Home arrow Mystery Blog
Mystery Blog

The Mystery Blog is a place where I will keep you up to date on everything that is happening with The Mystery of the Third Lucretia.



So When Will the Next Book Be Published? PDF Print E-mail

Everybody asks.  I guess that's a good thing.  I now have an answer: The publication date for Rescuing Seneca Crane is June 25, 2009 -- my mother's 89th birthday!

And in more great news, my editor has indicated that Viking Children's Books wants another contract with me.  So there will be at least a third Kari and Lucas book, and I hope many more.  When people ask, "How many of these books do you want to write?"  I always respond, "One a year, until I die."

 
Reading on the Road PDF Print E-mail
When I was 10 years old, my family moved from Cottonwood, the little southwest Minnesota town where I was born, to Rapid City, which functions as the gateway to the absolutely gorgeous Black Hills of South Dakota.  My mother still lives there, as does my daughter.

A couple of weekends ago I made one of my frequent trips to the Hills, as we natives call them, this time for a family reunion.  Seeing my many cousins and their offspring was a treat, the weather could not have been better, and the site of the reunion was one of the most beautiful settings I've ever seen, right in the heart of the Black Hills.  Best of all was the opportunity for my mother and her only surviving sister, now both in their 80s, to tell stories from their past, growing up in a small farmhouse on prairie as part of a large family headed by Swedish immigrant parents.

But family reunions are interesting only to the families themselves, so let me tell you about another highlight of the trip out west: the chance to visit Rapid City's very first branch library, at General Beadle Elementary School.  I was scheduled to read from The Mystery of the Third Lucretia at 9:30 a.m. At 9:28 a.m. I had an audience of two.  At exactly 9:30 on the dot, in walk more than 20 girls, all enrolled in a summer program called Girls Inc., located just two blocks from the library.

Talking to these girls was great fun!  They were probably only eight and nine years old -- just a little young for my book, and I had to change one of the words in the first chapter to accommodate their age.  Those of you who have read the book might guess what word I'm talking about.  But they were terrific listeners -- well, all of the audience members were -- and when I finished reading, everyone had great questions that just kept coming.  And if all that weren't enough, KOTA TV showed up to do a story/interview.  And Rapid City Weekly sent somebody with a camera as well. According to the library newsletter, we ended up with a total of 28 audience members, not counting the reporters.  Quite the event!

The best moment came after the reading when one of the girls gave me a hug around the waist, and said, "You're the best reader ever!" What's not to like about this? 

Finally, a little bit about the library itself, which is definitely worth a mention.  General Beadle School is located in a lower-income section of Rapid City.  What was once just an ordinary brick school building is being rebuilt as an enormous, multi-block complex that will include not only classrooms and a public library branch, but a medical and dental clinic.  The goal is to make it a place where neighbors can come together and develop a real sense of community.  I think this is a fabulous idea!

Oh, and by the way, the librarians were terrific.  Full marks to them for making me feel so welcome.
 
Spending Time in Exotic Places PDF Print E-mail
One of the best things in my life is the amount of time I get to spend in wonderful international locations.  Sometimes I'm actually physically there.  More often I make the trip without leaving my office in Saint Paul.

Of course I'm referring to my hours writing about Kari and Lucas and their international adventures.  Over the past several months I've been spending enormous amounts of time in Scotland, the site of the next Kari and Lucas mystery, Rescuing Seneca Crane.

This book deals with the kidnapping of a young concert pianist and all that Kari and Lucas go through to rescue her.  The Scottish locations include Edinburgh and the Isle of Skye.  Wonderful places! 

I attended the Edinburgh Festival, where the book begins, in 2006.  That trip included scouting for locations in other parts of the country, including Glasgow, Inverness and the Isle of Skye.

On the magnificently scenic bus ride back through the Highlands from Skye to Glasgow, I discovered the hook that decided me on the Isle of Skye setting.  Our characters do pass through Inverness, but not long enough to appreciate the scenery – drat! because it's such a lovely place.  And they never make it to Glasgow, a city I would go back to in an instant because of its residents, the friendliest people I have encountered in my travels anywhere.

