Tag Archive for: Joelle Charbonneau

Whodunit? Me!

/in /by

by Bethany Maines

On my recent trip to Iceland we were watching the BBC
channel in the hotel room before going to bed (the entertainment value of the
Icelandic Shopping Network could only last so long) and I caught a fun segment
about the British Library which is showing an exhibit called Murder in theLibrary: An A-Z of Crime Fiction. The exhibit looks at the development of the
whodunit genre and features the “10 Commandments” of Monsignor Ronald
Knox. 
If you haven’t looked up the good Monsignor’s rules they
basically consist of some guidelines to prevent the author from pulling
solutions to a problem out of thin air and keep a story based in reality.  The rules hold up pretty well even over
80 years after being written – except for that one about the Chinamen.  I’m not really sure what that rule was
attempting to accomplish, but we’ll hope that it wasn’t as racist as it
sounds. 
Anyway, once I returned home I did a quick google on the
exhibit and found an interesting article that covered the rules and posed the
question: Is the Whodunit dead? Has the reading public moved on to thrillers,
true crime and procedurals?  Is the
Whodunit now a passé relic of an older time?
Well, I have to say that if I took a survey of the authors
on this blog that the answer would be a definitive, “No!” The Whodunit is alive
and well on the Stilletto Blog – whether it’s Joelle Charbonneau’s roller
skating heroine cleaning up a small town mysteries or Maggie Barbieri’s college
professor solving murders with the help of a handsome NYPD homicide detective –
our gang write crimes that get solved.
It’s my personal theory that books, like music, no longer
have one mainstream genre that is overwhelmingly popular. The world has more
readers than ever and that allows readers to pick the specific genre that
appeals to them.  The Whodunit may
no longer be THE thing to read, but I don’t think it’s being read any
less.  In fact – I’m about to start
reading a new one today.  

Live Like There Is No One Watching

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I had the pleasure of spending the weekend in Bethesda, Maryland, at the Malice Domestic convention this past weekend, where authors and fans alike gather to talk books, meet each other, and yes, down a glass of wine or two.  It was fantastic.  I got to meet and see people who I have only known on the “interwebs,” like the amazing Joelle Charbonneau (author of the Skating Rink mysteries and a new series from Berkley Prime Crime), the gorgeous Avery Ames (author of the Cheese Shop mysteries and now an Agatha winner!), and the lovely Ellen Byrreum (author of the Crimes of Fashion mysteries featuring sleuth Lacey Smithsonian).  As we have all written about in various ways, writing is a solitary and sometimes lonely undertaking, so seeing people who do what you do—and others who enjoy what you do—is an uplifting experience.
I participated in a panel on Sunday with the aforementioned Joelle, Wendy Lyn Watson, and Donna Andrews, moderated by librarian and fan Patti Ruocco.  The theme of our panel was mysteries set in academia and the audience was terrific.  During the question and answer period, only one person had a question and it was regular Malice attendee Doris Ann Norris, who asked if the lovely and talented Joelle—a professional singer and actress—could sing us a tune.  Joelle was at a loss, not sure what to sing.  I asked her to sing my favorite show tune of all time and she obliged, breaking into “My Favorite Things” from THE SOUND OF MUSIC.
When I say the girl can sing, I mean THAT GIRL CAN SING.  But that didn’t stop a number of people in the room, myself included, from joining in lustily.  By the end of her rendition, the entire room had joined in, with author Vicki Doudera, jumping up and throwing her arms out wide a la Julie Andrews.  When I had entered the room earlier, I was tired and looking forward to going home.  When the panel ended, I was exhilarated and wishing I could stay longer.
It reminded me of the old adage to live like no one is looking.  When we let down our walls, and give in to the joy of a particular moment, happiness follows.  I was also reminded of this just this morning as I took a long walk along the Hudson River with my good pal, Annie.  Annie is a preschool teacher who had the incredible idea to introduce her class to the great masters of the art world.  Using prints, she showed her students—most under the age of five—Monets, Van Goghs, Matisses, and a host of other painters so that they could figure out which ones “spoke” to them.  After they spent some time learning about the great masters, they were to use any medium they wanted—oils, watercolors, or crayons—and “paint” a picture based on their favorite artist or one of his works.  She said that the art that was created was astounding and as a result, she decided to do an “art show” during the preschool’s annual golf outing/fundraiser this past weekend.
The art was put on display in a large room with windows facing a bucolic setting in the Hudson Valley.  Annie was admiring the art when the grandmother of one of her students, an artist herself, approached her, clearly moved by the work the preschoolers had done.  She remarked that artists strive to keep a childlike perspective because in that perspective is a freedom that one loses as one gets older.  Artists, like all of us, become more inhibited, or more constrained, or more cautious in the risks they take.  Children just DO.  They let it fly.  And the results are what artists strive for and chase throughout their adult lives but have long before let go.
As a person, I’m pretty uninhibited, as you have probably gleaned from previous posts.  If I feel like dancing, I do.  If I want to break into song, I will.  But I do have my doubts and my inhibitions and sometimes that spills over into my writing.   My first draft has to be perfect or I doubt myself.  I parse every word of a previous paragraph before proceeding with a new thought.  I don’t let it fly, like I should.  So I’m going to channel the experience of singing a show tune in front of a group of forty people and think about a child with a set of watercolors imitating a Vermeer when I sit down to write.  Writing should be a combination of joy and freedom, not inhibition and caution.
Now if I could just convince myself of that!  What do you do to make yourself do the things that should bring you joy but that may not, given your own inhibitions?
Maggie Barbieri

