October News: When Fiction Mirrors Real Life

In 1965-1966, my main interests were boys, learning how to drive and school, pretty much in that order. So I paid little attention to the news, never realizing how what was going on then in my city would mirror the novel I would write many years later.

You see, after my first Malone mystery was published, I learned something that actually gave me chills. From October 1965 to December 1966, a man attacked, raped and murdered seven Cincinnati women. He strangled them, using either an article of their own clothing or something that was readily available to him. With one exception, the women were attacked in their homes. The media dubbed him “The Cincinnati Strangler.”

The Cincinnati Police apprehended Posteal Laskey, a cab driver, after the last attack. He was arrested and convicted of the seventh murder. He never confessed to having committed any of the crimes but the attacks stopped when he was taken into custody. He died in prison in 2007.

If you’ve read Mixed Messages, much about The Cincinnati Strangler will sound familiar to you. Although I didn’t know about the real life case when I wrote my novel, there are so many similarities between what I wrote and what actually happened. Hence, the chills!

In the book, The Westwood Strangler attacks women in their homes and he uses whatever is at hand to strangle them – just like The Cincinnati Strangler. The Westwood Strangler is on the loose in a neighborhood on the west side of Cincinnati. All of The Cincinnati Strangler's victims were attacked within a few miles of Westwood. 

Without giving away my plot for those of you who haven’t read Unfinished Business, the sequel to Mixed Messages, I’ll let you in on a secret: the total number of victims for The Cincinnati Strangler and The Westwood Strangler is exactly the same!

Was it merely a coincidence that what I wrote all those years later so strongly paralleled what really happened? Or, even though I didn’t consciously remember the news stories, did my subconscious retain bits and pieces for all those years? I guess we’ll never know. 

Book trailer: http://youtu.be/ib9QTJItPA4

Buy link: http://tinyurl.com/o7wufnj 

Mystery of the Month: Deadly Odds

Two worlds collide in this ‘edge of your seat’ thriller.

Nathaniel Collier, an Atlanta, Georgia, bounty hunter, finds himself in perilous danger as he hunts down the notorious “Mad Dog Consuelos’.  As Collier draws near, Consuelos strikes again leaving behind a bloody path of violence.  Collier along with Mad Dog’s ex-lover and daughter take the brunt of the assault. However, after weeks in the hospital, Collier and the seven-year-old daughter manage to survive.

Meanwhile, Reid Langley, an officer with Atlanta PD, decides to leave the violent city behind and take a cushy job as Sheriff in the small town of Hayden, Wyoming.  All appears to go as uneventful as planned until a serial killer shows up to wreak havoc on the safe haven Reid is determined to protect.  Just when he thinks he has all that he can handle, he finds himself harboring his old friend, a nurse, and an innocent young girl.

The race is on as this group of characters embark on a race against time to locate a serial killer and to track down the elusive Consuelos before he can take his revenge.

www.amazon.com www.barnesandnoble.com www.booksamillion.com

Kim Carter, mother of three adult children, lives in Atlanta with her husband and three retired greyhounds.  A graduate of Saint Leo University, she is now a full time writer. She dedicates her times to her family, numerous greyhound rescues, and writing suspense novels.  

Leave a comment for a chance to win a copy of "Deadly Odds."

It takes a village

     Today's post will be a short one and will only be "up" for one day. For the past few weeks, whenever I had a chance, I've been working on a book trailer for my mystery novel, Mixed Messages, and I've finally completed it.
     I'd never done a trailer before and, let me tell you, creating it was both frustrating and fun. I can laugh now when I think about how many times my computer locked up, just as I was getting close to the end. Of course, I had to reboot and start over again. Now, in a couple of hours, I'll post the video on You Tube. Fingers crossed that it all goes well.
     The whole process of creating the movie, revising, editing and then letting it go reminds me of how I felt when I sent my first book out to the publisher. Excitement mixed with apprehension! Will he like it? Will people want to read it? Will they recommend it to their friends? So many emotions.
     Two weeks ago, I sent Unfinished Business, the sequel to Mixed Messages, to my publisher and, once again, I'm feeling those same feelings and thinking those same thoughts. My second "baby" just got on the bus to go to kindergarten!
     No matter how hard I work to write and promote a novel or to create a video, it all boils down to this. "It takes a village to raise a child" and it takes the support of friends and family members to promote a book - or a video. In other words, I can't do it without you.
     I'll attach the You Tube link to my blog after I've "completed" the project. I hope you'll share it on Facebook, tweet it and forward it via email to your friends and family.  
     Here's a preview of coming attractions. I hope you enjoy the show!

