Wonderful to hear from you! I seldom hear from readers of foreign editions because of the language barrier, I’m sure.
My father was born in Norway, although he died while I was a toddler. I’ve found some distant relatives on the Internet and learned that English is common in Nordic countries. I’m delighted when readers find my books worth reading again . . . a great compliment to an author.
I think only the first Irene Adler novel sold to Sweden, many years ago. And it was quite a bestseller. I remember my agent and the foreign agent being upset when the publisher didn’t want to publish any further novels in the series. It seemed odd not to follow up on a success. But publishing in the U.S. can be illogical too.
Thanks for writing!
Gunnar Johannesson, Gothenburg, Sweden
on October 30, 2011 at 4:59 am
DEAR CAROLE!
Thank You very much for the wonderful and interesting book “Goodnight, Mr Holmes” – I have just read it out (in Swedish), the second time – some years after the first time – and it was with better benefit than the first time!(I discovered more new details now, You know!) But, I´m sorry, I haven´t read Your other books about Irene Adler until now, but maybe I will found the rest of the book series about her, in Swedish too, I hope (I will see) !?
Myself are a Swedish, middle-age man, who have read a plenty of the Sherlock Holmes – adventures before Your book, so I was lucky and interested when I found “Good Night, Mr Holmes” for about some years ago! And it was a very good thing to read it too – yes, I think! – and in the moment I have just read it again! Splendid – thank You, Carole!
Many greetings from Your Swedish reader Gunnar Johannesson in Gothenburg
Good to hear from you again! Your suggestion for “Z” is in the neighborhood of my thinking. Thanks for the suggestion. It’s the cat’s pajama!
Hearty best wishes for your first mystery, and more to come!
Kenneth Clarke
on September 21, 2011 at 11:05 am
Dear Carole,
If you should need a title suggestion containing “Z”, I’d
like to suggestion “Cat in a Zebra Striped Pajama”. I love all
of your Midnight Louie and Irene Adler books. What do you think?
I’ve just copyrighted by first mystery and hope it does as
well as yours have.
A matter of timing. I wrote Catnap and decided I didn’t want to get into an endless list of “cute cat” titles, so went to Pussyfoot. Not such a good idea. The sales force said “cat” in the title was a major selling point. There were two or three cat mysteries series at the time and it was hard to come up with a different pattern from their titles. So I worked off of “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof.” When executive editor liked “Cat on a Blue Monday,” I realized I could begin an alphabetic sequence with the interior “color” word and the next book was Cat in a Crimson Haze, etc. A publicist “stretched” the “color” word to “Jeweled” when I got to the “J” book, which was about Elvis. So, Cat in a Jeweled Jumpsuit. I even found a vintage one to wear to book tour signings. 🙂
I wanted the alphabet because I believe readers should easily see what order a series is in but publishing was dependent on bookstores that might or might not have all the “backlist” books on the shelves and didn’t want to discourage sales if #3 and #7 were the only ones available to buy. Online selling and ebooks has changed that need, but I doubt mysteries will be indicated by order unless the authors do it in the titles, like Sue Grafton (who’ll be Lifetime Guest of Honor at Malice Domestic when I’m there as GOH!!) and James Patterson.
Also, my series build continuing character arcs and back story plots and it IS important for readers to know the order.
Thanks for the great question!
At one point it was considered to bring Catnap and Pussyfoot out together under an “A” title. That wasn’t feasible, but the word chosen was “Agua.” Cat in an Aqua Spotlight. So you were very close, Douglas!
Glad you are such an avid reader! The Midnight Louie/Delilah Street crossover story just won the Cat Writers Association Muse Medallion for Best Short Fiction (and Cat in an Ultramarine Scheme tied for Best Novel). It’s in the anthology Love Bites: The Mammoth Book of Vampire Romance 2. Delilah Street stories are coming out in June in Chicks Kick Butt (sigh) and perhaps early next year in Hex Appeal, formerly called Hex Symbol. Virtual Virgin, the next Delilah book is slated for Nov. 30 again in 2011.
I have a lot to keep up with and try to do a bit here and there when I can on the website. Publishers now want authors to contribute to their websites! I’m on PocketAfterDark.com. It helps if fans visit and become members, and Macmillan is starting what sounds like a content-oriented sight with an emphasis on mystery and romance.