The Worst Parent in the World

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The Stiletto Gang is thrilled to welcome friend Joelle Charbonneau today!

Are you the perfect parent? Not me!

I am the worst parent in the world. Okay, maybe that’s overstating. I mean, I’ve only been parenting for a mere three years. There are lots of folks out there who have been doing this for a lot longer, which means they have had more opportunities to screw things up. Right?

My son is three. He’s my first and after the scares he’s given me he might be my last. Like any parent, I try to keep him safe. The thing is, my best efforts to be a responsible parent seem to end in tragedy. Kind of like the time I took him to the park and he wanted to go on the big slide. He was a large nineteen-month-old, but the really big slide looked – well, really big. It seemed irresponsible of me to let him go down alone. I mean, what parent would let their kid go down a really big slide all alone when they were only 19 months? He could fall off or worse. So, I did the only responsible, safe thing I could think of – I went down the slide with him.

And he broke his leg.

No, I didn’t fall on him, although in retrospect that would have made far more sense than what did happen. My son squealed with delight, kicked his left foot out and caught the edge of the slide for just a moment – long enough for him to twist it perfectly and cause a tiny break. All because of my desire to have perfect parenting skills.

Just yesterday when he did as I insisted and went to pick up one of his toys he tripped and fell into the corner of the coffee table. Now he looks like a boxer ready to take on the next contender. Yep, despite my best efforts I seem to be doing everything wrong.

Or am I?

I admit that I have started to look for guidance for my parenting life in my publishing journey. The first four manuscripts I wrote I did with careful consideration for the subject matter and the tone. I tried to do them perfectly. None of them sold. In fact, despite my best “parenting” of those they weren’t and still aren’t publishable. However, the fifth book I wrote I did without worrying about being perfect or even selling. I sat down at the keyboard, let my goofiest ideas take over and had a blast. I wrote for myself and forgot about the need to be perfect. That book, as wild and wacky as it was, sold.

So, I guess I’m working on learning how to stop trying to be the perfect parent, but I need help. If you have any tricks you’d like to share about how to survive the parenting experience, please do! I have a lot to learn, but the one thing I know is that like my books, the kid is going to have some rough patches and he’s going to have some fabulous moments and I hope that when I go back and look at my whole parenting story I will find that my son and I both enjoyed the ride.

Joelle Charbonneau has performed in a variety of operas, musical theatre and children’s theatre productions across the Chicagoland area. While Joelle is happy to perform for an audience, she is equally delighted to teach private voice lessons and use her stage experience to create compelling characters in her mysteries. The first of the Rebecca Robbins mysteries, SKATING AROUND THE LAW (Minotaur Books) was called “Sexy and funny” by Kirkus Reviews. The second book in the series, SKATING OVER THE LINE, will hit shelves on Sept. 27th, 2011.