An Interview with Susan Van Kirk by E. B. Davis

  

When Susan Van Kirk drove into little Monmouth, Illinois, in 1968—straight out of college, with her teaching degree in hand—she thought she was ready to teach English and speech to high school students. She didn't realize she would both teach and be taught by a town, a school, and the students who entered her life. A veteran of forty-four years of public high school and college teaching, Van Kirk will take you on a passionate and unforgettable journey through one teaching life. Meet her students and experience the events that molded a rookie teacher into a veteran. This montage of stories covers the years 1968 to 2008; they describe her early fears about classroom discipline, plots to overthrow "the rookie," handling drug overdoses, the devastating first student death, and a challenge to a major Kurt Vonnegut book in her classroom.

Mr. Vonnegut and Me (And Other Incredible Tales from a Teaching Life) is a second edition, and Van Kirk has added a new introduction plus updated material about where the students from the stories are now. These fifteen stories are incredible, inspiring, and filled with what makes us human.

Amazon.com

 

I’ve read all of Susan’s books, except Mr. Vonnegut And Me. Why? I guess I’m not much of a nonfiction reader, and that’s what surprised me. I started to read slowly and ended up being engrossed by her stories. For me, the times in which she taught were my history. Her first year of teaching was 1968, the year I entered 8^th grade, so when I got to high school, I might have had Mrs. Van Kirk as a teacher had I lived in Monmouth, IL.

Susan covers topics she dealt with while teaching: sexism, diversity, racism, classroom discipline, family backgrounds, pregnancy, politics, etc. We learn how much these affected her teaching and how they impacted her students.

 

This 2026 release allowed Susan to update her stories and follow her students after they left the high school, which I found very interesting, like seeing the before and after.

                                                                                                                                   E. B. Davis

 

Did retirement prompt you to reflect on your teaching, resulting in the book?  When was the book first published?

My memoir was first published as The Education of a Teacher (Including Dirty Books and Pointed Looks) in 2010. It was the first book I ever wrote, and the thought that I could write a book came about through a college professor and a college student. I was getting my master’s degree at University of Illinois, and I took a class called “reflective teaching.” The purpose was to reflect on how my values and beliefs affected the way I taught. The professor wrote on one of my papers, “You have a wonderful voice, and this story is incredible. Have you ever considered writing a book?” No, I hadn’t. Then, one of my college students said the same thing, only he was referring to an inspiring story I’d told about why teaching was an amazing profession. He suggested I write it so people who wanted to teach could read it. I did. And a magazine picked it up immediately and published it. I thought to myself, “I’ve taught for four decades and I could write a memoir that might explain what it’s like to teach.” I chose fifteen stories that were funny, sad, poignant, and thought-provoking. That became this book.

 

Is Monmouth, IL, the prototype of Endurance, the town in your first series? Why is it called “The Maple City?”

 People do, indeed, see aspects of both Monmouth and my home town, Galesburg, in my Endurance series. History is ubiquitous here. The Underground Railroad, a Lincoln-Douglas debate, Beecher Chapel (named for the brother of Harriet Beecher Stowe), the birthplace of Wyatt Earp, and the extradition hearing of the Mormon leader, Joseph Smith, were all parts of our area history. My Endurance series has a lot of Midwest history as part of the setting. Monmouth is called the Maple City because it was founded in 1831, and maple trees lined the streets of the town. Western Stoneware, our internationally-known pottery company, used a maple leaf in its logo.

 

Did your kids have trouble due to your teaching at their school? How about grading their papers?

 I taught my three children two years in a row. Fortunately, they were excellent students. We had a deal. If they had problems or concerns with other teachers, they solved those problems themselves. If they heard rumors or gossip, they didn’t tell me. They did their own homework, and I imagine they occasionally heard thoughts about me from other students in my classes. But overall, those were smooth years. It was more difficult having the children of my friends.

 

In deciding which stories to include in the book, you asked yourself which students changed your teaching and you. How do you think you changed your students, such as John Critser?

This is a long answer! John’s story, “War and Remembrance,” was the first one I wrote that was published by Teacher Magazine. It illustrates the theme of the book: the profession of teaching puts you in a position to change students’ lives, hopefully for the better. John and I had a conversation after school that I didn’t remember until twenty years later when he told me about it at a reunion. He was a junior in high school trying to decide what to do about enlisting during the Vietnam War years. He would have a number in the draft lottery, and he was having moral concerns about killing people. On the other hand, he felt he should do his duty to his country. He stopped in to see me after school on a day when I’d received a telegram that a close friend from college had been killed in that war. I was not the usual “Ms. Van Kirk” who stayed as neutral as possible in class discussions about current affairs. (I’d always encouraged my students to think for themselves and back up their beliefs with logical arguments and evidence.) But that day after school, I was a mess. I didn’t remember, years later, our conversation. But he did. And more than that, he remembered how that death affected me. The next year, he made a decision to go to college, hope not to have his number called, and if it were, to become a conscientious objector. As it turned out, his number was not called before the war ended, and he went on to become a world-renowned research scientist, and, unlike me, remembered that conversation with his weeping teacher. He told me at his twentieth reunion that but for our conversation he might have enlisted, died in that war and never married, had children, or done life-saving research. For many years, we met for coffee when he came back to visit his mother. From him I learned that sometimes you change your students’ lives by tears rather than by Shakespeare.