Douglas Brown
on December 14, 2010 at 9:59 pm
I’ve always wondered why, when you started using colors in your Midnight Louie titles, you didn’t start out with “Cat in an Aqua Storm”.
Robert A. Rosenberg
on December 13, 2010 at 10:08 pm
I was visiting a friend for Thanksgiving and returned home to find my Amazon order of Silver Zombie waiting for me when I got back. I immediately started reading and was done in one day. I loved it. Normally I read the books during my Thanksgiving Vacation which I was unable to do this year due to the Nov 30 as opposed the October or mid November pub dates of the prior books. I also buy and consume the ML books as they come out.
In the description of the series here you state “a future Midnight Louie, feline PI, can even cross over to darkside Vegas in short stories”. Is this only hyperthetical or have there been such stories written or in the pipeline. If so, where can/will I be able to locate them.
I know of and have read the CinSim “Murder” short story in “Unusual Suspects” and loved it (as well as the appearance in the mainline series of the Nora and Asta CinSims that were the result of that case’s solution). Are there any more short stories published or in the pipeline?
As a suggestion to whoever is maintaining your site, it might be useful to have an entry listing all the sidebar short stories so that other fans, such as myself, can locate and read these short stories as well as the main series.
You were fast to snap up the book! Happy to hear what you liked so much about it.
Thanks for the support of getting your friends the books for Christmas!
I’m writing Virtual Virgin now for next Nov. 30, and some verrry interesting developments
occur in that book.
I’ll have a Delilah novella, “Monster Mash,” in the June Chicks Kick Butt (not a subtle title) anthology. It’s about movie monster actors Lon Chaney and Lon Chaney, Jr.
I ‘ll also have a novella for an anthology named Hex Symbol that Jim Butcher will headline, probably out in a year or so. It’s title is “Snow Job” and I’m sure you’ll like it! 🙂
Happy Holidays,
Carole
Jennifer
on December 3, 2010 at 10:36 pm
Carole,
Loved the new book Silver Zombie. The heat between Delilah and Snow is amazing and I can’t wait to untangle the mysteries you’ve created. I’ve enjoyed your entire series so much that I’m gifting your books to my friends for Christmas. Thanks and keep writing!
Lisa, I’d love to have that happen, but I’d have to do it, and it’ll take me some time to get to it with two series, the Midnight Louie and Delilah Street series, going.
I really could use a couple clones to help me out! But I intend to make sure that does happen and I just got a wonderful new scanner that can do paperbacks with almost 100% accuracy.
It’s very touching that your Sword & Circlet paperbacks are worn. When my very first novel, Amberleigh, came out in paperback, a fellow reporter at my newspaper asked me to autograph it. The poor book was battered, including the beautiful cover art. He’d taken it on a camping trip to read.
And then I realized that my book was way up in the North Woods with someone reading by lamplight and I truly appreciated that. It’s the story of the Velveteen Rabbit, of course. When something is loved enough to show use, that’s a huge testament to its value.
P.S. to ALL: I haven’t mastered this new website. I tried to set up the blog so people could post under the relevant series, but messages keep coming in under the first, trial subject head. Also, it takes me a while to put the book deadlines “to bed,” as we used to say in the newspaper business, so I can get a lot behind in answering. Sorry! I love to hear from you! Carole
Rebecca, you’ve hit on my impetus for writing novels: reading about too many needy, rescue-requiring heroines in contemporary popular fiction back in the day. Good to know your family is keeping Midnight Louie going!
Suspense and history are fantastic partners and I enjoy exploring past and present personalities and issues. Many times strong women in history are maligned in their times and that comes down to ours. My portrayal of “Pink” was indeed researched. She’s a secondary character in this series, and filtered through the eyes of a rival viewpoint, so my portrayal emphasizes certain aspects of her personality and ground-breaking career and not the others I’d bring in if she was a protagonist. There’s so much more in all these women!
The cover artist for the latest new and reissued Irene Adler books is a very fine “fine artist” I was so lucky to get his work for the books. His name is Glenn Harrington and he has a website. He may be able to get poster quality version of his artwork, or may be too involved with current work to do that. It’s worth checking out his other, glorious works.
