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Dear Reader,
I'm on vacation this week and today author Sandra Bretting is filling in for me. Sandra's latest mystery book Unholy Lies, revolves around the killing of a beloved church worker in a small Southern town. Even if you're not a mystery reader, I think you'll enjoy it.
When Sandra's not writing, she's bound to be outside playing with her two rescue dogs or giving unwanted advice to her two daughters. Her next mystery, Bless the Dying, will be released in 2014.
There are five copies of Unholy Lies waiting for book club readers. Simply say hello, sending your email to: [email protected]
Saying Goodbye
First of all, I'm so pleased to be here today! Although we've probably never met, I always feel an instant camaraderie with fellow readers. It's as if we share an extra sense. Beyond sight, smell, taste, touch and hearing, we share the ability to see people who don't really exist and places that can't be found on any map. But that's not what I've come to talk to you about today. For the past few days I've been preoccupied with endings.
Like most people, I don't like endings. I put them off as long as possible. My youngest nephew, who lives several states away in Colorado, does the same. Invariably, he cries at the end of our visits, even if my family and I have traveled to his home and he is the one standing on his own front stoop. The fact that he'll miss us so much should make me feel good on some level, although it doesn't. I know just how he feels.
I don't like saying goodbye to characters any more than I do to "real" people. Maybe that's why I've felt so melancholy lately. I've finished writing the first book in a new mystery series, and while that should bring a sense of relief, instead I fiddle with the ending more times than is probably healthy.
Yes, it's a series, so I'll get to spend many more months with the protagonist and her husband. But I already know who gets killed in the second book, and it doesn't make me happy. Suffice it to say, I may be one of the few mystery writers around who wishes no one had to die in her books. But then my editor would be terribly unhappy, and we can't have that.
So I fiddle. I add another scene with the soon-to-be-gone character. I give him or her more lines (didn't think I'd slip up that easily, did you?) to say, since I feel so guilty about his/her imminent demise. I even let him/her linger a bit on the periphery of someone else's big scene. Which only prolongs the pain, but is probably my way of inching the character out of my life.
Perhaps one day I'll write a mystery series made up of 100 books. That would allow me to spend ages with my main characters. Although it also would require me to kill off at least 100 different people. And that might bring my nephew and I to tears.
--Sandra Bretting
* The audio book winners from last week's giveaway are: Bethany Wolfrath, Dawn Howdyshell, Lavita Hill, Kelly Pauley and Jane Deemer.
Thanks for reading with me. It's so good to read with friends.
Suzanne Beecher
[email protected]
AUTHORBUZZ: Fun, free books and meet authors. Ask questions, they'll reply and read samples from their books. Visit AuthorBuzz at: http://authorbuzz.com/dearreader
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