Chatting with Det. Ellie Fitzpatrick, Heroine of Resort to Murder!

By Glenys O'Connell  @GlenysOConnell

 

*Psst! Leave a Comment & You Could Win a Print Copy of Resort to Murder!*

 

 

I'm happy to have police Detective Ellie Fitzpatrick here to talk to us today. Ellie is the heroine of Resort to Murder, my romantic suspense set in Yorkshire, England.  I'd love to have a photo of Ellie to share with you, because she's gorgeous, but at times like this I'm forced to accept she's not actually real. I don't send my characters birthday cards, either. That way I can pretend to be hanging onto at least a shred of sanity...

Shhhh! She's here.

Me: Good morning, Detective - may I call you Ellie?

E.F: Of course. It's nice to be here. I haven't been out much since you wrote The End. <glares at writer>.

Me: Er, yes, well - all good things come to an end. Now, I understand you were the victim of a stalker...

E.F: Stop right there! I've never been a victim, and I don't like it when people like you say things that make it look like a woman is somehow to blame or helpless..

Me: Oh, Ellie, I didn't mean...

E.F: No, I'm sorry. I'm still pretty strung out after everything I went through. Everything you put me through.

Me (making shushing noises): Ellie, we'll talk about this later, in counselling. For now, I just want to tell the nice readers a little about your story.

E.F: You know, why don't you let me tell it. Then we might be out of here sooner - I've a great guy waiting for me with a bottle of wine and a massage.
See, folks, I was fast-tracked for promotion, partly because I have a university degree and mostly because I'm a bloody good cop. Sadly, that caused some resentment among my fellow officers. Being a woman in the police force means you have to work twice as hard as the guys, and still come have to cope with misogyny.
Anyway, I made a major breakthrough in arresting the Sunshine Slasher - a nastier piece of work you couldn't wish to meet. The jury convicted him in less than an hour, the evidence was so good.
Then this writer guy <disgusted snort> writes a book called Justice Denied, in which he claims that Sunshine is innocent.
Next thing, I'm asked to investigate claims that some of my fellow cops are taking bribes from a nasty bunch of slime sucking bottom dwellers. I so did not want to have to do that - investigating one's colleagues doesn't make you popular at all!
Suddenly, everything came crashing down in me - I was under suspicion myself for taking bribes after a huge sum of cash showed up in my bank account - money I couldn't account for. Believe me, now I know the pain of that, I'll be kinder to the next perp who claims he's being framed.

Me: I thought you said you could tell this faster than I could...?

EF: Yeah, well, I wasn't the one who had to cut 10,000 words out of this story when she was revising, am I?

Me: That was artistic...

E.F: Yeah, whatever.
Anyway, after a lot of smart detective work, being very kind to the sweetest stray dog on earth, and having to totally revise just about all my belief system, I finally got everything figured out.
Sunshine stayed in jail where he belonged, the sweetest stray dog on earth got to bite the psycho who was stalking me, and the man I really loved stormed in in the nick of time - I guess you had to leave it til the very last moment, didn't you? - to rescue me.

Me: Okay, okay - now, wouldn't it be fair to say that you were also being wooed by two delicious hunky guys - one dark and brooding and handsome, the other smart and rich with looks to die for?

EF: Yeah, and you took it into you head to make one of them a psycho creep. Worse, I hadn't got a clue. By the end of this story, I had to completely rework everything I believed about these two guys, about my ambitions - about so much that I'd taken for granted. I tell you, I doubted my own ability to make good judgements, both professionally and personally

Me: I am so sorry that you had to go through all that - but it was a happy ending, wasn't it?

EF: Sure it was, after one of those thugs beat me up and a psycho tried to kill me because he was obsessed with me. Sure it was a happy ending. At least I got this great guy and cute dog...

Me <deep sigh of relief> Well, thanks for coming in today and sharing your thoughts with us, Ellie, Maybe we'll see you again?

EF: Not bloody likely. I'm busy writing a novel about a mean, unfeeling writer who is made to pay the price for ill treating her characters. <slams out of interview room>

Well, friends, as you can see, sometimes a writer's characters can develop minds of their own and become a little too real.....

