Kay is here to talk about the question authors dread. And she's giving away a copy of AFTER YOU’VE GONE to one lucky commenter!
KAY KENDALL: “Where do you get your ideas?”
If you hang around with authors long enough, you’ll invariably hear one say, “Someone asked me a silly question at my book event yesterday.” Then the second will chime in. “Right, I bet it was the old stand-by, ‘Where do you get your ideas?’” The third replies, “Hate answering that, and it comes up often.”
The first time I heard a conversation like that, I mentally patted myself on the back, thinking “Whew, at least I never asked that silly question.” Sure I asked plenty of others as I prepared to become a published author, but not that one.
By then I knew that ideas can float up from anywhere, often from the unlikeliest places. I was reminded of this when I read Deborah Crombie’s post here on Jungle Red last week about including maps in her mysteries. She shared examples and extolled the delights of working with her illustrator Laura to prepare maps to show the terrain of her plots.
Now, I happen to be a keen aficionado of maps. A good in-depth map thrills me. In my travels, the best I’ve seen are put out by German publishers—I swear some show every tree. Also, in the UK the Ordinance Survey maps are splendid, offered with astonishing levels of detail. While I was admiring Deborah’s maps online, I recalled other mysteries that contained maps (for example, Donna Leon’s mysteries always include maps of Venice). I was blissed out just thinking about them. And then it hit me. I could include a map in my next mystery! What an idea. And why had it never occurred to me before? See. Ideas can bubble up anywhere, anytime. So, thank you Deborah Crombie.
I realize that when I write, I’m working from a mental map of the places my characters inhabit. For my first two mysteries, I used places that already existed in the cities of Toronto, Vancouver, and Seattle in the late 1960s. I consulted maps that showed streets and landmark buildings, making sure that my people were situated properly. I made nothing up.
In my new book, AFTER YOU’VE GONE—AN AUSTIN STARR MYSTERY PREQUEL, I made up a fictitious small town in Texas. I called it Gunmetal. (I checked. There isn’t one, but there is a Gun Barrel in Texas. Of course.) I situated my town near the real ones of Cuero and Yoakum. The first time I ever saw Spanish moss on trees was when I visited cousins in Cuero, and my father was born nearby in Yoakum. While I know lots about those towns, I wanted to be free to imagine my own places and not feel bad if I were to hurt any current residents’ feelings by what I wrote. Large cities I’d written about before were different. Small towns didn’t seem like fair game.
I would’ve liked to show readers of AFTER YOU’VE GONE where Gunmetal was located on a map. Although I say in the book that Gunmetal is near Cuero, many readers will never have heard of Cuero (pop. 8,200). Likewise, when I note that Gunmetal is in-between Houston to the east and San Antonio to the southwest, this may not leap to their minds either. My mystery is set in 1923, and my amateur sleuth Wallie MacGregor and her Aunt Ida take a road trip in a brand new Buick motorcar to visit a relative in Houston, 150 miles away. In those days the trip took eight hours or more. Today it takes less than three.
I wish I’d included a map that shows the house twenty-three-year-old Wallie lives in with her father, the judge. Her real name is Walter, after her father, and her male name seems to have made her extra spunky. They live in a large Queen Ann Victorian, with an empty lot to the right and standoffish neighbors to the left—so
mean that they hate Wallie’s beagle puppy Holler on sight. Wallie takes a walk with her dad’s hunting dog across town, across the tracks to the colored part of town, where their housekeeper Athalia lives—she doesn’t have a phone. Now I long to show my readers those things on a map. And then of course there’s the location of the so-called accident that induces Wallie to prove it was murder. And I think … Well, next time I will include a map.
Luckily for me, Vienna, Austria, is the location of my next book. Austin Starr’s grandmother Wallie flies over there in 1970 to help her granddaughter when she becomes a suspect in a grisly murder. There will be lots of beautiful historic places to situate the explosions and gun battles I have planned. And this time you will see those locations on a map—or perhaps even on two.
What are examples of books you’ve read that included maps—besides those wonderful ones by Deborah Crombie? And are any of you location challenged? My super smart gal pal is and could get lost in a ladies room in a hotel. She can’t even read a map, although she got all A’s in college. Is anyone else like that?
And a copy of AFTER YOU’VE GONE to one lucky commenter!
Kay Kendall writes the Austin Starr mystery series (austinstarr.com ). After You've Gone (February 2019) is a prequel featuring Austin Starr’s grandmother who comes of age during the Roaring Twenties and Prohibition. This amateur sleuth searches for the killer of her uncle—who just happens to be a famous rumrunner in Texas. The first two Austin Starr books capture the spirit and turbulence of the 1960s. Desolation Row (2013) and Rainy Day Women (2015) show Austin as a young Texas bride, forced to the frontlines of societal change by her draft-resisting husband. Austin copes by turning amateur sleuth. The latter mystery won two Silver Falchion Awards in 2016 at Killer Nashville. In all her fiction, Kay shows how patterns of human nature repeat down the decades, no matter what historical age one reads about.
Before Kay began to write fiction, she was an award-winning international public relations executive, working in the US, Canada, the Soviet Union, and Europe. Ask her about working in Moscow during the Cold War. She and her Canadian husband live in Texas with three rescue rabbits and one bemused spaniel. She is president of the Southwest Chapter of Mystery Writers of America.
http://AustinStarr.com
www.facebook.com/KayKendallAuthor /
@kaylee_kendall
Kay blogs monthly on 3rd Wednesday of each month at https://thestilettogang.blogspot.com/ ##
“After You’ve Gone” sounds quite intriguing, Kay, and I’m looking forward to reading it.
ReplyDeleteI can read a map, but that doesn’t keep me from being completely befuddled over directions so I can empathize with your gal pal. But I do enjoy maps associated with stories. J.D. Robb’s latest In Death book included a map showing the locations of the first murder in each of the previous stories. And, to make it even more interesting, the map’s key is a puzzle that points to where the next story in the series will begin. It’s a pretty clever map . . . .
Hi there, Joan. When you mention the In Death series maps, I flashed onto the Clue board game. In the dining room with Colonel Mustard! Not a map, I know, but the game did depict spatial relationships related to solving a mystery. It's interesting how our minds can come up with ways to be intrigued with crime...without ever committing one, thank goodness.
DeleteClue. Battleship. Candyland. There's a ton of games with maps.
DeleteAnd also Risk, remember that one? We played that for hours and hours and my sister always won...
DeleteLucy, it is fun to think of Risk after so long. I had almost forgotten about it. Thanks.
DeleteWe used to play Risk in college! And it was cutthroat! Never be Turkey… end it taught me Irkutsk is.
DeleteThat's funny, Hank. So we can learn about the world from odd things...not just find inspiration from them.
DeleteI found the secret to winning in Risk was to take control of South America. Can't remember why that strategy worked, but it did, every time.
DeleteClue has always been my favorite game . . . .
DeleteI come from a long line of map people, and even now when I'm going on a trip (tomorrow, in fact!) I get AAA maps (on paper!) for where I'm going, to supplement my phone's GPS. Wallie sounds like a pip - congratulations on the new book.
ReplyDeleteEdith, hello! The AAA maps are so marvelous. I love learning about the towns as I whiz by. Of course that's only when I'm the navigator and my husband is the driver. I guess I'm a nut for detail. All that glorious data tight st our fingertips. GPS is fun too. But the AAA maps are my first love.
DeleteI used to have AAA maps from all my trips. Now I don't get them any more. No excuse because we have an AAA office four blocks away.
DeleteLove good maps, and really enjoy using them. GPS use has eroded this skill, I think.
ReplyDeleteAnd GPS gives me fits, especially walking. I get much more turned around using it than with a paper map, for some reason.
The best maps I've ever encountered were the ones that came with our car rental in Sydney, Australia. Even phone boxes were indicated, they were superbly done.
Maps in books, especially floorplans, are always welcome.
Yes, GPS as definitely eroded map following skills. It's also eroded one's ability to get around in the world WIHTOUT GPS. I no longer look for landmarks at turning points, trusting the GPS will get me there. WHich it does about 95% of the time. It's that other 5% that gets me in trouble.
DeleteHi, Karen. I've never seen an Australian map. They sound glorious.
DeleteHi Kay, first, it is a bit discombolutating to discover your novel's set in the 1960's are considered to be historical. I was in Seattle in the 1960's; don't feel historical..yet.
