by Lauren Carr
We are delighted to be hosting mystery author Lauren Carr on her "Blast from the Past" virtual book tour. We encourage you to visit all of the tour host sites; you can see her schedule of events here.
Lauren's new "Mac Faraday" mystery is Blast from the Past (Acorn Book Services, January 2013 trade paperback and ebook formats), the fourth book in this series set in rural Maryland.
Today Lauren looks in a place far, far away, only in her mind and asks, What's a writer to do when she wants to humiliate someone but they won't go along willingly?
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During my writing career, I have discovered that people are both thrilled and anxious about the prospect of ending up in a book involving murder and mayhem. After meeting me, some have to wonder, "How does she see me in one of her books? A detective? A suspect? Oh, my heavens, certainly not a corpse!"
Photo provided courtesy of
Lauren Carr
While writing the "Mac Faraday" mysteries, I learned that when chaos strikes too close to home, some people would rather the author take it elsewhere.
Years ago, my sister-in-law had asked me to set a murder mystery in her home town, a sweet summer place in Wisconsin called Pelican Lake. At the time, I was working on a storyline that wasn't a good fit for the "Joshua Thornton" mysteries, my first series. So I went to work on a new series set on a lake in the resort town of Pelican Lake.
I had completed the first draft of It's Murder, My Son in time for a visit from my sister-in-law. Excited about a murder set in her town at her request, she asked for all the details. When I mentioned that the murder victim was killed in her house, I was surprised to see horror on her face. Since her home and property had a unique design and layout, anyone knowing her could easily tell that the murder took place in her home.
For the sake of family harmony, I decided to do a re-write.
As luck would have it, my family started vacationing at Deep Creek Lake in Maryland. Like Pelican Lake, Deep Creek Lake is a resort area. It was child's play to pick up my series in Pelican Lake and plop it down in Western Maryland, until I asked the local police department to let me portray them as a bunch of idiots.
In the storyline for It's Murder, My Son, homicide detective Mac Faraday discovers that his birth mother is the late Robin Spencer, America's Queen of Mystery and he is her sole heir. Upon learning that he has a half-brother, police officer David O'Callaghan, he moves to Deep Creek Lake to meet him.
Mac is drawn into the murder investigation of his neighbor after Gnarly, his inherited German shepherd, drags home a dismembered head. When he sees that the chief detective is an incompetent, Mac joins David in the investigation. It is the perfect opportunity to get to know his brother better. As luck would have it, Mac ends up making David the prime suspect.
While rewriting It's Murder, My Son, I was surprised when the local police department refused to cooperate in my research. The sheriff in Garrett County would only give me a tour of the jail if I brought my toothbrush and planned to stay a while. Their resistance was understandable. Even though I promised disclaimers in my acknowledgements about my work being completely fiction and not based on anyone real, the police department was concerned about their image.
So, out of respect for the real law enforcement, I created a fictional resort town resting on the shores of the real Deep Creek Lake and had a blast doing it.
When a murder mystery is set in a real town, readers expect the writer to be true to the facts. Even with a work of fiction, readers familiar with the area have a hard time forgiving authors when they rewrite their hometown's history or change the streets. Even if the author had a legitimate reason for making the change, to the reader, it looks like sloppy research. For example, a woman once told me that she had stopped reading a series set in Washington DC when the writer had placed an exit ramp off Rock Creek Parkway that wasn't there.
When I sat down to create the setting for It's Murder, My Son, the first installment in the "Mac Faraday" mysteries, it was like a bird set free from a cage. My imagination opened its wings and soared. Since this was my town, I had the freedom to do with it as I saw fit.
Thus, Spencer, Maryland, was founded.
Nestled in a corner of Deep Creek Lake, Spencer is named after Mac Faraday's ancestors. As the descendent of the town's founders, he has political influence that he otherwise couldn't have inherited.
Since my first draft had already been on a lake in Wisconsin, I duplicated that setting in Spencer, but added some of my own touches. Mac Faraday's cedar and stone home rests at the end of the most expensive piece of real estate on Deep Creek Lake: Spencer Point. The peninsula houses a half-dozen lake houses that grow in size and grandeur along the stretch of Spencer Court, which ends at the stone pillars and wall marking the multi-million dollar estate that had been the birthplace and home of one of the world's most famous authors.
With water on three sides, and a stone wall sectioning Spencer Manor from the rest of the Point, it becomes a fortress in Blast from the Past when the mob comes to Spencer to settle a score with Archie Monday, Mac Faraday's lady love.
My fictional setting's affluence is born out of necessity. While this lakeside town is small, it also has its own police department. In order to make that feasible, I had to make Spencer a getaway for the rich and famous, uptown from the real town of McHenry, which rests on the shores of Deep Creek Lake.
Spencer's border stretches from the lakeshore and up over a mountain, on top of which rests the Spencer Inn, a resort that is also part of Mac's inheritance. Ironically, before his windfall, he couldn't have afforded to eat there.
While it is fun to create a fictional setting, the writer does need to keep hold on to the reins. The setting needs to fit with the surrounding area. Readers familiar with Deep Creek Lake would never buy an exclusive resort town like Spencer on their shores if, in fact, the area was an impoverished swamp. In reality, Deep Creek Lake is a popular vacation spot for people from Washington, Virginia, West Virginia, Pennsylvania, and all the surrounding areas. The million dollar homes in my setting fit right in with the other vacation houses that dot the lake and mountainside.
Writing the "Mac Faraday" mysteries has been an amazing ride. As a writer, it is exhilarating to let your imagination go free without the reins of reality. Who knows, maybe in Mac Faraday's next adventure, I'll have him go into a galaxy far, far away — or was that already done?
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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.
Lauren is also the author of the "Mac Faraday" mysteries, which takes place in Deep Creek Lake, Maryland. Blast from the Past, the fourth in the series in which Mac finds himself up to his eyeballs with mobsters and federal agents, was published this month.
Released September 2012, Dead on Ice introduces a new series entitled "Lovers in Crime", which features prosecutor Joshua Thornton with homicide detective Cameron Gates. Real Murder, the second book in this series will be released Spring 2013.
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.
Lauren lives with her husband, son, and three dogs on a mountain in Harpers Ferry, WV.
You can learn more about Lauren and her books by visiting her website at MysteryLady.net, reading her Literary Wealth blog, or following her on Facebook and Twitter. She can be reached directly at writerlaurencarr@comcast.net.
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Blast from the Past
Lauren Carr
A Mac Faraday Mystery (4th in series)
Mac Faraday finds himself up to his eyeballs with mobsters and federal agents …
After an attempted hit ends badly with two of his men dead, mobster Tommy Cruze arrives in Spencer, Maryland, to personally supervise the execution of the witness responsible for putting him behind bars — Archie Monday! Mac Faraday believes he has his work cut out for him in protecting his lady love from one of the most dangerous leaders in organized crime.
But when bodies start dropping in his lakeshore resort town, things may be hotter than even he can handle.
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