My next guest hails from the beautiful country of Scotland. Please help me welcome Lawrie Johnston! Let’s find out a bit more about her background before we learn about her inspiration and writing process.
I am a retired teacher of history. For most of my life I have read studied and taught history in various parts of Scotland. I have a BA in History from the University of Stirling where I majored in African history. In contrast I contributed to nonfiction local history books when I lived in the southwest of Scotland. Now that I am retired, I have had the time to research aspects of the First World War and this has resulted in my first historical fiction novel “Who Served Well”, which I hope will be the first of many. I have started to write my second novel which is set in medieval Scotland at the time of The Wars of Independence.
Betty: What inspired you to write the story you’re sharing with us today?
Lawrie: As an historian and history teacher I have always been fascinated by the events of the First World War. It was such a pivotal moment in world history and its consequences far reaching. In its aftermath it inspired a plethora of novels, poems, plays, and films. I devoured these with pleasure. More recently and just shortly after I retired, I was given the opportunity to research a small local war memorial in a little parish called Bargrennan in the southwest of Scotland. There were around nine names on the memorial which would be a significant proportion of the young men in such a small sparsely populated area. I noticed two of the young men had died on the same day at the same battle. One had emigrated and served in a Canadian regiment. The other served in a local Scottish regiment. I wondered if they had met again during the war and that was the start of the story.
Betty: What, if any, new writing skill did you develop while working on this story
Lawrie: I was so used to writing nonfiction I really enjoyed developing fictional characters, fleshing them out, giving them emotions and situations. Thinking about how they would respond. So I think I have developed my imaginative writing skills.
Betty: Did you struggle with any part of this story?
Lawrie: Generally, I find writing dialogue quite difficult. I think you must read it aloud to judge if it sounds natural and plausible. You have also to carefully consider if it is time appropriate. I know soldiers swore a lot so that wasn’t a problem.
Betty: Which character(s) were the easiest to get to know? Why do you think?
Lawrie: That would be Tam, one of the central characters in the story. Like anyone he has his good points and flaws. Essentially, he is caught up in events which he does not fully understand but remains positive and optimistic.
Betty: What kind of research did you need to do to write this story?
Lawrie: A great deal. From researching war memorials to nonfiction books about the First World War for information about battles, troops movements, and field hospitals to name a few. I visited several museums and libraries, too.
Betty: How many drafts of the story did you write before you felt the story was complete?
Lawrie: For the book as a whole three drafts. There were some chapters or bits of chapters which were revised further.
Betty: How long did it take for you to write the story you’re sharing with us? Is that a typical length of time for you? Why or why no
Lawrie: As this was my first novel, I did not plan the timing as well as I could have. There were several gaps in my writing, so overall about three years. I am working on my second novel now and have estimated a two-year turnaround from start to publication
Betty: What rituals or habits do you have while writing?
Lawrie: Always a strong cup of coffee before I start.
Betty: Every author has a tendency to overuse certain words or phrases in drafts, such as just, once, smile, nod, etc. What are yours?
Lawrie: I used the phrase “the following morning” too often. I am very aware of that now.
Betty: Do you have any role models? If so, why do you look up to them?
Lawrie: Not really as I try to be myself. I do admire Hilary Mantel a great deal. I think she is in a class of her own when it comes to historical fiction. Her advice to other authors was excellent.
Betty: Do you have a special place to write? Revise? Read?
Lawrie: Mainly at the dining room table.
Betty: Many authors have a day job. Do you? If so, what is it and do you enjoy it?
Lawrie: I am a retired history teacher and loved my job. There are elements which I still miss.
Betty: As an author, what do you feel is your greatest achievement?
Lawrie: To date it would be the publication of my first novel. Opening the first box of books was exciting. Seeing my book on retailers’ websites and reading good reviews was also very rewarding.
Betty: What is your favorite genre to read?
Lawrie: For relaxing then crime fiction, Ian Rankin and Val McDermid are go-to writers for me.
Betty: Success looks different to different people. It could be wealth, or fame, or an inner joy at reaching a certain level. How do you define success in terms of your writing career
Lawrie: I have no illusions that I will make a fortune from my work. That people have enjoyed and taken something from my book is reward enough for me.
Who Served Well is an exploration of the devastating effects of the First World War through the eyes of three young friends from Galloway, southwest Scotland. The idea for the book comes from research I did around local war memorials. The stories of the individuals on the memorials inspired me to create the fictional characters in the book. I hope the reader will become immersed in those events and battles of the war where local men and women made a significant contribution. The essence of the book is deeply rooted in the people and places of Galloway. Andrew McDowall, Tam Murdoch, and Kathleen Marr make their own way through the war but are linked by their past and also by their present.
Knowing that the story stems from historical memorials may just mean your readers will want to travel to those sites, too. I’d go back to Scotland in a heartbeat! Thanks, Lawrie, for stopping by and sharing your debut novel with us!
Happy reading!
Betty
Award-winning Author of Historical Fiction with Heart, and Haunting, Bewitching Love Stories
Visit www.bettybolte.com for a complete list of my books and appearances.
Sometimes it’s the little things that matter most in life. Today let’s chat with an interesting character from Helena Dixon’s cozy mysteries, Miss Kitty Underhay. Welcome, Kitty! After we find out a little bit about Helena, I’m looking forward to finding out more about you.
Helena Dixon splits her time between the Black Country and Devon. Married to the same man for over thirty-five years she has three daughters, a cactus called Spike, and a crazy cockapoo. She is allergic to adhesives, apples, tinsel and housework. She was winner of The Romance Prize in 2007 and Love Story of the Year 2010 as Nell Dixon. She now writes the Miss Underhay historical 1930’s cozy crime series.
Kitty: My mother vanished when I was six and my father went to America. I have only recently become reacquainted with my father who is something of a rogue. I was brought up by my grandmother at the Dolphin Hotel.
Betty: Who taught you to tie your shoes?
Kitty: Mickey, the maintenance man in the hotel that I co own with my grandmother.
Betty: Do you know how to swim? How did you learn, if so?
Kitty: I live in Dartmouth, a small riverside town in Devon. When you live by water you need to know how to swim.
Betty: What do you think is your greatest failure? Why?
Kitty: I can be quite impetuous and sometimes this has placed me in considerable danger.
Betty: What is the most wonderful thing that has happened to you?
Kitty: I met my fiancé, Captain Matthew Bryant who is a private investigator. We are due to get married on Christmas Eve
Betty: If you could change the past, what would you change?
Kitty: I wish my mother was still alive. I spent years trying to find out what happened to her.
Betty: What’s your greatest fear? Who else knows about it?
Kitty: I really don’t like rats. I think everyone knows!
Betty: What’s your favorite game to play?
Kitty: I like to play billiards although I’m told this is not very lady-like.
Betty: Do you have a favorite sibling? Who?
Kitty: I’m an only child.
Betty: If you could live anywhere, where would you live?
Kitty: I love living in Dartmouth. Being by the sea has to be the best place to live in the world. The countryside here is beautiful and we have the best seafood and clotted cream.
Betty: How do you like to relax?
Kitty: I like to read, especially whodunnits. I also go to the cinema with my friend, Alice. She is a huge fan of the talkies as my grandmother still calls them.
Betty: What genre of books do you most enjoy reading?
Kitty: Mysteries. I love Mrs. Sayers.
Betty: How do you like to start your day?
Kitty: I wake up early and my best days start when Alice my friend sneaks into my room to share a cup of tea with me. She’s a chambermaid at the Dolphin and has to avoid Mrs. Homer, our housekeeper. We have a good old chat and its such fun. I shall miss that when I marry Matt.
Betty: What kinds of friends do you have?
Kitty: All kinds. Alice and her sister Dolly are my closest friends but there is also Father Lamb who is a priest at Exeter. He’s very kind and generous. Dr. Carter, who I always seem to meet whenever there is a murder. Since I met Matt I always seem to end up embroiled in murders.
Betty: Who would you like to meet? Why?
Kitty: I would like to meet Queen Mary, she always seems so very gracious. Plus, Mrs. Craven has met her and won’t stop bragging about it.
Kitty Underhay is drowning… in murder.
