Welcome to this week’s guest, Lillian Stewart Carl. I’ve known Lillian for eons–first, when I was living in the DFW area and attending/working at local SF/F cons, then via Malice Domestic, an east coast mystery con. Most recently, Lillian and I have shared a publisher: Wildside Press.

For a Scots-descended redhead with a newt-like complexion and an affinity for the thud and blunder of British history, Lillian came late to Celtic music. She’s been doing her best to rectify her tardiness by imagining a soundtrack for her cross-genre (but mostly suspense) novels.

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Many years ago, on one of our trips to Scotland, my family and I visited Culzean (“Cull-ane”) castle in Ayrshire. The gardens soon became the setting of an early scene in Dust to Dust. Even sooner, though—as in, when we returned to the hotel—I realized that the album I’d bought in the gift shop was missing.

I dug through the suitcases I’d packed for our trip home. I phoned the castle. Nada.

Still, we stopped by on our way to the airport the next morning. The people in the shop were very nice but couldn’t help…. Until, out of the mirk and mist, appeared a young man who was the doppelganger of Michael Campbell, the hero of Ashes to Ashes and Dust to Dust. He handed over the damp but undamaged album, announced, “‘Twas in the carrr parrrk,” and vanished.

That album is, appropriately enough, Scottish folk/rock group Runrig’s Discovery. Story of my musical life.

When I was very young, my mother signed me up for ballet classes—only to learn that despite being born with a love of music, I’d also been born with two left feet, a condition only remedied when I recently discovered tai chi.

Music classes came next, and, since we didn’t have a piano, I found myself playing a small piano accordion. This enterprise was a success—I had two left feet, but all ten fingers—and I soon graduated to an adult-sized instrument, so much larger and heavier I might as well have been wearing pleated body armor.

For years I played pieces such as “Fascination” and “Beer Barrel Polka”, nothing that really, well, sang to me. For even more years the accordion sat in a back closet. At last I donated it to the Salvation Army. Whether it made a joyful noise for them, or was sold in a thrift shop, I have no idea—but someone got a beautiful instrument.

Only then did a friend give us his Steeleye Span albums. The music of the British folk/rock group opened up new worlds, and led me to the albums sold by a dealer-friend at science fiction conventions—British and Celtic folk/rock groups like Runrig, Battlefield Band, Silly Wizard, Wolfestone, Clannad, and more.

When we started attending the Texas Scottish Festival, I discovered more music, ranging from hard rock flavored with Celtica to traditional ballads—Seven Nations, The Killdares, Jiggernaut, Beyond the Pale, Clandestine, Ed Miller, John Taylor, and Brian McNeill.

Some of these musicians played accordions. Accordions could make compelling music. Who knew? And now that I knew, was it too late?

Thanks to Enya and Riverdance and all, Celtic music is no longer obscure. When Howard Shore wrote his magnificent score for The Lord of the Rings, he based many passages on Celtic melodies. The haunting qualities of that soundtrack are worthy of the source material, my favorite book of all time.

Three decades ago we bought a piano. For way too long I did no more than parse bits of classical music—nothing like pounding out the Mozart “Rondo alla Turca”. But I usually played only the right hand. The left hand on the accordion is played on buttons, so I couldn’t equate the written music with the left side of the piano keyboard

Then I discovered that there were books of the music from The Lord of the Rings—and lo and behold, I play the piano with both hands! From Middle-earth to Middle C….

I’ve never written a character who plays the accordion or the piano, unless you count the haunted piano in Blackness Tower. But my characters and I definitely hear the music. For example, in Shadows in Scarlet the couple falls in love while an accordion plays “The Misty Mountains of Home”. (Isle of Lewis native Alyth McCormack once sang this at a Chieftains concert, making the hair on the back of my neck tingle. If they ever make a movie of The Blue Hackle, she’s the banshee.)

The abovementioned Michael Campbell plays the bagpipes. So does Mick Dewar in Lucifer’s Crown. There’s nothing as evocative, not to mention assertive, as a well-tempered set of pipes.

