Killer Fiction welcomes Joanna Campbell Slan

Most readers know Joanna Campbell Slan for her spunky heroine, Kiki Lowenstein, a St. Louis mom who spends most of her time with her foot in her mouth, running from murderers, and shopping at Goodwill. Kiki is a scrapbooker, so Slan’s mysteries fall into that subgenre called “craft cozies,” where they’ve done well. In fact, she’s just finished the sixth book in the series in addition to ongoing short stories available for Kindle. But recently, Joanna surprised us all. She developed a whole new shtick. She’s written a historical mystery based on Charlotte Brontë’s classic Jane Eyre. The first in that series, Death of a Schoolgirl, will be released August 7 by Berkley. Killer Fiction set out to discover what caused Slan to try something so challenging!

Q: Kirkus Reviews liked Death of a Schoolgirl. Like it a lot in fact. They called it a “radical departure.” How did you feel about that?

A: Quite good actually. I wanted to write something different. There are readers out there who wouldn’t try a book featuring a scrapbooker. (Although when they did, they would write me and gush about how much they liked Kiki.) So I set out to prove I could write “above my station.” I mean, just because initially I entered the world of fiction writing about a scrapbooker didn’t mean that was the only story line I had in me.

Q: But when you wrote about a scrapbooker, you knew that world. You had written six books on scrapbooking, right? Wasn’t it different to write about England in 1820?

A: Seven “how to” books on scrapbooking and more articles than I can count. Yes, it was a challenge. But here’s a secret: I love to write. Absolutely, totally adore writing. I would rather be writing than anything else on earth. And next to writing, I love researching. I come from a family with a fabulous, interesting history, so I grew up learning about English history and royalty and so on. So it wasn’t as big of a stretch as it might seem.

Q: There are those who think of Jane Eyre as one of the greatest love stories ever written. How do you portray Jane’s relationship with her husband Edward Rochester?

A: Believe me, it was a challenge to get that right. As all of us know, the relationship between a man and woman changes when they marry. Love becomes more secure and three-dimensional. So I set out to write about a marriage of equals in a time when most marriages were very lopsided. I was thrilled when Charlene Cruz in her Bookish Whimsey blog said, “I think the tenor of their married life in this book is perfect, and as loving and romantic as the original novel.”

Q: You fashion Jane as an amateur sleuth. What made you think she’d fit that role? Weren’t you taking liberties with her character?

A: Actually, it’s sort of surprising that no one thought of casting her in that role before. She fits the mold. She calls herself “insignificant,” so she doesn’t draw attention. Jane has always been observant, curious, and cerebral. We know she’s courageous and that she doesn’t back away from a fight. And of course, she’s highly moral with a keen sense of justice.

Q: But Kiki is funny! So darn funny! How did you write something so solemn?

A: Oh, there’s humor in Death of a Schoolgirl. A schoolgirl tells Jane that her parents like her baby brother best because he has hair. Of course, the child means he is an “heir,” but Jane doesn’t lecture the girl about homonyms. Instead, she comforts the little girl who has been obviously cast aside now that her mother has produced a son. It’s not as overt as Kiki setting a pair of her panties on fire as she tries to dry them on a light bulb --see “Kiki Lowenstein and the Lilac Festival”, a short story—but hey, I’m still a big fan of inserting a laugh or two. Books are entertainment. I want my readers to enjoy every second of reading what I write!

**

Death of a Schoolgirl by Joanna Campbell Slan (Berkley/Aug. 7) is the first book in The Jane Eyre Chronicles. Mystery Guild has chosen it as a Featured Alternate Selection. Slan also writes the Kiki Lowenstein Mystery Series and the Kiki Lowenstein Short Stories (available on Kindle). Visit her at www.JoannaSlan.com

Are We There Yet?

Free image courtesy of FreeDigitalPhotos.net

A week ago today I took an unexpected cross-country trip. Okay, maybe it wasn't totally unexpected since my husband was supposed to drive my son from Maryland to Boise, Idaho and I'd planned to fly out with my daughters. We were to meet up with the boys and take a few vacation days in the mountains of Ketchum, Sun Valley, Stanley, and McCall before attending my son's freshman orientation at Boise State University. I just never expected to be the one driving! 

Unfortunately something happened at my husband's work that made it impossible for him to leave, so I had less than twelve hours to pack, sleep, and head out. That wouldn't have been a problem if I hadn't been doing laundry for days for the boys and not me. After all, I wasn't supposed to have left until Thursday. It also didn't help that the county was replacing the water mains and turned off my water from ten at night until six in the morning. Yes, you read that right--I not only had no clean clothes, but I couldn't even wash them.