Kitty Underhay hopes for plain sailing as she caters a 21st birthday party for the Chief Constable’s daughter aboard a luxury paddle steamer. So her heart sinks when she learns that the man her fiancé Matthew has been tailing on orders from Whitehall, Gunther Freiburg, is aboard. And she’s even more horrified when she steps below deck to discover Gunther dead in the engine room. One of the Chief Constable’s party must be responsible for his demise, but who, and why?
And the evening is on course for further disaster. As the lights go out around the candlelit cake, a terrible scream rings out over the merry hubbub. A priceless diamond necklace has been snatched from around the birthday girl’s neck… Something fishy is going on, but is this the work of the same sailing assassin, or is it a red herring?
With the local inspector in deep water having to investigate his own boss, Kitty and Matt dive in to help. But when Kitty’s eavesdropping puts her in mortal danger, will everything turn out shipshape, or will it be her turn to go swimming with the fishes…?
One thing I love about historical fiction is the vast diversity in times and locales that it encompasses. Including my guest author’s stories! Please help me welcome author Elles Lohuis! After a glance at her amazing background, let’s dive in and find out about her, shall we?
Elles Lohuis is a historical fiction author based in The Netherlands. A voracious reader and ever inquisitive explorer of far-away lands and foreign cultures, she holds an MA in History, an MA in Business, and a PhD in Social Sciences.
Elles writes novels that enthrall, engage, and enrich you, to sweep away to distant places and times gone by, opening a window to a world and its people that nowadays seems wondrous, foreign, and fascinating—but was once typically ours.
At the moment, Elles is back on base to complete her first historical fiction series Nordun’s Way, a Tibetan epic about a young woman blazing her own trail through the turbulent times of thirteenth-century Tibet with its royal clans, Mongolian invaders, smugglers and SilkRoad traders, to the places where demons lurk, and through the trials which afflict every family and human life—courage and cowardice, love and lust, loyalty and treachery, and cruel endings which do not always sprout into the new beginnings we desire them to be.
Betty: What inspired you to write the story you’re sharing with us today?
Elles: In 2018, my husband and I were fortunate to get a visa to visit his family in Tibet. My husband had fled his country in 2004 and hadn’t seen his family in all those years. We spent three months with the family in Kham, visiting all the relatives (and there are many!) and also some of the beautiful places around.
One day we were at the horse races, and I realized there were no women riding. My niece Nordun had told me before she’d wanted a horse forever, but her father wouldn’t let her have one.
I told my brother-in-law it surprised me to hear that no women took part in the races. “Of course not,” he replied. “Horses and girls don’t go together, never have, never will.” Yes, that’s what he said. Right there and then, the character of Nordun formed in my mind.
Coming home after three magical months, I put pen to paper, and wrote The Horse Master’s Daughter, a story about a girl riding a horse, just for Nordun. However, in the unguarded moments between writing Nordun’s story and living in the mundane world, my mind was already flying ahead, spinning new tales, new adventures for Nordun, weaving a tapestry with all the stories I had already in my mind for so long.
You see, I finished a PhD in Social Sciences a few years before, researching the daily lives of Tibetan nuns in the Himalayas. For six years, I spent long periods (up to eight months at the time) living with the nuns in their tiny monasteries on the most remote mountaintops, collecting their stories of courage and resilience. I had literally hundreds of narratives, and somehow it all connected in my mind—my earlier training as a historian, my academic research in the Himalayas, my visit to Tibet, and of course my own Buddhist practice, and suddenly there was so much more happening on the page than I’d foreseen. The little tale I had in mind, my first novel, grew into the full-fledged historical fiction series Nordun’s Way, a heartfelt heroine’s journey, sprinkled with nuggets of Buddhist wisdom.
The book I’m sharing with you today is A Pilgrim’s Heart, Book Two in the series, in which Nordun, the protagonist goes on a pilgrimage to Lhasa, which seems like a noble quest at first, but turns out into a daring adventure.
Pilgrimages have long been an essential part of the Tibetan Buddhist way of life. Buddhists from across Tibet have travelled to sacred sites in Tibet, Nepal, and India for over 1,300 years, and although travel is restricted for Tibetans these days, pilgrimage is still going strong within Tibet. In fact, while visiting my in-laws in Tibet, I came across pilgrims every day, and talking to people about pilgrimage it seemed like there was no adult—monastic or layperson—who had not undertaken at least one pilgrimage in his/her life.
I—and with me many others I know—would love to make this journey across Tibet to Lhasa. Unfortunately due to visa-restrictions this is not possible, but researching the historical way and the folklore about this magnificent, sacred landscape, reading the accounts and interviewing those who have gone in present days, and so retracing the way Nordun would have travelled, at times, it really felt I was on the pilgrimage myself and hope the reader feels that too.
Betty: What, if any, new writing skill did you develop while working on this story?
Elles: To be honest, the biggest development for me writing this novel was sifting through all the fantastic finds from my research, making a careful selection, and then being able to leave most of it out of the novel. I think a lot of historical fiction writers will recognize themselves in this. We gather so many amazing stories, facts, and artifacts, and often we want to put it all in, ending up with a history textbook instead of a novel. This for me was—and still is—the real challenge writing my novels.
Betty: Did you struggle with any part of this story? What and how?
Elles: Yes, I struggled with the big clash at the end, the solution to the conflict, as to me it had to be a solution without violence, death or destruction. My heroine Nordun is true to her Buddhist faith. She believes in the innate goodness of all humans and embraces it with all that’s within her. She’s compassionate and humble, pure and persevering, and embodies the true tender spirit of the warrior heart. Even though she lives in a society where men reign through force, violence and fear, she stands with her unshakable faith that the power of love will always prevail over the love of power. But I couldn’t mistake her meekness for weakness, so I had to come up with a way to deal with the conflict that’s bold and fierce, but tender-hearted at the same time. That was quite a challenge—and so it is for all the books in this series.
Betty: Which character (s) were the easiest to get to know? Why do you think?
Elles: For me, it was Nordun, as she came to me, emerging out of all the many tales I was told. Funnily enough for many readers, it’s Lanying, Nordun’s rather audacious friend who’s her opposite in every sense. Lanying’s a strong-headed, fabulous sword fighter who runs her own empire and tells it like is. Lanying reigns in her world by copying men’s behavior and outshining them in every way, and for some reason, people love that. I’ve already had readers asking me to write Lanying’s story, which I’m tempted to do. 😉
Betty: What kind of research did you need to do to write this story?
Elles: As a historian, I always want to do justice to the times and the people inhabiting the times, so I did extensive desk research and consulted experts on the history of Tibet and Tibetan Buddhism. Besides desk research, I also wanted to do in-depth field research. It was my big wish to go to Lhasa myself, but due to visa restrictions, it was—and still to date is—not possible for me to travel the road Nordun took to Lhasa. Fortunately, I spent three magical months in Kham with my Tibetan in-laws and their friends who have travelled the roads to Lhasa through the mountains and shared their many tales and anecdotes with me.
Betty: How many drafts of the story did you write before you felt the story was complete?
Elles: It only took 2 drafts.
Betty: How long did it take for you to write the story you’re sharing with us? Is that a typical length of time for you? Why or why not?
Elles: This book was the fastest I’ve ever written. I’m a slow writer, and usually take about a year for a novel, but one ‘only’ took six months from start to finish.
Betty: What rituals or habits do you have while writing?
Elles: I don’t have any rituals, but I do drink lots of tea, preferably Lipton Orange Jaipur while writing. I have a big two liter thermos flask with hot water beside me with two cups and fresh tea bags on the side at the beginning of the day. At the end of the writing day, the flask is empty, the cups half full and there’s used tea bags everywhere!
Betty: Every author has a tendency to overuse certain words or phrases in drafts, such as just, once, smile, nod, etc. What are yours?
Elles: Oh, that’s a tricky one 😊 it changes with every novel I write, but when I first started writing, I overused ‘nod’ and ‘hands’ way too much! At the moment, writing my fifth novel, it’s ‘so’ and ‘too’—thank goodness for ProWritingAid!
Betty: Do you have any role models? If so, why do you look up to them?
