Louie and I are glad to have you as a Forever Fan!
You’ll be glad to know I just turned in Cat in a Vegas Gold Vendetta today! Two more Louie books are contracted for, so he and his crew will be coming at you for some time. Interesting to know your favorite book and scenes. The combo of romantic suspense, mystery and an alpha cat does lead to excitement.
If you’re not on the mail or e-scribe annual newsletter list, you can subscribe her under “Newsletters” or read the latest edition with a link here.
Thanks for taking time to write, and for your support!
Dear Carole,
I’ve been a fan of Midnight Louie for years. Love him. Favorite book in series Cat on A Hyacinth Hunt. Loaded with Romance, Suspense & lots of Louie. It had non stop excitement. I adore Max & the car chase with him & Matt breath taking! Louie is the greatest, cleverest, smartest & funniest kitty ever. Keep him comming. A Forever Fan,
Linda Chase, Santa Rosa, Calif.
I’m glad you’ve found the Delilah series. Yes, more Snow and Delilah coming. ) Silver Zombie arrives Nov. 30 with a great cover I need to find time to post. It’s been frantic. Another book is coming in 2012, working title Virtual Virgin. Thanks for checking in!
Hi Carole,
Just love your Delilah Street books, have read all three. Hope to see more Snow and Delilah. Just wondering when the fourth is coming out, I don’t want to miss it. I see the name is Silver Zombie. Can’t wait. Thank you.
I do have brand new readers who start late in the Midnight Louie series, but they go back to read them in order. That’s a good idea, and people reread them too because there are a lot of subtle things going on.
Chapel Noir is the first of the four Irene Adler novels I wrote after a seven-year hiatus. It’s also the first half of one big novel too long to publish in one go. I call Chapel Noir and its partner book, Castle Rouge, the “Jack the Ripper duology,” although there is no such word as “duology.” But we have “trilogy,” so it made sense to me.
The front and back matter of Chapel Noir stress that it’s a continuing story, and “cliffhanger” endings are traditional Victorian era devices, but I didn’t realize some readers would skip the introduction and epilogue. Some Amazon reviewers were rather irritated that one story thread was left at a nail-nibbling point, although the last sentences do indicate a future book. Some mystery series are, like the Holmes stories, isolated “cases” in a string of cases. That doesn’t allow for much character or setting growth, and growth is what I and my books are all about.
I do enjoy investigating historical personages and bringing them alive in my books. Unsubstantiated rumors surround some historical figures, and I omit them unless I’ve read a source that strikes me as reliable, probably because of my journalistic background. It annoys me to have historical characters “defamed” in contemporary novels to make a sensational story. A reader should be able to go to a biography of the person and find the fictional representation accurate, if not as thorough. My opinion.
After I researched Elvis for a Louie book–and some of the dozens of books about him were so cheap and exploitive I threw them across the room–I heard from people who had personal brushes with Elvis during the supposedly blotto last couple years of his life. And they found him polite, functional, and perfectly charming. I came to realize that the many books everyone around him wrote for money after his death all reran and used the few most extreme incidents, which distorted the big picture.
Thanks for “talking up” my books. The print industry is undergoing the biggest revolution since the printing press and times are tough for any involved in the written word. Readers who play “secret reshelvers” are giving their favorite writers a helping hand. It could annoy the librarians, so they should probably ask. It certainly points out that the writer has devoted fans.
Having been a daily newspaper Opinion Page copy and layout editor and editorial board member (I was the first woman in the department), I have lots of opinions to write about, but when my web designer said I needed to post something to get the blog going my mind was a blank. I’m glad to get responses because then I have something to answer. At its best, writing is mental snow-boarding, a heady combination of freedom and risk. Making it look easy takes years of practice, starting in elementary school and with assignments.
Thanks for your comments and good wishes. May you have a sprightly spring. I hope you are subscribed the annual Midnight Louie newsletter!
Carole, I’ve read the Louie quartet and the first two before the alphabet starts. I am collecting them as I find the “alphas” but I’d like to read them in order.
The Irene Adler series is harder to find but I wanted a taste of your Sherlockian stuff so when I found Chapel Noir, I decided to start right there. Enjoying it immensely although I still have about 80 pages to go. I was surprised to find Sherlock and Bram Stoker (together or separate) alive and well in your book. I have to agree with the others who appreciate your characters. They become real in no time at all and I’m happy to bring your books up in conversation whenever it happens.
I didn’t see the Sherlock Holmes movie but I’ll be happy to move any library materials where they’ll be best displayed. I used to do that in record shops with Bread albums. I think you know you have an army of fans who are encouraging and appreciative of your efforts. You seem to do it so easily, but your note about the pain that can accompany writing is absolutely on target.
Just wanted to check in and happy to see the excellent feedback you’re receiving from like-minded readers.
Go, girl!
Happy Easter and Passover
North Texas has seemed as cold as Minnesota used to this winter. Snow even! I’m glad to meet a new reader. I’m glad you enjoyed the first Irene Adler book and will be revisiting Victorian times and checking out Midnight Louie’s adventures in Las Vegas. I’ll put you on my annual newsletter list! Thanks for taking the time to comment.
Hi Carole,
I am new to your books, just finished my first, Good Night, Mr. Holmes. It was wonderful, fun and exciting! I will be purchasing the whole series and I am also eager to dive into Midnight Louie.
