The Deadly Hours by Kearsley, Harris, Huber & Trent

 

First Line: (from "Weapon of Choice") He would never tire of watching her sleep.

Four interconnected stories trace the journey of  a cursed and priceless watch from 1733 to 1944. From Italy to Scotland to England, the watch touches each of its owners with misfortune. 

Readers first see the watch, called La Sirène by its French pirate owner, in Susanna Kearsley's "Weapon of Choice," my pick of the stories. The travels continue in 1831's Edinburgh in Anna Lee Huber's "In a Fevered Hour" then Christine Trent's "A Pocketful of Death" finds readers in the streets of London during a series of chilling murders. The anthology ends with C.S. Harris's "Siren's Call" in 1944.

The owners were told what needed to be done in order to break the curse, but you know what happens when someone possesses something rare, priceless, and beautiful. From the description of the timepiece, I would have had a difficult time parting with it myself.

I enjoyed seeing how these four authors took an idea and ran with it. The only thing I didn't particularly care for was the acknowledgments at the end of each story. They were repetitive and really intruded on the flow of the narrative. It would have been much better if they'd all been relegated to the end of the book.

The Deadly Hours by

Susanna Kearsley, C.S. Harris, 

Anna Lee Huber & Christine Trent

eISBN: 9781492664451

Poisoned Pen Press © 2020

eBook, 352 pages

 

Short Story Anthology

Rating: B+

Source: Net Galley

Cozy Con 2018: Part Two

I'm going to exercise a little poetic license and deviate from the actual order of the panels for The Poisoned Pen's CozyCon 2018. I'm going to post them in the order in which host Barbara Peters wanted them. Peters had to contend with an author whose flight was late, and I don't so I can follow her original plan. And just in case you missed Part One, you can catch up with the rest of us.

Right now it's time to get this show on the road, so here's the panel with historical mystery writers C.S. Harris, Tessa Arlen, and Ann Parker!

L to R: Barbara Peters, C.S. Harris

"Originally, I was a reader of romance, which will surprise all of you since I started The Poisoned Pen," host Barbara Peters said. "I cut my reading teeth on the Oz books, Mary Stewart, Victoria Holt, whatever. My mother was the more serious mystery reader. She loved P.I. stories, so I was also brought up on Raymond Chandler and Ross MacDonald. I read Robert Parker in real time, but I find that historical mysteries are my passion.

"One of the reasons why I enjoy Poisoned Pen Press and all the other presses is that they publish books that I like to read. I publish books that I like to read, and these three authors write books that I particularly like to read.

"Candace's latest book was reviewed on Shelf Awareness today. They called it 'a blend of Elizabeth George and Georgette Heyer, Why Kill the Innocent will appeal to mystery and Regency readers with its intricate plotting and historical detail,'" Peters continued. "This is the thirteenth Sebastian St. Cyr mystery, and in reading it you will get a history lesson about the totally dysfunctional family of George III. George IV, the heir, had a daughter from one of the worst marriages in recorded history, and she's the focus of part of the plot of this book, right?"

C.S. Harris

"Yes. Princess Charlotte," Candace replied. "I knew the general outline of the family, but I was appalled when I read more and learned what the Prince Regent put his wife through.

"He sent his mistress to the dock to meet his bride's ship. Caroline, his bride-to-be, knew that Lady Jersey was his mistress, and the Prince Regent sat Lady Jersey prominently at the wedding feast. Lady Jersey was invited along on the honeymoon. He had given Caroline pearl bracelets as wedding gifts, and he took them back and gave them to Lady Jersey who made a point of wearing them around Caroline because the Prince Regent had appointed her one of Caroline's ladies-in-waiting. It's really hard to imagine that he could've been any crueler to her unless he would've locked her up.

"The Prince Regent was a narcissist, a pathological liar, and he was very vindictive," Candace told us. "He was incredibly mean to his daughter. I don't think he had the capacity to love anyone other than himself. As his daughter Caroline grew up, the crowds loved her and would cheer as she rode down the street. This made her father hate her because those same crowds would boo and hiss whenever he went by, so he tried to keep her out of the public eye. Despite this, Caroline grew to be a very likable woman.

Available Now!

"She died in childbirth, and that made everyone scramble to get married because, although George III had had all these children, Caroline was the only one who was legitimate. By the time Caroline died, they were all in their forties, so it was too late, and that's how England wound up with Queen Victoria."

"So that's the household in which the mystery takes place. We'll get back to that, but you can see that it was a setting that was just ripe for disaster!" Barbara said. "So, Ann Parker, there you are-- it's good to see you!

"For you, this is a pivotal book because Inez Stannert, whom we first met during the silver rush in Leadville, Colorado, has decided that her life needs a reboot, and she's gone off to San Francisco, which is a rough town. There's a lot going on."

"Yes," Ann replied. "San Francisco in 1881 had the Barbary Coast, it had Chinatown, and in addition to the Barbary Coast waterfront, there was another in the Mission Canal District that I became very intrigued with. It was also a rough part of town. Inez and I began to tiptoe through the town to see what was there and what was of interest. Inez was looking for business opportunities; she's a savvy woman. It was an interesting period for businesswomen in San Francisco."

Ann Parker

"Inez was part owner of a saloon in Leadville with her husband, and they're now divorced," Barbara said. "She's also invested in a couple of bordellos in Leadville with her partner, Flo, who's a madam. So, for her day and age, Inez is an adventurous venture capitalist."

