Talking with Linda Barnes

It's funny that the people I think I'll have the most trouble interviewing on Mystery Matters are the ones I end up truly comfortable with. Maybe it's because I write cozy mysteries with a librarian and a cat - so the idea of speaking with someone who writes about a hard-boiled, former-cop private investigator leaves me wondering where I'll ever find a heart-to-heart connection.

But that connection certainly happened right in the middle of my conversation with Linda Barnes about her Carlotta Carlyle mysteries, when Linda said, after a listener emailed a question about Carlotta's mob-connected boyfriend Sam Gianelli, "A lot of my friends are smart women who've made dumb choices about guys."

Soon after that, she said that one of her greatest accomplishments was that readers in Germany started a Big Sisters program there after learning about Big Sisters through Linda's books. In those two moments I felt Linda reach across the phone line and grab my heart. I knew we were connected as people, as women, as fellow-writers, and in that ineffable bond of reader and writer. Count me as a proud Linda Barnes fan, for more reasons than just her good books.

Friday the 13th and Biscuit McKee mysteries

I'm not a superstitious person. In fact, Friday the 13th has never posed a problem for me. Until this morning. My mystery author guest each week is supposed to call the station at five minutes before show time. Well - that didn't happen this morning, and I was left having to "wing it."


It's live radio, and I suppose I've known that something like this might happen at some point. I just wasn't expecting it quite this soon. This was only the 11th show, after all. In the two minutes I had to think about it - and then the half-minute of commercial intro, I decided to read from my own books and call the show "The Evolution of a Mystery Series." I figured I could answer a lot of the questions I get asked when I speak at book clubs and writers groups. How did you get the idea for Biscuit the librarian? and Where did Marmalade the orange library cat come from?


Luckily two listeners emailed questions -- they're both going on my gratitude list tonight! I made it through the show. Listen to it on the archive for February 13th http://www.tinyurl.com/a2f3s6 and let me know how nervous you think I sounded on a scale of one to ten.

Patricia Sprinkle - February 20, 2009

Finally! I'm caught up with my blog entries. From now on I'll post once a week to give you a bit of behind-the-scenes info about each of my shows on Mystery Matters. I hope you'll go to my host web page frequently to listen to the archived shows www.tinyurl.com/a2f3s6

Two days before the show was due to broadcast live, Patricia Sprinkle called me and tested my new-found determination not to worry about things that hadn't even happened yet (see my blog entry about Julia Spencer-Fleming's February 6th show). Patti said that she needed to leave early on Friday morning to attend a 100th birthday party for a relative who lived in another state.

Thank goodness for Atlanta rush-hour traffic - I never thought I'd make such a statement! Patti and her family decided that leaving after the rush hour would make more sense than leaving at 8 a.m. So, as soon as Ruben gave us the all-clear at the end of the show on Friday, Patti said a quick goodbye and headed out with her family.

Patti's a former national president of Sisters in Crime. That wonderful organization is open to anyone who's interested in mysteries - readers, librarians, writers, bookstore owners. Its purpose is to level the playing field so that women, who write more than 50% of published mysteries, can begin to get a proportionate number of reviews.

I'll be back next week with another post. Thanks for reading!

Jean Keating - Feb. 13, 2009

If you've ever read my books or looked at my website or met me at a book or networking event, you'll know that I'm a cat person. I like dogs, as long as they're well-behaved and they belong to somebody else and they don't drool on me. But I am a confirmed cat person.

Jean Keating, though, has just about convinced me that I need to make an effort to meet the tiny show dogs called Papillons. Jean's books have taught me so much about these little butterfly dogs of the show dog circuit.

I met Jean several years about when we were both presenting at the Cape Fear Crime Festival in Wilmington, North Carolina. One of her Papillons is now trained as a hearing-assist dog, so she takes the dog with her to booksignings and conferences. I can't wait to meet him at the next Book 'Em Foundation event!

Nancy Atherton - January 9, 2009

The second show still had my hands shaking. Thank goodness it's radio and not video. Fortunately, I felt a good connection to my guest Nancy Atherton, author of the Aunt Dimity mystery series. I've read and loved her books for years.

Part way through the show, as I tried to read an email that had just come in, I lost the thread of what she was saying. I fell back on the time-honored ploy of asking about her animals. She's a cat person (as I am), and I think my question and her answer covered my momentary brain-lapse.

I have such high hopes for Mystery Matters. There are so many good mystery writers out there - and I want to let the whole world know aabout them. The point of the show is not to push books - although I do hope listeners will decide to buy the books they hear us discussing - but rather to learn more about what makes the book-creator tick.