You are truly talented. As Irene would say “Bravo!” )
Hi,Carole. Glad you liked my “daring” library move yesterday! I hope this will inspire others to share your talent…
Yesterday my husband and I went to the local library. While looking at New Releases, I noticed a poster on the wall of the current Sherlock Holmes movie. Then I noticed NONE of Carole’s books were on the acrylic shelves beneath it. I just nipped back to the Mystery Section, grabbed “Good-night Mr Holmes” and placed it on one of the shelves. Sure hope it brings you new readers, and the library gets the hint to put more of your books out there.
Still chuckling over my “daring” caper in a library. The same could work in bookstores too.
Hi, Karla, I’m only a “little” late in answering your post! Catching up.
Your observations about the Midnight Louie series human characters are absolutely correct.
By plot summaries are you referring to the “Previously in Louie’s Lives and Times?” There, it’s very tricky. I have to remember new readers might be reading it and I don’t want to give away the solutions to past books and cases. Also, I don’t want to give away what’s going to happen in the current book. I’ve kept the Max sequence pretty much under wraps because it offers some great surprises, to my characters and to readers and to my editor, and to me. Wait’ll you get to Ultramarine Scheme!
Your point about characters and relationships and sub-themes is excellent. Where I could address that more is in the “Tailpiece” Louie and I do at the end of each book. I’ll keep that in mind in the future.
Hmm, I’ll have to try to look up that first Temple and Matt scene you refer to. Writing for a living is a 24/7 job and I don’t get to reread the series books as I’d like to. Neither did Doyle with the Holmes stories. (Thank God for computers and “Search.”) As you say, sometimes what almost happens is more revelatory and powerful than what does happen.
You do read in all genres. The title change reasons are complex, having to do with how books are distributed, but it was necessary.
Thank you for the lovely summation sentence on my writing!
Having been a journalist responsible for the accuracy of every work during the apex of 20th-century journalism (before it started going shallow around 1980), I find it hard to accept all the negative and uneducated judgments expressed on the Internet. I always tell aspiring writers to look for what they don’t like about a genre when they’re looking for what to write. I found modern Gothic heroines weak and always in need of rescue, so wrote Amberleigh. I found it “odd” and sexist that only male authors wrote post-Doyle Holmes stories and Good Night, Mr. Holmes became the first Sherlockian novel to have a woman protagonist, and a New York Times Notable Book of the Year. Positive feelings don’t drive us as hard.
Unfortunately, that’s true of who posts on the Internet too. As they said on Broadway long before the Internet and even TV, “everybody’s a critic.” I actually did do occasional theater criticism and took myself out of it when I faced a situation where my judgment might affect a young professional actor’s career. It would have been easy to have had a knee-jerk reaction and pan him badly, but I realized I wasn’t sure enough to pontificate in print on his work in the role. I didn’t, and I quit reviewing. In the time it took to become really sure in my judgments, I might unfairly condemn a piece of adventuresome work because I didn’t quite understand.
I later learned he’d become very depressed, gave up on acting, and was playing at a piano bar.
Then he went back to acting and on to win a Tony award on Broadway and three Emmys on TV. Am I glad I had the honesty and humility enough not to shoot my mouth off in print. I didn’t help put a very talented person in despair. As one character said in the Louis books “First, do no harm” is a more humane life motto than “Do good.”
Not sure what this is about, Susie, but I have a lot of Wizard of Oz movies elements in my forthcoming Delilah Street novel, Silver Zombie.
Since Delilah is from Kansas, that’s always been an underlying element.
I attended The College of St. Catherine in St. Paul, Minnesota. It’s just recently been accredited as the University of St. Catherine. The nuns who taught in my era had been sent to Oxford University by a savvy Mother Superior as soon as it opened to women. My creative writing teacher had babysat for J.R.R. Tolkien’s children! He wrote The Lord of Rings trilogy. Sister Alice Smith (her name had been the beautiful Sister Maris Stella, but the order went to birth names later) was a fine poet. I always wrote and wanted to do more art than I had time for, but my main love then was theater, principally acting, but also directing and stage and costume design. I wrote skits all through high school and college, including writing and directing the Senior Class Show.
I’d started historical novels in high school, and also college, but practicalities interfered with finishing them. The college sponsored a tour of Europe every summer, and a couple of my friends were going. I guess I gushed about the trip, because my mother, a widowed elementary school teacher, told me just before the trip there’d been a small insurance policy on my father that had matured and I could go. So I was teased all over Europe for having this huge, red, scabby inoculation on my arm that the other girls had gotten well in advance. What a wonderful experience, from Ireland to Greece to England and Belgium to Portugal and Spain! It seemed expensive then but would barely buy a plane ticket to Europe now. And, in a hotel in Ireland, I heard a “typically” English old couple loudly denigrating the Irish people and the staff of the hotel for being slovenly, among other things. So untrue.
That incident took me from being a girl who wanted to write a fun historical Gothic with a strong heroine instead of the usual wimps to a writer who learned how to intertwine social issues with character issues and plot. Amberleigh remained unfinished until I found that being a strong writer and woman in the newspaper business was a losing proposition because of the glass ceiling. The Gothic genre had “died” forever by then, but because Amberleigh was really a mainstream novel with Gothic “elements,” it sold and launched my career. It even made the publisher and me a little money. A very little money.
It took seven years of overworking at the newspaper (you either become a slacker or overwork at a newspaper and I was always an extra hard worker, so I really slaved) before I quit my well-paid union job and moved south to write full-time. The minute I quit, everything I had going in publishing seemed to come through, and a year later it all crashed. But I kept on going. Energizer Bunny time.
You can only use “celebrity” names in fiction. Dead celebrities are safer. I’ve loved researching and writing about historical figures in the Irene Adler books. In the Midnight Louie books, I’ve deeply researched Elvis Presley, and Marilyn Monroe for a short story anthology. My goal is to research and understand the personality and the times and what these people contributed to their times and also social prejudices that affected them and their eras.
