MYSTERY AUTHOR KATHLEEN MARPLE KALB ON THE BRIDE WORE WHITE AND HER NEW SERIES

Kathleen Marple Kalb describes herself as an Author/Anchor/Mom…not in that order. An award-winning weekend anchor at New York’s 1010 WINS Radio, she writes short stories and novels including A Fatal Reception and the Old Stuff series. As Nikki Knight, she writes the Grace the Hit Mom and Vermont Radio mysteries. Her stories have appeared in Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine, Black Cat Weekly, and others, and been short-listed for Derringer and Black Orchid Novella Awards. Learn more about her and her books at her website where you’ll also find links to her social media.

The Bride Wore White

Blame it on Queen Victoria.

 

Everything from prudishness to plaid to World War I is laid at her door, rightly or wrongly, but in the case of white wedding gowns, it’s actually pretty accurate.

 

Upper-class and royal brides had occasionally worn white, as far back as Ancient Rome. In 1558, Mary, Queen of Scots married the heir to the French throne in what was then a traditional mourning color, sparking much talk of bad luck…and it’s hard to argue, considering how the marriage, and the Scottish queen’s life, turned out. Spoiler: early widowhood, two more disastrous marriages, and a date with the headsman. 

 

When Victoria chose a creamy white satin dress for her marriage to Prince Albert, her main goal was supporting the struggling British silk and lace industry. The gown, of Spitalfields silk and Honiton lace, was probably the most famous piece of clothing in the world at the time, and it set the example. And, thanks to the Industrial Revolution and the rising middle class, there were plenty of brides willing and able to follow it.

 

Extravagant white dresses quickly filtered through the upper levels of society, with aristocratic and well-off women eagerly adopting pristine silks and laces. By the time Victoria’s daughters married, the white dress was standard for everyone who could afford it, a statement that the bride came from a family who could buy her an expensive dress she would never wear again.

 

White wedding dresses, by the way, did not start as an announcement of the bride’s innocence. As the fashion spread, though, it became intertwined with all the Victorian ideas about female purity. Eventually, a white dress was seen not just as the prerogative of the first-time bride, but a declaration that her family was delivering untouched merchandise to the altar. 

 

In some circles, a bride did at least get some wear out of the gown. In the American South, it was traditional for a new bride to don her wedding gear for a weeks- or monthslong series of visits and social events surrounding the marriage. Many women also saved their dresses, to be altered and reused by daughters or other female relatives. Surviving gowns in museums have often been remade for changing fashions.

 

When a bride couldn’t afford a white dress with its limited usefulness but still had the money for something, she often bought or made the most beautiful dress she could manage in a more serviceable color, to keep as Sunday best. For many Victorian women, the Sunday best dress was black, but a bride would try to avoid that if she could – think of all the people who told Laura Ingalls Wilder: “marry in black, you’ll wish yourself back.”

 

A Sunday-best dress was also the choice for older or second-time brides. Advice and etiquette books sternly warned senior brides (meaning late-20s and after!) to avoid trying to look like “mutton dressed as lamb.” And remarriages, however loving and joyful, were expected to be relatively quiet. 

 

Many of these Sunday-best wedding dresses have also survived, though, because they were special to their owners. They’re often made of lovely fabrics, beautifully detailed and trimmed, every bit as much an expression of love, joy, and hope as the frilly whites.

 

In A Fatal Reception, set in June of 1900, opera diva Ella Shane ticks all the social boxes for a white gown, and thanks to her successful career, has the resources to splash out. So when Ella meets her Duke at the altar, she’s a vision in pristine satin, lace, and tulle, complete with a crown of orange blossoms Queen Victoria herself would envy. Things take a dramatic and unconventional turn after that…but you’ll have to read the book to find out how!

 

A Fatal Reception

An Ella Shane Mystery, Book 1

 

Gilded Age trouser diva Ella Shane and her Duke are at long last headed for the altar…but they’ll have to handle a murder, a shipwreck, a questionable Polish prince, and any number of other complications on the way. Continuing the highly-praised series featuring an Irish-Jewish Lower East Side orphan who found fame and fortune as a singer of male soprano roles, the latest installment follows Ella and her surprisingly diverse cast of family and friends through mystery and misadventure…and into the greatest challenge of all for an independent-minded woman and her Victorian swain: matrimony!

 

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AN INTERVIEW WITH MYSTERY AUTHOR M.E. PROCTOR

Today we sit down for a chat with crime, detective, and mystery author M.E. Proctor whose also dipped her pen in short fiction and a 4-book dystopian science fiction series. Learn more about her and her books at her website and blog. 

When did you realize you wanted to write novels?

