I’m Featured in Southern Writers Magazine

Suzanne Adair feature in Southern Writers Magazine Nov-Dec 2015Many thanks to Southern Writers Magazine, where I’m featured for the November-December 2015 issue. The article provides information on the historical background of the Michael Stoddard series, details development of characters like Nick Spry, and goes into the importance of my reenacting experience. Interested? Purchase a copy. Follow Southern Writers Magazine on Facebook and Twitter to learn more about your favorite Southern authors.

Tweet: Check out #mystery author @Suzanne_Adair featured in Nov-Dec 2015 Southern Writers Magazine. http://bit.ly/1PgNS7y @SouthrnWritrMag

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Revolutionary Miami?

Paper Woman book coverRegulated for Murder book coverHow do you think my protagonists Sophie Barton and Michael Stoddard would respond if they were suddenly transported from the American Revolution to 21st-century Miami? Check out my tongue-in-cheek response in this fun interview of me on Raquel Reyes’s Miami blog.

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Regulated for Murder Summer Solstice Deep Discount

Regulated for Murder book coverFor ten years, an execution hid murder. Then Michael Stoddard came to town.

Bearing a dispatch from his commander in coastal Wilmington, North Carolina, redcoat Lieutenant Michael Stoddard arrives in Hillsborough in February 1781 in civilian garb. He expects to hand a letter to a courier working for Lord Cornwallis, then ride back to Wilmington the next day. Instead, Michael is greeted by the courier’s freshly murdered corpse, a chilling trail of clues leading back to an execution ten years earlier, and a sheriff with a fondness for framing innocents—and plans to deliver Michael up to his nemesis, a psychopathic British officer.

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The eBook version of Regulated for Murder, award-winning fourth novel in my historical crime fiction series, is on sale today and Saturday for 99 cents in Kindle, Nook, and Apple iBooks formats. Enjoy!

A big thanks to the folks at eReader News Today!

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How to Push a Loyalist’s Buttons

Lord CornwallisOn 19 February 1781, the advance guards of Lord Cornwallis’s army of nearly two thousand soldiers rode into the town of Hillsborough, North Carolina, built near the Eno River. Cornwallis’s occupation of the town continued into the next day. His men had covered a lot of ground on a wintry Carolina campaign and—after Cornwallis had tried to lighten his load by burning the baggage—given chase (in futility) to patriot general Nathanael Greene’s army all the way to the Dan River. British uniforms were showing wear. Soldiers were tired and hungry. So the stay in Hillsborough was to provide R&R for the men and refurbish the army.

Cornwallis arrived in good spirits. He was under the impression that the North Carolina backcountry, including Hillsborough, was crawling with loyalists who merely awaited his word before they stepped forward proudly to fight for the King. (Regulated for Murder describes the political climate in Hillsborough less than a week before the occupation.) Yes, there were plenty of loyalists in North Carolina. But five years earlier, on 27 February 1776, the cause of the King’s Friends had suffered a paralyzing blow. Scottish Highlanders, fighting on behalf of exiled royal Governor Josiah Martin, were roundly defeated by patriots at Moores Creek Bridge. Patriots then took control of North Carolina. Loyalists had to keep their heads down to survive.

On 20 February 1781, Cornwallis issued a proclamation from Hillsborough. It invited all the disgruntled loyalists to bring their weapons and meet at the royal standard his troops had erected in town, where they would receive instructions about how to subdue the patriots. He said nothing about sticking around to back up the loyalists’ efforts.

Cornwallis pushed just about every button he could on those who were loyal to the King. He asked them to out themselves to enemies, abandon their families to the wrath of patriots, and assume the entire burden of fighting an opponent who was, at the time, better organized. Loyalists recognized that Cornwallis’s proclamation was a bum deal. After they’d suffered at the hands of patriots for years, Cornwallis confirmed their fears that the Crown really didn’t understand the challenges faced by its loyal American subjects. The proclamation disillusioned and angered loyalists, distanced them from the Crown’s efforts.

Legends abound about incidents that occurred during the Hillsborough occupation. One popular legend describes patriot sharpshooters hiding near the Eno River and picking off redcoats who tried to fetch water. But it’s a fact and no legend that Cornwallis didn’t receive the warm welcome he’d expected from Hillsborough’s residents. The clueless general was miffed that there were so few takers on his grand offer. He and his army left Hillsborough on 26 February to chase Nathanael Greene’s ghost. They found him just a few weeks later, at Guilford Courthouse.

