Putting Yourself in Your Book

By Chester Campbell

I'm often asked how much of myself gets into my books. Obviously an author's ideas fill his or her work, but not much of the writer's personal life winds up in the fictional world. My new book out shortly turns all of that around.

Hellbound is a suspense story that, except for the ending, takes place over a five-day period. The action during that time occurs in settings that mirror almost exactly a similar five days of my life back around 1995. The book's plot involves a busload of seniors from a suburban Nashville church who head down the Natchez Trace on a carefree journey to The Big Easy. By the fourth day they become aware that a Mafia hit squad has been playing a deadly game of tag with them.

Except for the Mafia angle and the hurricane and its aftermath, the bus journey to New Orleans follows exactly the trip my wife and I took with a group from City Road Chapel United Methodist Church in Madison, TN twenty years ago. It includes the tour of the French Quarter we took aboard a mule-drawn carriage, right down to some of the driver's spiel that I taped with a small recorder. I changed the name of the church and created new characters for the driver and bus passengers, although a few resemble actual people.

This book is more personal to me than anything I’ve written. It’s almost biographical in some respects. One of the two main characters, Marge Hunter, lived in East Nashville on Gartland Avenue in a house similar to the one in which I grew up. She attended East Nashville High School in the early years of World War II, as I did. She graduated from the University of Tennessee and moved to Madison after she was married. Same as me.

The seniors on the bus know one passenger as Bryce Reynolds, a retiree who lives not far from the church. He is really Pat Pagano, a successful Las Vegas stockbroker who was lured into handling investments for a New York crime family. After his two grown sons are killed in an attack by a rival gang and his wife succumbs to cancer, Pagano decimates the mob with his testimony in federal court. He disappears, then resurfaces in Nashville as Reynolds, a retired businessman from Oklahoma. But after years of searching, an old Mafia capo tracks Pagano to the church bus en route to New Orleans.

Hellbound is currently available for pre-order as an ebook for the Kindle at this link. It will be available shortly in paperback.

ChesterDCampbell.com
Mystery Mania blog

Timeless

By Mark W. Danielson

Timeless.  A word as endless and enduring as the word itself.  This word is reserved for items with appropriate merit.  Few of mankind’s creations are worthy of such recognition.

Recently, my wife and I stumbled onto a couple of CD’s that pay homage to musicians who made songs timeless.  The first was an Everly Brothers tribute performed by Billie Joe Armstrong and Norah Jones, appropriately titled Billie Joe and Norah, Foreverly. Ask any musician that sings harmony and they will no doubt say the Everly Brothers influenced them.  But Norah and Billie Joe went beyond this.  They felt they needed to do this album, just as an author’s burning desire to pen a story.  Over a period of nine New York City days, these two musicians fashioned one of the greatest tribute albums I’ve had the pleasure of hearing, their voices blending as easily as the Brothers Everly.

The second surprise was Bruce Springsteen’s tribute to Pete Seeger, titled Bruce Springsteen, We Shall Overcome – The Seeger Sessions.  As with our previous experience, it was a fluke hearing about this album.  Most likely it came as a mention after Pete Seeger’s passing.  This album is a totally fun mix of Seeger’s tunes performed in Dixieland and New Orleans styles.  The band Springsteen assembled for this album included some of the best musicians in the United States.  Remarkably, everything was cut in three LIVE sessions from 1997, 2005, and 2006. The fact there were NO REHEARSALS makes this album even more amazing.  The clarity and energy of their work permeates in every song.

Don’t be mistaken.  As much as I love both albums, my intent is not to do CD reviews, but rather use them as examples that authors should strive to create abiding pieces that will inspire readers in the way Pete Seeger and The Everly Brothers inspired musicians.  Timeless works can read over and again without anyone tiring of them.  It matters not that one may be so familiar with the piece that they can recite its content without reading them.  If history is any indicator, few authors will ever be recognized for timeless work while they are alive.  Nevertheless, that should never stop someone from putting their best work forward through carefully chosen words. 

 

Writers' Conferences

by June Shaw

The first writers' conference I attended was in New Orleans, only an hour or so away. It was for romance writers.

The thing is I didn't know that; neither did my new friend who drove us there. We were both new writers, both writing mystery. So how did we wind up there? And how did it turn out?

Each of us had read a small article in an area newspaper saying there would be a Fiction Writers Conference that weekend. We both wrote fiction. We teamed up and went.