But back at home, actually filling in the story details, I came up with questions that needed to be answered about both cities. So last spring I was (cough!)  forced (cough!) to go back to Edinburgh for a few days, and to Skye for a slightly longer period, to check locations.  The trip also included a quick visit to Amsterdam to nail down details on three specific locations for The Mystery of the Third Lucretia, notably the Rijksmuseum.  In the period since I had finished the first draft of the book, someone -- without checking with me first! -- had decided to completely renovate the museum in ways that threw off descriptive passages in a number of chapters.

The resulting trip was possibly the most difficult I have ever undertaken -- far too much travel in far too short a time -- but the residue is marvelous.  My mind is full of brilliant pictures.  In Amsterdam I see canals beside which Kari and Lucas walked, the stops where they waited for the tram -- I even know what the signage at these tram stops looks like -- the legendary American Hotel, where Gillian and her friend Bill enjoyed a leisurely dinner while Kari and Lucas were up to no good. 

In Scotland I see the shoe department at Jenners department store in Edinburgh where I set a scene that ultimately did not fit in the book, and a path that snakes through the idyllic park that lies in Edinburgh's center -- site of another failed scene -- with its incomparable views of the cityscape that makes Edinburgh one of the most beautiful metropolitan areas in all of Europe.

In the past few days I have been spending a lot of time on Skye with three men in a fishing boat, based on a real experience on the stormy waters of Portree harbor looking for sea eagles.  And earlier this year I enjoyed many weeks in and around a medieval castle modeled on the grim and forbidding but utterly unforgettable Eilan Donan castle that stand on the mainland not far from the bridge to Skye.

There are many authors, thousands and thousands of them, who spend all of their time writing -- and, presumably, thinking -- about serial killers, dysfunctional families, grief and loss, jealousy, paranoia, revenge, and life on the mean streets.  I, on the other hand, spend my time writing and thinking about castles and museums and classical music concerts, and the shoe department at Jenners department store.  I'd rather have my job than theirs.

 
Sunday at the Art Institute PDF Print E-mail
sm.11361c.jpgSunday at the Minneapolis Institute of Arts was so much fun! My earlier blog entry talked about the context for my appearance, and the fact that my daughter was going to accompany me.  I mentioned that the signing was in conjunction with the museum's Art in Bloom extravaganza.  Well, before I start talking about my own activities that day, let me tell you more about the marvelous Art in Bloom event itself. 

The MIA, like many other museums around the country, hosts an annual event that pairs flower arrangements with items from the museum collection.  And not just paintings. There were floral arrangements throughout the building, created to illustrate or imitate works as diverse as a guitar, an Art Nouveau lamp, and a car built in Czechoslovakia in the 1930s!  If you live where you can go see one of these exhibits, take my advice and don't miss it. 

On this, the final day of the four-day Art in Bloom event, the place was packed with visitors. My daughter and I got to the museum early and had some professional photos taken in front of Lucretia, which should be really great for the website.  Then we spent more than an hour wandering through the galleries in utter amazement at the beauty and sheer artistry of the floral contributions.  And if you're wondering, yes, we spent a lot of time making our usual decisions about what we would take from each room when we began our life of crime.

Then it was time to get started with a real business of the day.  I was scheduled to sign at 2:00.  I arrived 15 minutes early to get everything arranged, only to face a circle of sweet and hopeful people, each clutching one or two of my books, who quickly formed themselves into a line.  Many mentioned they had been attracted by this Star Tribune newspaper article from Saturday:

http://www.startribune.com/entertainment/1 8489404.html

I started signing immediately, and the line simply kept going without a break for 20 solid minutes.  Business remained brisk until we left at about 3:15.

I had great fun chatting with a number of adults, but my best time was spent with the young people who had come to get my book.  I'm discovering I really like my readers!  One highlight of the day was when Carmen, a girl of probably 11 or 12 and the daughter of the museum's director of external affairs,  came in to have me sign the copy I'd given her mom.  Carmen told me she'd already read the book once and she loved it so much she was going to start reading it the second time that afternoon!  It's so fun to get this positive feedback from the kid readers themselves.  Several buyers said they'd heard about the book from people who had already read it, some of whom were  young readers.  So the buzz seems to be good.

