Solving Mysteries in the Library

By Susan Van Kirk

 

Originally published at http://andsometimesshewrites.blogspot.com

 

Librarians definitely solve mysteries!

 

I spent April 21, SinC's "Solving Mysteries Day," working as a volunteer at the Warren County Public Library in Monmouth, Illinois. Monmouth is a town of 10,000 in west central Illinois about 20 miles from the Mississippi River. 

Kathy is the saintly woman designated to keep an eye on me. What a patient person! In this photo, were are standing in front of books by authors who are members of Sisters in Crime.

On Saturday, we solved a lot of mysteries -  such as figuring out what is in all the nooks and crannies of the huge old building. Some of the doors in the upstairs are heavy metal and slide open and closed as if we were in a meat packing plant. Very, very old.

 
Here I am checking out a book for a patron. The library is a hub of activity in this little town. Working here would help you see a huge cross section of the town.

A librarian's job is a lot like teaching. First, you rarely sit down or get a chance to go to the bathroom. Second, you are always answering peoples' questions or trying to find things to help them.

I learned how to check books in and out, how to shelve, download digital books, figure out how to check out a book with a hand-written barcode, and how to make the (*&!!#) wand work to check out books.

Kathy told me of an amazing mystery. The library had some books that were overdue and tried to reach the patron by sending a letter. The letter came back from the post office marked "deceased." Instead of just writing it off, the librarians began asking selected patrons if they had seen this person. (Remember, this is a small town!) 

One of the question-ees had not seen the individual, but a few weeks later she approached the desk and explained that the person they had been seeking was sitting at a computer a few yards away. The librarian was able to confirm the person's name and give him that bad news that he owed money for books. The good news was that he wasn't dead.
 

 

This is one of the "nooks and crannies" where "old technology" goes to die. Remember the old card catalog?




 
I also learned of a guilt letter. Someone who had stolen books years ago and not returned them had an attack of guilt and wrote the library a letter. He wanted to apologize for taking the books and offered to make restitution after quite a few years had gone by. I wondered about the statute of limitations on stolen books.

All in all, it was a great day and I felt like I had done my share to say "thank you" to our library for all they do in supporting local authors, educating people, and providing amazing services. 

 

Susan Van Kirk, a SinC member author who participated in SinC's "Solving Mysteries Day," is at work on a mystery with ties to historic events that occurred in her Illinois town. The library has been an invaluable source of information for her work. 

Solving Mysteries Day: On Saturday, April 21, SinC member authors volunteered in libraries and bookstores in hometowns from Livermore Falls, Maine, to Honolulu, Hawaii, where they worked as volunteers doing whatever a manager asked of staff members - shelving, bagging, sweeping, assisting patrons, pulling holds, making recommendations, taking out the trash, checking in returned books, and more. The day had two themes: "Librarians Solve Mysteries Every Day" and "Booksellers Solve Mysteries Every Day."

Solving Mysteries Every Day

Today, Sisters in Crime's "Booksellers and Librarians Solve Mysteries Every Day" event is taking place in libraries and bookstores across the nation, from Livermore Falls, Maine, to Honolulu, Hawaii. 

To support the project, a group of 21 SinC members volunteered to go into bookstores and libraries between 10 a.m. and 4 p.m. local time to help those on the front lines of crime fiction - the very important people who help get crime fiction into the hands of interested readers. 

            "In honor of the 25th anniversary of the founding of Sisters in Crime, we are very pleased to be able to thank some of the people who work the hardest on the front lines of publishing by rolling up our sleeves and working beside them," said Frankie Y. Bailey, President of Sisters in Crime.

