Tina deBellgarde--The Magic of Maps

DEBORAH CROMBIE: There is nothing I love more than a map in a book, and apparently I'm not the only one. I think it was the maps that made me fall in love with Lord of the Rings when I was fourteen, and to this day I cannot resist a book with a map. I've drawn maps for books I've read, and for my own books, and I've been lucky enough to have a good many of my own novels accompanied by maps by the wonderful illustrator, Laura Hartman Maestro. 

But our guest today, Tina deBellgarde, has THE MOST envy-inducing maps in the latest book in her charming Batavia-on-Hudson series, AUTUMN EMBERS.  (And what a gorgeous cover!) Welcome, Tina! Tell us how the maps came about.

 

Tina deBellegarde: Debs, thank you and all the lovely ladies at Jungle Red Writers for hosting me today. What a treat! Today I’m writing about the magic of maps.

My Batavia-on-Hudson Mystery Series takes place in a fictitious village in the Hudson Valley of New York, but Autumn Embers, the newest book in the series, alternates between Batavia and Kyoto, Japan.

When I started writing my series, I debated over setting the stories in my new hometown of Catskill, New York (yes, there is actually a village of Catskill), but I worried about what that would mean to a small town. Would I forget something or someone, or get just it wrong? In a town of this size where everyone knows everyone, any faux pas would be noticed.

Then I thought about the nearby towns, all lovely in their own right. Did I want town A for the beautiful town square? Or town B for the vibrant Main Street? One day, I realized that if I picked my favorite parts of each, I could have the perfect town and I could place things exactly where I thought they belonged.

This decision, like so many writing decisions I’ve made, was arrived at while walking. When it hit me that I could work with a brand-new town, I rushed home to my writing cottage. (Yes, I know, a writing cottage. My husband made it for me long before she-sheds were a thing. I am very lucky!) I pulled out four sheets of plain paper and taped them all together to make a large sheet and I sketched the first version of the Batavia-on-Hudson map before it even had a name. It was exhilarating to have this much control. I had discovered the magic of maps!

As I sketched all the places I thought should belong in my town, the villagers came to life and scenes started to unfold. The quaint cabins on the lake were just like the ones at the family resort where I worked as a teenager. They became the location of the first murder in Winter Witness. I placed the Crossroads Inn at the center of town, which later in Dead Man’s Leap became central to a story depicting the crossroads of a life. The bridge I drew over the creek eventually got washed away in a flood, and Stella’s Diner naturally became the hub where the villagers cross paths every day.

I even placed a defunct tannery by the shore of the Hudson along with company housing. Then I put the town founder’s mansion on the hill above the company housing and that became a part of the story of Batavia, about capitalism and exploitation. The complex stories hidden behind the facade of wealth and privilege started revealing themselves.

Once I placed the community center and the town hall on the map, I envisioned all the celebrations as well as arguments that any town would confront. I began to see how living in an intimate town could resemble a family and how we could learn to live with everyone’s shortcomings.  I began to envision how, despite the arguments in the town hall, we could all come together to celebrate in the community center.

I taped my map on the wall in front of my writing desk and used it as my inspiration. It oriented me and somehow it brought the city to life.

Creating the map of Kyoto was different since it is a real city, but I had become addicted to the heady feeling of a cartographer, so I found myself adding my own locations on the map as I needed them. Capturing Kyoto in words is almost impossible, but having the map before me kept the city front and center as I worked to impart the essence of the city onto the written page. I hope the map will help guide and orient the readers as they embark on this Kyoto adventure with Bianca.

I am blessed to have worked with two very talented artists on my covers and maps. Winter Witness and Dead Man’s Leap were done by Sachi Mulkey and Autumn Embers by Elisa Tanaka. Both artists are based in Japan and have artistic styles that capture the aesthetic I was seeking. The black and white maps are exactly what I had in mind, but the color renditions are swoon-worthy!

Many of my readers tell me they originally picked up my books because of the maps! What is this spell that maps have over us?

DEBS: I'm fascinated by the way the maps themselves have influenced your writing process, Tina. And that is a terrific question. I can't wait to see what our readers have to say about it!

Tina deBellegarde writes the Agatha-nominated Batavia-on-Hudson series. She co-chairs the Murderous March Conference and is a founding member of sleuthsandsidekicks.com. She enjoys reviewing Japanese fiction for BooksOnAsia.net and is a member of Writers in Kyoto. Tina lives in Catskill, NY and travels to Japan frequently to do research and visit her son and daughter-in-law. She is currently working on a collection of interconnected short stories set in Japan. Visit Tina at her website, on Instagram and on Facebook.

 

Here's more about Autumn Embers

Bianca St. Denis travels to Kyoto to return a priceless artifact recovered in Batavia-on-Hudson during last summer’s flood. It’s late October, and the city of 2,000 shrines is in full autumn splendor. While she’s in Japan’s ancient capital, Bianca visits with her son, a student at Kyoto University. Ian shows her the sights and introduces her to his circle of friends—his chosen family. On the night of her welcome party, Bianca thinks she witnesses a struggle in the garden, perhaps even a murder. When the police investigate and find no body, she is stumped, yet alarm bells won’t stop ringing. She knows she’s witnessed something.

When a dead body surfaces and suspicion falls on her son, Bianca’s maternal instincts spring to action to protect Ian and clear his name. Meanwhile, things in Batavia-on-Hudson are tense. Sheriff Mike Riley is losing his re-election while tackling devastating news about his dead partner and wavering about his troubled marriage.

Autumn Embers explores the malleable nature of our identities and reminds us that chosen families can be stronger than we think, and that true friendship can bridge any distance.

  

Are We Fridgescaping?

DEBORAH CROMBIE: Lately I've been seeing fluff pieces in the major news outlets on fridgescaping, so of course I had to have a look. My first thought was, oh my gosh, what is wrong with these people? This is the most ridiculous thing I've ever seen!! Vases of flowers! Picture frames! Fairy lights! Where is their actual food, or do they just eat all their meals out??

Unfortunately, I can't post pictures of some of the most out there examples because of copyright restrictions, but here is one on Instagram--look at the little cat statue! I have to tell you, I would break that in a heartbeat...

And this one! Are they actually going to eat the fennel and the pineapple, I wonder? Here's one from Pinterest. These people must shop twice a day. I approve of the jam, though!

And here's my favorite, with the wallpaper in the back of the fridge!

So, because who are we here at JRW if not trendy, we are going to bare the insides of our fridges!

Here's mine. I promise I only straightened a little!! And I remembered that I had a vase of just-picked flowers on the living room table, so I made room for it. It did make me smile, but the flowers went back where they belonged after the photo.

It was lucky for me that I'd made colorful soup last night!

My daughter Kayti volunteered hers. She gets extra points for the pumpkins!

Here's Lucy's condiments. She said she cleaned a lot out this summer after a comment from a relative:)

Lucy, people are always making fun of how much stuff I have in my fridge. I say it's because I cook! (But I'm still not showing my doors.)

Here's Hank's. She said she'd never shown anyone the inside of her fridge before, so she's a very good sport.

And Hallie's, who said, "Not much to write home about."

Oh, she showed us the freezer, too! Brave woman. There's no way you're seeing my freezer, which has a deep drawer that has to be rearranged like a jigsaw puzzle a couple of times a day.

Here's Jenn's fridge. She says her husband has a serious condiment problem!

I love this! Now I'm trying to figure out what all those interesting bottles are.

Julia would only show us her door--but we give her a big pass, post knee surgery.

Rhys says her fridge is empty. Her life has been too chaotic for shopping, so we give her a big pass, too!

I am not tempted by picture frames and fairy lights, or Bridgerton-themed arrangements--seriously! That is a thing on Tiktok! (These influencers are making big money doing this. They probably have second refrigerators for what they actually eat.)

But I did soften just a bit towards the whole idea. After all, I've put asparagus and soft herbs in glass jars before. I could put my yogurt in one of my pretty round glass containers instead of in the plastic tub. And aren't those ceramic egg holders prettier than a cardboard carton... 

Does that way lie madness, I wonder?

Readers, did you know that decorating the inside of your fridge was a thing? Would you ever be tempted?

TV ADHD--What We're Watching (or Not Watching!)

DEBORAH CROMBIE: Skimming through the Emmy's the other night (the second of 2024!) reminded me that while we've talked about what we're reading, it's been awhile since we talked about what we're watching. Or not watching, in my case, as it was a stark reminder that I am TOTALLY OUT OF IT.

I'm embarrassed to admit that we are now almost through season 8 of Grey's Anatomy. That's how many hours?? Nope, not doing the math on that one… We are also watching Great British Bake Off (no, I am not calling it Great British Baking Show. That is so lame. Surely Americans can deal with the British title! ) And yes, I have actually got my hubby watching GBBO! I think I deserve my own award for that! Now if I could just get him to bake...

But as for the ADHD, let's see… We watched all of season 1 of Slow Horses, except for the last episode. Do we go back to that, or just start season 2? Then, one and a half seasons of Emily in Paris. We didn't finish season 3 of Only Murders in the Building. (Meryl Streep's character was so annoying.) Again, do we try to finish that or just start 4? We only made it through 3 episodes of season 3 of The Bear. (Too much yelling and family dysfunction. And I know it's really good, but will somebody please tell me why this series is a comedy??) 

I thought Hacks was about not very good writers. I have only seen a few episodes of The Crown. (Ouch. Do I lose my Anglophile card?) Baby Reindeer sounds entirely too creepy. Fallout, nope, can't do post-apocalyptic these days.

I might tackle Shogun, not sure if Rick would go for it. I would happily watch The Gilded Age, but a definite no from the hubby on that one.

My Britbox and Acorn subscriptions are gathering dust! It's so funny that Rick will watch GBBO or Emily in Paris but will NOT watch a period British mystery. And I, apparently, am just not watching TV except for the nightly hour or so we watch together. Just don't ask me what I'm doing with my time instead because I couldn't tell you!

Reds, what's playing–or not playing–on your screens?

RHYS BOWEN: Having gone through a stressful time, like some other Reds, I have to watch something light, peaceful. I enjoyed the PBS mini series featuring Agatha Christie as a sleuth with her real life drama. I watched the Olympics and then the Para-olympics so I’m all Olympiced out, right now. I also watched much of the US Open tennis. Has a new season of the Great British Baking Show started yet? That’s about my level of excitement at the moment.

DEBS: Rhys,  I think it starts on the 27th. What's the Agatha as sleuth show called?

HANK PHILLIPPI RYAN: We happily watched THE PERFECT COUPLE even though it kind of didn’t make sense, but who cares. And I adore SLOW HORSES and a show called THE MAYOR OF KINGSTOWN which is such an unlikely choice for me, because it is very tough and violent, but it’s riveting and compelling – – just look it up.  And we are just beginning to watch MOONFLOWER MURDERS, the fabulous Anthony Horowitz sequel to my favorite show of all time ever, THE MAGPIE MURDERS. 

So exciting! 

DEBS: We started The Mayor of Kingstown. As much as I love Jeremy Renner, I decided it was just a world I didn't want to live in for that many hours.

LUCY BURDETTE: You might remember that I don’t watch much TV–would rather read! However, John likes me to watch from time to time, so I do. We are in the middle of season 3 of The Bear. There was a lot of screaming in the first few episodes, but it’s improved and I know we’ll finish!

Remember, Hank, when we started to watch THE OLD MAN, and I bailed out after about 15 minutes because it was too depressing and I could tell it was going to be brutal? Anyway I went upstairs to read and happened to message the Reds, and Hank told me to go back downstairs and try again because it’s Really Good. So I did, and it was.

Anyway, John told me Saturday that the new season had begun and we agreed to watch it. After about 15 minutes, we both said, “This is very familiar. Is he going to set up those tin cans every season?” Yes, we were watching season 1 episode 1 all over again! So now we’re ready for the next season, which I think starts this weekend!

DEBS: We'll go back to The Bear, on your recommendation, Lucy!

HANK: Oh, thank you for reminding me! We will watch it, too!  

HALLIE EPHRON: I’m definitely the laggard, despite the fierce competition for the title. A few months ago I added BRITBOX to my choices and I’ve been watching old favorites. Joan Hickson as Miss Marple–she’s great but those plots, sorry, they’re byzantine and farfetched and cliched. The old Poirots hold up. David Suchet is sublime. I still love NEW TRICKS, up until they swapped out the cast. Is there a new Great British Baking Show? And I’m looking forward to watching Kathy Bates in the new boot of MATLOCK. Starts next week.

JULIA SPENCER-FLEMING: I just recently added a PBS Masterpiece subscription to my Amazon account, because I was craving exactly the same thing Rhys was - old fashioned mysteries. I watched DEATH COMES TO PEMBERLY and am planning on starting the Agatha Christie-as-detective shows soon.

My deep dive into KDrama has left me very spoiled as to series length. They do hour-long shows for 10, 12 or 16 episodes and then it’s done. When I see something that says “4th season” I shy away, no matter how alluring the description. I just cannot commit to 40 or 50 hours of watching something. My one exception? ONLY MURDERS IN THE BUILDING. Loving the 4th season!

My Kdrama rec for those of you brave enough to try it is BEYOND EVIL. You can find it on the free-with-annnoying-ads Raukuten Viki. The show got multiple Baeksang awards, the Korean version of the Emmys. No supernatural elements, just a slow burning serial killer investigation with amazing performances and tension that will have you covering your eyes and shrieking. 

DEBS: Julia, Grey's Anatomy is 26 or 27 episodes a season and is still running, on, I think, season 19. We should have realized what we were getting ourselves into, but now we just can't seem to stop. They're clever that way, those writers.

JENN McKINLAY: Hub and I are watching BAD MONKEY - it’s soooo good! We love SLOW HORSES so that’s up next and then SHOGUN (Hub is trying to finish the book first). We’re also watching SCHITT’S CREEK. We’re late to the party (I’d seen the 1st season ages ago) but waited for the Hub to catch up so here we go. On my own, I am watching A DISCOVERY OF WITCHES (very seasonal!). I adored the first book, struggled with the second and never read the third but I am enjoying the series on Netflix tremendously. 

DEBS: Jenn, I've been listening to whole series again on Audible. Funnily, the second book is my favorite in the series. I adored Elizabethan London, and the science history. Nerdsville here. And now I want to rewatch the series! So well done!!

Oh, and so glad you finally are watching Schitt's Creek! It got us through the worst of the pandemic.

How about you, dear readers? What's on the tube in your house?

 

Leslie Budewitz--Dreaming of the Past

DEBORAH CROMBIE: A big welcome to one of our Jungle Red regulars and favorite people, the lovely and talented Leslie Budewitz! I'm not going to tell you anything about Leslie's book because it would be anticlimactic compared to the wonderful story she shares below. It gave me goosebumps.

Welcome, Leslie!

LESLIE BUDEWITZ: Thank you, Reds and Readers, for welcoming me back to the Jungle.

Just before sitting down to write this piece, I read Laura Jensen Walker’s piece on her new historical novel, Death of a Flying Nightingale, about the volunteer flight nurses in England during WWII. and how she discovered the stories of these forgotten women. So many fascinating stories.

Discovering the forgotten stories of the past is, of course, one reason many of us love reading historical fiction. And though I mostly write cozy mysteries and suspense, I’ve also written historical short stories, with a mystery slant, featuring some of those overlooked women.

I don’t remember how I first learned about Mary Fields (1832-1914), who was born into slavery and spent her last 30 years in Montana, including a decade working for the Ursuline sisters at St. Peter’s Mission to the Blackfeet Indians, but I was instantly fascinated. All God’s Sparrows and Other Stories: A Stagecoach Mary Fields Collection brings together three previously published stories featuring Mary and a new novella.

When it came time to write the novella, to anchor the collection, I was lost. I didn’t have a clear story idea. I wanted to continue delving into the themes and motifs of the stories, which focus on how women created lives for themselves in the American West, and how the social strictures of the era influenced the choices they made. I had a vague idea that it would involve two women, a teacher and a mail order bride, whose lives overlapped and somehow connected to Mary.

I got busy researching the era. Updating what I knew about Mary and the Ursulines. Plunging into books and articles about the Black experience in the American West, particularly for women. Thinking about possible crimes, and what Mary’s role might be.

And then my subconscious took over, in the form of a dream.

In the dream, I saw a book cover. An image of a late 19^th century woman. A photo I’d taken years ago of a rime-covered rose, grown from a cutting I’d been given by a woman whose grandmother carried a cutting in a coffee can when she came to Montana by train to marry a man she had never met. The dream was in the collage style of a Montana artist, Amy Brakeman Livezey; I’d never met her, but I’d seen and admired her work in a local gallery.

A week later, I stopped in the Hockaday Museum of Art in Kalispell, Montana, about 30 miles away, to see an exhibit of work by Livezey and another artist who tell stories of women of the past.

Imagine my shock when I walked in and saw the woman from my dream.

(I suspect I’d seen an image of the painting in an ad for the exhibit. I hadn’t focused on it, but my subconscious did.)

I wish I could tell you I immediately knew the rest of the plot for “A Bitter Wind,” but I didn’t. It took me a couple of weeks to realize that the dream was telling me to merge the two women I’d been thinking of into one. Amelia Morgan, who came West by train to marry a man she’d met once. A woman who wore a blue traveling suit and carried a carpet bag full of books—and a cutting of a rose, in a can. It took a while longer to figure out who she was marrying, start writing, and discover the crime and mystery.

