Tag Archive for: Kay Kendall author

May the Force Be with Me!

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by Kay Kendall


Right now I need all the help I can get. So today I called down The
Force to help amp up my super powers. In my case, The Force is Bob Dylan.

 Let me explain.

My second mystery published almost three years ago. Like the first one, it
took its name from a Bob Dylan song title. I use Dylan to evoke the late 1960s when the
stories take place. In 2013 came my first mystery in the Austin Starr series,
DESOLATION ROW (see concert shirt at right). In 2015 came RAINY DAY WOMEN. And
then came a lengthy hiatus.

 Now, at long, long last my marvelous editor and I are getting my third
mystery ready for publication. Maybe you think I’ve been lazing around the
house and doing nothing. Nope. Not exactly. Chez Kendall got hit by three
major illnesses in a row. First my husband fought cancer. Then I did, and then
I developed a rare bone disease from a botched dental procedure.

My third book got written along the way, but it took a super long time. As I
contemplate the work still to be done, my supply of oomph feels drained. The
revision I face on this continuation of the Austin Starr mystery saga seems
taxing. That’s why I call on Mr. Dylan to lend me some of his special sauce—just
a pinch of his enormous creativity, pretty please—to prepare me for the arduous
journey ahead.

Heck, I may need to wear this Dylan tee shirt every day for the next month.
Well, if so, it will be worth it. I look forward to bringing my third
mystery, AFTER YOU’VE GONE, to its publication date, later this year.

This third mystery is a prequel featuring Austin Starr’s Texas grandmother.
And wouldn’t you know it, she too loves to solve puzzles. In 1923, inspired by
her emersion in the Sherlock Holmes stories of her era, she chases down the
murderer of a relative when everyone else believes a peculiarly awful death was
merely an accident. She runs into rumrunners, bootleggers, gangsters, and
genuine flappers—even floozies. Headquarters for this activity in Texas during Prohibition
was the wild city of Galveston on the gulf coast. Al Capone even sent his goons
down from Chicago to try to muscle in on the action. Suffice it to say, Austin’s
grandmother has many eye-opening experiences.

Of course, Dylan wasn’t writing songs 100 years ago so I use another
song title instead, one that stands the test of time. Popular in the Roaring
Twenties when this prequel is set, the song “After You’ve Gone” has
been covered by many famous singers every decade since. I especially recommend
the versions by Ella Fitzgerald and Fiona Apple. Find them on YouTube.
  

And then, some months from now when Stairway Press publishes my new mystery,
I hope you will read it—and then conclude that some things are worth waiting
for. Just please do wish me luck in the meantime.

==============

Meet the author

Kay Kendall is a long-time fan of
historical novels and now writes mysteries that capture the spirit and
turbulence of the sixties. A reformed PR executive who won international awards
for her projects, Kay lives in Texas with her Canadian husband, three house
rabbits, and spaniel Wills. Terribly allergic to her bunnies, she loves them
anyway! Her book titles show she’s a Bob Dylan buff. In 2015 Rainy Day
Women won two Silver Falchion Awards at Killer Nashville.
Visit Kay at her website < http://www.austinstarr.com/>

or on Facebook < https://www.facebook.com/KayKendallAuthor>

#MeToo and My Second Mystery

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By Kay Kendall

When I began to write
my second mystery, I placed the crimes to be solved in a revolutionary setting.
I wanted to reflect on my participation in the radical movement now known as
Second Wave Feminism. Back then we just called it women’s lib.

My book Rainy Day Women came out in 2015,
slightly wrong for the era. This was a time, for example, when most young
Hollywood actresses eschewed the title of feminist. The term was derided for
being anti-men and it was dangerous to be seen as that. It annoyed me—no, it
made me just plain mad—to read these women’s comments. Most of them were under
thirty years old, and few knew how things had been in prior decades—how constrained
the roles of women really were.  
While the plot of my
mystery is completely fictional, the feelings my amateur sleuth Austin Starr as
she attends consciousness raising groups parallels my own. I provide a record
of what it was like, the stages I went through, as I learned how women were
subjected to men for millennia—forever,
really—and discovered ways to go about changing that.
Back then I thought it
would be an easy fix. Oh my, how young I was. How naïve. I thought equality was
a reasonable thing to strive for and that most men would be rational and say, “Yeah,
sure, ladies. Whatever you want.” I thought things would be “fixed” in a decade
or two.

