Famous One Liners

Movies, many of which are based on novels, contain a lot of dialogue but why is it that some lines become so popular that they’re instantly recognizable by just about everyone? What is it about them that makes them stand out and stand the test of time?

“My mama always said, ‘Life is like a box of chocolates; you never know what you’re gonna get.’” Tom Hanks played Forrest Gump in the movie, “Forrest Gump,” based on the novel by Winston Groom.

 “As God is my witness, I’ll never be hungry again,” Scarlet O’Hara said in “Gone With the Wind.” The book was written by Margaret Mitchell and, in the movie, Vivien Leigh played the part of the southern belle.

Or, how about this one? “I’m gonna make him an offer he can’t refuse.” Mario Puzo wrote this novel entirely from the research he’d done; he had no experience whatsoever with the Mafia. Marlon Brando played Vito Corleone in the movie, “The Godfather.”

Who remembers this? “Love means never having to say you’re sorry.” Ryan O’Neal played Oliver Barrett IV and Ali MacGraw played Jennifer Cavilleri in “Love Story,” based on the novel by Erich Segal.

“I’ll get you, my pretty, and your little dog too!” “There’s no place like home.” “Toto, I’ve a feeling we’re not in Kansas anymore.” L. Frank Baum was the author of “The Wonderful Wizard of Oz” and Judy Garland played Dorothy Gale in the movie, “The Wizard of Oz.”

 “May the Force be with you.” This is an interesting example because the movie, created by George Lucas, actually came out before the book. Harrison Ford played Han Solo in “Star Wars.”

Can you think of other examples?

Getting to know Katherine Hall Page

This is the first post in my “Getting to know you” series. The purpose of the series is to give the readers of my blog the opportunity to get to know my guest not only as a writer but also as a person. The fourth Sunday of every month, I’ll feature a writer of mystery/suspense. I’d like to thank Katherine Hall Page, author of the Faith Fairchild mystery series, for being with us today.

Katherine, where did you grow up? Did your childhood contribute to your desire to be a writer? If so, how?

I grew up in Livingston, NJ. (also the talented and delightful Harlan Coben’s hometown). Livingston is in northern New Jersey, less than an hour’s bus ride from Manhattan. My parents had many friends in the arts and NYC was our backyard—museums, concerts, theater. My father, William Kingman Page, was the founding director of the Kessler Institute for Rehabilitation in West Orange, NJ and my mother, Alice Malmgreen Page, was a professional artist. I am the middle of three with an older brother and younger sister.

Another influence in my childhood was my mother’s large Norwegian-American family, most of whom lived nearby. My parents and two of their close friends, Charlotte Brooks, the only female staff photographer for LOOK magazine and Julie Arden, like my mother, an artist, all encouraged my writing. I penned “Tales I Told My Sister” when I was about 8 years old and recently found it saved among my late mother’s things. So I suppose I must have had the desire to be a writer, but certainly wasn’t aware of it. I was too busy reading. Our house was filled with books.

What are your favorite things to do when you’re not reading or writing? Hobbies, travel plans, etc.

Since writing is both sedentary and an indoor activity, I like to get out and explore. This may be someplace like Italy or it may be a walk in the woods. In the summer, I swim in Maine every day because I’ve been doing it since I was a child and no one ever mentioned the water was extremely cold. My husband is from the Bronx and we go to NYC several times a year. I do like to cook, although not the way Faith Fairchild does every day. Experimenting with new recipes, trying out new restaurants and occasionally taking a cooking class are all activities I enjoy. I also love to go to the movies. The big screen, and as for the small one I’m a pop culture junkie -love “New Girl” and “Modern Family”. And of course “Top Chef” etc. I’m also on the board of trustees at the deCordova Sculpture Park and Museum, in Lincoln, MA and work with their education department, as well as serve on a board at Wellesley, my undergraduate alma mater.

What’s your favorite color? Why?

Vermillion, because it’s so much fun to say.

Describe yourself – not physically – but personality wise.

Oh dear. Short and near-sighted isn’t enough? Calm (those Nordic genes), loyal, optimistic, and caring.

Where do you live now? Do you use that locale for settings in your novels? If not, how do you choose your settings?

I live in a small town west of Boston and in Maine on an island in Penobscot Bay, both of which have provided settings for my books. The other settings: Norway, France, New York City, Vermont, etc. are all places I’ve visited for various amounts of time. The book I am currently writing is set in Italy. I am in awe of writers who can write about places they have never seen.

Do you like to travel? If so what are some of your favorite places to go and/or your favorite vacation?

See above and add Britain—many lovely trips there and am hoping to get to Dublin next fall.

Name three of your favorite authors in the mystery genre and/or name specific books you love.

Agatha Christie, And Then There Were None, Dorothy L. Sayers, Gaudy Night, and Robert Barnard, A Scandal in Belgravia

Fill in the blank. If I won a million dollars, I would . . .

salt some of it away for my old age, which seems to be advancing more rapidly each day, take my husband to Buenos Aires to tango, and have the extraordinary pleasure of giving large chunks to my favorite grassroots charities like Hands in Outreach, which works with girls and young women in Nepal, and the Youth Advocacy Foundation here in Massachusetts , provides legal and other social services to juveniles in need. Oh, and many programs on the island in Maine. The recession is hitting very hard there.

