Author Spotlight: Eleanor Kuhns, Librarian and Historical Mystery Writer

photo provided by Eleanor Kuhns Many of the authors I spotlight on this blog are known to me via Facebook writers' groups, Twitter, and Google+ communities. Eleanor Kuhns is an author I am privileged to know personally, as we have met a few times when she visited my home library for book readings and signings. She is a librarian, author, and historian and writes mysteries that take place in the 1790’s, an often forgotten and fascinating period in our history. Her attention to research and rich historical detail in her Will Rees Mysteries Series made her the 2011 winner of the Minotaur Books/Mystery Writers of America First Crime Novel competition. She received her master’s in Library Science from Columbia University, and is currently the Assistant Director at the Goshen Public Library in Orange County, New York. I've read Eleanor's first three books and can’t wait to read this latest one. The mystery alone is worth the read, but it's Kuhn's historical approach to facets of early American life not often included in fiction that makes her books compelling.  Welcome to Adventures in Publishing, Eleanor! Please tell us about your new book, Death in Salem.

Thanks for inviting me to speak to your readers. Marianne. Death in Salem is the fourth in the series, following Cradle to Grave. A weaver by trade, Rees earns his living by traveling around and weaving for the farmwives. In Death in Salem, he stops to buy something for his wife in Salem, Mass and meets a friend from his army days. Invited to the after-funeral event for the deceased Anstiss Boothe, Rees meets this wealthy merchant family. Within a few days, her husband, Jacob Boothe, is also dead and this time it is clearly murder. Rees quickly gets swept up in the investigation. Smuggling, prostitution, and piracy all play a part in the solution.

Excerpt:

"You stole her from us!” The scream broke into Rees’s conversation and he turned to look. A young man with the lanky unfinished look of someone in his mid-teens staggered across the floor; it was Dickie Coville. “You took Anstiss away from us and now she’s dead,” the boy shouted.  The buzz of conversation faded as everyone turned to stare. “You!” His wavering forefinger pointed at Margaret Boothe, standing with her father. ”It’s your fault she’s dead.”          

“Now, Dickie,” Mr. Boothe said as he stepped toward the weeping boy. “All of us grieve for Anstiss.” Moisture glittered in his eyes but he willed it away. “I miss her so much.”            

Rees admired the man’s control in the hour after his wife’s funeral. He knew how he would feel if Lydia died. Just the thought of it left a gaping emptiness in his belly and brought moisture to his eyes. He quickly wiped away his tears. Twig turned and threw his old comrade a questioning glance.  

An interview with Eleanor Kuhns:

Were you born a writer or did it evolve?

I think I was born to be a writer. I wrote my first story at the age of ten and I really have never stopped. It has always been a compulsion to get the words out. I wrote fantasy and science fiction first but I always read mysteries. They were my relaxation, ironic considering that I write them now.

Are you a full time or part-time writer?  If writing part-time, how do you make time in your life to write?

Because I am still employed as a librarian, I fit my writing in around my work schedule. Usually I get up very early in the morning - very early and write until 8 o'clock. Then I stop and get dressed and pack my lunch for work.

Do you work from an outline or just go with the flow? If you use an outline, how detailed is it?

I never outline. I usually have an idea of setting and where I want to go with the story but I don't know what the characters will do until I put them in motion.

Explain your research process.

When I research, I collect books and fill them with post-its. If I own the book I highlight (I know this is anathema to a librarian but I have to.) Otherwise, I copy the pages I need. And I always always take copious notes.

   Can you tell us what you’re working on now?

Minotaur just accepted the fifth Will Rees novel, working title The Devil's Cold Dish. I am now working on the sixth. (I told you it was a compulsion.)

How have the changes in present day publishing impacted writing career?

The changes in the publishing world mean that I spend tons of time on social media, blogging, twittering and so forth. I love to blog - it is my chance to talk about my research as well as other things of interest. I include tons of pictures of my garden and my dog, for example. (My blog is on my website). But doing all of this is such a terrible time sink. I would rather be writing! 