What quality drew the troubled girls to you? Did they see you as a strong single mother or as a teacher they could trust?

Both of these girls, names changed, came to my house to talk to me over Christmas break. They had some serious problems and felt they couldn’t talk with their parents about them. One had recently discovered she was pregnant, and the other stated she was being abused by a foster parent. At the time, I was going through a divorce, and they’d silently watched as I’d lost weight, been preoccupied, and seemed sad. I think they believed I’d understand their very serious problems. I imagine they saw me as trustworthy and someone juggling a lot in my life. Their stories illustrate yet another moral dilemma. As a teacher, I couldn’t tell them what to do. I was legally required by the abuse situation to turn it in to child protective services. I did. The other was a situation where it was up to the student and her parents to make a decision about her pregnancy. I convinced her to talk with her parents, and we used role-playing to decide how she’d do this. Their stories illustrate some of the moral dilemmas teachers face when dealing with teenagers.

 

Trying to maintain discipline in the classroom led to nightmares for you. Did this problem get better with time and experience?

Absolutely it did. When you see my photo on the book cover, I was twenty-two. It was my second year of teaching, and my students were 17 or 18. Maintaining discipline was a real learning curve. Eventually, I was able to balance a sense of humor with definite rules and outcomes. I was never a friend to my students. I respected them, and I would say they respected me. Over the years, I learned that balance. This is why people are a much better teachers as time goes by. Experience really makes a difference.

 

Was your personal life affected by the expectation of professional behavior and decorum outside of school? 

It definitely was in a small town, especially when I first started teaching. I couldn’t walk into a bar, and if I went out to a restaurant with friends and had a drink, it was all right. But if students were working there, they might see me, and it would be discussed with their friends. Because I was married, I didn’t have to worry about the dating game and students talking. But teachers back then were held to a higher standard. There was a moral turpitude clause in our contracts, and being picked up for a DUI would definitely end a career.

 

When one set of parents tried to censor the reading of Breakfast of Champions by Kurt Vonnegut, I wondered about their daughter. You didn’t influence her selection of the book. You allowed her to pick another book. You never knew how she felt about the book. Do you know what happened to her?

No, I don’t. Her parents still live in town, and I see them occasionally. Their daughter left town and has a life somewhere. I believe she got caught up in that situation and possibly lied, telling her parents she was required to read the book for my class. She wasn’t. I’m certainly not naïve enough to believe teenagers always tell the truth when they might get into trouble. It was a book she selected. But the parents really blew it all up and went to the principal, superintendent, the media, the school board, and didn’t talk to me. I would have given her a different book. But it was way-out crazy by the time it all ended after six weeks. And one of my children was in the class, so she was his friend. Now that was a difficult line to manage. It was a textbook case of a book challenge.

How did you connect to those featured students to find out how they led their lives?

I knew a student in town who knew “where all the bodies were.” I found many of them via social media, but if I couldn’t, she helped me find some of them. A few had kept in touch with me. One had passed away last year, and that was a blow. I knew the city where he lived and came upon his obituary. Mostly, the internet was very helpful. I don’t always say that! It was amazing to reconnect with them and hear how their lives had gone. They are doing incredible things, and they came from such a tiny town. Midwesterners from small towns are often known for their kindness. They sure showed me that continued to be true.

 

Why is it that some people determine their futures and others drift without direction? Is it family background, talent, or personality?

Good grief, Elaine. If I knew the answer to this question, I’d bottle it and make millions. It’s a combination of all of those things plus a bit of luck along the way. One of my children went to college not knowing what he wanted to do. He thought about teaching, but I knew that wasn’t for him. He drifted in that direction. But finally, through classes and reflection, he ended up in a job that was perfect for his personality. In his case, college exposed him to a lot of possibilities, and he was open to testing it all out. So, sure, it’s those items you listed. But never discount luck. I often enjoy going back to reunions of my former students because I enjoy hearing what happened to them after school.

 

Would you change anything in your career and/or student interactions if you could?

I was very fortunate. I could usually find positive qualities in most of the students I taught. Teaching was the perfect vocation for me. I wish I could have gone back to graduate school before I had a family. But in those days, the social pressure was to marry and have children. And once I became a single mother, going back to school was impossible. On the other hand, graduate school after all that experience made my understanding of education discussions richer. So, who knows? I wouldn’t exchange those years for anything.

Character Voice Is More Than Dialogue

By James M. Jackson

New writers are often told the bromide that each character in a story should “sound different.” As with most commonly offered advice, it has truth at its core, but the edges are as fuzzy as bunny slippers.

I remember reading in a craft book (being told at a conference?) that in great novels a reader should be able to identify the character solely by their dialogue. The word choices and cadence for each character should be unique. With a short story or a novel with only three or four characters, that might be a reasonable goal.