Did you plan your mystery series before or after you wrote the first book in the series?

Like my friend and fellow writer, Valerie Wolzien, who started her terrific Susan Henshaw and Josie Pigeon series about when I did, I had no idea I was starting a series with that first book, The Body in the Belfry. Had I but known, I most probably would have been so overwhelmed; I would have quit then and there. Although the 20^th book, The Body in the Boudoir, comes out May 1^st, I can’t say I’ve planned any of it.

Did the inspiration for your characters and/or plot come from people you know, a specific place or personal experience? If not, what got you started?

For me, one of the joys of writing fiction has been to create characters and plots that are not based on anyone I know or anything I’ve done. I like Madeleine L’Engle’s description of the writing process as “taking dictation from one’s imagination”. When I set out to write the first book, my husband was on sabbatical and we were living in France where they have excellent, readily available day care. For the first time in my adult life, I wasn’t working or pursuing a graduate degree. I’d take my two-year-old son to the pleasant nursery school down the rue and come back to write the type of mystery I liked to read—good puzzle, suspense, a strong female sleuth, no serial killers, some humor, and food. The rest, as it were, is “mistory.”

Truth IS Stranger than Fiction

In real life, when we hear of someone doing something bizarre or out of character, we often wonder, “What on earth possessed him to do that?” And, if we know the person, we might even think “That’s not like him.” But, since we know that he did it, we have no choice but to shrug our shoulders, shake our heads, accept it and move on. It happened; it’s a fact. In real life.

In fiction, writers don’t have that luxury. If one of our characters behaves in what would be considered an irrational manner, our readers aren’t going to accept it unless they know what motivated our character to do it. We have to keep each of our characters “in character.” We want our readers to identify with them or, at the very least, to see them as believable, fallible human beings and we know that readers will tend to judge our characters based on their own perceptions of what their behavior should be. I’ll use Ann, the main character in Mixed Messages, as an example.

Ann is married to David and they have two young children. David is an alcoholic who is drinking heavily, gambling and staying out all night. Ann has had to assume all of the responsibility for raising their children because David is physically and emotionally unavailable most of the time. In spite of Ann’s best efforts, the marriage continues to deteriorate. David is often verbally abusive and every conversation turns into an argument. They haven’t been intimate for awhile; the only time he seems to want her is when he’s drunk. She finally builds up the courage and attempts to seduce him but he rejects her, leaving her feeling undesirable and humiliated.

When you read that paragraph, what did you think? Did you wonder why Ann doesn’t leave David? Did you lose respect for her because, obviously, she lacks the gumption to get out of an unhealthy relationship? Did you project your own feelings onto Ann, thinking I would never tolerate that? That you would take the children and leave?

But what if you knew what motivates Ann to do whatever she can to “fix” her marriage and preserve her family? What if you knew that she lost both of her parents when she was nine years old and her grandmother raised her and her sister, Marnie? That, Nana passed away when Ann was eighteen and Marnie moved out of state to go to law school, leaving Ann alone? And that, when Ann met and fell in love with David and for most of their marriage, he was a sweet, kind man, a wonderful husband and father? Does Ann’s behavior make sense now? Do you understand why her family is so important to her? Are you pulling for her? Do you hope that, somehow, everything works out?

And then there’s David and the other characters in the novel. What motivates them to behave the way they do? Well, you’ll have to read Mixed Messages to find out.

Creating Characters

The process of creating a character is like conceiving, carrying and giving birth to a baby who will, no doubt, have Mom’s nose or Grandpa’s ears. While I didn’t consciously model the characters in Mixed Messages or the subsequent novels in my Malone mystery series after myself or anyone else, there are bits and pieces of me and people I know in each of them: a physical characteristic, a personality trait or a life experience that contributed significantly to who they are. For example:

Ann is the main character in Mixed Messages. She’s living with someone who suffers from the disease of alcoholism (I did too) and even though Ann and I are totally different people, I can relate. Personality wise, she reminds me of a good friend of mine who values her family and friends above all else and goes to great lengths to help and protect them. Ann even has some of my friend’s physical characteristics but she doesn’t look like her.

Marnie, Ann’s older sister, is five foot five (so am I) and she’s outspoken, a trait we share and one we’re both trying to learn how to temper. She’s a family law attorney, as is another good friend of mine, but that’s where the similarity between the two women ends.

David, Ann’s husband, is a composite of some truly wonderful men I’ve known who happened to be alcoholics. He exhibits similar behaviors and he experiences many of the same emotions as his real life counterparts.

Olivia, Ann’s landlady, loves to tell stories about the past. Some of her tales of growing up in Cincinnati are modified versions of stories that my mother, who is the same age as Olivia, has told me. But Olivia and my mom are completely different in every other way.

