AUTHOR AVERY DANIELS TALKS ABOUT GOTHIC FICTION

Avery Daniels has worked in fortune 500 companies and the Department of Defense her entire life. She resides in Colorado with two brother black cats as her spirited companions, volunteers for a cat shelter, and enjoys scrapbooking and card making, photography, and painting in watercolor and acrylic. Learn more about her and her books at her website and blog.

Gothic fiction: Perfect for a Spooky Read

I hope you enjoy the cooling temperatures, approaching sweater weather, soup time. I thought since I'm an author, what better topic at this time of year than gothic fiction: a little about what it is and some authors to delve into. I employed some gothic touches in my recently released Second Time Around, the second book in my Accidental Vampire PI cozy mystery series.

 

The term “gothic” refers to an architectural style that originated in northern France in the 1100s. This style was used on cathedrals, castles, mansions, and more, featuring large, looming windows, pointy peaks, and dark facades. This dramatic Gothic architecture inspired a whole gloomy genre of music, fashion, and, of course, literature—which is what we’ll focus on here. FYI, the goth subculture is influenced by 19th-century Gothic fiction and horror films. I always wondered about the connection. 

 

Taking its inspiration from gothic architecture, the gothic genre is noted for its ominous depictions of somber shadow-filled castles, mansions, or manor houses with secret rooms and even darker family secrets. For me, I particularly enjoy the mood that is evoked and how the setting of the book becomes a character itself as it becomes so intrinsic to the story. I didn't use a gothic mansion in my story, but an isolated mansion on a lake did the job well. I included a dark family secret, as well. Delicious, huh?

 

This writing style features high drama, supernatural elements, and sweeping emotions. Gothic fiction took romantic elements and added a darker tone and creates the sensation of isolation, of being surrounded by the mysterious and a sense of being kept on edge. I believe gothic fiction was the precursor to the psychological thriller that incorporated varying degrees of romantic and paranormal elements.

 

The first recognized gothic work is British author Horace Walpole's The Castle of Otranto, published in 1764. Other early contributors were William Thomas Beckford, Matthew Lewis, Ann Radcliffe, and Clara Reeve. Edgar Allan Poe's "The Fall of the House of Usher," a short story about the doomed Usher family and their descent into madness, was the first widely published Gothic fiction by an American. It is saturated with despair and foreboding and considered a classic.

 

Then these mainstay gothic novels hit the scene: Dracula by Bram Stoker, Rebecca and Jamaica Inn by Daphné du Maurier, Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë, and Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë. With these blockbuster books, the gothic genre was firmly a member of the fiction family.

 

The 1970s saw a wave of gothic romance become wildly popular with authors like:

Victoria Holt (The Bride of Pendorric, Mistress of Mellyn, and The Shivering Sands), Mary Stewart (Nine Coaches Waiting, This Rough Magic, The Moon Spinners, and Madam, Will You Talk?), Dorothy Eden (Darkwater, An Afternoon Walk, and Ravenscroft), and Barbara Michaels (House of Many Shadows, Witch, and Wings of the Falcon). I've read many of these, but not all.

 

More recent examples of gothic novels (oh yes, gothic is still going strong) are Beloved by Toni Morrison, The Hacienda by Isabel Canas, The Daughter of Doctor Moreau by Silvia Moreno-Gracia, Anatomy by Dana Schwartz, Gallant by V.E. Schwab, The Bone Orchard by Sara A. Mueller, and The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson. 

 

There is a difference between gothic and horror. In my opinion, many things that are horror often get mislabeled as gothic. To me the tension and foreboding is gothic whereas terror and frightening images, themes, and situations is more the realm of horror. Gothic is the nerve-wracking anticipation of what your imagination and spooky atmosphere have evoked while elements of romantic exist, where horror is the terror chasing you and about to kill you. That's why I think gothic fiction was a precursor to the modern psychological thriller. 

 

As I mentioned, I enjoy the mood that is evoked and how the setting of the book becomes a character itself. I brought some gothic elements into Second Time Around, Accidental Vampire PI #2. Besides the handsome witch and quirky vampire, I added a dollop of a ghost and her mystery, the insolated mansion, and the family secret.  

 

Do you like gothic touches or full-blown gothic fiction? What is it you like about gothic novels? Have you read any of the books I listed and which ones? 

 

Second Time Around

An Accidental Vampire PI, book 2

 

Misty, a most unlikely vampire, is on the trail of a killer in a ghostly mansion.