 The participating authors, bookstores, and libraries include:

          Frankie Y. Bailey, at The Book House of Stuyvesant Plaza in Albany, NY

                      Gail M. Baugniet, at the Maikiki Community Library in Honolulu, HI

                      Charlotte Cohen, at the Santa Ana Public Library in Santa Ana, CA

                      Kathy Lynn Emerson, at the Treat Memorial Library in Livermore Falls, ME

          Barbara Fister, at Once Upon a Crime in Minneapolis, MN

                      Susan Froetschel, at the Takoma Park Neighborhood Library in Washington, DC

                      W.S. Gager at the Jackson District Library in Jackson, MI

                      Kathleen Heady at the Haverford Township Free Library in Havertown, PA

                      Lee Kelly at Barnes & Noble in Marietta, GA

                      Molly MacRae at the Jane Addams Book Shop in Champaign, IL

                      Robin Murphy at the Sharpsburg Library in Sharpsburg, MD

                      Chelle Martin, at the Sadie Pope Dowdell Public Library in South Amboy, NJ

                      Denise Osborne, at the Mid-Continent Public Library, Raytown branch, in Raytown, MO

                      Bernadette Pajer, at the Uppercase Bookshop in Snohomish, WA

                      Karen Pullen, at McIntyre’s Books in Pittsboro, NC    

                      C. L. (Cheryl) Shore, at Bookmamas in Indianapolis, IN

                      Mary Stanton/Claudia Bishop, at Murder on the Beach in Delray Beach, FL

                      Lane Stone, at the Charles E. Beatley, Jr. Central Library in Alexandria, VA

                      Susan Van Kirk, at the Warren County Public Library in Monmouth, IL

                      Kathryn R. Wall, at the Beaufort County Library, Hilton Head branch, in Hilton Head Island,

                           SC

                      Tina Whittle, at The Golden Bough in Macon, GA 

           “We know that, in their efforts to help readers find the right books at the right time, booksellers and librarians solve countless mysteries every day,” SinC member Jim Huang, the coordinator of the event and a former independent bookstore owner, said. “This is our opportunity to thank them in a tangible way—and to find out what the publishing world is like from their perspective.”

            Onsite reports are coming in throughout the day from SinC member authors working in bookstores and libraries. The information they send will be posted on Twitter, Facebook and blogs throughout the day. 

            SinC has a Facebook page for the event at www.facebook.com/SistersSolveMysteries. On Twitter, SinC is using the hashtag #sisterssolve.

            In addition, SinC's more than 3,000 members are gearing up to support the "Solving Mysteries Day" event by going into libraries and bookstores today to personally thank the booksellers and librarians they find working behind the counters and in the stacks. 

            We hope your Saturday errands today will include a stop at a bookstore or library. And, afterward, we hope that you'll let us know how the visit went.

 

                 

   

      

Scared to Death: The Authors' View, part 2

By Sandra Parshall

Do writers use their own darkest fears to lend reality to scary scenes in their novels? Do they sweat along with their characters while they’re sitting at the keyboard? Last time we asked this question, we got a peek into the writing lives of Tess Gerritsen, Hallie Ephron, Simon Wood, and Deborah Crombie. This time around, we’ve asked Tim Hallinan, Kate Flora, and Libby Fischer Hellman to tell us what goes into writing their characters’ most terrifying experiences.

Timothy Hallinan is best known as the author of the Poke Rafferty Bangkok thrillers. The next in the series, The Fear Artist, will be published in August.

In The Queen of Patpong, which is the fourth and most recent of my Poke Rafferty Bangkok thrillers, I back up in time to tell the story of Poke's wife. When Rafferty met her, she was working in a bar on the notorious Patpong Road, and Queen traces her transformation from a shy, unworldly village teenager into the “Queen” of Patpong. As Rose says in the book, “queen of a kingdom of whores and viruses.”

Toward the end of her story, a handsome customer named Howard Horner woos her, proposes marriage to her, and then takes her down to Phuket for a holiday. Once their little boat is out on the water, it becomes obvious that Howard is not only not in love with her, but that this has all been a sick game that's supposed to end with him killing her on a cluster of barren rocks in the middle of the Andaman Sea. When the rocks come into sight of the boat's lights, it's nighttime, and Rose waits until Howard is busy avoiding the rocks and rolls backward into the water.

