Agatha Christie and Me by Heather Haven

~ Heather Haven ~ 6 Comments

Even though I never knew Agatha Christie personally, she has been an important person in my life. I was a lonely kid and can only say the phrase, “Books are my friends” was on the mark for me. I started reading Nancy Drew mysteries when I was nine. I moved on to Agatha Christie when I was about sixteen. In the following years, I read anything that came my way, from Ernest Hemingway to P.G. Wodehouse, Ruth Rendell to Erma Bombeck. Thrown into this mix was required reading, such as “Ode to a Grecian Urn.”

But I always came back to Christie. Her books were like a trip home. I knew I would care about the characters and be certain of where they were going i.e., a solved crime, but at the same time, be perplexed by the mystery. Above all, it would be a good read. Something to savor and enjoy, to be sorry when it ended.

Arguably, but let’s not argue about this, Christie invented the genre we know today as the cozy mystery. Although, most of them were not as cozy as people like to think. If you scratch beneath the surface, you will find deceit, betrayal, greed, selfishness, and amorality. Even in her romantic mystery series with Tommy and Tuppence, these two were up against some pretty evil doings amid the charm and fluff.

It is said that the best way to learn how to write a mystery is not just to study writing but to read others who have gone before. Read the best and you cannot help but become a better writer. So, I read her a lot. From Christie, I learned the value of having a protagonist people enjoy reading about and are committed to. I learned pacing, plot building, and the element of surprise. But mostly I learned the importance of sustained good writing.

Do I write like or as well Agatha Christie? No. But this isn’t a competition. I’m me and Christie is Christie. My goal is to write as well as I can, in my way, and in my voice. But hearing her angels singing in the background helps. Seeing in my mind’s eye the day-to-day existence of her people, even in the smallest of ways. Poirot measuring his eggs. Marple knitting her latest pair of baby booties. They help me with my own protagonists’ quirks and foibles, keeping my characters interesting and believable. There may be chit-chat about the Great God Google, but to me, Agatha Christie is my goddess.

With this kind of god-like appreciation, comes a certain amount of ownership. I am quite possessive about what is done with her work in other media. I can remember seeing Margaret Rutherford on TV in four black and white movies with her playing Miss Marple and thinking, uh-oh.

Don’t get me wrong, I adore Margaret Rutherford. She was a wonderful character actress of the 50s and 60s who was in many fine movies, such as Blythe Spirit, The V.I.P.s, and The Importance of Being Earnest. She even won an Academy Award for The V.I.P.s. However, her approach to Miss Marple was more along the dotty and confused sleuthing line, with less observation and mental acuity. Rutherford also decided to add her own husband to the stories as her sidekick, Mr. Stringer. Of her performances, it was said Christie respected Rutherford, but later wrote that ”Margaret Rutherford was a very fine actress, but was never in the least like Miss Marple.” I’m with her.

Glossing over 5’8″ Angela Lansbury’s Miss Marple played when she was 55 years old and looking as if she could fell a horse, we move on. Christie’s quintessential Miss Marple was Joan Hickson. Agatha Christie even wrote her a letter saying, “I hope one day you will play my dear Miss Marple.” Christie eventually got her wish when the opportunity arose for Hickson to star in the role at the age of 78. Others come and go, but Joan Hickson was and is my perfect Jane Marple.

Another gloss-over moment is Tony Randall playing Hercule Poirot in The Alphabet Murders. Despite adding Robert Morley to the cast, the movie didn’t work on any level. The script was compromised, the heart of the story was neglected, and Tony Randall was simply miscast. He found his feet in The Odd Couple but certainly tripped all over himself as Poirot.

Albert Finney did Poirot one time in the movie Murder on the Orient Express. With an all-star cast, the script followed much of Christie’s novel. Thank you. Finney’s portrayal of Poirot was exacting, respectful and believable. My own respect for Albert Finney went up several notches after seeing that movie. This handsome dude who starred in the movie Tom Jones not ten years before became the excentric, middle-aged, not-so-good-looking Hercule Poirot.

Peter Ustinov played a very credible Poirot in six movies. While he didn’t look physically very much like the description of Poirot in the books, he had a great sense of fun, the intellect was there, and he honored the character and the role. And he was a wonderful actor. The films were made on location and tended to follow the plotlines, always a plus. His Death on the Nile is one of my favorite go-to movies.