They, however, are amateurs. My professional-musician character is Hugh Munro in the Fairbairn/Cameron series. Hugh is a thinly-disguised version of the also abovementioned Brian McNeill, a founder of my early favorite, Battlefield Band. He’s a Scottish storyteller, singer, songwriter, novelist, and player of fiddle, guitar, mandolin, concertina and more—but not the small Scottish harp or clarsach, never mind Hugh doing so in the novels.

Brian keeps telling me I should kill Hugh off in some horrible fashion, and I keep refusing. I need my literary soundtrack. Who knows what musical discoveries I have yet to make?

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Lillian Stewart Carl has published multiple novels and multiple short stories in multiple genres, all of them striking at least a glancing blow at history and myth. Her latest novels are the Jean Fairbairn/Alasdair Cameron mystery series: America’s exile and Scotland’s finest on the trail of all-too-living legends.

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Lillian, thanks for that wonderful musical tour! I <3 me some bagpipes. How about you readers? What musical discoveries have you made? Anyone who comments will be eligible to win a copy of The Charm Stone, book number four in the Fairbairn/Cameron series, that takes place in Colonial Williamsburg.

Welcome to Ellen Byerrum, a former Washington, D.C., news reporter, and a playwright. Ellen also holds a Virginia private investigator’s registration. Her Crime of Fashion mysteries star Lacey Smithsonian, a reluctant fashion reporter in Washington D.C., “The City Fashion Forgot.”

The latest book in the series, Shot Through Velvet, takes Lacey on assignment to the last velvet factory in Virginia on its final day of operation. Her story takes a turn when a blue body is pulled out of the dye tank. A starred review in Publisher’s Weekly said it provides a “serious look at the decline of the U.S. textile and newspaper industries and provides much food for thought.”

If you like cozy mysteries with an edge and great characters, you’ll love her series.

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Sometimes a simple “yes” will lead to a surprising discovery., taking you away from your comfortable little box and into another world. It’s led me to stories and story ideas over and over again. All you have to do is be a little curious, say yes, and you’re off.

One of my more vivid discoveries happened years ago at my first reporting job in a place I call Sagebrush. (Not its real name.) Walking down the sidewalk, a local real estate agent drove up to me, rolled down his window and yelled, “Hey, there’s a massage parlor in town! You want to go see it?”

Now, this was a time when “massage parlor” did not mean a spa package with a pedicure and New Age music playing in the background. This massage parlor didn’t cater to a female clientele. But the county had nothing in their rules that outlawed this new business, so it came to pass that a massage parlor crew from the red light district in Denver moved to Sagebrush to a house on a county road.

There was a padlock on the door so the real estate guy and I had to crawl through the window. Not sure what the deal with the lock was, but we all had to crawl up and over, and through the window: the girls, the clients, real estate guys, and me. Once inside, I interviewed the “manager” and the masseuses. They were happy for the publicity. I discovered that customers could order off a menu of services. The client could order one masseuse or two and determine what they wore or didn’t wear. No pedicures, manicures, or facials. I left with a front-page story. And a job offer. They assured me I’d make a lot more money than working for the newspaper. I declined, preferring the poverty of a journalist, but we sold out of every copy of the paper that day.

They were later busted for prostitution, another story I was able to write.

A fellow reporter always complained that I got the good stories. But she stuck to her school board beat and high school sports and she tended not to say yes to random people on the street with story ideas.

There are always new discoveries every time I write a book. My latest book, Shot Through Velvet, developed after I toured the last velvet factory in Virginia. It opened up a whole new world to me. A world of exquisite fabric, dangerous equipment and desperate people out of work.

My next book took me back to Sagebrush.

Although I said I would never do it, I returned to Sagebrush to research Death on Heels, (to be published next February). I used that dusty Western city as the place where my sleuth, fashion reporter Lacey Smithsonian, earned her spurs as a reporter. It’s not at all like Washington, D.C., where she usually hangs out.

