The LadyKillers

Ten Things Still to Do

Staci here, thinking up my list of ten things I’d still like to learn or do. I can all but guarantee that this list will change, maybe even by tomorrow, but at this moment in time, here it is:

• Learn how to use tools to fix a toilet and perform other odd jobs around the house. I’m very lucky that my husband is handy, but that’s made me ridiculously lazy in the home repair department. I need to learn to do these things myself. I mentioned this item to my husband, and he became offended and accused me of plotting to rid myself of him. I assured him this wasn’t the case, but that odds were in my favor I’d outlive him, since I’m a few years younger and women traditionally outlive men. He didn’t seem mollified by that answer.

• See the great sights (or would that be sites?) of America, such as Mount Rushmore, the Washington Memorial, and the Liberty Bell.  Nothing cements the events of history like seeing the actual locations where everything happened.

• Learn how to tweet. I keep hoping Twitter will be a passing fancy that I can ignore, but it’s stuck around much longer than I anticipated. At some point, I should probably learn the basics. Can’t you sense my enthusiasm?

• I’m going to steal one from Mary Anna and Priscilla’s lists. I need to start exercising. I like to tell myself I’d do a regular exercise program if only both kids were in school. Then I like to tell myself that I get plenty of exercise chasing after those same kids, but I really don’t.

• Read all the unread books in my bookcase. I’m slowly plugging away, but whenever I get close to catching up, people start passing books to me that they think I’ll enjoy, or I find a book sale and can’t help but buy a few, and then I’m back to working my way through a big stack.

• Which reminds me, I need to read more nonfiction books. I have a few on my bookcase, like From Dawn to Decadence, that have been sitting there patiently for years, but every time I pick one up, I feel like I’m back in school, and I put it back.

• I don’t enjoy shopping for clothes, but I’d like to eventually have a robust wardrobe where I can be invited to any event and already have the appropriate outfit to wear. I recently read Death by Darjeeling, and when the main character was invited to the opera, she immediately ran through the list of items in her wardrobe that might fit the bill. If I got such an invitation, I wouldn’t be running through a list, I’d be running to the mall. I also need outfits for that weekend yachting trip up in the Hamptons, a vacation at a dude ranch, and my stay at a ski chalet.

• Learn to deal with public speaking. Now that I have a book coming out (July 3rd!), I somehow agreed to a handful of book signings. Before September, I must quell my inner fear. I’d say more on this topic, but it’s making me nervous.

• Ride every roller coaster at Cedar Point. I may need two days to accomplish this goal, since Cedar Point now boasts over fifteen roller coasters and counting. Once the kids are older and taller, I’m booking that flight to Ohio. In the meantime, I hope to explore a few caves,
  take lots of hikes, and share many other adventures with the kids.

• Learn to start working on my blog earlier, so I don’t have to think up ten items at the last minute.

Honored Guest: Linda Rodriguez

It's our great pleasure to host Linda Rodriguez, author of Every Last Secret (Minotaur Books), which won the St. Martin's/Malice Domestic Best First Traditional Mystery Competition. The second book in the Skeet Bannion series, Every Broken Trust, will be published in spring of 2013. Welcome Linda!

10 Things Still on My To-Do in Life List

Many of the things I wanted to do in my life, I’ve done. I’ve long been a believer in visualization and often find that, after years of visualizing something or other, it happens. Still, on my list of things I want to do before I die—though many are crossed off—plenty are left to be accomplished.

 

 1. Become a fluent Cherokee speaker

My grandmother spoke some Cherokee when she was around other native speakers. My aunt, her daughter, could understand it but not speak it fluently. Late in Aunt Joan’s life, I promised, along with my grown cousins, to learn to speak Tsalagi, of which I know only bits and pieces. I’m working on this promise. I have Cherokee language books and tapes and am taking an online course in the language. I’ve even written a whole poem in Tsalagi with English translation. It’s a beautiful but difficult language, and my life is so busy that I don’t practice my lessons the way I should, but I’m moving in the right direction. Nvtsoasesgvna! Patience!