What follows is the longest action scene I've ever written – 25 typeset pages in the book – with Rose in the dark water, water that's swarming with the lethal jellyfish called sea-wasps, as Howard hunts her in the boat. I am personally terrified of dark water. I am personally terrified of sea-wasps, having been stung very lightly by one and having suffered for days as a result. I wrote much of the scene in a single, goose-bumped seven-hour session.

By the time it's over, and she's free of Howard, who's standing on the rocks as the tide comes in, I was a mess. I dreamed the scene all night long. (And made some improvements the next day, suggested by the dreams.)

Kate Flora, a former SinC president, writes the Thea Kozak series and the Joe Burgess series. Her latest book is Redemption.

The scariest situation I've ever put a character in? Well, you know I've been criticized over the years for putting my Thea Kozak character into dangerous situations, and exposing her to physical harm. But I'm a feminist (and PROUD of it) and an equal opportunity writer. Thea is tough and she gets into tough situations, so I have a lot to choose from.

That being said, I think the scene in Liberty or Death, the sixth Thea Kozak mystery, where she is facing a group of religious, conservative militiamen, who try her and convict her of spying on their organization, and decide to execute her, is absolutely terrifying. They lack compassion. They can't be reasoned with. They are utterly convinced that they are right, and since God is on their side, whatever they chose to do is okay. She's lost hope that the cavalry is going to ride in and rescue her. They aim a gun at her. She truly believes she's going to die, and they shoot.

There have been a number of times, in this series, when I've watched my character get herself into situations that have me wringing my mental hands over how headstrong she is, and how foolishly brave she can get when she's angry. But that's her character.

I worry, though, about what will happen should she and Andre ever be lucky enough to become parents.

Libby Fischer Hellman is a former SinC president and author of the Ellie Foreman series and several stand-alone novels. Her latest is A Bitter Veil.

That's a tough question, because, as writers, we always know what the outcome will be, no matter how frightening the scenario. I'd like to rephrase the question this way: What situation did you have the most qualms about writing? That I can answer easily.

There were two, coincidentally in my first and then my most recent thrillers. The first was in An Eye for Murder when Ellie Foreman was tied up and one of her assailants knifed her across her breast. I really had to ask myself whether that was necessary. I decided it was, both for the story and for the symbol of attacking one's "womanliness." Got some emails about that one. The second was in my new literary thriller, A Bitter Veil, which is set in Revolutionary Iran. In one scene, Anna is in prison and is tortured. I really had to examine my motives for that one, too. Was it necessary? Would it have happened in reality? I decided it was. I expect I'll get emails about that as well.


Sandra Parshall writes the Rachel Goddard mysteries. Her next book, Bleeding Through, will be published in September.

More on Vera Caspary

By A. B. Emrys

I have published a great deal about Caspary's appreciation for the novels of Wilkie Collins, the Victorian author often considered to have launched the mystery novel, and Caspary's adaptations of both his The Woman and White (1860) and The Moonstone (1868). In addition to Laura, she went on to rework Collins' plots and characters in Stranger than Truth (1946), set in Caspary's familiar world of ad agencies, and The Mystery of Elizabeth, about an amnesiac who's claimed by three sets of people, all of whom want to lock her up.

She was one of the most innovative of Collins's many adapters, who range from Bram Stoker to Elizabeth Peters - and the most successful one I've found at modernizing the character narration of his novels of testimony. Among other changes, her principal female characters tell their own version of the story. Collins' wide experimentation with having characters tell all or parts of the story blended perfectly with Caspary's instincts as playwright and scriptwriter, and her use of voice in novels flowered from Laura (1942) through the rest of her career.

