DEBUT AUTHOR MERRILEE ROBSON ON WHY VANCOUVER IS THE PERFECT PLACE TO SET A MURDER

Merrilee Robson is the author of one traditional mystery (to date) and many short stories. Find out more about her and her writing at her website. 

Why Vancouver is the Perfect Setting for a Mystery

On a sunny day, Vancouver is spectacular.

In winter the snow-capped mountains are the perfect back drop to the gleaming glass towers of the downtown peninsula. In spring the flowering plum and cherry trees on the boulevards turn the city pink, blanketing the sidewalks with confetti-like petals. Summer brings flowers to the many gardens and parks. And, in fall, the boulevard trees put on another show of reds and golds.

But there are hidden dangers.

The mountains, so tantalizingly close to the city, lull people into setting off on a hike unprepared. People in shorts, T-shirts and sneakers, thinking they might enjoy a short afternoon walk, routinely find themselves lost in the wilderness, cold and hungry, in a growing darkness and with no cell phone reception. Fortunately, most of them are found by the search and rescue teams and suffer nothing worse than the embarrassment of finding themselves on the evening news. But not always.

It sounds odd, but the other danger is the cost of housing.

Vancouver has always been fairly expensive. The city rests in a river valley with mountains to the north, the border with the United States to the south, and the ocean to the west. The main option for expansion is in the valley to the east, much of which is farmland. So land has always been scarce and expensive.

But over the past thirty years, the cost of housing has grown higher in leaps and bounds. Some people blame real estate speculators or offshore investors.

Whatever the reason, people think Vancouver is beautiful and want to live there.

Which means that many people can’t afford to.

Many people think the problem started with Expo 86, The 1986 World Exposition on Transportation and Communication brought Vancouver to the world’s attention when it was officially opened by Charles and Diana, the Prince and Princess of Wales.

Owners of cheap hotels decided to evict their low-income tenants, many who had lived there for years, and renovate for the tourist market. Rents across the city went up as a result.

Today multi-million-dollar mansions and luxurious condominiums sit empty for much of the year while working people struggle to find a place they can afford. Others live in tiny basement rental apartments or single rooms in the Downtown Eastside. There’s a growing problem of homelessness, even among seniors and families with children. Business owners say they have trouble keeping employees because so many of the people who they might hire can’t afford to live in a city where the average rent is thousands of dollars a month. Housing was the issue that dominated the recent mayoral election.

It was the housing crisis that made me choose Vancouver as the setting for my first novel, Murder is Uncooperative. I used to work for a non-profit housing organization and people would regularly tell me how desperate they were to find a home.

It was those stories that prompted my first novel. Rebecca Butler is a single mom desperately searching for a home for her family, which includes her disabled father and her young son. When her father falls down the stairs in the townhouse they are renting, her search becomes even more desperate. Rebecca finds an apartment in a non-profit housing co-op that she is sure will be perfect.

But then she finds a body.

Vancouver is where I live. But the city is also perfect for the kind of tension necessary for a mystery.

I’m now working on a sequel.

Murder is Uncooperative

A Housing Co-op Mystery, Book 1

All Rebecca Butler wants is a good home for her young son and disabled father. At first, Waterview Housing Co-op seems perfect. But then she finds the body of the building’s manager.

When Rebecca learns that another murder took place in the building 20 years earlier, she suspects that the two deaths might be related. And that one of her new neighbors is hiding a secret that will put Rebecca and her family in danger.

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BOOK CLUB FRIDAY--AN INTERVIEW WITH DEBUT COZY AUTHOR JODI RATH

Today we introduce our readers to debut cozy mystery author Jodi Rath. Learn more about Jodi and her books at her website and blog. 

When did you realize you wanted to write novels?

 I realized I wanted to be a writer at age five. I used to play “magazine owner” and take my mom’s old magazines and cut them up to create my own unique versions.  By seven or eight I signed up at a local fair to win a set of encyclopedia’s and I won! I used to randomly pick a letter and open the encyclopedia to any page, read an article, and write a summary like I was a writer.  I’ve always loved reading as far back as I can remember and loved being read to as well. High school was the first time I ever thought about writing an entire novel.

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

After nearly fifteen years as a teacher, I felt deflated and depressed. I began to write a mystery called Strange Blue. I could write twenty pages on everything that has happened since, but long story short, it has taken seven years to publish my first novel. Strange Blue should be available in late 2019.