But I write novels. Complicated novels. My current work-in-progress, Niki Unbound, the third book in the Niki Undercover Thriller trilogy, has thirty characters with speaking roles. Neither the reader nor I has the wherewithal to recognize and keep straight thirty characters over 94,000+ words based on their dialogue choices.

However, it’s my goal that readers will have no confusion between the characters, other than a few Congressmen who could be mistaken for one another, and that is my intentional decision. How does that happen?

Word choices are important. A five-year-old, a pre-teen, and an adult woman will refer to the same person using different words. “Mommy,” from the child; the preteen’s choice of “Mom.” The adult referring to herself as mother, as in “… because I’m your mother!”

And actions without words can augment or substitute for dialogue. Bawling and striking out often accompanies a five-year-old's tantrum. A preteen might slam a door so hard the entire house shakes. And we all know the killer look a mother can deliver without uttering a single word.

When the words and actions are insufficient to clue the reader, the easiest approach to solve the problem—although often abused—is to label the dialogue. Most characters have names. When it is not clear who might have spoken a particular line, a simple “Jim said,” can do the trick. The abuse comes in two forms: unnecessary labeling, because the reader already knows who is speaking, and overuse, because the author didn’t use any other technique.

Other techniques? You betcha. Characters can have unique mannerisms. Set up correctly, if one character responds to any disagreement by standing up and placing their hands on their hips, it won’t take the reader long to associate that behavior with the character.

Internal dialogue can provide excellent character grounding. In Niki Unbound, two of the POV characters are women of the same age. The title character has spent her adult life working undercover; the other is a hacker-extraordinaire who has risen to the rank of brigadier general in the Army in charge of a cyber-ops skunkworks. Their experiences color their worldview. Niki sees the world as a series of physical threats with concrete actions she must take to counteract them; Lisa, the hacker general, sees more amorphous threats that she must deal with strategically.

Here’s an example of how I set up that difference between the two characters:

She motioned Lisa over and stood as she arrived. Unlike Niki’s entrance, which no one had paid attention to, many eyes followed Lisa. That woman had looks and a presence people remembered. Not a good thing for undercover work, but it could be useful if Niki needed a distraction. Either way, something to keep in mind. “I always sit with my back to the wall. If you’re the same, we can sit side-by-side.”

“I’m glad you waved,” Lisa said. “I wouldn’t have recognized you, which I know is the point. In my business, we fight with ones and zeros, not bullets.” She pulled out the chair opposite Niki and sat like a pianist, alert but relaxed. “If my phone explodes, it won’t matter whether I’m facing the door.”

“That’s a pleasant thought.”

Those worldview differences ground the reader, so each time the women face a threat, Niki’s internal thoughts home in on threat evasion; Lisa’s thoughts are about drawing resources to counteract. Seeding dialogue with internal thoughts that show those differences keeps the reader grounded as to which character is speaking.

Even with those alternatives, sometimes language is the only clue needed. One of my characters, an old codger named Owen, never uses a “g” at the end of a word. It is such a major component of his speech that the missing g isn’t replaced by an apostrophe; the word just cuts off. No other character in my novels has that quirk, which makes his dialogue unique. In my earliest novels, another character never used contractions, nor did he swear—so much so that other characters had a pool to pay off on catching him in either of those language “sins.”

Some authors choose to spell dialogue to show regional or other variations. My example of Owen’s missing g is one example. Other authors use that technique to project a Southern drawl, or a Yankee’s moving an “r” to the end of a word. You get the idear, and a little of that goes a long way.

Characters should be unique (unless, like the Congressmen, they are intended to be indistinguishable). Dialogue helps, but it’s the least reliable way to tell characters apart.

Agree? Disagree? What are your thoughts?

* * * * *

James M. Jackson writes justice-driven thrillers with brains and bite, including the Niki Undercover Thriller series and the Seamus McCree series. To learn more information about Jim and his books, check out his website, https://jamesmjackson.com. You can sign up for his newsletter (and get to read Low Tide at Tybee, a novella featuring Seamus, his darts-throwing mother, and six-year-old granddaughter, Megan).

Community, Craft and Christie: Why Malice Domestic Matters, by Teresa Inge

In April, I attended Malice Domestic, an annual fan convention of traditional mysteries, with a focus on Agatha Christie style storytelling. Since 1989, the event has brought authors and readers together for a fun, welcoming weekend. Located in Bethesda, Maryland, Malice hosts author panels, book signings, networking, and plenty of mystery-themed activities.

My own experience with Malice began twenty-one years ago, when I attended with my husband, daughter, and mother. At first, I was nervous, being around accomplished writers and knowing no one. But very soon, Malice volunteers, Sisters in Crime (SinC) members (an organization that supports crime writers), and other mystery authors and fans made me feel at home. That's when I knew I’d found my writing family.

