Dorothy Bodoin, Guest Author

This week my friend Dorothy Bodoin, mystery author, is visiting and she discusses how her series came about. I’d love to visit her location, Foxglove Corners. It’s an amazing place, and so are the books. Please welcome Dorothy.

I didn’t set out to write a series.  Darkness at Foxglove Corners was intended to be a stand-alone like my first book, Treasure at Trail’s End.  When I was finished however, I missed my characters. 

While researching the setting for Darkness at Foxglove Corners, I’d learned that the sport of fox hunting was a major activity in Metamora, the real place in which all of books in the series are set.  There was even a hunt club.  I could easily see Jennet tangling with the members as an amateur animal activist—and Cry for the Fox was born.  The rest (as they say) is history.

As I added to my series, I developed a set of guidelines for myself.  First, it’s crucial to choose a setting that sparks your imagination.  I live in Royal Oak, Michigan, a city which is quite interesting, having changed dramatically since my family bought their house after the end of World War II.  They wouldn’t recognize the downtown with its restaurants and multi-story buildings today. 

I’ve always had an affinity for the country, however, and when my brother built a house in Lapeer, Michigan, I fell in love with the location.  The fictitious Foxglove Corners is more vivid in my mind than the actual place.  Details help the reader visualize the scenes and feel as if they are there.  They certainly add color.

I’ve read this advice before: Your characters should grow and change.  Readers have told me that Jennet has changed over the course of the twenty-six books in the series.  Her marriage to Deputy Sheriff Crane Ferguson has brought her happiness and taken the edge off her insecurities.  She struggles to maintain control in her high school English classes and has occasional success.  Like her creator, she loves collies and was always saving them from unfortunate situations.  Eventually I had her join a rescue league.

If a character catches my imagination, he or she returns in future books.  When I introduced Lucy Hazen in the first book, I had in mind an unpleasant, witch-like woman.  She accused Jennet of letting her collie destroy her property.  The guilty party was another dog.  Jennet didn’t like Lucy, but Crane did.  I brought Lucy back in Cry for the Fox in which she and Jennet bonded over cruelty to animals.  Eventually Lucy and Jennet became close friends. 

When Brent appeared, also in Cry for the Fox, I pictured an unscrupulous character whose desire to attract a beautiful animal activist led him to proclaim that he, too, was an advocate for the Cause, whereas in truth he was a fox hunter.  Brent is now one of my most popular characters and a good friend to both Jennet and her husband, Crane.

I always anchor my books to a season to give the illusion of time passing, but I avoid dates.  For the same reason, I avoid referring to world events.  There’s no quicker way to date a book than to mention a year or refer to a real life disaster or world happening.

On the other hand, I like to let the reader know that my characters are living in the same world as they are.  When Jennet and Crane were courting, they watched a movie on a VCR.  Now they watch movies on a DVD player and have a flat-screen television set.  Jennet’s life as an amateur detective is much easier now that she has an iPhone.

            Last, it’s important to include what you love in your series.  For me it’s old books in a series, antiques, collies (of course), Gothic novels, music, poetry, and supernatural manifestations.  Jennet has discovered that Foxglove Corners can be a hotbed of psychic activity.

 

These, then, are the rules I follow automatically.  In my May release from Wings ePress, The Deadly Fields of Autumn, the season is fall.  Jennet now has seven collies, her first, Halley, and six rescues.  Brent and Lucy play prominent parts.  Jennet has become more adept at solving mysteries, more intuitive, more able to extricate herself from perilous situations.  The Deadly Fields of Autumn is available at www.amazon.com or your favorite retailer.

 There’s a rule I wish I’d followed—to keep track of what’s going on in characters’ lives: details such as where they live, their pets, and any change in their status.  As it is, when I don’t remember a certain fact, I have to find the relevant book and reread that passage.  When your series starts to grow, this record is essential.  I’m going to start keeping track of these details today.  Better late than never. 

