by Lynne | Apr 13, 2014 | Uncategorized
Reviews That Make You Laugh . . . or Cry
Every so often I visit my book pages on Amazon to see if any new reviews have come in. Some of the initial reviews were family and friends, of course, so I knew they’d be pretty positive. But when the new reader reviews started coming in, I was fascinated. Some were funny, some not so.
Just as in writing a book, writing a review reveals a glimpse into the writer’s true identity — on which side of the political aisle s/he stands. How s/he feels about love, hate, money, ethnicity, religion, values and much more. I learned something from all of them so I decided to share a few with you.
Time Exposure, 3 stars: “I’ve read worse books. Enjoyed some of the historical descriptions of uniforms and photographic advancements used during the Civil War. Author reveals her irrational fear of guns, in true ivory tower northern liberal style. She cannot seem to fathom that fighting a war to save our Union was worth the sacrifice. She seems to think it was some sort of small misunderstanding and that the war was a way for the rich to get richer. I think the most illogical theory was that it was bad of a Union gun supplier to sell faulty guns to the Confederate. That was actually a great strategy which we should consider using today. How great it would be to give all Qaeda guns that blew up in their own hands. Like I said, serious anti-gun liberal.”
Methinks this person is a Ducks Dynasty fan. What do you think
Deadly Provenance, 5 stars: “Deadly Provenance is the third book I’ve read by Ms. Kennedy and I am a RAVING FAN. The language is intelligent & colorful; downright “cheeky” when the timing is right, making for an enlightening and fun read. The smart dialog compliments intriguing characters that are human – accessible and credible. The plot is complex enough to keep me enthralled, eagerly winding my way through the maze of well researched fact and deftly organized fiction. I turn the last page smarter than when I started, longing for more. PLEASE, bring on the fourth book soon. Thank you for the excellent read.”
I’d love more of these, wouldn’t you? Honest, I don’t know this person. But I’d like to.
The Triangle Murders, 4 stars:This is an interesting combination of mysteries. Frank and his family are great characters and I like the tie to the Triangle Factory fire. One question is left hanging: what happened to Fiona’s murderer? There is also a small discrepancy where one character is labeled first a great-grandson and later a grandson. The dialogue in the historical sections is a little stilted but not bad. All in all, a very good read.”
Aha. Stilted dialogue. I always worry about this.
Check out your reviews from time to time. What did you learn? Share them with us.
by Lynne | Mar 31, 2014 | Uncategorized
Creating Atmosphere for Your Novel
I’ve been asked how I come up with ideas for my mysteries. Maybe this will surprise you, but I start with the backdrop, by which I mean the setting for the book. Since I’m into mysteries that take place in the past, I have myriad choices and I develop my plot around the place or places I want to write about.
To help me decide on a place, I scout around for real life events, crimes, tragedies, disasters that happened in those places at different times in history. This helps me settle on a time period. For instance, being a native New Yorker, I always wanted to write about early NYC history. Maybe turn of the 20th century when immigrants were flowing into Ellis Island by the thousands. The Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire and the tragic deaths of 146 workers, mostly women, immediately drew me in. The tragedy itself, the stories behind the women’s lives and the horrible injustice of it all made it the perfect backdrop for a mystery.
Plus, the atmosphere of the time became paramount. The wretched tenements and sweat shops, the little pleasure these young women had, trying to help support their families, and the fight for better working conditions made it a perfect milieu for murder.
I set another novel during World War II in both Washington, D.C. and France. As a museum professional I was intrigued with the many stories appearing in the news almost weekly about Nazi confiscated art. So, yes, more wrongs to be righted. Plus, I loved both locales and wanted to do research on location.
I lived for a number of years in New England. Not surprising, my next book is set in a small town in Massachusetts, a town infamous for prejudice and scandal. Salem, home of the 1692 witch trials. Could I ask for a place more dark and sinister with grim events of real history? Truly a great backdrop with lots of atmosphere.
