Guest Post: Author Carl Schmidt & "Dead Down East" Book Spotlight

Today I have the pleasure of welcoming author Carl Schmidt to Melissa Lee's Many Reads. He will be sharing his thoughts on "Writing with Humor". Also be sure to check out his mystery novel "Dead Down East".

Writing With Humor(by Carl Schmidt)

Humor involves surprise and misdirection, and requires that the reader, or the listener, not take things too seriously. Consider the third verse in Bob Dylan’s song, “Memphis Blues” for example:

Mona tried to tell me

Stay away from the train line

She said that all the railroad men

Just drink up your blood like wine

An' I said, ‘Oh, I didn't know that,’

But then again, there's only one I've met

An' he just smoked my eyelids

An' punched my cigarette

At this point in the song, Dylan doesn’t wait for you to get the joke; he charges into the chorus, “Oh, Mama…” while his droll juxtaposition of “eyelids” and “cigarette” is just beginning to take shape in your mind. This sudden change of direction makes the refrain even wittier.

Many of us think of intelligence as the comprehension of truth and beauty, and that mirth lies in some separate region. I don’t. Humor expands the intellect, making it more complete and satisfying. Intelligence without humor is like a fine meal without wine, dessert or espresso.

In his poem, Ode on a Grecian Urn, John Keats penned the famous line:

“Beauty is truth, truth beauty, – that is all ye know on earth, and all ye need to know.”

To which I reply, “Without humour, ye be living in a wasteland.”

When writing fiction in the first person, internal dialogue reveals the inner workings of the protagonist’s mind and is a great place to inject comedy into the narrative.

Jesse Thorpe is the narrator/private detective of my mystery novel, Dead Down East. Jesse has a cheeky sense of humor, which he allows to leak out now and again, not just because he likes to have fun, but also to maintain calm when things get perilous. The first really dicey moment for him occurs in the middle of chapter four, as he is trying to worm his way through an FBI roadblock. In the first draft, I had chosen that moment to insert a rather lengthy internal monologue, to expose the witty side of Jesse’s nature. I was having so much fun with it that by the time I was done, it was almost fifteen hundred words long. And while I liked the tension it created by suspending the dramatic moment in mid-air—for several pages—eventually I decided that it would be more effective as a prologue for the book. This way, on the very first page, the reader gets a preview of the inner workings of Jesse’s mind, a snapshot of his modus operandi and a quick peak at his girlfriend.

What follows are the first two paragraphs of that prologue. I hope it serves to demonstrate the use of humor in writing, and, most of all, I hope it tickles your funny bone.

Apologies and compliments are two remarkably effective devices for disarming adversaries in life and hecklers in bars. If you consider the socially adept people you know, you’ll see that they use these two conversational tools frequently and with ease. I remember the first time it fully dawned on me how valuable they could be.

Angele and I had been dating for a couple of weeks. Our next planned event was scheduled for Saturday night. So I was a bit surprised when she arrived unexpectedly at my place on Tuesday evening. I guess she decided that there was something that couldn’t wait until the weekend. The moment she walked through the front door, I began to suspect what that “something” was. She had a gleam in her eyes that seared me from the inside of my nimble imagination right down to my insteps. I surmised that she was either ovulating, or she had a sudden urge for a tour of the Thorpe habitat. I began to mentally review the floor plan of the house. “Now, where is my bedroom?” I thought. “I know it was here this morning.”

Carl Schmidt  (Author of Dead Down East)

Carl Schmidt graduated from Denver University with a degree in mathematics and physics. As a Woodrow Wilson Fellow he studied mathematics at Brown University.

Carl lived and traveled widely throughout Asia for seven years, including two years as a Peace Corps volunteer in the Philippines and five years in Japan, where he taught English.