There were no massage parlors this time. And in fact the town has changed and improved. There are no parks and pools and some greenery. But I was on the trail of an old cowboy line camp outside of Sagebrush. I was lucky enough to find one broken down log cabin, a line camp where cowboys would stay while working with the cattle. It was in the wilderness, framed by clay colored bluffs. I made a lot of discoveries on that trip, including:

• A legendary cowboy, who I interviewed years ago, spoke with me again, and gave me a marvelous motive for murder.
• The highway signs around Sagebrush are still shot full of bullet holes.
• A lone wild horse patrolling the line camp, was as curious about us as we were about him. Never getting close enough to touch, but never out of sight. The inquisitive fellow followed us for a mile or more to the gate of the public land that we crossed.
• On the gate were the skeletal remains of a grinning coyote, perhaps a warning to other coyotes.
• I am allergic to Sagebrush.

Yes, most of these things may make it into my next book. Except the allergy business. I could have cobbled together the story and fictitious town of Sagebrush for Death on Heels from my memories, but it would be nearly as vivid, and hopefully as true. Although I once swore I would never go back, I’m glad I did. I’m glad I said yes to more hands-on research.

Thank you, Maria, for letting me to guest blog today. It’s an honor.

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Thanks, Ellen! Love the story about Sagebrush. Readers, tell us about a time you said “yes” and had an adventure…even if it was a lot less adventuresome than Ellen’s. A random commenter will will a copy of Shot Through Velvet.

Welcome to Suzanne McLeod, author of the Spellcrackers series. Suzanne writes about magic, mayhem and murder – liberally spiced with hot guys, kick-ass chicks and super-cool supes!

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One of the things I’ve discovered, and always amazes me, about writing is how there appears to be a synchronicity in the universe when it comes to creating stories. This synchronicity often happens to me, and I’ve heard my writer pals mention it too. So what do I mean? Well, here’s an example. When I was in the very early stages of writing my first book, The Sweet Scent of Blood, I was a lot more of a panster when it came to plotting*, than I am now.

So when I decided I needed a scene in a police station where Genny has gone to find out about a magical murder victim, I just started writing. Then my first troll appeared on the page. Now, in the ‘nebulous story background’ floating around in my head, I knew this troll was a longtime friend of Genny’s, that he was a police officer, and that he’d helped her in the past, but that was it. I hadn’t a clue what his name was, what he looked like, where he came from, etc.. So as I wrote, I ad-libbed the details. Here he is in Genny’s own words as we first meet him:

“You need all the front you can muster when facing seven foot of solid granite troll, especially when the troll is Detective Sergeant Hugh Munro. Never mind that he was as soft as faerie moss, he was not going to be happy I was here.

‘Genny, good to see you again.’ Hugh’s voice was a deep bass. He lifted one large hand in greeting and smiled, pink granite teeth gleaming: his bite was way worse than his bark. His shock of black hair grew straight up, two inches above his scalp ridge, contrasting nicely with the deep red of his skin – not sunburn, just his natural colour. Hugh came from the Cairngorms, from the largest tribe in Scotland, and his grandmother was the matriarch.” Extract Ch 5 – The Sweet Scent of Blood

Give or take a couple of commas, this was my first draft and what actually ended up in the book*. But as soon as I’d finished the scene, I knew I might be in trouble. This was urban fantasy, so I could make things up, but not when it came to a real place. What if my facts weren’t right? I’d picked the Cairngorms for Hugh’s birthplace as it was the first Scottish mountain range that popped into my head, but I hadn’t a clue what type of stone it consisted of. What if it wasn’t granite, and what if it wasn’t pink/red? I liked Hugh’s description and I was going to be bummed if I had to change it. So I started on the research . . . and discovered my first moment of synchronicity: luckily for me, the Cairngorms are mostly pink and red granite, something I’m 99.9% sure I’d never heard of, let alone known.

I say 99.9%, because the other thing I’ve discovered when writing is my muse (a.k.a my subconscious). When my muse is in a generous mood, good things often appear on the page with no conscious decision from me. Which brings me back to my police troll, Hugh Munro. I picked the name Munro because I knew it was the name given to Scottish mountains over a certain height (3,000 ft/914.4 m)*, and ‘Hugh’ just seemed to fit. Then I did the research and discovered Sir Hugh Munro (1856–1919) is the name of the man who wrote the first list of the Munros, known as the Munros Tables, in 1891. Now, I didn’t know who ‘Hugh Munro’ was when I was naming my police troll, but I’m pretty sure I’d heard the name at some point previously, so my muse/subconscious kindly hit on the association and plucked the name from the far reaches of my brain and offered it up on the page. Always wonderful when that happens.

