Why This Story?

By AnnetteDashofy

I’m interrupting my series of FBI Citizens Academy posts (never fear…they’ll continue on my next blogging day!) for a little book launch BSP.

This Tuesday (May 14), my eighth Zoe Chambers Mystery, Fair Game, hits

shelves.

Why this book? Why now? Two questions I always ask myself in the planning phase of a new project. Often, I choose a theme because it’s close to my heart (Uneasy Prey). Sometimes I select a victim because…well, let’s be honest…someone has ticked me off and I need retribution even if it’s only on the page (Circle of Influence)! Occasionally, I need to wrap up some threads I feel I’d dropped in a previous book (Cry Wolf).

And then there are times I write a story totally for my readers. Such is the case with Fair Game.

I think the first time someone asked me “When are Pete and Zoe getting together?” was around the time Lost Legacy, the second in the series, came out. Even after they were clearly a couple, I’d have readers demand a deeper commitment from them. So Zoe moved in with Pete.

Here’s my problem: I believe happy couples living in bliss a.) is not very realistic (I love my husband but he’s been off work with an injury for a couple of months now, and I again need to kill someone on the page to ease my tension) and b.) is boring. The last thing I want to do is bore my readers!

“When are Pete and Zoe getting married?”

Okay. I can take a hint. Here are the opening few lines from Fair Game:

Vance Township Police Chief Pete Adams shifted his gaze from the report he was working on to the small burgundy velvet box on his desk. He’d been in law enforcement for almost twenty years, half of that in the city of Pittsburgh. He’d faced down crack heads and killers. Last spring, he’d even taken a bullet.

But nothing he’d ever experienced terrified him as much as what was inside that little velvet box.

I can hear my diehard Pete and Zoe fans squeal when they hit that second paragraph. But of course, nothing ever goes smoothly.

The romantics in my readership aren’t the only ones for whom I wrote this book though.

Annette and Gypsy at the Fair

As a horse-crazy farmgirl, I joined 4-H when I was in my teens and made many lifelong friends. My 4-H leaders, especially Phyllis Ryburn, helped me come out of my very thick shell by shoving me into leadership roles. I was a reluctant vice-president of our horse club at a time when our president seemed to miss a lot of meetings. She probably didn’t miss that many, but it felt like it to me! I’d never ever had to stand up in front of a group of peers and take charge before. It was daunting. But looking back, leading those meetings taught me that I could speak in front of a crowd without dying.

Good thing. I do a lot of speaking gigs these days.

My 4-H friends have become supportive fans, buying books, attending signings,

Annette and Duchess at the Fair 1977

telling others about my series. Several book releases ago, I did a talk at a local library. It was a gorgeous day in the middle of very late winter, so only a handful of folks came in from the warm sunshine to see me. A group of my former 4-H leaders and friends made up most of the audience.

Including Phyllis Ryburn. I was deeply honored to find out she loved my books!

A couple of years ago, I drove past our county fairgrounds and had an epiphany. What a perfect setting for a murder! Fictional, of course. I mentioned it online and the response from my old horsey friends was epic. Oh, the possibilities!

Phyllis Ryburn

So Fair Game is my gift to my old Silver Bits 4-H Club friends.

Sadly, Phyllis died almost a year ago and never knew about this book. I dedicated it to her and her husband, who was a prankster and a Class A jokester rather than a club leader. He too is gone. I miss them both.

I offer Fair Game as a piece of my gratitude to my loyal fans, be they romantics or horsey folks…or both. And if you are neither, I hope you’ll still enjoy it.