It's All About the Characters by Lucy Burdette

I've always been a huge reader. I tore through the Nancy Drew mysteries, then moved on to my brother's Hardy boys mysteries, gobbling lots of teenage romances in between. I'll give you an example of the kind of detail I remember best. There was a less well known mystery series featuring a nurse named Cherry Ames. Okay, we're talking forty-something years ago and my memory isn't as sharp as it once was, but I remember so clearly the book's title: Cherry Ames, Student Nurse. Cherry was working on a hospital ward and one of her patients reported a fever and chills. She did just what she was supposed to: got a blanket for the sick person and reported the symptoms to the supervisor. Now here's where the facts get fuzzy: I think the supervisor on duty had it in for her and didn't write down what Cherry told her. And later, she got in big, big trouble for failing to report those important symptoms. And now Cherry had a dilemma: Did she rat out the other woman, or take the rap? Isn't it funny how clearly I remember the character's emotional dilemma even though most of the other details about the book have faded?

    And I also remember a romantic series about twin teenaged sisters. I'm certain one of them was named Joby. They both liked the same boy of course and in the end he could only marry one of them. When the single sister went to visit the married twin for the first time, they had a happy evening joking about "their" husband. but that night, the pull-out couch was made into a bed and the newlyweds retreated to their bedroom and shut the door. Oh ouch--i can still feel the pain of the sister who was no longer the center of her twin's universe. (Does this sound familiar--I'd love to know the name?)

    Anyway, I'm just saying, what stays with me after fifty years of reading are the characters and their conflicts.

   As we speak, I am working on my Key West food critic series. These books are mysteries so I understand I need a body. And suspects. And clues. And theories about the murder. But most of all, I'm hoping readers will fall in love with my new character Hayley Snow. I hope they'll feel the shock she does when she sees her ex-boyfriend out at dinner with his new girlfriend. And feel her heart sink when she thinks the job of a lifetime has slipped away. And then want to read the next book in the series and recommend the books to friends. And maybe even remember Hayley in fifty years--now that's what I'd call success!

AN APPETITE FOR MURDER by Lucy Burdette will be published in January 2012 by NAL/Obsidian.  Please follow Lucy on Twitter @lucyburdette or join her on facebook  or read the first chapter on her website. And best of all, you can certainly pre-order!

Roberta Isleib: This Writer's Crazy Journey

Let me say first: it’s hard to follow Sheila’s great blog post! Love the postcard from Pat Conroy...But here is something about my writer’s journey…

Oh how I envy those folks who say they have always known they wanted to be writers! Imagine how I could have shaped my college and graduate training, the teachers I might have studied under, the classes I might have taken. I only knew I was crazy about books and reading-and that has never changed, starting with my early run through every Nancy Drew ever written.

After wandering through several career false starts, I ended up training and working as a clinical psychologist-wonderfully interesting and productive work. Then I fell in love with a guy who was a golfer. As I got more interested in the sport, I began a furious campaign to learn to play and spent lots of time (and money) trying to master it. I couldn't get over how nervous I felt on the first tee, especially in a competition. How did professional golfers survive and even thrive with this kind of stress?

I’ve never been able to explain it exactly, but writing became a way to make something useful out of my golf obsession. Over time, the idea of a character called Cassie Burdette, neurotic professional golfer wannabe, began to take shape (write what you know and all that!) In 1998, I hatched the idea of writing a mystery about a woman caddie on the men's golf tour and her pal, a sports psychologist. With Tiger Woods mania incinerating the PGA Tour, I was sure the story idea would be a natural. Besides, this was fun! Any time I spent on the golf course or attending tournaments or even reading golf magazines was, you guessed it, research. Over the course of a five-book series I was able to talk Cassie into starting psychotherapy so that both her golf game and her taste in men improved.

And along the way, Cassie and I had some amazing adventures. I spent most of my first (admittedly modest) advance paying to compete in a real professional-amateur LPGA tournament so I could absorb the correct ambience for book two. And I played golf at Pinehurst, Palm Springs, and in the Dominican Republic—all tax-deductible without stretching the IRS code. I met and corresponded with professional golfers, and many fans—mystery fans, golf fans, and best of all, fans of both. These people worried about Cassie: how can she drink that much before a tournament? How can she eat like that and stay in shape? Lose the boyfriend—he’s a bum! Over coffee, my friends were more likely to ask what was new with Cassie, than with me.

Once the golf gig was over, I wrote a second mystery series starring clinical psychologist Dr. Rebecca Butterman, that tailgated on my own career. I loved showing the world of psychotherapy from an insider's perspective and using Rebecca's special training and talent to solve mysteries. And now I'm busy writing the first book in a third series featuring a food critic in Key West, which will debut in January 2012. How can I go wrong with the research for that??

I still shake my head in wonder when I think about how my life has changed over the past ten years. Maybe I would have learned more about the theory and practice of writing if I'd known I was headed this way back in college. But on the other hand, maybe the timing of my life experience was exactly right. 

How about you? Are you surprised about the turns your life has taken? (I'm delighted to offer two copies of PREACHING TO THE CORPSE, which takes place at Christmas, in exchange for your comments.)