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

Indie.

Where do you write?

Mostly at home in my family room or on my screened in porch or when it’s cool enough out on my deck overlooking our woods. When I work in my family room, I have a staff of eight cats that tend to sleep a lot on the job!

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

I generally have the TV on as background noise or listen to music.  I listen to all kinds of music from 60’s to 80’s to metal to rock to indie to folk to jazz to classical. But I find that at certain parts of the writing process I need silence.

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

My protagonist, Jolie Tucker, in the Cast Iron Skillet Mysteries is largely based on my quirks and my faults. Poor girl!  Jolie’s best friend, Ava Martinez, is based on a combination of about four or five of my close friends.

Describe your process for naming your character?

I love to research. So I research name banks online and play around with them.  Sometimes I sketch my characters out, and that helps me get a more rounded feeling of them, making it easier to pick a name.

Real settings or fictional towns?

Fictional villages based on a real village. The Cast Iron Mysteries Series is set in Leavensport, Ohio, a small wooded, farm village that is similar to my little village in Carroll, Ohio but with a lot of fictional places and details.

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

Jolie’s Aunt Fern looks a lot like the Hallmark lady with big round glasses, curly gray hair, always wearing house dresses, and has a lot of dogs. Her ringer on her cell phone is “Who let the dog’s out?” and she has a tendency to flirt with a lot of the widowed men in the village, while constantly embarrassing her niece.

What’s your quirkiest quirk?

I’m an eccentric chic.  I’ve always been a weirdo, nerdish type.  I mean, a five year old playing out a fantasy for a few years (did I mention it was years) of owning a magazine and using her stuffed animals and dolls as her staff…that child is destined to be a peculiar adult. When my mom took me to the zoo, I used to say I wanted to tame the big cats, and here I am today, writing with the big cats. Three of my boys weigh in at 18, 17, and 26 pounds respectively.  Not to mention I’m a horrible singer and dancer, yet I sing and dance for my cats and my husband a lot…like an uncomfortable amount of bad singing and dancing. Quirky enough for you? I can go on!

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

Any Agatha Christie, Hunter S. Thompson, Sara Paretsky, or Ernest Hemingway book. I was a literature major in college and could make you a three-page list.

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

I am thankful for all the good and bad things in my life. Each taught me something important about what to do and what not to do and helped me make decisions on paths in my life. I am extremely happy with where I am right now. I don’t think I’d be here unless every single thing happened as it did, so I wouldn’t do anything differently.

What’s your biggest pet peeve?

Lack of tolerance.  I taught high school English and I always tried to incorporate into my lessons that it’s okay to agree to disagree and to be different. Tolerance is key to peace and communication.

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

My laptop and a way to charge it (does that count as two?), my cats, my husband.

What was the worst job you’ve ever held?

Working in sales or in fast food.  Everyone wants me to work with people and that stresses me out, but I’m told I work well with people! LOL...I know, how could I teach all those years?

What’s the best book you’ve ever read?

If I have to pick only one, J.D. Salinger’s Franny and Zooey.

Ocean or mountains?

Ocean

City girl/guy or country girl/guy?

Country girl

What’s on the horizon for you?

Just started my business in February of 2018, so I’ll continue to offer my online courses for teachers and educational writing. I have fourteen titles and sketches for the Cast Iron Mystery Series, so I’ll be working on those for years to come! Plus I have so many projects on the back burner. I get bored easily and switch from project to project.

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

I see that you have a food editor, Cloris!  Cloris may appreciate that the Cast Iron Skillet Mysteries will feature a “secret” recipe at the end of each book with a cast iron skillet tip as well. My grandma gave me the seventy-year-old cast iron skillet she received as a wedding gift. She has only ever made pineapple upside down cake in it because that was my grandpa’s favorite dessert. I now have a lot of cast iron skillets, and I can’t believe I ever cooked without them.  I posted pix and the story about my grandma on social media and so many people shared recipes and comments and it was so amazing that they made me want to write this series.