 A few years ago, I read an article on Writer Unboxed, one of my favorite blogs for writers, about using collage to develop or clarify the elements of a story. I loved the idea. It totally daunted me.

But clearly, the dream was telling me to do it.

I found the image of the woman in blue on Livezey’s website. (And yes, I’ve told her this story and she loves it.) On a narrow road near Helena, Montana is an old homestead I’ve driven by many times, always thinking I should take a picture and never stopping. The house I envisioned in the story was vaguely like that one. My friend Tabby Ivy had painted it, and I found the image on her website. I found a suitable photo of a sparrow. I printed out the picture of Mary that ultimately went on the cover. Photocopied a map of the area. Dug out my childhood stamp collection, still in a box in the closet. After all, Amelia and George courted by mail, and Mary is believed to have been the first Black woman in the country to drive a U.S. Postal Star Route. I watched videos on making a collage.

And Readers, I did it.

Ultimately, what the dream did was give me images for my subconscious to work on, spurring my conscious mind to ask the questions that fleshed out the story. The dream and collage gave me permission to plow ahead despite not knowing where I was going, through a mountain of fear. They gave me trust in the creative process, even though it was unlike anything I’d ever done before.

It’s nothing like the courage of Mary, Amelia, or the Flying Nightingales, but it feels pretty good.

 

Readers, have your dreams given you ideas you’ve been able to use in waking life? Have they prompted you to do or make something unexpected?

 

All God’s Sparrows and Other Stories: A Stagecoach Mary Fields Collection, out September 17, 2024 in paperback and ebook (Beyond the Page Publishing)

 

From the cover: Born into slavery in Tennessee, the remarkable “Stagecoach Mary” Fields was a larger-than-life figure who cherished her independence, yet formed a deep bond with the Ursuline Sisters, traveling to their Montana mission in 1885 and spending the last thirty years of her life living there or in nearby Cascade. Mary is believed to have been the first Black woman in the country to drive a U.S. Postal Star Route, the source of her nickname.

In All God’s Sparrows and Other Stories, Agatha Award-winning author Leslie Budewitz brings together three short stories, each originally published in Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine, imagining the life of Stagecoach Mary in her first year in Montana, and a novella exploring her later life, including: “All God’s Sparrows,” winner of the 2018 Agatha Award for Best Short Story; “Miss Starr’s Good-bye,” a nominee for the Short Mystery Fiction Society’s Derringer Award; “Coming Clean,” a finalist for the Western Writers of America’s 2021 Spur Award for Best Short Story; and “A Bitter Wind,” a brand-new novella in which Mary helps a young woman newly arrived in the valley solve the mystery of her fiancé's death and his homesteading neighbors’ bitterness toward him.

Includes an abbreviated bibliography and historical notes from the author.

 

About Leslie:

Leslie Budewitz tells stories about women’s lives, seasoned with friendship, food, a love of history and the land, and a heaping measure of mystery. In addition to her historical short fiction, she writes the Spice Shop mysteries set in Seattle's Pike Place Market and the Food Lovers' Village mysteries, set in NW Montana. As Alicia Beckman, she writes moody suspense. A past president of Sisters in Crime, she lives in NW Montana with her husband and a big gray tuxedo cat. Find out more about her, find buy links for her books, read excerpts, and join her newsletter community at her website.  

DEBS:  

 

Tempus Fugit and All That Jazz

DEBORAH CROMBIE: Nothing says tempus fugit like getting the email from the online office supply saying that they have your 2025 planner in stock! 2025!!! How the heck is it 2025 already?

You will probably know by now that I am not a huge plan-in advance person. Other than thinking, "I absolutely must go to Bouchercon next year," and tenuous ideas about a trip to London, 2025 had not really impinged upon my consciousness until now. 

But I ordered my planner, which will join the ranks of previous Quo Vadis Ministers (yes, I save them! My life therein! And I have a great time picking the color of the cover! This year's is violet) and now the blank pages are beckoning. The arrival of the planner marks the start of a new year for me. This is fourteen years of planners (plus 2024, which is red) in the photo! Unfortunately, I didn't keep them in as much detail in the earlier years, but I can at least see the big events (like trips to London!)

What about you, dear REDS? Is there a time or a ritual that says "the clock is ticking" to you?

