NEW RELEASE!

Tags

cozy, Foodie, friendship, murder, mystery, new release, recipes

There are some people we trust no matter what. Judy Post/Judi Lynn, friend and fearless leader/mother hen of Summit City Scribes is someone you can rely on in every way. If she tells me to jump, I just do it. It’s a joy to get her notes and suggestions. I’m so pleased have her visit my lowly blog. She’s a great blogger. I am…meh.

Take it away Judi!

M.L. Rigdon/Julia Donner and I have been critique partners for years.  Which means I value her opinion, and I love her writing.  I couldn’t critique someone I didn’t admire and enjoy.  And I wouldn’t listen to someone’s opinion about book after book if I didn’t respect her as a writer.  And I love her writing.  I hope you take the time to check out some of her books:  Amazon.com : julia donner kindle books and https://www.amazon.com/s?k=M.L.+Rigdon&i=digital-text&crid=3JNVIDQCZ9U7O&sprefix=m.l.+rigdon%2Cdigital-text%2C68&ref=nb_sb_noss  

Mary Lou and I aren’t just critique partners, we’re best friends.  And I can tell you, she’s one heck of a baking queen.  I love to cook.  She loves to bake.  Between us, you’d get a meal you’d really enjoy😊  (Even though she’s ALMOST as good of a cook as I am😊  But I’m visiting her blog to promote my latest cozy mystery, and luckily for me, this is a culinary mystery, so I still get to talk about recipes and food.  (No desserts.  That’s Mary Lou’s specialty).

My second Karnie Cleaver mystery is THE STEAKS ARE HIGH.  I love mysteries.  And I love cooking.  So I smooshed the two together, and Karnie works in her family’s butcher shop.  Every Thursday, her dad asks for something in the meat counter to put on a special sale for the weekends.  And when Karnie decides on something, she prints recipes to help their customers know how to cook the cuts of meat on sale.  She also records a cooking show that goes live every Monday, featuring that meat.  When I sold my very first Jazzi and Ansel mystery to Kensington, I was surprised when my editor told me that I needed to send him a few recipes for things Jazzi had cooked in the novel. 

I’m not a chef.  Don’t even pretend to be anything more than a woman who loves to cook.  So having to come up with recipes worried me.  I collect recipes.  I have a huge plastic file box that’s full of them.  I have recipes for Soup, Salads, Main Dish Salads, Pasta and Italian, Chicken, Beef, Pork, Seafood, Chinese, Mexican, Side Dishes,  Brunch, Parties, and Vegetables.  I tear recipes out of magazines and stuff them in the files.  I DON’T CREATE MY OWN RECIPES.  And that worried me.  Then a chef on TV said that if you changed ONE ingredient in a recipe, it was now your own.  And I felt better.  I play and tweak with every recipe I have.

I still insist that I’m only a cook, someone who loves to feed people.  I don’t pretend to be anything more, but I love to have friends and family over for meals.  I’m one of those people who makes a menu for every week so that I buy all of the ingredients I need.  And Karnie’s more organized than I am.  In this book, she makes rolled pork loins stuffed with simple ingredients and then with fruits and nuts.  (I’ve made both and love them).  I include five recipes at the end of this book, and they’re ones I’ve used with success. 

I have to warn.  The clam chowder recipe I included this time is for people who are gluten and dairy free.  The Barefoot Contessa might not approve.  But I’m older now, and I have friends who have dietary restrictions.  My grandson is dating a girl who’s a vegetarian who only adds fish to her diet and she’s gluten free.  A tricky combination, so I came up with the chowder recipe. 

Anyway, if you like culinary cozy mysteries, THE STEAKS ARE HIGH might appeal to you.  And I’m happy to visit Mary Lou’s blog.  So, this was fun!  Thanks for having me, M.L. Rigdon/Julia Donner.

Judi’s Bio:   

Judi Lynn lives in Indiana with her husband, a bossy gray cat, and a noisy Chihuahua.  She loves to cook and owns more cookbooks than any mortal woman would ever need.  That’s why so much food sneaks into her stories.  She also loves her flower beds, but is a haphazard gardener, at best.   

My blog & webpage:  http://writingmusings.com/ 

My author Facebook page:  https://www.facebook.com/JudiLynnwrites/ 

Twitter: @judypost 

On BookBub at Judi Lynn with a link to Judith Post (for my urban fantasies):  https://www.bookbub.com/authors/judi-lynn 

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LOVE IT WHEN IT’S FREE

Tags

books, demons, druids, elf, fae, fairy, free, magic, mystery, reders, urban fantasy, witches, writers, writing

Judi Lynn, friend and critique partner, is offering a free chapter of her Muddy River Mystery series today. Since she has generously and repeatedly offered her blog for guest postings for my works, it’s time to repay, and I do so happily.

