I’m often asked “Where do you get the ideas for your novels?” My answer is usually something like a great many places. Those who know me should know it all begins with school, or in this case, a school. When I was traveling through New England a few years ago, I came upon this interesting red brick school house and was fascinated. Note the unusual faux widow’s walk atop the second floor.
The story for Blood on the Chesapeake was in the very early stages when I came upon this high school. As I stood in the pockmarked parking lot and stared up at the building, I imagined I saw a dead body hanging from the railing and pieces of the story fell in place. (Strange, huh?) So, in the novel, I move the school building to my fictional town on the Eastern Shore, add a thirty year cold case mystery and wrap it all around some racist issues and I ended up up with Blood on the Chesapeake. (Of course, there’s a huge amount of research, writing, re-writing, editing, prospecting and selling, before the novel would ever see print.)
The mind of a mystery writer works in strange ways. Know where my mind is headed for my next novel? Where will I get my next inspiration? Maybe a century old Victorian mansion that happens to be haunted?
The Blog Tour begins!
As part of the promotion for the novel, the marketing rep has booked me in a national “Blog Tour.” In the next several weeks, I’m scheduled to be a “Guest Blogger” on 18 blogs—to coincide with the release of Blood on the Chesapeake. These blogs run the gamut, from mystery to writing to publishing and because different blogs reach different audiences, that means more readers will learn about my new novel—and hopefully be interested enough to buy a copy. The first of these blogs, MYSTERY FANFARE was released this week, and so the tour begins. Here’s the link so you can see for yourself.
l'll link each blog to this page, so stay in touch and I’ll keep you up-to-date on all the news.
And so the excitement begins!