Many thanks to Maria for having me over to blog and I hope you’ve all enjoyed reading my discoveries. So, I’m wondering if any of you have had anything similar happen?

*I discovered pretty quick that I had to change partway into a plotster (or as my critique partner, Jaye Wells, calls it: a Plantser, which makes it sound rather triffid- like in origin . . .) if I was going to finish the book: sitting staring at a screen wondering what’s going to happen next doesn’t suit the way I write.
Pantser = write by the seat of your pants.
Plotster = plot every move out first.
Planster = outline it from A to B, then take a few detours getting there as you go with the flow.
*Oh, boy, I wish this happened in my writing way more often; things would go so much quicker.
*Yep, I had to look the height up too! *g*

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Thanks, Suzanne! I’m totally a believer in serendipity and synchronicity…and very much a Plantser these days. Readers, how about you–what unusual synchronous events have you had? Comment below and be entered to win a copy of 1 of Suzanne’s books–your choice.

Welcome to this week’s guest, Elena Santangelo. Elena and I go way back–I think we met about 11 years ago? Something like that. She’s always been a steady buddy and I thoroughly enjoy her ghostly mysteries.

Elena writes the Pat Montella mystery series, which includes Agatha Award finalist By Blood Possessed and continues most recently with Fear Itself. The series combines ghosts, history, a protagonist brought up on Italian cooking and superstitions, and a 91-year-old sidekick. Her nonfiction book, Dame Agatha’s Shorts, a Christie Short Story Companion, won the Agatha Award for Best Nonfiction, and earned nominations for Macavity and Anthony Awards. Elena is also the author of 16 published short stories, available for Kindle. Follow her blog, contact her at her website, or become a fan of Miss Maggie Shelby’s on Facebook.

Take it away, Elena!

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Explorers have to be creative and those who create need to explore. As explorers go, I emulate my paesan’, Columbus. I always think I know where I’m going, but instead of following conventional wisdom, I tend to head out the opposite way. Like Columbus, I rarely reach my original destination, but usually discover something interesting en route.

Most of the writers I know have minds that explore not only when they’re doing research, but all the time, out of habit. Discoveries are out there for the taking, so why not bring a few home as souvenirs? Someday you might draw on them for a story.

The best discoveries are the ones that give me new perspective. Back before any of my writing was published, I went hiking with my brother in Utah’s Arches National Park. On one trail, we came out onto a high flat rock. The views were gorgeous. We stopped to take pictures. My brother always takes four times as many photos as I do, so while I waited, I sat, drank water, enjoyed the view. Something bothered me about the place, but I couldn’t pinpoint it right away. Then I realized that I couldn’t hear anything. No birds, insects, traffic, airplanes, no other hikers, nothing. There wasn’t even a breeze that day. The place was profoundly silent. So much so that I desperately wanted to whistle or tap my foot—anything to create sound. Of course, doing so would have been the equivalent to Columbus forcing his religious beliefs on the natives. The silence was an integral part of that piece of wilderness. I’ve never experienced a silence so perfect since, and probably never will again.

A few years later, when I wrote By Blood Possessed, the first novel in my Pat Montella series, I used that discovery to try to instill an equally vivid sense of place by using all of my senses. That one hike is likely responsible for half my writing style.

In the last five years, I’ve been a hospice caregiver twice. I discovered what the dying process is actually like. For someone who writes death into every book, this practical knowledge is bound to come in handy (not that I would wish the circumstances on my fellow writers). I also discovered that caregivers often get Post-Traumatic Stress, the chemical outcome in a brain pumped up with too much adrenaline for too long, on too few hours sleep. More than that, though, I found how far society, with all our technology and medicines, has moved away from compassionate care for the dying. We insist that a corpse be treated with respect, but we’re willing to let a dying person be alone and neglected. A family in the eighteenth century wouldn’t have let that happen.

You can bet all of this will find its way into my writing if it hasn’t already.

Of course, few discoveries are that extreme. Writers need small finds, too. My protagonist is an avid cook, so I’m always on the lookout for recipes. Another series character, Beth Ann Lee, is an amateur environmentalist. When I come across do-it-yourself green projects, I stow the info on my PC. My novels feature history and ghosts. My favorite vacation destinations include historic sites. Once there, I collect local ghost stories.

