Author Archives: Carolyn

Blog Tour Highlights for Book 5

Carolyn Mulford Posted on by

Four writers generously invited me to appear on their blogs to celebrate the release of Show Me the Sinister Snowman March 31. Writing to fit their needs and their readers’ preferences proved an interesting challenge.

Below are excerpts from and links to each blog. You may well find other appealing posts there.

April 10: “How I Chose My Imaginary Best Friend”: Debra Goldstein’s It’s Not Always a Mystery: http://www.debrahgoldstein.com/guest-blogger-carolyn-mulford-chose-imaginary-best-friend-click-comments/

The right name [for my protagonist] didn’t come to me until I envisioned the incidents that brought her back to her hometown and compelled her to investigate a murder. So what happened? She was severely wounded during a post-retirement freelance mission in Istanbul and sent home to recover and to be off the shooter’s radar. She adapts her tradecraft to help a lifelong friend unearth the truth about her husband’s violent death.

I named my imaginary best friend Phoenix Smith. Phoenix symbolizes crashing and rising again from flames. Smith is a good name for a spy because it sounds fake.

 

April 7: Liz Milliron’s Interview: Mysteristas; https://mysteristas.wordpress.com

Do you listen to music when you write? 

Only if it’s related to what I’m writing, as when my protagonist plays Mozart on the piano to help her analyze her findings. In the first book, Show Me the Murder, she plays classic country in a bar while undercover. In my new book, Show Me the Sinister Snowman, people trapped by a blizzard entertain themselves by singing Gilbert & Sullivan songs.

 

April 2: Judy Hogan’s Interview: Postmenopausal Zest; http://postmenopausalzest.blogspot.com

I love the dog, Achilles, and how he and Phoenix relate to and rely on each other. Have other readers responded the same way?

Yes, many readers tell me how much they like Achilles. He functions not only as a pet but also as a comforter and sidekick. He brings out her softer side, and she encourages him to use his skills. He becomes secure enough to dispute her judgment. For example, he pulls her back when she’s rushing into danger, and he barks his disapproval when she’s impatient with her friends.

 

March 27: “Beware of 10 Common Mistakes”: Kristina Stanley’s Mystery Mondays; https://kristinastanley.com/2017/03/27/mystery-mondays-author-carolyn-mulford-on-10-common-mistakes/#comment-18812 

  1. A lack of action

Something must happen in every chapter. Check that by writing chapter headlines. Be sure you have a plot point and conflict—in solving the crime, in reaching the protagonist’s goals, in personal and professional interactions.

 

You can see the variety. Check out the one(s) that fits your interest.

—Carolyn Mulford

My Interview on Postmenopausal Zest

Carolyn Mulford Posted on by

Today my answers to Judy Hogan’s questions about my writing, particularly the Show Me series, appear at http://postmenopausalzest.blogspot.com.

She asked what prompted my switch from nonfiction to fiction, why I created the series, how the original idea fared over five books, and what prompted me to mix cynicism and compassion in Phoenix Smith.

And, of course, she wants to know more about Achilles.

—Carolyn Mulford

Making the Most of Mistakes

Carolyn Mulford Posted on by

Kristina Stanley invited me to share a list of 10 common mistakes mystery writers make on her Mystery Monday blog at .https://kristinastanley.com/2017/03/27/mystery-mondays-author-carolyn-mulford-on-10-common-mistakes/#comment-18812.

For years I’ve been talking about improving both nonfiction and fiction writing by identifying and correcting typical errors. By knowing what those are, you can catch them as you write the first draft or read the completed one.

What I haven’t emphasized is what you gain by making certain mistakes—in the first draft. For example, writers often delay action and bore readers with info dumps. As an editor, these drive me nuts. As a writer, I recognize the value of writing long, of putting everything in the first draft. In the second draft, we must delete, choose telling details, and move content to the most effective spot.

Writers need to know much more than their readers in order to select what to tell them. For example, we must research details about how a poison works or analyze the traumatic effect of a pre-book incident or trace a realistic provenance of a stolen painting. Once we know such things, we find it hard to resist an info dump, but the reader doesn’t need or want all that information.

The thing is, including all our research and conceptualization in the first draft puts it right where we can find it and gives us an opportunity to select the right nuggets in the next, or a later, draft.

