Tag Archive for: Desolation Row mystery

GONE GIRL’S Mom and Me

/in /by

By Kay Kendall

Author of GONE GIRL Gillian Flynn (left), me on the right

Every
few years a new book bursts on the scene and throws the crime novel genre into
a tizzy. These are big books that sell millions, remain on bestseller lists for
months and months, get remade as movies, and establish new trends in reading.


In
recent memory three enormous crime novels have burst forth from publishers in North
America. Dan Brown’s THE DA VINCI CODE hit in 2003, revivifying the thriller sub-genre. Stieg Larsson’s GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO came to America from Sweden in September 2008, the
first of a four-part series. And in June 2012 came the diabolically plotted GONE GIRL by Gillian
Flynn.

My
favorite among these mega-sellers, by far, is GONE GIRL. I admire the author’s
ability to fashion such an intricate yet entertaining plot. As a writer myself,
plotting is not my long suit, so I’m awed by someone whose talents in that
area are masterful.

Online
comments about this book amaze me. So many readers profess to dislike the book
and to loathe the two main characters, yet the darned thing stayed a bestseller
for ages. In 2014 GONE GIRL was made into a film that opened to fine reviews.
The author wrote the screen play. GONE GIRL’s popularity was so immense that it sent her two previous novels up the bestseller charts too–SHARP OBJECTS and DARK PLACES.

Back
then, in the midst of all this hoopla about GONE GIRL, I thumbed through the
latest edition of my undergrad alma mater’s monthly magazine and found—lo and
behold—an article about Gillian Flynn. Because I knew little about her,
I stopped to read the story, thinking she must have made a presentation at the University
of Kansas. Why else were they profiling her? Then I did a double take, and then
a triple take.
Gillian
Flynn graduated from the same school I did. Who knew?! Not only was KU the
alma mater of the famed mystery writer Sara Paretsky, and of me (not so
famous), but it was also Ms. Flynn’s. I was so proud I burst into a short
rendition of the school cheer, Rock Chalk, right on the spot. (I scared my
dog.)
Because
I attend three large mystery and thriller conferences each year, I have the
chance to see many fine and famous authors. Some are on the circuit and easy to
find. For example, every summer I see author David Morrell, and I have blogged
about meeting him, the father of RAMBO. A few authors never seem to appear at
conferences. Ms. Flynn is not on the circuit.

Author Karin Slaughter (left) interviews Gillian Flynn (right)

Then
last summer the International Thriller Writers announced its lineup of headline
authors for ThrillerFest 2016. And there she was. Gillian Flynn. For an entire
year I looked forward to hearing her talk about her life and life’s work. I’m
delighted to say that she did NOT disappoint.

