The Three Snowbirds: Why Homosassa?

In Murder on the Mullet Express, our three snowbirds head to Homosassa, Florida as their first stop. The characters’ motives for this destination become clear (to the detriment of Uncle Percival), but someone unfamiliar with Homosassa might wonder why we set a story there in the first place, especially in the 1920s. 

Homosassa and Homosassa Springs are two communities divided by U.S. 19 in Citrus County, a fairly rural area. Today, it’s best known for its manatees and Monkey Island. We visited Ellie Schiller Park more than once, which has a timeline of Homosassa’s history. The Yulee Sugar Mill and Tiger Tail Island were interesting, but we found ourselves drawn to the tale of a Florida Land Boom project.

In the 1920s, the West Coast Development Company bought up a large amount of property in the area around Old Homosassa on the cheap, with an eye to reselling it as a planned community. I read the brochure from the newly-formed Chamber of Commerce, and they essentially said they were building the Biblical shining city on a hill (in a place with very few hills and fewer people). Eden might be a more accurate term; the area was overflowing with fish, game, and waterfowl. 

The proposal generated a lot of interest, but getting the customers to the property was a challenge: due to the enormous number of would-be entrepreneurs, Florida railroads had put an embargo on passengers. Not to be daunted, West Coast arranged for potential investors to arrive in Jacksonville, where they would be driven across the state in the luxurious new Cadillacs. Immediately, our minds went into gear: imagine the locked-room mystery one could set in a private car during a lengthy ride!

Unfortunately, that sort of puzzle works best in short form, not a novel. Plus, it wouldn’t really involve Homosassa. A deadly ride might turn up in a future story, though.

So, back to the proposed city. Sales of premeasured lots began in early 1926. The speculators who arrived first were, for the most part, not interested in living there themselves. They were there to buy property that they could then resell at a higher price. Eventually, it would pass into the hands of someone who did want a Florida home and was willing to pay through the nose for it. That sort of mindset leads to skullduggery, and where there’s skullduggery, there’s often murder.

The planned city included an arcade and casino. In those days, a ‘casino’ could refer to a place where people gathered for social affairs, but gambling was always a possibility. Tampa, only a few hours’ drive to the south, had a thriving gambling enterprise run by organized crime in the 1920s. To make things even better, the homegrown gang, Charlie Wall’s boys, were butting heads with mobsters who had come down from Chicago. Oh look, there’s murder again.

We drew from these elements to create our characters. Once that was done, the plot began to write itself. I hope you’ll find the results colorful and enjoyable. 

Guest Post, Laurel S. Peterson: The Challenges of Writing in Multiple Genres

Laurel S. Peterson’s poems have been published in many literary journals. She has published two poetry chapbooks, two full-length poetry collections, Do You Expect Your Art to Answer? and Daughter of Sky (Futurecycle Press) and two mystery novels, Shadow Notes and The Fallen (Woodhall Press). She is a writing professor, serves on the editorial board of Inkwell magazine, and was Norwalk, Connecticut’s, Poet Laureate from April 2016 – April 2019. You can find her on Twitter, Laurel on Facebook, Instagram, and at her website.
 

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Thanks for having me on your blog, Sarah. It’s a pleasure to be here!

As a community college English professor, I teach a lot of writing courses, and many students seem to struggle with why they need what I’m teaching them. Granted, employers tell us that they want employees with great communication skills, but that feels less accessible to them than, say, being able to tabulate a series of numbers (as an accountant), take blood (as a nurse), or whip up chicken marsala (as a chef). I get it. But the point of my courses isn’t only that they can now write about literature or make an argument for or against the death penalty, but that they have the facility to move among multiple forms to best express their ideas.

As professional writers, this is even more true of us. We are capable of not only writing our books in whatever our chosen genre is, but we also pen blogs, write Instagram or Twitter posts, create short stories and promotional materials, and make grocery lists. We are all capable, but what are the challenges?

The first challenge for me is flexibility of mind. I need to see what form the material wants, and then use that form. My poetry comes from intensely felt moments, while my novels come from issues. If I am out walking and am transported by the beauty of a hawk’s screel or the whispering water against the shore, that’s a poem. The purpose is to describe that moment’s power, its strong emotional pull, the way in which it connects me to something so much bigger than I.