Major James Henry CraigNot all British officers misunderstood the loyalists’ plight and failed to provide them with the support they needed. On the coast, Major James Henry Craig and the 82nd Regiment had occupied the town of Wilmington, North Carolina at the end of January. Throughout most of 1781, the regiment remained in Wilmington. Craig earned the trust of loyalists where Cornwallis had failed. And loyalists flocked to Wilmington to bolster the redcoats’ power, thus turning North Carolina into a huge headache for the Continental Army that year.

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My Revolutionary Valentine

Heart image

While writing the first draft of Regulated for Murder, I realized that the climax of the book, where stakes were highest for my main character, Michael Stoddard, fell on 14 February 1781. My first thought was, “Valentine’s Day!” My next thought was, “Would Michael and his contemporaries have linked Valentine’s Day with romantic love during the American Revolution?” If so, I wanted to use Valentine’s Day to impart a chilling, kinky twist on the climax of Regulated for Murder.

Research showed me that commercialization of the holiday didn’t happen until the 19th century, when mass-produced Valentines became available. But it’s amazing how long ago people celebrated Valentine’s Day in association with romantic love. Would you believe as far back as the Middle Ages and Geoffrey Chaucer (The Canterbury Tales)?

It turns out that on Valentine’s Day in Revolutionary America, lovers would have expressed their amorous feelings to each other—possibly with the help of gifts like flowers, sweets, or homemade Valentines. Gifts. Hmm. How fortunate for me and my twisted imagination.

Happy Valentine’s Day! If you celebrate the holiday, how will you do it today, and what will the highlights be for you?

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The Fussy Librarian Spotlights Regulated for Murder

Regulated for Murder cover imageThe first book of Michael Stoddard’s series, Regulated for Murder, is spotlighted in today’s book recommendations over at The Fussy Librarian. Regulated for Murder, on Suspense Magazine‘s “Best of 2011” list, continues to receive outstanding reviews. The latest reader to post a five-star review for the book on Amazon wrote, “When a book makes me stay up late at night to get to the end and have it solved it has to be a good read.” Regulated for Murder is available for Kindle, Nook, iTunes, and Kobo and in trade paperback format.

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Buy the Paperback, Get the Kindle Edition Free in December

For the month of December, I’m participating in a special promotion with thirteen other authors of historical fiction. Buy the paperback version of our books on Amazon, and you’ll be offered the opportunity to download the Kindle edition for free. Amazon will also credit your prior purchase of these paperbacks.

What a great opportunity for you if you prefer paperback but also like to have a digital version—or if you’ve been thinking about giving a paperback as a gift and want an ebook for yourself. You’ll find all five of my books in this promotion. Here’s the full list of titles we’re offering.

Remember: this special promotion is only for December.

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Let’s Not Skip Thanksgiving, Please

Turkey

When Abraham Lincoln proclaimed Thanksgiving as an annual, national holiday, he had several centuries of thanksgiving legacy in America backing him up. American schoolchildren don’t usually learn that Lincoln was the one who made Thanksgiving official. Instead, they’re taught a story of Pilgrims and Indians in the early 1600s, a legend loaded with mythological elements.

Schoolchildren also don’t hear about Thanksgiving during the American Revolution, but it was there, too. In 1777, the Continental Congress issued the First National Proclamation of Thanksgiving and relied upon governors to determine how this proclamation would be observed within individual states. Independent celebrations of thanksgiving also sprang up throughout the North American colonies and were recorded by historians. For example, George Washington declared a thanksgiving in December 1777 for his victory at Saratoga.

What all these historical Thanksgiving celebrations had in common was a need to acknowledge gratitude for friends, family, and fortune, a striving for something greater than the self in the wish that all humans might have peace. For that reason, Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday. Unfortunately, within my lifetime, I’ve watched it become subsumed in the commercialization of Christmas. Grocery store displays jump from Halloween to Christmas with nary a turkey feather or Pilgrim hat to remind us of this holiday.

