#TRAVEL FOR RESEARCH WITH GUEST AUTHOR KATHERINE RAMSLAND

Paris Cemetery

Katherine Ramsland teaches forensic psychology and has consulted for CSI and Bones. She’s published 58 books and over 1,000 articles, mostly devoted to crime, forensics, and serial murder. She also writes a blog for Psychology Today. Hearts of Darkness is a paranormal murder mysteries series. Learn more about Katherine and her books at her website.

Use “Thought Paths” for Texture and Mood

My best research for fiction is situated: I seek ways to experience a place, item, procedure, or issue that I want to use for my characters. It’s like living in a house that I’m renovating while I’m writing about its renovation. Travel is part of this process. Visiting my settings is one of the best ways to situate a tale. In part, it’s to see them, and in part, it’s to feel them.

I have always traveled for research. Why should I use someone else’s photo of a broch in Scotland when I can tramp through fields to stand in front of one? Of course, I would go to Maui to find Lindbergh’s isolated grave, or spend four hours in Cimetiére de Montmartre to ensure there’s a tomb of adequate size. For my Hearts of Darkness series, The Ripper Letter and Track the Ripper, my primary settings were in New York, London, and Paris.

For context, I often pick locations according to “thought-paths” – the trace of creative juices from thinkers, artists, and writers who worked in a specific place. Thought-paths provide subtle texture. Gestalt psychology holds that we can see the details of a figure only against a background. This also applies to our characters: they need settings. We don’t notice the background, but it still sheds feeling tones. A white figure against black, for example, feels different from white on gray. Or red. Characters entangled on a bed feel different from those characters on a table or inside a freshly dug grave.

For me, thought-paths feed the background tone and mood.

For Track the Ripper, I visited areas on the Left Bank in Paris where writers had lived, dined, and met for consolation and admiration. At the Café de Flore, you feel the ghosts of Simone de Beauvoir, Jean-Paul Sartre, and Albert Camus discussing the vertigo of free will. You sense Hemmingway in a warm brasserie on a cold winter day, scribbling precious words. I gave my characters a residence here.

For murderers and magists, I looked for darker thought-paths. 

In London’s Whitechapel neighborhood, my research on Jack the Ripper had turned up an interesting fact, which launched The Ripper Letter. During the Ripper’s murder spree in 1888, hundreds of letters arrived to police and news outlets purporting to be from the killer, including one that offered the enduring moniker, “Jack the Ripper.” Although we don’t know if the killer sent any letters, some Ripperologists view the “From Hell” missive as the best candidate. It arrived with half of a preserved human kidney (and a kidney was missing from victim #4). Crime historian Donald Rumbelow discovered that the original From Hell letter was missing from police files.

So, who has it, and why? I focused on a suspect whose background offered intrigue. Dr. Roslyn “D’Onston” Stephenson was a former military surgeon who’d studied magic. I linked him to a series of contemporary murders in New York and created my female detective, Dianysus Brentano. To use the Big Apple’s settings for mood, I explored distinct areas of Brooklyn and Manhattan, such as the Met and Belvedere Castle in Central Park. Being at these locations not only yielded texture but also ideas about hiding places and escape routes.

For Track the Ripper, I needed to map out Whitechapel, to learn about it during the Ripper’s murders and also today. I can’t very well set something in a building on Leman Street if I don’t know what this street looks like. (Google Maps delivers these images in 3D, but not the all-important feeling tones from a busy street.) I took the crowded Tube, as my characters did, so I would know the right stops.

Ripper Alley

My Ripper suspect had mystical alliances in Paris, so I learned about the Society of Mutual Autopsy (a real organization) and a French “magist,” Eliphas Levi. I visited the Saint-Sulpice cathedral where Levi had his religious training. When I saw the soaring columns and vaulted ribs to the dome, I was better able to appreciate his ideas about magic and immortality. I also went to the Montmartre arrondissement, to see its winding streets, the Basilica de Sacre Couer, and the cemetery.

For background tones, I listened to the rhythms of French, watched the ebb and flow of people, and noted places where a plot could unfold. I merged figure with background to situate my story with grit, to better see my characters in motion. I know how Dianysus feels when she wanders through a crowded maze of mossy tombs or sees the Basilica’s ceiling mural. I felt heat simmering off the overlook on a summer day. I even drove a motorcycle.

It’s easy to forget the importance of background, but going out to experience your settings will remind you of how they can set a mood, move a plot, and deepen characters. You cannot see figures clearly without background, and the more you work at situate your background, the more grounded your story will be. I prefer to use thought-paths, but you might find a different route.