Muddy River is atmospheric, sometimes grizzly, and full of juicy characters, most especially her H&H, both wicked scary with magical powers. Neither of them mess around when it comes to kicking the butts of the baddies.

Something that has always fascinated me is Judi’s mind. She comes up with some creepy stuff. The contrast to what she puts on the page and what she’s like to be around and have as a friend bears no resemblance. I suppose it’s the same with acting—one doesn’t have to be a murderer to portray a serial killer. Although, I couldn’t look at Mark Harmon for years after he did the Ted Bundy thing. (Insert shiver here.) Time to pick Judi’s brain:

Hope my brain comes up with some decent answers.Great questions, BTW.  Thanks for inviting me to your blog!  I love urban fantasy AND mysteries, so decided to try to combine them in my Muddy River series.

What is it about magic that draws you to write and read about the genre? 

Wow, that’s a good question.  I guess it’s because I always thought that if you had a lot of power, you could do great things.  What I didn’t think about is that, if you have a lot of power and WANT to do great things, someone else has power and uses it for his/her own gain, his own evil purposes.  So then, power just ups the ante between a battle for good vs. evil.  I also am drawn to the idea that humans—us—are afraid of anything that’s different from us.  So that when we are afraid or uncertain, we might become the greatest evil of all.

What about mystery? How old were you when you started reading it?

I didn’t get hooked on mysteries until I found Agatha Christie in high school.  I never read Nancy Drew or mysteries for younger readers.  Still haven’t.  I got hooked on James Fenimore Cooper, James Hilton, and Jane Austen.  But once I found Agatha, I loved how her mind worked.  Then I got hooked on Sherlock Holmes.  I wish I could say I’d read some Dorothy Sayers—only one—but I went from Agatha to Nancy Pickard, M. C. Beaton, Carolyn Hart, and Sharyn McCrumb.

What excites you about characters and plots?

 I love a good who-dunnit and why.  But lots of books have a KIND of mystery in them—an unanswered question to figure out—besides mysteries.  I prefer to follow characters whom I respect and admire. It makes it easier for me to root for them to succeed.  That said, I’ve been known to enjoy a sort of anti-hero occasionally, like Jorg from Prince of Thorns.  He’s the protagonist, and he’s twisted, but everyone else in the time period comes off as MORE twisted, so it’s a matter of degrees.  Jorg seems more noble than anyone around him.  As for plots, because I’m a mystery fan, I really notice them. I don’t mind slow starts.  Let’s face it.  That’s part of writing a cozy.  But I want to know the book’s big question, and then I want everything to eventually move to the answer to that question at the end.  And if you’ve introduced a subplot and forgotten it along the way, that’s a big problem for me.

What makes you impatient with a story that is enough for you to set it aside, unfinished?

I’m pretty patient with fellow writers, but lately, I’ve reached the point that if a story doesn’t hold my interest, I delete it from my Kindle and move on.  I used to feel that I had to finish every book I started.  No more.  I’ve found more mistakes in books than I used to, but when they mount up to too many, I’m done.  And if it feels like the book isn’t going anywhere, that the author padded it to reach a word count, I’m annoyed, too.  And then, in all honesty, I can buy a perfectly good book that just isn’t what I like and quit reading it, even though I know LOTS of other readers will love it.  We all have different tastes.

Your blogs often speak to what you like to read now. What did you like to read as a child?

Oh, boy.  I have to admit, my sisters remember all kinds of things about growing up. I don’t.  I mostly remember teachers I loved, but very few books.  I read a really thick, really big book about a pigeon in third grade.  I know, that doesn’t sound exciting, but it was to me.  I raised pigeons when I was young—homing pigeons and racers.  And this poor pigeon was a homing pigeon who was let loose far from home and had to survive hawks and hunger before he made it back to his owner.  Okay, not many people would buy that today, but it’s stayed with me this long.  I went through a short biography stage and Zane Grey.  For years, I wanted to grow up and be a pioneer.  Oh, Laura Ingalls Wilder probably contributed to that.  I loved her books.  And Charlotte’s Web.  And books about a mouse who was adopted into a family—Stuart Little??  I can’t think of anything else right now.  Oh, in high school, I went through a Georgette Heyer phase, too—part of why I love your Regency Romances written as Julia Donner😊

What are you working on now?

I just turned in my sixth Jazzi Zanders mystery, and now, I’m plotting the 7^thbook in the series and bouncing back and forth between plotting a new Lux Mystery—something new I’m trying.

Got a link?

