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The Historical Novelist as Treasure Hunter

 

(originally appeared at Writerspace.com)

 

            In my other lives, as Kathy Lynn Emerson and Kaitlyn Dunnett, I write mystery novels, so it’s a given that I like solving puzzles. The books in the SECRETS OF THE TUDOR COURT series, however, are not mysteries. Although they contain elements of intrigue and danger and the occasional spy, they are essentially fictionalized biographies of less-well-known but interesting sixteenth-century women who played minor but significant roles in Tudor history. Does that mean there are no mysteries to solve? Not from my point of view!!!

            Historical novelists owe it to their readers to do extensive research, even though only a fraction of what they uncover will actually appear in any given novel. I often hear grumbles about how difficult it is to find some elusive fact, but for me research is both painless and fun and those hard-to-find details are an exciting challenge to track down.

            How I see myself contributes to the enjoyment. I am not a student doggedly researching an assigned topic for a term paper. For one thing, I picked my own subject. But beyond that, given the kind of detail I need to make my characters come alive, I am more like a gossip columnist digging for dirt. Or a genealogist, looking for family connections. Kinship was a major motivating factor in the alliances of the past, whether between royal families or among cousins at court. I’m also a detective, trying to determine who was really behind a particular plot or even, occasionally, a crime. I’m a jigsaw-puzzle fan, searching out the missing piece that fits together with what’s already there. And above all, I’m a treasure hunter, looking for that nugget of pure gold that will answer a question, clarify a situation, or provide insight into why one of the real people I write about did what history records that he or she did. My version may not be what really happened. I am writing fiction, after all. But when I’ve dug deep enough and put enough tidbits together, even the most mystifying events from history suddenly have an explanation that makes sense to me.

            In every book I write, there is at least one ah-ha! moment where I solve a historical puzzle to my own satisfaction. In BY ROYAL DECREE, the story of Elizabeth (Bess) Brooke, my heroine is caught in a difficult situation. She falls in love with a man, Will Parr, who already has a wife. Under King Edward VI, he’s granted a divorce and Bess is allowed to marry him, but when Mary I takes the throne, this decree is invalidated and Bess is forbidden to go anywhere near Will. If Mary dies and Elizabeth Tudor becomes queen, the situation will be reversed again, but at the beginning of Mary’s reign, no one expects Mary to die anytime soon. At a point toward the end of the novel, when things are looking very bleak, Bess is approached by the French Ambassador. History records that he asked her to take a message to Princess Elizabeth, which she did. This fact is well documented, but nowhere is it explained why he’d choose Bess to undertake the errand, or why he’d think she would be successful in reaching Elizabeth, who was closely watched by those loyal to the queen.

            I could have invented a reason. I would have, if necessary. But a little deeper digging finally paid off as I was completing the rough draft of the novel. In order to find out more about the French Ambassador, perhaps discover a physical description of him, or even a portrait, I acquired a copy of a book titled RIVAL AMBASSADORS AT THE COURT OF QUEEN MARY. I did not have high hopes. Many of the books I borrow on inter-library-loan turn out to focus on some economic or political thesis to the exclusion of the sort of domestic detail I’m seeking. However, this time I was in luck. The account of the ambassador sending Bess with a message did not clarify matters, but in another part of the same chapter I discovered that the ambassador had a spy, a man who was one of the secretaries to the queen’s Privy Council. That man was also one of Bess’s brothers.

            The moment that tidbit registered, everything fell into place for me. Of course, the ambassador would think of Bess—her brother must have told him about her. Perhaps he even suggested her for the mission. Now, this may seem like a little thing, but it was the light in the darkness for me. Not only did it give me the missing piece of that particular puzzle and allow me to flesh out the scenes I was writing, but it also played into the theme of family loyalties that permeates the novel. In revision, Bess’s brother took on a bigger role than he’d had before. And why not? Bess and several of her brothers had connections to Wyatt’s Rebellion because Thomas Wyatt the Younger was their cousin. And Wyatt’s mother lived with the family during Bess’s girlhood. And through Lady Wyatt’s second husband, who held an important post at the Tower of London, Bess had family present when she accompanied Lady Jane Grey there during the abortive attempt to make Jane queen instead of Mary. It all connected. All the pieces fell into place, covering more than a decade of historical events in the course of the novel. That single nugget led me to an entire treasure chest full of gold and jewels.

