Diane Gilbert Madsen - Q and A - Part 2

Editor's Note: Welcome back to Diane Gilbert Madsen for Part 2 of our Q&A!

Diane Gilbert Madsen Q&A - Part 2

CMM: Do you have a favorite place to write: office, library, under the stars? Under the stairs?

DGM: I usually write in my office which is in my home. I live on a five-acre parcel in rural southwest Florida called Twin Ponds. My office desk is positioned in front of a window overlooking Sunrise Pond, making it sometimes hard to concentrate, like the time I spotted a Florida Panther at 8:30 AM walking slowly around the pond toward my house. I suspect he’d just had breakfast because he was very lethargic and sat down on the apron of my garage with his rump against the garage door. It’s quiet and the desk is big – my husband put it together for me so I can spread out ideas and workbooks and research papers. I like to have classical music playing in the background. I have two little Japanese Chins, Sugar and Spice, and they always go into the office first thing in the morning – so you know I’m a creature of habit.

CMM: You do talks and booksignings… have you had any interesting experiences during that?

DGM: I love booksignings. You get to meet the most interesting and friendly people and you often get to hear from other people who’d like to write. I love to meet fans of my work who’ve read my book and want to get it inscribed. At a recent booksigning, I had Gary Reinstrom, the piper, come for a few hours. He and my video were the hits of the evening. It was around Christmas and he played Christmas songs on the pipes. It was wonderful.

CMM: Reviews are a mixed blessing for most authors; we love the good ones, hate the bad ones, and know they are just one person’s opinion. How do you deal with negative reviews? Do you even read reviews?

DGM: I just read an article on bad reviews and how a writer should NEVER comment on them. That being said, I regard reviews as a marketing tool. Good reviews help sell books and bad ones don’t. Obviously I desire to have good reviews, which “A Cadger’s Curse” has luckily garnered. But tastes vary – thank goodness – and not everyone is going to love you or your book.

CMM: Did you always want to be a writer growing up, or did you have other aspirations?

DGN: Growing up, I loved to read and went to the library faithfully every Saturday. I would read anything, but I was especially attracted to mysteries. When I was in grammar school, my cousin Sharon and I (in the same grade) liked to write “little mysteries.” We would do alternate chapters and amaze ourselves at how the plot turned out. I also loved the business world, and went on to become the Director of the Economic Development Department of the State of Illinois where I was in charge of the Tourism and Film and Economic Development offices. Then I owned my own business for over 20 years, including my own grantwriting business here in Florida - talk about the urge to write and the urge to murder. The more I learned about the business world, the more I wanted to write mysteries!

CMM: What do you read? Any favorite authors?

DGM: My favorite authors are Doyle, Sayers, Christie, Tey and John Dickson Carr. I like to read Michael Connelly and Stuart Kaminsky (especially the Lew Fonesca series set in Sarasota), anything by Dick Francis, Nicholas Blake, Amanda Cross, Patricia Wentworth, Sara Woods, Barbara D’Amato, Carolina Garcia-Aguilera, and John Dunning. There are so many good mystery writers out there right now, I can’t name them all. It’s like a feast - the second golden age of great mystery writers. I also like history and biography. Right now I’m in the middle of reading “The Gardner Heist” by Ulrich Roser; “Forty Odd Years in the Literary Shop,” by James L. Ford; “Scotland is not for the Squeamish” by Bill Watkins; “To the Tower Born,” by Robin Maxwell; “The Egyptologist” by Arthur Phillips; and “The Book of Air and Shadows” by Michael Gruber.

My website is: www.dianegilbertmadsen.com

Thank you so much to Diane Gilbert Madsen for joining us here at Cozy Murder Mysteries!

Diane Gilbert Madsen - Q and A with the Author! - Part 1

*From the Editor: Welcome to Diane Gilbert Madsen. Here is a brief 'About the Author' to whet your appetite! 'Chicagoan Diane Gilbert Madsen has an M.A. in 17^th century English, was the State of Illinois Economic Development Director, and later ran her own consulting firm. She’s listed in Who’s Who in Finance & Industry and the World Who’s Who of Women. Fascinated by crime, history and business, her interest in writing murder mysteries was sparked when she met someone convicted of murder who was later exonerated. The encounter caused her to rethink how people form their first impressions of murder suspects. “A Cadger’s Curse,” is the first in the DD McGil Literati Mystery series, published by Midnight Ink. Diane and her husband Tom now live in Florida at Twin Ponds, a five-acre wildlife sanctuary.' Thank you to Diane for taking the time to do this.