RHYS BOWEN:  It’s always a shock when I go into the drug store in the middle of sweltering summer heat and there are Halloween candies on the shelves. When I see Starbucks and its pumpkin spice lattes i know that summer is officially over. Tempus seems to fugit so quickly these days. It was only a blink of an eye ago that I was writing 2023 on my checks. Slow down, please. I want those lazy hazy days of summer with picnics on the beach, sipping wine on the balcony, sitting out and watching the moon rise… where were they? Why did I let them slip by?

HALLIE EPHRON: A few weeks ago, I bought myself a new planner for 2025, too (better not to wait too long or all the good/cheap ones at Staples are gone). I live by the thing, and like Debs I keep the old ones. I’ve got the last 18 in a pile. And I often need to refer back. 

Halloween ambushed me at the supermarket. We’re already talking about where to have Thanksgiving. But the biggest marker of time: the days are already very noticeably shorter. 

I’m with Rhys, 100%. Instructions to Time: SLOW DOWN! 

LUCY BURDETTE: Me too on the slow down! I don’t use a paper calendar anymore, everything is done on the computer/phone so it won’t be kept for posterity. (Though honestly, why would anyone want to keep my calendars??) I’m not surprised to see 2025 on the horizon because we’ve been planning the Friends of the Key West Library speaker series for the spring. It’s going to be a doozy!

It’s been so gorgeous here in CT the last couple weeks, with that slight crisp of fall in the air, that I’m really trying to enjoy every minute I’m out. 

HANK PHILLIPPI RYAN: Ohhh, Lucy, someday invite me, okay?  And yes, it is gorgeous here in Boston, too.  I have a day-by-day notebook calendar, and a monthly calendar magented to the white board in eye-view, and the yearly one on my phone and my publicist's google doc and she ADDS to the phone, soI am constantly making sure they are all in sync.  I love my notebook calendars and white board calendar, and I have saved them all for years.

The one that’s vanished–I used to have little calendar books I always carried my purse–but they went away, sadly, with the advent of the cell phone. RIP little day-at-a glances.

I am seeing leaves fall now, and I want to stop them! ANd certainly the days are shorter, and the undercurrent in the air is cool, not hot. And no more iced coffee…that’s how I always tell. There’s always a moment when they don’t seem tempting anymore.

JENN McKINLAY: I’m with Hank! I want to come to Key West! LOL. I gave up dayminders when I retired from my library gig ten years ago, but I do have a wall calendar by my desk with big squares where I write everything (mostly deadlines but also fun stuff) and I save them for posterity. I’m sure the Hooligans will throw them out when I die. Whatever. It’s supposed to dip below 100 here in AZ this weekend. I am giddy.

JULIA SPENCER-FLEMING: Jungle Reds Mini-Con in Key West! Woo hoo!

I keep trying planners, etc. and they never stick. The only time-keeping thing that seems to work for me is the Google calendar, loaded with everything in my life and plenty of alarms.

Right now, enjoying eighty degree weather in September, I’m hearing the clock ticking loudly. I’m already overdue ordering two cords of wood, and I need to schedule my furnace tune-up and have the chimney cleaner come over before the heating season begins. Oh, and I need to make sure I’m on my plow guy’s list for snowplowing this winter! At least I haven’t had to pull my fall and winter clothing out of the attic… yet.

How about it, lovely readers? What tells you that there is new year on the horizon?

Writing What I know…by Elise Hart Kipness

LUCY BURDETTE: Let’s give a big JRW welcome back to Elise Hart Kipness, who inhabits the same states I do—Connecticut and Key West. (Yes, we claim that rather than Florida.) You can bet that I lobbied to get her involved with the Friends of the Key West Library as soon as I realized she was available! I can’t wait to hear about the origin story of her Kate Green books, and the second in the series, Dangerous Play, which is out next week.

ELISE HART KIPNESS: When I first considered writing a novel, I played around with the idea of writing from a lawyer’s point of view, even though I’m not a lawyer. As a fan of John Grisham and Scott Turrow, it sort of popped into my head.  Writing as a lawyer did not go well for me. The effort died a quick death. I tried putting words down but couldn’t conjure up the nuances of the profession. The talks by the water cooler moments, so to speak.

I have great admiration for writers who can close their eyes and imagine a magical world. Or an imaginary world different from anything they’ve experienced. Dragons, aliens, fantastical creatures. It’s a fabulous gift. One I haven’t found. Heck, I couldn’t even conjure up an attorney and I’m married to one.

