Friday, October 16, 2015

The Devil's Hook by Pearl R. Meaker (VBT, guest post, excerpt and GIVEAWAY)


It is my pleasure to have a guest post from author Pearl R. Meaker, who answers my question...

 
ELF:  What is one of your hobbies and how has it enriched your writing?


PRM:  Like my main character, Emory Crawford, I have a lot of hobbies, and most of them are coming into play in my stories. But I would have to say, hands down, that music has had the most affect on my writing.

I’ve loved music all my life. I loved being in elementary school music programs and in choir, chorale and Madrigal groups from junior high into college. It was a large part of what attracted me to my husband when I first got to know him. Our whole time together, and that’ll be 40 years in February of 2016, we’ve enjoyed singing and writing folksong style songs together while he played guitar.

In the early 2000s, he bought an inexpensive five-string banjo. He’d always wanted to play banjo and finally made the leap. Since then, the music we’ve made together has primarily been bluegrass. In 2005 a friend gave my husband an old violin. He gave it to him, but I ended up being the fiddler. My hubby never has been able to get the right feel for the bowing. After that, I switched from singing along to playing along – though I do still sing sometimes.

Some of my early Tolkien based fanfiction stories were inspired by bluegrass and folk songs. “Moonshadow” by Cat Stevens and “If I Had It All Again To Do” written by Shawn Lane performed by Ricky Skaggs on his “Brand New Strings” CD are a couple examples. (Both are on Stories of Arda archive. Moonshadow is in with “Pearl’s Pearls – A New String” and “If I Had It . . .” is in the main table of contents)

I guess it’s just natural that a song inspired my first two original novels, The Devil’s Music and The Devil’s Hook. If you’ve been following my blog tour you may have read about it already, but I’ll cover it again here for those who haven’t.

Both stories were inspired by the song “Didn’t Leave Nobody But The Baby” from the movie “Oh Brother, Where Art Thou?” a wonderfully eerie song that the “sirenes” sing to lure men astray. The Devil’s Music was inspired by the lines – “You and me and the Devil makes three. Don’t need no other lovin’ baby.” And The Devil’s Hook was inspired by the line – “She’s long gone with her red shoes on. Gonna need another lovin’ baby.”

While part of the inspiration for my next book, the working title of which is The Devil’s Flood came from the floods we had in our area spring of 2015, part of it also came from the song “Flood” by Jars of Clay. Especially the lines – “My world is a flood. Slowly I’ve become one with the mud.”

And while I played instrumental bluegrass songs while writing the first two stories, I’ve been playing environmental/ambient recordings of rain, thunderstorms, babbling brooks and even one of underwater sounds.

There is even cool, eerie, music in the background of the trailer for The Devil’s Hook. I hope you’ll give it a look and a listen.

Music, whether made by people or the music of nature, I’m certain will continue to be an inportant part of my creative process and my stories.


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by Pearl R. Meaker

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GENRE: Romantic Suspense

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BLURB:



Jairus Twombly's familial intuition is faltering and his new personal assistant seems to be trying to replace his wife, Amy.

On the Twombly College campus, someone is breaking into the dorm rooms of female students leaving things instead of taking things: red colored objects including a red golf ball, a red ribbon and a tiny red stuffed dog.

When a recipient of some of the red objects goes missing and is returned after being told, "You're not her", and the personal assistant turns up dead with Amy Twombly's elegant Bloodwood crochet hook in her eye, things heat up for Emory Crawford and her chemist and forensic scientist husband, Dr. Jebbin Crawford.

Emory, along with the Twombly's Nancy Drew-like daughter, Madison, once more turns to her amateur detective skills and intuition to solve the mysteries.

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EXCERPT
“Yeah. Well.” Captain Henry looked into the box. “Weird things. An un-inflated red balloon. Round shaped, not like a condom or something like that. A red golf ball. I mean, where on earth do you get red golf balls? And six more things. The roommate said she’d gotten more of this junk than anyone else, so far. Here.” He plopped the box on Jebbin’s desk with a thud and stuck a clipboard in front of his face. “It’s all yours as soon as you sign for it. Items are all listed on the form. We didn’t do a bunch of separate sheets, but they’re all bagged and numbered individually.”

Jebbin signed the sheet and handed back the clipboard.

“I ‘suppose you’re gonna let her look through it all?” Henry said, looking at me. He held his right hand up like a cop directing traffic to stop. “No. Nope. Don’t tell me. I really don’t want to know. Like you said. Your office. Your little scientific, antiseptic, sterile world where, yep, they’re all your decisions.”

He walked out, though I caught his mutter: “Whole crime fighting world is goin’ to hell in a handcart.”  He gave me one last look before he closed the door.

“Can I see?” I sounded as much like an eager kindergartener as I could.

“Yes, little Emory. You can look if you’re a good girl and don’t open any of the baggies yourself and don’t touch the things inside them.”

“Yipee!”

We both got up, Sophie too, to take the box to the lab.

Jebbin paused to look around, as though he was forgetting something.

“What?” I asked.

“Where’s the handcart that you’re taking the whole of investigative procedure to hell in?”

I linked my arm through his. “I left it at home.”


Buy links:




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AUTHOR Bio and Links:


Pearl R. Meaker is an upper-middle-aged, short, pudgy homemaker, mother, and grandmother who in 2002 became a writer. Initially writing fanfiction she soon tried original fiction at the encouragement of her regular readers. She has been a life-long lover of mystery stories and automatically went to that genre for her first book, The Devil’s Music. She and her husband of nearly 40 years live in central Illinois. They both love bluegrass music, playing fiddle and banjo and singing. Pearl also does many crafts –  when she’s not reading or writing - knitting, crochet, origami, needlepoint, and cross-stitch among them. She also enjoys birding and photography and is a former fencer.

