Writing Multiple Series: featuring Kaye George/Janet Cantrell

This is my third interview with an author of multiple mystery series. My guest is Kaye George who is also known as Janet Cantrell. As Kaye, she writes about Imogene Duckworthy, Cressa Carraway, and the (Neanderthal) People of the Wind. As Janet, she pens the Fat Cat cozies. Distinguished for her short stories as well as her mystery novels, Kay has been nominated for an Agatha in two categories (Best First Novel and Best Historical Novel) and served as the President of the Guppy Chapter of Sisters in Crime. Welcome, Kaye/Janet!

How did you initially decide to write fiction?

It wasn’t a decision. It’s something I’ve been doing my whole life. I made up stories to go with my crayon drawings before I could write words. In grade school I drew little comic strips and sixth grade wrote two “novels”. I think they were about five pages each. In high school and college, I sent short stories to magazines. I wrote short stories for creative writing classes in college. I’ve never not written fiction.

You have published short stories. How did those help and continue to influence your career?

The first things I got published were short stories. This was after I gave up on sending them to Atlantic and The New Yorker, as I’d done for years. I decided to concentrate on novels, thinking I had a better chance of getting them published. I initially wrote literary fiction, but soon decided I should write what I most enjoyed reading, and that was mystery. During the ten years it took to get a mystery novel published, online short story markets started opening up and I started submitting. I’m still doing that, along with the novels.

Who publishes each of your series and how did you begin writing each series?

I’m self-publishing the Imogene Duckworthy humorous Texas mysteries. The first in that series was the first mystery novel I got published, but I parted with my publisher after a year. That book won an Agatha nomination, which my publisher refused to acknowledge. That didn’t sit well with me! After I republished the first one, CHOKE, I self-published SMOKE and BROKE pretty quickly. STROKE is in the works.

The first mystery novel I completed and queried (for about 10 years) is now called EINE KLEINE MURDER, published by Barking Rain Press. In frustration over my many, many rejections, I turned to writing the over-the-top Duckworthy series and got that published first. But I kept coming back to my first love (not my first completed mystery novel, but the first that I thought had a chance). The main character, Cressa Carraway, is the successful professional musician I never was. I’ve always been an amateur, except for some string quartet work that paid pretty well. I’m glad I persisted and got it out there. It was a Silver Falchion finalist. The second in that series, REQUIEM IN RED, will come out with the same publisher in April.

I got interested in reading very old historical fiction, Roman, Greek, ancient Egyptian, and decided I wanted to take fiction as far back as I possibly could. This was when the Neanderthal DNA was being analyzed and more and more interest and discoveries centered upon them. The more I learned, the more I wanted to write about them. DEATH IN THE TIME OF ICE was the most difficult project I’ve ever done. I ended up using a somewhat alternative historical setting, putting Neanderthals in North America. That’s because I also got hooked by the mega-fauna (really, really big animals!) that roamed this continent at the same time the Neanderthals were a distinctive people. I got rave rejections for this from some good agents, who told me they loved my book (!), but didn’t know how to sell it. One night I was complaining on Facebook that I had gotten yet another of those rejections and Jay Hartman, from Untreed Reads, who had published some of my short fiction, asked to see it. And published it! That book was nominated for Best Historical Agatha Award. The second in that series, which I’m calling People of the Wind, is DEATH ON THE TREK and will be out in June.

Meanwhile, because I didn’t have enough to do, I guess, I was hankering after a cozy series. I kept submitting proposals to BookEnds Literary, an agency that places many cozy mysteries, and kept getting them rejected. A proposal, I had learned from some experienced cozy writers, is a detailed synopsis of the first book, the first three chapters, and sketches for two more in the series. With each of those rejections, it was like the characters I had created and lived with for at least a month, died. I got wind of a series I thought I could do, based in Texas where I lived, and wanted to audition for it, but couldn’t write yet another proposal and get it rejected. A friend suggested I send in CHOKE instead and inquire about the series. I did, Kim Lionetti liked my voice, and suddenly, I was agented! I didn’t get that proposal, but she got me the Fat Cat series. The first two are out, FAT CAT AT LARGE and FAT CAT SPREADS OUT. The third, FAT CAT TAKES THE CAKE, will come out in April. I write that series under the name Janet Cantrell.

Did you notice that I have TWO books coming out in April? Yikes!

How many books do you write in a year and what is your publication schedule?

I’d like to write one a year, but have been doing more. The Fat Cat publisher, Berkley Prime Crime, wanted a book every nine months, so everything else went on hold while I did those three books. As a result, the second Neanderthal book is coming out a couple of years after the first one. The second Cressa Carraway was nearly finished a few years ago, so it wasn’t too hard to get it in shape.

Do you write under more than one name? If so, was that by your choice or a publisher’s request?

I write mostly as Kaye George. The Fat Cat series is written as Janet Cantrell because the publisher owns all the rights to that series. The initial concept was theirs and they own the series, the characters, and the author name.