Carl has spent dozens of summers in Maine, on lakes and in the woods. He chose it as the setting for this novel because he loves its rugged natural beauty and the charming idiosyncrasies of Mainers. He has also written and recorded three musical albums. This, along with his formal education, proved invaluable when molding the persona and voice of Jesse Thorpe, the narrator of Dead Down East, and endowing him with both a creative eye for detail and a sense of humor.

Dead Down East is the first novel in the Jesse Thorpe Mystery Series, which includes A Priestly Affair and Redbone.  In 2001, New Falcon Press published his non-fictional book, A Recipe for Bliss: Kriya Yoga for a New Millennium.

Currently, he is a freelance writer living in Sedona, Arizona with his lovely wife, Holly, and their faithful German shorthaired pointer, Alize.

Links:

Link to Carl Schmidt’s mystery novel, Dead Down East, on Amazon:  https://www.amazon.com/Dead-Down-Jesse-Thorpe-Mysteries/dp/1533502188/ref=sr_1_1_twi_pap_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1469661229&sr=8-1&keywords=dead+down+east

Facebook Page:  https://www.facebook.com/CarlSchmidtAuthor/?ref=aymt_homepage_panel

Link to my website:  http://www.lightformfilms.com/Carl-Schmidt-Author.html

Dead Down East (by Carl Schmidt) 

Dead Down East, a fictional murder mystery, is both detective noir and smart screwball comedy rolled into one. Jesse Thorpe, a young private investigator operating out of Augusta, Maine, receives a mysterious phone call from a former client, Cynthia Dumais.  She begs to be rescued from an island south of Brunswick, within a mile of where William Lavoilette, the governor or Maine, was assassinated the night before. She insists that her life is in danger, but is unwilling to provide any further information. Reluctantly, Jesse goes to fetch her.

Within a week, Jesse has three separate clients, each with his, or her, own desperate need to have the murder solved. He assembles a motley team of compadres, including rock band members, a tie-dye psychic and his rousing girlfriend, Angele Boucher, to help him with the case. While the FBI and the Maine State Police investigate political motives, Jesse looks for the woman—Cherchez la Femme—as the trail draws him through the lives, and DNA, of the governor’s former mistresses.

Fresh, witty and loaded with eccentric characters, this first novel in the Jesse Thorpe Mystery Series is both clever and stylish. It’s an old-school private eye tale with inventive twists and local charm. If you enjoy a well-crafted and zesty narrative, lively banter, or take pleasure in the company of Mainers, you’ll love Dead Down East.

Guest Post: Viv Newman "The Forgotten Women of the First War"

Today (November 11th) is Remembrance Day here in Canada. As we pause to remember all the soldiers who fought for our freedom, it is important to also honor the women who gave up their lives as well. 

Please welcome author Viv Newman to Melissa Lee's Many Reads.. I hope you all find her post as fascinating to read as I did. 

Thank you so much Melissa for inviting me to post about “The Forgotten Women of the First World War”.

‘She Knew the Meaning of Sacrifice’

“Armistice Day”, “Remembrance Sunday”, the traditional days when we remember The Fallen.  But how many of us pause to wonder about the women who perished in The Great War?  When researching We Also Served: The Forgotten Women of the First World War, I was amazed to discover that between 1914 and 1918 around 2,000 women from Allied countries died due to their war service.  Here are the stories of just three of them.

In 1915, New Zealand Army Staff Nurse Margaret Rogers, wrote home to her father, “There is no romance about war; it spells suffering, hunger, filth”.  She was one of 36 professional nurses about to set sail from Alexandria in Egypt to Salonika (now Thessalonika) with British and New Zealand soldiers on H.T. Marquette.  At 9.15 am on 23^rd October 1915, a torpedo hit Marquette; as a troopship, she was a legitimate target for enemy action.  She sank within ten minutes.  When after upwards of eight hours in the sea, the few survivors were rescued, it was obvious that the New Zealand Nursing service had received a significant blow.  Weighed down by their voluminous uniforms, nine nurses had perished; Acting Matron Cameron, had suffered what today’s newspapers would call ‘life-changing injuries’.  She never worked again.  Of the nurses who drowned that October morning, only one body was identifiable thanks to her watch.  The case was engraved ‘Margaret Rogers’.  The names of Marquette victims and the many other New Zealand nurses who served their country with pride and devotion in far-flung corners of the globe, are remembered in the Christ Church Nurses’ Memorial Chapel - which has withstood two demolition attempts and an earthquake.  The names of those whom it commemorates ‘liveth for ever more’.