Dorothy Bodoin's website:  http://www.dorothybodoin.com/

Buy Books:  https://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_ss_i_1_14?url=search-alias%3Dstripbooks&field-keywords=dorothy+bodoin&sprefix=Dorothy+Bodoin%2Caps%2C228&crid=1MMYAUDUE42X2

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Newly released: Gin Mill Grill - A Sandi Webster Mystery

Dorothy Bodoin, Guest Author

I needed a little humor to lighten my day, and my guest author, Dorothy Bodoin fulfilled my need. Read on, and think about some of the errors you’ve caught (hopefully before your book went to print). I’ve caught a few of my own after the book was published. Welcome, Dorothy!

On Mistakes

In spite of our best intentions, they creep into our writing, creating unintentional humor and confusion.  For example, whoever heard of a freshly baked (bathed) collie?  Or a pot roast dinner that miraculously turns into meatloaf with the turn of a page?  Or a shotgun that transforms into a rifle every other time it’s mentioned?

That last mistake was particularly embarrassing, especially when I received an e-mail from a gun expert.  When I wrote A Shadow on the Snow, I didn’t know much about guns.  I never owned one, never fired one.  But my Great Aunt Mary had a cabin up north, and above her fireplace hung a rifle.  Or was it a shotgun?  I thought shotgun was a synonym for rifle when I thought about it at all. 

Because I find it handy to arm my villains, I’ve made it my business to know the difference.

When I write, I revise each chapter of my book numerous times on a separate document before I add it to the complete manuscript, but sometimes mistakes occur and I never notice them.  The common explanation?  A writer knows what should be there, so she doesn’t see the mistake.

Sometimes I find them in time, but not always. I can’t believe how many there are.  Having a character in two places at the same time. Substituting one name for another.  I caught that one on my first reading of a manuscript.  Taking away one of my heroine’s dogs by typing the wrong number—implying that she wasn’t going to get a pancake treat—was more serious.  That’s the kind of mistake that upsets a dog lover.

For this and many other readers, a good editor is invaluable, and I’m fortunate to have one.

I’ve found errors in other authors’ writing, usually in e-book format.  They yank me right out of the story.  I go back and reread and wonder what I missed or if I misunderstood something.

I’m always grateful if a reader takes time to comment on a mistake they’ve found.  After the book is released, I can’t do anything about it.  All I can do is keep my mind from wandering and proofread more carefully in the future.

Have you ever noticed errors like typos or inconsistences in published work?  How much do they bother you, if at all?

Thank you, Dorothy! It helps to know I’m not the only one who sometimes has this problem. I hope you’ll be my guest again, soon.

          

 I love Dorothy's latest book cover

Website: http://www.dorothybodoin.com/ (You can subscribe to her newsletter on her website.

Buy: https://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss_2?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=Dorothy+Bodoin

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Dorothy Bodoin, Guest Author

This week I'm pleased to welcome Dorothy Bodoin as my guest author. Dorothy has 28 published books with more on the way, and I've read them all. They have elements of mystery, the paranormal, collies, and something new -- time travel. If you enjoy any of the aforementioned elements, you'll enjoy these stories. Collie lovers, here's the series you've been waiting for. This week Dorothy discusses time travel, which appeared in The Mists of Huron Court and again in Down a Dark Path. Welcome, Dorothy!

Jennet Ferguson, Time Traveler

I have always loved time travel novels.  Not the silly kind like the one I’m reading now in which the heroine is clueless.  She purchases an antique item, and when her world breaks apart, literally, complete with lights flashing and painful physical reactions, she wonders what is happening to her.  (You’ve traveled into the past, oblivious one.)

Among the books I love are Connie Willis’ classics: Doomsday Book, To Say Nothing of the Dog, Blackout and All Clear.  These are novels I can read over and over again and each time find something new.