 

Misty’s detective boss is still absent and she accepts a job protecting the town’s most despised member. When Victoria Amherst is struck down under her watch she is determined to hunt down the killer. She is joined by suave witch Rowen once again as she pieces together a picture of murder from the past as well as dirty deeds in the present. The rogue vampire who turned her is still running rampant and she continues to pick up his trail, but now she's on his radar. Can she find him before he strikes at her where she lives? As if that weren't enough, the head of the Vampires in town is determined to set her up with a vampire of his choosing to keep Rowen out of her life.

She has to keep her teeth sheathed and juggle all the challenges. She can't risk a misstep on any dilemma before her.

 

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AN INTERVIEW WITH MYSTERY AND ROMANCE AUTHOR RHONDA BLACKHURST

Cozy mystery, romantic suspense and Hallmark-style contemporary women’s fiction author Rhonda Blackhurst enjoys hiding behind her computer screen, where she can unashamedly enjoy her addictions of dark chocolate and coffee. Learn more about her and her books at her website.

When did you realize you wanted to write novels? 

I knew I wanted to write before I could write—literally. At four years old, I scribbled with crayon on the knotty pine walls of our home. My parents weren’t impressed! I started out writing poetry but discovered novels were my true love.

 

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

In 2010, I heard about NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) and participated for the first time. That’s when publication popped into my head. In 2012, I published my first novel, The Inheritance. From there, I was hooked.

 

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

When I set out for publication, I made a pros and cons list for both trad and indie. The only pro on the trad side was validation, so I chose indie. Validation from my readers was more important. Ten years later, the idea of trad publishing wiggled its way into my head, so I tried it. Inn the Spirit of Murder and Inn the Dead of Winterhave been picked up by The Wild Rose Press.

 

Where do you write? 

I focus best in my home offices in Colorado and Arizona. I’ve placed window film on the windows in CO. It lets the light in, but also keeps my attention in. My desk in AZ faces the window where I see citrus and palm trees, quail, and even a frequent coyote. If my mind gets “squirrely,” I pull the shade.

 

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

Silence, nature sounds, or music without lyrics.

 

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

I retired from the Adams County District Attorney’s Office two years ago, where I handled some off-the-wall weird cases; some were too good from which to not pull threads. When I hear a reader say, “There’s no way that could happen,” I know that yes, it can and it does.

 

Describe your process for naming your character? 

I take care when naming characters. In my latest series, the main character is Andie Rose Kaczmarek. The surname is Polish for innkeeper, of which she is both.

 

Real settings or fictional towns? 

All three series (including the duology) are set in fictional towns loosely based on real ones. I use the real names of close-by larger cities.

 

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

Where the Crawdads Sing. It’s absolutely brilliant!

 

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

Raising my boys. There is so much I would do differently as I’ve learned more. That said, they’ve grown into fine young men I couldn’t possibly be prouder of. 

 

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

Coffee, dark chocolate, and a box of books. (A box is considered one thing, yes?) 😊

 

City girl/guy or country girl/guy? 

As a kid, it was always my dream to be a reporter in New York City. Now I’m 100% a country girl!

 

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

Inn the Spirit of Murder was released July 24, 2024. Book two, Inn the Dead of Winter, is well on its way once I hit the final okay button, zipping it off to production. Book three, Inn Hallowed Ground, is well underway. I’m also plotting a standalone mystery from multiple points of view and am included in a mystery merge short story anthology, hopefully to be released by the end of this year.

 

Inn the Spirit of Murder

A Spirit Lake Mystery, Book 1

Six-year-sober life coach and skeptic, Andie Rose Kaczmarek, and her red retriever emotional support animal, Aspen, become the new owners of the surmised haunted Spirit Lake Inn in Minnesota. When Andie Rose finds a body in the inn's kitchen, she fears it will be the death of what's most important-the stellar reputation of the inn her grandparents, Grandpop and Honey, built. Aware of the risk of stress in sobriety, she gets an AA sponsor-feisty, spirited Sister Alice who, 30 years ago, traded in one habit for another. 

 

Andie Rose falls prey to a new, potentially more dangerous addiction—solving the murder. But in typical Sister Alice fashion, she transforms the danger of solving a murder into a spirited good time. Will Andie Rose flip from skeptic to believer?