 Margaret Rogers http://www.nzhistory.net.nz/media/photo/nurse-margaret-rogers 

Canadian Army Nursing Service nurse Agnes Forneri arrived in England in April 1917, her head held high, her heart full of sorrow.  The previous month her brother Lieutenant David had been killed in action at Vimy.  Now more determined than ever to serve Canadian soldiers, Agnes spent several months on the Western Front during the terrible Battle of Passchendaele.  In January 1918, she was invalided back to England suffering from ‘ptomaine poisoning and bronchitis’, aggravated by ‘active service conditions.’  She returned to duty at No.12 Canadian General Hospital in Bramshott, before she was fully fit.  She collapsed in April 1918 with a violent stomach haemorrhage, dying a week later.  The stated cause of her death was ‘multiple peptic ulcers’.  However, it is probable that, like other nurses including American Helen Fairchild, exposure to poison gas contributed to her death.  Buried with full military honours, one journalist felt ‘it is most fitting that our dear Canadian sisters should be buried like soldiers and in a soldier’s grave, for they are indeed as brave and true as any soldier.’  She lies with fellow Canadian service personnel at Bramshott Churchyard in Southern England, one of the 977 foreign nurses who had travelled from the four corners of the earth to war-torn France and lost their lives through their actions.  These nurses’ sacrifices are commemorated on an ornate memorial in the French city of Reims.  Passers-by who visit the memorial are requested to pause and ‘Remember Them’ – not only on Armistice Day but throughout the year.

Agnes Forneri https://livesofthefirstworldwar.org/lifestory/5871984

New Zealander Margaret and Canadian Agnes perished far from home.  Belgian shop assistant Gabrielle Petit died in her native city – although it was one that by 1916 she barely recognized for Brussels was occupied by Germany.  Twenty-one-year-old Gabrielle was one of the most accomplished spies working behind enemy lines – she saw herself as a soldier in the Allied cause.  Having undergone espionage training in London, once back in Brussels, she created her own cell and network and supplied meticulous vital information on trains, troop movements and armaments.  The British authorities saw her as one of their most reliable agents.

Gabrielle Petit

postcard author’s own collection

Very aware of the dangers she faced, Gabrielle claimed that ‘If I die in service,’ my death will be ‘like a soldier’s’.  For several months she passed undetected until the German occupiers became increasingly suspicious of this seemingly simple shop assistant.  They watched her every move.  Having successfully evaded capture on one occasion, on 20 January 1916, her luck gave out.  Betrayed, arrested and tried, she was sentenced to ‘Death by Firing Squad’.  On 1 April 1916, handcuffed to the execution post, she proudly mocked her assembled executioners, ‘You will see that a young Belgian woman knows how to die. (Vous allez voir comment une jeune fille belge sait mourir.’)  Seconds later, she lay dead.  Most of Brussels, let alone the outside world, oblivious to her fate. 

Yet, recognition finally came.  Post war, her body was exhumed and re-buried in an elaborate ceremony and, in 1923 a memorial was unveiled at Place Saint-Jean in Brussels.  But the statue is not the representation of a martyred victim (which the city had commissioned) nor even heroine but that of a defiant ‘ordinary’ woman who, like all the women who gave their lives in the service of their country, accepted that her own life, when weighed against her nation’s cause, counted for little. 