What “relationship” do you have as author with each of your series’ protagonists?

I love all of them! They are all my children, my creation, born out of labor and love.

Setting has an important role in each series you write. What is your approach to developing a setting that fuels the story and draws in readers?

I use west Texas, where I was living when I started writing the Duckworthy series because I found much to be darkly humorous about. It’s a harsh place with wonderful people.

I set the Cressa Carraway books in the Midwest, where I’m from. It seems natural to set them there.

It was requested I set Fat Cat in Minneapolis, where I’ve also lived. So that wasn’t difficult.

It was very difficult to draw the setting for the Neanderthals. They lived before the last Ice Age, when there was no Mississippi River. I had to do tons of research just to describe the setting. It was all fun, though.

Is it a challenge to keep coming up with original and inventive plots? How do you do it?

No, the challenge is to find time to write everything that’s in my head. I had lots more ideas than I’ll ever live long enough to write.

Since at The Stilletto Gang we like to delve into shoes and accessories, what are your protagonists’ favorite foot or carrying apparel? (Pictures are welcome!)

This is the hardest question! I love shoe shopping, but my feet are hard to fit and I don’t often find shoes I can buy. I guess that, as a consequence, my characters don’t have too much interest in shoes.

Immy Duckworthy wears sneakers and cowgirl boots. Cressa Carraway probably mostly wears sneakers. Well, Chase Oliver, the Fat Cat’s owner, does, too. (The Fat Cat is named Quincy.) I guess I’m in a shoe rut! Enga Dancing Flower wraps her feet in skins and ties them with leather thongs when it’s cold, but she’s barefoot a lot of the time.

Kaye George/Janet Cantrell

Kaye George, national-bestselling and multiple-award-winning author, writes several mystery series: Imogene Duckworthy, Cressa Carraway (Barking Rain Press), People of the Wind (Untreed Reads), and, as Janet Cantrell, Fat Cat (Berkley Prime Crime cozies). The third, Fat Cat Takes the Cake, will appear April 2016. The second Cressa Carraway novel, Requiem in Red, will appear in early 2016. The second People of the Wind, Death on the Trek, comes out in June 2016. Her short stories appear in anthologies, magazines, and her own collection, A Patchwork of Stories. She reviews for Suspense Magazine. She lives in Knoxville, TN. http://kayegeorge.com/

WRITING MULTIPLE SERIES: Featuring Leslie Budewitz

This is my second interview with an author who writes multiple mystery series. My guest is Leslie Budewitz, current President of the national Sisters in Crime and a founding member of the Guppy Chapter of SinC. Leslie is the first person to have won Agathas for fiction and nonfiction. Death al Dente, the first in her Food Lovers’ Village Mysteries, won the 2013 Agatha Award for Best First Novel. Her guide for writers, Books, Crooks & Counselors: How to Write Accurately About Criminal Law and Courtroom Procedure, won the 2011 Agatha Award for Best Nonfiction. Also, her essay is featured in Writes of Passage: Adventures on the Writer's Journey edited by Hank Phillippi Ryan (Henery Press), which won Agatha and Anthony awards this year. Welcome, Leslie!

Thanks, Paula, for including me in this series!

How did you initially decide to write fiction?

I started writing at 4, on my father’s desk. Literally – I did not yet grasp the concept of paper. Fortunately, my parents were understanding, and kept me readily supplied with pens and paper. Though while I always wanted to write, I didn’t think it was something you could really do. But I was an avid reader, of course, and someone was writing those books. In my mid-30s, during a difficult time, I realized that someone could be me. I wrote the first chapter of my first novel one afternoon in my firm’s law library. But the process of becoming a fiction writer is a continual series of decisions – to keep writing, to work on the craft, to learn about the business, and to persevere. So glad I did!

Now, I’m writing two light-hearted or cozy mystery series. No graphic sex or violence, lots of graphic food. In the Spice Shop Mysteries, Pepper Reece never thought she’d find solace and comfort, let alone employment, in bay leaves, but running a spice shop in Seattle’s famed Pike Place Market gives her a new zest for life – until murder ends up in the mix.

The Food Lovers’ Village Mysteries is set in NW Montana, where I live. After years away, Erin Murphy’s come home to Jewel Bay, a tourist community on the road to Glacier National Park. She remakes her family’s hundred-year-old grocery into the Merc, a specialty local foods market and commercial kitchen used by the village chocolatier, the jam maker, and other producers, including Erin’s mother, Fresca, who makes pastas and sauces that Erin sells. While pursuing her passion for pasta and huckleberry chocolates, Erin discovers a talent for solving murder.

You have published short stories. How did those help and continue to influence your career?

