Mysteries with Laurel Heidtman

An author's world with Laurel Heidtman aka Lolli Powell

Kentucky based author Laurel Heidtman joins us today for some Q. and A. and a glimpse into a writer's life.

Q. Laurel, tell us a bit about you.

 A. I write mysteries under the name Laurel Heidtman and romances under the name Lolli Powell. I live with my husband, four dogs and two cats on private land surrounded by Daniel Boone National Forest in Kentucky. Over the years, I've paid the bills by being a dancer, a bartender, a police officer, a registered nurse and atechnical writer. I draw on that life experience and my two English degrees to createstories that I enjoy writing and hope readers will enjoy reading.

Q: How many books have you written?

A: I’ve written and published two mysteries under the Laurel Heidtman name and two romances under the Lolli Powell name. One of the romances, The Wrong Kind of Man, is a romantic suspense so it crosses the genre line with some bad guys, action, murder, and a little something else I’m not going to say. I’ve also got another book that I wrote back in the nineties, but haven’t yet published. One of these days I’ll get it out, clean it up, and put it out there!

Q: Reviews are helpful (usually) to authors and readers. Do you read your reviews? Do you respond to them, good or bad? Do you have any advice how to deal with the bad?

A: I read every review, but I don’t respond to them. I think readers leave reviews for
other readers. By reading a review, an author can learn a lot about how readers are
receiving their books, but I don’t think they should respond in any way.

However, if a reader contacts me directly via my two websites’ contact email, then I
certainly respond. I’ve thanked the people who told me they enjoyed my books, but I
also answer—politely—anyone who says they don’t care for them. For example, I
received an email from one person whose niece bought her a paperback of Catch A
Falling Star at an author panel. She was offended by the vulgar language of some
characters in the first chapter and wrote to tell me she’d thrown the book in the trash. I
responded in a polite manner and told her I was sorry she was bothered by the
language and that I only put it in the mouths of the characters who would talk that way
in real life. Since then, I’ve made a point of warning anyone who buys a paperback of
my mysteries at a live event about the language, and so far it hasn’t stopped anyone
else from buying a copy.

As far as advice on how to deal with bad reviews, all I can say is try not to let it get to you. Not everyone is going to like what you write. Most people won’t say anything if they can’t say something good, but a few will. Read the bad reviews with an open mind. The writer may have a valid complaint that will help you improve your writing in the future.

Others are just “haters,” as a writer I know puts it. All you can do is ignore those. For example, I have a one-star review on Amazon from a woman who got a free copy of my book through LibraryThing. I sent the free ebook copies out on a Saturday and on Sunday—the very next day, she wrote a one-star review calling it “one of the worst books of 2014” and complaining she struggled to get through it. Considering she’d had the book no more than a day, I’m betting she didn’t even read it, or at least didn’t read much of it. The only thing to do is ignore a review like that.

Q: What are you working on now? What is your next project?

A: I’m actually working on two books now. Once before I worked on a mystery and a
romance at the same time. If I bogged down in one, I could take a break and work on
the other and it kept me fresh. I’m about a third of the way through Runaway Angel, the
first book in a romance series that begins in the sixties, and have three chapters of a
thriller titled Whiteout. I hope to release Whiteout by the end of this year or the
beginning of next year, but I’m going to hold Runaway Angel back until I have at least
one more in the series ready to go.

I’m also hashing out an idea for yet another romance series and another book in the Eden mystery series, but I won’t start either of those until I have at least one of my
current ones done. Two books at a time—yes, but more than that? Don't think so! I
value my sanity too much!

Q. Have you ever gotten into a bar fight?

A. No. I’ve only attended them as a spectator.

LAUREL'S BOOKS

Both books are only available for sale through Amazon or CreateSpace. The ebooks are available through Unlimited and KOLL as well.



Bad Girls
Amazon link: myBook.to/BadGirls (Canada)
US - Amazon.com Bad Girls

Cal Becker, the former Chicago cop turned insurance investigator
readers first met in Catch A Falling Star, is back in Eden—and he’s brought his eighteen-year-old niece with him. Marnie Becker is a troubled young woman with an alcoholic mother and drinking problems of her own. When Cal offers to pay her way through Raven University and move to Eden with her, she jumps at the chance to change her life. But on the day of their arrival, she disappears.

It wouldn’t be the first time she ran away when the going got tough. Has she done so again rather than face the challenges of her new life or has something happened to her? Cal has hopes for a new life for himself in Eden, and when Marnie goes missing, he doesn’t know whether to be worried or angry. But when the beaten body of a young girl is found in Daniel Boone National Forest, he fears his worst nightmare has become reality—or has his worst nightmare only begun?


The Wrong Kind of Man
http://bookgoodies.com/a/B00SNP5R20  (Canada)
US - Amazon.com The Wrong Kind of Man 

At thirty years of age, Maggie Fields has had her fill of “bad” men. Unbeknownst to her, her investment counselor husband had paid for their luxurious Denver lifestyle by scamming his law-abiding clients and laundering money for his law-breaking ones. He lasted two nights in jail before a client who didn’t trust him to keep his mouth shut had him silenced permanently.