But if I’m thinking about how someone might sneak up on me in those woods, where they would hide the body (or push it over the cliff to land in those handy bushes down below), and how women cannot walk alone in the woods in this world, then I’m in novel mode. However, the form isn’t always so clear right away. The intense moment of feeling afraid in the woods might go in either direction, and sometimes I don’t figure that out that it’s a poem until I’ve written thirty bad novel pages! 

The second challenge for me is a mastery of forms. The components of poetry are different from the components of novels. Character can be muted in poetry, but not in fiction. In literary fiction, you might get the kind of intense description that you get in a poem, but that might not be the case in genre fiction. Setting plays an important role in fiction, but it could be muted or almost absent in a poem. My challenge is to know how I can use those elements to create the effect that I want. In this case, being a poet can be really useful, as there is such attention to detail and language in a poem, and that’s a useful skill for any writer.

Finally, writing in multiple genres requires me to read more broadly. If I’m going to write in more than one genre, it’s my responsibility to be sure I’m reading in that genre as well. I do much better at that in the mystery genre than in the poetry genre, but there are always a couple of each in the reading stack. (The reading stack is a bit out of control!)  But this might also just be an excuse to buy another book!

Next up, I’m going to try writing something multi-genre, in which I combine genres in a single piece of writing. Wish me luck! What challenges do you face writing in more than one genre? I’d love to hear your thoughts.

Thank you so much for visiting with us!

Guest Post, Margot Kinberg: When You’re On Social Media*

*NOTE: The title of this post is a line from the Pet Shop Boys’ On Social Media. 

Margot Kinberg is a university professor and mystery novelist, originally from the US East Coast. Her academic and teaching background is mostly in language learning, teacher education, writing, and content area literacy. She has two crime fiction series: the Joel Williams series, and now, the Patricia Stanley series. Her new novella, Streets of Gold, comes out on March 16th.

Thanks very much for having me, Sarah. Technology has woven itself into our daily lives, and that’s especially true of social media. It’s not hard to see why, when you think of the ease of communication and the ability people have now to be in contact with others at any time, from many different parts of the world.

Social media has a lot of drawbacks, but, in both real life and in crime fiction, it can help solve crimes and find missing people. I’m sure you’ve read plenty of news stories that feature people who were reunited with family, and crimes that were solved, because of social media. We see that thread running through crime fiction, too.

Social media plays a major role, for instance, in Helen Fitzgerald’s The Cry. Joanna Lindsay and her partner, Alistair Robinson, travel from her native Scotland to his family’s home in Victoria. With them is their nine-week-old son, Noah. The flight is long and difficult, and the couple are all too glad to get off the plane and on their way. During the drive to Alistair’s family home, the couple faces every loving parent’s worst nightmare: the loss of their son. They report that he’s missing, and a massive search is undertaken. The media picks up the story, and before long, Facebook and other social media outlets are carrying the story, too. There are all sorts of ‘find Baby Noah’ pages, crowdfunding efforts, and more. The police are involved, too, of course, and they slowly begin to wonder whether Joanna and Alistair know more than they are saying about Noah’s fate. Questions start to come up online, too, and it’s not long before Joanna, especially, becomes the target of all sorts of speculation. The power of social media comes through clearly in this novel, and we see how that impacts the search and the couple.

Kazuhiro Kiuchi’s Shield of Straw is the story of Takaoki Ninagawa’s search for justice when his granddaughter is raped and killed. DNA evidence has linked Kunihide Kiyomaru to the crime, but he has gone into hiding. So, Ninagawa puts out a very public billion-yen bounty on Kiyomaru’s head and creates a website explaining how to claim the reward. When Kiyomaru hears of this, he knows that thousands of people will be looking for him, and he decides to turn himself in at the local police station. At least he’ll be protected there. Tokyo police detective Kazuki Mekari and his team are sent to bring the fugitive back to Tokyo to face trial, but that won’t be easy. Mostly through social media, thousands of people know that Kiyomaru is being brought to Tokyo by train. There’s even a way that people can check on the train’s progress online. So, the team will have to dodge amateur bounty-hunters all the way back to Tokyo. It’s an eerie look at how social media can be used to target someone.

