Guest Post by J.J. Murphy

Dorothy Parker Didn’t Go Bowling
By J.J. Murphy, author of the Algonquin Round Table Mysteries

“Write what you know”—that’s the advice people give you when you say you want to write a book.
Bad advice (for me, anyway).
To keep my sanity, I had to write about something far, far different from what I knew. Why, you ask? Because all I knew about when I started writing was baby stuff—Cheerios, The Wiggles, Pampers and peepee.
You see, I was (and am) the parent of young identical twins. (We sometimes went through 16 Pampers a day, if my memory serves—though it rarely does anymore.) I loved my little identical blond babies (still do, of course), but I had to get away!
So, I checked out. I didn’t have the time to write, but I couldn’t help myself. I went on vacation…I left for New York City in the Roaring 20s. How? I started writing a mystery series featuring Dorothy Parker and the members of the Algonquin Round Table. These people and their daily lives—their witty banter over long lunches and sparkling cocktails—were about as far removed as possible from my long days full of Teletubbies and temper tantrums.
Dorothy Parker, as you may know, was a Jazz Age writer and poet who was as well known for her clever wisecracks as for her writing. (Even if you don’t know her, you’ve probably heard something she said or wrote, such as “Men seldom make passes at girls who wear glasses,” or “Brevity is the soul of lingerie.”) She was a charter member of the Algonquin Round Table, which was a group of like-minded writers, editors and critics who met daily for lunch, seated at a round table at the Algonquin Hotel.
By day, they spoke and wrote about art, politics and Broadway performances. By night, they smoke and drank and laughed till the wee hours of the morning, rubbing elbows with celebrities, gangsters and flappers alike, only to wake up late and do it all over again. The only way I could possibly make these real-life characters more exciting was to throw them into a murder mystery. (The first of these, MURDER YOUR DARLINGS, was published in January 2011. The second, YOU MIGHT AS WELL DIE, is just released.)
My babies aren’t babies any more. Yesterday I took them bowling, and one of them bowled her first strike. By contrast, Dorothy Parker may have taken the New York subway to back-alley speakeasies, but I can’t imagine her driving a minivan to a suburban bowling alley.
So, I guess I’m living in the best of both worlds now. Soccer games, chicken nuggets and cartoons by day—and murder, mayhem and Manhattans by night.
But, boy, it’s a lot of work! I think I may need another vacation…

Please visit J.J. Murphy at http://www.roundtablemysteries.com/ and www.facebook.com/RoundTableMysteries.
Mystery Scene magazine called MURDER YOUR DARLINGS “A brilliant first novel … Murphy has courageously ventured into [Dorothy] Parker’s world, and does quite a creditable job … And the mystery ain’t bad either.”

Guest Post and Giveaway – Ann Parker

I Kid You Not: Children in the Silver Rush mysteries – by Ann Parker

Years ago, when I was started writing my Silver Rush historical mystery series, I pondered about the maternal standing of Inez Stannert.

Should she have a child? Or not?

You see, Inez leads a hard and complicated life. She lives at the ten-thousand-foot mark in the Rocky Mountains, in Leadville, Colorado, in the 1880s. Leadville is a silver boomtown—chaotic, bursting at the snowy seams with men and women driven by greed, desperate to get rich by any means including murder.

Not an ideal time or place to raise a child.

In addition, Inez’s husband, Mark Stannert, has disappeared without a trace before the first book even opens. Inez has given up hope of finding him alive, although a part of her wonders if her smooth-talking, good-looking gambler husband might have skipped out with a “pretty-waiter girl” or one of the actresses passing through town. In Mark’s absence, Inez manages the Silver Queen Saloon and runs a high-stakes poker game on Saturday nights. And then, “stuff happens.” The mysterious (but incredibly attractive) Reverend Sands comes to town. People close to Inez start to die under unusual circumstances (after all, this is a mystery). Inez investigates (after all, she is the sleuth).