I’m glad Midnight Louie has entertained you! “Researching cats” means adopting rescues, and that’s so very rewarding.
Sometimes it pours! Sorry to all who posted. I just turned a book in on deadline, Delilah Street # 4, Silver Zombie, and have had serial colds all fall and winter!
Jackie, I hope your New Year wishes will mean smooth sailing from now on. Thanks for your longtime loyalty to Louie! Those hardcover sales are what gives Louie lives adding up way past “nine.” Cat in an Ultramarine Scheme will be out Aug. 3, and Louie was recently signed up for books V, W, and X, which is wonderful news in this troubled publishing world. Part of the problem is people don’t have time for reading as much, but it’s great that you are getting plenty of reading done in retirement. Thanks for helping the horses so much too. Wonderful creatures who were used and abused by people for centuries. This economy has been very hard on horses too, as well as cats and dogs.
Hi Carole,
I’ve just finished “Cat in a Topaz Tango,” entranced by the developing relationships among Matt, Temple, Molina, Rafi et al, as well as the sub-plot about Max. That’s why I read these books, rather than for the mysteries themselves. I suspect others feel this way as well. In the past I’ve debated with other readers the pros and cons of Max vs. Matt in Temple’s life. I’ve come to care about them, always keen on seeing how you will have them develop, and sometimes arguing, though not lately. (I was afraid for awhile that you were going to pair Matt with Molina, and I’m relieved to see she has other choices.) That’s why I wish the plot summaries, while discussing the crimes, had more to say about what’s happening among the characters as well as something about the sub-themes.
On the current book jacket, e.g., there’s no suggestion that Max is in Europe recovering from his fall.
The greatest chapter in the Louie books is the first love scene (not completed) between Temple and Matt. Powerful and emotionally true.
I started with your science fiction/fantasy books years ago. You do write in all genres. I was rereading the Irene Adler series recently. (I prefer the earlier titles as much easier to identify.)
You create remarkable people, and I love the fact that there are thoughtful themes throughout your books, along with the sass.
Hmm, didn’t know wikipedia pages could be “dolled up.” I’ll have to look into that when time permits. Thanks for the tip!
I’m still a “book in hand” person, too. I do like the interior design of a book, but e-books can link to so much. I’ve started putting “links” to interesting related sites in the backs of my books. The Midnight Louie mystery series themes were “set” in 1990 or so (The “4 cards” books were written in the mid-’80s) so the series has evolved with the years. My concern then was “sexual responsibility in the age of AIDS” (for both people and animals) because many of the “new” hard-boiled women detectives were promiscuous loners like the cliched male model (and not a word about protection). That social anxiety has eased as new ones like terrorism take its place. And there was always a minor thread about counterterrorism in the series.
Glad you have a book club at your senior complex. Seniors have a bit more time to read. ) I hope. I wonder if the youngest right now will lose a taste for fiction reading. And, yes, there’s always a great teacher or two or five in our backgrounds to thank.
I warn my Louie and Irene readers that my Delilah Street series is “sexier.” The urban fantasy genre is about female empowerment, like Buffy the Vampire Slayer on television, and that always involves the double standard and how women can be sexual without losing self respect. The first two books got starred reviews in Publishers Weekly. I can write in any genre, as long as there are underlying social and personal issues that relate to contemporary lives. And some humor. )
Thanks for your New Year greetings! Have a good 1010, Judy! I’m hoping to put a lot more content on the web site, but baby steps first. )
3 questions ( o.k. I admit the first is a double question)
1. What college did you attend and did you study writing and know then you planned on being a writer?
2. How soon after you began writing novels did were you able to support yourself ( with writing)?
3. Is it a problem in a work of fiction if you use a name that is an actual person’s name.
Thanks and thanks for the pleasure I get from reading you Louie books. I haven’t gotten to the others yet.
Donna
Hi, Carole. Happy New Year from a long, long time fan. I started with Catnip and Pussyfoot and now have Louie’s latest on my bedside table. I support my favorite authors by requesting hard cover books as gifts. I am also a fan of Irene Adler – I’ll get around to your other series but also keep up with Martha Grimes, Deborah Crombie, Shirley Rousseau Murphy and Rita Mae Brown. Retirement has helped me feed my reading addiction, and I also follow my author’s charities. I wish my spoiled Pembroke Corgi with issues would let me adopt a cat from a shelter. I can only support my love of horses with donations to Beauty’s Haven Farm and Equine Rescue and Rita Mae’s favorite, Thoroughbred Retirement Keep writing, and I will keep reading.
Thank you, Carol, for your response. I think your wikipedia page could use some input from your web designer – just to “doll” it up.
The covers are all very well done. I might not have immediately picked up on the patterns but certainly noted the comparison with Grafton (I’ve only read A & B so far) and Evanovich. I wonder what they’ll do when they run out of letters and numbers; I suspect go to lowercase and Roman numerals
I don’t know about you, but I like the feel of a book in my hands though I might have to break down one day and get with the times. I love the richness of book covers (in most cases) and turning the pages with my own fingers. I just wish they would miniaturize when put back on the shelves!
I was born in Ohio in 1944. I’ve found the Vegas/Cat/4 Cards themes resonate with me in many ways. This year I was introduced to a book club at the local senior center and “artists” and “writers” of all kinds via an NEA grant here at the senior complex where I dwell.
To sum up this missive, I just have to say how much more I appreciate authors. I’ve always loved reading and words, but now I’m falling in love with the “art of writing.” I guess this would be a good time to publicly thank my high school Lit teacher, Ms. Safarjian, for her part in my education.