Three Caspary films are available to see - and the best of these is Laura. Caspary fought with Preminger for her positive view of the title character and the film ultimately captured it. Note that in the chief setting, Laura Hunt's apartment, she lives alone with a large portrait of herself. This backdrop wordlessly conveys Caspary's independence theme.

The other two films are A Letter to Three Wives and Blue Gardenia. A Letter to Three Wives, which the New York Times called one of the top 10 films of 1949, was based on a script Caspary adapted from another writer's novel. The plot is about three wives tormented by a local siren who claims to have run off with one of their husbands. Among Caspary's additions to the story were strengthening the women as they find out the truth, as well as the use of the taunting voiceover. The Fritz Lang film, Blue Gardenia, adapted by others from her screen scenario tells the story of a telephone operator so desperate for affection that she goes out with the company seducer. Little of this study of a lonely single woman comes off in the film, but Nat King Cole does sing the title song.

Two of Caspary's novels, Laura and Bedelia (The Feminist Press, 2005) and a collection of stories are in print now. The stories collect several of her best 1940s and 50s magazine pieces, especially "The Murder in the Stork Club" (Crippen & Landru, 2009), about an upper-class woman who writes radio mysteries and is married to a working-class detective. When she's a suspect in a nightclub killing, he puts aside their quarrels over her mink coat to clear her name.

Most of Caspary's novels can be found through online sources, chiefly in old library editions that are further evidence of how well-known she was as a writer. Several articles on her (including my own) have appeared in Clues: A Journal of Detection. The Vera Caspary Papers, an archive she created, resides with the Wisconsin Center for Film and Theater Research in Madison, housed in the Wisconsin Historical Society. The archive includes unproduced scripts (Illicit was bought for Marilyn Monroe, who killed herself before production), movie scenarios (including Gardenia), book manuscripts, revisions and a great deal of correspondence about her work.

In writing about Caspary, it's my hope that readers will rediscover and enjoy her writing and more scholars will comment on her long career as novelist, playwright and scriptwriter.





A. B. Emrys is the author of Wilkie Collins, Vera Caspary and the Evolution of the Casebook Novel and professor emeritus of English at the University of Nebraska - Kearney.

Vera Caspary: A Lost Sister in Crime

By A. B. Emrys

When Vera Caspary died in 1987, every major newspaper ran her obituary, and they had plenty of information to cite. Over half a century, she had published 17 novels plus novellas and short stories. In addition, 20 films were credited to her as adaptations of her work, or were based on scenarios or scripts she wrote. The play she adapted from her most famous novel was still staged (and is today).

Her last novel, The Mystery of Elizabeth, came out in 1976, followed by her critically-praised autobiography, The Secrets of Grownups, in 1979. She was best known then, and only known now, if at all, as the author of Laura, her 1940s mystery about an ad executive targeted for murder. The novel was filmed by Otto Preminger as one of the first movies called noir.

I've been helping to get Caspary's work back into print and I made her a major focus in my book, Wilkie Collins, Vera Caspary, and the Evolution of the Casebook Novel (McFarland, 2011). In doing so, I've met a fascinating character and discovered books and movies I now recommend to others.

Caspary's unflinching spirit made Sojourner, in a review of her autobiography, call her "a natural and unabashed female rebel." Part of her rebellion was her determination to be a professional writer. When she got turned down over and over for business writing jobs, she took what she could get and finagled her way into writing ads, much like her character, Laura Hunt.

Her early novels veered from fantasy (the tale of the daughter of side-show performers who flees to avoid becoming a tattooed lady in Ladies & Gents), to stringent analysis of class, race and gender-bashing (in The White Girl about a black woman who passes for white) to a family epic about class prejudice among a clan of Portuguese-descended Jews much like her own family (Thicker Than Water).

The Depression and her membership in the Communist Party strengthened Caspary's focus on serious issues. Yet it was murder plots, the first of which was Laura, her fourth novel, that offered the fresh vehicles for her to continue analyzing the dynamic between independence and the temptation to cling and possess, something both her male and female characters have to confront to survive.