Here’s my Social Media:

My webpage:  https://www.judithpostswritingmusings.com/

Author Bookbub page:

As Judi Lynn: https://www.bookbub.com/authors/judi-lynn

As Judith Post:  https://www.bookbub.com/authors/judith-post

twitter: @judypost

blog:  https://writingmusings.com/

author Facebook page:

https://www.facebook.com/JudiLynnwrites/?eid=ARBVV_EwfOoSc9roi0Qs3HJ2Pp25lD_meoURr5G9FEL-GKImd06NFH-pzk22O1dYxc7BlaZG0J0amkKg

And for Tattoos And Portents:

https://www.amazon.com/Tattoos-Portents-Muddy-River-4-ebook/dp/B084GVPK5Q/ref=sr_1_7?dchild=1&keywords=judi+lynn&qid=1587415072&sr=8-7

Thanks for coming to my blog! I thought I knew a lot about you and learned more today!!!

M.L Rigdon (aka Julia Donner)

Follow on Twitter @RigdonML

Blog: https://historyfanforever.wordpress.com/

Website http://www.MLRigdon.com

https://www.bookbub.com/authors/julia-donner

https://www.facebook.com/Julia-Donner-697165363688218/timeline

 

KNIVES & NEIGHBORHOOD

Tags

humor, inspiration, Knives Out, movie review, movies, mystery, religion, Tom Hanks

Knives Out 

Oh, yeah, let’s go there. Saw this last night with a group of friends from my church and we laughed and laughed. It’s the most fun mystery ever! I was too busy enjoying the people on screen to get invested in figuring out the mystery, which becomes clear about three-quarters through. I’m sure my friend and critique partner, Judy (aka Judi Lynn), who writes mysteries, will figure it out much earlier from some obvious clues.

As usual, I’m fascinated with the subtleties. If you look at any of the promo stills, you’ll notice the makeup, obvious shadows and blush under the cheekbones, to give the Thrombey family the look of thinness, a gaunt desperation. This is in contrast to the plump sweetness of the nurse/companion, Marta, in comparison to the Thrombey family of sharks. Everyone in this movies is having so much fun with their delicious characters—so meaty they could be easily be blown over the top—but all are skillfully contained. Or executed. (Couldn’t resist that.)

The house itself is a character. I can’t wait to slap the CD into the player so it can be paused to savor the gorgeousness of the interiors. (Who has a cannon in their drawing room?)

There are so many delightful twists and turns coming constantly and out of nowhere and yet slotted perfectly into the puzzle. Many tongue-in-cheek remarks and inferences are said so quickly they’re easy to miss. Love the detective’s name, Benoit Blanc, who surprisingly plugs in earbuds and sings a Sondheim show tune.

There is so much going on in this movie on so many levels that it’s a viewing that can be enjoyed over and over and will probably become a cult classic. Keep an eye out for Frank Oz and K Callan; as Stanislavski said, “There are no small roles, only small actors.”

Everybody in this is juicy, and I want to grow up to be Jamie Lee Curtis.

A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood

This is nothing like what I expected. The only way I can think to describe this movie is intimate—almost, but not quite, too intimate. I have yet to read the Esquire article on which this film is based but imagine it will be as unique and unexpected as this work is. I was equal parts impressed, moved, humbled, informed, and encouraged.

Special camera work was used to capture what the original TV program looked like. The “Neighborhood” set and formatting was used throughout the filming as a tool to suck the viewer/audience into the world of Fred Rogers and the bitter, emotionally wretched internal life of a journalist (Vogel), who copes with, but has never resolved childhood traumas. When Vogel is assigned the job of writing about a beloved national icon, his wife begs him not to ruin her childhood with one of his typical exposé pieces.

As Tom Hanks said—explaining his POV in an interview—people thought of Rogers as either a saint or a fraud. Vogel leaned more toward the fraud, and after meeting Rogers, ended up bewildered, confused, then disbelieving to the point where he becomes almost obsessed with the need to understand someone who only sees the good in others and him. And the hurt.

What I liked most about this movie is how respectfully Rogers is depicted, not as a saint, but as a person with flaws and problems, while imbued with substantial grace and so much compassion he could cherish everyone as a unique being. On his TV program Rogers never talked about God, and yet he exemplified all that is good about religious belief. He personified true evangelism by extending compassion and kindness. He brought more goodness and light into the world as no present day evangelism or obnoxious evangelists do.  Reverend Fred Rogers saved souls without self-righteous demands to repent or pointing out what is lacking or needs changing.  He lived his beliefs, celebrated differences, and accomplished it while battling his own failings and disappointments.

We can’t all be a Fred Rogers, but we can see this movie and get an idea of where and how to start.