We need Thanksgiving. It provides us with time to slow down, to enjoy the company of those we love and express gratitude for life. Don’t be a Thanksgiving miser or someone who must be prodded by the big turkey dinner to give thanks. Don’t rush past it on the way to Christmas. Find a way to celebrate Thanksgiving in your heart from now through Thanksgiving 2014.

And if you need a reminder of how fortunate you are, watch this short video.

Happy Thanksgiving. May yours be safe and restful.

Regulated for Murder book cover

Pssst. Today and tomorrow, pick up Michael Stoddard’s first adventure, Regulated for Murder, in the electronic form for only 99 cents at Amazon.

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Reenacting and Gratitude

Many years ago, encumbered by the point of view of someone dwelling in the twentieth century, I joined a group that depicted a unit of the Thirty-Third Light Company of Foot during living history events in the American South. My desire was to immerse myself in the activities and sensory impressions an eighteenth-century woman living during the Southern theater of the American Revolution would have experienced, so I could more accurately depict the world of Sophie Barton, protagonist in my first book, Paper Woman: A Mystery of the American Revolution.

33rd Light Company of Foot reenactors

Reenacting is an enlightening research tool. It helps me create the world of the Southern theater in my fiction. Reenacting is the ultimate hands-on history. By immersing myself in the military world of the late eighteenth century for entire weekends at a time, I cannot escape brushes with some of the hardships that plagued our ancestors. Sudden downpours and windstorms with no shelter. Sudden freezing rain, even with shelter. Heat indices of 120 degrees. Mosquito swarms without screens. No plumbing. No refrigeration. No electricity. No phone service. You get the idea.

Cooking at a Revolutionary War reenactment

My first reenacting event, I didn’t know to expect primitive conditions. After more events, I settled in with the understanding that at the end of the weekend, I’d be reunited with the technological comforts of my time. That’s when I comprehended how tough, persevering, and remarkable my ancestors must have been—and how fortunate I was to live in a country where I had access to wonders such as running water, electricity, refrigeration, and plumbing.

In the United States, we take our twenty-first century standard of living for granted. We forget that comforts such as running water are truly wonders, luxuries to many people in the world, people who start each day by walking several miles, burdened by buckets or jugs, to the nearest source of water (likely not clean). Survival is foremost in the minds of these people when they awaken each day, just as it was for people—patriot, loyalist, and neutral—during the American Revolution.

Thanksgiving turkey

Happy Thanksgiving to my American readers and friends. When you gather with family and friends to celebrate this holiday, consider the hardships endured by courageous people who lived more than two centuries ago during the time of the American Revolution. Today, people throughout the world endure those same hardships. Remember those people in your thoughts and hearts for a moment. And don’t take for granted your luxuries or your liberty.

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The Making of a Fictional Villain, Part 2

I took a six-week hiatus from my blog this summer to finish the first draft of another Michael Stoddard book, called A Hostage to Heritage. While that “cools,” I’ve been editing the second draft of book one of a science fiction series that was almost purchased by Warner in the mid-1990s. As fall is right around the corner, it’s time to resume my bloggery. So without further ado…

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Last year, I posted the first part of an essay about the origins of Dunstan Fairfax, my series villain. His character developed in my imagination over a lifetime. He continues to evolve as my series progresses. It’s been awhile since that post, and you may want to reread it before proceeding. This post continues the topic.

Villains in fiction arise from an author’s personal experiences. Those experiences start in childhood with fictional examples. I discussed mine in Part 1. Inevitably, the real world provides its own examples—not just in childhood, but in adolescence and adulthood. Those experiences, too, are cataloged in the psyche, but with a much more three-dimensional flavor.

So while in adolescence and early adulthood, I became acquainted with classic fictional baddies like Lady MacBeth, Mordred, Sauron, the Cthulhu, Professor Moriarty, and Lestat, at the same time, real-life boogers were making themselves known to me—neighbor, relative, school administrator, nurse, doctor, teacher, clergyman, lawyer, police officer, middle manager. A number of them were sociopaths who didn’t give a damn about me or other people. They just wanted control, and they’d placed themselves in positions where they could get control.

Authors transform life’s black moments, transport them onto the page. Horror in an author’s life is an excellent place to look for the nucleus of sociopathic characters. And life after the shelter of high school had a good bit to teach me about horror and sociopaths.