ReplyDeleteI love maps. Somehow they serve me better than verbal directions (turn left at the field of cows nope.) turn left 2.3 miles from Nome St. yes! I sometimes browse google maps. I use street view instead of GPS to get from here to there. Everything from nautical charts to pioneer maps of the WA wilderness tell me stories. Maps today! Callooo Calay!
I love maps, too - only problem is I can't translate them to actually telling me which way to turn. Invariably I look at a map and then go the wrong way. (But then, when I stay in a hotel I invariably come out of my room and go the wrong way , looking for the elevator.)
DeleteCoralee, I love the street view function of Google maps. So fun and helpful too. On the other hand, if I were a burglar I would LOVE them.
DeleteI love maps in books, particularly Deborah's. If a book doesn't have a map, I sometimes print one out. Invaluable for Ann Cleeves' Shetland books. We make the road trip from Cincinnati to Washington, DC at least once a year. I have three AAA maps for the trip, with gas stations and rest stops noted. Congratulations on your new release!
ReplyDeleteWhat an excellent idea, Margaret. Printing out a map when a novel doesn't include one. I must remember your tip.
DeletegHi, Kay! I can read a map, but I can't fold them. Also, I do like the way GPS narrates the directions so when I'm alone, I don't have to keep glancing at the map. Eyes on the road!
ReplyDeleteAh, map folding - right up there with fitted-sheet folding...
DeleteLiz, I love GPS too but when it occasionally fails while you are depending on it...ouch. And no one knows how to tell you directions anymore. At least that has been my experience lately...especially among youngish store clerks and gas station attendants.
DeleteHa, Liz, there's a topic. I can't fold maps, either.
DeleteI would give myself a grade of B minus in map folding. But then there's my memory of gigantic German maps. I could not even try to find one without overlapping into the driver's space. So dangerous. Grand maps though.
DeleteWelcome Kay! The new book sounds like such fun. I actually love the question about where ideas come from--it gives me a chance to show how quirky writing can be...
ReplyDeleteI'm with you, Lucy -- I think it's a great question. Because for every book it's different, and often the answer gives you a kind of special insight into the themes that will play out in the story.
DeleteDefinitely quirky, where ideas pop up from. I think it is particularly helpful to let my mind free associate and grab anything that bubbles up. When I think in too linear a fashion, my ideas are not as interesting.
DeleteI truly love maps. I have a road map of Great Britain that a friend sent to me in the early 70s. Although beginning to come apart it is still very helpful when reading books that were set there. Most recently there was a map of an Adirondack lake and the surrounding area in JS-F's Through the Evil Days. That lake was very familiar to me, although I don't believe it was meant to be the exact lake I was thinking of. There were enough differences that it could have been totally made up. I loved it!
ReplyDeleteJust looking at a map with tiny place names you recall from your youth can bring back so many memories. I did that yesterday to see where a Facebook friend from high school had landed. She lives now in Park City KS. When I found it on Google Maps, then I let my eyes wander around and saw all the towns where my friends and I would be driven by our parents to high school football games around the district. Sweet, quite innocent memories. All from looking at an online map.
DeleteEdith, I love the AAA maps. And Margaret, I love the idea of printing out a map for Shetland! I'm a map person for road trips and then the GPS on my phone for shorter distances. As for getting lost in hotels... I would just like them to post every 10 feet signs on the walls that tell me where the elevator is located. Please, instead of the "art"? Congratulations on the new book.
ReplyDeleteYou are so right, Lyda, about signs to tell us how to find things inside giant buildings. So necessary. Wayfinding is the term, I believe. Houston is home of the world's largest medical complex. And boy is it COMPLEX. Even though I worked in PR for a member institution for many years, I needed lots of help navigating its streets and parking lots. And then inside the enormous buildings was a fright. One institution was a master at guidance. The others failed Wayfinding 101. You don't want that when you're sick and scared and befuddled enough anyway without getting lost
DeleteI love, love maps! I still print out maps before getting in the car and using GPS. I have good "map sense" and when traveling, I am always the leader when walking around. When my husband and I were in Prague, I could unerringly find the way to the castle and then back to the hotel. Must be my Cherokee Indian genes (which 23&me couldn't find but which the family knows exists). The only time we were completely bamboozled was in Amsterdam with my sisters (also good mappers). We could never decide which side of the canal we were on.
ReplyDeleteAtlanta, my family history says I have Cherokee ancestors, too, but nothing showed up in 23andMe.