Splitting up to attend different workshops, we met in the lobby sometime later and like in a comedy, both said, "Do you know what kind of conference this is? They're romance writers!" Neither of us could believe we'd been duped into coming to this kind of conference, but you know what we found? It was great! Neither of us decided to start writing romance, but we learned so much that could help us in any area of writing. We made lots of new friends, and joined their group that meets in New Orleans.

Gosh, that was so many years ago. What a great memory. I've been a member of their group ever since and for the past three years have been its Published Author Liaison. (Okay, so I've written a romance and there's quite a bit of romance in my mystery series.) I've also been representing our state on the board of Mystery Writers of America's Southwest Chapter.

When I decided to get a website, I checked out sites of many published authors. One that made me smile belonged to Candace Calvert. She was writing light-hearted mysteries; a nurse was the main character. On her site she had photos I enjoyed, one with her husband.

Since I was trying to write Janet Evanovitch-inspired mysteries, I loved Candace's site. I told her so and modeled my own website after hers. A year later, after I'd sold the first mystery in my series and it was newly published, I attended a Malice Domestic conference, wondering what I was doing there. I was no one in all those big name authors. Soon after I got in an elevator heading toward my room, the door opened. It was Candace and her husband. "Hey, Candace, I'm June Shaw," I said and we shared hugs. And soon afterward I was running into people I knew from online groups. I was making friends and having such a great time it almost didn't matter that I was new. It was my first big confence. What great friends I also made there.

Do I believe writers' conferences are worthwhile? Absolutely. You pick up knowledge in various areas and make new contacts and greet friends. I'm attending an excellent one in Houma, Louisiana, today that will feature some editors, agents, many best-selling authors, and many of my new and not-so-new friend. No wonder I'm so excited!

How about you? How do you feel about writers' conferences?

www.juneshaw.com

Location, location, location

Where Do You Like a Book Located?

by June Shaw

When you read a book, do you care about the location of the story? Do you care whether the location is a real place or not?

I don't care about either.

Having said that, I consider a few books where I've cared, and where I prefer for the location to be real.

There are the Barbara Colley mysteries that feature a maid in the New Orleans famed Garden District. Those of us fortunate enough to have been in that area around the gorgeous monstrous homes can envision each house even more beautiful than the next one -- and a maid discovering what happens within their confines. These cozies are excellent reads for the stories and their unique people and setting.

Tell us only that a mystery is set in New Orleans, and readers' minds conjure various expectations. If it includes Bourbon Street, we have one mindset of what will occur and what we'll see. Tell us part of your story will take place in one of the cemeteries with large, above-ground tombs, and we'll envision one thing. Maybe shootings around the tombs. Maybe witches coming from them. Or zombies. How about voodoo?

Almost all of us can list large numbers of mysteries set in Los Angeles. New York. Chicago. Are any of them cozies? I haven't read one yet. A large majority of stories set in those states feature detectives and real, well-known streets and buildings.

Okay, it seems I do know what to expect from mysteries in many real places, and I do enjoy knowing what to expect.

I also realize I enjoy stories in which the author creates a setting, a community, the town's stores and streets. I have done both in my mystery series. I set the first book in a town I created outside Chicago, where I've enjoyed visiting. I love the Gatlinberg area and set the second book in a fictional place near there. I adore taking cruies, especially to Alaska, so gosh, guess the most recent place I needed to bring my spunky widowed protagonist and the hunky lover she tries to avoid so she can rediscover herself? (Of course the cruise line is fictional, although the ship's staff members enjoyed answering my questions like, "Where's a good place to find a body?")

Lots of readers here in south Louisiana have asked why I haven't set my books down here. Gosh, would it be more fun researching my city or a cruise ship?

We'll see. I am considering writing a future book or so set down here. And since Swamp People on the History Channel has become so popular, I might even give names of the real locations. Of course that's one of the things that's so enjoyable with writing fiction. We can decide and discover where we are and what will happen. I can't wait to find out what's coming up next in my books.

How about you? Do you like to read -- or write -- about a real location?

Thanksgiving Thoughts from New Orleans

By Jaden Terrell

I'm writing this post from a quaint little New Orleans hotel called The Prytania Park Hotel. Lace curtains over the window, pineapple-colored walls, antique green armoire, desk, and dresser, wrought-iron chairs and tables in a courtyard draped in ivy. Mike and I just had got back from dinner at The Irish House, where we shared a bowl of the most delicious lobster bisque I've ever had, followed by a fig-and-brie-stuffed duck breast. It doesn't get much better than this. I can even enjoy it without guilt because I wrote a chapter of the third Jared McKean novel on the way down. (Fortunately, Mike was driving.)

