Irish American Travellers by Sasscer Hill

Hello to Writers Who Kill. Let me tell you a little about the strange culture of the American gypsies known as Irish American Travellers.

My new novel, Travels of Quinn, a dark-cozy mystery, is based loosely on the largest clan of these people in the US, located only thirty-five minutes from my house. Some might remember a reality show called “My Big Fat Gypsy Wedding.” It was filmed in the town, Murphy Village, South Carolina.

The culture of the Travellers is strange, to say the least. The women are into big hair, teasing, using entire cans of mousse, or wearing wigs.  They love makeup and bling. Children are pulled from school no later than the sixth or seventh grade. Girls stay at home and are locked into marriage contracts, often when only five years old. Locally, I’ve seen little girls with diamond engagement rings. Like the adult women, they are dressed to kill, with similar makeup and hair styles. These people are extremely insular, sticking to themselves and avoiding outsiders as a way of preserving their culture.

Like grifters, the men and boys travel out of state during warm weather, running home improvement swindles. Many Travellers speak a secret language, a mixture of Gaelic and English called “Cant”– useful when pulling off a scam. But many people who know them say most Travellers are honest hard-working people.

Researching this story, I met with law enforcement officials including the head of the county detention center and a criminal defense attorney who represents Travellers. I met with the county prosecutor and the judge for the second Judicial Circuit in South Carolina, who has presided over their trials. I was so fascinated by these people, I wanted to drive into Murphy Village to see if the stories about their McMansions and the trailers they often continue to live in were true.

People told me, “Don’t go in there, it’s dangerous. They will run you out. You could even get hurt!”

 But we writers are crazy, so off I went one afternoon with my iPhone video camera and my husband at the wheel. Murphy Village, called “Tinkers Town” in my novel, had one way in with cross streets ending in cul-de-sacs or dead ends that forced us to make awkward K turns to get out again. That made me feel vulnerable, except no one bothered us.

As promised, there were McMansions, trailers, and numerous statues of Catholic saints in the yards outside. A number of huge front doors had orange stickers on them. We couldn’t imagine what those were for. We drove slowly through the village for at least twenty minutes shooting video, and no one cared. The place was dead quiet, and I decided the people who’d uttered dire warnings didn’t know what they were talking about.

 Imagine my shock the next morning when the newspaper announced that early the day we’d been there, 22 people in Murphy Village had been arrested on fraud and racketeering charges. No wonder nobody bothered us. They were in jail! What are the chances I would pick the day of an FBI sting to visit this village? Oh, and those orange stickers? They were forfeiture notices. The feds were confiscating these people’s homes.

Imagine if you will, the story of Quinn O’Neill, a nineteen-year-old woman who was born into this culture. Imagine she wants out, but she’s torn with indecision. Her parents signed her into a marriage contract to a young criminal she doesn’t love. But does she really want to leave everything she knows and be ostracized by her family? Is there a way she can escape?

Watch the short trailer! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4V76f6tPNBE    

Author Sasscer Hill was involved in horse racing as an amateur jockey and racehorse breeder for most of her life. She sets many of her novels against a background of big money, gambling, and horse racing. Her mystery and suspense thrillers have won multiple awards and many award nominations.

Her newest title and first non-horse racing mystery, was out in February of 2020. Travels of Quinn, is a mystery-thriller based on the con artists known as Irish American Travelers.

March Writing Method Through the Basketball Madness

by Paula Gail Benson

I’ve been right there with you watching the brackets and speculating on the final four, but this year, I found March was a time to delve into writing method as much as basketball madness.

Sally Handley and Debra H. Goldstein

Early in the month, I had the opportunity to attend the Upstate Sisters in Crime meeting in Greenville, S.C., to enjoy supper with the group and hear Debra H. Goldstein talk about her journey to publication. Debra understands the writing business and has approached it as she did her legal career: thoughtfully, conscientiously, and courteously. I’m constantly amazed at all that she is able to accomplish (including simultaneously being President of the online Sisters in Crime Chapter known as “the Guppies” as well as President of Southeast Chapter of Mystery Writers of America plus promoting her new series and writing/revising the next novel). She is phenomenal.

