Fun interview with Lori Rader-Day and Layne Fargo, in which we discuss the different Chicagos in our books.

Day job meets night job! Nice mention of the creative writing workshop I recently ran at Northwestern University Summer Writer's Conference in Pioneer Press.

The launch of MURDER KNOCKS TWICE has been such a whirlwind!  But I do enjoy meeting readers at my book events, and telling new stories about my research and writing.
I've also had the chance to write a few blog posts on different aspects of my research and writing. Here are a few:

• "The Real Canary Murder Case of 1929 at Criminal Element, in which I discuss a rather odd murder of a bird
  
• A Day in the Life of Gina Ricci, over at Dru's Book Musings  What's it like to work in a speakeasy anyway?
• The Page 69 Test over at Marshal Zeringue's blog, where I discuss the meaning of what is found on that page
• The 1920s fascination with slang--Why were people in the 1920s so fascinated by it? Over at Grammar Girl
• An interview about how I wrote Murder Knocks Twice, over at Writers at Work

There's a funny thing about persistence that writers often talk about. We talk about continuing despite the odds, mustering up the courage to keep writing even when things get hard, just pushing on even when the outcome is not known.

This is what I felt with MURDER KNOCKS TWICE, and how moving it has been for me to see this book out in the world.

The journey of MURDER KNOCKS TWICE began about nine years ago. I was still querying--unsuccessfully--what would become the first novel in my new series--A MURDER AT ROSAMUND'S GATE. I kept getting rejected by agents, and I thought, 'Maybe I need to set aside this seventeenth-century novel, and try my hand at something different." (For the more complete journey of the first series, check out my post in HOW IT HAPPENED on the Thrill Begins).

Even though I'm a British historian by training, for many years I've been teaching a graduate course on the History and Philosophy of Higher Education. On several occasions, I had found my way to the amazing archives at my university, and I began to think about setting my book on a college campus (much like mine) in 1930 Chicago. I was interested in college rituals and the role of the first women in college. 

I wrote about 200 pages of this book, which featured a young Egyptian woman named Shani, and her sidekick gum-cracking roommate Gina Ricci.  I thought,  this is going to be my new thing. My new historic period, my new world.

But then, an interesting thing happened.

That seventeenth-century novel ended up selling, and I ended up writing four books in that series (and will have a fifth out next year). So I set aside my 1930s Chicago novel, and it went in the DRAWER.

But then, a few years ago, when my publisher asked me about a new series, I came back to that drawer and made an interesting discovery. The sidekick roommate was really the star of the book, and I moved her out of college, and into a West side Chicago speakeasy.  Most of those 200 pages were scrapped, but the idea of the story remained. I wrote the first part without a contract, and then it was picked up.

So there's a lesson in there, for me at least, about persisting even when the outcome is not known. The persistence was helped by loving the world that I was creating for my characters. I mean, speakeasies....cocktails....murder...?

Every writer I know is regularly asked, "Where do you get your ideas?" Some authors love this question, some hate it. For me, I'm somewhere in between.

With my very first novel, A MURDER AT ROSAMUND'S GATE, I was essentially answering a set of questions that had come to me while I was studying murder ballads as a graduate student (as one does!) So, back then, it was super easy and fun to answer.
With my new series, the ideas came to me differently, so my response is no longer so pat. But I am regularly inspired by 1920s newspapers.

Obviously the newspaper is a great way to learn about what's going on in the neighborhood where I set my Chicago speakeasy, providing a useful level of detail. But more importantly,  this kind of event can also be so inspiring--WHY would someone bomb an ice cream parlor?

(Stay tuned--I answer that question in the second Speakeasy Murders)

And of course, the headlines reveal other interesting things about Chicago culture. This kind of headline, "Bare legs not immoral," is exactly the kind of thing I will stop to read. It gives a lot of nuance to our understanding of the "New Woman," and this is the kind of detail that will find its way into my story.

(Wow, that was unintentional cliffhanger! I thought I had published the actual content, but nope, I did not). So drumroll please....

...And the winning cocktail name is...

.....the HOTSY TOTSY!
Congrats to Kristopher Zygorski...the ARC of MURDER KNOCKS TWICE is on its way!

Thanks very much to all who submitted cocktail names for my contest. I had an unofficial panel of judges, but asked my next door neighbor and former bartender Lisa McCaw to make the final selection.  We all agreed it seemed fun, and captures the spirit of my book really well!

Next up...figuring out the ingredients!!!

Here's the official blurb, if you need inspiration:

The first mystery in Susanna Calkins’ captivating new series takes readers into the dark, dangerous, and glittering underworld of a 1920s Chicago speakeasy.
Gina Ricci takes on a job as a cigarette girl to earn money for her ailing father―and to prove to herself that she can hold her own at Chicago’s most notorious speakeasy, the Third Door. She’s enchanted by the harsh, glamorous world she discovers: the sleek socialites sipping bootlegged cocktails, the rowdy ex-servicemen playing poker in a curtained back room, the flirtatious jazz pianist and the brooding photographer―all overseen by the club’s imposing owner, Signora Castallazzo. But the staff buzzes with whispers about Gina’s predecessor, who died under mysterious circumstances, and the photographer, Marty, warns her to be careful.

When Marty is brutally murdered, with Gina as the only witness, she’s determined to track down his killer. What secrets did Marty capture on his camera―and who would do anything to destroy it? As Gina searches for answers, she’s pulled deeper into the shadowy truths hiding behind the Third Door.

Thanks for your help! You're the Bee's Knees!!!! (but don't name your drink that--that name is taken! As is Corpse Reviver, Southside, Sidecar, Ward 8 (whatever that is)...

Without further fanfare...the cover of MURDER KNOCKS TWICE! I think it's gorgeous! Nice write-up in Criminal Element too!