The Story Behind Dispel the Mist by Marilyn Meredith

While I was doing research for the last Deputy Tempe Crabtree mystery, Kindred Spirits, I met and became friends with a Tolowa Native woman who lived in Crescent City CA. One of the many things she told me about was the Tolowa belief in Big Foot, including many recent sightings.

I did some research on the Internet about Big Foot and while I was reading, a site came up telling about another large creature called the Hairy Man. Imagine my surprise when I learned that a pictograph of the Hairy Man, a woman, and child are in a rock shelter in a place called Painted Rock. Painted Rock is on the Tule River Indian Reservation which is very near my home. I borrow a lot from the Tule River Indians and the reservation for my Deputy Tempe mysteries, though I am writing fiction and have changed the names of the Indians and the reservation.

When it was time to write the next book in the series, I began thinking about the Hairy Man and the Painted Rock site. I e-mailed the local college’s anthropology professor and asked where and what it looked like out there. He invited me to go along on a field trip his class was taking the very next Friday. Of course I went.

The Painted Rock site is tucked away at the far end of the reservation. A cave like shelter was created by huge boulders, one sitting atop two others. To get down to the cave, one must climb down the side of one of these very steep boulders. I’d never have made it if two of the young male students hadn’t helped me down.

The inside of the shelter is decorated with all sorts of very large and colorful pictographs of a coyote, moon, frog, centipede, the river, geometric figures—but on the inside wall is an eight-foot-tall depiction of the Hairy Man. Alongside him is a five-foot female and a three-foot child.

While listening to the Indian guide’s explanation of everything, I busily took notes. He looked at me sternly and said, “Don’t ever come down here at night.”

I asked, “Why not?”

His answer was, “There are too many spirits here at night.”

Of course I never would, I could barely get down there in the daylight, but I knew Tempe would definitely have to go there at nighttime.

My visit to the Painted Rock and the legend of the Hairy Man is what inspired Dispel the Mist.

I had more fun writing that book and talking about it than any other book I’ve written.

You can read the legend of the Hairy Man and the first chapter of the book on my website: http://fictionforyou and the book is available as an e-book or trade paperback directly from the publisher: http://www.mundaniapress.com or any online or regular bookstore.

Marilyn Meredith is the author of over twenty-five published novels, including the award winning Deputy Tempe Crabtree mystery series, the latest, Dispel the Mist from Mundania Press. Under the name of F. M. Meredith she writes the Rocky Bluff P.D. crime series. No Sanctuary is the newest from Oak Tree Press.

She is a member of EPIC, four chapters of Sisters in Crime, Mystery Writers of America, WOK, and on the board of the Public Safety Writers of America. She was an instructor for Writer’s Digest School for ten years, served as an instructor at the Maui Writer’s Retreat and many other writer’s conferences. She makes her home in Springville CA, much like Bear Creek where Deputy Tempe Crabtree lives. Visit her at http://fictionforyou.com/.

A PURE DOUBLE CROSS by Mystery/Thriller Author John Knoerle

I had just completed a mystery novel based on family history – “The Violin Player” (Mayhaven Press) – and I was looking for new fields to plow.

I have always been enamored of hardboiled fiction and the films noir so I rented some 1940s movies in search of inspiration, and sat back to watch.

I thoroughly enjoyed the classics – The Big Sleep, Murder My Sweet, The Maltese Falcon, Out of the Past, The Dark Corner. But the private-detective-as-gin-soaked-Galahad genre had been done to death. How could I top Raymond Chandler and Dash Hammett?

Then inspiration struck when I least expected it.

“T Men” (1947) is not generally ranked in the top tier of the films noir, it doesn’t feature big stars or a name director. But it got my attention.

The film is about Treasury agents who go undercover to track down a counterfeit ring. The grinding tension of constantly pretending to be someone you’re not appealed to me as a mystery writer. One scene in particular crystallized it.

The head T-man is leaving a restaurant with his mobster ‘buddies’ when he encounters an old girlfriend. She greets him by his real name, he pretends he doesn’t know her. The mobsters eye him with murderous suspicion.

I decided to write about such a character, a guy who is always on guard, not so much from fear of a violent death – though that is always a possibility – but on guard from a more existential fear of being ‘found out.’

And who better to embody that than a former spy for the Office of Strategic Services, the World War Two version of the Central Intelligence Agency.

The fear of being ‘found out’ snakes off in all directions, then makes a U-turn in the direction of our hero. Hal Schroeder is forced to ask himself who the hell he really is, and what the hell he really wants.

His search for the answer to that question propels “A Pure Double Cross” to its sensational conclusion.

John Knoerle’s first novel, Crystal Meth Cowboys, was optioned by Fox for a TV series. His second novel, The Violin Player, won the Mayhaven Award for Fiction. His new novel, A Pure Double Cross, is Book One of the American Spy Trilogy. John lives with his wife in Chicago. You can learn more about John Knoerle at www.bluesteelpress.com.