I’m tremendously grateful that Sally Handley, President of Upstate Sisters in Crime, played host to both of us. Following the program, Sally, Debra, and I went to her condo and spent a good portion of the evening talking. What is more enjoyable than authors being able to compare notes? Well, maybe a musical theater production, but they are close! I’m also grateful to have seen Sally’s garden, which made me appreciate the inspiration for her gardening series.

Maggie Toussaint, Raegan Teller, PGB, Roger Johns, Sasscer Hill,
and David Burnsworth

Near the end of the month, I had the wonderful opportunity to moderate a panel at a local literary festival known as Deckle Edge, after the feathered texture found on pages in handmade books. This year, the festival took applications and I was very pleased they accepted one for a Detective in the South discussion. The panelists were David Burnsworth, who writes two series about Charleston private eyes (and has been recently interviewed here at WWK); Sasscer Hill, the Agatha nominated author of books about the horse racing industry, who has been compared to Dick Francis; Roger Johns, who now lives in Atlanta, but writes about a female police detective based in Baton Rouge, Louisiana; Raegan Teller, from Columbia, whose reporter character Enid Blackwell finds that small Southern towns have their own secrets; and Maggie Toussaint, who combines paranormal abilities with police procedurals in the low country near Savannah, Georgia. With only an hour, we barely had time to scratch the surface, but it was a rousing conversation.

In addition, I had the chance to interview Jo Watson Hackl at Deckle Edge. Jo writes middle grade mysteries that involve outdoor settings. Her own background, growing up in a ghost town and avidly listening to storytellers in her family and community, led her to create a delightfully plucky heroine, Cricket, who goes looking for her missing mother with a cricket named Charlene and a poetry loving dog. I really enjoyed hearing about Jo’s life story as well as how she juggles her writing with a career as an attorney.

Jo Watson Hackl

So, many thanks to my March final four of Debra H. Goldstein, Sally Handley, a fabulous panel on the Detective in the South, and Jo Watson Hackl. I highly recommend their work and encourage you to go hear them if they are speaking near you.

What writer presentations have you seen lately and what are you looking forward to? Tell me more about Sleuthfest, Left Coast Crime, and anticipation for Malice!

TELL DON’T SHOW, THE OLDEST MISTAKE IN THE BOOK. By Sasscer Hill

With six published novels, and multiple award nominations, how was it possible my current WIP suffered from this error?

Was it the new subject? My first six novels are racetrack mystery-thrillers, and horse racing is a game I lived for more than thirty years as an owner, breeder, and rider of Thoroughbred racehorses.

 I suspect my failure was due to the unfamiliarity of a story world about Irish American Travelers, gypsies so famous for their cons and scams here in South Carolina.

I was two hundred pages in, when I agreed to send the work to my agent for her opinion. But as I read what I was about to give her, problems leapt out at me. It’s one thing to give pages to your critique group, and quite another when you’re placing it before the eyes of an accomplished agent. Reading it this time, I saw the story had a whole lot of telling, and not nearly enough showing.

Learning about the Travelers required in-depth research, and parts of my manuscript almost read like a documentary. Probably all that research, which is supposed to enable you to write with authority, not beat your reader over the head with facts and figures.

                          

Though there was action and dialogue, there was also an endless first-person monologue from my protagonist, Quinn, telling the reader what the Travelers do and how they do it. Oh, yuk! What was I thinking? Quinn was even telling her backstory!

My agent was not thrilled with the manuscript, but being kind, simply said it wasn’t “organic enough.”

When I said there was way too much “telling,” she said, “I’m so glad to hear you say that!”

I’d saved her having to tell me I’d made one of the worst beginner’s mistakes. So, I’m back into those pages and instead of telling about the travelers, I’m using dialog, and action to show the reader their culture and behavior.  I have cut out much of the lumps of backstory and will piece them in later, if they are needed. Although I don’t believe a dead body must appear on the first page, this novel was taking too long to get to the action!

