Do You Too Struggle With Reality?

 

Abby Spenser, a sassy 49-year-old detective, who has recently become redundant, as the British say, begrudgingly leaves her job in the small town of Sweet Magnolia, Georgia due to her increasing issues with arthritis. But she can’t keep her nose out of the detective business too long, much to her ex-partner’s dismay. They may have taken Abby’s badge away but in her heart, she’s still a detective, and always will be. As she struggles with her new reality, she decides there is one more case to solve, one that has haunted her every day for more than a year. She is sure she knows who the killer is, but she wasn’t able to prove it. As she leaves the department on her last day she vows that she will solve it with or without the badge

Vickie Carroll is the author of 20 books ranging from “sweet” romance to cozy mysteries. Her love of history sent her looking back at WW2 and wondering how romance could possibly blossom in such circumstances. That led to a current work in progress, “Until We Meet Again” set in England. She has also gone back to her first love—the traditional cozy mystery,” It’s Only Murder.”

Vickie enjoys giving her main character a personal problem to solve, along with a mystery. “I want to take the reader on an escape. I give them something interesting to ponder as they go along with my sleuth (usually an amateur one). They get to be a part of the story while visiting a small town and meeting interesting characters.” They get to live in a world where they know that everything will work out as it should in the end, and they meet interesting, and often quirky characters along the way.

“I will continue to write about what interests me as I look forward to fall and maybe giving in and getting a dog. So far, I’ve just put them in my books.

https://Amazon.com/author/vickiecarroll

To All Soldiers and Those Who Serve From Home~ “Letters from Georgia”

Vickie Carroll

This is a tribute not only to the brave soldiers who fought in World War II, but for those left at home, especially the women. The women who carried this country on their sholders for years.

When I started writing, “Letters from Georgia” I thought I knew most everything about WW2, but I was wrong. I knew very little about the people who lived it. Though some in my family lived it—some were soldiers who lived through it, and there were some who waited on their loved ones to come home. Most never wanted to talk much about it when I was growing up. All I really knew or thought I knew about the real people in that generation, I picked up from movies.

As I dug down deep into that time, researching what they wore, ate, drove, sang, thought, and where they worked, and how the family was structured, I was hooked. Every day when I sat in front of my computer, I could hardly wait to go back to 1942, the year when things changed for my heroine and her family. I learned about ration books, victory gardens, and saving everything. I learned that women took over the jobs previously held by men and kept this country going, and their families fed. I learned that the men who went to fight were far braver than I could have ever been. Young men, some still in their teen years, leaving everything they knew and loved to go to someplace they could hardly imagine, to fight an enemy they had barely heard about before the war. They were off to fight other young men who looked just like them.

Those left at home had their stories too. Some romances ended forever, some held on to the hope their boyfriend or husband would return. Mothers prayed constantly they would see their husband’s or son’s face again. Very few seemed to think the fighting would go on as long as it did. I read about sugar rationing, and gas rationing, but then more—it was cheese, bacon, leather goods, and on and on. It was all about use it up and wear it out.

As I went even deeper, writing about Dan and Claire, I tried to get into the feelings, the thoughts, the private lives of my characters, and I became Claire, the young woman letter writer from Georgia, and Dan, the soldier writing to her from the other side of the ocean, and I lived both sides. I was the young soldier who became disillusioned by what he saw when he arrived in England, and I was the young woman who wrote him hoping to cheer him up with news from home, and all the while wondering how the war was going to end her dreams. It was during that process that I felt for a few fleeting minutes that I understood what it must have been like. Or as close as one who did not really live it can understand.

We see Claire, who is left at home, and Dan, a new college graduate who joins the army, wrestle with fear, love, insecurity, doubt, and never knowing what their tomorrow might bring. And we see what it was that made America strong, what it was that got them through, and why so many young men, and some women as well, were willing to risk their lives. It was the ultimate sacrifice for love. Love of family, love of country, and the ideals that were considered sacrosanct.

