Creating Dae O'Donnell

Joyce Lavene

 

I really created Mayor Dae O’Donnell from a composite of many people I knew. I was working at our local newspaper at the time. I attended many town meetings and elections.

The one thing that stood out for me was that small town mayors love their town. They want to see it grow and thrive. They’re interested in every aspect of it – from trash pick up to new housing and shopping.

I chose the mayor’s office in particular because I had been asked to run for mayor the year I wrote the first story. Everyone knew me in my small town outside Charlotte, North Carolina. Someone even offered to put up the money for signs and other aspects of a political race.

I knew it wasn’t for me. I don’t like long meetings and I’m a fiction writer at heart. I said no, thanks, but I was thinking all the time about Dae O’Donnell. What would she say?

Her father is Horace O’Donnell, twenty-year sheriff of the county they live in. This helped shape her life. Her grandmother, Eleanore, had Dae’s gift for finding lost things, but she died right before Dae was born.

Dae’s life was also shaped by her mother’s death. Her mother was killed when Dae was still in college after a fight they’d had about Dae’s grades at school. Her mother had been the one that had always told Dae that her gift had to be used for the good of the community. She told her that it was like a service she provided, almost the way her grandfather’s occupation was.

So Dae was born out of real-life and fantasy. Being from a family of firefighters, I understood service. I wanted more for Dae. She needed more since she also carried a psychic gift. The background of her life, set against the folklore and legends of the Outer Banks helped with that.

Dae’s gift, being a finder of lost things, has grown and changed in the first three books in the series. It changes again in the fourth book, A Haunted Dream. Lucky for her, she has the character and strength to know who she is and what she needs to do.

Blurb:

The mayor of Duck, North Carolina, Dae O’Donnell, is a woman with a gift for finding lost things. When her boyfriend Kevin’s ex-fiancée Ann arrives in Duck looking for a second chance, Dae suddenly finds herself facing certain heartache. And while her romantic life is in shambles, she’s even more concerned by the sudden change in her gift. After touching a medallion owned by a local named Chuck Sparks, Dae is shocked when her vision reveals his murder—and a cry for help. Dae doesn’t know what to make of the dead man’s plea to “Help her,” until she has another vision about a kidnapped girl—Chuck’s daughter, Betsy. With a child missing, the FBI steps in to take over the case. But Dae can’t ignore her visions of Betsy, or the fact that Kevin’s psychic ex-fiancé might be the only person who can help find her.

Bio:

Joyce Lavene writes bestselling mystery with her husband/partner Jim. They have written and published more than 60 novels for Harlequin, Berkley and Charter Books along with hundreds of non-fiction articles for national and regional publications. She lives in rural North Carolina with her family, her cat, Quincy, and her rescue dog, Rudi. Visit her at www.joyceandjimlavene.com, Facebook/JoyceandJimLavene.com. Twitter: @authorjlavene, http://romanceofmystery.blogspot.com.

Purchase: A Haunting Dream at: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/a-haunting-dream-joyce-and-jim-lavene/1111363964

Win a copy of A Haunting Dream, the fourth book in the Missing Pieces Mysteries, by leaving your name at my blog: http://romanceofmystery.blogspot.com 

My Protagonists

 

Jean Henry Mead 

Thanks for inviting me here today, Patricia. Although you asked for one character, I’m about to describe two because my amateur sleuths are inseparable. The 60-year old widows who people my Logan and Cafferty mystery/suspense series are feisty and as determined as bulldogs to solve the murders they encounter.

Dana Logan and Sarah Cafferty gestated in my mind for a while before my computer gave birth to them more than a decade ago. Both women are loosely based on the relationship I’ve enjoyed with my friend, Marge, whom I’ve known for forty years. Marge is the witty one, so Dana shares some of my characteristics and Sarah inherited Marge’s. Together they form a team I originally called Shirl Lock and Holmes. When I left my former publisher, I renamed Shirley Lock and Dora Holmes and they found two additional homes.

Although I’m not the life of the party, humor manages to creep into all my books, including nonfiction, which my readers seem to enjoy. I’ve only been criticized twice over the years for inserting humorous dialogue into a novel with a serious theme. And Sarah Cafferty usually provides the witticisms along with a few quirky characters.

In A Village Shattered, the two women meet in my home state of California in a retirement village where their friends begin dropping dead alphabetically. They soon realize that the killer has stolen their Sew and So club roster, which contains their own names. When the newly elected sheriff botches the investigation, Dana and Sarah decide to discover who’s hiding in the San Joaquin Valley fog--and killing their friends. Dana’s beautiful journalist daughter Kerrie then arrives unannounced and complicates the plot.

