Lauren Carr, Author of the Mac Faraday Mysteries

We are delighted to welcome back crime novelist Lauren Carr.

Lauren is the author of two mystery series — with a third to come. Her most recent book is a "Mac Faraday" mystery, Shades of Murder (Acorn Book Services, May 2012 trade paperback and ebook editions).

Today Lauren tells us about her path to intrigue and mayhem. In addition to the contest she mentions within her post, she's also giving one of our readers a chance to win a copy of her new mystery; details below.

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How did you get started as an author? What was your first professional job as a writer? These are questions that authors are often asked by readers who are curious about what puts a seemingly normal person on the path to getting paid for writing about intrigue and mayhem.

Photo provided courtesy of
Lauren Carr

So, here is my story about what put me on my current path of writing about chaos, deception, and mayhem.

Back when I was in high school, students aspiring to go on to college took college preparatory classes, while those planning to go straight into working at the General Motors plant that employed most of Lordstown, Ohio, population and then some, didn't.

Since I had no intention of spending my life chained to an assembly line, but rather traveling the world writing murder mysteries like Agatha Christie, I took the college prep classes. I found one problem with this path. While I was studying how to format footnotes, those students training to work for General Motors were learning creative writing. For a future novelist, this seemed vastly unfair.

My friend Suzanne was the class mouse. Resembling Velma in Scooby Doo, she wore turtle neck sweaters that covered up all her flesh for fear of someone actually seeing her. Donning big coke bottle glasses, she would hide behind me in class and chastise me for raising my hand to answer questions because when people turned to look at me, they might actually see her cowering behind me.

So, you can imagine her state when she was informed that the term project for her creative writing class was to write a short story and read it out loud in front of the class.

Just in case you can't imagine: Suzanne fainted.

For weeks, my best friend fretted and whined while I drooled with envy. They got to use their imaginations while I was studying all the parts of a bibliography.

I tried to help her as best I could. I'd suggest, "Write about something interesting that happened to you."

"Nothing interesting ever happens to me," Suzanne would reply.

She was right there. The girl went to school and then home to watch reruns of The Brady Bunch. She wasn't allowed to watch The Partridge Family, which her mother considered too racy. She didn't go to school games, date, or leave her yard. This teenage girl had never even been to a pajama party or kissed a boy. Having never experienced anything, she had no material for a story.

As the deadline approached, Suzanne became more desperate while I got more jealous. "Write about your dog's flea problem."

"How can I write a whole story about my dog's fleas?" she asked.

My writer's imagination took off.

By the time D-Day arrived, Suzanne had nothing except hives.

I submitted a proposal for my first professional writing assignment. "Do you want me to write your story for you?"

"It's due after lunch," Suzanne whimpered.

"You go get my lunch and I'll write it."

With a deadline of one study hall and lunch period, I wrote her story. Suzanne paid for the project with a cheeseburger, fries, and diet Coke. Time was so short that she didn't even have time to read it before the teacher ordered her to the front of the room to read it out loud.

To her horror, the class roared with laughter while she read her short story about a girl tasked with writing a short story for her creative writing class. It was a story within a story. Her first story idea had been one about her dog's fleas, but she rejected that idea for yet another and then another idea until the deadline was upon her. Having rejected all other premises, she sat down to pen her short story entitled, "My Dog Has Fleas."

My classmates talked about it for days. They declared it hilarious and clever. Stating that it was unique, imaginative and well written, Suzanne's teacher gave my story an "A".

Suzanne ran home to lock her door, watch a rerun of Bonanza, and never spoke to me again. (There's always one critic.)

The rave reviews of the class and teacher spurred me on to write mysteries. This is what writers do. When the chips are down, we look to our successes to keep us going on the path we want to take toward literary success. While "My dog Has Fleas" wasn't a big assignment that garnered a big payoff, I clung to that little story and the praise from the audience to this day

Over three decades later, I am now the author of six murder mysteries.

Contest!

Until the end of July, readers can enter a contest to name the murder victim in Dead on Ice.

