A Conversation with Mystery Authors Rosemary and Larry Mild

with Rosemary
and Larry Mild

We are delighted to welcome mystery authors Rosemary and Larry Mild to Omnimystery News today.

Rosemary and Larry write two series, and their most recent book in the second of these, Death Takes a Mistress (Magic Island Literary Works; August 2014 trade paperback and ebook formats), featuring booksellers Dan and Rivka Sherman, was recently published.

We recently had the chance to catch up with the busy duo to talk a little more about their books.

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Omnimystery News: Tell us more about your series mysteries.

Photo provided courtesy of
Rosemary and Larry Mild

Rosemary Mild (with Larry chiming in): We have two novel series. In both, the protagonists are very individual and very human. They're not static from book to book. They deepen in character and decision-making — and their foibles — because they are affected by the dangers, conflicts, and emotions that come with pursuing villains and solving cases.

Let's start with our first series, the Paco and Molly Mysteries: Locks and Cream Cheese, Hot Grudge Sunday, and Boston Scream Pie. Paco and Molly are drawn from real life. The real Molly was my psychoanalyst father's housekeeper/gourmet cook. My father kept a secret list of all her clever sayings, which we call "Mollyprops." She says "I have to take my calcium so I don't get osteoferocious." She was a born snoop, who knew the secrets of every family member and friend. The fictional Molly's snooping skills prove to be of great help to Paco. In Locks and Cream Cheese she overwaters all the plants (leaving white rings) and overfeeds Dr. Avi Kepple's golden retriever, who lunches on filet mignon and scalloped potatoes. All of this is true to the real-life Molly. Both she and my father have passed away, but we're delighted to have immortalized them.

The real-life Paco was Inspector Garcia Garcia Garcia, a guest aboard a U.S. Navy ship in Barcelona, Spain. Larry was a field engineer for RCA aboard that ship, and he engaged the inspector in a long, lively conversation, which brought out many anecdotes of the man's work as a police detective. In Locks and Cream Cheese, Larry turned him into Paco LeSoto, a semi-retired Baltimore police detective.

Our passion is bringing our characters to life. In Locks and Cream Cheese, Paco and Molly fall in love. She woos him with her divine cooking. In Hot Grudge Sunday they're married and on their honeymoon at the national parks out West. They'd rather smooch than sleuth, but conspirators and thieves on the tour bus change all that. In Boston Scream Pie, a shocking tale of twins, Molly is thrust into her most life-threatening confrontation. Paco begins to feel his age when he tries to heft roly-poly Molly out of a car.

Our brand-new series introduces the Dan and Rivka Sherman Mysteries: Death Goes Postal and Death Takes A Mistress. (Death Steals A Holy Book will come out next year.) Dan and Rivka leave their professional careers: he as an engineer, she as an editor, to buy The Olde Victorian Bookstore in historic Annapolis, Maryland. They anticipate a safe, normal life. Instead, they're embroiled in the fallout of a mugging, burglary, kidnapping — and murder. But every day they cuddle, analyze, argue, and investigate on their way to exposing imposters and criminals. Dan and Rivka's personalities are very much like Larry's and mine. The review in Bitten by Books said: "They're a great couple, as well as dedicated crime solvers. Their relationship with one another is adorable and realistic, two things I think a lot of novels miss."

We also published a series of short stories with the same main character in Mysterical-E mystery magazine on-line. Now we've published the eight stories in one fetching little volume: The Misadventures of Slim O. Wittz, Soft-Boiled Detective. He's a spoof on the hard-boiled male detectives of the 1930s and '40s; always getting into himself trouble and still catching the crooks.

OMN: When developing a story for a new book, how do you decide (a) if it will be a series mystery, and (b) which characters to feature?

LM: The series decision always rests with the reception a character has received in the first book. I write our first drafts after extensive back and forth discussions with Rosemary. These discussions end with my writing a five- to ten-page statement of work and a character list. My first-draft characters are skeletal and the scenes are sketchy. This is where Rosemary re-enters the picture, personalizes both people and places, and makes everything come alive.