"It just so happens that this is an exciting time for women entrepreneurs in San Francisco," Ann said. "Women owning and running millinery shops, laundries, stationery shops, and boarding houses-- proper and not-so-proper. A lot of them needed capital to grow their business. There actually was a woman in San Francisco who was well-known for giving loans and helping women to build their businesses. Right now her first name is POOF! gone, but they used to call her Mammy Pleasance. Does this ring a bell for anyone? But there is a history of women funding women, which is pretty cool."

Available Now!

"Needless to say, a body floats up, her past comes back to haunt her-- both literally and figuratively-- from Leadville, so it's a very interesting book with lots going on," Barbara said. "And it's a kind of pivot for her to see where we're going. Because Leadville was becoming like Cabot Cove a little bit so San Francisco really opens up possibilities."

"Oh, yes!" Ann replied. "There's San Francisco, and across the bay there's Berkeley. The University of California existed during this time frame-- and accepted women."

Barbara moved on to the third writer on the panel. "So, Tessa, this is your fourth book for Lady Montfort. You've jumped from the Edwardian Era right into World War I."

"Yes," Tessa replied. "In fact, in the third book, I did a little countdown. When the mystery was solved, the boys were going off to war. I left it at that, but then I decided I wanted Lady Montfort to be involved in the war on the home front. I'd just finished reading Robert Graves' Goodbye to All That, and I thought, 'Oh, this is what I want to do.' So it starts in the summer when England is struggling to bring in the harvest without men and women are stepping up to run the Land Army as well as run hospitals and keep everything going.

"Clementine [LadyMontfort] is up in Scotland visiting a friend who's in a very special hospital called Craiglockhart which is taking care of the growing number of soldiers struggling with what they called then 'shellshock' and what we know today as PTSD. The Battle of the Somme ran throughout the summer months, and the casualties were horrendous.

Tessa Arlen

"So Clementine visits Oscar and decides that the Dower House can be turned into a rehab center, which not only had to be funded by her husband but had to get approval through the War Office.

"Everything is going well at the hospital. The doctor has many types of therapy, and he's worked hard to educate the nearby villagers because they all believed these men are cowards and malingerers. Then a young war hero who's not only suffering from shellshock but amnesia as well is found murdered in the hospital's vegetable garden. Since the War Office is about to arrive for its quarterly inspection, with this murder, it looks as though the hospital is completely out of control."

"And Mrs. Jackson, the formidable housekeeper is in charge of the hospital," Barbara remarked. "Many of your readers will already be familiar with country houses being turned into hospitals after watching the second season of Downton Abbey.

"Lady Montfort and Mrs. Jackson have a Holmes-Watson... no, they don't because they're really quite equal. There's not that disparity between them."

"They're intellectually equal, but socially they're not equal at all," Arlen observed. "But they do have a huge respect and liking for each other."

Available Now!

"Candace, let's get back to Why Kill the Innocent," Barbara said. "You've told us about Princess Charlotte and her terrible situation. When a body is discovered, who is it, and why is it of such importance to St. Cyr?"

"The victim is Princess Charlotte's music teacher and a minor composer and was based on a real person named Mary Guest who did teach Charlotte. But she wasn't murdered!" Candace replied. "St. Cyr gets involved because his wife literally trips over the body."

"Sebastian has evolved quite a bit since the series began," Barbara said.

"Yes," Candace replied. "When he returned to London from fighting Napoleon, he was quite damaged-- PTSD-- and then he learned secrets about his own family that he found very hard to accept. Yes, he's definitely coming back from the edge."

"St. Cyr's family is wildly dysfunctional and so is his wife's family," Barbara commented. "You almost have to wonder if there were any normal families among the British upper crust during the Napoleonic Era!"

"I think it was a combination of money and power... and people who were marrying, not for love, but for alliances," Candace said. "Parents had very little to do with their children who were spoiled by nannies."

L to R: Tessa Arlen, Ann Parker

"Ann, let's get back to you," Barbara said. "Inez has come to San Francisco, and she's not alone."

"That's true!" Ann chuckled. "She's brought her ward with her, Antonia, who is a young girl Inez met in Leadville in the previous book. By book's end, Antonia has no family, so Inez takes her under her wing.

"It's interesting how these things bubble up from the unconscious," Ann remarked. "I had no intention of this happening, but I'm glad it did. It's wonderful to get to know Antonia, and I'm finding it's a lot of fun pairing her with Inez. Antonia is such an independent, strong-willed child. She's almost like Inez in miniature. It will be interesting to see where this goes."

"Inez came from such a solid, affluent background, but she made one terrible mistake," Barbara said.

"But he's such a charmer!" Ann laughed.

"Yes, he's a gambler," Barbara said. "It's just so interesting to see Inez, who comes from such a solid upbringing, make this one mistake, and she's led a very unconventional life ever since." 

"Yes, her family disowned her, and the only person who keeps in touch is her sister," Ann said. "How does a person live their life after making one terrible mistake?"

"Lady Montfort, on the other hand, made a spectacular marriage," Barbara said to Tessa.

"Yes, and now Clementine's broken the rules by investigating murders," Tessa said. "She investigates upstairs, and Mrs. Jackson-- who at first didn't want anything to do with this-- investigates downstairs. By this fourth book, Mrs. Jackson is completely on board."