 

 

The Ups and Downs of Living with an In-House Expert

 

(originally appeared at Writerspace.com)

 

            When I first began to write contemporary mystery novels, I figured that I had a big advantage when it came to research—I was married to a cop. He could save me all kinds of time by answering my questions on the spot. I could toss around plot ideas with him, and he could tell me if what I had in mind would work or not. And he could be my first reader, catching all the bloopers that might otherwise creep into my manuscript.

            Well, yes, he does do all those things . . . and more. It’s the “and more” part that sometimes proves disconcerting. He wants me to get it right. I appreciate that. But as for saving me time—not so much.

            Take, for example, my current Liss MacCrimmon Scottish-American Heritage Mystery, THE CORPSE WORE TARTAN. I’ve stranded a number of people at a luxury hotel in the middle of a snow storm. Someone is murdered. On the spot because of an earlier report of a robbery, is Sherri Willett, my amateur sleuth’s sidekick, a local, small-town police officer in her first year on the job. I figured this would give me some leeway. She could be excused for not getting everything exactly right. In Maine, where the series is set, murders are investigated by the state police, but the state police can’t get there because of the storm.

            I wrote the book, throwing various complications at my characters, including what to do with the body, which would have to be preserved until the proper authorities could finally arrive on the scene . . . a couple of days, at the least. This is a major blizzard. Power is out. Phones are out, both cell and land lines. Police radios aren’t working, either. There is a generator, but it only keeps the basics going. The corpse goes into a walk-in freezer.

            Then my in-house expert read the manuscript. I could see him shaking his head. He didn’t say anything for awhile. He’s a sensitive guy, plus he knows I tend to get defensive about my writing at this stage in the process—after spending six months or so living with this plot and these characters on a daily basis. In the end, though, honesty wins out. He tells me that if Sherri handles the murder the way I’ve written it, she’s going to lose her job over it.

            Well, dang! After a bit of protest on my part, more instinctive than anything else, I realize that what he says makes sense. Unfortunately, correcting the problem is going to involve a major rewrite. Fortunately, I build in time in my writing schedule for my manuscripts to “cool” after each draft. I’ve got a deadline coming up, but revisions are doable.

            I bite the bullet, take the plunge, and three weeks later, I have a new version of the book. A better version. One that won’t have people who know something about real police investigations gnashing their teeth as they read or, worse, tossing my book across the room. Once again, the in-house expert has come through for me. I guess that must be why the marriage has lasted over forty years and is still going strong.

           

 

 

 

Tudor Guest Blog

 

(originally at http://www.theladykillers.typepad.com/)

 

            Hello. I'm Kathy Lynn Emerson. I also write as Kate Emerson and Kaitlyn Dunnett. When Sharan Newman asked if I'd like to do a guest post here I was flattered. Then I took a peek at recent posts, spotted my own name in connection with my HOW TO WRITE KILLER HISTORICAL MYSTERIES, and was even more flattered . . . and a bit intimidated. You see, I have a terrible confession to make. Since I wrote that how-to book I haven't sold a single historical mystery novel. Until very recently, I hadn't written anything in the historical mystery field except one short story using characters from my Face Down series, and that was more than two years ago.  

            In one of those strange twists of fate, I was given an opportunity in 2006 to go back thirty years, to the beginning of my writing career, and write the sort of book I started out wanting to write—the non-mystery historical novel. I wrote five of those suckers between 1976 and 1980, all set in the sixteenth and early seventeenth century and all soundly rejected by every editor around. And there were a lot more publishers to try back then! I did finally make a sale, but it wasn't a novel. It was a nonfiction book I wrote using the research I'd done for all those unsold novels. WIVES AND DAUGHTERS: THE WOMEN OF SIXTEENTH-CENTURY ENGLAND came out in 1984.

            Fast forward to 2006 when the two most popular subgenres were the paranormal and the historical set in Tudor England. I, of course, thought I wanted to write a paranormal mystery series. Fortunately, my agent had better sense than I did. Although I'm still writing one mystery series, the contemporary Liss MacCrimmon Scottish-American Heritage Mysteries, set in Moosetookalook, Maine (w/a Kaitlyn Dunnett), as Kate Emerson I've been recycling bits and pieces of those poor rejected ideas from yesteryear into big, Philippa-Gregory-style novels ever since.

            In the process, another aspect of my writing also circled back to the beginning. Since WIVES AND DAUGHTERS had become badly outdated, I started updating the entries online. What started as a hobby became an obsession. Now it's pretty much an addiction to research, but it's also turned into A WHO'S WHO OF TUDOR WOMEN and is available as an e-book original—my toehold in the brave new world of electronic publishing.