Maggie fled to her hometown of Vichy, Indiana, and safe haven with her grandparents. Now all she wants is a quiet life as a reporter for a small town newspaper. That quiet is shattered when her ne’er-do-well uncle shows up on her retired doctor grandfather’s doorstep with a wounded and very sexy friend. Did the friend really injure his shoulder while changing a tire, or is he the man shot by the homeowner during an attempted burglary of a house just outside of town?

Maggie soon has reason to believe the homeowner is not an innocent victim, leading her to wonder if her uncle and his friend are involved in organized crime. But in spite of her suspicions, Maggie finds herself drawn to the wounded stranger and realizes the bad experience with her husband hasn’t dulled her taste for the wrong kind of man!

Find Laurel at her website and on Twitter.

A key ingredient to writing success

A major ingredient to writing success is perseverance.

 

Perception was last week’s word. This week it is perseverance. I know when I started to write, I thought I’d just write a book, fix it up and I’d sell it. Well, we all know that doesn’t happen very often and it certainly didn’t happen for me. I made the finals in the Malice Domestic contest with it, but that’s as far as it went. Looking at it ten years later, I can see why. I had a lot to learn about the craft. I had to pay my dues and do my TI – time in.

Last night I went to a screening of the second episode of Season 6 for the Republic of Doyle. AllanHawco, Newfoundland born creator and lead character of the series was there to meet and greet us and to answer questions. He is as personable in real life as he is on the screen. Krystin Pellerin, as beautiful as she is on TV, joined him and the banter between them as they answered questions reflected the give and take they have on screen. It was a touch surreal, as if I’d walked into the world of the Republic.

Republic of Doyle burst onto the TV scene six years ago and quickly won the hearts of Canadians and the world. They had us with the Newfie audacity of Jake Doyle and the cocky humor of the whole cast. Before that, I had never heard of Allan Hawco. However, the man has paid his dues in stage, film and TV on both sides of the camera. His credentials and awards are impressive. He has TI. And now he has fame.

Many writers who seem to appear on the scene as full blown successes, like Allan Hawco, have paid their dues quietly and steadily. Their overnight success took years, maybe decades. They persevered.

My point here is if you want to be a writer, keep writing. Write journals. Write poems. Write short stories, novellas, novels or scripts. Learn your craft, perfect your story skills, and above all, persevere. Persistence is often the final ingredient that makes the difference between not succeeding and succeeding not only as a writer, but in any endeavor.

Can you persevere? Go the distance? Put in the time?

Where do writers get story ideas?

If you can answer the question

 

...you might be a writer.

This is one of the most asked questions when someone finds out I am a writer. I wonder if it will appear at the When Words Collide this coming weekend (Aug 8 - 10, 2014) in Calgary, Alberta. There will @ 560 people there including writers and readers, surely some one will ask.

This oft-asked question occurred to me when I was sweeping up a pile of dust and crumbs off the floor in the corner of my cabinet. My Hubby is great about sweeping the floor (Living room/dining room/ kitchen combo) but is adverse to picking it up and putting it in the bin. Once a day or so, I come along with a dustpan and brush and finish the job.

I am currently collecting story-bits for Book 4 even as I write Book 3. And bent over that pile of dirt, resigned to my Hubby's annoying habit, I realized how my sleuth would go undercover and how he would entice the murderer to come after him. Suffice it to say it there are a series of murders in a 55+ community, and the local police are having no luck in tracking the killer. Lemuel Ritchey, uncle in the Caleb Cove Mysteries, is sent undercover to the walled complex. However the idea is encorpoarted into the finished book, the idea started from sweeping up dirt and my Hubby's habit.

Years ago as a real estate appraiser in Calgary, Alberta, I was treated to a blow-by-blow discovery of a dead body. A co-worker (bless his detailed little heart) had found it when he went to a vacant house to do a foreclosure appraisal. That incident has been with me for over 15 years and is the foundation for a novel with the working title, Murder on Memorial Drive.

Another inspiration came to me at a traffic light as I watched a very neat and tidy, but long-haired and bearded, fellow march along the sidewalk talking to himself. The end character was much changed, but something about that gentleman triggered my creative process.

That brings me to the answer to the question: Where do you get your ideas? My answer is: "It's more like where DON'T I get my ideas." Writers find those pesky bits littering their worlds. Sometimes they arrive isolated, orphans looking for a story home. Other times they drop into the brain and fit neatly with a work-in-progress like a piece in a puzzle.

We record them, we keep them till they are needed. We constantly ask the famous question: "What if...?" They ferment in our brains to emerge on the page in one of our creations.

If your brain builds complicated scenarios around happenings in your world, if you wonder what is behind the event or what might happen after the event, then you MIGHT BE A WRITER.