Info dumps can pop up anywhere, but they’re particularly deadly in the opening when lengthy backstory, description, or academic discussions delay action. Insert your little gems with adjectives, phrases, and sentences, not paragraphs, pages, and chapters.

Bad mistakes, if recognized, can lead to better writing. After all, we usually learn more from our failures than our successes.

—Carolyn Mulford

Coming: Show Me the Sinister Snowman

Carolyn Mulford Posted on by

Cave Hollow Press has completed the cover design, the penultimate step in publishing Show Me the Sinister Snowman. The fifth book in the series will go to press (and to digitalization) for release March 31.

Coming March 31, 2017

Coming March 31, 2017

The first book, Show Me the Murder, takes place in May. Former CIA covert operative Phoenix Smith returns to her Missouri hometown to recover from being shot. Phoenix works with an old friend, Acting Sheriff Annalynn Carr Keyser, to learn the truth about her late husband’s violent death. Phoenix rescues a wounded witness, a Belgian Malinois named Achilles. A K-9 dropout, he becomes her valued sidekick. To Phoenix’s annoyance, struggling singer Connie Diamante insists on taking part in this and subsequent investigations: in June, Show Me the Deadly Deer; in August, Show Me the Gold; in September, Show Me the Ashes.

In book 5, it’s the week before Thanksgiving. Annalynn has completed her term as sheriff and is campaigning to replace a congressman who died in an “accident.” Phoenix, a certified capitalist, is stuck running the foundation she established to give Annalynn a job. The ex-spy is bored until a woman hiding from an abusive husband begs the foundation to protect her.

Phoenix and friends accompany Annalynn to a political gathering in an isolated antebellum mansion. A blizzard traps them there with a machete-wielding man lurking outside and an unidentified killer inside.

—Carolyn Mulford

Marching in the 1993 Inaugural Parade

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Today’s presidential inauguration reminded me of the good and bad in taking part in the inaugural parade 24 years ago.

As the 1992 presidential campaign wound down, the Washington, D.C., chapter of Returned Peace Corps Volunteers asked if members would like to march in the inaugural parade.

Like most locals, I avoided going near the Mall when the crowds came to town, but I couldn’t resist the chance to take part in this national event. Neither could Joyce Campbell, another RPCV from the 275-strong Ethiopia I group. We signed on.

We waited weeks to hear whether an RPCV with political connections could convince the parade organizers to allow us to publicize the Peace Corps. Twenty-two years after its founding, some 150,000 had served, but many people had forgotten about this one-to-one foreign aid program. (Today more than 7,000 PCVS are serving, and 225,000 RPCVs have served in 141 countries.)

The parade was to begin at 2 p.m. At 8:30 a.m., Joyce and I met to ride the Metro from Silver Spring, Maryland, through D.C. into Arlington, Virginia. We met our group—about 100 RPCVs who had served in 50 or so countries—in the enormous Pentagon parking lot.

After learning our assigned positions, we boarded buses and rode to our waiting spot on the Mall near the Museum of American History (at least a half mile from the Capitol). The buses dropped us off around 10:30, leaving us to mill around with no place to sit.

The temperature was near freezing, and the sun shone halfheartedly. Having worn a heavy sweater beneath a super-warm coat and warm hiking socks under snow boots, I stayed warm as long as I kept moving.

At noon, speakers broadcast the inauguration ceremony and, memorably, Maya Angelou reading her poem. Then the new president and Congress had lunch in the Capitol. We ate box lunches in the cold.

We didn’t line up with our flags until well after 2, and we didn’t move for another hour. Instead of going all the way to the Capitol, we cut left to Pennsylvania Avenue around 4th Street. The crowd had thinned out by then (coming up on 4 p.m.).

Joyce, a later Ethiopia RPCV, and I took turns carrying the heavy, long-poled Ethiopian flag. A nearby band gave a beat to march to as, adrenalin flowing, we moved at an irregular pace up Pennsylvania toward the White House.

With the sun dimming, we turned onto the last block and saw nearly empty bleachers across from the president’s viewing stand. He’d delegated greeting the marchers to the vice president. Al Gore, the only one in the viewing stand focused on the parade, gave us a big thumbs up.

