A Nod to Writers and Artists

By Kathryn Lane

In every novel of my Nikki Garcia mystery series, I’ve mentioned a writer or a visual artist whose work I admire. Since my mysteries are set in foreign countries, this detail adds a touch of that country’s culture.

Waking Up in Medellin takes place in Colombia and I wove in the works of Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Nobel Laurette in Literature for One Hundred Years of Solitude, and the sculptures of Fernando Botero into the story.

Research on Fernando Botero's sculpture

Danger in the Coyote Zone takes place in Mexico and I mentioned Leonora Carrington, a British woman who lived and worked among the surrealists in Paris and moved to Mexico to escape the ravishes of World War II. She remained in Mexico, married the Hungarian-born photographer Emerico Weisz, and lived in Mexico City for the rest of her life. Leonora infused her surrealist paintings and sculptures with a feminine perspective, and she played an important role in the women’s rights movement in Mexico. In my novel, I only mention that Nikki notices one of her surreal sculptures on a street in San Miguel de Allende. To my amazement, I received an email from Wendy Weisz, Leonora’s daughter-in-law. Wendy had read my first novel in the series and had purchased the second one too. She was pleasantly surprised to find the mention of her late mother-in-law’s sculpture. Hearing from her was thrilling to me, especially since I’ve never met anyone in the Weisz family though I’ve always admired Leonora’s art and sculpture.

Leonora Carrington's Self-Portrait in New York's Metropolitan Museum

Revenge in Barcelona includes action scenes that occur at Gaudi’s architectural sites, such as the world famous Sagrada Familia Basilica. Not only did I research Gaudi’s work, but also I made two trips to Barcelona to make certain I had the facts right. (That Barcelona is my favorite city in the world did not influence my decision to travel there to fact check!)

Author and her husband. She was researching Sagrada Familia in Barcelona, Spain. 

While writing Missing in Miami, I took a slightly different approach. I’d read Klara and the Sun by Ishiguro. Josie, Ishiguro’s character, suffers from an illness that is never fully defined. My character Andrea, the missing girl in my novel, also has an illness. I mentioned Ishiguro’s novel despite his lack of ties to Cuba to subliminally correlate his Josie to my Andrea. I never mention Ishiguro’s character or her illness so I don’t expect many readers to catch the comparison unless they’ve read both novels.

The author loves Ishiguro's novels!

I’m currently writing a novel about a math prodigy. In it I’ve mentioned Miguel de Cervantes and his picaresque novel, Don Quixote de la Mancha. It’s prompted me to reread the adventures of Don Quixote and Sancho Panza, a novel I love despite the fact it was written in the early 1700s.

Don Quixote and Sancho Panza on their steeds.

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Do you incorporate allusions, a nod, or direct references in your novels to either writers or their work?

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Kathryn's Nikki Garcia Thriller Series - on Amazon

About Kathryn

Kathryn Lane started out painting in oils and quickly became a starving artist. To earn a living, she became a certified public accountant and embarked on a career in international finance with a major multinational corporation. After two decades, she left the corporate world to plunge into writing mystery and suspense thrillers. In her stories, Kathryn draws deeply from her Mexican background as well as her travels in over ninety countries.

Visit my website at https://www.Kathryn-Lane.com

Photo credits:

All photographs are used in an editorial and/or educational manner

Botero Sculpture - by Kathryn Lane

Leonora Carrington's Self-Portrait - Pinterest

Sagrada Familia - by Kathryn Lane

Klara and the Sun - Amazon

Don Quijote de la Mancha - Amazon

A Fun Interview with Bethany Maines

Interview by Kathryn Lane

(Bethany Maines is such a dynamic interviewee that I’ve kept the interview pretty much as it happened. To edit would lose the spontaneity of her responses.)

Bethany, I’m amazed by your dexterity as an author. You write in various genres, from crime fiction to mystery, to action adventure to sci-fi. Do you move from one to the other to keep your stories flowing?

Growing up I read mostly sci-fi/fantasy and mystery. I always assumed that if I wrote it would be sci-fi/fantasy based, but as with most half-baked childhood notions, it hasn’t turned out that way. Mystery/Adventure/Romance seems to be where I sit most easily, and my occasional visits into sci-fi are usually with co-writers.

By the time this interview is published on November 2, you will have launched your mystery, Hardest Hit, the third book from your Deveraux Legacy series. Congratulations!

Share with us what worked for the launch and what you’d do differently next time.

I can tell you what doesn’t work. Accidentally scheduling the launch for nearly the same time as a work conference is… not the best thing I’ve done lately. I work with a marketing company; they give me lots of support, and I don’t think I could do it another way considering my scheduling conflict. But other than that, my number one tip, is plan ahead.

Moving to your mystery/action adventure books, you have taken an innovative approach to undercover work. Your protagonist, Nikki Lanier in the Carrie Mae series, is a no-nonsense investigator who takes on drug smugglers and arms dealers.

How did you get the idea for the Carrie Mae series?  

OK, true story, I once received a cease-and-desist letter from Mary Kay corporate to not mention Carrie Mae in the same breath as Mary Kay. Meanwhile, Mary Kay Ladies love every book in that series. And they should because they gave me the idea. I once had to pick up lipstick from my MK lady. She was at a meeting and invited me to stop by. When I stepped into the Red Lion Inn… it was a packed ballroom!  They were recruiting new Mary Kay Ladies. On stage, an imposing woman was laying down the MK rules like she was Patton in pumps. And I thought… these ladies could take over the world and they’re kind of scary. It’s probably a good thing there isn’t a militant wing of Mary Kay. (Lightbulb!) Later I went out for drinks and told my girlfriends I had a great idea for a book. They laughed, saying they loved the idea of Nikki and her team.

