By the time you read this, I should be en route to Irvine, KY or on the scene of an intriguing book signing experience. It’s a mystery how I came to be invited, located as I am some 250 miles away in Nashville, TN. I suspect someone involved must have stopped by my table at the Kentucky Book Fair last November.
The woman who sent my invitation, wife of the school superintendent, wrote “mysteries are my favorite.” She said we’d love the location. It’s on the edge of the Appalachian Mountains, next to the Daniel Boone National Forest, where “the mountains kiss the bluegrass.”
The Friday night event is billed as the Estill County Reading Celebration. It takes place at the Estill Springs Elementary School and features an ambitious program, including a tent behind the school where an Appalachian storyteller will hold forth and a past Kentucky Poet Laureate will perform poetry skits with students.
Various rooms in the school will be decorated with ideas from children’s books. Students will choose which rooms to visit during 20-minute periods.
Several authors have been invited to sign their books in “Author’s Row” from 4:30 to 8:00 p.m. Among them are children’s authors, a weaver, a few poets, a novelist who writes about Kentucky’s Shaker communities of the past, and one mystery writer, me.
Irvine is a small town in a small county, but the organizers assure me the event has been extensively publicized and should draw a good crowd. The local newspapers have highlighted each author with a bio and book description. Large posters of our book covers have been made to display at the tables. The opening ceremony will feature Mrs. Jane Beshear, the First Lady of Kentucky.
Since the town has only one small motel, my wife and I have been invited to stay at the home of Tom and Francine Bonny. He’s the retired superintendent of schools.
I have no idea how this will turn out, but being the good Scout I am, I’ll be prepared. My trunk is loaded with all five of my mystery books. Regardless of the outcome, I’m sure we’ll meet lots of nice people with interesting stories to tell. I may even have a few to pass along myself.
Chester Campbell
www.chesterdcampbell.com
Mystery Mania blog
Showing posts with label storyteller. Show all posts
Showing posts with label storyteller. Show all posts
Friday, May 22, 2009
Friday, January 23, 2009
On being a storyteller
A message writer I’m not. Some mystery novelists prefer to call attention to social problems by highlighting them in their books. That’s fine if it isn’t done in a preachy way. As for me, I’m quite content if I can tell a good story that will entertain my readers.
However, I have found that some readers will read things into your books that you never intended. When I met with a book club that had read The Marathon Murders, one woman was certain I had mentioned a lot of different cars because the plot revolved around the old Marathon Motor Works in Nashville. That was the farthest thing from my mind. I did it so my editor wouldn’t chastise me for having too many Fords or too many Chevrolets.
My new book due out in April, The Surest Poison, deals with a chemical dump that plays havoc with the health of people in a small rural community west of Nashville. I’m sure a lot of readers will presume that I wrote it to highlight the problem of water pollution from toxic waste.
If the book makes people more aware of the dangers that result from the careless handling of industrial chemicals, that’s fine. But unless they’ve been living under a rock for the past twenty or thirty years, I can’t imagine that any modestly knowledgeable adult would be unaware of the problem.
I chose the subject because it provided an opening for the creation of layers of tension that could be developed into an exciting story. And that’s what I do, tell stories.
This one came about when I was talking to a PI friend who has made quite a name for herself in the area of locating missing persons. She told me about a case she had worked a few years ago down around Jackson, Tennessee. It involved a company that faced disaster from trichloroethyelene dumped on its property by a previous owner that had gone out of business. She was hired to find the people responsible.
I took her case and moved it closer to home, adding a bunch of bad guys who had a history with my protagonist, new Nashville PI Sidney Lanier Chance. The idea struck a nerve because the first review I received, from author Tim Hallinan of the Poke Rafferty Bangkok mysteries, started out:
“The Surest Poison is a terrifically timely mystery about one of the most pressing problems of our era.”
Maybe it’s the old law of unintended consequences. If it’s considered a good environmental mystery, I’ll take credit for being socially concerned. But, really, all I wanted to do was be a good storyteller.
www.chesterdcampbell.com
However, I have found that some readers will read things into your books that you never intended. When I met with a book club that had read The Marathon Murders, one woman was certain I had mentioned a lot of different cars because the plot revolved around the old Marathon Motor Works in Nashville. That was the farthest thing from my mind. I did it so my editor wouldn’t chastise me for having too many Fords or too many Chevrolets.
My new book due out in April, The Surest Poison, deals with a chemical dump that plays havoc with the health of people in a small rural community west of Nashville. I’m sure a lot of readers will presume that I wrote it to highlight the problem of water pollution from toxic waste.
If the book makes people more aware of the dangers that result from the careless handling of industrial chemicals, that’s fine. But unless they’ve been living under a rock for the past twenty or thirty years, I can’t imagine that any modestly knowledgeable adult would be unaware of the problem.
I chose the subject because it provided an opening for the creation of layers of tension that could be developed into an exciting story. And that’s what I do, tell stories.
This one came about when I was talking to a PI friend who has made quite a name for herself in the area of locating missing persons. She told me about a case she had worked a few years ago down around Jackson, Tennessee. It involved a company that faced disaster from trichloroethyelene dumped on its property by a previous owner that had gone out of business. She was hired to find the people responsible.
I took her case and moved it closer to home, adding a bunch of bad guys who had a history with my protagonist, new Nashville PI Sidney Lanier Chance. The idea struck a nerve because the first review I received, from author Tim Hallinan of the Poke Rafferty Bangkok mysteries, started out:
“The Surest Poison is a terrifically timely mystery about one of the most pressing problems of our era.”
Maybe it’s the old law of unintended consequences. If it’s considered a good environmental mystery, I’ll take credit for being socially concerned. But, really, all I wanted to do was be a good storyteller.
www.chesterdcampbell.com
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