If you think you are, try! Start collecting those stories and snippets. Learn craft. Talk to writers, visit conferences. Write a million words before you worry about editing. Burn your first attempts if you must. Exercise your ability to put words on the page

Writers ARE. If it is in you to be a writer, you can't deny your essence. Writers write because it is who they are and they can't stop. Not all writers will become published authors. That's okay. Writing is like breathing. You just do it to live. The bonus is that it's fun, satisfying, defining, revealing and a host of other things we prize in life.

WRITE ON!

Do you want to write for a market with 23 million buyers?

Try the 23 million strong market of women boomers.

 Today's guest, BRENDA M. COLLINS, chats about being a member of, and a writer in, this segment of the population.  This Calgary author traveled to many corners of the globe as a speaker, business adviser and technical writer. Now she's  back in Calgary penning mysteries laced with romance and a touch of magic.

Nothing makes me feel quite as insignificant as knowing I’m one of 23 million Lady Boomers, my label for women born between 1946 and1964.

I showed up towards the end of the swell, so I did benefit from the resources that went into accommodating the bulge in population as it moved through the circle of life; new schools and teachers to address the increased number of youth, and the evolution of the market for fast food, clothing fads, popular music, and cosmetics.

On the downside, by the time I was ready to enter the job market, the front of the wave had flooded the market and unemployment rates were rising. Now, as I trail the rest towards 65, the big fear is that they will eat up all the pension money and I’ll have to work until I’m 75—or until I die. Yet, Boomers are reportedly on track to have higher income in retirement than their parents. Faced with this teeter-totter of my birthright, I’ve decided that, if I must work until I drop, I might as well work at something I love and find a way to make money at it, in which case, I want to embrace my long held dream to be an author.

My passion since the age of twelve has been to write fiction stories. I used to tell myself bedtime stories to fall asleep at night. When I was working a high powered corporate job, I wrote an entire novel while sitting in countless airports to keep from going crazy with boredom. That one’s still under the bed. It wasn’t a very good novel.

There are a couple of challenges with my plan. Everyone, including my mother from the time I was 12, told me that authors don’t make money. That’s why I went to university, got a business degree and pursued a long, successful but tedious career in business management. Secondly, everyone tells me I should write what I know. What do I know about the life of twenty-, thirty- or occasional forty-year-olds who star in all the bestselling novels these days? I am a Lady Boomer grappling with Lady Boomer issues!

 
Like so many boomer women, breast cancer crashed into my world in the last few years- I lost a dear friend to breast cancer a few years ago; several other close friends were fortunate to survive the same dreadful diagnosis. Driven to ‘DO SOMETHING’, Roxy Boroughs and I published an anthology of short stories on Amazon and donate all our author royalties to the treatment of breast cancer.

Only one story actually featured the subject of breast cancer and a fifty-something boomer. There was another one about a middle aged woman struggling with the decision to put an aging parent into an assisted living facility against his will. There was the story about the widow who planned to spend her twilight years travelling with her beloved husband after retirement and wasn’t prepared for re-entering the dating scene as a boomer. Holy cow. Our anthology is Boomer Lit.

I’m certainly getting tired of reading from the point-of-view of twenty-something’s, especially when the experiences of these fictional twenty- something’s bears little resemblance to my twenty-something life of three decades ago. The Times They Are A-changin', as Bob Dylan sang (1964)—non-boomers are probably saying, Who?

  

Wouldn’t it be nice to read about a female protagonist who behaves like me? Thinks like me? Has similar wrinkles on her face and also wears her blouse untucked to hide her meno-pod (aka, wheat belly, muffin top, love handles)?  Hummm, I think with finger on chin, 23 million boomer women….all dealing with the same issues I am….with money to spend….looking for something to read….

If I wrote an age appropriate book, the kind of book I’d like to read, would other lady boomers enjoy it too? A tingle of excitement runs through me. It could be as big as The Golden Girls were on TV.

An idea for a book series suddenly smacks me upside the head—a 50-year-old woman, widowed unexpectedly with no insurance, and kids in university so she’s gotta make money any way she can.

If V I Warshawski could do it, why can’t she? My heroine will become A Boomer Private Detective. A Golden Dick. Okay, maybe that isn’t a great job title, but this is still a work in progress.

ABOUT BRENDA M. COLLINS

Brenda M. Collins writes cozy mysteries laced with romance and a special kind of magic, including The Holly & The Ivy (A Frost Family Christmas) and Witch in the Wind. All authors’ profits from the sale of Stories of Chance Romance, another sweet romance anthology written with Roxy Boroughs, are donated to advance the treatment of breast cancer. Brenda is a recognized speaker and much quoted expert on business issues for writers, an award-winning technical writer, and has been published in numerous industry trade publications, such as Writers Market. 

Look for Brenda’s other titles on www.amazon.com. You can visit Brenda on her website, Facebook, Goodreads, or Twitter.