Even in the time of war, life goes on; even when they can feel that tension under the surface of everything they do, it must. But there is light, and there is joy, and there are dreams still simmering below the surface too, and there are new people who come into their lives. Dan and Claire can’t help but change, and both go through that time on very different tracks, and with different priorities. Finally, the question remains, can what “was” hold things together or have they outgrown who they were? Are their dreams still the same or have things changed too much?

Two things I like to put into all my stories, grandmothers, and dogs. I don’t know why, but now they are my good luck charms and I always put them in. This book was no exception. In this case, Claire’s grandmother plays a huge role in helping Claire find her way. Her grandmother owns a bakery, and she brings Claire in to help her, she says, but it is really to keep her granddaughter occupied. She subtly offers advice as she helps Claire to see beyond the moment, beyond her current situation, and to imagine a day when things will be different, better. She gives Claire space to think and gives her hope.

As much as I admire the men who fought that war, it is the women and children who stand out for me in the story. The wife staying home to work and raise the kids, the kids trying to go on with their lives, and of course, the grandparents, some who knew all about world wars already. I came to see them as heroes too. It was the women who kept this country afloat during the war years. They did the work of men, did the work of women, as mothers, and kept things going. But the war changed them in other ways too. Women learned that they were smart too, and they could learn to do many things. They learned they could do the same jobs that some men had done, and all while raising a family, taking care of the house, making their own clothes, and growing their own food. This was a lesson that some never forgot. When the men went back to the factories, stores, and mills, and were paid twice what the owners had given the women, a spark was lit, and it still burns.

Vickie Carroll is the author of over a dozen books. From “sweet” romance to cozy mysteries, and even a ghost story, she is now branching out. In her latest book, “Letters from Georgia” in the new Sweet Promise Press series, “Letters from Home”, Vickie writes about a young woman who is separated from her father and new boyfriend by WW2. As she waits at home with the rest of her family, hoping the world will right itself, she learns that the war changes everything, including one’s dreams.

The book should be ready to order late June, or early July via Amazon. The second in her two-book contribution will be “Letters from England” so follow her on Amazon and you can get a notification of when it releases.

Meanwhile, Vickie, needing a break from WW2, is already writing another series for Whiskered Mysteries publications. It’s a cozy mystery series with Abby Spenser, a sassy amateur detective, who of course, has a dog, but there’s a twist. The book, “It’s Only Murder” is set in Sweet Magnolia, Georgia, and Abby is a real detective. The only catch is, she is forced to retire at 58 due to a health issue. But she can’t keep her nose out of the detective business too long, much to her ex-partner’s dismay. Vickie says she has never had so much fun writing a book because the characters are almost talking to her!


https://www.facebook.com/moonlightwriter16/

The Writing Life—The good, the bad, and the hammer

Vickie Carroll

    
When one retires, it’s a time to relax and enjoy doing nothing or expanding a hobby, so the myth goes. What no one tells you is that after years of structure, being productive, having set goals and challenges, that not having any can be a problem. Trust me on this.

Fortunately for me, when retirement came for me, I had been writing for years as time permitted, so I had things to do, I just didn’t know how to restructure my time and set goals and challenges for the writing life. It has taken a few years of hit-and-miss, but finally in 2020, in Covid semi-isolation, I figured it out. Writing is a lot of things, but it’s not just a creative enterprise. It’s a business and I had to learn to treat it as such. I set daily goals, monthly goals, and yearly goals. I now had/have my new life structure, and the best part—I am the boss.

I love mysteries. I love watching them on television (it’s possible I could make the record books if I could confirm my Midsomer Murders and Miss Marple repeated viewing). I also love reading books based on a mystery; and in general, this genre makes up the bulk of my entertainment. Naturally, that is what I wanted to write about. My most recent cozy mystery series, Prediction: Murder has done well. They were released as they came out in 2021, and then released as a set more recently. I have written a few “less cozy” mysteries as well. Meaning a few with a paranormal element that are still up on Amazon.

