OMN Welcomes Mystery Author Lynda Fitzgerald

Omnimystery News is pleased to welcome Lynda Fitzgerald, author of the "LIVE" mysteries featuring investigative reporter Allie Granger. The second book in the series, LIVE Ammo (Crystal Dreams Publishing, April 2012 Trade Paperback), is published this April.

Today Lynda writes about her inspiration, a muse who wore a silk scarf ― or was it seaweed? And she's giving our readers an opportunity to win two of her books; details below.

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What makes a mystery writer? In my case, it was pure chance. Or that's how it seemed to me.

Until that August day about a dozen years or so ago, I considered myself a multi-genre author, which is a polite way to say I wrote whatever grabbed my attention at the moment. Women's fiction. Romantic suspense. Short stories and poetry. Articles.

Photo provided courtesy of
Lynda Fitzgerald

Back to that late summer day. I'm originally a Florida girl, and I'm often inspired by the ocean, which is probably why I spend every vacation in Brevard County, home of the Kennedy Space Center. My favorite part of the county is that thirty or forty mile stretch of A1A between Cape Canaveral and Sebastian Inlet, a narrow barrier island sandwiched between the Atlantic Ocean and the Indian River. In some spots, the island is so narrow that you can stand on the dunes above the beach and clearly see sailboats bobbing in the Indian River. Much of the area is a wildlife sanctuary. Heaven, except maybe during a hurricane.

That August day, I'd made the half-hour trek north to Cape Canaveral from Melbourne Beach, where I was staying for a week. It was mid-afternoon. The sun was scorching the back of my neck, but perched on one of the granite boulders form the Cape Canaveral jetty, I was mesmerized as I watched the water at my feet swirl around the rocks. Then I saw something floating toward me on the incoming waves. It had that dead, grayish look of a fish floating belly up, but as it grew nearer, I realized it was an arm ― attached to the body of a woman whose long blonde hair undulated just beneath the water's murky surface. A colorful scarf was tied around her throat. The same scarf that killed her?

No, it really was a fish with a bit of seaweed caught on one of its fins. Yeah, fanciful, but, that's the stuff of fiction. I sat there another half hour as the sun blistered my poor freckled skin, thinking about that woman. Who was she? Who killed her and why? This is how mystery authors amuse themselves.

I was in the midst of writing my third book then, If Truth Be Told, so I had to shelve the idea for a while. That doesn't mean, however, that I put it totally out of my mind. Many times, I found myself pondering the mystery woman's background, her friends and enemies.

Although I didn't begin LIVE Ringer until a few years later, the series was born that day. LIVE Ringer came out in 2010, and I love it, warts and all. Most readers who contacted me through my website complain about two things ― the book is too short and they read too late into the night because they couldn't put it down, complaints any author will listen to with glee. LIVE Ammo comes out this year, and LIVE in Person should be released late this fall or early 2013.

"LIVE" is one of those series that's a continuing story with the same characters, and that's as I think a series should be. A lot of authors might disagree with me, but I think the purpose of a series is to not just involve your characters in different situations, but to have them develop from what they experience. That's my take, at least.

When you first meet Allie Grainger, she's reeling from a nasty divorce (her husband had the face of Adonis and the morals of an alley cat) and the death of her favorite aunt, a unique character who left Allie her beach house in Cape Canaveral, the same house where Allie spent all her childhood summers, and a couple of million dollars. Oh, and a dog, a Lhasa Apso named Spook who's afraid of everyone and everything. Much like Allie herself. Neither has much self-esteem, but as life slaps them around, they each begin to grow and change. It's that growth that motivates me to write fiction.

As the first story developed, so did the other characters, until they took on lives and loves of their own. To me, their development is as important as Allie's own. Sheryl, her gorgeous childhood friend-turned-cop (think Sophia Loren meets Rambo), is a somewhat minor character in LIVE Ringer, but she plays a huge role in the subsequent books. Oh, the things I intend to do to Sheryl!

See, my fiction is character-driven, which means the characters drive the plot rather than being puppets at the mercy of the plot. The characters are everything to me, and they become real people in my life. How real? I was down in Cape Canaveral in October and half expected to run into Allie and Sheryl ― and I was disappointed when I didn't. Then there was the day when, not thinking, I told someone I had a friend with a Lhasa Apso. Sigh … What can you do? If you want those characters to be real to your reader, they first have to be real to you.

So that's me, the Accidental Mystery Writer. These days, I'm not multi-genre because everything I write is mystery. Heck, everything I think is mystery. Maybe I was a mystery writer all along and just "found" myself. Or … Okay. Enough speculation. I'll probably never know, and sometimes you have to agree to let a mystery remain just that.

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Lynda Fitzgerald is an author, teacher and speaker. Her debut novel, If Truth Be Told, was released in June, 2007. Of Words & Music, her second, came out in March of 2009, and her mystery series "LIVE" was launched in Spring 2010 with the release of LIVE Ringer. LIVE Ammo followed in 2012, with LIVE in Person due out in early spring 2013. Although she spent much of her life in central Florida, Lynda now lives in Snellville, GA, a small town just east of Atlanta, with her three rescue dogs. Check out her website FitzgeraldWrites.com for more about Lynda and her books, including excerpts from each and some beautiful pictures of the area where her books are set.

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About LIVE Ammo:

Sheriff Cord Arbutten's wife is dead, an apparent suicide, but his grown son claims she was murdered — by the Sheriff. Rand Arbutten, an attorney who hates his father, vows he's going to prove it. When it comes to light that she was killed with the Sheriff's old service revolver right in the middle of a nasty divorce, the Governor suggests that Cord think about stepping down. Suddenly, the Sheriff is faced with losing everything, possibly including his freedom.

Investigative reporter Allie Grainger gets involved when her best friend Sheryl, a Sheriff's Deputy, begs her to help. Allie barely knows the Sheriff, but she knows that Sheryl greatly respects him and that her deceased aunt, who worked for him for over twenty years, believed he was an honorable man. That's enough for her.

Repeated clashes with the Sheriff's son only make Allie more determined to discover the truth. Rand sets out to block Allie at every turn. When anger doesn't work, he turns on the charm, charm that gets to Allie a lot more than she's willing to admit.

Sidney Finch, a Sheriff's Deputy who idolizes the Sheriff, doesn't use charm to impede her investigation. He uses naked threats. Allie has to ask herself who he's trying to protect — the Sheriff or himself? She isn't sure how far Sidney will go to stop her, but since he has a hair-trigger temper and carries a gun, she absolutely doesn't want to find out.

Then Rand Arbutten agrees to work with Allie instead of against her. She isn't sure of his motives, but she'll take any help she can get. With her dead aunt whispering encouragement in her ear and Sheryl egging her on, Allie sets out to discover what really happened the day Jean Arbutten died.

For a chance to win a copy of both books in the "LIVE" series, LIVE Ringer and LIVE Ammo, visit Mystery Book Contests, click on the Lynda Fitzgerald: The LIVE Series contest link, enter your name, e-mail address, and this code (5098) for a chance to win! (One entry per person; contest ends 02/15/2012.)