 

M.L Rigdon (aka Julia Donner)

Follow on Twitter @RigdonML

Blog: https://historyfanforever.wordpress.com/

Website http://www.MLRigdon.com

https://www.bookbub.com/authors/julia-donner

https://www.facebook.com/Julia-Donner-697165363688218/timeline

 

How to Hide a Body

Tags

construction, cozy, decorating, dogs, flipping, Foodie, heartthrob, houses, murder, mystery, pug, Viking, writing

It’s a pleasure to have the wonderful Judi Lynn visit my blog. When we met (long ago), she was writing mystery, then urban fantasy, then was offered a contract with Kensington to write a series of romances, which she doubted she could do. Hah! For them, and us, she wrote a marvelous series about Mill Pond, peopled by characters so real you wanted them as your forever friends, characters so alive that they made you laugh and cry, allowed you worry about their problems and rejoice in their triumphs. And oye, the food! (Ms. Lynn’s a kitchen goddess after all.)

The Mill Pond series was followed by a request to write cozy mysteries, just what Judi loves. To look at her, one would never think that someone so jolly and generous could think up so many unique ways to murder people. But then, you’ve never seen the bathroom wall she painted with splotches of red paint. And in this new cozy mystery series, she gives us Ansel. (Insert sigh here.) I love Prosper from her urban fantasy works, but her quiet Norseman, oh my… You only have a few days left to wait to meet him and to find out how the corpse ended up in the attic. It’s on presale now!

You can find The Body in the Attic here:  http://www.kensingtonbooks.com/book.aspx/37036

Thank you, M. L. Rover, for inviting me to your blog.  I’m a huge fan of yours, when you write as Julia Donner or as M. L. Rigdon, so it’s an honor being here today.  Thanks for letting me talk about the first mystery I wrote for Lyrical Underground, THE BODY IN THE ATTIC.

1. Why mysteries?

I fell in love with mysteries when I discovered Agatha Christie in my high school years.  In between reading Jane Austen and English Lit assignments in college, I got hooked on Hercule Poirot and Jane Marple. I liked Sherlock Holmes, but not as much as Nancy Pickard’s Jenny Cain and Carolyn Hart’s Death on Demand series. Those led me to Martha Grimes, Elizabeth George, and many, many others.  In cozy mysteries, the gore is minimal, the characters are part of a tight knit community, and the killers always get their just rewards—one way or another.  Unlike real life, evil doesn’t go unpunished.  And it’s fun to match wits with the detective.  Can you catch the writer’s clues and distinguish them from the red herrings?  It’s like solving a jigsaw puzzle.  Lots of fun.

2. Why have your heroine be a fixer-upper?

When my husband and I got married, we bought a bungalow that had great bones, but everything in it was too small or dated.  We were young and had no idea how much work it would take to update everything.  When I turned on the faucet in the kitchen and John turned on a faucet in the bathroom to brush his teeth, the water got confused and stopped moving completely.  We had to replace lead pipes with copper ones.  When we invited my family over for supper and put the leaf in our table, we couldn’t open the refrigerator door until we all stood up and moved the table sideways to make room.  Eventually, we ended up adding on to the kitchen, adding a dormer for a second bedroom upstairs, and finishing the basement into a playroom for the kids. Little did we know when we bought the house.  But to this day, we love the place.   We still have a fondness for old houses and go on house walks in old neighborhoods. Not that we’d ever do this again. If we HAD to move for some reason, we’d buy something newer that was move-in ready.  But I wanted Jazzi and her cousin to restore old houses to make them beautiful again.  It hurts me to see a lovely old house that’s neglected.

3. What do you like to read besides mysteries?

I don’t like to read the same author or even the same kinds of books back to back.  Eventually, I need a change of pace.  So I might read two cozies and then read an urban fantasy. I wrote urban fantasies for a while as Judith Post and discovered Ilona Andrews and Patricia Briggs, among others. Then I might pick up a Regency romance—like you write as Julia Donner—and then a romantic suspense or something bracing like Mark Lawrence’s Jorg series.  I like to mix up the genres I read now and then.

4. Why are family and cooking so important in your books?

My family is small, but close.  And I love to cook and entertain.  I get bored cooking the same things over and over, so I subscribe to different cooking magazines and buy way too many cookbooks.  My sisters don’t like to cook, so it’s fun to invite them and my cousin over for supper.  They don’t like it if I get too fancy.  They like roasts and Italian sausage sandwiches.  When it gets chilly outside, two of their favorites are chili or beef and noodles.  My friends have more sophisticated palates, and I can experiment more.  I can make bouillabaisse or chowders, Thai noodle salads, and Chicken Seville.   It’s fun, and it keeps me out of trouble.