 

 2. Write my big novel about the Vietnam war

The Devil’s Bargain (from the song “Woodstock” by Joni Mitchell) is the title of a big, complex novel I’ve been researching and planning for some time now. The war in Vietnam was the defining event of my generation. It left a slash across our world with brothers and classmates killed or fled to other countries. It deeply affected those who went, those who stayed home, those in favor of it, and those who fought against it. In my novel, I want to look at the war experienced by those sent to Southeast Asia and by those at home who fought for and against it, as well as at its aftermath in the later lives of my generation. This is the big, multifaceted book I’ve been trying to find the money and time to write, not to mention the courage it will take since it’s so ambitious.

 

 3. Write a memoir

People are always telling me I should write a memoir. I tended to brush that suggestion off. My life only seems interesting to people who didn’t grow up in melodramatic chaos. I couldn’t imagine a whole book of that would appeal to anyone. Reliving it certainly didn’t appeal to me. Then a conversation I had with my agent about redemption and hope changed the way I looked at the concept of a memoir. (Yes, my agent and I have those kinds of conversation—I’m a lucky writer!) I’m making notes for this memoir now, to my own surprise.

 

 4. Recover my Spanish

I read Spanish fairly fluently, using a dictionary for some of the more formal words and phrases used in written Spanish. I can write similarly—but much more slowly and haltingly since so much vocabulary lies dormant in my memory. When I’m surrounded by fluent Spanish speakers speaking only Spanish, I pick back up enough spoken Spanish to understand everything they say and even translate for others. I don’t speak it, though my accent’s good for an American. (It might surprise people up here to know that in Mexico, they call visiting Mexican-Americans gringos, just as they do Anglos. Even when they’re still fluent, their accents are always off from years of speaking English.) I lack confidence to speak. It’s that dormant vocabulary again. A dear friend told me to throw myself into living in Mexico for a few months surrounded by native speakers. She did that, and her Spanish returned fully. So before I die, I want to spend some months in Mexico or another Latin American country and recover my Spanish.

 

 5. Visit the Crownpoint rug auction

Most months of the year, a rug auction is held in Crownpoint, New Mexico, on the Diné (Navajo) reservation. Hundreds of handwoven Navajo rugs are auctioned off, many for surprisingly low prices, with the money going directly to the weaver. No two rugs are alike. Some are woven from commercial yarn, and some are woven from handspun, dyed with either commercial or natural dyestuffs. Many reservation residents bring handmade jewelry and other crafts to sell, as well. For someone like me, who loves weaving—and especially the magnificent Navajo weaving—this event would be heaven just to walk through and examine all the rugs. One day, I want to attend and be able to afford to buy one of these treasures.

 

6. Write a book of my mother’s story in verse or prose

My mother lived a difficult life and died young. She made many mistakes and was definitely not a candidate for any mothering awards. I’ve written about this aspect of her in poems and stories. There was much more to my mother than her role as mother, though, and as I grow older, I see it more and more. Many of her failings were due to the mores and rules for women at the time. I’m older now than my mother ever lived to be, and I want to explore her life in my writing and learn the truth of this complicated woman, a truth beyond that a child knows. Sometimes, I think I want to do it in a series of essays. Sometimes, I think I want to write it as a book of poetry. At other times, I believe I’ll only be able to capture the truth about her life in a novel. Still, I want to tell my mother’s story, one way or another.