To my great regret, it did not occur to me until the event was almost over to remind the young people buying the book to go up and see the Lucretia painting.  When I did start mentioning this, I was amazed to find how few actually remembered having seen the work.  Unfortunately, the Art Institute does not have a poster available of that particular painting.  I'm going to have to find some vendor who can send me a large reproduction I can show those who attend events where I appear.  Kari and Lucas may be the young sleuths in my book, but Lucretia is the real star!
 
Fan mail PDF Print E-mail
Today I got what has to be one of the coolest pieces of fan mail ever, and I want to share it!  It was from someone named Jamie--I'm not sure if that's a girl or a boy--and it read in part like this:

"Dear Susan I love your book The Mystery of the third Lucretia. It might be the best book I ever read. Anyway is your next book really going to be released summer of 2008? Oh I cant wait till then. That means I will have to wait for it for the next year. Which i am not the best at waiting. So I hope that maybe your book will come earlier. ...Keep writing and typing.  One of your fans, Jamie."

Jamie also made a couple of great suggestions of places where I might set future Kari and Lucas mysteries. 

I've found that my life hasn't changed much since I've become an author. For me it's been absolutely great fun to have my book come out, and I'm busy going to signing events and writing blog entries like this one and editing my next book and thinking about the next one after that.  But I still have the same friends and I do the same things I did before.  I still have to clean out the kitty litter and do the grocery shopping and rake the leaves out of my lawn. 

But one thing that's different is getting fan mail.  I've gotten another few messages through my website, and I've very much enjoyed them.  But this is the first one from a kid. And I really loved it!  Thank you, Jamie!
 
Back to the Beginning at the Art Institute PDF Print E-mail
It is fitting that my very first blog entry as a published author should take me--and, for that matter, my readers--back to the beginning, with a visit with my daughter, Annalisa, to the Minneapolis Institute of Arts (also called the MIA, also called the Art Institute).

Tomorrow, May 4, is the final day in the museum's 25th annual Art in Bloom celebration, which features really glorious flower arrangements paired with works on display in the museum.  And beginning at 2:00, as part of this event, Annalisa and I will be signing copies of THE MYSTERY OF THE THIRD LUCRETIA.

One of the most exciting things that's happened in connection with the publication of the book has been the enthusiasm for it among the Art Institute staff and volunteers. As you know if you've read it, or even simply read about it, the story begins with a scene in the Art Institute involving one of the greatest masterpieces in the MIA collection: Rembrandt's depiction of the Roman heroine Lucretia.  During the course of the action, Kari and Lucas, the book's two young sleuths, also visit London's National Gallery, the British Museum, and the Rijksmuseum in  Amsterdam.  In each one of these places they look at and respond to the art on display.

Mostly, THE MYSTERY OF THE THIRD LUCRETIA is meant to be just a fun book for kids--an exciting mystery that young readers can enjoy.  But one of the things I was trying to do with the book was to write about ordinary kids who feel at home in museums and who respond very naturally and directly to art, the way my daughter did when she was their age.   I really wanted to break down the barrier that somehow divides too many people, especially people in this country, from the beauty and power of art.

The people at the Art Institute saw this theme, liked it, and were kind enough to invite me to sign books on the final day of Art in Bloom.  And what makes this even better is that Annalisa is going to be there with me!  If you've read my bio, you know that my daughter's response to Rembrandt's Lucretia paintings (there's another one that hangs in the National Gallery in Washington, DC) was a huge influence in the creation of this book.  So to have her there—to have the two of us together at the signing amidst this popular museum event—is bringing our story full circle.

In the morning, before the museum opens to the public, we'll be up in front of the Lucretia painting having some pictures taken by Ann Marsden, the very talented photographer who took the picture of me that's on this site.  I can't wait to see how the photos turn out!  The best ones will go up on my website, susanrunholt.com.  Then, in the hours before the signing begins, Annalisa and I will tour the galleries and enjoy the art on display.  And as we do so we'll play our old game: in every room we go into, we'll each decide which work of art we're going to take for ourselves "when we begin our life of crime."  And we'll have fun, like we always do when we go to a museum together.