Terry Ambrose

Writing is like a good barbecue sauce, if it ain't bold, it ain't worth doing.

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Behind the story of Anonymous by Elizabeth Breck

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Anonymous by Elizabeth Breck tour graphic
Anonymous by Elizabeth Breck cover

Elizabeth Breck is a state of California licensed private investigator. A native Californian, she had read Harriet the Spy twenty times by the time she was nine. Is it surprising that she grew up to become a PI? She has worked mainly in the field of insurance investigations, making her the real-life version of Sue Grafton’s Kinsey Millhone. Anonymous is Elizabeth’s first novel.

Must have hope

“First and foremost, I wanted to tell a thrilling mystery that keeps the reader guessing and on the edge of their seat,” said Elizabeth. “I wrote a mystery that I would like to read. However, I insist that all of my books have hope in them. I put it on a sticky note next to my computer: ‘Must have hope.’ I want the reader to feel hope at the end of the book. I want them to close the book and feel hopeful enough that they have a sudden urge to tackle a project, clean out a closet, start a business, call an old friend they haven’t spoken to in a long time. I worked hard to make sure this story instills a feeling of hope in the reader.”

Elizabeth Breck

Inspired by true events

Elizabeth was watching TV the night 20/20 aired an episode about the Golden State Killer. This was the unsolved case of a killer who terrorized both Northern and Southern California in the 1970s and 80s. At the time, the man was still at large and the police did not yet know his identity.

Elizabeth tweeted using a variety of hashtags about the case with her thoughts about who the killer might be. “This was right after the show that night, so perhaps 10 or 11 o’clock at night. I then went to bed in my quiet house in San Diego, all by myself, and I suddenly got really afraid: what if he was still alive, and he was following social media? What if he figured out who I was from my Twitter account and tracked me down? I jumped up out of bed and deleted all of my tweets, and I had trouble sleeping that night.”

While DNA evidence eventually led to the Golden State Killer’s capture, the experience gave Elizabeth the idea for a novel. “The main character, Madison Kelly, a private investigator in San Diego, comes home to find a note nailed to her front door: Stop investigating me or I will hunt you down and kill you. But she hasn’t been investigating anyone; she has been taking some time off. So who thinks she is investigating them? She has to do exactly what the note is telling her not to do: investigate, in order to figure out who it is. She quickly realizes it’s because of some tweets she had made after listening to a podcast about two missing girls in the San Diego area. Someone is following her on Twitter, saw her tweets, and has tracked her down.”

Been there, done that

The are numerous similarities between Elizabeth and her main character. “Madison is 35 years old and her mother died of breast cancer. Prior to the start of the book, Madison had a bilateral mastectomy with reconstruction, so that she wouldn’t die of breast cancer like her mother had. That all happened to me, too.”

Elizabeth also said that her experience as a private investigator helped her write with authority. “Several of the surveillance stories in the book actually happened. When the main character, Madison Kelly, does something like pretend to be someone else in order to get information, I have actually done that. And then there was the time a guy tried to steal my car while I was hiding in the backseat doing surveillance! That story is told in the book. It was pretty crazy.”

Learn more about Elizabeth Breck at ElizabethBreck.com. And if you liked this, check out more of my interviews.

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Behind the story of Murder’s No Votive Confidence

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MURDER S NO VOTIVE CONFIDENCEChristin Brecher is making her debut as an author with Murder’s No Votive Confidence, the first book in the Nantucket Candle Maker cozy mystery series. In this behind the story interview, Christin shares her love of the cozy mystery genre and how it led to writing Murder’s No Votive Confidence.

Books—a taste of independence

“I value good friends and family,” said Christin. “Although New York City is a big place to live, I feel lucky to live in a neighborhood I’ve known my whole life, with friends I can count as decades old. I’m a small-town girl in a big city. A dream come true for me is that The Corner Book Store, near my apartment in New York City, and Mitchell’s Book Corner, in Nantucket, have welcomed the Nantucket Candle Maker Mysteries. These are my two favorite book stores and each holds special memories for me. I built my mystery collection at Mitchell’s. And, when The Corner Book Store opened in the 1970s, we felt that our neighborhood had really made it. My parents even opened a house account at the store, which was incredibly empowering. The books I bought in both stores were probably my first independent purchases.”

The path to cozy mysteries

Christin said that writing has taught her opportunity can come about in unexpected ways. “I started to write as a personal challenge after I left the corporate world when my kids were babies. With a husband who travelled a lot, and two small kids to raise, writing was a portable challenge as well as an intellectual one. When I started, I had a goal of finishing a book. I didn’t rush. I took my time to learn the craft while I was deeply steeped in my career as a mom. Then, one day, I wrote ‘The End.’ It was an amazing feeling, and I realized I wanted to journey to those two words again and again.”