Our group broke up right after we passed Blair House. We turned in the flag at the waiting bus and headed for the nearest Metro stop.

Like the Peace Corps, the inaugural parade had been tiring and taxing, but being part of the Peace Corps for two years and of a historic transition for one day had been well worth it.

—Carolyn Mulford

Memories of Doughnuts Past

Carolyn Mulford Posted on by

Christmas in my childhood revolved around food as much as presents, and one of my strongest memories is my two sisters and I helping my mother make doughnuts in our farmhouse kitchen. We’d spend most of an afternoon on the task.

My mother’s doughnuts weren’t the airy, super-sweet ones with frosting or glazes that most bakeries offer today. She made a dense, delicious cake doughnut, and Using the recipe in a 1930s  Rumford Complete Cook Book, she mixed three cups of flour, a dash of salt, three teaspoons of baking powder, 2/3 of a cup of sugar, two eggs gathered the previous afternoon, and a cup of milk from the morning milking. The mixture formed a soft dough that she rolled out with the wood rolling pin.

My sisters and I took turns cutting out the doughnuts with a round tin cutter and putting them on one plate and the holes on another. My mother would smoosh together the fragments left and roll out the dough again. We’d repeat the operation until nothing bigger than the holes remained.

By then my mother would have heated lard from the latest hog butchering in a deep pot. When the fat boiled, she dropped in the doughnuts one at a time. The pot would hold only about half a dozen, and we waited impatiently until she lifted out one batch and dropped in another.

When the doughnuts had drained and cooled enough for us to handle them with our fingers, we put them, one at a time, in a bowl of sugar, turning the doughnut until the grains lightly covered both sides. We did the holes last, rolling them around in the sugar. Many went into our mouths rather than onto the platter.

Years later I learned my mother dreaded making doughnuts because of the time a big batch took and the care necessary to avoid one of us getting burned by the boiling fat.

I haven’t had a homemade doughnut in decades, but I still remember how good they were and how much my sisters and I enjoyed making them.

—Carolyn Mulford

Quake Anniversary: December 16, 1811

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The first quake rousted from bed most people within 50 miles of New Madrid and ended the French community’s Sunday dance. While residents of the diverse Mississippi river port fled from their shaking or collapsing houses, people as far away as Quebec, Washington, D.C., and Savannah felt the earthquake’s reach.

December 16, 1811, marked the beginning of a series of three powerful quakes, more than a dozen major aftershocks, and, by the Ides of March 1812, almost 1,900 tremors. With the epicenter near southeast Missouri and northeast Arkansas, the quakes terrified residents in these and bordering states.

In New Madrid, brick homes and chimneys crumbled. Log homes fared better, but many caught fire. Giant trees split up the middle. Sand boils erupted. Ravines appeared. Lakes formed and drained. Furrows resembling giant waves disturbed the fields. A stench rose from the eruption of rotted vegetation and gases.

The river became deadly. It ran backwards, carrying flatboats upstream or capsizing them. Oceanic waves swamped canoes. Falls formed. Giant trees from the banks and dead ones dislodged from the river floor clogged the water. The water rose like a tide at night, forcing boaters to cut their moorings to avoid being dragged under.

The striking facts of this frontier tragedy led me to write a novel, Thunder Beneath My Feet, about how six young people worked together to survive.

Few Americans will note the quakes’ anniversary—or realize they will come again.

—Carolyn Mulford

Giveaway of Show Me the Gold

Carolyn Mulford Posted on by

Even if you’ve already read Show Me the Gold in hardback, you may want to sign up for a chance to win an autographed copy of the new paperback edition on Goodreads.com. A book makes a good Christmas gift.

To enter the giveaway, go to https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/22945313-show-me-the-gold-3. smtg-box-img_0326

Gold is the third book in the series, the story that starts with Phoenix and Annalynn staking out a country graveyard to catch vandals. By the end of the first chapter, the women take part in a shootout with bank robbers holed up in an abandoned farmhouse. You can read the first chapter on my Show Me Mysteries page.

The paperback edition is a Worldwide Mystery selection for December. It’s sold only from the Harlequin website: http://www.harlequin.com/storeitem.html?iid=68332.

