I’ve
been tagged in a blog game called The Next Big Thing. The game
involves authors answering questions about their work in progress (aka WIP). So
I am “it” for the moment, and I am off to the 20th century, 1942, to be exact,
to talk about a murder taking place under the Big Top. Come along with me back
to the Ringling Brothers Circus and World War II! Leave a comment, if you like!

Death of a Clown

This book started with the circus memories of my mother, around
whom I’ve created the protagonist, Jeri Deane. The cover to the right is a real picture
of my mother sitting on the trunk of an elephant in the early 1940s. This
picture has a nameless clown extending his arms to Mom. This started my crafty,
murderous mind working. What if this clown got murdered? Could Jeri solve the
crime? Well, why not, I asked myself?  At
that point, I was off and away.

Mystery
noir. It has humor and is very fast paced with everything taking place in less than three days, but there’s a definite noir feel
about it.

That should only happen, but we’ll go with the
scenario. The protagonist, Jeri Deane, is only 24-years old. There aren’t many established
actresses out there to do the role at that age. They’d have to find someone
new. Ah! If only Catherine Zeta Jones were a few years younger, she’d be perfect.
And Brad Pitt would be a great Whitey.

Under
the canvas sky of the Big Top no one talks about
their past, but murder has a way of bringing deadly secrets out into the open.

This
is the first time I’m going to do it My Way. A writing buddy and close friend,
Baird Nuckolls, and I are forming a publishing company called The Wives of Bath
Press. Death of a Clown will make its
debut sometime in January.

Six
years, on and off. It was a bear. I changed POVs from 3rd to 1st, half-way through. Then after I completed the novel, and it came in at 85K, I went back and changed tenses from past to present. That took months. But I believe I finally got it right.

Probably
similar to Like Water for Elephants, although
I have deliberately not read the book nor seen the movie. I don’t want to be accused
of lifting anything, even accidentally. 

I
was inspired by my mother, who was a performer at Ringling Brothers Circus. The history, coupled with her stories and love of the circus, were a true inspiration for me. The Big Top was at its zenith during the 40s. That was its golden age, if you will. There were 51 elephants, thousands of other animals, and nearly 2000 people involved in the Big Top. The circus was a
traveling city going from town to town on one of the longest trains ever riding the railroad tracks. It was often bigger than most of the towns it visited. Mom had an amazing
life there. Furthermore, that’s where she met and married my father.
He was an elephant trainer.

This
is a real account of the day to day lives of circus people during that era ,colored significantly by the outbreak of the war. It
was like no other place, no other time, and I believe the novel has that feel. Mom has many journals and photos of then and
since I’ve been hearing these stories since I was a child, I feel as if I was
really there. It’s an insider’s look at the world of the Big Top. Plus you get
a helluva mystery, if you don’t mind my saying!

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