 

7. Weave a handspun rug

After reading Number Six on my list, you’ll not be surprised to find this one. I am a weaver in a small way. I’ve woven bags, purses, placemats, and other small things. A good-sized rug is a massive undertaking. My big floor loom was made for weaving rugs. I’m also a spinner. I own two spinning wheels and any number of hand spindles. I have fleeces stored away that would make excellent rugs, once carded, spun, and woven. I don’t have much time to spin or weave anymore, unfortunately. Writing novels and then trying to promote them once they’re published takes up more and more of my time. When you add in the freelance writing I must do since I’m not self-supporting as a novelist yet, there’s very little time for spinning or weaving or knitting or sewing. And a handspun, hand-woven rug is a lot of spinning and weaving. But I’m determined to re-order my life to make time again for these activities that help fill the creative well for the writing, I believe.

 

8. Return to San Diego

As a small child, I traveled with my family around the country, dragging behind my Navy father like a tail. Two spots to which we constantly returned felt like home. One was in Oklahoma where my father’s family lived—we kids were often left with them. The other place was San Diego. My father taught at the Naval Training Center there, so we always came back to San Diego. As an adult, I’ve returned to Oklahoma and seen those places again, but I’ve never been back to San Diego. I’d like to return and visit the neighborhoods where we lived, like La Jolla and Clairemont, to see Balboa Park again and so many landmarks of my youth. I’ve heard from friends who live there that San Diego has changed a great deal, but still I’d like to see what’s left from my childhood days running wild in the canyons full of Indian paintbrush.

 

9. Visit Ireland and Scotland

I have Irish and Scottish heritage, and I’ve never been to either country. I would like to tour these two places of so much history and myth while I’m still able to walk the hills and old pathways. I want to call in on the Highlands and the Scottish and Irish islands in the North Sea. I hope I’ll have the money to be able to make an extended visit that will allow me to see the whole of each country. If I could, I’d learn Scots Gaelic and Irish before going, but my plate’s already pretty full when it comes to languages. I’ll settle for listening to the brogue of the people I meet along my journey.

 

10. Visit London

Every time I’ve been to Britain, I’ve stayed in Oxford and traveled around from that central point, seeing many parts of England. London’s an easy day-trip from Oxford, but since I’ve only been there in the summer, I avoided London due to the hordes of tourists. I would like to travel to London, stay in London, and explore London. The city of Dickens and Virginia Woolf, the natural heart-home of all Anglophiles, calls to my heart. I have this love-hate relationship with England. I hate the great harm the English have done in their colonizing period. I love the culture of Chaucer, Shakespeare, Spenser, Dunne, Austen, Brontë, Eliot, Trollope, and so many more. I want to wander London streets for days, totally conflicted.

I’m visualizing these desires as actively completed in my life and working toward them in the practical grit of daily life. What are some of your remaining goals in life? Surely, you must have some more colorful ambitions than mine, which seem to center on learning languages and writing with a little travel thrown in as an afterthought.

Linda is the author of two award-winning books of poetry, a cookbook, and the recipient of several writing awards. She swears she’ll shoo the cat off and warp the big loom just as soon as she finishes her book tour and the edits on her second novel in the Skeet Bannion series and the first draft of her third and…

To learn more, visit www.LindaRodriguezWrites.blogspot.com

Gimme a 10... or maybe a 14er

Ann Parker here, every other Thursday at the LadyKillers.

Sooo, the topic is Ten. As is ten things we want to learn or to do.

Looking back at Mary Anna's post on Monday, Priscilla's on Tuesday, and Camille's just yesterday, I'm thinking I should've offered this tasty topic to someone who could post a thoughtful answer in line with their responses.

But having come back from a quick trip to Colorado last weekend, I really can sum up my thoughts on this pretty easily. My top ten "things to do" are:

 

 

1. Live in Colorado.
2. Live in Colorado.
3. Live in Colorado.
4. Live in Colorado.
5. Live in Colorado.
6. Live in Colorado.
7. Live in Colorado.
8. Live in Colorado.
9. Live in Colorado.
10. Live in Colorado.

Okay, not to have a one-track mind, here. Let's see if I can come up with some other things...

