Paty Jager is an award-winning author of 50 + novels, novellas, and short stories of murder mystery, western romance, and action adventure. All her work has Western or Native American elements in them along with hints of humor and engaging characters. Paty and her husband raise alfalfa hay in rural eastern Oregon. Riding horses and battling rattlesnakes, she not only writes the western lifestyle, she lives it.
I get an online ezine called the Crimereads. It has great articles about mystery books, authors, and the genre. The latest one had a topic on what makes a good protagonist and in the article the writer talked about how some protagonists age through the lifetime of their series and others don’t.
Because I am a writer who likes to keep my stories as real as possible, I tend to age my characters and keep track of the time/years for each book. If I write three books in one year, they are set in that year. So the next year, my characters are a year older and things, like secondary characters getting pregnant are part of my secondary plots. I remember reading books with characters that didn’t seem to age. Like Kinsey Milhone (the character who was the impetus for me to try my hand at writing mysteries), Miss Marple, Stephanie Plum, Mrs. Pollifax, and even James Qwilleran, and his two Siamese cats, Koko and Yum Yum
It will be interesting to see how long I can keep my character Gabriel Hawke traipsing about the Eagle Cap Wilderness solving murders when I started him out at 53 years old. But I have a feeling he will be going strong for a good long time. People around him will age, as will he, but we’ll see if his aging makes him think harder about family, his own presumably.
As for Shandra Higheagle, she has married since becoming a mystery character and while her friends are all becoming pregnant, I haven’t decided if she’s going to become pregnant, if she and Ryan will be a childless family, or if they will bring an older child into their family. It’s all up in the air at this time. It all winds around in my head as I ponder the future for these two.
One thing I know for certain. My characters will age, their lives will have ups and downs, and I hope they continue to be characters readers want to read about.
What are some of your favorite characters and have they aged over the course of their series or stayed the same?
The mystery? Why is it, then, that the leading lady of the cozy
mystery today is a baby-faced, early career, 30-something, rather than a
mature, perhaps somewhat disgruntled, widowed or divorced, half-retired woman
of 50+ years?
I turned 60 this year, and I read like a demon, devouring
novels like M&M’s. Why, I wondered, was my feisty generation—all prime
readers for Pete’s sake—so invisible in women’s mystery fiction today?
OK, so the term “baby boomer lit” has gotten a bad rap. Much
of that is justified. The indie market is awash with badly written “boomer” novels
that feature highly forgettable “senior sleuths,” seeking second chances in the
confines of gated retirement villages.
Too much of this lit pounds home a “sundowner” theme – think
cancer, moving into assisted living, fighting over men with competing ladies in
Leisure Village – OR a “second chance” theme. Think “widower dares to date
again” or “the search for the one that got away.”
Problem. I don’t see my life as in need of “second chances.”
I see it as more of what it always has been: a bit of a hair-raising adventure.
Why not, I thought, write about cantankerous, every day women who are aging,
but who are also busy having a go at life, every morning, pretty much as they
always have?
Oldsters are as varied as youngsters (really, they are). Being
of the mind that if there’s a problem it’s my responsibility to engineer a solution
– a great notion from the 70’s when I first hit the road out of high school —
I began to create a new crime comedy series loaded with oldsters of all
varieties.
In my new amateur detective series, The Shady Hoosier Detective Agency, the protagonists are lifelong
gal pals, ages 67 and 71, living in small town Indiana. They share a house, a
1960 Chevy, and reluctant custody of grown children who still reside in their
basement.
One in particular (Veenie) has been a lifelong snoop. The
other (Ruby Jane) has great computer skills. For them, the decision to punch a
time clock post-retirement as sleuths with the Harry Shades Detective Agency is
as much a way to exercise their curiosity as it is a path to supplementing their
social security.
Back in the 90’s the TV drama “Golden Girls,” about older widowed
and divorced women sharing a home and laughter, broke through ageism to show
that the closing chapters of life can be as varied and exciting as the
beginning and middle. I believe that there remains pent up demand for older,
feisty women characters in the cozy mystery niche.
My goal in creating the Shady
Hoosier Detective Agency, with Book 3, The Chickenlandia Mystery, coming out as this is posted, is to update
the cozy to better serve publishing’s core reading demographic by creating
books that mirror the more diverse evolving lives of Boomer women like me.
Like all publishing undertakings, it is up to the cosmos to
decide if the series will find a readership, but a few stars do seem to be
aligning. The Shady Hoosiers’ debut
book, Ghost Busting Mystery, has
thus far won three Best Indie Humor Book Awards and two Best Indie Cozy Mystery
Book Awards,
In the end, I write what I want to read. There has never
been a more active, curious, diverse, witty, kick-ass generation of women. Why
not gift ourselves leisure reading that reflects this?