About the Author:

A lifelong librarian, Eleanor Kuhns is currently the Assistant Director at Goshen Public Library, Goshen, New York. She is the 2011 winner of the Mystery Writers of America/ Minotaur First Novel competition for A Simple Murder. She has since published Death of a Dyer, Cradle to Grave, and now A Death in Salem.

Connect with Eleanor:

Website and blog                                            

Twitter: @EleanorKuhns

Facebook: Eleanor Kuhns, writer

Purchase links:

Amazon

Barnes and Noble

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Beyond the Bestsellers:Indie Catholic Authors Ebook Sale

Looking for something beyond the bestsellers? Spiritual reading to enlighten and entertain on a lazy summer day? I belong to a great Google+ group called Indie Catholic Authors, and 15 of us are hosting an ebook sale from June 24-26.  All ebooks are sale priced at $0.99 or less. You can buy a whole new library for less than $15! Participating authors include:

• John C. Connell

• Mary Ann D’Amico

• Jeannie Ewing

• Ellen Gable

• Melanie Jean Juneau

• Jane Lebak

• Tom McDonough

• Gil Michelini

• Larry Peterson

• Connie Rossini

• Michael Seagriff

• Cheryl Ann Wills

• Dawn Witzke

• John Paul Wohlscheid

• and myself  

Among the titles, readers will find spirituality, memoir, fiction, a children’s book, and a collection of short stories. The books are available for Kindle, Nook, and iBooks. Some are also available in paperback and audiobook (although those formats are not discount at this time). See our new blog header for individual titles. On Wednesday, June 24, we’ll post all the details about each book here, including buy links.

This is our first joint sale that focuses exclusively on ebooks. Can you help us spread the word by joining our Thunderclap campaign.? Sign up to have an automatic tweet, Facebook or Tumbler post on the 24th at noon. We need at least 100 participants to blast social media with our message. Click here to help. Thanks!

Join us on Facebook to chat with authors throughout the day. We’ll have giveaways (on both Facebook and here at our blog) from authors Connie Rossini, Ellen Gable, Jeannie Ewing, and myself. We can’t wait to see you there!

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Planting Seeds

photo by eliaskordelakos via Dollar Photo Club

I teach classes in self-publishing at two local colleges in upstate New York. One of the lessons I give my students is the importance of planting seeds. 

As an indie author, it’s important to reach out to people who can increase your book’s discoverability or help build your reputation as a writer.  You plant seeds when you ask someone to publish your work, write a blog post about you or your book, interview you, read and review your book, or share your Facebook status and retweet your tweets. 

Anyone who has ever planted a garden knows that it takes time for the seedlings to sprout, for the fruit and the flowers to blossom.  Sometimes, nothing happens at all.  This is the nature of planting seeds, and it’s no different when planting seeds for your books. 

About two years ago, I planted a seed with the online magazine Kaleidoscope, a biannual journal dedicated to expressing the experiences of disability through literature and the fine arts. I submitted a proposal for them to publish the first chapter of my novel, Blue Hydrangeas, an Alzheimer’s love story.  I received a prompt response that my submission was under consideration for a future issue, but no promises.   

I went on with my life, and eventually forgot about this until the other day, when I received a message from the editor letting me know they’d chosen to publish my chapter in their next issue.  Now that was one seed I hadn't expected to flower!  Yet it did!  And, although I had forgotten to cultivate it, reaped benefits. 

In our increasingly online, instantaneous, get it right now lifestyles we often plant seeds and expect growth immediately.  But that’s not how it works.  Things happen in their own time.  Today’s efforts may not bring results until next month, next year, or years from now. Don’t give up.  Even dormant seeds can sprout new life.

July 22, 2015 UPDATE: Issue 71 is now online! Please take a moment to discover this beautiful magazine. The writings are lovely and enlightening. You'll enjoy the artwork. The artists and authors will move you. Blue Hydrangeas appears on page 52.

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Subscribe here and receive a free PDF of my Kindle short story "Ino's Love."