*Note... today, coincidentally, is Robbie Burns Day (The Cadger's Curse involves Robbie Burns!) The Scot would be 251 today. Raise a glass of whatever you tipple!

Q&A with Diane Gilbert Madsen

CMM: First, tell us a little about your writing history… did you write before the DD McGil series?

DGM: I’m an English major and our curse as well as our blessing is that we all write -- or try to. I did write an early murder mystery called “Wild Life” centering around art forgery, but it never got picked up. Then I was interested in writing True Crime but got diverted when I started the DD McGil Literati Mystery series.

CMM: Now tell us about your DD McGil Literati Mystery Series; where did the idea for the series come from? What made you decide on a literature theme for your mysteries?

DGM: The Literati Mystery Series is a melding of my two interests, history and mystery. I like to read about famous authors. They all have some hidden mysteries in their own adventuresome lives. I like to take these incidents in authors lives and speculate on how the story might have continued after the final page. So I decided to combine my speculations about incidents in authors lives with my other passion – mysteries - and create the Literati Mystery Series. In the first book in the series, “A Cadger's Curse – The Robert Burns Affair,” the mystery revolves around an incident in Robert Burns’ life. The mystery took shape when I read that Burns had taken a diamond tip pen and boldly scratched a treasonous verse on the window of the Lion’s Head Inn in Stirling. It was a wild and crazy thing to do and could very well have cost him his life.

CMM: You have a book video for A Cadger’s Curse… how did that come about? Did you do the video yourself or did someone else do it for you?

DGM: I love all the book trailer videos. I had one done through COS productions. They worked closely with me and were excellent. I had a friend, Gary Reinstrom, who is a Jacobite piper from Sarasota Florida who teaches the bagpipes, and he did a special arrangement of Auld Lang Syne which we used as the music for the video. It turned out fantastic. I use the book trailer video at speaking engagements and book signings, and it’s been very enthusiastically received. I definitely plan on doing another one for my next DD McGil Literati Mystery, Hunting for Hemingway.

CMM: How do you create characters that can/will sustain a series of books? Do you know everything about them going in, or does that come bit by bit as you write the books?

DGM: Characters need to grow and develop and take on a life of their own during a book and from book to book in a series. In my case, I believe if I simply plot out a character, that character would turn out very wooden. Sometimes a character surprises you and takes over and you find yourself writing things in a rush, not really knowing where it’s all coming from. In A Cadger’s Curse, that happened with Aunt Elizabeth, or the Scottish Dragon, as she’s referred called.

CMM: Cozy mysteries generally take place in a small town, but you’ve set your DD McGil series in Chicago. Was that a conscious choice? Tell us about your decision making process?

DGM: Location, location, location! Maybe all cozy mysteries don’t have to take place in small towns. I would classify my mystery, A Cadger’s Curse, as “a slice of life” – a

“not-quite-cozy” rather than a “cozy.” I believe my story worked out very well in a large city where my heroine, DD McGil, can rely on a number of contacts offered in a large city. The larger venue also allows interactions which come out of “left-field” and keeps the mise en scene changing and unexpected. I don’t think I’m the only writer who’s done a “not-quite-cozy” in a big city. I wrote about Chicago because it’s my hometown, and I know it well and love it. I lived and worked there until I moved to Southwest Florida. I visit often and have many friends and family there and my visits keep me up to date on the city I love. Like politics, I think all stories are local, and if you have a feel for a city or town, I believe you can make the venue work - even in a cozy or a “not-quite-cozy.”

Check back here Wednesday for Part 2 of Diane Gilbert Madsen's Question and Answer with Cozy Murder Mysteries!

Anne White - Malice and the Road to Lake George

Editor's Note: A big 'Cozy Murder Mysteries' welcome to Anne White, author of the Lake George mysteries, as she tells us about her experiences with Malice Domestic, a wonderful organization for authors of murder mysteries. Enjoy!!

Ten years ago, a talented young writer, Matt Witten, from nearby Saratoga Springs, taught a mystery writing course for the Lake George Arts Project in upstate New York. Matt, who wrote a series of mysteries set in Saratoga Springs, including the prize-winning Breakfast at Madeline’s, is now in California where he’s been a writer for Law and Order, Poltergeist and other TV shows.

Matt was not only a great teacher; he was incredibly supportive and encouraging to his students. He urged me to finish my first Lake George Mystery, An Affinity For Murder, and to enter the Malice Domestic Unpublished Writers Grant competition, which he’d won a few years before. Malice Domestic, an organization of mystery writers and readers, holds a mystery conference every spring in Washington, D.C. (www.malicedomestic.org). I urge you all, especially those working on their first book, to check this out.