RM: When I met Larry twenty-eight years ago, I had no idea how to write fiction. Here I was, divorced, out on a blind date. As he was driving me home, he announced: "When I retire, I'm going to write a novel and I want you to help me." Now neither of us had ever written a word of fiction, and I had only known this man for four hours! So I chirped, "Okay!" We married the following year, but it was seven years later that we started writing together. Larry retired and, with his typical gusto, wrote the first draft of the novel he'd dreamed about, a suspense-thriller set in Hawaii called Cry Ohana, ohana meaning "family". Then he handed me his 450-page manuscript and said, "Okay, your turn." Yikes! We cut our fiction teeth on this stand-alone novel. We were actually in a good place, literally, to write it. We spent twenty years as winter "snowbirds" in Honolulu, where we have family. It took us years to write Cry Ohana and during that time we became quite local. All the settings are authentic and familiar. Fresh Fiction for Today's Reader said: "You can almost feel the island breezes. This is an uplifting tale of family and love."

OMN: Larry explained a bit about your writing process. How would you describe writing together?

RM: Sometimes I throw a new trait into a character. And that can have consequences: like derailing the plot line. So I have to watch out. Larry's very romantic, so in Cry Ohana the teenage sister, Leilani, has a sweet, uncomplicated romance. I thought it was icky sweet, so I made her feisty and independent — but still lovable. And occasionally I'll change a character's name. When we "negotiate" (sometimes with sleeves rolled up!) Larry says "Who dat?"

OMN: As a couple, do you believe you have an advantage in writing both male and female characters?

RM: Being a husband-and-wife writing team gives us an advantage. We can not only choose to write about either gender, we can choose to make a couple our protagonists, which we have done in both of our murder mystery series. Though the detective (Sam) in the Copper and Goldie short story series is male, his exceptional golden retriever is female and very story-relevant — another couple, you might say.

OMN: Where do you usually find yourselves writing?

RM: We write back to back on our dueling computers in our "office": the second bedroom of our Honolulu apartment.

OMN: Into which mystery subgenre do you place your series?

RM: Our two novel series are cozies: following the Agatha Christie, "Murder, She Wrote" tradition of intrigue, puzzles, and humor. No explicit sex, torture, or gory murder scenes. Cry Ohana has a prostitute who plays a major role in the plot, and we do include a steamy sex scene. And regarding torture in fiction (and on TV): I consider it disgusting! (Larry is only slightly more tolerant. But he does like macho books and is more tough-minded by far than I am.)

OMN: Tell us something about Death Takes a Mistress that isn't mentioned in the synopsis.

RM: Lainee — age twenty-three, naïve, and vulnerable — has a long, sensual affair in London with a married man. He pays for her apartment, showers her with gifts, and visits her four or five times a week, never on weekends. Logic should tell her he's a dead end. She never learns his real name or where he lives and works; or even if he has children. But passion drives her to accept him as the love of her life, revealing all in her diary. When she gets pregnant, she's murdered.

OMN: How do you go about researching the plot points of your stories? Have you come across any particularly exciting or challenging topics?

RM: Hawaii is the most exciting topic because we're living it. We've consulted the police in two states; used the Internet for details; and collected dozens of Honolulu newspaper articles for descriptions of festivals, ethnic traditions, crimes, etc. Larry did extensive research for Death Goes Postal, about rare printing relics dating back to Gutenberg. In Locks and Cream Cheese he made up a beautiful historical subplot about star-crossed lovers, just drawn from all the historical novels he'd ever read.

OMN: How true would you say you are to the settings of your books?

RM: In Hot Grudge Sunday, we took the same bus tour as Paco and Molly out West, but we reversed the itinerary so the most dramatic scene is at the most thrilling locale. We used our memories, maps, tour books to make every locale authentic. We also consulted a Yellowstone park ranger.

