Author R&R with Michael J. Cooper

 MICHAEL J. COOPER emigrated to Israel in 1966 and lived in Jerusalem during the last year the city was divided between Israel and Jordan. He studied and traveled in the region for eleven years and graduated from medical school in Tel Aviv. Now in retirement after a forty year practice of pediatric cardiology, Cooper lives in Northern California and is able to devote more time to volunteer missions and to writing.

His debut novel, Foxes in the Vineyard, set in 1948 Jerusalem, won the grand prize in the 2011 Indie Publishing Contest. His second novel, The Rabbi’s Knight, set in the Holy Land at the twilight of the Crusades in 1290, was finalist for the Chaucer Award for historical fiction. His just-completed third novel, Wages of Empire, is set in Europe and the Middle East during WWI and won the 2022 CIBA Rossetti Award for YA fiction along with first-place honors for the 2022 CIBA Hemingway award for wartime historical fiction. All three novels stand-alone, though they’re connected by the common threads of Jerusalem’s Temple Mount, the St. Clair/Sinclair bloodline and the subversive notions of coexistence and peace.

Wages of Empire begins in the summer of 1914, when sixteen-year-old Evan Sinclair leaves home to join the Great War for Civilization. Little does he know that, despite the war raging in Europe, the true source of conflict will emerge in Ottoman Palestine, since it's from Jerusalem where the German Kaiser dreams to rule as Holy Roman Emperor. Filled with such historical figures as Gertrude Bell, T.E. Lawrence, Winston Churchill, Faisal bin Hussein and Chaim Weizmann, Wages of Empire follows Evan through the killing fields of the Western Front where he will help turn the tide of a war that is just beginning, and become part of a story that never ends.

Michael Cooper stops by In Reference to Murder to take some Author R&R about researching and writing his books:

 

For writers of historical fiction, research is a paramount. To be sure, writing any type of fiction requires research, but with a historical, and especially one set in a remote time and place, the writer must be positioned to inform the reader about every detail of the setting and time period. To “get things right,” or even close to “right,” a massive amount of research is required. And to make things even more challenging, the research shouldn’t show; the weaving of historical detail into the story should be so subtle as to be invisible. Nothing wakes the reader more rudely from the dream of a good story than a ham-handed display of detail. Or, to put it simply, the writer must be able to show without showing off.   

In referring to requisite research as “massive,” the task appears exhausting and thoroughly unpleasant. Clearly, if one only follows the adage of “write what you know,” only minimal research might be required. However, if we are drawn to write outside of ourselves, outside of the confines of our known world, we have no choice but to do a prodigious amount of research. But the secret of doing this, and actually enjoying it, can be encapsulated in an alternate adage: “Write what you love.”

And that’s been my joy in researching and writing my series—having spent my formative years living in Israel, I actually look forward to returning there in my mind, to a land where history waits for you around every corner— remembering the quality of light in early morning and toward evening, tasting the freshness of mountain air and the sun-heated warmth of the desert, or the joy of floating in the Sea of Galilee at night beneath a sky crowded with stars. 

Likewise, it’s been invigorating to select interesting historical characters and to create compelling fictional characters—for their nobility, humor, and brilliance; for their passions, human failings, and for their interesting, ingenious, and sometimes evil designs. And then, there are those wondrous times when a historical or fictional character takes over, dictating the action and dialogue, and all one has to do is sit back and transcribe. 

The other thing about writing in this genre is the wonderful way that historical events and, indeed the historical characters provide the scaffolding for stories that are, at once, very old, and still being written. Also, as I researched and wrote all my books, I was often astonished by fascinating elements of hidden history, unsolved mysteries, and unbelievably engaging and bizarre characters that insisted on being included in the final draft. In this genre, storylines arise organically from the historical timeline, and from the historical characters themselves—creating a portrait that is enhanced by the fictional characters who allow for additional surprises, plot twists, betrayals, loves and alliances. And, as each book progresses, I love watching the weave tighten as storylines are drawn together.

And historical novels set in wartime offer the writer an even richer buffet—with all the elements for compelling stories; drama, heroism, conflict, tension, intrigue, action, heartbreak, and perhaps romance. And the effect of armed conflict on history is itself dramatic since war is an accelerant to history, and often with dramatic changes in human and natural topography.

Lastly, as writers of history, we also seek out the compelling tension between knowing and unknowing—to engage with our historical characters in the grip of their threatening present, infused with their anxiety at the uncertainty of outcome, the unknowable future. And we, knowing their future, are touched by the poignancy of their ignorance.

But now, it’s our turn to be anxious in our ignorance in a time of great uncertainty—with war in Ukraine, the Middle East, and in a time of civil strife in our own country bordering, it often seems, on civil war. Now it’s our turn to share the anxiety of having no idea as to the outcome of all this conflict.

Clearly, Wages of Empire is a novel about war in a time of war, holding up a mirror to time past that reflects on present uncertainties and current wars. And so we ask the obvious questions—what do present wars have to do with the past? What do our present travails have to do with history? In a word? Everything. 

 

You can read more about Michael Cooper and his writing via his website and follow him on Goodreads. Wages of Empire is now available via Koehler Books and all major booksellers.

Author R&R with Thomas Locke & Jyoti Guptara

 Thomas Locke is an award-winning novelist whose works have sold over eight million copies in twenty-six languages. Locke divides his time between Florida and the UK, where he is Writer-In-Residence at Oxford University. Jyoti Guptara dropped out of school at age 15 to write his first bestseller. An executive coach and business storytelling strategist, Jyoti has helped leaders on five continents experience more success with less stress. Together, they are as international, inter-generational, inter-racial writing duo and recently released their first mystery novel, Roulette.

About Roulette: When a new and dangerous substance suddenly appears on the rave scene in Gainesville, Florida, former special agent Eric Bannon is sent to investigate. The inquiry must be kept quiet, but why are senior government officials turning a blind eye to such a dangerous drug? The drug is called Roulette because there’s no way of knowing what kind of ecstasy awaits—a rollercoaster ride through any one of seven heavens—or straight to hell. Along with county hospital senior ER nurse, Carol Steen, and snobbish new doctor, Stacie Swann, Eric pinpoints the drug’s origin to clandestine operations within a university's student body and uncovers a terrifying truth: these young people both finance the production and facilitate the human trials of the world’s most exciting new high, with a purpose so heinous it will rewrite not just history, but the human genome.

Locke & Guptara stop by In Reference to Murder to take some Author R&R about the new book. In this conversation, Jyoti gleans invaluable insights from seasoned master storyteller Thomas Locke, who is four decades his senior. Thomas reveals one of his secrets to penning four books every year: the right kind of research.

 

JYOTI GUPTARA:

Thomas, Roulette is the second mystery you and I co-authored. I’ve always been impressed with how quickly you write great first drafts – right down to the details that would take me ages to get right. How did you develop your approach to research, especially in genres that need a lot, like your historical fiction (published under ‘Davis Bunn’) and your technothrillers?

THOMAS LOCKE:

My first mystery was also my first breakout opportunity.  I was offered the chance to move to a major house, have a big event-style release, if I had an idea big enough to fit the bill:  To The Ends Of The Earth was my response - a murder mystery taking place in the fourth century, a few weeks after the death of Emperor Constantine, six months before civil war broke out.

My wife was doing her doctorate at Oxford University.  I fearfully approached the head of her college and asked if I might get some help with the research.  After being quizzed about my concept, the head granted me a one-year position as Visiting Member of the Senior Commons Room, which is something normally handed out to visiting professors.  He also arranged for me to be tutored by a friend of his, the head of Oxford's theology department, a world-renowned specialist in late Roman empire, and the Orthodox Bishop of England.

No pressure.