            But it was bothering me that I wasn't writing historical mystery anymore. The longer I went without, the more I feared I'd never get back to it. I should have had more faith! Here's a news flash, revealed here first—I've been asked to write a Lady Appleton short story as the 2010 Crippen & Landru Christmas story. It's amazing how many historical mystery ideas have started bubbling in my brain since I started work on it. Best of all, I no longer feel like a fraud when people mention that I wrote that How-To book.

 

 

Filling in the Gaps

 

(originally appeared at Writerspace.com)

 

            n the historical novels I write under the pseudonym Kate Emerson, of which SECRETS OF THE TUDOR COURT: BETWEEN TWO QUEENS is the latest offering, I focus on a real but little-known historical figure to tell my story. The protagonist of BETWEEN TWO QUEENS is Anne Bassett, who served as a maid of honor to four of Henry VIII’s queens, was twice considered by court gossips to be a contender to become Henry’s next bride herself, and went on to become a lady in waiting to Queen Mary Tudor. She was a career courtier, which put her in the perfect position to know secrets, but she also had a connection to my favorite type of subplot, the treasonous conspiracy.

            ne of the hardest parts about writing historical novels centered on real people is staying true to their characters. There are several schools of thought about how to do this. One advocates making anything and everything up and the heck with the facts. At the other extreme are purists who don’t want anything in the novel that hasn’t been verified. Most historical fiction falls somewhere in the middle, but finding that happy medium can be a real challenge.

            In BETWEEN TWO QUEENS I was fortunate to have a wonderful source of information about Anne Bassett (called Nan in the novel) and her extended family. THE LISLE LETTERS is a six volume opus edited by M. St. Clare Byrne. It contains, annotated, the letters confiscated when Nan’s stepfather, Viscount Lisle, was arrested on suspicion of treason. What made this collection so valuable to me was that the authorities seized not only official correspondence, but also the personal papers of Lisle’s second wife and her daughters, Nan included.

            For many, many incidents in the novel, I was able to rely on first-hand accounts of what happened. But there were also many, many gaps in Nan’s story. Where, for example, did she go when Queen Catherine Howard’s household was disbanded? By then her stepfather was a prisoner in the Tower of London and her mother was held under house arrest in Calais. Unlike the other maids of honor, she had no family to go back to. There are documents that say the king made provision for her, but what exactly did he arrange? There were other blank spots, too. And of course the question of whether Nan knew anything in advance about the conspiracy that led to her family’s downfall. And what about romance? Was she the king’s mistress or not? No one really knows. Did she have other men in her life? Again, no one knows. History records her marriage, but that did not take place until Queen Mary’s reign. There are always blank spaces in the lives of real historical figures, even famous ones. It’s my job as a novelist to fill in the blanks, in this case to figure out why Nan behaved the way history says she did and extrapolating from what is known about her to what might have happened.

            It’s a good thing I enjoy doing research! I’ve found that it I look at the search for some tiny tidbit of information as solving a mystery, the process is much less frustrating, even if I don’t ever find what I’m looking for. When I do, those “ah-ha!” moments are always a thrill. Sometimes I end up with two (or more!) wildly different interpretations of what really happened. Even the most distinguished scholars don’t agree on everything, and they can often make equally compelling cases for opposite points of view. I love it when that happens. It means I can pick the interpretation that works best for my story.

            More often, however, filling in the gaps is a challenge because nothing is known. What did I do when I absolutely could not find anything about a certain period in Nan’s life? Usually, I breathed a sigh of relief. When I can’t locate anything at all, I am free to make something up. That something still has to be believable. I can’t go too crazy. But if I’ve developed an accurate sense of what the real person was like, and have a feel for the times I’m writing about, then I can figure out what my character is likely to do in any given situation. Nan Bassett in BETWEEN TWO QUEENS, Jane Popyncourt in the first SECRETS OF THE TUDOR COURT novel, THE PLEASURE PALACE, and Elizabeth Brooke, Marchioness of Northampton, in next year’s offering, BY ROYAL DECREE, may only be footnotes to history, but by filling in the gaps to create historical fiction, I hope I’ve succeeded in bringing them back to life.     

 

 

 

           

 

 

 

Who Am I Today?