Books that stand out in my mind have a setting that I personally find intriguing. Stories set in cold places like Sweden or Iceland, even Minnesota. Or just the opposite: books set in the Louisiana bayous or the humid south. Extreme weather conjures up atmosphere and along with that, characters who must deal with these extremes.
Big cities, mean streets, small, rural towns, exotic lands, different cultures and languages. What kind of backdrop do you enjoy reading . . . or writing about?
by Lynne | Mar 24, 2014 | Uncategorized
Identifying the Triangle Dead
In February of 2011, a story appeared in the New York Times. With the hundredth anniversary of the Triangle fire a month away, eyes were focused on a stone monument in the Cemetery of the Evergreens on the border of Brooklyn and Queens. The monument was erected to the garment workers who died in the Triangle fire but were never identified.
Photos courtesy of the Kheel Center, Cornell University: http://www.ilr.cornell.edu/trianglefire/P
The Asch Building today.
There is a bas-relief figure of a kneeling woman, head bowed, mourning for the victims so badly charred that relatives could not recognize them. Nearly a century later, the five women and one man, all buried in coffins under the Evergreens monument remained unknown, although relatives and descendants knew their loved ones had never returned from the shirtwaist factory.
Thanks to a man named Michael Hirsch, the remains have been identified. It wasn’t forensics that helps identify the bodies, but rather the exhaustive work of one very persistent, obsessive researcher. For more details, check New York Times article: “100 Years Later, the Roll of the Dead in a Factory Fire is Complete:” http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/21/nyregion/21triangle.html?pagewanted=all
by Lynne | Mar 15, 2014 | Uncategorized
Mystery Writers Have a Tough Decision
One of the more gruesome aspects to my research for “The Triangle Murders” was learning about defenestration. This nasty means of murder is the act of throwing someone out the window or from a high place. The term comes from two centuries-old incidents in Prague. The first in 1419 when seven town officials were thrown from the Town Hall, no doubt precipitating the Hussite War. The second in 1618, when two Imperial governors and their secretary were thrown from Prague Castle, sparking the Thirty Years War. The latter was referred to as the Defenestration of Prague.
Now, while there’s something appealing about throwing political officials out of the window, remember that when they hit the ground the results are quite grim.
Falling as a cause of death can be very effective. There are two ways a person can fall. A vertical “controlled” fall is when the person lands upright and feet-first. An “uncontrolled” fall is when some other part of the body hits the ground first ie: head or back. Not pretty.
The vertical fall is survivable up to about 100 feet, but an uncontrolled fall can be fatal at very short distances such as from a stepladder. With a controlled fall, the initial energy transmits through the feet and legs and spares vital organs. The uncontrolled fall, however, can cause massive internal and head injuries.
Unrecognizable bodies lay on the sidewalk along Greene Street, together with hoses, fire rescue nets, and part of a wagon. All were drenched by the tons of water used to contain and extinguish the fire. Photographer: Brown Brothers, March 25, 1911. Photo courtesy of Kheel Center, Cornell University: http://www.ilr.cornell.edu/trianglefire/
I use this “cause of death” in another book coming out soon: “Pure Lies,” about the Salem witch trials. Why? Maybe because it’s clean way to murder (no blood on your hands) and allows easy escape for the killer? There is the problem, however, of actually shoving someone who might be bigger and heavier than you out the window. But that’s a story for another blog.
by Lynne | Mar 2, 2014 | Uncategorized
Too Late to Save 146 Triangle Workers
The Triangle Factory fire on March 25, 1911 was the deadliest workplace disaster in NYC before 9-11. It was significant not because 146 workers died, but because it instigated reform. At the time workplace safety was barely regulated and rarely thought about . . . except, perhaps, by the workers themselves. Other workplace disasters had occurred in the past and would again in the future. So why was the Triangle different?