I look forward to your futuristic works as well. I have no doubt they will be as enjoyable. I only wish I’d discovered you earlier so I’d already be up to the minute, but at least I’m started.
I hope to see more comments from your readers posted and I’ll be checking back to meet them online and maybe you at a book shop near me.
My pleasure to get to know you. Happy New Year, sister and fellow readers.
Carole, I just discovered your Vegas books. I know I’ve seen your name on book covers before but these popped out at me at the library! I couldn’t resist. I had no idea what I’d find inside but the cat on the cover did get my attention. I really wasn’t looking for more authors to read since I practically have a library at home of books I planned to read in retirement But there you go, now I have added you to my list of authors I have to read.
CND: Hi, Judy! Thanks for letting me know. The Midnight Louie and Irene Adler books are listed in order on this site, and in a newsletter you can subscribe to as a PDF via email or in print form.
I also plan to read several Sherlock Holmes bios and books in my lifetime, so it was interesting to read you have Adler as a character so after Vegas, I guess I’m headed there. Lots of catching up to do for a slow reader!
You do have a way with words and that’s what kept me turning pages. I’m only on Book 2 and have to admit the other books on my shelf will have to wait till I read this series. Oh, I plan to get the new ones too and read them later – unless they cry out for an earlier read You do keep up with the times.
CND: I try to keep up, or in the case of the Delilah Street series, ahead of the times! After the first two Midnight Louie books, CATNAP and PUSSYFOOT, the titles have an interior alphabet on the “color” word . . . . BLUE MONDAY, CRIMSON HAZE, etc. Sometimes the color word is a pattern, like leopard. )
And now I want to check out your bio to find out more about you.
The website looks great!
CND: Thanks! A talented friend with a web design business did a splendid job of evoking the feel of all my various books! I was–and am–too “booked up” to contribute content right now, so my bio is somewhat staid and dated and the first thing I’ll update when I get a breather in February!!
Thanks for taking the time to come along and comment! Happy New Year!
It always fun to know someone’s found one of my earlier novels and is looking for more.
My early fantasy novels were “surprise” bestsellers, but are all out of print now. I should get them back into circulation in some form, POD or for Kindle, but they are only in original MS form and that would take some time and effort I don’t have right now.
So used copies are your only bet, and online booksellers should have them.
The web site has just been redesigned, so I’m still adding content and I’ll list my “backlist” when I have time.
Six of Swords is the first of five in the Irissa/Kendric sequence. Next comes Exiles of the Rynth. Then I had to change publishers, which used the “name” of the series, Sword and Circlet, but published last three books as a trilogy: Keepers of Edanvant, Heir of Rengarth, and The Seventh Sword.
I next wrote two fantasies in the Taliswoman Trilogy, Cup of Clay and Seed Upon the Wind. Authors don’t leave series unfinished unless somebody forces them them to do that,and that’s what happened here.
I then moved into writing in the mystery field for sixteen years, with the (I can say “acclaimed”) Irene Adler Sherlockian suspense novels, and the beloved Midnight Louie feline PI mysteries/alphabetical “epic,” as one reader tagged it, set in Las Vegas
I’m now writing the Delilah Street urban fantasies also, so I’m finally back in the fantasy genre. There is often a fantasy element in my mysteries, as with the “Sam Spade with hairballs” Midnight Louie narrating his own chapters in the books and helping four humans solve the murders as well as the mysteries of their interlocking lives.
Just finished “Six Of Swords” would love to read all of your works if I can find them. If there is a special ording site, please let me know.
thanks
gary K
Thanks for letting me know how much you enjoy Delilah’s adventures. Pop culture seems to cross generations now that every film and TV show has a second life on cable.
And thanks for ordering a copy! Sometimes that reflects faster sales than were anticipated.
It’s so hard on readers now. The chain bookstores used to carry more copies of books and all the backlist books in series. No more. Now readers have to track down copies and then have the inconvenience of going back to get the ordered book.
But the computer records that a book is in demand and that helps get more copies of the series into the stores!
It’s also hard on writers when readers realize finding and buying books new can be a chore. Used book and piracy sites fill in the gap. Authors and publishers only get paid for new book sales, so some may go out of print.
Thanks for letting me know,
Carole et. al.
“What a world! What world!”–The Wicked Witch of the West, while melting
Carole, your Delilah Street series is wonderful. I have been re-reading the first two books in preparation for the new one. Sadly, when I went to purchase the third book the local Barnes and Noble carried only two copies, that were MIA. I will place an order to have a copy shipped to store.
I enjoy this imaginative action packed series in part because of the cultural references from the 20th century. Yes, I am one of your older readers. Thanks so much for providing this alternative world.
Fabiola Garcia
Hi, Beth! You’re my first poster. (I’m just getting the hang of using ths program. )I’m glad you enjoy “crossing over” from Louie’s Vegas to Delilah’s.
You’re in luck! Vampire Sunrise, her next adventure, was released Nov. 24 and has been spotted at Wal-Mart. (Dancing with Werewolves was the first.) Two more are contracted for, and three more Midnight Louie books, so I’ll be working with the Vegas setting in two forms for some time. Fine with me. Fun!
November 16, 2009 | Author 
Posted in
Hi, LInda!
Louie and I are glad to have you as a Forever Fan!
You’ll be glad to know I just turned in Cat in a Vegas Gold Vendetta today! Two more Louie books are contracted for, so he and his crew will be coming at you for some time. Interesting to know your favorite book and scenes. The combo of romantic suspense, mystery and an alpha cat does lead to excitement.
