Rebel Bookclub

Posted By themaryanne on October 18, 2014

I’m getting ready to start the process of editing the second Betsy book, Murderous Wit. Here’s a sneak peek at some of my inspiration for the story.

The novel takes place in a hotel, where a group of writers and artists live. The fascinating Dorothy Parker and her friends who lived at the Algonquin Hotel in New York was a jumping off point.

Dorothy Parker

 The character at the middle of it all has some things in common with Mrs. Dorothy Parker, including a complicated personality. To wrap my head around her properly, I created a playlist of songs that speak to different facets of her self and how people see her.

That’s nowhere near the whole playlist- at current count it’s 14 songs long.  I have playlists for the other characters as well, but we’ll get to them in a minute.

Dorothy Parker and some of her compatriots of the Algonquin Round Table

The current day Algonquin Hotel

The Algonquin back in the day

Katherine Hepburn’s menswear look inspired the appearance of one of the characters.

When I wrote the first draft of Murderous Wit, it was during NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month), and so some of the characters did their jobs and landed on the page where they needed to be, but need more fleshing out. When I find myself in that situation, I turn to iTunes. I search around until I find an a song or artist that widens my view of who the character is.

One of the characters is very tightly wound, which clicked when I randomly listened to Alanis Morrisette.  The lyrics aren’t important, just the tenseness in the back of her throat. It sounds like she might explode at any moment.

Another’s personality came into focus when I connected that he “sounds” like Cake.

And yet another sounds like Adam Levine’s nasal, almost whiny singing voice. He actually reminds me more of Robin Thicke (he’s a bit slimy and off putting) but I refuse to listen to him, even for character clarity.

Water imagery plays a big part in the art within the book.

There are a number of scenes that take place at meals- lots of people sitting together talking. It’s not my forte (I’m better at one on one dialogue), which means I need to focus on that during the editing stage.

Now I guess I better get to work!

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Posted By themaryanne on October 13, 2014

I love the fashion of the 20s. (This article about the costuming for The Great Gatsby is fascinating, I totally recommend it.)

This is the sort of dress Betsy would be comfortable in:

While Cynthia and Louisa would be far more partial to these:

Angela would just die, darling!

And the gentlemen would wear a little something like this.

None of the girls would wear these, but I love this picture and it reminds me of the picnic outside the mansion.

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Posted By themaryanne on October 13, 2014

Mystery’s End, the mansion at the center of the novel, is a huge maze of a house. When I started writing, I quickly realized that I needed to have a floor plan on paper so that I could keep track of where everyone was at any given time. This is the hand drawn map that I used.  I thought about creating a better version and including it in the book, but the digital format doesn’t work so well for detailed maps. So I put them here for your perusal. Not all of the rooms in the mansion are mentioned in the book- I especially like the spiral staircase at the front of the house that goes all the way up all three floors, but it didn’t come up in the story.

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Posted By themaryanne on October 13, 2014

My first published novel, Mystery’s End: A Betsy Malone Mystery, is available now, exclusively from Amazon. It is currently available for the Kindle e-reader, and for any Kindle apps (on smart phones, tablets, or on computers.) The cover was designed by the brilliant Ben Stier.

I hope you’ll take a chance on an unknown kid and get to know Betsy and her friends. She’s one of my favorite people.  Other people seem to like her too. Here’s what some reviewers had to say:

She is just the type of friend we all need in this world – loyal, level headed and sincere.

Betsy’s a girl I would love to have for a best friend.

[Betsy is] a strong woman who remained feminine and at times vulnerable. Don’t get me wrong, I _like_ my Xena Warrior Princesses and BSG Starbucks, but it’s nice to have a nuanced approach to what is considered strength.

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