Rhys Bowen's Release Party, Bless the Bride

On March 1, Barbara Peters and the Poisoned Pen Bookstore hosted a champagne release party for award-winning author Rhys Bowen and her tenth Molly Murphy mystery, Bless the Bride. Everyone who attended was offered champagne or Guinness beer, Irish soda bread made by Barbara's husband, Rob Rosenwald, or fortune cookies. Fortune cookies? Continue reading.

While Peters said we were celebrating March 1 with the release of a Molly Murphy book, Rhys Bowen said it was also St. David's Day in Wales. While the conversation then took an unusual turn, covering everything from museum cards to Art Deco to New Zealand, we did end up back with Bless the Bride.

In Bless the Bride, Molly is approaching her own marriage. Rhys said over the years she's received tons of email from people saying, don't let her marry that nasty Daniel Sullivan.

Rhys said she wanted to examine brides in different cultures.  With all the immigrants in New York, Molly knows she's lucky to be able to make a choice as to who she is going to marry.  In the Jewish and Italian families there, women have no say as to who they will marry.

Although Bowen is half-way through the eleventh book, prior to the wedding Daniel  asked Molly to promise that she would give up the detecting business. At that time, if a woman worked, it would shame the man, appearing as if he couldn't support his wife. And, since Daniel is a police detective, it might jeopardize his career.  People would wonder if Molly was helping him with cases, or even interfering with them.

Molly is trying to sew her trousseau, and not doing very well with it. She has a request to work on a case, and she thought she'd take one last case because it would give her the money to buy the rest of her trousseau. 

A rich man's secretary approaches Molly asking her to find an object that was precious to him.  The rich man was a Chinese merchant, and it was a piece of jade that was precious. However, as Molly investigates, it turns out that piece of jade is worn by a woman, and she's the one that the merchant actually wants back. He bought her and had her shipped from China as a concubine.

Molly's cases are never easy morally. If she returns the woman to the man, she's returning her to virtual slavery. But, there's no place for the woman outside Chinatown. However, she has been hired by the client, and she owes her loyalty to him.  In the end, Molly decides not to touch the case, but by then events had been set in motion that couldn't be stopped.

Rhys told us she did extensive research on Chinatown. She loves doing research, and each book has called for different research. She has lived near the largest Chinese community in the country in San Francisco for forty years. The history of the Chinese in America is appalling. They had no rights. People wanted to send them home, but Congress had no money to do that. People could be very cruel to them. Many fled to the east, to Boston and New York. But, they didn't dare venture outside Chinatown. Because they looked different with their pigtail, they would be set upon. Why wouldn't they just cut the pigtail? Most of them hoped to return to China someday, but, if they cut their pigtail, they couldn't go back. In China, if a man didn't have a pigtail, it meant instant beheading.

A Chinese child could never become a citizen even if they were born in the U.S. The Chinese had no rights. The 1930 census of New York's Chinatown showed 3,000 men and 30 women. Men were doomed to be single. Some married Irish girls. They thought it was better to marry a China man who didn't drink than an Irish drunken lout. But, the couple who be shamed by both groups.

Chinese fathers valued education, so they sent their children to Catholic schools. Sometimes the children would be grabbed by missionaries who were trying to save them.

Some of the misconceptions about the Chinese were that they smoked opium, ate puppies, and stole little white girls.  However, they were terrible gamblers, which is why many of them didn't get ahead.

Rhys told us there were opium dens in Chinatown.  But, more non-Chinese men than you would think smoked opium. In 1903, there was tourism into Chinatown. Slumming tours were popular. A man named Chuck Conners led the tours, promising depravity and horror. He took people to fake opium dens, and women would swoon. Then they'd have a good meal in Chinatown to end the day.

Barbara Peters mentioned that Sherlock Holmes went into an opium den in one of the stories. And, S.J. Rozan writes about Chinatown today.

Bowen said Chinatown edges up to the Italian community. It's the next street up from Chinatown. In New York City, Chinatown is just three little streets. There's a huge community in San Francisco, but that Chinatown is also bordered on one side by the Italian community.

Rhys told us Molly is sewing her trousseau beside her future mother-in-law. Her mother-in-law has come around a little bit. Daniel's parents came over with very little, but they worked hard and were able to send Daniel to Columbia. They now mix with people of a higher echelon. They had hoped that Daniel would marry up. They're disappointed in Molly. She's one level down from Daniel. She came over from Ireland, and was really a peasant. Then Molly worked, and Daniel's mother was disappointed.

The eleventh book is in the works. The driving arc for so long has been Molly and Daniel. But, you can only carry that sexual tension on for so long. Now the conflict involves whether Molly will work on not. Rhys teased us, saying maybe Molly will end up helping Daniel on cases, going places he can't go, for instance, a convent.

