The Little Voices by Catherine Bruns

Everyone has them, especially writers. Those little voices inside your head. An idea urging you to take notice. A future character calling to get your attention. Sometimes you can't shut them up. Other times, they're painfully silent, and you beg for them to speak.

I’m guessing this happens to every writer, but I probably endured more than most. I knew from the young age of eight that I wanted to be a writer. I started out with short stories and plays. I worked as a reporter for a local newspaper. But after I graduated from college, I entered a different profession, and the little voices started talking less and less. I spent the next 20 years waiting for them to speak again and say something—anything. Procrastination took over and fear and doubt as well. Tomorrow, I told them. I'll write tomorrow. Hold that thought!

A writer needs to have a lot of patience, and that sometimes has been my downfall. I expected to get everything right the first time I put it all down on paper, and that simply doesn’t happen. If an idea or thought wasn’t working, I got frustrated and crumpled up the paper. Years later, I’d simply hit the delete button on my computer. I never put the time in to try and work with what I already had. Perhaps I should have taken Nora Roberts’ words to heart: "I can fix a bad page. I can't fix a blank page."

 

In the meantime, I got married, had three children and worked a full time job. I was too tired to make the effort at night. Tomorrow, I told myself over and over. Even though I'd stopped writing, my love of reading continued. Sue Grafton's Alphabet Mysteries have always been a favorite. Before Facebook existed, Sue had an online forum where she would answer questions readers posted. I told her I had writer's block and no idea how to fix it. She wrote back and told me that it wasn’t writer’s block. I was getting ideas every day, but my ego was probably shooting them down. Sue said that I was afraid to fail, and not to worry about doing something that had been done before. She assured me that everything had been done before—it was my personal spin on the idea that would make it original. She ended her response to me in a personal email, dated September 14, 2001, in classic Sue Grafton fashion: “Obey me.”

As more time passed, I thought about what Sue had said and knew she was right. Another idea came to me and the little voices started to babble again. One day, about five and a half years ago, I forced myself to sit down at the keyboard. I always wanted to write mystery and thought it would be great fun to create a story about a real estate agent accused of killing one of her co-workers, especially since I was licensed and knew the business. So, I went to work. This time, I didn’t delete the story when I came to a bump in the road. I kept at it and the process got easier the more I wrote. Who knew?

I wrote my first novel, Killer Transaction, back in 2013. A few months later I had an agent. She started querying the book for me. While that was happening, I started a second series. Tastes Like Murder was the first book in the Cookies & Chance series about a young divorced woman who runs a novelty cookie shop in the Buffalo area.

When Killer Transaction didn’t sell, my relationship with my agent came to an end. I was crushed but even more determined than ever to become a published author. I liked what I saw at Gemma Halliday Publishing, a boutique publisher of cozy mysteries. Gemma published both books in 2015. Tastes Like Murder performed better than I’d hoped. I never expected to sell thousands of ebooks in the first month of publication.

Crumbled to Pieces released this week. It’s the sixth book in the series. Since 2013, I’ve written 13 novels (all cozy).  With the help of my new agent, I’ve also landed a traditional deal.  The Italian Chef Mysteries debuts with Sourcebooks in August 2019. I’m excited to start this new chapter in my career. I’m even working on my first book that’s not a cozy!

Now the little voices have taken over. They talk to me all the time—when I'm driving, in the shower, when I'm people-watching at the grocery store. They enjoy keeping me up at night. They've awakened from their twenty-year sleep in typical Rip Van Winkle fashion and I don't think they're going anywhere.

Remember, the little voices are always there. Just make sure that you’re listening for them.

USA Today best-selling author Catherine Bruns lives in Upstate New York with an all-male household that consists of her very patient husband, three sons and several spoiled pets. Catherine has a B.A. in both English and Performing Arts and is a former newspaper reporter and press release writer. In her spare time, she loves to bake, read and attend live theater performances. Readers are invited to visit her website at www.catherinebruns.net.

To celebrate the upcoming release of Crumbled to Pieces, Catherine’s publisher has put the first book in the 

series, Tastes Like Murder, on sale for 99 cents. https://amzn.to/2O8zCSn

A Conversation with Catherine Bruns By E. B. Davis

I moved to the beach about a month ago and needed to find some beach reads. While perusing through the Kindle store, I ran into a series I thought I’d like by Catherine Bruns. After downloading the first book, which paired nicely with sparking rosé, I immediately downloaded the second (the second bottle refreshed as well). Because Catherine is a member of Sisters In Crime, contacting her for an interview was easy.

