After a dozen books, something has happening to me that never happened before: Syda Gonzales, my main character’s best friend, has forced me into becoming an earring crafter.
I’m not saying Syda’s talked to me as I wrote about her. If she did, that wouldn’t be unusual because characters talk to their writers all the time. When I was finishing up The Widow’s Walk League, a female voice told me to write faster because she was 83, didn’t know how much time she had left, and had a story to tell. That was how I met Mags from Mags and the AARP Gang. Dave, the one-eyed police ombudsman from my Regan McHenry Real Estate Mysteries series told me he could make a necessary call to a military base in Germany because he spoke German. (I didn’t know he spoke German.)
No, Syda’s control over me has been nothing like either of those experiences. She has me crafting earrings for her “Syda’s Garden Gems” collection, her artistic venture in The Corpse’s Secret Life.
Syda is a totally made up being. I saw her name on a lawn sign asking locals to vote for a judge and knew at once that was the name of Pat Pirard’s, the protagonist in my PIP Inc. Mysteries series, best friend. Syda is up for anything Pat wants to try as she investigates and solves murder. She loves role playing, especially if there are disguises involved, and she’s always trying to get Pat married off. But at her core, Syda is an artist, just not necessarily a very good one, although she’s confident that’s just because she hasn’t found her medium.
Pat has one of Syda’s paintings in her office. It was painted before the series started when Syda thought oil painting might be her thing. When the series began, Syda dragged Pat to a glass fabrication class where a murder took place, hoping she’d learn how to work with glass and become the next Annie Glass. Syda tried writing for awhile, and I had lots of fun writing cheesy lines Syda’s ever-name-changing noir protagonist could say. Syda finally acknowledged that wring a mystery was harder than she thought it would be and she’d developed writer’s block.
In the past, I’ve painted with oil, terribly I must say. I’ve made stained glass. It’s not the same as glass fabrication, but at least I understand cutting glass and a few other basics. And, of course, I write mysteries, hopefully well-crafted ones with believable dialog unlike the ones Syda produced. But making jewelry? I’ve never tried that, at least not until Syda demanded I take it up and learn some basics so her endeavors would be believable.
So now I’ve scoured Facebook Marketplace searching for jewelry to be repurposed, bought wire to be manipulated with newly purchased special tools, and even purchased little drawstring bags to put my―I mean Syda’s―earrings in for buyers.
I’m doing a live event at the end of the month where books and Syda’s earrings will be for sale. I hope people find them interesting and buy them quickly because after The Corpse’s Secret Life, Syda has moved on to other endeavors.
Thank goodness. Making earrings is a lot harder than Syda and I thought it would be.
A PIP Inc. Mystery, Book 3
Pat’s fledgling private investigation company, PIP Inc., has a promising new case. Pat is still wearing a wrist cast after breaking her arm in a confrontation with a killer, so when she’s hired by the City of Watsonville to unearth the identity of an older woman who died in her bed, she’s delighted that her next job promises to be a simple computer-based research project.
Why is it that things are never as simple as she thinks they will be? Pat soon discovers nothing is as it seems, beginning with a corpse who had secret identities, murder, and a post-death ritual thought to have last been performed decades ago.
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2 comments:
Lois, thanks for having me ( and Syda) on your blog today. I,m working on the fourth book in the series and Syda is already experimenting with her next artistic endeavor.
Nancy, you'll have to come visit again when Syda's next craft and adventure are available.
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