As we remember The Fallen, this Armistice Day, let us also honour Margaret, Agnes and Gabrielle and indeed all the women of the Great War who ‘knew the meaning of sacrifice’.  Their lives, deaths and war stories are retold, many for the first time, in We Also Served: The Forgotten Women of the First World War (Pen and Sword).  Available from Amazon.  Visit www.firstworldwarwomen.co.uk to learn more about women in The Great War.

Viv has three books in publication about women in the Great War – and a fourth on the way for late 2017.

Guest Post: Phyllis Edgerly Ring (Author of The Munich Girl)

Today I am honored to welcome to my blog the author of one of my favourite books from 2016, Phyllis Edgerly Ring.

Thanks so much, Melissa, for inviting me to share a bit about The Munich Girl and what the process of researching and writing it was like.

When I reconnected with Germany as an adult after living there in the early 1960s, I wanted to understand more about that nation’s experience during WWII. I was given a biography about Hitler’s mistress – later wife -- Eva Braun, written by British-German writer Angela Lambert. I knew I needed to read more about Hitler and the Third Reich in order to understand more about Germany and the war. Eva Braun seemed a likely place to start. I just never expected how close that would bring me to Hitler’s living room.

While she’s a main character, Braun is not the novel’s protagonist. (That’s Anna, born just as the war came to an end in Germany.) But Braun’s 33-year life provides a metaphorical motif for exploring the effects of self-suppression in many lives, especially those of women.

For research, I immersed in reading about her life, and the time period (120+ books), and that “inner circle” that Braun moved within as part of Hitler's life. I spent hours watching the films she had made, and looking at many of her photographs. Eventually, I made two trips to the National Archives here in the U.S., where photo albums of hers that were confiscated by the Allies after the war have been stored ever since. Looking at those probably provided my closest sense of connection with her life, and with her as a “character.” As with most of my research, I was looking to read between the lines of what was known to be factual. I was looking for more of the emotional story that her life showed, that the pieces of her experience pointed to.

Among the discoveries my research turned up is the little-known (or infrequently shared) information from testimony given at the Nuremberg Trials that shows how an action she took in the last week of her life saved tens of thousands of Allied prisoners of war. She likely did this to protect Hitler’s reputation – he was going to have them all killed. Among those who were saved were British members of my own family. That discovery stunned me when I unearthed it, and was definitely a turning point for me, as a novelist.

While she is famous because of someone infamous, Eva Braun came from what would be perceived both then and now as an extremely “ordinary” life. Lambert’s biography revealed how much of what was believed about Braun was inaccurate, right down to frequent misidentification of her in photos. Lots of assumptions and judgements about her have masked key information that her life could provide about Hitler. Paradoxically, although much of what has been conveyed about her was based on presumed understanding about him, it’s a more complete picture of her that can provide the most accurate view of Hitler.

She loved him, I have no doubt. Yet, in many ways, she gave up both her sense of self and of self-determination to “prove” that love, show her loyalty. (Loyalty was very important to Hitler, who trusted so poorly, if at all. But he trusted her.) I think the distorted self-denial she showed is still cultivated in collective culture today in ways designed to keep inequality in place. Many, especially women, give up the freedom of their own wholeness for the sake of proving love, and loyalty. I think the false value this behavior is given is a big part of what allows oppression and repression to continue, along with the imbalance of power that always accompanies them.

I suppose it’s natural that people might assume this novel aims to exonerate or redeem Eva Braun, but that’s never been its goal. She came to represent, for me, the many things that we can form conclusions about without ever delving deep enough to uncover the whole story, in order to genuinely find truth. If the story aims to convey any sort of message, it’s that no human being is all good or all bad, and human circumstances are always more complex than they appear. If we’re not willing to accept and understand this, we’re unlikely to learn from history.

This is also a story about outlasting the chaos and confusion of war and other kinds of violence and destruction by valuing -- and protecting – all of the good that we are willing to build together in our world. Many Germans did this, though until recently, their stories have remained unknown. The novel is also about the eventual homecoming we must all make to our truest self, and the role that others often mysteriously play in that process.