Even her most classically-plotted murder books deeply embedded other crimes. In one of her most chilling plots, Bedlia (1944), a black widow novel, the tables are turned on the serial bride in a scene so callous it generates some sympathy for a killer.

She became one of the mid-century writers of what were dubbed "psychothrillers," and an older colleague of Patricia Highsmith. Fans of Highsmith's conundrums (and I'm one) would also enjoy Caspary's The Weeping and the Laughter (1950), whose lead character may have been attacked by one of her greedy relatives or may have tried to kill herself; The Man Who Loved His Wife (1966), in which a disabled, angry man keeps a deliberately false diary that accuses his wife of wanting him dead - and then becomes a corpse or Final Portrait (1971) in which an actor turns down the part of Hamlet only to play it in real life.

To be continued tomorrow ...

A. B. Emrys is the author of Wilkie Collins, Vera Caspary and the Evolution of the Casebook Novel and professor emeritus of English at the University of Nebraska - Kearney.

Letting Go In Order to Write

By Ellen Byerrum

[Originally published online at http://ellenbyerrum.livejournal.com/]

Every book gets written in spite of fear, anxiety, and the world at large - or maybe they are written in spite of ourselves, when we manage to get out of our own way. And so there comes a point in every mystery novel where I have to let go of my fears and preconceptions about what it should be and who it has to please, and simply write the story. I have to let go in order to reach a new and different level in my writing.

That seems self-evident, and yet it's easy to allow little things to stump me and stop me. I have to remember what I enjoy about writing. That often seems impossible. And it means kicking all the invisible critics off my shoulders and ignoring the visible ones. It means I have to remember why I like my characters and their stories in the first place. Why I started writing in the first place.

After writing the Crime of Fashion mystery series for eight books, it becomes way too easy to get wrapped up in conflicting expectations. The geometry of the plot, for example. How many suspects should there be? Where and who are the red herrings? What is the story arc? Where do I introduce a new character? How do the mechanics work? Am I ignoring regulars in the series that people love, but who just don’t have a big role in this book? How do I make room for new characters I'm excited about bringing to life?

And then there are the ... Fashion Bites! Believe me, including "Fashion Bites" in the books was never my idea in the first place. In my first novel (Killer Hair), I included a few tiny snippets of the reporting and fashion columns written by my heroine, fashion reporter Lacey Smithsonian, just enough to give a flavor of her writing and her job at her newspaper. But my editor at the time (a terrific editor I'm still friends with, by the way) eagerly suggested how much fun it would be to turn these snippets into full columns in the books.

Fun?! The last thing I think about when I write them is fun. I worry if I have enough of them (four or five per book). I worry if they're smart and funny. Are they useful as actual fashion advice? Do they reflect the plot and move it forward? Are they in the right places, right order, right mood? Do they carry Lacey's unique voice and viewpoint? Do they work? Do they bite? (Yes, they often do.)

All those things can get in the way of the story. They can drain the energy, the spontaneity and the zest of the book. The story needs to spring to life as if it can't wait to be told. When the dialog is just okay and the opening is top-loaded with exposition, it reflects too much attention to the geometry and the plot set-up to make it enjoyable.

Overall, I have to remember that a mystery, though plotted carefully, is not an algorithm. In my experience, writing the required outline can strip away the moment-to-moment surprises like nothing else. Can you really write well if you’re burdened by some formula? If a = suspects, b = complications, c = corpse and d = detective, do you add blind alleys and red herrings, and divide by y (means, motive and opportunity) in order to find x (the culprit). Or does that just make it stale?

You may solve the mystery that way, but it does not necessarily add up to a good mystery. Formulas and algorithms for writing do not account for the effervescence, the will o' the wisp, the life and soul of a book. If you write it to a formula, it will read like a formula.

