From Mary Anna--Prisons...never been to one myself...

What an interesting topic for a bunch of Lady Killers!  Since, to my knowledge, none of us is blogging from prison, then we are all walking free, despite the fact that we kill people for a living.  I just finished a draft for my next Faye Longchamp mystery, and while the actual murder method is not the most creative--locking someone in a burning house--there is murder being attempted in my most creative way yet.  I'm so excited.

Looking back over my 7-book career, I see that passing few of my perpetrators were sent to jail to rot.  Most of them died in their effort to escape justice.  There were a couple of people that I planned to let live,  just for the pleasure of seeing them hauled off to jail, but my editor said no.  Those two people really deserved to die.  In both cases, Barbara was right.  I'm queen of my world, and if I want to administer the harshest justice imaginable, then I can.  Being a peace-lover myself, this makes me a little squeamish, but these folks needed killing, so I did it.

Speaking of my outline for Book 8, I've had the pleasure of seeing Book 7 hit the streets since I last blogged.  PLUNDER is the story of a brilliant but vulnerable teenaged girl befriended by Faye and Joe after her grandmother and uncle are murdered.  There is no one left to care for young Amande, except for a few distant relatives who'd like to have her pitifully small inheritance.  The story is set against the backdrop of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, as the oill is washing ashore around them.  When my storytelling brain bashed the oil baron pirates up against Amande's pirate-like relatives...well...real pirates popped out.  So readers also get a backstory of a riproaring pirate of the Caribbean and the buccanner who loved him.  Pirates...I love pirates.  I wouldn't want to be in the same room with one, but they do make for a good story.  And when somebody needs killing, they don't pack him off to prison.  They just kill him. 

Here 'tis.  Arrr, me mateys...

To buy PLUNDER...

 

 

Comments

[Susan Shea]

Mary Anna, Interesting comment about your editor wanting the villains in your story to die. Sort of Old Testament! Who knew? Must be what readers want.

[Mary Anna]

As I think back, the villains that did survive got more than just a legal comeuppance. For those particular characters, who were not wholly evil, the knowledge that others would know what they did was part of their punishment. Actually, they might have preferred to die. A life worse than death is also a little bit Old Testament, isn't it?

[supras shoes]

I like your website. Very practical and very motivational.

[abercrombie fitch]

I think that your perspective is deep, its just well thought out and really fantastic to see someone who knows how to put these thoughts down so well. Great job on this
your blog is very good.It was very well authored and easy to understand. Unlike additional blogs I have read which are really not good. I also found your posts very interesting.........

[Mary Anna]

Thanks to you both, Supras and Abercrombie. The engineer in me is glad to be practical, the teacher in me wants to be motivational, and the lifelong scholar in me tries to go for perspective. Thanks for reading!