Tag Archive for: Rainy Day Women mystery

The Magic of Fiction

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by Kay Kendall

Like many authors, I am an avid reader. I also adore movies, and in both categories of storytelling I prefer fiction to non-fiction. I have loved many books and films and liked countless others. Increasingly these days, as the world becomes more and more fraught with ugliness and danger, I treasure the ability to escape into the tale of my choice, be it on the small screen or large, or on the digital or actual page. Fiction, bring it on. (Needless to say, I am not a fan of dystopian fiction.)

Two weeks ago I happened to see an online recommendation by Kate Quinn, an author of historical mysteries that I’ve read and admired. She enthusiastically supports the historical novel named Madensky Square. The book is set in Vienna, Austria, a few years before the outbreak of the disastrous First World War. Eva Ibbotson (1925-2010) wrote the book in 1985, and Pan Books reprinted it two years ago. The author herself was born in Vienna and moved to London right before World War II.

Those are the bare facts. What remains for me to convey is the intense feelings of joy and peace that reading this book instilled in me. Kate Quinn says she often  urges people to read Madensky Square, and now I have joined her worthy crusade.

In the preface to the 2017 edition is this sentence: “Ibbotson was determined to prove that romantic novels can be funny, well-written and even a little erudite.” Indeed, with Madensky Square, she achieved all that, in spades.

For me, however, to call this treasure a romantic novel sells it short. Although it begins sweetly and lightly with descriptions of the lovely square in which Frau Susanna has her dressmaker’s shop, it proceeds to deepen as the pages turn. The lives of its characters–the dressmaker and her friends and lover–go through perils and triumphs, and yet by the ending most achieve a more perfect harmony. A few receive their just deserts that are not pleasant, but the plot flows effortlessly like a stream. Nothing feels the least contrived. Susanna hides a deep sorrowful secret that burdens her throughout the book. Believe me, this is no mere piece of fluff. And Ibbotson writes like an angel.

Enchanting is one adjective that came to my mind by the fiftieth page. Then, halfway through the book, I thought, “Ah-ha. The only time I’ve felt this enraptured by fiction was when I saw the 1991 film called, fittingly enough, Enchanted April.  Even though I saw it only once, 28 years ago, I vividly recall the euphoria it induced in me.  I’m delighted to learn that I can stream it tonight, and I shall.

A little research today showed me that the book that inspired it, The Enchanted April, was written in 1925 by a British author named Elizabeth von Arnim. The book was set in Italy and was so successful that it caused Portofino (where four fictional British women spend a month away from their boring and/or stressful lives–and husbands) to surge in popularity as a tourist distination. The author’s life is well worth Googling, and you can read her entire book online for free here: http://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/16389/pg16389-images.html

If this blog post succeeds in getting even one person to read this novel and another to watch this film, I will feel good knowing that I’ve done my bit today in bringing more happiness into this dark world. Fiction lovers, I salute you!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 Author Kay
Kendall is passionate about historical mysteries. 
She lives in Texas with
her Canadian husband, three house rabbits, and spaniel Wills.
Her
second book Rainy Day Women won the Silver Falchion for best mystery at Killer
Nashville. Her newest is After You’ve Gone.

