Thanks for letting me visit with
you, Kris! I thought it would be fun to share the story behind the story for
some of the Holly Price mysteries with your readers. Well, let me back up a
minute. The first question from friends and readers usually starts: Where do authors get their ideas?
(Someone told me they think an author’s
brain is a scary place. We do constantly ask, “What if…?” The answers can be interesting, especially when you
write mysteries!)
Sometimes a daydream offers a
story start, but ideas and inspiration can show up in the strangest places. My
husband and I were in eastern Washington state, hiking along the Snake River in
a game management area called Big Flats (which happens to feature in So About The Money, the
first book in the Holly Price Mystery series). We had to push through some tangled foliage at
the shoreline. Being a mystery writer whose mind really can go strange places,
I glanced over my shoulder and said, “Wouldn't this be a great place to find a
body?”
Fortunately, he laughed.
That germ of an idea—a body in
the middle of nowhere—kept growing. Why would the heroine be at Big Flats to
stumble over the body? How did the body end up beside the river in the first
place?
The idea for In
It For The Money
(Book 4 in the series) came while I was chatting with a friend’s nephew at a
party. He was all excited about designing some bizarre machine called a
Rockcrawler. I had no clue what he was talking about, but I picked up on his
passion. And my writer’s brain went, Hmmm
… Rockcrawlers … That’s different.
I won’t make you listen to all
the research I had to do into how these trucks and events operate, but it was a
lot of fun developing a series of crimes related to both the Rockcrawlers and
the Rockcrawling events.
Let me explain Rockcrawling—or
rather, here’s how Holly described the sport to her friend, Laurie Gordon,
after Holly dragged Laurie to the opening day events:
"Two guys were sitting on
their back porch, drinking." Holly raised her wine glass and Laurie
clicked the rim. "One polished off his beer, belched, and popped open
another can. He pointed at the vacant lot next door and said, 'Betcha I can
drive my truck over those rocks.'"
"You're lying." Laurie
narrowed her eyes.
"Swear to God." Holly
raised her right hand. "And since God takes care of idiots and drunks, the
first one made it over—alive—and his friend and all their friends had to try.
And their friends..." She waved at the scene before them.
Excerpt ~ In
It For The Money
Beyond the last vendor booth,
Holly saw another jacked-up truck rumble toward the enormous pile of boulders
that marked the start of the rockcrawler course. The crowd shifted, watching
the truck’s progress up the torturous 45-degree angle.
Just past a short series of
tented seating—the sponsors' section and some “premium seats”—an array of
parked pickup trucks overflowed the designated parking area. Men—and a few
women—stood in the beds for an elevated view. More than one person had climbed
onto the top of the truck's cab. The coolers and grills gave new meaning to the
term “tailgate party.”
Holly studied the crowded areas
beside the course. She wasn't sure what to call the space. The stands? Infield?
Peanut gallery? “Trucks climbing over rocks may be nuts, but this is fun. It’s
like a big party.”
“Clearly, you don’t get out
enough,” Laurie said dryly.
“Maybe.”
Probably.
“’Course, when you told me
rockcrawling was a big deal, I about laughed my ass off. I mean, seriously?
Rockcrawlers? I still can't believe they drive trucks over big piles of rocks.”
Laurie worked in admin at the local hospital. The Boulder Bounders sporting
event wasn’t exactly her scene, either. “I've never seen so much alcohol and
testosterone in the same place. It's like a slow-mo NASCAR race with giant
wheels.”
“And rocks. Don't forget the
rocks,” Holly said. For a moment, she longingly watched the partying instead of
the competing truck. She needed to, make that wanted to, invite friends over for a cookout at her house—if she
could find an open afternoon in her overcrowded week.
Yeah, with her schedule? Good
luck with that.
Thanks, Kris! With our #mysteryexchange, I hope
your readers will jump over to my blog and enjoy your post on What We Found.
Holly Price traded professional
goals for personal plans when she agreed to leave her high-flying position with
the Seattle Mergers and Acquisition team and take over the family accounting
practice. Reunited with JC Dimitrak, her former fiancé, she’s already
questioning whether she’s ready to flip her condo for marriage and a house in
the ‘burbs.
When her cousin Tate needs
investors for his innovative car suspension, Holly works her business
matchmaking skills and connects him with a client. The Rockcrawler showcasing
the new part crashes at its debut event, however, and the driver dies. Framed
for the sabotage, Tate turns to Holly when the local cops—including JC—are
ready to haul him to jail. Holly soon finds her cousin and client embroiled in
multiple criminal schemes. She’s drawn into the investigation, a position that
threatens her life, her family and her increasingly shaky relationship with JC.
LINKS
Cathy Perkins started writing
when recurring characters and dialogue populated her day job commuting
daydreams. Fortunately, that first novel lives under the bed, but she was
hooked on the joy of creating stories. When not writing, she can be found doing
battle with the beavers over the pond height or setting off on another travel
adventure. Born and raised in South Carolina, she now lives in Washington with
her husband, children, several dogs and the resident deer herd.
Sign up for her newsletter on her
website (https://cperkinswrites.com ) or follow her on BookBub (https://www.bookbub.com/profile/cathy-perkins ) for new release announcements.
You can also find her hanging out
on Twitter (https://twitter.com/cperkinswrites ) and Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/AuthorCathyPerkins )
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