And so here we are
today. Six months after #MeToo became A Thing. Two days after The New York Times and The New Yorker reporters shared the Pulitzer
Prize for Public Service. Their expose on sexual harassment included the
predations of the film mogul Harvey Weinstein. Their reporting unleashed a
storm of  fury that built upon the anger
of hundreds of thousands of women who had aleady taken to the streets across
America—and also around the world—the day after the presidential inauguration in
January 2017.

I am woman, hear me roar. In numbers too big to ignore. And I know too much
to go back an’ pretend . ‘Cause I’ve heard it
all before. And I’ve been down
there on the floor. No one’s ever gonna
keep me down again.
So wrote and sang Australian-American performer Helen Reddy in 1971 on her debut album. The song “I Am Woman” hit at just the right time to become the anthem of us libbers. We wanted equal opportunity for jobs, decent
childcare, help with the housework (HELP?!), reproductive freedom, and serious
treatment as a member of the human race. Sexual exploitation and abuse was not
mentioned much, if at all. Women kept their sad, sordid stories of abusive
bosses, strangers, and relatives mostly to themselves.
Flash forward to today. Now we know. Boy oh boy, do we
know. With Weinstein leading the parade, many powerful men followed. Famous men
in entertainment and the arts, restaurant chefs, and politicians keep being
called out, making headlines, and falling like dominoes. Some hit the skids and
lose their jobs for small sins, others for egregious ones. But still, Weinstein
remains the rotten gold standard of this type of horrible male behavior. This
new climate of women’s awareness has caused actresses who formerly would not
call themselves feminists instead to brand themselves as such. Now the pretty
young things walk the red carpets together in solidarity. 
And if, after you have read about all this agitation,
after you have seen it in the streets and on television, perhaps you want to
understand where it sprang from. If so, take a look at my mystery. Yes, Rainy Day Women shows what it was truly
like for one twenty-three-year-old woman in 1969. And besides, why were those
two leaders of women’s groups in Seattle and Vancouver murdered anyway? And who
done it?



Meet the author


Kay Kendall is a long-time fan of
historical novels and now writes mysteries that capture the spirit and
turbulence of the sixties. A reformed PR executive who won international awards
for her projects, Kay lives in Texas with her Canadian husband, three house
rabbits, and spaniel Wills. Terribly allergic to her bunnies, she loves them
anyway! Her book titles show she’s a Bob Dylan buff. In 2015 Rainy Day
Women won two Silver Falchion Awards at
Killer Nashville.

Visit Kay at her
website < http://www.austinstarr.com/>
or on Facebook <
https://www.facebook.com/KayKendallAuthor>

 

 

 

FUTURE TENSE

/in /by

By Kay Kendall

These days whenever I
cast my thoughts into the future, I become tense. This is a new phenomenon for me. Previously I was more hopeful. That is to say, to some degree.

I estimated that the
world had until, say, about the year 2050 until conditions became unbearable. That
was when I figured all the usual horrors of modern life that seem to threaten
our collective future would hit and hit hard: climate change and its many
evils, the threat of nuclear war, plagues that could decimate humanity,
overwhelming pollution of land, sea, and air. And so on. I feel as if I missed
something awful in that list, but I think you can get my drift.
But here lately I am no
longer able to push the crisis date out as far as 2050. Instead I expect the
decade of the 2020s to be grim. There are two main things that led me to this
conclusion. One is general, gleaned from news reports that I follow daily. The
other is personal.
On the general level, I
observe that the issues besetting my nation and my world are not being handled
well. While pollution and climate change and saber rattling escalate—sometimes it
feels as if they do so daily—I do not see a collective will of rational people
and their leaders to sit down and reason together, to combine their wisdom and
seek answers to problems that threaten to engulf us all. Everyone is mad about
something. Everyone shouts at each other. The few I notice who are working
quietly and rationally seem to be crying into the wilderness. The bullies rule
the mass media and whip up discontent.
On a personal level, I just
experienced my two grandchildren and experienced their world close up
during spring break. They are in grade school, and what a
difference a year has made. While last year electronics occupied some of their time, this year the amount of time and attention they
covered was enormous. While both children used to be avid readers and still have many
books in each of their rooms, they now just occasionally read stories. Instead
they often turn to video games for their fun, even though their parents still
take them to library often to check out books. The boy can reel off the history of video games and personal computers and wants a
DIY laptop for his birthday. He loves to lose himself in YouTube videos about technology.
Anyone who is either a
millennial or younger is living in a world overwhelmed by technology. What’s
being lost? The ability to sit quietly and collect one’s thoughts, to watch a
sunset without snapping a picture, to listen to waves hit a beach, to just
chill and BE. I fear these quiet pursuits are getting lost in the blur of activity that
is our new world.
And then when I
consider what I read about artificial intelligence and how the super brainiacs
among us are worried about the changes that are coming from AI . . . well, is
it any wonder that I have developed an advanced stage of future tense-itis?
Humanity is being
drained by lack of interaction among individuals. I want coming generations to continue
to read books, paint pictures, converse well with friends, work out disagreements
in a reasonable way—and to see the value in those things, rather than seeing
them as hopelessly old-fashioned. These are all human-based necessities and
joys that are being inundated by our tech world. I hope I am merely
being a Debbie Downer, but still, I must admit, I worry. I want literature to
continue to be written—and avidly read—that speaks to the humanity of us all. 