There was no lightning strike! I slid into it …

 

I’ve been writing all my life—advertising, corporate communications, freelance journalism. I wrote short stories on the weekends, to relax. I didn’t think I had the stamina or the time for a book-length project. Then, I took an intensive writing class (5 days a week for a year) to get professional feedback on my work. The Monday evening session was focused on novel writing. A few months later, I had a short crime novel, and I thought, okay, I can do long form after all. 

 

Soon after, a friend suggested we write a science fiction book together. He never followed up on the idea, but I had caught the bug and did it on my own. It led to the 4-book Savage Crown series. At that point I had completely given up on short stories. Ten years ago, with the science fiction saga concluded and out of my head, I went back to writing crime, both books and short stories. There’s spillover, characters from the crime stories find their way into the books.  

 

How long did it take you to realize your dream of publication?

That’s a hard question because it depends on how you look at the timeline. 

 

I started the science fiction series thirty years ago. I don’t think that counts. My querying efforts were non-existent. I lived in Europe at the time and sending stuff via snail mail with prepaid international vouchers was like climbing Mt Everest. The eBook of Elymore, the first episode in the SF series, came out thirteen years ago when Kindle publishing became an option.

 

I believe what happened with Love You Till Tuesday is more representative of what authors looking at publication face today. I imagined the main character, Houston PI Declan Shaw, in 2014. I wrote three books with him in the starring role before this one. I started working on LYTT in 2020 and found a publisher in 2021. It languished in limbo for two years and the publishing contract expired. Shotgun Honey took the book on board last year. It released in August. I’ve been living with Declan Shaw for ten years. I know him very well by now.

 

Are you traditionally published, indie published, or a hybrid author?

Hybrid. Family and Other Ailments and Love You Till Tuesday are traditionally published. The Savage Crown series was independently published.

 

Where do you write?

I don’t have an office or designated writing spot. I live on a lake in Texas, and the view is stunning. I either use a corner of our big dining room table, sit on the back porch, or nestle in a big chair in the sitting room. And my laptop goes with me everywhere. 

 

Is silence golden, or do you need music to write by? What kind?

I’ve never been able to work in complete silence. The hush of a library stresses me. I’m used to having people around me, chatting, TV sounds. I often have music on when I write, movie soundtracks and jazz mostly. Moody songs too, nothing that hops or makes me want to sing along.

 

How much of your plots and characters are drawn from real life? From your life in particular?

I often use snippets of memories in short stories. They help me create a mood or set a scene. Riding my bike by the railroad track, the sound of roller skates on uneven concrete, sugary doughnuts … that kind of thing. The shred of memory is never the entire story, just a touch of color. In Love You Till Tuesday, the inciting event comes straight from a news headline. I will not reveal what it is because the reader will not find out about it for a while. I’ve also given my main protagonist some of my own personality traits, his impatience in particular, and taste in films, food, and music. We have a lot in common, good and not so good. 

 

Describe your process for naming your character?

I avoid character names that end in S or Z because possessives are clunky: Zeiss’s, Parsons’s, Miles’s. It gets annoying. For the rest, I have few rules. I prefer plain first names: Frank, Kate, Jack, Annie, Steve. No names that sound the same, no Lenny and Benny, Carol and Clare. I will borrow the last names of people I know, if they sound right for the character’s personality. The “harmony” is important. How does the name ring when said aloud, is it smooth or does it rankle? My main character’s name, Declan Shaw, felt right, balanced, from the start. I didn’t spend more than five minutes on it. 

 

Real settings or fictional towns?

Real settings, or close to real. Love You Till Tuesday takes place in Houston where I lived for twenty years. The plot moves through several neighborhoods. The next book in the series is set in a fictional town with features similar to a couple of real ones.

 

What’s the quirkiest quirk one of your characters has?

Declan is a Texas PI who hates guns (for good reasons) which strikes people as odd. On the other hand, he keeps a hunting knife in his cowboy boots, so he’s not completely toothless.

 

What’s your quirkiest quirk?

You should ask my husband. I’m sure he can come up with a few. I’m blissfully blind to my own quirkiness.

 

If you could have written any book (one that someone else has already written,) which one would it be? Why?

Hard choice. I am head over heels in love with Tana French’s Faithful Place. She wraps a murder investigation around rich and complex family relationships and every character is wonderfully multi-dimensional. There’s so much heart in that book, and yet it’s never over-sentimental. The writing is so crisp and sharp. I’m in awe. 

 

Everyone at some point wishes for a do-over. What’s yours?

I wish I’d started writing crime stories sooner. As a reader, it’s my favorite genre and I grew up surrounded by classic noir novels. Maybe that’s the problem, maybe I was intimidated.