The Prediction: Murder series is based on a woman who goes back to her hometown in Steepwick, Maine after her cousin Hazel dies unexpectedly from a mysterious fall down the basement stairs. Harper, the main character, learns that not only has Hazel left her a business, her thriving bookstore, but her house and a quirky dog named Einstein. Harper decides to stay in Steepwick because she has a nagging feeling that Hazel’s fall was not an accident. Along the way to finding out more about her cousin’s former life, she also finds a few family secrets that her parents had kept from her. The reader follows Harper as she learns who she really is, and why there were secrets about her family heritage. There are people in Steepwick who know her family secrets, and with a little help from them, she comes to terms with her heritage, and solves the mystery surrounding her cousin’s death. I was ready to move to this town by the end of the story. Sadly, I came out of my writer’s trance and realized it was “just a story” and I had to come back to reality.

As I looked around for my next project, I ended up doing one more mystery, “A Room with a Clue” for another publisher. It’s about life in a retirement village, and a couple of women who found it boring. But after the main character, Agnes literally falls over a dead body in a wine cellar on a house-sitting job, things pick up. Agnes pulls in a fun cast of characters in the Happy Years Retirement Village in Florida and takes them with her on her crime solving escapade.

So, I went from Maine to Florida, and then this year I settled in Georgia. I not only have a new book location, but an entirely new era that has fascinated me enough to contribute to a new series. I have stepped out of the mystery genre and stepped into romantic-historical world. My newest books (2 unrelated books by character and place but in same era and vein) are both about “Letters from Home” during World War II, a new bigger series from my publisher. I am contributing two books, and the first, “I’ll be Seeing You” will be out in May, and the second, “We’ll Meet Again” will be out in the fall (I say with fingers crossed.)

There is nothing like the writing life because it requires use of both sides of the brain, the business and the creative. It can be painful, fun, challenging, maddening, and frustrating, all in the same hour. I have a friend who, when having a bad run, or when she gets a bad review, always says, “why don’t I just go hit myself over the head with a hammer, it would be less painful.” While I never threaten that, I know what she means. It is painful to put one’s heart and soul into a story, spend weeks and weeks living it, and then have someone give it a bad review, or worse, the book just doesn’t sell, and you can’t figure out why. But rejection is part of life in general, and the writing life in particular. A good writer will just chalk it up as a learning experience and go on. That’s what I tell myself. I have been lucky never to have gotten a one-star review (again, fingers crossed) but I’d like to think I’d deal with grace and good sense, like a woman of experience—if not, there is always the hammer.

                                

 Vickie Carroll is a published author of eight fiction books (Sweet Promise Press and The Wild Rose Press). You can find them on Amazon. She has an article coming out this summer in the CCAR Journal: The Reform Jewish Quarterly, about her journey to find Judaism.

Nosgalic Moment with Vickie Carroll

 

Wednesday, January 27, 2016

Trying too Hard?



By Vickie Carroll

All my life my German DNA has been at war with my Irish DNA. When it comes to writing that became a problem. Part of me wants to let my creative side alone, to let it develop naturally, to listen, wait, and trust that the story will come. That is my Irish side talking. My German side says get busy, get it done, and work your plan. I walk away from the computer many days with a headache as my two personalities slug it out. This combination has served me well at times but has made my writing life difficult at times. I do meet those deadlines, and I follow through, try hard, and edit and over-edit. My finished product is fine most all the time, but somewhere along the way, I killed the joy of writing with my attempt to control everything. I had to ask myself, am I making it harder than it has to be?



I made a vow (my new year's resolution) that this year I would sit back and listen to what my characters tell me and allow my stories to develop without so much editor-me interference. I was determined to allow the muse to visit me and welcome her with open arms. I swore I would stop editing as I wrote and just let the creative process be what it was. I was successful about half the time.


One day I sat down at the computer and realized my entire body was in a clinched state. I love writing, so what was wrong with me? Why did approaching the computer stressing me out? What was blocking me from the idea and outlining process to the actual story writing? That is when I understood what I was doing. I was setting expectations for the outcome before I even sat down to work.


Now when I approach the computer I am not frowning and my stomach in not roiling. I sit down with only one purpose: let me get this character on the page, or let me get this great action or location scene down...the rest will come. When I took that pressure of final expectation away, it allowed my creative side freedom while it satisfied my "business-side" to know that I was getting something done that was important.