We met, the Bishop and I, and he assigned me a ton of reading, plus two classes I needed to take.  A week later, when we next met, I admitted defeat.  To say I was overwhelmed didn't go far enough.  I felt like the minnow swimming in a tank of whales.

The Bishop responded with advice I still apply to this day.  My job is not to become an expert.  My research task, with this book and all those to come, is twofold.  First, I have to determine which questions are necessary in order to write a good story.  Second, I must find one answer to each question.  No more.  Soon as I reach that singular milestone, I move on.  Everything else must wait.

The most important lesson garnered here is just how easy research can become an excuse for not actually writing.  Added to that is the risk is how extra research can become a barrier to the story's flow.  The temptation is to write what might impress an expert.  This in turn can damage and, at times, destroy the novel's appeal to a more general readership. 

Determine the right questions.  Find the one good and necessary answer. 

Write the story.

JYOTI GUPTARA:

This approach is so liberating! I wish I’d learned this lesson sooner.

When you and I started working on our first joint thriller, I was serving as writer-in-residence at a United Nations partner organization in Geneva. I had unparalleled access to experts from the UN, WEF, WTO, UNESCO and other prestigious institutions. It was a goldmine for a writer…

And goldmines can be deadly if you get lost.

In Geneva, the potential for research was boundless. But with every expert I met, every piece of insider information I gathered, I found myself being pulled in a new direction. The allure of having such access was intoxicating. I envisioned a novel that would weave in intricate details from these global institutions, a story that would be both enlightening and thrilling.

I failed.

To use Thomas’s words, it was too easy for research to become an excuse for not actually writing. My biggest challenge was not having a clear vision for the story. That’s where a different kind of research comes into play: reading, travel and dialogue for inspiration. Say, your next book. Not the one you’re actively writing.

We could say there are two very different types of research: farming versus hunting.

Farming: This is the phase of exploration and discovery. A farmer tills the soil, plants various seeds, and waits to see what grows. Similarly, in the farming phase of research, we allow ourselves the freedom to meander. We dive into topics without a clear agenda, seeking inspiration and letting our curiosity guide us. It’s a time of soaking in information and seeing what resonates. An open-ended process. There's a certain beauty in not knowing exactly what you’ll find.

Hunting: After the season of exploration comes the phase of targeted pursuit. This is the hunting phase. Here, we’re no longer wandering aimlessly. We are going after known information holes with the focus and intentionality of an Inuit spearfishing through a hole in the ice. There are a million other fish under your frozen feet, but your only concern are the ones that swim under your hole. That’s what you, Thomas, described so vividly.

THOMAS LOCKE:

Well put, Jyoti. The trap is to confuse these two very different categories.

One tip is, don’t even think of the ‘farming’ phase as research. You’re simply looking for ideas and inspiration.

Again, the goal is to lock into a solid concept. And start writing.

 

You can learn more about the authors and the book via their website and Down & Out Books. Roulette is now available via all major booksellers.

Author R&R with Lyn Squire

 Lyn Squire was born in Cardiff, South Wales and earned his bachelor’s degree at the University of Wales, his master’s at the London School of Economics, and his doctorate at Cambridge University. During a twenty-five year career at the World Bank, Lyn published over thirty articles and several books within his area of expertise. Lyn also served as editor of the Middle East Development Journal for over a decade and was the founding president of the Global Development Network, an organization dedicated to supporting promising scholars from the developing world. Lyn has always been an avid reader of whodunits and has reviewed scores of mysteries for the City Book Review (Sacramento, CA), but it was the thrill of solving Charles Dickens’s unfinished Mystery of Edwin Drood that convinced him to put aside his development pen and turn to fiction. His first novel is Immortalised to Death, the first installment in a planned trilogy.

In Immortalised to Death, death strikes England’s foremost novelist, his latest tale only half told. Was he murdered because someone feared a ruinous revelation? Or was it revenge for some past misdeed? Set in the Kent countryside and London slums of 1870, Immortalised to Death embeds an ingenious solution to Charles Dickens’s unfinished The Mystery of Edwin Drood within the evolving and ultimately tragic consequences of a broader mystery surrounding the author himself. Convinced that the identity of Dickens’s murderer lies in the book's missing denouement, Dickens’s nephew and unlikely detective, Dunston Burnett, sets out to complete his uncle’s half-finished novel. A stunning revelation crowns this tale about the mysterious death of England’s greatest novelist, and exposes the author’s long-held secret.

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

 

The research an author undertakes depends, of course, on the subject matter of his novel.  In my case, my debut novel, Immortalised to Death, is a mystery set in 1870 England.  In brief, the story opens with Charles Dickens, dead at his desk, his latest tale, The Mystery of Edwin Drood, only half told. My protagonist, a middle-aged, retired bookkeeper (hardly detective material) has to complete the half-finished novel to solve a broader mystery surrounding the legendary author himself.  With this in mind, here are the three modes of research I used.

Online Research:   

Consider this example:

Hugo sat alone at a table outside a small brasserie in the Place des Charmes drinking his coffee. He watched the white-aproned waiters scurrying from table to table, trays held head-high on upturned hands.  He studied the cafe’s customers seated under the sun-shading awning – businessmen, couples, friends – but not her.  Would Nicolette come?

The question is this: Will the reader think that this scene is set in a French square?  Probably.  But the fact of the matter is that I just made up Place des Charmes. 

The example illustrates a point that is perfectly general.  All the novelist has to do is make the reader believe the character is situated in whatever environment suits the author’s purpose.  The key word is, of course, believe.  The writer must conjure up enough of the flavor of a place or time to be convincing.  If, however, he slips too far into factual inaccuracies, readers can be jarred out of their enjoyment of the story, and, if noticeable errors pop up too often, become sufficiently annoyed to quit reading.

My novels are set in nineteenth century England.  To avoid any ‘jarring’ possibilities, I researched Victorian dress, furniture, architecture, and so on at a general level. It is relatively easy these days to research all these aspects of Victorian life online.  I suspect the same holds true for other places and other times.  Being ‘believable’ for scene-setting and general background, then, should be a routine task for any serious author and is one that can be accomplished relatively easily.     

Bibliographical Research:

Matters become more complicated when a famous person features prominently in a story (Charles Dickens in my case).  The same principle – be believable but do not jar – still applies.  But, unlike the easily-swallowed Place des Charmes, all readers will know something about Charles Dickens and many people will know a great deal.  In consequence, authors must be much more thorough in their research to avoid crossing the red-line between believable and jarring.  Ensuring historical accuracy in everything related to Dickens, then, was a top priority for me.

I started my research with several biographies of the author (including John Forster’s 900-page monster, the first biography to appear) and several other biographies of secondary characters including Georgina Hogarth, his sister-in-law, and Ellen Ternan, his mistress.  This provided all I needed to know about Dickens and gave me a solid foundation for some of the main characters in the book. 

I also read all of his novels.  Not a requirement in most cases, I imagine, but I had a specific reason: I wanted to make sure that when Dunston Burnett, my protagonist, wrote his continuation of The Mystery of Edwin Drood, he stayed true to the literary tendencies of the master storyteller himself.  The following two characteristics of Dickens’s writing proved particularly important.

The first can be found in many of his novels.  Dickens delighted in revealing on virtually the last page some unexpected connection among the story’s characters that allowed him to deliver that final surprise so loved by readers… and authors.  For example: That Esther Summerson is the illegitimate daughter of Lady Dedlock and Captain Hawdon, the secret that ultimately drove her ladyship to suicide, is only disclosed towards the conclusion of Bleak House.  The pattern is repeated time and time again.  The second is unique to David Copperfield.  Dickens grew up in poverty and was so ashamed of his upbringing he rarely mentioned it, but he still wanted some way of telling his story.  David Copperfield’s early life was the vehicle he chose for that purpose.  I make use of both of these literary devices in crafting Dunston Burnett’s solution to The Mystery of Edwin Drood.