1. Sure, I'd like to keep writing books.
2. And, I'd like to eventually make money at writing books (that is, show a profit after I go through the agony of adding up income and subtracting the expenses... always a depressing activity).
3. I'd like to keep writing about science, oh yeah. (A little BSP: A science article I wrote on nanowires was picked up by Innovation Magazine! Yay!!! You can read it here.)  
4. I'd like to, oh I'd REALLY like to write for the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR), which just happens to be located in Boulder (as in, Colorado).

Hmmm. Add them up, and you get 14. As in the wonderful 14ers in the Rocky Mountains (all the mountains that are over 14,000 ft elevation).

It all comes back to Colorad0, I guess!

 

The Unplanned Life

Camille here, confessing: I'm the world's worst planner. Whether it's what to wear, where to go, what to write, whom to call. Or what to learn.

It's an unplanned life. Not necessarily recommended. I greatly admire those who can plan for the future, and pull it off. 

I have no idea what I'll learn in the future, but I can tell you 10 things I learned this week.

1. A joke. A hammer walks into a bar and introduces his 2 friends:  this is the saw, and you know the drill.

2. If you call AT&T after hours, they will let you give all your information and select from a vast multi-layered menu before telling you to please call during business hours.

3. A new word: gravid. My sister-in-law, a microbiologist, referred to her daughter, also a microbiologist, as "gravid." Apparently, that's lab talk for pregnant.

4. The NBA's Dampier's first name is Erick (from the NYTimes crossword puzzle, 6/24/12).

5. n-e converters rely on secondary electron generation in a CsI photocathode by interaction of a recoil p or d generated in an inelastic collision between the incident n and nuclei. (A tidbit from my day job.)

6. Where Istanbul is (courtesy of Joseph Kanon, in his new book, Istanbul Passage,  a terrific spy story.)

7. I can still laugh at a Cheers episode from the '80s.

8. 56 people signed the Declaration of Independence. (OK, I learned that in 5^th grade, but I re-learned it getting ready for my Fourth of July party.)

9. Rosa Parks was an introvert. (This from the book Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop Talking, for discussion at my next nonfiction group meeting.)

10. If you have Sees scotchmallows in your freezer, you don't have to thaw them first. Just pop in your mouth.

oops, guess I over-planned.

 

11. A cool math trick. Amaze your friends at your next party!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rwW3pUS0oNs

 

 

Ten Things Yet to Learn or Do

One of the cats, whose vet put her on a diet, insisted the first item must be to fill chow bowl with her Dickensian lunch allotment. 

Ignoring that, I shall continue. 

1) Write a really good book. I have written nine in my medieval series, but I am not satisfied with any of them. That is a good thing. Writing is a craft. Craft can always be perfected. And I would think the same if I won the Nobel, reached the NY Times best-seller list (well, we are all on it somewhere), or became a classic read by those long-suffering English majors.

2) Lose weight. Had to put that on the list or my vet and the aforementioned feline would never forgive me.

3) Languages. Back in the last century, when eyes and brain still functioned, I thought I’d spend retirement years learning five new languages: Norwegian, Hebrew, Russian, Italian, and Portuguese. That was when correspondence courses still offered such things. Why those? Loved Ibsen; found Latin boring but thought Hebrew would be fun; Russian because I liked the 19^th  century writers; wanted to read Dante in the original; fell in love with a poet whose name I can no longer remember.

4) Learn to fly. How else to get rid of a fear of flying? That will be crossed off list. Would never pass the eye exam.

5) Go around the world on a ship. Pirates. Enough said.

6) Take the train across Canada. I grew up in British Columbia but never traveled outside provincial borders. I may actually do this, especially if some writing conference opts to take place in Montreal(first choice) or Toronto (second) or the Maritimes (fun!). Hint. Hint.

7) Learn to be more devious in plotting. Each year I swear to develop my inner obfuscation. After all, I was a bureaucrat for over thirty years. Shouldn’t this come naturally? Trouble is that my job for much of that time was making legalese understandable. That was before canned paragraphs which have spread to private industry. Abort incipient rant…

8) Get more exercise. Yada, yada, yada.