 

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#COOKING WITH CLORIS--MOLLY MacRAE'S NEW PARANORMAL COZY MYSTERY SERIES AND A FIG WALNUT SPICE MUFFIN #RECIPE

The Boston Globe says Molly MacRae writes “murder with a dose of drollery.” In addition to writing the Haunted Shell Shop Mysteries, she’s the author of the award-winning, national bestselling Haunted Yarn Shop Mysteries and the Highland Bookshop Mysteries. As Margaret Welch, she writes books for Annie’s Fiction and Guideposts. Her short stories have appeared in Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine and she’s a winner of the Sherwood Anderson Award for Short Fiction. Learn more about Molly and her books at her website where you’ll also find links to her on various social media.  

Thanks for having me back on the blog and in the kitchen, Cloris! Today I’m talking about three things I love—muffins, mysteries, and mollusks. I love islands, too, and those first three things show up on one of my favorite islands, Ocracoke, in Come Shell or High Water, the first book in my new Haunted Shell Shop mystery series.

 

The book opens at the tail end of a hurricane with Maureen Nash arriving on Ocracoke, a small barrier island off the coast of North Carolina. She arrives with a mystery on her hands—Allen, a guy on the island, has been writing letters to her late husband, Jeff, since shortly before Jeff died. The letters tell Jeff he should come to the island to learn something to his advantage. Gee, not at all scammy-sounding. Another letter arrived a few weeks ago and Maureen plans to nose around Ocracoke Village to see if she can figure out what Allen’s game is.

 

So where do mollusks come into the picture? So many ways. Mollusks are the animals that make and live in shells—clams, oysters, snails, scallops, conchs, winkles, mussels, etc. Ocracoke Island (a real place) has some of the best shelling beaches in the country. Allen, the scammy letter writer, owns a shell shop on the island. And Maureen is a malacologist—a scientist who studies shells and the creatures who make them. She’s also a storyteller and collects fables and folktales about shells. 

 

Soon after setting foot in Ocracoke Village Maureen rescues a large, fabulous shell from the storm-tossed surf. Then things begin to go haywire. The next thing she knows, she’s waking up on the floor of the shell shop after an incident she can’t remember. She meets Glady and Burt, a pair of squabbling octogenarian siblings, who live across the street from the shell shop. She thinks she might have tripped over a body in the woods. And then she comes eye to eye with the ghost of an eighteenth-century pirate—unless she’s suffering from a concussion.

 

Operating under these conditions, a woman could use a good muffin. Luckily for Maureen, Burt took up baking during the pandemic and his specialty is muffins. Here he is, now, with a word about his Fig Walnut Spice Muffins and the recipe: 

 

“This is the first muffin recipe I’ve come up with on my own. It makes eighteen muffins. Sometimes seventeen if I’m heavy-handed in filling the muffin cups. When Glady asked if I was ever going to fix the recipe so that it makes a standard dozen, I asked who she was kidding. Seventeen or eighteen muffins is better than a dozen or a baker’s dozen any day. This recipe makes a Burt’s dozen.” 

 

Fig Walnut Spice Muffins

Yield: 18 (or 17)

 

Ingredients for Large Bowl

2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

1 teaspoon baking soda

3/4 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon nutmeg

1/4 teaspoon ginger

1/4 teaspoon cardamom

1 cup dried figs, stems removed, chopped into raisin-size pieces (or a little bigger) 

1 cup walnuts, chopped

 

Ingredients for Medium Bowl

6 tablespoons unsalted butter

1 1/4 cup brown sugar 

2 large eggs 

1 cup plain Greek yogurt

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

 

Preheat oven to 400° F.

 

If you have two muffin pans (for a total of 24 muffins), butter 18 of the muffin cups or line them with muffin papers. Otherwise, bake 12 muffins and, after the pan cools, prepare 6 of the cups again to bake the final 6 muffins.

 

In the large mixing bowl, stir together all the ingredients but the figs and walnuts. Then stir in the figs and walnuts.

 

In the medium bowl, melt the butter, then whisk in the brown sugar, yogurt, vanilla, and the eggs. Pour into the large bowl and stir until just combined. Batter will be thick.

 

Fill muffin cups about 3/4 full. Bake until toothpick or tester comes out clean, 15–20 minutes. 

 

Remove from oven and turn muffins out of pan to cool on a wire rack.

 

Come Shell or High Water

A Haunted Shell Shop Mystery, Book 1

 

When widowed folklorist Maureen Nash visits a legendary North Carolina barrier island shell shop, she discovers its resident ghost pirate and the mystery of a local’s untimely death . . .