At
the conference in New York City on July 8, author Karin Slaughter interviewed
Ms. Flynn for an hour. Because they are long-time friends, their talk was free
and easy. Emphasis on easy, even tiptoeing
into truly raunchy territory. If you’ve seen the film BRIDESMAIDS, then you
know whereof I speak.
Several
things Ms. Flynn said stuck in my mind. First, she attributed her penchant for
writing dark, dark stories to her upbringing. Her parents were college
teachers, and her father (a film professor) shared scary movies with her at a
young age. She explained during the interview, “When I turned seven, he said, ‘I
think you are now ready to see PSCYHO.’”
That
explains a lot, doesn’t it?
Ms.
Flynn also noted that when she meets readers, they often say to her, “Oh, you
seem so normal.” Well, exactly! I sat in the audience and thought that very
same thing. Her normalcy, she says, comes from her Midwestern upbringing
(hometown, Kansas City). Her fiction writing comes from her dose of heavy-duty
adult film and reading material, started very early.
Of
course I stood in line to have her sign a copy of GONE GIRL for me. I bought a
second one just for that purpose. We had a nice chat, and she said, when asked,
of course she recalls KU’s Rock Chalk chant.
Now
Gillian Flynn is hard at work on the follow-up to her mega bestseller and
professed to feeling some pressure. I wished her well and went off happily, my
signed copy of GONE GIRL clutched to my chest.
If
you are interested in more detail about Gillian Flynn, here is more background
about her, written in her own words. http://gillian-flynn.com/for-readers/
(Note:
She pronounces her first name with a hard G. As in gill, like a fish.
~~~~~~~ 


Kay Kendall lives in Texas
with her Canadian husband, three house rabbits, and spaniel Wills. In her
former life as a PR executive, Kay’s projects won international awards. And she
studied lots and lots of history in school, and loves it still! In fact that’s why she writes historical mysteries.

Is “Author Fitness” an Oxymoron?

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By Kay Kendall

Most writers now spend countless hours each day seated at their
computers pouring words into their machines. Oh, for sure, a few rare birds do exist
who live otherwise—British writer Graham Greene wrote his usual 500 words each
day and then called it quits. Few of us are that disciplined, however, and
besides, the literary pace has picked up considerably since Greene’s heyday (and
more’s the pity).  

As Greene grew older, his daily word count even slid to 300
words. He said he couldn’t sit still longer than 90 minutes, comparing himself
unfavorably to Joseph Conrad whose ability to sit and write for twelve hours at
a stint was legendary.

Pity today’s poor authors. We no longer get the exercise
that our predecessors did decades ago. After all, they pounded typewriter keys. Surely that burned up a few extra calories
compared to the soft touch used on computer keys? And remember this—writers
from the 1860s to the 1960s also had to fling
their mechanical typewriter carriages when they reached the end of lines on their
pages. Until electric computers were invented, there was that nice little workout
too.  

Lately I’ve mused about the unhealthy life of a writer. Not
only am I getting creakier as I sit for longer hours at a time, but also I’m
reading that my lifespan is threatened if I sit too long each day. Health and
fitness gurus are now encouraging everyone to stand up—and walk too, preferably—at
least ten minutes out of each hour.

I think about
doing that, but so far that’s not been added to my routine. If I’m really
cooking on a chapter, I scarcely want to glance at the clock that’s telling me
to stand up, walk around—heck, and even smell the roses, for all I know. At
least when Graham Greene stopped after writing his required words, he then would
imbibe too much alcohol and consort with willing women who were not his wife.
That was some kind of incentive to get moving, I guess, at least for him.

I may not get up and move—or even wiggle in my chair—each hour
that I am writing, but I do exercise at least five times a week. I use a
stationary bicycle and recently added an elliptical machine to my workout
routine. Once upon a time I was proud of these exertions. I was exercising more
than the suggested number of hours each week. Yet that’s not good enough now. I
am still sitting for up to four hours at a stretch each day. My bottom gets
numb and sometimes—like now—my back aches a wee bit too.

So, I guess I’m ready for a new addition
to my fitness routine. Either that, or I could
adopt part of Graham Greene’s pattern and take up heavy drinking. Now there is
a topic for another blog one day—Let us consider the great number of writers
who were alcoholics.
 

 

Kay Kendall’s historical
mysteries capture the spirit and turbulence of the 1960s, and her titles show she’s a Bob
Dylan buff too. DESOLATION ROW (2013) and RAINY DAY WOMEN (2015) are in her
Austin Starr Mystery series. Austin is a 22-year-old Texas bride who ends up on
the frontlines of societal change, learns to cope, and turns amateur sleuth….Kay
lives in Texas with her Canadian husband, three house rabbits, and spaniel
Wills. In her former life as a PR executive, Kay’s projects won international
awards.

I’M LIVING IN THE ROARING TWENTIES

/in /by

By Kay Kendall

For the last five years I’ve lived half of my life in
the 1960s. Life inside my head, that is. During this time I wrote two
mysteries—one set in 1968 and the second a year later. Because it was important
for me to evoke the time period and get the feel just right, I recycled my own memories from that era, making them as vivid on the page as I possibly
could.

Last fall I began writing my third mystery in the series,
also taking place in 1969. I managed to get
the opening done to my satisfaction–usually difficult for me, but this time, no problem! The opening was great. But then I stalled out. Even
though I’d looked forward to writing this particular mystery in my Austin Starr
series for a long time, I could not seem to move forward with it.

Then an odd thing happened. In the midst of discussing
mystery writing with a friend, I had a brain wave. I got excited about Austin
Starr’s grandmother. I could see her, knew what she was like and understood
the issues she faced. The grandmother was in her early twenties, lived in small
town Texas, and her mystery would be set in 1923. Prohibition was the backdrop
and would play a large part in the plot development.

And so my third mystery transmogrified into something
altogether different from what I had planned. Suffice it to say that these days
my mind is all awhirl, caught up in the roaring twenties.

I can tell you all about the Volstead Act of 1919 that
prohibited alcohol production and consumption in America, led to widespread
flouting of laws in general, and gave rise to organized crime across the
nation.

I can tell you when certain slang phrases erupted into the
culture—like jeepers creepers, cut a rug,
and tomato–used to describe a comely
female rather than an edible.

I can tell you which cars were on the road in Texas in the
1920s and what they looked like.

I can tell you when Time
magazine was founded –1923.

Although I miss living half my time in the 1960s, I enjoy the mental change of pace. While the twenties and the sixties were each
eras of huge transformation, the twenties in America was a time of optimism
(until the Great Crash of 1929), whereas the sixties saw increased gloom,
beginning with the Kennedy assassination in 1963.  Of course I don’t know what it was really
like to be young in the twenties, but I have steeped myself in its culture for
quite some time. My grandparents had a set of World Book encyclopedias published
in 1922 that I poured over when I was in grade school, absorbing the culture—the silent
movies, the flappers, and all that jazz. Who knows? Perhaps I’ve been waiting
ever since then to write about this fascinating time period.

I haven’t given up on the 1960s.  Austin
Starr and her grandmother will eventually work together to solve a mystery in the book I have
temporarily laid aside. That plot line was already planned. I just didn’t know that I would
take a detour back to the roaring twenties before I could proceed with another
book set in the turbulent sixties.
~~~~~~~