Lesson learned: stop trying so hard and remember the joy of the process and the reason I write--the love of sharing a story.

Vickie Carroll is a published fiction author who lives in the Atlanta area. She writes contemporary and historical romance, some with a bit of the paranormal, under the name Vickie Carroll. She is launching an entirely new interest, the cozy mystery series: Prediction: Murder, under the name, Vickie Lee. No cats, but an eerily smart dog, a Westie named Einstein. They live in the odd little town of Steepwick, in the Blueberry Bay area in Maine. When Harper Kagel is involved in solving a murder, it is Einstein that often finds the clues. 

Visit: https://whiskeredmysteries.com/vickie-carroll/

Sweet Tea and Sympathy

By Vickie Carroll

Writing is hard work, frustrating, and wonderful, but writing about Southern characters, towns, and attitudes can be challenging. I prefer to set my books in Southern locations because that is what I know best. I know the customs, history, and the secret codes. But a good writer must appeal to a broader audience. There is a constant struggle to explain the meaning of some words and phrases in such a way that all readers can understand the message. Did I mention that writing is challenging? Every region has its special “flavor” and those things which identity it as a place in a certain area of the country or world. Writers must bring out an area’s “flavors” while making sure the reader “gets it” even if they are not from the area highlighted in our books.

My challenge was (and is) to “take the South out of my mouth” and write for the reader who wants a good story and who can also appreciate the special character of an area. I wanted to set my current book, a murder mystery, in Missoula, Montana, a place I had spent time and felt comfortable writing about. Three chapters into the book I ran into a problem. My two main characters were acting like Southern women. Try as I might to keep them in Montana, they brought me back to the South. Sometimes a writer must listen to the characters.

The story should transcend the geography. The location should add to the story, not overshadow it. In my work in progress I try to pull back the curtain and show the reader how “bless your heart” can mean several things. If you are not from the South how would you know it might mean a sincere, “I feel for you” or perhaps more often mean, “you can’t help being dumb as dirt can you?” Southerners can intuit the meaning based upon the two characters who are interacting in the story. Someone not familiar with these regional “sayings” might be temporarily lost and taken out of the story. This is a writing sin.

Southerners are known for their manners. But like everything Southern, there are hidden meanings behind our manners code. We can smile on the outside while plotting your demise on the inside. A friend from New York once told me that women from the South terrified him because they could offer you a cupcake with one hand while pulling a knife with the other. He once remarked Southerners had rules no one else could decipher. I tried for ten years to explain Southern-ness to him with little success. I hadn’t thought such differences were that important—until they were. While in San Francisco on vacation my friend tried to strike a deal with the salesman to get a discount on expensive Italian leather shoes if he bought multiple pairs. I was mortified. On the same trip he asked me how much money I earned. For him this was an innocent question but for me it rang a warning bell that we may have more important core value differences. This turned out to be true. In my family’s Southern rule book, it is considered rude to discuss money outside of the family. You won’t find a Southerner dickering over prices in a retail store.

If our language and rules were not challenging enough for outsiders to understand, our food choices add another layer of difficulty for our stories—our love of grits, cornbread, and iced tea must be explained. I admit I love all three though grits and cornbread have gone by the wayside as I have gotten older and more concerned with my waistline. However, if you come to my house and don’t find iced tea in my refrigerator you will know I am dead. Winter or summer, you will find a half-gallon pitcher of tea in my refrigerator. How do I explain this to a non-Southerner who thinks “pop” is the required drink with lunch?

A good story should transcend the odd phrases and food choices and I know I must write outside my comfort zone, but I love writing about the South and sharing that love with others. My only fear is that I can’t do it justice. But I’ll try, and if you want a little tea and sympathy, come to my house and tell me your story. I promise I won’t put the conversation in a book or say, “bless your heart”—maybe.