  

Meet the author

Kay Kendall is a long-time fan of historical
novels and now writes  mysteries that capture the spirit and
turbulence of the sixties. A reformed PR executive who won international awards
for her projects, Kay lives in Texas with her Canadian husband, three house
rabbits, and spaniel Wills. Terribly allergic to her bunnies, she loves them
anyway! Her book titles show she’s a Bob Dylan buff. In 2015 Rainy Day Women won two Silver Falchion Awards at
Killer Nashville.
Visit Kay at her website < http://www.austinstarr.com/>
or on
Facebook < https://www.facebook.com/KayKendallAuthor>

My Mysteries’ Deepest Theme—Female Friendship

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by Kay Kendall 

According to most literary criticism
I’ve read, authors typically have an underlying theme that they grapple with.
In the first book or two, the theme may not be obvious. In fact, the author
herself may not be conscious of it. Over the course of more books, however, a consistent thread shows up.  

This concept intrigues me, but I
only recently discovered my own deep theme. And it is not what I had thought it
might be. Here it is—put most simply:  
 

The importance of friendship
with—and support from—other women is key to a woman’s well-being. Or, to
paraphrase words the inimitable Ringo Starr sang way back in 1967, “She gets by
with a little help from her friends.”  

I am a relatively new author. My
first mystery came out in 2013 and my second two years later. Now my third is
nearing completion. I had thought I knew the themes in my murder mysteries, but
now realize I was wrong. After three outings, I see something else is at work.
Oh sure, the substance of my stories hasn’t changed, but another theme unwittingly crept into all three manuscripts. Close and sustaining friendships
among women appear in each book, and none of these had been part of my plan. A
quick tour through my books will show you what I mean. (No spoilers here.) 

In DESOLATION ROW, a young Texas
bride named Austin Starr follows her husband to a foreign country only to find
herself alone and in peril when he is jailed for murder. Certain of his
innocence, alone with no friends or relatives close by, Austin cannot even call
home to talk to relatives for support. The time is 1968, and long distance
calls are exorbitant. Then, in the nick of time, another young woman—Larissa,
the daughter of Austin’s professor—befriends her, and together they hunt down
the real murderer.  

My second book, RAINY DAY WOMEN,
begins one year later. Austin is a new mother, and Larissa travels across the
country to take a summer job. One day Larissa phones Austin in the middle of
the afternoon. This shocking act tells Austin immediately that her friend is in
big trouble. As luck would have it, Larissa herself now stands accused of
murdering a coworker at her temporary workplace. Because their ties are now
strong, Austin with infant in tow flies across the country to support her dear
friend—with Larissa’s dad footing the bill.  

In both these books, there are also
older women who provide sage advice and comfort to Austin. In DESOLATION ROW a
middle-aged church secretary takes Austin under her wing and is so kind that
her sympathy brings tears to Austin’s eyes. In RAINY DAY WOMEN Larissa’s aunt
is so dauntless and dogged in her pursuit of justice for her niece that she
threatens to run away with the plot.   