Author Spotlight: Vicki Tapia, author of Somebody Stole My Iron: A Family Memoir of Dementia

Author Spotlight: Vicki Tapia, 
author of Somebody Stole My Iron: A Family Memoir
 

Vicki Tapia is one of the authors I've teamed up with to promote Alzheimer's and Brain Awareness Month. Vicki's book, Somebody Stole My Iron: A Family Memoir of Dementia, is the painfully honest story of Vicki's parents, who suffered from dementia for many years. Vicki was their primary caregiver. Her mom had Alzheimer's and her father was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease-related dementia. Vicki chronicled the days she spent with her parents caring for them in their home and then throughout assisted living facilities and nursing homes until their deaths. These diaries became the foundation of this book, which is as personal, detailed, and brave a memoir of life with Alzheimer's that I've read. Please welcome Vicki to Adventures in Publishing.

Hi Marianne, and thank you for inviting me to be interviewed for your blog.

It's always a pleasure to talk to a fellow author, Vicki. Tell us, were you born a writer or did it evolve?

A friend once brought me a memento from a trip she’d taken to China, a bookmark with my first name, “Vicki,” written in formal Chinese calligraphy using 2 characters. One of the characters was translated as “preserve” and I wondered how this translation of my name related to me. The next logical step was to look up “preserve” in the dictionary, where I found the definition “to maintain” or “keep up.” I was surprised how well that resonated with me, as I’ve always delighted in “preserving” memories, with both words and pictures. I believe I may have been born a writer, particularly when I open the over-sized drawer in my home office and behold over 4 decades of journals, in all shapes, sizes and colors. And, oh, someday, perhaps I’ll share the translation of that other Chinese character….

I'm sure all of us would love to know that! How old were you when you first realized you’d been “born a writer?”

Reading, penmanship, grammar…I remember those being favorite subjects in primary school, but my earliest memories of creating stories probably began around the age of 12 or 13. That was when I began to craft what I perceived were fascinating stories, often about romance, most left unfinished when I grew bored with the process. Then, I received a diary for a birthday present in junior high, developed a routine for condensing my day into 4 short lines and kept at it for a couple of years, before eventually realizing a 5-year diary was an inadequate way to express myself. There simply wasn’t enough room to express all my thoughts and dreams, let alone examine a teenager’s ruminations about the meaning of life.

What types of writing have you done over the years?

When I was 16, I began to keep a journal, which has remained a constant throughout my life. Besides journaling about life’s ups and downs, I always take a journal when I travel and write daily entries, something I started with my first trip to Europe in 1974. My foray into technical writing was an indirect result of my chosen profession in the health care field, where I worked for over 30 years as a lactation consultant. Working together with a colleague, we began writing for lactation journals in 1996 and the writing, editing, rewriting and publishing process helped prepare me for what came next. Re-writing and editing my journal to transform it from a description of our family’s dementia journey into a conversational story was my next adventure in writing and also how I became captivated by the whole book-writing process. Since the publication of Somebody Stole My Iron: A Family Memoir of Dementia, I’ve immersed myself in writing something completely different.

I loved your book and look forward to reading more from you. Can you tell us what you’re working on now?

I am writing a work of historical fiction, based on the life of my great-grandmother (1870-1959). It takes place between the years 1887-1941, set in both Michigan and Montana. She had a rather tumultuous life for the time period, having been married and divorced 3 times by 1926. Nearly 20 years ago, when researching family history, I obtained a copy of the divorce trial transcripts from her first marriage, filled with all the vile accusations and lurid details, around which several scenes are written. Those transcripts have always intrigued me, and in their own way, begged me to write their story. The novel follows actual births, deaths, marriages and divorces. Women at that time faced many of the same issues that women face today, although with far fewer rights, legal or otherwise. My novel details a woman’s lack of opportunity and choice when faced with divorce, including loss of child custody, even when there is documented abuse. As women, I think it’s a good reminder about how far we’ve come and how far we’ve yet to go.

That sounds fascinating. How do ideas come to you?

