Runholt Blog Entries June 6, 2010

This romantic story began—well, probably three years ago, when I first started to write the book now known as ADVENTURE AT SIMBA HILL. Much, much has changed in the book since that early effort. As I originally imagined the plot, the character now known as Charlie was South African. In creating this character, it occurred to me that he might well be of Dutch heritage, like so many white residents of South Africa. And this sparked an idea. I would base him loosely on a young man I knew when I worked in Amsterdam decades ago. Let’s call him Jaap—a good Dutch name, though not the actual name of this young man.

Jaap and I were employed at the same bank, had dealings with the same department, and had occasion to get to know each other well. Occasionally we saw each other socially, but only as friends. I was madly in love with someone else, someone so inappropriate that I don't even want to discuss it.

I had great affection for Jaap. He was incredibly tall, incredibly thin, and had a marvelous sense of humor. When amused, he tended not to smile, but to twitch his mustache or gaze out over his glasses with a deadpan expression.

Jaap was madly in love with me, and it showed. Eventually the difference in our feelings toward one another became impossible to overcome, humiliated him a bit, and he left Amsterdam to take up a post at the Zurich branch of the bank we worked for.

Jaap proved to be a good character for the book. He had a type of humor that appealed to Kari and Lucas, and they grew to have the same affection toward him that I had had all those years before. As I wrote about him, I would remember his small quirks and think about how many times he made me laugh and the enjoyable evenings we'd spent together.

Fast forward to November 2009. I had spent the first nine days of that month in Venice in preparation for writing another book. Because of an impossible flight schedule, my traveling friend and I stopped for the night in Amsterdam on our way back to the Twin Cities. We ate in a favorite, very Dutch restaurant, and she and I talked about the time I had spent living there. A time that changed my life in many ways.

The next day I flew back to Saint Paul and, still reeling from jet lag, awoke the next morning and opened my e-mail. In my mailbox was an e-mail from Jaap.

Given my confused state, this enormous coincidence was almost too much for me. His message asked if I remembered him. I said I did, of course, and mentioned some of the things about him that I remembered.

Not much more than moments later I had an extraordinarily long message from him talking about how much he had loved me all those decades ago, how he had never forgotten me, never stopped thinking about me. He attached three or four photos that showed a very distinguished, tall Dutch gentleman. But I noticed that in most of his pictures, he no longer looked happy, and he no longer had that wonderful humor in his eyes. In fact, he looked a little discontented, as if he wanted more from life than he was getting.

Once the worst of the jet lag had passed, I wrote back with information about the character in my book and said that over the past months, writing ADVENTURE AT SIMBA HILL had caused me to think about him every bit as much as he was thinking about me. And my memories of him were good ones.

It sounded to me as if he was without a woman in his life at that time, and I had no man in my life at that time. If this were a movie, could there have been a more perfect premise for a romantic comedy?

But as you have probably guessed, the happy ending managed to elude us. After six months had passed, it became very clear that this was not the man with whom I wanted to spend even a single evening, much less the rest of my life. My own response to him might be suspect, so I will give you a direct quote from my daughter on reading the last e-mail he sent: "What a first-class jerk!"

So there you have it. The story of the most romantic thing—that never happened.

Oddly enough, I continue to remember the young Jaap with great affection. In fact, as I write this and think back on the 23-year-old man he was, I can only smile. Too bad he had to turn into such a complete and total meep.V

Runholt Blog Entries May 24, 2010

THE NEXT BOOK: ADVENTURE AT SIMBA HILL

Okay, the news is good, and it's official! My editor seems to think I'm pretty close to a final draft of Book 3 in the Kari and Lucas series. So, may we have a drumroll please? It's time to tell readers about ADVENTURE AT SIMBA HILL!

As you might gather from the title, the book takes our heroines to Africa. All of it takes place in Kenya, and almost all of it occurs on the Masai Mara Game Reserve. This is one of many such game parks in Kenya and other African nations, areas set aside to let wild animals go free and preserve the ecological balance.

In this story, someone has been taking ancient artifacts from a recently discovered archaeological site and smuggling them out of the country. It's up to Kari and Lucas, assisted by some new, young African friends, to sort the good guys from the bad guys and bring the evildoers to justice. It's all very exciting, with a balloon ride over the Masai Mara, a ring of smugglers, and, of course, the lions and hippos and other predatory animals that make this part of the world so dangerous to smaller, more vulnerable creatures -- including 14-year-old girls!

