Patricia Stoltey

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Jess Lourey/Shannon Baker Double Booked Tour Chats with Pat Stoltey

August 4, 2016 By: Patricia

Hi, Pat. Thanks for opening up your virtual home and inviting us in for a glass of wine. You did say there would be wine, right? The Lourey/Baker Double Booked Tour is chugging along and today, we’re going to sit back with our generous pours of Pat’s finest and talk writing, books, and life.

I’ll go first with a little introduction. I’m Shannon Baker and I’m all wriggly in my chair to tell you about my new Kate Fox mystery series. The first book, due out September 6th but available for preorder is Stripped Bare. Set in the Nebraska Sandhills, it’s been called Longmire meets The Good Wife. I’ve been a member of Rocky Mountain Fiction Writers for a long time (that’s where I met Pat) and was chosen RMFW Writer of the Year in 2014. I know Jess from Midnight Ink, where I wrote the Nora Abbott mystery series, a fast-paced mix of Hopi Indians, environmental issues, and murder.

2016_Shannon Baker
Jess here. Shannon, your book sounds fantastic, and I’m excited to be on this tour with you, though I thought we were getting whiskey? In any case, I’m thrilled to talk about Salem’s Cipher, my political suspense novel which is not coincidentally also releasing on September 6th and also available for preorder. Salem’s Cipher features Salem Wiley, an agoraphobic cryptanalyst who must crack codes Emily Dickinson hid 100 years earlier in order to save the first viable female presidential candidate from assassination. I met Pat when I crossed an ethical boundary in 2007 and sent copies Knee High by the Fourth of July to all the non-authors registered for that year’s Left Coast Crime in the hopes that they’d consider it for a Lefty. I was green and didn’t know how gauche that was. Pat sent me a kind email telling me she appreciated the copy and to not let anyone get me down. She’s had a warm spot in my heart ever since.

2016_Jess Lourey1
Pat:
Welcome, Shannon and Jess. It’s so much fun having you visit my blog together during your special co-tour. What a great marketing idea! Don’t worry, Jess, I have wine, whiskey, as well as coffee or tea (for those who don’t imbibe–especially at breakfast). Shannon, I’ve enjoyed your Nora Abbott mysteries and am really looking forward to meeting Kate Fox. Jess, I remember Knee High by the Fourth of July very well and enjoyed it enough to read several more of your murder by the month series. I did not remember how we first connected, but I do remember a delicious candy treat from your part of the country (I forget what it’s called) that you brought to Left Coast Crime 2008 in Denver. That was yummy!

To bring you up to date, my last book release (November 2014) was a standalone thriller called Dead Wrong. And I just signed a contract for a historical mystery called Wishing Caswell Dead, which is tentatively scheduled for November 2017 release under Five Star/Cengage’s Frontier Fiction line. I’m currently working on two other standalone mysteries.

Question: Setting is important in each of our books. Tell us why you set your book(s) where you did?

2016_Lourey_Salem'sJess: Salem’s Cipher starts out in Minneapolis, where I live. It was a conscious choice to locate Salem Wiley there as it made the initial research easier. When Salem’s mom disappears, she’s forced to leave her safety to find her. Along the way, she uncovers a very old, very well-financed plot to kill powerful women, past and present. This is when the adventure begins, taking my protagonist to Salem, Massachusetts, where the implications of this plot trace back to the witch trials. From there, she’s forced to travel to San Francisco, to Virginia, and finally, to Alcatraz, where the story comes to a head. I flew to Salem in 2014 to research that city, and I’ve been to San Francisco and Alcatraz multiple times to research, but I needed to call on Facebook friends for details on Virginia—the sounds, the smells, the people. I think my plan might be to set all books in beautiful places so I can go there as a tax write-off.

Pat: I’m all over the place with my novel settings, which is a reflection of my life, I guess. My first book was set in Florida and Illinois, the second in Florida and Nevada/Arizona, and the third in Florida and Colorado. For Wishing Caswell Dead, I’m back in central Illinois during the early 1800s. I guess it’s no surprise then that I grew up in central Illinois, lived quite a few years in South Florida, visit that Nevada/Arizona area often because one of my sons lives there, and now I live in Colorado. I didn’t have to do much setting research for any of them because I already know the sounds, smells, terrain, and flora/fauna of each.