C.S. Harris

Looking at C.S. Harris, Barbara said, "You left us with a cliffhanger, you rat! Do you plan these things out, or do they just happen?"

Candace laughed. "I know how it's going to turn out! Laura Joh Rowland, who's a good friend of mine, told me that she made a mistake with her Sano Ichiro series. She planned it as a one-off, and she said that, if she had it all to do again, she'd plan out the series. So... that's what I did. I sat down and planned things out, like Sebastian's personality and his family. I thought I'd have this all done by book six, but I'm writing book fifteen right now!"

"I like the fact that the series is moving in such small increments of time," Barbara said.

"Yes, thirteen books, and it's only been three years."

"I tell everyone it was a twenty-year war and only ended with Waterloo," Barbara said.

"Fourteen is Who Slays the Wicked," Harris told us. "The blurb will be out soon, so I'm not giving anything away by telling you that Lord Ashworth is the victim."

"Good! At least one of these bastards gets killed!" Barbara exclaimed. (Does she get emotionally involved with any of her favorite series? Nah. Not a bit!)

Ann is interested with the Palace Hotel and a printing co-operative, so she's thinking about an opera singer, that co-operative, and maybe a body in a trunk for her next book, although she's going to have to talk with her editor (Barbara) first. "Oscar Wilde actually visited Leadville," Barbara told us, "and Ann has been trying to think of a reason for Inez to go back there so she can meet Wilde."

"I'm going to wait a book or two on that," Ann said.

Tessa, on the other hand, is thinking about writing something new. "It's a very different protagonist," Tessa said. "She's very young, a little socially awkward, but she's quite independently-minded. She becomes infatuated with an American fighter pilot who's stationed on an airfield that's on her grandfather's land. This takes place during World War II, and the dialogue is so much easier! Her name is Poppy Redfern, and she lives in a very remote village which is horrified at having all these Americans on their doorstep. I'm married to an American, so it's very easy for me to write this!"

Thus endeth Part Two. Come back next Monday for the third and final part which features Paige Shelton, Kate Carlisle, and Jenn McKinlay!

CozyCon 2017 at The Poisoned Pen!

As long as The Poisoned Pen has had CozyCons, I've been there, so I left bright and early on Saturday, April 22, and drove across town to my favorite bookstore to make sure that I'd have the best seat in the house. A lot happened, and I have a lot of photos, so I'm not going to waste time setting the scene. Let's get right down to it!

The folks at The Poisoned Pen like to have a little something for everyone at these CozyCons (which Barbara Peters would have preferred to call "Malice in the West" but Malice Domestic is a tad protective), and you can see this by the lineup of authors for this year's event. The fans flocking in got to see, listen, and chat with: Tessa Arlen, C.S. Harris, Renee Patrick, Megan Miranda, Jennifer McMahon, Francine Mathews, Paige Shelton, Hannah Dennison, and Jenn McKinlay. You can see by the cover collage above that those authors represent some mighty fine reading, and there were so many of them that they were brought on in shifts! Let's bring on the first shift: Historical Mysteries....

L to R: Arlen, Harris, Peters, Rosemarie & Vince Keenan (Renee Patrick)

I'm going to warn you now that this was a three-hour event, and even though I wrote as fast as I could, you're only going to get the highlights. Fortunately, there are plenty of highlights.

The Keenans AKA Renee Patrick

The first question asked of the historical panel was about the names they write under. Rosemarie and Vince Keenan are a husband and wife team who write their Lillian Frost and Edith Head mysteries under the name of Renee Patrick. As Vince said, "We were afraid that a book with two authors' names would make people think that it's twice as good." The name they write under is Rosemarie's confirmation name (Renee) and Vince's middle name (Patrick), and we all agreed that "Renee Patrick" does sound like a 1940s Hollywood starlet, which is roughly the time frame in which their series takes place.

L to R: Arlen, Harris

C.S. Harris had written seven historical romances under her real name, Candice Proctor, before writing her Sebastian St. Cyr mysteries, and her publisher was concerned that her romance readers would be upset when faced with her historical mysteries, hence the name change. Barbara Peters not only remarked that she "adores" the Sebastian St. Cyr series, she also thinks of it as "Jane Austen Dark."

On the other hand, Tessa Arlen writes her Lady Montfort series under her own name, and she and Hannah Dennison (on a different panel) are the only two who are "authentically English." She went on to tell us that her most recent book, A Death By Any Other Name, takes place in the days leading up to World War I and is all about the cutthroat business of rose growing and the Edwardian moneyed classes. When host Barbara Peters mentioned that Lady Montfort's secret weapon is her housekeeper, Mrs. Jackson, the conversation led to a short discussion of the fact that, back in those days, cooks and housekeepers were awarded the honorary title of "Mrs." even if they were unmarried (like the single Edith Jackson).

Candice told us that her books are set a century earlier than Arlen's and that in writing she found it difficult to get all the servants out of the way long enough to have someone murdered! Her most recent Sebastian St. Cyr mystery is Where the Dead Lie, and she and Barbara both advised us to read the series in order.

"One of the things I love about Tessa's series is that Lady Montford is happily married," said Barbara, looking at Arlen expectantly. 

"Yes, she is," Arlen said with finality.

