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Carolyn Mulford

Carolyn Mulford

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Monthly Archives: January 2016

Interview on OmniMysteryNews.com

Carolyn Mulford Posted on January 15, 2016 by CarolynJanuary 15, 2016

How have your characters developed over time? What’s your writing process? How true are you to the settings in your books?

I answered these and other questions in an online interview conducted by Lance Wright, editor of OmniMysteryNews.com.

Here’s part of my answer about the setting of the Show Me series: “I created a county in northern Missouri that resembles the one where I grew up. In a fictional place, no one can complain that a business was portrayed as a crime scene or a street runs the wrong direction. In made-up Vandiver County, real regional expressions and attitudes reveal the subculture. The setting functions as a character.”

By the way, I named the county after Congressman Willard D. Vandiver, the man responsible for Missouri becoming known as the Show-Me state. In 1899, he said, “I come from a country that raises corn and cotton and cockleburs and Democrats, and frothy eloquence neither convinces nor satisfies me. I’m from Missouri. You have got to show me.”

To read the entire interview, go to http://www.omnimysterynews.com/2016/01/a-conversation-with-mystery-author-carolyn-mulford-5F6F5130.html.

—Carolyn Mulford

Posted in News, Rewriting and Editing, Show Me Series, Writing

From Headlines to Short Story

Carolyn Mulford Posted on January 9, 2016 by CarolynJanuary 10, 2016

In December local media reported that a couple of customers in Walmarts here (Columbia, Missouri) and in three nearby towns bought out the pre-paid cell phones. No one knew what the buyers wanted with dozens of burner phones.

So the media and the audience (including me) speculated. Terrorists hiding their communications from NSA? Drug dealers foiling police trying to trace their calls? Entrepreneurs planning to resell the phones at a profit to shady characters?

We received no answers.

I was on deadline to come up with “A Day in the Life of Phoenix Smith” for a great mystery lovers’ blog, Dru’s Book Musings. Why not let Phoenix solve the puzzle of the purchase of pre-paid cell phones?

I put together the news stories on that with news stories on an illegal use of the phones in a short story. You can read it at http://drusbookmusing.com/2016/01/09/phoenix-smith-2.

—Carolyn Mulford

Posted in News, Show Me Series

Looking Ahead to 2016

Carolyn Mulford Posted on January 1, 2016 by CarolynJanuary 1, 2016

A year ago I worried that aging would decrease the speed and quality of my writing. I wondered if I had the stamina and sharpness to complete a solid 90,000-word mystery. Over 2015 I found that I wrote more slowly—partly because I don’t always work a full day anymore—and spent more time rewriting and editing. Even so, I finished my fifth mystery, Show Me the Sinister Snowman, and began rewriting an earlier mystery while new Phoenix the Spy ideas jell.

In short, going into 2016, my pleasure in writing fiction endures, and my output remains satisfactory. The truth is that I write better than I do anything else—except maybe talk about my writing. I resolve to do plenty of both in 2016. I make no promises about cleaning my house or taking care of my yard.

No one knows the future, but here are highlights of what I expect to happen in 2016.

In late January or early February, Rocking Horse Publishing will release Thunder Beneath My Feet, my novel set during the devastating New Madrid earthquakes of 1811-1812. This is a historical adventure with mystery elements, and I expect it to appeal to everyone from fourth graders who like to read to adults who enjoy history. (My beta readers included all ages.)

I’ll be reviewing my mounds of unused research to write blogs that offer readers, including teachers, background on the period, place, and people.

Missouri winters interfere with such scheduled events as book signings, so I’ll concentrate on writing and make few appearances until the release in late March of Show Me the Ashes, the fourth in my mystery series. May as well promote two books at once.

April through June I’ll divide my time between writing and promoting, which includes giving talks and possibly workshops here and elsewhere, speaking at such conferences as Malice Domestic, and writing guest blogs.