But now we come to Kenneth Branagh. He’s a good Shakespearean actor, but his Hercule Poirot is more one of his fancies than what Christie wrote. His Poirot is a man with a touch of Ian Fleming’s double 0 seven in him, blondish, younger, and far more strapping than any Poirot previously done. And his mustache seems to change in every film. He’s done three films so far, all uneven, and probably plans to do more. Okay. Everybody’s gotta make a living.

If you want to know what Hercule Poirot looks like according to Agatha Christie, either read the books or watch one of David Suchet’s performances. Because we have just gone back to quintessential. David Suchet played Hercule Poirot for nearly 25 years on television. It was a faithful version of the character. According to movieweb.com, “Throughout his 25-year tenure as the detective, Suchet managed to consistently bring to life all of Poirot eccentricities, right down to the physicalities and movement of the character — as, notably, Suchet managed to perfect Poirot’s distinct walk.”

Keeping in mind that actors need to work, and they’re going to take a job whether I like their version of the role or not, when I really want to visit Miss Marple, Tommy and Tuppence, or Poirot, I pick up one of Agatha Christie’s books. Timeless and wonderful.

Guest Blogger ~ Sandra Gardner

~ patyjag ~ 5 Comments

A Mystery is a Puzzle       

The basis of a mystery story is a puzzle. There’s at least the main puzzle, and maybe even one (or two more) contained in the story as subplots – smaller plots generally connected to the main story.

Your job as a mystery writer is to start with a scrambled mess, the way it looks when you dump the pieces out of the puzzle box. There’s a body, an attack, a disappearance, etc.  Somebody — or maybe more than one somebody — is guilty. But who could it be: the wife, the husband, the girl/ or boy/ friend? Or maybe it’s someone who owes money to someone else.

As the story’s writer, you need to make the pieces fit together by the end of the story. So, you begin to work it out on the page. But sometimes what you thought would work, doesn’t, and you have to toss the pieces back in the box and start again. You take a different approach or look at your story from a different angle. You might change the POV (point of view) from first to third person or vice-versa, or multiple POVs. A warning about multiples: This is difficult to manipulate and sustain, so probably not a good idea for a new mystery writer. You might change tenses from present to past, past to present; use flashbacks or a prologue to set the scene.

A word about red herrings: For example, just when everything points to a certain person, that person turns out to be a cop. Or was somewhere else at the time of the murder. Or ends up as the next victim.

Used judiciously, red herrings can give the story more tension. You want to keep upping the tension, so that when the reader thinks everything (the pieces) looks like they’re going to come together – bang, the whole thing falls apart. There’s another crime — an attack or a murder. First this person looks guilty. Everyone is terrified, each person suspects everyone else. Take a look at an Agatha Christie Poirot mystery. In many of them, Poirot gathers everyone together and points out how each person could be the guilty one, before he finally reveals the real killer. Or in at least one Poirot story, there’s more than one guilty person.   

Here’s a confession: I’m terrible at jigsaw puzzles, being one of those people who process information auditorily, rather than visually. But I’m good at the crossword kind, which, when you think about it, isn’t too different: Here you have blanks that need to be filled in and have to fit together to solve the puzzle.

Another confession: When I begin writing, I don’t know how the puzzle will work itself out. I have to wait until my characters tell me, in their thoughts and actions. So I just wait. And listen.

There are usually plenty of clues. But reader, beware. Just like in a jigsaw puzzle, what first looks like it will fit, might not.

The Murder Blog

Philomena Wolff was 17, walking home from school with her best friend, when her friend disappeared, ending up as one of several young women abducted and murdered in upstate New York by a clever killer who eventually disappeared from the area.

Philomena was terrified that the man caught a glimpse of her when he took her friend.

Many years later, young women have been ending up dead again.

Philomena, now an investigative reporter, hosts a crime-solving blog, “Who Killed Who?” With the help of her friend, a psychic gravedigger, her friend’s boyfriend, a P.I., and the blog’s readers, Philomena is on a mission to hunt the killer down. Her readers are with her. But so is the killer, posting vile notes and vicious threats on the blog.

Could the killer be the same one who murdered her friend long ago, trolling for more young women – and Philomena?

Buy links: https://www.amazon.com/Murder-Blog-Suspense-Novel-ebook/dp/B0CK9RVT9V

https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-murder-blog-sandra-gardner/1144100569?ean=9781685133450

Sandra Gardner is the author of seven traditionally published books: four novels and

three nonfiction books. 