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

Writing by the Bechdel Rule—and Not Even Knowing it

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by Kay Kendall

Even though the Bechdel Rule has been around for
three decades, I never heard about it until seven years ago when it first popped
up in film reviews in the New York Times.
Now, I love movies and try hard to keep abreast of trends, so I looked it up
pretty quick. I don’t like feeling behind the times.
Also known as the Bechdel Test, it judges
movies by three criteria: (1) it has to have at least two
women in it, who (2) talk to each other, about (3) something besides a man. Cartoon
illustrator Alison Bechdel popularized her pal Liz Wallace’s concept in the
comic strip Dykes to Watch Out For in
1985. There are now 8,151 movies listed at bechdeltest.com that pass the test.  
When I first read
the test’s definition, I was astonished. Movies I watch and books I read
routinely pass this test, even before I knew it existed. The first mystery I
was in the midst of writing, Desolation
Row, passed as do the two books that followed.
I believe I was
born a feminist so it’s no wonder this rule was one I lived by. There are
fictional female characters to whom I give credit for prodding me along my way.
They include the mighty Jane Eyre, the extremely curious Nancy Drew, and even
the tragic Anna Karenina. After all, the Russian woman came to a very bad end indeed
by living only for the love of a man and nothing else.  
I
recently returned to my treasured copy of Jane
Eyre to see if it held up to my current feelings about living one’s life as
a female. Again I was astonished because the proto feminism of the novel was
laid out on almost every page. For example, look at this passage, written in
complete contrast to the fate of poor Anna Karenina: “I am no bird; and no net ensnares me: I am a free human being
     with an independent will.”
While that is the second most quoted
passage from Jane Eyre, here is
another one, a real doozy, given the era it was written in, the 1850s in
Victorian England:
“Women are supposed to be very calm generally: but women
feel just as men feel; they need exercise for their faculties, and a field for
their efforts, as much as their brothers do; they suffer from too rigid a
restraint, to absolute a stagnation, precisely as men would suffer; and it is
narrow-minded in their more privileged fellow-creatures to say that they ought
to confine themselves to making puddings and knitting stockings, to playing on
the piano and embroidering bags. It is thoughtless to condemn them, or laugh at
them, if they seek to do more or learn more than custom has pronounced
necessary for their sex.”


And yet Jane Eyre is also a magnificent love story because of the heroine’s
passion for Mr. Rochester. Proving that she could be not only independent but
in love too, she most famously stated, “Reader, I married him.”