During the summer I expect to finish rewriting Ancestral Plot. Late summer initiates conference season and the chance to introduce new readers to my books. On my tentative schedule are Killer Nashville, Magna cum Murder, the regional Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators, and our local Show Me Writers MasterClass.

Before winter comes again, I expect to celebrate the release of Show Me the Sinister Snowman, anticipate the publication of Ancestral Plot, and begin work on another book.

I resolve to enjoy 2016 and hope all who bother to read this far do the same.

Happy New Year!

—Carolyn Mulford

Posted in Mysteries, News, Show Me Series, Thunder Beneath My Feet

Latest Postings


I Am a River

Carolyn Mulford Posted on April 19, 2025 by CarolynApril 19, 2025

Each week I lunch with a group of friends and discuss a topic. Last time the coordinator posed this question: What is the shape of your life? The answers included a rectangle, a vase, a cloud, and an octagon. Usually I wing it, but this time I wrote my response. The Shape of My Life I am a river, Birthed in a puddle, Nourished by rain, Pushed to overflow And grow broader And deeper.   Springs and creeks fed my flow. Widening waters gathered force, Thrusting me against unyielding barriers And cascading me over rocky falls.   Other streams joined … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized

Where to Find My Books

Carolyn Mulford Posted on April 1, 2025 by CarolynApril 1, 2025

While only one of my books, Show Me the Sinister Snowman, continues to be published in print and electronic editions, several of my novels are available from online sellers. Most of the copies are used, but columbiabooksonline.com, my supportive local bookstore, has a small stock of new Show Me hardbacks and paperbacks. I also have a few copies of all my novels except The Feedsack Dress, my historical children’s book, and Show Me the Murder, the first in my mystery series featuring a former spy returning   home and solving crimes with old friends. Fortunately e-editions still exist. Barnes and Noble … Continue reading →

Posted in Mysteries, The Feedsack Dress, Uncategorized

Looking Forward 60 Years Ago

Carolyn Mulford Posted on February 28, 2025 by CarolynFebruary 28, 2025

Reminders of my attempts to start my writing career arrived last Christmas. A friend, Joyce Campbell, sent me letters I had written to her while we were serving as Peace Corps Volunteers (teaching English) in Ethiopia from September 1962 to July 1964 and in the months after we returned home (Chattanooga, Tennessee, for her and Kirksville, Missouri, for me) after traveling through Europe. On December 21, 1964, I wrote, “Has anything turned up for you yet? People don’t seem terribly impressed with Peace Corps experience for job qualifications it seems to me. I’m going down to the University Placement Bureau … Continue reading →

Posted in Writing

Mid-Continent Earthquakes, Past and Future

Carolyn Mulford Posted on December 16, 2024 by CarolynDecember 16, 2024

About 2:30 a.m. December 16, 1811, an earthquake threw people in New Madrid, Missouri Territory, out of bed and crumbled brick houses and cabin chimneys, forced the Mississippi River to run backward and change course, disturbed sleep along most of the East Coast, and toppled dishes from shelves in the White House. That marked the beginning of some of the most powerful, prolonged quakes the United States has experienced. These weren’t the first in the New Madrid Seismic Zone, which is centered near where Missouri, Arkansas, Tennessee, and Kentucky come together. Geologists and other scientists have found indications that powerful … Continue reading →

Posted in Historicals, News, Thunder Beneath My Feet

The Turkey That Bullied Me

Carolyn Mulford Posted on November 26, 2024 by CarolynNovember 26, 2024

I grew up with animals as friends, the first being our dog Roamer. He and I wandered around the yard, the barnyard, and the garden. Roamer barked at squirrels and chased rabbits from our vegetables. He made me ponder one of life’s great puzzles: Is it okay to sympathize with Peter Rabbit in the story but condemn him when your own carrots are at risk? Roamer knew not to chase our chickens or cows or pigs, and he joined me in playing with an orphaned lamb and the kittens whose parents kept the barn free of mice. What he didn’t … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized

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