The focus of Brannavan Gnanalingam’s Sprigs is an exclusive boys’ school in Auckland. Rugby rules there, and those who are on the team are the social leaders. One Saturday night after an important rugby match, members of the team get together for a party at the home of one of their teammates. News of the party gets around, and it’s soon crowded. One of the partygoers is fifteen-year-old Priya Gaianan, who’s both excited and nervous about going. She has too much to drink, and four of the boys on the team gang rape her. The incident’s recorded, too, and is soon passed around via social media. Priya is, of course, devastated, not only because of the rape, but also because everyone will find out about it. When she finally goes to the police to report what happened, they use the video to trace the attack to the boys responsible. In this case, we see how social media is helpful to the investigation, but also makes things that much worse for Priya.

Samantha Downing’s For Your Own Good is set against the backdrop of the exclusive (and expensive) Belmont Academy. The students there are all expected to be accepted at the finest universities, and their parents take every measure to ensure that happens. There’s a lot of pressure on the young people, and that only increases when Ingrid Ross, the mother of one of the students, suddenly dies during a major event at the school. When it’s established that she was murdered, the police begin an investigation that comes to focus on the victim’s daughter, Courtney. Along with the interviews they conduct, the police check online activity, texts, and social media to look for evidence. They arrest Courtney, but is she guilty? And if not, who else could the murderer be? It’s a complex case, and it doesn’t stop with just one killing. As we follow along, we see how the various characters share information and gossip, create their own theories about the crimes, and more, all using social media. We also see how the killer uses social media.

Social media is a part of my new novella, Streets of Gold, too. The story features fifteen-year-old Staci McKinney, who’s left home to escape her predatory stepfather. As you can imagine, her mother, Theresa McKinney, is desperate to find her, and checks her daughter’s social media dozens of times. She also creates a video, which she puts online, hoping that people will share. Her strongest wish is that Staci will see it and respond. But Theresa’s not the only one looking for Staci. Philadelphia City Councilman Daniel Langdon and his assistant, Scott Townlee, want to find Staci, too. She is the only witness to a crime they committed, and they want to make sure she’ll keep quiet. They, too, use a social media campaign to enlist the public’s help in tracking Staci down. In this case, social media could be a way to find and rescue Staci – or to trap her.

And that’s the thing about social media. Love it or hate it, it’s an important part of our modern lives. So, it’s no wonder at all that it plays a role in crime fiction, too.

Thanks again for hosting me, Sarah!

Author Interview: ME Roche

 

ME Roche is the product of a Midwest upbringing. She’s lived and worked on both coasts as well as in Ireland. As a registered nurse, she’s had the opportunity to work in many facets of nursing, and although now retired, she continues to volunteer and enjoy working at a neighborhood clinic.

What made you decide to start writing your own stories?

I’ve always loved to read—especially mysteries—and when I finally decided to try my hand at writing something myself, my first thought was to try updating those stories from the 1950’s and 60’s about student nurses who tackled mysteries. As an RN, I knew there were many changes in patient care from that time, as well as changes in our education; my first three YA novels were an attempt to address these issues.

How long on average does it take you to write a book?

With the first to the final drafts (at least eight) of my novels, it has taken at least a year to complete each one. I do, however, often set drafts aside to work on something new. For example: I’ve published two novels within the last six months, but each was just waiting for a polish. I plan another release this summer; it was also written and revised several times over the past three years.

How did publishing your first book change your process of writing?

My first two books were professionally published. By the time I had written my third book, my publisher and I had parted ways, so the whole process of preparing everything myself was almost entirely new and very time consuming. I’m still learning!

Your new novel, Bigamy, was loosely inspired by a case from the 1930s. Without getting into spoilers, could you tell us more about it?

My most recent novel, Bigamy, was loosely based on an actual case from the 1930’s. The case was brought to my attention by friends who believed it would make a good story and was actually part of their family history. It took me a while to decide if I could make it work and it was an education. We forget the amount of access to information that we have today, is very unlike what people had at that time, and what that difference meant to how situations were addressed. While I did take liberties with certain aspects of the story for dramatic effect, I did adhere to many of the details.

