Behind the story of A Hole in One by Judy Penz Sheluk

Judy Penz Sheluk is the author of two mystery series: The Glass Dolphin Mysteries  and The Marketville Mysteries. A Hole in One begins with the Glass Dolphin antiques shop co-owners agreeing to sponsor a hole in one contest at a charity golf tournament. The publicity turns out to be anything but positive, however, when an errant tee shot lands in the woods next to a corpse.

The story behind A Hole in One

“The underlying theme in all my books is that the power of friendship can help us get through some dark times, but there’s more to it than that. Arabella Carpenter, owner of the Glass Dolphin antiques shop, has a motto: Authenticity matters. She classifies people much in the same way as she classifies objects: real, a deliberate fake, or a reproduction not meant to deceive, but often deceptive nonetheless. I don’t classify people, per se, but I do believe that authenticity matters very much. Our true friends allow us to be authentic, and accept us, warts and all.”

Judy says she’s been golfing for fifteen or twenty years and has played in a number of charity golf tournaments. “There’s always a sponsored par 3 with a prize like a car or a boat, and it’s typically set up on the most challenging par 3 on the course. But it was actually one day, when golfing in a Ladies League at Silver Lakes Golf & Country Club in Holland Landing, Ontario, that the idea came to me. I was at the third hole and, in trying to hit over the pond, my ball ended up beyond the green and into a heavily treed area. As I was hunting for my ball, I thought, ‘What if there was a dead body in here?’ And then I thought, ‘That’s the premise for my next book.’ It took the sting out of landing in the woods.”

The anonymous blogger

“There’s an anonymous blogger in the book who loves to dish dirt on Arabella Carpenter and Emily Garland, co-owners of the Glass Dolphin,” Judy said. “When I submitted the book to Barking Rain Press, the entries were all written as though they were in Inside the Landing, a community newspaper run by Emily’s longtime rival. My editor said, ‘The paper would get sued for writing that, but what about an anonymous blog called Outside the Landing?’ I loved that idea, because of course, it directly conflicts with Arabella’s penchant for authenticity, and I was able to rewrite the posts so they were even nastier than they would have been in the paper. It was great fun writing those bits!”

The real…and not so real…world

Judy said she’s not nasty in real life, but is a loyal friend and a hard worker. “I’ll do what I can to help other mystery authors. I was invited to volunteer for the Board of Directors of Crime Writers of Canada in 2017 and I didn’t hesitate for a moment. If I can make a difference in the Canadian crime writing community, then I’ve achieved far more with my books than I ever dreamed would be possible.”

And then there’s the side of a mystery writer’s life that is not so real—research of all those nasty ways to kill someone or dispose of a body or…or… Judy won’t admit to remembering anything particularly nefarious in her research, but she has given her husband some specific instructions. She said, “I’ve told my husband to delete my browser history if anything ever happens to me. Some of the things I Google…”

Learn more about Judy at www.judypenzsheluk.com, where she interviews and showcases the works of other authors and blogs about the writing life.

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