 

What’s your biggest pet peeve?

Not being able to watch classic French movies on cable. Tomorrow, I might give you another answer.

 

You’re stranded on a deserted island. What are your three must-haves?

Beyond the indispensables, like food, water, and shelter? I’ll need my reading glasses and a couple of good books. Lord of the Rings and Seven Pillars of Wisdom. That should keep me going until a cruise ship shows up on the horizon.  

 

What was the worst job you’ve ever held?

A six-month stint at an ad agency where I fought with my sabotaging boss every single day. I slammed the door very hard on my way out.

 

Who’s your all-time favorite literary character (any genre)? Why?

Arsène Lupin, the original character written by Maurice Leblanc. He’s perfect. A smart thief, an occasional detective, fun, romantic with a wink, a bad boy with a sense of humor. I read the books as a kid, I reread them often as a grown up and I have just as much fun on my multiple visits. Now that I think about it, Declan owes a lot to Lupin. I definitely have a type!  

 

Ocean or mountains?

Ocean, no contest. I never get bored looking at water.

 

City girl/guy or country girl/guy?

City girl, but I hate traffic and crowds and standing in line for everything and public transport, and it’s so nice by the lakeside, so …..

 

What’s on the horizon for you?

More in the Declan Shaw series. Catch Me on a Blue Day is slated for a 2025 release. Hopefully we’ll keep going after that. Then there’s a retro-noir novella written in collaboration that will come out in September next year, Bop City Swing. I’m looking forward to that. And I’m considering another short story collection geared towards horror and speculative fiction.  

 

Anything else you’d like to tell us about yourself and/or your books?

I love burying myself in writing a book. There’s a moment in a first draft, about one third down, when the characters and the plot gather speed. It’s a great feeling. Then, after the first draft is done, comes a lull. Some kind of intermission. I go back to writing short stories, to clear my head. I take a break from my main character. I’m unfaithful for a while. Eventually, I go back to him, and we fall in step again. I like that dance.

 

Love You Till Tuesday

A Declan Shaw Mystery, Book 

The murder of jazz singer April Easton makes no sense, and yet she appears to have been targeted. Steve Robledo, the Houston cop in charge of the investigation, has nothing to work with. Local PI Declan Shaw who spent the night with April has little to contribute. He’d just met her and she was asleep when he left. The case seems doomed to remain unsolved, forever open, and quickly erased from the headlines. And it would be if Declan’s accidental connection with the murder didn’t have unexpected consequences. The men responsible for April’s death are worried. Declan is known to be stubborn and nosy. There is no telling what he’ll find if he starts digging. He must be watched. He might have to be stopped. He’s a risk the killers cannot afford. The stakes are high: a major trial with the death penalty written all over it.

 

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MYSTERY AUTHOR KATHLEEN KASKA ON THE HISTORY OF THE HOTEL THAT INSPIRED HER NOVEL

Photo by Kathleen Maca

Mystery author Kathleen Kaska is the author of the multi-award-winning Sydney Lockhart Mystery Series set in the 1950s and the Kate Caraway Animal-Rights Mystery Series. She also writes mystery trivia and has published The Sherlock Holmes Quiz Book. Her Holmes short story, “The Adventure at Old Basingstoke,” appears the Sherlock Holmes of Baking Street anthology. She is also the founder of The Dogs in the Nighttime, the Sherlock Holmes Society of Anacortes, Washington, and a scion of The Baker Street Irregulars.Learn more about Kathleen and her books at her website where you’ll also find links to her on various social media sites.

The Luther Hotel Still Stands

One morning more than twenty-five years ago, I rose early, entered the breakfast room, and poured myself a huge cup of coffee. It was in October when the finicky weather on the Texas Coast could be sultry and sticky or crisp and cold. That morning, it was somewhere in between as I stepped out of the front door of the Luther Hotel and made myself comfortable in one of the big white rocking chairs on the front porch. The briny smell from the Gulf of Mexico and the eerie call of gulls tugged at my heartstrings. I loved the Texas Coast. I closed my eyes and counted my blessings. When I opened them, I saw a roseate spoonbill glide across a crystal blue sky. I remember thinking that this is what Heaven must be like.

 

That was only our second trip to the historic Luther Hotel. My husband and I were there for a weekend of birding. I remember driving into town on Texas 35 South to East Bay Boulevard that hugged the coastline along the Palacios, Texas waterfront. I had my fingers crossed as we rounded the bend, hoping to spot the flock of long-billed curlews feeding on the massive green lawn in front of the hotel I’d seen on my first visit. I was not disappointed. They were there as they always seemed to be, maneuvering those spiky, eight-inch bills while probing for invertebrates in the grass. 