Physical Research:

Finally. I visited Gadshill Place, Dickens’s home in Kent, less than an hour’s train ride from central London, to make sure that the book’s description of the house was as faithful to the original as possible.  I actually stood in his study where the murder in my novel is supposedly perpetrated.  I also walked down the drive and crossed Gravesend Road for a glass of ale in The Falstaff Inn, the scene of another incident in my book.  And I surveyed the house’s surroundings, especially the route via Forge Lane to Higham railway station, the link to London used by several of my characters.  By the time I’d finished my one-day visit, I felt comfortable that what I wrote about the novelist’s home and its setting would be close to one hundred percent accurate and would be accepted without question by most readers, even those who have toured Gadshill Place themselves. 

A Personal Perspective:

The above may sound like a lot of work for one novel, but to my mind it was required to render my story believable, and it was an opportunity to learn about a truly fascinating man who accomplished so much in his fifty-eight years.  I’m following the same strategy in the subsequent two books in The Dunston Burnett Trilogy.  After Immortalised to Death (to be published by Level Best Books on September 26 of this year), book number two, Fatally Inferior (forthcoming in September 2024), is set against the furor generated by the publication of Charles Darwin’s The Origin of Species, and the third, The Séance of Murder (forthcoming in September 2025), has as its backdrop the spiritualist movement that swept through Victorian England.

I’ve already read a mass of material on Darwin’s theory of evolution with its magnificent general law governing the evolution of all organic beings – multiply; vary; let the strongest live; let the weakest die.  And I am now in the midst of reading up on the great mediums of the nineteenth century and the famous converts to the spiritualist movement ranging from Queen Victoria to Arthur Conan Doyle.  This reading serves as a means of checking for factual accuracy but it also provides ideas for plots… and I learn a lot.

 

You can read more about Lyn Squire and his writing via his website. Immortalised to Death is published today by Level Best Books and is available via all major booksellers.

Author R&R with Maggie Giles

 Canadian author Maggie Giles developed an interest in writing while backpacking in Europe and began writing historical fiction from the Tudor era in England. She later turned her hand to thrillers, science fiction, and fantasy, including the 2022 novel, The Things We Lost. She has been a member of the Women's Fiction Writers Association since 2014 where she volunteers as their Social Media Director. Her latest thriller novel, Twisted, is being released via Rising Action Publishing today.

In Twisted, Detective Ryan Boone thought the simple jewelry heist was an open and shut case. That is until he discovers an unknown drug, and the minor crime he was investigating may be tied to a string of seemingly unconnected murders. Meanwhile, Mel Parker, unscrupulous leader of a high-end escort service, stumbles across the same pills. On top of protecting her "investment," she has her own reasons for attempting to unravel the mystery behind the medication. Ryan knows someone has the answers he seeks, and Mel can’t come forward. To complicate things further, five other women are implicated in the murders despite most having never met. As the trail turns up as many mysteries as resolutions, Ryan and Mel must discover the twisted connection before someone else ends up dead.

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

 

Research has always been a tricky thing. Authors want to make sure we get the facts right but we also don’t want our stories to be too rooted in reality. We want some suspension of belief and some escapism.

Most readers, when they think of research, they think historical fiction as this is a genre that requires the upmost care and precision to stay true to the times written. However, it is often overlooked how much research can go into a contemporary novel. This includes specifics about jobs, procedures, places, and people of importance. The opportunities for research are endless.

When it comes to my research, I find my focus is on the more finite details. In my debut novel, The Things We Lost, one of my characters is arrested.  I was lucky enough to chat with an RCMP (Royal Canadian Mounted Police) Officer to nail down some of the details surrounding the police procedure and arrest. I wanted to make sure my character’s experiences were authentic and believable. In my upcoming novel, Twisted, I have a point of view that follows a Toronto detective on the case of his life. For this I chatted with an Ontario Provincial Police Officer to ensure I represented him correctly.

Both officers were super helpful in talking me through the different scenarios that I hoped to portray. While I didn’t feel the scenes needed to be 100% accurate to the real-life processes, having close friends in law enforcement has allowed me to experience their frustration with poor representation of procedure in some fiction and that was something I wanted to make sure I got right in my books.

I’ve set both my works in the Toronto area, which has been a huge bonus as it was somewhere I spent a lot of time growing up. I was able to pull from my own experience (verified with online research) and bring the city alive.

In 2024 my third novel, Wicked, will be released and this one presented more of a challenge. I opted to set the book in Ottawa, a well-known city but one I’ve only spent a few days in. To make sure I got the correct details, I spent hours going through the different neighbourhoods in Ottawa and learned about the different types of publications I could tie into my work. While I still took some liberties, I wanted the things I mentioned to come across as authentic as possible.

I make use of a lot of online imagery to get the descriptions and visuals of places, people, and things correct. I have something called aphantasia which basically means I do not have a visual imagination. Due to this I can sometimes struggle to describe things in the amount of depth a reader would enjoy. To combat this struggle, I will often use visual aids to help me properly explain what my readers may see in their minds.

Writing groups are another great way to find the resources you need. While online research can be stellar and heading to the library archives can provide you with an abundance of knowledge, I’ve found my ability to learn and retain information this way hasn’t always stuck. For me, it’s real-life people that can answer my real time, specific questions that have helped the most.

The Women’s Fiction Writers Association, which I am a member of, offers a toolbox for emerging authors which includes a list of member experts. I’ve consulted this list a few times when dealing with a specific industry or profession I don’t have any knowledge of.

My upcoming duology, Twisted and Wicked, revolve around a new medication and the consequences of it. To properly understand the intricacies of medication creation, I spoke to a former FDA employee to learn the ins and outs of how a medication gets to market. While I continued to take my creative liberties, I wanted to fully understand how such a thing could happen, so I could properly apply it to my novel.

While too much research can stifle creativity (or distract us from writing entirely!), I find that going into a story with a better sense of how things should be makes it easier for me to craft my storyline and allow for some creative changes.

 

You can read more about Maggie and her books via her website and follow her on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Goodreads, and TikTok. Twisted is now available via Rising Action Publishing and via all major booksellers.

 

Author R&R with J. Lee

 

J. Lee was born and raised in the Midwest, between the Chicago suburbs and rural Southern Illinois. He received dual degrees in Engineering and Sociology from Duke University, and although his day job has been in engineering, marketing, and program management, he also pursued writing, first as a stress-relieving hobby and then as a professional endeavor. His first crime thriller, The Hubley Case, was published in 2018, followed by The Silent Cardinal in 2021, and The Deadly Deal, which was released today.

The Deadly Deal follows David Centrelli, a junior business development executive at a pharmaceutical company with no military training or criminal record whatsoever...but an innocent knock on the door one Monday morning changes his life forever. Thrust into a world of unbelievable accusations, outrageous claims, and danger he's only seen in the movies, he's told his best friend's death two weeks earlier was no accident, and that his buddy has a message for him from the grave. Blackmailed by decisions he made years ago, informed that his brother has been kidnapped, and threatened with a future not even his worst nightmare could imagine, the temptation to give up what he knows and disappear into affluent anonymity grows stronger by the second...until he learns millions of lives depend on him trying to do the right thing. But can this ordinary businessman really escape death from experts trained to administer it and prevent a colossal calamity already set in motion by the highest levels of government?

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

 

“Truths & Categories”

Whether you’re writing a term paper for a college class or a thriller novel for the beach reader, there are three truths about research that stand the test of time. Let’s start by identifying them:

1. You want to represent truth in what you write – for your audience, yourself, and what you’re writing. Doing so not only enhances the world by offering something genuine and original for people to enjoy, but also establishes and enhances credibility for you as an author.
2. As the world changes, the methods used to gather research will change, too. Gone are the days where Encyclopedia Britannica and the local library are the primary sources, but we’d all be naïve to think that in eighty years Google will be either.
3. What you’re writing isn’t solely about facts or figures that have already been established in the world…if it were, there’d be no need for you to write it. Thus, while you want your research to be accurate and support the story you are telling or point you are making, you don’t want it to become that either.

NOTE: if you don’t think the above are fundamental truths, you should stop reading. When I write, I do so believing they are central pillars to the research aspects of my book.  Not agreeing but reading on would be a waste of your time. 

So, I was asked to describe my approach to research as I wrote The Deadly Deal, my third mystery/suspense novel that centers around a fictional conspiracy launched between the federal government, a pharmaceutical company and an insurance conglomerate.

The research I did fell into one of two separate, yet equally important categories (Law & Order style) that in my head I labeled – not so originally – as:

1. The big picture
2. The nitty-gritty

For the big picture, it always starts with understanding the overall characters to the story, and I don’t mean people. In this case: How does the FDA approve drugs? What process and controls go into verification? How does the government’s separation of powers ensure it acts in the best interests of the people? What about the development process? How do drugs go from an idea to a tangible product? And how does insurance fit into all of this? We all know it affects the pocketbooks of both companies and consumers, but when does that start and how does that work?

These are the types of fundamental questions you need to ask first when you write fiction, especially plot-driven novels. Because ultimately, understanding the bigger picture players is critical to meeting Truth #1 above, and misrepresenting it will discredit your story.

How?

It’s common to say people should “write what they know” and this is where it best applies. I’d worked at a company involved with the regulatory process. So while I needed to verify what had changed over twenty years, I did have a baseline. I knew some people who still worked in the space. I also have a family member into cutting edge medical research who let me pick his brain about some things.

The point is that for the big picture, it helps immensely to start with something you know and like. You can Google “FDA Approval Process” and get a lot of information, more than enough to provide the level of detail I did in the book, but it’s incredibly helpful to have a baseline and rely on experts in the field going in. The other thing is, going back to Truth #3, don’t overdo it. If people wanted to read a detailed description about the FDA, there are books for that. Don’t over-demonstrate your knowledge of a subject at the expense of your story. Practically speaking, what that meant for me was that for every paragraph of research that made it into the book, there were five pages of notes that never saw the light of day.

For the nitty-gritty, there’s good and “bad” news.

The good news is the information is readily available and can be verified with multiple sources on the web. Some readers think I’m a gun guy because my books have lots of them used by good guys and bad guys. My first novel, The Hubley Case, even has the protagonist holding one on the cover. Yet without even owning one, I learned what I needed from reading online. And when I described an intersection, Street View gave me context that complemented my site visit. The data is available, and you don’t have use old-fashioned encyclopedias that could be outdated or be an Internet savant to get it…you just need to make the commitment to do the work.

There’s the “bad” news…it’s work.

When I wrote a scene with two guys chasing another through a boathouse, I didn’t necessarily want to look up types of boats, how boathouses are winterized, how big they are, what the floor material is, what the temperature might be, etc. But those details help set the scene. And answers are out there; it just takes time to get them.

Certainly, “writing what you know” makes nitty-gritty research easier and probably more enjoyable, but it’s not as critical as it is for the big picture. And trust me, even if you write what you know, when your book is 80,000 words, there’s going to be nitty-gritty research you just need to commit to doing to get it right. Most research at this level isn’t about the “how.” It’s about your mindset as a writer. You need to know it’s worth it.

Bottom line: respecting the three truths, big picture and nitty-gritty category research is hard work. But once you’ve made the commitment, once you’ve put in the effort to make your writing as authentic and genuine as you can, you’ll be that much more satisfied. You’ll know that your time and energy went into making something you’re happy to attach your name to.

And your readers will, too. 

 

You can learn more about J. Lee and his writing via his website and follow him on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Goodreads. The Deadly Deal is now available via all major booksellers.

Author R&R with Lynn Slaughter

 Lynn Slaughter is addicted to the arts, chocolate, and her husband’s cooking. Following a long career as a professional dancer and dance educator, she earned her MFA in Writing Popular Fiction from Seton Hill University. She’s the author of four young adult novels including Leisha's Song, an Agatha Nominee for Best Mystery Novel in the MG/YA category, and It Should Have Been You, a Silver Falchion finalist, and also the short story, "Missed Cue," which appears in Malice Domestic’s 2020 anthology, Murder Most Theatrical

Her latest novel, published today, is an adult crime fiction title, Missed Cue (an expansion of the short story). When ballerina Lydia Miseau dies onstage in the final dress rehearsal of Romeo and Juliet, homicide detective Caitlin O’Connor is faced with the most complicated case of her career. She strongly suspects that someone murdered the ballerina, and her investigation uncovers several people close to the star who had reasons to kill her. But the autopsy reveals no apparent cause of death. If Lydia Miseau was murdered, who did it, and how? Meantime, there’s Caitlin’s hot mess of a personal life. She has a bad habit of getting involved with married men. She knows it’s wrong, so why does she keep entangling herself in unhealthy relationships? She’s finally decided to go into therapy to find out.

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

Research Matters for Mystery Writers

Writers are often advised to “write what you know.” This is good advice. For example, while the ballet company in my novel, MISSED CUE, is fictional, there’s no question that my experience as a former professional dancer lends the characters and the setting authenticity. I’m familiar with artistic directors obsessed with their work, ambitious young dancers eager for their opportunity to perform major roles, and aging dancers facing the autumn of their professional careers.

On the other hand, I would never want to limit myself to only what I know. I also love writing about things I’m eager to learn more about. For example, in my novel, DEADLY SETUP, the protagonist ends up going on trial for the murder of her mother’s fiancé. Courtroom dramas have always intrigued me, and I was eager to try my hand at writing one. But I’m not an attorney. So, I did a lot of research on criminal and courtroom procedure, read countless opening and closing trial statements, as well as articles for criminal prosecutors and defense attorneys on strategies for effective witness questioning. I also solicited help from two attorneys who reviewed my work and helped ensure its accuracy.

For MISSED CUE, I had a different problem that required expertise I didn’t possess. I had this idea that a revered and seemingly healthy ballerina would die onstage, but the autopsy would reveal no apparent cause of death. The homicide detective in charge of the investigation of the suspicious death had to figure out not only who killed the ballerina, but how they’d done it.

So, I turned to help from my author friends from the Guppies chapter of Sisters in Crime. They advised me to contact Luci Hansson Zahray, aka “the Poison Lady.” Luci generously lent her expertise on just how you could cause a healthy heart to simply stop beating that wouldn’t be detected in an autopsy.

Sense of place is also essential for mystery writers. MISSED CUE is set in New Haven, Connecticut. Having grown up in New England, I’ve visited New Haven many times.

But the internet was also hugely helpful to me. For example, my protagonist, Lieutenant Caitlin O’Connor, is a jazz fan. In researching New Haven, I discovered it was the home of Firehouse 24, the only club in the state devoted exclusively to live jazz, which turned into the setting for one of Caitlin’s dates with a new man in her life, as did several other area restaurants.

One of the great things about restaurant websites is that most not only include menus but photos of their dining spaces. This enabled me to immerse readers in scenes with specifics about what the characters were ordering and and what the ambiance of each setting was like.

And, since Caitlin’s new romantic interest is a science geek, it was natural to research what places he’d want to visit with her, such as the Yale Peabody Museum of Natural History and Mystic Seaport Aquarium.

Realtors’ websites and descriptions of neighborhoods online were also extremely useful in locating where my characters might live and what their homes would be like, such as the medical examiner’s sprawling colonial in one of Hamden’s prosperous subdivisions and the rehabbed Victorian in downtown New Haven that housed the office of Caitlin’s therapist.

The interest in doing both online and in-person research is a handy quality to have as a mystery writer. I feel fortunate to love research. It’s fun, and you never know what you’ll discover!

 

You can learn more about Lynn Slaughter and her writing via her website and follow her on Facebook, Twitter, and Goodreads.  Missed Cue is now available via Melange Books and all major booksellers.

Author R&R With Katie Graykowski

 Texas writer, Katie Graykowski, is a #1 Amazon and international bestselling author of 20+novels, including several romance and young adult series. She's also the author of the PTO Murder Club mystery series featuring Mustang Ridges who lives in the small town of Lakeside, Texas and whose police-chief husband fled to Grand Cayman with his mistress and a million dollars in diamonds he stole from the police evidence lockup. Now a single mother and chair of the Bee Creek Elementary Parent Teacher Organization, Mustang and her friends often find themselves in the middle of unexpected crime investigations.

In the fifth book in that series, Puzzled Pieces, Mustang finds the body of her son’s school bus driver, Imogene Puzzle. Mustang and her best friends Haley and Monica are on the hunt for anyone who might want Ms. P. dead, but she was seemingly loved by everyone. The only possible lead is Ms. P.’s true crime group, The Puzzlers, who were investigating the Hill Country Strangler, a twenty-year-old cold case. When two other bus drivers from surrounding school districts also end up with their throats cut, Mustang begins to think that the Hill Country Strangler might have decided that throat-cutting was a better way to kill. How many more people will die before Mustang, Haley, and Monica puzzle out the killer?

Katie stops by In Reference to Murder to take some Author R&R about her research and writing process:

 

My mystery novel series, the PTO Murder Club Mysteries, is set in the fictional town of Lakeside, Texas. My heroines are three mothers who ran the PTO (parent teacher organization) at their children’s elementary school. I like to incorporate current events into my mystery novels which means research.

I love research. Whether it’s reading everything ever written about a particular subject or binge-watching hours of the History Channel, listening to hours of podcasts, or searching the internet, I could happily OD on research. If I’m in an active writing phase, I have to limit my research because it’s a rabbit hole I will gladly dive into.

I tend to do my research either while I’m writing or if the words are really coming, I’ll make a note on the manuscript of what needs to be researched. After I finish the book, I go back and add in the researched information.

When I’m not in an active writing phase, I’m off the chain and down the research rabbit hole. I’ll find an interesting topic and immerse myself in it.

For example, female spies in World War II. Many women from all over the world risked their lives to help the allied forces. There are some really good books on that subject. While I haven’t written or have plans to write about women spies in WWII, it’s filed away in the back of my mind and will get worked into story at some point.

Or, Artificial Intelligence and how it will change our world. We are watching history in the making. This technology is in its infancy. Whether it’s good or bad remains to be seen. As a mystery writer, AI could be an incredible research tool. As far as AI as a character in a story, there is so much trouble it can get into.

It’s interesting, in 1889 Charles H. Duell, the Commissioner of US Patent Office at that time, said that the patent office would soon shrink in size and close, because “Everything that can be invented has been invented.” Man was he wrong.

See how random facts can pop up in a story?

For new writers wondering how to go about research, do it your way. Find what makes sense to you. Because I’m an auditory learner, I love listening to biographies and nonfiction audio books. If you’re a visual learner, try a site visit. If the smell of books helps you focus, go camp out at your local library. There’s no right or wrong way to research. Just remember, writing is about the journey and the destination. So, make it a fun ride.

 

You can learn more about Katie and her books via her website and also follow her on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. The ebook of Puzzled Pieces is available now via Amazon and the print book can be ordered from all major booksellers.

Author R&R with Simon Marlowe

 

British author, Simon Marlowe, often uses the thriller genre to tell stories which combine realism with a blend of the surreal. He published his debut novel, Zombie Park, in 2017, an intense and darkly comic drama set in a dysfunctional psychiatric hospital during the social and economic turmoil of the 1980s. Since then, Simon has published short stories and flash fiction while completing his second novel, The Dead Hand of Dominique. This is a post-Brexit crime thriller that centers on Steven Mason, a young career villain, and his journey through the underbelly of London and Essex searching for answers to his boss’s AWOL mistress and a way out of a heartless world to fulfill his own dreams. Marlowe's latest novel, Medusa and the Devil, continues the adventures of Steve Mason.

In Medusa and the Devil, Essex rogue Steven Mason has decamped to the Mediterranean, to escape his low life gangster world and start afresh. Keeping his head down while still laundering money for his old boss, Steven’s plans go awry when a former associate turns up and asks him to retrieve an unassuming ivory sculpture. As the story unfolds and Steven unexpectedly finds himself embroiled in an illegal immigration case, his attention turns to more pressing issues—being buried six feet under but still breathing.

Simon Marlowe stops by In Reference to Murder to talk about researching and writing the book:

Medusa And The Devil (Pub Cranthorpe Millner 23^rd May 2023) is book two of my darkly comic crime thriller trilogy Mason Made, and starts with the protagonist, Steven Mason, six feet under. The only problem is, he’s not dead. And that posed a question for me, one that initiated my first bit of research for this novel: how long can you survive buried alive in a coffin? I won’t spoil the outcome for you, but it is long enough for Steven to tell the story of his latest villainous adventure on a Mediterranean island.

Perhaps the best example I can give regarding my current approach to research and storytelling can be found in a key narrative event in Medusa. I had always envisioned a sea journey for my central characters that was going to be a choppy ride, in part because I’d had such an experience on a catamaran crossing the Med—and that was a vomit fest. What I didn’t know was anything about sailing, and our plucky involuntary sailors needed to sail. I knew this had to sound convincing, because imagination might get me through the storm, but it wouldn’t pass muster with anyone who had a crow’s-nest knowledge of the task of sailing. I read articles about sailing, making notes on the technical side and experiences of navigating storms and capsizing. Once I had enough detail, I could write this section of the novel by blending, or integrating, fact with fiction, the technical with the narrative, so much so that I could even enable the central character to tutor others in how to sail.

However, this approach of research integrated into the storytelling was not on my radar when I started seriously committing to fiction and creative writing. For instance, I did no research for my first novel, Zombie Park (Pub Matador 2017). It was based on my experiences of working in a psychiatric hospital in the mid-1980s. I fictionalized some things, dramatized others, and let loose a few surreal literary flourishes to create a mega-busting epic that was so intense even I struggle to re-read it! It took me seven years to write because I was also learning how to write, having earlier dropped out of my Masters in Creative Writing (there’s probably a good plot there for a self-conscious-author-led murder mystery!)

Anyway, I sold a few copies, and was resolute about using my life experience as the basis for my further fiction. Why? Because the thought of research tended to send shivers down my spine—I had spent far too long in academic study and believed that fiction meant the application of the imagination. It was only through my attempts to produce a second novel that I began to realize that things were not that simple. A failed novel followed next (which will never see the light of day) before I finally reached an understanding of what my creative writing was naturally suited to in terms of genre, and that research was necessary if the narrative required it, and if I wanted authenticity to back up some of the surreal and thematic content.

The Dead Hand of Dominique (Pub Cranthorpe Millner Nov 2021) was the result and is the first novel in this comic crime thriller trilogy. But my approach to research has evolved. I don’t head to the Reading Room at the British Library and emerge months later with a Pukka Pad full of illegible notes. Instead, I search for articles and news stories that give me just enough substance, however tenuous, to hopefully convince the reader that what they are reading is probable, likely, or just about possible. I also like to have sources that can be used to prove that fact is stranger than fiction. I haven’t yet resorted to producing documentary evidence when a reviewer has doubted the integrity of the plot, although I have been tempted. I would also like to add that, in The Dead Hand of Dominique, a process for smuggling illegal immigrants that I had invented without reference to news stories became a news story six months later! ‘Intriguing, don’t you think, Dr Watson…’

Finally, the preparation starts way back. My process of writing a novel does not consist of a eureka moment wherein I bury myself in my author grotto, emerging, bruised and battered, with a literary masterpiece (if only!). There is inspiration, the sparking of ideas, but those ideas take time to brew, ferment and mature. In other words, the process of transforming my ideas into a novel can take months, even years. I use a notebook (one of the few good pieces of advice I gleaned from my creative writing course), so I am constantly jotting down and developing story ideas.

Therefore, for me, the key preparation is thinking.

But not all ideas come to fruition, especially if I think the research required to realize the story is too great. That is where the conflict comes in for me. If there is too much research, and not enough scope for the imagination, I will abandon the project—at least for the time being anyway. As such, I like to believe it is in the hands of the author to convince the reader that a character can commit some egregious act, given certain predispositions and the right circumstances. Also, descriptively, I tend not to spend a lot of time on a murderous act, but I appreciate there is literary mileage in exploring how difficult it can be to murder someone.

That’s not to say I have experience of being overtly murderous. But, as someone who has done far too many jobs, I have had the experience of working with murderers—in a professional sense and not as an accomplice! And the murderers I have come across were all obsessed with their life sentences, perceiving the time they had to spend incarcerated as an injustice. They were generally evasive, with an inability to empathize. And dare I say it, they were also quite boring, ‘trapped people’ who were damaged beyond repair.

And that isn’t very exciting.

Which brings me to one more point I would like to make. Crime thriller authors, and I include myself in this category, make murder interesting. I use it as a vehicle to produce drama, to hopefully say other things that are more important—at least that’s what I try to do.

And with that, I must go and see my neighbour, who has been annoying me about the height of my garden hedge. In fact, I’m just going to take a hammer with me, not to use, of course, but this guy… I mean… he kind of deserves it…

You can learn more about Simon Marlowe and his writing via his website and follow him on various social media platforms. Medusa And The Devil is now available from Cranthorpe Millner Publishers and via all major booksellers.

Author R&R with Verlin Darrow

 Verlin Darrow is a psychotherapist who lives with his psychotherapist wife in the woods near the Monterey Bay in northern California. They diagnose each other as necessary. Verlin is a former professional volleyball player (in Italy), unsuccessful country-western singer/songwriter, import store owner, and assistant guru in a small, benign spiritual organization. He has also turned his hand to writing crime fiction, with his latest title just released, Murder for Liar.

In Murder for Liar, private investigator-turned-psychotherapist Tom Dashiel doesn’t know it yet, but he’s hurtling towards discovering where his threshold lies—the point of no return for his sanity.  So begins a surreal spiral when George Arundel enters Tom’s Santa Cruz office on a Tuesday afternoon in April. To say George Arundel is a puzzle is an understatement:  the local psychiatrist who referred Arundel to Tom described him—rather astutely—as "a substantial challenge."  Working to treat the enigmatic Arundel, Tom soon realizes he has been tasked to treat a client unlike any he’s ever encountered.

But how is George Arundel related to the uncanny coincidences Tom begins to encounter?  Are these mere coincidences…or something else?  Could a young woman named Zig-Zag really be an angel?  How could a dog—a rather cute one at that—reveal one of the most important clues? What’s the deal with that alluring, albeit mercurial, woman named Dizzy?  And what’s Arundel’s connection to the escalating spate of unsolved murders plaguing the typically calm but always colorful Santa Cruz community? Swept up in a perilous world where nothing is as it seems, Tom struggles to make sense of the decidedly dangerous, downright deadly scheme in which he has somehow unwittingly become a key player. Tom is about to discover that in this treacherous reality, the truth is far, far stranger than fiction…but the real danger is not knowing which is which. 

Verlin Darrow stops by In Reference to Murder to talk about writing the book:

 

My need to research/prepare/plan varies a great deal from book to book. In general, as a distinctly seat of the pants writer, my plots flow after an initial notion or two occurs to me. And the characters say or do what they will, usually guided by God knows what. My first drafts are mostly comprised of dialogue and plot, so I need to add description, inner monologues, and all the rest later.

About a quarter of my projects have legs and make it past the first fifty pages, and all the early chapters need major revising. So this is a hit or miss process for me. When it hits, then research and preparation sometimes comes into play. Or not.

In my latest mystery novel, for example—Murder For Liar—the protagonist is a psychotherapist in Santa Cruz, California. So am I. Almost all the dialogue in sessions, especially with the bizarre client who draws Tom Dashiel into a baffling conspiracy, is drawn from my actual experience. Minus the murders, I have worked with some unusual, difficult to help clients in a variety of settings. Who would believe that someone would be deathly afraid of walking under trees because a bat might be in one, and it might be rabid, and it might drool, and the drool might fall into the client’s mouth? I’m not making that up. I wish I were for my client’s sake.

In this and other challenging therapy sessions, I know what went through my mind, so I’m able to realistically get into the head of the first person protagonist. I’m glad I’m not actually him—that our similarities as people are superficial now. But his depression, alienation, and cluelessness—his starting point in the book before he begins to transform—were the cornerstones of my much younger self. I believe I can accurately convey what it’s like to have these problems as well. So I didn’t need to do research about these central elements of my book.

Without divulging too much of the twisting mystery, I feel comfortable writing that some of the characters espouse eccentric, mystical spiritual beliefs, which drive their behaviors. Once again, for better or worse in this case, I can draw from personal experience to give the reader an authentic feel for dealing with these folks.

Quite a few years ago, after several years as a spiritual seeker and a pilgrimage around the world, I helped found a small, relatively benign cult, serving as the assistant guru—running a branch office, if you will. Ironically, when the head of our group sent me to graduate school to become a therapist, I learned that he had a delusional disorder, and I graduated myself and all the other members back into the world.

I think another author would’ve needed to do a great deal of research about the psychology of zealots, and how they speak about what they believe. I guess this is a case of my writing what I know. One of the reasons I chose to do this is that I consider my expertise in these arenas to be relatively rarified in the author world. I don’t mean to imply it’s better or any more valuable—just less common.

Of course, the meat and potatoes of a mystery is the mystery itself, and here’s where I needed to start googling like mad. I needed to be well-schooled in means, motive, and opportunity to create believable action. I never worked with murderers as either a therapist or a spiritual teacher. If I was going to imagine one (or more than one—no giveaways here), that character(s) needed to match up with reality. I also needed to look up hallucinogenics, a specific medical condition, angel and demon names, an arcane book, and several other details essential to the plot.

Here’s part of the blurb for Murder For Liar: “Private investigator-turned-psychotherapist Tom Dashiel doesn’t know it yet, but he’s hurtling towards discovering where his threshold lies—the point of no return for his sanity.”

Pushed to his limits, Tom has to learn how to accommodate all sorts of intense, confusing experiences in order to survive. So like most books, there’s an arc of change—how and why does the main character change because of what happens? In my case, letting readers such as my wife and others examine my ms helps a lot to ascertain if I’ve done a good job with this. Does Tom seem different as the novel progresses? Are the changes believable? Putting your self in his shoes—as authors must—can you see yourself responding similarly? Believability is essential in a mystery, especially one with an outlandish plot. It’s very challenging to know how a reader will experience the plot twists, the choices various characters make, and the solution to the mystery. So I needed outside eyes.