Looking back to the purchases Christin made in Mitchell’s and The Corner Book Store, those were what eventually led her to discover the cozy mystery genre. It’s a genre she loves for several reasons. “I love the number of strong female characters who get the job done, whatever it takes. Writing the character of Stella Wright has been one of my favorite parts of the Nantucket Candle Maker Mysteries. She is a small business owner, a master craftswoman, and an active member of her town’s community. She knows who she is and appreciates the good fortune of her life. And she’s not afraid to step into the unknown when she’s called upon to catch a killer.

“Recently I read a blog by well-known cozy author, Sherrie Harris (The Gun Also Rises), who was frustrated that the cozy genre is often seen as too fluffy, with too-cute titles and covers, and a rated-G tone that’s too ‘cute.’ In this day and age of cynicism and negativity, these are the exact reasons why I see the genre as bad-ass. I love that the covers and titles are over-the-top, and I think that the opportunity for inter-generational enjoyment of a story is refreshing. Combine that with strong female protagonists, and I wonder why everyone hasn’t picked up at least one cozy. In fact, cozy mystery titles often come in the form of a good pun. I was lucky enough to have a grandmother who doled them out on a daily basis. Back then, we laughed and rolled our eyes, but I never imagined her skill would come in handy one day!”

Christin2 400Murder’s No Votive Confidence—the beginnings

Christin said the idea of a candle maker sleuth on Nantucket seemed like a perfect character for several reasons. “First, there’s the island’s history in candle making. Nantucket became one of the wealthiest communities in America in the late 18th and early 19th centuries because of its success in the whaling industry. Nantucketers discovered precious oil in sperm whales which could be used, among other things, to make candles which were considered to be the cleanest, whitest, and longest lasting candles in the world.

“Second, the island’s mysterious aura. I grew up spending my summer’s in Nantucket where my parents rented houses, eventually all over town. One summer, in a house on India Street, I read the owners’ Agatha Christie collection while I built my own mystery library of Hardy Boys, Nancy Drew and The Bobbsey Twins books from Mitchell’s Book Corner in town. The combination of reading these books at night to the eerie sound of fog horns from the island’s lighthouses, often during the then-common blackouts, ignited my love of mystery.

“Third, the island’s unique combination of closed-knit, local community, and seasonal tourists, all of whom hold the island near and dear. Stella Wright uses this dynamic to help her solve crimes. As a native to the island, she is both a big fish in a small pond, and also “invisible” to visitors who are more focused on their vacations than the locals. As a result, she can pick up information from those who know the island’s news, while also passing as a sympathetic ear to visitors who let down their guard and confide in her.”

Christin Brecher on research

Of course, writers have to research their stories. And that research often tells us a good deal about them. In Christin’s case, it reinforces her values about good friends and family. “My favorite day of research was when my dad and I drove all over Nantucket to make sure I’d correctly described the locations in my book. That morning, I had visited Nantucket Book Works in town where I’d purchased a bright pink, lacquered candelabra. Everywhere we went, I put the candelabra at the scene and took a picture. I looked like a crazy woman, but we had a ball.”

Learn more about Christin Brecher at www.christinbrecher.com.

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Travel Journal – 14 April – wandering in Wellington New Zealand

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We had a great day in Wellington New Zealand beginning at Zealandia, which is a conservation project set up to help rehabilitate the native New Zealand ecosystem. The project began twenty-four years ago and is barely scratching the surface, but they have 600 volunteers who are helping. One of the biggest challenges with this type of project is, of course, raising public awareness. One of the initiatives is called ZIP—Zero Invasive Predators. Given that visitors have been bringing non-native species with them since their first arrival, this is a daunting goal, but one they might just accomplish with focus and funding. The second half of our tour took us to Te Papa Museum. This, too, was focused on the history of New Zealand. It covered everything from how the first visitors arrived to the Maori Wars with Britain. There’s a growing recognition in New Zealand about how unfairly the Maori were treated by the Europeans, much like what the American government did to the American Indians and the Hawaiians. All-in-all, it was a great day. The sun is dropping on the horizon and we’ve set sail for our next destination, which is Napier, New Zealand.

Want to follow along on our journey? Here’s a link where you can find all the entries in our travel journal.

More photos from Wellington New Zealand

Behind the story of Pineapple Upside Down Murder

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Jodi Rath decided to begin a life of crime in her The Cast Iron Skillet Mystery Series. She splits her time between working as an adjunct for Ohio teachers and creating mischief in her writing. Pineapple Upside Down Murder is the first book in the series.

Grandma and the cast iron skillet

“My grandma gave me her 70-year-old cast iron skillet for Christmas in 2017 and told me she only has made pineapple upside down cake in it and expected me to do the same. I had never cooked with cast iron before. She also bought me new cast iron skillet set so I could make other things. I’ve been cooking with them all year and that is where I got the idea for the series, The Cast Iron Skillet Mystery Series, and book one Pineapple Upside Down Murder.”