Of course there are male characters
too—both good ones and evil—but what became clear to me as I began writing my third
mystery is how the females keep insinuating themselves into my stories. In my prequel
about Austin’s grandmother set in small town Texas during the Roaring Twenties,
there’s another strong-minded aunt—and even flappers and floozies who make a
surprisingly good impression on my heroine. My female protagonists in all three
mysteries are in their early twenties, still figuring out what they want to do
with their lives and who they want to be. Because of that shared
characteristic, I had thought my
overarching theme was how women find their way in life. But over and over
again, I find myself writing about how my protagonists are steadied and
supported and protected by other women. While some of these female friends are
the same age, others are older and somewhat world weary. The older ones share
what they have experienced in their longer lives.  

Taken together, the secondary female
characters are the ones who make my heroines’ stories possible. They ensure the
heroines’ success—whether it is finding the bad people and serving justice, or
living a fuller, more fulfilling life.   Getting by with a little
help from female friends is the theme to watch for in my mysteries. Try as I
might to do something a bit different, this pattern continues. It seems I just
can’t help myself. Or, blame it on my subconscious, I guess. And, gosh, I hope
I haven’t spoiled any surprises by giving too much away.  

Meet the author
Kay Kendall is a long-time fan of historical
novels and now writes atmospheric mysteries that capture the spirit and
turbulence of the sixties. A reformed PR executive who won international awards
for her projects, Kay lives in Texas with her Canadian husband, three house
rabbits, and spaniel Wills. Terribly allergic to her bunnies, she loves them
anyway! Her book titles show she’s a Bob Dylan buff too. Rainy Day Women won two Silver Falchion Awards at
Killer Nashville in 2015. Visit Kay at her website < http://www.austinstarr.com/>or on
Facebook < https://www.facebook.com/KayKendallAuthor>.

 

The Allure of Mysteries—Dark and Historical Ones

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By Kay Kendall

The main reason usually given to explain the enduring appeal of mysteries is that readers like to enter a world of suspense and chaos, knowing that everything will be tidied up and turn satisfactory in the end. This format has held true for the traditional mystery for decades, and even though there are now many variations on that theme, the reasoning remains largely the same. The reader enters into a scary world, experiences thrills and spills, and then comes out the other side with all the puzzles solved and the bad guy or gal apprehended and on the way to sure punishment.

Astute fans of crime fiction will be thinking at this point–“Ah yes, but what about noir?” Other younger fans may say–“But what about dystopian fiction? I like deep, dark scary stuff where everything in the world is bleak and still I can find room for hope.”

Author Philip Kerr in Berlin

Well, to each her or his own, I say in rejoinder. On the one hand, noir is too dark for me. I get depressed reading about all those losers hanging onto their lives by mere threads yet still striving to get ahead, find romance, make the killing (either of the flesh or the pocketbook), or escape from one last jam.

I do make exceptions for the best writers of noir fiction. Two such authors whose books always land on my must-read list are Reed Farrel Coleman and Timothy Hallinan. When I open one of their books, I know it will take me into the darkest reaches of the human soul, but the understanding of psychology and the writing itself will be so sublime that I am willing to go that deep and that dark. Louise Penny is a writer of traditional mysteries whose work seems to go ever darker as her books stack up. She also takes us readers into torturous psychological territory, but her protagonist is a fine man–chief inspector Armand Gamache of the Quebec provincial police–he of impeccable morals and astute ability to decipher human hearts. His shining rectitude and compassion shoot bright rays of hope through all her novels.

All three of these writers have won multiple awards for their fine books. Dark and unforgiving as I know their plots will be, I always look forward to the publication of their books. If it is going to be noir, then it has to be of the very best quality, elsewise I will not read it. Otherwise, it simply isn’t worth it for me to get depressed. Why escape from a fractious world into a fictional one that holds few pleasures? That is not escape. It is torture.

In contrast to my approach to mysteries of the noir variety is how I view historical mysteries. I love history so much that I can put up with an average mystery as long as the depiction of a long ago time is interesting and accurate. In the same vein, I often say that I will see any film if I know the actors and actresses wear period costumes. That may sound a bit extreme, but I do mean it. And I can go very dark when reading historical fiction because I know how that time period concluded. I know the good side won in World War Two, for example. and I don’t get overly anxious as I would if I were to pick up, say, a thriller based on nuclear brinkmanship with some country ruled by a madman.

In fact, historical mysteries set against the backdrop of either world war are among my favorites. I’ve blogged before about how author Jacqueline Winspear‘s books starring Maisie Dobbs have inspired my own fiction. After serving as a nurse in World War One, Maisie turns professional sleuth and amateur psychologist, and now as the series creeps up to the beginning of World War Two, she has taken to working with the British foreign office. I also admire the World War One mysteries of the mother-and-son writing duo of Charles Todd.