Elles: I’ve had the good fortune of meeting many people in my life who showed me what it is to live an authentic life, so yes, I have many role models. The one I would like to mention here is my mother who passed in 2003. The funny thing is that my mother was a woman of few words. While my friends would always complain about the dreaded ‘motherly advice’ they received at home, my mother only gave me one advice: “Dreams come in different packages.” She told me early on that we all have our hopes and dreams in life and they all come in different packages. Don’t compare your dreams with anyone else’s and don’t confuse somebody else’s dreams for your own. Make sure to unwrap your packages early and enjoy them to the fullest!” She made sure she lived her dreams, often against all odds as my father passed too early and she was crippled with disease for the last twenty years of her life, and that’s still an enormous inspiration to me. Betty: Do you have a special place to write? Revise? Read?
Elles: I have a small workroom, with an ergonomic chair and big screen set up, but I tend to do my best writing on the couch with my feet up, and my laptop squished into a large pillow.
Betty: Many authors have a day job. Do you? If so, what is it and do you enjoy it?
Elles: While working for almost 30 years in international business, research, and education, I had always felt very fulfilled in my work, supporting others in realizing their dreams and ambitions, but deep down I knew I was neglecting my own personal aspirations—writing all those stories smoldering inside of me. It was after my magical visit to Tibet when it all came together for me—coincidentally around the time I turned 50—and I finally faced my fears and took up the courage to write full time. So when the academic year ended in summer 2019, I handed in my notice, closed my private coaching business, started writing, and I haven’t looked back since.
Betty: As an author, what do you feel is your greatest achievement?
Elles: For me, it was taking up the courage to write the novels I love to read myself, novels that entertain and engage, but also make you pause and reflect about your own life and the times we live in. Novels that bring a great story, opening a window to other places and times, but at the same time challenge you to really appreciate the opportunities of the privileged times we live in now—which is not always easy, I know—and encourage you to once again be and do our best—every moment of our precious life. To novels that do that, to me is my greatest achievement, because it also means as a self-published writer, I’m willing to risk writing for a ‘niche’ audience, an audience that values a slower pace in the novel so they can really digest the ideas and questions the story brings to them, and that’s an audience that’s often not large enough for real commercial success.
Betty: What is your favorite genre to read?
Elles: Historical fiction in the broadest sense of the word.
Betty: Success looks different to different people. It could be wealth, or fame, or an inner joy at reaching a certain level. How do you define success in terms of your writing career?
Elles: I think I answered that earlier—Success for me is a reader who emails me that reading my novel gave her—beside the enjoyment of a great story—a different viewpoint, encouraged her to think about her own life, challenged her to re-examine her own perception of the world in some way, and maybe even triggered her to try or do something new, something different, something that before might have been way out of her comfort zone. Yes, it’s a huge ambition, but that’s really a success to me—writing novels that enthrall, enrich, and enliven us.
Tibet 1285, the wild and unchartered rooftop of the world. Nordun is ready to forgive her uncle for his sins, despite knowing he murdered her mother long ago. But her family is set on revenge—they’ve ordered Karma, the man Nordun is falling for, to hunt her uncle down and kill him. Desperate to avoid more bloodshed, and determined to stand by her Buddhist beliefs, Nordun joins Karma on his journey under the false pretense of going on a pilgrimage to Lhasa, the place her uncle is hiding.
As they cross raging rivers, traverse vast grasslands, and conquer the mighty mountain ranges of the Cho-La, Nordun realizes the man she loves is indeed a kindred spirit—but he is also a merciless warrior, who believes compassion has no place in a family blood feud.
When faced with the inevitable, will Nordun risk losing her love, and her life, to save the man who killed her mother?
We follow Nordun on her crusade across the rooftop of the world, to the lands of Gods, where the fickle fate of men is in the hands of the ones who reign through force and fear, and the unshakable faith of a woman in the innate goodness of humankind proves to be the very thing that can set a man free.
My guest today has a unique view of historical fiction writing I think you’ll enjoy. Please welcome author Tamar Anolic! Let’s take a look at her background and writing credentials and then find out more about her and her writing process.
Tamar’s short stories, including several stories that appear in The Lonely Spirit, have been published in Foliate Oak, Frontier Tales, Pen In Hand, Evening Street Review and The Magazine of History and Fiction. Tamar has also had stories published in The Copperfield Review, The Sandy River Review, The Helix and Every Day Fiction. Her full-length books include the nonfiction biography The Russian Riddle and the novels The Last Battle, Triumph of a Tsar, Through the Fire, The Fourth Branch,The Imperial Spy, The Fledgling’s Inferno and Tales of the Romanov Empire. In addition, she has presented on historical fiction and writing at the Historical Novel Society of North America and the Historical Writers of America conferences.
Betty: What inspired you to write the story you’re sharing with us today?
Tamar: A single line in the Coen brothers’ version of the movie True Grit. There’s a scene where the main character, Maddie, is asking the sheriff of Fort Smith who the best Marshal is. The sheriff mentions a half-Comanche Marshal who is good at tracking and brings his prisoners in a lot. I thought, “that sounds like an interesting character!” L.S. Quinn came out of the desire to write about a character with that background and those skills.
Betty: What, if any, new writing skill did you develop while working on this story?
Tamar: With short stories, you don’t have a lot of space to convey your plot, character and emotion. Writing these stories definitely helped me hone my skills of brevity while still conveying a lot.
Betty: Did you struggle with any part of this story? What and how?
Tamar: I struggled with where to start this short story collection. The first story I wrote about Quinn is actually the third story that appears in this book. Also, when I first wrote that story, I thought of it as a one-off. It wasn’t until I finished it that I wanted to write more about the character, and realized that I wanted to write more about his backstory.
Betty: Which character(s) were the easiest to get to know? Why do you think?
Tamar: Colonel Robert Graypool, which was a surprise to me. In this book, he is the head of the Comanche reservation at Fort Sill. I conceived of him as a character not long after I thought of Quinn himself, and from the time that Graypool rescues Quinn on a lonely stretch of road, I knew I wanted to write more about him. There are a couple of stories dedicated to him in this collection, and after the first one, where he loses his wife and child, the rest were easy to write.
Betty: What kind of research did you need to do to write this story?
Tamar: I read quite a few books about the Comanche and got as much information as I could from the tribe’s website. I also belong to the Historical Novel Society, and their North American conference last year had a panel on writing Native characters, which I attended. In addition, there are a number of Native authors and educators, such as Debbie Reese and Sarah Elizabeth Sawyer, who offer materials about writing Native characters which I found particularly helpful. Lastly, I submitted the manuscript for The Lonely Spirit to the company Salt and Sage for a sensitivity read, and the feedback I got from that was insightful.
Betty: How many drafts of the story did you write before you felt the story was complete?
Tamar: Each story in this collection was different. Some took more drafts than others. With the short story called “The Lonely Spirit,” it’s the longest story in the book and probably took the largest number of drafts to write. It was closer to a novella when I first drafted it, so a lot of my work went into getting it down to short story length¾around 7500 words. When it initially did not get picked up by any literary journals, I put it down for a while before going back to it. Then I revised it some more and resubmitted, and it got published in the Magazine of History and Fiction.
Betty: How long did it take for you to write the story you’re sharing with us? Is that a typical length of time for you? Why or why not?
Tamar: It took me close to ten years to write all of the stories in this collection. That’s unusual for me. I usually write a story, finish it and move on. I kept coming back to Quinn’s character because I liked him so much. I also really liked all of the characters he meets on his journey.
Betty: What rituals or habits do you have while writing?
Tamar: I plot out a lot of my work. I have both an overall arc for the character and a plan for the next several scenes I want to write. I note those scenes at the bottom of wherever I leave off for the day. I also do my best writing in the morning. I like to sit down with a mug of hot tea, which helps me focus.
Betty: Every author has a tendency to overuse certain words or phrases in drafts, such as just, once, smile, nod, etc. What are yours?
Tamar: I definitely like my “long moments in silence.” There came a point where I noticed just how often I use that phrase, and I’ve been working on finding different ways of saying it.
Betty: Do you have any role models? If so, why do you look up to them?
Tamar: I don’t know that I have a single role model, but I admire the writers in my beta reading groups and the writers I’ve met in the writers’ associations to which I belong and the conferences I’ve attended. Each person has a different reason for writing, and a different story to tell. I’ve learned so much from interacting with each of these writers and reading their work.
Betty: Do you have a special place to write? Revise? Read?
Tamar: I usually work out of my apartment. It helps me get into the zone. Before the pandemic, though, I sometimes took my laptop to coffee shops when I needed a change in scenery. I’m looking forward to a time when that can happen again.