• “Couldn’t you add a cat? Mystery readers love cats!” Don’t think so. I’m allergic to them in Real Life, so I can’t conduct the proper research.

• “Have you considered a crime-fighting parrot?” Please, I’m trying to write. Although, in comic terms, the parrot is intriguing. Polly, want a clue? Wait, don’t distract me!

• “This is too gritty/dark/light/comic for your readers.” Really? How do you know? Are my readers so delicate, so Victorian, they can’t take a touch of gritty realism? Will they faint if Lacey Smithsonian finds herself between a murderer and a hard place or investigates a skin-crawling, heartbreaking crime? Do they never laugh through the tears in Real Life? I suspect my readers are made of sterner (and deeper) stuff than formulaic mysteries. And I hope I am, too. And even though my books are comic, they are not fluffy. They have subtext. They have life.

So I am reminding myself to enjoy the process, to let the characters have their way and their say. I have to trust that the book is there within me. Yes, I am writing a book for my readers, my agent, my editor and my publisher. But I’m also writing it for myself. I can’t cram my mysteries into a preconceived idea. The bottom line is: First, I have to like it! I have to please myself. That means I cannot please everyone. And letting go of too many expectations is the first step.

So why is that so hard to remember?


Ellen Byerrum is the author of the Crime of Fashion mysteries. Two of her books -- Killer Hair and Hostile Makeover -- were adapted for film by the Lifetime Movie Network. The seventh and latest installment in the series is Shot Through Velvet.

SinC Offers Two Hours of Video on the Latest Publishing Trends

For the first time ever, Sisters in Crime (SinC) is offering a series of video presentations of a SinC-sponsored writers’ workshop.

The video content, available online at no charge to members and non-members, includes more than two hours of information on the latest trends in publishing presented by crime fiction industry leaders specifically for crime fiction authors. The sessions were taped during Sisters in Crime’s annual “SinC Into Great Writing” workshop in September 2011.

The free video content includes:

Meg Gardiner: Lying for a Living
Award-winning thriller author Meg Gardiner speaks about the craft of writing and the key elements of a good read. (21 minutes)

Ellen Hart: E-publishing 101
Award-winning mystery author Ellen Hart provides an introduction to the first steps in e-publishing your novel. (9 minutes)

Libby Fischer Hellmann: To E or not to E
Award-winning crime fiction author Libby Fischer Hellmann presents the pros and cons of traditional publishing and e-publishing options. (20 minutes)

David Wilk: Trends in Publishing
Booktrix CEO David Wilk offers a look at a variety of issues facing authors today, from social media to the best materials to e-publish. (22 minutes)

Marcia Talley: Look Ma! I've Been Kindled!
Award-winning mystery author Marcia Talley provides a tutorial on publishing a manuscript for the Kindle and Nook platforms. The PowerPoint slides for her presentation are posted online with the video file. (15 minutes)

The Business of Print Publishing
Award-winning authors Cathy Pickens and Jim Huang present an overview of the business side of print publishing. (12 minutes)

Brazen Hussies Present: A Colloquium on Marketing
Marcia Talley leads a discussion of marketing possibilities. The panelists include Libby Jordan, marketing consultant for Open Road Media; Gina Panettieri, President and Executive Editor of Talcott Notch Literary Services and Debbi Mack, independently-published author. (19 minutes)

The seven-video series is available to Sisters in Crime members online at http://www.sistersincrime.org in the Members Only section at the Promoting Yourself area. Members will need a username and password to access the videos here. In addition, the video files are available to non-members online at http://www.sistersincrime.org in the Recent News section linked here.

Sisters in Crime was founded in 1986 to support the professional development and advancement of women crime fiction authors.

Finding Their Place in History

by Sandra Parshall

Authors of historical novels have all of human history, and a world of settings, to choose from. Have you ever wondered why a mystery writer decides to place a series in an earlier era – and what draws him or her to a particular time and place? We asked four authors of historical crime series what led to their choices.