Along the way, Kari and Lucas fall in love with Africa as I did when I visited, just like hundreds of thousands of visitors before me. I hope you will come to love it, too, and that you will find the story as fun and exciting to read as it is living in my imagination

Runholt Blog Entries May 18, 2010

PROJECT LUCRETIA
It's time I got started blogging again, and I can't think of a better way to begin than by telling you about a really cool thing that happened to me just a bit more than a week ago.  Actually, I have to go back a few weeks before that, when two girls, one named Grace and one named Laurel, contacted me through my website and asked for my street address.  They had a subject they wanted to write about that seemed more appropriate for snail mail than for e-mail.  This sounded interesting.  Believe me, it was.

A week or two later their letter arrived in my mailbox.  The return address on the envelope caught my eye, because it was something like four blocks from my house.

But what was really interesting was what Grace and Laurel had to say in their well- composed letter.  They had read The Mystery of the Third Lucretia, and were wondering if there really was such a thing as The Lucretia Project, the nonprofit organization that Lucas's grandmother launches at the end of the book.  If not, they wanted to establish an organization for the same purpose, which is to help vulnerable women who might otherwise end up on the streets.

I was completely blown away, awed, moved, amazed, and otherwise impressed by this idea.  So I set up a meeting with the two of them and Grace's mother at Café Latte, a favorite local hangout.  (And if you ever get to Saint Paul, you must, absolutely must, stop in for at least a desert at Café Latte.)

It was a treat to meet them.  Grace and Laurel are twelve and eleven respectively, smart, and already old hands in the fundraising field.  They both attend the Friends School, which stresses the habit of philanthropy, and they have significant experience raising money for good causes under their belts.  We talked about a few options, places I knew about in town that might provide services and housing for the population they were interested in helping, and arrived at a plan of action.  I'll spare you the details on coming to final arrangements about this, but suffice it to say that we're working on it.

Isn't this just one of the coolest things you've ever heard?  They want to establish a special fund within the organization we choose, call it The Lucretia Project, find various ways of raising money for, and get the Minneapolis Institute of Arts involved.  I have a friend in a relevant post at the MIA, and I'm planning to schedule a meeting for her to meet with Grace and Laurel about this.  I'll go with them, and I'm going to counsel them on bargaining from a position of strength, as Lucas would do.  We already had a little dress rehearsal on folding our arms and narrowing our eyes if my friend gives us any meep.  But somehow I have the feeling she won't, especially since she has a daughter who's also a fan of the books, and just a year older than these girls.

Runholt Blog Entries Oct 7 2009

BOUCHERCON, OR THE BIGGEST MYSTERY CON AROUND
I don't get excited about too many things. I'm talking really, really excited.  But I'm really, really excited about Bouchercon coming up October 15 - 18 in Indianapolis. Okay, so what is Bouchercon, aside from being a funny-sounding word? It just so happens that Bouchercon is the largest fan-based mystery convention in the United States.
There's actually a story behind the name. Bouchercon was named after Anthony Boucher, a reviewer for the New York Times Book Review, who is credited with elevating the mystery genre from pulp fiction to a respected art form.  Mystery fans showed their gratitude by naming their convention after him.
I've been to other Bouchercons but this one is going to be particularly memorable. That's because, for the first time, the organizers have created a kids' track' separate from the adult programming.  They're calling it Boucherkids.  And it's not for children's librarians and children's bookstore owners, but for the kids themselves.
My convention experience begins Thursday, when I'm scheduled to appear on a panel about writing mysteries for kids. The Thursday panel is geared to adults. But on Friday, I'll be talking to several audiences totaling approximately 270 school-age kids from area schools. Saturday I have two more kid presentations, both on the subject of writing my Kari and Lucas series with the help of my daughter.
I'm really looking forward to meeting young readers.  Bouchercon is restricted to registered attendees, but I would encourage any young reader in the Indianapolis area to drop in on Saturday for Boucherkids. You can find a schedule of events at http://www.bouchercon2009.com/program/childrensprogram.html.