Rainy Day Women by Kay Kendall

 “5 Stars! Kendall delivers a spectacular mystery. The protagonist, Austin Starr, balances being a wife, a mother and an investigator with great skill. This is definitely a coming of age story, for women and for our country. A revolution occurred during the sixties, changing the roles for women, politics and war. She shows it all.”  

My First Four Chapters…and a Giveaway

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By Kay Kendall

Yesterday was my birthday, and I had a lovely time. I got to feeling so buoyant I decided that today I would give a present to someone. Two presents, actually.

I have written two mysteries, and the latest one is RAINY DAY WOMEN. If you haven’t yet read it, check out the first four chapters online for free.
Go here http://austinstarr.com/
Then click on the link on the upper left to open a PDF file containing the beginning of the book. That is the first present.

 If you’d like a chance to win a free copy of this mystery, then leave a comment below and include a few words about why you’d like to read it. That’s the second present a lucky person will win.

RAINY DAY WOMEN is rated 4.7 stars (out of 5) on Amazon, and people have enjoyed it a lot. It tells the story of Austin Starr, a young married woman with an infant who chooses to fly across the continent to help out a dear friend in trouble. So much trouble that she is accused of murder.

The time is 1969, and Austin Starr stumbles into the budding world of women’s liberation because both the victim and the prime suspect (Austin’s pal) belong to a women’s consciousness raising group. The historical details are accurate, but not heavy-handed. Women who lived in that era have told me how surprised they were at the memories my book brings back, saying they had forgotten how different it was, way back then. Younger readers express shock at some everyday happenings.