The plans of mice and authors oft go awry. There could be more Adler novels, but there is not a market for them in the current publishing world. I do have Irene Adler novellas and short stories I’d like to put out myself in e-books when I can get time.
Tickled, Teresa, that you’ve found and loved my long-ago high fantasy series and found Taliswoman! Sometimes bad things happen to good books, and these fantasy novels are certainly an example of that history. No, only one chapter of Taliswoman 3 is written. If I had it, I would post it in e-book for all the readers who want to finish the story.
Thanks for reminding me of the pending Taliswoman issues. I’d have to read the previous books at this point to remember! I do tie up issues at the end of series, but am not always allowed to end series.
Probe and Counterprobe were to have two more books, explaining the “bittersweet” ending to Counterprobe that some readers found disappointing. Of course, authors don’t know at the time they won’t be allowed to finish! Midnight Louie looks to be going to “Z,” although that will not be the end of him.
I’d really like to take up these broken series when I can.
Good to know the series has a new reader! Other readers can check the newsletter page for recent issues. Page 4 shows all eight Adler novels in order.
So lovely to hear you loved the writing style. Sometimes I think that Twitter will make rich description a thing of the past. All authors hope that the conversion to e-book will make their books easier to find, if not as sensual a reading experience as print. Mention of that tattoo went into the series long before “ink” became so popular for everyday folks! Thanks you for considering the books “classic.”
So glad you enjoyed the new “take” on the infamous Jack! It was a real challenge to weave all the reports and theories and my characters and Sherlock Holmes into a Ripper hunt. I wanted to portray his female Whitechapel as the down-trodden “bag ladies” they were, not the gorgeous girls many films have used. And this is the only novel I know that has three women on the Ripper’s trail. Sorry that the series is “on hiatus” for the second time in its eight books. Doesn’t mean there can’t someday be another adventure. And I hope to get the several Irene Adler stories on Kindle et. al. when I can.
Thanks for expressing your druthers! I get messages to the contrary, of course. What’s an author to do? Keep writing and readers keep reading and we’ll work this all out. :))
Needtoknowwhathappensnext
on September 20, 2010 at 5:20 am
Hi, Carol,
I have recently re-read (for the ?nth time)the Six of Swords (I have and love all the other Irissa/Kendrick tales, too)and it inspired me to track down the Taliswoman books. Now I’m hot to read the third (which,from your comments, I assume you have ready in MS somewhere, even though it was regrettably never published).
Is there a realistic chance of this ever happening? If not, is there any possibility of posting a precis of the plotline on your webpage, just so we know what happens in the end? I so hope that Alison and Rowen get together and Darnellyne’s face is healed and how Alison explains the missing 5 months, – etc., etc., etc.
Yours wistfully,
‘Needy’ 😉
Diana
on September 19, 2010 at 10:59 am
Hi!
I want to express how much I´ve enjoyed reading your Irene Adler´s series that I just recently discovered. Thank you for writting it. Every reading passage including her interacting with Sherlock Holmes left me the impression of having a bite in a delicious and luxurious chocolate that filled all my senses. I really enjoyed and it trapped me, besides it took me to Europe XIX century with all the details that made the whole expirience even more exquisit. It was not easy at all to get your books, but I tried my best and after months I did it and read them all. I liked all the books of course but I have the feeling that is not over yet. I want to know about the tattoo that the gipsy told her she would have done and the love story between Stanhope and the marvellous Nell. I´m in love with all characters. Thank you again for giving this to the world of the classics.
Kimberly
on September 14, 2010 at 12:38 pm
Love love love the Irene Adler series! my fav’s so far have been the two involving Jack the ripper, real edge of your seat kind of reading! I really like reading these stories that possibly could have been true. its fascinating! Hope to see a new Irene Adler mystery soon!
Lisa
on August 25, 2010 at 9:59 pm
I just finished Cat in an Ultramarine Scheme. I want to strongly suggest that you not abandon he who was second. We really are invested in the pair now and have had enough of HIM. Thanks for your reply.
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!
Jeannie
on May 23, 2010 at 4:52 pm
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 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.
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!
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!
Judy
on March 13, 2010 at 2:09 pm
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.
Marianne
on March 2, 2010 at 4:00 pm
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!” :o)
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
Deb
on January 25, 2010 at 1:32 pm
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
Jackie Cramer
on January 1, 2010 at 10:21 am
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.