The Ripper Letter: Book One of The Hearts of Darkness Series

Ancient codes and a legendary killer lure a young detective into a dark and dangerous world. When a murdered historian is marked with a mysterious code, homicide detective Dee Brentano worries about his colleague – her missing father, Alexandre. FBI special agent J. R. Pierce tells her that Alexandre is wanted for this murder. Desperate to find him first, she discovers that Alexandre has items that several people – including Pierce – would kill to possess. One is a letter attributed to Jack the Ripper. Another is an erotic cryptograph. Dee encounters a potential ally in Detective Gregory Brenner. She’s attracted to him, but fears that he’s playing her to find her father. She’s also drawn to her father’s protégé, Scott Bateman, who can decode the Ripper letter’s secret message and the symbol on the murdered historian. It’s bait for luring supernatural entities. It’s also a map to locating her father. Dee must choose her path wisely. One leads to a supernatural lover, the other to an immortal serial killer.

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#TRAVEL TO #PARIS WITH #PARANORMAL #ROMANCE AUTHOR MICHELE DRIER

Former award-winning journalist and author Michele Drier writes the Amy Hobbes Newspaper Mysteries and the paranormal romance series SNAP: The Kandesky Vampire Chronicles. Learn more about Michele and her books at her website.

Maps are a passion.

Want to get from Bath to Stonehenge by way of Limply Stoke? I have a map for that.

Looking for the best route between Beaune and Auxerre? I have a map for that.

I love to travel, to find different lands, different people, different foods, different cultures and outlooks. There’s a sense of adventure, of reinventing oneself, of adopting a different persona.

This may be why I set the Kandesky Vampire Chronicles primarily in and around Kiev. The protagonists live there, but they travel throughout Europe. And, like me, their favorite city is Paris.

They own a flat in the 7^th Arrondissement, a leafy enclave overlooking the Eiffel Tower, the Champs de Mars and the Ecole Militaire. They visit Paris for shopping, for business and always for Fashion Weeks.

A few years ago, before my mother died, she got a passport but hadn’t gone anywhere. I told her it was illegal to have a passport but not use it and asked where she’d like to go. I expected her to say England, but she said Paris and so we went for a week, not long enough.

After we spent hours at the Louvre, we sat beside one of the ponds in the Tuileries Gardens, watched French kids sail toy boats and she said, “I’m in love.” She loved the sights, the families, the art, the food, the sounds. She said that all her life she’d heard French emergency sirens in movies and on TV and now she was hearing the definitive “OOOH-ah, OOOH-ah.”

That was probably my seventh or eighth visit to Paris and I, too, had fallen in love with the city over the years. Now, as I write, I have maps of many European cities and countries near. After all, the Kandeskys are an uber-rich, uber-sophisticated vampire family who rose in Hungary five hundred years ago. They spend time in many European cities, and I need to see where they go, what they do, so I read the maps. The most tattered is a map of Paris from Galleries Lafayette picked up years ago. I close my eyes and see the street, the apartment, the courtyard, the trees that the Kandeskys see, though their view is by night.

 In the latest Kandesky book, SNAP: I, Vampire, a visit to a Fashion Week show results in a kidnapping and chase through the French countryside. And I traced the kidnappers’ route on one of my maps.

Soon, I’m going back to Paris, back to the 7^th Arrondissment, back to the food, the people, the OOH-ah sirens, and to revisit the places where my mother fell in love.

SNAP: I, Vampire

Book 9 of The Kandesky Vampire Chronicles

Maxie Gwenoch, LA-based media star, VP for International Planning for the multi-national gossip conglomerate, SNAP, has finally agreed to marry Jean-Louis Kandesky, a 500-year-old Hungarian vampire and leader of the family that owns SNAP.

Is marriage a big change? Not as big as the fact that Maxie is now a vampire, as well. When munitions from the Kandesky Enterprises weapons plant in Slovakia turn up at the bombing of a Royal's house in England, Jean-Louis and his "brother," Nik, are hot on the trail of shadowy terrorist groups dealing in international weapons sales. Are the Kandesky arms being sold to terrorists groups? Should Maxie use her newfound vampire strengths to ferret out the scum?