Second wave feminism peaked in the
1970s and declined thereafter. Feminism was attacked as being anti-male. I
always thought that was utter bosh, complete nonsense. I am delighted that has
changed of late. We women can stand up for ourselves without trashing all men,
for certainly all men do not deserve that, only the ones who seek to hold women
down, to keep us, as the Rolling Stones gleefully sing, “Under My Thumb.”
In my second mystery, Rainy Day Women, I quote that awful
title from the Stones, and in my third mystery, After You’ve Gone, I have my heroine quote Jane Eyre, “I am no
bird; and no net ensnares me.”
So books that pass the Bechdel Test
with flying colors snared me as a young reader, and they do so today as well.
And, dear reader, now I write them too.
~~~~~~~

 

 Author Kay
Kendall is passionate about historical mysteries.     She lives in Texas with
her Canadian husband, three house rabbits, and spaniel Wills. Her second book Rainy Day Women won the Silver Falchion for best mystery at Killer Nashville.

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

 
 

Introducing Wallie MacGregor in AFTER YOU’VE GONE

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By
Kay Kendall

Last week my third mystery
launched. My book’s birthday plus my own made it a stellar week. I can’t
give you a piece of birthday cake, so here’s a song for you.
Fiona Apple sings “After You’ve
Gone.”
 
The song was
penned in 1918, remaining popular throughout the next several decades—especially
during the 1920s, which is what I was looking for. Even in the last 30 years
many singers have covered it. Frank Sinatra, Ella Fitzgerald, Edie Gourmet, and
many more. In truth, the song is fantastic. Singing styles change, but the song holds up. For comparison, here’s a performance fro 1927 by a star of that era, Ruth Etting. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fjgBara7N88
All my mysteries take their titles
from popular songs. My first two are Desolation Row and Rainy Day
Women. But because this new book takes place in 1923, I can hardly use another Bob
Dylan song, can I?
Copyright laws don’t cover song titles,
but lyrics are. While Dylan’s are still protected, “After You’ve Gone” is
no longer under copyright. These words from the chorus fit the storyline of my new mystery.
 
 
After you’ve gone and left me crying
After you’ve gone there’s no denying,
You’ll feel blue, you’ll feel sad,
You’ll miss the bestest pal you’ve ever
had.
There’ll come a time, now don’t forget
it,
There’ll come a time, when you’ll
regret it.
Oh! Babe, think what you’re doing.
You know my love for you will drive me
to ruin,
After you’ve gone,
After you’ve gone away, away. 

After You’ve Gone (1918)
Music by Turner Layton and lyrics by Henry
Creamer 

When you read my new mystery, you’ll
see how many characters must carry on after someone has gone—someone
very near and dear to them. The biggest loss of all kicks off the mystery, of course.
But there are others—oh so many others. Just count them all up. You’ll see.

Author Kay
Kendall is passionate about historical mysteries.  She lives in Texas with
her Canadian husband, three house rabbits, and spaniel Wills. Visit Kay at her website
 http://www.austinstarr.com/  
or on
Facebook  https://www.facebook.com/KayKendallAuthor 

 

Skipping Woodstock, But Finding Women’s Lib—and Murder

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By
Kay Kendall

 In
my Austin Starr mystery series I try not just to entertain but also to portray
what an historical era is like. My first two books are set in the tumultuous 1960s:
Desolation
Row and Rainy Day Women. Due
out next February is a prequel, After You’ve Gone. It features
Austin Starr’s grandmother as a young woman in small town Texas during
Prohibition. Although the historical setting is different (bootleg gin,
flappers, gangsters), many of the issues the two women face are similar. What
place should women have in society? What do women owe to their family, their
husbands—and to themselves? What the grandmother grapples with in 1923 is
related—almost distressingly so—to choices her granddaughter will face in 1969.
To prepare you to read the prequel, here is a rundown on my previous mystery.

Rainy
Day Women takes place in August 1969. Headlines across
the continent shriek about the sensational murders in Los Angeles of a pregnant
starlet and her friends—though Charles Manson and gang haven’t been caught yet.
Apollo 12 astronauts Armstrong (he walked on the moon), Aldrin, and Collins have
just arrived back on Earth. Rock music fans look forward to a big outdoor
concert—posters call it the Woodstock Music and Art Fair.

But
my amateur sleuth Austin Starr scarcely knows any of this. With a
three-month-old baby, she is sleep-deprived and still adjusting to her new life’s
heavy demands. Then a phone call sends her (and baby Wyatt) flying across North
America to help find a killer. Why? Because her dear friend Larissa is
suspected of murdering women’s liberation activists in Seattle and Vancouver. Then Austin’s former CIA trainer warns
that someone has contracted a hit on her. Her anxious husband demands that she
give up her quest and fly back to him. Austin must decide how much to risk when
she realizes that tracking the killer puts her and her baby’s lives in danger. 

I set my mystery
against the backdrop of women’s liberation almost fifty years ago because second-wave feminism (as it’s
now called) changed lives, and yet the rightful place of women in society still remains a
point of contention. My character Austin Starr discovers the movement when she questions
members of the dead women’s groups and is fascinated with the new ideas she
hears.

 Even though Austin’s young husband is an
anti-war activist, she herself is not a radical. I wanted her story to be
accessible to anyone today, of whatever political persuasion, and so I explore what life was like for a typical
young woman—not a headline maker, not a Hanoi Jane or Angela Davis, but a
moderate who nonetheless gets swept up by history’s tides during the turbulent
sixties. All that turmoil lends itself to drama, intrigue, and murder.

I
don’t think this is a true spoiler when I divulge that the very day Austin
discovers the murderer is the same day it rained hardest at the Woodstock
festival. Later she decides she has no regrets at missing the famous event,