"Well, don't just drop it!" Peters laughed, so Arlen picked up the thread once again.

"Her husband decided to see her talent in solving crime as her keen interest in life, and he thinks she'd make a good criminal lawyer if only women were allowed to be so," Arlen said.

Peters giving book recommendations.

Talk then jumped a few decades to the Keenans' Lillian Frost and Edith Head mysteries set in Hollywood in the late 1930s. 

"Edith Head worked all the time, so she needed someone to do the investigating, and that led us to Lillian Frost," Vince Keenan said. "We were quite happy to use the Nero Wolfe/Archie Goodwin formula. We also knew that most books set in Hollywood at this time tended to be dark."

"Your new book Dangerous to Know takes place in Hollywood during the lead-in to World War II," Barbara said.

"Yes," Vince said. "At this time Hollywood was the world capital of classical music because so many composers, conductors, and musicians were among the first to leave Europe."

"There are a lot of interesting people in this book," Peters said. "Marlene Dietrich, Dorothy Lamour...."

"And a lot of interesting things going on as well. We had no idea that George Burns and Jack Benny were brought up on smuggling charges in 1938. It was such a big deal that it took Europe out of the headlines for weeks," Vince said. "And then the whole thing just disappeared. Too quickly. One of the things we love about writing this series is that Edith Head knew everyone. We could have anyone show up, and it would be plausible." (And those cameo appearances are one of the fun things about this series!)

"Next year is 1939, the greatest year in the history of movies," Peters observed.

"Yes! The book we're writing now has Lillian being the social secretary of an eccentric millionaire," Vince said. "Edith Head may always be working, but Lillian pulls her weight by meeting all these important people."

C.S. Harris with a fan.

Tessa Arlen's next book will be Death of an Unsung Hero, which takes place in 1916 in a rehabilitation center for shell shock victims.

C.S. Harris's next book, the thirteenth Sebastian St. Cyr mystery, will be Why Kill the Innocent.

The third Lillian Frost and Edith Head mystery will be Script for Scandal, which takes place in 1939. Edith Head will be working on a B-movie which will give the Keenans the chance to show readers what a costume designer actually does. (The couple are currently arguing over the casting of their fictional movie!) 

Then it was time to take a break, head for the refreshment table, and head to the authors for book signing and chat!

L to R: Jennifer McMahon, Megan Miranda, Barbara Peters, Francine Mathews

Jennifer McMahon, Megan Miranda, and Francine Mathews were on the second Contemporary Suspense panel. Barbara Peters started the discussion by saying that "trust no one" is currently a very vibrant subgenre, one in which it seems that "everyone we know and love will try to kill us."

Megan Miranda, author of The Perfect Stranger, told us that she likes "the idea of writing about someone who moves to a new place for a fresh start, knowing that they can present any side of themselves that they choose to." On the other hand, Jennifer McMahon likes to write books-- like her latest Burntown-- in which she confronts her own fears. 

Francine Mathews, author of Death in a Mood Indigo, said, "My Merry Folger books really don't fit in the Trust No One category. Folger is a police officer who lives in a safe and loving environment. As she investigates crimes, her assumptions are constantly challenged. In writing this series, I also wanted to tap into the long history of Nantucket Island with its thousands of incoming tourists." 

Francine Mathews

You should've heard the gasps of delighted shock when Barbara Peters told the crowd that Francine also writes the Jane Austen mysteries under the name Stephanie Barron! Then there was a humorous interlude when Peters continually tried to bring up the Merry Folger book that's due out in June when Mathews didn't want to talk about it. After one such attempt, Mathews exclaimed, "You really can't trust anyone!" which made us all laugh.

Peters went on to say that she thinks one of the reasons why "Trust No One" is so popular is because, due to social media, privacy is becoming a thing of the past. 

"No one reads fiction anymore expecting to know the ending," Mathews said. "They're always looking for the hidden narrative."

Mathews wrote her very first book-- the first Merry Folger book Death in the Off-Season-- as a bet with her husband. That was twenty-seven books ago, and a lot has changed. In 1992, she was a CIA analyst who didn't like wearing stockings and longed for the life of Jane Austen. 

Francine said, "Last year Soho approached me, wanting to bring out the four Merry Folger mysteries I'd written in the '90s, and they also wanted a new one. But twenty-five years had passed. I told them, 'Okay... if you let me rewrite those four before writing number five.'

"I sucked as a writer twenty-five years ago! And it's unbelievable how much crime solving has changed in that length of time. Rewriting those books was a very humbling experience that I don't recommend to anyone-- but I certainly benefitted from it." 

"Jennifer, your books are all standalones, aren't they?" Barbara asked.

"Yes, they're creepy psychological thrillers mostly set in Vermont," Jennifer McMahon replied. "Strange things have a habit of making me want to use them in my books. I read something about a telephone that Edison invented which was to be used to speak with the dead. There's a lot of wackadoodle stuff out there. If I don't scare myself while I'm writing, I know I'm not doing a good job."

L to R: McMahon, Miranda

She went on to say, "I've never liked those big-headed characters at Disneyland. One of the first jobs I had was wearing a bunny suit, and you wouldn't believe how trusting those kids were with me! No-- I don't like those big-headed characters. You never know who's in there. Bunny suit... trusting kids... I could've been anyone!"

