Better Than Christmas! - Mystery in the Midlands is coming!

 Better than Christmas! – Mystery in the Midlands is coming!  by Debra H Goldstein

 Mystery in the Midlands is coming virtually, and I can’t wait! 

 

Last year, over nine hundred (you read that right – over 900) readers and authors attended the virtual four and one-half hour Crowdcast conference co-sponsored by Southeast Mystery Writers of America (SEMWA) and the Palmetto Chapter of Sisters in Crime. The line-up, led by Charlaine Harris was phenomenal ---- but in some ways, for me, this year is even more exciting.

 

Why?  Because I’m a die-hard fan of every panelist and I’m getting to interview the keynoter, Dr. Kathy Reichs. Who hasn’t seen Bones, the television show that was based upon her books and her life? As if it wasn’t a thrill to be interviewing her, I’ve been given the extra treat of being able to read an advance copy of her upcoming book, The Bone Code. You can bet it will be one of the things we’ll be discussing.

Dana Kaye will be moderating Mystery in the Midlands’ steaming three panels: Searing Suspense, Hot for Historicals, and Scorching Short Stories. How can you go wrong with hearing Robert Dugoni, Yasmin Angoe, Alex Segura, Laurie R. King, Caroline Todd, Lori Rader-Day, Barb Goffman, Michael Bracken, and Frankie Y. Bailey – especially when the entire cost (merely to defray expenses) is $5 (once again, yes, you read that right – simply five dollars)? Look at their pictures below, but don’t close your browser. Hurry and guarantee your spot by registering now! https://www.crowdcast.io/e/mystery-in-the-midlands-2/register  #Mystery in the Midlands

Inspiration

by Paula Gail Benson

For my first Stiletto Gang post of 2019, I wrote about how I wish I had not delayed reading two books, To Kill a Mockingbird and The Quiche of Death. In particular, I found that M.C. Beaton's Agatha Raisin series taught me about writing craft and structure.

Marion Chesney Gibbons (also known as M.C. Beaton and a string of other pseudonyms under which she wrote romance novels) lived a prolific writing life. She began working as a book store clerk. When given an opportunity to write a review for a local paper, in place of a reporter with a relative in the cast, she thought it was a mere substitution, then was handed tickets to another show and became the paper's critic. When she told her husband she could write better romances, she rose to the challenge and produced them. In each instance, from what might have been dismissed as inconsequential, she made careers.

In preparing this message, I looked at her website: www.mcbeaton.com. It contained notice of her passing, but directly above that was the message her latest book was available for pre-order. In addition, there were announcements about the Agatha Raisin television series being renewed. Along with several mystery series, her biography estimated that she wrote around 100 Regency romances. What an incredible body of work and what a wonderful memorial for a writer, that one's website would be active with word of forthcoming publications at the time of one's passing.

This past weekend, I had the opportunity to hear National Sisters in Crime President Lori Rader-Day address our local chapter through Facebook Messenger. She spoke about the inspirations for her most recent work The Lucky One, which came from a conversation with a new neighbor over a fence, and her work in progress, which came from a line in an Agatha Christie biography. Her remarks reminded me that the idea pool is literally all around us. We just have to be open enough to listen to and receive the suggestions.

What are you working on this New Year? How did the idea come to you? Is a new idea swirling nearby, just waiting for you to reach out and grab it?

Best wishes for your happiest reading and writing year ever!

It Tolls for Thee

by Paula Gail Benson

Calhoun Residence Hall

John Donne wrote, “No man is an island.” As writers, we often labor in isolation, occasionally taking our notebooks to coffee shops or book stores to be close to activity. There may be a gentle musical selection playing in the background or perhaps we’ve arrived with our own headphones, so we can “control” and “enhance” that aspect of concentration for the task. Keeping our distance, yet staying close to humanity.

If we have the opportunity to study writing among our peers, fellow scriveners seeking to combine words in the most effective ways, we embrace the joy of being with those who understand what it is like to labor alone. We spend time with colleagues who face the same lonely struggles, then return to our work with new resolve and inspiration.

This summer, I had the remarkable experience of attending Yale University’s Summer Writing Program, where small classes of students were paired with incredibly talented authors for twelve hours of instruction, additional special lectures, and a private analysis of each student’s submission. I was thrilled to find myself in a class with six others learning about writing mysteries from the fabulous Lori Rader-Day. It was truly life-changing.

Walking down the streets to our Yale class room, I could hear the chiming of bells from the carillon in Harkness tower. What an wonderfully appropriate musical accompaniment for my ivy league adventure!

Passing Calhoun Residence Hall, where we roomed, I noticed a carved relief of a scholar in his robes, sitting at his desk, smoking his pipe, apparently concentrating on his studies while surrounded by stacks of books. With the carillon bells chiming in the background, I could almost imagine striding across campus in my own cap and gown, heading to confer with my fellow scholars.

Like at Oxford. Or maybe Hogwarts.

And those bells followed my every footfall.

Carillons can be traced back to medieval times when they were used as a means of notification or alarm system for a town. The instrument, with a keyboard like an organ, is connected to at least twenty-three bells that are housed in a belfry. The one at Yale has fifty-four bells, each emblazoned with the words “FOR GOD, FOR COUNTRY, AND FOR YALE.” Generally, they sound twice a day at Yale, but we had arrived during the week of the Yale Carillon Guild convention.  