 

 

Getting to know Sally Goldenbaum

I’m thrilled to have Sally Goldenbaum, author of the Seaside Mystery Knitters series, here with us today. 

Sally, where did you grow up? Did your childhood contribute to your desire to be a writer?

I grew up in a small Wisconsin town on the shores of Lake Michigan. My diary was very important to me during lots of those years—it gave me a wonderful platform in which to fictionalize a relatively easy-going, trauma-free childhood and teenage-hood. I made up the excitement.

It wasn’t until high school, though, that writing became important to me and I thought perhaps I had some facility for it when a headline I wrote was chosen for a school newspaper article. It was an article about a girls’ basketball team called the Ponies. The ‘amazing’ headline read: Ponies Trot to Victory. (Small victories were important to me).

Where do you live now? Do you use that locale for settings in your novels?

After leaving my Wisconsin roots for college, I’ve lived lots of places  (St. Louis and Indiana for college and graduate school, D, C., Pittsburgh, PA —where I worked for a short time at WQED and had the great pleasure of rubbing shoulders with Mr. Rogers and his neighborhood), and finally landed where I am now, Kansas City.

The first mystery series I wrote‑‑ The Queen Bees mysteries—was set in a small town near Kansas City. But the series I write now—the Seaside Knitters series— is set on the east coast. Two of the seaside knitters, however, are originally from Kansas City, allowing me to sneak in some homage to the Midwest now and then. 

I chose the east coast for the present series because I love small seaside towns (and lobster tail)—the locale is perfect for creating delicious atmosphere and for developing a theme of rich, female friendships. But there’s another reason, too. I have two grandchildren (and their parents) who live on Cape Ann, just down the road from the fictitious Sea Harbor—and they are a joy to visit. Their parents also help with research and they and their friends are never short on ideas for mystery, murder, and mayhem.

What inspired you to write the first novel in your series?

Great question. I knew I wanted my four women to represent different generations. So I started with Izzy, who is my daughter’s age, and moved up, all the way to Birdie Favazza, who is 80-ish (the grand dame of Sea Harbor, whose wisdom, kindness and humor were inspired by an important woman in my own life). 

In the beginning, in order to get to know my four knitters, I wrote long essays about each of the four women. In these essays, bits and pieces of people I know and love found their way into Nell, Birdie, Cass, and Izzy. But in this process, and in the development of what are now six-plus novels, they have also grown into their own unique personalities. And that’s one of the things that is so satisfying about writing fiction—these women have grown into themselves and have become new friends, women I am pleased to have in my life. 

As for the place in which the Seaside Knitters mysteries are set, that came about at the same time as I was imagining my four women and developing their lives. And it was an easy choice. I wanted to separate the series from the one set in Kansas, I love the sea, and I have family (including grandchildren!) living on Cape Ann. It was, as they say, a no-brainer.

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

I wish I were such a planner! But I did know it was going to be a series before I started the first book. That is how my agent represented that first book, so in that respect—and because that first contract was for three books—I knew the characters and town would have some longevity. But I had (have) few ideas about what will actually happen in subsequent books. In DEATH BY CASHMERE (Book 1 in the series) one of the protagonists, Izzy Chambers, leaves a law practice to open a yarn shop in Sea Harbor. 

Now, in this new release (A FATAL FLEECE, book 6), her life has changed considerably, but I didn’t know how it would change when I first met her ‘way back when’. That’s one of the things I love about these women. They surprise me at every turn.

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

This one is hard…no, impossible…to answer. Too many wonderful writers and too many books. But outside the mystery realm, I like Anna Quindlen, Sue Miller, and Ann Patchett, and I’m enjoying my first Stewart O’Nan (Last Night at the Lobster). I also like family stories, like Kristin Hannah’s, and I read the Hunger Games in three days. But the list is so incomplete because there’s always a new book, a new author that keeps me up at night. That’s the wonderful part about books—there will always be new surprises and delights.

What are your favorite things to do when you’re not reading or writing?