Judy
on December 29, 2009 at 10:35 am
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.
Judy
on December 28, 2009 at 5:15 pm
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.
Thanks for asking!
Gary
on December 10, 2009 at 1:10 am
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
webdiva
on November 28, 2009 at 6:29 am
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
FABIOLA GARCIA
on November 27, 2009 at 9:55 pm
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
webdiva
on November 26, 2009 at 5:44 am
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.
Beth
on November 25, 2009 at 4:19 pm
Carole, Just read Brimstone Kiss. I want more, please keep Deliliah going. I can’t compare her and Louie but, love them both.
Dear Gunnar,
Wonderful to hear from you! I seldom hear from readers of foreign editions because of the language barrier, I’m sure.
My father was born in Norway, although he died while I was a toddler. I’ve found some distant relatives on the Internet and learned that English is common in Nordic countries. I’m delighted when readers find my books worth reading again . . . a great compliment to an author.
I think only the first Irene Adler novel sold to Sweden, many years ago. And it was quite a bestseller. I remember my agent and the foreign agent being upset when the publisher didn’t want to publish any further novels in the series. It seemed odd not to follow up on a success. But publishing in the U.S. can be illogical too.
Thanks for writing!
DEAR CAROLE!
Thank You very much for the wonderful and interesting book “Goodnight, Mr Holmes” – I have just read it out (in Swedish), the second time – some years after the first time – and it was with better benefit than the first time!(I discovered more new details now, You know!) But, I´m sorry, I haven´t read Your other books about Irene Adler until now, but maybe I will found the rest of the book series about her, in Swedish too, I hope (I will see) !?
Myself are a Swedish, middle-age man, who have read a plenty of the Sherlock Holmes – adventures before Your book, so I was lucky and interested when I found “Good Night, Mr Holmes” for about some years ago! And it was a very good thing to read it too – yes, I think! – and in the moment I have just read it again! Splendid – thank You, Carole!
Many greetings from Your Swedish reader Gunnar Johannesson in Gothenburg
Hi, Kenneth,
Good to hear from you again! Your suggestion for “Z” is in the neighborhood of my thinking. Thanks for the suggestion. It’s the cat’s pajama!
Hearty best wishes for your first mystery, and more to come!
Dear Carole,
If you should need a title suggestion containing “Z”, I’d
like to suggestion “Cat in a Zebra Striped Pajama”. I love all
of your Midnight Louie and Irene Adler books. What do you think?
I’ve just copyrighted by first mystery and hope it does as
well as yours have.
Best always, Kenneth
A matter of timing. I wrote Catnap and decided I didn’t want to get into an endless list of “cute cat” titles, so went to Pussyfoot. Not such a good idea. The sales force said “cat” in the title was a major selling point. There were two or three cat mysteries series at the time and it was hard to come up with a different pattern from their titles. So I worked off of “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof.” When executive editor liked “Cat on a Blue Monday,” I realized I could begin an alphabetic sequence with the interior “color” word and the next book was Cat in a Crimson Haze, etc. A publicist “stretched” the “color” word to “Jeweled” when I got to the “J” book, which was about Elvis. So, Cat in a Jeweled Jumpsuit. I even found a vintage one to wear to book tour signings. 🙂
I wanted the alphabet because I believe readers should easily see what order a series is in but publishing was dependent on bookstores that might or might not have all the “backlist” books on the shelves and didn’t want to discourage sales if #3 and #7 were the only ones available to buy. Online selling and ebooks has changed that need, but I doubt mysteries will be indicated by order unless the authors do it in the titles, like Sue Grafton (who’ll be Lifetime Guest of Honor at Malice Domestic when I’m there as GOH!!) and James Patterson.
Also, my series build continuing character arcs and back story plots and it IS important for readers to know the order.
Thanks for the great question!
At one point it was considered to bring Catnap and Pussyfoot out together under an “A” title. That wasn’t feasible, but the word chosen was “Agua.” Cat in an Aqua Spotlight. So you were very close, Douglas!