Fast forward to April: Malice still has that heartwarming “family reunion” feel with hugs in the hallways, laughter between panels, and the ease of reconnecting with old friends while meeting new ones. Attending Malice shapes my writing career in many ways, by helping me connect with mystery writers, build lasting friendships, uncover publishing opportunities, and sharpen my craft. Now I’m proud to welcome first-timers, just as I was welcomed all those years ago.

This year’s highlights began on Friday with Malice Go Round and the Opening Ceremonies, followed by the SinC Guppies gathering at the bar—complete with an “Agatha signature cocktail,” followed by a live charity auction. Saturday was packed with sessions, including Meet the New Authors of Malice, The Roaring ’20s Were Murder, Crime Scenery: Settings Make the Story, and the Short Mystery Fiction Society lunch. That evening, I dressed for the Agatha Awards banquet and joined Agatha nominee Michael Rigg and other friends at our table as we celebrated his nomination along with those of other authors. On Sunday, I served on the Small Towns, Big Secrets: Murder in the Village panel followed by a book signing. The conference wrapped up with A Toast, Agatha Tea, and the Closing Ceremonies. 

Throughout the conference, the book room overflowed with literary treasures, and I couldn’t resist adding to my own collection. I brought eight new mystery books home to read this spring and summer, a perfect detail in an unforgettable weekend. Finally, I'd like to give my sincere thanks to the conference organizers for hosting another great Malice Domestic.

Diet Killers: Recipes for Readers and Writers – Flaming Bananas Foster from Molly MacRae

 

Image by Janja from Pixabay

Welcome back to Diet Killers, my series that’s become a bit sporadic and doesn’t always (as I’d originally intended) spotlight a chocolate dessert. Not because my family has gone off chocolate, but because we don’t eat that many desserts. I’ve been relying on pictures of desserts I’ve made in the past (and remembered to take pictures of) and am running low. Don’t worry, though, I’ve saved some to sprinkle throughout rest of the year. In October, for instance, you can look forward to Graveyard Fudge.

You’re bound to read more and better reports on this year’s Malice Domestic conference, but here are some of my highlights. First, it was a big weekend for Writers Who Kill. With twelve members in attendance, the blog was well-represented. With three members as finalists for Agatha Awards, we were exceptionally well-represented. I’m proud to be associated with Marilyn Levinson, a finalist for Rufus and the Dark Side of Magic (Best Children’s/YA Mystery), Connie Berry for Grave Deception (Best Contemporary Mystery), and Annette Dashofy for Devil Comes Calling (Best Contemporary Mystery).

Best of all, Annette was the Malice Domestic Guest of Honor. That is incredibly cool and well-deserved. Hank Phillippi Ryan interviewed Annette in front of a packed auditorium, and I enjoyed getting to know more about her. Well done, Annette!

Hank also interviewed Lifetime Achievement Award winner Jaqueline Winspear. Winspear told us about the “moment of creative grace” that gave her the inspiration for her long-running Maisy Dobbs series. She’s a lovely, talented storyteller and author.

Malice-Go-Round, a yearly event subtitled “speed dating with authors,” is a marathon of trying to tell a table of eight readers about your latest book(s) in an interesting, concise, cogent, entertaining way in two minutes or less—twenty times in a row while nineteen other authors at nineteen other tables in the room are doing the same thing. Hoo boy. But! You get to go around with a partner and breathe while they do their two minutes before you both move on to the next table. The person to team up with for this crazy dash is Writers Who Kill member Sarah E. Burr. Sarah has enough bright energy to power both of you through to the finish. Thank you for carrying me along, Sarah.

There are so many moments that make Malice worthwhile to attend. I’ll leave you with one more. Ellen Byron, the weekend’s Toastmaster, opened the conference with the story of the warm welcome she received at her first Malice. She’d arrived knowing no one, feeling like an interloper and an imposter, and she left knowing she’d found friends. At the end of her story, Ellen asked first-time attendees to raise their hands. Then she asked if any of them had come alone and knew no one. One of those people sat directly in front of me. I quickly consulted with my conference buddies and then invited the newcomer to have dinner with us. She accepted with delight. We had a wonderful evening and in one of those odd Malice quirks we kept running into each other for the rest of the weekend. On Sunday we said goodbye knowing we’d found a new friend. For me, that’s a lot of what Malice is about.

Here’s the recipe for Flaming Bananas Foster that one of my sisters gave my husband and me as a wedding present 48 years ago (along with other recipes for more sedate and nutritious dishes). Why is this recipe appropriate for a post-Malice post? Because after a full and exciting Malice weekend, some people might feel bananas, some might need the rum and crème de banana liqueur, and some are on fire to get back to the keyboard and write. Which kind of Malice attendee are you?

 

Bananas Foster

Combine over medium low heat, stirring:

              1/4 cup margarine (or butter)

              1/4 cup brown sugar

              2 bananas, sliced

Cook until bubbly

Raise temperature to medium high and add:

              1 tablespoon rum

              1 tablespoon crème de banana liqueur

Have ready two bowls of vanilla ice cream (Or chocolate? That’s worth trying!)