These days much of my spare time is spent with my grandchildren (6, 4, 4, 23 months).  So I’ve become quite good at singing Willoughby wallaby woo, painting rocks, and building blanket forts. I also like to cook and knit. And I also love swimming, walking, and hiking in the Colorado Rockies.

Do you like to travel? If so, what are some of your favorite places to go?

My husband and I travel often, mostly to the two coasts, California and Boston, where we have family. We love going to Colorado—a straight shot down I-70 from Kansas City. We love it especially in the summer and fall when we hike the mountains with good friends, breathe in the mountain air, then retreat to our friends’ deck at the foot of Flagstaff Mountain for a glass of wine, creamy cheese, and conversation that never grows old.

How would you describe yourself personality wise?

Some years ago a good friend and fellow writer, Nancy Pickard, got me interested in studying the enneagram, an ancient system of personality profiling.  My profile was that of a “2”—sometimes classified as ‘the helper’. Though the enneagram profile is broad in scope, parts of the ‘2’ profile fit me, I think. I like to be available for others, to engage with people, to make friends and help out when I can. This can be good and not so good. It makes it hard to hibernate when deadlines loom and to say no when people ask favors.

Although sometimes shy in new situations, once I am comfortable, I am fairly out-going. I love to cook, to have people in our home, to have activity going on around me. This desire to be around people translates to writing environments, too—I prefer a busy Starbucks to a quiet corner at home—I like to look up from writing every now and then and hear people laughing and talking, assuring me I’m still alive.  So I usually write outside the home (except during perfect spring/fall days when a friend and I write on my screened in porch).

What’s your favorite color? Why?

Blue. And I never, ever questioned why. It just was, even though my brother thought I was totally colorless and talked me into buying an orange swimsuit once. I hated it. But now that you ask why I like blue, I am going to think –or imagine-- it’s because of my love of water (a water child?). I grew up on Lake Michigan, and my father even built ships as a profession. And now I’m writing books set near the ocean. Clearly, it was all meant to be.

Sally, thanks for being with us today. I want to mention how much I’ve enjoyed reading your books. I admire the way you use the five senses to bring your characters, plot and setting to life.

Thanks so much, Patricia. It’s been a pleasure being a guest on your blog. A fine way to celebrate the 6^th Seaside Knitters adventure, A Fatal Fleece.

To order A Fatal Fleece, click on the link below.

http://www.amazon.com/Fatal-Fleece-Seaside-Knitters-Mystery/dp/0451236750/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1337353136&sr=1-1

What kind of reader are you?

I’ve always been an avid reader but I’ve found that, through the years, my reading habits have changed. When I was a little girl and a teenager, I used to start a book and, if it drew me in, I’d read every spare minute until I’d finished it – day and/or night. I haven’t done that for many years because some things changed.

I became an adult with lots of other responsibilities. There was housework, job, family; you know what I’m talking about. But I loved to read so I had to figure out a way to get my reading time into every day. Now, I read in bed each night before I go to sleep. As a matter-of-fact, I can’t go to sleep until I’ve read for at least an hour or so. Believe me, there are many nights when I don’t want to close the book I’m reading but, when I find myself reading the same sentence three times, I know I have no choice. That’s the kind of reader I am.

But, there are different kinds of readers. Several people have told me that they don’t normally have time to read; they’re too busy. Others have said they suffer from eyestrain by the end of the day because their jobs require spending extensive time on the computer and reading business related material. They say the only time they read is when they go on vacation. They read on planes and/or by the pool, which is something all readers seem to have in common. We wouldn’t dream of going away without a book; it’s as important to us as bringing our toothbrushes!

Well, vacation time is drawing near. Soon, people will head for various destinations for the three R’s: rest, relaxation and reading and they’re going to want to have a good book to take with them. Each month, I post at least one “Getting to know you” interview with a published author. I try to provide the readers of my blog with a wide assortment of books to choose from. Mostly, I feature mystery authors because that’s what this blog is mainly about and that’s my genre of choice but I occasionally interview authors in other genres too.

This week, I’m offering a free copy of Mixed Messages, the first novel in my Malone mystery series, to someone who leaves a comment answering the question, “What kind of reader are you?” I’ll put all the names in a hat (or a Tupperware bowl) and pick one at random. Then, I’ll list the winner’s name as a comment on Saturday, May 26^th, the last day for this post. Please check back to see if your name is chosen and, if so, email me with your mailing address. Even if you don’t win, I hope you’ll take my book on vacation with you. :)

Getting to know Marja McGraw

I’m pleased to have Marja McGraw with us today. I met her online and I’ve come to consider her a good friend. Not only that but she’s a fantastic writer.