"We really need to have you come back for Halloween," Barbara quipped.

"When I was young, we'd go every summer to a family place in the woods in the Poconos," Megan Miranda said. "On one trip I had to sleep alone in the living room, and it really creeped me out. In the wee hours, I woke up to the sounds of my aunt barricading the hallway, and I thought, 'But I'm on the other side!' I don't know if it's because of that, but I've always been a worst case scenario type of person, and I think you can see it in my books-- like my latest, The Perfect Stranger." 

Francine Mathews (L) chatting with a fan.

Francine told us something that happened to her which gives a bit of insight to what can happen while working with publishers. "I was told that Random House wanted another book in the Merry Folger series. It had to be called Death on Nantucket. They wanted a lighthouse on the cover... and can it be published under the name Stephanie Barron?" They got their way on two out of three. The book is being published under the name Francine Mathews, just like the other Merry Folger books.

Next up for Jennifer is "a scary haunted house book that takes place in the woods. And it has a bog, too!"

Megan told us, "In January 2018, I have a new Young Adult book coming out, and my newest psychological suspense novel which is set in Maine will be out in the summer of 2018." (All of her Young Adult books are published under the name Megan Miranda.)

Mathews told us that she's currently wrapping up a book on Jennie Churchill, Winston Churchill's mother (who is fascinating in her own right).


After another short break, it was time for the third shift: the Cozy authors.

L to R: Paige Shelton, Hannah Dennison, Jenn McKinlay, The Poisoned Pen's John Charles

Before the official start of the last panel, Barbara Peters made an announcement that warmed the cockles of my heart. In September, The Poisoned Pen-- in conjunction with Soho Press-- will have a one-day conference. All the final details have yet to be ironed out, but Craig Johnson will be the luncheon speaker. I told Denis that I'd keep an eye out for those final details so he could see about requesting the day off to join me. I'm really looking forward to it!

When Paige, Hannah, and Jenn got comfy in front of an appreciative audience, John Charles asked them a bit about their road to becoming published.

L to R: Shelton, Dennison. Photo courtesy of Jeff K.

"I decided I was going to be a writer in 1997," Paige Shelton said, "and I was going to be published by the year 2000. My first book was published in 2010. If you're writing-- don't give up!"

Hannah Dennison said, "When I was fifteen, I wrote an article about relationships when I hadn't even had a boyfriend yet, and I sent it to a women's magazine. I wrote obituaries for a local newspaper. I helped someone with a screenplay, and when I moved to California, I decided that that's what I wanted to do: screenplays. I didn't get anywhere with those. Then I tried my hand at mysteries. I've been writing for thirty years now."

Jenn McKinlay can always make us laugh. She started out by telling us, "I really didn't want a day job!" Once the laughter died down, she said, "When I was seven years old, I found my mother's old red portable typewriter, and I became the family court reporter-- which could come in handy when you need some bargaining chips with siblings!"

Jenn McKinlay

John Charles asked the authors about the settings for their series.

"The Library Lovers series is set in Connecticut because that's where I trained as a librarian," Jenn said. "The Hat Shop series is set in London because I wanted a vacation, and the Cupcake Bakery series is set in Scottsdale because I live here." 

Hannah said, "The Honeychurch Hall books are set in Devon where I grew up. It's a quiet place that tends to be fifty years behind the times. After the first book was published, I was told that there actually is a place in England called Honeychurch."

Paige said, "When I was setting out to write the Farmers Market series, I needed a place that could have a year-round farmers market, so I went to South Carolina and chose it for the setting. My family is from the area in Missouri where my Country Cooking School series is set. My Dangerous Type series is set in Utah where I lived for twenty-seven years. As for my Scottish Bookshop series, I wanted to go to Scotland and be able to write it off on my taxes!"

Hannah Dennison

Hannah described her latest, Murderous Mayhem at Honeychurch Hall, as "Downton Abbey meets Midsomer Murder." The main character's mother writes erotic romances. She doesn't believe in computers, and she never makes a copy of her manuscript. The manuscript is posted to her publisher, but it goes missing. When it's found at the local post office, there are six pages missing. There's also an English Civil War angle.

Dennison actually wrote those six missing pages, which will be published in a special e-version because she "thought of it too late for it to be published in the back of the print version." She had us in stitches when she said, "I think I missed my calling as a writer of erotica. I got quite hot writing those pages!"

John Charles wanted to know: Why multiple series?

Hannah: "When I first started, I didn't intend to write series, but I do like having a story arc. And I absolutely have to have [what writers call] a Bible, because readers will remember every tiny detail!"

Paige: "It's really nice to visit with the characters you've created, but following through with all the series commitments makes it difficult to write anything else."

Jenn: "I have a comment to make about readers remembering every detail. In one of my Cupcake Bakery books, I said that Angie's middle name was Marie. In another book, I said it was Lucia. Lots of people noticed. I think I'll get myself out of it by saying she's Italian, and her full name is Angie Marie Lucia DeLaura!"

John Charles then asked if they had any advice for newbie writers.

Paige: "Don't give up!"

Hannah: "Write every day-- even if it's only for fifteen minutes!"

Jenn: "Join writers groups, go to conferences. Don't be afraid of showing your writing to others!" 

What's next for these authors' fans to read?