If you’re not on the mail or e-scribe annual newsletter list, you can subscribe her under “Newsletters” or read the latest edition with a link here.
Thanks for taking time to write, and for your support!
Carole and Louie
Dear Carole,
I’ve been a fan of Midnight Louie for years. Love him. Favorite book in series Cat on A Hyacinth Hunt. Loaded with Romance, Suspense & lots of Louie. It had non stop excitement. I adore Max & the car chase with him & Matt breath taking! Louie is the greatest, cleverest, smartest & funniest kitty ever. Keep him comming. A Forever Fan,
Linda Chase, Santa Rosa, Calif.
Hi, Jeannie!
I’m glad you’ve found the Delilah series. Yes, more Snow and Delilah coming.
) Silver Zombie arrives Nov. 30 with a great cover I need to find time to post. It’s been frantic. Another book is coming in 2012, working title Virtual Virgin. Thanks for checking in!
Hi Carole,
Just love your Delilah Street books, have read all three. Hope to see more Snow and Delilah. Just wondering when the fourth is coming out, I don’t want to miss it. I see the name is Silver Zombie. Can’t wait. Thank you.
Hi, Judy!
I do have brand new readers who start late in the Midnight Louie series, but they go back to read them in order. That’s a good idea, and people reread them too because there are a lot of subtle things going on.
Chapel Noir is the first of the four Irene Adler novels I wrote after a seven-year hiatus. It’s also the first half of one big novel too long to publish in one go. I call Chapel Noir and its partner book, Castle Rouge, the “Jack the Ripper duology,” although there is no such word as “duology.” But we have “trilogy,” so it made sense to me.
The front and back matter of Chapel Noir stress that it’s a continuing story, and “cliffhanger” endings are traditional Victorian era devices, but I didn’t realize some readers would skip the introduction and epilogue. Some Amazon reviewers were rather irritated that one story thread was left at a nail-nibbling point, although the last sentences do indicate a future book. Some mystery series are, like the Holmes stories, isolated “cases” in a string of cases. That doesn’t allow for much character or setting growth, and growth is what I and my books are all about.
I do enjoy investigating historical personages and bringing them alive in my books. Unsubstantiated rumors surround some historical figures, and I omit them unless I’ve read a source that strikes me as reliable, probably because of my journalistic background. It annoys me to have historical characters “defamed” in contemporary novels to make a sensational story. A reader should be able to go to a biography of the person and find the fictional representation accurate, if not as thorough. My opinion.
After I researched Elvis for a Louie book–and some of the dozens of books about him were so cheap and exploitive I threw them across the room–I heard from people who had personal brushes with Elvis during the supposedly blotto last couple years of his life. And they found him polite, functional, and perfectly charming. I came to realize that the many books everyone around him wrote for money after his death all reran and used the few most extreme incidents, which distorted the big picture.
Thanks for “talking up” my books. The print industry is undergoing the biggest revolution since the printing press and times are tough for any involved in the written word. Readers who play “secret reshelvers” are giving their favorite writers a helping hand. It could annoy the librarians, so they should probably ask. It certainly points out that the writer has devoted fans.
Having been a daily newspaper Opinion Page copy and layout editor and editorial board member (I was the first woman in the department), I have lots of opinions to write about, but when my web designer said I needed to post something to get the blog going my mind was a blank.
I’m glad to get responses because then I have something to answer. At its best, writing is mental snow-boarding, a heady combination of freedom and risk. Making it look easy takes years of practice, starting in elementary school and with assignments.
Thanks for your comments and good wishes. May you have a sprightly spring. I hope you are subscribed the annual Midnight Louie newsletter!
Carole, I’ve read the Louie quartet and the first two before the alphabet starts. I am collecting them as I find the “alphas” but I’d like to read them in order.
The Irene Adler series is harder to find but I wanted a taste of your Sherlockian stuff so when I found Chapel Noir, I decided to start right there. Enjoying it immensely although I still have about 80 pages to go. I was surprised to find Sherlock and Bram Stoker (together or separate) alive and well in your book. I have to agree with the others who appreciate your characters. They become real in no time at all and I’m happy to bring your books up in conversation whenever it happens.
I didn’t see the Sherlock Holmes movie but I’ll be happy to move any library materials where they’ll be best displayed. I used to do that in record shops with Bread albums. I think you know you have an army of fans who are encouraging and appreciative of your efforts. You seem to do it so easily, but your note about the pain that can accompany writing is absolutely on target.
Just wanted to check in and happy to see the excellent feedback you’re receiving from like-minded readers.
Go, girl!
Happy Easter and Passover
Hi, Marianne!
North Texas has seemed as cold as Minnesota used to this winter. Snow even! I’m glad to meet a new reader. I’m glad you enjoyed the first Irene Adler book and will be revisiting Victorian times and checking out Midnight Louie’s adventures in Las Vegas. I’ll put you on my annual newsletter list! Thanks for taking the time to comment.
Hi Carole,
I am new to your books, just finished my first, Good Night, Mr. Holmes. It was wonderful, fun and exciting! I will be purchasing the whole series and I am also eager to dive into Midnight Louie.
You are truly talented. As Irene would say “Bravo!”
)
Kind regards from Minnesota!
Marianne
Hi, Deb,
I’m impressed by your reverse-raid on the Sherlock Holmes shelves. It never hurts to “point out” related books to readers.
Thanks!
Carole and Irene
Hi,Carole. Glad you liked my “daring” library move yesterday! I hope this will inspire others to share your talent…
Yesterday my husband and I went to the local library. While looking at New Releases, I noticed a poster on the wall of the current Sherlock Holmes movie. Then I noticed NONE of Carole’s books were on the acrylic shelves beneath it. I just nipped back to the Mystery Section, grabbed “Good-night Mr Holmes” and placed it on one of the shelves. Sure hope it brings you new readers, and the library gets the hint to put more of your books out there.