                    
 When I finish this manuscript, it must suck the reader right in with action, emotional conflict, and vivid sense-laden descriptions. I’ve done it before. I know I can do it again.

 

Have you ever lapsed back to your beginner days?

Author Sasscer Hill was involved in horse racing as an amateur jockey and racehorse breeder for most of her life. She sets her novels against a background of big money, gambling, and horse racing, and her mystery and suspense thrillers have received multiple award nominations, including both Agatha and Macavity Best First Book nominations, as well as a nomination for the Dr. Tony Ryan Best in Racing Literature award.

The Dark Side Of Town, out April 2018, won the Carrie McCray 2015 Competition for First Chapter of a Novel, as well as a 2015 Claymore Award nomination for best unpublished mystery-thriller. 

Sasscer Hill Interview by E. B. Davis

“Two weeks? I don’t believe you. You’re just like Mom. You won’t come back.” She

pushed back from the table so violently her chair crashed to the floor. She kicked

it three feet across the tile and ran from the room.

“That went well,” I said, reaching for my fortune cookie.

“How can you joke about this?”

“Would you rather see me cry?” I broke open the cookie and read the little slip of paper.

“A journey awaits you. Beware of Danger.”

“Lovely,” I said, and bit into the cookie.

Sasscer Hill, Flamingo Road, Kindle Loc. 996

Sasscer Hill’s first novel in the Nikki Latrelle series, Full Mortality, garnered Agatha and Macavity nominations. She wrote two more books in the series and then—abandoned it. That series’ focus on horse racing and her main character’s profession of jockey, so Acquiring Editors said, limited its popular appeal.

Sasscer gambled when she abandoned her old series, but she won a contract with St. Martin’s Press for her new book, Flamingo Road, featuring Fia McKee, an agent with the Thoroughbred Racing Protective Bureau (TRPB). I didn’t know such an organization existed (thinking it a product of Sasscer’s imagination), but it does exist, and Sasscer knew about this organization since she’s always ridden, owned, and competed in horse competitions from an early age.

I’m excited about Sasscer’s new series, but her exemplary writing always made her books easy to read. If you’re interested in finding out about her previous series, go to these links. If you’d like to know more about her new series—read my interview with her below about the first book, Flamingo Road, and go to her website.  

Welcome back to WWK, Sasscer.                                                                                               E. B. Davis

When we first meet Fia, a Baltimore cop, she identifies herself as a cop to a man, who is in the midst of killing a woman. When he doesn’t stop, Fia shoots and kills him. She’s put on administrative leave, but some of the higher ups think she’s guilty of “excessive use of force.” Why do they think that?

She has a history of being a bit rough on the bad guys. She’s a white cop who has killed a black man. The reason they force her into administrative leave can pretty much be found in the newspaper headlines. Think Ferguson and Baltimore.

Fia confides that, “Turning to law enforcement had filled in a void. And provided an outlet for the anger that flickered like a pilot flame inside me.” What was that void?

The void was caused when her beloved father was murdered, the killer was never found, and the case went cold. She’s estranged from her brother, and she doesn’t speak to the mother who walked out on her and her father for another man. Losing her dad was losing everything.

Fia gained so much experience with horses, qualified to warm up horses, and spent time on the track at Pimlico because her father was a racehorse owner. Was he also a trainer?

Actually he was a trainer, who owned a horse or two, but most of the horses in his stable belonged to owners who paid him to train their horses.

You’ve set the story up nicely to take her to the Gulfstream Park racetrack. When Fia is offered a job with TRPB, she takes it. Why doesn’t she fight for her cop job?

Because of the political times, it would be a long and ugly fight she probably wouldn’t win. She’s given an attractive option and takes it.

Fia identifies strongly with her niece, Jilly. Why?

The moment Fia sees Jilly, for the first time in five years, she recognizes a kindred spirit. They are two peas in a pod. Jilly’s a handful and Fia learns that payback is hell.