Hi, Robert,
Glad you are such an avid reader! The Midnight Louie/Delilah Street crossover story just won the Cat Writers Association Muse Medallion for Best Short Fiction (and Cat in an Ultramarine Scheme tied for Best Novel). It’s in the anthology Love Bites: The Mammoth Book of Vampire Romance 2. Delilah Street stories are coming out in June in Chicks Kick Butt (sigh) and perhaps early next year in Hex Appeal, formerly called Hex Symbol. Virtual Virgin, the next Delilah book is slated for Nov. 30 again in 2011.
I have a lot to keep up with and try to do a bit here and there when I can on the website. Publishers now want authors to contribute to their websites! I’m on PocketAfterDark.com. It helps if fans visit and become members, and Macmillan is starting what sounds like a content-oriented sight with an emphasis on mystery and romance.
I’ve always wondered why, when you started using colors in your Midnight Louie titles, you didn’t start out with “Cat in an Aqua Storm”.
I was visiting a friend for Thanksgiving and returned home to find my Amazon order of Silver Zombie waiting for me when I got back. I immediately started reading and was done in one day. I loved it. Normally I read the books during my Thanksgiving Vacation which I was unable to do this year due to the Nov 30 as opposed the October or mid November pub dates of the prior books. I also buy and consume the ML books as they come out.
In the description of the series here you state “a future Midnight Louie, feline PI, can even cross over to darkside Vegas in short stories”. Is this only hyperthetical or have there been such stories written or in the pipeline. If so, where can/will I be able to locate them.
I know of and have read the CinSim “Murder” short story in “Unusual Suspects” and loved it (as well as the appearance in the mainline series of the Nora and Asta CinSims that were the result of that case’s solution). Are there any more short stories published or in the pipeline?
As a suggestion to whoever is maintaining your site, it might be useful to have an entry listing all the sidebar short stories so that other fans, such as myself, can locate and read these short stories as well as the main series.
Dear Jennifer,
You were fast to snap up the book! Happy to hear what you liked so much about it.
Thanks for the support of getting your friends the books for Christmas!
I’m writing Virtual Virgin now for next Nov. 30, and some verrry interesting developments
occur in that book.
I’ll have a Delilah novella, “Monster Mash,” in the June Chicks Kick Butt (not a subtle title) anthology. It’s about movie monster actors Lon Chaney and Lon Chaney, Jr.
I ‘ll also have a novella for an anthology named Hex Symbol that Jim Butcher will headline, probably out in a year or so. It’s title is “Snow Job” and I’m sure you’ll like it! 🙂
Happy Holidays,
Carole
Carole,
Loved the new book Silver Zombie. The heat between Delilah and Snow is amazing and I can’t wait to untangle the mysteries you’ve created. I’ve enjoyed your entire series so much that I’m gifting your books to my friends for Christmas. Thanks and keep writing!
Jennifer
Chicago, IL
Lisa, I’d love to have that happen, but I’d have to do it, and it’ll take me some time to get to it with two series, the Midnight Louie and Delilah Street series, going.
I really could use a couple clones to help me out! But I intend to make sure that does happen and I just got a wonderful new scanner that can do paperbacks with almost 100% accuracy.
It’s very touching that your Sword & Circlet paperbacks are worn. When my very first novel, Amberleigh, came out in paperback, a fellow reporter at my newspaper asked me to autograph it. The poor book was battered, including the beautiful cover art. He’d taken it on a camping trip to read.
And then I realized that my book was way up in the North Woods with someone reading by lamplight and I truly appreciated that. It’s the story of the Velveteen Rabbit, of course. When something is loved enough to show use, that’s a huge testament to its value.
P.S. to ALL: I haven’t mastered this new website. I tried to set up the blog so people could post under the relevant series, but messages keep coming in under the first, trial subject head. Also, it takes me a while to put the book deadlines “to bed,” as we used to say in the newspaper business, so I can get a lot behind in answering. Sorry! I love to hear from you! Carole
Rebecca, you’ve hit on my impetus for writing novels: reading about too many needy, rescue-requiring heroines in contemporary popular fiction back in the day. Good to know your family is keeping Midnight Louie going!
Suspense and history are fantastic partners and I enjoy exploring past and present personalities and issues. Many times strong women in history are maligned in their times and that comes down to ours. My portrayal of “Pink” was indeed researched. She’s a secondary character in this series, and filtered through the eyes of a rival viewpoint, so my portrayal emphasizes certain aspects of her personality and ground-breaking career and not the others I’d bring in if she was a protagonist. There’s so much more in all these women!