But perhaps the author whose mysteries speak deepest of all to me is Philip Kerr. He combines excellent writing with impeccable historical research, while focusing on the hapless case of Bernie Gunther, a decent cop in Berlin as Hitler seizes power. The Bernie Gunther books now number twelve, with the next one releasing this April. They show a basically good man trying to swim in a toxic sea of Nazis and not drown in filth. His earliest adventures are set in 1932, and his latest escapades show his entanglements with the Stasi in East Germany in 1956.

Talk about darkness of the soul. Poor Bernie can never escape his checkered past, and in the last two books he has become suicidal. I don’t know how long he can go on, but I hope like crazy that he can. When Philip Kerr announces the publication of a new book, I rejoice. He also comes through my city on book tour, and then I get to pick his brain during a book event about the wealth of research he has done in the Nazi era in Germany. So I guess I do have a taste for noir after all.

~~~~~~~

Meet the author


Kay Kendall is a long-time fan of historical
novels and now writes atmospheric mysteries that capture the spirit and
turbulence of the sixties. A reformed PR executive who won international awards
for her projects, Kay lives in Texas with her Canadian husband, three house
rabbits, and spaniel Wills. Terribly allergic to her bunnies, she loves them
anyway! Her book titles show she’s a Bob Dylan buff too. Rainy Day Women won two Silver Falchion
Awards at Killer Nashville in 2015. Visit Kay at her website
<http://www.austinstarr.com/>or on Facebook < https://www.facebook.com/KayKendallAuthor>.

Bringing Light and Love to the Darkest Day

/in /by

By Kay Kendall

Today is December 20, and so, just as the night follows the day, tomorrow will be December 21. In the Northern Hemisphere that marks the winter solstice. This date will bring the shortest day in the year and its night the longest. During the solstice, the sun’s position relative to Earth seems to pause–the word solstice itself means “stationary sun.” The winter solstice serves as a turning point in many cultures and midwinter as an occasion to celebrate and bring light into the vast darkness.

To speak metaphorically, I write here to urge that we bring light into the lives of those around us at this darkest time of year. Mental health professionals tell us that sadness and depression are rampant in December during the holidays. Expectations are often high for fun and warm feelings–and also often dashed. If we are mindful of this, and if we care about our fellow human beings, then just think what a kind remark or thoughtful gesture can do to bring light and hope to a scarred or lonely soul at this treacherous time.

 
The association of light with hope and love seems to be true across cultures. The thought that it is better to light a candle than to curse the darkness is variously attributed to Confucius, the Old Testament of the Bible, Eleanor Roosevelt, and John F. Kennedy. No doubt there are more associations that I did not find in my brief online search.

One substance that flashes brightly and brings light is gold. Gold is usually seen as precious and a good thing. Hence the word “gold” is attached to the basic tenet of many faiths, for what Christians call the Golden Rule. Here again we find this across many religions. The graphic below shows a good summary.

Being kind to one another, bringing light and cheer to others’ lives–these seem like gifts that we can all give that will mean so much both to ourselves and to our neighbors. In the darkest hours we all need light. As long as I can remember I have loved sitting in my blackened living room and gazing at a lit Christmas tree. I still love doing that and also driving around neighborhood streets that are brightly lit for the season. This all comes full circle for me, both symbolically and literally. Do spread the light and the joy. Please do. We all need these things.

~~~~~~~

Meet the author                                                                 

Kay Kendall is a long-time fan of historical novels and now writes atmospheric mysteries that capture the spirit and turbulence of the sixties. A reformed PR executive who won international awards for her projects, Kay lives in Texas with her Canadian husband, three house rabbits, and spaniel Wills. Terribly allergic to her bunnies, she loves them anyway! Rainy Day Women  won two Silver Falchion Awards at Killer Nashville in 2016. Visit her website  http://www.austinstarr.com/  https://www.facebook.com/KayKendallAuthor
 

If Austin Starr Could Talk to You *

/in /by

By Kay Kendall

My
dear friend Larissa is in big trouble. She just called me long
distance to say she’s a suspect in a murder case. Good grief, it’s only been a
year since my husband David was suspected of murder, and now it’s Larissa. This
is too much. I’ll need to get a
trench coat and fedora—pretend I’m a private eye—if I keep getting pulled into
these cases on a routine basis. 


