Love the Low Country!

HANK ON TOUR: in Minneapolis today! Come join me and THE WRONG GIRL at Once Upon A Crime at 7pm! And now....our special guest!  

HANK: So funny. I thought—what should I write to introduce the fabulous Agatha-winning and USA Today best-selling Susan Boyer? And here’s the voice that came to mind “Oh my GOSH, y’all, Susan Boyer is a force of NATURE.” Then I thought, waaaitaminit, I don’t have a southern accent.

Hmm. But that is just how infectious she is. She’s hilarious, intelligent and a terrific writer. Her debut, LOW COUNTRY BOIL won the Agatha, quite a triumph for her and her terrific publisher Henery Press. (Jungle Reds LOVE Henery, y’all. I mean,  sigh, well, you know.)

So—imagine her voice answering…as we get the scoop on her brand new book! (And at the end--a question for YOU!)

HANK:  Tell us what this book is about! 

SUSAN BOYER: Lowcountry Bombshell is the story of my Southern Private Investigator, Liz Talbot’s, next case. Liz thinks she’s seen another ghost when she meets Calista McQueen. She’s the spitting image of Marilyn Monroe. Born precisely fifty years after the ill-fated star, Calista’s life has eerily mirrored the late starlet’s—and she fears the looming anniversary of Marilyn’s death will also be hers.

Before Liz can open a case file, Calista’s life coach is executed. Suspicious characters swarm around Calista like mosquitoes on a sultry lowcountry evening: her certifiable mother, a fake aunt, her control-freak psychoanalyst, a private yoga instructor, her peculiar housekeeper, and an obsessed ex-husband. Liz digs in to find a motive for murder, but she’s besieged with distractions. Her ex has marriage and babies on his mind. Her too-sexy partner engages in a campaign of repeat seduction. Mamma needs help with Daddy’s devotion to bad habits. And a gang of wild hogs is running loose on Stella Maris.

It’s just another day in paradise…

HANK:  Wild hogs?

LOL! Yes, wild hogs. Actually, wild pigs have been around the lowcountry since the 1500s when the Spanish released them. In fact, wild pigs have been reported in all 46 counties in South Carolina. However, the Spanish pigs never reached Stella Maris as no one ever let them on the ferry. The Stella Maris hogs are a whole ’nother story. You see, in the aftermath of a hurricane back in the 1800’s, most of the livestock wandered the island until fences and barns were repaired or rebuilt. This particular gang of hogs was never apprehended. They are mostly harmless, but they like to snack on delicacies found in flowerbeds and vegetable gardens, which makes them unpopular with the human residents of the island. 

There’s been a lot of discussion regarding what to do about the infestation, but no consensus has been reached. Several of the island’s matriarchs are too tenderhearted to hear tell of the hogs being exterminated, and the swine are wily enough to evade efforts at rounding them up.

HANK: What was the moment you got the first idea for the plot of this book?  Or was your first idea about "plot" ? How did you know when you had a book?

The character of Calista McQueen came to me first. In fact, my initial idea was for a book where she was the main character. She may get her own series one day, if Liz will have that. She may want to keep me busy with her stories. But I’ve always been fascinated by Marilyn Monroe and her story. When I was working on the family trees for my Stella Maris families—yes all the families on Stella Maris have a family tree. I can trace them all back to the Revolutionary War—I started wondering about the loose ends in Marilyn’s family tree. I started researching her. I knew I had a book when I realized my doppelganger was in danger and would need Liz to figure out where the danger was coming from.

I love revisiting Liz and her quirky family and friends on Stella Maris. But I also love the character of Calista McQueen. Like Marilyn, she’s so much smarter than people give her credit for. And I really love that Liz’s romantic life gets to play out a bit in this book.

HANK: Talk about "low country " What does that mean? How does that affect your story?

Ah, the lowcountry is the coastal area of South Carolina. Especially around Charleston, there’s just so much history, and it’s such a romantic place. It’s my chosen literary landscape because I have a lifelong love affair with the area. Huge live oaks dripping with Spanish moss, wrought iron garden gates that keep in the family secrets…my imagination runs wild. The setting really is a character in my story.  

HANK: Have you always wanted to write mysteries? Why start now?  Did you set out to write a series?  