Tomorrow, we explore New Orleans, and on Saturday, we embark on a cruise to the Caribbean, a 25th anniversary gift from both our mothers. It's a first for both of us--we'll visit the falls in Jamaica, swim with wild stingrays and go to the turtle sanctuary in Grand Cayman, and tour the Mayan ruins in Cozumel. I don't know if Jared will be traveling to any of those places, but I'll be taking notes in our cabin afterward, just in case.

This month of Thanksgiving reminds me to be conscious of the things that bring happiness and not to take them for granted. Sitting here in this charming hotel room, I'm reminded not just to be grateful, but to express that gratitude.I'm grateful for this opportunity to experience new things, have time to write on the ship, and spend a week alone with someone I love. I'm grateful for my mom and his, not only for giving us this incredible gift, but for all the love and support they give us every day.

What else am I grateful for? Family, friends (old and new, real-world and online), my publisher, Martin Shepard, my agent, Jill Marr. I'm grateful for our dogs, who love us unconditionally, and for our jobs, which help us pay the bills--at least until that six million dollar (after taxes!) movie deal comes through. I'm grateful for the Quill and Dagger critique group and for Clay Stafford and Killer Nashville.

I'm grateful for all of you who read and write this blog. You're the best.

Above all, I'm grateful for this great adventure that is life, especially the writing life. The cruise doesn't end when we return to the dock. In a metaphorical sense, it begins the day we're born and ends...well, does it ever end? Or do we just disembark at another port?

What are your thoughts? And what are you grateful for?

Bon voyage!

Wormwood: A Little Dab'll Do Ya

1)My wormwood plant, 2007.

2)A glass of absinthe. Photo from the web site
of The Wormwood Society (Absinthe Assn.)

***
(From Full Circle by Pat Browning, Chapter 28.)

"Artemisia absinthium." Dr. Heff beamed. "Wonderful tonic. An old standby for digestive upset. Just here." He pointed with his clipper at several sturdy bushes, about three feet high, with pale yellow flowers and silver-green leaves that reminded me of Italian flat leaf parsley.

"Is there a downside?" I asked. "Is it safe?"

"Best left in the hands of experts," he said. "Oil of wormwood is extremely toxic, quite deadly. It's a traditional folk medicine but modern medicine replaces it with synthetics. It's still used for fragrance in soaps and cosmetics. And, of course, a minute amount for that bitter taste in vermouth."

No tape recorder. How could I be so stupid? "What happens if you get too much?"

"Convulsions, vomiting, hallucinations. Not a pleasant death." Sharing the information seemed to give him great pleasure.
***

By Pat Browning

How could I resist buying a wormwood plant when I used wormwood as a murder weapon in Full Circle? It's a summer bloomer so my plant looks a bit bedraggled in the photo I snapped. The morning I bought it the nurseryman had just turned the sprinkler on it, and it glistened like silver in the sunlight.

That was months ago, and our wild winter finally destroyed it, but at least I owned a legendary plant for a brief time. I was satisfied. I didn’t really want to keep it. There are kids and dogs everywhere in this apartment complex, and wormwood is not a friendly plant.

While I was researching wormwood for Full Circle, I came across some links for absinthe. Now there’s a name to conjure with. Wormwood is a basic ingredient in absinthe, and absinthe was illegal for years, except in Spain and one or two other countries. "The Green Fairy," it was called, and it took the rap, perhaps unjust, for destroying the minds of those who imbibed on a regular basis.

I thought back to my first visit to New Orleans years ago, and a famous bar, The Old Absinthe House, with its secret room where Andrew Jackson and Jean Lafitte plotted the Battle of New Orleans. New Orleans and its most famous dish, Oysters Rockefeller, made with absinthe—when absinthe was legal.

It didn’t take much imagination to introduce something called Oysters Merrily to my plot, with homemade absinthe concocted by a character whose herb garden contained wormwood.

Research also turned up a hereditary disease called porphyria. It has to do with metabolism disorders, and a form of it can lurk in the blood for years. An acute attack can be triggered by such everyday things as alcohol, dieting, infection, even herbal remedies.

All made to order for my book. My use of porphyria led to a surprising response after the book was published, but that's another story.

Meanwhile, absinthe has been declared legal again. It’s not something you just gulp down like a shot of Jack Daniels. For absinthe, you need a fancy glass, a fancy spoon, a sugar cube, ice water, patience, and a certain flair for the dramatic.

If you want an other-wordly experience, click on You Tube for a video of the preparation of absinthe. The background music is Chopin, Nocturne in D-flat Major, and it’s positively hypnotic. For Absinthe Ritual-Jade PF1901, click on:

http://tinyurl.com/5cq7oc