9) Study classic mystery writers. As just a few examples, I have thoroughly enjoyed Sjowall/ Wahloo, Catherine Pirkis, Simenon, Buchan, and Anna Katherine Green. Lots more on my TBR pile.

10) OK. Feed the cat. She may be a butterball, but she’s now on my lap, purring...

From Mary Anna--Ten Things Still Ahead of Me...

I'm fifty years old, which feels like a special kind of halfway point.  It's only a halfway point in life if you're very lucky, but it can be viewed as halfway through your adult life, so we'll go with that.  What am I going to do with this gift of time?

1.  I have bold plans to see my grandchildren grow up and my children grow middle-aged.  When I became a grandmother at 46, one of my more mathematically oriented friends did some counting on his fingers and said, "You're very likely to see your great-grandchildren, and you've got a shot at living to see your great-great-grandchildren."  How cool is that?

2.  I'd like to live for a fairly protracted period of time in a foreign country--maybe for a summer, maybe longer. 

3.  I'd like to learn a foreign language.   Coincidentally, I am even now taking a foreign language online.  Unfortunately for my plan to live abroad, it is Latin, so it would take a time machine to take me someplace where I can mingle with native speakers.

4.  Clearly, I need to also learn Italian, since I adore Italy.  I already know a few words.  Andiamo!

5.  I want to spend some time living in a city.  Maybe not forever.  It would be hard to give up a suburban-sized yard full of vegetables and flowers forever.  But I love art and culture and I'm attracted to the energy of a vibrant city.  I may achieve this goal next year, because...

6. ...I'm planning to return to graduate school next year for a PhD in English.  I write books. I figure I should learn how I do what I do, so that I can teach other people how.  I love to teach.  So maybe I'll go to school in a big city.  It will not, however, be a big foreign city, because I cannot live so far from my grandchildren.  It will be an American city with a hub airport from which I can take frequent flights to my kids and grandkids.

7.  I spent the first half of my adult life looking for a life partner who wants a strong, intelligent, and deeply feminine woman in his life.  To day, when I have found that want, it was accompanied by a desire for that woman to not only take care of herself, but him, too.  And his children, if we had them.  So I'm focusing on that elusive word "partner," and I'm living a life of my own while I look.

8.  I'd like to develop a physical fitness level higher than that of the bookworm that I am.  Current efforts include jazz and ballroom dance lessons, which are more vigorous than you might think, when done right.  When I slow down and take a moment to do some yoga, I'm always glad I did, so I'm planning to do more of that.

9.  I'd like to play the piano better.  I'll never be a professional, but I can get better over time.  So I will.

10.  I'd like to write a lot more books.

P.S., my first book, Artifacts, is currently free in the Kindle and Apple stores.  My wonderful publisher has also marked the rest of the series down dramatically.  Some of the books are as cheap as $2.50.  If you'd like to give Faye's adventures a try, here's the link:

Artifacts: A Faye Longchamp Mystery (Faye Longchamp Series)

 

Mary Anna

Next Week: 10 Things Yet to Learn (or Do)

Our bloggers are out and about enjoying the summer--hope you are doing the same! 

Readers and writers are a curious lot--always discovering new ideas, or places, or ways of doing things. Whether you are six or one hundred and six, what is on your TBL (to be learned) list? Join us next week and perhaps you'll add an item or two!

“The wisest mind has something yet to learn”. - George Santayana

What I Learned from the RWA

Have you ever been to a local chapter meeting of the Romance Writers of America? Well, thanks to some encouragement from fellow LadyKillers and the inestimable Sophie Littlefield and the Pens Fatales, I have not only attended, but become a member, and my membership is a key part of my growth as a crime writer.

That's right, I said it! My education as a noir writer! 

I don't know exactly what I was expecting, but except for the fact that there weren't many men in attendance, my expectations were deliciously subverted.