Pineapple Upside Down Murder

A Cast Iron Skillet Mystery, Book 1 

Introducing Jolie Tucker, an introverted yet passionate restaurant co-owner of Cast Iron Creations, who, at her best friend Ava’s request, steps out of her comfort zone, which leads her into the shade of a killer in the small, cozy village of Leavensport, Ohio.  The victim is the village’s beloved Ellie Siler who runs the village sweet spot, Chocolate Capers.  Jolie finds her grandma Opal is a prime suspect and goes on a search for answer only to find out that her family’s secret recipes may not belong to the Tucker family at all.  Jolie’s job, family, and livelihood are all on the line. The answers are assuredly lethal.

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BOOK CLUB FRIDAY--GUEST AUTHOR MARGARET C. MORSE

Margaret C. Morse (left) and Wendy Fallon at the Left Coast Crime 2016 awards banquet

Debut paranormal mystery author Margaret C. Morse used her experience as a criminal defense attorney to create her protagonist, lawyer Petra Rakowitz, who turns into a witch during her first murder case. When not fashioning a magic world, Margaret enjoys cooking, gardening, and bird watching. She shares her Phoenix home with her husband and seven rescue dogs. Learn more about her and her book at her website.

Behold the Inner Princess: The Adventure of the Left Coast Crime Awards Banquet

Attendants flung open the doors to the Regency Room. I squeezed between tables set for seven hundred diners. Books by authors hosting tables decorated place settings. Guests carrying glasses of red wine and amber bottles of beer jostled me. The roar of voices ricocheted off the walls.

The seven ladies seated at my assigned table each wore glittering diadems. The jeweled circlet would look good on me. I plunged my hand into my goodie bag. Silver crinkle paper snaked about my fingers. I pushed aside a book and clasped the crown.

The minute I slipped the diadem on my head, the world sparkled. The cacophony of voices turned into a buzz punctuated with laughs. The crystal gleamed. The silverware (seven pieces, which to use?) shone. Seven faces around the table beamed at me. I adjusted the circlet, so it looked more like a crown and less like a headband. I became a Princess, ready to rule.

Since I was at a banquet, I settled for “Please pass the bread and butter.”  I relished the rich, dark bread. Refreshed, I chatted up a sister royal, a mystery writer from Los Angeles, originally from New York, who wrote about Florida. She asked eager questions about my paranormal mystery, which made her my new best friend. Yet the thrill of bling overrode authorial pride. My hand groped in the gift bag, seeking the magic wand I saw my seatmates waving. A rod topped with a silver star—I flourished it at my plate. A salad appeared.

I relinquished the wand to eat. My magic power ebbed. Released from the spell, I remembered the real me—middle class, nerdy, introverted, practical. True, I wear jewelry, earrings and rings, but I don’t bedeck myself with glitter. Lacking any fashion sense, I’m in awe of ladies who artistically fling scarves around their necks and bosoms. I envy women who create dashing outfits, which I define as not blue jeans and a T-shirt. I’d never be one of the Princesses with long flowing hair, who actually walked in high heels, flashed ruby and diamond rings, and stacked their wrists with gold bracelets.

I wasn’t Princess material. I pushed the wand away. My hand lifted to wrench off the crown. But wait, I am not totally earth bound. I am a writer, the creator of Petra, my protagonist who struggles to control her new magic powers. I made up a world. I deserved magic in my own life.

I flicked the wand. A waiter whisked away my salad plate. With a plop, my book, Murder Casts Its Spell, appeared before me.

“Will you sign it?”

I touched the crown. I’d always wear it.

(Note: Thanks to authors Rochelle Staab and Tammy Kaehler for hosting the table!)

Murder Casts its Spell

In a society divided into those with magic and non-magic powers, Petra finds herself on the non-magical side of the equation, instead opting for a career making sure that all people—powerful or powerless—get the justice they deserve. Her ideas of justice are tested when Petra's first murder case falls into her lap after her lead investigator is arrested for killing his ex-girlfriend. While Petra wants to believe he's innocent, her client conveniently keeps "forgetting" to tell her anything that makes him look bad. Suspects begin to pile up, including one who would kill to keep his secret and one who tempts Petra to let her guard down and fall in love again. And the fact that the accused is a wizard sends the press on a hate campaign, claiming his powers are enough to make him a danger to society. Petra might agree that magic can be unpredictable...especially when she suddenly possesses those powers herself for the first time. With the Wizard Council threatening to lock her up for her inability to control her new power, and her client's life on the line if she doesn't prove him innocent, Petra has to make the real murderer appear before she herself disappears.

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