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

When I Visited Walden Pond

By Kathryn Lane

The past three years, my husband and I have spent the summers in a cabin in northern New Mexico. We are isolated, in a way. We are connected to the outside world with excellent internet, workable phone communications, and muddy dirt roads during the rainy season.

As I watch the deer, elk, birds, and the occasional bear, I’m reminded of my favorite Henry David Thoreau quote "We can never have enough of nature." And that takes me to his experiences at Walden Pond.

During my corporate years, I mostly worked overseas, but on two rare occasions I had domestic assignments. One of those instances, I went to Boston for three weeks. I loved the city and became mesmerized by its history, especially that pertaining to the American Revolution. Being from Mexico, I did not know US history and this was a unique opportunity. In the evenings, I walked the Freedom Trail, stopping along the way at Faneuil Hall, the old State House, and continuing to Paul Revere’s statue and his home, now the oldest building in downtown Boston.

One weekend, I visited Lexington and Concord where the revolution started. Being an avid cyclist at the time, I rented a bicycle so I could visit Walden Pond. Thoreau’s book, Walden, intrigued me and here was my opportunity to cycle around the entire pond and enjoy the place where he had lived for a couple of years.

The pond, a kettle hole formed by retreating glaciers about 10,000 years ago, was worth seeing, not to mention experiencing the place Thoreau made famous. The shores of the pond consisted of terrain suitable for walking but I quickly learned that tree roots and sharp rocks were not kind to bicycle tires! After fixing a flat halfway around, I decided to walk the bike the rest of the way to make sure I could ride back to Concord where I’d left the rental car.

Now that I live close to nature part of the year, I reflect on Thoreau's years there and his writing.

The central ideas expressed in Walden are experience, self-reliance, and worship. He examined the fundamental elements of humanity. Very lofty ideas.

My novels are genre, plain and simple. And I love writing them from a mountain cabin! Yet, as an author who loves history, you’d think I’d write historical novels. Mysteries and thrillers fascinate me and that’s what I write. I’m captivated by the twists and turns of mystery and suspense.

Of course, there are historical mysteries. Humm, I’ll have to ponder that thought while enjoying the mountain scenery of northern New Mexico!

Do you secretly wish you wrote in a different genre?

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

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

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.

Origin and Evolution of the Mystery Genre

 By Kathryn Lane

When I’m about to start writing a new Nikki Garcia mystery, I take time to look back, like traveling through a time capsule, to the origin of the genre.

Most literary historians place the origin of mysteries in 1841 when Edgar Allan Poe wrote The Murders in the Rue Morgue. He invented devices of suspense fiction still in use, such as the subconscious motivation of his characters.

Poe also used kernels of truth in his fiction. Murders in the Rue Morgue is set in Paris. Since I like to place my novels in foreign countries, I wondered why Poe used Paris as his setting. It turns out that the first known private investigative firm was founded in that city by François Vidocq, a former criminal who became a criminologist and was also instrumental in organizing the Sûreté that became part of the national police force with Vidocq as its first director.

Apparently, Poe created the first fictional private investigator, Dupin, based on what Poe knew about Vidocq. I doubt Poe ever anticipated the reading public’s enduring fascination with suspense and mysteries, which have also evolved into thrillers.

The next big innovator, Arthur Conan Doyle, borrowed from other genres, including humor and romance, to spice up his Sherlock Holmes series, a trend some current authors tend to follow.

Agatha Christie invented the husband-and-wife team and moved her stories to the country, thus inventing the cozy mystery. She dropped clues in her stories so the reader could figure out whodunit.

A lot of experimentation followed in the genre, creating hard-boiled crime, spy thrillers, psychopathic and serial killers, and the psychological thriller.

Readers who enjoy mysteries often prefer stories full of twists and turns with memorable characters and plots that keep them turning the pages.

After I go down memory lane in my time capsule, I enjoy reflecting on specific ideas that might help me in my next project, such as creating more tension between characters, perhaps experimenting with an unstable character, or seeing how some of my favorite authors have used foreign locations to make the story more satisfying.

As a reader, what do you anticipate in a new mystery? 

Or, as a writer, do you look at the work of other authors, either current or past, to inspire you?

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Kathryn’s books – The Nikki Garcia Thriller series and her short story collection – Backyard Volcano. All available on Amazon. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B082H96R11

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 and plunged 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/

Photos:

Crow, Investigator with Pipe, and Fingerprint – Public Domain

Kathryn’s books – designs by Bobbye Marrs