5. Is there a romantic interest in your books?

Be still my heart. Ansel Herstad is a contractor who works with Jazzi and her cousin, Jerod.  Jazzi calls him a Norseman.  He grew up on his family’s dairy farm in Wisconsin.  He’s six-five with blond hair and blue eyes and lots and lots of muscles. But he doesn’t realize what a hunk he is.  I wanted to people Jazzi’s world with lots of GOOD men.  My husband worked at a tiny hamburger drive-in all through high school, and to this day, he’s still friends with the guys he worked with.  When one of those men marries a woman, she becomes part of their group.  And after knowing them for years, these guys are the best.  My daughter’s single, and she swears it’s no walk in the park to meet a good guy these days, but they’re out there (probably already taken).  And I wanted them to part of Jazzi’s world.

 

Judi Lynn’s blog:  https://writingmusings.com/

Webpage:  https://www.judithpostswritingmusings.com/

Facebook author page: https://www.facebook.com/JudiLynnwrites/?eid=ARBEkp5jfrUGMBkV9_9i-tpSF_CQs0fg9igDATo5gwcN17HXalHG084-lLxN-mKrXptUaUHZz2EZ_w7X

Goodreads:  https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/5023544.Judith_Post

BookBub:  https://www.bookbub.com/authors/judith-post

 

Thank you Judi Lynn/Judith Post for the interview! And here’s a link to some of her urban fantasy and myth genres:

https://www.amazon.com/Blood-Battles-Fallen-Angels-Book-ebook/dp/B00C3L8BNM/ref=sr_1_4?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1542027708&sr=1-4&keywords=Judith+Post

 

More Than Friends

Tags

blogging, books, critique, editing, essays, fantasy, friendship, horror, inspiration, mystery, opinion, publishing, regency, romance, thriller, writing, YA

Just finished another exquisite blog post by Rachel R. Roberts, author, playwright, educator, and essayist. Poignacy and nostalgia embue every sentence. There is an elegance to her writing stemming from her personality, as lilting and gentle as her voice. I hear her as I read, the syrup-smooth glide of her southern cadence. The prose is so lyric and grammar always perfect. I can see her blushing as she reads this, her head slightly turned away with modesty that is natural and unaffected. I’ve always admired that in certain women, specifically those who are sincere with that response. I have none of that and often feel like a clod when in the company of Rachel, the epitome of  the gracious, southern lady. Her writing has the same even grace, while layered with so much left unwritten and yet clearly stated. I feel so lucky to hear her comments when she can attend our writing group. She never fails to find a bit of encouragement, is perceptive and kind when it comes to critiquing. Which brings me to the writing group itself, Summit City Scribes, or as we call ourselves, just plain ole Scribes.

The group ranges from ten to twenty members, fluctuating with each bi-monthly meeting. The rules are simple—fifteen minutes to read, the reader is not allowed to comment until after all the members make their remarks, which goes around the table one by one, starting with something complimentary then the opinion, suggestions, or critique.

Members are an eclectic bunch covering a wide variety of genres in fiction and non. It’s heartening for this reader to hear that the work just read held the attention of those having no interest in the genre but that it did hold their interest. If it’s a romance, that’s a big deal to hear from men who write about hiking, or a jounalist, a former cop, or the guy writing a gritty murder mystery. I remember the terror the first time I read to the group almost twenty years ago. Nowadays, I can’t wait to hear what they have to say and often use everything they suggest.

There are so many wonderful writers in this group, and since joining, I’ve found more than encouragement and instruction. The women are clever, bold and goal-oriented. The men are clear-sighted and true gentlemen, which is a lot to be said in this day and age. When my husband passed, Scribes were there, surrounding me like a bastion, determined to hold me up and see me through. They did and have through so many disappointments and set backs, writing and personal. I also scored with another of my favorite writers, my critique partner, Judy Post aka Judi Lynn. She is the fearless leader for Scribes and takes the role seriously, encouraging and touting us like a fierce mother hen. Uh, no. More like a valkyrie. Even though I dread the work involved in rewrites, I get a shiver of excitement when getting back pages from Judy drenched in red ink. She loves to write mystery, so she finds all the plot defects.

I’m including blog sites to illustrate how we differ as writers. I’ve always loved differences, how much there is to glean from another POV. I’ve learned so much from Scribes, wouldn’t have any of the craft or successes without them. Check out their blogs, you’ll see what I mean about how we differ, and because of that, learn, and more importantly, apply.

Rachel S. Roberts

https://www.rachelsroberts.com/blog/naked-ladies

Judith Post/Judi Lynn

https://writingmusings.com/2018/08/04/just-keep-writing/#comments

Kathy Palm

https://findingfaeries.wordpress.com

I’ve added a former Scribes member, Les Edgerton. (Won’t list his credentials  because it goes on for miles.) He has a terrific blog and an amazing new book out.

http://lesedgertononwriting.blogspot.com/2018/08/preordering-available-for-adrenaline.html?spref=tw

So much to learn, so little time.