Betty: Many authors have a day job. Do you? If so, what is it and do you enjoy it?
Tamar: Yes, I’m a lawyer. There’s a lot that’s interesting about it. My research and writing skills come in handy there, too, and I find that helpful.
Betty: As an author, what do you feel is your greatest achievement?
Tamar: Seeing my writing in print. Indie publishing can be an uphill battle in a lot of ways, but it’s a great resource to get my work out there. I feel a sense of accomplishment in seeing a book come to fruition, when it was once just an idea in my head.
Betty: What is your favorite genre to read?
Tamar: Historical, both fiction and nonfiction. I read a lot about the Romanovs, which is the other historical time period I write about.
Betty: Success looks different to different people. It could be wealth, or fame, or an inner joy at reaching a certain level. How do you define success in terms of your writing career?
Tamar: This is a tough question. Writing has always brought me joy¾that’s why I continue to do it. But with indie publishing, it’s so hard to reach an audience. I definitely wish I could connect with readers more and build a broader audience.
The Lonely Spirit is a short story collection of the Old West. L.S. Quinn is a half-Comanche U.S. Marshal who straddles two worlds, searching for peace in both.
Quinn’s adventures pit him against criminals like brothel owner and gunslinger Florence Finnegan, and Jack Mattherson, whose attack on U.S. Senator William Quincy brings out Quinn’s desire for revenge. Quinn isn’t always lucky: when one of his partners turns into his enemy on a lonely stretch of land, Quinn no longer knows whom to trust.
The fight between the Comanche and the United States Army is also never far from Quinn’s mind. When the Army kills his fiancée, Quinn must rebuild his life, even as he finds himself a lasting enemy in Colonel Ranald Mackenzie.
But Quinn’s journeys also bring him into contact with kindness he does not anticipate in such a wild land. Sympathy comes in the form of Colonel Robert Graypool, whose level-headed command of the Comanche reservation at Fort Sill brings out Quinn’s respect when he least expects it. Humanity also resides in Dr. Mary Newcomb, one of the few women physicians of the day. In both of them, Quinn finds some of the community for which he searches.
Inspiration for a story comes from anywhere and everywhere, as my guest author today will make clear. Please help me welcome Mim Eichmann to my interview hot seat! A quick peek at her background and then we’ll find out more about her and her writing process.
A graduate from the Jordan College of Music at Butler University in Indianapolis, IN, Chicago-based author Mim Eichmann has found that her creative journey has taken her down many exciting, interwoven pathways as an award-winning published lyricist, short story author and songwriter, professional folk musician, choreographer, by-lined journalist, and now, author. Her debut historical fiction novel, A Sparrow Alone, published by Living Springs Publishers in April 2020, has met with extremely enthusiastic reviews and was a semi-finalist in the 2020 Illinois Library Association’s Soon-to-be-Famous Project. Its much-anticipated sequel, Muskrat Ramble, was published by LSP in March 2021 and has garnered equally enthusiastic high ratings. Both novels are bestsellers. Her thriller, Whatever Happened to Cathy Martin, was published Aug. 9, 2022.
Betty: What inspired you to write the story you’re sharing with us today?
Mim: When I attended my high school reunion back in Washington, D.C., after many decades of having lived in the Midwest, I had a chance to talk with classmates I hadn’t seen since our graduation. Without the advantage of the internet, most of us had gradually lost touch with one another over the years and drifted far apart. Inevitably, there were those few classmates about whom none of us had heard anything, and for whatever reason, the question crept into my mind: what if they’d met with a foul end? Whatever happened to those friends with whom we’d secretly shared our first breathtaking romantic encounters or complained bitterly about a totally unfair grade on a history midterm by slipping a cryptic note through the slats of one another’s hall lockers? Would we ever know?
Betty: What, if any, new writing skill did you develop while working on this story?
Mim: Since I’d lived through this time period¾1968-78¾and I was not writing about an actual crime or historic characters as was the case in my first two historical fiction novels, this definitely gave me the liberty to develop all the characters in the direction they took themselves, allowing them to play out their idiosyncrasies through the confines of the plot which was a nice breath of fresh air! This was my first book where I could go back and reorder sequences and/or characterizations as the characters and plot dictated while I moved along.
I can’t say that I ever felt I was writing as a “pantser” (i.e., writing from the seat of my pants), but I was able to step away slightly from being a “plotter” (i.e., writing from a strict plot) as was dictated from my first two books. In reality, I’ve always been something of a “plodder,” which is my own definition of my writing style, lol… I’ve been known to spend an entire day writing one paragraph or dialogue sequence before I think I’ve gotten it right. I’m completely in awe of those authors who diligently fulfill their NaNoWriMo quotas every November¾I’d fail miserably!
Betty: Did you struggle with any part of this story? What and how?
Mim: Yes. There’s a violent rape scene at the end of the book. I felt it definitely needed to be included but was afraid how it would be perceived by the average reader. Thus far, no early reviewers have called me out on it. Also, in general, the story takes a young married woman infuriated by her husband’s infidelity down an ever-darkening, murky rabbit hole as the book progresses. I’ve made every attempt to make my main characters as three-dimensional and interesting as possible keeping within the framework of that era without resorting to obvious stereotypes. Sometimes that was also a struggle and I had to adjust accordingly.
Betty: Which character(s) were the easiest to get to know? Why do you think?
Mim: Well, my main protagonist, Denise Prescott, is very loosely based on me all those years back, since I worked as a journalist at that time for The South Bend Tribune in South Bend, Indiana, and dealt with many of Denise’s same problems. Historically, so much was shaping our world during the decade of ’68-’78 and often we forget how long it took for mainstream society to truly embrace many of these social reforms.
Betty: What kind of research did you need to do to write this story?
Mim: Typically, my h.f. research involves delving into lots of letters, diaries, journals, photographs and non-fiction works from the time period. In this case, however, I enjoyed going back through newspaper archives, reviewing all the Sherlock Holmes movies that featured Basil Rathbone to acquire the quotes at the top of each chapter, streaming all the Columbo and Rockford Files episodes available, as well as watching countless hours of Forensic Files, a show that often discussed murders that had been cold cases for decades. DNA research was still in its infancy back then and had not yet been used for criminal investigations. The extraordinary movie The Conversation (1974) starring Gene Hackman and John Cazale reveals the moral dilemma a surveillance expert faces when his recordings reveal a potential murder. This movie gave me terrific insight into the security surveillance equipment available and its usage at that time.
Betty: How many drafts of the story did you write before you felt the story was complete?
Mim: Since I tend to move along at a glacial pace as a writer, one of the advantages is that not too much of the manuscript needs major tweaking¾that’s not to say that everything was perfect! There were definitely plot holes that needed serious attention! Also, there were a few scenes I dumped completely, reversed in order and/or expanded or condensed. For example, my protagonist Denise has a romantic encounter with a detective in a trucker’s hotel. When I first wrote this section, Denise was attracted to the man but what might have ensued by way of actual romance was interrupted by a phone call. Later I decided this ‘encounter’ needed to actually occur, otherwise this section seemed too much like some kind of cutesy, cozy mystery device (which this book is not), so I rewrote that entire section, lengthening it considerably, and the phone call¾actually the detective’s pager buzzing¾occurred several hours later.
Betty: How long did it take for you to write the story you’re sharing with us? Is that a typical length of time for you? Why or why not?
Mim: Since the book was written almost entirely throughout the Covid isolation during the winter into spring of 2020-2021, it was something of an escape for me, so not typical of any time frame in my opinion.
Betty: What rituals or habits do you have while writing?
Mim: Even though I’m a morning person, I’ve found that I’m almost always writing from mid to late afternoon until about 9 or 10 p.m. when I’d stop to check in with the local news, then sometimes continue writing. I need a sense of creative space around me¾clutter drives me to distraction¾so dishes, laundry baskets, mail, other random projects, etc., have all been dealt with earlier in the day. Yeah, I’m one of those people … also, I need silence¾no surprise, eh?
Betty: Every author has a tendency to overuse certain words or phrases in drafts, such as just, once, smile, nod, etc. What are yours?
Mim: My short list of offenders would be: eh? Uh. So. Replied. Commented.
Betty: Do you have any role models? If so, why do you look up to them?