One reason was a woman named Clara Lemlich. In my novel, she appears as a feisty young woman who wanted to better the plight of the garment workers. Indeed she was. In my novel she is beaten by a gang of thugs and rescued by Cormac Mead. Indeed she was. (In truth, she was beaten but not rescued by Cormac or any other policeman.)
Clara Lemlich, a skilled draper and member of International Ladies’ Garment Workers’ Union Local 25, encouraged interested shirtwaist makers to meet secretly with the union and the Women’s Trade Union League to discuss workers’ needs and the union’s goals. Despite the risks, many went on strike in September, 1909. In an attempt to satisfy some workers, Triangle owners Max Blanck and Isaac Harris formed the “Triangle Employees Benevolent Association” a company union, and installed relatives as officers. They also announced that any employee who supported ‘another union’ would be fired. Photographer: unknown, 1909 Photo courtesy the Kheel Center, Cornell University:
http://www.ilr.cornell.edu/trianglefire/primary/photosIllustrations/slideshow.html?image_id=842&sec_id=12#screen
Clara worked as a draper at Leiserson’s waist factory. She told stories of how workers were followed to the restroom and hustled back to work, lest they steal some fabrics. She relayed how workers were persistently shortchanged on their pay and sometimes even charged for the use of materials, such as thread. And, at the day’s end, they lined up a single unlocked door to be searched before they exited.
Clara had had enough. In 1906, along with several other women, she joined the ILGWU, the International Ladies’ Garment Workers’ Union. Together they formed Local 25, to serve female waist makers and dressmakers. (A shirtwaist, by the way, is a blouse – See Clara wearing one in photo.) In many ways, they had to fend for themselves, for men in the unions did not take them seriously.
Clara was instrumental in organizing the female workers from shop to shop to strike for better working conditions. 
In THE TRIANGLE MURDERS, you get a glimpse of what one of the strike was like with prostitutes and thugs hired to harass the garment workers. Not an easy time period in which to live. Especially for women.
by Lynne | Feb 24, 2014 | Uncategorized
Tragedies Make Good Copy
March 25th, 2014, will commemorate the 103rd anniversary of the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire. The 1911 fire was the deadliest workplace disaster in NYC before 9-11. It was significant not because 146 workers died, but because it instigated significant reform. At the time workplace safety was barely regulated and rarely thought about . . . except, perhaps, by the workers themselves. Other workplace disasters had occurred in the past and would again in the future. You may remember a similar fire at a factory in Bangladesh last year.
When I decided to write a mystery against the backdrop of the Triangle, I had no idea what I was in for. Research took me in several directions: the forensics of fire, the consequences of “defenestration,” that is, vertical falls from high places, the difficulty in identifying bodies falling from such heights, the safety hazards for garment workers, women’s rights, workers’ rights, changes in the American workplace.
But I also researched the time and place of the disaster. 1911, Greenwich Village, New York City. A time when Ellis Island kept its arms open to immigrants from many countries — immigrants who came for a better life, but often wound up in sweatshops, or worse. A time of Tammany Hall and corruption. A time of women’s suppression. But also a time of new beginnings, hope, and freedom in a new land.
I am a native New Yorker and was amazed at the fantastic bits of information I dug up. I learned, for instance, that Washington Square Park is built on what was once a potter’s field, where 100,000 people were buried for a century and a half. I walked the streets of Greenwich Village, saw the buildings my characters would have seen, drank in bars they patronized, and gazed up at the ninth story of the Asch Building (now part of NYU) to visualize the flames bursting through the windows and the workers leaping to their deaths.
The cover of my book is a photo I took of the building in 2010, with smoke and color added for dramatic effect. For those of you who write about history, or simply enjoy reading it, I know you’ll agree that real-life events in the past make a grand backdrop for a fictional story.
Murder, in particular.
Every so often I visit my book pages on Amazon to see if any new reviews have come in. Some of the initial reviews were family and friends, of course, so I knew they’d be pretty positive. But when the new reader reviews started coming in, I was fascinated. Some were funny, some not so.