M.L Rigdon (aka Julia Donner)

Follow on Twitter @RigdonML

Blog: https://historyfanforever.wordpress.com/

Website http://www.MLRigdon.com

https://www.bookbub.com/authors/julia-donner

https://www.facebook.com/Julia-Donner-697165363688218/timeline

 

 

 

PUT OUT THE DAMN LIGHT

Tags

Byron, corsets, England, etiquette, genre, history, manners, mystery, pet peeves, regency, Victorian, writing

Judi Lynn/Judith Post recently wrote a blog about ten steps to make your mystery better and started off with “kill somebody.” I can’t think of any opener to top that, so will just start off with the things I look for and try to incorporate in historical fiction to make it believable and immediate. Because that’s the point, isn’t it? To immerse the reader in a world that has been before.

Character/s

How often do we see the same man or woman over and over in a story and nothing changes but their eye and hair color? In reality, people don’t look the same, even when they look sort of the same. People are unique. So should characters be. It’s best if they possess the kind of personality you’re drawn to, but perhaps you prefer the challenge of finding a way to make a somewhat off-putting man or woman sympathetic to the reader. But an initial connection must be made from the get-go and that’s kind of difficult if they have the charisma of yesterday’s pancake.

The Four Es of Character Building

Entice, entrigue, engage, and excite. This doesn’t mean making them attractive. It means making them accessible. They should have traits and personalities similar to the human conditions that haven’t changed over the ages. We all have baggage. Give them reasons for reacting the way they do when “showing” their responses, instead of just “telling” or explaining them on the page. Lets’ just get over it. We’re products of our environments until we do something about it. Give your protags some emotional warts so you can show how they’ve grown (removed) them by the end of the book.

Mary Balogh’s more recent regency works are peopled by the challenged. Her characters have been blind, lame, deaf, suffering from disabling war wounds, including PTSD. The ubiquitous fiesty heroines and sardonic men have become tedious, which is why Balogh is considered the comemporary queen of historical regency. Her people have the problems, joys, and triumphs we understand and seek, or find lacking in our own lives. They have some amazing emotional warts to overcome.

The Three Cs

Complication, conflict, conclusion. You better have all of these nailed. Throw in some juicy subplots while you’re at it to pick up the pacing and tension. If dried up of ideas on how to inflict misery on your beloved protags, there’s always a nasty or annoying family member. We’ve all got one.

Situations

An opening incident that involves one or both of your main characters must suck us into the storyline, establish the time period, or atmosphere, and most importantly, get the reader invested in the primary charatcers.

More and more we’re seeing historical stories striving to tweak genre themes to fit into a niche market or category. In doing so, the story can become secondary to the magic of creating a period piece or just a dang good story. The deliciousness of sinking into the past can get lost from its primary goal by forcing conformity to a parameter. It’s vitally important to keep the time period immediate, to bring the reader into that world, become saturated by the surroundings. In other words, don’t lose sight of the magic of the site, the joy of being there.

Know your history

 OK, so I have a pet peeve about blatant incongruity, like women in corsets doing impossbile physical feats while wearing what should be more accurately called a torso vice made of whalebone or metal slats. It’s impossible to lounge, leap over small buildings, or mount a horse via stirrup without creating a puncture wound. Regency versions (stays) were not quite as viscious as the later, Victorian versions.

Incorporating the etiquette of the time period makes it real, the necessary realities. Calling cards were vital social accourtrement and came with a precise set of rules. A card corner turned down meant the card was delivered personally. It was the most convenient way for both parties to find out whether or not your company was welcomed, or more kindly told to get lost, when there is no reply to the card.

Men went up stairs before women for many reasons but most often to spare them the display of their ankles. Then there’s my always favorite, wait for it…clear vision in rooms where no candle or lamp is ever lit or extinguished.

Even though strict rules were ingrained, behaviors/actions considered not done often were during the regency where gossip had lethal results. A great deal was written about people like Lady Caroline Lamb (flagrant adultery), Brummell (viciously insulted his prince), Lord Byron (too raunchy to list), and Jane Austen (dared to write and evetually use her real name) to list a few. When the Victorian Age descended, the not done stuff still happened, it just got shoved underground.

So many rules, so little time.