I hope you’ll take a look at the free pages and be enticed to read more. Deadline for comments: Sunday evening, 6 pm central time, February 21.

~~~~~~~

Kay Kendall

Kay Kendall’s historical mysteries capture the spirit and turbulence of the 1960s. Kay’s degrees in Russian history and language help ground her tales in the Cold War, and her titles show she’s a Bob Dylan buff too. DESOLATION ROW (2013) and RAINY DAY WOMEN (2015) are in her Austin Starr Mystery series. Austin is a 22-year-old Texas bride who ends up on the frontlines of societal change, learns to cope, and turns amateur sleuth. Kay lives in Texas with her Canadian husband, three house rabbits, and spaniel Wills. In her former life as a PR executive, Kay’s projects won international awards.

Facing the New Year

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By Kay Kendall

Even though
we are now six days into 2016, I still feel compelled to write something about
entering a new year. On the other hand, maybe this is trite. To resolve the
issue, I did a quick online search of topics to blog about…and here is the
advice that jumped out at me.

What are people afraid
of? Do what you can to help allay those fears.
So I am back
to where I began. I’ll call it “Facing Down the New Year without Fear and
Trembling.”

 

After all, that topic haunted me as the last days of December
dwindled down. The old year had held so many horrors on so many levels. You
name it. Whether it was personal, national, or international, things were
danged scary. Whereas every other year I had welcomed the coming one with hope
and delight, looking at 2016 looming on the calendar caused anxiety and
shudders. I felt particularly snake bitten because of

a) My husband’s cancer treatments in 2015
(Will the cancer return?)
b) America’s decreasing harmony (Look at
our national and state electoral processes)

c) International tensions high as the
Cuban missile crisis (As a kid, I assumed it would sort itself out.)

 
Cursing snake bites, I walked back from the abyss’ edge and quit scaring
myself to death. The Internet asserts some of you are
experiencing similar fears, so I’ll share thoughts that helped calm
me down.

 

First, on
the international and national political stages, issues indeed are piling up,
but that does not mean that we will not keep on muddling through, crisis after crisis.
Most of the time we do. Just think how news organizations catastrophize everything
so we will pay attention to them, and that this goes on twenty-four hours a day
every day, ceaselessly. No wonder our stomachs are aflutter with fear. Some
politicians also actively try to scare us into their ways of thinking. Calmer
voices are difficult to hear above the fray.
I used to be
a news junky, and I guess in a way I still am, but I simply cannot bear to
listen to politicians and news pundits screaming that the sky is falling for
one reason or another all the time anymore. When my head churns with thoughts
of terrorism, mass immigration, climate change and the like, I turn the television off and
do something soothing. Like petting the dog. Going for a walk. Remembering that
most things I’ve worried about in my life have never come to pass. No, really.
If you don’t believe me, then list your own old fears and see exactly which
ones came true. Not many, if your life is anything like mine.
Now with
some mental toughness and practice, I have set my mind firmly in the half-full
position. I push aside the notion that the cup could also be half-empty. The
year ahead will be like most—as full of ups as it is of downs. I focus on the
ups, and keep on truckin’ right past the downs. So what if I have to reset to
half-full every few days. I can do it. Stay positive, that is. And if I can,
you surely can too.
Most of all,
I remember that all we ever have is this very moment we are living in. If I am
too anxious to enjoy it, then I’m wasting a perfectly good life. We all can
train our minds to be happy. In a serious pinch, then we can follow this maxim –
Fake it til you make it. I once heard a perfectly great sermon at my Methodist
church on that very topic.
~~~~~~~

Kay Kendall’s historical mysteries capture the spirit and turbulence of the 1960s. DESOLATION ROW (2013) and RAINY DAY WOMEN (2015) are in her Austin Starr Mystery series. Austin is a 22-year-old Texas bride who ends up on the frontlines of societal change, learns to cope, and turns amateur sleuth. Kay’s degrees in Russian history and language help ground her tales in the Cold War, and her titles show she’s a Bob Dylan buff too. Kay lives in Texas with her Canadian husband, three house rabbits, and spaniel Wills. In her former life as a PR executive, Kay’s projects won international awards.

What a Difference a Year Makes

/in /by

By Kay Kendall

Last December my
husband and I were running an endurance test. He underwent three months of
daily radiation treatment plus chemo for his neck cancer. This understandably obliterated
the entire holiday season. Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Year’s. Everything. By
my birthday around Valentine’s Day, he was beginning to feel a tiny bit better.