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TRAVEL TO PARIS WITH GUEST AUTHOR ADRIA J. CIMINO

Adria J. Cimino lives in Paris and enjoys sharing her adventures in the city and thoughts about the writing life in her blog Adria in Paris. Previously, she worked as a journalist for more than a decade at news organizations including the Associated Press and Bloomberg News. "Paris, Rue des Martyrs" is her first novel. Learn more about Adria and her book at her website.

Paris, Rue des Martyrs… What’s in a Name?

In my novel, Paris, Rue des Martyrs, a few of the characters live at No. 120 – but don’t try to locate the address on a map. It doesn’t exist! The street, its buildings, cafes and other Montmartre sites certainly inspired my book, but I didn’t describe each existing shop or restaurant to the letter. I felt that it was more important and more interesting to recreate the spirit of the neighborhood.

That spirit was what made it the ideal setting for my book… My characters needed a place that was small enough for their paths to cross, yet large enough for them to get lost in the crowd. And, since the protagonists are each very different, they had to live in a neighborhood where diverse populations co-exist. I didn’t have to mull over the possibilities for very long: The idea for the location and the storyline itself came to me almost simultaneously.

Rue des Martyrs…“Street of Martyrs.”  It’s one of those traffic-stopping sorts of names. But most importantly, it’s one of the Parisian streets that is most unforgettable. When you mention the “Rue des Martyrs” to most Parisians, a dreamy look sets in and the reply is: “My first apartment was on that street,” or “I met my girlfriend there” etc. Things just seem to happen on the Rue des Martyrs. Daily life things that make a difference in people’s lives.

Now the question I’m sure most people are eager to ask… Why such a name? A bit of history: Legend has it that the martyr Saint Denis, carrying his head in his hands (after being decapitated), walked along this path. He collapsed several miles north at the site of today’s Saint-Denis Basilica.

Today, as a Parisian by adoption, I can say that the Rue des Martyrs is almost a representation of Paris as a whole. It is old Paris and new Paris, calm and bustling, uplifting and downtrodden, beauty and squalor. All of this on one street that measures about a half mile in length! I really think that this diversity is what makes the Rue des Martyrs so memorable.

And of course, this path running from the 9^th to the 18^th arrondissement is the doorway to Montmartre or “mountain of the martyr” (yes, more Saint Denis/martyr references!) Once home to artists such as Toulouse-Lautrec and Renoir, the neighborhood still holds the artistic spirit and village-like charm -- If you wander past the crowds and explore the many side streets!

On the Rue des Martyrs, you will find historic apartment buildings, small shopkeepers selling artisanal cheeses, pastry or gourmet chocolate, florists, an independent bookshop, and of course, cafes where you can sit and watch the world go by. You will even find a loaf of bread named after the street (“Bread of Martyrs”) at a local bakery.

While many well-known Parisian streets have lost charming individual businesses to chain stores and restaurants, the Rue des Martyrs has managed to hang onto them, as well as the neighborhood feel. Rain or shine, it’s one of my favorite spots to settle down at a café and daydream.

Paris, Rue des Martyrs

Some encounters make a difference.

Four strangers in Paris. Each one is on a quest: to uncover a family secret, to grasp a new chance at love, to repair mistakes of the past. Four stories entwine, four quests become one, as their paths cross amid the beauty, squalor, animation and desolation of a street in Paris, the Rue des Martyrs. 

Rafael's search for his birth mother leads him to love and grim family secrets. Cecile’s view of herself as an unsatisfied housewife is radically changed by the promise of a passionate liaison. Andre, an aging actor, troubled by the arrival of the son he abandoned years ago, must make a choice, to either lose his son forever or put aside pride and seek redemption. Mira travels to Paris to begin a new life and forget about love… or so she intends.

Four strangers, four stories, one riveting novel.

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TRAVEL WITH SERENA -- GUEST TRAVELER, AUTHOR ANGELA HENRY

Author Angela Henry took a solo trip to Paris several years ago. Today she offers some common sense travel tips. Angela is the author of the suspense thriller The Paris Secret as well as the Kendra Clayton mystery series. For more info about her and her books, please visit her at her website. -- AP

Paris Pour Un: Tips for Traveling Solo

By Angela Henry

In 2007, I took a solo trip to Paris, France. I was apprehensive about going alone to a foreign country where I barely knew the language.  But I did my homework before I left, discovered some very valuable tips, and had a wonderful time. Here are five things i did to make sure I had a safe trip.

1. Research, Research, Research-Before I left for Paris, I researched the city and its culture and customs. For example, did you know it’s considered rude to enter a shop in Paris and not greet the shopkeeper or to stare at people on the metro? I didn’t. I also researched the area around my hotel for the closest metro stations, restaurants, and ATMs. Doing your research before you leave will go a long way in helping your trip go smoothly.