Rather than write a stand-alone time travel, I decided to give Jennet Ferguson, the heroine of my Foxglove Corners Cozy Mystery Series (with Wings ePress) a time travel adventure.  How better to explain the mystery of the pink Victorian that ages a hundred years between one visit and the next?

I didn’t think this would be too radical a departure for my readers, for Jennet is used to encountering the unusual.  Soon after moving to Foxglove Corners, she saw a phantom Christmas tree in the window of an old white Victorian.  This was her first supernatural experience.

As she settled into her new home, she realized that Foxglove Corners was a town in which many strange occurrences happened.  For example, a certain road was the source of several disappearances.  Rumors spread that sometimes when traveling on it, one reached the end of the earth and fell off.

As she marries her true love, Deputy Sheriff Crane Ferguson and adds collies to her household, Jennet frequently comes across actual ghosts.  The white collies of Lost Lake, a girl who haunts the town’s library, another ghost who appears in the hall of the Spirit Lamp Inn, and a girl ice skater who returns to the lake where she fell through the ice and drowned.

I didn’t think Jennet’s misstep in time would be that different.

However, a few of my readers, unfamiliar with the genre, were confused.  Did Jennet really go back in time in The Mists of Huron Court or did she imagine it?  When Brent Fowler disappears in Down a Dark Path, has he been cast adrift in the past as Jennet suspects?  What else could be going on?

For Jennet in these two books, as well as in a more traditional mystery, the worst may happen but there is always a way out for those courageous enough to search for it.

I’ve always been a little puzzled by the time-tripping heroine who decides to stay in the past with the man of her dreams, turning her back on modern conveniences such as wonder drugs.  I can’t see myself doing that.  At present, I don’t plan to give Jennet any more adventures in time.  My summer book, Shadow of the Ghost Dog, will be a mystery with a supernatural touch.  No journeys into the past or future.

Foxglove Corners provides Jennet with plenty of opportunities to rescue collies and solve mystery in the twenty-first century.  That’s where I plan to leave her.

Dorothy Bodoin's website:  http://www.dorothybodoin.com/

Buy Books at Wings ePress or Amazon:  https://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_ss_rsis_4_0?url=search-alias%3Dstripbooks&field-keywords=Dorothy+Bodoin&sprefix=%2Caps%2C376 OR http://www.books-by-wings-epress.com/mystery-1

Thank you for sharing your thoughts about time travel, Dorothy. I hope you'll come for another visit soon.

 

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Dorothy Bodoin, Guest Author

This week my guest is Dorothy Bodoin (pronounced like Beaudwin), one of my favorite writers and a dear friend. I asked her to discuss collies because they’re a major part of every story, and she’s obliged me with some interesting thoughts. I have to add that her collie, Kinder, is a characters and the real life stories just crack me up. Welcome, Dorothy!

Crazy Over Collies

by

Dorothy Bodoin

There have been very few times in my life when I haven’t had a canine companion, so it was only natural that when I began writing fiction, I created dog characters to keep my heroines company.

I can’t imagine life without a collie in it.  Well, in truth, I can.  Some years ago, I was hospitalized and afterward spent about six weeks in a nursing home.  During that time, I lost my beloved tricolor collie, Holly, and I didn’t think I could have a collie until six months later.

It was an unhappy time, filled with lingering trauma and, above all, loneliness.

I should mention that the collie is my heart breed.  Maybe it started with the original Lassie movies; maybe with my Albert Payson Terhune books, which I still have.  By the time our first collie, Heather--named for a Terhune collie--joined our household, I was sold.  Committed.  There’s never been a question of going back.

In my novel of romantic suspense, Ghost Across The Water, Joanna loses her collie, Kinder, and feels as if all the color has drained out her world.  She sees everything in monochromatic tones.  Ironically I wrote those passages before the long, lonely months when there was no collie in my own house.