—Carolyn Mulford

Preview of Book 5: The Sinister Snowman

Carolyn Mulford Posted on by

This week I proofed the galleys of Show Me the Sinister Snowman, the fifth in my series. That prompted me to add a page for the book under Show Me Mysteries and post the first chapter.

This book starts right after Annalynn Carr Keyser completes her extended appointment as acting sheriff of Vandiver County, Missouri. She and former covert operative Phoenix Smith expect to build up their new Coping After Crime foundation, which Phoenix created to give Annalynn a job while she prepares to run for the U.S. House of Representatives.

Phoenix intends to leave the boring applications for assistance to Annalynn, but Phoenix goes into high gear to help a young woman hiding from her abusive husband.

To complicate matters, Phoenix must play deputy again when Achilles, her K-9 dropout, sniffs out a murder weapon at the scene of a congressman’s “accidental” death. She suspects either a corrupt political insider or the young wife’s jealous husband caused this death.

The investigation compels Phoenix to go with Annalynn, who hopes to run for the vacant House seat, to a political gathering at the late congressman’s isolated ante-bellum mansion. A blizzard traps the women there with a bevy of suspects.

Advance reader copies will go to reviewers soon. Cave Hollow Press, which took over the series after Five Star dropped its mystery line, will release Show Me the Sinister Snowman next spring.

—Carolyn Mulford

Show Me the Gold Now in Paperback

Carolyn Mulford Posted on by

To help you with your holiday shopping, Harlequin Worldwide Mystery has released the paperback edition of Show Me the Gold for sale on its direct-to-consumer website, http://www.harlequin.com/storeitem.html?iid=68332.

The third book in the series, Gold literally starts with a bang and presents new personal problems for Phoenix. Reviewer P. J. Coldren wrote, “There are several sub-plots to hold the reader’s attention; this is one of the hallmarks of a seasoned mystery writer. Nobody’s life has only one thing going on in it at any given time. People in mystery novels need to have more in their life than a mystery to solve. The setting is rural Missouri, although any rural community would probably work just as well. There is enough back story to move the reader along, and yet not quite enough—this makes most readers want to go back and read the first two in the series.”

Here’s how HWM describes the plot on the back cover.

 

UNDER SUSPICION 

Former CIA agent Phoenix Smith is on a stakeout with acting Laycock, Missouri, sheriff Annalynn Keyser, when Keyser is called to a neighboring county. A gang of bank robbers are holed up in an abandoned farmhouse and the local cops need all hands on deck. After a harrowing shootout, a man is dead, another wounded, and the FBI thinks Phoenix—the only one with a gun but no badge—took off with a fortune in gold bullion.

Three members of the notorious Cantree clan were wanted for a previous bank heist in Ohio. Now the lone survivor is out for revenge. As Phoenix fights to clear her name, an old friend solicits her help in a shocking case of elder neglect. Can Phoenix stop the abuse, find the precious South African coins, and elude a stone-cold killer who’s got one last bullet with Phoenix’s name on it?

 

HWM also offers the paperback edition of the second book, Show Me the Deadly Deer, at harlequin.com. The hardcover editions of all four books (published by Five Star/Gale, Cengage) remain available.

—Carolyn Mulford

Judy Hogan Makes Community a Character

Carolyn Mulford Posted on by

A mystery series must have a strong protagonist. For Judy Hogan’s Penny Weaver series, that’s a middle-aged poet/teacher and activist who marries a Welsh police officer and moves back and forth between a Welsh village and rural North Carolina.

In the latest book, Nuclear Apples?, Penny remains the point-of-view character, but the real protagonist is the diverse community of activists fighting dangerous practices in a local nuclear power plant.

nuclear-apples-front-cover-jpg-lo-res-5-18-16

Almost anyone who has taught has seen a class take on a collective personality without submerging the individuals. The author shows this same collective personality in her activists, who include a toddler eager to break all his parent’s rules on healthy eating, teenagers finding love in an apple orchard, and an ingenious deputy determined to protect the activists during demonstrations.

The collective and individual personalities stand out in scenes in which they gather to plan—and to eat. Writing a scene that the reader follows without pause is easy when you have only two or three people. Portraying a group of people sharing a meal takes considerable skill. Picture those grand Downton Abbey meals where the camera shows a wide shot and then focuses on speakers in turn in a seamless scene. The author accomplishes the same feat without visual aids.