Mim: My blurb includes a comparison of sorts to Kathy Reichs, who is a forensic anthropologist in real life. I’m thoroughly enamored with her in-depth knowledge in forensic crime solving. Sometimes her plots seem to have a lot of coincidence, but overall, they’re unique. She also employs a terrific set of secondary characters sprinkled throughout. Other contemporary mystery authors I enjoy reading include Stieg Larsson, Faye Kellerman, and Elizabeth George along with the non-fiction work of Erik Larson. My favorite fiction authors are Edith Wharton and Kate Chopin.
Betty: Do you have a special place to write? Revise? Read?
Mim: I have a designated office but almost always end up writing on my laptop on my dining room table. If we’re talking about reading books in general, just about anywhere.
Betty: Many authors have a day job. Do you? If so, what is it and do you enjoy it?
Mim: I retired from my full-time job about five years ago but am also a folk musician playing gigs with my acoustic folk quartet Trillium – www.trilliumtheband.com. I play hammered dulcimer and also sing.
Betty: As an author, what do you feel is your greatest achievement?
Mim: I’ve now written and published three books in just over four years… I only expected to write the first one. I guess I’m surprised how much I enjoy this process, even though at times it’s been extremely tedious and frustrating. I look forward to continuing to research and write novels for as long as possible.
Betty: Success looks different to different people. It could be wealth, or fame, or an inner joy at reaching a certain level. How do you define success in terms of your writing career?
Mim: That’s an interesting question. Certainly not wealth or fame and I doubt that I’ll ever reach a measurable level of literary satisfaction. But to quote my protagonist Denise Prescott’s last line in Whatever Happened to Cathy Martin, “wherever we ended up, I was looking forward to the journey.”
Kathy Reichs meets Sherlock Holmes in this Gothic thriller set in rural southern Indiana in 1978 that seeks to unravel a deadly tangled web of lies surrounding three former high school friends, one of whom has been missing for over a decade… but which one? And why?
My guest today is none other than the amazing Jean Joachim! Please help me welcome her to the interview hot seat with a nice cup of tea. Let’s take a peek at her bio and then find out more about her…
Jean has 69 books, novellas, and short stories in ebook, print and audio. She writes fulltime, never far from her secret stash of black licorice. An avid bird and dog lover, she has a fondness for chickadees and pugs. A music lover, especially classical, she has two grown sons and lives in New York City. She’d love to hear from you, email her at: sunnydaysbook@gmail.com
Betty: What inspired you to write the story you’re sharing with us today?
Jean: An article I read in a local newspaper made me curious about boarding houses back in the day when logging was king in Sullivan County, where I spend my summers. On a lazy summer day a couple of years ago, a friend of mine, Michael, who’s a history buff, and I decided to trek up to Long Eddy and nose around. Sure enough, many of the boarding houses in that article are still there! Over lunch, Michael filled me in on the history of the place and time. I was fascinated. On the way home, I suggested to my friend that we should write a book about it together. Two years later, we did. And that’s how “Abigail’s Journey” was born.
Betty: What, if any, new writing skill did you develop while working on this story?
Jean: So much of “Abigail’s Journey” was new to me. I’d never written an historical romance before. In addition to the information provided by Michael, I dug in and did a lot of research on my own. Books, Google, you name it. I read a ton of background material so I could place myself in the time period and feel what it was like to live back then. I developed the ability to go back in time and plunk myself down in a different time and place, and limit myself to things that were real then. Being authentic is very important to me, so I was strict about what I included in the book. I found myself so steeped in the time and place, the story flowed.
Betty: Did you struggle with any part of this story? What and how?
Jean: I did struggle with one part of the story I felt I had to do. I can’t be specific because it’s a huge spoiler. But it was something I had never done before. I worried I might be making the reader mad. They might throw the book across the room, but I did it anyway, because the story demanded it. In the end, it was the perfect twist to take the story in the direction it needed to go. It did not get any bad reviews, in fact the reviews were glowing. I breathed a sigh of relief. Once again, the story dictates where it needs to go, even if the writer doubts the shift.
Betty: Which character(s) were the easiest to get to know? Why do you think?
Jean: No doubt Martha Chesney, the innkeeper and grandmother was the most akin to me. Of course, I’m near her age and have grown children and one son married, like she did. I’ve also been a writer and businesswoman most of my life, so I could identify with her hard work running the inn. And we shared an outlook on life and a sense of humor.
I enjoyed writing characters of different ages and making sure they weren’t stereotypical. I think Martha breaks the rules as does her granddaughter, Lizzy, a child of seven. They keep the story fresh.
Betty: What kind of research did you need to do to write this story?
Jean: I did a ton of research. Michael is my summer walking buddy, so we discussed the book almost every day while we got our exercise. I also consulted books written about those days and did extensive research on the Internet. I looked up each and every food that they ate –what was available in the late 1700’s? And how was food made?
One interesting feature I discovered was that an oven was heated to a certain temperature, then loaves of bread were inserted. The heat stopped and the loaves baked slowly. This, like so many other things, was new to me. Did you know they didn’t have zucchini in the late 1700’s? Only squash. I found these details fascinating.
I even made a trip to an art museum where I viewed the paintings of the French aristocracy in the late 1700’s so I could study their clothing – for both men and women. Most of my characters didn’t have the money to dress like the French aristocrats, but the styles, colors, and fabrics were imitated in the Colonies. And how many pieces they wore and their hairstyles. I enjoyed the research as much as the writing.
Betty: How many drafts of the story did you write before you felt the story was complete?
Jean: I never keep count of drafts. I just write and revise until I can’t stand to look at it anymore! Seriously, you know when it’s at it’s best and is ready to go to the editor.
Betty: How long did it take for you to write the story you’re sharing with us? Is that a typical length of time for you? Why or why not?
Jean: Three months. It took that long because my co-author is not a writer and I had to teach him a great deal about how a novel is created, structure, plot twists and so on. On my own, I would have written it in six weeks. When I’m in the groove that’s about how long it takes me to write a novel. I don’t regret the time it took. The book has been well received and Michael and I are quite proud of it.
Betty: What rituals or habits do you have while writing?
Jean: I like to write early in the morning, when I’m fresh. I make a giant pot of tea and keep it warm. I can drink as many as six mugs of tea while I’m working. I need a quiet place with few or no distractions to focus on my writing. I get totally into the story in my head, living it in my imagination to do my best writing.
Betty: Every author has a tendency to overuse certain words or phrases in drafts, such as just, once, smile, nod, etc. What are yours?
Jean: Oh gosh, yes!! My most overused are “just” and “that”. And when I think I’ve conquered those, new ones come along! It’s a never ending process to weed out the overused words. Thank God for good editors.
Betty: Do you have any role models? If so, why do you look up to them?
Jean: I got a classic education in American literature in college. Writers I most looked up to are long gone. They are Sinclair Lewis, Jane Austen, and Louisa May Alcott. I’m also a huge mystery fan and admire the writings of many mystery authors, most notably Agatha Christie, Harlan Coben and Ruth Rendell.
Betty: Do you have a special place to write? Revise? Read?
Jean: I now have a small office in my bedroom. I usually write there. But I read and revise sitting on the sofa. Always with a cup of tea nearby.
Betty: Many authors have a day job. Do you? If so, what is it and do you enjoy it?
Jean: No, I don’t. I write fulltime. This is a luxury for me and I enjoy it so much after many years spent in corporate America.
Betty: As an author, what do you feel is your greatest achievement?
Jean: My greatest achievement, I believe, is that I keep coming up with stories and characters who are so different. I do marvel at the breadth of my imagination. I feel lucky to have a fertile imagination because I’m never bored. I can even zoom out in the dentist’s chair and mentally go into a story I’m thinking about. Now that’s a gift!
Betty: What is your favorite genre to read?
Jean: Of course, I love a good romance first and foremost, but mystery comes a close second. I also enjoy a good biography because I can be nosy and like to peek into the lives of others.
Betty: Success looks different to different people. It could be wealth, or fame, or an inner joy at reaching a certain level. How do you define success in terms of your writing career?
Jean: I consider the fact that I am able to write, publish, and sell my books a huge success. I spent many years working at day jobs and not having the confidence to write. I had stories, but never believed I could be talented enough to put them on paper. I have published over 65 novels and novellas. If you had asked me twenty years ago if I could ever do that, I would have laughed you out of the room. Being able to spend my days doing the work I love is success for me.
