Hallie's paperback launch: You'll Never Know, Dear

HALLIE EPHRON: There are few moments in a writer's life that are more unalloyed pleasure than opening a box of brand spanking new, hot off the presses copies of your book. Here's the box of the paperback edition of You'll Never Know, Dear which appeared on my doorstep in the middle of the blizzard before last, and will officially ship next week.

The cover is my favorite of all my books. It's sweet and creepy, though I wish the doll's eye could blink. And go click.

This was the first book I've ever written that's based on someone else's idea. It was a friend and neighbor, Mary Alice Gallagher, who told me about helping her mother move out of their family longtime family home in Fayetteville. Her mother, Blanche, was a doll maker. All over the house, and especially from under beds, Mary Alice pulled out boxes and boxes of doll parts.  

Put that in one of your books, she said.

I couldn't shake the image of those doll parts. So I wrote about them, and ended up with this story:

Forty years after the disappearance of a little girl and the doll her mother made for her, the doll comes back. The novel is about finding the girl.

The book has been nominated for the Mary Higgins Clark Award. It was named one of the top ten mystery/crime novels of 2017 by Audiofile Magazine and received an Earphones Award.

My favorite part of writing a novel is research. I had to go to Beaufort, SC—I set the story there, though I call it Bonsecours. And of course I had to learn about how to make and repair dolls.

One of my first research trips was to a woman whose home is a doll hospital. Every room was chockablock with dolls. On every shelf. Rag dolls hanging like ripe hams from rafters. Doll parts were neatly catalogued in boxes.

I quickly lost my squeamishness about doll parts. Even the eyeballs. They're sweet.

Here are some of the arcane bits of knowledge I acquired while researching the book. Because hey, you never know when you'll need to uncloud a doll's eyeball.

- How to uncloud a doll's glass eyeballs: Clean with Q-tip and vinegar, and if the cloudiness has spread inside, hold blow dryer to eyes, 10 minutes at a time.

- How can you tell if doll's hair is human: Burn it. Human catches fire right away, flashes, then balls up into dark ash that you can crush into a dark powder with a distinctive, unpleasant odor. Synthetic hair melts and curls up into a hard ball and has a plasticky, chemical smell

- How can you tell if a hair is from a dog or a human? Look at it under a microscope.

More than you needed to know, right?

- How to cock a break-action shotgun: Close it; when closed it’s cocked and ready to go; it kicks like a mule when fired and you can easily bruise your shoulder

- What DNA do you need to tell if 2 women are sisters: theirs and (half the time) their mother's

- How could a woman kill someone on a shrimp boat and make it look like an accident? You'll have to read the book.

If you haven't read it, the paperback is available now for pre-order, shipping March 27. And, did I mention that the audio book is an award winner?

Barnes & Noble

Amazon

Walmart

And if you're looking for me, here's where I'll be speaking in the coming months: 

• April 9 7:30 PM S. Windsor CT Public Library Murder & Mayhem bookclub
• April 14 9:30 AM SinC/NE Writing Workshop at Milton Public Library 9:30 AM (All about writing compelling characters)
• April 24 7 PM Peabody Institute Library, Danvers –about the writing life, the craft of suspense, and You'll Never Know, Dear
• April 25–26
 MWA Edgar Awards Symposium & Awards Banquet
• May 11, Newton Free Library Book and Author Luncheon
• May 18 Penn Writers 2018 Conference, Lancaster, PA
• June 8-12 Yale Writers’ Conference
• June 21–24
 Capitol Crimes (Sacramento SinC) Writing Retreat


• August 10–12
 Writers Digest Conference 2018 NYC

• October 19–21
 Surrey International Writers Conference