 

Over the next few years, the Luther Hotel became our home on that stretch of the Texas Coast. Innkeepers Billy and Dolly Hamlin, relatives of the owner, always welcomed us with open arms. On the wall behind the front desk, the original letterbox held the room keys, and guests still used the buzzer on the wall to summon the desk clerk. A working phone booth stood next to the front desk. A gas heater warmed the lobby, and another warmed the hallway, leading to our suite on the third floor. The only signs of modern times were the current newspapers and magazines on the coffee table. 

 

The history of the Luther Hotel dates back to 1903, when it was called the Bay View Hotel. Charles Luther purchased it and renamed it the Luther in 1936. Back then the small town of Palacios saw little activity except for the building of the railroad and the construction of oil derricks outside of town. That all changed with the onset of World War II. The government selected acreage near the town to house thousands of German prisoners of war in what became Camp Hulen. With so many military personnel living at the camp, Palacios grew quickly, attracting entertainers like Artie Shaw, Guy Lombardo, Rita Hayworth, Shirley Temple, and Carol Lombard, and making the Luther a premiere location for celebrities and politicians. Eventually, the Pleasure Pavilion and Roundhouse were built over the water in front of the hotel. The establishment became the hub of social life, where folks gathered to swim, dance, and even play basketball. One of the earlier pavilions (some were destroyed by hurricanes and rebuilt) had mooring docks, a skating rink, and a restaurant. 

 

After the war, the town slowly settled back into a small farming community. In 1987, the highway was rerouted to the outskirts of town, causing several businesses to close. The Luther, however, remained, becoming home to many snowbirds visiting the coast for several weeks in the winter. By the time we discovered the hotel, it had begun to show its age, but that was okay. Staying at the Luther felt like staying at my grandmother’s house. 

 

Little did I know that a few years later, I’d be there for a book signing for my second Sydney Lockhart mystery, Murder at the Luther. The Hamlin’s had retired, and Jack Findley, Charles Luther’s son-in-law, moved to the hotel to take over its operation. Jack hosted a wine and cheese event for me after the book signing. I was amazed and humbled by the turn-out. It seemed that half the town attended. After that event, Jack and I became good friends.

 

Sadly, Jack passed away in 2022, and the old hotel sat vacant and began to deteriorate. Soon, it was destined for the wrecking ball. The story of the hotel’s possible demise and its stay of execution could easily find its way to the big screen. The save-the-farm movies of the 1990s pale in comparison to the true-life story of the locals who rallied to save the Luther Hotel.

 

I’m happy to report that the Luther was recently purchased by J.P. Bryan, an historian, and philanthropist who is a descendant of Stephen F. Austin, the Father of Texas and one of the heroes of the Alamo. Bryan plans to restore the Luther to its former glory. The remodeling has begun, and I plan to be there for the reopening.

 

Murder at the Luther is the final book in my Sydney Lockhart series to be reissued by my new publisher, Anamcara Press. All six of my books have been rebranded and will be offered as a box set during the upcoming holidays.

 

The release day for the reissued Murder at the Luther is September 29, 2024. 

 

Murder at the Luther

It’s New Year’s Eve, 1952. Texas politicians are backslapping and ringing in ‘53 at the historic Luther Hotel on the Texas Coast. Reporter Sydney Lockhart is there covering the festivities. The celebration turns sour when Sydney finds herself dancing with a dead man. With her fingerprints on the murder weapon and a police chief with his own agenda, Sydney ushers in the New Year behind bars. Soon there is another body, more damning fingerprints, and a crazy Cajun who’s been paid to feed Sydney to the alligators. Things get worse when cousin Ruth comes to town with a problem even Sydney can’t solve. 

 

Preorder (releases 9/29/24)

MY AUTHOR BLEW IT AT KILLER NASHVILLE

It's a Major Award!

No, I’m not talking about that infamous, cringe-worthy leg lamp from A Christmas Story. 

 

Three weeks ago, author Lois Winston, she who writes about me, attended the Killer Nashville Writers’ Conference where A Crafty Collage of Crime, the twelfth book in the Anastasia Pollack Crafting Mystery Series, was a finalist in the Comedy category of the Silver Falchion Awards. Much to Lois’s surprise and my own, she won!

 

Lois never expected to win. The woman has never even won more than $7 on a lottery ticket! So although she’s racked up quite a few nominations over the years, she fully expected to come up short once again.

 

Have you ever watched an awards show and fantasized about winning an Oscar, Emmy, or Tony? As you sit in front of the TV, listening to all those acceptance speeches, haven’t you thought about who you’d thank for your success? Being a theater geek, my author only watches the Tonys, but she records the show so she can fast-forward through all the winners thanking everyone from their toddler dance class instructors to the guy who monitors the stage door. You’d think she would have prepared an acceptance speech on the slim chance she might win, but she didn’t.