2016_Baker_Stripped BareShannon: Setting is always a big part of my books because it’s a big part of my life. I’m an anomaly in my family. My parents and siblings hated the great outdoors while I could barely be called inside for dinner. The Nora Abbott books take place in Flagstaff, AZ, Boulder, CO, and Moab, UT, all places I love. But the Nebraska Sandhills, where I lived for 20 years, was like a difficult child for me. It didn’t give itself freely to easy affection. When I moved there, it seemed so stark and harsh and it was through conscious effort that I came to love it. When I left it thirteen years ago, in some ways, it was a huge relief. I didn’t think I’d ever go back there, but Kate Fox called to me, so here I am. I’m getting a kick out of ranging the ‘hills again and I get to write about the people and places that mean so much to me.

Question: Who are your writing heroes?

Pat: Well, there are Shannon Baker and Jess Lourey, of course. But if I go back into my heavy reading years (before writing) I’d have to point to my most favorite of all time mystery series writers, John D. McDonald. I love the Florida setting and I love Travis McGee. If only I could create a character that memorable!

Shannon: In a galaxy far, far away… I lived on a ranch five miles as the crow flies to the nearest neighbor. I fell in love with a big, fat novel, And Ladies of the Club, by Helen Hooven Santmyer. I read that she’d written that book in her eighties. I thought that I’d like to write a book like that someday and figured if I was ever going to get good enough, I’d better start practicing so I wouldn’t have to wait to be an octogenarian before I got published. She was my first inspiration. After that, of course, there is Mari Sandoz, who grew up in the Nebraska Sandhills and overcame enormous obstacles to become a writer. She gave me courage to keep going in the face of rejection. (And rejection. And rejection.)

Jess: This question makes me feel warm all over because it brings to mind all the books that have kept me company and shaped me. I first fell in love with fantasy—Tanith Lee, Piers Anthony—in high school, graduated to Stephen King, whose writing still captivates me, and in college, despite my best efforts, I became enamored of the Bronte sisters’ writing as well as Thomas Hardy’s. Outside of school, I dug into magical realism, mainly Isabel Allende, which is where I learned the beauty of sensory language—lemon-colored shoes, lipstick the color of a pink gin fizz, the lavender light of the setting sun. In the late 90s, I was lucky enough to stumble into crime fiction, and Janet Evanovich, Sue Grafton, and William Kent Krueger at their best are still my inspiration.

Question: How is your protagonist like/not like you?

Shannon: Kate Fox is a total insider in her small Sandhills community. She’s one of nine brothers and sisters and is connected to everyone in the county by one degree of separation, or less. I moved into the Sandhills when I was 21 and even though I lived there for 20 years, I was always “other.” (‘Course that might have more to do with me than with my community.) Kate has an inner fortitude. She does what needs to be done, takes care of business, and doesn’t whine about anything. I’d like to be more like her.

Jess: Salem Wiley is the most unlike me character I’ve written. Physically, she’s a cross between my niece, Esmae, and my close friend Angie. I need to have a visual of my protagonists, so in that area, I always look for specific inspiration. Personality-wise, Salem Wiley is a whipsmart cryptanalyst who is afraid to leave her house. I knew so little about code-breaking when I began the book that I had to look up the term “cryptanalyst,” and my neuroses is more of the “catastrophizing olympics” variety. However, Salem’s agoraphobia came about because her dad committed suicide, a theme I wanted to explore in this book as my own husband committed suicide, and I wanted to play out how that could affect the children of that relationship. Am I the only one who tries to figure out life through her characters?

Pat: My characters are like me in their bad eating habits. I guess that’s why my critique group is always telling me to stop describing everything my character eats and stop them from drinking so much coffee. Other than that, I tend to create protagonists who are braver than I am and who make riskier decisions that I would. I don’t walk on the wild side. I let my characters do it for me. Digging deep into personal life tragedies would be hard. I admire you, Jess, for tackling a tough topic like suicide.

Thanks to both of you for being my guests today and for including me in the Q&A. Good luck on this adventurous tour!

Shannon: Jess is giving away a Salem’s Cipher and I’m giving away a Stripped Bare. Tell us your hero, writing or otherwise, or leave a comment by midnight MT Saturday, August 6th for a chance to win.

And for more fun:

If you order Salem’s Cipher before September 6, 2016, you are invited to forward your receipt to salemscipher@gmail.com to receive a Salem short story and to be automatically entered in a drawing to win a 50-book gift basket mailed to the winner’s home!