My next step was to quickly move to writing from the point of view of a reporter. Specifically, a tv sports reporter, as I reported for Fox Sports Network, after years as a news reporter. That decision clicked for me. I knew what it felt like to stand under glaring television lights and chase athletes through the tunnels of Madison Square Garden and Yankee Stadium. 

I knew the smell of the news van and the talk around the water cooler. 

I like to joke that my main character, Kate Green, is a way cooler version of me. We are both tv sports reporters, but she’s an Olympic Soccer Gold medalist and I’m a soccer mom. She chases murder suspects through the tunnels of Madison Square Garden and Yankee Stadium while I chase my three labradoodles around the yard. Her demons are much darker and more interesting than mine.

For me, there’s also the joy of writing about my past job. I like to close my eyes and return to the world of reporting. A big bonus is I can do that from the comfort of my home (without needing to do my hair and makeup!). I consider that a big win.

Not all of my experiences as a reporter were positive. And I try to incorporate the challenging times into my writing as well. After all, I was one of only a handful of women covering sports, entering locker rooms, and dealing with challenging interpersonal situations. But the experience of writing about those topics proved cathartic for me. And fiction lets me examine issues and stand up to bullies in ways I didn’t on the job.

When you write, do you lean into what you know or what you imagine? Or a combination of both? As readers, do you notice how familiar the writer might be with their characters’ lives?

(Quick note from Elise -- the photo at Shea Stadium is from the 2000 NL Division series between the Mets and San Francisco Giants and the photo of me interviewing Coach Krzyzewski aka Coach K was from the 1999 NCAA tournament.)

About the book: From Amazon bestselling author Elise Hart Kipness comes the next gripping story in the hit Kate Green series. A famous former teammate is found murdered, and the only way to close the case is to open old wounds.

After a tumultuous murder case that almost cost more than her job, sports reporter Kate Green is back on assignment covering women’s Olympic soccer. Between her experience with athletic stardom and days playing with Savannah Baker, head coach of the USA team, Kate is sure to get the story that will reestablish her career. She just didn’t expect that story to involve murder.

BIO: Elise Hart Kipness is a television sports reporter turned crime fiction writer. Like her main character, Elise chased marquee athletes through the tunnels of Madison Square Garden and stood before glaring lights reporting to national audiences for Fox Sports Network. 

Now as an author, Elise fused her passion for true crime and sports with the Kate Green series. Her debut novel, Lights Out, is an Amazon bestseller and a Men’s Journal top 10 book of 2023. The second novel in the series, Dangerous Play, comes out September 17, 2024.

The Magic of Bookstores

 LUCY BURDETTE: I am certain I am not the only person reading this blog who has an obsession with bookstores. Whenever I visit a new town, a stop to the local bookstore will always be included. Each store has its own personality. Of course, I check to see whether my books or the books of my writing friends are there. Often bookstores are small, and the number of books published every year is enormous, so I am not disappointed if I don’t see familiar titles. It’s a special bonus however, if I do! This year I stopped at the Midtown reader in Tallahassee with my sister, and also visited The Bookshelf in Thomasville, Georgia. While at a family wedding last weekend, we went to Sherman’s Maine Coast  in Damariscotta, where we spotted a full shelf of Barbara Ross books and also Jenn’s Love at First Book. Here is what I found at Thiemers Magazin in Copenhagen. Hooray, Jenn is everywhere!

I feel particularly lucky to have wonderful independent bookstores in both of my hometowns, RJ Julia in Madison CT where I often have a launch party, and Key West Island books and Books and Books in Key West, both of which are extremely supportive of local authors.

Though I don’t do nearly the amount of touring that our own Hank does, I visited two amazing stores in the past month. Jeff Kinney (the writer) established An Unlikely Story in Plainville, Massachusetts. This store is absolutely magical!

And as I mentioned on Wednesday, John and I stopped at Ann Patchett’s Parnassus in Nashville while we were there for the Bouchercon conference. We found Jenn again!

This reminded me that my first real job out of college was working as a clerk at a bookstore. Sometimes I dream of owning one myself, but then I remind myself that I should have thought of this 20 years earlier lol. Instead, I will visit as many stores as I can reach, and support them with as many purchases as my nightstand can hold!

How about you Reds, are you hooked on bookstores as well as books? Any favorites to tell us about?