DeleteHow interesting that both of you have family lore that says you have Cherokee roots, Atlanta and Deborah. As to wandering around tricky old European places like Amsterdam and Prague, I could do both when I had a map in my hands. But Rome! No way. I could get turned around in two minutes even when consulting a map. It was astonishing.
DeleteI grew up using maps on road trips with my family and then when I drove maps were the only option that we used and depended on. There are maps in my grandsons playroom and bedrooms and I am glad that they enjoy and understand what maps are for.
ReplyDeleteI remember learning all the states from a jigsaw puzzle.
DeleteHallie, oh I did that too. Plus the state capitals. I adored that puzzle. Wish I remembered all the capitals' names now. The tiny ones are slipping away alas.
DeleteHI Kay, we recently hosted two young relatives on a trip across the US. John offered them maps for their route and they declined, saying they have their phones. What a lot you miss when you only take the most direct route!
ReplyDeleteAND YET! How fantastic is it when you're in the middle of nowhere to type into the map COFFEE. or ATM. Or MUSEUM. Or DINER. and have it take you to the nearest one.
DeleteRhys, there's a splendid book called "Blue Highways: A Journey into America" by William Least-Heat Moon (a Sioux name). He takes the small roads through small towns and it is wonderful. We miss all that when we hurry past on interstates.
DeleteAnd to your point, Hallie, I love GPS when it points out the nearest Starbucks.
Hi Kay! Waving at you from Dallas! I love the "Where do you get your ideas" question, too. How did it get such a bad rap? And I love love love maps. Could you put a map for After You're Gone on your website? I'd love to see where your imaginary town is.
ReplyDeleteOh Deborah!! I will do that. Put a map of Gunmetal TX on my website. Thanks for the tip. One I should have thought of. Hugs for that.
DeleteI think the key of reading a map is that you have to turn it so that the way you’re headed is up on the map. And I loved those trip tix that AAA made, where they had a magic marker line and you flip the pages?
ReplyDeleteThat's why I could never follow the map on my GPS... walking. I didn't realize there was a way to flip the map so it was pointing in the direction I was walking. Once I figured that out... things got better. Sort of.
DeleteThe AAA Triptiks were fabulous. Oh how many memories it brings back driving across the continent. Such great journeys. I don't enjoy interstate travel now. Too crowded.
DeleteOh, we always had Triptiks! But when we drove to Mexico, I think we had a different map/guide--Sanborne's, maybe? Does anyone remember those?
DeleteI have driven across Canada but never driven anywhere in Mexico.
DeleteAnd joining the chorus… I totally love the “where do you get your ideas “question! I think it’s an entrance into how the writet mind works.
ReplyDeleteI am very literal sometimes. While I dislike this question (WHERE do you get your ideas?), I love this one (HOW do you get your ideas?)
DeleteSo, Hank, to relate to your thought of how a writer's mind "works"...or doesn't as the case may be...there's one example. Better yet, there is a CLUE.
I hope that makes some sense.
If “works” is The operative word :-)
ReplyDeleteMaps show me what life is like and how to traverse the areas which are interesting. I still follow maps in my life and in the car. Novels with maps are fascinating and enjoyable. Winnie the Pooh has lovely maps which add to the story.
ReplyDeleteThere was just an exhibit on Winnie the Pooh at the Boston Museum of Fine Arts and it was fabulous. Maps! If it travels and comes near you, be sure to go. You don't have to be a kid to enjoy it immensely.
DeleteI'm afraid I'm the only avid reader in the English speaking world who never read the Winnie the Poo books when I was young. I do read them with my two grandkiddos now however
DeleteKay, you had me at AFTER YOU'VE GONE's description of Wallie coming of age in the Roaring Twenties. My own grandmother, Mary McEachron, moved from her parent's respectable farm to a nearby town when she was 18, getting a job as a waitress at a speakeasy. Then she met a man ten years older, who had already buried one wife...
ReplyDeleteThere are a couple pictures of her, slim and vibrant, wearing a fringe-covered dress and looking like she could swing into motion at any moment. Into her eighties, she could still dance a mean Charleston and Black Bottom.
This comment has been removed by the author.
DeleteJulia, what a wonderful story about your grandmother. She sounds like lots if fun. A real speakeasy. How exciting.
