Wild Women Authors features author Tammy Walker and Venus Rising, a cozy mystery set on a luxury cruise liner and published by the Wild Rose Press. With Tammy is ship librarian Amy Morrison who will go first.
Welcome,
Amy. Thank you for joining us. Let’s start with you telling us about Venus
Rising. I serve as the ship’s librarian aboard The Cullinan
Diamond, a luxury British ocean liner.
As we sail from London to New York City, with the assistance of other
staff members, I unravel the mystery of a sixty-year old painting, a memoir by
the artist the publisher won't allow anyone to read, and the whereabouts of the
artist after she goes missing.
What
made you choose to become a librarian? I
was one of those English majors who, honestly, didn't have a great plan for
life after college. Well, I knew that
whatever I did would involve books, and I'd hoped it would involve travel.
Also, in college, I was known as a matchmaker.
Not between potential romantic partners, though. Between people and a good book. I'd read widely enough that I could figure
out the right book for someone at the right time.
So maybe it shouldn't be surprising
when a professor asked me if I'd ever considered being a librarian. Aside from being a book matchmaker, I was
pretty well suited for the job given my love of research as well as my
organizational and computer skills. As for travel, well, that happened mostly
via books. Until I got my job aboard the
luxury ocean liner, The Cullinan Diamond. It's really the best of both worlds for me!
Knowing
what you know now, if you had it to do over again, would you stick with your chosen
career or do something different? I
definitely would have been a librarian again.
It's given me the chance to work with books and with a lot of amazing people,
both back in my hometown of Dawville, Texas, and aboard the cruise ship.
If I could change anything about my
career, I would have taken more risks.
Don't get me wrong--I wouldn't change my twenty years at the Dawville
Public Library for anything. But I would
have done more to bring in the adventure I'd craved. I would have held more events for our
patrons, maybe bringing in more big-name authors. I don't know how well the sort of chic galas
I host aboard ship would have worked in tiny Dawville, but I think I might have
had fun finding out. And, more
importantly, our library patrons might have enjoyed them, too!
What
is your biggest fear? It is that I've
taken the safe route too often. For
instance, I stayed in a marriage too long, hoping my husband would finally see
me for who I am, not for who he thought I was. When I started my job as
librarian aboard The Cullinan Diamond, I was afraid that I couldn't
handle the glitz and glamour hosting author galas on ship required. Finding friends in Penelope and Richard, the
retired professors lecturing aboard ship, Gemma, the art curator, and Kevin in
IT, helped me not only solve a mystery, but also solving the puzzle of who I
can be. I've taken the safe route so
many times. Good friends help you take the
good risks in life. And often, those
good risks help you discover that you're capable of so much more than you
thought.
Who
is your favorite fictional character and why? I've read and loved so many characters over the years,
but I think my absolute favorite has to be Jo March from Little Women. I remember reading the book first when I was
in junior high and getting swept up in the world that Louise May Alcott
created. It wasn't until I reread the book in college that I realized how Jo's
choices demonstrated her integrity in spite of the difficulties she faced. I think Jo March knew deeply who she was and
what she valued, and that's admirable.
What
is the best piece of advice you ever received? It came from my sister Stacey, who lives on a farm in
Dawville with her family. When I was first
going through a divorce, she reminded me about how our parents, who owned a
small farm equipment repair shop in town, always found the good in something
that seemed broken. Even if something
can't be fixed, you can find some part that you can use to repair something else. Or make something new from.
Okay, so, maybe that's not the most
comforting thing to hear when your two-decade marriage is breaking up, but I
needed to hear it. Stacey reminded me that
even though my marriage had broken up, I myself was still fine. I wasn't broken. I needed to hear that to move on and embrace
the adventure that I had no idea was coming.
Which writer or
character[s], from either books or movies, [or both] have had a major impact on
your writing? I've always been a fan of
British mysteries on PBS, so watching shows as far ranging as Midsomer
Murders, Lewis/Endeavour, Father Brown, Hetty Wainthropp Investigates, and
so many others gave me a good grounding in mystery structure. I've always been drawn to characters such as
Hetty Wainthropp, Miss Marple, and the women in The Bletchley Circle--they
definitely shaped how I saw the potential of these sleuths.