It boils down to being open to all experiences, whether you’re actively doing research for a story or not. And, like Columbus, sometimes you have to ignore the “One-Way” signs.

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Elena, thanks so much! I think we writers tend to be explorers, even if it’s just of the armchair kind! How about you, readers? What have you stumbled across that you’ve later used in your own writing or in some aspect of your life? What senses were brought into play?

Comment below for a chance to win your choice of one of Elena’s latest, Fear Itself or a copy of By Blood Possessed.

This week’s guest blogger is a truly wonderful online buddy, whom I discovered via the now less active Fangs, Fur & Fey livejournal community. Karen Mahoney writes lovely YA urban fantasy and (I think) is poised for a fabulous career. She s the author of The Iron Witch, the first book in a trilogy that continues in 2012 with The Wood Queen. She has also published stories about a kick-ass teen vampire called Moth in The Eternal Kiss and Kiss Me Deadly. Karen is British and currently lives near London with way too many books, though she dreams of one day living in Boston. She doesn’t mind if you call her Kaz.

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When I agreed to write something for Maria’s ‘Summer of Discovery,’ I thought it would be easy because I’m always discovering new (to me) authors and TV shows which I figured I could babble on about. (For example, my latest discovery is JUSTIFIED with the brilliant Timothy Olyphant.)

But then… it came time to write my post and I didn’t want to write about that kind of thing. I’m in the middle of a period of self-discovery with my writing—and my life—so I decided I would share something about that here. If you’re bored, just skip to the end for the giveaway.

A lot of people think I’m younger than I am, but I’m 37 and have been dreaming of being an author for 25 years. My debut novel, THE IRON WITCH, came out in February of this year, so what the hell took me so long? Of course, the many (many) hoops and hurdles of the publishing industry are part of the answer to that question, as well as my own writing ability and level of craft (i.e. it takes time to build those skills). But, quite honestly, I think that the thing holding me back the most was my lack of self-belief—a fundamental, heartfelt belief that I wasn’t, and never would be, good enough to get my writing published.

Discovering that has been painful, because I have wasted a lot of time simply not writing; there was a 5-year period of nothing but journaling and writing ABOUT writing in my late twenties and early thirties… I was frozen with a deep terror that I could never achieve my dream, so what was the point in even trying? I wonder what I could have done with that time had I been more focused on actually putting words (fiction, I mean) on the page? And yet, this discovery is also sort of freeing. There is something powerful in admitting that we are afraid to face our most precious hopes and dreams—afraid that we won’t measure up, or that they won’t come true. By facing up to those fears, we also let them go and leave space in our lives for new things; new experiences and, yes, new discoveries.

Back in 2007 I discovered that I loved to write stories inspired by mythology and folklore, which is where THE IRON WITCH trilogy initially came from. If it weren’t for my discovery of a folktale called ‘The Handless Maiden’ there would have been no Donna Underwood and no debut novel. I think what I am trying to say is that writing—as with life—is just one discovery after another. Some of the things we discover are small, but many are big and potentially life-changing. Staying open to those possibilities is a massive challenge, but a very important one.

Right now, I’m discovering that there’s more to me than being a writer of young adult contemporary fantasy (much as I love doing that!)—I am working on something for an adult audience which is much more romantic and has all kinds of action and adventure in it. I’m having a lot of fun, whether it’s something that ultimately sells or not, and that feeling of ‘letting go’ of any final outcome is yet another discovery. Just taking it day by day and enjoying the process.

In the spirit of giving something new a try, and to thank you for listening to me ramble, maybe you’d like to discover a world of alchemy, dark elves, and a girl with magical iron tattoos… If so, leave me a comment telling me what YOU have discovered lately, and I’ll send one randomly chosen winner a signed copy of THE IRON WITCH. (Book 2, The Wood Queen, will be out in early February 2012.)

Cheers!

Karen Mahoney

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Thanks, Karen!! Doubting oneself is the bane of many of us authors–most definitely.

Readers, leave your comment before next week’s guest author post and you’ll be entered to win!