saying, “I never liked mud very much anyway.” In the coming prequel we see how much of her intrepid spirit she inherited from her grandmother—she who faced off against a thug sent to Texas by none other than Al Capone. Set among true-to-life details like that, I’ve composed another young woman’s tale about finding her balance in a world ruled by men.
*******
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 

 

Before the Wishlist. The Beatles! and Tales of Yesteryear

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By Kay Kendall

Ah, the ease of the online wish list. I battled against
the concept for years. But I finally succumbed. 
What I GAINED: several hours of my precious time. What I LOST: the joy
of watching loved ones delighted by their surprise gifts. If you are a boomer (as I am), then you recall when gift-giving
before the wish list hit the scene. You tried to surprise the gift recipient—to
surprise and delight. My joy of gift giving and wrapping came from my maternal
grandmother who reveled in every aspect of gifting. 

In my boomer youth, I watched her decorate packages imaginatively.
She could have hired on for Neiman Marcus—a store back in the day that did
elegant and fanciful wrapping. (Their efforts today are a sad, pale imitation,
fie!) What my grandmother could not do—not to save her very soul—was to keep
her gifts a secret. She got so excited that she just had to give you
hints–hints so major you could easily figure out what your gifts would turn
out to be. I took such pleasure in her enjoyment that I didn’t mind.

Maybe telling Santa what you wanted for
Christmas grew into the concept of wish lists. Yet today’s wish list has
more power. Woe to you if you give someone under-forty a present not on his or her wish list. I fought against wish lists until a dear friend said she gave up trying to surprise her offspring
with delightful gifts. Finally she switched to the dreaded wish list or gave
gift cards. Otherwise her grandchildren and children were chagrined. That’s how I discovered my offspring was participating in a societal
shift. A generational difference, clear and simple. And so . . . I threw in
the towel. But I remember a different time. I recall a December when
I was a graduating high school senior. I wanted Beatle albums and 45s. When asked
what I wanted for Christmas, “Beatles please” was my instant answer. My ONLY
answer.

Meantime my mother and grandmother were in the
kitchen making cranberry loaves, fudge, and mounds of cookies…all the while
talking about the Christmases of their youths. My mother said she’d been
pleased with mandarin oranges and pecans in the toe of her Christmas
stocking, back in the 1930s. My grandmother recalled helping her mother go into
the farmyard in Ohio and select a goose for neck twisting, in the first decade
of the twentieth century–the holiday meal to be! I loved their quaint tales of
the good old days. (Probably these stories helped grow my lust for history.)

When the morning of December twenty-fifth dawned. I went
into the living room with my parents (I, an only child, admittedly a tiny bit
or more spoiled). I had expected to call this my very own Beatles Christmas.
But no. Arrayed beside the brightly lit tree was a set of three luggage pieces.

“You’re going off to college next year,” Delight shone in
Mother’s eyes. “We knew you needed nice suitcases.” I tried to murmur sincere
thanks while eyeing other presents. Where were the telltale signs of even one
33-long-play album? But John, Paul, George, and Ringo were nowhere to be found.
All was not lost however. My paternal grandparents sent a
check that I promptly cashed and turned into two longed-for Beatles albums.
But, oh, I still recall the rush of emotion, the dramatic
upheaval.

Things are so different now in the high season of gift
giving. Well something’s lost but something’s gained in living every day.
That’s the way the song goes, Joni Mitchell’s beloved “Both Sides Now.”

So then, what’s your opinion of the wish list phenomenon?
What do you remember about gift giving and receiving in the “good old days?”
What’s the routine at your house? I’d sure love to know.

*******
 
 

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>



 

Red Stilettos? Not with MY Feet!

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By Kay Kendall

Darned good thing I’m not required to wear stilettos to be part
of this magnificent gang of writers. I’m tall, two inches shy of six feet, and
have no need whatsoever for sky-high heels. And to boot (hee hee) I don’t wear red
shoes—or any other bright color. Nature gifted me with rather large feet (ahmm)
in order to balance my height.

Nancy, my pal since kindergarten, always teases me about my
foot size. I reply I’d tip over if they were small, or average, in
length. That’s a sensible view—all of me should be in proportion. But
recently I saw actress Brooke Shields interviewed on TV when she
divulged an odd factoid. Though she’s six feet tall, her shoe size is a seven. She concluded, “Therefore I often fall over.” I raced to phone Nancy to tell her that my opinion had been validated. (Inquiring minds might like to know my own size rhymes with the number seven.)

Despite my flippant answer, I’m not fond of my feet. They
often don’t even seem to belong to me, lurking at such a far distance from my eyes.
My feet seem almost alien. This probably relates to the fact that I once had
difficulty finding shoes to fit me, back when larger sizes for women were
uncommon and I would end up buying ill-fitting footwear. Consequently my feet
always hurt.

Style wise I also took what I could get. My shoes were never
stylish and always in somber colors. In my first job after grad school, my
employer was hosting a fancy dinner. One of my coworkers wanted to know what I
was wearing—answer: blue—and then what color shoes I would wear. When she heard I
could choose either black or brown shoes, she was stunned, insisting I had to do better than that. She set to work on me, getting me to upgrade to fancier footwear. My fascination with
more interesting shoes dates from that point in time—30 years ago.

 These days the range of sizes for female feet has grown—and my feet have not, hallelujah! Now my shoes spread all over my closet and
creep into my husband’s space. The colors range more widely—showing a
partiality to gold and blue. Nevertheless, you still won’t find a heel higher
than two inches, or a pair that is red. Some things never change.