         Gardner’s new suspense novel, The Murder Blog, was published by Black Rose Writing in December 2023. Her last two novels — both mysteries — Dead Shrinks Don’t Talk and Grave Expectations were published by Black Opal Books in 2018. A coming-of-age novel, Halley and Me, won the Grassic Short Novel Prize from Evening Street Press and was published in 2013. Her nonfiction books include Teenage Suicide (Simon & Schuster); Street Gangs (Franklin Watts); and Street Gangs in America (Franklin Watts). Street Gangs in America received a book award from the National Federation of Press Women. Previously, she worked as a journalist and was a contributing writer to The New York Times.

https://sjgardner6.wixsite.com/mysite

Author Central: https://author.amazon.com/home

Author’s Den home page: https://.Authorsden.com/sandragardner

I’m a Goodreads Author

History “swings like a pendulum do” *

~ dzchurch ~ 3 Comments

* to misquote Roger Miller’s “England Swings.”

When selecting a year in which to begin my Wanee Mystery Series, I landed on 1876 not by accident but by design. It was the U.S. Centennial year. The Centennial Exhibition in Philadelphia, partially powered by a massive steam engine, showcased Alexander Graham Bell’s telephone, the first typewriter with a QWERTY keyboard (Remington 1), Edison’s automatic telegraph, new products such as popcorn, ketchup and root beer, and mass-produced wares including an improved sewing machine. Attending librarians founded the American Library Association. The women’s pavilion demonstrated women’s influence in philanthropy as well as philosophy, science, medicine, education, and literature, foreshadowing the woman’s movement. All while, Reconstruction was still a thing, Native Americans were battling for their land, the James brothers (and others) were robbing banks, and the country was fraught with the second worst depression in U.S. history, setting men adrift to join those already on the road due to the Civil War.

The War may have been over, but it wasn’t. The tides of belief were changing in the North to be less tolerant of the blacks they had just freed. The Southern Democrats fought a different sort of war using intimidation to ensure victory at the Southern polls. Lynchings were common, murders as well, all over the country, not just in the South. The country felt out of control to most. Yet the depression was easing, opportunities were appearing, and technology was booming. Does any of this sound familiar?

What I didn’t expect was how the next year, 1877, the setting for books four through six, would mirror the present. Newspapers predicted the fall of democracy. Public sentiment turned against “tramps” (homeless to us), immigrants, and Hispanics north and south of the border. Southern Democrats (some of whom, as seditionists, the 14th Amendment denied the right to vote or hold political office) took over statehouses by force and threw out duly elected Republican governors, reclaiming control of the south. The oligarchs of industry ruled the White House and most state houses. Graft was everywhere during President Grant’s just ended presidency, and the election of Rutherford B. Hayes considered fraudulent.

Fear crept through the cracks in doors and across the floor, coloring daily life. Small towns were no exception. Though generally not central to the angst, their newspapers, fed by the larger dailies, amplified the news and worries of the world, breeding distrust of the government and outsiders.

The West was still wild, the East tame (if you call murder, gangs and lynchings tame), and the Midwest a mess of mixed sentiments especially in the border states. Small towns like my fictitious Wanee, Illinois were at the nexus of all this change, rife with the disenfranchised, pressured by growth of outside industry, the railroad, and farmers. Glory be, it is my job to weave the discomfit, prejudice, worry, and change into the warp of each story. What a wonderful and frightening opportunity.

The words of one of my professors accompany me; you cannot truly know the tale Shakespeare tells without first understanding the context of the time in which he wrote. He wasn’t a Shakespearean scholar though he discovered the first draft of one of Shakespeare’s plays. Even so, he taught us far more than Shakespeare. He held our hands through the Elizabethan period, the church, the mores, and Shakespeare’s competitors. He made Shakespeare new to me with one question: what if Hamlet’s father wasn’t dead? I hope I do him honor in providing the context for my tales, these roiling years are the stage upon which Cora and her cohorts play. I ask myself with each page written and each plot devised how this disquiet affects the day-to-day dreams and strivings of Cora Countryman, Dr. Philip Shaw, and Sebastian Kanady, who owns and edits Wanee’s newspaper.