            Larissa wants me to fly across the continent
to give her moral support. The Mounties say she’s the one who killed the leader
of her women’s lib group. Of course she didn’t do it. The idea is ludicrous.
And, I know I owe her, big time, and want to help her, but I don’t see how I
can. Believe me, I’d leave right now if I could. But things have changed since we
talked.

            The
life-changing event is, well, I’m a mother now. Wyatt is three months old and
cute as can be. I can’t possibly take him with me because last time I went
sleuthing around, I was almost killed. However, I can’t go alone and leave Wy
at home either. David would have a perfect fit
if I asked him to babysit. Of course I
juggle Wyatt’s child care with my own courses work, but that’s expected. After
all, I mean, gosh, I’m the mom. Dads don’t do things like that—not much anyway.

 


           Still, I cannot leave Larissa in the lurch. She’s the only real friend I’ve
made since I pulled up stakes and left my home and family in Texas to join my
new husband up here, in the Great White North, Canada. You know, it really was
kinda neat—how Larissa and I clicked right away. Usually I avoid anyone who is
petite like she is. They make me feel like such an oaf. Here I am at five feet
eleven, and Larissa is a good ten inches shorter. But she is so much fun, and smart
too. The two years difference in our ages seems like nothing. She just turned
twenty-one and is still an undergrad.
            I tell Larissa everything. For
instance, she’s the only one who knows I was being trained as a spy by the CIA
right before I married David. But I could never tell him that. He would not
approve, that’s for sure. But Larissa knows and keeps all my secrets. Here’s a
funny thing, though. Why didn’t she
confide in me she joined a women’s
lib group?

            Oh
my gosh, the more I think about it, I must
fly out to be with her during her time of trouble. I’ll have to put a plan in
place. She’ll call me back in an hour and ask if I’m coming.

            Hey,
maybe you can help me out. What do you
think I should do?  

* Austin Starr is the amateur sleuth in Kay Kendall’s two mysteries. Here Austin sets out on her second murder case, Rainy Day Women, the sequel to Kay’s debut Desolation Row. Both are
published by Stairway Press.

Meet the author                                                                 


Kay Kendall is a long-time fan of historical
novels and now writes atmospheric mysteries that capture the spirit and
turbulence of the sixties. A reformed PR executive who won international awards
for her projects, Kay lives in Texas with her Canadian husband, three house
rabbits, and spaniel Wills. Terribly allergic to her bunnies, she loves them
anyway!
Her book titles show she’s a Bob Dylan buff too. Rainy Day Women  won two Silver Falchion Awards at Killer
Nashville in 2016.
Visit Kay at her website  http://www.austinstarr.com/
or
on Facebook 

Storylines from the Past Offer Lifelines Too

/in /by

by Kay Kendall

“I tried so
hard to sleep last night, but kept getting up to read more of Kay Kendall’s
DESOLATION ROW. It resonates powerfully in these troubled times . . . .”

So begins
the newest reader comment on Amazon about one of my mysteries. Of course any laudatory
review is a pleasure for an author to read about one of her book babies. However,
while I was thrilled to see five stars, I was surprised to see an emotion
expressed about reading my fiction that I never expected.

The reviewer concluded a personal email to
me by saying, “I realized that the
ideas/ideals are as compelling as the plot in your books, just what we need
right now.”
I write
historical murder mysteries, and my chosen time period is the turbulent era of
the 1960s. Back in 2012 when I finished writing DESOLATION ROW and then when it
debuted in 2013, I had hoped that setting my first book in a fraught time of
extreme unrest would be interesting. I thought it would help readers of the
baby boom generation remember their salad days and younger readers might read
and learn what it was like. The plot is fiction. The background is not. DESOLATION
ROW looks at the consequences of the Vietnam War, the anti-war movement, and
personal outcomes from military service. In RAINY DAY WOMEN published in 2015, I explore the hopes
for female improvement held by early members of the women’s liberation
movement.
One reason I
write about that time period is to describe its importance to those who know
nothing about it. Reading fiction is an easy way to learn about history.
After both
my mysteries were in print, I spoke to classes at a community college in
Alabama. Only two in one hundred students knew about Bob Dylan—my book titles
come from his songs. Moreover, none of them knew why the United States
was drawn into fighting a war in Vietnam. And none of them had ever heard of
the “domino theory.”
Another
reason I write about the 1960s is to commemorate and revivify a part of
American history that has had far reaching effects. Societal upheaval was so
intense in the 1960s that the aftershocks still are felt today. Until very
recently, that past seemed dead and buried.
Yet only two years since I spoke to those Alabama students and right now, right now the
1960s have gained new relevance. The era is evoked often on television news stations. Old battles are
being fought again in the streets of America. And readers are telling me that
my books bring them hope.