~~~~~~~~~~~ 

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>

 

WHY READING IS LIKE CHOCOLATE

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by Kay Kendall

 

Reading is
similar to chocolate. It tastes luscious to most people, but not to all. These
days, however, we know through research that chocolate is a healthy thing to
eat.

Scientific
researchers have likewise come up with reasons why we should read. Here

is a curated list of reasons scientists say
reading should be done—not only for our enjoyment and increased knowledge, but
for our mental and physical well-being.

So next time you feel remorse when
you’ve spent all day reading a favorite new book, just remember these reasons.
Then POOF! Your guilt should vanish. Getting swept away by a compelling story
line or character in a wonderful book is not only entertaining but also is good for you.


Which of these reasons resonate most
with you? I’ve picked two faves. I’ll tell you mine if you’ll tell me yours!
How about it?

1.
Reading is an effective way to overcome stress.
Researchers at the University of Sussex found that reading relaxed the heart
rate and muscle tension faster than other activities often said to be
de-stressors—for example taking a walk, listening to music, and drinking tea.
Note that the research was done in England, a bastion of tea drinkers, so this is
really saying something shocking.

 2. Reading exercises our
brains. As our bodies need movement to be strong, our brains need a
work out too. Reading is a more complex activity than watching television and
actually helps establish new neural pathways.

 3.
Reading helps maintain our brains’ sharpness. Neurologists
who studied brains of those who died around age 89 saw signs of a third less
decline among those who stayed mentally active with reading, writing, and other
modes of mental stimulation like puzzles, as compared to those who did little
or none of those activities.

 4. Reading may even ward off Alzheimer’s disease. Adults who pursue activities like reading or puzzles that involve the brain
are less likely to have Alzheimer’s disease. Intellectual activity not only
grows our brain power but also strengthens brain against disease.

5. Reading may help us sleep better. Reading before bed is a good
de-stressing habit, unlike watching flashing electronic devices or television
that cue the brain to wake up.

6. Reading self-help books can ease
depression. Reading
books that encourage people to take charge of their own lives can promote the
idea that positive change is possible. A control group that had “bibliotherapy”
combined with talk therapy was less depressed than another group that did not
read self-help literature.

7. Reading helps people become more empathetic.
Spending time exploring an author’s imagination helps people understand other
people’s points of view and problems. Researchers in the Netherlands performed
experiments showing that people who were “emotionally transported” by
a work of fiction experienced boosts in empathy.

8.
Reading can develop and improve a good self-image. Poor readers or non-readers often have
low opinions of themselves and their abilities. Reading helps people understand
their own strength and abilities, hence growing better self-images.

So, here’s to your hours and hours ahead of guilt-free reading! Enjoy!
 ~~~~~~~

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. 
Her book titles show she’s a Bob Dylan
buff. Her second mystery, 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>

May the Force Be with Me!

/in /by

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

/in /by

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>