Oh, my, yes. I’ve wanted to write mysteries since I was a child reading Nancy Drew. Actually, for a long time I wanted to BE Nancy Drew. Then I settled on writing mysteries where the detective was a little older and got to know her boyfriend a little better. But my parents were more comfortable with a career goal that wouldn’t mean I’d be living in their house another ten years in the best case scenario, so I studied computer business systems and got a “real job.” But I continued to read every spare minute and dream about writing. Then a few years—okay—now it’s been nearly nine years ago—the company I worked for went out of business. Up until then I hadn’t had time to write. I know, you do it all, but you’re a super-hero. Yes, I started out knowing I wanted to write a series because those are my favorite books to read. I love revisiting characters I know. It’s like spending time with old friends.    

HANK: What's it like for you, writing? Are you a happy smiling person at the keyboard? Or do you tear your hair out, worrying that this will be the time you never get it right?

I am at my happiest when I’m writing. I get completely lost in my alternate reality, and just pour it all out onto the page. The “Oh my gosh this is horrible and I’ll never get it right” phase comes later in the process for me—during editing. And again while my beta reader has the manuscript, and again while my agent is reading, and most of all once I hit send to turn it in to my editor. Until I know she likes it, I’m convinced it’s horrible, and I’ll never write another book worth reading. That’s when I start wondering if I’m qualified to be a barista.   

HANK: Well, it’s terrific…and I (don’t hoot at me, Kaye Barley) had no idea what “low country” was until I met your books. Guess I should have gone to geography that day!

Susan of course, is hard at work on her next Low Country adventure…what “southern” thing do you think she should include? And a copy of LOW COUNTRY BOIL to a lucky commenter!

Meet THE WRONG GIRL!

Hurray! It’s publication day for the WRONG GIRL!

Library Journal says: "Stellar. Ryan has a gift for writing superb thrillers.  

Booklist—starred review!--says: "Another winner from Ryan."

And so many more, It brings tears to my eyes! Including the blog-star Lesa Holstine, who said..well, go to her blog and find out. 

And at the end of this blog--two irresistible contests!  

Anyway, tonight is the party! (click for info! You're invited!)  Will you be there?  If not, we'll miss you—but here some of the things I might be asked:

  What is "The Wrong Girl" about? 

If a person says to you—here’s the birth mother you’ve been searching for your whole life. Here are the documents from your adoption agency, and here are the items your mother left when she dropped you off. Would you believe them? You would, of course—but what if, soon, or eventually, you began to fear that you were not with your real parents? If you were living with someone who was not your real birth daughter?  What if you didn’t know the truth about your own family?

The story is “about” a Boston newspaper reporter, the resourceful and determined (and struggling a bit after an unfair firing) Jane Ryland, who begins to suspect a respected adoption agency is reuniting birth parents with the wrong children.

I mean—that’s chilling! Why would someone do that? And would the people in involved ever know? How?

But there’s more. The book is also “about” how difficult and overloaded the foster care system is.  How many helpless kids—who are left behind because of drugs or abuse of a catastrophe or because someone just made a mistake—are sent into a system full of people who may be trying to do their best—but just can’t handle it.

What would happen if someone decided: the system will never work. I’m going to step in and save children—and I don’t care whether it’s legal or not.

So it’s “about” –our love of family. Our bond with our parents.  How far would you go to find yours? Would you know them if you met them? It’s also about greed, and manipulation, and  cynicism, and the power of desire—and what would happen if someone preyed on our primal need to have a family.

Where’d you get the idea? 

Well, amazingly, that came from a news tip I got at channel 7. A woman called and wanted me to do a story about her sister, who, she said, had been looking for her birth parents and the adoption agency had finally sent her to meet her birth mother. It was all very exciting and wonderful—but when they met, they both instantly knew they were not related.

I was fascinated, of course—what an amazing story. As you can imagine, I tucked the phone between my check and my shoulder, and started typing notes like mad.

Turns out, it was a not a very good story. Not for TV at least. It was a clerical error, one that—because of a lot of circumstances and coincidences, including similar names and twins, if you can believe it!—probably could not have happened to anyone else. 