We read from Fia’s third person POV. Patrick, Fia’s brother, seems to get whammed no matter what he does. I felt sorry for him, but at other times, I felt like kicking him, too. Is it men of a certain age, fathers/brothers, men in general, or just Patrick?

It’s family members. They can push buttons like no other beast. Patrick has stayed close to their mother even though she abandoned Fia and her father for another, extremely wealthy man. Fia hates her mother. “Mom” sent money Patrick’s way, but Fia was forced out of private school, and her father was forced to sell the family farm in the divorce settlement.

Is Protect the Animals League (PAL) real?

No, but ARM (Animal Recovery Mission) is, and you can see their page on Facebook. Zanin is based on the real live ARM creator, Richard Kudo.

I was surprised that Fia is suspicious of Zanin, who heads up PAL. Why was she?

She’s a cop, and the streets have taught her to be suspicious. Zanin gets a lot of hero worship and a lot of press attention. That he’s always seeking donations rankles her a bit. Could he only be after the money? Does he really care about animals! She learns, of course, that he’s the real deal.

Is the area you call C-Nine Basin real?

Very much so. You can Google the word and it’s all there. And this is where Richard Kudo spends some of his real life time.

Anything, it seems, goes in horseracing to win unless caught. Is frog juice real?

Yes, it’s real name is Demorphin. It’s a hepta-peptide first isolated from the skin of South American frogs and injected as a painkiller at least 40 times stronger than morphine.

Would you define the following terms for readers?

Stakes horses: A stakes horse is one that has won, placed or showed (run first, second, or third) in a stakes race. Stakes races are the top races run at any track. They offer the largest purses and are, of course, much harder to win. The Kentucky Derby, for example, is a stakes race.

Horses’ “naughty tricks”: Things they do that are annoying, amusing, or sometimes dangerous. One horse I bred had a naughty habit of dumping his rider during morning exercise at Laurel Park racetrack. Another horse I had on the farm was in the habit of pulling the halters off of his stablemates when out in the field. I’d spend hours walking the field looking for the missing halters.

Racing syndicate: A group of owners that buy a piece of a racehorse, or a piece of a group of racehorses that are in the charge of one trainer or one owner.

Not For Love filly: A filly by the good Maryland sire Not for Love.

Dam: The mother of the horse.

“Run her for a tag, get her claimed.”: Run for a tag is slang for running a horse in a claiming race, the type of race where another trainer can claim/buy the horse out of the race. Claiming races are run with specific price tags. This keeps like horses in like races, that is to say, who would put Secretariat in a $10,000 claiming race? Nobody. And who would want to run their mediocre horse against the likes of Secretariat? Claiming races level the playing field, rather like little league, versus high school, versus college, versus NFL players.

Under the effects of frog juice, Fia takes down two bad guys who shot her full of the drug. Is this a case of criminal ignorance?

On the part of the thugs, I suppose it is, since they weren’t sure what effect the drug would have on her and were curious to find out. Well, they found out!

Your characters eat a lot of take out pizza and swill lots of vodka (the good stuff). Will Fia’s diet improve in the next book?

It does improve in THE DARK SIDE OF TOWN (working title) because it takes place in Saratoga where they have a lot of excellent restaurants. She eats a lot of fancy northern Italian fare in one restaurant in particular, a restaurant owned by the mob.

Thanks for the interview, Sasscer!

Flamingo Road Jacket Blurb

Baltimore police officer Fia McKee is put on leave for excessive use of force after interfering in a crime that turns deadly. Given a second chance, she is sent to work undercover for the Thoroughbred Racing Protective Bureau (TRPB) at the Gulfstream Park in Florida, where she works as an exercise rider. Her assignment is to watch and report back on two racetrack workers who have been suspected of illegal activities and whose horses continue to outperform all expectations, winning their owners unseemly amounts of money in the races.