 

Cut to Lois being asked to say a few words. Did she have the presence of mind to utter a sentence or two about this winning book where she sent me to Tennessee wine country, only to have me stumble across more dead bodies? She did not. In front of a captive audience of about 400 mystery lovers IN MIDDLE TENNESSEE, she gave what one of her friends later proclaimed was the shortest acceptance speech in the history of awards. And didn't even mention anything about me or the book!

AUTHOR JODE MILLMAN WRITES LEGAL THRILLERS INSPIRED BY TRUE CRIMES

Jodé Millman is the multi-award-winning author of the Queen City Crimes true-crime inspired mystery series. She’s an attorney, a reviewer for Booktrib.com, and creator of The Writer’s Law School. Jodé lives with her family in the Hudson Valley, where she is at work on her next legal thriller. Find out more about Jodé and her books at her website. 

When Murder Comes Knocking!

As a crime fiction writer, it is not very often that the gnarled hand of murder comes knocking at my front door. I don’t mean a fictional murder. I mean a real, true crime murder.

 

Wait. No, I wasn’t the intended victim... but please let me explain.

 

Before I became a crime fiction writer, I was a family law attorney. My law practice was in New York’s Hudson Valley, an idyllic region of horse farms, robber baron mansions, and a bustling river with a very dark underbelly. In 1985, my business partner and I purchased a building for our law offices, which had been abandoned and in foreclosure for many years. During the vacancy period, the porch of our brick Tudor-style building had become a gathering spot for “the ladies of the evening.” Apparently, the women found it convenient to ply their trade across the street in an isolated parking structure.

 

Unfortunately, the ladies viewed our porch as their own office and created problems for us by soliciting our clients on the way into our office. Naturally, this was embarrassing, and they were quite persistent despite our requests to “move along, please.” My partner and I constantly called the police for help, but to no avail. Gradually, one-by-one the ladies vanished. We were relieved, believing the police had prevailed. However, one day, the headlines of our local newspaper revealed the more grisly truth.

 

To our shock, a serial killer named Kendall Francois had been arrested in connection with the disappearances of eight prostitutes in the City of Poughkeepsie. He had been soliciting these women from our front steps, had taken them to his home, and no one heard from them again. His killings had occurred over a two-year period, and ultimately, the judge found him guilty of seven counts of murder. Francois was sentenced to life imprisonment without parole.

 

As a crime fiction writer, true crime stories like this one are manna from heaven. My front office steps served as the actual scene of the crime and formed the basis for my multi-award-winning sophomore mystery, “Hooker Avenue.”

 

In my novel, my protagonists, attorney Jessie Martin and her estranged best friend, Detective Ebony Jones, are on the hunt of a series of missing prostitutes after a severely battered woman escapes from the clutches of a deranged John. The police have not investigated the disappearances because they have occurred throughout the Hudson Valley and there appears to be no connection between the cases. As a result, the cases have grown arctic cold. Only the unreliable witness, the surviving prostitute, can lead my heroines to solve the mystery of the missing women and seek justice against the man who brutally injured her.

 

Detective Jones, haunted by the memories of her own missing aunt, and Jessie, who seeks professional redemption, find themselves on opposite sides of the law. Ebony seeks to solve the crime, and Jessie seeks to protect her client, the survivor. The two childhood friends face a balancing act of conflicting professions, which creates an insurmountable tension in their personal relationship.

 

I am proud that Hooker Avenue was a Finalist for the RWA/KOD Daphne DuMaurier Award for Excellence in Mystery/Suspense, a Finalist for the Silver Falchion Award, and a winner of the Best Police Procedural Clue Award. And it is part of the Clue Award winning The Queen City Crimes series.

 

Local crimes with which I possess a connection similarly inspired the two other novels comprising the Queen City Crimes series. The Midnight Call was inspired by my high school history teacher who murdered a student, and an internationally renown drowning on the Hudson River inspired The Empty Kayak. Each true Hudson Valley crime has formed the basis for mysteries emphasizing how tragedy affects the survivors in a small community. Further, how friendship can be tested by our dedication to our professions.

 

So, for me, when crime comes knocking at my door, I always answer.

 

Hooker Avenue

A Queen City Crime Novel, Book 3

 

Being a Good Samaritan can be deadly.

 

Single mom and attorney Jessie Martin learns that lesson the hard way.

  

During a violent spring thunderstorm, Jessie discovers an unconscious woman lying in a roadside ditch and dials 911 for help. Little does she know her compassion will propel her on a collision course with her estranged best friend, Detective Ebony Jones...and one of the most shocking mysteries in the Hudson Valley. 