If you would like to read Judi Lynn’s excellent advice, here is the link to her blog:

https://writingmusings.com/2018/05/22/10-steps-for-writing-a-mystery/

M.L Rigdon (aka Julia Donner)

Follow on Twitter @RigdonML

Website http://www.MLRigdon.com

https://www.bookbub.com/authors/julia-donner

https://www.facebook.com/Julia-Donner-697165363688218/timeline

 

 

History Mystery

Tags

Brown Lady, England, ghost, Lady Dorothy Townshend, legend, murder, mystery, photograph, rake, Raynham Hall, scandal, scoundrel, spirits, Walpole, Wharton

The speculation regarding the death of Dorothy, Viscountess Townshend, in 1726 has been hashed over for almost three-hundred years. I’ll lay out some of what’s been written to allow you to make up your own mind. Whether or not the famous photograph of the Brown Lady descending the staircase is real is not the point. What really happened to Lady Dorothy is the mystery. That she haunted Raynham Hall is pretty much a given with or without the photograph. She’s been “seen” by too many people, too many times over the centuries, wearing a brown brocade dress and looking like her painting. George IV, when he was Prince Regent, visited Raynham Hall, saw her and nearly did the “run screaming into the night” shtick. Another idiot tried to shoot her, maybe not the best authority, but it happened while he was with two others. The list goes on. And on. Let’s get to the clues. Some at least, because there are tons.

It’s written that Dorothy, thirteenth child of the Walpole’s, fell in love with Townshend but her father, who was also guardian to Townshend, would not allow them to marry. Walpole feared public suspicion that he would be perceived as throwing the youths together for personal and social gain. Townshend ended up marrying the daughter of Baron Pelham. His wife died in 1711, and not long after that, Dorothy and Townshend married. From then on, Dorothy was perpetually pregnant. She bore seven children to add to the five Townshend had with his first wife. There is no mention, of course, of the lost pregnancies that could have happened between births. The point is, the two of them kept busy. Then came trouble.

While Townshend was married to his first wife, Dorothy wasn’t idle. Whether she was seduced or forced, she had an involvement with Lord Wharton, a “profligate” sort, who later fled the country to avoid debts. This guy was so bad he was declared an outlaw and stripped of his titles in 1729. Somewhere along the way Townshend found out about the old affair, and from that point on, Dorothy was “locked up” in her apartments, separated from her children.

It’s been written that Dorothy died of mysterious circumstances that include everything from small pox, a fall or a push down stairs, or a broken heart. It was also suggested that she never died in 1726, at the age of forty, but that Townshend continued to keep her locked up for years.

When it comes to the truth about being locked up, or cruelly treated, I have to wonder about her family. Dorothy’s brother, the famous PM, Sir Robert Walpole, was also a business partner of Townshend’s. Seems odd that Sir Robert would allow anything too grim to happen to his sister. Husbands held complete legal power over their spouses, there was no interfering with that, but families had been known to intervene. Then again, Sir Robert could have been ticked at his sister for letting it get about that she had a thing with a guy as slimy as Wharton. Townshend and Walpole were prominent politicians. Reputations must be maintained.

Then there’s small pox. I didn’t find mention that anyone else in the household had it, but a servant outbreak might never be noted. It is contagious, which could be a reason why she was set apart, or maybe it wasn’t really small pox, but the other “pox” kind, venereal disease. If she were the type to “get around” during the safe times of perpetual pregnancy, she could have picked it up.

It’s often agreed that ghosts linger due to traumatic deaths or embittered life experiences. Why is Dorothy hanging around? Give it your best guess. Here are a few links.

http://www.hauntedhovel.com/raynhamhall.html

http://www.castleofspirits.com/brownlady.html

And sorry about no personal post last week. I had a new ebook release, The Duchess and the Duelist, written as Julia Donner. 

http://amzn.to/13GGbmO

The attendant work involved and the holiday activity fried me down to the socket. See you next week. Happy New Year and ghost hunting!

 

History’s Freaky Mysteries

Tags

anceint, artifacts, Bible, fossils, giants, hoax, mummy, mystery, prehistoric, skulls

When I was a girl, MANY years ago, I read an article in Readers Digest that kept me awake nights. (Yes, I was an impressionable child.) The story was about a prehistoric burial site, bodies that had been unearthed near the Mississippi River, giants, buried sitting upright in chairs. For some reason, the chair-thing disturbed me as much as the shocking news of their size. The physical condition known as Gigantism isn’t news, but this site was—as MPFC used to say—completely different.

From then on, I looked for articles about tall, ancient beings and found a boatload of info, some reliable, some ridiculous. Let’s start off with the Bible: “There were giants in the earth in those days; and also after that” (Genesis 6:4). Historian, Favius Josephus in the first century A.D. wrote about a giant on display. Ireland had theirs. Native American tribes have oral history about red-haired giants.

The eighteen hundreds had numerous, well-documented findings, all with many similarities. More than one site had enormous sarcophagi meant for a single body. The Kossuth giants in Iowa were found in a vault, seven of them, facing each other in a circle.