Book eleven involves the cottages in Newport, Rhode Island, when Daniel and Molly are on their honeymoon. It involves the higher echelons of society. Bowen said it was time to bring Molly and Daniel out of New York City. This one deals with an Irish family made good, but they still will be shunned by the Astors and the Rockefellers.

When Rhys said Bless the Bride is set in September 1903, Barbara Peters said it's set before World War I changes the world, and nothing is the same. Peters worries about authors using that time period in their books. Rhys said her Lady Georgie mysteries are set prior to World War II, in the 1930s. The British think that silly little Hitler can't last. But, Bowen knows the war will happen, and so do her readers.

For a little while, the conversation went off course, covering The King's Speech, Gallipoli, the economy in Europe, and ending up with Irish subversives, and money funneled back to Ireland. But, we did end up back with Molly and Georgie.

September will bring a new Georgie book. She goes to the Riviera for the winter because that's where the upper-class British spent the winter. She goes with her brother, but she has a little assignment from the Queen. Georgie stays with her mother and Coco Chanel. Rhys said she's always asked where she gets her ideas. She knew she was sending Georgie to the Riviera, so she did research to find out who was there that winter. Coco Chanel was in her villa there. The Duke of Westminster was her lover. Coco Chanel held a fashion show that winter, and Queen Mary lent her niece jewelry to war at the show.

Rhys told us she met Queen Mary, and most of the royal family. Queen Mary was a small woman, with a rigid back. It was obvious no one messed with her. Rhys' father ran a paper factory, and she met all of the royal family at manufacturing shows when they would show up and go through the show.

Asked about the Constable Evans books, Rhys said they're on hiatus. She can't write three books a year. In addition, the publisher took quite a few of them out of print. There is on-again, off-again discussion of a possible TV series, but Bowen said she'll believe it when she sees it on TV. There is a possibility that St. Martin's will bring out an omnibus edition on e-books.

A lengthy discussion of e-books, and the process of publishing a book ended with comments about artwork. But, before signing books, Rhys Bowen said the next Georgie book will be Naughty in Nice. She wanted to called it Naughty But Nice, but the publisher's marketing team said that title wouldn't work. People wouldn't know how to pronounce it correctly, and would be embarrassed, so they wouldn't ask for the book.

Poisoned Pen Bookstore knows how to do a successful book launch, with champagne, snacks, and an author on hand to discuss the new book.  In this case, Rhys Bowen's Bless the Bride was released on March 1 to an appreciative audience.

Rhys Bowen's website is www.rhysbowen.com

Bless the Bride by Rhys Bowen. St. Martin's Press, ©2011. ISBN 9780312628109 (hardcover), 272p.

Cozy Authors at the Poisoned Pen

On Sunday, the Poisoned Pen had a wonderful turnout for a program featuring cozy authors.  Rhys Bowen, who acted as host, said now she knows the secret to marketing.  Promise cupcakes.  Bowen, the author of three series, Her Royal Spyness, Molly Murphy, and Evan Evans, was a terrific host.

Left to right - Hannah Dennison, Jenn McKinlay, Kate Carlisle, and Rhys Bowen



Rhys introduced the authors by saying they all are attractive women who kill people for a living.  And, their books make you chuckle and feel good.  She asked each author to introduce their characters.  Kate Carlisle's Brooklyn Wainwright is a bookbinder who does rare book restoration.  Every time she works on a book, someone dies.

Jenn McKinlay's current book features two friends, Mel and Angie, who own a cupcake bakery in Scottsdale's Old Town.  And, Jenn brought the cupcakes for the program.  They came from the cupcake bakery, Butter & Me.  And, Jenn was so pleased because they made the cupcakes look like the cover of her latest book, Buttercream Bump Off.                 

Hannah Dennison is the author of the Vicky Hill mysteries, set in England in Gipping-on-Plym.  And, bodies start off dead in Dennison's books because Vicky is an obituary writer.  Vicky is loosely based on Dennison's life in another century, when she worked as an obituary writer, and stood in church doorways taking down the names of the mourners.  Vicky's parents are criminals, wanted by Interpol, so she's not comfortable falling for policemen. 

Since Dennison's character was loosely based on her, Rhys Bowen asked Jenn and Kate if they were in their books.  Jenn said she and her sons made all the recipes in the back of her books, but a bakery life isn't for her since bakers have to be at work at 4 or 5 in the morning. 

Kate said she took lots of bookbinding classes, and she aspires to other aspects of Brooklyn's life.  She took everything she loves and put it in the books.  Brooklyn lives in San Francisco, and Carlisle loves that city.  Her character was raised in a commune in Sonoma where the members grew grapes, and eventually became wealthy due to their winery.  And, of course, Kate has to do hours of research.  So, her books include wine, San Francisco and books.

Rhys said she loves the research.  The last book in Her Royal Spyness series is set in Nice, so she had to go there and spend two weeks checking out the city and the bistros.  So, Kate's an author after her own heart.