Lawrence, Olivia’s son, is a few years older than me but, as children, we watched the same shows on TV. He’s a baby boomer too so he didn’t grow up with computers and all of today’s technology; he’s had to learn it and embrace it in order to function in today’s world.

Louise, Ann’s mother-in-law, believes in a place for everything and everything in its place and, although my home wouldn’t pass Louise’s white glove test, I am, like her, a stickler for order.

Do you see parts of yourself or someone you know in any of your characters?

Something for Everyone in 2012

Here’s a sneak preview of some of the mystery novels that will be coming out this year.

Cleansed by Fire by James R. Callan and published by DWB Publishing, will be out in January. It’s the first book in the Fr. Frank Mystery series.

Churches are burning and Fr. Frank learns something that could help the police. But, he learns it in the confessional so he can’t use it. He is compelled to work around this information to stop the arsons. And, a mysterious man has come to town who seems to be connected to the drug scene and is hanging around the local teens. Fr. Frank has more to do than preach the Sunday sermon.

Bogey’s Ace in the Hole by Marja McGraw will be released in February by Oak Tree Press. It’s the second of the Bogey Man Mystery series.

The only people who might strike terror in the hearts of Chris and Pamela Cross are the Church Ladies who want them to find a missing friend. When the friend turns up on her own, Chris finds a new kind of terror, a Murder for Hire plot the woman has overheard. Ride along in the 1950 vintage Chevy with Chris, the Church Ladies, his wife Pamela, their son, Mikey, and two crazy yellow Labrador retrievers while they try to find not only a potential killer, but the intended victim.

John R. Lindermuth’s  The Limping Dog is a standalone mystery coming in March from Whiskey Creek Press.

The alleged developer of a radical new microprocessor system goes missing when his yacht crashes on a reef. Some assert the system was lost with its creator, others believe it exists and have devious plans to profit from the invention and are willing to kill for it.

Also in March, we can look forward to the publication of American Caliphate, an archaeological mystery, written by William Doonan and published by Oak Tree Press.

Archaeologists Jila Wells and Ben Juarez are not thrilled at the prospect of returning to Peru; the ambush that nearly cost Jila her life still haunts her. But the ruined pyramids at Santiago de Paz hide an important document that would shock the Islamic world.

Murder a Cappella also by James R. Callan and Diane Bailey is the first book in the  Sweet Adeline mystery series and will be published in April by Wayside Publications, an imprint of Written World Communications.

Tina Overton is part of a chorus at the International Competition of the Sweet Adelines (women who sing barbershop harmony). But when two members of the chorus are gunned down while singing in front of the Alamo, Tina must search behind the sequins and the glitz of the competition to find the killer. And when she won’t accept the easy answer, she becomes a target herself.

Poisoned Pairings by Lesley A. Diehl will be published by Mainly Murder Press in May. It will be the second in her Hera Knightsbridge Master Brewer Mystery series.

A student, helping to set up for a beer and food pairings event in Hera Knightsbridge’s microbrewery, dies there under suspicious circumstances. At first the death looks like a suicide but the medical examiner determines it is murder and Hera and her lover, Deputy Sheriff Jake Ryan, again find themselves partners in searching for the killer. Connections among the student, the family of a dead brewer, a religious leader and the gas companies lead Hera and Jake into a maze of confusing and conflicting clues. Before the two can unravel the case’s tangled threads, Jake is called away on another job, leaving Hera alone to uncover the identity of the killer before she becomes the next victim.

Lesley A. Diehl has another book coming out in 2012. Grilled, Chilled and Killed will be published by Oak Tree Press. It’s the second in her Big Lake Mystery series featuring Emily Rhodes, retired preschool teacher and bartender turned amateur snoop.

It seems as if Emily is destined to discover dead bodies. This time she finds one of the contestants at the local barbeque cook-off dead and covered in barbeque sauce in a beer cooler. Her snooping skills are stimulated once again and she’s determined to find the killer.

Resort to Murder by Marta Chausee will be released in the spring by Oak Tree Press.

Amateur sleuth and hotel industry executive wife, Maya French, becomes involved in solving murders on a glamorous resort property in Central Florida. Not only top execs of Sapphire Hotels and Resorts come to bad ends, but also, her own husband is soon accused of wrongdoing and disappears.

Jim Barrett is the author of the true crime book, Ma Duncan. It was published in 2003 by Ivy House Publishing Group. “Ma Duncan,” the movie, is scheduled for filming in 2012 based on the screenplay co-written by Jim and Peter Lawrence.

In 1958, Elizabeth “Ma” Duncan hired two men to kill her 8 month pregnant daughter-in-law out of jealously for her son, Frank Duncan. Before deciding to kill Olga Duncan, “Ma” did several bizarre things. She annulled her son’s marriage by posing as Olga and hiring a man to pose as Frank. She openly “shopped” for murderers, contacting eight other individuals in the Santa Barbara area before she found the killers. Elizabeth Duncan was the last woman executed in California, along with her cohorts and therefore the last triple execution in California.

Happy Reading! And, Happy New Year!