 

The badly beaten victim, Lissie Sexton, is a prostitute who claims she’s escaped from the clutches of a killer. She’s also a client of Jessie’s new boss, and former nemesis, Jeremy Kaplan, and fearing for Lissie’s life, he hides her away from everyone. 

 

Ebony is investigating a series of cold cases, and the missing women’s profiles bear a striking resemblance to Lissie’s. She’s willing to stake her career on the hunch that the battered sex worker is the key to solving the serial crimes. However, Jessie is the major obstacle to her investigation—she won’t give up Lissie’s location.

 

Jessie’s in a bind. She wants to help Ebony, but she can’t compromise her client, her boss, or her legal ethics.

 

To catch the killer, can Jessie and Ebony put aside their past? Can they persuade Lissie to identify her assailant before he strikes again on Hooker Avenue?

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AN INTERVIEW WITH MARTI MICKKELSON FROM AUTHOR KAY CHARLES' MARTI MICKKELSON MYSTERIES

Today we sit down for a chat with Marti Mickkleson of The Marti Mickkleson Mysteries by author Kay Charles 

What was your life like before your author started pulling your strings?

Well, I’d spent ten years on the road working in fast food joints and estranged from my family. All of my family except my great-grandmother, Alberta Marcile Ferguson aka Grandma Bertie. Since she died in a freak canoe accident at the age of 92, 24 hours to the minute before I was born, most people considered me a loner. I liked it that way. When people find out about my ability to see and hear ghosts, they usually decide I’m a few tacos short of a combination plate. “People” including my parents, which is why I ended up running away from home in the first place. It wasn’t much of a life, but I was good with it. Then Kay Charles wakes up one morning and says, “Hmmmm. I wonder what would happen if Marti’s recently deceased father paid her a visit and convinced her to go home?” Things haven't been the same since.

 

What’s the one trait you like most about yourself?

It’s a tie. My persistence (some people call it stubbornness) and my smart-alecky mouth. Oh—I thought of another! I always return my library books. On time!

 

What do you like least about yourself?

Again, a tie. My stubbornness and my smart-alecky mouth, both of which get me into way too much trouble.

 

What is the strangest thing your author has had you do or had happen to you?

Giving me the ability to see and communicate with ghosts and having no one believe me isn’t enough? How about sending me back to my hometown where, as a kid, that ability earned me the horrible nickname “Marti Cray-Cray”? No? Okay. Then it’s bringing Dmitri Doyle, my bad boy high school boyfriend, back into my life. He’s not a bad boy anymore, but he’s still got his dimples. Grandma Bertie keeps calling him my “young man.” He’s not. Really. No way. We’re just friends. Probably. No, really. Just friends. In fact, he’s kind of a pain in the rear. But those dimples…nope. Just friends.

 

Do you argue with your author? If so, what do you argue about?

I try. I keep telling her to stop putting dead bodies in my path. Dealing with the long departed is one thing, but the freshly departed are a whole ’nother matter—especially when people I love are suspected of departing them. She refuses to listen.

 

What is your greatest fear?

Grandma Bertie deserting me and crossing the great divide or whatever it is spirits do when they’re not still hanging around annoying the living. After looking after me for thirty-two years, she deserves her rest and all, but I don’t know what I’d do without her. I can’t believe I told you that. She’s going to read this and be totally insufferable, I just know it.

 

What makes you happy?

Coffee. And Oreos. And my niece and nephew. T3 and Maggie are the most brilliant, adorable kids on this planet or any other. Do not argue with me.

 

If you could rewrite a part of your story, what would it be? Why?

I might not have filled my little sister’s bed with plastic spiders when we were kids. Other than that, while I may or may not have found myself in more than a few regrettable circumstances during my time on the road, some things are better not discussed. (Grandma Bertie has entered the room and told me to say that.)

 

Of the other characters in your book, which one bugs you the most? Why?

Ugh. Dawn Pernelli, my high-school tormentor-in-chief. You know how some people improve when they become adults? And others never get out of high school? Guess which group Dawn belongs to. She pops up everywhere. I would like to go on record and say that she’s kept her cheerleader figure. However, too much time in the sun hasn’t done her any favors. Dawn, if you’re reading this: Sunscreen. It’s your friend.

 

Of the other characters in your book, which one would you love to trade places with? Why?

Grandma Bertie and her crew of the post-living are out. I’m not ready to go there yet. Before I came home, I might have said my little sister, the ever-perfect RachelAnne—one word please and a capital A and don’t forget the e at the end—the apple of my parents’ eye, but I’ve discovered things aren’t so peachy-keen for her either. I guess maybe I’ll just stay myself. (Which may disappoint a few people, but Grandma Bertie says she approves. So there.)