Still chuckling over my “daring” caper in a library. The same could work in bookstores too.
Hi, Karla, I’m only a “little” late in answering your post! Catching up.
Your observations about the Midnight Louie series human characters are absolutely correct.
By plot summaries are you referring to the “Previously in Louie’s Lives and Times?” There, it’s very tricky. I have to remember new readers might be reading it and I don’t want to give away the solutions to past books and cases. Also, I don’t want to give away what’s going to happen in the current book. I’ve kept the Max sequence pretty much under wraps because it offers some great surprises, to my characters and to readers and to my editor, and to me. Wait’ll you get to Ultramarine Scheme!
Your point about characters and relationships and sub-themes is excellent. Where I could address that more is in the “Tailpiece” Louie and I do at the end of each book. I’ll keep that in mind in the future.
Hmm, I’ll have to try to look up that first Temple and Matt scene you refer to. Writing for a living is a 24/7 job and I don’t get to reread the series books as I’d like to. Neither did Doyle with the Holmes stories. (Thank God for computers and “Search.”) As you say, sometimes what almost happens is more revelatory and powerful than what does happen.
You do read in all genres.
The title change reasons are complex, having to do with how books are distributed, but it was necessary.
Thank you for the lovely summation sentence on my writing!
Having been a journalist responsible for the accuracy of every work during the apex of 20th-century journalism (before it started going shallow around 1980), I find it hard to accept all the negative and uneducated judgments expressed on the Internet. I always tell aspiring writers to look for what they don’t like about a genre when they’re looking for what to write. I found modern Gothic heroines weak and always in need of rescue, so wrote Amberleigh. I found it “odd” and sexist that only male authors wrote post-Doyle Holmes stories and Good Night, Mr. Holmes became the first Sherlockian novel to have a woman protagonist, and a New York Times Notable Book of the Year. Positive feelings don’t drive us as hard.
Unfortunately, that’s true of who posts on the Internet too. As they said on Broadway long before the Internet and even TV, “everybody’s a critic.” I actually did do occasional theater criticism and took myself out of it when I faced a situation where my judgment might affect a young professional actor’s career. It would have been easy to have had a knee-jerk reaction and pan him badly, but I realized I wasn’t sure enough to pontificate in print on his work in the role. I didn’t, and I quit reviewing. In the time it took to become really sure in my judgments, I might unfairly condemn a piece of adventuresome work because I didn’t quite understand.
I later learned he’d become very depressed, gave up on acting, and was playing at a piano bar.
Then he went back to acting and on to win a Tony award on Broadway and three Emmys on TV. Am I glad I had the honesty and humility enough not to shoot my mouth off in print. I didn’t help put a very talented person in despair. As one character said in the Louis books “First, do no harm” is a more humane life motto than “Do good.”
Not sure what this is about, Susie, but I have a lot of Wizard of Oz movies elements in my forthcoming Delilah Street novel, Silver Zombie.
Since Delilah is from Kansas, that’s always been an underlying element.
Hi, Donna,
I attended The College of St. Catherine in St. Paul, Minnesota. It’s just recently been accredited as the University of St. Catherine. The nuns who taught in my era had been sent to Oxford University by a savvy Mother Superior as soon as it opened to women. My creative writing teacher had babysat for J.R.R. Tolkien’s children! He wrote The Lord of Rings trilogy. Sister Alice Smith (her name had been the beautiful Sister Maris Stella, but the order went to birth names later) was a fine poet. I always wrote and wanted to do more art than I had time for, but my main love then was theater, principally acting, but also directing and stage and costume design. I wrote skits all through high school and college, including writing and directing the Senior Class Show.
I’d started historical novels in high school, and also college, but practicalities interfered with finishing them. The college sponsored a tour of Europe every summer, and a couple of my friends were going. I guess I gushed about the trip, because my mother, a widowed elementary school teacher, told me just before the trip there’d been a small insurance policy on my father that had matured and I could go. So I was teased all over Europe for having this huge, red, scabby inoculation on my arm that the other girls had gotten well in advance. What a wonderful experience, from Ireland to Greece to England and Belgium to Portugal and Spain! It seemed expensive then but would barely buy a plane ticket to Europe now. And, in a hotel in Ireland, I heard a “typically” English old couple loudly denigrating the Irish people and the staff of the hotel for being slovenly, among other things. So untrue.
That incident took me from being a girl who wanted to write a fun historical Gothic with a strong heroine instead of the usual wimps to a writer who learned how to intertwine social issues with character issues and plot. Amberleigh remained unfinished until I found that being a strong writer and woman in the newspaper business was a losing proposition because of the glass ceiling. The Gothic genre had “died” forever by then, but because Amberleigh was really a mainstream novel with Gothic “elements,” it sold and launched my career. It even made the publisher and me a little money. A very little money.
It took seven years of overworking at the newspaper (you either become a slacker or overwork at a newspaper and I was always an extra hard worker, so I really slaved) before I quit my well-paid union job and moved south to write full-time. The minute I quit, everything I had going in publishing seemed to come through, and a year later it all crashed. But I kept on going. Energizer Bunny time.
You can only use “celebrity” names in fiction. Dead celebrities are safer. I’ve loved researching and writing about historical figures in the Irene Adler books. In the Midnight Louie books, I’ve deeply researched Elvis Presley, and Marilyn Monroe for a short story anthology. My goal is to research and understand the personality and the times and what these people contributed to their times and also social prejudices that affected them and their eras.