So my real collie, Kinder (Wolf Manor Kinder Brightstar), keeps me company while I write, and supplies me with countless antics for my books.  Which brings me to My Rule #1--Just as you take good care of your real-life collie, you have to take care of the dogs in your books.

In one scene, Joanna, reaches her cottage in a dangerous downpour and neglects to even 

acknowledge the presence of the collie she’d left at home, let alone see to her needs.

I’d never do that with my dogs.  I guess I was so immersed in Joanna’s danger that I couldn’t focus on anything else.

Fortunately my then-critique partner called my attention to Joanna’s neglect, and I hastily rewrote the scene.  Now Jennet, heroine of the Foxglove Corners mysteries, has six collies and I have to make sure that all are accounted for as I take Jennet through her current adventures.  Believe me, that isn’t so easy.

When I wrote my first published novel, Darkness At Foxglove Corners, Holly was a young dog.  She served as the model for Halley, Jennet Greenway’s tricolor collie.  Incidentally, if you’d like to see a picture of Holly (Wolf Manor Dark Holly), you’ll find one on my website: www.dorothybodoin.com  She’s sitting in her favorite rocking chair and this is my favorite picture.  Kinder has never even thought of jumping into that chair; she’s a larger, longer collie.

            As I write my books, I try to adhere to My Rule #2--A fictitious collie may find herself in peril and often does, but I am never going to kill her.  As a reader, I’ve shed too many tears over dogs killed off by their creators.

With this rule in mind, I hesitated over the opening situation of The Dog From the Sky.  Jennet, now Jennet Ferguson, married to Deputy Sheriff Crane Ferguson, comes across a blue merle collie left to die a horrible death.  Jennet rescues the dog, names her Sky, and from then on, Sky has a wonderful life as part of the Ferguson pack.

This story was inspired by a real-life incident shared with me by my “collie” friend, Judy Kuhn.  In real life, there was a different outcome.  My great desire to change the fate of the blue merle inspired me to write this book.

By the way, Jennet has rescued so many collies during her career as a teacher-sleuth that I decided to have her join the fictitious Lakeville Collie Rescue League.  Our own Tri-County Collie Rescue is an organization after my own heart.  I always make sure they have Foxglove Corners books to sell in the hope that the funds may help their foundlings in some little way.

Rule #3 isn’t really a rule.  I often joke that not only do I have to cook for myself, I have to give Jennet several menu ideas for every book.  I have my own list of Christmas gifts to buy for friends and family, and Jennet has to have one too.  I’ve chosen names for my own collies, and Jennet has done the same.

Ironically I used the name Kinder for Joanna’s collie in Ghost Across The Water, the one in danger of being forgotten during a thunderstorm by a clueless writer.  When the time came for me to name my new puppy, I named her after Joanna’s Kinder.  My little sable pup became Wolf Manor Kinder Brightstar.

My collie, Kinder, lets me write without interruption--usually.  She is just as likely to toss one of her toys at me, and because I can refuse her nothing,--well almost nothing,--I’ll take a break and play with her.  She comes into my office to remind me that it’s time to fix dinner--hers and mine.  She adds joy and color to my life and keeps me from being lonely.

Which is why I give my heroines collies in their lives. 

As a reader, I always gravitate toward books with dogs on the cover.  If they’re collies, all the better.  A paper dog adds joy and color to a writer’s story, too.  If you’re a new writer, if you truly love dogs, you might want to remember that.

Thank you, Dorothy. If I wasn’t so nuts about Labrador retrievers, I’d be looking at the companionship of a collie. Check out Dorothy’s latest book, A Ghost of Gunfire.

Website: www.dorothybodoin.com

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Dorothy-Bodoin-Author/241638382571227

Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss_2?url=search-alias%3Dstripbooks&field-keywords=Dorothy+Bodoin&rh=n%3A283155%2Ck%3ADorothy+Bodoin

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COMING IN FEBRUARY: How Now Purple Cow – A Bogey Man Mystery