Marja, let’s start at the beginning. Where did you grow up? Did your childhood contribute to your desire to be a writer?

I grew up in So. California, when times were simpler and things weren’t so crowded (before freeways), in the day when making a mud pie was big stuff. Although my childhood didn’t contribute to my desire to write, California became the setting for most of my books. I wanted a place large enough where multiple murders could occur and it wouldn’t be quite so far-fetched. I also wanted a place where you could lose yourself in a crowd. I found that place in California.

Where do you live now? Do you use that locale for settings in your novels? 

I live in Northern Arizona where it becomes so hot in the summer that you can fry eggs on the sidewalk. In the historic town of Oatman, they actually have an egg frying contest on the walkways.

Yes, I have used this area, and Arizona in general, in Prudy’s Back! and Old Murders Never Die. I let the parents of one of my characters move here so I can use the Arizona setting from time to time.

 What inspired you to write your most recent novel?

Honestly? I have no idea. Bogey’s Ace in the Hole just showed up and asked to be written. My characters have minds of their own sometimes. I included some Church Ladies in this story, and I had a great time creating them. They can be very pushy, but they’re funny and lovable at the same time. Church Ladies want to solve mysteries, too.

Name three of your favorite authors in the mystery genre.

There are so many! I’ve answered the question in other interviews, so I’ll try not to repeat myself. Rhys Bowen, G.A. McKevett and Clive Cussler come to mind. Also, I just read a new book by Patricia Gligor that I thoroughly enjoyed, and I’m not just saying that because I’m your guest.

What can I say? Thank you! What are your favorite things to do when you’re not reading or writing?

         Photography is a hobby I enjoy.

         ATVing out on the desert before it becomes too hot.

I’ve discovered that I really enjoy building book trailers, which can be time-consuming when you’re looking for graphics.

I’ve seen your book trailers and they’re fantastic! Tell us, do you like to travel? If so, what are some of your favorite places to go?

I have to be honest and say not really, because I’m terrified of flying. I was able to visit Australia once, and that’s a trip I’ll never forget. I do visit a few new places when I attend conferences. (I sure wish they’d bring trains back and lower the prices.)

How would you describe yourself personality wise?

I think I have a positive attitude about most things. I find myself watching out for the underdog more often than not. I can be generous when I have the resources. I can be funny, but it’s usually unintentional other than in my books. Hmm. Honesty is important to me, and I believe that what comes around, goes around. Injustice and dishonesty push me right to my limits. Most of all, I love a good laugh. Enough about me.

What’s your favorite color? Why?

Yellow has become my favorite color because it’s bright and cheerful. Somehow it represents joy and happiness in my mind. I even have a yellow trench coat in honor of one of my characters, Sandi Webster, P.I.

What’s your answer to this question – If I won a million dollars, I would ------

Interestingly, this is something my husband and I talked about recently. I’d pay off my stepdaughter’s house and buy my daughter a home. So many people are hurting in this economy, I’d help some of those I know personally – and I’d do it anonymously. There are some local churches helping people, and I’d contribute to them. The biggie is I’d like to find a struggling young, divorced mother who’s raising children by herself (been there and done that) and help her – again, anonymously. You might wonder why I want to remain anonymous. It’s because I don’t want anyone to ever feel obligated to me.

Okay, if anyone reads this and has someone help them, and they don’t know who it is, don’t look at me. I don’t have a million dollars. I do have a lot of good intentions though.

Thank you for having me on your blog site, Patricia. I enjoyed myself very much. You ask some fun questions.

I’ve enjoyed it too, Marja! Thank you! I also want to mention that I’ve read (and loved) “Old Murders Never Die” and I’ve ordered my copy of “Bogey’s Ace in the Hole.”

Here are links to both novels.

Old Murders Never Die:

http://www.amazon.com/Murders-Never-Sqandi-Webster-Mystery/dp/1613099878/ref=tmm_pap_title_0?ie=UTF8&qid=1336830960&sr=1-1

Bogey’s Ace in the Hole:

http://www.amazon.com/Bogeys-Ace-Hole-Marja-McGraw/dp/1610090470/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1336831189&sr=1-1