New Release

Kate Morgan, a single mother raising her eleven-year-old daughter, Mandy, in Storyville, Ohio, feels like she’s finally getting her life together, both professionally and personally. Her first mystery novel is about to be published and she and Chad Hollingsworth are engaged to be married. She’s looking forward to a bright future. Until the past comes back to haunt her.

Eleven years ago, a string of home invasions took place in Kate’s hometown, threatening the safety and security of the elderly residents. The burglaries stopped abruptly – until now.

And, eleven years ago, Bobby Benton, Mandy’s father, left town, never returning – until now. The police consider Bobby a person of interest in the crimes and, for the sake of her daughter, Kate is determined to figure out the identity of the perpetrator in order to clear his name. However, she quickly discovers that’s easier said than done.

https://tinyurl.com/ybgn8myf

Creating Characters

The writing process fascinates me. I’ve just finished writing my sixth mystery novel and I’m still in awe of how bits and pieces from my life and lots of other sources come together to form a book. Sometimes, it’s easy to figure out where ideas come from; other times it’s not. When an idea comes to me seemingly from “out of the blue,” I look up and say, “Thank You,” because I believe in giving credit where credit is due.

My favorite part of writing is creating characters. People and psychology have always fascinated me. My Malone mysteries have been described as “character driven” and my new cozy mystery, Secrets in Storyville, which is separate from my series, is also character driven. A house may have been the inspiration for the book but the characters quickly became the most important element to me.

So, how did I come up with the characters for my new book? Like all of writing, it was a process. 

Kate, my main character, is based on someone I once knew who was the single mother of a young daughter. But that’s where the similarity ends. The two women are nothing alike in appearance or personality and they “live” totally different lives. 

The other characters in the book were each created to fulfill a need in the plot. Kate’s parents and grandmother who are hiding a secret, her daughter, Mandy, the people Kate works with, several of the town’s residents and the man Kate meets and falls in love with all play a part in the mystery.

I hope you enjoy getting to know the characters in Secrets in Storyville as much as I enjoyed creating and writing about them.

Real versus Fictional settings

Writers are advised to “write about what you know.” I was born on the west side of Cincinnati where I’ve lived for most of my life. I love my city, especially the west side, which is why I decided years ago to make it the setting for my Malone mysteries. The first three books take place in upper Westwood and Cheviot, not far from where I grew up. As I wrote, I could picture the places so vividly in my mind and I wanted my readers to be able to do that too.

In the last two books, I chose to change the setting to South Carolina. I had vacationed there numerous times and fell in love with Charleston, Beaufort, Mt. Pleasant and Fripp Island. Those were other places I felt comfortable writing about because I was familiar with them. Not to mention all the printed material I’d gathered on my trips and all the photos I’d taken, never dreaming those places would later be used in my books.

There are many positives to writing about “real” places. For me, one of them has been the wonderful response I’ve gotten from local readers who have told me they love reading about places close to where they live. But there are also negatives to setting a book in a real place. When I wrote my Malone mysteries, I wanted to be geographically and historically accurate but I occasionally needed to exercise poetic license for the sake of the story. I had to explain that to a few readers who were as familiar with the area as I was.

When I finished my five-book series, I honestly didn’t know what I would write next. Nor did I know where the story would take place. I’ve traveled to many fantastic places and I briefly considered using one of those. And then it hit me! Why not create a town? A place where the geography and the history could be whatever I wanted them to be?

As it happened, one Sunday, my mother, my friend, Mary, and I took a day trip to visit The Story Inn, a restaurant/historic site in a remote part of Indiana. The name of my fictional town jumped out at me and, little by little, the plot and the characters came to life. I hope, as you read the book, they’ll come to life for you too.

Any day now . . .

UPDATE 6/25: Secrets in Storyville was just released at amazon.com! Type the title in the search box and it will appear!
 
Self-publishing for the first time has been quite a journey for me. I didn’t expect it to be easy but I had no idea of the “glitches” I would encounter along the way. I did a lot of things right and a lot of things wrong – but, with each step I took, I learned.

 

I realized from the beginning that creating a cover was a daunting task. I didn’t even have Photo Shop on my computer but I was fortunate to have two good friends help me with that. I purchased the image for the front cover and my friend, Dave Griffiths, used his expertise to help me choose the colors and design. The same was true with the back cover. I provided the information and photo and my fellow author and friend, Marja McGraw, set it up for me. Lesson learned: Install Photo Shop before trying this again.

One of the things I did right was to take my time with the actual manuscript. In other words, not to rush to send it in. After rewriting, proofreading and editing numerous times, I enlisted the help of other authors to be my beta-readers. And yes, they found errors I hadn’t seen. So, I submitted a  “clean copy.” Crucial if you’re self-publishing because there will be no editor to catch your mistakes before the book is published.

The submission process was basically trial and error for me. Fortunately, the people at CreateSpace have been great to work with – and very patient. It turned out that the way I was accessing the Internet was not compatible with certain functions I needed to perform in order to load the cover and to check my manuscript. So, I was basically trying to do the impossible. I spent an entire day figuring out what the problem was – and reaching for the Excedrin. I sent my book for review three times before all the errors in formatting were eliminated. I ordered a proof copy in the mail after the second submission so I could double-check everything.

There were many times during the process when I shook my head and said, “Never again!” But, now that I’m close to holding my book in my hands, I don’t feel that way anymore. As Marja McGraw said to me in an email yesterday, “Inches. You’re inches from your destination.” And knowing that makes it all worthwhile!