During his
treatments, every day I drove him to world-famous, justly revered MD Anderson
Cancer Center, and every day we passed by the same Christmas decorations. Our
favorites were the most lifelike eight reindeer of Santa’s that you would ever
hope to see—short of the real animals. They were so splendid that they cheered
us up as we passed them each day. 

Well, Santa’s reinder are back
again now. And as much as I’d like to wipe out that awful time last year, this
holiday season is bringing it back to me in full, pulsating detail. Instead of
being depressed by the memories, however, I am determined to wallow—yes,
wallow!—in thankfulness.

I am thankful that
the specialty hospital is only eight miles from our home. For family and
friends

New Orleans French Quarter at Christmas**

who stood by Bruce and me as we crawled through the long tunnel of
those months and out into the light. For being able to participate this year in
the travel plans we had made for last year’s Christmas in New Orleans. 

Still, this season
is bittersweet. The good friend who took us into her family last year at
Thanksgiving and Christmas has lost her own battle with cancer. Another friend
was in a dreadful wreck on an interstate in New Mexico and will suffer the
consequences of his many cracked bones and torn aorta for the rest of his life, even though he
was quote-unquote lucky to survive. 
Lots of old sayings
rush back into my head now. Like—you have to take the good with the bad. Life
has its ups and downs. And so forth.
Truth to tell, I
get a bit scared when I contemplate the coming year, 2016. What will it bring?
Will I be ready for whatever comes my way? That’s when I just have to shut down
the Nervous Nellie part of my brain—and it is a pretty huge part, I admit—and adhere
firmly to the view that my cup is going to be half-full, not half-empty, come
what may. Even if I cannot convince myself that “my cup runneth over.”
Excuse me if I am
dwelling too much in platitudes. But I am telling you what is in my heart and
in my mind these days. I also must add the joy I felt at the grocery store two
hours ago when the customers smiled kindly at each other, the holiday music
played, and a toddler kept bringing me items from her mom’s shopping cart. She
was so sweet and charming. And best of all,
**our weeklong visit to wonderful New
Orleans with family—including our two delightful grandchildren. Kids at
Christmas are delightful. Their joy is contagious. 
As the tee shirts
say—Life is good. It has to be. The only other alternative is unacceptable, and
will come all too soon to each of us anyway. 
So, however and
whatever you celebrate this season, I hope you enjoy yourself and have family
and friends to do it with. I look forward to chatting with you again in 2016—which
I hope will be bright and healthy for us all. Rock on!
~~~~~~~

Kay Kendall’s historical mysteries capture the spirit and turbulence of the 1960s. DESOLATION ROW (2013) and RAINY DAY WOMEN (2015) are in her Austin Starr Mystery series. Austin is a 22-year-old Texas bride who ends up on the frontlines of societal change, learns to cope, and turns amateur sleuth. Kay’s degrees in Russian history and language help ground her tales in the Cold War, and her titles show she’s a Bob Dylan buff too. Kay lives in Texas with her Canadian husband, three house rabbits, and spaniel Wills. In her former life as a PR executive, Kay’s projects won international awards.

Tis the Season!

/in /by

By Kay Kendall

Now
that December has arrived, the holiday season has truly begun. And I love every
bit of it, even when nighttime comes early. After all, this means that now the festive lights are visible
as early as six in the evening.
But it’s odd. Tis the season to be jolly, and yet I am still
spending my time figuring out how to kill off characters who reside within my
work in progress. 
Mystery
writers are a strange breed. This fact I discovered in the process of becoming
one. Last fall I got on an elevator at a mystery fan conference and announced
to another participant that my roomie and I “kill people for a living.” Then I
guffawed. I thought everyone in the elevator was attending our crime writers’
convention and would understand, but I was wrong. Some were not. One woman fled from the elevator as
soon as its doors opened. I must have scared her silly. (Really, it’s amazing what
we crime writers talk about–how to kill people and let our criminals almost get away
with murder—almost, but not quite.)

Another
thing I learned while transforming myself from a public relations professional
into a mystery author was that I needed to smooth out my habits. Previously my
work methods featured intense bursts of creativity and fascination with large,
innovative projects, followed by fallow periods when I regrouped. That style was
exciting. Maintenance projects bored me. I was a hare, not a tortoise.


While
I realized I might be able to produce
one book in a frenzy of late nights, caffeinated days, and ignored loved ones,
that was no way to build a sustainable career, writing book after book. So, I
plotted my new path. 

As
I moved along toward the publication of my debut novel Desolation Row in 2013, I developed new patterns that enabled the
publication in July 2015 of Rainy Day
Women, the second in the Austin Starr Mystery series. Remember the old axiom “slow and steady wins the race?” Those became
my new watchwords.And I am so glad I changed. It means that this month I
can revel in the joy of the holiday season, making time for parties and gift
wrapping and egg nog drinking and the like.
I
admit that the old myth of the author writing a book in a white-hot fit of
inspiration still appeals to me, but I’ve trained myself to see that sanity and
calmness and balance have their rewards too. So, like we used to say back in
the day, here’s my new motto — just keep on truckin’.
~~~~~~~