I’m glad Midnight Louie has entertained you! “Researching cats” means adopting rescues, and that’s so very rewarding.
Sometimes it pours! Sorry to all who posted. I just turned a book in on deadline, Delilah Street # 4, Silver Zombie, and have had serial colds all fall and winter!
Jackie, I hope your New Year wishes will mean smooth sailing from now on. Thanks for your longtime loyalty to Louie! Those hardcover sales are what gives Louie lives adding up way past “nine.” Cat in an Ultramarine Scheme will be out Aug. 3, and Louie was recently signed up for books V, W, and X, which is wonderful news in this troubled publishing world. Part of the problem is people don’t have time for reading as much, but it’s great that you are getting plenty of reading done in retirement. Thanks for helping the horses so much too. Wonderful creatures who were used and abused by people for centuries. This economy has been very hard on horses too, as well as cats and dogs.
I’ll definitely keep writing!
Hi Carole,
I’ve just finished “Cat in a Topaz Tango,” entranced by the developing relationships among Matt, Temple, Molina, Rafi et al, as well as the sub-plot about Max. That’s why I read these books, rather than for the mysteries themselves. I suspect others feel this way as well. In the past I’ve debated with other readers the pros and cons of Max vs. Matt in Temple’s life. I’ve come to care about them, always keen on seeing how you will have them develop, and sometimes arguing, though not lately. (I was afraid for awhile that you were going to pair Matt with Molina, and I’m relieved to see she has other choices.) That’s why I wish the plot summaries, while discussing the crimes, had more to say about what’s happening among the characters as well as something about the sub-themes.
On the current book jacket, e.g., there’s no suggestion that Max is in Europe recovering from his fall.
The greatest chapter in the Louie books is the first love scene (not completed) between Temple and Matt. Powerful and emotionally true.
I started with your science fiction/fantasy books years ago. You do write in all genres. I was rereading the Irene Adler series recently. (I prefer the earlier titles as much easier to identify.)
You create remarkable people, and I love the fact that there are thoughtful themes throughout your books, along with the sass.
Thank you for the reading pleasure you give me.
Hmm, didn’t know wikipedia pages could be “dolled up.” I’ll have to look into that when time permits. Thanks for the tip!
I’m still a “book in hand” person, too. I do like the interior design of a book, but e-books can link to so much. I’ve started putting “links” to interesting related sites in the backs of my books. The Midnight Louie mystery series themes were “set” in 1990 or so (The “4 cards” books were written in the mid-’80s) so the series has evolved with the years. My concern then was “sexual responsibility in the age of AIDS” (for both people and animals) because many of the “new” hard-boiled women detectives were promiscuous loners like the cliched male model (and not a word about protection). That social anxiety has eased as new ones like terrorism take its place. And there was always a minor thread about counterterrorism in the series.
Glad you have a book club at your senior complex. Seniors have a bit more time to read.
) I hope. I wonder if the youngest right now will lose a taste for fiction reading. And, yes, there’s always a great teacher or two or five in our backgrounds to thank.
I warn my Louie and Irene readers that my Delilah Street series is “sexier.” The urban fantasy genre is about female empowerment, like Buffy the Vampire Slayer on television, and that always involves the double standard and how women can be sexual without losing self respect. The first two books got starred reviews in Publishers Weekly. I can write in any genre, as long as there are underlying social and personal issues that relate to contemporary lives. And some humor.
)
Thanks for your New Year greetings! Have a good 1010, Judy! I’m hoping to put a lot more content on the web site, but baby steps first.
)
Lullabye league, Lollypop guild.
3 questions ( o.k. I admit the first is a double question)
1. What college did you attend and did you study writing and know then you planned on being a writer?
2. How soon after you began writing novels did were you able to support yourself ( with writing)?
3. Is it a problem in a work of fiction if you use a name that is an actual person’s name.
Thanks and thanks for the pleasure I get from reading you Louie books. I haven’t gotten to the others yet.
Donna
Hi, Carole. Happy New Year from a long, long time fan. I started with Catnip and Pussyfoot and now have Louie’s latest on my bedside table. I support my favorite authors by requesting hard cover books as gifts. I am also a fan of Irene Adler – I’ll get around to your other series but also keep up with Martha Grimes, Deborah Crombie, Shirley Rousseau Murphy and Rita Mae Brown. Retirement has helped me feed my reading addiction, and I also follow my author’s charities. I wish my spoiled Pembroke Corgi with issues would let me adopt a cat from a shelter. I can only support my love of horses with donations to Beauty’s Haven Farm and Equine Rescue and Rita Mae’s favorite, Thoroughbred Retirement Keep writing, and I will keep reading.
Thank you, Carol, for your response. I think your wikipedia page could use some input from your web designer – just to “doll” it up.
The covers are all very well done. I might not have immediately picked up on the patterns but certainly noted the comparison with Grafton (I’ve only read A & B so far) and Evanovich. I wonder what they’ll do when they run out of letters and numbers; I suspect go to lowercase and Roman numerals
I don’t know about you, but I like the feel of a book in my hands though I might have to break down one day and get with the times. I love the richness of book covers (in most cases) and turning the pages with my own fingers. I just wish they would miniaturize when put back on the shelves!
I was born in Ohio in 1944. I’ve found the Vegas/Cat/4 Cards themes resonate with me in many ways. This year I was introduced to a book club at the local senior center and “artists” and “writers” of all kinds via an NEA grant here at the senior complex where I dwell.
