If you are a mystery, thriller, or suspense writer, you owe it to yourself to join Sisters in Crime. Not only does the organization provide workshops and conferences to support the craft of writing, but the networking opportunities and the fellow authors you meet provide soul support as well.
It was through our New England chapter that I met today's blog guest, Sharon Healy-Yang. Sharon is passionate about her writing and does what I really love in a good mystery: She does her homework to get her details right.
Sharon's second book is out and I had a chance to ask her about why she chose to write about a sassy female protagonist and set her in America during World War II. Read on!
Why write about Jessica and WWII?
I've always been a huge fan
of the late thirties through the 1940s: the clothes, the hair, the music and
dancing, films, and mystery novels (though not so hot on the racism and
sexism). I especially love how the women in most of the mysteries and comedies
were bright, witty, independent, and innovative. Joan Bennett, Rosalind
Russell, Barbara Stanwyck, Bette Davis, Claire Trevor, and Joan Crawford were
some of my favorite fast-talking gals. They could track down the villain, solve
the crime, and be back in time to scoop all the other reporters or the cops -
and in spectator pumps, too!
I also loved the clever dialogue, the dark
ambience, and the plots that twisted and turned more torturously than the
back-street settings of these films. So, since I could never find enough old
films to satisfy my hunger, I decided to write up my own. And I had a ball
casting them like an old movie. In Dead Man: Joan Bennett and Rosalind
Russell as the wise-alec sisters Jessica and Liz; Clair Trevor as the deadly and
sardonic femme fatale; Brian Aherne as the smooth, mysterious Evan Blair;
and Fred MacMurray as a the skeptical, experienced cop. Dusty, of course, comes
from a more recent vintage and embodies a clever puss that used to own my
family. But what's a mystery without a smart-meowing cat?
LETTERS FROM A DEAD MAN:
Spring 1945: WWII may be crashing to a close, but Jessica and Liz Minton’s hopes
for the future are short-lived as they become entrapped in a noir world of
intrigue and murder. Jessica’s beloved is missing in action in Europe, leaving
her on her own to save herself and those she cares about from the shadows of a
dark past entangling them in false identities, a cut-throat search for stolen
jade, and murder. Join Jessica and Liz as they strive to restore a friend’s
family honor, to save Elizabeth’s love from the deadly frame-up of a predatory
socialite with underworld connections, to outsmart two dogged detectives, and to
deal with an F.B.I. agent from Jessica’s past with secrets of his own - all
without getting themselves killed! It’s enough to make Dusty the cat’s fur stand
on end!More about Sharon:
Sharon Healy-Yang is passionate about mysteries from the golden age, whether in a book or on the screen. Her fascination with mysteries and the 1940s drives her pleasure in crafting novels that recapture the wit, adventure, and suspense of the era. Known on the campus where she teaches as the lady with the 1940s hats, she has the great fortune to combine her love of literature and film in courses aimed to enkindle that same excitement in her students. Healy-Yang lives in Massachusetts with her husband, two cats, and an enormous collection of vintage films.
Sharon's website contains not only descriptions of the novels and where to buy them but lots of fun stuff like reviews of Sharon's avorite tea rooms across the Northeast by state; reviews of her favorite golden age mystery authors and authors who set their novels in the gold age; similar pages for video golden age mysteries; links to various interviews she's done; a "What's new page"; a page of upcoming appearances and events; and blogs of photo essays that range across subjects like her travel, nature, gardening, her glorious cats, latest appearances, and the art in cemeteries.
You can find Letter from a Dead Man:
Letter from a Dead Man is available at Booklover’s Gourmet (Webster, MA)
Look for Sharon's first book, Bait and Switch at:
