“The Dance of Murder” is now available in AUDIO books at www.audible.com and www.amazon.com
COMING SOON! Book 3, “The Act of Murder” to Audio. Available now in Paperback!
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I can’t believe that it was just this past September that I wrote this blog about an idea becoming a one act play and NOW I’m writing my fifth book in the World of Murder mystery series. The first four novels are available here and on amazon.com and now are audio books at audible.com So I am thinking it is worth posting this again to let my fellow writers see how an idea can grow into something pretty damn amazing!!
If you missed the story here it is again:
Let’s see….I think it was 2005 and we were in rehearsals for “Cheatin'” in Port Aransas, Texas. I was the director and we had pulled together a terrific cast. The title pretty much tells you the story line but the fun part and what made it so funny was it was set in….where else?…… Texas and was filled with good ole’ boys and girls. It was the highest grossing play for that theatre in many a year and won Best Production and Best Set Design (thanks to Janis Johnson’s contribution). I was very proud of the cast and crew!
Continue reading “An Idea..A New Mystery Series! “The World of Murder””
An Interview with Mystery Writer, Sue Grafton (Part 1)
Author, John D. McDonald died suddenly back in 1986 and took Travis McGee with him. I owned and had read every book of McDonald’s…..Now what was I suppose to do?? I didn’t read many mysteries (back then) but I was especially fond of Travis and his bear-of-a-man friend, Meyer. So back in the eighties, (when you shopped at a real book store), I looked through the aisles for someone worthy of replacing John McDonald. There I found “A is for Alibi” with the formidable and quirky, Kinsey 
Millhone. I’ve been reading Sue Grafton ever since. TS
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this entry from Sue’s journals;
Dear Shadow . . . Self . . . and Right Brain, Doing everything I can here to make life possible. I’ve abandoned the old story . . . cleaned out my computer . . . sorted and tossed and filed away old notes and articles. Now I need help in launching myself again. Please speak to me. Please let me know where the new book is coming from. I really need your assistance and I’m hoping you’ll spark something so I can get to work.
Look forward to hearing from you.
Love & kisses,
Sue
Response from Shadow Self: How about an old-fashioned unsolved murder case? Parents are angry because nothing’s been done. Case is old & cold, with no new leads coming in.
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Q. Where do you write? Do you have a special room, shed, barn, special space for your writing?
A. I have an office in both my homes; Montecito, California and Louisville Kentucky. The two are different in terms of size and style but I can’t tell you that I’m more productive in one than in the other. I like lots of light. I like tidiness. I like space. I like quiet. When I’m working my desk is usually a mess, but I do make an effort from time to time to restore order. The creative process is messy enough. I don’t need to look at chaos as well.
Q. Do you have any special rituals when you sit down to write? (sharpened #2 pencils, legal pad, cup of tea, glass of brandy, favorite pajamas, etc.)
A. Often I do a short stint of self-hypnosis which helps quiet the chatter in my head and helps me focus and concentrate. I learned the technique from a book on the subject that I got at a book store and it’s been a wonderful way to keep ‘centered’ if you’ll forgive the term.
Q. What is your mode of writing? (long hand? Pencil? Computer? Etc.)
A. A computer, of course. Which I claim has greatly improved my skills. In the ‘olden’ days of white out and cutting and pasting, I got hung up on whether the page ‘looked right’. I hated adding anything that forced me to repaginate because I didn’t like all the extra work. If I deleted 11 lines, I got so I could exactly replace the missing lines with something that would work as well so that I didn’t have to retype everything. To my way of thinking, this is not the key to writing well. On a computer I can and do write every line over and over until it suits me. The tinkering is infinite. I when a line is right and when it’s not, I revise and refine and cut and amend until it sounds right to my inner ear.
Q. Do you have a set time each day to write or do you write only when you are feeling creative?
A. I’m usually at my desk at 8:00. I check emails and make a brief visit to my Face Book page where I chat with readers. I never feel truly creative. I work until lunch time when I take a short break. go back until mid-afternoon when I usually take a walk with one of a number of friends. I work seven days a week because it’s easier to stay connected to the writing. In completing “W” 
I worked double-sessions, returning to my desk after dinner. I cut out our social life. I nixed all the walks which I found interrupted the work too often. I didn’t run errands. I didn’t stop to get my hair cut.
Part 2 of this Interview will be posted August 6th
And to read more in the fascinating Journals that Sue keeps for each book, go to: www.suegrafton.com
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DON’T MISS UPCOMING BLOGS. INTERVIEWS with other best-selling AUTHORS! A SERIES, “The Writer’s Corner”
I have had a wonderful response from other authors and will feature an interview once a month . These authors have already responded and you can read their interviews by clicking on their name: Ann Purser, Susan Elia MacNeal, Karen Robards, Mark Childress, Rhys Bowen, Dean Koontz, Sheryl Woods, Jo-Ann Mapson, Jeffrey Deaver, Elizabeth Gilbert, Raymond Benson, Amber Winckler, Heidi Jon Schmidt, Robert McCammon, Sue Grafton, Walter Mosley, Nora Roberts, and many others.
So come along with me; we shall sneak into these writers’ special places, be a fly on the wall and watch them create! July features Rhys Bowen. Sue Grafton is August’s author with a bonus chat with Cathy Lamb later in the month. September will feature Tasha Alexander. Jeffrey Deaver is November’s author and slick mystery writer, Andrew Grant will join us this winter. Loretta Chase will be featured later this year. Raymond Benson is my January author. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
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Go to the home page; On the right side you’ll see a box where you can enter your email address. Click on “join my blog”. You need to confirm in an email from ‘Writer at Play’ . Thanks!
DON’T MISS IT! Starting tomorrow, my interview with Sue Grafton, most famous for her best selling alphabet series!
August 1st and 6th, Sue shares with me and her readers her process as she writes her best sellers. Beginning back in the eighties she wrote “A IS FOR ALIBI” and the rest is history. What happens when we get to “Z”?? Will that be the end to Kinsey Milhone, PI? Oh, no!!!
REVIEW: “For the Love of Mike” by Rhys Bowen
(5 out of 5 quills) 
I’m totally engaged reading Rhys Bowen‘s Molly Murphy’s mysteries. Set in the early 1900’s, these books are more than just entertaining mysteries. For example: The sub-story is of New York City in by-gone days. Where Ellis Island disgorged immigrants by the thousands, dumping them on the streets of Manhattan, willy-nilly, to fend for themselves however they could. Few requirements were imposed; they had to have five dollars, be fairly healthy and free of consumption (tuberculosis). The immigrants could be wanted criminals back in their home country and still be admitted.
At the turn of the century, Greenwich Village was filled with “students, rowdies, Negroes, miscreants and anarchists“. (“For the Love of 
Mike”) Ha! The Village hasn’t changed much! Hell’s Kitchen and lower Manhattan were the “Irish Section” and filled with tenements and poverty. The discrimination of those times was not white against all the others but rather nationality against nationality. In the Jewish and Italian sections of town there were signs in the windows of shops stating “NO Irish need apply”. Only Italian and Jewish girls worked in the sweatshops of the garment district; and in Hell’s Kitchen and Five Points other ethnic groups (not Irish) who ventured into those neighborhoods did so at their own peril.
If you are at all familiar with the ‘neighborhoods’ of today’s Manhattan you will quickly see that the face of the city has not changed all that much. It is still an island of ethnic neighborhoods. Much to my satisfaction! That’s how I learned the city from 1991 to 2006….wandering (by design) the streets of each neighborhood so that we could taste the air there, eat the food and often chat with the inhabitants. I’ll never forget the time, in Chinatown, when I attempted to photograph the face of an ancient Chinese woman. She ran me off with her umbrella held high!
Now because of Rhys Bowen brilliant writing I get to revisit those neighborhoods (that I love) in a different era. My very own TIME MACHINE!
I so enjoyed Interviewing Ms. Bowen just recently.
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Coming in August! A review of Ms. Bowen’s latest release, “Heirs and Graces” The Royal Spyness series
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Start your month off right!! DON’T MISS UPCOMING BLOGS. A NEW SERIES, “The Writer’s Corner” INTERVIEWS with other best-selling AUTHORS!
I have had a wonderful response from other authors and plan on featuring an interview once a month .These authors have already responded and you can read their interviews by clicking on their name: : Ann Purser, Susan Elia MacNeal, Robert McCammon, Heidi Jon Schmidt, Mark Childress, Rhys Bowen, Dean Koontz, Amber Winckler, Caroline Leavitt, Sheryl Woods, Jo-Ann Mapson, Jeffrey Deaver, Elizabeth Gilbert, Karen Robards, Walter Mosley, Nora Roberts, Raymond Benson and many others.
So come along with me; we shall sneak into these writers’ special places, be a fly on the wall and watch them create! July features Rhys Bowen. Sue Grafton is August’s author and September will feature Tasha Alexander. Jeffrey Deaver is November’s author and slick mystery writer, Andrew Grant will join us this winter. Loretta Chase will be featured later this year. Raymond Benson is January’s author.
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Review Rating: 5/5 quills “OH DANNY BOY” by Rhys Bowen
The best way to read the Molly Murphy Mysteries is in order (which is what I am doing) so I can’t review a newly released book of Rhys yet. They are lined up on my bookshelf (not read yet) just waiting for me.
These books are set in New York City in the early 1900’s. Molly, fleeing Ireland and murder charges (she didn’t do it) finds herself in NYC with no friends and no family. The characters she meets, befriends, rescues, and loves are rich and interesting. And the best part is you find them in the following books.
‘Oh Danny Boy’ has several story threads and what I really enjoyed was witnessing the birth of CSI. (Crime Scene Investigation). Molly and her cohorts are just beginning to realize the significance of blood samples, hair comparisons, etc.
Rhys also introduces her readers to Sabella Goodwin, historically one of the first women to be in law enforcement in 1896 . Hired as a police matron, she supervised women after their arrest. Married to a policeman, she was given undercover assignments, after his death while on duty. Sabella proved to be so successful at these that she was promoted to detective by 1910.
I highly recommend the Molly Murphy mysteries. Click here to read a recent interview with this talented author! Part II is tomorrow, July 5th.
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DON’T MISS UPCOMING BLOGS featuring INTERVIEWS with other best-selling AUTHORS! A SERIES, “The Writer’s Corner”
I have had a wonderful response from other authors and will feature an interview once a month . These authors have already responded and you can read their interviews by clicking on their name:: Ann Purser, Susan Elia MacNeal, Mark Childress, Rhys Bowen, Dean Koontz, Sheryl Woods, Jo-Ann Mapson, Jeffrey Deaver, Elizabeth Gilbert, Amber Winckler, Karen Robards, Robert McCammon, Sue Grafton, Caroline Leavitt, Heidi Jon Schmidt, Walter Mosley, Nora Roberts, and many others.
So come along with me; we shall sneak into these writers’ special places, be a fly on the wall and watch them create! July features Rhys Bowen. Sue Grafton is August’s author and September will feature Tasha Alexander. Jeffrey Deaver is November’s author and slick mystery writer, Andrew Grant will join us this winter. Loretta Chase will be featured later this year.
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To receive my posts sign up for my Go to the home page; On the right side you’ll see a box where you can enter your email address. Click on “join my blog”. You need to confirm in an email from ‘Writer at Play’ . Thanks!
Part II ** An Interview with Susan Elia MacNeal
(Part I * March 5th)
Q. Do you have any special rituals when you sit down to write? (sharpened #2 pencils, legal pad, cup of tea, glass of brandy, favorite pajamas, etc.)
A. I do love a good cup of coffee, I must admit—milk, no sugar. No rituals, but if I get anxious about starting, I’ll often just open the document and run spell check—that way, I usually get over any stress. Occasionally, I’ll put on NPR or some sort of talk radio in the background for company. And generally I have a cat or two nearby.
Q. What is your mode of writing? (long hand? Pencil? Computer? Etc.)
A. I like writing directly into the computer, and I particularly love my laptop. Sometimes I’ll do notes or outlining on a yellow legal pad with a pen or pencil (but mostly because we have yellow legal pads around at home, not because of any ritual!).
Q. Do you have a set time each day to write or do you write only when you are feeling creative?
A. I like to write first thing in the morning. I think that time in between dreaming and full waking is really good for fiction. So I usually write early in the morning and then do editing and reply to emails and whatnot in the afternoon. That is, until 3 p.m. — then I’m back in the mommy role.
Q. Do you ‘get lost’ in your writing and for how long?
A. Yes, and it’s the most amazing experience in the world when that happens! Usually I find it a hard state to achieve when first starting a novel, because I don’t know my characters and settings as well. But later on, usually when I’m more than a hundred pages in or so, it’s really fun to “get lost” with my characters. That’s the absolute best part of being a writer.
Q. When did you begin to write seriously?
A. I’ve always loved writing, but I first started taking myself a bit more seriously when I was an editor at Dance Magazine, and then became a staff writer as well. I did a lot of pieces for the magazine and also for the web site. It was at Dance Magazine that I started to think of myself as a professional, and I thank then-editor Richard Philp for taking a chance on me and then giving me so much freedom to pursue and write stories.
Q. How long after that were you published?
A. Well, when Dance Magazine moved to San Francisco, I, with the rest of the New York staff, lost my job. I’d just gotten married, so I had health insurance. So, that was when I decided to freelance. I did a lot of magazine pieces and editing, and wrote two non-fiction books – one about weddings and one about cocktails. But I was always working on fiction.
Q. What does the process of going from “no book” to “finished book” look like?
A. Hmm, well, Mr. Churchill’s Secretary took more than ten years, and each subsequent book has taken about two years. (Random House held Mr. Churchill’s Secretary until Princess Elizabeth’s Spy was pretty far along, so they could publish them back-to-back.) I guess it takes me a few months to immerse myself in research, then a few months to write a beginning, then additional time to realize I hate the beginning and delete it—then back to the drawing board to rewrite.
About nine months later, my editor, the amazing and patient Kate Miciak gets it, and she takes a pass through and gives me an editorial letter. I work on it some more, and it goes back to Kate, who either okays it or sends it back to me, which takes a few months. Then it goes through a six-month period where it goes through a number of passes of copy-editing, then an Advanced Readers Edition, and then, finally, the finished book.
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Part III of this fascinating interview will post on March 12th. Don’t miss it!! http://www.susaneliamacneal.com/
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Start your month off right!! DON’T MISS UPCOMING BLOGS. INTERVIEWS with other best-selling AUTHORS! A NEW SERIES, “The Writer’s Corner”
I have had a wonderful response from other authors and plan on featuring an interview once a month . I have invited such luminaries as: Ann Purser, Susan Elia MacNeal, Robert McCammon, Rhys Bowen, Mark Childress, Dean Koontz, Sheryl Woods, Jo-Ann Mapson, Jeffrey Deaver, Sue Grafton, Elizabeth Gilbert, Amber Winckler, Walter Mosley, Nora Roberts, and many others.
So come along with me; we shall sneak into these writers’ special places, be a fly on the wall and watch them create!
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To receive my posts sign up for my Go to the home page; On the right side you’ll see a box where you can enter your email address. Click on “join my blog”. You need to confirm in an email from ‘Writer at Play’ . Thanks!
(continued from January 15th) **An interview with Ann Purser**
Anyway, to resume: My husband was asked to write a TV critic column in a show biz paper, and he said how much? and they said thirty bob, and he said “My old woman would do it for that!” And they said, “would she?” So I did, for several years, until SHE popped up again and said would I like to do a page each month, an interview with a lovely show biz person. So I did it for six years, and loved it.
Skipping lightly over a job in the village school, running an art gallery, and harbouring many pet animals, including a donkey – Now, to my first novel, this was a story of village life, and Orion took it on, and gave me a commission for six more. So I did those, and then wrote a murder mystery called Murder on Monday, which nobody wanted to publish. Then luckily, a very nice man called Edwin at Severn House Publishing, said he would do it, and that started my career as a mystery novelist. Six of these were slotted by those who like pigeon-holing, into a category called Cozies. Nuff said.
Actually, with the music playing, I am quite able to shut out extraneous other noises. I can usually work fast and have never (crossing all fingers) had writers` block. There is no telephone in Harriet`s House, and my husband (same one) keeps callers at bay.
One of your questions, about `no book` to `finished book`, had me thinking. By now, I have evolved a habit of starting a new book immediately after finishing the last. Then it gets a bit mixed up when I have copy editing etc. to do. But my present publisher, Berkley Prime Crime, Penguin US, is expert and wonderful, and so everything slots into place. At the moment I am writing two books a year.
Inspiration? There`s a thing. Who knows where it comes from? A fevered imagination in my case, probably. But with Lois Meade, there was a specific point when the wheels began to turn. My cleaning lady (with us for thirty years) said one day, half way down the stairs, “I`ve often thought I`d like to be a detective. I get to hear and see a lot of things in my job.” And there it was, handed to me on a plate.
Ivy Beasley, the elderly detective in my second series, is the only person based on a real one. She was a single lady of some years who was awkward, independent and once asked the parish council to investigate the theft of her knickers from the washing line. She is sadly now deceased, and I hope her heavenly knickers are left undisturbed.
So that`s enough about me, Trish! Apologies if I have not answered vital questions. All the best, and carry on the good work. Ann. **********
Start your month off right!! DON’T MISS UPCOMING BLOGS continuing A NEW SERIES, “The Writer’s Corner” INTERVIEWS with other best selling AUTHORS!
I have had a wonderful response from other authors and plan on featuring an interview at least once a month . I have invited such luminaries as: Dean Koontz, Sheryl Woods, Jo-Ann Mapson, Elizabeth Gilbert, Walter Mosley, Nora Roberts, and many others.
So come along with me; we shall sneak into these writers’ special places, be a fly on the wall and watch them create!
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To receive my posts sign up for my blog. Go to the home page; On the right side you’ll see a box where you can enter your email 
address. Click on “join my blog“. You need to confirm in an email from ‘Writer at Play’ . Thanks!
Do other writers (like me) sometimes find themselves at 4 in the afternoon still in their pajamas, writing furiously? Do all of their #2 pencils have to be sharpened before they can begin?
I thought my readers might enjoy hearing about other authors‘ writing processes. So I created a Question & Answer-type Interview and then began contacting some of my favorite authors to ask them to participate. The response has been wonderful and I can’t wait to share it with you.
My first interview was with British author, Ann Purser. www.annpurser.com She is best known for her witty and charming (and beautifully written) mysteries in a small English village. The main character, Lois Meade and her band of ‘cleaners’ make for a sometimes hilarious but cunning read. Ann was so generous with her answers that I have made this interview into a two-parter. I hope you enjoy her fascinating journey as much as I did!
I asked questions like: Do you have a special room, shed, barn, special space for your writing? Do you have any special rituals when you sit down to write? What is your mode of writing? Do you have a set time each day to write or do you write only when you are feeling creative? Do you ‘get lost’ in your writing and for how long? When did you begin to write seriously?
and the all important: What does the process of going from “no book” to “finished book” look like?
**An Interview with author, Ann Purser**
Hi Trish! Nice of you to invite me – so here goes.
You ask me lots of questions which I will try to answer: I write in an annexe originally built for disabled daughter and called Harriet`s House. All switches at wheelchair height, and handy loo and shower. Five mornings a week, I am in there pounding away at the keyboard and blessing whoever it was who invented the computer, since the Delete button is so much quicker than a grubby pink typewriter rubber. First thing to do is find a cd – I have music playing always, since we live next to the village school, and the deafening noise the little dears make is quite remarkable!
English, born in Leicestershire. Tried my hand at many things, details of which are boringly on my website, but eventually was driven to write a book. I say driven, because at that time my eight year old daughter, born prematurely, was struggling with cerebral palsy, and I was struggling with managing her, plus two subsequent energetic little ones. My husband – a writer and critic – once Critic of the Year – got so fed up with listening to my moans that he said “Why don`t you write down how you feel, and we`ll send it to SHE magazine.”
NOW, it so happens that the editor at that time was an ex-girlfriend of said husband, and she very nicely featured my burblings on a couple of pages. There were pictures of my daughter, very delicate and heart-breakingly pretty, and of me looking vacant.
It was a start, and although I didn’t follow it up for some time, I was asked by the Spastics Society to help write a book for parents. Not technical, not preachy, just based on our experiences. Did this, and it came in pink hard covers, and some good reviews. You and Your Handicapped Child was followed by a school book with the snappy title, Looking Back at Popular Entertainment, 1901-1931. Writing this taught me a lot about research, and the nicest part was finding old photos of show biz stars from the Hulton Picture Library.
“We don`t want to know all this,” I hear you say. But the fact is, and I`m sure other writers will bear me out on this, nothing in one`s experience, whether years ago or yesterday, should be wasted. Tiny things, like Ivy Beasley`s mother`s 
voice in her head, float up to be remembered and used.
.……..to be continued on January 17th. Hope you’ll join us!
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