Family dynamics and the theme

“There are two working themes throughout the fourteen book series,” said Jody. “The first deals with the everyday paradoxes of family and friends. Juggling their needs with one’s own needs; feeling both love and hate for them at times (but also, if anyone else says anything bad about them, we tend to see red and unleash all Hades on that person). My protagonist has a regular saying, ‘Why is it my family can push my buttons so easily? Oh, yeah, it’s because they installed them.’  That is the first major working theme in the series—the dynamic of family and close friends that are like family.”

Jody said the second theme ties into urban sprawling. Because her cozy mystery is set in a small village with a big city nearby, people from the village often end up in the city and vice versa for multiple reasons. “Many city folk have a stereotype about the villagers and vice versa.  So, an issue will arise with urban sprawling that will set the villagers against the city community.  This theme is similar to the family dynamic in focusing on how often we, as humans, stereotype without even realizing we are doing it and how these people argue and fight and ultimately—HOPEFULLY—work through their issues and realize their similarities more than their differences. That will be the pull throughout the series.”

Self reflection and challenges

“I’m flawed in many ways,” Jody said. “But I’m extremely empathetic, self-reflective, and introverted. I’m my own worst critic. Being a veteran teacher with over twenty years, I feel that all parts of life is a learning experience and a journey. I feel the same about writing. I’m a perfectionist too; this makes writing difficult for me. Drafting is horrible! Plus no one writes THE PERFECT novel, ever…I have to remind myself to do the best I can in this moment and let the rest go. Easier said than done.”

In fact, Jody started the book seven years ago. It was originally a straight mystery. “This year, I began working with a small press where it became a cozy in third person point of view. Originally as a cozy, it was going to focus on a teacher, then my grandma gave me my Christmas gift and voila, it’s now The Cast Iron Skillet Mystery Series, written in first person point of view by a self-published author. Definitely a major journey!”

Ever wondered what a writer might do if she was caught speeding? Well, here’s your answer—Jody was pulled over by a police officer for speeding, but when he came to her ticket, she decided to take advantage of the moment.

“I told him I was writing a mystery and asked him if I could do some research. He looked at me like I was a nutball, which is true! I took my journal out of my big purse and began questioning him. He was nice enough to answer eight questions for me that I thought up on the spot. Got to take advantage of every single event that happens in your life when you are a writer!”

Learn more about Jody Rath at jodirath.com. 

Matthew FitzSimmons and the story behind Poisonfeather

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poison-featherMatthew FitzSimmons began his writing career in the eighth grade. He wrote the story, a fantasy called “A Mage in Spirit” about a boy elf and a Pegasus, for English class. He received a good grade, but suffered a great deal of boyhood angst over the experience. FitzSimmons is writing professionally these days and his latest thriller is called “Poisonfeather.” Here’s the story behind “Poisonfeather,” and why that first effort has stuck with FitzSimmons to this day.

“The assignment was to write five pages; I wrote thirty. I wrote two drafts, which is only impressive because I wrote the entire story by hand. The night before it was due, I borrowed stencils from my mother to make a fancy title page. I spent hours making certain every letter was perfectly straight. When I turned it in to Mr. Anderson I was certain I wanted to be a writer until he asked me, ‘What does, ‘A Mage in Spirt’ mean?'”

It turned out FitzSimmons had left out the second “I” in the word spirit. He said, “Mr. Anderson gave me an A, but all I cared about was messing up that title page. It bothered me for years, and I didn’t write again until my twenties. Moral of the story: there’s no I in team, but there are two in spirit. Also, quitting is a hard habit to break.”

The beginnings of Poisonfeather

The idea for “Poisonfeather” came from discussions FitzSimmons had with friends. In those discussions, he posed a hypothetical question—what profession would make the best villain?

“Post-2008,” FitzSimmons said, “the overwhelming response seems to be ‘stockbroker.’ There is such residual frustration that no one has been held accountable for the damage done by the Great Recession. I thought it would be interesting to pit my protagonist against such a character. Then I remembered reading an article in the Atlantic by James Silver called, ‘Is Wall Street Full of Psychopaths?’ That sparked a flurry of research out of which grew Charles Merrick.”

There’s also an underlying theme in “Poisonfeather” about the issue of accountability. FitzSimmons said, “Arrogance bordering on hubris haunts all the characters of ‘Poisonfeather.’ As a reader, I tend to detach from stories when the protagonist is never in any real danger. I don’t mean that danger isn’t swirling around impressively, only that no one, the hero included, takes the danger all that seriously. The hero of this type of thriller repeatedly chooses a course of action so reckless that it should lead to death or disaster ninety-nine times out of one hundred, yet somehow always works out.