Oh, and did I mention that I was on a deadline and a blog tour? Yeah, it just keeps getting better and better! 

My husband thought he could have the problem fixed in time to fly out with our daughters. Wednesday night I found out he was wrong. The girls would be flying alone, which wasn't a problem except for the fact I was ten hours from Boise, they were arriving before noon, and my friend wasn't answering her cellphone so I had no way of knowing if she got the message to pick my daughters up at the airport.

I took off at four in the morning after way too little sleep so the girls wouldn't have to wait long in case my friend didn't get the message. I stopped to grab a cup of coffee, ran into a truck stop, only to be alerted by an attendant on my way out of the restroom that someone had just rear-ended my parked car.

Two hours later, I was duct taping cardboard over my missing rear window, and still dealing with the police. Did I mention that the boy who hit me had no insurance and was younger than my son?

The good news is that no one was hurt since no one was in either car (yeah, I still can't figure that one out either.), my dear friend picked up the girls from the airport, the car was drivable, if not a little windy, and we made it safely to Boise.

In between getting my daughter's tooth pulled (don't ask) and arranging to have the car fixed, we've enjoyed seeing old friends and exploring Boise. My son is loving college so far. By the end of his first day of orientation, he'd already made a friend (who turned out to be his roommate for orientation), met a girl, and got a date!

The bad news is there's a forest fire close to Stanley--one of the most beautiful places on earth--so our plans for a drive through the area where much of my books take place, is still up in the air. Still, we're headed up to McCall and Sun Valley/Ketchum for some mountain fun. I'll try to remember to take pictures to share in my next blog.

In celebration of Call Me Wild's release, I'm giving away a copy to a lucky commenter. 

Just tell me about your last vacation disaster and be sure to include your email address spelling out at and dot so you don't end up with a mailbox full of spam. 

Do things like this happen to everyone, or only to me? It makes me wonder if a plague of locusts can't be far behind...

Writing Has Ruined Me

Writers are an odd breed. I was already aware of that - after all, I am odd and I wanted to be a writer - but I didn't realize that writing would magnify my neurosis. For example, I've always been a people watcher. I like to observe people and try to figure out what their motivation is. But since I became a writer, that motivation becomes an entire backstory. And description, oh yeah, I see details I wouldn't have noticed before. Combine all of that with my dry, sarcastic, somewhat cynical view of things and it makes for interesting observations.

Since the Olympics is going on, that's where my attention has been the last couple of days. Now, I haven't watched everything. I'm recording and woefully behind as I'm busy writing books, but I have made some observations:

1. It's possible for people to be competitive and nice at the same time. I've seen a lot of respect and congratulations from athlete to athlete from different countries. I think this is great! I realize we all want our country to come out on top, but I think it's always a good thing when professionals have a mutual respect for each other, especially when they lose.

2. The outfits for some sports are very cool this year, for others, not so much. Our women swimmers look like dudes with their caps on. Why can't those bathing suits have stripes or something that give those girls some curves. Jeez, they probably have had a decent meal in years and without fat, you can't keep boobs. Can we girl them up a little...just a wee bit? The caps come off and they're all smiles and cute. Can we please work a little of that into the 2016 outfits?

3. Glitter in the hair is a result of being stuck in the 80s or working a pole. It should be banned. Correct that - it's so outdated, it should be illegal. Stop making up 14 year olds like strippers.

4. Track and field women have absolutely incredible bodies. Seriously. Absolutely. Incredible. If I looked like that for just one day, I'd break a digital camera taking pictures of myself.

5. Gymnasts will never have a post-Olympic career as hands and feet models. Every time they show a close-up of those toes clenching a balance beam, I can mentally picture my nail lady getting the vapors.

6. If you're going to talk smack about how you will perform (hellllloooooo Ryan Lochte) make sure you back it up with your performance - in the pool. I don't care about your privileged, pathetic white boy attempts at being a rap star. Put on a show in the pool - you remember the pool, right? It's sorta the reason anyone gives a crap about you. Don't keep screwing your fans.

What about you? Any observations you wish to share about the Olympics?

If you haven't already seen it, I'm having a contest for a $50 over at my Facebook author page. Drop by and leave a post about your vacation in the contest post thread and you'll be entered to win!

Deadly DeLeon

Olympic Memories

My 2-year-old daughter calls gymnasts "ballerinas who go upside down" since they wear leotards, so I guess it's really no surprise that I love watching this powerful-yet-graceful sport. (Although I'm actually looking forward to the end of the competition this year because then maybe the toddler will stop trying to flip off the couch. One can hope.)