Hannah told us that the fifth Honeychurch Hall mystery will have a love triangle for Kat, and the featured antique will be a World War I pocket bear. "I also have a proposal for a new series about two sisters who inherit a hotel on the Isle of Scilly." Speculation then ran rampant (a good word for someone who missed her calling as a writer of erotica) that this new series could be called "The Scilly Sisters."

Paige said the third Dangerous Type mystery will be out this coming winter, with the third Scottish Bookshop book following in the spring. "And the fourth Scottish Bookshop mystery takes place at Loch Ness."

"I was asked by my publisher to write a romantic comedy," Jenn said, "so About a Dog will be released on May 17." After the applause died down, she continued. "The second book in the series, Barking Up the Wrong Tree, will be released in September, followed by the next Library Lovers in November which is called Death in the Stacks. It was while I was writing Death in the Stacks that I was told the publisher had decided to end the Hat Shop series. [groans from the audience] Since I was feeling a bit vindictive, the Hat Shop characters are going to show up in Death in the Stacks-- and the cupcake folks will be, too!" 

But wait! There's more!

Jenn's third romantic comedy, Every Dog Has Its Day, will be out in January, "and then I'm out of contract. I may go with a different publisher."

This led to a short discussion about the changes in publishing. Jenn told us that she'd heard that Audible is looking to publish original fiction, since the audiobook market is a rapidly growing percentage of sales.

Barbara Peters, Editor-in-Chief at Poisoned Pen Press, told us that mass market paperbacks are the one form of print books that took the hit from eBook sales. "There have had to be a lot of changes," she said. "When Penguin merged with Random House, two completely different philosophies clashed. Penguin's was to have two or three books from hundreds of authors, while Random House's belief has been lots of books from a handful of authors."

Jenn McKinlay had been visiting her publisher in New York City when she saw a woman crying on her way out of the building. "When I asked why she was crying, I was told that Penguin had had secretaries, but Random House did not, so all the Penguin secretaries had been let go."

The three-hour event ended on a positive note; however, when Jenn told us of libraries-- like one in Mesa, Arizona-- having what they call Maker Space, which is an area in the library where people can find things like 3D printers, sewing machines, and have the capability of checking out rakes, hoes, or seeds. Barbara said, "That sounds like a type of vocational school at your local library."

In this day and age, you have to be flexible and inventive in order to survive.

Now it's time to stop talking and share a few more photos before ending this marathon post! Click on any of the photos if you'd like to see them in their original sizes. They'll automatically open in a new window for you.

Photo courtesy of Jeff K.

The CozyCon authors were the first to use The Poisoned Pen's new Authors' Green Room.

L to R: Mathews, Miranda & McMahon. Photo courtesy of Jeff K.

Jenn McKinlay (with John Charles) making us all laugh. Photo courtesy of Jeff K.

You had to know that I couldn't get out of there without buying something!

I hope you all enjoyed this peek into The Poisoned Pen's CozyCon. Hopefully you can attend one yourself one day!

Cozy Con 2016 at The Poisoned Pen!

Once a year, The Poisoned Pen holds a mini-conference for traditional (AKA cozy) mysteries, and it's an event I'll never miss unless something earth-shattering happens. Nothing did when Saturday, May 7, rolled around, so I journeyed to Scottsdale early to get a prime seat. This year's authors really showed the wide range of traditional mysteries: Paul Charles, C. S. Harris, Jenn McKinlay, Tammy Kaehler, Paige Shelton, Hannah Dennison, Cameron Harvey, and Annette Mahon. They just happen to be sitting in that order in the photo below--

Author Lineup for Cozy Con 2016

In many ways the very best part of a Cozy Con is the chatting. Authors chatting with authors. Authors chatting with staff. Authors chatting with fans. Staff chatting with fans. Fans chatting with fans. You get my drift.  One fan in particular reminded me of me a few years ago. We were both unashamedly eavesdropping on a conversation two authors were having. When all the authors went into the stockroom to sign their mail order books, the other eavesdropper (whom I recognized from attending several of the same events) told me, "I love listening to my favorite authors talk!" I voiced my agreement, but what I was really thinking was, "Start your own conversations with them-- they don't bite!" Then I remembered that I did the exact same thing when I first started going to these things. Now I chat with authors... with everyone... like it's Old Home Week. Not bad for an introvert like me!

Barbara Peters started proceedings by showing us the Hercule Poirot Award she was given at Malice Domestic.

Barbara's Hercule Poirot Award

She also mentioned that she originally didn't want Cozy Con to be called Cozy Con, but... Malice Domestic is a bit proprietary about its name. What did she want to call her mini-conference?

Malice in the West.

Too bad Malice Domestic is so picky!

She then stepped aside and let staff member John Charles assume command. He told us that we would begin with Speed Date an Author, followed by refreshments, and then conclude with a panel discussion and Q&A from those attending. Unfortunately there's no Livestream of this event, and there are times that things moved so quickly that my pen couldn't keep up, but I did the best I could!

Speed Date an Author

Hannah Dennison

Hannah told us that after her first signing, her husband advised her not to wear short skirts at subsequent events. Apparently her knees were knocking so badly that it was easy for everyone to see how nervous she was.

Her series seem to be tied to the jobs she's had in the past. When she was eighteen, she was in the Navy for five days-- any longer and she would have had to sign up for two years. That was followed by a job writing the obituary column for a small newspaper in Devon, England, which proved to be the basis for her Vicky Hill series. 

