“Write what you know”—that’s the advice people give you when you say you want to write a book.
Bad advice (for me, anyway).
To keep my sanity, I had to write about something far, far different from what I knew. Why, you ask? Because all I knew about when I started writing was baby stuff—Cheerios, The Wiggles, Pampers and peepee.
You see, I was (and am) the parent of young identical twins. (We sometimes went through 16 Pampers a day, if my memory serves—though it rarely does anymore.) I loved my little identical blond babies (still do, of course), but I had to get away!
So, I checked out. I didn’t have the time to write, but I couldn’t help myself. I went on vacation…I left for New York City in the Roaring 20s. How? I started writing a mystery series featuring Dorothy Parker and the members of the Algonquin Round Table. These people and their daily lives—their witty banter over long lunches and sparkling cocktails—were about as far removed as possible from my long days full of Teletubbies and temper tantrums.
Dorothy Parker, as you may know, was a Jazz Age writer and poet who was as well known for her clever wisecracks as for her writing. (Even if you don’t know her, you’ve probably heard something she said or wrote, such as “Men seldom make passes at girls who wear glasses,” or “Brevity is the soul of lingerie.”) She was a charter member of the Algonquin Round Table, which was a group of like-minded writers, editors and critics who met daily for lunch, seated at a round table at the Algonquin Hotel.
By day, they spoke and wrote about art, politics and Broadway performances. By night, they smoke and drank and laughed till the wee hours of the morning, rubbing elbows with celebrities, gangsters and flappers alike, only to wake up late and do it all over again. The only way I could possibly make these real-life characters more exciting was to throw them into a murder mystery. (The first of these, MURDER YOUR DARLINGS, was published in January 2011. The second, YOU MIGHT AS WELL DIE, is just released.)
My babies aren’t babies any more. Yesterday I took them bowling, and one of them bowled her first strike. By contrast, Dorothy Parker may have taken the New York subway to back-alley speakeasies, but I can’t imagine her driving a minivan to a suburban bowling alley.
So, I guess I’m living in the best of both worlds now. Soccer games, chicken nuggets and cartoons by day—and murder, mayhem and Manhattans by night.
But, boy, it’s a lot of work! I think I may need another vacation…

Please visit J.J. Murphy at http://www.roundtablemysteries.com/ and www.facebook.com/RoundTableMysteries.
Mystery Scene magazine called MURDER YOUR DARLINGS “A brilliant first novel … Murphy has courageously ventured into [Dorothy] Parker’s world, and does quite a creditable job … And the mystery ain’t bad either.”

I Kid You Not: Children in the Silver Rush mysteries – by Ann Parker

Years ago, when I was started writing my Silver Rush historical mystery series, I pondered about the maternal standing of Inez Stannert.

Should she have a child? Or not?

You see, Inez leads a hard and complicated life. She lives at the ten-thousand-foot mark in the Rocky Mountains, in Leadville, Colorado, in the 1880s. Leadville is a silver boomtown—chaotic, bursting at the snowy seams with men and women driven by greed, desperate to get rich by any means including murder.

Not an ideal time or place to raise a child.

In addition, Inez’s husband, Mark Stannert, has disappeared without a trace before the first book even opens. Inez has given up hope of finding him alive, although a part of her wonders if her smooth-talking, good-looking gambler husband might have skipped out with a “pretty-waiter girl” or one of the actresses passing through town. In Mark’s absence, Inez manages the Silver Queen Saloon and runs a high-stakes poker game on Saturday nights. And then, “stuff happens.” The mysterious (but incredibly attractive) Reverend Sands comes to town. People close to Inez start to die under unusual circumstances (after all, this is a mystery). Inez investigates (after all, she is the sleuth).

I wanted to make Inez a mother, even though I wasn’t sensing a lot of maternal attributesin this poker-playing, whiskey-drinking, pocket-pistol-toting woman of the West. But I thought that Inez would make a fiercely protective, passionate parent. She would do whatever it took to protect her children, if I were to bequeath them to her. I believed she “had it in her,” so to speak, to be a mother.

But how was she going to handle everything (run a saloon, conduct a dance of seduction with Reverend Sands, solve murders, etc., etc.) with children in tow? Even if I were to throw in a nurse or governess, I couldn’t see this working.