2. Learn some French-It’s also a good idea to learn some basic French before you go. Fodor’s has a French language page with 150 phrases you can use on your trip. Even if you mangle the French language, the French will appreciate that you’re trying.

http://www.fodors.com/language/french/

3. Don’t look like a tourist – Sweatshirts, tracksuits, and white tennis shoes will instantly mark you as a tourist and a target for pickpockets. Wear comfortable and casual clothes that will help you blend in and not draw attention to yourself. Leave your flashy, valuable jewelry at home. The Paris Escapes website has excellent advice on what to wear while in Paris. http://www.parisescapes.com/paris_wear.html

4.  Make Copies Of Important Documents-Leave your passport in your room. Also, make photocopies of all your important documents and credit cards to keep on hand in case they get lost or stolen.   

5.  Know where to go for help-You are subject to the laws of the country you’re visiting while you are there. If you do your homework on the culture and customs before you arrive, you shouldn’t have any problems. But if by chance you encounter legal trouble, seeking help from your country’s embassy or consulate would be your best bet. Just make sure that you’re aware of their hours and make an appointment.

Check out the following books for more info and have a wonderful trip!

Bon Voyage!

Women Travel Tips

http://www.womentraveltips.com/tips7.shtml

Journeywoman

http://www.journeywoman.com/gfc/paris_solo.html

Single Minded Women

http://singlemindedwomen.com/women-travel/top-5-cities-for-single-travel-in-2010/

Solo Travel

http://www.solotravel.org/women-travel-tips.htm

Naughty Paris (For the Daring!)

http://www.naughtyparisguide.com/the-naughty-paris-guidebook/

Thanks so much, Angela! Your tips for Paris can be used no matter where we travel and whether we’re going solo, with someone else, or in a group. Readers, have any of you ever been brave enough to travel alone to a foreign country? Let’s hear from you. Post a comment to be entered in the drawing for a book from our Book Club Friday guest author this week. -- AP

TRAVEL WITH SERENA -- GUEST TRAVEL WRITER DR. KELLE Z RILEY

Our intrepid guest travel blogger, Kelle Z Riley, is back again today with more tales from her early travels to Paris. Do you think she’ll get any sightseeing in this time? Read on to find out. -- AP

Kelle's kitties didn't want her to leave.

PARIS, PART 2

Hello fellow travelers!  I’m back after a month off to take care of some nagging health issues.  No doubt it was from a bug I caught while traveling.  So save yourselves the trouble of antibiotics and cough remedies and spend your travel time vicariously with me. . .  Last time we spoke (in Feb.) I told you of my first trip to Paris—where I saw some of the local industry rather than lots of tourist sites.

The second time I visited Paris—in winter—I stayed in a charming hotel in the heart of the city.  By charming, I mean small.  The room was as wide as a king sized bed and just a little longer!  My twin-sized bed lay so close to the window that I could reach out from under the covers and open or close the window to adjust the room temperature.  Since the room was boiling hot, it was delightful to be able to crack open the window and feel cool winter air swirl over the top of my down comforter.  Even the noise of the crowded streets four floors below seemed soothing.

Two feet from the foot of my bed and up one step was the bathroom.  If you dropped something in the shower, you had to get out and stand on the bath mat to retrieve it.  No kidding.  No bending to shave your legs allowed in this shower!  But there was plenty of warm water, so I had no worries.  The real beauty of the bathroom was a floor to ceiling window which could be opened just wide  enough to let me squeeze out onto a balcony.  The streets of Paris are narrow, winding, and intersect other streets at unusual angles.  Form my perch I could see a panorama of shops, pedestrians and vehicles of all kinds (from taxis to bicycles).  Every city has a special energy and I felt it keenly on that tiny balcony.

During this trip, I had some free time.  Two hours of it, to be exact.  In my 2 free hours, I went shopping (to purchase a souvenir suitcase to replace the one broken on the earlier legs of my journey).  Of course I also bought a beret and a scarf and some warm, fuzzy gloves.  The challenge (and a source of adventure) lay in the fact that I had no idea what the currency exchange rate was.  I was using Euros, but during that time the Euro and the U.S. dollar were not even close to the same in terms of spending power.  It is always scary to go to an ATM half a world from home and withdraw cash—you never know till you get home how much you’ve dented your bank account.  Ditto for credit card purchases.  But when you desperately NEED a suitcase on wheels—c’est la vie!