DeleteKay, I love the sound of your book and will be looking for it on my next trip to Amazon, which will be in about ten minutes.
ReplyDeletePlace names in Texas! My personal favorite is Cut and Shoot, but then that's everyone's isn't it.
Ann, you are right. Most folks point to that marvel of a place name, Cut and Shoot. My own personal favorite is Old Dime Box. It is 3 miles from Dime Box.
ReplyDeleteI grew up reading maps.
ReplyDeleteI appreciate the convenience of a GPS, but I still want to see the whole route first.
Libby Dodd
PS Ebooks are terrible for maps.
DeleteLibby, you're so tight. I grow frustrated when GPS has a hard time showing me the full route.
DeleteThat is to say RIGHT. Not tight.
DeleteI can read maps, but lack a sense of direction, so I have often done much re-reading to get back on course. AAA helps, GPS helps, and best of all is "the kindness of strangers." Gas station attendants aren't as knowledgable as they once were, but truckers, realtors, and, according to Alan Portman, pizza delivery guys know where things are.
ReplyDeleteIf you wanted, you could still make that map and put it online, as I've seen others do. Excited for the new book!
One more anecdote: When the great-nieces/nephews were small, I told them I was going to try a new route home as traffic was terrible. They pulled out the map from the seatback and declared they would help me find the way, but they were all pre-readers. "What does 94 look like?" I drew in the air, they found it on the map, and they were so proud, stowing the map away when we made it to familiar territory. Friends' children love to be given maps.
I'm always charmed when children show they get excited when they figure things out for themselves. That bodes well for their futures, I think.
DeleteI can read maps...I also like my GPS, or maybe I should say, I LOVE my GPS, but as we all know, they go a bit "tharn" (referenced from Watership Downs) in the head every once in awhile. I've had mine lead me like "ol Bossy, to a pasture more than once. So, if I can get a printout beforehand, I like using both :) The GPS gives you audible "heads-ups" to keep you on the straight and narrow, just in case the traffic is running you aground lol. I'm currently reading the Kindle version of After You've Gone, but hey, a print copy would fit nicely on my shelf! Or maybe I should say coffee table...the cover for this prequel is to die for, Sugar! Great conversation piece :)
ReplyDeleteHi, Loretta. I'm delighted you like the cover of After You've Gone. My small publisher lets me have major input to my covers, and I really liked this one. All my books use songs for their titles... Google was super helpful in coming up with this one... song from ca. 1920 that is still around today. On YouTube Fiona Apple sings it, along with others like Ella Fitzgerald. All long after the Jazz Age.
ReplyDeleteBooks with maps are a special treat for me -- I will bookmark that page so I can keep coming back to it as I read the book because I am a very visual person and like to see where events are occurring. My Mother-in-Law loves maps because she has travelled the world so extensively and likes to see where she has visited. She used to have a map of the world on her wall with push pins in every city or place she had visited -- it looked like a rainbow.
ReplyDeletePerfect. a visual representation of spatial relationships. I'm visually oriented as well, Celia, so I like the idea of the map with push pins. I've made lists of places visited but never a map. But I think I am largely out of wall space now. I've lived in the same house in Houston for 29 years and it is filled up with mementos from trips, many hung on the walls.
ReplyDeleteWhen traveling we use the GPS, but we also take an atlas with us. It helps us plan our next day's itinerary. I like maps in books, it makes you feel like the town in the book really exists. "After You've Gone" sounds like a great read. Adding to my TBR list.
ReplyDeleteSpeaking of atlases, Dianne . . . I have a full set of an encyclopedia from the 1920s. I love looking through it to see the outdated entries for nations and medicine, all the things that have changed so much since then. And the maps! Some continents have changed so very much. Africa, for example. Oh how I love looking back over human history. And thanks for putting my new book on your TBR list.
DeleteI can read a map once I figure out what direction I'm facing, but any written or verbal directions that tell me to head north (or east, south, west) confuse me. I love looking at a map in a book. The time period for After You've Gone is so fascinating & fun.
ReplyDeleteMy daddy--back in the days before GPS needless to say--taught me I should always give directions by saying "turn north" rather than "turn left." He said quite rationally that if you were coming from the opposite direction on the same road being talked about that, you would turn the wrong way. So I follow his teachings. HOWEVER, when I do that, others can't follow my directions. They don't know which way north is for example. Jana, I am really pleased you find the era of "After You've Gone" fascinating. I had lots of fun writing about it.