Abigail Chesney has it all; a husband more loving than she could have dreamt, three healthy children, and a house on thriving farmland. She’s happy in her little world until it crashes down around her.
Losing almost everything tests Abby in ways she never expected. Can she learn to accept what she can’t change and trust strangers? Relying on help from the people of Fitch’s Eddy, a tiny Catskill logging town, Abby discovers her own strength. Will Fate’s cruel blows crush her? Or will love give her a new reason to go on?
Abigail’s Journey – travel back to Colonial America in 1786, with this heartfelt, sweet, historical romance, where the flavor of the past leaps off the page.
“Abigail’s Journey” is a genuinely original, deftly crafted, impressively authentic, and exceptionally entertaining historical romance…” MIDWEST BOOK REVIEW
This sounds like my kind of historical romance, Jean! And I too had researched the foods available in the 18th century so am aware that zucchini wasn’t part of the diet. But they did import a lot of interesting foodstuffs from other countries, which surprised me. Thanks for stopping in for a lovely chat!
Happy reading!
Betty
Award-winning Author of Historical Fiction with Heart, and Haunting, Bewitching Love Stories
Visit www.bettybolte.com for a complete list of my books and appearances.
I’m happy to welcome to the interview hot seat a character from Liz Alterman’s mystery The Perfect Neighborhood, Rachel Barnes. Before we find out more about who Rachel is, let’s first take a look at Liz’s bio. Here we go!
Liz Alterman lives in New Jersey with her husband and three sons. She spends most days repeatedly microwaving the same cup of coffee and looking up synonyms.
Rachel Barnes, mom in her early 40s whose child disappears on his walk home from kindergarten.
Betty: How would you describe your childhood?
Rachel: My childhood was largely unhappy. My parents fought constantly—primarily about money. Fortunately, my older sister, Darcy, was my rock. My earliest memory is of us sitting beneath the dining room table with her hands covering my ears, shielding me from our parents’ arguing.
Betty: What do you think is your greatest achievement? Why?
Rachel: My greatest achievement is my son, Billy. He is a kind-hearted, curious child who loves baseball and nature.
Betty: If you could change one thing from your past, what would it be and why?
Rachel: If I could change one thing, I would never have allowed Billy to walk to and from kindergarten without an adult. My husband, Ted, convinced me that because the school was just a few blocks away and because Billy walked with his friend Oliver, he’d be safe. When I disagreed, Ted argued that “fresh air and a little independence” is good for a child. I still didn’t like the idea. We got Billy a cell phone so we could track his location. But on the morning of the day Billy went missing, I’d taken that phone because he’d been dawdling, playing a game at breakfast when he was supposed to be brushing his teeth. If I hadn’t let Ted get his way, my son would never have gone missing.
Betty: What’s your greatest fear? Who else knows about it?
Rachel: My greatest fear is that we’ll never find Billy, that I’ll never see his sweet smile or hear his easy laughter again. Everyone in Oak Hill, our usually-quiet, safe town, knows that I’m living a parent’s worst nightmare. Our neighbors have helped search for my son but no clues have been found yet.
Betty: How much of your true self do you share with others?
Rachel: I tend to be very guarded and private. As a real estate agent, I try to project the image of the perfect lifestyle. I don’t want anyone to know the truth—my marriage has been in trouble since the beginning. But since Billy disappeared, I’ve been unraveling and I’m unable to keep up the facade. Only my sister, Darcy, really knows that I’m spiraling, and there are even some secrets I haven’t shared with her.
Betty: Are you close to your family? Do you wish your relationship with them was different in any way? If so, how?
Rachel: I wish my relationship with my husband, Ted, was different. We got off to an unusual start. He hired me to sell his home after his wife, Jane, died. I could tell he was lonely. We spent more and more time together. When the home didn’t sell immediately, I convinced him to stay and make some changes. Before I knew it, I was pregnant. His son, Evan, from his first marriage, didn’t welcome me with open arms. My relationship with Evan has also been strained. I wish that were different, too, especially as I wonder if he had anything to do with Billy’s disappearance.
Betty: If you could change yourself in some way, what change would you make? Why?
Rachel: If I could change something about myself, I’d have been a better, more attentive mother to Billy. I’d have put down my phone and focused on him instead of prioritizing my work. After we had an incident with our au pair, I should’ve put a lot more thought into who I let watch Billy. Cassidy, the teen I hired to babysit in the afternoons, is a nice girl but very distracted recently. She was late to arrive on the day Billy disappeared and I wonder how much that played a role in his disappearance. I’m haunted by the ways I’ve failed my child.
When actress and model Allison Langley leaves her former rockstar husband, Christopher, it’s all her Oak Hill neighbors can talk about. The gossip comes to an abrupt halt when five-year-old Billy Barnes goes missing on his walk home from kindergarten.
Billy’s mother, Rachel, blames herself for being at work and letting her only child walk alone. Cassidy, Billy’s teenage babysitter, was also late to arrive on the afternoon he disappeared and blames herself for his disappearance.
As the clock ticks down, police are unable to find any trace of Billy, forcing Rachel to ponder the enemies she’s made in their well-off suburb. Could it be one of her neighbors who stole her son? Would they abduct Billy to hurt her? How easy would it be to take a child while the parents or nannies are distracted?
When another child goes missing, the town is put under a microscope as the police try to get to the bottom of the disappearances. Will they be able to find the two children, or will it be too late? What secrets lie at the heart of this tragedy, and how far will one go to keep those dangerous secrets buried?
My guest author today has a unique background and thus a unique world view. Please help me welcome Karla Huebner to the interview hot seat! A quick peek at her bio and then we’ll find out the answers to several burning questions…
Karla Huebner has lived on a boat and worked in factories, offices, theater, publishing, oil refineries, private investigation, and adolescent drug rehab; most recently she has taught Art History at Wright State University in Dayton, Ohio. Her short fiction has appeared in such places as the Northwest Review, Colorado State Review, Magic Realism, Fantasy Macabre, Weave, and Opossum; and her prize-winning book Magnetic Woman: Toyen and the Surrealist Erotic is available from University of Pittsburgh Press. Her novel In Search of the Magic Theater is just out from Regal House and will be followed by Too Early to Know Who’s Winning (Black Rose, 2023). Her as-yet unpublished story collection Heartwood was a finalist for the 2020 Raz-Shumaker prize.
Betty: What inspired you to write the story you’re sharing with us today?
Karla: The germ of it came to me when I was in my late thirties contemplating making some changes in my life, such as going back to school, and so it occurred to me that someday I might write a novel about a woman at midlife who makes big changes.
Betty: Did you struggle with any part of this story? What and how?
Karla: I wouldn’t say I struggled much with this one, but whenever I was writing in Sarah’s voice (versus Kari’s), I felt a bit like I was choking. Her rhythm is choppier. She’s not a very happy person.
Betty: Which character(s) were the easiest to get to know? Why do you think?
Karla: All of the characters came easily into my head—sort of like channeling spirits—but for readers, I think some people will find Kari easier and others will find Sarah easier. Or who knows, maybe some readers will feel the male characters, who aren’t narrators, are easier to know. I doubt that, though. I think people will relate more either to Kari or Sarah depending in part on age (Kari is nearly twice as old as Sarah) and in part on personality.
Betty: What kind of research did you need to do to write this story?
Karla: The one small bit of research I recall doing for this involved learning more about the repertoire for cello plus guitar. I remembered hearing a lovely piece on the radio, but couldn’t remember who composed it–and never found out, but did come up with a reasonable set of composers whose work Sarah and Joey could play. Oh, and I also did a very small amount of research on peyote.
Betty: How many drafts of the story did you write before you felt the story was complete?
Karla: This was definitely a one-draft novel. I changed a word here and there between writing and publication. No real second draft.
Betty: How long did it take for you to write the story you’re sharing with us? Is that a typical length of time for you? Why or why not?