To sum up this missive, I just have to say how much more I appreciate authors. I’ve always loved reading and words, but now I’m falling in love with the “art of writing.” I guess this would be a good time to publicly thank my high school Lit teacher, Ms. Safarjian, for her part in my education.
I look forward to your futuristic works as well. I have no doubt they will be as enjoyable. I only wish I’d discovered you earlier so I’d already be up to the minute, but at least I’m started.
I hope to see more comments from your readers posted and I’ll be checking back to meet them online and maybe you at a book shop near me.
My pleasure to get to know you. Happy New Year, sister and fellow readers.
Carole, I just discovered your Vegas books. I know I’ve seen your name on book covers before but these popped out at me at the library! I couldn’t resist. I had no idea what I’d find inside but the cat on the cover did get my attention. I really wasn’t looking for more authors to read since I practically have a library at home of books I planned to read in retirement
But there you go, now I have added you to my list of authors I have to read.
CND: Hi, Judy! Thanks for letting me know. The Midnight Louie and Irene Adler books are listed in order on this site, and in a newsletter you can subscribe to as a PDF via email or in print form.
I also plan to read several Sherlock Holmes bios and books in my lifetime, so it was interesting to read you have Adler as a character so after Vegas, I guess I’m headed there. Lots of catching up to do for a slow reader!
You do keep up with the times.
You do have a way with words and that’s what kept me turning pages. I’m only on Book 2 and have to admit the other books on my shelf will have to wait till I read this series. Oh, I plan to get the new ones too and read them later – unless they cry out for an earlier read
CND: I try to keep up, or in the case of the Delilah Street series, ahead of the times! After the first two Midnight Louie books, CATNAP and PUSSYFOOT, the titles have an interior alphabet on the “color” word . . . . BLUE MONDAY, CRIMSON HAZE, etc. Sometimes the color word is a pattern, like leopard.
)
And now I want to check out your bio to find out more about you.
The website looks great!
CND: Thanks! A talented friend with a web design business did a splendid job of evoking the feel of all my various books! I was–and am–too “booked up” to contribute content right now, so my bio is somewhat staid and dated and the first thing I’ll update when I get a breather in February!!
Thanks for taking the time to come along and comment! Happy New Year!
I really enjoyed reading this post, keep up making such exciting articles.
Hi, Gary!
It always fun to know someone’s found one of my earlier novels and is looking for more.
My early fantasy novels were “surprise” bestsellers, but are all out of print now. I should get them back into circulation in some form, POD or for Kindle, but they are only in original MS form and that would take some time and effort I don’t have right now.
So used copies are your only bet, and online booksellers should have them.
The web site has just been redesigned, so I’m still adding content and I’ll list my “backlist” when I have time.
Six of Swords is the first of five in the Irissa/Kendric sequence. Next comes Exiles of the Rynth. Then I had to change publishers, which used the “name” of the series, Sword and Circlet, but published last three books as a trilogy: Keepers of Edanvant, Heir of Rengarth, and The Seventh Sword.
I next wrote two fantasies in the Taliswoman Trilogy, Cup of Clay and Seed Upon the Wind. Authors don’t leave series unfinished unless somebody forces them them to do that,and that’s what happened here.
I then moved into writing in the mystery field for sixteen years, with the (I can say “acclaimed”) Irene Adler Sherlockian suspense novels, and the beloved Midnight Louie feline PI mysteries/alphabetical “epic,” as one reader tagged it, set in Las Vegas
I’m now writing the Delilah Street urban fantasies also, so I’m finally back in the fantasy genre. There is often a fantasy element in my mysteries, as with the “Sam Spade with hairballs” Midnight Louie narrating his own chapters in the books and helping four humans solve the murders as well as the mysteries of their interlocking lives.
Thanks for asking!
Just finished “Six Of Swords” would love to read all of your works if I can find them. If there is a special ording site, please let me know.
thanks
gary K
Hi, Fabiola,
Thanks for letting me know how much you enjoy Delilah’s adventures. Pop culture seems to cross generations now that every film and TV show has a second life on cable.
And thanks for ordering a copy! Sometimes that reflects faster sales than were anticipated.
It’s so hard on readers now. The chain bookstores used to carry more copies of books and all the backlist books in series. No more. Now readers have to track down copies and then have the inconvenience of going back to get the ordered book.
But the computer records that a book is in demand and that helps get more copies of the series into the stores!
It’s also hard on writers when readers realize finding and buying books new can be a chore. Used book and piracy sites fill in the gap. Authors and publishers only get paid for new book sales, so some may go out of print.
Thanks for letting me know,
Carole et. al.
“What a world! What world!”–The Wicked Witch of the West, while melting
Carole, your Delilah Street series is wonderful. I have been re-reading the first two books in preparation for the new one. Sadly, when I went to purchase the third book the local Barnes and Noble carried only two copies, that were MIA. I will place an order to have a copy shipped to store.
I enjoy this imaginative action packed series in part because of the cultural references from the 20th century. Yes, I am one of your older readers. Thanks so much for providing this alternative world.
Fabiola Garcia
Hi, Beth! You’re my first poster. (I’m just getting the hang of using ths program. )I’m glad you enjoy “crossing over” from Louie’s Vegas to Delilah’s.
You’re in luck! Vampire Sunrise, her next adventure, was released Nov. 24 and has been spotted at Wal-Mart. (Dancing with Werewolves was the first.) Two more are contracted for, and three more Midnight Louie books, so I’ll be working with the Vegas setting in two forms for some time. Fine with me. Fun!
Happy Thanksgiving.
Carole, Just read Brimstone Kiss. I want more, please keep Deliliah going. I can’t compare her and Louie but, love them both.