Thanks so much
for having us on Writers Who Kill today. We are the Seven Sinister Sisters and
each of us has a new release coming between January and April. Our group is
comprised of Becky Clark, Sue Star, Shawn McGuire, Cathy Perkins, Leslie Karst,
Edith Maxwell and Patricia Hale. Our blog tour runs from January 6th
to April 30th and we’ll be answering different questions at each
stop. Writers Who Kill is our first stop and our first question is…
What’s the story behind your book, why
did you write it?
Patricia Hale will start us off… “I once read a true
story of a mother who went into the underground world of sex-trafficking to search
for her missing daughter. She never found her, but the mother was fearless and
unstoppable, and she has stayed with me. Sex-trafficking is one of those topics
we discuss in hushed voices, but it needs to come into the light. Using a
fictional approach with Durable Goods, (April 15, 2018) I’ve
illuminated the subject through the eyes of the young women held captive. I
hope I have depicted them well, showing that though we correctly label them as
victims, they are true survivors with strength beyond their years.”
Social
issues continue to be addressed by our next author, Edith Maxwell. Writing as Maddie Day, in Biscuits and Slashed Browns, (January 30, 2018) she presents a running sub-theme of climate
change… “One suspect in the murder of a purported tree scientist during the
National Maple Syrup Festival in southern Indiana is a maple scientist related
to an employee of my protagonist, chef Robbie Jordan. I'm not shy about
sneaking my views about global warming into a book, but only if they serve the
story. In this case, the victim had publicly pooh-poohed climate change, but
more than one person associated with the festival or Robbie's country store
restaurant had motive to get rid of the victim.”
There are still a lot of old-fashioned
ideas out there and not just about global warming and women’s rights. In Death
al Fresco, (March 13, 2018) Leslie
Karst takes on generational conflicts… “My books are
set in Santa Cruz, California, a long sleepy beach community, home to Italian
fishermen and retirees. Recently, however, along with the advent of techies and
hipsters, the food revolution has descended full-force upon the surprised
old-timers. One day while I was wandering down the town’s historic fisherman’s
wharf, brainstorming ideas for a murder mystery, it hit me: What would happen
if a local Santa Cruz gal found herself caught between the world of her
family’s old-fashioned Italian seafood restaurant, and that of the
newly-arrived, politically-correct foodies? Yes, I
thought. The perfect backdrop for a culinary mystery!”
And Leslie isn’t the only one who sees a body of
water as a great backdrop. In her case it’s the ocean, but a river works just as
well, ask Cathy Perkins…. “My husband and I were hiking along the
Snake River, in a game management area called Big Flats, which happens to
feature in So About the Money
(April 2017). We had to push through
some tangled foliage at the shoreline. Being a mystery writer whose mind can go
all kinds of strange places, I glanced over my shoulder and said, wouldn't this
be a great place to find a body? That germ of an idea kept growing. Why would
the heroine be out at Big Flats to stumble over the body? How did the body end
up beside the river in the first place? And a story evolved.”
Setting is often
the trigger that initiates an idea, but as Shawn
McGuire explains, it can also be a combination of things…. “The Whispering Pines Series first came to life many years ago as a young adult
fantasy novel. I stuck with it because it kept talking to me, but the only bits
that carried through were the main character Jayne, Meeka, her West Highland
White Terrier, and the fact that Jayne goes to her grandmother’s house in
northern Wisconsin. Original Secrets (March
5, 2018) happened because a) I wanted to write a mystery, b) I heard about
a place called Lily Dale, New York which is a community of psychics and that
sounded cool, and c) I was intrigued by the Wiccan religion.”
A
passion for something is a great motivator to put words on the page. In Murder
by Moose, (February 15, 2018) Sue
Star brings us back to nature (and more) with her preoccupation…. “My kids
think I am obsessed with moose. They dare their friends to guess how many moose
curios are in my collection (only a dozen, really). The truth is, moose
are majestic animals, and they are making a comeback to the mountains near my home.
Their strength, size, and speed make them a potentially dangerous force to
unaware hikers. I couldn’t resist that combination, so I sent my amateur
sleuth, Nell Letterly, into the mountains with moose. She is there to
teach a self-defense class, but instead she finds a body—and a whole lot more.”
In
the end it all comes back to writing what you know, as Becky Clark explains. “You know the old adage,
write what you know? Well, I know all the secret doors and passageways of the
writing world and I thought that might be a fun backstage place to show
readers. My amateur sleuth in FICTION CAN BE MURDER (April 8, 2018)
is Charlemagne Russo, a mid-list mystery author who finds herself in a
situation that I, luckily, have not. Her literary agent was murdered in the
same unique way Charlee wrote in her unpublished manuscript, which only a
handful of people have read. (Luckily my real-life agent has a great sense of
humor about it!)
Thanks so much to Writers Who Kill and all their readers for kicking off our tour with us. We’re happy to address any comments or questions. And feel free to contact any of us through our websites. Our next stop will be January 18th with the Stiletto Gang. See you there!
Thanks so much to Writers Who Kill and all their readers for kicking off our tour with us. We’re happy to address any comments or questions. And feel free to contact any of us through our websites. Our next stop will be January 18th with the Stiletto Gang. See you there!
http://www.cperkinswrites.com
http://www.rebeccawriter.blogspot.com