After the murders are solved, the sleuths buy a motorhome to travel the West. While in Colorado, Dana learns that her wealthy sister has died and her widower claims it was suicide. When they arrive in Wyoming, they discovered the sister’s diary in Diary of Murder and nearly lose their own lives when they encounter a vicious drug gang. Dana inherits her sister’s money and mansion, which then becomes their headquarters.

The third novel, Murder on the Interstate, begins on a northern Arizona highway. While traveling in their motorhome, the two women discover the body of a young woman in her Mercedes convertible. The discovery leads to their kidnapping by a homegrown terrorist group as well as another murder. I researched explosives and terrorist activity along the Mexican border and placed Dana and Sarah in one dangerous situation after another.

 

Gray Wolf Mountain is the latest release and again takes place in Wyoming. Someone shoots at Dana’s Escalade, which rolls on the mountain where they’ve been taking photographs. They’re rescued by an old man they learn is saving the wounded wolves that someone is systematically shooting. Soon humans are also turning up dead. This novel is set on the mountain where I live, and I enjoyed writing about the area. I conducted a lot of research on aerial wolf killings and how nature suffers from eliminating keystone predators. It’s a serious subject interspersed with humor and a little romance.

Dana Logan and Sarah Cafferty haven’t changed much over the course of the series, although they’ve become more savvy in their investigations and increasingly risk takers. Sheriff Walter Grayson usually comes to their rescue, when needed, as does Dana’s daughter, Kerrie.

Gray Wolf Mountain is available in print and Kindle editions at: http://www.amazon.com/Mountain-Cafferty-Mystery-Suspense-ebook/dp/B008UEH6ZA/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1350081199&sr=8-2&keywords=gray+wolf+mountain

Bio: Jean Henry Mead has published 18 books, including the Logan & Cafferty series and Hamilton Kids’ mysteries. She’s also a national award-winning photojournalist, published domestically as well as abroad, and has served as a news, magazine and small press editor.

Buy link: http://www.amazon.com/Mountain-Cafferty-Mystery-Suspense-ebook/dp/B008UEH6ZA/ref=tmm_kin_title_0?ie=UTF8&qid=1350578340&sr=8-1

Giveaway: I'll be giving away a print copy or Kindle copy (winner's choice) of Gray Wolf Mountain at the end of the blog tour.

About Miqui Sherwood

 Mystery author, Marilyn Meredith (on the right)

Though I’ve often put bits and pieces of people I know into my books, I’ve disguised them so well no one has ever recognized him or herself. In Raging Water I did something completely different.

 

A friend, who is also a big fan of the Deputy Tempe Crabtree series, had been asking me for quite some time to put her in one of my mysteries. She said, “I don’t care who I am, you can kill me off, make me the murderer, just make me a character.”  So I did.

Though I changed her name to Miqui, anyone who knows this person will recognize her. She’s the same age and has the same physical appearance—and personality. So much so, my friend said when she read the book she had to laugh sometimes at what the character said or did. She also said she didn’t realize I knew her so well. We’re not bosom buddies, in fact what we share in common is watching General Hospital, the soap opera (though I must confess, I sleep through most of the hour), a love of reading, and we do go to movies together sometimes to see ones her other friends can’t be bothered with: all the Harry Potter movies, the Twilight movies, Avatar.

Her two little dogs are in the book too, though when she read it she informed me I got them mixed up, wrong name for the type of dog. Oh well, they are still brave and actually save the day.

If you read Raging Water you’ll see that Miqui Sherwood plays a most important part. As to whether or not the character learned anything, I don’t think so. I think she’d be just as brave and foolhardy no matter what came along.

Raging Water Blurb: Deputy Tempe Crabtree’s investigation of the murder of two close friends is complicated when relentless rain turns Bear Creek into a raging river. Homes are inundatedand a mud slide blocks the only road out of Bear Creek stranding many—including the murderer.

http://tinyurl.com/9xp7642
 

I know there are some people who like to read a series in order, but let me reassure you that every book is complete. Though the characters grow through each book, the crime is always solved. . Here is the order of the books for anyone who wants to know: Deadly Trail, Deadly Omen, Unequally Yoked, Intervention, Wing Beat, Calling the Dead, Judgment Fire, Kindred Spirits, Dispel the Mist, Invisible Path, Bears With Us, Raging Water.