If you order Stripped Bare before September 6, 2016, you are invited to forward your receipt to katefoxstrippedbare@gmail.com to receive a Kate Fox short story and be entered for a book gift basket mailed to your home.

Please join us tomorrow as the Lourey/Baker Double Booked Tour pops on over to Jungle Red Writers as guests of the inimitable Hank Phillippi Ryan where we’ll talk about what we wish we knew back then. On Monday, August 8, we’re visiting Inkspot, and Wednesday, we’re going to There’s a Dead Guy in the Living Room. Book giveaways at every stop!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Jessica (Jess) Lourey is best known for her critically-acclaimed Murder-by-Month mysteries, which have earned multiple starred reviews from Library Journal and Booklist, the latter calling her writing “a splendid mix of humor and suspense.” She is a tenured professor of creative writing and sociology, a recipient of The Loft’s 2014 Excellence in Teaching fellowship, and leads interactive writing workshops all over the world. Salem’s Cipher, the first in her thrilling Witch Hunt Series, hits stores September 2016. You can find out more at www.jessicalourey.com, or find Jess on Facebook or Twitter.

Shannon Baker is the author of the Nora Abbott mystery series from Midnight Ink, a fast-paced mix of Hopi Indian mysticism, environmental issues, and murder set in western landscapes of Flagstaff, AZ, Boulder, CO, and Moab, UT. Seconds before quitting writing forever and taking up competitive drinking, Shannon was nominated for Rocky Mountain Fiction Writer’s 2014 Writer of the Year. Buoyed with that confidence, she acquired an agent who secured a multi-book contract with Tor/Forge. The first in the Kate Fox Mystery Series, Stripped Bare will release in hardcover September 2016. Set in the isolated cattle country of the Nebraska Sandhills, it’s been called Longmire meets The Good Wife. Visit Shannon at www.Shannon-Baker.com.

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Category: Books and Authors, Guest Blogger, Writing Tag: Jess Lourey, Jess Lourey/Shannon Baker Double Booked Tour, Salem's Cipher, Shannon Baker, Stripped Bare

Comments

  1. Patricia says

    August 7, 2016 at 3:08 pm

    Congratulations to Mason Canyon who won the giveaway associated with this blog post.

  2. Cynthia Blain says

    August 5, 2016 at 7:48 pm

    First and foremost, congratulations on your releases. You asked for a reply about who is our hero. I think that would be my Dad. My Dad worked six days a week to give my Mom and my two sisters a good home and a nice life and all that goes with it. He took almost every Sunday off and we went some place as a family every weekend on that day. He made a special plan for this trip and where we would stop for lunch etc. etc. Those were the OLD days when there were not restaurants on every corner and so he timed our travels to be near to places to stop when we were hungry. In the summer he took one week off and always took us someplace fun and we could hardly wait for this vacation every year. He braved bad storm and illness driving two hours a day to his work and was devoted to keeping his company going even during lean times. He died much too young and he lives in my heart and that of my sisters every minute of every day for his love for our Mom and his three daughters. He was our hero.

    Cynthia B.

    • Shannon Baker says

      August 6, 2016 at 2:09 pm

      What a great tribute! You were lucky to have such a wonderful father, and he was lucky to be so loved.

    • Jess lOurey says

      August 6, 2016 at 5:03 pm

      Your dad sounds like an incredible man, Cynthia. I am so sorry for your loss. Thank you for sharing that story!

    • Aimee Hix says

      August 7, 2016 at 4:44 pm

      Oh my, this has me in tears. Your father sounds like he was an amazing man, Cynthia.

  3. L. Diane Wolfe says

    August 4, 2016 at 1:33 pm

    Getting to write off travel as research is always a good thing. I’ve never been to Salem, Massachusetts, but I did grow up in the other Salem – Oregon!

    • Shannon Baker says

      August 4, 2016 at 2:50 pm

      Thanks, Diane. When you read Jess’s book, you’ll want to go to California and eat some amazing Chinese soup. Among other things.

  4. Julie Kazimer says

    August 4, 2016 at 11:04 am

    Thanks for sharing! I’m almost done with my advanced copy of Stripped Bare and can’t say how much I love Kate. I think Shannon is a lot more like her than she thinks. Looking forward to grabbing Jess’ latest too. Two more talented writers you couldn’t find on one blog post. Good luck! I hope you sell millions of copies.

