Meet Author Dorothy Bodoin

I recently was honored to review the upcoming book of a writer new to me, Dorothy Bodoin.  Dorothy and her writing both made a very favorable impression.  She is multi-published.  Besides being a fellow Wings author of a cozy mystery series, some of her romantic suspense books were chosen for reprint by Harlequin’s Worldwide Mystery imprint.

Dorothy’s eighth book in her Foxglove Corners cozy series, A Time of Storms, was released November 1, 2009 by Wings e-Press.  Her other books in this great series are also available at that link.

I asked her if she would answer some questions so you can get to know her, too. 

Dorothy, have you always been a writer?    For as long as I remember.  I used to draw characters and write first sentences of stories.  When I discovered composition books, I moved on to longer lengths.  When I bought my first typewriter, I was ready to write book-length fiction.

What motivates you to keep writing?    I’m happier when I’m writing a book than at any other time, so I never take vacations between books. 

Why are you drawn to writing mysteries?    I always bought mysteries or checked them out of the library and especially liked the ones that surprised me.  I often felt that those covers on the Nancy Drew books didn’t live up to their promise.  When Gothic novels became popular, I read them almost exclusively.  The best ones never disappointed me.

Are there any genres you haven’t yet written that you would like to try?    I’d like to try writing a time travel one day and probably will. 

A TIME OF STORMS is your eighth book in the Foxglove Corners series.  Are the ideas for new books in the series still coming?    I like to have one idea for the next book after the one I’m currently writing.  I don’t want to look further into Jennet’s future.

Does a real-life version of Foxglove Corners exist?    It certainly does.  Foxglove Corners is really Metamora, Michigan, located in Lapeer County.  It is exactly as I describe it.  Even the wedding cake house, described in Darkness At Foxglove Corners, is a real place.  However, many of the other houses and buildings are products of my imagination.

Have you personally been through a tornado experience?    I’ve never lived through a tornado, but I know what it’s like to worry all night about tornado warnings.  I have lived through severe storms, though, and remember one that brought down an enormous three-forked elm in our backyard.  Years later, I’d planted a poplar tree that grew and grew until I was afraid it would crush the house.  This happens in Darkness At Foxglove Corners  But before it could happen in real life, I had it cut down.  It cost around $20; having it chopped down cost $1200.

What comes first in ideas for a new book–plot, characters, setting or something else?    It varies.  Often it’s a Victorian house.  Recently a friend told me about one of the experiences of a collie rescuer.  This became the springboard for my WIP, The Dog From The Sky, which will be Jennet’s next adventure after A Time Of Storms.

How do you find names for your characters?    I have three name resource books, but I rarely use them.  I select names I like.  Sometimes my characters choose their own names.  Sometimes I have to change names to avoid having too many that begin with the same letter.  Now, with fifteen books, I try to make sure that I don’t repeat names.

What do you like most about the writing process?    What I enjoy the most about the writing process is going over and over and over a chapter until in my opinion, it’s perfect.

What do you like least about writing?    What I like least is sitting at the computer for long periods of time.

What is the one thing you know now about writing that you wish you had known before you started?    I wish I’d known about the importance of hooks and cliffhangers and pacing.  Two of my early books had what I considered slow, romantic beginnings.  I had to rewrite each one to add a hook.  In each case, I took an incident mentioned in the first chapter and expanded it into a scene.  I did this before submitting the manuscripts.

What do your friends and family think of your writing career?    My family and friends have been supportive of my writing career from the very beginning.

What would you say are the pros and cons of small publisher vs. big-name publisher?    I’ve never been published by a big-name publisher, but I like having a personal relationship with the small publishers I do have.  I know I wouldn’t like meeting someone else’s deadlines or being pressured to sell a certain number of books or go on tour.

Is there a message you would like readers to take away from your books?   Eventually everything will come out right although it may not seem so at the time.

Dorothy and I both hope you will investigate her books.  You can read more at her website, too.  I think if you do, you’ll have one more favorite author to add to your list.  Enjoy!