We lived in Severna Park, Maryland, north of Annapolis, for many years. Black Rain Corners is fictional, on the Chesapeake Bay, but both our series combined fictional and real setting details, such as a chase scene in historic Annapolis.

OMN: If we could send you anywhere in the world to research the setting for a book, where would it be?

RM: We have already traveled extensively throughout North America, Asia, the South Pacific, Western Europe, and the Middle East. That research has found its way into many of our short stories. We would love to take one of the Rhine cruises for pleasure. Who knows what might wind up in a future story.

OMN: What are some of your outside interests?

RM: I've been going to Jazzercise for 26 years; it satisfies my suppressed desire to be a Rockette! Our other interests? Swimming, reading, movies, the theater and opera; Sunday night dinners at a restaurant with our family. We love walking at Magic Island — overlooking Diamond Head, the skyline, and ocean; it's the small peninsula off Ala Moana Beach Park. That's why we call our ourselves Magic Island Literary Works.

OMN: What is the best advice you've received as authors?

LM: "Write! Write! Write! And get on with it." "Get with the program." Excuse the clichés, please.

RM: Larry's advice is based on the course we taught at a Maryland community college in Continuing Education, "Advice for Wannabe Writers":

1. Above all, get something, anything, down on paper. Your story is the primary concern. Save the rules for writing it until you have a complete draft.
2. Don't be intimidated, first drafts are never perfect.
3. Fear of the blank page is something to be skirted. Don't give up, go on to the next scene, and come back later.
4. Write regularly, at least an hour per sitting, if possible. Schedule a time and place to write, a spot where you won't be distracted or disturbed.
5. Write about what you are comfortable with, even if it's about vampires in paradise.
6. Think about writing even when you're not at the keyboard.
7. Establish the strongest sense of the plot in your head:
 a. How many ways and reasons are there to kill a victim?
 b. What kind of story moves, turns, and twists can I create?
8. Try visualizing the scenes in your head.
9. Develop clear mental images of your central characters.
10. Become more aware of people and places:
 a. Carry a notebook or recorder with you and accumulate notes.
 b. Tune into both the unusual and the commonplace.

OMN: Tell us more about your clever book titles. And do you design your own covers?

RM: Larry makes up all our titles. As you can see from the Paco and Mollys, he's an incorrigible punster! We have a wonderful graphic designer in Annapolis, who does our covers. We're still working with her via email and phone.

OMN: What kind of feedback have you received from readers?

RM: We're always thrilled to hear that so many have liked our writing style, plots, locales, and characters, but we're super-thrilled when our readers tell us the puzzles we've posed have kept them guessing.

OMN: What kinds of books did you read when you were young?

LM: My grandfather influenced my reading the most. Whenever he caught me reading comics, he'd haul me down to the public library and introduce me to another classic: Alexander Dumas, Charles Dickens and so many others. I think Conan Doyle's concept of deduction, putting together the subtle bits and pieces of the puzzle and making sense out of them, fascinated me from the start. I believe he knew all the real makings of the mystery. It made me extra-conscious of plotting and aware of detailing in my current writing.

OMN: And what do you read today for pleasure?

LM: Adventure-thrillers and dramas, especially those with historical narratives, e.g., anything by Ken Follett. Brad Meltzer's Washington conspiracies also intrigue me. M. Connelly, Wilbur Smith, M. Crichton, S. Larsson, F. Forsyth, R. Ludlum, P.D. James, E. George, K. Reichs, and T. Hoag make my list as well. As you can see, I'm more fascinated by author style, locale, and plot than any particular series character within.

OMN: Have any specific books or authors influenced how and what you write today?

RM: My favorite book of all time is Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary. It's my friend. I especially love how it gives the origin of every word in brackets.