After all, they say, If we Americans got through such troubled domestic times once, we can do
so again. But hang on, dear readers, we may be in for a long and bumpy ride.

 ~~~~~~~

Read the first 20
pages of Kay Kendall’s second mystery, RANY
DAY WOMEN here! http://www.austinstarr.com/ 
That book won two awards at the Killer Nashville conference in August 2016—for best mystery/crime and also for best book.  Visit Kay at https://www.facebook.com/KayKendallAuthor

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

The Thrilling Lee Child

/in /by

By Kay Kendall

When my
first mystery was months away from publication, other writers suggested I
should attend ThrillerFest, the high powered writers’ conference held every July
in New York City. I protested that a) I don’t write thrillers, and b) that
conference was pricy. Then I was told that International Thriller Writers, the
group that holds the annual meeting, has a special program for debut authors
that helps put newbies on the map. I was persuaded to attend, thinking I would
go only once in order to participate in that program.

Janet Maslin of the NY Times interviews ThrillerMaster Lee Child.

That was
back in 2013, and I have just returned from my fifth ThrillerFest in a row. Yes,
I got hooked, pure and simple. The authorial fire power at ThrillerFest can’t
be equaled, and contrary to its name, the International Thriller Writers do welcome
authors across the full spectrum of crime writing. Whether you write cozy
mysteries, true thrillers, traditionals, historicals, suspense, or whatever. It
does not matter. All are welcome.
An awards
banquet concludes each conference. Besides handing out six book awards, ITW
honors one author who is deemed the year’s ThrillerMaster. Beginning in 2006
when the conference debuted, in chronological order the honorees were Clive
Cussler, James Patterson, Sandra Brown, David Morrell, Ken Follett, R.L. Stine,
Jack Higgins, Anne Rice, Scott Turow, Nelson DeMille, Heather Graham, and—this year—Lee
Child. Also part of the hoopla centering on the ThrillerMaster is an hour-long
interview by another notable person. This year Lee Child was interviewed by
Janet Maslin, long-time film critic (1977-1999) and book reviewer (1999 on) for
the New York Times.  
If you aren’t
up on your thrillers, here is some background about the suave and ever-genial
Lee Child, who hails from Coventry, England. Although a resident of New York
since 1998, he has not lost his gorgeous British accent—or his elegant manners
either, for that matter. Within the thriller/mystery writing community, his
name is a watchword for bestseller-dom. In fact, his twenty-one novels starring
the tall, sexy drifter Jack Reacher are so popular that I was shocked that Lee
Child had not been named an ITW ThrillerMaster years earlier.
Near the
beginning of his interview with Janet Maslin, Child announced that he had
become eligible for the award only three months previously. There was a
twenty-year rule that explained everything, one I had not known about. His
twenty-second Reacher novel is due out in the fall, and two popular films
featuring actor Tom Cruise as the legendarily tall Jack Reacher have been produced.
I will never forget when the news first broke that Cruise would play Reacher.
Much consternation ensued. Cruise is known to be well under six feet tall. Reacher
is described in book after book as six feet five, weighing 220 pounds, with a
chest expanse of 50 inches. To note: Child himself is six feet five, but his
frame is rail-thin. .
Lee Child
says he tires of being asked about the choice of Cruise, but his ire is never
evident.  Which is a good thing. At the
awards banquet, two thriller authors performed a mashup of Beatles songs with
lyrics restyled to fit known events in the life and career of Child. The medley
opened with “Tiny Jack Reacher” sung to the tune of “Paperback Writer.” This
performance brought down the house. And Lee Child smiled through it all. He
also gave everyone in attendance a hardback of collected Jack Reacher short
stories that debuted just this month. Now that’s what I call class.