Honestly, I never thought I could write a short story. They daunted me. How could I could tell a story in less than 80,000 words? But I had a couple of ideas that were clearly short stories, not novels, and when they came together, and then were published, they gave me the sense that despite a lot of discouragement, I actually could write fiction. At about that same time, I wrote my nonfiction book, BOOKS, CROOKS & COUNSELORS: HOW TO WRITE ACCURATELY ABOUT CRIMINAL LAW AND COURTROOM PROCEDURE (Quill Driver, 2011). In the process, I realized that as much as I love helping other writers, I wasn’t through telling my own stories. And so, I recommitted – that decision-making process again – and started my Food Lovers’ Village Mysteries.

Who publishes each of your series and how did you begin writing each series?

I wanted to create a cozy series and knew that food themes are popular. Mr. Right and I love to cook and try new recipes, so I thought we had the culinary chops. The Food Lovers’ Village mysteries introduce readers to a surprising little village very much like my own – a small town in a gorgeous setting with tremendous food, art, and theater that delights the many visitors who have a very different idea of what small-town Montana will be!

When I decided to start a second series, I wanted a completely different setting. As a student at Seattle University and later as a young lawyer, I fell in love with the Pike Place Market and spent many happy hours eating my way through it. When I worked downtown, I bought most of my produce, cheese, and baked goods there, along with other treats. It’s a terrific setting for an urban cozy – a city within a city – and readers seem to enjoy the trip as much as I do. Of course, I have to go there regularly for research – by which I mean “eat.”

So while both series are light-hearted, and feature women who work in food-related retail, the settings are total opposites. I’ve worked hard to make the two women and the other characters distinctive as well.

Both are published by Berkley Prime Crime. And I must say, I would not have been able to make the contacts to get the contracts without the support and encouragement of friends I met through the Sisters in Crime Guppies chapter.

How many books do you write in a year and what is your publication schedule?

This year is a bit of an anomaly: By the end I will have written four books and published three. I hope in future years to write and publish one a year in each series, giving me time for a few more short stories and another project I have in mind.

Do you write under more than one name? If so, was that by your choice or a publisher’s request?

No.

What “relationship” do you have as author with each of your series’ protagonists?

Erin Murphy, the protagonist of the Food Lovers’ Village Mysteries, is a lot like me in many ways – she left her native Montana, then returned in her early 30s. She spouts off snippets from plays and poems with little provocation. Jewel Bay, her hometown, is a lot like the community where we live, so she lets me dive into that theme of coming home, only to find that both you and the place have changed more than you expected. I also get to share my love of this wonderful state and a town that never fails to surprise visitors!

Pepper Reece, the owner of the Spice Shop, is a Seattle girl through and through. She lets me indulge and explore my love of the Emerald City. We both fit the “life begins at 40” cliché, and as with Erin, I find it a lot of fun to explore an aspect of my own life through the life of a younger woman with her own talents, quirks, and choices.

Both love to cook and eat, and that makes us all great companions!

Setting has an important role in each series you write. What is your approach to developing a setting that fuels the story and draws in readers?

It’s all about the details – finding the right ones that create a picture and evoke a mood and flavor for readers who may never have been to the place you’re describing or one like it. And you’ve got to know when enough is enough – don’t describe a place unless it’s actually important to the story. Setting a book in a real city – Seattle – is challenging because I want to get it right, and darn it, it keeps changing, as cities always do. Many people know Seattle – 10 MILLION people visit the Pike Place Market every year. So I do a lot of research. I keep maps on my wall and guides to the city close by. I read Seattle newspapers and blogs, and consult friends who still live there.

Jewel Bay is an easier place to write about because while it’s modeled on a real village, it is ultimately a place of the heart.

Is it a challenge to keep coming up with original and inventive plots? How do you do it?

Drink wine and eat chocolate. Seriously, I can only hope that I don’t repeat myself or draw too heavily on the conventions of the genre. Ultimately, plot comes from the characters – what do these people want, and what will they do when they don’t get it. The people are the heart of the story.

Since at The Stiletto Gang we like to delve into shoes and accessories, what are your protagonists’ favorite foot or carrying apparel? (Pictures are welcome!)

Erin counts on her lucky red boots, and Pepper her pink shoes. I don’t actually own either pair – they are their own women, after all – but I envision Erin’s boots like these pictures.

Painting by Leslie's friend, Bigfork artist Nancy Dunlap Cawdrey

Thanks for having me at the Stiletto Gang today. I’d be delighted to give a copy of GUILTY AS CINNAMON and an adorable gingerbread man tea infuser to a commenter!

  

A Montana native, Leslie graduated from Seattle University and Notre Dame Law School. After practicing in Seattle for several years – and shopping and eating her way through the Pike Place Market regularly – she returned to Montana, where she still practices law part-time. Killing people – on the page – is more fun.

Leslie loves to cook, eat, hike, travel, garden, and paint – not necessarily in that order. She lives in northwest Montana with her husband, Don Beans, a singer-songwriter and doctor of natural medicine, and their Burmese cat, Ruff, a book cover model and an avid bird watcher.