Sixteen years ago, I had the COOLEST summer job ever. I worked in protocol for the IOC during the 1996 Summer Olympic Games in Atlanta, GA. My office was located in the "Olympic Family Hotel" (a fancy name for the hotel where all the dignitaries, IOC members, national Olympic committee members, and other VIPs stayed while in town).

Basically our job was ticketing. However, the majority of the people we served didn't have to get actual "tickets" per se -- they would walk into events on the basis of the credentials that hung around their neck. Some people (such as President and Mrs. Clinton) could just walk right in to any event they wanted to and be seated, regardless of the popularity of the event. Others (such as their daughter, Chelsea) could walk right into most events, but had to request admission ahead of time to some of the more popular events.

(Yes, I did in fact process a ticket request from Chelsea Clinton. No, I didn't meet her -- her chaperone brought it into the office for her while Chelsea waited in the car, if I recall correctly. And yes, we did award her tickets. I think it was for the gold medal basketball game, but I'm not sure.)

Occasionally I worked onsite at an athletic venue, welcoming guests at the VIP door or checking credentials inside the VIP section at an event. I met the Gore daughters and Jimmy and Rosalin Carter on the last night of swimming, and have a photo of myself posing with gold medalist Tom Dolan.

I was in college at the time, and was the youngest person working in the office, which led most people to believe I was a volunteer, so I ended up with a LOT of freebies during my time there. Sometimes the freebies were pins (it's been estimated that my pin collection is worth around $1000), sometimes food, but sometimes they were tickets.

Sometimes the tickets were for less popular events such as table tennis, but sometimes they were for biggies like basketball, tennis, swimming, and gymnastics.

I actually got to attend one afternoon of women's gymnastics, and two nights of men's gymnastics. It was SO COOL. Of course, I watched Kerri Strug's iconic vault from the couch in my living room like millions of other Americans. It gave me chills, and I was so proud of her.

SPOILER ALERT!






Wasn't Gabby Douglas amazing last night? Third straight women's all-around gold for the US (Carly Patterson in 2004, Nastia Liukin in 2008, and now Douglas is the best in the world).

But it's such BS that Aliya Mustafina got the bronze over Aly Raisman, despite them both ending with a final score of 59.566. Stupid tiebreaker rules:

Should there be ties in the team finals in London, the lowest apparatus score will be dropped and the remaining scores added. If that doesn't break the tie, additional apparatus scores will be dropped, one at a time, until there is a winner. If no winner emerges, the tie stands.
There is a similar formula for the all-around final. But if no winner has emerged following the dropping of apparatus scores, the execution score total for each gymnast serve as the tie-breaker, followed by his or her total start value. If that doesn't establish a winner, the tie will stand.

The Russian gymnast won the bronze instead of them sharing it because her lowest score of 13.633 was dropped, putting the remainder of her scores higher than Raisman's. Heartbreaking.

END SPOILERS

What are some of your favorite Olympic memories? Have you been humming the Olympic anthem in your head all week? What did you think of the opening ceremonies? (Personally, I'm not sure whether Danny Boyle is a genius or on crack...I'm thinking a little of both.)

The Dangerous Subtleties Of Sexism

When I turned 36 I was told that I could officially be a cougar since the definition of "cougar" was a woman who dated a man who could be at least half her age and have it still be legal. 

I didn't like that. I'm the first to admit that I joke around with the word "cougar" all the time but I do understand the inherent insult. When a man dates someone who is half his age he's being a man. When a woman does it she's being a predatory animal. 

Double standards in regards to women and sexism are frequently pooh-poohed. Jennifer Weiner has frequently pointed out how so called "women's fiction" is ignored and scorned by critics while fiction written by men, even escapist fiction, is more likely to at least merit a review. Some supported her but many lambasted her, telling her the only reason people weren't reviewing her work is because the quality wasn't good enough, her subject matter wasn't compelling enough, her entire genre just wasn't up to par. The people who make those kinds of statements understandably look to the Hillary Clintons and Nikki Haleys of the world and think sexism just isn't an issue anymore. If women aren't getting the same opportunities that their male counterparts are getting then they must be doing something wrong.

To test this theory a professor at Harvard Business school recently did a little experiment. He examined the real life work experience/career path of successful Silicon Valley types. He gave the information for one guy's career to one class and gave the information of a women's career to another. Then he asked each class if they would hire the person they were studying. The guy did very well. According to the students, the guy seemed very likable. He was a person they felt they could work with and, most importantly, trust. But the class that studied the woman didn't like her much at all. They felt she was too aggressive, self-agrandizing and perhaps not all that trustworthy. 