 

Three Reviews for FIDDLER’S LAMENT

It’s beginning to look like this blog is becoming nothing more than advertising for FIDDLER’S LAMENT.  Small publishers can’t afford big bucks for advertising–especially with authors whose names aren’t well known.  So, I get to pester my friends and readers.    My thanks to the writers who so kindly volunteered to read the manuscript.  Please check out their books, too.

From Christine Lynxwiler, Jan Reynolds, and Sandy Gaskin, authors of ALIBIS IN ARKANSAS  ( http://www.christinelynxwiler.com):

 ”D.H. Parker’s FIDDLER’S LAMENT is everything you could wish for in a cozy mystery! Parker’s characters are likeable and believable. Her setting is fun, adding an extra dimension of enjoyment to the story. Put that all together with a well-thought-out plot, and it’s a big dose of good entertainment.” 

 

From Wilburta Arrowood, Ladies speaker and author (http://www.wilburtaarrowood.com):

“D. H. Parker has crafted a fast-paced tale of mystery and intrigue that will keep you guessing as Constancy and her fiancé, Danny, try to help a long-lost friend in his hour of need. It is seldom we see faith interlaced into such well-told mysteries such as this, but Ms. Parker has found the perfect balance of faith and nitty-gritty action.”

 

From Laura V. Hilton, book reviewer, and author of Hot Chocolate  (http://lighthouse-academy.blogspot.com/ ):

 ”D. H. Parker has written another spine-tingling page-turner with her newest book, Fiddler’s Lament. If you like mysteries, you will not want to miss any of D. H. Parker’s thrilling stories. She is a very talented author, and I am looking forward to reading many more books authored by her. FIDDLER’S LAMENT is the continuation of D. H. Parker’s first two stories, but it easily stands alone. I was instantly engaged in the story line and I had to keep reading to find out what would happen next. An expert in dialog, the story completely comes to life. Don’t miss FIDDLER’S LAMENT or any of D. H. Parker’s books.”

 

Fiddler’s Lament

Constancy Grace Stafford, fed up with murder, dreams of living a normal, peaceful life.  But death at a music show, the clammy darkness of an unmapped Ozarks cave system, and a desperate fiddler’s lament threaten to destroy that dream–and the two most precious people in her life.

Available for order 1 November 2009

at Wings

 

DARK DIAMONDS?

DARK DIAMONDS?

The second book in the “Fiddling With Murder” series is called DARK DIAMOND REEL.  What are “dark diamonds”?  Do they really exist, or are they a figment of the Parker imagination?

Probably most people know that in the diamond trade there are clear stones and colored stones.  The colored ones, technically, are referred to as “fancies”.  They come in nearly all colors and range from pale tints (graded “faint”) to the most intense colors (graded “fancy vivid”).  The fancies are more rare than the clear stones, and so are usually priced higher.  This page at the American Museum of Natural History will tell you more about diamond colors.  From there, you can go to other pages and learn more than you ever wanted to know about diamonds in general, including the science behind them.

Here is a page with a photo of a collection of colored stones.  The ones in this photo are naturally occurring colors.  Diamonds can also be manipulated in labs to take on color.  These are called “cultured” diamonds.  They are still diamonds, but they are not naturally colored diamonds.

Natural red diamonds?  Yes, they do exist, although in nature true red is the rarest color.  I’ve heard that no more than twenty natural red diamonds ever have been found, and only two have been graded as “fancy intense”, a pure red, the grade just below “fancy vivid”.  I can’t say how accurate that information is, but it was enough to shove my imagination into high gear.  In DARK DIAMOND REEL, the red diamonds that once belonged to the Fraser family are as fictional as their owners.  Certainly, the real world hasn’t discovered diamonds of the quality and color that made up the Frasers’ Soillse Flann jewelry ensemble, but it was so much fun to invent them.

