My guest this week is Evelyn Cullet,
who thoroughly entertains me with her books. We all have to start somewhere,
and this week she’s telling us how one of the books came about. You never know
how things will turn out. Welcome, Evelyn!
My first
novel, Romancing a Mystery, came about through an odd set of circumstances.
I had always
wanted to be a writer and wrote short stories in high school. I would write my
thoughts, ideas and anything interesting I came across in spiral notebooks. In
my first job at the Illinois Bell Telephone Company, I worked as secretary to
the Inside Wire Chief. One January morning, when I was twenty-three, my best
friend who worked in the same office, and another co-worker decided that we'd
take our summer vacations together that year. Since I was into mysteries, I
really wanted to go England,
and they agreed. We made our plans and saved our money, got our shots (you had
to have shots to go overseas in those days), and our passports.
At the time,
I had been dating a young man. He surprised me with a proposal and an
engagement ring. I didn't have enough money to do both, and so instead of going
to England
with my two friends, I used the money I'd saved for the trip to get married.
The years
passed quickly and with a new family, money was always tight. By the time we
did have enough, (much later in life), I suggested to my husband that we take
that trip, but he informed me he was deathly afraid of flying so I might as
well forget it. There went my dreams of going to England. I had wondered why he
insisted on taking a driving trip for our honeymoon. At the time, I thought it
was romantic--love struck, silly me.
All through
the years, I continued writing notes in my spirals. It had become a habit I
couldn't break. And by the time I was in my late thirties, I had nine or ten of
them filled with thoughts, feelings and interesting information, most of which
was about that trip to England
I missed, and how I would've liked everything to have turned out if I had gone.
And then,
affordable home computers came on the market. Our daughter, who was in high
school, wanted a computer very badly, and so we bought one. I decided to
transfer all the information from my spirals to the word processor program.
After I'd finished, I found that I had almost enough for the first draft of a
novel. Needless to say, that was the beginning of my writing career.
The ironic
part of this story is that when my daughter got older, she married an Englishman.
And they took me on a trip to England, while
my husband, who was still afraid to fly, stayed at home with the dog. Funny how
things turned out. If I had taken that trip with my friends, I might never have
written this novel, or maybe I would have, only a lot sooner.
Thanks for
letting me post my story on your blog, Marja.
I enjoyed learning more about you,
Evelyn. I hope you’ll come back. (I hate to admit it, but I can definitely relate to your husband's feelings about flying.)
Romancing a Mystery short synopsis
All Charlotte
Ross wanted was a get-away vacation. She hadn't counted on solving a
centuries-old mystery or falling for a handsome aristocrat.
A young woman
in her prime, Charlotte is bored living in the small town where she grew up --
and is tired of her controlling mother trying to marry her off to the oldest
and wealthiest men in town. So when her mystery-loving friend Jane
Marshall suggests a driving trip across England, Charlotte eagerly packs her
bags. But Charlotte gets more than she bargained for. Just two days in, their
car breaks down in a thunderstorm and the ladies take refuge in Blake Hall, an
ancient aristocrat’s lair with a long and rumored past. As guests of the
British aristocracy, these out-of-place Americans stumble their way through a
fox hunt-- encounter imagined ghosts--and find a mysterious clue to a
centuries-old murder that has remained unsolved--until now, at least.
This
lighthearted mystery, influenced by the novels of Agatha Christie, Arthur Conan
Doyle and Jane Austen, is smart, savvy and at times, warmly romantic.
Evelyn Cullet has been an aspiring author
since high school when she wrote short stories. She began her first novel while
attending college later in life and while working in the offices of a major
soft drink company. Now, with early retirement, she can finally write full
time. As a life-long mystery buff, she was a former member of the Agatha Christie
Society, and is a current member of the National Chapter of Sisters In Crime.
She writes mysteries with warm romance and a little humor. When she's not
writing mysteries, reading them or reviewing them, she hosts other authors and
their work on her weekly writer's blog. Her novels are: Romancing a Mystery, Love, Lies and Murder, Masterpiece of Murder, and Once Upon a Crime.
Romancing a Mystery is available:
Amazon Print Book: http://tinyurl.com/ocqs9yz
And Kindle edition: http://tinyurl.com/q653ksu
Website and Blog: http://evelyncullet.com/
Facebook
page: https://www.facebook.com/EvculletsAuthorPage
Twitter:
https://twitter.com/EvelynCullet
Pinterest:
http://www.pinterest.com/ecullet/
CLICK HERE to visit Marja McGraw’s website
CLICK HERE for a quick trip to Amazon.com
The
idea of a book about purple cows and elderly spies might sound a little odd,
but trust me, you’ll love them. How Now Purple Cow – A Bogey Man Mystery is
available in both ebook and paperback format. Find out what cows and spies
could possibly have to do with each other.