“I’d argue that the main difference between action and horror as genres is that in the former, the hero survives regardless of the odds, while in the latter, all bets are off. Horror has consequences while action is largely consequence free. This is why a series like ‘Game of Thrones’ has been so successful—it married action beats to the consequences of horror. I’m a fan of consequence and in ‘Poisonfeather’ there are consequences. Consequences that have pursued Gibson Vaughn from the first book and consequences that will follow him into the third.”

Deadlines and commitments

FitzSimmons also said the writing process for “Poisonfeather” was more difficult because he only had seven months to finish the book. “I wrote ‘The Short Drop’ in my own time. I wrote in the evenings and on the weekends. On vacation. It was done when I said it was done. How different to write to a publisher’s deadline. To wake up in the morning and commute eighty feet to my desk. I’ve discovered that writer’s block takes on a whole new dimension when the clock is ticking.”

At one point in his career, FitzSimmons became an actor. He soon discovered one big problem he couldn’t overcome, his height. FitzSimmons is 6’6″ tall and said his chances of being cast as Romeo were slim, at best.

“I learned my lesson early and set my sights on directing. In retrospect, it was wonderful training for an author. I try to write each character as if they are the lead in their own story and not merely appendages to the protagonist’s journey. It’s the only way I know to create three-dimensional characters, and I learned it directing actors—in the conversations I had with each cast member, looking at a scene from multiple characters’ perspectives, and not playing favorites.”

Behind the story of Unholy Code with Thomas Waite

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Unholy Code by Thomas WaiteCybersecurity is one of those issues most people find frightening and daunting. In his third Lana Elkins thriller, Thomas Waite again throws the reader into the world of hackers, attackers, and shadowy secrets. “Unholy Code” deals with racist rhetoric and the spread of both foreign and domestic terrorism.

“Unholy Code” takes place in the near future, in a world Waite calls recognizable. “A major reason that world feels so real is that the conflicts that threaten to tear us apart as a nation are based on what we can glimpse of the world around us right now.”

Waite said the idea for “Unholy Code” grew out of several disturbing societal trends he has observed. These include the increase in nativism and xenophobia, anti-Muslim propaganda, and incidence of hate crimes. He said, “The ISIS trail of terror was continuing apace, with unthinkable horrors being committed by this jihadist militant group.  So I envisioned a future America faced with white supremacists and jihadists, with terrorists both domestic and foreign, and with an unholy alliance of our most fanatical enemies.”

Having spent most of his life in the technology field, Waite naturally finds himself reading about cyber attacks and cyber warfare. “What I learned was truly frightening,” Waite said. “As a writer of thrillers, it struck me that the public was largely unaware of a potential cyber war of cataclysmic proportions from an unseen enemy. I saw this as an opportunity to write a rather unique series of thrillers.”

Even though my novel is fiction, it’s still disturbing to see this perverse version of ‘life imitating art.’

Waite didn’t think the world needed another stereotype macho male figure and chose a different route. He created Lana Elkins, a former NSA operative, who heads a cyber security firm. Waite joked, “Despite what I write, I’m actually a very normal, peaceful guy with a good sense of humor and a lot of optimism. Really, I am!”

While working on “Unholy Code,” several frightening parallels to the book occurred. He said, “I was well into the book when the Charleston church shooting took place, only to be followed by the attacks in Chattanooga, Colorado Springs, and San Bernardino. Similarly the tone of the US presidential race and the xenophobic proclamations by some supports of the Brexit movement were things I couldn’t have anticipated.”

Just one week into the promotion of “Unholy Code,” the deadliest public mass shooting in the US. took place in Orlando. “Even though my novel is fiction, it’s still disturbing to see this perverse version of ‘life imitating art.’”

Double Trouble Contest Code: #technowhiz

Waite has seen these types of parallels before. His debut novel was a murder mystery titled “Terminal Value.” The book involved the buyout of a startup mobile-computing company. The takeover was being conducted by a large information-technology company and was about to go public. Waite used the transaction to explore the dark side of corporate America.

In the Lana Elkins series, Waite explores the potential convergence of computer science with other traditional terrorist threats. “The books looked at the harrowing impact cyber war and cyber-sabotage could have on deep environmental vulnerabilities caused by climate change.”

The antagonists in “Unholy Code” are cyber-savvy with advanced hacking skills. “Throughout, I consulted with experts to help ensure that the technology was accurate without overburdening the reader with unnecessary detail and overly technical language.”

Waite said he was once asked if perhaps he was giving too much away and inadvertently aiding potential cyber-terrorists. “It’s hard for me to believe that most of what I come up with hasn’t already been the subject of cyber-war-game scenarios in the Department of Defense.  If I’m presuming too much about the Pentagon, then we’re really in trouble.”

Learn more about Thomas Waite at thomaswaite.com.