______________________________________________________________________

Vickie Carroll is a published author of two books with The Wild Rose Press: The Witches of Half Moon Island and The Ghost of Kathleen Murphy. Her third book, Murder at the Peach Blossom Inn, a “cozy-mystery” set in the North Georgia Mountains is in the re-write/editing phase. She is also working on the outline for her fourth book, The Community, a true murder mystery set in an upscale area in Florida. Vickie has published many short stories and articles and has won various awards and commendations over the years. She has been a fulltime writer for the last two years. She is developing her blog site, Sweet Tea and Sympathy now, and hopes to have it up and running by the end of the year. The blog will focus on the writer’s life but in particular the life of a Southern writer. You can find her books on Amazon and sign up to follow her there, and you can find her on Twitter: @zenwriting70.  https://www.amazon.com/Ghost-Kathleen-Murphy-Vickie-Carroll/dp/1509218149 https://www.amazon.com/Witches-Half-Moon-Island/dp/1509215395

Writing in the World of Magical Realism

By Vickie Carroll

I've always been interested in "the other"--the things, people, and places, just slightly out of the ordinary.  My grandmother used to say, "She’s just one step up and to the side" when referring to her cousin, who she claimed was a bit fey. I like people who are a bit fey but that could be because I am one. This is all part of what led me to write my book, The Witches of Half-Moon Island.

I was ten when I discovered two gravestones on the property connecting our land with the neighbors. A husband and wife had rested there for over eighty year before I stumbled upon them.  I amused myself for years wondering about that couple--what they looked like, where they had lived on the land and how did they die? Did I walk over land they had walked on? I wanted to push back that veil and step back in time to see for myself. Writers file away these incidents in that special brain-drawer and they floats to the surface when needed. Okay, maybe we are a little fey. I hasten to add I'm using the definition of fey as whimsical, other worldly and mysterious, not the Scots and British slant...being in high spirits preceding death. Though I've seen that with my own eyes too. That's another story.

Some years ago I lived in Charleston, South Carolina for about six months.  It's a town so steeped in history and romance that one must be devoid of imagination to resist its charm and not feel and hear the spirit of the place. I fell in love with Charleston for the same reasons that I love Savannah. I was and still am, enchanted by all those outer islands from Charleston to Savannah that sit out there in the ocean, near but apart, kind of the same but different.  While my friends wondered about the people lucky enough to live on those islands in the present, I wondered about those who had settled there long ago. That wondering led me to my book.

My imagination allowed me access to a mythical island off the coast of Savannah. I populated the island with Native Americans who were struggling to control their rogue medicine man who was getting too acquainted with the dark arts. I added a community of witches who had escaped persecution in England. Yes, I was asking for trouble. The medicine man's fear and hatred of the witches became so strong (you'll have to read my book to find out why) that as he lay dying he cursed the witches and their descendants yet to be and vowed to return and destroy them.

When the story picks up in modern day we find the witches, all but one, have let their powers go stale as they tried to fit in with modern times and the people who had come to the island over the years. It is up to this modern day group of women to contend with the spirit of this medicine man when he returns. The fight for their island and their very lives, brings a family back together, and brings Anna, my main character, some enormous challenges.

I've been asked several times why I wrote about these people and this place. I never know exactly where an idea comes from but suddenly it is there in my head.  I wrote about these people dealing with age-old themes but overlaid with a touch of magic. At its core it's about how much we will sacrifice for those we love; good versus evil; and the destructive power of hate. Every person and every generation deals with these same themes.  I will continue to write magical realism in some form because I can't help trying to peek behind that veil. Something is always there for us to find.

________________________________________________________________

Vickie Carroll is a published author of short stories, essays and articles who lives in an Atlanta suburb. Her recent book-length fiction efforts produced two books. The Witches of Half Moon Island will be released via The Wild Rose Press in late spring or early summer if all goes well. Her next book, The Ghost of Kathleen Murphy, has been submitted and she has high hopes some editor will love it. While both books are various stages of being born, she is back to the computer and working on Murder at the Peach Blossom Inn. Alas, no ghosts or witches, just a murder or two.  She reports being called Mrs. King now and then due to her dark subject matter. She does not mind at all.

Trying too Hard?