 

(originally appeared at Writerspace.com)

 

            Once upon a time, I knew who I was. Kathy Lynn Emerson wrote historical mysteries (The Face Down Series featuring Susanna, Lady Appleton, 16^th century gentlewoman, herbalist, and sleuth, and the Diana Spaulding Mysteries set in 1888). As Kathy, I had previously written romances and, before that, a few children’s books. Every once in a while, I’d write non-fiction or a short story. Then I sold the idea of a mystery series with a modern setting. After ten years as a writer of historical mysteries, a pseudonym seemed the best way to avoid confusion. For booksellers and readers, I imagine it worked. For myself . . . not so much. 

            The Liss MacCrimmon Scottish-American Heritage books, although they are also murder mysteries, are populated with quirky characters and written with a light touch. That the detective’s home town is tiny Moosetookalook, Maine, population 1007, should give readers their first clue that these stories are firmly in the “cozy” camp. No crafts or cooking are involved, but Liss MacCrimmon does work at Moosetookalook Scottish Emporium. The store sells everything Scottish, from kilts to haggis.

            Since I needed a new name that would fit the new series, I worked with my agent to find just the right one and we came up with Kaitlyn Dunnett. Kaitlyn is the name I always wished my parents had given me instead of Kathy (which, by the way, is really Kathy and not short for Katherine or Kathleen). Dunnett is in honor of Dorothy Dunnett, one of the most talented writers I’ve ever read. She wrote both historical fiction and a contemporary mystery series. The surname also sparks a connection, in most people’s minds, to the whodunnit—the type of mystery these books represent.

            In the first, KILT DEAD, Liss returns to her home town after an injury ends her career as a professional Scottish dancer. When she discovers a body in the stock room at Moosetookalook Scottish Emporium she ends up as the prime suspect in a murder investigation. In SCONE COLD DEAD, Liss is reunited with her old dance troupe when their tour brings them to Maine. What at first looks like an accident is soon revealed as murder and Liss involves herself to prevent one of her oldest friends from being arrested for the crime. And now, in A WEE CHRISTMAS HOMICIDE, a book released on September 29, 2009, Liss organizes the Twelve Shopping Days of Christmas when she discovers that she and two other Moosetookalook merchants have the only supply in all of New England of the hot toy of the holiday season. Her plan to make a killing on the sale of Tiny Teddies succeeds just a little better than she intended.

            The idea for the Tiny Teddies came from the craze some years back to collect Beanie Babies. When supplies ran out in the U.S., people tried to smuggle them in from Canada. There were stories in the local papers here in Maine about trunk loads of the toys being confiscated at the border and destroyed. I thought there was potential there for all sorts of mayhem. Motive for murder, but opportunities for humor, too. I know I had fun writing the book.

            But to return to the subject of this blog—Who Am I Today?—the story doesn’t end with Kathy Lynn Emerson and Kaitlyn Dunnett. Oh, no. No sooner had I started writing the Liss MacCrimmon series than an opportunity came along to return to one of my earliest story ideas—one that goes all the way back to 1976, and my fledgling efforts to become a published author. I was not an immediate success. I collected the requisite wall papered with rejection letters. Although I loved those early books, they simply would not sell. Part of the problem was that I was still learning how to write fiction. The other part was that the type of book I was writing wasn’t what publishers were buying back then. These things go in cycles. Big, non-mystery historical novels are back. Especially those that tell a real person’s life story. Especially those set at the Tudor court. And I’m a much better writer now than I was in 1976. But again, this genre was significantly different from what I’d been writing. And so, another pseudonym seemed called for. That’s how I became Kate Emerson, author of the Secrets of the Tudor Court series. The books do not use the same characters, but they all involve real sixteenth-century courtiers. The first, THE PLEASURE PALACE, the story of a young woman named Jane Popyncourt, came out earlier this year (2009) and the second, BETWEEN TWO QUEENS, the story of a maid of honor named Anne Bassett, who was in the household of four of Henry VIII’s queens and that of his daughter, Mary Tudor, will be out in January of 2010.

            I love doing all three sorts of writing. I hope to keep on being three people in one. But sometimes, if I’m not paying enough attention to what I’m doing, more than one of me ends up signing her autograph in a copy of one of my books. I have to remember to stop and think, at home when I sit down to write as well as at book signings—just who am I today?

           

 

 

 

The Magic of Being an Author

 

(originally at http://mayhemandmagic2.blogspot.com)

 

            “The Magic of Being an Author” comes in many forms but my favorite just now is the magic of serendipity—when strange and wonderful things happen at just the right time. Let me tell you a little story.