She gives a cast list at the beginning, and I groaned in anticipation of having to refer back to it to keep so many people straight. To my surprise, I didn’t. Several times I had to stop to think which wife went with which husband, and I lost track of who was older or younger and who was black or white. But that’s part of the point. It doesn’t matter.

The most memorable interactions are those between family members caught up in personal crises as they link lives to fight for the community. Penny stays in the middle of it all.

Nuclear Apples? is available in Kindle and print editions.

—Carolyn Mulford

What Makes a Mystery Memorable

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What are your favorite mystery series and why?

I posed that question on Facebook and a Sisters in Crime list to confirm my own observations and help me prepare a session on writing a mystery series. Eighteen mystery lovers responded, most women and most naming two or three favorite writers or series. Few of them said why.

One who did was author Eleanor Cawood Jones. She wrote, “I look for in-depth characters and amazing settings. Carolyn Hart’s Henrie O, Blaize Clements’ catsitter mysteries, Mary Daheim’s Alpine, Susan Wittig Albert’s China Bayles series. The lead characters in each of those have a past and a story to tell. Maybe even a dark story.”

Author Grace Topping also stressed the importance of character, saying, “My favorites are Jacqueline Winspear’s Maisie Dobbs series and Anne Perry’s William Monk series. I particularly like these two series because of the depth of the characters and the wisdom that each of the authors imparts.”

Beth Schmelzer reads for various qualities. She likes the humor in books by Marcia Talley and Elaine Viets, the fast-paced plots and fascinating dialogue in both of Hank Ryan’s series, the relationships and frightening plots in Julie Spenser-Flemings’ books, and “the twists of a dog narrating” in Spenser Quinn’s Chet and Bernie series. Beth also named a series I want to explore: “Arianna Franklin’s unique protagonist who solves crimes in Great Britain with the knowledge of forensics in the time of the Crusades when women weren’t allowed to be doctors, nor did they receive respect.”

One of the most frequently mentioned characters, of course, was Sherlock Holmes. Author KB Inglee spoke for many: “I discovered Sherlock Holmes when I was in High School, and can’t get enough. I watch every remake and take off I can find.”

Another writer, Nancy Eady, said, “Sherlock Holmes runs neck and neck with P.D. James’ Adam Dalgliesh novels. P.D. James has a lot more substance and depth in her novels but Sherlock simply rocks!” Nancy’s all-time favorite, however, is Nero Wolfe.

Writer Carrie Koepke reported that her teenage daughter loves Sherlock, but Carrie said, “I get lost in Ruth Rendell—the way she tackles the mental side of her stories is fascinating.”

Among the other series mentioned were Louise Penny’s Armand Gamache, Donna Leon’s Guido Brunetti, Elizabeth Peters’ Jacquelyn Kirby, Margaret Maron’s Bootlegger’s Daughter, Dick Frances’ horse racing, Dorothy Gilliam’s Mrs. Pollifax, Lillian Jackson Braun’s The Cat Who, Anne George’s Southern Sisters, Ann B. Ross’ Miss Julia, and Laura Joh Rowland’s samurai-era Japan.

Other authors included Marjorie Allingham, Dorothy Sayers, Sarah Caudwell, Dennis Lehane, Janet Evanovich, Dorothy Cannell, Dianna Mott Davidson, and Deborah Crombie. Oddly enough, no one brought up Agatha Christie.

This short list undoubtedly includes and excludes authors that would appear on a scientifically balanced survey—and on my own list. High on it are Elizabeth Peters’ Amelia Peabody, J. A. Vance’s Joanna Brady, Tony Hillerman’s Navajo series, Carolyn Hart’s Death on Demand, Joan Hess’s Maggody and Claire Malloy, William Kent Krueger’s Cork O’Connor, and Sara Paretsky’s V. I. Warshawski. These present great characters, fascinating settings, and good writing.

You’re welcome to chime in with your own favorites and reasons for liking them.

I’ll talk about five reasons readers like mystery series in my presentation September 23, but the most important one is compelling characters, ones we want to visit again much as we do good friends.

—Carolyn Mulford