Thanks Mystery Journal, For Publishing My Feature

January 7th, 2020 → 5:47 pm @ Robin Donovan

Go to pages 24 & 25 to read my feature in https://mysteryreaders.org

The Danger of Mixing Truth and Fiction by Robin Donovan

Creating Donna Leigh was easy; she’s what I know best — me. At the time of her creation the majority of female sleuths were young, hot and flawless in their brilliance. A few others were old

and doddering, so Donna Leigh was something different. She was menopausal, so not young, and dammit not doddering either. She was not skinny, but she could look damn good in the right outfit. As far as flawless brilliance goes Donna was definitely smart, but far from flawless.

What Donna Leigh does have is a whole lot more common sense than the hot, young, and brilliant female sleuths who clamor to meet with a killer in a remote and abandoned spot without any arranged backup or any other kind of realis- tic plan to stay alive. Donna doesn’t do that. In fact, when she receives a call from a voice-dis- guised gentleman suggesting she meet him late at night and alone, she pretty much blasts his ear- drums out. By the end of the call he has identified himself and apologized for scaring her. You don’t typically see that in murder mysteries, but the mature and sophisticated woman does have some formidable characteristics.

When the Donna Leigh mysteries first took shape I was concerned about characters and their similarities to people I know. I could imagine a ton of lawsuits by folks who thought their deep dark secrets were being revealed through my hu- mor. I had the good fortune to consult a literary attorney who gave me a great piece of advice. He said “any character you create is going to bear some resemblance to people you know because you can’t write about what you don’t know.” He also suggested not to get all cutesy and rhyme my character names with people I know. That advice has served me well throughout the series, and I make sure that my final edit removes any obvious similarities to specific people that may have slipped in inadvertently.

As an extra precaution, none of my scenes are lifted from true life, they are all fiction — except

one. In book one, a colleague and I were force- fully thrown out of a client’s office and that story was lifted almost verbatim from real life. The ac- tual incident turned said client into a screaming howler monkey. It was like something out of a movie, absolutely ludicrous. Afterward, as my colleague and I took stock of ourselves, she burst into tears and I could not stop laughing. Once I started writing the book I was in search of come- dic incidents that were believable. As determined as I was to keep the whole book fiction, this story kept popping into my head. I couldn’t write it any funnier than how it actually happened – so I just told the story. I hadn’t seen that client in seven years so I took a chance. I felt my odds were pretty good.

After the book was released, I was standing in our local hip bookstore arranging for my first guest appearance. The woman who was schedul- ing me was summoned into the back room to take a phone call. As I stood at the counter await- ing her return I heard “Robin? Robin Donovan?” I looked to my left and there stood my screaming howler monkey former client looking as though she’d found a long-lost relative. Trying valiantly to hide my panic, I stammered a clipped and ter- rified greeting which earned a strange look from my former client before she shrugged and headed out the door — talk about dodging a bullet!

Robin Donovan started as a high-school English teacher, then worked in advertising. She lives in Nee- braska with her husband and thtree bulldogs.

Private Eyes II

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This week’s author Round up: writing goals

February 4th, 2019 → 9:34 pm @ Robin Donovan

My goals in my first book: Is It Still Murder Even If She Was A Bitch? grew in number as the writing progressed. I wanted to show that menopausal women can be cool and that female amateur sleuths don’t have to be 20-something, stunningly gorgeous and brilliant (but end up doing really stupid things like meeting the murderer with no weapon and no back up in a dark alley). Female sleuths don’t have to be either 20-something or Miss Marple with nothing in between. My sleuth, Donna Leigh, is menopausal, attractive but not perfect and smart but not flawless.

A great panel

I wanted to clearly avoid my most common pet peeves,

Bookdisplay

the ones repeated throughout cozy mysteries that I read, e.g. men are always telling female sleuths “I am angry, you need to stay out of this investigation.” This rant is generally repeated ad nauseum throughout the plot. The female sleuth typically ignores this command, yet often frets that she’s making the macho guy mad with every move she makes. I’m sick to death of this and I’m guessing others are as well.

I wanted to show that the most appealing woman doesn’t have to be the thinnest – that women can be spectacular, desirable and stylish at any weight.

I also wanted to show that comedy doesn’t have to detract from the mystery in a murder mystery. If the author is careful not to leave a trail of red herrings and is diligent in answering every question in an interesting and compelling way, a comedy can be every bit as suspenseful a drama.

Have I met these goals? Feedback from readers tells me I have – maybe not every goal with every reader – but enough to know it’s all in there.

www.bozell.com

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This Week’s Round Up Question, What Was Surprising in My Writing?

January 2nd, 2019 → 5:30 pm @ Robin Donovan

When I first decided to write a book, I selected a painful topic, the story of how three colleagues and I bought an ad agency back from a major international holding company. It was a fascinating time. We were assaulted by all around us, the executives selling the company, the other potential buyers, the colleagues who opted not to be involved in the purchase and the staff who desperately wanted details we were not legally permitted to share.

I didn’t get very far in writing this book for two reasons, a nagging fear that I would get sued by one or more of these miscreants, and the fact that every sentence was painful to write – it was not a joyful time.

When I asked my future publisher if he thought I would get sued, he said probably not, but he agreed to show his attorney. About a week later he came to me with a question “My attorney wants to know, are many of these people dead yet?” Answer “Not enough!”

That publisher suggested I backburner the book, but he also asked me what was my passion. I told him comedy. He suggested I write my comedy and send it to him. In a blink, I had the first three chapters of Is It Still Murder Even If She Was A Bitch? I forwarded it to him for an opinion, and the rest is history.

What took me completely by surprise was how much fun I had writing. After my first attempt at what would undoubtedly have been a drama I expected to be suffering and hating every session with my reward being the final result, assuming I made it to the finish line.

What I found instead was that the writing itself was a sheer delight. I would wake up on a Saturday and start writing at 8 a.m., working practically non-stop through the evening cocktail hour. Then I’d wake up Sunday and do the same all over again. I couldn’t wait for my fingers to hit the keyboard. And when the manuscript came back after each edit, I swore at one or two irritating comments and then I got down to business and happily wrote again. I loved comments like “you’re in a restaurant but I don’t know what it looks like,” because that gave me license to write some more. It was not only fun, it was improving my masterpiece.

After the pain of that first failed attempt I never expected that the writing could possibly be this much fun. Now, if I should ever get the guts to go back and finish that first book, I think it would make one hell of an action-packed movie.