            I’ve been writing professionally for the last twenty-five years, using several names. Way back when Beanie Babies were all the rage, I started brainstorming a story about the lengths to which people would go to find the “hot” new toy of the Christmas season. There were stories in the local newspapers here in Maine about customs officers stopping cars at the Canadian border and confiscating trunk loads of illegal Beanie Babies. I wondered at the time how else such small treasures might be smuggled into the country. Not that I’d ever encourage anyone to break the law, you understand, but I am a mystery writer. Figuring out how criminals might get away with murder and other crimes is part of what I do.

            Sometimes it takes a while for all the pieces to fit together. This idea had to go on the back burner while I concentrated on writing historical mysteries under my real name, Kathy Lynn Emerson. Then, a couple of years ago, using the pseudonym Kaitlyn Dunnett, I started writing a contemporary mystery series about a former professional Scottish dancer named Liss MacCrimmon. The first two are KILT DEAD and SCONE COLD DEAD and both are set in the tiny Maine village of Moosetookalook. Which just happens to be quite close to the Canadian border. When I decided that the third novel would be set in winter (the first two were fall and spring) and needed a mystery for Liss to solve, I remembered the Beanie Babies.

            By the magic of fiction, in A WEE CHRISTMAS HOMICIDE the Beanie Babies became Tiny Teddies and a toyshop opened in downtown Moosetookalook, just a few doors down from Liss’s Scottish Emporium. It turns out that Moosetookalook merchants have the only supply left in all of New England of the hottest toy of the season. Hoping to make a killing on sales of Tiny Teddies—the ones Liss has in her shop are wearing kilts—our intrepid heroine organizes the Twelve Shopping Days of Christmas.

            I won’t tell you the whole story. Obviously, since this is a murder mystery, someone gets bumped off. And since my series features an amateur sleuth, Liss is the one who solves the crime, reluctantly assisted by State Police Detective Gordon Tandy, her sometime suitor.

            By now you may be wondering what happened to that serendipity I mentioned. When I finished writing A WEE CHRISTMAS HOMICIDE, I was a wee bit worried. My stories are light-hearted. I hope they amuse. But I can’t stretch credulity too far without losing readers. The Beanie Baby craze was over a long time ago. I wondered if anyone in 2009 would believe that otherwise rational people would go to such lengths to buy a toy.

            I needn’t have been concerned. This Christmas has its own version of Beanie Babies. What could have been more serendipitous than the phenomenon of the Zhu Zhu pets? Anyone who accepts that the “hot” toy this year is a battery-operated hamster should have no trouble at all accepting what happens when the Tiny Teddies invade Moosetookalook, Maine.

            There’s definitely magic at work.  

 

 

 

 

 

Why do I Write Mysteries?

 

(originally at http://cozymurdermysteries.blogspot.com)

 

            Why do I write mysteries?    

            There are two answers to that question. The first is that I’ve always loved reading well-written traditional mysteries. They have complex plots, characters who are far more clever than I am at figuring out who dunnit, and endings that solve the crime and wrap up all the loose ends. Readers know that by the end of a traditional mystery novel, wrongs will have been righted, villains will have been caught and punished, and justice will have prevailed. There may have been heart-wrenching moments along the way, the suspense may have been almost unbearable, and the detective will undoubtedly have been faced with great personal danger, but when it is all over, the reader will be wearing a satisfied smile. Unlike real life, mystery novels provide closure. 

            Such stories are not particularly easy to write, but the process is challenging. That leads me to the second answer to the question. Why do I write mysteries? It’s because I’m easily bored.

            I’ve written all sorts of books during the last thirty-plus years. In most of them, even the ones that weren’t published as mysteries, I’ve included mystery elements. If I couldn’t work in a murder, I inserted secrets and intrigue and, in the case of the historical fiction, treason plots or spies. Even the non-mystery historical novels I’m currently writing under the name Kate Emerson are published under the series title “Secrets of the Tudor Court.”

            For stories to be interesting, their characters need obstacles to overcome. The higher the stakes, the more invested the reader becomes in the outcome. Add crime to the mix, especially if that places the protagonist in a life-and-death situation, and the book, assuming it is well-written to begin with, goes from merely entertaining straight to page-turner. I’ve written novels without any mystery elements and, as far as I know, readers did not feel they were lacking in entertainment value, but those books are not my favorites. And, if I’m being truthful here, during the writing process I sometimes longed to throw in a body. As I said, I’m easily bored.