I am in no way a diamond expert, and as I did research for this book, the technical information nearly boggled my mind.  I had no idea that diamonds touched so many areas of life from science and technology to folklore and superstition, from quiet weddings to international politics.  Diamonds are everywhere.  It’s a fascinating study, but like Constancy, when it comes to my own jewelry, I would choose garnets over diamonds every time.  For a peek at some natural red diamonds, take a look at:

the Moussaieff Red diamond

the De Young Red diamond

the Kazanjian Red diamond

 

Steal Away

My short story, “Steal Away” is available as a free read at Wings.  It’s a selkie story–a touch of fantasy.  If you like it, you might enjoy my book, SONG OF HEALING, also available from Wings.

 

DARK DIAMOND REEL featured at ON WINGS OF MURDER

Fellow Wings author, Linda Suzane, is featuring my cozy mystery, DARK DIAMOND REEL, on her website this week (May 31-June 6).  Click in each day to read excerpts, the story behind the book, the truth about red diamonds, and a sneak peak at Constancy’s next adventure, FIDDLER’S LAMENT.

Thanks, Linda!!

This link DH, On Wings of Murder will bring up not only this week’s posts, but the posts for the week she highlighted CONSTANCY’S WALTZ.

If you have written a published mystery, contact Linda about having your book featured.

 

The Children’s Blizzard, a book by David Laskin

As I was doing research for the fourth installment of my cozy mystery series (hereafter known as “Jig of Bones”), I ran across this book. It’s not fiction. It’s also not in any way fun to read. It’s horrific, but I think it should be a part of every American’s historical education. It is the story of a blizzard, followed by deep cold, that struck the Great Plains on January 11-13, 1888. The event is sometimes called the school children’s blizzard because so many school children died in it. It came into being when several extreme weather conditions met, and literally exploded into the country from Canada.

The book weaves together the story of the weather that created the storm, the histories and eyewitness accounts of settlers who were affected, the actions of the only weather forecasting system available then (a department of the U.S. Army), and much more to give a fascinating and terrifying “you were there” look at this event.

I cannot imagine living like those early settlers lived, even on their good days. In comparison to them, most of us Americans now are a soft, spoiled, sometimes pathetic, bunch of whiners. I salute them and the determination to survive that they bequeathed to us as a nation.

Please find a copy of this book and read it–only you might want to wait until a very hot day, because it will chill you to the bone.

 

The First Sale Doctrine and E-Books

Fellow Wings author, Marilynn Byerly, has posted a great article that everybody who has bought or published ebooks should read.  Can you legally sell that “used” ebook you no longer want?  Did you really buy it, or have you only leased it?  Read Marilynn’s article here.

 

Is God Our Dwelling Place?

Moses said it more than once: “The eternal God is your dwelling place, and underneath are the everlasting arms” (Deuteronomy 33:27a ESV). “Lord, you have been our dwelling place in all generations” (Psalm 90:1).

Our dwelling place. Not a place we visit occasionally on a Sunday morning and forget about the rest of the week. Not a place we retreat to only when things go terribly wrong with our lives, then leave and ignore when we feel better.

Our dwelling place. Our home. Our safe room. Our light in a vast darkness. The place where we’re loved and nourished and sheltered and taught and encouraged. Our base of operations. Our peace. Our Father’s house. Our Father’s heart.

Our dwelling place? What can we do to make it ours–to be able to live in that blessed safety? The New Testament talks about all spiritual blessings being “in Christ”. The New Testament talks about only one way to get into Christ. “For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ” (Gal. 3:27).

If we have followed our unchanging Father’s plan of salvation, he has added us to his Church. If we have put on Christ in baptism, we are in Christ. If we continue to walk in the Light, surely we can rejoice as we say, along with Moses, the eternal God is our dwelling place.

“And the world is passing away along with its desires, but whoever does the will of God abides forever” (1 John 2:17).

(also published in Forthright Magazine, 4/12/09)

 

One more author: Janet Lee Barton

For those of you who like Christian romance fiction, here’s another name to add to our list:  Janet Lee Barton.  She is published by Barbour Publishing, so you should be able to find her work in your local bookstores.  I recently read her MISSISSIPPI WEDDINGS trilogy.  Since we lived in the Mobile, AL, area for about twenty years of our lives, that set of books brought back some uncomfortable (hurricane) memories, but I enjoyed her characters and their stories anyway.    Happy reading!