What else do I have to share? I guess I would add that over-preparing can be a problem, stifling the free flow of ideas, however misguided or inaccurate they might be. I find that writing something and then fixing it later works much better than halting my word production to delve into the real story about something. Almost everything can be fixed later if you can put aside your ego and let go of the original version you’ve created. Occasionally, I’ve had to toss entire sections of a ms because they just didn’t make sense in the light of day—and the glow of Google on my iMac. That wasn’t fun, but it also wasn’t any sort of tragedy.

The  main thing I’ve learned is that everyone has his or her own process—whether it’s about writing, grieving, or anything else. Some authors research and plan a lot. Some don’t. Once you discover what works for you, trust it. Second-guessing or comparing your process to others’ when you’ve got something that works is counterproductive.

Thank you for the opportunity to share all this.

 

You can learn more about Darrow and his books via his website and follow him on Facebook, Twitter, and Goodreads. Murder for Liar is now available via and all major booksellers.

Author R&R With Margaret Fenton

 Margaret Fenton was born in Florence, Alabama, and grew up on the Mississippi Gulf Coast in Ocean Springs. She received her B.A. in English from the Newcomb College of Tulane University in New Orleans, and her Master of Social Work from Tulane. She worked in Children's Mental Health for fourteen years before becoming a writer. Hence, her work tends to reflect her interest in social causes and mental health, especially where kids are concerned. She has been a planning coordinator of the mystery conference, Murder in the Magic City, since its inception in 2003. Margaret lives in the Birmingham suburb of Hoover with her husband, a retired software developer, and their three adorable Papillons.

Margaret's series featuring child welfare social worker, Claire Conover, includes Little Lamb Lost, Little Girl Gone, and the most recent installment, Little White Lies, in which the office of Black mayoral candidate, Dr. Marcus Freedman, is bombed. While Marcus is found safe, his campaign manager, Jason O'Dell, is discovered dead in the rubble. Claire's office gets a call about Jason's daughter, Maddie, who was left in daycare and becomes Claire's latest charge as she investigates what happened.

There are more questions than answers when it's revealed that Jason O’Dell was living under an assumed name. He's actually Jason Alsbrook, son of prominent local mine owner, James Alsbrook, whose mining company has an unseemly notoriety for having the most mining accidents and deaths in Alabama. Not surprisingly, there are many people who would wish harm to him and to his family. But who would’ve acted on that hatred?

As she works to keep little Maddie safe and find out who would’ve harmed Jason—and why—Claire uncovers a complex web of deception, secrets, and lies. While she struggles to piece together this dangerous puzzle, Claire weathers the storms in her personal life that threaten to rip apart everything Claire holds dear. In the end, will all the little white lies come with a big cost?

Margaret Fenton stops by In Reference to Murder to talk about her writing:

 

Hi everyone! My name is Margaret Fenton and I write the Little social work mysteries published by Aakenbaaken and Kent.  Three books are out in the series so far: LITTLE LAMB LOST, LITTLE GIRL GONE, and LITTLE WHITE LIES.  I’m working on number four, titled LITTLE BOY BLUE.  The books feature child welfare social worker Claire Conover, who is an investigator for the Jefferson County Department of Human Services in Birmingham, Alabama.  She’s been doing this job for several years and comes from a family of people who are service-minded, especially her father. 

First, a little about me, the author.  I have a Master’s Degree in Social Work from Tulane University, and for close to fifteen years I worked as a mental health consultant for the Department of Human Resources here in the real Jefferson County.  My team would evaluate children and families who came under the oversight of DHR, and offer them services including in-home family therapy, case management, psychiatric services, and more.  The goal was to try to keep them out of foster care. I worked very closely with all the child welfare social workers in the county at the time and became familiar with how things in that world worked.

From this short bio, I’m sure it’s not hard to see that my research into some aspects of the books comes from reality.  Claire’s character comes from several of the social workers I knew in real life, who were dedicated and determined to do the best for their clients. I got to see first-hand how the work affected their lives and families as well as some of the frustrations they faced.

That being said, I also break some of the rules.  In LITTLE GIRL GONE, Claire meets a 13-year old black girl named LaReesa Jones, and they develop a long-term relationship. She eventually becomes her foster mother, but in real life that would never be allowed.  Social workers are allowed to foster, but the child cannot be one that they have investigated or have had anything to do with professionally.  LaReesa is a culmination of all of the resilient kids I worked with over the years. Kids who have faced so much strife and stress and somehow manage to succeed, even with some bumps along the way.

Most of my characters are based on real people. There is a romance that develops when Claire meets Grant Summerville in LITTLE LAMB LOST.  He’s a very tall, very cute man who becomes Claire’s boyfriend.  Oh, but then there’s Kirk Mahoney, the sexy bad-boy reporter from the News. Claire is not allowed to share any information with him about any of her cases, but that doesn’t stop him from asking. Again and again.  Both Grant and Kirk are based on different sides of my husband’s personality. He likes to guess which ones.

Thank you for allowing me to share all this with you, and I hope you’ll check out the books!

 

You can find out more about Margaret Fenton via her website and follow her on Facebook, Twitter, and Goodreads. Little White Lies is available in digital and print editions via all major online booksellers.

Author R&R with Charles Salzberg

 Charles Salzberg is a novelist, a journalist, and an acclaimed writing instructor. He has been a Visiting Professor at the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications at Syracuse University, and has taught writing at Sarah Lawrence College, Hunter College, the Writer's Voice, and the New York Writers Workshop, where he is a Founding Member. He is a consulting editor at the webzine Ducts.org and co-host, with Jonathan Kravetz, of the reading series, Trumpet Fiction, at KGB in New York City. His freelance work has appeared in such publications as Esquire, New York Magazine, GQ, Elle, Redbook, Ladies Home Journal, The New York Times Arts and Leisure section, The New York Times Book Review, and the Los Angeles Times Book Review. He is the author of the Henry Swann detective series, including Swann's Last Song, which was nominated for a Shamus Award for Best First PI Novel, and the upcoming Swann's Lake of Despair.

His new novel, Man on the Run, follows master burglar, Francis Hoyt, who walked away from his arraignment in a Connecticut courtroom and is now a fugitive who has to figure out what he’s going to do with the rest of his life. So he heads west to Los Angeles, where he meets Dakota, a young true crime podcaster who happens to be doing a series on Hoyt. At the same time, he’s approached by a mysterious attorney who makes Hoyt an offer he can’t refuse: break into a "mob bank," and liberate the contents.

Charles Salzberg stops by In Reference to Murder to talk about researching and writing the book:

 

When I started writing for magazines, I had no journalism background other than being a big fan of magazines like Esquire, GQ, New Times and The New Yorker, plus three months working in the mailroom at New York magazine.

I learned pretty quick there are essentially two different approaches to research. The first, embodied by my friend Tom, is to do as much research as possible on a subject before you start the interviewing process. Tom reasoned that knowing as much about a subject as possible will help the interview process, by opening up subjects for discussion you might otherwise miss. But for me, there was a downside to that approach: I was afraid if I knew too much about a subject, I might not ask the questions that might need to be asked, because I already knew the answers. Instead, I treated interviews more like organic conversations, uncovering all kinds of information and it encouraged me to ask questions I might otherwise not think to ask. It also resulted in me paying more attention to those answers, which resulted in sometimes having the conversation head in unexpected directions. The other looming concern was that to rely too much on information already in public domain, is potentially tricky because not all information out there is true. I was also afraid that if I knew all the answers before even asking the questions, I’d get lazy or, even worse, bored.

There was another potential problem inherent in researching and that is it’s often hard to know when to stop, which means you often wind up with so much research that when it comes time to write, you’re paralyzed. How much information does the reader need to know? Is it possible if I know too much about a subject that I’ll never get out of the weeds, which means never actually writing. Will I go down too many rabbit holes, much of what I find out totally unnecessary? Will all this research result in asphyxiation by information?

