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Say It With WeedsFebruary 23, 2008 at 4:09 pm | Category: blog
As happens with children, Shelley grew up and boys distracted her from childhood dreams. She found a boy she really liked and married him, traveling the world at his side until returning to settle in New Zealand to write hot and spicy tales for Ellora’s Cave, some of which contain the odd body or two. Yes, it’s all true. I live in New Zealand, I write and I love to add a suspense angle to my books and chuck in a body to generally upset my long-suffering characters. If there’s not a body, they have a stalker after them or some other dilemma where they face danger. I lay the blame squarely at my mother’s feet. After all, she was the one who arrived home with the very first Enid Blyton Famous Five mystery for me to read while I was in bed with chicken pox. Along with my tendency to add bodies, I like to add touches of humor. A weird mix perhaps but it works for me. I’m always searching for interesting ways to baffle my characters and present them with a body in an original manner, although sometimes conventional manners work just as well. In THE SHADOW I have my cat burglar heroine coming across a gunshot victim. In PLAYING TO WIN I have a stalker who becomes increasingly violent, and in my upcoming release FANCY FREE I have a different sort of stalker and there might be knitting needles involved somewhere. Author Gemma Halliday who writes the High Heel mysteries has a victim who is pushed into some buttercream frosting in an upcoming book. I loved this idea and badly want to steal it…maybe she won’t notice? My upcoming April romantic suspense WANDERLUST has lots of deaths and since it’s set in India I had lots of interesting possibilities. How does being trampled by an elephant sound? While I was researching an article I wrote on the Language of Flowers, I discovered weeds also had meanings. Straightaway my mind leapt to mull over the possibilities. Yes! I thought. The perfect way to terrorize some poor victim. And if they were a little slow on the uptake and didn’t understand the subtleties, the murderer could leave them a book of flower meanings. Heck, I could have my murderer start off with real flowers so the victim thinks she has a secret admirer and then, bam! Bring on the weeds and flowers with nasty meanings. The possibilities are endless…I just love being a writer! Does anyone else like the mix of murder and mayhem with romance as much as I do? If so what are your favorites? Did you start reading mysteries at a young age like me? And if you prefer your romances murder-free, tell me what you’re reading at the moment. I love to add to my to-read list! Everyone who comments will go into a draw to win their choice of a download from my Ellora’s Cave or Cerridwen Press backlist. I’ll draw the winner on 26 Feb so don’t forget to check back to see if you’re the winner. You can visit Shelley at her website, blog or MySpace for more information about her books.
Little Teacher~February 11, 2008 at 9:48 pm | Category: blog My six year old in the bathroom with her little brother, age five: Me – “Amelia, Jonas…Time for bed!” Amelia – “I’m wiping my B.U.T.T.” Jonas – “Your B.U.T.T.?” Amelia – “Yes, Jonas. If you want to say, but if you have to clean, it is B.U.T. But, if you want to say, my big fat butt, it is B.U.T.T.” Jonas – “oooOOOoooh” Me – “Uhhh, guys? It’s time for bed.” Ahhh, the joys of motherhood. I wonder if I’ll ever have occasion to fit that into one of my wips… What outrageous things have you heard kids say? If you’re a writer, have you ever used something they’ve said or done in one or your works? Please, share! Sandy
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I’m Shelley Munro. Thanks so much to Sandra for having me to visit today. I’m going to start with my bio first because that will help explain things and prepare you for my post. From the time Shelley Munro was a little girl living in New Zealand, she wanted to be a detective. She read all the Famous Five mysteries by Enid Blyton before graduating to Nancy Drew and the Hardy Boys. Her favorite television viewing was Scooby Doo where she, in her invisible guise, helped Scooby solve the crime.
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