            I’m never bored when I’m figuring out how to murder someone, or why the killer won’t get away with it. And traditional mysteries have another element that fascinates me, too—creating and solving a puzzle. Traditional mysteries are sometimes called cozies because they often, but not always, feature amateur detectives, small-town settings, and a notable absence of explicit sex and violence. Readers may never even see a body, let alone have to wade through blood and gore. Other elements, such as cats, crafts, and recipes, are optional. The emphasis is on plot, with twists, and on interesting characters and their relationships. Most of these books belong to series rather than being stand-alone titles.

            I’ve never been tempted to write suspense novels or police procedurals or make my protagonist a private detective. All of those would require a more extensive knowledge of modern day forensics than I want to acquire. I’d have to learn more about guns, too. I’m happiest writing about an ordinary person who stumbles onto a murder and is pulled, reluctantly, into solving the crime.

            People often ask me which I prefer, mysteries with historical settings or those that take place in the here and now. I’ve written both and enjoy both, perhaps because basic human emotions are the same, whatever century people live in.

            As Kathy Lynn Emerson I’ve written two historical mystery series. The Face Down novels feature Susanna, Lady Appleton, a sixteenth-century gentlewoman who is an expert on poisonous herbs. There are ten novels, the most recent FACE DOWN O’ER the BORDER, and a collection of short stories (MURDERS AND OTHER CONFUSIONS) in this series, but it is currently on hiatus. The most recent entry was a story (“Any Means Short of Murder”) in the January/February 2009 issue of Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine. I hope to write more of these, but for the moment I have other writing commitments that just don’t leave me with time enough to do it.

            Why did I write these in the first place? Because I’m fascinated with that period in history. Fortunately, I’m still writing about it, just not, at the moment, in the traditional mystery genre.

            In my other historical mystery series, a nineteenth-century journalist named Diana Spaulding is the detective. This four-book series was conceived as a quartet from the beginning and all four books (DEADLIER THAN THE PEN, FATAL AS A FALLEN WOMAN, NO MORTAL REASON, and LETHAL LEGEND) take place in various locations in the U.S. in 1888. I chose the late nineteenth century to write about for several reasons. First, early in my career I wrote a biography of reporter Nellie Bly for young readers and I thought at the time that a newspaper reporter would make a good detective. Second, I had already accumulated a great deal of material about the year 1888, making research much easier. And third, I had my grandfather’s memoirs, which gave me special insight into what life was like in those days. The third book is set in the area of New York State where he (and I) grew up. The fourth book is set in Maine, where I live now, and that one was a particular pleasure to write. 

            It was the desire to do more using a location close to home that led to the launch of my contemporary series, the Liss MacCrimmon Scottish-American Heritage Mysteries. My sleuth was a professional Scottish dancer (think Riverdance, only Scottish) until a knee-injury ended her career. In the first book (KILT DEAD), she returns to her home town of Moosetookalook, Maine to recuperate and figure out what she’s going to do with the rest of her life. And, of course, she immediately becomes involved in solving a murder. I write this series under the pseudonym Kaitlyn Dunnett. There’s more humor in these books than in those I write under my real name, more use of quirky characters, and a very different feel to the stories. The third Liss MacCrimmon novel, available just in time for holiday gift giving, is A WEE CHRISTMAS HOMICIDE. I’ve finished #4 and am at the plotting stage of #5.

            I still love historical mysteries, even though I’m not writing one at the moment. I was fortunate to be able to combine reading other people’s historical mysteries with writing 2008’s HOW TO WRITE KILLER HISTORICAL MYSTERIES: THE ART AND ADVENTURE OF SLEUTHING THROUGH THE PAST, a book that won the Agatha award and was nominated for both the Anthony and the Macavity. Right now I’m working on the third book in the “Secrets of the Tudor Court” series. The second, BETWEEN TWO QUEENS, which does not contain a murder but does have a nicely complex treason plot, will be out in January 2009.

 

 

 

 

 

 

My Little Hobby . . . or is it an Obsession?

 

(originally at http://burtonreview/blogspot.com)

 

            I have a little hobby. Well, okay—my husband calls it an obsession and he may be right. Whatever it is, it is a labor of love and it is very rewarding. Not only does it provide the occasional thrill of solving a mystery but it also supplies me with more ideas than I’ll ever be able to use in my novels about sixteenth-century women.