​

To complete her cover story, Fia moves in with her semi-estranged brother, Patrick, who lives near the racetrack. Her investigations are complicated when her niece, Jilly, disappears after a shadow gang takes Jilly’s beloved horse. Now Fia must work two angles—first to find out what’s really going on with the men who might or might not be gaming the system, and second to bring the men who prey on horses to justice. Along the way, Fia encounters Cuban gangs living off the grid, a (very handsome) do-gooder who’s close on their trail, and a cabal of super wealthy gamblers who will stop at nothing to ensure they always win.

Deckle Edge, a New Literary Festival by Paula Gail Benson

Several times in WWK, I’ve written with enthusiasm about the South Carolina Book Festival, which originally was held in February and later moved to May. Organized by the Humanities Council of South Carolina, the Book Festival was a highly anticipated event for folks who loved reading and writing. A WWK blogging partner, James M. Jackson was a panelist one year. In the past, the Book Festival has featured Jeffrey Deaver, Harlen Coben, Scott Turow, Robert Dugoni, C.J. Box, Hallie Ephron, and Pat Conroy. So, when it was announced last year that the Book Festival would be no more, the news was met with despair.

Fortunately, a group of reading enthusiasts took up the mantle and organized a new festival that will take place this coming weekend. Called Deckle Edge, after the deckle frame used in manual paper making that leaves a ragged or feathered edge as the paper comes through the machine, it promises a terrific three-day celebration of all things literary.

Hank Phillippi Ryan

The local organizers welcomed our Palmetto Chapter of Sisters in Crime’ request to be involved and our chapter was delighted when Sisters in Crime National gave us a grant to bring Hank Phillippi Ryan to participate. Not only will we be celebrating Hank’s latest Agatha nominated What You See, but also the reissuance of her first Charlotte McNally book, Prime Time, which won the Agatha for best first novel. Hank will be involved in two events on Saturday, February 20, the first at 9:30 AM moderating a panel of mystery authors that will include Palmetto Chapter members C. Hope Clark and Sasscer Hill and the second at 12:30 PM being interviewed by former Sisters in Crime National President Cathy Pickens. Since Hank also is a former SinC National President, it will be wonderful to have two “goddesses” from National’s pantheon to enthrall us with tales about their work and experiences in publishing.

Cathy Pickens

On Friday, February 19, I’m excited to be teaching a workshop called “Plotting Strategies for Short Stories, Novels, and Plays.” Another member of the Palmetto Chapter, J.E. Thompson, will have a segment about children’s mysteries on Saturday. On Sunday, the Richland County Library is hosting a local author showcase featuring some of our chapter’s members.

C. Hope Clark

The Palmetto Chapter is especially delighted that our member Carla Damron, a WWK contributor, is being honored for her new book The Stone Necklace. As Carla has mentioned in her WWK posts, her novel is being published by the University of South Carolina Press’ Story River Books, Pat Conroy’s imprint. It has been selected for the “One Book, One Community” program (where the folks in Columbia are urged to read and discuss The Stone Necklace), so Carla has been making lots of personal appearances and many folks have been reading the beautiful work where she has carefully crafted four intertwining, compelling stories. Carla’s panel will close out the Deckle Edge Book Festival on Sunday.

Sasscer Hill

If you can attend the festival this coming weekend in Columbia, SC, you’ll hear great authors and have the opportunity to view a number of historic venues. My workshop will take place in the Woodrow Wilson Family Home, where the future president spent his boyhood years. Hank’s events will be in the Columbia Museum of Art.

So wish us well as we embark upon this new endeavor. Do you have a book festival in your community? Have you thought about initiating one?

Carla Damron

THE SOUTH CAROLINA BOOK FESTIVAL

I have come to look forward to May as a month of literary and artistic opportunities. At the beginning of May, or the very end of April, Malice Domestic meets near Washington, D.C. (Sometimes the same weekend as the Kentucky Derby.) As Memorial Day approaches, near the end of May, the Spoleto Festival and its related Piccolo Spoleto showcase theatre, music, dance, and art in Charleston, S.C. And, right in the middle of the month, the South Carolina Book Festival is held in Columbia, S.C., this year on Friday, May 17th through Sunday, May 19th. It’s almost like the Triple Crown, but without horses.