Who is your favorite author, and what do you enjoy most about their work?

I have way too many “favorite” authors. I love mysteries, but what I have been trying to do is discover new authors both for my own enjoyment and that of those who read the monthly newsletter on my website (www.meroche.com). My two favorite authors of this past year: Robert Dugoni (The World Played Chess) and Hank Phillippi Ryan (Trust Me).

Thank you so much for visiting!

Cover reveal and excerpt: Alter, by H.R. Truelove

Alter
H.R. Truelove
(Alter, #1)
Genres: Science Fiction, Young Adult

Who do you trust when you can’t trust yourself?

Lennox, Erris, Wisdom…
There are many voices in Laura’s mind but no one, not even her family, will believe her.

Laura’s life is far from normal. After spending years in a medical center for seeing visions no one else can, Laura is transferred to the Tomlinson Institute of Research. There, she’s promised, lies the truth she’s been after her entire life.

But as her eighteenth birthday looms closer, Laura’s already complicated life takes a sudden turn. When she discovers what hides behind her unusual abilities, Laura’s reality is blown to pieces, and she must learn to make sense of her supernatural gifts. With a little help from the voices in her head, Laura needs to fight to save herself, the world she lives in–and every other world in the multiverse.

Alter is a gripping and intricate tale of conspiracy, mad scientists, and broken lives. A multiverse of blurry lines, lies, and deceit where we come face-to-face with the best of humankind… And its very worst.

Goodreads / Amazon / Barnes & Noble / Kobo

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EXCERPT:

My eyes were weak, but I heard every heartbeat in the Hollow. Every thud had a signature as unique as each of the countless snowflakes piled outside.

The chilly air stung my eyes and lips. My ears curled from the cold and the tips of my fingers were burned black.

We didn’t even have a word for frostbite in the Dark World. Many Shadows who slept in the Hollow had missing fingers, hands, or entire arms and legs. Some limbs were taken in battle, others lost to the cold, but not one of them was a lesser fighter for it. We were born fighting, thrashing our way into the frosted wasteland of the Dark World with nothing but the voice in our heads.

I’d named mine Wisdom.

My conscience. The angel on my shoulder. The Devil. An imaginary friend—who wasn’t imaginary.

A visitor in my head, whose thoughts were a plague on my mind.

Do it now, Lennox. While Helectra’s sleeping. Her death will be quick and easy. You’ll be out of the Hollow before anyone knows you’re responsible.

What if you’re wrong? I asked, my words heard by Wisdom alone.

Helectra’s a spy! I went through the Crawlers’ records myself. Would you like to see them? Wisdom’s tone was far more threatening than helpful.

No. I trust you. It was a two-week hike to the closest computer I’d be able to verify the information on, anyway.

You should trust me. I’ve never been wrong. About anything. Wisdom’s irritation was so strong, a bitter taste settled on my tongue. We need to deal with Helectra before the Crawlers come after her. End her, Lennox. And don’t hurt anyone else this time.

Wisdom’s memories threatened to pierce my mind. I focused my thoughts, pitting my will against hers like a shield. I only wanted her words. I couldn’t handle her feelings.

Helectra wouldn’t end my life quietly. Crawler or not, I owe her a fight. I can do this. The pain will stay with me.

Wisdom’s doubt broke my shield and tore through my body.

Of course, Lennox. As always, you’ll do what you think is best.

No matter what happens.

Wisdom slipped from my mind, nothing but the jerk at my scalp to remind me a visitor was here. There was no time to celebrate the relief her quiet brought because once my visitor left, her voice was replaced with a new sound.

Thump, thump, thump.

Even a heartbeat sounded different when it belonged to a traitor. I followed the traitorous beat through the series of caves I’d sought refuge in with nearly thirty others. The children born during the Evernight were called Shadows, and the Crawlers hunted them mercilessly.

Author Bio:

H. R. Truelove lives with her family in the beautiful Pacific Northwest.

She developed a thirst for reading during her long bus rides to school, and has been writing poetry, song lyrics, and short stories most of her life.

Truelove's debut trilogy, Alter, releases in 2022.

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