This tumultuous period will provide me with plots for a long time to come as Cora and her supporting cast wend their way through to the new century solving the crimes I present them. Yet, as I work on the fourth book, it feels as though 150 years on, we are fighting the Civil War all over again, while dealing with the same threats to our future, oligarchs, seditionists, and technology included. I for one do not wish another 1877 on this country, nor should you.

But I do love writing about the era and how the changes it forced still define us – for the good or the bad.

Unbecoming a Lady and A Confluence of Enemies are available from Amazon; https://www.amazon.com/Confluence-Enemies-Wanee-Mystery-Mysteries-ebook/dp/B0CQJ5DW4W. Check my website: https://dzchurch.com for more information on the Wanee Mystery Series and my other books or to sign up for my newsletter.

FINISH LINE

~ Kimila Kay ~ 1 Comment

“Hi, my name is Kimila and I’m a word-aholic.”

I absolutely love words! I grew up in a family of storytellers and some of my crazy clan may have made up their own words occasionally. For instance, warshcloth for washcloth, tempature for temperature and yellow for hello. You get the idea, right?

Now part of the reason for these created words could be because my relatives moved to Oregon from Oklahoma before I was born. And all y’all no what a strong southern accent can do to the English language.

When I entered the working world one of my first jobs was a secretarial position at a bank. I’d always thought of myself as a great speller, but my mean supervisor soon taught me that was not the case. Imagine you’re typing a letter on a manual typewriter, and you’ve read the piece believing the missive is error free. Then … your supervisor hands it back with red ink markings showing your misspelled words and errors.

I became a better writer, editor, and speller thanks to Mean Mary. And the invention of computers and software has helped immensely. I love that Word tells me what’s wrong with a hint of blue or cute red squiggly lines.

My very first WIP in 2004, “Murder in Margaritaville” (no Jimmy Buffet would not let me use the name) was a labor of love created on a desktop using a keyboard. I pounded out all 125,000 words over the course of three months. Worked hard on editing, printed the pages, and clipped them into a three-ring binder. Then I had my mom, of course, and a few friends read my masterpiece.

Oh, the life of a novice writer. I attended my first Willamette Writer’s conference that year and fell for the line, “I’d love to represent you and your novel, but first we’ll need to have it professionally edited by our team of awesome editors. For a small fee (fortune).”

Of course, I forked over the money for the editing service and learned some valuable tools I still use today. Such as, the correct way to use the word “like”, which I had used incorrectly 30,000 times in my 125,000 word bemouth. One of the editors and I became friends after she sent me a sticker with the word “Like” in the middle of circle, then crossed out.

The most important lesson I learned, though, was do not pay someone who’s dangling the dream of helping you land a book deal. After paying for the editing, the agent, who’d lured me into her web of deceit, told me my masterpiece wasn’t a good fit for her firm.

She gave me a few reasons, but the one that stuck and haunts me still was, “As a novice writer, you should stick to 70-75,000 words in your books.”

I decided not to perseverate about this unpleasant experience and moved forward with my fledgling career. To hone my skills, I wrote short essays published by the “Cup of Comfort” anthology series. You learn how to be an efficient wordsmith when the count is 2,000 words. How to tell an interesting, compelling story without the excess baggage of unneeded words. That being a ruthless editor of your own work serves to make your story stronger.

Now that I’ve let go of the “book deal” dream, I’ve embraced creating interesting characters and writing the fabulous stories swirling in my mind. With three novels, a novella, and a handful of short stories in my collection of work, I feel good about my writing skills. A few glowing reviews for these books has also encouraged me to continue weaving my beloved words into dark and twisty tales.

Still, every now and then, I hear those long ago words echoing in my mind. As a novice writer, you should stick to 70-75,000 words in your books. And worry I’m being too wordy, adding unnecessary blather that will bog down my story and cause a reader to set the book aside.

Each novel I have written over the past six years has grown in wordcount. I find myself watching the count with a bit of trepidation as the number draws close to 70,000. But then I ask myself, is the story good? Can it be better? Have the character’s completed their journey within the tale? Are the loose ends wrapped up for the reader? Have I created a sense of anticipation for the next book?

At this point, I smile and keep writing until the story has reached the finish line. I don’t think of myself as a novice writer anymore, but instead as a writer who loves words and plans to let them determine when the tale is told no matter the word count!

Happy New Year, Ladies of Mystery! And happy writing!