 

Tell us a little something about your author. Where can readers find her website/blog?

Since Kay likes to put words in my mouth, I’ll just give you her semi-official bio: Kay Charles is the much nicer, PG-rated, Mom-approved, mystery-writing alter ego of dark fiction writer Patricia Lillie (author of The Cuckoo Girls, a 2020 Bram Stoker Award® finalist.) Like her evil twin, Kay grew up in a haunted house in a small town in Northeast Ohio, earned her MFA from Seton Hill University’s Writing Popular Fiction program, teaches in Southern New Hampshire University’s MFA in Creative Writing program, and is addicted to coffee, chocolate, and cake. She also knits and sometimes purls. Both their lives would be much easier if one of them enjoyed housework. You can find her online at www.KayCharles.com.

 

What's next for you?

I have to spend a few more months at home convincing RachelAnne that I am a responsible (and sane) adult, worthy of access to the money our father left me. Pretending is tough, but so far, so good. Things are getting better between my sister and mother and me. Not perfect, but better, so I might just make it. After that, I’ll be free to do as I please. I’ll also be able to afford to go anywhere I please. Much to my surprise, it might please me to stay right here in Bicklesburg. I mean, all my stuff is here, and I’ve acquired a cat. And T3 and Maggie might need me to hang around. Especially Maggie. And then there’s Dmitri. It’s sort of nice to have a living friend. It could work. It would work even better if Kay Charles would quit dropping bodies around me. Since she’s sitting at her desk singing “LaLaLaLa, I can’t hear you,” I don’t think that’s going to happen.

 

Ghosts in Glass Houses

A Marti Mickkleson Mystery, Book 1

 

Marti Mickkleson sees ghosts. Only her great-grandmother believes her. Since she died the day before Marti was born, her support isn’t worth much in the world of the living.

 

When Marti wakes up in a compromising position with her estranged father standing over her, she thinks he owes her a big apology. After all, he’s dead and talking to her—and she talks back. Instead, he claims he was murdered and demands she go home and do something about it. She agrees—anything to get her father out of her life and into his own afterlife.

 

In Bicklesburg, she finds her once formidable mother in the throes of dementia, her perfect-prom-queen sister now a lawyer married to a not-so-perfect man, and her bad-boy high school boyfriend a private security guard watching over the family fortress. When her mother wanders away and is found cradling a bloodstained garden gnome, she and Grandma Bertie must uncover a murderer before Marti ends up a ghost herself.

 

“Readers will love returning to Bicklesburg and spending time with Marti Mickkleson and the quirky ghosts in Old Bones, New Ghosts!” Valerie Burns, author of Two Parts Sugar, One Part Murder on Old Bones and New Ghosts, Book 2 in the Marti Mickkleson Mysteries.

 

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AN INTERVIEW WITH MYSTERY AUTHOR MARK EDWARD LANGLEY

Today we sit down for an interview with mystery author Mark Edward Langley. Learn more about him and his books at his website.

When did you realize you wanted to write novels? 

About thirty years ago. I was hired by B. Dalton Bookseller forty years ago, and the world of books was opened up to me. I was watching Spenser: For Hire on ABC when one of my co-workers said, “If you like the show, you should read Robert B. Parker’s novels.” I did. Then I began reading Mickey Spillane, John D. MacDonald, Tony Hillerman, and Ernest Hemingway. I like to think I learned from each of them. 

 

How long did it take you to realize your dream of publication? 

From the moment I returned from a two-week trip out west in my early thirties, I began formulating a story. I had dictated everything into a tape recorder, came home, and transcribed it all; then began creating characters, back stories and plotline. I did some research on serial killers and how they act and began writing. That was in early 1992. Twenty-five years later, my dream came true because, as John Lennon once said, “Life is what happens while you’re busy making plans.”

 

Are you traditionally published, indie published, or a hybrid author?

I am both traditionally published and Indie. My first two novels were part of a two-book publishing deal my agent secured, but when the publisher chose not to publish the 3rd novel (When Silence Screams) I published it while they published the audiobook, continuing with the narrator, award-winning actor Bronson Pinchot. My latest novel, Bloodlines, the first Skye Roanhorse novel, is currently with my new agent, and I have faith she will secure a deal soon.

 

Where do you write?

I write in my home office where I am surrounded by things that give me that creative vibe, like my first edition novel collections of Robert B. Parker, Mickey Spillane, Ian Fleming, Tony & Anne Hillerman, Craig Johnson, CJ Box, and others. I write on a laptop perched on my father’s roll top desk. 