My brush with Bundy
Ted Bundy

January 1978, right after I’d transferred to a college campus in north Florida to complete a Bachelors degree, the nation was flooded with news of horrific murders committed at Florida State University, in Tallahassee, not far from me. Ted Bundy had sadistically murdered young women my age. While he remained at large, and for weeks after he’d been caught, the atmosphere at college campuses all over the region was oppressive, near lock-down, especially after Bundy’s multi-decade “career” came to light. At my school, campus security beefed up. Students didn’t walk anywhere alone. Two female acquaintances quit college and moved back home with their parents.

Bundy was one of the twentieth century’s most infamous serial killers, a sociopathic Goliath. The effect he had on the people and institutions around me left an indisputable imprint on my imagination. Even though the word “sociopath” still hadn’t made it to watercooler discussions in January 1978, I learned that not all sociopaths are created equal. Those I’d met paled in comparison to Bundy. He demonstrated that there were monsters who could terrorize entire populations.

A year and a half later, I completed my first novel-length manuscript, book one of a science fiction series. The series villains, called Erovians, are an entire race of sociopaths: a “Goliath” that doesn’t give a damn about other sentient life. “David” in this series is humans and other sentient species who received Erovian genetic tampering. In the mid-1990s, the first book of that series was the book that came within a hair’s breadth of being purchased by Warner. You may see that book for sale soon.

Murder on the first floor
By the mid-1980s, the easygoing tropical paradise of my childhood had vanished. Sure, Jimmy Buffet the balladeer was blending margaritas in Key West, and Don Johnson was making crime in steamy Miami look cool, but they were fiddling while Rome burned. South Florida had mutated into an ugly fusion of traffic, concrete, and volatile ethnic groups. Crime escalated, even in the stable neighborhood where I lived near the Intercoastal Waterway, in a second-floor condo.

In the spring of 1986, a neighbor’s purse was snatched while she was on the condo property. In the summer, another neighbor was nearly beaten to death by her alcoholic husband. (I was one of three neighbors who called 911 that night.) And that fall, the neighbor in the condo below mine was
tortured to death by some of his acquaintances. His murderers were garden-variety thugs who were caught the next day. Nevertheless, another horror imprint was left on my imagination. I’ve never forgotten the sight of yellow crime scene tape strung all over the place I called home. Or the smell of rotting garbage and blood-soaked carpet while crime scene investigators took their time processing the place. Or the quantity and size of cockroaches that invaded my home because they were displaced by the cleanup.

Challenger explosion

I’d been brought up on the space program and had watched the launch of Apollo missions from the roof of my house. The space program was Florida. Then the shuttle “Challenger” blew up in January 1987. In the aftermath of the horror, we learned that decision-makers at NASA were aware of the potential mechanical failure and approved cheaper parts that might not hold up. Save a few bucks, kill seven astronauts. Were these decision-makers sociopaths? Prioritizing the bottom line above humanity is characteristic of the thinking of many sociopathic managers in Corporate America. You decide. For me, the Challenger disaster spelled closing time. I moved to Atlanta, Georgia later that year to earn a Masters degree.

The cannibal and the watercooler
Hannibal Lector

In 1988, Thomas Harris’s second book about a cannibalistic psychiatrist hit the shelves. Rather sleepily it climbed the charts, but what sent The Silence of the Lambs into orbit and turned Dr. Hannibal Lector into a cultural icon was the movie, released in 1991, and Anthony Hopkins’s portrayal of Hannibal. After that, the word “sociopath” became part of watercooler conversation at the workplace.

The national media glommed onto sociopathic killers with glee. It turned the 1989 execution of Ted Bundy in Florida into a three-ring circus. The number of people who tuned in to watch astounded me. Atlanta itself didn’t lack for sociopathic killers to fill the local news. One was Emmanuel Hammond, who kidnapped, assaulted, and murdered a woman named Julie Love in 1988. Another was lawyer Fred Tokars, who scheduled a hit on his wife Sara in 1992 while his young sons watched, because Sara had found out about his criminal activities.

But even after all that, I wasn’t quite ready to create Fairfax’s character. A few more pieces needed to fall into place first. I cover the final pieces that triggered the spawning of his character in the third and last installment of this essay.

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