Guest Blogger ~ M. E. Proctor

~ patyjag ~ 2 Comments

The Long and Short of It

If writing a novel is a long-lasting love affair—and it better be passionate because there’ll be a lot of time spent in close quarters—what are short stories? A brief encounter burning bright, a summer romance, a little walk on the wild side … It sure feels like that for me at times. Short fiction is a gulp of fresh air after completing a book draft, a welcome reprieve from obsession, and a new way to look at writing when the work-in-progress leaves me so cross-eyed I don’t see anything anymore.

Short stories are like stretching exercises. Tension is released, relaxation ensues.

A character pops into my head, a place triggers an image, a memory surfaces, a sentence rings true, and an idea is born. Could it turn into a book? Maybe, and some have grown wings and gone the distance, but not all stories deserve a 300-page treatment. Often their strength is in the instant. Their intensity cannot be sustained without dilution in a full-length narrative.

“Rabbits”, one of my favorite stories in the Family and Other Ailments collection, is a good example. It is told from the perspective of a twelve-year-old boy who blanked out a dramatic event. We meet him when he starts remembering. There’s fear and confusion, and a growing sense of panic that is more acute and more immediate for being at the core of the story instead of distributed over book chapters.

I love the spontaneity of short stories, and the best ones are written in a feverish rush with very little rework. They scream to get on the page. I often go back for inspiration to Ray Bradbury, who knew quite a bit about short fiction. One of his quotes is printed in my brain: In quickness is truth. The faster you blurt, the more swiftly you write, the more honest you are.

I can ponder a scene in a book for days, finetune and rewrite it endlessly. That kind of needlepoint doesn’t work for my short stories. The struggle doesn’t improve them, it tends to suck all the life out of them. My files are full of false starts and abandoned fragments. No regrets, they just didn’t make the cut.

Then there’s the guilty pleasure of genre-hopping. I write mostly crime, both in short and long form. The rules of the genre are infinitely flexible and accommodate pretty much everything. Yet, sometimes I feel myself slipping into horror or science fiction. I have a soft spot for cool vampires and conflicted androids. They would not fit in my contemporary detective series. Or I may decide to take a stroll in the 1950s because I’m a sucker for fedoras and hardboiled dialogue. Short fiction is like a pastry shop. All these colorful macarons. And there’s no sin in wanting to sample them all.

There are twenty-six tasty treats in my short story collection, Family and Other Ailments. Have a bite and tell me which one makes you want to come back for seconds. The main character of the book’s title story has already earned a return engagement. In a book.

Family and Other Ailments – Crime Stories Close to Home

Blood ties. The family we’ve been given, the friends we make, the loves we keep, and those we lost. The twenty-six stories in Family and Other Ailments (Wordwooze Publishing) teeter on the brink, hover at the periphery or even the possibility of crime.
The collection opens with “Spy Head,” a tale of friendship after a crushing trauma. In “Texas Two-Step,” brotherhood leads to a wicked double-cross. “Razorbills” shows a young woman seeking freedom from the prison-like caring of her sibling. “Black and Tan” slips into domestic horror, as does “Mutti,” with a hint of the fantastic. “Hour of the Bat” and “Bag Limit” are deep woods Texas noir, while “A Head for Numbers” and “No Recoil” go west, to the stark unforgiving beauty of the desert.

Buy Links:

Family and Other Ailments is available in eBook, paperback, and audiobook.

All links are accessible here: https://books2read.com/u/3Lx0v5

From reviews:

“Channelling distinct voices, subtle humor, and endings that plant a fist in your gut, Proctor’s Family and Other Ailments is a terrific collection of crime, suspense, and fear. The tales are carefully calculated, with each scene, each piece of dialogue building to that oh so important final strike: a crescendo point that leaves the reader jarred.”

M.E. Proctor was born in Brussels and lives in Texas. Her short story collection Family and Other Ailments is available in all the usual places. She’s currently working on a contemporary detective series. The first book comes out in August 2024 from Shotgun Honey. Her short fiction has appeared in Vautrin, Bristol Noir, Pulp Modern, Mystery Tribune, Reckon Review, Black Cat Weekly, and Thriller Magazine among others. She’s a Derringer nominee.

Author Website: www.shawmystery.com

On Substack: https://meproctor.substack.com

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/martine.proctor

Twitter: https://twitter.com/MEProctor3