DeleteSince I tend to set my books in houses more than towns, I'm forever drawing floor plans... just for myself, so I know how my character would get to the bathroom, should the need arise.
ReplyDeleteI just ran back through all the comments and want to repeat a gem shared by Ann Mason. She wrote: "I found the secret to winning in Risk was to take control of South America. Can't remember why that strategy worked, but it did, every time."
ReplyDeleteYou never know when that strategy will come in handy.
Shhhh. Don’t tell our secret
DeleteI love maps! My big brother and I used to play find that town on our Texas road map. East Texas is particularly good; lots of bitty towns close together. Karnack anyone? I always stop at the state welcome center to collect a map when we're traveling. Latest acquisitions: Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, S.Carolina, N.Carolina. I missed Virginia though. My poor mom had the absolute worst sense of direction. We took some interesting out of the way routes when she was giving directions. I enjoy trying to figure out where imaginary towns are here in Texas. However it drives me nuts when the town keeps moving from book to book.
ReplyDeleteOh, Pat, that's a bad thing if towns move around on different maps. Even if it is fiction. It would drive me nuts too. Definitely .
DeleteI am a huge fan of maps in books. Debs' book maps are amazing, and I look forward to them and look back at them during my reading. G.M. Malliett has lovely maps in her books, too. I was one of the lucky ones who received a large size map of Louise Penny's Three Pines a few years back. I have it framed, of course.
ReplyDeleteYou are right, Kathy. The maps in Louise Penny's books are so charming.
DeleteLove maps in novels like Deborah Crombie's books. I look forward to reading your novel with maps. I used to be good at reading maps. After I got my driver's license and started driving, I noticed that I started getting lost. As a walker, it was easy to follow maps. While driving, there are some one way streets so reading maps would be different from the perspective of a driver. Believe it or not, I got lost walking in a building and I couldn't find my way back! That was after I started driving
ReplyDeleteDiana
When I moved into my current house many years ago, I got it flipped in my mind. East was west and vice versa. Now 28 years later, when I'm talking about driving downtown, I still point the wrong way. It us cemented into my brain. Only if I stop and figure it out will I get it right. It is just nuts.
DeleteI love the Jean Auel series that has prehistoric Europe maps. Thanks for the chance!
ReplyDeleteI must look up those maps. I don't know them. They sound interesting.
DeleteYou know, I can't pinpoint a title of a fiction book that includes a map, but I have enjoyed them when I have come across them. And I am challenged in regards to directions and location. It has always been so. The best I have been at not becoming overly lost was while being a tourist and using London's A-Z Guide. It was an extremely detailed map and I could more successfully follow it than usual.
ReplyDeleteLil, when I discussed with my husband my super smart gal pal's inability to think spatially, he guessed it might be related to an eye problem. That didn't make sense to me, but then I recalled that my friend had an inherited vision problem for which she saw a doctor for two years while she was in grade school. Alas I can't discuss it with her again since she passed away a few years back. I must ask her sister if she is also directionally challenged since the younger sis inherited the same eye problem. Our brains are so fascinating. It may be something else entirely.
DeleteMost of the maps I've seen in books were from fantasy novels.
ReplyDeleteRhys mentioned that you miss so much if you only take the most direct route when traveling by GPS. I'm afraid I would be one of those people. I only care about getting to where I'm heading as quickly as possible. I am not a sightseer. I once had to drive to Virginia and we got lost (before we had GPS obviously). So we pulled into one of those roadside places that had tourist info. The guy manning the desk started to say that he'd send us along a certain way because it had all these great things to see. I stopped him immediately and said that I only wanted the direct route because I just wanted to get where I was going and didn't care to see anything on the side of the road.
Regarding the board game Risk, I was very good at that one. I guess the idea of ruling the world was a keen interest of mine growing up. Alexander the Great had nothing on my Risk skills.
☺ Jay, you sound goal oriented. Get where you're going...and take over the world. Love it!