Writing is an interesting process. Obviously, the ideas for my first book came directly from my journal, written during the time of my parents’ dementia. The ideas for my current book are twofold. My general outline comes from the concrete information I’ve collected about my great-grandmother and the time period in which she lived. Using an outline of dates, I’ve built my story around these facts, embellishing them to create a storyline. Also, in my research of the time period, once in a while I accidentally came across something interesting (a tornado, for example, that destroyed 30 houses in my great-grandmother’s town) and intertwined that factual information around an imagined scene that will move my narrative forward. Secondly, my ideas manifest completely from my imagination. I visualize an outcome for the scene and then write toward that particular outcome. Sometimes the ideas flow with minimal roadblocks and other times I’m unsure exactly how to get from here to there. I may contemplate the scene for minutes or days, but eventually, an idea on how to move forward arrives in my consciousness. And, yes, it’s most likely to happen when I let it go, only to be awakened in the middle of the night or early in the morning with the precise idea for which I’d been searching.

I understand how that works too well! What do you love most about writing?

I love sitting down in front of the keyboard and creating. It’s what I look forward to each and every day! I love words, combining them into interesting sentences, looking for the perfect word to use for a description and then reading those words after they’re all put together into a paragraph. I love re-reading and re-wording thoughts, fine-tuning them for a future reader’s eyes.

You, Vicki, were definitely born a writer! Can you share a peek at your story?

Certainly! Here’s an excerpt:

I arrived at my mother’s apartment at 2 p.m. one afternoon. Upon knocking and hearing her invitation to come in, I opened the door and was greeted with her shocked face, as if she couldn’t fathom why I was there. She cautiously ventured, “What are you doing here? It’s time for bed.” As my focus returned, I realized my mother was sitting in front of me, on her bed, completely naked.

“Look outside,” I replied as gently as I could, “Is it dark out?”

She turned and gazed out her window at the clear, azure blue sky. “No,” she replied, matter-of-factly.

“You can go to bed when it gets dark outside, okay?”

I was immediately struck with the same recurring thought that, in so many ways, dealing with demented people is like living with toddlers.

The administrator at Tendercare Cottages informed me that following a move to a new facility, it takes the elderly about 90 days to adjust. It had been more than 90 days, and Mom had still not adjusted. If anything, the move to Tendercare Cottages seemed to have accelerated Mom’s decline, as her dementia was more and more noticeable. The latest development was her declaration she could no longer read.

“There is no sense in bringing me any more magazines, I can’t read anymore,” she said with resignation in her voice.

What could I possibly say in response to that? I looked at her with compassion, but couldn’t stop thinking about how one of her few remaining pleasures was now fleeting. I supposed I no longer needed to continue the search for her eyeglasses, which had mysteriously gone missing.

Book Description:

Somebody Stole My Iron  chronicles a family’s journey down the rabbit hole that is dementia. After Vicki’s mother was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease, followed closely by her father with Parkinson’s disease-related dementia, the 3 of them embarked on a sojourn that was heartbreaking and painful and at times, sadly humorous. What began as a diary to help the author cope, morphed into an inspirational memoir, filled with personal lessons learned along the way, ideas/tips for managing the day-to-day ups and downs of dementia, as well as useful information from experts within the field of Alzheimer’s research. This conversational narrative, sprinkled with both laughter and tears, offers a sense of hope to those who lives have been intimately affected by dementia, letting them know they aren’t alone.

Purchase Somebody Stole My Iron 

(Available in paperback and Kindle):

Amazon 

Barnes and Noble 

Praeclarus Press

Amazon UK

Connect with Vicki:

Vicki’s Amazon Author Page

Website

Vicki's Blog

Facebook 

Twitter

Goodreads

iAuthor UK

About the Author:

Somebody Stole My Iron  is the first book-length publication for author Vicki Tapia, who in a former life, wrote for lactation journals. She retired from her career as a lactation consultant to direct her energies toward writing. She is currently at work on a new book, which will focus on women’s issues at the turn of the 20th century. Vicki is the mother of 3 grown children, and Nana to 7 grandsons and a granddaughter. She lives in south central Montana with her husband and mini-Schnauzer. You are quite likely to find a picture of Vicki and her dog on her Twitter feed or Facebook page.

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Don't miss a word. Follow my Adventures in Publishing.  Subscribe here and receive a free PDF of my Kindle short story "Ino's Love."

Posted 8th June by Marianne Sciucco

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