~~~~~~~
Read the first 20
pages of Kay Kendall’s second mystery,
RANY
DAY WOMEN here! http://www.austinstarr.com/ 
That
book won two awards at the Killer Nashville
conference
in August 2016—for best mystery/crime and also for best book. 
Her
first novel about Austin Starr‘s sleuthing,
DESOLATION
ROW, was a finalist for best mystery
at
Killer Nashville in 2014. 

The 80/20 Rule for Readers

/in /by

By Kay Kendall

This
afternoon my husband asked me an upsetting question. “Are fewer people reading
books these days?”

I gulped. “Yes,”
I replied, “but I try not to think about it.”

On the one
hand, I see statistical reports monthly and year-to-date and this year versus
last year. The trend is down, slowly but steadily down. This depresses me. 

On the other
hand, I hang out with writers and readers—both in real and in virtual life—leading to a false sense of euphoria. Why, everybody reads and buys books and complains about no space in their homes for ever
more books. Heated debates appear online about the virtues of e-books and paper
books, which is better and why. In truth, my world is replete with readers.
Everyone cares, and cares enough to argue heatedly, but usually civilly, which
is nice in this fraught climate of ours these days.

Twenty years
ago I learned how important it is to “compartmentalize” one’s mind. President
Bill Clinton was said to have mastered this skill as he went through his
impeachment crisis. Perhaps I learned how to compartmentalize my views on today’s
declining book sales from reading about his ability. Who knows?

So today,
after I gave my husband my anguished answer, he scuttled off to his French
class and I was left to ruminate on the conditions of publishing today. That is
when I remembered the 80/20 rule.

Have you
heard of it? I first learned about it in a marketing class in the 1980s. The
concept seemed unreal to me at first. The professor said that 80 percent of a
product was bought by just 20 percent of customers. Therefore, the marketers
had to define their target market and sell to them. That way led to high sales
and success.

Since that
time I’ve seen the 80/20 rule applied to all types of situations. I have also
learned that this rule was first promulgated in 1906 by an Italian economist
named Vilfredo Pareto. His research showed that 80 percent of land in Italy was
owned at that time by 20 percent of the country’s inhabitants. From there the
80/20 rule was applied to many other areas of human endeavor. Also known as the
Pareto principle, the 80/20 rule is now used to describe almost any type of
output in the real world. The rule is commonly used to analyze sales and
marketing. Companies must dissect their revenues to understand who makes up
their core 20 percent of customers…or readers as the case may be.

At this
point you probably are wondering what this has to do with my concerns for declining
book sales. The answer is simple. The 80/20 rule relates to the two parts of my
brain. There is the joyful part of my brain that focuses on my
friends who love reading and buy many, many books every year—every month and
even every week. That joy lives because of my acquaintanceship with people who
make up that blessed 20 percent who buy 80 percent of all books.
That happy
part of my brain hums along, plotting my current work in progress and planning
future books to write. It willfully ignores the other piece of my brain in
which knowledge resides that book sales are declining.  
When I unlock
that gloom, I allow myself to think of my neighbors’ house, where I have never
seen one book, and not even a magazine. While I know the whole family can read,
that is not the problem. They simply do not choose to read books. Since they
have lived next door for at least 15 years, I know that even before the
explosion of online media, they read no books, magazines, or newspapers. The
two children read, but it is only on iPads and cell phones, and usually just for
gaming.
This leads
me to share an anecdote that happened a few years ago. Two of my friends were
discussing what to give a third pal for his birthday. The first friend said, “How
about a book for John?” The second friend replied, “No, he already has one.”
Although I
thought that was hilarious—and apt in John’s case—I also wonder if that could
be said of more and more people today.
I cannot
change a societal trend. What I can do is focus on the 20 percent of people
who still read and love books. These are my
people. I shall write for them. Should I be so lucky as to have one of my books connect by some
miracle with a non-reader, I shall hope to ensnare her or him into the grand
world of the imagination, found in books. Be they real or virtual, books
contain multitudes of wondrous imaginings. What a pity if someone misses out on
all that magic.

~~~~~~~

Read the first 20
pages of Kay Kendall’s second mystery,                                                                                      
RANY
DAY WOMEN here! http://www.austinstarr.com/ 
That
book won two awards at the Killer Nashville conference
in August 2016—for best mystery/crime and also for best book.  Her
first novel about Austin Starr‘s sleuthing, DESOLATION
ROW, was a finalist for best mystery at
Killer Nashville in 2014. 
Visit
Kay  https://www.facebook.com/KayKendallAuthor