The cover artist for the latest new and reissued Irene Adler books is a very fine “fine artist” I was so lucky to get his work for the books. His name is Glenn Harrington and he has a website. He may be able to get poster quality version of his artwork, or may be too involved with current work to do that. It’s worth checking out his other, glorious works.
The plans of mice and authors oft go awry. There could be more Adler novels, but there is not a market for them in the current publishing world. I do have Irene Adler novellas and short stories I’d like to put out myself in e-books when I can get time.
Thanks for all your lovely compliments!
Tickled, Teresa, that you’ve found and loved my long-ago high fantasy series and found Taliswoman! Sometimes bad things happen to good books, and these fantasy novels are certainly an example of that history. No, only one chapter of Taliswoman 3 is written. If I had it, I would post it in e-book for all the readers who want to finish the story.
Thanks for reminding me of the pending Taliswoman issues. I’d have to read the previous books at this point to remember! I do tie up issues at the end of series, but am not always allowed to end series.
Probe and Counterprobe were to have two more books, explaining the “bittersweet” ending to Counterprobe that some readers found disappointing. Of course, authors don’t know at the time they won’t be allowed to finish! Midnight Louie looks to be going to “Z,” although that will not be the end of him.
I’d really like to take up these broken series when I can.
Hi, Diana!
Good to know the series has a new reader! Other readers can check the newsletter page for recent issues. Page 4 shows all eight Adler novels in order.
So lovely to hear you loved the writing style. Sometimes I think that Twitter will make rich description a thing of the past. All authors hope that the conversion to e-book will make their books easier to find, if not as sensual a reading experience as print. Mention of that tattoo went into the series long before “ink” became so popular for everyday folks! Thanks you for considering the books “classic.”
So glad you enjoyed the new “take” on the infamous Jack! It was a real challenge to weave all the reports and theories and my characters and Sherlock Holmes into a Ripper hunt. I wanted to portray his female Whitechapel as the down-trodden “bag ladies” they were, not the gorgeous girls many films have used. And this is the only novel I know that has three women on the Ripper’s trail. Sorry that the series is “on hiatus” for the second time in its eight books. Doesn’t mean there can’t someday be another adventure. And I hope to get the several Irene Adler stories on Kindle et. al. when I can.
Thanks for commenting.
Thanks for expressing your druthers! I get messages to the contrary, of course. What’s an author to do? Keep writing and readers keep reading and we’ll work this all out. :))
Hi, Carol,
I have recently re-read (for the ?nth time)the Six of Swords (I have and love all the other Irissa/Kendrick tales, too)and it inspired me to track down the Taliswoman books. Now I’m hot to read the third (which,from your comments, I assume you have ready in MS somewhere, even though it was regrettably never published).
Is there a realistic chance of this ever happening? If not, is there any possibility of posting a precis of the plotline on your webpage, just so we know what happens in the end? I so hope that Alison and Rowen get together and Darnellyne’s face is healed and how Alison explains the missing 5 months, – etc., etc., etc.
Yours wistfully,
‘Needy’ 😉
Hi!
I want to express how much I´ve enjoyed reading your Irene Adler´s series that I just recently discovered. Thank you for writting it. Every reading passage including her interacting with Sherlock Holmes left me the impression of having a bite in a delicious and luxurious chocolate that filled all my senses. I really enjoyed and it trapped me, besides it took me to Europe XIX century with all the details that made the whole expirience even more exquisit. It was not easy at all to get your books, but I tried my best and after months I did it and read them all. I liked all the books of course but I have the feeling that is not over yet. I want to know about the tattoo that the gipsy told her she would have done and the love story between Stanhope and the marvellous Nell. I´m in love with all characters. Thank you again for giving this to the world of the classics.
Love love love the Irene Adler series! my fav’s so far have been the two involving Jack the ripper, real edge of your seat kind of reading! I really like reading these stories that possibly could have been true. its fascinating! Hope to see a new Irene Adler mystery soon!
I just finished Cat in an Ultramarine Scheme. I want to strongly suggest that you not abandon he who was second. We really are invested in the pair now and have had enough of HIM. Thanks for your reply.
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, 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.
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!
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!” :o)
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 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!
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.