When mixture gets hot enough it will burst into flame. Keep stirring until the flames stop, then pour the mixture over the ice cream and enjoy! 

 

Molly MacRae writes the Haunted Shell Shop Mysteries, the Highland Bookshop Mysteries, and the award-winning, national bestselling Haunted Yarn Shop Mysteries. Visit Molly on Facebook and Pinterest, connect with her on Instagram, Threads, and Bluesky. 

 

You Be The Judge by Mary Dutta

Note: Congratulations to Deborah Ortega, who is the winner of Edith Maxwell's A Poisonous Pour.

I had a good time passing judgment on a bunch of butts recently. Smoked ones, that is.

I had expected that serving as a judge for the Breast Cancer Research Foundation of Alabama’s barbeque cook-off would provide me with some great food. Surprisingly, it also supplied me with a few thoughts about mystery writing.

The competition was a real learning experience. I discovered that the delicious crust that forms on the outside of a smoked pork butt is called the bark, and that eating approximately two pounds of pork starting at 10:15 a.m. is not for the faint of heart or stomach.

There were ten judges and our tastes definitely differed. I was all about the meat being moist while others focused on the smoky flavor. I already knew that I preferred a sauce that isn’t too vinegary and don’t love Alabama’s unique white barbeque sauce. Some judges were all in on those flavors. Despite the range of palates, two clear top finishers emerged, as did a unanimous least favorite.

While the official judging was blind, the People’s Choice awards were not. Interestingly, there was no overlap in the top three “best butt” finishers between the two groups. Maybe it was due to the larger pool of people judging as attendees. Maybe people were swayed by some of the competitors’ creative names like Fu Man Que or Smoke Your Butt Whole or by the friendliness of the folks behind the tables. Maybe the adorable baby whose dad was handing out samples won some hearts and votes for him.

The experience was not unlike the judging surrounding mystery writing awards and honors. There is no objective “best” when it comes to creative works, written or smoked. Some mystery honors are judged blind or selected by a single editor, but judges and editors still have their own preferences. Some awards are voted on by conference participants or organization members. In those instances, people do vote for works that wow them, but they also vote for friends, or things they’ve seen promoted, or for any number of other reasons not necessarily based solely on a considered assessment of the actual writing.

When my official competition duties were over, I swapped my judge’s hat for my mystery writer one and strolled around. The first thing I noticed was that some bbq smokers could easily fit a human body. It’s probably best to check what’s inside one of those things before firing it up. Tampering with the many different food samples set out for the crowd would clearly be a piece of cake, or more likely banana pudding given this was Alabama. And while the contest prize is simply bragging rights and a pig-shaped plaque, I could imagine a few competitors would nevertheless be willing to kill for them.

I left the event that day as full of story ideas as barbeque. Maybe even some award-winning ones.

Have you ever judged a contest, writing or otherwise?

Last year, my husband and I took a two-week driving trip from our home in Colorado Springs through Wyoming and Montana and into Canada, where we visited Banff and Jasper for the first time. It was a gorgeous trip with such an abundance of breathtaking sights that I already long to return.

But at one point, sitting in the car on one of our seven-hour driving days, I was restless and ready to be “there.” My husband said, “Just enjoy the journey,” and I felt myself cringe.

It’s common advice that has been directed at me many times, and while well-intentioned, it never succeeds in altering a particular personality quirk in my nature. And that is…in most aspects of life, I am a destination-oriented individual. I want to be where I’m going. Once I arrive, I can be “present” and enjoy the place, the time, the experience. But the journey itself is often anxiety-producing.

Naturally, I realize there’s plenty of fodder for a therapist in that revelation. Am I a high-energy worrier? Yes, indeed. Control freak much? You bet. I speculate that my mother is responsible, since mothers are to blame for all our foibles, right?

Let’s take my recent trip to Malice Domestic, a reader-writer mystery conference in Bethesda, Maryland. Now, Bethesda is a long hike from Colorado Springs, involving all-day travel each way—airports, connections, a hundred decisions. For example, checked luggage or carry-on? What if I check my luggage and the airline loses it? What if I can’t fit everything in a carry-on? As it has each year (so far…lol), everything proceeded smoothly, and I enjoyed myself at the conference. But when I try to remind myself pre-trip of all the past experiences, it doesn’t diminish the worry. My effort only adds self-recrimination to the mix.

I’ve grappled with the destination urge all my life, but as I’ve gotten older, I’m trying to navigate it in a fresh way. For me, perhaps it’s better to embrace insightfulness and accept that the eccentricity is part of who I am. When I recognize the trait occurring, I can nod my head and shrug my shoulders. It’s just me, and this too shall pass.

Since I had that epiphany, I’ve been able to link the desire to “be there” to my author’s quest. As a result, I can finally confess something writers don’t like to say aloud: I don’t especially look forward to the daily task of writing.

“I hate writing. I love having written.”

This quote has been widely attributed to Dorothy Parker, though my research casts that in doubt while providing no clear lineage of its true origin. At any rate, the quote sums up my attitude. I don’t enjoy the process of drafting nearly as much as all that comes after.