 

As a professional storyteller, Maureen Nash can’t help but see the narrative cues woven through her life. Like the series of letters addressed to her late husband from a stranger—the proprietor of The Moon Shell, a shop on Ocracoke Island, off the coast of North Carolina. The store is famous with shell collectors, but it’s the cryptic letters from Allen Withrow, the shop’s owner, that convince Maureen to travel to the small coastal town in the middle of hurricane season. At the very least, she expects she’ll get a good story out of the experience, never anticipating it could end up a murder mystery . . .

 

In Maureen’s first hours on the storm-lashed island, she averts several life-threatening accidents, stumbles over the body of a controversial Ocracoke local, and meets the ghost of an eighteenth-century Welsh pirate, Emrys Lloyd. To the untrained eye, all these unusual occurrences would seem to be random misfortunes, but Maureen senses there may be something connecting these stories. With Emrys’s supernatural assistance, and the support of a few new friends, Maureen sets out unravel the truth, find a killer, and hopefully give this tale a satisfying ending . . . while also rewriting her own.

 

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AN INTERVIEW WITH MYSTERY AUTHOR LORIE LEWIS HAM

Photo by Lorie Lewis Ham

Today we sit down for a chat with mystery author Lorie Lewis Ham. Learn more about her and her books at her website where you’ll also find links to social media. 

When did you realize you wanted to write novels? 

I started making up short stories as soon as I could put sentences together. My first song and poem were published when I was thirteen. I’ve gone on to publish many articles, short stories, and poems throughout the years, as well as write for a local newspaper, and publish seven mystery novels.

 

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

My first mystery novel was published in 2000.

 

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

My first four books were published by a small press, the rest I have published myself though my Kings River Life Magazine. 

 

Where do you write? 

Mostly at the dining room table these days. 

 

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

I used to listen to Frank Sinatra but these days I prefer silence—or as much as you can have with a house full of pets.

 

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

With the first series, a lot. With the new one not as much of the plots, but many of the characters are at least loosely based on someone I know in the Tower District. I do share a lot of interests with my main character.

 

Describe your process for naming your character? 

I honestly don’t have a process. Some have come from gravestones, street signs, and most just from playing around with names until something fits. 

 

Real settings or fictional towns? 

My current series is set in a slightly fictionalized version of the Tower District in Fresno, CA (the arts district there)

 

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

Not sure if this qualifies, but my main character knows how to use a sword.

 

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

That is tough because the choices I’ve made have made me who I am and given me the life I have now, so offhand I am not sure. Maybe insisting that my father let me buy the ’57 Chevy Bel Aire convertible that was for sale across the street for only $1000.

 

What’s your biggest pet peeve? 

People not doing their research—as example, people on podcasts not making sure they have their facts or pronunciations correct, and people contacting me about a guest post or interview who obviously have never listened to our podcast or read Kings River Life.

 

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

Sherlock Holmes Collection, my pets, and a way to watch my favorite TV shows (this is assuming we are talking about objects not people). 

 

What was the worst job you’ve ever held? 

Waitress when I was pregnant.

 

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

Sherlock Holmes He’s quirky and smart, interesting, and loyal to those he cares about (Watson). Uses his brain, not his brawn. 

 

Ocean or mountains? 

Ocean

 

City girl/guy or country girl/guy? 

City

 

What’s on the horizon for you? 

Continuing to write more books in the Tower District Mystery series, babysitting the new grandbaby, and hopefully some travel.

 

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

If you like quirky places, theatre, and unique pets, be sure to check out the Tower District Mysteries. 

 

I recommend reading my books in order. Even though the mysteries stand on their own there is character development you miss out on and a through story that will hopefully be resolved in book 3. The first book in this series is One of Us.

 

One of You

A Tower District Mystery, Book 2

 

With her life on the California Coast behind her, Roxi Carlucci is beginning to feel at home in the Tower District—the cultural oasis of Fresno, CA—where she now lives with her cousin P.I. Stephen Carlucci, her pet rat Merlin, a Pit Bull named Watson, and a black cat named Dan. She has a new entertainment podcast, works as a part-time P.I., and is helping local bookstore owner Clark Halliwell put on the first-ever Tower Halloween Mysteryfest! The brutal summer heat is gone and has been replaced by the dense tule fog—perfect for Halloween!

 

She just wishes everyone would stop calling her the “Jessica Fletcher” of the Tower District simply because she found a dead body when she first arrived. But when one of the Mysteryfest authors is found dead, she fears she jinxed herself! The Carlucci’s are hired to find the killer before they strike again. Will Mysteryfest turn into a murder fest? How is the local gossip website back, and what does it know about the death of Roxi’s parents? 

 

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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)