After working on the newspaper, Hannah worked for an antiques dealer, and that plays a part in her current Honeychurch Hall series. There are also a few family details woven into the books. After Hannah's father died, her mother bought a wing of a country house and lived there quite happily until the money ran out twelve years later. She's now living in a small house-- and Hannah assured us that her mother has never written any torrid romance novels like her character Kat Standford's mother does.

There will be a fourth Honeychurch Hall mystery, and then Hannah may write something completely different.

Cameron Harvey

First-time writer Cameron Harvey is a lawyer from New York, but her book The Evidence Room is set in a Florida bayou. Cameron firmly believes that setting can be inspiring or even considered a character in a book, and when it comes to the writing process, her characters come to mind before the plot.

She's now working on the third book in the series, Where I'm Bound. The second is finished: Smile for Me. The second and third books are also set in the same Florida bayou.

Paige Shelton

Paige Shelton has lived here in the Valley for a year now. Although she found the heat of summer to be cruel, her first winter was wonderful, and she certainly doesn't want to leave Arizona even though she spent twenty-seven years in Salt Lake City.

In 1997 Paige decided to become a serious writer and thought that it would take her three years to be published. Three years turned into thirteen when Farm Fresh Murder was published in 2010.  

She writes the Farmer's Market and Cooking School series, both of which are coming to an end, and her two new series are the Dangerous Type series set in Star City, Utah, and the Scottish Bookshop series set in Edinburgh. 

This "characters first" author has a new Dangerous Type mystery, Bookman Dead Style, coming out next January, and in March the new Scottish Bookshop entry, Of Books and Bagpipes, will be released. Her publishers are so pleased with readers' reaction to the first-- The Cracked Spine-- that they've already ordered two more in the series. Good news for us all!

Annette Mahon

Annette Mahon began her writing career in the 1980s after her third child was born. It took her ten years to get published, and at first her books were in the romance genre. Now she writes the St. Rose Quilting Bee mystery series which is set in Scottsdale, Arizona. 

Writing without an outline, this former children's librarian always begins with her characters, and often finds ways to incorporate local events in her stories. 

Her publisher is one of many who are tightening their belts and deciding to no longer publish certain genres. Having read her mysteries, I certainly hope it doesn't take long for her to find a new publishing home.

Tammy Kaehler

Until twelve years ago, Tammy Kaehler was a technical writer who always said she could write anything but fiction. Then she had a scene get stuck in her head. When it wouldn't leave, she went to Book Passage and  signed up for a four-week class called "Do You Have a Book in You?" Then she took another class, and then she joined a writing group.

When asked about her series featuring race car driver/amateur sleuth Kate Reilly, she says "I'm a sports fan by blood [her father] and a car fan by marriage." What is Tammy's goal? To become the Dick Francis of the auto racing world, although Hallie Ephron had to give her a little advice in the beginning: "Your main character has to be a driver, not a sales rep!"

Each book takes place at a different track in a different state, and in a different city, thus avoiding the dreaded Cabot Cove Syndrome, and the series shows the progression of Kate's career. Kate will be driving in the 24 Hours of LeMans and then transitioning into a different type of race car in preparation for the Indianapolis 500.

Paul Charles

Irishman Paul Charles started out in the music business at the age of fourteen. He had to receive business calls at a red telephone box a couple of streets over from his house. Someone would answer the phone, tell the caller to hang on, and walk to Paul's house to get him. Often the caller had to wait twenty minutes or so because Paul's mother would tell the messenger, "Paul can't come until he finishes his tea."

In 1994, Paul was reading Colin Dexter's Inspector Morse books and thought to himself, "If I did that, what would my detective be like?" Charles' first book was "greeted with a tidal wave of indifference," but Colin Dexter's editor did give him lots of good advice. Paul likes to write novels that read like true crime, and he's currently writing three series: DI Christy Kennedy in Camden, England; Inspector Starrett of County Donegal, Ireland; and retired police officer Brendy McCusker who's forced to return to work in Belfast, Ireland.

Jenn McKinlay

"Wow-- music industry, race cars... me? I was a librarian. I have to go home now!" After that first laugh, Jenn McKinlay polled us to see how many of us like cliffhangers in the books we read. She likes them, but only for personal issues, definitely not for anything concerning the plot. We then learned that there's a cliffhanger at the end of her latest Cupcake Bakery mystery Vanilla Beaned, and she's receiving hate mail. 

When writing, Jenn likes thinking of the hook and then she dives right into the characters. She likes to think of her books as "an Agatha Christie and I Love Lucy mashup."

Her next Library Lovers mystery, Better Late Than Never, will be released in November, the next Hat Shop book, Assault and Beret (set in Paris) is due January 2017; and the next Cupcake Bakery mystery, Caramel Crush will be out in April 2017. After that, it will be something completely different for her-- a book called About a Dog.  

C.S. Harris

it was C.S. Harris's (call her Candy) first visit to The Poisoned Pen, and I could tell by the looks on people's faces that many fans of her Sebastian St. Cyr mysteries were in attendance. Candy began as a history professor specializing in the 1750-1850 time period. She then became a writer of historical romance but then switched to historical mysteries. She rejected the era of the French Revolution for the Regency, and it was her intention to write about the entirety of Regency society so she had to think carefully about her main character's place in the world.