You have likely already guessed that I’m a plotter. I want a map—an inciting incident, a killer I know ahead of time, suspects, red herrings—all of it planned before I sit to tap away at my keyboard. Do I take occasional detours? Absolutely. Sometimes I even pick up hitchhikers I expect to transport for a single leg of the trip, and they end up staying in my car for an entire series. But in terms of destination, I feel antsy until I either get back on the beaten path or convince myself to update the map.

At the end of each day’s trek, I’m satisfied, if not with the words themselves, with the knowledge that I’ve completed that stretch of road and will be ready to start out again the next day. But it’s not until the draft is complete, until I’ve reached the terminus, that I experience true tranquility. Editing is a joyous pursuit for me, like exploring the locale at which I have arrived.

Understanding this about myself frees me to plug away, knowing that if I do, the destination is inevitable.

What about you? Do you prefer journeys, destinations, or both?

The Callie Cassidy Mystery series is available on Amazon Kindle, Kindle Unlimited, and paperback.

***

Lori Roberts Herbst writes the Callie Cassidy Mysteries, a cozy mystery series set in Rock Creek Village, Colorado, and the soon-to-be-released Seahorse Bay Mysteries, set in a Texas cruise port town. To find out more and to sign up for her newsletter, go to www.lorirobertsherbst.com

Kindness, Community – and Murder?

 By Cindy Brown

Kindness is my criteria, for well, almost, everything. It’s a “must” in my friends. It’s how I found my husband after a string of short-lived relationships. And my favorite books, TV, or movies all have kindness at their core. Oh, I don’t mind evil characters—I do love mysteries, after all. But I want good to triumph over evil, or at least give it a good kick in the pants.

Community is also really important to me. I love waving to neighbors on the street, being greeted by name when I walk into a place, or hanging out with groups of people with a shared goal or interest. I’m lucky to get this feeling of community from my neighbors, art class friends, fellow volunteers, church members, community gardeners, and my writer friends (more about that later).

What does all this have to do with mystery and murder, you ask? If you read cozy mysteries, you’ve probably noticed the kindness and community inherent in their small towns, knitting circles, and coffeeshops. But more serious mystery authors—like Louise Penny, Ann Cleeves, and William Kent Krueger— imbue their stories and characters with those qualities, too. In all their books, the murders are a way to explore human connections: to think about why people do the things they do, why some are bent on destruction, why some are victimized, and why others come to their aid.

That’s what I explore, too, and you’ll find that kindness and community connect all my books, including my new serious mystery, Echoes of the Lost (May 12^th from Ooligan Press), which explores the need for community and connection, and the consequences that follow their loss. I’m thrilled that early reviews acknowledge my focus, like this one from Booklist: “Brown’s latest, set amidst the houseless community in Portland, Oregon, features heartbreak, tragedy, and violence juxtaposed against heartwarming generosity, bravery, and humor…A superbly written story that highlights the massive social issue of houselessness and that will appeal to those who enjoy twisty mysteries combined with feel-good stories that deliver a strong social message.”

I can’t write about kindness and community without talking about my Hen friends (former Henery Press authors) at Writers Who Kill. Thanks, Kait, Annette, and Grace for your support and kindness. I feel lucky to be a part of your community. 

If readers would like to be a part of my community, they can find me at cindybrownwriter.com, or sign up for The Slightly Silly Newsletter on Substack.

A Review of In the Spirit of French Murder by E. B. Davis

  

After moving to France, Tabitha Knight has a new friend in fellow expat and Cordon Bleu student Julia Child, whose culinary tips can come in quite handy. But something’s cooking in postwar Paris, and it isn’t just cheese soufflé…

Tabitha has enjoyed an entertaining afternoon in Julia’s kitchen, but her return home is a bit jarring. As she arrives at her grandfather’s rue de l’Universitémansion, a woman bursts out the door babbling about messages from spirits and a warning Grand-père must heed. Oncle Rafe angrily sends the woman on her way, and neither man will answer Tabitha’s questions.

It’s not the last she sees of the mysterious visitor. While she’s on a date that evening, she’s accosted by her again—and learns that Madame Vierca is a medium who claims to have visions of a dark fate that awaits Grand-père and Oncle Rafe. The very next night, Tabitha’s messieurs host a soiree at their new restaurant, inviting fellow Resistance fighters from the war known as the Nine Bluets. To commemorate the work of the Resistance network, the vase on the dinner table sports nine of the pretty blue flowers.

But shortly after the revelers leave the restaurant, one of Grand-père’s old friends is found dead on the street . . . and one of the nine flowers is missing from the vase. When a second member of the Nine Bluets is found poisoned the next day, and a bluet flower is left with the body, Tabitha cannot ignore Madame Vierca’s frightening predictions about her dear messieurs. She has no choice but to share her suspicions and fears with the enigmatic and unruffled Inspecteur Merveille.