Jim Johnson, Phillip DePoy, Terra Elan McVoy, and James Sheehan

The South Carolina Book Festival, organized and executed as part of the work of the Humanities Council of South Carolina, has been a feature in Columbia for the last seventeen years. This year, as part of the celebration, the city declared Saturday as Pat Conroy and Paula Watkins Day. Of course, Pat Conroy is the well know lowcountry author of such notable novels as The Water is Wide (1972), The Great Santini (1976), The Lords of Discipline (1980), The Prince of Tides (1986), Beach Music (1995), and South of Broad (2008). Paula Watkins has been the director of the S.C. Book Festival, and is leaving this year to become the Executive Director of the Humanities Council of North Carolina. She also received a key to the city.

Previously, the Book Festival took place the last weekend of February; however, after a few times of having key note speakers stranded in airports due to wintery conditions, the Festival moved to May. Despite being a week after the University of South Carolina graduation ceremonies, it brings between 5,000 and 6,000 children and adults together to enjoy a weekend of celebrating the written word. Friday features children’s activities, writers’ workshops, and the opening reception.

WWK Blogger Sam Morton with fellow Citadel grad and author Pat Conroy

This year, on Friday, I was pleased to be able to introduce Allen Johnson, who grew up and went to high school in Irmo (not far from Columbia) and who now writes screenplays, one featuring Erik Estrada (Templar Nation) and another with Sean Astin (The Freemason). Allen spoke not only about the craft of screenwriting, but also about how authors could adapt their work for film.

Part of the charm of the Book Festival is in its diversity. Participants could easily spend a day in the exhibit hall among book sellers, antiquarian book appraisers, publishing houses (self, hybrid, and traditional), and institutions like state and county libraries or organizations like state or local writers’ groups. Hopefully, those coming to the Festival would also take time to listen to a few panels or single author discussions which are free of charge on Saturday and Sunday.

To give you an idea of the variety available, on Saturday, I enjoyed a conversation with New York Times bestselling authors Mary Kay Andrews (also known to mystery fans as Kathy Hogan Trocheck) and Patti Callahan Henry, whose latest novel is based on her sister’s experience in placing a child for adoption, then having the child seek her birth parents. Another panel featured local historical authors Alexia Jones Helsley and Tom Mack, who told fascinating stories about their research concerning Columbia and the Savannah River area. My friend Jim Johnson, former S.C. State Librarian, moderated a panel featuring a Young Adult author, Terra Elan McVoy; a mystery writer, Phillip DePoy; and attorney and writer of legal thrillers, James Sheehan. Another friend, Cathy Pickens, herself a wonderful mystery author, brought together Robert Garnett, whose biography Charles Dickens In Love told of the women in Dickens’ life, and Regina Jeffers, who writes Young Adult mystery novels based on Jane Austen’s works. Finally, I listened as Richard Paul Evans spoke about his road to writing success beginning as a self-published author of The Christmas Box and leading to that novel and each subsequent one he wrote becoming a New York Times bestseller.

Sitting are James M. Jackson, Sasscer Hill, Susan M. Boyer, and standing is Paula Gail Benson

I’m particularly proud to have been moderator of a mystery panel on Sunday featuring three authors that readers of this blog will recognize, either as blogging partners (James M. Jackson) or guests (Susan M. Boyer and Sasscer Hill). Already, I had respect for each of these authors’ work, but when you have to ask them questions before an audience, you study them and learn about their writing methods. What I learned was that they had won and been nominated for prestigious writing awards; they had satisfactory experience with small presses that had enhanced their work; and they each know how to begin a novel that keeps readers on the edge of their seats wanting to read more. I asked each of these authors to tell the audience how his or her book begins. I watched as they explained their opening scenes.

There is nothing more delightful than to be in the company of extraordinary storytellers. Jim, Susan, and Sasscer are wonderful. The audience thoroughly enjoyed their presentation.

Please consider coming to Columbia in May 16-18, 2014 for the South Carolina Book Festival. I promise you won’t regret it! Do you have a book festival or event you would recommend?