    • Shannon Baker says

      August 4, 2016 at 11:55 am

      As the ever-witty Becky Clark said to me and I say to you, Julie, “I love you more than a fat kid loves cake.”

      • Jess Lourey says

        August 4, 2016 at 12:55 pm

        Cake and Julie Kazimer would be an awesome party! And yes! Stripped Bare is an amazing book!

  5. Alex J. Cavanaugh says

    August 4, 2016 at 10:55 am

    Salem Wiley does sound like a character. And with a very unique name.
    I lived in Nebraska a few years and what isn’t a field is rather bare.
    Congratulations, ladies!

    • Jess Lourey says

      August 4, 2016 at 11:03 am

      Thanks for stopping by, Alex! You’ve been entered to win today’s book giveaway; there’s two chances to win at each stop in the blog tour.

      • Shannon Baker says

        August 4, 2016 at 11:57 am

        Yes, Alex, for me, Nebraska is like a difficult child. You work hard to love it despite its shortcomings and then have to keep loving it because you’ve discovered its hidden treasures.

  6. Aimee hix says

    August 4, 2016 at 8:02 am

    Currently, my writing hero is Jessie Lourey. Her bravery this past year with Salem’s Cipher and Rewrite Your Life, doing the TEDx talk, and all the leaps she’s taken. I’m humbled by her trust in herself and us putting herself out there.

    • Jess Lourey says

      August 4, 2016 at 9:39 am

      Thank you, Aimee. I thought so much about you when I wrote Rewrite Your Life–I can’t wait for you to read it!

      • Aimee Hix says

        August 4, 2016 at 11:10 am

        I’m so excited for you and DYING to read both.

    • Shannon Baker says

      August 4, 2016 at 11:58 am

      Jess is my hero, too! Her TEDx talk was amazing!

  7. Shannon Baker says

    August 4, 2016 at 7:04 am

    Congratulations on the new contract, Pat! I love historicals. As for breakfast beverage, I’ll take the whiskey over wine and thank you! Good morning to you, Jess — waving from Tucson to Minneapolis.

    Just a reminder… today is the last day for a Goodreads Giveaway for Stripped Bare.

    • Patricia says

      August 4, 2016 at 7:08 am

      Here’s the link to that Goodreads page for Stripped Bare: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/28260523-stripped-bare

      • Jess Lourey says

        August 4, 2016 at 9:42 am

        Pat, the treat was a Nut Goodie, and I owe you one for hosting us. 🙂

        • Patricia says

          August 4, 2016 at 10:08 am

          Yes, a Nut Goodie! I can’t taste it now…

      • Shannon Baker says

        August 4, 2016 at 11:59 am

        Thanks, Pat. Can I hire you to do my marketing?

        • Patricia says

          August 4, 2016 at 1:17 pm

          LOL — sure! Maybe I’d get more writing done if I didn’t have so much free time on my hands. 😀

  8. Mason Canyon says

    August 4, 2016 at 6:59 am

    I enjoyed the three-way interview. It’s always interesting to learn background on a story. Congrats to all three ladies and the upcoming releases. I see I have more books to add to my TBR list. 🙂

    Thoughts in Progress
    and MC Book Tours

    • Shannon Baker says

      August 4, 2016 at 7:05 am

      Thanks for stopping by, Mason! BTW, I’ll be hanging out at Thoughts in Progress in September!

    • Jess Lourey says

      August 6, 2016 at 8:54 am

      Thanks, Mason! Is your TBR pile tottering like mine? 🙂

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  1. Want to Visit More Stops on the Lourey/Baker Double-Booked Tour? says:
    August 6, 2016 at 4:05 am

    […] 3: Rocky Mountain Fiction Writers August 4: Pat Stoltey August 5: Jungle Red August 8: Inkspot August 9: The Author Biz August 10: Hey, There’s a […]

Meet Patricia

I read, I write, I blog, and sometimes I do the laundry and cook. My 2014 novel, Dead Wrong, was a finalist in the thriller category of the 2015 Colorado Book Awards. Wishing Caswell Dead (Five Star/Cengage, December 20, 2017) is a historical mystery set in 1830s Illinois in the fictitious Village of Sangamon. The novel was a finalist for the 2018 Colorado Book Awards for General Fiction. Read More…

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