Nikki and her team set out to save the world from gangs, smugglers, and arms dealers, all the while looking fabulous. You do mention, though, they try to remember clean underwear! Is humor in your genes or do you work at it?

Surprise! It’s nature AND nurture. My Dad is an excellent and humorous storyteller. In childhood I watched him hone a story from one telling to the next. That method of refining the funny until it’s the funniest is something that takes years to perfect, but I feel that I got a leg up through proper parenting.

You write several novels and novellas every year. Do you program your writing for the year ahead and decide which series will get the bulk of your time? Or are you a complete pantser that gets up in the morning and decides what you’ll work on that day?

I used to pants it. I loved the discovery and joy of finding out what happened. But sadly, I don’t have the time anymore. Pantsing is joyful but inefficient, and if I want to tell ALL THE STORIES… well, I need to plot. However, I do employ a strategy of “cheat stories”. If one isn’t cooperating I go cheat on it with a different story. That will teach it! 

I’m intrigued by your sci-fi novellas, The Beast of Arsu being the latest. For the Galactic Dreams series, you write with two other authors, Karen Harris Tully and J.M. Phillippe. Do the three of you get together to discuss and plan the next collection of Galactic Dreams? 

Karen and J.M. and I came up with a simple proposition (such innocent, foolish, past selves): we would create a shared universe and spread the hard parts of world-building around. Then we would each write stories within that universe. And, just to keep it interesting, we would base our stories on fairy tales. Clearly none of us had read fairy tales recently – they’re insane. None of us counted on the fact that each of us would want to break the rules of the universe at some point, or that we would have to keep track of all the weird words and technology we invented. At this point, we have a massive spreadsheet and a five-page single-space word doc on our universe. Fortunately, our friendship has survived the great battle over whether or not to include the word OK in space. Surprisingly, we were all 100% fine with bringing in Octopus aliens. We touch base multiple times while writing our individual stories and use each other for research, as sounding boards, and as spare memories. Then, at the end, we all read everything for universe cohesion.

Bethany, let me tell you, I’d be lost in space if I could not use the word OK. One last question. If you were not writing, what would you be doing?

I actually love my day job of graphic design. If I weren’t writing I’d be getting to all of the art projects that are languishing in my office that I swear I’m TOTALLY getting to. Stop judging my art supply purchases!!

That was a fantastic interview, Bethany. Thank you!

Biography

Bethany Maines is the award-winning author of mystery, crime and romantic suspense novels, as well as many short stories. When she's not traveling to exotic lands, or kicking some serious butt with her black belt in karate, she can be found chasing her daughter or glued to the computer working on her next novel. bethanymaines.com

Researching in Miami

 By Kathryn Lane

I place my novels in countries where I traveled during my corporate job. Miami is a city where I attended many regional conferences. I also passed through the international airport innumerable times coming from or going to Latin America and the Caribbean. Yet I only saw the city from airline windows as we approached the airport, through taxi windows as we drove to hotel conferences, or from hotel rooms for the couple of days I would attend meetings.  

Now I’m setting a novel in Miami. It’s the perfect excuse to do on-site research and get to know the city. I’d planned this trip last year and then Covid hit, so I put my novel on hold. Now I’m here in a wonderfully hospitable city. I love that Spanish is spoken everywhere. A diverse city, Miami is a melting pot of people from Latin America and the Caribbean. And yet there are immigrants representing every country in the world. Tourists from around the globe flock here, too.

My novel starts in Miami and takes my protagonist, Nikki Garcia, to Cuba. Of course, I do online research before I travel. Online experiences do not provide the “feel” of a place, the culture, the food, or the special little bits of information I like to add to my novels.

My husband is a wonderful travel companion on research trips. He’s a great sport when I ask him to explore areas he might not be interested in seeing. Over the time I’ve been an author, we’ve encountered surprises, whether it’s walking the old neighborhoods of Barcelona to locate a mosque as in a previous trip, or to explore a section of the Everglades, like on this trip. Or finding a Cuban restaurant in Little Havana in Miami, walking in, and discovering it served Spanish food, not Cuban. What the heck, we were there so we ate seafood paella.

When I’m performing on-site research, I like to put myself into Nikki’s shoes. How would she react to living in a condo in Miami Beach? Eating at Little Havana? Interviewing security guards in Doral? Would she shop for fresh lychee fruit and orchids in the Redlands agricultural area on the west side of the city? Should she discover a corpse in the Everglades or in a canal on Cutler Bay? Would she visit the Deering Estate and Key Biscayne?

Bob and I follow the outline of the places I want to investigate. Doing this work makes me feel like a location scout for a big production company. Of course, this is only one part of my research. And it’s definitely the most fun!

After indulging in food, music, and culture, then reality sets in and I have to actually write the story!

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What kind of research do you do? Do you enjoy researching various topics for your novels? Ever done on-site research?

Visit me at https://www.Kathryn-Lane.com I love hearing from readers. Ask a question, suggest an idea, or comment about the blog.

Kathryn Lane started out as a starving artist. To earn a living, she became a certified public accountant and embarked on a career in international finance with a major multinational corporation. After two decades, she left the corporate world to plunge into writing mystery and suspense thrillers. In her stories, Kathryn draws deeply from her Mexican background as well as her travels in over ninety countries.

https://www.kathryn-lane.com

https://www.facebook.com/kathrynlanewriter/

The Nikki Garcia Mystery Series: eBook Trilogy https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08GZNF17G

Photo credits:

All photographs are used in an editorial or educational manner.

The Grounds at Deering Estate, Lily Pads in the Everglades, and Server Showing Paella are photos by Kathryn Lane