Many writers don't start out with the intention of writing a series, but Candy did. She always saw her books as a series with the overarching story of Sebastian's coming to terms with his parents  and with his war experiences. The only real surprise for her has been its length. Book eleven came out in May. She'd originally thought that there were only going to be eight books in the series. Then that number changed to eighteen, and now she's at twenty-two because she's "tying up loose ends... and adding loose ends." As each successive number grew larger, the smiles on her fans' faces grew bigger.

When asked if her historical romances were going to be reprinted, Candy said that they are considered to be "too intense" and that they "really don't fit into today's historical romance genre." She did say that there's a chance that they may come out as eBooks.

The next book that she has coming out is Good Time Coming, which is a story about the American Civil War through a thirteen-year-old's eyes. The book was picked up by a British publisher because American publishers "wouldn't touch it."

Panel Discussion

After a break to rush over to the refreshment table, grab some goodies, and then then conduct what I call meandering chats, it was time for the panel discussion. The more I see John Charles in action, the more I appreciate his attention to detail, the care he takes in researching visiting authors, and the questions he asks.

When Falcons Fall

Why do you write mysteries?

Kaehler: I like to learn through fiction. Mysteries have a sense of justice and an explanation for why the crime happened that you don't always get in real life.

Mahon: I love solving the puzzle.

Charles: I love to see what happens next, and the process is always rewarding.

Harris: I like to see how a person's life can be impacted by the smallest incident. It all comes down to the character. 

Dennison: I like finding out what normal people are capable of.

Shelton: I love creating the puzzle.

McKinlay: I was a public servant for twenty-two years. I have a lot of rage. (She almost brought down the house, err... bookstore... with that one!)

Vanilla Beaned

What's the most interesting thing you discovered when researching your newest book?

Harris: That there was more depth and nuance to Princess Charlotte and her mother than I'd realized.

Dennison: I was vacationing on Nevis in the Caribbean and was surprised to learn how many Royalists escaping the outcome of the English Civil War came to live on that island.

Charles: Singer Bryan Ferry once tore up his passport because he didn't like the photo, so he couldn't catch a flight to his next concert.

Mahon: The correct way to have a house catch fire after it blows up.

Shelton: That there are very few male calico cats.

Kaehler: I got a ride around the Long Beach racetrack from Mario Andretti. 

The Evidence Room

Which mystery that you've read do you wish you had written?

Kaehler: Anything by Dick Francis!

Shelton: The Eight by Katherine Neville.

Charles: Last Seen Wearing by Colin Dexter.

Mahon: The early Stephanie Plum books by Janet Evanovich.

Harvey: Anything by Kate Atkinson.

Harris: Gorky Park by Martin Cruz Smith.

McKinlay: The authors who led me to writing in this genre: the Nancy Drew books, Agatha Christie, Victoria Holt.

The Cracked Spine

      
Agatha Christie or Dorothy L. Sayers?

Everyone said Agatha Christie except my buddy Paige Shelton, who opted for Dorothy L. Sayers (just like I would).     

 

St. Ernan's Blues

If you weren't a writer, what would you be?

McKinlay: An Elvis impersonator.

Mahon: A librarian.

Dennison: I'd be doing work in historic preservation.

Harvey: An unhappy lawyer.

Shelton: An unpublished writer.

Kaehler: A postal carrier or an event planner.

Charles: A school teacher.

Harris: Is "independently wealthy" an option?

Slay Bells

What are the benefits and what are the drawbacks to writing a series?

Mahon: The benefit is really knowing your characters. A drawback is finding a mistake that has carried over from one book to another.

Kaehler: You can be stuck with things from your first book. You can create a long story arc for your characters.

Dennison: You know your characters, but a series can be restrictive.

Harris: Your cast of characters can be a ball and chain, and you can sometimes wonder "What could I have done instead?"

McKinlay: A publisher will usually buy just two or three books in a series, so I planned four books for my cupcake series. It's now into book ten. One of the benefits in writing a series is knowing my characters so well that I can write faster as a result.

Charles: There are no disadvantages. One of the benefits is being able to drop in a small character role that winds up playing a significant role in the book.

Shelton: The romantic relationships of my characters are some of my biggest challenges.

Red Flags

 Any reading recommendations?

Mahon: A Killer Ball at Honeychurch Hall!

Harvey: Fates and Furies by Lauren Groff.

Dennison: The King's General by Daphne du Maurier. 

Shelton: Bird Box by Josh Malerman.

Kaehler: Orphan X by Gregg Hurwitz.

McKinlay: The Nightingale by Kristin Hannah.

Harris: Seven Pillars of Wisdom by T.E. Lawrence.

Charles: All the President's Men by Carl Bernstein and Bob Woodward.

A Killer Ball at Honeychurch Hall

It had been a wonderful two hours, and as the signing line formed, I had to try to shake the tingling out of my writing hand. These folks sure can talk fast when they've a mind to!

Events like these are fun, and if you ever get to attend one-- and you're an introvert like me-- fight against the urge to be an eavesdropper and nothing more. Join in the chat. You won't regret it! Who knows, you may even be lucky enough to have a favorite author sitting behind you like I did. (It's always a pleasure to see and talk with Donis Casey.)

Now I'm looking forward to seeing the lineup of authors next year!