But crime fiction author me started to wonder—what if an adoption agency was reuniting birth parents with the wrong children—on purpose? Why would they do that?? What if someone didn’t know the truth about their own family?

Well, wow. And at that very moment, I knew I had THE WRONG GIRL.

You're an investigative reporter and a novelist -- how do you balance both? 

Really? Ask my friends. I work all the time. Now you’re laughing, but it’s the truth. 

I go to work at Channel 7 around 9 am—and come home at 6:30. I write til ten, and then make dinner! My darling husband is very patient. I have learned to be very organized. Seriously, I have lists of lists. I have learned NOT to multi-task—to do one thing at a time, to really DO it, and then move on. I think if I try to juggle, say, talk on the phone and answer emails at the same time—neither one gets done very well.

I work on vacation days, and on weekends. Jonathan and I haven’t been to a real movie in a long time—nor have we been away on vacation. It’s a—well, not a sacrifice, since I’m very happy. Very happy. But it is a lifestyle choice.

This is your sixth novel... what's gotten easier and what's gotten harder as you continue to write? 

Easier—lemme think. I guess “easier”—if any part of it is “easy” which it isn’t—is that when the pitfalls come, they’re not as frightening, because I’ve been there before. So on the days when I think—I’ll never figure this out. I stink. This is a terrible book. Whose idea was this, anyway? I can pause, and laugh, and realize I’ve said that six times before. And it sort of—diminishes the terror. Sort of.

Harder? Oh, harder is a much easier question. Now I know I have to  be better each time, not make the easy choices, the book had s to be completely fresh and completely new and completely compelling. I love that readers are expecting a complex tale of suspense, a “Jane” story and a “Jake” (the detective) story—and that in the end the two plots will come together.

Making that happen is very very difficult. Though when it works, its fabulous. And, confession? At the end of THE WRONG GIRL, when I figured it out? I stood up and applauded myself. And then I burst out laughing. Luckily there was no one home to witness that!

What's next for you?

 I am working like mad on the next Jane Ryland book, tentatively titled TRUTH BE TOLD. Jane discovers a bank employee who seems to be ‘adjusting’ people’s mortgages so they don’t lose their homes to foreclosure. The employee tells Jane—the banks have been bailed out, now it’s time to bail out the people. (Guess what happens to her?) 

There’s also Jake, investigating a cold case murder that his Grandfather the commissioner, failed to solve.  I’m in the scary part, where I’m not sure what’s going to happen.!

And I’m crazy on tour! It’s amazing, for a person who used to be terrified of flying. Now I look forward to it, because I love to write on the plane. I cannot wait to come see everyone. Visit my website for the whole schedule—you will not believe it!

http://www.HankPhillippiRyan.com

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And my darling darling Reds…all of you, each and every one of you out there. I wish I could hug each of you in person and thank you!

In the comments, tell me where you are! If I’m not in your neighborhood this time, I’ll plan for the next!

And here are two irresistible contests!  Check them out… And see you on the road! http://www.hankphillippiryan.com/newsletter-9-13b1.html 

Searching for your BIrth Parents?

HANK PHILLIPPI RYAN:  For the past year, no, a little longer, I've been thinking about adoption, and foster care, and the bonds we have with our families and children. On the cover of THE WRONG GIRL (my new book that comes out tomorrow!) it says "What if you didn't know the truth about your own family?"

As a kid, I used to taunt my mother with "When my REAL mother comes and takes me away, you'll be sorry..." Sometimes my "real mother" was the queen of someplace, making me the long-lost princess who would--soon, I hoped ---be transported to some place where she didn't have to make her bed.

And,  thinking back, in grade school and high school, I don't think I knew anyone who was adopted. At least, no one who said so. (I was an outlier enough--in 1956, to have parents who were divorced was a cause for pity and a bit of ostracizing. (You don't have a father? Oh,gosh...)  Adoption was a mysterious and terrifying thing, back then 50 or 60 years ago,  something that happened to someone else.

And when a girl "got in trouble" and "went to visit her aunt"--well, enough said.

Either me or my sister...

But now of course, it's so different. I know many people who are adopted, and some who have looked for and located their birth parents. Whole websites and organizations are devoted to it.   Adoption in celebrity circles is almost de rigueur, and certainly being married is not a prerequisite, in many parts of society at least, for having a baby.  But still, but still. What makes our identity?