 

Here's what I saw:

• Dozens of women who knew the depth and breadth and heights that romance literature can reach. They know subgenres, publishers, markets, length requirements, and plot expectations the way a union plumber knows her pipe fittings--intimately, with detail and imagination.
• Women who shared knowledge about the industry and the craft. 
• Women who cooperate and encourage instead of belittle or backstab. 
• Women who take incredible pride in their work. 
• Women who hold out friendly help to any newbie who wanders by. There's no hazing, just coffee, snacks, and support. 

Where have you been all my life, ladies?

Which is not to say that MWA or Sisters in Crime aren't the same way--professionals who encourage anyone to join their ranks, share the joy and the frustration of being a working writer. But there's something really special about the RWA members, especially the San Francisco area chapter. A sort of emotional maturity that perhaps comes with being neglected by critics, if embraced by book buyers. The New York Times may ignore romance novels in their reviews, but they can't ignore them in the bestseller lists.

If you want to learn how to make a relationship jump off the page and drive your plot forward, whatever plot you have, ask a romance writer. If you can't figure out why the romantic element in your book isn't working--ask a romance writer. If you want to know what hard work and perserverence look like in today's modern publishing landscape--just watch the romance writers.

Like science fiction writers, they've been swinging with the tech and industry changes for more than a decade. We have a lot to learn from them, whether we write cozy, noir, or something in between. And my literary fiction friends--they could learn a thing or two about monetizing their efforts, not to mention plot-wrangling and identification-building.

At the last meeting I attended, I felt the need to testify--I've missed my last few self-imposed deadlines; only confession could clear my debt to myself. The meeting room shook with sympathetic laughter when I did. They've all been there. No judgments, but a nod and pat on the arm. And now here I am, back at work on the scariest draft of By The Numbers: the last one before it goes to my readers.

My books may not end with the optimism required by the RWA to qualify as a romance novel, and the plot has much more to do with dead people and missing casino millions than it does with the pursuit of love. But all of my work will be more entertaining, more emotionally vivid, and more interesting for the time I've spent learning from the men and women who write romance.

Thank you.

Love Is in the Air … and on the Page

By Margaret Lucke

I'm a mystery writer. Always have been (I wrote my first short story featuring a private detective at age eleven). Always will be, or so I hope.

So, you might wonder, what am I doing as a member of Romance Writers of America?

I wondered that too when I first joined the organization. But my publisher was billing my latest book, House of Whispers, as a paranormal romantic suspense, and I decided I should find out what that word romantic really meant. Maybe the audience for this book extended beyond mystery fans. There are lots of romance readers--perhaps one or two of them would enjoy a good love story with ghosts and murder mixed in.

Fact: 74.8 million people read at least one romance novel in 2008.

Those numbers sounded promising. So I sent in my dues to RWA national and set out to find my local chapter.

Fact: The Mystery Writers of America has 11 regional chapters. RWA, with more than 10,000 members, has almost that many chapters in California alone.

I went to my first meeting not knowing what to expect. Dreamy-eyed writers wearing pink and sipping from china teacups with their baby fingers raised? Not on your life. These women meet in a brew-pub. For breakfast.

They're a savvy, supportive, career-focused group. And they sell lots of books.

Fact: In 2010, romance fiction racked up $1.358 billion (that's with a b) in sales. Mystery fiction brought in $682 million--just over half as much.

Being in love, it seems, is a more popular fantasy than being involved in a murder.

I was surprised to learn how many types of books come under the romance umbrella. It turns out that two of my favorite novels, Pride and Prejudice and Gone with the Wind, are romances. Books you might think of as mysteries, thrillers, suspense novels, science fiction, fantasy, paranormal are in fact romances. Okay, maybe not GWTW. Spoiler alert: This book falls short of the romance definition in its final pages.

RWA has two criteria that a novel must meet to be considered a romance. First, a love story must be central to the plot--two people fall in love and must struggle to make their relationship work. Second, there must be an HEA--romance writer shorthand for a Happily Ever After ending. The story must conclude on an emotionally satisfying and optimistic note.

But wait--even if your novel doesn't fit that definition, it may still count as a romance. The RWA website (www.rwa.org) lists 11 official subgenres, one of which is "novels with strong romantic elements"--books in which a romance plays a part even though other aspects of the story take the plot beyond the traditional romance boundaries.

So as long as one of your characters is romantically involved with another, or wants to be, then you too may have a romance novel on your hands. So perhaps GWTW fits after all. And the list of mysteries that qualify is very, very long.

"Romance fiction is smart, fresh and diverse … Romance novels may have any tone or style, be set in any place or time, and have varying levels of sensuality--ranging from sweet to extremely hot … Whether you enjoy contemporary dialogue, historical settings, mystery, thrillers or any number of other themes, there's a romance novel waiting for you!" From the RWA website, which is also the source of the facts above.

I'll always be a mystery writer. But maybe I’ll get an HEA if I let in a little romance.

Guest Post - Blame Nancy Drew by Kirsten Weiss

Hi All - please welcome my friend Kristen Weiss to the blog. If you want to catch up with me - I'll be at www.dianaorgain.com - hope you all are having a great summer!

 

Blame Nancy Drew by Kirsten Weiss

Like many mystery authors, Nancy Drew novels sparked my dream of writing mysteries.  Granted, initially I wanted to be a girl detective, because let’s face it, Nancy Drew rocks.  She drives a sporty car, has loyal friends, goes on amazing adventures around the world, and gets taken seriously by criminals and police chiefs.  But I figured out fairly quickly – age six? – that becoming a teen detective was not a realistic ambition. 

So mystery writer I would become instead.  It’s one of my few childhood goals that I actually pursued through adulthood.  (Becoming an astronaut was out – I hate flying.  And math.)  But I’m beginning to realize that Nancy Drew’s influence on me and on my writing has been deeper reaching than I expected.

The first manuscript I submitted that was taken seriously by a publisher came back with the comment: It’s like Nancy Drew meets Zorro!  I’m not certain that was meant as a compliment, but I took it as such.  In the end, the book wasn’t published, and rightfully so.  It was young, foolish.  Maybe I’ll try to rehabilitate it someday, because Nancy Drew meets Zorro seems pretty damn awesome to me.

While my latest mystery, The Alchemical Detective, was going through the final editorial process, one of my beta readers told me there was a Nancy Drew about alchemy, The 99 Steps.  I bought a copy, feeling curious and a little rueful.  I’d thought my alchemical mystery was original, but Nancy had beaten me to the concept by nearly fifty years.  And as I was reading the book, I realized every chapter had something exciting/dangerous/suspenseful going on in it, and that I do the same thing.  A chapter without some sort of conflict or danger seems a waste of pages.  Did I get that idea from her?

Today, I’m not sure if Nancy’s hold on my subconscious is a blessing or a curse, but she’s still there.  I can’t get rid of her.

About the Author:

Kirsten Weiss worked overseas for nearly fourteen years, in the fringes of the former USSR and deep in the Afghan war zone, and she blames Nancy for that as well.  Her experiences abroad not only gave her glimpses into the darker side of human nature, but also sparked an interest in the effects of mysticism and mythology, and how both are woven into our daily lives.

Now based in San Mateo, CA, she is the author of two paranormal mysteries available on the Kindle: the urban fantasy, The Metaphysical Detective, and The Alchemical Detective.  The latter will be free through Kindle Direct from the 4^th of July through July 7th.  She is hard at work on the sequel, The Shamanic Detective, due on Halloween, 2012. 

Kirsten has never met a dessert she didn’t like, and her guilty pleasures are watching True Blood
and drinking good wine.  

Follow her on Twitter @RigaHayworth or on her blog at http://kirstenweiss.com