Musing on Voice

LUCY BURDETTE: A couple of weeks ago during the launch of A POISONOUS PALATE, I was invited by our beloved poison lady, Luci Zahray, to appear on a Zoom call with her book group. (She’s the one who advises all of us writers on how to kill off our characters.) It was a lovely visit with some very dedicated mystery readers. Luci herself might be the most dedicated of all. She told me that in advance of this Zoom meeting, she’d re-read – or re-listened to– my golf lovers mysteries, the advice column mysteries, and also some of the Key West mysteries. (Wonderful music to a writer’s ears!) She said that she would have recognized the Key West books as coming from me, even if she didn’t know that the name Lucy Burdette was also Roberta Isleib. She thought Hayley’s voice was very similar to that of Cassie  in the golf mysteries. (She found the advice column narrator sounded different.) She understood that the narrators in those series would sound different according to how much experience I had as a writer. But this recognition was not about experience. It was voice, my writing voice. We’ve all been writing for quite a while and have written either long series, or many different standalones. I wondered if you’d ever had anyone comment on the change or lack of change in your voice, and how much you’ve noticed it?

HALLIE EPHRON: When I was researching my mystery writing book, I asked a lot of editors what were they looking for in a manuscript. And the number one answer: A COMPELLING VOICE. When I asked what that looked like, the answer I was most likely to get back was, “I know it when I see it.”

I’m constantly aware of voice in my writing – the voice of the narrator. Every word you choose, the structure of the sentences, every choice you make contributes. When I wrote a forensic neuropsychologist narrator, he needed to sound different from a professional organizer or 90-year-old woman narrator.

HANK PHILLIPPI RYAN: And attitude. Not just words, but attitude. And confidence. And that the character has a sense of their place in the world. For better or worse. When I wrote the very first draft of my very first book, the main character was neurotic and worried. I was told to rewrite the WHOLE STORY with exactly the same plot, but make the character smart and confident. I did, and that book sold. I think of this all the time.

LUCY: Fascinating, but…My question is slightly different: what about YOUR voices? Do you think readers can pick up any one of your books from any decade, and say, oh, that’s a Hank book or a Hallie book?

HANK: Oh, definitely. I think. Actually, funnily, I write a lot via dictation, so it comes out as sort of casually natural. Hallie’s voice is more elegant than mine, I think, and mine is more staccato but sprinkled with run-on sentences. I have absolutely had people tell me they could recognize my books, and often they use the word “optimistic.”

JULIA SPENCER-FLEMING: I believe every writer has a distinct voice, and it can be maddening for people trying to break into the business because it sounds so woo-woo and nebulous. Here’s how I break it down:

Your auctorial voice is like a fingerprint. It consists of the style and type of vocabulary you feel most comfortable with, the way you do or don’t address details, the sentence lengths your prefer, the type of punctuation you use and - here’s the woo -woo - how you interpret a story through your own life/ experiences/ interests. Your voice is shaped by what you’ve read, how you’ve spoken, and what you’ve paid attention to throughout your whole lifetime.

And, yes, editors and readers “know it when they see it.” Think of it - you could give the exact same short story situation to every one of the Reds, and each of us would still write a distinctively different story, and I bet readers could easily guess who penned what without any names attached.

HANK: That would be REALLY fun, Julia. We should try it.

DEBS: Or we could write the same story, but it would sound and feel completely different!

JENN McKINLAY: I like Julia’s analogy of the fingerprint. It’s so true. Every author has a unique and distinct voice. I can tell which Red wrote an email to our group without looking at the name because their author voice is quintessentially them–the way they talk, think, perceive things, relay information, and in my case it’s when I feel compelled to crack a joke because that’s how I cope with virtually everything. I don’t think author voices change over time so much as they become more refined.

RHYS BOWEN: Both of my current mystery series are all about voice. I started writing in the first person in both series and the main character just took over. I sort of put down as they dictated and knew exactly who Molly and Georgie are. Their voices are quite distinct from each other. Also the voice in my stand alone novels is different again, although I think you can tell a Rhys Bowen novel.

DEBORAH CROMBIE: Lucy, the day I did Luci Zahray's book group, it was a hundred degrees and the library air conditioning had gone out! Bless their hearts, most of the lovely ladies came anyway. True book lovers!

I don't think I can top Julia's explanation of "voice." And I don't think voice can be taught--it has to grow out of who the writer is and how their brain works. Because I write in third person multiple viewpoint, I don't tie mine to particular characters. When we do our "what we're writing" snippets, Hank always says, "I would know that was Debs' writing anywhere!" (But she said it more elegantly than that!)

Red readers: How do you define voice? Do you think you can identify an author’s voice without a name attached?