And as a reporter, I've done lots of stories about foster care...not only the incredible difficulties, but the stories of love and acceptance.

So  Reds, with THE WRONG GIRL and its themes of "What if you didn't know the truth about your own family?"--and more about that on pub day tomorrow!--do you have stories of adoption and birth parent searches?

LUCY BURDETTE: I can't wait for this book, Hank, sounds fascinating! It seems like the New York times has run a lot of articles recently about the failure of the foster care system. This is absolutely heartbreaking and these pieces always make me feel guilty that I'm not taking children in. Troubled teenagers, for example. Can you imagine the havoc that would wreak on your life? But how much is at stake…One of the best

books I've read involving foster case was THE LANGUAGE OF FLOWERS by Vanessa Diffenbach. Amazing descriptions of the homes the character survived and the meaning of family.

RHYS BOWEN: I'm also amazed how society has changed in its views on illegitimate babies. In my last Molly Murphy book, The Family Way, the story is all about what it's like to be pregnant and married, or pregnant and unmarried--literally a difference between life and death in those days.  Even when I was young there was really no choice about giving up a baby if you weren't married. I did know two girls who were adopted when I was growing up. Both with older adoptive parents who spoiled them horribly. And Hank, I also fantasized about my real parents coming for me one day! 

Yes, Sputnik

HALLIE EPHRON: We used to torture my little sister, telling her that she was adopted. Dropped in the yard by Sputnik (that's dating us). I know, it was mean.

More seriously, I don't know if I'd ever have started writing if I didn't know that my parents were writers and that I had the genes, even if I didn't have the disposition. Less thrilling is knowing I probably have a genetic predisposition to depression, bipolar illness, alcoholism, not to mention acute narcissism.

Hank is talking NOT knowing the truth about who your parents are. To be lied to would be a betrayal; to simply not know would be something else, and I think it depends on who you are whether it would be something that you'd need to find out.   

And I have read the book and loved it. It's fast, fun, at times scary, and very thoughtful on this topic.

(HANK: Oh, thank you, Hallie!)

ROSEMARY HARRIS: I knew my parents and still don't think I knew them, so what does that say? Too late now. Sometimes my sister and I felt like we'd been dropped into our family by aliens who wanted to learn about humanoid life forms. And they'd be coming back for us.

 Other than the aliens who didn't come to retrieve me, I have no personal stories of adoption. This summer I read a wonderful book called Orphan Train (edited by Hallie's editor, I think.) I'd been researching the orphan trains of the late 18th and early 19th century and this book was wonderful. Highly recommended.

(What were the orphan trains? - briefly, poor, orphaned or abandoned children , mostly from NY and Boston were shipped to the midwest to be adopted by farm families. Needless to say it didn't always work out.)

HALLIE: Ro's comment made me think about how many iconic children's stories are about orphaned kids. Cinderella, The Little Princess, James and the Giant Peach, Ann of Green Gables, The Wizard of Oz, Harry Potter...  

DEBORAH CROMBIE: So interesting about all the iconic orphan stories, Hallie!  I loved all of them! Maybe there is an inherent mystery in either not knowing where you came from, or in having lost parents. 


I have a friend of many years who was adopted (as was her older sister, but not from the same biological parents). My friend did as an adult try to contact her birth mother for health-related reasons, but her mother refused the contact. That must be crushing. 

But so many story possibilities...

And I have, I realized, in my last few books introduced an orphaned child who has, and will continue to have, a big part in the ongoing series.

We think this is Jonathan and his mom

HANK: Debs, that happens all the time. Can you even imagine...? And I do think that the fantasy of retrieval by aliens or royal families or even being called to school via message from an owl shows how intent we are on understanding where we came from. And we know that search doesn’t always have a happy ending.

How about you all? Stories of adoption, foster care, searching?  (And don’t forget I’m off on tour starting Wednesday! Check my website for the schedule—I’d adore to see our Jungle Red team on #HankonTour!)  

And a copy of the amazing Sue Grafton's W is for Wasted to one lucky commenter! Her book comes out tomorrow, too!