            Forgive me while I fill in a little history. Way back in the “dark ages” (1976-1980), when I made my first attempt at writing historical novels, I wasn’t very good at it. (I’m a much better writer now. Honest!) To make a long story short, I wrote five great long tomes set in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries and none of them sold. As I was doing research for those novels and busily collecting rejection letters, I realized that I had accumulated a tremendous amount of information on the real women of the sixteenth century. At that time there was still no such a thing as women’s studies. Women, if they were mentioned in history books at all, were usually referred to only in connection with their husbands and/or fathers. Sometimes scholars didn’t even bother to mention their first names. Several references to interesting women, a footnote here and a sentence, sometimes turned out to be references to the same woman, but if she’d married several times or if her husband or husbands had been elevated in the peerage and she went by several different names in the course of her life, no one bothered to connect the dots to reveal that they were all one woman and that she led an extremely interesting life.

            I ended up writing a who’s who of sixteenth-century women. WIVES AND DAUGHTERS: THE WOMEN OF SIXTEENTH-CENTURY ENGLAND was my first published book. It came out in 1984. Unfortunately, with all the discoveries made since then, and with the advent of the Internet to make that information more readily available, it is now horribly out of date. When I launched by KateEmersonHistoricals.com website, I decided to include a who’s who to update some of the entries, at least those of the real women who appear in the novel. Little did I know what I was getting into!

            Obsession? Probably. I don’t seem to be able to stop myself from adding more entries. For each one I have to do more research. I do much of this online, using genealogies and Google Books, which has digitized many local histories and books on the peerage, as well as biographies and social histories. I still do research in libraries too, borrowing books on Interlibrary loan and buying many oldies but goodies from used book dealers. It’s always a thrill when I find some obscure detail that makes my subject come to life. When I can track down a woman’s family—the names of her parents or what happened to her children—I feel as if I’ve had a major breakthrough.

            You’d think that would be enough for me, but no. Not only am I hooked on revamping all those old entries, I add new people too. I can’t seem to stop myself. I keep finding more mysteries to solve. For example, I was doing research for the next book in the SECRETS OF THE TUDOR COURT series, BY ROYAL DECREE, which will take readers from the end of Henry VIII’s reign through those of Edward VI, Lady Jane Grey, and Mary Tudor. I was skimming a book by David Loades titled TWO TUDOR CONSPIRACIES when I spotted a reference to a Mrs. Syvestra Butler, who was arrested for plotting against Queen Mary and saying “I would the King and Queen were in the sea in a bottomless vessel.” Mr. Loades did not identify this lady. In fact, one of the few details he gave was misleading. But her given name alone intrigued me and I started hunting. It took awhile, but eventually I discovered her maiden name (Guise) and more about her family and her involvement in treason. There are still mysteries about her. They may never be solved. But I felt a deep sense of accomplishment at being able to identify her to some extent and she is now included in my “Who’s Who of Tudor Women.” Will I use her in the book? It’s too early to say, but the fact that there were women involved in conspiracy is always useful to know. Since I’m writing fiction, I might take what I learned about Sylvestra Guise and use those details in some other way. 

            I have no idea how many entries there are in the Who’s Who at present. This is a work in progress and probably always will be. Not only do I keep adding new entries, but I’m constantly going back in to tweak existing entries when I come across new details or find information that contradicts what I’ve already written. The latter happens more frequently than you might imagine. This is good news for novelists. We can pick the version that works best for the story we want to tell. It isn’t so good for those who write nonfiction. That’s why I have a disclaimer on the Who’s Who to say that the entries contain the best information I have but that I am NOT a scholar. The Who’s Who of Tudor Women, like WIVES AND DAUGHTERS before it, is meant to be a starting place for those who are interested in the real women of the time. It identifies interesting Tudor women and reports what is known, or thought to be known, about each of them.

            For a few of those women, like Jane Popyncourt (THE PLEASURE PALACE) and Anne Bassett (BETWEEN TWO QUEENS) and Elizabeth Brooke (BY ROYAL DECREE), the Who’s Who entry is also the starting point for a Kate Emerson novel.

The Twelve Shopping Day of Christmas

 

first appeared in Mystery Reader’s Journal, 2009

           

I live in rural Maine, only a couple of hours away from the Canadian border. Many years ago, back when the only mysteries I’d had published were for young readers, I had an idea for a story that would involve smuggling toys into the U.S. This was inspired by incidents during the Beanie Babies craze in the late 1990s. Trucks full of these adorable little dolls were stopped at the border and the contents destroyed as illegal contraband.