Karla: Other than that it was several years between having the initial vague idea and writing, it took about three months to write In Search of the Magic Theater. I’d say that’s both typical and atypical for me. In part it depends on how ready I am to write a particular story, and in part it depends on whether I have enough free time to write for at least several hours most days, or have to write in stolen moments here and there (for example, late at night after teaching and working on scholarly projects). I’ve now written four novels and one novella that each took about three months, whereas I’ve finished one novel that I wrote in bits and pieces over ten years, I’ve got three others that are fairly close to done after ten or more years, and you don’t want to know how many more are underway. Some might have been three-month novels if I’d had the time to focus on them, while others just gradually accrete.
Betty: Every author has a tendency to overuse certain words or phrases in drafts, such as just, once, smile, nod, etc. What are yours?
Karla: Probably thus and indeed. I also have a tendency to begin sentences with Well and So, but mainly in my personal writing, not when writing fiction (or so I imagine).
Betty: Do you have any role models? If so, why do you look up to them?
Karla: I’m not really much of a role-model person as an adult, although there are lots of people (writers and non-writers) whom I admire. When I was a kid planning to become a writer, I’d say my author role models were Marguerite Henry, C.S. Lewis, Lloyd Alexander, and Shakespeare (!). I don’t write much like any of them today!
Betty: Do you have a special place to write? Revise? Read?
Karla: Nope, I move around. Different rooms in the house, different cafes, the library, friends’ homes when visiting. Airplanes, trains, occasionally buses if the ride’s not too short or bumpy. My camping trailer. Wherever I am, so long as the surroundings aren’t too distracting. It’s helpful to have internet to look things up, but that can be distracting.
Betty: Many authors have a day job. Do you? If so, what is it and do you enjoy it?
Karla: I’ve usually had a day job, although for many years I made sure they were varied and didn’t take too much thought. Then I became an art historian, which is a pretty enjoyable occupation for those lucky enough to get a job in the field, which I was. However, being a professor doesn’t leave a lot of time or mental energy for writing fiction.
Betty: As an author, what do you feel is your greatest achievement?
Karla: Ask me again in ten years.
Betty: What is your favorite genre to read?
Karla: In genre fiction, I’ve always read a lot of mysteries. Otherwise, I gravitate toward magical realism and to authors who don’t really fit any particular genre—Colette, Italo Calvino, Heinrich Böll, Robertson Davies, Margaret Atwood, Muriel Spark, Javier Marias, Toni Morrison, André Alexis. I’d like to add more living writers to that list. Oh, and I’m a great fan of Ben Aaronovitch’s Rivers of London series, which I guess you could call paranormal magical mystery-thriller humorous escapades.
Betty: Success looks different to different people. It could be wealth, or fame, or an inner joy at reaching a certain level. How do you define success in terms of your writing career?
Karla: Well, inner joy at having written things that I’m very pleased with is key, but also finding readers—ideally lots of them—for whom my work resonates. Since I’m not content to write solely for myself, success for me does ultimately mean publishing and finding my audience and even earning money.
Why, the rather staid young cellist Sarah wonders, should her aunt rent their spare room to the perhaps unstable Kari Zilke? Like the nephew in Hermann Hesse’s Steppenwolf, Sarah finds herself taking an unexpected interest in the lodger, but she is unable to stop at providing a mere introduction to Kari’s narrative of mid-life crisis and self-discovery, and develops her own more troubled tale of personal angst and growth, entwined with the account Kari herself purportedly left behind. Generational tensions, artistic collaborations, and even a romance steeped in Greek myth follow as Kari and Sarah pursue their very different creative paths in theater and music. And while Kari seems to blossom post-divorce, Sarah must grapple with the question of what the role of mothers, fathers, aunts, mentors, and male collaborators should be in her life as a young musician.
My guest today is an award-winning author who loves to read and write romantic comedies. Please help me welcome Brenda Lowder! Let’s take a look at her bio and then find out more about her inspiration and writing process.
Brenda Lowder is an award-winning author of lighthearted women’s fiction and romantic comedy novels. She lives in Atlanta and loves international travel, fine dining, and air conditioning. She’s a big fan of fiction in all its forms–books, films, television, and the lies we tell ourselves. Her brilliant and smoking-hot husband and two princess-scientist daughters love her enough to insist she’s still twenty-nine.
Betty: What inspired you to write the story you’re sharing with us today?
Brenda: I was inspired by the Disney movie The Parent Trap. I loved that movie when I was a kid. I loved the idea of a child having the power to bring their parents back together. I wondered, what if a kid brought their divorcing parents back together and then developed the belief that they could really reconcile people? What if she held onto that belief, even as an adult, and made that her career? What problems would that bring about for that person? I wanted to write the book to find out.
Betty: What, if any, new writing skill did you develop while working on this story?
Brenda: I think I developed more ways to have my characters say things without actually saying them. I tend to be a very literal person, so I’m working toward subtlety, and I think my skills grew with that in this book.
Betty: Did you struggle with any part of this story? What and how?
Brenda: I struggled a bit with my main character Sasha’s naivety and absolute conviction that she’s right. She has to have some major confidence to go after what she wants and to believe that she can remake the world and the relationships around her as she would have them.
Betty: Which character(s) were the easiest to get to know? Why do you think?
Brenda: Cole Chase, Sasha’s love interest and professional sparring partner was the easiest to get to know. He appears in my previous book Keeping the Pieces, and is the younger brother of the main character so I knew him very well already and was excited to find out what it would take for him to fall in love. Readers kept asking when Cole was going to get his book, and here he is!
Betty: What kind of research did you need to do to write this story?
Brenda: I researched match-making, divorce proceedings, and arbitration. A rewatch of The Parent Trap kept me inspired.
Betty: How many drafts of the story did you write before you felt the story was complete?
Brenda: Too many! Probably around ten.
Betty: How long did it take for you to write the story you’re sharing with us? Is that a typical length of time for you? Why or why not?
Brenda: A year. Unfortunately, it is typical for me. I can write a book in three or four months, but then it takes me eight or nine months to edit it.
Betty: What rituals or habits do you have while writing?
Brenda: I don’t know that I have any rituals that work, but I stare off into space a lot, and I wish I did less of that!
Betty: Every author has a tendency to overuse certain words or phrases in drafts, such as just, once, smile, nod, etc. What are yours?
Brenda: I don’t want to say in case I missed any of them!
Betty: Do you have any role models? If so, why do you look up to them?
Brenda: My mom. She was awesome. I miss her every day.
Betty: Do you have a special place to write? Revise? Read?
Brenda: I write, revise, and read in my easy chair with my feet up. I need all the blood to go to my head for thinking.
Betty: Many authors have a day job. Do you? If so, what is it and do you enjoy it?
Brenda: My day job is being a stay-at-home mom, and I love it!
Betty: As an author, what do you feel is your greatest achievement?
Brenda: As an author, I feel my greatest achievement is having two of my books hit #1 in Romantic Comedy in Amazon and four of them hit #1 in multiple categories. Winning the Maggie Award for Excellence for my book Keeping the Pieces was another great achievement for me.
Betty: What is your favorite genre to read?
Brenda: Romantic Comedy! I started writing rom-com because I wished there were more of them out there for me to read! I LOVE rom-coms—books and movies—and real life!
Betty: Success looks different to different people. It could be wealth, or fame, or an inner joy at reaching a certain level. How do you define success in terms of your writing career?
Brenda: I think success is loving what you do and being able to have a meaningful connection with people. By that definition, I’m living my dream!
Sasha Timmerman’s purpose in life is not to find love for herself, but to help divorcing couples get back together—like she did for her mom and dad. Which is why she’s willing to don last-minute disguises and chase people down in frozen foods. By rekindling the sparks between couples experiencing a relationship hiccup, she enables them to continue their happily ever afters.
Contented bachelor Cole Chase is one of Atlanta’s top divorce attorneys. He scores the best settlements with the least amount of emotional fallout—until all his biggest cases start unraveling. Suddenly his promotion to partner isn’t looking like a done deal, and the mysterious Sasha Timmerman is at the center of every one of his cases-gone-wrong.
The world’s biggest action star hires Cole to handle his divorce, and the star’s wife secretly hires Sasha to reconcile them. When everyone gets stuck on the movie star’s private island, Sasha and Cole must fight their growing feelings for each other in order to battle on opposing sides in the bigger game of love.
My guest author today writes with a strength of purpose many do not employ. Please help me welcome Talia Carner to the interview hot seat! Let’s take a peek at her bio and then find out more about her writing process and inspiration.