In the last decade, I've read more mysteries, too. Agatha Christie, of course, but also Louise
Penny, whose Three Pines taught me so much about how to craft
community. Kate Atkinson's Jackson
Brodie series gave me so much to think about with regard to characterization. I learned more about cozies in particular by
reading books by M. C. Beaton, Joanne Fluke, Dorothy Cannell, and dozens of
others!
I'm also a poet, so I think a lot about language as I'm
writing and revising my mysteries. I was
delighted to find out that Cecil Day-Lewis, who was poet laureate of TK, also
wrote detective novels. I haven't
tracked down his Nigel Strangeways mysteries from the 1930s-1960s yet, but
they're on my list.
With regard to research,
where did you start for this novel? Did that lead you down different paths,
thereby changing the original concept? Venus Rising was definitely a
pandemic book. My family and I were
staying home, of course, so we watched a lot of travel videos. I saw these amazing libraries on board cruise
ships--every detail was gorgeous, and the shelves held these beautiful
leather-bound volumes.
I'd also been reading more mysteries during the
pandemic. So, while watching yet another
cruise ship tour video, I thought, "I'd really love to read a mystery
about a cruise ship librarian." And
then I thought, "I''d really love to write a mystery about a cruise
ship librarian." And thus, Venus Rising began.
The
original concept didn't change much, but I did realize that I'd need to both
read more cozies and get a better feel for genre conventions before I got too
deep into the draft. My other books are
poetry collections, so it was a bit of a jump in genre. I've been a long-time reader (and viewer) of
mysteries, though, so not a huge leap!
Tell us a bit about your
publisher. Working with The Wild Rose
Press has been wonderful! I found them while searching online for small presses
accepting manuscripts, and I liked their range of books: a good mix of
mysteries, romance, and fantasy among others. The submission process was quite
similar to other presses I've submitted to, and the turnaround time from query
to publication was a little over a year.
What are you reading right
now? I travel through fiction, so I
love to read regional British mysteries of various kinds (along with a lot of
poetry!). As far as fiction goes, I just
finished A Dirty Death by Rebecca Tope, and I enjoyed the mystery as
well as being immersed in farm life. Right
now, I have just started reading Postman's Knock by J. F. Straker. And since I read poetry at the same time, I just
read Naming the Ghost by Emily Hockaday, and I'm about to start Climacteric
by Jo Bratten.
What's next for you in
terms of an upcoming release or current project? My current project is a novella set in small town
north central Texas. Two cousins reunite
when they inherit their grandmother's boutique, and they realize that they don't
know as much as they thought they did about their grandmother--or each other!
I'm
also working on a follow-up novel to Venus Rising. Amy Morrison and her friends aboard The
Cullinan Diamond are dazzled by a poet who boards the ship in Miami. When Lucia, valet and poetry lover, tells Amy
that she thinks something is odd about the poet's reading, Amy works to solve
the mystery of the poet's identity before he disembarks in Buenos Aires to
claim a multi-million-dollar prize.
In this follow-up novel, Amy explores more of her
adventurous side as well as her feelings toward Kevin, the IT manager aboard
ship, and her ex-husband Neil, who has begun to send her cryptic emails. They're off to Argentina, so, of course, Amy
learns to tango!
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/tdwalker_/
Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/people/Tammy-D-Walker-Cozy-Mystery-Writer/100091886321062/
To purchase Venus Rising, go to:
Amazon:
https://www.amazon.com/Venus-Rising-Tammy-D-Walker-ebook/dp/B0BKYG5J6Q/
B&N: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/venus-rising-tammy-d-walker/1142600228
Books-a-Million:
https://www.booksamillion.com/p/Venus-Rising/Tammy-D-Walker/9781509247080
BookShop:
https://bookshop.org/p/books/venus-rising-tammy-d-walker/19256882
I, too, always felt like I was a member of the March family. I think I was inspired to write by Jo. Your book sounds like an interesting read. Best wishes!
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