The afternoon I picked up my phone and learned I was a winner of a Malice grant is still one of my all-time highs.

The next thing I knew I was getting calls from a literary agent suggesting he represent me. I didn’t realize what a miracle that was – an agent calling me, not once, not twice, but three times, before I stopped putting him off

The ups and down which followed made for a wild ride. The grant ($500 then, now $1000, plus registration for the Malice conference) was a terrific boost, but financial problems at the company which published the book plunged me into despair. Fortunately, things straightened out, and two years later Affinity (Oak Tree Publishing) had been published and was nominated as a Malice Domestic Best First Mystery.

Since then, I’ve published three more Lake George Mysteries (Beneath The Surface, Best Laid Plans and Secrets Dark and Deep) with the fifth, Cold Winter Nights, coming soon. (Hilliard and Harris)

This time I’ve set the story in winter and have included some of the cold weather activities we enjoy here, like skiing at fabulous Gore Mountain and other terrific ski areas. My characters take part in a colorful winter activity held each year at Lake George Village on New Year’s Day, the annual Polar Bear Plunge, in which almost 1000 men, women and adolescents wade, creep or dive into the icy waters in temperatures which often hover around 0 degrees. Believe it or not, this event has actually taken place for more than twenty years and grows in popularity all the time. I also introduced a fictional winter activity, a Carnivale on the Ice, and set a maniacal killer in a Mardi Gras mask in pursuit of Loren Graham, my protagonist.

Loren gave me so much trouble as I was finishing this book, I was tempted to let the villain catch her. But maybe your readers will want to find out what happens for themselves. Cold Winter Nights is now available from Amazon, and will soon be at Hilliard and Harris and book stores.

The first four books were also published by Harlequin’s Worldwide Book Club. (www.eHarlequin.com Worldwide Library Worldwide Mysteries)

Anne White: http://www.annewhitemysteries.com

Why I Write Mysteries - Diane Gilbert Madsen

Editor's Note: Welcome to Diane Gilbert Madsen, who writes the DD McGil Literati Mystery series, published by Midnight Ink. From Diane's Website: "The DD McGil Literati Mystery Series features DD McGil, Insurance Investigator, probing the true mysteries and secrets that famous authors have in their past. The series gives readers an intriguing blend of mystery and history. If you think you know all there is to know about Robert Burns or Ernest Hemingway, you’ll discover some interesting – and deadly – mysteries afoot – all set in today’s world of academic and corporate treachery."

Why I Write Mysteries

Diane Gilbert Madsen

Since the November 1, 2009 publication of “A Cadger’s Curse,” the first in the DD McGil Literati Mystery Series, this is a question I’ve been asked frequently, (why I write mysteries) and I find myself not giving any one answer.

One of the obvious answers is that I like to write, and I like to read mysteries, so I’m writing what I’d like to read. My goal is to write an entertaining, amusing story with a good plot, engaging characters, and clues that are fair but still manage to misdirect the reader. I’m not striving to be socially relevant, and I don’t espouse causes. I leave that to others. I’m striving for goode olde entertainment. (Don’t you just hate it when people add all those extra “e’s?)

Another reason (and you probably won’t hear this from a lot of writers, but I’m being perfectly honest) is that over the years I’ve run across a number of people I don’t like, and writing mysteries give me a chance to kill off these folks. What a thrill to achieve the great satisfaction of getting rid of my foes and not have to suffer any real consequences! “A Cadger’s Curse” has five murders -- five being better than one. My husband Tom tells me I’ll never have to see a psychiatrist because I purge all my angst through the murders in the books. Tom also tells me he’s sure I’ll never run out of villains. (Does this mean he thinks I’ve made a lot of enemies?)

One unintended consequence of writing mysteries is that I have found people love to talk to a mystery author. It is great fun to talk with mystery fans, whom I find are invariably knowledgeable and friendly with wide ranging interests. Many fans want to write their own mystery novel, and they like to get reinforcement to convince them that it can be done.

Writing mysteries gives me an opportunity to combine a good mystery plot with interesting bits of history. I’ve always been interested in both mystery and history, and combining them both in my DD McGil Literati Mystery Series has been a fun challenge. I enjoy doing the research. For “A Cadger’s Curse,” I researched a true incident in the life of the great Scottish Bard, Robert Burns. In the second of the Literati Mystery Series, “Hunting for Hemingway,” coming out in September 2010, I take the consequences of a pivotal event in Hemingway’s life into modern day Chicago. The third in the Literati Mystery Series focuses on Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s 1894 trip to Chicago.