By Vickie Carroll

All my life my German DNA has been at war with my Irish DNA. When it comes to writing that became a problem. Part of me wants to let my creative side alone, to let it develop naturally, to listen, wait, and trust that the story will come. That is my Irish side talking. My German side says get busy, get it done, and work your plan. I walk away from the computer many days with a headache as my two personalities slug it out. This combination has served me well at times but has made my writing life difficult at times. I do meet those deadlines, and I follow through, try hard, and edit and over-edit.  My finished product is fine most all the time, but somewhere along the way, I killed the joy of writing with my attempt to control everything. I had to ask myself, am I making it harder than it has to be?

I made a vow (my new year's resolution) that this year I would sit back and listen to what my characters tell me and allow my stories to develop without so much editor-me interference. I was determined to allow the muse to visit me and welcome her with open arms. I swore I would stop editing as I wrote and just let the creative process be what it was. I was successful about half the time.

One day I sat down at the computer and realized my entire body was in a clinched state. I love writing, so what was wrong with me? Why did approaching the computer stressing me out? What was blocking me from the idea and outlining process to the actual story writing? That is when I understood what I was doing. I was setting expectations for the outcome before I even sat down to work.

Now when I approach the computer I am not frowning and my stomach in not roiling. I sit down with only one purpose: let me get this character on the page, or let me get this great action or location scene down...the rest will come. When I took that pressure of final expectation away, it allowed my creative side freedom while it satisfied my "business-side" to know that I was getting something done that was important.

Lesson learned: stop trying so hard and remember the joy of the process and the reason I write--the love of sharing a story.  

___________________________________________________________________

Vickie lives in the Atlanta area, is a native Georgian, and worked for a major university before leaving recently to write full time.  She has written and published many articles and short stories but she has recently ventured into the world of fiction. Her first fiction book, The Ghost of Kathleen Murphy, released on Amazon January 1st, followed by her second book, Murder at the Peach Blossom Inn late June. Connect with her on her new blog page just up and a work in progress at: http://vickiecarroll.wordpress.com  Twitter:  @vlcarroll67 Her webpage coming soon.  Vickie - Writing by Moonlight

But…I Just Want to Write!

By Vickie Carroll 

Why can’t I just write? Why do I have to market my work, blog about it, talk about it, maintain the social media sites? So-much-work, we whine. Every writer knows this pain even if we have stopped saying it out loud because we do know better. We can’t “just write” because we have to bring out all our other non-writer personas to take care of business. 

Someone once wrote that Elvis had a favorite mantra, TCB (taking care of business) and he lived it. No matter what else he had going on in his personal life, he rehearsed with his backup singers, talked to his manager, visited his venue, approved his wardrobe, and he prepared to do his job. His job didn’t start and stop at stepping up to the microphone and singing. I suppose if it was good enough for Elvis I can’t complain. 

To be honest I am a bit of a control freak and that can paralyze me. It is hard for me to be satisfied with my end product. Like most writers I can rewrite forever and not be happy with the outcome. It is only those deadlines that set me free. If I had nothing to do but write with no deadline to meet or promises to keep, website to maintain, blogs to post—well chances are I would never finish anything. I would write it to death, plodding on and on until I got sick of my story, my characters, and myself, and there would never be a final product.  

Sometimes I dream of being one of those multi-millionaire writers who have “their people” to do their marketing, maintain their webpages, handle all the social media, taxes, and the boring paperwork. This sounds like heaven until I remember that I would then be all alone with my laptop (that I have named Calamity) and with nothing left to do but (gulp) write.  Shiver. 

Off to work on my new webpage now. TCB.  

___________________________________________________________________

Vickie lives in the Atlanta area, is a native Georgian, and works for a major university.  She has written and published many articles and done a few short stories and loved doing it.  More recently she has ventured into the world of fiction, and her first fiction book, The Ghost of Kathleen Murphy, will be available on Amazon April 1st, followed by her second book, The Witches of Half Moon Island in late June. Connect with her on her new blog page just up and a work in progress athttp://vickiecarroll.wordpress.com New web-site and Writers Face Book page coming soon:  Vickie-Writing-by-Moonlight