Author R&R with Katherine Dean Mazerov

 

Katherine Dean Mazerov is a former news and features reporter and editor for The Denver Post, including being a member of the team that won the 2000 Pulitzer Prize for breaking news reporting. She has been a magazine writer, worked in corporate communications for a Fortune 500 company, and written extensively on trends, market outlook, and emerging technologies for the global energy industry. Summer Club is her debut novel, which follows newspaper reporter-turned stay-at-home mom, Lydia Phillips.

Normally, politics and parent drama, drunken soirees, and sex-capades reign at Lydia Phillips’s swim and tennis club. Now, a strange car following the club manager, a break-in at Lydia’s home, and a shocking discovery on the club grounds have Lydia dusting off her newspaper-reporting skills to unravel the mystery. Then, a body surfaces in the river, and Lydia’s life gets a whole lot more complicated—and dangerous.

Katherine Mazerov stops by In Reference to Murder to take some Author R&R and talk about researching and writing the book:

 

Like Lydia Phillips, I am a career journalist and a big believer in background research and firsthand information. As a reporter and magazine writer, I’ve done thousands of interviews—famous authors, police officers, crime victims and witnesses, scientists and medical experts, politicians (Joe Biden) and actors (Arnold Schwarzenegger). As an editor, I always encouraged reporters to develop sources and go to the scene of a crime or event rather than rely on the computer – or what the spokesperson provided.

Summer Club is my first novel and, coming from the non-fiction world, I never imagined embarking on such an undertaking. The story was inspired by my own experience as a volunteer board member and, later, president of a neighborhood swim and tennis club rife with whining and complaining, power plays, politics, parent drama, drunken soirees and snarkiness. You can’t make this stuff up, I kept telling myself. I’ve got to write a book.

Because I’d “lived” much of the story, I could draw on something that is even better than research—my own knowledge and perspective. I know first-hand how swim meets are run and how people cheat at tennis. I’ve seen helicopter parents and neurotic swim team moms at their worst. I’ve served on numerous volunteer boards and observed how power-hungry members use the organization to further their own agendas. These are the interpersonal dynamics and universal foibles of human nature that emerge when people are thrown together in a situation—from the PTA to the HOA, the workplace, church councils…the list goes on. Many of the personalities and events in Summer Club are amalgams of real people and situations.

While I could use my imagination to vividly enhance scenes and characters, I knew that even works of fiction must describe events in a realistic, accurate way. For example, for the pothead snack bar manager who runs her own marijuana-growing operation, I researched the provisions of the law in a state where recreational marijuana is legal. 

But that is only part of the story. In Summer Club, Lydia finds herself using her own investigative reporting and research skills (also something I understand) to unravel a troubling mystery that is casting a shadow on the day-to-day shenanigans at the club. Coming up with that idea was challenging. I researched news stories and famous crime cases about drug rings, shady timeshare frauds and organized crime operations. Nothing was resonating. I couldn’t figure out how to weave those angles into the book.

A friend who had worked for a company connected to a real-estate investment scam provided the perfect solution. Investment scams are quite common and clever, often fooling savvy and well-educated individuals. Furthermore, the scenario would not require taking the reader too much into the weeds or down a rabbit hole of highly technical terms and complicated explanations that would diverge from the overall plot and tone of the book.

After “interviewing” this person extensively about what he knew and what he’d seen, I turned to the Internet, which can provide a well of background material—provided you use reliable, respected and legitimate sources. I found some basic information about how real estate investing works, as well as news stories, affidavits and court documents about real estate investment fraud cases, which I used as the basis to create the dark element of the story. I basically combined what I’d learned about real estate investing with a Ponzi scheme, embellishing it with murder and a colorful cast of unsavory characters.

I’m considering a sequel, which, again, will likely start with what I already know. And then some digging.

 

You can learn more about Katherine Mazerov via her website and also follow her on Facebook, Goodreads, Instagram, and Twitter. Summer Club is currently available via all major booksellers.