Kay Kendall’s historical mysteries capture the spirit and turbulence of the 1960s. Kay’s degrees in Russian history and language help ground her tales in the Cold War, and her titles show she’s a Bob Dylan buff too. DESOLATION ROW (2013) and RAINY DAY WOMEN (2015) are in her Austin Starr Mystery series. Austin is a 22-year-old Texas bride who ends up on the frontlines of societal change, learns to cope, and turns amateur sleuth. Kay lives in Texas with her Canadian husband, three house rabbits, and spaniel Wills. In her former life as a PR executive, Kay’s projects won international awards.

A Master Class in Mystery Writing

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By Kay Kendall

Are you a fan of Laura Lippman’s detective
stories or Megan Abbott’s crime novels? Do you ever wonder how they manage to
draw you into a web of intrigue, book after book—holding you spellbound,
keeping you reading way past your bedtime? Lucky me, I got to learn some of
their secrets last Saturday in New Orleans.

That’s where Laura Lippman and Megan
Abbott were joined by other award-

Back l-r: Bill Loefhelm, Laura Lippman,
Megan Abbott,  Alison Gaylin.
Front: organizer Greg Herren.
Not pictured: Alison Gaylin
and moderator Susan Larson.

winning authors Alison Gaylin, Bill Loefhelm,
and Erica Spindler in presenting a seminar designed to teach the essential
skills needed to write a novel. In a program sponsored by Mystery Writers of
America, these five bestselling novelists instructed us participants how to
move from the idea stage all the way through to final editing. And clearly, they
know their stuff. The awards and accolades among them include the Anthony
Award, Agatha Award, Daphne du Maurier Award, Edgar Award, Nero Wolfe Award, Shamus
Award, Strand Magazine’s Novel of the Year, and the International Thriller
Writers Award for Best Novel. Here are just a few of many points made by these talented
authors. <For more background on each author, see http://mysterywriters.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/Teacher-Bios-Website.pdf> 