The books, Killer Transaction and Priced To Kill are the first two in the Cindy York Mystery Series. Since my old house is currently languishing on the market, perhaps main character Cindy York’s profession of real estate agent was an added attraction to which I could relate. Catherine also writes the Cookies and Chance Mystery Series, and the first book in her new Carrie Jorgenson Mystery Series (set in Hawaii—think I’ll read that too!) will be release by Gemma Halliday Publishing in January.

Please welcome Catherine Bruns to WWK.                                                                    E. B. Davis

Cindy York is a real estate agent. Are you a real estate agent? I used to be but I don’t practice anymore. No time with all the writing going on!

Having listed my house on the market, I’ve seen some unethical behavior by real estate agents (not mine). Are all of the office meanies Cindy encounters in Killer Transaction typical of the business? Oh my goodness, no. Like any other business, there’s wonderful people to work with and some that are not so wonderful. My former manager is one of the loveliest people I’ve ever met. I still keep in touch with her and she is a huge asset when it comes to information for my books because let’s face it, the industry changes every year.

Your depiction of Cindy’s fifteen-year-old daughter, Darcy, is accurate, but you have no daughters. How did you get Darcy’s extreme behavior spot on? Let’s just say that a long time ago, I was a 15-year-old girl too!

Jacques Forte, a star real estate agent, is gay and Cindy’s best friend. Jacques could have been a cliché character, but you gave him exceptional and unique skills. Gay doesn’t always mean effeminate, does it? Jacques is one of those characters that just clicked automatically in my brain. I never saw him as a cliché character. He’s actually a combination of several of my friends all rolled into one.

Cindy has a history of having male best friends. Why no girlfriends? There’s an old saying, “All you need is one good friend.” When you have a Jacques in your life, you really don’t need anyone else!

Cindy and her husband’s mother don’t have a harmonious relationship. Why do mothers and daughters-in-law hardly ever like each other? I don’t know if that’s true. I had a wonderful relationship with my own mother-in-law, who passed away eight years ago. I just liked the idea of Cindy having a snarky one, lol. I think the story is more entertaining that way. As you’ll see with Priced to Kill, Cindy starts to stand up to her more and Helen shows some (small) signs of humanity. Characters have to grow and develop over time through the series or else I feel that they become stagnant and uninteresting.

In Killer Transaction, Cindy’s horrible twenty-five-year-old memory of finding her best friend’s body after he killed himself leads into the plot of Priced To Kill. Have you plotted of your series? I do have a storyline in mind for Book #3 but don’t want to give away any details until my publisher approves it, sorry!

Are Cindy and Jacques addicted to coffee? Oh yes, I think that’s a given!

In Priced To Kill, Cindy solves the murder of her high school best friend, who was thought to have committed suicide. After twenty-five years, what convinced Cindy that his death was murder? When Cindy attends her 25^th high school reunion, she finds a letter in a time capsule written to her by Paul, just before he died. After Cindy reads it, she becomes convinced that his death was not self-inflicted and vows to find justice for her friend.

Both books have elements of sibling rivalry. Is there anything in your real life you’d like to confess? Do you get along with your siblings? Yes. I don’t see them often, but I’m happy to say there’s no sibling rivalry between us. Now, my kids are a different story!

What’s next for Cindy and Jacques? Well, if you’ve read Priced to Kill, you know that Cindy’s life is about to change. My publisher and I are in talks about the third book in the series and I’m trying to figure out how I can work in the next one while writing my two other series!

In your other series, recipes are included. How hard is it to find recipes to publish that aren’t copyright protected? Do you experiment and create your own? I like to bake occasionally, but I don’t have the patience for experimenting. I am lucky to have several talented friends who have been more than generous to share their family recipes with me.

What attracted you to the mystery genre? I’ve always loved mysteries. I devoured Nancy Drew and the Hardy Boys as a child then graduated to Agatha Christie, Sue Grafton and eventually Janet Evanovich. I’ve wanted to be a writer for as long as I can remember, so the genre was pretty much a given.

How did you become published by Gemma Halliday? I had queried a few publishers and gotten some interest, but when I discovered Gemma’s website, I instantly knew this was where I wanted to be. I sent her an email and asked when she might be open to accepting submissions and she told me to go ahead and send them along. I submitted Killer Transaction, the first book I ever wrote, and Tastes Like Murder. She got back to me within a couple of months and suggested some revisions. I complied and the rest, as they say, is history. Gemma is terrific to work for and one of the things that makes her so special is that since she is an author as well as a publisher, she understands exactly how you are feeling.

For vacation, would you choose beach or mountains? I’m definitely a beach girl. Give me my Kindle and a cold drink and I’ll sit there all day.