I wanted to make Inez a mother, even though I wasn’t sensing a lot of maternal attributesin this poker-playing, whiskey-drinking, pocket-pistol-toting woman of the West. But I thought that Inez would make a fiercely protective, passionate parent. She would do whatever it took to protect her children, if I were to bequeath them to her. I believed she “had it in her,” so to speak, to be a mother.

But how was she going to handle everything (run a saloon, conduct a dance of seduction with Reverend Sands, solve murders, etc., etc.) with children in tow? Even if I were to throw in a nurse or governess, I couldn’t see this working.

After careful deliberation, I hit upon a plan. I gave Inez a baby: William. But William has weak lungs and cannot remain at Leadville’s altitude. In fact, shortly before Mark disappeared, the Stannerts had decided to move to a lower elevation, for William’s sake. With Mark gone, Inez was torn: should she stay, where she could search for her husband, or should she go, to protect William’s health? Enter (conveniently) Inez’s sister Harmony, who becomes William’s guardian so Inez can remain in Leadville. Harmony takes William back East and the sisters write regularly so Inez can keep abreast of her son’s development. This way, Inez can continue to investigate those mysteries that keep cropping up in Leadville.

I was satisfied with this arrangement. But readers weren’t.

As the series progressed, readers became “invested in” William (or maybe the term is “obsessed with”). Why wasn’t Inez making plans to get him back? Why wasn’t she visiting him? How could she stand to give him up, and for so long? What kind of mother was she?

I finally threw up my virtual hands in surrender. Toward the end of the third book, Leaden Skies, Inez makes plans to see William and Harmony. In the fourth book, Mercury’s Rise, mother and child at last reunite in the spa resort town of Manitou Springs, Colorado.

However, William has not seen his mother for over a year, and he is now almost two years old. Do you have a two year old, or do you recall what they are like? How they respond to strangers? (Answer: Not well.) How about their favorite two-letter word? (Hint: N-O.)

Needless to say, the reunion does not go as Inez expects. Too, there’s an additional complication: Mark Stannert has returned, with all his considerable charm focused on Inez. He has a plausible (?) explanation for his long absence. He wants to see his son, and for the three of them to become a family again.

Even as Inez struggles to sort out her feelings toward Mark and the suspicious little naysayer who is her son, strange unexplained deaths are occurring in Manitou Springs.

And guess who must investigate….

Ann Parker is a California-based science/corporate writer by day and an historical mystery writer by night. Her award-winning Silver Rush series, featuring saloon-owner Inez Stannert, is set in 1880s Colorado, primarily in the silver-mining boomtown of Leadville. The latest in her series, MERCURY’S RISE, was released November 1. Publishers Weekly says, “Parker smoothly mixes the personal dramas and the detection in an installment that’s an easy jumping-on point for newcomers.” Library Journal adds, “Parker’s depth of knowledge coupled with an all-too-human cast leaves us eager to see what Inez will do next. Encore!” Learn more about Ann and her books at http://www.annparker.net

MERCURY’S RISE and the other Silver Rush mysteries are available from independent booksellers, amazon.com, and Barnes and Noble.

Leave a comment on this post to be eligible to win a Silver Rush mystery prize! Winner will be announced later this week. To see the rest of Ann’s virtual tour, check out her Appearances page on her website.

Inez, is that you? Probably not…

Shoes!

I’m blogging over at the Ladykillers today. Our topic was shoes and I interviewed 3 yr. old Tommy on his new rainboots, but we had a little situation that needed big sister, Carmen’s, help. The situation could have led to many secrets revealed – which is just the thing mysterys are made of! Check out the post at the Ladykillers to see my little cuties in action!

Crime TV…or Not

Posting over at the LadyKillers group blog today – our topic is TV Crime Shows…only I really don’t watch them – so I’ve broken out of the mold and talk about Reality TV instead! hehehe

http://theladykillers.typepad.com/the_lady_killers/2010/08/crime-showor-not.html