Megan Abbott began by suggesting ways to expand on
your book idea, confiding that her inspiration often comes from news items. She
doesn’t
always begin at the beginning of a book, instead starting by writing
about what has inspired her—a murder, a rumored sexual encounter. She ran us through
exercises that got our creativity flowing.
Laura Lippman talked about the importance of proper
plotting and shared her method for diagraming plots. She said that if you get
stuck in writing your book, it usually means that you’ve taken a wrong turn in
your plotting, and you must fix it before you can continue. When she sees
something wrong in her diagrams, then she knows where the problem lies. “There are no
formulas,” she said. “The only thing that carries over is that I have finished
writing a book before, so I figure I can do it again.”
Erica Spindler discussed the use of setting and details to
ramp up tension. She quoted Stephen King, who said, “I write about the thing
under the bed.” She said, “I write about the wolf in sheep’s clothing, in other
words the friendly neighbor who turns out to be Ted Bundy.” Details added to a
story must do one of two things—either effect one or more characters, or, move
the plot forward. So, identify and chop extraneous details.  
Bill Loefhelm examined the critical area of character
development. “The trick to writing a successful series,” he said, “is to create
characters that people want to return to. That is the most effective tool for
storytelling.” One way of doing this is to take a tried-and-true one—think Sherlock,
Batman, Superman—and make the tired character new, fresh, twisted. Dialogue is
an important way to show character, but he cautioned not to overdo accents or
slang. A little goes a long way.
Alison Gaylin switched from discussing writing a book to
rewriting it. After your first draft is completed, she said to go back and do
these things. Drop clichés and tropes. Get rid of info dumps—dribble out crucial
backstory details throughout the whole book instead.
The seminar concluded with a discussion among the instructors,
moderated by Susan Larson, two-time chair of the jury for the Pulitzer Prize
for Fiction and book review editor for The
New Orleans Times-Picayune for 22 years. The focus was on the idea of a
muse as inspiration for writing. What stuck with me came from Bill Loefhelm,
who didn’t buy into the muse concept. However, if there was one, he said she would
be like Rosie the Riveter, with her sleeves rolled up, ready to work with him
when he came to her, when he was willing to work hard on his writing.
Greg Herren organized this wonderful day of
learning. He is outgoing president of the Southwest Chapter of Mystery Writers
of America and an award-winning New Orleans author of two mystery series, among
his other writing activities. This program is called MWA-U, Mystery Writers of
America University. Find it online here — https://mysterywriters.org/mwa-university/about-mwa-university/

~~~~~~~ 

Kay Kendall’s historical mysteries capture the spirit and turbulence of the
1960s. DESOLATION ROW (2013) and RAINY DAY WOMEN (2015) are in her Austin Starr
Mystery series. Austin is a 22-year-old Texas bride who ends up on the
frontlines of societal change, learns to cope, and turns amateur sleuth. Kay’s
degrees in Russian history and language help
ground her tales in the Cold War, and her titles show she’s a Bob Dylan
buff too. Kay lives in Texas with her Canadian husband, three house rabbits,
and spaniel Wills. In her former life as a PR executive, Kay’s projects won
international awards.

 

SHARING WITH STEPHEN KING

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By Kay Kendall

Never before have I imagined I shared anything with Stephen
King.
STEPHEN KING
He is very famous. I am not. His mind spins out inventive books in record time. I am a slow writer. King has published 54
novels and nearly 200 short stories. Kendall has published two novels and one
short story.
And yet, and yet. Yesterday I read Stephen King’s interview in
The New York Times and learned how we
are alike. Needless to say, I am thrilled.
What we have in common is not an ordinary habit. It’s
nothing like a preference for one kind of peanut butter over another—crunchy
versus smooth. Nope. Our shared pattern is pretty significant. Our minds are
involved—and so are our writing tendencies.
Here is the relevant passage from the interview:
Q. You’ve said that when you’re
not writing, if you have a break between books, you have especially vivid
dreams. Why do you think that is?
A. You get habituated to the
process, which is very mysterious, but it’s very much like dreaming…Once the
book is done, the stories are done, you don’t have anything in particular that
you want to do. The process goes on, but it goes on at night, your brain does
that, and you have the dreams. When I write again, it stops.
And this same thing happens to me too. Yes,
it does!
You may be thinking that this happens to other writers too,
but I have yet to come across another author with this pattern. When I explain how
and why my most vivid dreams start and stop, people tend to stare at me strangely.
I hope it doesn’t seem like I’m clutching at straws, putting
myself in the same camp as this super-gifted writer, Mr. King. But what it does
is give me impetus to keep on writing. This is surely a sign that means I am
doing what I was meant to do. I write. I make up stories. I mix fact and
fantasy and call it fiction.
Just as I did when my mother insisted that I take a daily
nap every afternoon when I was much too old to nap. I would lie there for the
requisite hour and spin endless stories to entertain myself. I am doing the
same thing still, now that I am all grown up.