The kicker is that the guy and the woman were the same person. All the professor did was change the name from Heidi to Howard. 

That's an excellent suggestion, Miss Triggs. Perhaps one of the men here would like to make it?

I doubt that the students in the class that scored Heidi so poorly consider themselves to be sexist and I know that many of the students who said Heidi was too aggressive were women. That last point's important because frequently when a woman defends supposedly sexist behavior (particularly on a societal level) many seem to believe it's proof that the behavior she's defending must not be sexist after all. But the truth is that maybe the woman doing the defending has had certain sexist concepts so fully ingrained in her from such a young age that she doesn't even recognize them as being sexist. 

I'm not one of those people who thinks both sexes are the same and the only difference is upbringing and societal norms. I do think women and men are very different from one another in the way they think, act and prioritize. I believe that's more nature than nurture. I also think that when a woman does the things that a man does she's often judged for it. Society doesn't like those kinds of anomalies.  And I think that while society is more accepting of women who embrace what they consider to be more traditional femininity they still rank that femininity as being somehow inferior to masculinity. Books about family and relationships are less important than books about battles. Newscasters and political pundits love to tell us that we're falling behind in math and science (both consider masculine pursuits) and must catch up but we never hear about how we're not as well read as we once were or that less and less students are versed in humanities (considered to be feminine pursuits). Music programs are always cut before sports programs, and escapist fiction written by men is much more likely to be reviewed by the New York Times.

The problem with sexism these days is that, like much modern racism, it's subtle. There are so many women accomplishing so much we fail to see that there's a problem anymore...which is the quickest way to losing progress already made. 

Kyra "Fashionista Fatale" Davis

Opening Lines

Last night was one of those nights where I was desperate to read something, but couldn’t figure out what. I ended up over by the keeper shelf. Still, I don’t know what it was – I couldn’t even settle on a favorite. I did, however, read a lot of absolutely fantastic opening lines.

“Looking back, I guess my first mistake was to assume that a rookie reporter could pursue both a hot story and a hot sex life.”
Bubbles Ablaze by Sarah Strohmeyer

“The day I died started out bad and got worse in a hurry.”
Undead and Unwed by MaryJanice Davidson

“The blackened shell of the house still stands on the edge of the moor.”

Greygallows by Barbara Michaels

“My philosophy is pretty simple – any day nobody’s trying to kill me is a good day.”

Dark Fever by Karen Marie Moning

“Two blocks from the restaurant, Zoe Tarleton knew she was screwed.”

Gone with the Nerd by Vicki Lewis Thompson

“Captain Crosbie came out of the bank with the pleased air of one who has cashed a cheque and has discovered that there is just a little more in his account than he though there was.”

They Came to Baghdad by Agatha Christie

“Falling out of Heaven is the easy part. It’s landing that’s difficult.”

Angel with Attitude by Michelle Rowen

“Sometimes, it seems like all I ever do is lie.”

The Princess Diaries by Meg Cabot

“If you ever touch me again, I’ll pull off your ears and stuff them up your nose.”

The Royal Treatment by MaryJanice Davidson

There were even more, but darned if I’m going to type them all. It was fun to get drawn into my favorite books all over again. So what about you? Do you have any favorite opening lines? Post yours and you’re entered to win a brand spanking new copy of any of the books above. Winner’s choice.

Giving My Minions What They Ask For...

Well, I finally jumped on the bus and boxed up the whole schlemiel.  What's great about this, is that I had Kim Killion of Hot Damn Designs go through all five e-files, clean them up (I'd made some, ahem, errors when I put them up 2 yrs. ago) and format them into a bundle. 

It was a looooong weekend going through all 8 million pages, uploading this Calibre for Amazon and Sigil for Nook.  In fact, I spent most of Saturday doing it wrong.  Sunday morning, I realized what I'd done wrong (and yes, you shouldn't drink and format - I know that now) and got it going.

Why am I doing a box set?  Because Gemma does them!  Duh!

Okay, seriously, I've had more than 100,000 downloads of 'Scuse Me While I Kill This Guy during it's free reign.  Most folks scooped up the other books, one at a time, but I've heard from a number of people that they'd prefer a one-shot deal to grab them all at a deal. 

That makes sense to me, because I'm a reader of series mysteries and romance.  After I read one, if there's a box set, I'll get that instead of downloading them each individually (although I had no patience with the Game of Thrones series so I missed the opportunity there, dammit).

I guess you could say that I give the people what they ask for.  And now, I'd better get back to writing, so I can give them another Bombay book soon, before they get pitchforks and find out where I live...

The Assassin