Those bells became a constant companion. In fact, for two days straight, during our ENTIRE three-hour class period, the carillon played without ceasing.

At times, music can progress from mere accompaniment to severe distraction. That is exactly what those marvelous bells did. While we sought to discuss the fine points of characterization, plotting, and revision, the bells pealed forth, sometimes merrily and other times solemnly, until their sound became predominant in our heads.

Yet, from the incessant ringing, another literary lesson emerged.

As mystery writers, we couldn’t help but consider how constant noise could manipulate a mind and drive an intellect to dire circumstances—like murder. I remembered how Edgar Allan Poe’s guilt-ridden protagonist in “The Tell-Tale Heart” insists what he hears is not madness: “The disease had sharpened my senses – not destroyed – not dulled them. Above all was the sense of hearing acute. I heard all things in the heaven and in the earth. I heard many things in hell.”

Taking another look at the scholar on the Calhoun Residence Hall relief, I began to wonder if he was consumed with his work or with the effort of attempting to block out the bells. There was something in his expression that I thought might resemble Poe’s protagonist’s anguish.

So, I decided that it was good that writers can channel any murderous urges into prose rather than action. As John Donne says: “Each man’s death diminishes me, For I am involved in mankind, Therefore, send not to know, For whom the bell tolls, It tolls for thee.

Not a bad lesson to have learned from a carillon at Yale!

Summertime and the reading is . . . WONDERFUL!

by Paula Gail Benson

A significant part of my vacations as I grew up was participating in the library summer reading program. Now, that I work for a state legislature with a session ending in early June, the summer months still mean a time of less activity so I can catch up on all those lovely books on my TBR pile. If you’re looking for some terrific summer reads, here are my recommendations, in two categories. First, short story collections, which are great travel companions, and, second, academic mysteries, in case you crave a vicarious trip back to school.

SHORT STORY COLLECTIONS:

K. B. Inglee’s The Case Book of Emily Lawrence (Wildside Books 2016)

K.B. writes historical mysteries and learns about the time periods in her stories by being a reenactor and living interpreter. Her Case Book features intrepid Emily Lothrop Lawrence, whose professor father characterized as “intelligent” while calling her older sisters “beautiful” and “talented.” Emily, with her husband Charles, operate a Pinkerton style detective agency in post-Civil War Washington, DC. Reading about their investigations and techniques is both a journey back in time and an appreciation for how technology has influenced detection.

B.K. Stevens’ Her Infinite Variety (Wildside Books 2016).

 

B.K.’s (or Bonnie’s) stories have frequently found a home in Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine. In this fascinating volume, they’ve been collected, so you can enjoy four that feature her series detectives, Iphigenia Wodehouse and Leah Abrams, and seven of her “stand-alones,” including one of my favorites “Thea’s First Husband.” For excellent writing, intriguing situations, and clever deductions, this collection is a true reader’s delight.

Art Taylor’s On the Road with Del and Louise: a Novel in Stories (Henery Press 2015).

Winner of two Agatha Awards, the Anthony Award, the Macavity Award, and three consecutive Derringer Awards for his short fiction, Art uses a series of stories to tell the adventures of two intricate and compelling characters. Louise, a Southern girl working in a New Mexico 7-Eleven, is held up by the ski-masked Del, a frugal man seeking enough to meet his “academic” expenses, and gives him her telephone number because she thinks he has nice eyes. She finds it exciting when he calls, then sets out with him on what becomes a cross country journey with stops at such diverse locations as Southern California, Napa Valley, Las Vegas, North Dakota, and Louise’s North Carolina hometown. At first, I wasn’t sure I could like either of these complex characters, but after following them through traditional crime stories and hilarious capers, I had to wait as long as I could to finish the last installment so I didn’t have to say goodbye. Winner of the Agatha Award for Best First Novel and finalist for the Anthony Award for Best First Novel, this novel in stories is an engaging read.

ACADEMIC MYSTERIES:

Cynthia Kuhn’s The Semester of Our Discontent (Henery Press 2016).

The first book in a new series, Cynthia’s novel features English professor Lila Maclean, who in her first year at a prestigious university finds herself as involved in solving murders as she is in steering clear of academic intrigue. Unfortunately, she keeps turning up on the scene where her colleagues are being murdered. When her cousin becomes the chief suspect, Lila has to find a way to clear her name. A fast-paced whodunit with lots of quirky, yet familiar characters from higher education, which received the William F. Deeck-Malice Domestic Grant.

Lori Rader-Day’s The Black Hour (Seventh Street Books 2014).

Lori’s suspenseful novel alternates between two narrators: (1) sociology professor Amelia Emmet, who is returning to the campus where a student with whom she had no apparent connection shot her, then killed himself, and (2) Amelia’s new graduate assistant, Nathaniel Barber, who came to the college not just to earn a degree, but to study her attack. As they each investigate separately, then in tandem, the reader is plunged through every emotion watching the fascinating plot unfold. Winner of the Anthony Award, Lovey Award, and Silver Falchion for Best First Novel, this is truly superb reading!

I want to assure you that you can’t go wrong with any of these books. So stay out of the pool, pour yourself a tall glass of lemonade, and settle down for some fabulous summer reading!