A MYSTERY WRITER'S WEEKEND AT THE MBA
You can always learn something new in the book trade. Like, for instance, that the letters MBA stand not only for Master's of Business Administration but also Midwest Booksellers Association.
September 25 and 26, the Midwest Booksellers Association staged an impeccably organized literary weekend in the Twin Cities. Yours truly was one of the scheduled authors, and delighted to attend the trade show. My publisher did a great job of getting me in front of booksellers, thanks to Allison Verost, my publicist from Viking/Penguin. Friday evening, Erin Hart, whose debut mystery novel Haunted Ground has electrified readers and not a few critics, organized a party at Common Good Books in St. Paul.
This was a rare opportunity for mystery writers—people like me—to mingle with the individuals who buy and recommend our books, and sell them to readers. It was a truly successful event in every sense, with lots of book talk, exchanging of business cards and yummy things to eat and drink. Thanks to the many volunteers Erin charmed into helping organize the party, and the mystery writers who donated their time.
Saturday, I met even more booksellers at the Moveable Feast. The luncheon, organized by the MBA, featured thirty actually moving table to table at timed intervals. Imagine speed dating, but instead of meeting Mr. Right, we were meeting librarians and booksellers and signing books. The trade show was phenomenal. Much of the credit goes to Susan, the MBA representative, who must have been born with the organizing gene. She and her MBA colleagues created a little piece of heaven in the Midwest for two days.

ONCE UPON A SIGNING
People often ask where I'll be appearing next. When you ask an author where she'll be "appearing" that usually means, Where are you going to have your next book signing? Well, I've had a handful already with the launch of Seneca Crane in August. But the events keep rolling in.
I had a birthday recently. (Birthdays seem to pop up every time I turn around these days.) Rather than celebrating at home with a birthday cake and friends and family, I decided to celebrate the day with a book signing at Once Upon a Crime. If you're from Minneapolis and you love mysteries, you have undoubtedly devoted hours upon hours to what has truly become the heart of the local mystery community. Any day of the week, you can walk into Once Upon A Crime Mystery Bookstore, which is as cozy and inviting as your favorite dog-eared mystery novel, and bump into mystery fans and, often, some of Minnesota's best mystery writers, browsing the shelves. And, boy, do we have a lot of mystery writers in Minnesota.
The night of my book launch party, Once Upon A Crime bustled with writer friends, well-wishers, mystery fans and a number of people I'd never met before. It was all tremendous fun, at least for me. I am grateful to Pat and Gary, the store owners, for hosting the event, and having the imagination and initiative to create a store so enticing and appealing it has recently been voted the best mystery bookstore in the United States.
A few weeks after my appearance at Once Upon A Crime, I gave a reading at Red Balloon Bookshop in Saint Paul. What Once Upon A Crime is for mystery lovers, Red Balloon is for kid lit and YA fans. A stroke of pure genius, from the trim little house where the store resides to the rows of smartly arranged books inside.
Red Balloon is one of those comfy nooks that absolutely begs you to curl up with a book and read–which is exactly what I did. Only I didn't read to myself. The bookshop was filled with families and kid readers. Again, a lot of my friends and a lot of people I didn't know showed up to hear me read.
The people at Red Balloon Bookshop really know how to throw a party. They brought in a cake that had the cover of Rescuing Seneca Crane painted on the icing. I don't know how they do it. But the cake was delicious and big enough to serve everyone. My piece showed the profiles of Kari and Lucas from the top right of the book cover. Talk about a mouth-watering event!

NEW BOOK RELEASE DATES, OR, A SORT OF A SAGA
The paperback version of The Mystery of the Third Lucretia (Lucretia for short) went on sale June 25 wherever books are sold, as the saying goes. Rescuing Seneca Crane (which I'll call just Seneca from now on) is set to launch August 20.

I'm probably the only person that remembers this, but the publication date for the paperback of Lucretia was originally set for January 8, and Seneca was once set to launch on June 25.

The reason the plan changed is a sort of a saga.

It all has to do with what the book industry calls the package. What the rest of us call the cover. When Viking looked at sales of Lucretia, they noticed that the book was selling really well in independent bookstores, where sales clerks would recommend it to their customers. But it wasn't selling that well in the big chain stores like Barnes and Noble and Borders, where customers look around on their own.  The woman who sells books to the chain stores said that was because of the package.

I loved the Lucretia cover. Still do. Okay, Lucas, the one with the reddish blonde hair, looks like she's just a sidekick to Kari, with the dark hair. And anybody who's read the book knows that the idea that Lucas would ever be somebody sidekick is absolutely hilarious.  But I love the bright colors, the clothes the kids are wearing, the spooky shadow of Gallery Guy in the background and, most of all, Rembrandt's painting of Lucretia, which is what got the story started.