After careful deliberation, I hit upon a plan. I gave Inez a baby: William. But William has weak lungs and cannot remain at Leadville’s altitude. In fact, shortly before Mark disappeared, the Stannerts had decided to move to a lower elevation, for William’s sake. With Mark gone, Inez was torn: should she stay, where she could search for her husband, or should she go, to protect William’s health? Enter (conveniently) Inez’s sister Harmony, who becomes William’s guardian so Inez can remain in Leadville. Harmony takes William back East and the sisters write regularly so Inez can keep abreast of her son’s development. This way, Inez can continue to investigate those mysteries that keep cropping up in Leadville.

I was satisfied with this arrangement. But readers weren’t.

As the series progressed, readers became “invested in” William (or maybe the term is “obsessed with”). Why wasn’t Inez making plans to get him back? Why wasn’t she visiting him? How could she stand to give him up, and for so long? What kind of mother was she?

I finally threw up my virtual hands in surrender. Toward the end of the third book, Leaden Skies, Inez makes plans to see William and Harmony. In the fourth book, Mercury’s Rise, mother and child at last reunite in the spa resort town of Manitou Springs, Colorado.

However, William has not seen his mother for over a year, and he is now almost two years old. Do you have a two year old, or do you recall what they are like? How they respond to strangers? (Answer: Not well.) How about their favorite two-letter word? (Hint: N-O.)

Needless to say, the reunion does not go as Inez expects. Too, there’s an additional complication: Mark Stannert has returned, with all his considerable charm focused on Inez. He has a plausible (?) explanation for his long absence. He wants to see his son, and for the three of them to become a family again.

Even as Inez struggles to sort out her feelings toward Mark and the suspicious little naysayer who is her son, strange unexplained deaths are occurring in Manitou Springs.

And guess who must investigate….

Ann Parker is a California-based science/corporate writer by day and an historical mystery writer by night. Her award-winning Silver Rush series, featuring saloon-owner Inez Stannert, is set in 1880s Colorado, primarily in the silver-mining boomtown of Leadville. The latest in her series, MERCURY’S RISE, was released November 1. Publishers Weekly says, “Parker smoothly mixes the personal dramas and the detection in an installment that’s an easy jumping-on point for newcomers.” Library Journal adds, “Parker’s depth of knowledge coupled with an all-too-human cast leaves us eager to see what Inez will do next. Encore!” Learn more about Ann and her books at http://www.annparker.net

MERCURY’S RISE and the other Silver Rush mysteries are available from independent booksellers, amazon.com, and Barnes and Noble.

Leave a comment on this post to be eligible to win a Silver Rush mystery prize! Winner will be announced later this week. To see the rest of Ann’s virtual tour, check out her Appearances page on her website.

Inez, is that you? Probably not…

It’s a well-known fact that I’m not a kid-person. I’m not into them. They’re not my thing. I don’t do kids.

Don’t introduce me to your children until they’re ready to discuss quantum mechanics with me. (Diana’s kids are there already!)

So how did Maddie Porter get born and invade six of my books (the sixth miniature mystery, “Mix-Up in Miniature,” will be out next spring)? Maddie is now 11, well below the age I can relate to, the discussable age, and she’s also a skinny redhead, the likes of which I never saw growing up in my Italian neighborhood.

I’ve always resisted the “characters want to be heard” myth. Creating a character and moving her around 350 pages in a believable way takes a lot of work.

I was on a panel once with the great Reginald Hill. Someone asked him, “Do your characters ever take over and write the story?”

“If only they would,” he answered. “I’d go and have a spot of tea.”

I’m with Sir Reginald on that, but there’s no doubt that Maddie the Kid crept onto my screen before I could think about whether I wanted to deal with a preteen.

Maddie is precocious and loves sweets, which helps, because I can imagine manipulating her to talk about string theory, and her computer skills make her a good little sidekick sleuth, but I’ve warned her, she’d better not start acting up like some of the kids I see at the mall. I have ways of eliminating characters I no longer have use for.

My newest series, an academic mystery, features Sophie Knowles, college math teacher in a small New England town. What a relief. Sophie hangs around with only adults and college kids (my favorite segment of the population) all day.

Sophie has no children, but her boyfriend has a 10-yr old niece. Oh, no! What if Melanie demands her own story?

Not that I believe in characters taking over.

For each book, I create characters whose lives and professions are unfamiliar to me. I love doing the research, talking to willing subjects to get the inside scoop. Among the people I’ve observed and interviewed are cops, funeral directors, ice climbers, veterinarians, EMT workers and medivac pilots. And now, kids.