The Story Behind the Book is part of the pre-tour package included with certain tour packages.  John’s tour will begin on March 1 and continue until March 30.  If you would like to visit his tour stops, visit www.virtualbooktours.wordpress.com in March.

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Beneath a Buried House by Bob Avey: “…a personal need for an in depth exploration of character propelled the book to its finish.”

“Beneath a Buried House”, the second book in the Detective Elliot series, came to life in a frenzied atmosphere of deadlines and writers block. After suffering a year of block and self-pity, I turned in desperation to an older story that I’d previously shelved, a character study, which I adapted into an Elliot novel.

I needed a second book, a follow up to “Twisted Perception”, which was the first book in the Detective Elliot series. If I was going to be a mystery writer, I needed to act like one. It seems odd when I think about it. I started out writing short stories best described as being in the Twilight Zone genre. My favorite authors were and are writers like Dean Koontz, Stephen King and John Saul. So, how did I end up writing mystery? It’s a long story, but I’ll dip into it briefly. I’ve been writing most of my life, but it wasn’t until my late thirties during a rather interesting and creative midlife crises that I began to take it seriously. In light of this, I began searching for a writers group in which to join. Having recently moved back to the Tulsa area, I contacted the library for help and they put me in touch with the Tulsa NightWriters, a group that I still belong to. As an offshoot to the club, several of the members had begun meeting one night a week to critique each other’s work and I soon joined this subgroup as well. To sum it up, the members of this offshoot were a rather conservative bunch, not much caring for either the genre or the form I’d chosen. They suggested that I abandon short stories and begin a novel and indicated, perhaps a bit more subtly that I also choose a more serious subject. I followed their advice and wrote “Twisted Perception”, the first Detective Elliot novel. Having had some success with it, I decided to do a follow up book, which was “Beneath a Buried House”.

Having made the decision to write a second Elliot book, I should have dove right in after finishing the first one. But it didn’t work out that way. I became aware of an author’s need to promote their work, and as I began to research this area I became a little too caught up in it, putting off the writing of the second book until I had the first one well on its way to success. That’s what I told myself. However, after a few months of enthusiastic promotion, when I realized I needed to get started writing I couldn’t do it. Writers block had set in. I continued to procrastinate for a few more months, writing a scene here and there only to stick it in a file and forget about it when an opportunity presented itself. I’d picked up some literature promoting a writers’ conference that offered an interesting contest. Attendants of the conference could send in a synopsis and the first three chapters of their current novel for a New York agent to review. The winner of the contest was guaranteed to have their manuscript read by the agency. I entered the contest and won. The only problem was I didn’t have the manuscript completed and the agency wanted to see it right away. So I drove straight home after the conference, found an older story I’d worked up and, in a heated mix and match of stories produced the first draft of “Beneath a Buried House”.

One of the reasons people read is to gain a better understanding of human interaction and the emotional joys and conflicts associated with relationships. However, the flip side of the coin, the writing of story, the laying down of words on paper offers its share of self- discovery as well. In light of this, it could be said that while the need for a second book got “Beneath a Buried House” kicked off, a personal need for an in depth exploration of character propelled the book to its finish. The story I’d put aside only to resurrect as an Elliot novel was nothing more than an elaborate role-playing exercise in which I immersed myself in an effort to better understand the world around me.

On further reflection, the impetus behind a large portion of my writing is a deep-down desire to understand myself, and the people around me. However, I hope that putting myself behind the eight ball in order to get it done is not a precedent that I will continue to follow.

“Beneath a Buried House” is available at:

http://search.barnesandnoble.com/Beneath-A-Buried-House/Bob-Avey/e/9780937660812/?itm=1

http://www.amazon.com/Beneath-Buried-House-Bob-Avey/dp/0937660817

Bob Avey is the author of the mystery novel, BENEATH A BURIED HOUSE. You can visit his website at www.bobavey.com for more information about the author and his book.

Searchable Whereabouts by Tinisha Nicole Johnson

It took me about four years to write my mystery novel, Searchable Whereabouts. This book is actually my fourth book I wrote, if you count a poetry anthology. However, it is the first to be published. 

I have long loved mysteries. I first remember watching Kojak – that’s probably taking me way back. When writing Searchable Whereabouts, half-way through, I didn’t know what else to write about, but I pushed myself and soon ideas began to flow.  

Needless to say, after I did get the book finished, I was ecstatic, I was proud of myself and felt a sense of accomplishment. I thought this was my best work yet. I now know that writing a book can be the easy part. From the day I wrote the last word, it took me about a year to find a publisher. I was faced with many rejection letters. I almost gave up. However, with this book, something told me to keep sending it out, so I did. 

I’m glad I didn’t give up on my passion. Now all I have to do is go back into my computer and pull out the other books and get those published.