Then I sold mysteries to the adult market, but what I was writing didn’t lend itself to using the Beanie Babies. Sixteenth-century England and 1888 U.S. settings just wouldn’t work. It wasn’t until I started to write the Scottish-American-heritage-themed Liss MacCrimmon Mysteries, under the pseudonym Kaitlyn Dunnett, novels set in the present day in the mountains of western Maine, that I was finally able to use the clippings I’d kept on smuggling Beanie Babies. I turned them into “Tiny Teddies” and started plotting. It didn’t take me long to realize that Christmas was the perfect holiday to use in connection with these toys.

In A WEE CHRISTMAS HOMICIDE, Liss MacCrimmon, former professional Scottish dancer and now the proprietor of Moosetookalook Scottish Emporium in Moosetookalook, Maine, discovers that she and two other businesses in town have the only remaining supply of Tiny Teddies in the Northeast. Since that’s the toy every child wants for Christmas and is also an object highly prized by collectors (the tiny teddy bears come in a variety of costumes, including Scottish attire), Liss decides to make the most of the situation. She talks the local small business association into sponsoring the “twelve shopping days of Christmas,” celebrating one line of the song for each of twelve days and culminating in a parade, a festival, and an auction of some of the Tiny Teddies on the twelfth day. The idea is that shoppers will flock to Moosetookalook in droves, stay at the newly renovated historic hotel, The Spruces, and buy! buy! buy! from all the merchants in town.

Because the previous novels in this series, KILT DEAD and SCONE COLD DEAD, are in the cozy subgenre and are written with a dash of humor, the partridge, turtle doves, French hens, calling birds, and other gifts in “The Twelve Days of Christmas” provided me with ample opportunity to use comic relief. At one point Liss’s storeroom is quite overrun with poultry! There are also more traditional Christmas activities taking place throughout the novel and these are coupled with Liss’s growing concern that one or both of the men she’s been dating during the past year may be planning to propose to her on Christmas morning.

As this is a mystery, murder soon interferes with Liss’s carefully laid plans to bring prosperity to Moosetookalook. Because the series features an amateur sleuth, the State Police detective on the case—one of those two men she’s been dating—is missing a key piece of evidence. When it falls into Liss’s hands, she investigates on her own—constantly reminding herself that she mustn’t do anything that will place her in the TSTL (too stupid to live) category. Did I mention that Liss is a big fan of mystery novels? When she starts to put it all together, however, she’s happy to bring her detective in on the chase. In this case that chase involves snowmobiles and leads to a few last minute surprises.

A WEE CHRISTMAS HOMICIDE will be in stores in October 2009, in plenty of time for this year’s Christmas season. And the next book in the series, scheduled for 2010, will also involve a holiday—the birthday of Scottish poet Robert Burns.

Blog Written for New England Crime Bake, 2008

 

           

When I think about going to a writers’ conference or a fan convention, I don’t think first of panels or the banquet or awards (if there are any) or even what I should do there to promote my books. What draws me to any gathering of writers and readers is having all those other writers and readers in one place. Writing is such a solitary profession that it is a real treat to spend time with other like-minded souls.

In order to do what I do, I have long discouraged both friends and relatives from phoning or stopping by when I’m working. I crawl into my cave, boot up the computer or dig out the latest printout, and shut out the rest of the world. My socializing consists of trips to the post office, visits to the library at the nearest branch of the University of Maine, and participation in a series of online writers’ groups. When I surface to do something different, such as have lunch with a non-writer friend, it requires quite an adjustment in my thinking. A non-writer is not likely to be as excited as I am about finding just the right motive for the murder or unearthing a newspaper article from 1888 that will add the perfect touch of realism to a historical.

Everyone at a small writers’ conference has one thing in common—a love and an understanding of what it is that writers do. We speak the same language. Every time I go to a conference, I make new friends, people I often see again and again at subsequent conferences. Yes, the panels and workshops spark ideas, but so do conversations. In fact, the project that I’m working on now, a non-mystery historical, came out of a conversation at the New England Crime Bake in 2006. Some of the best brainstorming sessions I’ve ever had—four or five people sitting in the bar or someone’s room, tossing around ideas—have been at small writers’ conferences. Who knows what will come out of this one?

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all content is © Kathy Lynn Emerson 2008-2010

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