When I attended the University of Chicago as an undergraduate, I loved to write. Many of my fellow students who had trouble with their English Lit papers would beg me for help. The papers I wrote for them all got “A’s” for my efforts, but my professor would not give me an “A,” try as I might. Soon this was the joke of the campus and stayed so through the years. That’s why “A Cadger’s Curse” is dedicated to my college roommate, Alta Sumner, with these words, “Thanks for helping me remember and helping me forget the infamous Dr. Bailey.”

A Cadger’s Curse – Midnight Ink – November 2009

Hunting for Hemingway – Midnight Ink – September 2010

http://www.dianegilbertmadsen.com

Why I Write Historical Mysteries - M. E. Kemp

Editor's Note: Welcome to M. E. Kemp, who writes an unusual historical murder mystery series set in Puritan-era America. Enjoy!

Why I Write Historical Mysteries

M. E. KEMP

I write a series of historical mysteries set in Colonial days with two nosy Puritans as detectives. Well, Puritans were supposed to be nosy, to keep watch on their wayward neighbors. And a detective has to be nosy, so...

Actually, I decided upon Puritans as a reaction to all the medieval mysteries featuring monks, nuns, sisters, brothers, etc. Increase ‘Creasy’ Cotton is a member of the famous Mather family who led the largest and richest church in al of the colonies. Except that Creasy’s congregation is made up of poor widows and sailors in Boston’s south end. The Mathers were community as well as religious leaders and were very busy people, father and son, so they delegate ‘Cousin Creasy’ to do the dirty work for them in such mundane matters as murder.

Assisting him is Hetty Henry, a wealthy widow with connections to high and low society. Hetty is such a pushy broad she took over the first book, MURDER, MATHER AND MAYHEM, and then the series. The two are always quarreling, which helps to show humor in Puritan life. The poor Puritans have gotten “bad press” over the centuries. They were quite progressive in matters of education, style of dress and enjoyment of food, drink, and yes, SEX.

They were a lusty peoples – how do you think we got here? I believe American history is just as bloody and colorful as medieval Britain, so that’s what I try to convey in my books, which include DEATH OF A DUTCH UNCLE (set in Albany,) DEATH OF A BAWDY BELLE (the Salem witch trials,) and in my fourth book due out in ’10; DEATH OF A DANCING MASTER. My books are based upon historical incidents but are works of fiction.

Email M. E. Kemp at: mekemp at nycap.rr.com

Visit M. E. Kemp at: http://www.mekempmysteries.com

Great Writing Advice

I am always interested in good solid writing advice, and today, at Bookends Literary Agency's blog, one of the Bookends murder mystery authors, Jennifer Stanley, has some great advice; stay true to yourself!

It's not like I haven't thought of this before, but I think I need reminders every once in a while.

To read her post, go to: http://bookendslitagency.blogspot.com/2010/01/take-riskstay-true-to-your-voice-by.html

For more about her books, go to her website: http://www.jbstanley.com./

New Year, New Start

I hope you all had a wonderful holiday and are going back to work/school/slothdom with a fresh outlook and fresh start.

I finished two mystery books during the holidays:

The Case of the Tough Talking Turkey by Claudia Bishop
(The Casebook of Dr. McKenzie #2)
Berkley (Prime Crime), August 2007
ISBN #0425216691
288 pages Paperback
$6.99

This new-to-me-author is now going on my 'must-glom' list, because I love her 'voice'. Voice, impossible to define, impossible to mistake, is that elusive quality that carries a reader along to the finish with no effort. A writer's 'voice' won't work for every reader, so when you stumble across one that does, you hang on for life!

This book, the second in the series, was funny, warm, smart and quick. I dub Claudia Bishop (if it hasn't already been done) the new Charlotte MacLeod, because that is exactly what Ms. Bishop's voice reminds me of, especially MacLeod's Professor Peter Shandy series.

I also read Dashing Through the Snow, a Christmas mystery by Mary Higgins Clark and her daughter, Carol Higgins Clark. This was a slight, light, fast read, without a lot of meat. Quite frankly, it felt 'phoned' in, like the two didn't put a lot of thought or time into it. Aside from that, it was an easy and relatively enjoyable read, but not one I'll remember a week from now. Or even a couple of days.

Website alert:

As always, I like to pass along info on websites Cozy Murder Mystery readers might enjoy. Check out this site, Mystery Readers International.
http://www.mysteryreaders.org/

It lists reading groups, mystery bookstores, and is the online home of Mystery Reader's Journal. In association with that is this blog, by Janet Rudolph: http://mysteryreadersinc.blogspot.com/

So... we're ba-ack! And ready for a new year of murder, mayhem and fun!