Novel Summary: Anna Dahlberg grew up eating dinner under her father’s war-trophy portrait of Eva Braun. Fifty years after the war, she discovers what he never did—that her mother and Hitler’s mistress were friends. The secret surfaces with a mysterious monogrammed handkerchief, and a man, Hannes Ritter, whose Third Reich family history is entwined with Anna’s. Plunged into the world of the “ordinary” Munich girl who was her mother’s confidante—and a tyrant’s lover—Anna finds her every belief about right and wrong challenged. As Anna's journey leads back through the treacherous years in wartime Germany, it uncovers long-buried secrets and unknown reaches of her heart to reveal the enduring power of love in the legacies that always outlast war.

Bio: Phyllis Edgerly Ring lives in New Hampshire and returns as often as she can to her childhood home in Germany. She has studied environmental and plant science, worked as a nurse, been a magazine writer and editor, taught English to kindergarteners in China, and frequently serves as workshop facilitator. Her newest novel is The Munich Girl: A Novel of the Legacies that Outlast War.

Blog: http://phyllisedgerlyring.wordpress.com
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/2890301.Phyllis_Edgerly_Ring
Twitter: http:// www.twitter.com/phyllisring
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/PhyllisEdgerlyRing?ref=hl
Information about all books by Phyllis Edgerly Ring:
http://www.amazon.com/Phyllis-Edgerly-Ring/e/B001RXUFD6/ref=ntt_dp_epwbk_0

BUY LINKS:

https://www.amazon.com/Munich-Girl-Novel-Legacies-Outlast-ebook/dp/B01AC4FHI8

https://www.amazon.ca/Munich-Girl-Novel-Legacies-Outlast-ebook/dp/B01AC4FHI8

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Munich-Girl-Novel-Legacies-Outlast-ebook/dp/B01AC4FHI8

https://www.amazon.com.au/Munich-Girl-Novel-Legacies-Outlast-ebook/dp/B01AC4FHI8

Ashley Farley Guest Post and Breaking the Story Excerpt

In celebration of the release of Breaking the Story, I would like to welcome back to my blog author Ashley Farley.

Inspiration for Breaking the Story

I write books about women for women. My characters are mothers, daughters, sisters, and wives facing challenges in their relationships with their significant others, their parents, and their siblings. I wrote my first novel, Saving Ben, as a tribute to my brother Neal—the boy I worshipped, the man I could not save. Her Sister’s Shoes is the story of three middle-age sisters and the real-life hurdles they face in juggling career and home.

Stop for a minute and think back to your earliest memories—Christmas mornings, family vacations, the loss of a grandparent or a beloved pet. Our first experiences are the most memorable, the most poignant, because, as children, we are the most vulnerable and impressionable. Just like we will never forget where we were or whom we were with on 911. We will never forget these early memories. These experiences have helped shape us into the people we’ve become. So, it makes sense that the memories we share with our siblings bond us in a way we will never again experience in any other relationship for the rest of our lives. Our siblings understand our flaws and they love us in spite of them. Most of the time. Some sibling relationships fall victim to jealousy, selfishness, and greed. When our sibling bonds are broken, the wounds are harder to heal, because the hurt is the deepest.

I returned to the brother/sister relationship in Breaking the Story, the second installment in the Scottie’s Adventures Series. My protagonist, Scottie, and her younger brother, Will, share my idea of the ideal brother/sister relationship. Of all my characters, theirs is the easiest relationship to portray. The words flow well when I am “in scene” with them. The banter between them feels natural. The dialogue is genuine. Scottie needs Will to save her from herself when her impulsive decisions lead her to trouble. To some extent, I created Scottie and Will with my own children in mind. Not that my daughter and son bear any resemblance to Scottie or Will in their appearance or personality. But they enjoy each others company, and they look out for one another. I understand how precious their bond is, and I hope they never take it for granted. I’ve dedicated Breaking the Story to Cameron and Ned as a testament to their relationship.