The cover for Seneca was going to be an illustration by the same guy. But what he drew was a scene in a storm, with Kari and Lucas walking toward a castle that's on land sticking out into the sea.  In the picture the sky is dark gray, the sea is dark gray, the castle is black, and about the only spots of color are the girls' jackets.  You couldn't even see their faces. I say all of this as if the artwork actually exists still, which it does on covers of pre-publication copies that I received from the publisher way last fall.

Viking decided this was not what they wanted. So they had meetings, then more meetings and more meetings, and what they came up with was the art you see below for the paperback version of Lucretia and the hardcover release of Seneca.  From now on, all the books will look kind of like these. 

When I saw just the artwork, I didn't love it like I loved the Lucretia cover.  But I like it a lot better when I see them on the actual books.  I also like that they're calling the books Kari + Lucas Mysteries, and I like the girls' silhouette in the corner, and that line on the Seneca cover that says Author of The Mystery of the Third Lucretia.

I've been surprised how many people say they like the new covers better than the old one. What do you think?  Click contact at the top of the page and let me know. 

WHAT ABOUT THIS RESCUING SENECA CRANE BUSINESS?
So when I go to schools and libraries these days, a lot of kids ask me to talk about the next book.
Well.  Be glad to.

The book takes Kari and Lucas to Scotland where a young prodigy pianist named Seneca Crane is appearing with an orchestra at the famous Edinburgh International Festival, which happens each year at the end of August. As our two young sleuths get to know Seneca, they discover that, although she's a rising talent in the world of classical music, she's more than a bit unhappy with her life. Her mother is very strict and keeps her on a tight schedule that doesn't include anything that most kids Seneca's age would consider to be fun. The mother's new husband, who's Seneca's manager, seems to be trying to change that, but Seneca has mixed feelings about him, too. And don't even get her started about Edie, her full-time tutor.

Then Seneca disappears, Kari's mom is driving around the Scottish Highlands with a friend, Seneca's family has a good reason why they are not going to look for her (you'll have to read the story to find out) and there's no one except Kari and Lucas to rescue her.   Their first clue comes from an adorable three-year-old boy named Parker, who tells them that he saw the bad guys taking Seneca, and that they said they were taking her to the Dollhouse Castle in the Sky. 

Aside from this puzzling information, the girls have very little to go on except for a tarot card, a shirt worn by fans of a Scottish soccer team (what the Scots would call a football club), and a pair of green socks.

Putting everything together, they make their way across Scotland to the Isle of Skye, where they track Seneca to a medieval castle.  They know they have to rescue her or both Seneca and cute little Parker could be in danger—not to mention the danger to themselves.  Racked by exhaustion and a variety of physical hazards, they call on every skill they have between them, but when Mother Nature hits them with a life-threatening storm, they realize they may be facing defeat.

As I mentioned on the front page, another little detail is that Lucas is in love with a guy named Josh Daniels.  She talks about him incessantly.  You'll get the idea how Kari feels about this when I tell you that she secretly refers to this guy as Mr. Makes Me Want to Gag.

SO, SUSAN, WHAT ARE YOU WORKING ON NOW?
Nowadays I'm spending many hours each week at a safari lodge in Africa for the third title in the Kari + Lucas series, Adventure at Simba Hill.  (Okay, I'm actually sitting at my desk in Minnesota, but I'm in Africa in my imagination.)  Kari's uncle Geoff is planning to travel over Christmas vacation to visit a cave in the Masai Mara Game Park in Kenya, where a team of archaeologists has discovered and cataloged a treasure trove of rock art. Gillian, Kari's mom, gets the go-ahead from her publisher to travel with her brother to write a story about this new discovery.  Thanks to Lucas's mother, The Fair Camellia, Kari and Lucas are able to go along. 

Lucas is totally pumped about this.  Her school has had a month-long emphasis on Africa that has included cultural festivals, classes in geography and political history and literature.  They even had a fundraiser, and Lucas has raised enough money to buy a cow for a Tanzanian family through the nonprofit organization called Heifer International.  According to Kari, Lucas's incredible brain is now storing billions of facts about Africa—more, in fact, than Kari actually wants to know.  But Kari is excited about the trip, too.  Mostly she wants to see the animals.  Lions and elephants are at the top of her list.