Stefanie Pintoff, author of Secret of the White Rose, latest in the Simon Ziele mysteries:

“I was drawn to setting my historical series in early 1900s New York City for two primary reasons.

“First, there was never a question but that New York City would be a central setting in my books. I’m one of those people who became a New Yorker the moment I set foot here – and I find the city and its history to be endlessly fascinating.

“And second, I was drawn to the forensic innovation so prevalent during the time period. By 1905, more forward-thinking criminal scientists were beginning to challenge the prevailing opinion that criminal behavior resulted from a flaw of nature – a view popularized by Lombroso’s theory of the ‘born criminal.’ Scientists like my Alistair Sinclair sought to disprove these notions by interviewing and learning from a variety of violent offenders. This practice was not uncommon, but it was highly controversial: people worried that if we came to understand the criminal too well, then we might excuse (and not punish) his or her behavior.

“This led me to the challenge of creating an imperfect profiler. Someone who had many of the same questions we do today – but access to less sophisticated answers. Someone who would be brilliant and passionately devoted to his subject – but egocentric to the point of folly. Someone who would be just as enamored of New York City's high society as he was his academic passions. Through this scientist and my lead detective, Simon Ziele, I have introduced elements of ‘new’ science in each book – fingerprinting in the first, graphology in the second, and ballistics testing in the third (experts had just discovered that it was possible to match a particular gun to the bullet it had fired). I love the zeitgeist of this era, characterized by a tremendous faith in possibility – and the sense that the next big discovery was just around the corner, certain to change everything for the better.”

Kelli Stanley, author of City of Secrets, latest in the Miranda Corbie mysteries, and the Arcturus Roman noir mysteries:

“I grew up feeling like I secretly belonged in another era: the 1930s and 40s. I watched classic films, listened to radio shows (it helped that I was a kid in the nostalgia-crazed 70s) and devoured issues of a well-loved magazine called Nostalgia Illustrated, which covered popular culture of the 20s through the 50s.

“Call it Kismet, call it fate, but my fascination with the 30s and 40s – the period before my parent's actual memories, as they were both born in '39 – was always there, from the earliest age I can remember and, once I decided to become a writer, setting a series in the period between the wars seemed inevitable.

“As for San Francisco, though I didn't grow up here – and therefore don't share personal memories of Playland-at-the-Beach and other fondly-remembered landmarks – I did visit SF fairly regularly from the age of 10. I fell in love with it. I always sensed an electricity, a crispness, a clarity that other places and other cities lacked, a kind of devil-may-care danger and a celebratory sort of mad but innocent hedonism.

“Once I became an adult, it also seemed inevitable for me to live here (I have since 1985) and write about the City by the Bay... I may not be a native – indeed, I'm not a California native – but my heart is certainly in San Francisco, particularly in the rollicking, wide-open, cosmopolitan but small-town-generous city that she was in the 30s, 40s and 50s.”

Jeri Westerson, author of Troubled Bones, latest in the Crispin Guest medieval noir mysteries:

“The ‘Middle Ages’ spans some 1500 years, so I had to narrow it down from that. I picked that particular time in the 14th century to write about because it came some 40 years after the Plague that took out a third of the population of Europe: a third of the merchants, farmers, nobility—no one was spared.

It is also the age when the 10-year-old Richard II took the throne and began his intrigue-embattled reign that concluded at the end of the century with his being deposed and murdered. It is the time of the Hundred Years War and chivalry in its prime, with jousts and armor-plated battles. And it is the era of Geoffrey Chaucer, who wrote the first important literary works in English (and who also appears as a character in my latest book, Troubled Bones).

When William the Conqueror came to England three centuries before, he kicked out all the Saxon (English-speaking) nobles and placed his own in their place and, for centuries after, the nobility of England only spoke French. But, in the late 1300’s, even the king is speaking (Middle) English and this is the beginning formation of the sense of Englishness that culminates with Henry VIII two centuries later. It’s a fascinating time to write about.”