Bowen asked the authors to tell the audience about their latest book.  McKinlay's Buttercream Bump Off is the second book in the series.  She laughed and said one reader complained they knew who the murderer was too soon, and Jenn said she couldn't remember who it was.  She wrote the book a year ago.  It's the second adventure for Mel and Angie.  Mel's mother, Joyce went on a date, and her date dies.  It was her first date in thirty years.  She blamed her dress, but the police suspect Joyce.  So, Mel and Angie have to find out who really killed him.

Hannah Dennison said her books feature unusual British pastimes.  The fourth one is Thieves!  Morris dancing, based on folklore, is important to the plot.  In the book, there is a Morris dancing danceathon, an annual event at the Grange.  Gypsies camp there, and someone dies.  As an aspiring investigative reporter, Vicky Hill works on the case.  (Dennison said she wanted to be an investigative reporter when she was writing obituaries.            

The Lies That Bind is the third book in Kate Carlisle's series.  Brooklyn

Wainwright is back in San Francisco teaching a class in bookbinding.  But, the artistic director of the center is horrible, so she has to die.  There's a book within the book.  Oliver Twist sets the story going.  The center has a Twisted Festival to raise money, and there is a band of thieves as in Oliver Twist.

Rhys Bowen said, oh yes, it's very therapeutic to kill off people you don't like.  Then, she said Kate had a background in TV.  She wrote for The Gong Show.  Bowen asked if Carlisle had thought about writing screenplays.  Kate said she did try to be a screenwriter, but it's much harder.  She needed more stuff to go on than could in a screenplay.  She went to law school, for one year.  Then she started writing and killing off truly evil professors.

Bowen said Jenn McKinlay writes a few series, which is why she has a hard time remembering her killers.  Jenn said she has loads of personalities.  As Lucy Lawrence, she wrote the decoupage series.  The last book in that series will be out in March.  It wraps up the series.  Jenn said that's OK because it was a perfect three book series.  It looks like the cupcake series, written as Jenn McKinlay will be going for a while, at least until people get tired of cupcakes.  And, she's launching the Library Lover's Mystery series, set in Connecticut, where she grew up and got her degree.  As Josie Bill, a third identity, she'll write a thrift series.  Jenn said she's Scottish and cheap, so she loves thrift.  She said there will be thrift tips in the books.

Bowen, like Dennison, was from England, so she asked Hannah if she could only write about England after she left.  Hannah said she couldn't wait to leave England for California.  Then the only stories she could tell were about the place she left.  Devon, where she sets her books, is fifty years behind the world, in a simpler time.  The books have weird backdrops, some her editor discovered.  They've featured snail races and hedgejumping.  Hedgejumping is not done on horseback.  It's a serious hobby.  Hannah learned a lot eavesdropping on a conversation in a bump when a woman told her husband he had to stop stopping the car to jump hedges.  Rhys agreed that there were unusual hobbies there, mentioning the man who was the last mud sled fisherman in England, taking a sled out on mud to catch shrimp.

The authors were all asked how they managed an outside work life and writing.  Carlisle said she quit working in July.  She had worked for lawyers.  She wrote for three hours before going to work at 8:30, and on weekends.  She was determined to keep writing, despite hundreds of rejections.  She said you learn by writing.

Jenn has a part-time job at the Central Library in Phoenix.  She's afraid to leave and lose her material.  When Buttercream Bump Off made the extended New York Times Bestseller list, everyone at the library asked if she was going to leave.  She didn't know where she'd get her material if she left.

Hannah is working for an advertising agency, for the chairman.  She said it's crazy there.  She writes beofre work, and gets up at 4:30.  She wants to transition into writing full-time, but the stories in advertising are so good.

Rhys said the all write cozies, a term she finds insulting.  How did they feel about that term?  Kate answered that she also writes romance, so cozies are a step up for legitimate writing.  She wrote murders for years, and didn't know what a hook is.  Now, she knows what a hook is, and that she's in the right place.  She's happy where she is.

Jenn also came from romance.  She wrote a few Harlequins.  She tells the story that her husband doesn't sleep at night, knowing she's better at writing murders than romance.  She said Agatha Christie is a cozy writer, so I'm fine with it.  She's not a thriller writer.  And, she said, it depends who says "cozy."  If it's one of the boys, it's usually denigrating.  But, a reviewer who says it's a wonderful cozy and the characters kick, means cozy is fine.

Hannah said she's warped.  She really likes murdering people, and she wants to make it funny.  She wants to write an escape from reality, so people can enjoy it with chocolates and cats.

Rhys Bowen said cozy writers see society as a complete whole, and, if murder happens, it disrupts the whole.  The sleuth puts the world back again.  Noir writers see the whole world as warped, and they only put a piece of the world back in place.