For centuries, scads of artifacts have been dug up, including weapons and implements so huge in size that no present day person could wield them. Impressions have been left in stone of massive skulls and feet, the dimensions for beings 20 feet and taller. (Whoa.) Some of them have double rows of teeth, extra fingers and toes. Red-haired, mummified bodies and gargantuan skeletons have been unearthed all over the world. Conspiracy theories spout noisy claims foul play and cover-ups. But why deny their existence? Seems silly.

Ancient tall peoples captivated me to the extent that my next YA fantasy is going to have red-haired giants. (I like it when my protags to have big problems.)

http://www.6000years.org/frame.php?page=giants

So why don’t we see/hear more about these prehistoric beings? What’s the deal? Are they merely tall Hobbits? There are books out accusing “materialists” of trying to eradicate the existence of giants. (We can’t have the Bible substantiated, now, can we?) One work accuses the Smithsonian of taking donated skeletal artifacts out to sea to get rid of them. Sounds a bit extreme. And sillier. More likely the bones are in some box designated as not-a-priority and layered in dust in some forgotten corner, a la the ending of Indiana Jones.

But, if you’re interested, here are some sites. Some of it is repetitive, but there are a lot of great pictures, some of the skulls, bones, and footprints literally and physically embedded in stone, dating back millions of years. That’s right, millions.

http://www.hoaxorfact.com/Paranormal/mystery-of-fossilized-irish-giant-facts-analysis.html

http://www.southmilwaukeenow.com/blogs/communityblogs/187467521.html

Giants and mummies and monsters, Oh,my!

 

Chicago Can Kill You

Tags

Chicago, Everleigh, Galena, Macabre, mystery, prostitution, serial killers, urban legend, Whitechapel

No, I don’t mean driving down into the Loop during peak traffic hours, dodging fenders and offensive drivers. Freewheeling mayhem. An experience where all hairs stand on end. Even though I learned how to drive on the LA Freeways, I always feel like I’ve won an incomprehensible victory by the time I’ve made it from one side of downtown Chicago to the other. Chi Town’s expressways are a terror but have nothing on its history of violence and weirdness.

I first became entranced with Windy City by reading about its achievements and its relationship with Galena, Illinois, not its scary legacy of politics and murders. The wild times of the twenties gets most of the publicity, but the years prior to the turn of the century had its own high spots.

Murders from Chicago boasted a certain cache when it came to the modi operandi of its killers. The most famous is the serial killer who strolled around the 1893 Chicago World’s Fair. The horror of that lived on for years. When my mother attended the world’s fair decades later, she walked in terror of being snatched up by a killer or slaver.

I got the biggest chill reading about the serial killer who got rid of his victims by dissolving them in a vat of acid in his basement. Ugh.

One could say that the city was made rich on death. The major slaughter houses massacred so many cattle, dumping the wastes into the Chicago River, that the butchering rendered the smelly liquid from the city water taps brown and greasy. Ee-yew.

The infamous Whitechapel Club, where journalists hung out, enacted gruesome rituals. A Chicago bartender by the name of the Michael (Mickey) Finn is given the credit for concocting a lethal drink (chloral hydrate) to poison his enemies—hence the saying of slipping one a Mickey.

I still haven’t read a conclusive solution to the mystery of the Marshal Field heir shooting “accident” that begat a series of tap-dances to cover up the mess. One version has the Chicago scion getting shot by one of the legendary beauties of the Everleigh Club, the fanciest bordello in the city. The Everleigh sisters owned the crowns for the most elegant establishment in the country and were also known for their closed mouths. They had the healthiest, prettiest, most talented girls. No one ever tattled. This fact says a great deal about how frightening the two madams must have been as employers.

The story goes—well, one of them—that the sisters, Ada and Minna, trundled the bleeding Field, the Younger, out of the swanky social club and back to his house before his wife, children and straight-laced father got wind of the adventure. The scandal lives to this day but threats and gossip never stopped the Everleighs. They eventually retired as millionaires, traveled the world and settled down to become “model” matrons.

Having hailed from Galena, Illinois, now a burg of less than five thousand, it seemed impossible that Chicago once courted Galena, even invested in a railroad to join the two cities. It was true that Galena was a thriving boomtown when Chicago was still the mud hole that Native Americans called “stinky onion” or Chickagou/Checagou. Nice. Anyway, the name stuck and not to be outdone, Chicago pulled itself out of the mud by raising the city. Pullman was part of the effort when buildings were lifted out of the muck. Guests in the hotels stayed during the event and stated that they never noticed the procedure.

Galena faded as the lead veins gave out, decimated by the Civil War, but Chicago thrived, rebuilt itself and continues to do so today. Galena may have some of the best ghost stories and prettiest terrain, but Chicago knows how to rise above the macabre.

If you’re still hungry for something grisly, check out Mysterious Chicago Blog:

http://www.mysteriouschicagoblog.com/

Next time: Something Not So Grim