 

Is silence golden, or do you need music to write by? What kind?

There are times when I write in silence, but mostly I have music to keep the creativity flowing. My taste ranges from smooth jazz to motion picture soundtracks like Body Heat, 80s rock and, my favorite…Pink Floyd.

 

How much of your plots and characters are drawn from real life? From your life in particular?

A lot of it. I think every writer pulls from the wealth of people they have known, worked with, or seen everywhere they’ve ever gone. And of course, some characters are based on real killers, like the killer who holds April Manygoats hostage in When Silence Screams. I based him on the Internet's first serial killer, John Edward Robinson, aka The Slavemaster. Monsters are real.

 

Describe your process for naming your character?

First, I conjure up a title, then I begin to give that title a story idea, and then I think of names that would fit those characters. Some are mixtures of names of people I’ve known, some are mixtures of people I read about, and some–like the Native American names–are created during my research phase of what name lives where the story takes place, what clan they would belong to and what type of backstory they would have. My goal is to always strive for authenticity in my writing. I also have several Navajo friends I consult when it comes to aspects of some characters and their behaviors.

 

Real settings or fictional towns?

I, like many writers, use a mixture of both. There are, of course, real locations for everyday situations and fictional locations for more serious parts, like murder. Let’s face it, you really can’t have someone killed at the actual Ritz Carlton Hotel, so creating a place in the same area, or changing a town's name, is what needs to be done to give yourself the freedom of creation.

 

What’s the quirkiest quirk one of your characters has?

Arthur Nakai reads books, and Skye Roanhorse only drinks iced tea.

 

What’s your quirkiest quirk?

I have two: Collecting motion picture memorabilia and collecting first edition hardcover novels, which I mentioned above. My film memorabilia collection spans from 1923 to the late 1980s.

 

If you could have written any book (one that someone else has already written,) which one would it be? Why?

Seven Days in May by Fletcher Knebel & Charles W. Bailey II. Because I am in awe at how a novel published in 1962 could be so relevant to today’s world sixty-four years later.

 

Everyone at some point wishes for a do-over. What’s yours?

I wish I had gone to college or a university when I had the chance, but then I wouldn’t have had the life experiences that have given me my creativity. Help or hindrance, I’m still not sure.

 

What’s your biggest pet peeve?

For better or worse, people who are not organized. 

 

You’re stranded on a deserted island. What are your three must-haves?

Water, food, and books.

 

What was the worst job you’ve ever held?

Selling windows and doors. The constant travel was a daily thing, and I couldn’t stand being told to sell at no matter the cost to the consumer.

 

Who’s your all-time favorite literary character (any genre)? Why?

Robert B. Parker’s Spenser. Every book was a delight, and when you read them in order, you see Parker’s growth as a writer. Much like you can see yours as you progress in your writing. We can all learn something from reading the best in our fields.

 

Ocean or mountains?

Definitely mountains (and desert). When you are among nature in the American West, you can’t do any better. Concrete and skyscrapers aren’t for me and never will be. Give me a log home on a lake any day with a whiskey and a cigar and I’m happy. 

 

City girl/guy or country girl/guy?

Country guy. Period. Nothing better than freedom in the wild.

 

What’s on the horizon for you?

Well, as I mentioned earlier, my latest novel is the first of my second series, the Skye Roanhorse Novels. I am also working on book four of my Arthur Nakai Mystery series (working title: The Source) and Deadfall, Book Two of the Roanhorse series. Since we as writers can never rest, I always try to keep working no matter what. Don’t get me wrong, I do have my moments or days of second guessing myself and wondering if I should keep going. But I always seem to push myself to get back to writing.

 

Anything else you’d like to tell us about yourself and/or your books?

I’d just like to say that anyone who thinks writing is easy, has never attempted it. They do not understand how much effort and hours go into creating a world that doesn't exist. Like a Navajo weaver creating a rug, a writer weaves a tapestry in their own right; a tapestry, like the Spider Woman weaving her rug, that tells a story. 

 

I have always wanted to write and have achieved only a small portion of what I started out to do. I hope I can write novels that readers clammer for someday, but if I can at least make someone think, understand, or enjoy a story, then I have attained what I wanted to achieve.

 

When Silence Screams

An Arthur Nakai Mystery, Book 1

 

Navajo PI Arthur Nakai is asked to locate a missing teenage girl by her mother. When he discovers she has been lured away from her family by a fake online profile and forced into a world of prostitution, his is already one step behind, Arthur learns, however, she has already been sold to a man known to everyone in the sex trafficking trade as the Cuban. But after she daringly escapes from him, the tables get turned as Arthur if forced into retrieving the girl for the Cuban in order to save the life of his own wife.

 

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