Author
Daisy Pettles
Daisy Pettles was born in southern Indiana, in a tiny river
town. As a child, she was fed a steady diet of books, pies, and Bible stories.
Her debut cozy series, the Shady Hoosier
Detective Agency, crime comedies set in fictional Pawpaw County, Indiana,
won the 2019 Gold Medal as Best Humor Book from the Indie Reader, The Next
Generation Indie Book Awards, and the American Fiction Awards. Visit her
anytime at https://www.daisypettles.com
I have always been a very time structured writer. I make time to write and I stick with it whether my brain is mush or not.
This summer has pulled me out of writing so much, I’m struggling to get back into the work in progress and finding time to get some solid time in. I wouldn’t have given up anything I did this summer, but it’s starting to weigh on my conscience that I am behind on my releases and dragging words out when I’m in front of the computer.
This past week, was supposed to be the last time I’d be kept from my writing, but I have a cousin coming for a week and then hubby and I have an anniversary trip planned in October, though that will be a trip to do research for a book as well as enjoy.
Tomorrow, I’ll sit down and write four days (have to take my mother-in-law home today) Which is an unexpected turn of events. Then next weekend we have company and I get another week before company for a week. So I need to really hunker down and write when I have time, which will mean little social media time and hubby will have simple meals.
When you have a lot interrupting your writing, how do you deal with it? Does it take you longer to get back into the story when you have tiny bits of time with beg gaps in between?
Readers, do you ever wonder why some authors have gaps in their releases? This is why. Life interrupts the writing process.
Bad Vibes
Removal Services: A Genre-Confused Mystery Series
Many of my stories are genre-confused. As the
author, obviously this is my fault. If I would stay in one category, then I
could easily describe my work by genre: Mystery or Science Fiction or Fantasy.
But my brain doesn’t work that way, which is why my first published murder
mystery was in a hard science fiction magazine. When I write, my brain sometimes
jumps into the future, or throws in ghosts, or creates impossible technological
inventions. Doing all of those things at once resulted in the Bad Vibes Removal
Services series.
The Bad Vibes series began with a short story set
in the near-future, featuring Montgomery, a genius inventor, entrepreneur,
lawyer, and private detective. He’d invented scanners to find sound wave patterns
left in walls at the atomic level. His invention could detect and identify a
record of conversations and noises left in walls. While he was working on this,
Montgomery found another set of patterns, absorbed emotional imprints from
pain, anger, depression, joy, and a host of other emotions.
Montgomery can uncover conversations between
criminals and detect deceit where things are hidden. But, he can’t sell his
equipment to law enforcement if courts won’t accept his findings as evidence. Since
he could both read and obliterate the patterns left in walls, Montgomery
created a side business to make his inventions a household name and speed
acceptance by law enforcement. Bad Vibes Removal Services was born.
Who needs Bad Vibes Removal Service? Everyone who
ever moved into a pre-owned house or apartment. Does your new-to-you home feel
creepy? Sad? Anxious? Maybe the previous occupant was going through a divorce
or serious illness.
One of Montgomery’s employees at Bad Vibes Removal
Services is a history graduate student named Lea who grew up seeing ghosts. She
could always sense the history of buildings as a lingering emotional imprint or
via sudden visions, echoes from the past. So, she enjoys making homes more
livable for people who are sensitive to emotional atmosphere. By infusing
static into the walls, Lea can reset the atmosphere in a room, erasing the
lingering history, making the space comfortable again… most of the time.
Resets fail when a ghost, the source of the
emotions, is present. Then, Lea communicates with the ghost while she and her
coworker Kamika help Montgomery investigate. Crimes are uncovered and villains
are revealed. Sometimes spirits are helpful. Sometimes, they’re malevolent.
From one short story, this genre-confused series bloomed
to include (so far) eight short stories and two novels. The first novel, The
Walls Can Talk, is set in an Irish castle that’s been moved to central
Texas, resident ghost included. The second novel, Degrees of Deceit,
was just released and is set mainly in a haunted dorm on a University of Texas
campus.
When people ask me what I write, I tell them ‘mysteries’
to keep it simple. If they ask for more, I get to explain my genre-mashing
tendencies. Generally, I call the Bad Vibes series ‘paranormal mysteries’ and I
enjoy writing them. If you like a spooky chill along with a mystery, maybe
you’ll enjoy reading them too.
Degrees of Deceit
The Bad Vibes Removal Services crew is back in a
sequel to The Walls Can Talk!