But the night before their flight, they learn that a Kenyan man has been stopped by customs officials at Heathrow Airport in London with a suitcase full of rock art that has been looted from the cave.  And no one knows how the art was taken or who might have done it.  It's what Kari and Lucas like best: a mystery.
I'm just finishing the book.  In it, I've tried to bring Africa to life: the sweet and lovely people, animals like baboons and water buffalo so close you could hit them if you threw a piece of gum at the, the magnificent landscapes of fertile farmland and the dry expanse of the Rift Valley, the enormous migrating herds of wildebeest and zebra, the beauty, the promise—and the realities of poverty and corruption.

A long talk at midnight with a young African man and the next day's visit to a Maasai village gives Kari and Lucas their first real clue in solving the mystery.  A second stems from what Kari seas while gliding across the game park in a hot air balloon.

During a talk with Mom and Uncle Geoff, the pieces of the puzzle start to fall together.  But was their conversation overheard?  Mom tells them not to go anywhere without at least one Trusted Adult. But Africa, with its wild and vicious animals, is a very dangerous place—so dangerous that a carload of Trusted Adults can't guarantee their lives won't be at risk.

SOMETHING I'M LOOKING FORWARD TO
So many things to look forward to!  I'm looking forward to finishing my book, getting it into my editor, and having a little down time.  Making a living during the week and writing books on weekends is very grueling.  I can honestly say as I write this in July that I have had exactly one day off since Christmas vacation.

But I'm also looking forward to a lot of upcoming events—library and book club meetings, lots of bookstore visits in connection with the release of the second book, and what will no doubt be a lot of school visits in the fall. 

But one that is not on the list that I want to highlight is the book release party for mystery writer Andrea Sisco's first published title, Deadly Habit.  The event takes place July 30th at 7:00 PM at Once Upon a Crime Mystery Bookstore at 604 west 26th  Street in Minneapolis.

Andrea is fairly well known especially in mystery and young adult author circles for her reviews at the highly respected armchairinterviews.com and a number of other websites—not to mention the reviews she posts at Amazon.

I'm especially excited to read Deadly Habit because she and I seem to have almost identical taste in literature. She really loves the Kari + Lucas Mysteries, and, in fact, recently named The Mystery of the Third Lucretia to her list of all-time favorite books. She was the one who called the series the Nancy Drews for the 21st century.  And she loves books by Miss Read, who is also one of my all-time favorite authors.

So I have a feeling I'm going to love her book, which is a caper about a wacky ex-nun.  This is my idea of a good time.

Oh, and Andrea has asked me to bring a copy of Rescuing Seneca Crane so she can show it (along with The Mystery of the Third Lucretia, which is on Once Upon a Crime's shelves) to the assembled gathering.
I know this is going to be an extremely fun event, because Andrea is an extremely fun person.  If you can make it, drop by and say hello to both of us.

WE LOVE OUR FANS!
I think writers always love their fans.  I know I do.  I'm in touch with Jamie, who wrote one of the first and one of the best fan letters I ever received.  I made it a point to meet Jamie, her sister and her two moms when I was on the East Coast in October.  Jamie's writing a fun book about two girls who get separated from their parents on an international trip to China and end up in London instead.  They're at a coffee shop when suddenly a crime is committed right in front of them.

I've also loved being in touch with Jackson, who writes the best prose I've ever seen written by an 11-year-old (although by now he's probably 12).  I've met Jackson and his mother, too.  They live here in the Twin Cities.  At my urging, Jackson says he's going to start writing for his school paper.  I hope he carries through with it.
Then there's 12-year-old Erinne in Victoria, B.C., who, with my permission, is writing a mystery about Mozart and Salieri using Kari and Lucas as characters.  Her latest note to me asked if Kari and Lucas were going to grow up in the series, or if they'd always be 14.  (The answer is that they grow up.)  The name of her book is  Salieri's Diary.

And let me not forget one of the most important fans of all: Emily, of Emilylady's Journal.  We almost but not quite got together when I was in the Washington D.C. area last fall.  But I just met her when she came to Minnesota.

And there have been so many more.   Sarah sent me a snail mail fan letter, which I cherish.  And then there's Tatiana (who made a bookmark for me that I love), and Abby and Erika and Lily and Andrea and Anne and on and on and on.  I've loved hearing from all of them.  Not to mention the many mothers I've heard from.
Please, don't hesitate to be in touch.  It's such an honor to know that you liked my book!

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