To read Ashley's first guest post here on ML's Many Reads please click the link below:
Merry Mary Excerpt and Guest Post (November 2015)

Excerpts for Breaking the Story

“Her cell phone lit up on the seat beside her, and Brad's name appeared across the screen. She reached for the phone and powered it off. The next time she communicated with him would be through an attorney.

Scottie contemplated her options for a place to spend the night. Already approaching the fifty-mile mark, she couldn't drive much farther on her spare tire. Her best friend, Anna, had been avoiding her since Christmas, since Scottie had inadvertently placed Anna's husband in danger of losing his medical license. The rest of her friends would undoubtedly be spending quiet weekends at home, nursing their babies and making love to their husbands. She could drive to Church Hill to her brother's house, where she knew she'd find a sympathetic shoulder to cry on. But Will would want all the details, and she wasn't ready to give voice to her drama. Tonight, she needed time alone to think. Tonight, she needed to drink tequila.

She took a right-hand turn onto the Boulevard, drove one block, and then turned left onto Franklin Street. She parked under the portico in front of the Jefferson Hotel, handed her key to the valet, and went inside to the front desk. After booking the cheapest room available, she wheeled her suitcase around the corner and rode the elevator to the third floor. The consolation prize to having the smallest room in the most luxurious hotel in the city was the stunning view overlooking downtown Richmond. “

Guy navigated his way through the crowd to where Scottie was seated. "Well now, isn't this a coincidence?" he said.

She looked up from her martini. "Unless, of course, you're stalking me."

"Ouch. Hostile." He took a step back. "What happened to you in the hours since we last met?"

She jabbed at the olive with the pick in her martini. "Trust me, you don't want to know."

"Oh, but I do," he said, placing his hand over his heart. "The way I remember it, you owe me a drink for changing your tire. You even said you should buy it."

"All right, fine." When the woman next to her got up and left, Scottie extended an empty hand to the bar stool. "You might as well sit down. I'll buy you a drink. Then we'll be even."

Guy slid onto the bar stool and signaled the bartender. "I'll have a Dewars on the rocks. And bring the lady another of whatever she's having." He glanced down at

her glass. "What are you having?"

"Tequila martinis. My third."

"Whoa. What's with the serious mood? You might as well tell me. I'll keep guessing until you do."

She drained the last of her drink and set the glass down on the bar. "Trust me, you don't want to hear this drama."

"Why don't you let me make that decision?"

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~`

"But you have to admit I'm right. Reporters have scrutinized every aspect of the candidates' lives. They've investigated them from every angle. As parents and politicians. Their personal convictions and work ethics. Thanks to the constant media coverage, the American people already know everything there is to know about our nominees. And they've photographed them every which way but naked."

Guy burst into laughter. "I think you've identified your opportunity for a big break. I can see it now— photographs of Catherine Caine in the nude going viral on every social media outlet in the country."

Her eyes twinkled with excitement. "And you, Mr. Secret Service Agent, are just the man who can sneak me into her hotel room."

His face grew serious. "I never said I worked for the

Secret Service. That is something you"—he pointed at her —"conjured up in your own mind. If you want to know the truth—"

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~`

If only Scottie could find a way to get up close and personal to the senator. And they've photographed them every which way but naked. Sneaking into Caine's hotel room was out of the question, not that Scottie would ever consider taking images of her in the nude, but there was nothing wrong with sticking close to her in the hopes of capturing a candid moment.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~`

Without taking time to consider the ramifications of her actions, Scottie rose from her hiding place, focused her zoom lens, and held the shutter button down while her camera captured the embrace, the kiss, and the subjects' shocked expressions in one continuous stream of photographs.

When he finally noticed Scottie, Shorty yelled, "Hey!

What do you think you're doing?"

Scottie took off running toward the street.

"Get that girl! Don't let her out of your sight!"