DeleteI, too, love love love maps! Now I live in historic Seguin, in Guadalupe County. But I was born in Yoakum, Texas, a long time ago. Dime Box and Cut & Shoot are great names, and I always enjoy learning how towns got their names. During my career with the US Census Bureau, I was excited to be part of a project to digitize USGS maps and update them for the Census over several years (in the Dallas Regional Office, now gone). Your books sound so intriguing. I encourage all authors to include maps, and especially enjoy Deborah's and Donna Leon's. Gail Streun, in Seguin, Texas
ReplyDeleteOh my goodness, Gail, I'm so excited. My father was also born in Yoakum! In my book I talk about Wallie's cousins driving over to visit her in Gunmetal from nearby Yoakum and Cuero. Later this week I will act on Deborah Crombie's idea to post a map of that part of Texas on my website. When my parents lived in Boerne, I used to drive through Seguin on my way over there from Houston. In the 1990s it was a much pleasanter drive than it is now. The traffic--oh my! Seguin is so very famous in Texas history.
ReplyDeleteWhat part of Houston do you live in, Kay? When we returned to Houston 12 years ago we settled in the Heights. That was a wise decision, considering the flooding issues.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDelete
ReplyDeleteHi, Pat. Do you know Briargrove? Two miles west of 610 and straight down San Felipe is my house. During Harvey we had an unknown roof problem. Rain leaked into the attic, sat there, and then collapsed the ceiling into a bathroom the day after our neighbors told us our house was fine. Husband and I were visiting friends in CO and our 5 day stay turned into 11 days. We couldn't fly home until then. I fear our summers are going to have much more of this in years to come with climate change advancing so fast. Sigh.... Speaking of the Heights, my amateur sleuth Wallie MacGregor visits the Heights with her aunt before the detour south to Galveston to find the bad guys. You should be able to find some street names and even one Victorian house, still standing today.
Hi Kay, What fun--a new-to-me author. I can't wait to start in on your series. I'm a huge map fan myself, particularly in mystery novels. I've spent way to much time at work this afternoon trying to think of the title of a mystery that had one of my favorite maps of all time in it, because it was (as a map) an element of the plot. So, the title escapes me, but this was by Ngaio Marsh, so a Roderick Alleyn. The District Nurse for the village where the mystery takes place mentions to the Major? Colonel? anyway, the required Retired Military Man, that she would love an illustrated map of the village looking down from the top of the road leading into it. Military Man has taken up watercolors in retirement and is a bit sweet on the District Nurse. It's a charming bit of banter and the map is reproduced in the book. I could probably Google to find the answer. Or I could revisit my Ngaio Marsh collection. Hmmm. . .
ReplyDelete-Melanie
That's a nice little mystery to run down. I don't know the book but it does sound delightful.
DeleteGood! I look forward to reading about that. And Galveston too. There's a place full of history. Wallie would have been there pre-Balinese Room but I know there were plenty of gambling venues and bootleg booze available at her time. I know where Briargrove is but don't get out that way much. My inlaws lived in Piney Point Village years ago before they moved out to Wharton.
ReplyDeleteYou're really up up on your Galveston history, Pat. I am impressed on your knowledge of the Balinese Room.
DeleteWow! The 'maps' topic sure got everyone going. I love maps!! I think it's genetic. My Dad had a huge collection. I have always poured over the maps inside Debs' books. I picture the connections in my mind and refer back to the map as I read. And what about the Marauder's Map in the Harry Potter books? A map that folds itself back up. Now, that's something I could use. Lastly, one of my favorite possessions is a glove-box size driving atlas of England. It's indispensable when I'm driving. It even has tiny back roads.
ReplyDeleteThose maps with the most details are the special ones, aren't they? So wonderful.
ReplyDeleteBack in the day we had to use maps when traveling. Maps are amazing even though their hard to fold back up. Lol maps are awesome in the books they explain so much.
ReplyDeleteOh yes indeed. And the really old maps are splendid works of art too. It is amazing to see how far map-making has come in 600 or so years since its resurgence during the Renaissance. Very early types of maps begaqn about 600 BCE. I didn't know that until minutes ago when Google helped me out on that question. I consulted Wikipedia, and when asked, Alexa did the same. 😜
ReplyDeleteI know I have read books with maps and yes they do provide me with a better understanding of the plot. The cover and title is appealing also. The many books coming out now with historical settings and plots are at the top of my list and this one has been put on top.
ReplyDeleteOh, Robin, I'm always delighted to find a reader who enjoys historical novels. I love them so much that I have trouble understanding why some readers don't. For one thing it is a great escape from present day stresses.
Delete