In journalism, it’s extremely important to get all the facts right—for obvious reasons. But in fiction, it’s just as important. There’s nothing that’ll turn a reader off more than finding inaccuracies, even those as simple as having a character drive down a one-way street in the wrong direction. And if you have any thoughts about getting away with inaccuracies, forget about it, because inevitably there’ll be some reader out there (usually more than one), who’ll catch you red-handed.

My latest novel, Man on the Run, required me to not only get inside the mind of Francis Hoyt, a master burglar, but it also meant I had to take a crash course in how to burgle a house, and how to elude alarm systems. Hoyt was a character in an earlier book, Second Story Man. He sprung from an article I read in The New Yorker way back in 2004. “The Silver Thief” chronicled the career of master burglar Blane Nordahl. For some reason, that article stayed with me and when, almost fifteen years later, I decided to do a book about what I think of as America’s obsession with winning, with being the best, sometimes at any cost, I decided to create a master burglar who is obsessed with being the best in his field. And so, I began researching everything I could on burglars. As a result of that research, I discovered another legendary second story man, Alan Golder, known as “The Dinnertime Bandit.” He only robbed houses at dinnertime, when he knew the chances were good that everyone was in the house, which meant all the valuables were upstairs, waiting to be plucked.

I never intended to revisit Francis Hoyt, but after completing the novel I was working on at the time, Canary in the Coal Mine, I was looking for my next project. For some reason, Francis Hoyt kept popping up. What, I wondered, happens to Hoyt after Second Story Man ends? Having escaped from the authorities, he’s on the lam. Where would he go? What would he do next? And so, from that curiosity arose Man on the Run.

During the pandemic, I discovered true crime podcasts. I listened to dozens of them, many the result of deep-dive investigations. It sparked an idea: What if a true crime podcaster decided to do a series on Francis Hoyt? And what if he found out about it? What would he do? And so, another character entered the picture: Dakota Richards, a former newspaper reporter who starts her own true crime podcast.

I knew nothing about the ins and outs of podcasting, so I did what I’d do as a journalist: I contacted a podcaster, Lauren Bright Pacheco, and she was happy to cooperate. I peppered her with dozens of questions about the ins and outs of podcasting. What equipment would my character need? Did she work alone? What editing skills would she require? How do podcasts make money? Lauren was happy to answer all my questions.

At one point, near the end of the novel, I needed a particular location where Hoyt could get rid of a hot car. I’ve been to L.A. many times, but that isn’t the kind of information I ever picked up, so I called up my friend, Janet, told her what I was looking for, and she came through with the perfect spot.

Generally speaking, because I’m one of those annoying people who doesn’t outline plots, I have no idea where I’m going when I sit down to write. As a result, I tend to research on the fly. When I reach a point where I need to do research, I’ll stop and do it.

 

You can learn more about Charles Salzberg via his website and follow him on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube. Man on the Run is now available from Down & Out Books and via all major booksellers.

Author R&R with Matt Cost

 Matt Cost started out as a history major at Trinity College and later went on to own a mystery bookstore, a video store, and a gym, before serving a ten-year sentence as a junior high school teacher. In 2014 he was released and began writing histories and mysteries. Cost has published four books in the Mainely Mystery series, with the fifth, Mainely Wicked, due out in August of 2023. He has also published four books in the Clay Wolfe Trap series, with the fifth, Pirate Trap, due out in December of 2023. Cost combines his love of histories and mysteries into a new historical PI mystery set in 1923 Brooklyn, Velma Gone Awry.

Velma Gone Awry follows Hungarian private eye, "8" Ballo, whose mother was certain he was going to be born a girl, but when he comes out a boy, she writes down simply the number 8, as he has seven older siblings. Now, in his mid-thirties, 8 is a college educated man, a veteran of the Great War, jilted in love, and has his own private investigator business in Brooklyn, New York. When he is hired to find the young flapper daughter of a German businessman, life suddenly becomes much more complicated in a search that will lead him to cross paths with Dorothy Parker, Zelda and F. Scott Fitzgerald, Coleman Hawkins, Bugsy Siegel, Babe Ruth, and many more.

Matt stops by In Reference to Murder to talk about writing and researching the book:

 

I write histories and mysteries. The difference in research between the two genres varies, but in reality, is not all that different.  

The historical fiction that I write requires a great deal of preloading. I have written historical fiction novels about Joshua Chamberlain and the Civil War, Fidel Castro and the Cuban Revolution, and New Orleans during Reconstruction.

 The most important facet of doing the research for these books was visiting the place where they took place, getting in tune with the locale, and allowing that knowledge to make my writing more sincere. I visited countless American Civil War battlefields for At Every Hazard, and even spent so much time at Gettysburg where the defining moment of Joshua Chamberlain’s life and potentially the turning point of the Civil War occurred, that my son ended up going to Gettysburg College.

That same son went to Cuba with me as my translator for researching I am Cuba. I had worked with a company to develop a twelve-day journey across the island of Cuba following the revolutionary war path of Fidel Castro, getting guides as necessary, and gaining an appreciation for the terrain, the cities, and the people.

The most important thing that I learned on my travels through Cuba was how 300 bearded guerillas were able to defeat an army of 10,000 Cuban soldiers. This knowledge was gleaned by climbing the Sierra Maestra through dense jungle and stifling humidity to the camp of Fidel Castro (a historical site in Cuba that only the brave hike to). The soldiers simply didn’t have the desire or the mettle to flush them out of this jungle mountain hideout.

My wife and I had a grand time researching New Orleans for Love in a Time of Hate. Fascinating historical details by day, and by night, fabulous food, music, and drink. What’s not to like?

But on to the mysteries. I write two different mystery series with a third debuting in April. My Mainely Mysteries and Clay Wolfe/Port Essex books are fast-paced, action on every page, but also complex and twisting, with an underlying educational theme that has grabbed my attention and incorporated itself into my books. These themes include nuclear power, potent lobbyists, heroin smuggling through lobster traps, cults, genome editing, and unidentified aerial phenomena.

While the characters, or the good guys anyway, are set, as is the setting for these PI mysteries, the plot requires preloading by reading up on these topics, and then diverging into internet searches and documents. The rabbit hole is real. Through the course of writing the books, I am constantly dropping nuggets of information to family and friends regarding the fascinating thing that I learned that day. Some of this research comes before I put fingers to keyboard, but most of it occurs as I write. The subject, the topic, and the plot are constantly evolving, so the research must follow suit. I quite often will have ten or twelve tabs open at the top of my browser with such things as heroin laced with fentanyl, how to poison somebody, famous serial killers, and so on.

I am debuting a historical PI mystery set in 1923 Brooklyn, Velma Gone Awry, in April of this year. This is a combination of my love of histories and mysteries and also contains probably the most unique research tool that I have utilized. There is a site, www.newspapers.com, that has archived onto their site most of the newspapers in the history of the United States. Perhaps the world, I’m not sure, as I have not needed to cross outside the country since I found it.

This is a treasure trove of information. I can read a number of papers such as the Brooklyn Daily Eagle for the time period I’m research, in this case, 1923. The unique thing that I’ve come up with regarding research is I read this newspaper every morning before writing. Front to back for the days that I am currently writing about. From this I get a feel for the politics, the news of the day, what things are being advertised, and so on. It has been a fantastic tool and I’d highly recommend it to anyone writing historical fiction.

I love every part of the writing process, but delving into a topic that interests me and peeling away layer after layer is gratifying and fascinating and a part that I truly do love. But I equally like writing, editing, and marketing my books.

Write on.

 

You can find our more about Matt Cost via his website and follow him on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. Velma Gone Awry: A Brooklyn 8 Ballo Mystery is now available via Encircle Publications and all major booksellers.