritten and edited so much from the initial draft that I did get a little off track. I know whatever story I’m writing from start to finish because I can see the whole donut, so that makes it easier, but the characters do sometimes surprise me and take me off in different directions. Then I just hold on and follow them.

How does your environment/upbringing color your writing?

I’ve always said that if you want to know what an author is like, just read their stories. My curiosity and what interests me at the moment are in everything I write, especially when I blog. I write from experience and passions and the pique of the moment. It goes back to what I said about my writing changing because I’ve changed. Everything I read, experience, see, sense, hear, and do gets filtered into the writing and into the characters, most of whom are extensions of me, a sort of what if I had done this instead of that. They are a way to explore different avenues and try on different lives without actually having to change everything.

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

I’m learning more about how to do that because I tend to be more interested in writing than promoting. I’d rather have someone else do it, but especially with Among Women, which is self-published, I’ve had to be more proactive, like contacting reviewers and interviewers and asking if they’d be interested. I’ve done podcasts and I bore people silly with posts about the writing and publishing process, about subjects related to the work and I beg people I know, like you, to please interview me. I also comment on blogs and make a nuisance of myself whenever possible, but not to the point of being truly obnoxious, just mostly obnoxious.

Can you tell us about current or future projects?

I have several books outlined, but the one I need to finish first is Whitechapel Hearts; that is the story of Jekyll, Hyde, and Jack the Ripper and the woman who was responsible for it all: Delilah Makepeace. After that one is done, I’m going into the future with a post apocalyptic vampire story unlike the usual vampire fare. My vampires come from two different mind sets. One is as protectors of humanity during a long nuclear winter that has lasted 400 years and the other vampires breed human like cattle for food and to make their lives easier. The latter vampires live in domed cities while the other vampires, called Memories, live underground with humans, guiding and protecting their knowledge for the future when humanity can re-emerge on the earth and being living above ground again.

Where can folks learn more about your books and events, J. M.?

I keep blogs in several places, but the main spot is my author blog on Red Room at http://www.redroom.com/authors/jm-cornwell. That is also where I have links to all my books for sale, podcasts, and of course blog entries.

new Genesis Beach!

Introducing the new revised edition of Genesis Beach, the first book in the Logan Hunter Mystery series, now under the L&L Dreamspell label. Only available in ebook at the moment, but print coming soon. Thanks Lisa and Linda, my wonderful publishers, for another tremendous effort!

http://www.allromanceebooks.com/product-genesisbeach-549384-152.html

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!