Bio: Marilyn Meredith is the author of over thirty published novels, including the award winning Deputy Tempe Crabtree mystery series, the latest Raging Water from Mundania Press. Writing as F. M. Meredith, her latest Rocky Bluff P.D. crime novel us No Bells, the forth from Oak Tree Press. Marilyn is a member of EPIC, three chapters of Sisters in Crime, Mystery Writers of America, and on the board of the Public Safety Writers of America. Visit her at http://fictionforyou.com and follow her blog at http://marilymeredith.blogspot.com/

Marilyn borrows a lot from where she lives in the Southern Sierra for the town of Bear Creek and the surrounding area.

Do enter Marilyn’s giveaway contest for a copy of the previous Deputy Tempe Crabtree mystery, BEARS WITH US. Leave a comment and you're automatically entered. Include your email addy so she can get in touch with you should your name be selected at random. The winner will be announced on her blog (http://marilynmeredith.blogspot.com) on December 11, 2012. Good luck!

*** Giveaway Alert***

 

Joining us today is Rionna Morgan. Growing up out West, Rionna Morgan followed her love of horses to the rodeo arena and her love of English to the classroom and to writing. She has been looking forward to sharing her stories with you her whole life. Rionna is a founding member of Montana Romance Writers; she reads as much as she can possibly hold, and she loves most of all combining the chilling edge of a knife with the sweet surrender of romance. Rionna shares her home in Missoula, Montana with her husband, her four children and the mountains outside her window.

I have asked Rionna to share with us the way she created a character in Love’s Justice. How was the character developed? How did the character change and grow?

This is what she shared:

Justin Breslow is the hero of Love’s Justice. He came to life to me in a way that was like a flash from a movie. I knew he needed to be strong and motivated, but highly conflicted. I wanted him to believe that what he grew up knowing about his father and the people around his father was true. So that when it became twisted and unsure, he would suffer. He would suffer to the point of vengeance. Then he would need to find Sarah, the only one still alive upon which he could purge his suffering. He would also need to love Sarah. Not with the quick I’m-in-love-with-you glance, but the love that travels through generations. The love that justice brings. In Love’s Justice, Justin does suffer. He does find Sarah. His greatest struggle is to look past the hate and anger he feels, to find a way to forgive and find a way to have her forgive him.

Look for Love’s Justice anywhere online books are sold!

Buy on Amazon

Sarah Johnson is a profiler in Portland, Oregon. She thinks she has successfully moved beyond the pain of her mother’s death 15 years ago. Her mother, a Pulitzer Prize winning writer, died in an Alabama women’s prison while on an undercover assignment. However, when Justin Breslow shows up at her office claiming to be an investigative reporter from Dallas wanting to do a feature on her mother, Sarah realizes the pain has just been dormant. She agrees to work with Justin; she’s always wanted to retrace her mother’s final days, but she has no intention of sharing family secrets with a perfect stranger. Sarah and Justin unravel a plot more complex and sinister than they expected. They pursue a trail of deceit and corruption to a women’s prison in Alabama, a centuries old hotel in Georgia and a family ranch in Texas. Nothing is simple or as it seems. Along the way, Sarah tries not to fall for Justin’s Southern charm, and Justin fights to resist Sarah’s beauty and sharp intellect. This unlikely duo will find more than they ever hoped to—in the prison, in their own backyards, and in each other’s arms. Whether they survive to enjoy their discoveries is the final mystery.  
An Excerpt from Love's Justice “What if I didn’t go as a snoopy reporter?” Justin closed the small space, successfully trapping Sarah between the refrigerator and the counter. “And just went as a man?” With a smooth shift of his body, he slid into an amazing fit against her. Sarah drew in a quick breath. The air-cooled kitchen suddenly became a furnace. His hands gripped the counter on either side of her. His face was so close she could see her reflection in his eyes. “That is exactly what I don’t need.” “Don’t need, but maybe want?” Justin moved closer. Their lips were just a breath apart. “Don’t,” Sarah breathed. Her heart rapped hard in her chest. Justin smiled, enjoying watching her eyes cloud to darkness. This was going to be easy. “Don’t what.” His lips brushed hers. “Tell me. Don’t what?” Sarah fisted her hands in his shirt. To pull him closer or push him away, she wasn’t exactly sure. Panic and need and she didn’t know what all, tumbled around in her stomach. Instead of taking the time to decipher what to do, she just acted and tugged him to her. He caught her bottom lip, soft and warm, between his teeth. He felt her body give against his. He savored the taste of her, the warmth. “I’m going with you,” he whispered against her lips. She nodded her head, but his words never registered. My plan is working perfectly, he thought as he pulled her deeper into the kiss. Below are ways to catch up with Rionna. Drop on by…she loves the company!

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