To develop Maddie I had to actually deal with kids, to capture their behavior, speech patterns, buzz words.

What do you know? They’re not as bad as thought. I even grew to like a couple of them. Still, no theme birthday party invitations, please.

Photos: CM with slide rule; Square Root of Murder cover

Camille Minichino is a retired physicist turned writer, who minimized her chances of having children of her own by spending her childbearing years in a convent. Her akas are Margaret Grace (The Miniature Mysteries) and Ada Madison (The Professor Sophie Knowles Mysteries, debuting July 5). She’s at http://www.minichino.com

What are your summer plans?

Sleuth and first-time mom Kate Connolly and her baby are the victims of a hit-and-run, but escape unharmed. A witness identifies the car’s French diplomatic license plates, yet when Kate and her hubby try to get some answers, they get le cold shoulder. But there’s something going on at the French consulate that’s dirtier-and far deadlier-than any diaper.

Order your copy today – available where books are sold:
Amazon
Barnes & Noble

To celebrate the release of Formula for Murder, we’ve teamed up with San Francisco baby apparel company Libraknits to give away a FREE luxurious handmade baby hat to one lucky winner!!!  Just enter our contest and spread the word to win the LibraKnits luxurious handmade baby hat of your choice!!!

Contest Details Here

Meet Bob. He is 22 months old. According to some child-rearing books children between the ages of 18 to 24 months are “Developmentally at a level similar to Neanderthals two million years ago.”

Seriously? I’m living with a Neanderthal? Oh, don’t worry, the book goes on to explain that Neanderthals were smarter, more verbal, and more agile than ape-men (what a relief) but also more aggressive and stubborn.

Well, you got that part right.

So what does Bob have to do with Time Management?

First off, there is a lot to learn from Bob – he’s stubborn and tenacious – which may be qualities all writers need to possess.

Secondly, he does what he wants. I laugh as I write this – but it’s pretty much true.  If he wants to sleep- he does, if he wants to eat- he does, if he wants to play in the garden but it’s raining he pounds on the window with his little fists – you get my drift. He either does what he wants or fights for it.

So how does all this relate to “Time Management”? I think we all make time to do what we like to do. The question I get asked more often than anything else is, “With three small kids, where do you find the time to write?” My answer is, “I make the time.”

It’s about priorities.

Here are my tips about making the time:

1. We’re all busy, when you can make out a little time to write, even if it’s ten minutes – have an idea about what you’ll be writing (i.e. the scene where she finds the body or the confrontation between characters x and y)this way, you are making the most of the precious few minutes you’ve set aside.
2. Therefore, think about your story before you sit down to write. I love to do this when I’m working out. It’s the part of me that loves to multi task. Asking yourself the “what if” question while you’re doing a repetitive action like on the treadmill is great to get ideas flowing. If you don’t like working out – doing household chores like dishes or laundry can get pretty repetitive too.
3. Working on a novel? Then rinse and repeat step 1 and 2. Seriously, all it takes is thinking about your story (planning) and writing (executing).

Want to kick it into high-gear for 2011? Here are your bonus tips:

a. The more frequently you do step 1 and 2 the easier they get.

b. See yourself doing steps 1 and 2. Writing a to-do list with “write 1000 words” on it, is not enough to actually get yourself to do it – trust me – I’m a consummate list maker. What will actually get you doing your to-do list is seeing yourself accomplishing your tasks (sounds a bit new-agey – sorry- but it’s true). You need to engage your frontal lobe (this is a part of the brain that our Neanderthal friend in the beginning of the story, Bob, has not developed yet.) So, before bedtime take a few minutes (and I do mean few minutes – this takes about 2 to 3 minutes – YOU HAVE THE TIME TO DO THIS) and use your mind to see yourself writing.  What time is it? Where are you? Who is watching the kids? What are you writing? Work through any road block you may have, to complete the task of writing, in your mind at that moment. Don’t wait for the next day to work through these potential blocks because then your time will be spent on that instead of writing.

So that’s it – now go do it! Remember you are NOT a Neanderthal -you have evolved past that.

(Disclaimer – I don’t actually think Bob is a Neanderthal either – I love my little guy with all my heart.)

Bookmark this page and check back in 2011 and let me know how my tips are working out for you!

In the meantime – Merry Christmas to you and yours and have a very blessed 2011!

http://theladykillers.typepad.com/the_lady_killers/2010/08/crime-showor-not.html