From June 1-July 31, I am holding a contest to Name the Porn Star! The winner will win autographed copies of all three Mac Faraday Mysteries, and a copy of Dead on Ice, which will be released Fall 2012. (E-pub or print, winner's choice. Print versions are only available for winners in the US)

This fall, Dead on Ice, the first installment in a new series entitled the "Lovers in Crime Mystery", will be released. This book brings back Joshua Thornton and Cameron Gates, who we first meet in Shades of Murder.

In Dead on Ice, Cameron Gates is tasked with solving the murder of a missing porn star. The case has a personal connection to Joshua because the star's mummified body is found in an abandoned freezer in his cousin's basement.

It doesn't take long for their investigation to reveal that the risqué Hollywood legend's roots were buried in their small rural town, something that she had kept off her show business bio. She should have kept it off her road map, too. Because when this starlet came running home from the mob in 1985, it proved to be a fatal homecoming.

The contest is to provide both a stage name (naughty is okay, but it must be clean) and the real name of the murder victim in Dead on Ice. E-mail your suggestions to me (writerlaurencarr@comcast.net). Put Name the Porn Star in the subject line. Please include contact information, including mailing address and phone number.

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Lauren Carr fell in love with mysteries when her mother read Perry Mason to her at bedtime. The first installment in the Joshua Thornton mysteries, A Small Case of Murder was a finalist for the Independent Publisher Book Award. A Reunion to Die For was released in hardback in June 2007. Both of these books are in re-release.

Lauren is also the author of the Mac Faraday Mysteries, which takes place in Deep Creek Lake, Maryland. The first two books in this series are It's Murder, My Son and Old Loves Die Hard.

Lauren's sixth book, Dead on Ice, will be released in Fall 2012. Dead on Ice will introduce a new series entitled "Lovers in Crime", in which Joshua Thornton will join forces with homicide detective Cameron Gates.

The owner of Acorn Book Services, Lauren is also a publishing manager, consultant, editor, cover and layout designer, and marketing agent for independent authors. This spring, two books written by independent authors will be released through the management of Acorn Book Services.

She lives with her husband, son, and two dogs on a mountain in Harpers Ferry, WV.

You can visit with Lauren online at her website MysteryLady.net, her blog Literary Wealth, or on Facebook. And while on Facebook check out Gnarly's page!

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About Shades of Murder:

Question: What do you get the man with everything? Answer: When that man is the heir of the late mystery writer Robin Spencer, retired homicide detective Mac Faraday, you get him cold case to solve.

Mac Faraday is the heir to an unbelievable fortune. This time the benefactor is a stolen art collector. But this isn't just any stolen work-of-art — it's a masterpiece with a murder attached to it. Ilysa Ramsay was in the midst of taking the art world by storm with her artistic genius. Hours after unveiling her latest masterpiece — she is found dead in her Deep Creek Lake studio—and her painting is nowhere to be found.

Almost a decade later, the long lost Ilysa Ramsay masterpiece has found its way into Mac Faraday's hands and he can't resist the urge to delve into the case.

A world away, in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania; former JAG lawyer Joshua Thornton agrees to do a favor for the last person he would ever expect to do a favor — a convicted serial killer. The Favor: Solve the one murder wrongly attributed to him. Joshua finds an unexpected ally in Cameron Gates, a spunky detective who has reason to believe the young woman known to the media only as Jane Doe, Victim Number Four, was the victim of a copycat. Together, Joshua and Cameron set out to light a flame under the cold case only to find that someone behind the scenes wants the case to remain cold, and is willing to kill to keep it that way.

Little do these detectives know that the paths of their respective cases are on a collision course when they follow the clues to bring them together in a showdown with a killer who's got a talent for murder!

For a chance to win a copy of Shades of Murder, courtesy of the author, visit Mystery Book Contests, click on the "Lauren Carr: Mac Faraday Mysteries" contest link, enter your name, e-mail address, and this code — 8110 — for a chance to win! (One entry per person; contest ends July 20th, 2012.)