I just re-read Anna Karenina. Tolstoy's characters truly come alive. He can also be satiric: in his portrait of Anna's husband, the pompous bureaucratic; and the parasitic ladies of society. Tolstoy excels in detail. As Levin runs his vast farm, we pitch hay with a scythe, sweat with the peasants. When Anna's lover rides in a dangerous steeplechase, we hold our breath. Tolstoy expertly paces his two main plot lines, building suspense in every chapter.

OMN: Do you have any favorite contemporary authors?

RM: My current favorite mystery author is Louise Penny. She's Canadian; her setting is the Quebec/Montreal environs. Her books are in a class by themselves because they get deep into character; very psychological, yet suspenseful.

Among other books I admire: Ken Follett's historical novels beginning with The Pillars of the Earth; Snow Falling on Cedars (David Guterson); the novels of Tom Wolfe; A Patchwork Planet (Anne Tyler); A Separate Peace (John Knowles); The Pearl (John Steinbeck); Life of Pi (Yann Martel); Saving Fish From Drowning (Amy Tan); "Brokeback Mountain" in Annie Proulx's collection Close Range; Original Sin (P.D. James); The Stone Diaries (Carol Shields); and the scholarly Chocolate Lab in A Dog About Town (J. Englert).

OMN: What's next for each of you?

LM: My current thinking is to publish Exploring the Mystery (Eighteen Valuable Lessons on Mystery Writing); and Murder, Fantasy, and Weird Tales (seventeen of our short stories). I'm also expanding our new short story series, The Perilous Adventures of Copper and Goldie. It features Sam Nahoe, a disabled Hawaiian ex-detective, who drives a cab with his (mostly) golden retriever beside him. When Sam is out of the cab, she sits in the driver's seat, front paws on the steering wheel, wearing his peaked cap. Goldie sheds a lot, eats a lot, and helps him catch bad guys.

RM: Coauthoring with Larry sometimes drives him crazy, because I'm the tortoise, he's the hare. I take forever because I have my own personal writing life: memoirs and essays. I've written three memoirs: a) Miriam's Gift: A Mother's Blessings — Then and Now (1999); b) Miriam's World — and Mine (2012). Both are tributes to our beloved 20-year-old daughter Miriam Wolfe, whom we lost in the terrorist bombing of Pan Am 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland. And c) Love! Laugh! Panic! Life With My Mother (2014). Growing up in Milwaukee with a mother whose huge expectations for us kids didn't always match our talents.

On our website you'll find my new blog, "Rosemary's World." The second entry is: "In My Next Life I'll Get It Right." Yes, many of my essays are filled with wry humor. My newest one, entitled "My Best Move" (really my worst one), is coming soon in Chess Life magazine. You'll also find us on Facebook and LinkedIn, etc. I'm on Twitter, but haven't the faintest idea of how to use it.

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Rosemary and Larry Mild are cheerful partners in crime. They coauthor the Dan and Rivka Sherman Mysteries and the Paco and Molly Mysteries. In 2013 they moved from Severna Park, Maryland to Honolulu, Hawaii, where they are close (but not too close) to their delightful children and grandchildren. They're members of Mystery Writers of America and Sisters in Crime, both the Chesapeake and Hawaii chapters.

For more information about the author, please visit their website at Magicile.com.

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Death Takes a Mistress
Rosemary and Larry Mild
A Dan and Rivka Sherman Mystery

After twenty-three years, the daughter of a mistress seeks revenge from the murderous lover who killed her mother and deserted her at age three months. Ivy, the daughter, follows the cold case clues from London, England to Annapolis, Maryland where she discovers her father and killer belong to one of four families. But which one?

Ivy seeks employment as a clerk at The Olde Victorian Bookstore where she finds friendship, advice, love, and caution from Dan and Rivka Sherman, the booksellers. The Shermans use their old connections at Scotland Yard to obtain Ivy's mother's diary, but it is soon stolen. Will they get it back? Does it contain the clues they need? Will Ivy cause fear and havoc in the four families — enough to put her own life in jeopardy?