Tabitha soon finds herself caught up in an investigation that takes her and Merveille to the seediest, most dangerous parts of the Left Bank—home of strange, fantastical legends, disquieting events, and unusual people. As she and Merveille desperately try to find a killer, they know they don’t have much time before the rest of the Nine Bluets are targeted . . . including Grand-père and Oncle Rafe.

Amazon.com

 

In the Spirit of French Murder by Colleen Cambridge, the fourth book in the An American in Paris Mystery series, will be released by Kensington today. I’ve previously interviewed Colleen Cambridge, who writes two other mystery series. She’s a busy writer so I chose to review this book instead.

 

I loved In the Spirit of French Murder because the plot and backstory were tied together. By solving the mystery, main character Tabitha learns more about her grandfather and uncle, their trials and tribulations of working for the resistance during WWII and the often-sad consequences of their doing so. Julia Child, Tabitha’s neighbor and American cohort, doesn’t appear as often and isn’t a part of the solution, which I missed. Instead, Tabitha confides in Inspecteur Merveille, her heartthrob, who gives her subtle clues that he, too, feels attraction.  C’est si bon!    

 

A project left over from the last book in the series, Grandfather’s and Uncle Rafe’s restoration of a restaurant to pre-WWII conditions, wiping out the memories of Nazis who claimed it during the preoccupation, is now complete. The plot engages when they celebrate the restaurant’s opening by inviting their resistance working group, called the Nine Bluets (nine blue flowers). Tabitha connects the deaths of those attending as, one by one, they are murdered. She fears for her grandfather’s and uncle’s lives, motivating her to find the guilty party.

 

There is an element of mysticism due to a medium who predicts the deaths and the appearance of the Old Man Who Appears After Midnight, a Parisian legend, who makes his presence known to Tabitha. He tells her why evidence disappeared without a trace, just as he does. She is bewildered, and yet glad to have experienced his legend and explanation.

 

Colleen Cambridge’s books epitomize what Parisian mysteries should be. The tone of her books illustrates the style and charm inherent in the City of Lights, mysterious unto itself. When Tabitha solves the present crime and anticipates the budding future, the glory and horror of the past is revealed, set on top of a city that is much more than what is seems.  Santé!     

Do Your Characters Inhabit Their Space? by Martha Reed

Being an author is a gift that keeps on giving. When I first started writing I thought that someday I would fully master the craft and from that point forward writing novels would become easier, almost formulaic. As I begin to draft my new and seventh novel I can attest that I’ve learned something new, wholly different, and wildly surprising from the previous six books for my continuing creative writing education.

In my first novel I went to a lot of trouble describing my characters in extensive detail. I specified height, eye and hair color, general build, and any accoutrements like nose rings or RayBan aviator sunglasses they habitually wore. I wanted to make sure I gave the reader a complete overall character snapshot. But I’ve learned since then that readers don’t really need this level of character detail. They may not even want it.

“Books allow us certain freedoms – we are free to be mentally active when we read; we are full participants in the making (the imaging) of a narrative. … then maybe this is a crucial component of why we love written stories. … Sometimes we only want to see very little.” – Peter Mendelsund, What We See When We Read.

Showing a character’s reaction to an incident or even how they inhabit the space they’re in may be more telling than offering the reader a lot of physical details. Instead of authoritatively saying that my character is morbidly obese, I’ll describe a teak deck chair that alarmingly cracks when he sits on it. This not only plants the suggestion of a character’s visual description more viscerely it also compels the reader to become a willing co-creator to the tale as they engage their imagination.

I recently had an epiphany over constructing my new novel’s timeline. Because I was a total newbie, my first Nantucket Mystery, The Choking Game was a completely soup-to-nuts linear telling because that’s the way I’d been taught to write in Journalism classes: inciting incident, puzzling middle, and conclusive, wrapped up, and satisfying ending. The Nature of the Grave, my second book was much the same although it offered readers a deeper dive into family backstory. It was my third installment, No Rest for the Wicked where I boldly stepped into uncharted territory by creating two linked yet separated by the passage of time plots.

My next bold step may be using first-person and multiple POVs but I’m not quite there yet.

I raised another thought provoking idea when I rifled through my unfinished story archive while cleaning my desk. Some of these odd bits and bobs were so stale they listed my twenty-year-old Aspinwall PA street address with my contact information. And yet when I reviewed them some of these ideas were yes, seriously ahead of their time but still gold: human sex trafficking, distrust of authority, voter restrictions, and rampant political corruption. It’s almost like they needed to marinate or be incubated before they were ready to pop.

Now I’ve come to believe that creative stories aren’t meant to be static like a forced march. There will be creative energy ebbs and flows, and that’s okay. As long as I continue to show up, the tale that needs to be told will be. Stories patiently wait for their right moment, and the truth will out. They may never have been meant to be linear.

“William James describes the impossible attempt to introspectively examine our own consciousness as ‘trying to turn up the gas quickly enough to see how the darkness looks.’” – Peter Mendelsund, What We See When We Read.

How about your creative experience? As you travel the writerly path, what have you learned?