Talia Carner worked for Redbook magazine and was the publisher of Savvy Woman magazine. A marketing consultant to Fortune 500 companies, she taught at Long Island University and was a volunteer counselor for the Small Business Administration. A committed supporter of global human rights, she has spearheaded projects centered on the subjects of female plight. In 1993 she was sent twice to Russia, and participated in the 1995 women’s conference in Beijing.
Hailed as “an author who enters arenas no one has entered before” for her award-winning five novels that expose society’s ills, Ms. Carner has keynoted or co-paneled over 450 civic and cultural events with 100 to 500 attendees—and over 300 Zoom presentations.
Ms. Carner is a board member of HBI, a research center for Jewish women’s life and culture at Brandeis University. She is also an honorary board member of several anti-domestic violence and child abuse intervention organizations and supports organizations that work toward Israeli causes.
Talia Carner’s addictions include chocolate, ballet, hats—and social justice.
Betty: What inspired you to write the story you’re sharing with us today?
Talia: Inspired by Shalom Aleichem’s short story, The Man from Buenos Aires, I reinvented the story of one of Tevye’s daughters as the family flees a pogrom and meets this mysterious, shady man. Duped by this member of Zwi Migdal—the real legal Jewish union of pimps that operated with impunity for 70 years—she is shipped as a sex-slave to Argentina, where prostitution is legal. THE THIRD DAUGHTER is tribute to the estimated 150,000 Jewish girls and women whose voices haunted me and have propelled me to activism against today’s sex-trafficking.
Betty: What, if any, new writing skill did you develop while working on this story?
Talia: To continue to trust myself and let the story flow out of me.
It was also fun to take the character and language of Tevye and continue the story way past the point where Sholem Aleichem had left it. It tested my ability to channel that illustrious author. Readers instantly recognize Tevye, although he has a different name and every scene is freshly created and written by me, not by Sholem Aleichem.
Betty: Did you struggle with any part of this story? What and how?
Talia: THE THIRD DAUGHTER is a very difficult emotional journey. I crawled under the skin of a teenager to experience her world—her kidnapping and enslaving—through her eyes, ears, body, and heart. It was hard late at night to turn off the PC and fall asleep, hoping for sweet dreams.
Betty: Which character(s) were the easiest to get to know? Why do you think?
Talia: Each of the secondary characters presented itself to me fully formed, especially the other sex workers in the brothel—each girl making a different choice within the framework of what life has doled out to her. The more complex person, though, was of Yitzik Moskowitz, the pimp who lured the protagonist to Buenos Aires. He was evil, yet he saw himself as an entrepreneur, a businessman who helped the economy of Argentina—and a savior of the women he entrapped from a life of hardship and pogroms in the shtetls of Eastern Europe.
Betty: What kind of research did you need to do to write this story?
Talia: Once Google generated the name of the organization, Zwi Migdal, I found a tremendous amount of information available in translated documents, nonfiction books, and academic publications.
In the last couple of decades, I had been to Buenos Aires three times, but I didn’t know Spanish. Armed with photos from the time of the novel, the late 1800s to early 1900s, I hired two freelance researchers in Argentina, and they helped me better understand what I was looking at. If Batya walked from point A to point B, my researchers verified the names of the streets 120 years earlier. For finer texture, I presented both researchers—a man and a woman—with the same questions about clothes, food, and architecture, and was able to extrapolate more nuanced details when crossing their answers.
For historical accuracy, I consulted the director of Jewish archives in Buenos Aires, who, thankfully, knew English. She also read the final manuscript.
Once the protagonist, Batya, started dancing tango, what choice did I have but to learn it myself? I needed to write with authenticity about this complex dance—and the passions associated with it. For almost a year I took private tango lessons and occasionally spent an evening at a milonga in close embrace with total strangers (also my reason to quit tango once my research was done).
Betty: How many drafts of the story did you write before you felt the story was complete?
Talia: Probably about 30 to 50 rounds of revisions and editing.
Betty: How long did it take for you to write the story you’re sharing with us? Is that a typical length of time for you? Why or why not?
Talia: This novel was the shortest in terms of overall time—from concept to submission to the editor—only about two and half years. Usually, it takes me about five years. The reasons could be that the story poured out of me almost as it turned out at the end, and also it was told in a straight like, from one character’s point-of-view.
Betty: What rituals or habits do you have while writing?
Talia: None. I call it TIC—Tush In Chair. Just sit down and write.
Betty: Every author has a tendency to overuse certain words or phrases in drafts, such as just, once, smile, nod, etc. What are yours?
Betty: I guess it’s not “every author.” I am well aware of “writing ticks” and my inner editor is at work while I write and steers me away from them. On the other hand, lately, in my new novel-in-progress I noticed that in my protagonist’s range of responses, her stomach never reacted, so I had to enlarge her repertoire of the physical manifestations of her emotions.
Betty: Do you have a special place to write? Revise? Read?
Talia: I have a wonderful office in each of my homes. I have a comfy editing chair—or I go to the beach when I go over a printout.
Betty: Many authors have a day job. Do you? If so, what is it and do you enjoy it?
Talia: I’m a full-time fiction writer. I had left my previous career in marketing in order to write.
Betty: As an author, what do you feel is your greatest achievement?
Talia: The social issues I bring to the forefront of readers’ awareness—and giving voice to those without one.
As an outcome of my first published novel, PUPPET CHILD, I introduced The Protective Parent Reform Act, that passed in four states and clauses from it were used by twenty others.
Also, I was privileged to address in 2007 the United Nations’ Commission on the Status of Women for my novel CHILD DOLL about infanticide in China—the first time in UN history. (I was invited again for May 2020 to present the subject of sex trafficking, but the event was cancelled due to COVID.)
Betty: What is your favorite genre to read?
Talia: Literary fiction about uninterested characters doing nothing, yet I can’t put the novels down….
Betty: Success looks different to different people. It could be wealth, or fame, or an inner joy at reaching a certain level. How do you define success in terms of your writing career?
Talia: When I sat down to write my first novel on November 3, 1993 at 2:48 PM, I had no thought regarding where it would lead me. I didn’t consider the poor odds of getting published. All I wanted was to write a particular story about the Russian women I had met when I taught them entrepreneurship shortly after the fall of communism. (Twenty years later, that maiden raw material was recaptured in my novel HOTEL MOSCOW.)
After almost thirty years of writing, when I look at the body of work that I have produced through five award-winning novels (and the sixth in the works,) I am proud of having brought so many hours of enjoyment, thought-provoking, and educational ideas to tens of thousands of readers.
During that time, I also developed the skill of public speaking. I had keynoted and addressed about 450 in-person events (not counting small book clubs) before COVID. Once we were hit with COVID, I turned to Zoom and instantly had audiences of hundreds eager to engage with my talks. I have given over 320 Zoom presentations.
Success for me has been defined in reaching small realistic milestones rather than a big, yet unnamed and an elusive one in the far future. Together, those milestones carried me farther than I had imagined.
THE THIRD DAUGHTER is a frightening journey into the New World of the late 1800s, told by a trusting young woman lured from Russia and forced into prostitution in Argentina. When succeeding in the nascent art of tango, Batya finds courage in the face of danger and hope in hours of despair—and bravely struggles to free herself from bondage while bringing down the powerful pimps’ union.
The novel breaks the silence on a most shameful chapter—the legal sex-trafficking union, Zwi Migdal, that operated in South America with impunity for 70 years, from the late 1800s until WWII. Luring estimated 150,000 young girls from the shtetls of Eastern Europe with false promises of jobs and marriages, it then sold them into brothels.
Inspired by Shalom Aleichem’s story, The Man From Buenos Aires, author Talia Carner reinvents the story of one of Tevye’s daughters after the family flees a pogrom and meets this mysterious, shady man.
THE THIRD DAUGHTER is tribute to the victims, whose voices the author could not silence, and who propel her to launch her campaign against today’s sex-trafficking.
I’m impressed by the number of rounds of revisions you do as well as by the fact that you know precisely when you sat down to write your first novel. That’s organized! Thanks so much for stopping in, Talia, and sharing with us more about your books and your mission.
Happy reading!
Betty
Award-winning Author of Historical Fiction with Heart, and Haunting, Bewitching Love Stories
Visit www.bettybolte.com for a complete list of my books and appearances.
Betty Bolte's Musings 