Visit Pearl here: 
Website




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GIVEAWAY

a Rafflecopter giveaway



The tour dates can be found here

 

46 comments:

  1. Replies
    1. G'morning G.F.! Thank you for all your work on my tour! :-)

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    2. Hi Pearl. My sincere apologies for not being here to welcome you. I have had internet challenges for the past few days...but, fingers crossed, they will be improved by the next day or so!

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    3. All is well. I'm so sorry you've been having to deal with internet glitches. Thank you for your hard (and extra) work to have your blog up and running for all of us authors you are hosting. :-)

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  2. If you could choose to do anything for a day, what would it be?

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    1. Hi Mai! :-) Another good question!

      Right now, I wish I could spend a day with someone who was going to be doing "secretarial" work for me - either free because they're so in love with my books or at a rate I can afford (which wouldn't be too much more than free). I would love to go over the stuff I want him/her to be doing for me so I'd have more time to write my books and to do more engaging with my readers. I'd be showing them my account for my newsletter so they could do the actual setting up in the template and mailing the newsletter I would write and choose photos for. I'd be showing him/her my account for my website so they could post things I send them to post so it's kept updated.

      Basically, I'd do all the writing things, finding photos (usually ones I've taken) and such but having them do the technical work of getting those things put into the appropriate places and programs online.

      Right now, in my life right now, getting that set up and knowing I have someone I can trust to do the job and take that load off my mind - yeah, that would be heavenly. :-)

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    2. What a fun question, Mai. Thanks for popping in!

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  3. E.L.F., Thank you so much for hosting The Devil's Hook and me today. :-)

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    1. Sorry to take so long to greet you, Pearl. I am visiting my local library and trying to catch up on all of the things I haven't been able to take care of since I haven't had internet for a few days. Thank you so much for taking the time to interact with my visitors!

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    2. Quite alright, E.L.F. :-) Computer/internet issues are the bane of us all and I'm sorry you've been having to deal with such problems.

      I love interacting with readers on my blog tour, and yours have been really good - asking me questions and all! :-) It's been great fun! Thank you, again, for hosting me. :-)

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  4. This excerpt was outstanding. Sounds like a fascinating mystery.

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    1. Hi MomJane! Good to see you again. :-) Thank you. I hope you enjoy it.

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    2. Lovely compliment. Thanks for dropping in, Jane!

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  5. Sounds like a really good book, thanks for sharing!

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    1. Thanks and good to see ya, Eva! :-)

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    2. Glad you like the descriptions, Eva. Thanks for visiting!

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  6. Replies
    1. Hello again, Rita! :-) Thank you. :-)

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    2. Good to hear, Rita. Thanks for dropping by!

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  7. I totally agree on the effect of music on the creative process. Thanks for sharing

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    1. Good to see you, Shannon. Does music inspire you too? Happy to share, glad it struck a chord with you. :-)

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    2. Hi Shannon, thanks for taking the time to visit!

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  8. Great post. I really enjoyed reading the excerpt, thanks for sharing!

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    1. Hi and Thank you Victoria! :-)

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    2. Glad to hear that, Victoria. I always love hearing about new books and about the authors who create them!

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  9. I enjoyed the excerpt, thank you!

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    1. Hello Betty :-) You're very welcome!

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    2. Happy you enjoyed it, Betty, great to see you!

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  10. Sounds cute. Thx for the giveaway too!

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    1. Hi Angel. Thank you so much for your kind words! :-)

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    2. Thanks for visiting, Angel, good luck!

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  11. You are creative, does music feature in your stories?

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    1. Hi Mary :-)

      I features more in the first book, The Devil's Music, than in the second, but there are still touches of it in The Devil's Hook. I'm trying to have a different emphasis in each book for as long as I can manage it. :-)

      Thank you for your good question! :-)

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    2. Thanks for taking the time to ask a question, Mary!

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  12. I enjoyed the excerpt! Thank you for the post and the giveaway!

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    1. Hi Ree Dee, nice to see you here. Glad you enjoyed it and you're welcome. :-)

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  13. Good guest post/interview and excerpt - if you could pick any one song regardless of time period as your favorite song to sing - what would it be?

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    1. Hi Maria :-)
      Thank you for asking a question. :-)

      Wow, that's a real toughy. The easiest answer is - any song that let me hit high notes. I was always a first soprano and I loved any song that let me soar. And, even though I can't hit a high A or above any more, I still love singing anything that lets me hit the high notes. Doesn't matter what style of music (other than opera).

      But I can now sing much lower than I could when I was in high school or college, so now I also enjoy singing some of the more moody songs that are in the alto range. And also, I love singing harmony parts.

      I'm sorry I didn't answer your question, but there are just too many songs I love to ever pick a favorite. :-)

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    2. Nice question, Maria, thanks for dropping by!

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  14. Loved the excerpt. Music is high on a lot of people's lists of things they really enjoy. For me as well.

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    1. Hi Mary :-)
      I know if I ever lose my hearing, it will be hard to not have any music left except what's already in my head.

      Thank you for your neat comment and for stopping by. :-)

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    2. I definitely enjoy music, Mary. Thanks for taking the time to visit and comment!

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  15. I am so impressed that you play the fiddle. I love The Celtic Woman, and their fiddle player. She's so cute.

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    1. Hi again, Misty :-)

      Don't get too impressed, I play but I'm not any where near that good. LOL I play more what I call "back-up fiddle." I play slower, simpler parts that harmonize with the hot players who are playing melody. I don't practice enough to get very fast. For me, with my ADD/ADHD, I'd either focus on fiddle or focus on writing - and at this point I think the writing is the better option. I do love playing though and have a lot of fun jamming or playing along with songs on my iTunes playlists or CDs.

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