~~~~~~~

Kay Kendall’s historical mysteries
capture the spirit and turbulence of the 1960s. DESOLATION ROW (2013) and RAINY
DAY WOMEN (2015) are in her Austin Starr Mystery series. Austin is a
22-year-old Texas bride who ends up on the frontlines of societal change,
learns to cope, and turns amateur sleuth. Kay’s degrees
in Russian history and language help ground her tales in the Cold War, and her
titles show she’s a Bob Dylan buff too. Kay lives in Texas with her Canadian
husband, three house rabbits, and spaniel Wills. In her former life as a PR
executive, Kay’s projects won international awards.

Bouchercon 2015 Redux

/in /by

By Kay Kendall

I know, I know. You may be asking yourself right now…”What in heck is a Bouchercon?” When I was new to the mystery-writing scene, I asked myself that too. Now I know it’s the world’s largest mystery fan-and-writers conference, held yearly in different cities, and offering one fattening feast for the mystery-lover’s soul!

Actually the full name of this beloved conference is quite a mouthful: Anthony Boucher Memorial World Mystery Convention. No wonder it is AKA Bouchercon! This yearly event honors Anthony Boucher (pseudonym of William Anthony Parker White, 1911-1968). He was a writer, editor, and critic of science fiction and mystery who became known as the cornerstone of modern mystery analysis. He championed crime-writing greats long before the mainstream literary establishment recognized their talents and remained an indefatigable fan and insightful reviewer of all kinds of crime fiction.  From the 1940s until the end of his life, he reviewed mysteries and science fiction for The New York Times and other US papers. He helped found Mystery Writers of America in 1946 and served as its president in 1951. The Anthony Awards are also named for him and are given out each year at, naturally, the Anthony Boucher Memorial World Mystery Convention.

Panel discussions held on a wide variety of topics form the backbone of the conference and are designed to encourage interaction among readers and writers. Typically four or more panels are concurrent, and my heart broke when some of my faves were up against each other at the most recent Bouchercon, held in Raleigh NC October 8-11.

In the last five years I’ve attended four Bouchercons–the first two as an aspiring author and the last two as a published author. At both of these last two cons, I’ve participated on a panel.

This year I moderated a panel on historical mysteries, called The Past Is Never Dead. Author-panelists Joyce Elson Moore, Rosemary Poole-Carter, Deanna Raybourn, and Holly West spoke passionately about the historic periods and characters they write about, and the audience responded enthusiastically. The large room was packed, and no one left. And that fact alone is amazing. Afterwards members of the audience came to tell us how much they enjoyed our talk, and we five left on a high, eager to have a repeat performance at next year’s Bouchercon.

GAYLE LYNDS, queen of spy fiction

Speaking of which–the overall buzz is already high about Bouchercon 2016, to be held in New Orleans September 15-18. The conference hotel is almost filled up, a whole year out, which is almost unheard of.

No doubt next year’s location will be terrific, but the event itself will have a hard time matching this year’s programming. Many famous authors were there, but if forced to pick a favorite panel I’d choose the one about espionage fiction, before and after the Edward Snowden top security breaches. Everyone on this panel had some experience in the spy field, from a former CIA analyst to a US marshall retired. Authors were Gayle Lynds (called the queen of spy fiction), Terry Shames, Marc Cameron, Susan Elia MacNeal, and moderator Mark Greaney. The book I’m writing now has a spy theme so you know I was really enthralled. And if you’ve never attended a Bouchercon before, I encourage you to consider going one of these years. You are guaranteed to be equally enthralled.
~~~~~~~

KAY KENDALL

Kay Kendall’s historical
mysteries capture the spirit and turbulence of the 1960s. Kay’s degrees in Russian history and language
help ground her tales in the Cold War, and her titles show she’s a Bob
Dylan buff too. DESOLATION ROW (2013) and RAINY DAY WOMEN (2015) are in her
Austin Starr Mystery series. Austin is a 22-year-old Texas bride who ends up on
the frontlines of societal change, learns to cope, and turns amateur sleuth. Kay
lives in Texas with her Canadian husband, three house rabbits, and spaniel
Wills. In her former life as a PR executive, Kay’s projects won international
awards.