Carola Dunn, author of Anthem for Doomed Youth, latest in the Daisy Dalrymple mysteries, and the Cornish mysteries:

“I chose the 1920s for the Daisy Dalrymple series because it was a time of change, when women were taking advantage of opportunities opened by the huge loss of men in WWI. I didn't want to deal with the horrors of the war directly, though the lingering shadows play a part in most of the books.

“My Cornish series is set about 1970. I didn't actually choose the date – after 30 years of writing historical fiction I thought I'd give myself a break and be vague. I said in a foreword to the first one that it's set "somewhere between my childhood memories of Cornwall and the present reality." But somehow it's got pinned down to the late '60s, early '70s.

“Almost all my books are set in England (Daisy does venture to America in one, and several of my Regencies are set elsewhere) because I'm a Brit in exile. After over four decades in the U.S., I still sound just about as English as when I landed on
these shores.”


Sandra Parshall is the award-winning author of the Rachel Goddard mystery series. Her latest book is Under the Dog Star, published this month by Poisoned Pen Press.

Aiding and Abetting

By Julie Tollefson

One of the things I value about members of Sisters in Crime is their willingness to aid and abet -- not in a criminal way, but in many generous and unselfish ways that help others build careers.

As a beginning fiction writer, the best career decision I’ve made was to join Sisters in Crime and its Border Crimes and Guppies chapters. The opportunities to grow as a writer and the camaraderie of the members are outstanding.

The monthly meetings of the Border Crimes chapter, which draws members from both the Kansas and Missouri sides of the Kansas City area, feature a programming mix that serves the interests of both writers and readers. In the past year, we’ve had visiting authors and book signings, as well as discussions with a homicide detective, a financial crimes investigator and experts in the psychology of anger. If that’s not enough, the chapter offers something special the second Saturday of every month, when the fabulous Nancy Pickard leads a book dissection workshop for writers to explore the techniques and skills of mystery writing. So many benefits for the low, low price of SinC membership!

Not long ago, I read a post on the Escaping Mediocrity blog describing crabs trapped in a bucket dragging each other down every time one tried to climb out. The author of the piece, Sarah Robinson, imagined a different scenario in which helpful crabs came to the rescue of their trapped brethren, aiding their escape from captivity. She suggested that in our lives and careers, we should look for the helpful crabs, the individuals who have successfully traveled a path similar to the one we are on and who are willing to lend us a hand on our journey.

“Because they’ve tasted freedom and they know your struggle, they are putting energy into aiding and abetting your escape. I believe that for those of us determined to get out of the bucket, such a group exists,” she wrote. (Read the entire post here).

Without a doubt, Sisters in Crime is such a group.

William W. Warner borrowed the name of his Pulitzer Prize-winning book, Beautiful Swimmers, from the translation of the Atlantic blue crab’s scientific name, Callinectes sapidus. (Callinectes = beautiful swimmer, sapidus = tasty.) The name also aptly describes the helpful members of Sisters in Crime. The established writers who willingly mentor others. The Sisters who commiserate and offer advice when the business of publishing seems overwhelming. The authors who volunteer information and guidance, swimming alongside colleagues through the challenges and joys of bringing a book to market. The result is a strong community that aids and abets all members in pursuit of their goals.

Sisters in Crime is a special group, and I feel unbelievably fortunate to be a member. I’ll wager every member has at least one story of a Sister (or Mister) who has gone above and beyond to lend a helping hand. Let’s show what great people belong to this organization. Give a shout out in the comments section to the good crabs, the beautiful swimmers, you’ve met through Sisters in Crime.


Julie Tollefson spends her days overseeing communications for an academic research center and her nights writing fiction. She can be found online at http://julietollefson.com.

Photo by David Gnojek.