Author R&R with Amy Rivers

 

Amy Rivers was raised in New Mexico and holds degrees in psychology and political science, two topics she loves to write about. She's been published in several magazines and anthologies, and her novel, All The Broken People, was recently selected as the Colorado Author Project winner in the adult fiction category. Her latest novel, Complicit, is the first in her new "Legacy of Silence" series featuring forensic psychologist, Kate Medina.

In Complicit, Medina left a dream career within the prison system after an unspeakable act of violence changed everything. She retreats to her hometown working in the "safer" world as a high school psychologist until tragedy strikes again when a student disappears. After the lead detective on the case reaches out to her for assistance, Kate finds herself directly into the crosshairs of an enemy who remains largely in the shadows. As her past and present collide, Kate is dragged into the middle of a deadly game where only one thing is clear—no one can be trusted.

Amy stops by In Reference to Murder to take some Author R&R about researching and writing the book:

I write about a lot of heavy topics: interpersonal and family violence, sexual assault, substance abuse, etc. In Complicit, sexual assault and trafficking are the heart of the matter and handling those topics with care is one of the most important parts of my job and my goal in writing these stories.  Unlike police procedurals and other types of crime fiction that go into great detail about the investigatory process, my work focuses more on psychology including the motivation for human behavior and the underlying mental health issues that can lead to distorted thinking and behavior that is outside societal norms. Here is a little bit about my foundations and process. 

The root of my understanding of these things come from formal study. I earned a Master’s Degree in interdisciplinary studies with focus on psychology and political science so that I could more clearly understand the intersection between human behavior and the law. Specifically, I studied the prevention of violence both in terms of mental health and the criminal justice system. After I began writing full-time, I completed a graduate certificate in forensic criminology to continue learning about the particulars of violent behavior, victimology, and trends in violent offending.

Now, the bulk of both my interest in and knowledge of the implications of sexual assault and community violence prevention efforts is experiential. For several years, I served as the Director for the Sexual Assault Nurse Examiners (SANE) of Otero & Lincoln County. This organization consists of specially trained nurses who perform forensic exams and collect evidence in sexual assault and abuse cases. Forensic nurses are truly amazing people. They are tasked with interviewing and providing physical and emotional care to victims. They must follow the strict chain of command necessary to ensure the integrity of the evidence collected, treat injuries, and help victims find the resources they will need to heal and, when possible, seek justice. They are also asked to testify in court about cases they’ve handled, sometimes years after the incident.

In bringing the stories of these nurses into my writing, I have reached out to SANE’s and other forensic nurses throughout the country (and a few in other countries) through the International Association of Forensic Nursing (IAFN). These nurses have been incredibly giving of their time and willing to fact-check and provide input for this and future books. Finding resources in the field is a common practice in crime fiction and I am no exception.

I also look at the stories of real victims of crime. There are many resources for reading survivor accounts and these provide clues to how violence impacts individuals, their families, and even whole communities. In some cases, I have spoken directly with victims and their families. It is humbling to hear their stories and I think the most important thing for me, as an author, is to handle that information with care and compassion. The reality for many victims, especially of sexual assault and abuse, is that there are many reasons not to tell their stories—feelings of shame and guilt, re-victimization through the criminal justice system, lack of support, etc. Studies tell us that the number of victims who report their assault are statistically low compared to the number of assaults taking place. In my writing, I hope to not only paint a realistic and accurate picture of the impact of sexual assault and other violent crime on victims and their families, but to give voice to those who have suffered and to let them know they are not alone.

You can learn more about Amy Rivers and her writing via her website, and you can also follow her on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. Complicit is now available via all major booksellers.