Procrastination and Writer's Block by Nancy L. Eady

Procrastination is my constant companion.  After all, why put off until tomorrow what you can do the day after tomorrow?  The problem with procrastination is that sooner or later the deadline arrives anyhow, and you still are faced with the necessity of completing the task on time.  Writer’s block is similar.  

Over time, I have picked up a few “favorite” tasks to do in procrastination mode.  On my list of necessary evils, housework falls somewhere between doing my tax returns and getting a tetanus shot, unless I have a major deadline.  Then housework shoots right up to the top of my list of priorities.  My apartment in college was cleanest right before exams.  

Reading is a good thing to do any time, but it definitely works for procrastination purposes.  Even better than reading for procrastination on a writing project is something like a computer game, which puts me at a computer with my fingers moving, giving me the illusion of accomplishing something.  Googling random pieces of information on the computer are another procrastination tool.  

Sadly, no matter what side efforts I drift into, the river of time pushes forward, and the deadline continues to approach.  If the deadline involves writing, as for me it usually does, whether inspired or not, I reach a moment where I must force myself into a chair, put my fingers on the keyboard and start producing words.  Even if what comes out is boring twaddle, at least I have something to work with and edit.  Sometimes, the words I thought were the absolute worst as I was writing them turn out to be much better than expected.

Have you any good tips for breaking either writer’s block or procrastination cycles?  I could certainly use them. 

 

Murder Methods, Revisited by Edith Maxwell

I'm pleased to welcome Edith Maxwell as today's guest blogger! 

Thanks for inviting me back to Writers Who Kill, Annette! I’m delighted to hang out here for a pre-celebration of A Poisonous Pour, the third Cece Barton mystery, which releases on Tuesday.

Seven years ago, when I was a guest here, I took close notice of the name of the blog and wrote about all the ways I had fictionally killed people in my books. Since it’s been a minute, and I’ve had about two dozen more books published in those seven years, I hope you’ll forgive me for revisiting the topic.

In the 2019 post, I offered the following list: 

·         Gun – 3

·         Some form of poison – 7

·         Knife or very sharp object – 7

·         Garrote – 2

·         Strangle – 2

·         Pitchfork – 1

·         Push resulting in fatal injury – 3

Those didn’t include the murder methods in my more than a dozen published short stories at the time (I now have three dozen short crime stories in print, with one that might or might not have won an Agatha Award last night!). 

So how’s my list looking today, with my 38^th book about to release?

·              Gun – 4

·              Some form of poison – 10

·              Biological toxin - 4

·              Knife or very sharp object – 9

·              Garrote – 2

·              Strangle – 3

·              Pitchfork – 1

·              Push resulting in fatal injury – 3

·              Heavy object – 6

·              Allergen – 2

·              Starvation – 1

·              Botched surgery – 1

·              Smothering - 1

Note: Some of my books include more than one murder, and the list includes two written but not yet published Cozy Capers Book Group Mysteries, thus the numbers in the list add up to more than 38. 

I’m clearly fond of killing people with poisons and biological toxins. I closely follow any workshop or conference session presented by Luci Zahray, the pharmacologist who goes by The Poison Lady. She’s great at suggesting commonly available drugs and plants that are lethal.

I also like to use heavy objects (including bocce balls), but I was surprised, when I tracked down all the murder weapons in my books, that I used guns four times. One of those was in my first mystery, Speaking of Murder. Another time was in the first Country Store mystery, and two were in my historical Quaker Midwife Mysteries. I don’t know anything about guns – neither do my protagonists – and I’m not really interested in learning. It’s no surprise that having a gun as the murder weapon came early in my career as an author. Now it just seems too easy.

Sometimes the title gives away the murder weapon. In Strangled Eggs and Ham, I kind of had to use strangulation to kill the victim. Four Leaf Cleaver? You got it. Also for Deadly Crush, Cece Barton #2, where the victim is found crushed under an auto shop lift. These books are centered in the wine industry in northern California, and the crush is also when they extract the juice from the grapes. Double meanings are always good in a title. 

That brings us to A Poisonous Pour, the new book. Want to guess the murder weapon? You’ll have to read the book to learn which poison. 

Readers: What’s your favorite fictional way to knock someone off? I’ll send one commenter a copy of the new book. 

At the Memorial Day weekend classic car show and wine tasting, northern California wine bar owner Cece Barton witnesses heated discussions with local vintage car owners and overbearing association director Regan Greene. After Regan is later murdered, Cece once again enlists her twin, Allie, as her partner-in-sleuthing to clear the name of Cece’s elderly but muckraking neighbor. But they’ll have to act quickly to investigate various suspects in the case before the trail goes sour. 

Maddie Day writes the Cece Barton Mysteries and other gentle and historical mysteries; as Edith Maxwell, she writes Agatha-Award nominated short crime fiction. She’s a member of Mystery Writers of America and a proud lifetime member of Sisters in Crime. Maxwell/Day lives north of Boston with her beau and their cat Martin, where she writes, cooks, gardens, and wastes time on Facebook. Find her at edithmaxwell.com and at Mystery Lovers’ Kitchen.