A college prankster is making life hellish for the
freshmen residents of Dellonmarsh Dorm on a University of Texas campus. The sleep-deprived
students are spooked by the time Montgomery Investigations arrives on the scene
to track down the prank-playing vandal who comes and goes like a ghost. Rumors
say a benevolent ghost haunts the residence hall, but these treacherous tricks
are anything but benevolent. As the pranks escalate from obnoxious noises in
the night to poisons and more dangerous threats, investigators Lea, Kamika, and
their boss, Montgomery, work to identify a perpetrator who lurks in the shadows.
N. M. Cedeño currently lives near Austin, Texas. She writes mystery short stories and novels that vary from traditional to romantic suspense, and from paranormal to science fiction. She is active in Sisters in Crime, Heart of Texas Chapter, having served as chapter vice president and president. Ms. Cedeño has written several standalone short stories and novels as well as the Bad Vibes Removal Services paranormal mystery series.
In answer to the question: How did you come up with the idea
to write about the seven deadly sins?
I love suspense, especially psychological suspense that
revolves around regular people, the kind who live next door, or work in the
next cubicle. I can’t get enough of Lisa Scottoline’s, Harlan Coben’s, Ruth
Ware’s, or Shari Lapena’s suburban noir novels.
I also love book series. If I’m drawn into a fictional
world, I want to return to it over and over. I’m a big fan of C.J. Box, Lincoln
and Child, and Linda Castillo. But if you notice, the three authors I just
named all write about a detective. Box’s protagonist is a park ranger, Lincoln
and Child’s an FBI agent, and Castillo’s is a sheriff.
How could I do both? Write a “what would you do if you ran
into a dead body?” kind of story that was also a series? It’s hard to sell the
idea that a real estate agent, or a chef, or a Pilates instructor would bump
into more than one murderer in a lifetime. Hence the reason most domestic
thrillers are standalones.
My Oprah Moment:
One day I was talking to a friend about besetting sins, or
what I refer to as “our personal BS.” You know, those negative thought
patterns, those special lies, that trip us up when we run into turbulent
waters. We all have one we struggle with more than the others.
A light bulb went on. “What if,” I said, “I wrote a suspense
series that explored each of the seven deadly sins and set it in the world I
know best—Orange County, California. The hero of the next book in series
could be introduced in the previous. Characters could make appearances in
novels other than their story of origin as needed.
My friend loved the idea, so I went with it. I knew I’d have
at least one reader.
Thank goodness she wasn’t the only one who loved it. I was picked
up by Fawkes Press in Texas with a two book deal and first right of refusal on
the rest. The Color of Envy, the book on preorder as I write this
(August, 2019) is book 4.
The thing my readers comment on most is the relatability of
my characters. My protagonists are all ordinary women with normal lives trying
to make it in careers you and I know something about. A Margin of Lust
features a real estate agent. The Scent of Wrath is about a single mom
running the gift shop inside a Pilates studio. The protagonist in The
Sanctity of Sloth is a school librarian who has publishing aspirations. The
new book, The Color of Envy, revolves around an interior designer. Each
of them is challenged by murder.
If, according to Lisa Cron, we read to help us vicariously tackle dilemma’s and dangers before they come, my stories solve a common problem. No one wants to meet a corpse or a killer unprepared.
All the fortress’s inhabitants have been rich,
reclusive, and mysterious.
It has tantalized
Rosie Ring for years. When horror writer Jacob Rinehart purchases the large stone
house on the cliffs and hires her to redecorate, it seems like a dream come
true. But Rinehart is
living a nightmare. A woman has been killed in the same manner as the victims
in his latest book.
Gruesome deaths,
disturbing artwork, and red-soled shoes litter the opulent landscape of Laguna
Beach, California. Everyone close to Rosie is hiding something, and one of
those secrets leads to death.
If you loved Ruth
Ware’s In a Dark, Dark Wood, or Shari
Lapena’s An Unwanted Guest, Greta Boris’s The Color of Envy should be right
up your dark alley. Get a copy and enter the world of The Seven Deadly
Sins—Standalone Novels of Psychological Suspense.
A tale of suburban suspense that will keep you turning pages. – Matt Coyle, author of the Anthony Award-winning Rick Cahill series
Greta Boris is the author of A Margin of Lust,The Scent of Wrath,The Sanctity of Sloth,and The Color of Envy, the first four books in The 7 Deadly Sins. Ordinary women. Unexpected Evil. Taut psychological thrillers
that expose the dark side of sunny Southern California.
Ladies of Mystery 
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