They were asked how they manage to maintain their relationships with writing and working.  Jenn had the best answer.  "My husband's a musician, so I look good."  Kate said her husband is supportive, and even does all the shopping.  Hannah said her husband feels as if she's physically not there since she's at work, or mentally not there since she's writing.  He drifts around her orbit.  Actually, he's a copywriter and writes screenplays, so they're permanently tormented together.

Then they were asked how they write such realistic, three dimensional characters.  Jenn said hers are composites.  They are her and every best friend she's had.  She's been lucky to always have a buddy.  Buddies are good because everyone has insecurities and flaws.  It's the buddy that makes everything OK.
Hannah said Vicky is her, young and insecure.  She was a freak at school.  But, she loves watching people.  She takes a character and takes them to the extreme.  Her unusual, quirky characters are based on people who really exist.  Kate said, "Brooklyn is a little younger, taller, small, deeper, and more heroic me."  Kate was a loner whose family moved a lot.  She lived in her own head.  So Brooklyn has friends, and a strong sense of justice.  Carlisle said her books are so character driven that the plot falls by the wayside.  She's all about the character.  When someone asked about Brooklyn's archenemy, Minka, Kate said she's bubonic plague for books.  Carlisle knew someone like that when she was working in TV.

When they were asked who their favorite authors were, Hannah said, "Rhys Bowen, Kate Carlisle, Jenn McKinlay."  Then she said, and of course, Agatha Christie.  Jenn agreed with Agatha Christie, but added that she has eclectic taste since she works in a library.  She doesn't read many mysteries.  Since she's working with young adults, she reads YA books.  She said there's really good stuff there.  Teen is an incredible market, with people open to everything.  They're looking for unique voices and unique stories.  The books are more cutting edge in the YA market.  They're not looking for a hook as much as a unique story.

Kate said she reads, Rhys, Hannah, Nancy Martin's Blackbird Sisters mysteries.  She reads Juliet Blackwell.  She loves her witch books, and the Art Lovers books.  She loves the two men fighting over the character in the Art Lovers mysteries.  Speaking of two men, she reads Janet Evanovich.  Then there are Sue Grafton and Sara Paretsky, the godmothers of the genre.  Carlisle reads mysteries and romance.

So, Rhys said, OK, speaking of romance; how much sex is in your books?  Jenn's books don't have much sex.  She doesn't like scary or noir.  She likes cozies because they just hint at sex.  Dennison's Vicky will not have sex, and it's unlikely she ever will.  The editor doesn't want her to.  Like Hannah herself, Vicky is a late starter.  Vicky is obsessed with getting a front page scoop, as Dennison was.  If Vicky does have sex, it will just be to get it out of the way, as Hannah's mother advised her to do. 

Kate's Brooklyn met a man, is happy now, and the relationship has progressed.  Mystery readers aren't always interested in seeing everything on the page.  So, Carlisle either closes the door or the couple is interrupted.  But, the fourth book in the series features an antique copy of the Kama Sutra.  Rhys called out, "More research!"

Hannah had mentioned that the Vicky Hill mysteries were probably not going to continue here, but she has sold more books in that series in the U.K.  Asked about more odd hobbies, she said one will feature tar barrel racing.  On Nov. 5, they hold races.  The barrels are filled with tar, and then there are separate races for men, women and children.  They run holding the barrel aloft with one glove, like a cooking mitt.  Rhys and Hannah agreed that when you move away from home, you get nostalgic for the time, not the place, but you never feel at home again.

When Rhys asked what was coming next, Kate Carlisle said the Kama Sutra mystery is called Murder Under Cover.  There's danger between the sheets.  Jenn's next cupcake mystery is Death by the Dozen, scheduled for October.  She was inspired by the Scottsdale Food Festival.  There's a challenge for the chefs, and Mel and Angie enter the desserts competition.  Mel's mentor from the Scottsdale Culinary Institute is murdered, so naturally, they become involved.  Hannah said if she has to tie the series up, she'll make sure Vicky has sex.  Maybe she'll run a quiz, and have people write in and suggest the lucky man.

Rhys Bowen's next book is due out March 1, Bless the Bride.  It's a Molly Murphy mystery.  Molly has promised Daniel she won't investigate cases after the wedding.  But, just before the wedding, she becomes involved in one in New York's Chinatown.  The next book in Her Royal Spyness series is set in Nice.  It will be called Naughty in Nice.  And, it features Coco Chanel, the Duke of Westminster, and jewels that were lent to Queen Mary. 

Once again, the Poisoned Pen presented a fun author program, complete with cupcakes.

Hannah Dennison's website is http://www.hannahdennison.com/

Jenn McKinlay's website is http://www.jennmckinlay.com/

Kate Carlisle's website is http://www.katecarlisle.com/

Rhys Bowen's website is http://www.rhysbowen.com/