Glenys O'Connell is the author of four romantic suspense and comedy books. Resort to Murder was published by The Wild Rose Press, and you can see it on Amazon or read an excerpt here on my website.
Leave a comment about characters, romantic suspense, or this blog and your name will be entered in a draw to win a copy of Resort to Murder so that you can see what a nice person Ellie really is - when she's not under stress!

Creative Beginnings by Jena Galifany

What does it take to get an author started writing? Some times, it only takes a man with a sign. While driving home one day, I noticed a nice looking young man standing on the side of the road holding a cardboard sign that stated simply, "Day Labor". It got me thinking.

It takes me about ten minutes to drive from where I saw the man to my home and in that ten minutes, I'd mapped out the basic story. What would the man do? What was he willing to do? What if he looked like someone's husband? What if he looked enough like someone's husband that he could sire a child that the husband was unable to father? Yeah, I know. I'm warped that way. Work with me here. =) Day Labor began just like this.

I allowed the idea to roll around in my mind for about two years. Last year when I lost my day job on October 28th, I decided it was my chance to join in the fun of NaNoWriMo for the first time. Day Labor became my project for the month of November. From November 1st to November 29th, I worked each night on my project and finished up with a novel 50,448 words long.

I still need to polish it and get it out to a publisher, but at least I know I have one more novel finished. It's a good feeling.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Unedited Excerpt of Day Labor by M.J. Conrad (Jena Galifany)

Chapter 1 – 2005

Mark Langston stood in the doorway to the Chief of Detectives, Grant Langston's office. Grant took his time in responding to Mark's knock. Obviously annoyed, he tossed down his pen and leaned back in his large leather chair as Mark entered and closed the door.

"What do you want?" As usual, Grant showed no pleasure at seeing Mark.

Mark pulled an envelope from his pocket. He held it up, and crossed the plush carpet in the large office. As he reached the mahogany monster of a desk, he tossed it onto the surface, and watched it slid to a stop at the edge of the blotter. "I want an explanation."

Grant didn't look at the envelope. His gaze locked instead on Mark, his jaw clenched and released before he spoke. "Now that you're married, I wanted you to know that you will receive nothing from my estate in case of my death. You have no part in my will. Just so you can let that new wife of yours know it."

"Why would Beth care? She has her own money. She doesn't care about yours." Mark burned with anger at the insinuation. Beth had more money than Grant Langston ever dreamed of having.

"So my name and my status didn't get you a bride? Congratulations." Grant commented in bored monotone.

Mark slammed his hand on the desk as he leaned toward his father. "I've done everything I could my entire life to please you. I've worked my ass off through school and college to be the son you'd be proud of. I've solved several cases that were beyond anything even you've ever handled. Now, after one of my greatest successes, I get this letter. What kind of a father are you that you’d expend so much energy hating your son?"

Grant carefully weighed his words before he let them spill from his lips. "The kind of father who only has a daughter." He smirked, and rocked back in his chair, his trained eyes watching Mark's face for a reaction.

Mark felt as if he'd been kicked in the stomach. "What are you saying?" He knew damned well what was said but couldn't wrap his mind around the words, or believe them. Not after thirty-five years. Why wouldn't Grant, or at least his mother, have told him before?

"You’re the fancy detective. Figure it out." Grant leaned his forearms on his desk, and continued before Mark could respond. "Do you recall a local incident some thirty-six years ago. A criminal was shot during a home invasion. You probably read the case file when you studied local issues."

"The man was into pornography and drugs." Mark thought back to the case. "Rape, too, I believe."

Grant nodded and clapped his hands with sarcasm. "He gets the gold star."

"What? Rape?"

Grant folded his hands on the desk. "The man had taken a gun from the home office and attempted to shoot the homeowner when he walked in on him. It was a cut and dried case of self-defense."

"What's that got to do with rape?" Mark was confused. He saw by the look on Grant's face that the older man took pleasure in traveling the long road to where he was going.

"What the report didn't say – because it was covered up – was that the bastard raped the man's wife. That woman was your mother and that bastard that I took great pleasure in shooting was your father. I don't think he left you anything in his will either."

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I hope to get the chance to polish up "Day Labor" before much longer and get it out to the public. What does it take to get you started? What stirs your creative juices? Feeling that you need a new idea? Take a drive around town!

Cheers!

Jena'

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