Author R&R with Michael Kaufman

 

Photo credit: Paola Kudacki

Michael Kaufman is the author of three novels but over the past decades his focus has been on engaging men to support women’s rights, end violence against women, and positively transform the lives of men. His work as an adviser, educator, and activist with the United Nations, governments, women’s organizations, NGOs, universities, companies and trade unions has taken him to fifty countries. He is the author of The Time Has Come: Why Men Must Join the Gender Equality Revolution. His first mystery, The Last Exit, came out in January. It received a starred review in Publishers Weekly and was named number four in the “22 greatest mysteries and thrillers of 2021” by the influential PopSugar.com.

The Last Exit is the first of the Jen B. Lu series. It’s Washington, DC. 2033. Bad things are happening in the nation's capital, but, then again, you just might say that about the last few years. Climate change is hitting hard, fires are burning, unemployment is high, and a longevity treatment is only available to the very rich. Enter resourceful police detective, Jen B. Lu, and her 'partner', Chandler, an experimental SIM implant tucked into her brain. He's a wannabe tough guy, with a sense of humor and his own ideas about solving crimes. Jen catches wind of a counterfeit version of the longevity drug and the bizarre outbreak of people aging almost overnight. Soon, she puts her own life on the line to stop the people pushing this. The Last Exit is true crossover: a police procedural; a near-future mystery; a novel of political intrigue; a story of personal heroism and change. And page-turning fun.

Michael stops by In Reference to Murder to talk about writing and researching his new mystery:

How do you research a mystery set twelve years in the future? Given, as the lame joke goes, that my time machine was in the shop, I did what any writer would do: I realized that I was actually writing about the present. My shift into the future was merely so I could sharpen my focus on things that are already happening around us. It would allow me to create drama, excitement and fun by throwing my protagonist, Jen B. Lu, into a situation that doesn’t yet exist but feels completely familiar and possible.

I did not want to write a grim, dystopian future. In part, I’ve gotten sick of those—you know, the utter hopelessness; the fog-bound, puddled streets reflecting neon; the total decimation by war or dictators or climate change. And in part because I really feel that the best way to confront the very real problems that we face—climate change, stark economic inequality, racism, sexism, homophobia, political dysfunction, war, and the incursion of AI and the virtual world into our lives—is by sensing that we as humans can create positive alternatives.

One funny outcome of extrapolating from the present is that it recently led a movie producer to ask me if I wrote or rewrote it during 2020. After all, there’s a virus affecting millions; there are fires sending smoke into a major city; and there is, as part of the backstory, an uprising similar to Black Lives Matter. I had to assure him that it was written in 2018 and 2019.  And, in fact, I actually felt I had to change one thing as I wrote:  In the opening pages, Washington DC is filled with smoke from the Great Shenandoah Blaze. In an early draft, I wrote, “Jen slipped on her N95.”  When I was revising it in late 2019, I thought few readers will know what the hell an N95 is. So I edited it to make it clear she was putting on a mask. How things have changed in the past year.

There’s that old saw that mysteries are plot driven. Up to a point that’s true and, writing The Last Exit (and now its first sequel), I love the discipline that comes with that. There is no room (as there is in a straight-ahead novel) for page long, gorgeous descriptions or for things to happen just because they’re fun or cool. Things need to drive the plot.

At the same time, without a strong and interesting protagonist, what reader will care deeply about what happens? And when I say “strong” I don’t mean a fearless, emotionless, superhero who saves the world. I mean a character who lives and breathes, changes and evolves both in the course of this book and in the series to follow.

In other words for me, and I think for the mystery/thriller writers who I love the most, what creates compelling books is the interplay between plot and character. If plot takes over, you create cartoon page-turners; if characters take over, you create books where the reader might well stop turning the page because it seems that nothing is happening. What’s key is not simply the balance of the two, but the dialectic between the two in the sense that what’s happening (the plot) is challenging and pushing the character; that in turn causes crises and challenges for the protagonist; and her/his/their response further drives the plot.

I’ll let readers decide if I got that right! But so far, I’ve been thrilled with the response I’ve been getting.

 

You can learn more about Michael Kaufman via his website and also follow him on Twitter and Facebook. The Last Exit is now available via all major booksellers and from Penguin Random House.