While my tourist activities were still severely limited (saw l’Arc de Triomphe from yet another cab window), I nevertheless learned some important aspects of French culture.  That is to say, I learned about the luxury of croissants, pain au chocolate (a flakey croissant-like bread with a bar of rich chocolate in the middle), and café au lait.  Warning: once you’ve had a croissant in Paris, you’ll never be satisfied with one anywhere else in the world!

The rest of the trip was dedicated to work and cab rides back to the airport where my sparkling new suitcase was properly broken in and began earning it’s travel legs.  We (my bag and I) went on to Germany, Amsterdam and finally home to the U.S., but that is a story for another blog.

I left Paris wishing I’d had more time and longing to return to the city.  As always, I hoped that the next trip would bring a chance to see the wonderful tourist sites that have inspired travelers for decades.  Cross your fingers. . .

I’ll see you next month!

Kelle

TRAVEL WITH SERENA -- GUEST TRAVEL WRITER DR. KELLE Z RILEY ON PARIS

Our globe-trotting friend Kelle Z Riley is back today, this time talking about her first visit to the City of Lights. -- AP

In preparation for Valentine’s day let me introduce you to Paris!  The city of lights, the city of romance, who could ask for more?

In preparation for my first business trip to Paris, I dusted off my high school French vocabulary, pulled out the French-English dictionary and packed my bags.  It was everything I imagined when the taxi pulled up to a gleaming luxury hotel a block from the Eiffel Tower.  

Having heard stories of how the French won’t speak to you in English, I was ready to try my hand at French with the desk clerk.  After “Bonjour” she stopped me with a warm smile and said “Don’t worry, we speak English.”  That hurdle behind me, I started to look forward to my evenings in Paris.

I went to the room, unpacked a bit and ordered room service.  After a lovely meal, I walked to the Eiffel Tower, arriving at closing time.  It was too late to go up to the observation decks, but even from the ground, it was a marvel.  Each “foot” of the tower easily covered an area the size of a city block. 

As the sun was setting, I knew I had time that night to do ONE touristy thing.  I settled on a boat tour on the Seine—only to discover that my fellow tourists were actually commuters taking the water taxi.  I heard such informative things as “next stop, Notre Dame”  and “last stop, Eiffel Tower.”  Needless to say I was a bit disappointed when I walked back to the hotel.  But there was always tomorrow night—I had several days worth of business to attend to in Paris.

At the hotel, my grand plans crumbled into a heap of rubble.  A message waited for me from home, telling me that I’d been rebooked into a different hotel for the remainder of my stay.  The next day I took a taxi across town.  (Hey—isn’t that l’Arc de Triomphe I see through the cab window?  Oops, too late to get a photo).

My new hotel was a smallish two story building with a dorm-sized room.  (Later I learned this is far more typical of European hotels, but I digress.)  Located in an industrial suburb of Paris, it was not at all what one would expect to see as a tourist.

On the positive side, it was an ideal chance to practice my French.  The staff at the hotel was very friendly and helpful, but they didn’t speak English.  Really.  I could tell they weren’t faking it.  My dictionary and my rusty French vocabulary had to suffice.  To be honest, my French classes had not prepared me for the reality of asking a desk clerk why my key card didn’t work.  Or for the difficult negotiations with taxi drivers.  But the need to communicate and survive is a great teacher.  It was a proud moment when I asked the desk clerk—in French—to please call a taxi for me. 

I even managed to order dinner one night in the hotel’s restaurant, although I suspect the server didn’t come by my table often because I was so hard to communicate with.  The next nights I purchased cheese, crackers and Perrier from the grocery and ate in my room so I could relax!

On the way home, I picked up a few souvenirs from the airport shops, but I never made it back to the Eiffel Tower, the Seine (at least not the part where people want to visit) or any other sights. 

So, sadly, the saga of my first visit to Paris must come to an end.  But don’t worry—I visited the city several more times after that.  Come back next month when I’ll share the adventures of my second visit to Paris.  (I can hear you asking now:  Did she ever go up in the Eiffel Tower?  Did she try the snails?  Did she learn to speak enough French to navigate the taxi system?)  Tune in, more will be revealed in March.

Adieu for now!

But Kelle, why did they switch your hotel? Readers, have you ever had a trip that didn’t turn out to be all you expected? Let’s hear from you. Post a comment to be entered into the drawing for a book from our Book Club Friday guest author. -- AP