Sad Valentine's Day

by Janis Patterson

It is common wisdom that most murders are committed for either love or greed. It is also pretty much accepted that deaths increase around holidays, especially those celebrating love and/or family such as Valentine's Day and Christmas. All of this, while being pretty depressing in real life makes things a lot easier for us mystery writers.

Today is the Day of Saint Valentine, the patron saint of romantic and courtly love. It is a day of flowers, cards, candy, dinners out, gifts and - in most cases - a whole lot of kissing. It is also a day of loneliness, despair and sorrow. When you have someone to love, Valentine's can be a time of joy and shared affection. When you want someone to love and don't have anyone, Valentine's day can be a day of gloom and loneliness and sorrow. Most people have experienced both kinds of day.

What's truly sad, though, is the person who wants a particular person... and that person doesn't want him. Now this happens all the time - but this situation can turn real scary depending on how unstable the rejected one is. Just how far will he (or she) go to prove he is worthy of love? What will he do to convince his object of desire that she must return his feelings? Or will he decide instead to punish her for not responding to him? (I'm not being deliberately sexist - either position of this scenario can be taken by either sex, though statistically more women are victims than men.) It can go either way, and most of the time neither alternative is pleasant.

We see a similar situation around family-centric holidays like Thanksgiving and Christmas. As on Valentine's Day there are preconceived notions of how we should feel - happy family reunions, fabulous meals, presents, good cheer, decorated trees, peace-on-earth-and-good-will-to-men and all that. Unfortunately, even though so many people have the outward trappings - trees and presents, for example - they don't feel like people tend to think they should feel. The holiday is not a panacea that makes everything in their life all right; in fact, it often makes them feel worse.

There are more suicides around Christmas than any other day of the year. I don't know the exact statistics for murders, but I do know it's generally higher than on the average day.

So how does this help us as mystery writers? If you write about a murder on a July beach or a Halloween murder, not much. Neither the Fourth of July or Halloween are really family- or romance-centric. Of course, any holiday can be used, as can any day of the year, but in general it doesn't carry the same emotional weight as the romantic/family holidays.

The emotional stress of holidays cannot be discounted. If holidays can make the normal ones among us crazy, imagine what they can do to the unstable. These holidays and their often unreal expectations are something pushing at the villain not only from outside but from inside. This offers the writer all kinds of opportunities to give depth and reality to their characters. Good characters aren't just composed of height, weight, eye color and occupation; they are all of that, but what makes them individual are their hopes and dreams and disappointments.

There is no disappointment worse than an unrealized holiday feeling.

ROMANCE:  WHY?  By Kathy Ivan

As a writer, I’ve talked to a lot of people about what they like to read, especially when it comes to the genres I write (contemporary romance, romantic suspense, and paranormal romance).  But it seems when the subject of mystery and suspense comes up, there are two different schools of thought.

There is the reader who absolutely, positively does not want all that romantic fluff in their story.  They are the stick-to-the-facts readers, who want the meat and bones, the action and adventure of the plot without a lot of the secondary storylines which they think clog up the works. Purists who want to see the antagonist and protagonist battling it out until the very end.  They want their mystery and

suspense to be all-encompassing with no deviation for anything outside the scope of the mystery.

On the other hand, you’ve got the reader who loves having a little extra.  They want to see and know what makes the hero, heroine, or villain the person they are.  They want to juicy backstory, including that crazy attraction between the hero and heroine that seems to pop up at the most inopportunite times. 

I fall squarely into the second camp.  I am a romantic at heart.  As a writer, I love writing romantic suspense because it adds so many dimensions and layers to the story.  What could be better than taking a hero who is hot on the trail of a ruthless villain, closing in with each page, and suddenly there’s this character who shows up and steals his attention.  Keeps him off balance, because his thoughts have shifted, and he’s no longer laser-focused on one goal.

Adding in romance can change the entire dynamic of not oly your story, but your characters.  Suddenly, emotions begin creeping in at the most inopportune moments.  Instead of figuring out the villain’s next move, the hero or heroine’s thoughts are divided.  As the feelings grow and intensify, you’ve got the added complication of your lead character being given a vulnerability he or she didn’t have in the beginning—namely their new love interest.  This person can now be used as a bargaining chip by the bad guy. 

I love layering in all the complexities of a romantic relationship between the hero and heroine that you’d find in a romance along with the pulse-pounding excitement of the suspense.  Tensions are ratcheted higher.  There’s danger around every turn, which can lead to some very…interesting…extracurricular activities. 

And, one of the best things about writing and reading romantic suspense?  You get TWO satisfying conclusions.  The mystery/suspense is solved and the bad guy is taken out of commission.  That’s a good thing.  Plus, you get to have that happily ever after when all the dust has settled, and your hero and heroine can finally admit their true feelings for each other, and you get that tingly feeling when you close the pages, knowing everybody ends up happy (well, everybody but the villain). 

So I’ll continue to write my mysteries and suspense and they will always have a romance, because I love the intricacies and twists and turns, but mostly I love the satisfaction I feel when love wins.

Kathy Ivan is a USA TODAY Bestselling Author.  She’s currently writing the New Orleans Connection series of romantic suspense.  The latest book, Fatal Intentions, releases on 3/31/17.  It’s available for pre-order at these vendors: 

Amazon:  http://amzn.to/2kKs7WL

B&N: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/fatal-intentions-kathy-ivan/1125581075?ean=2940154167953

Kobo:  https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/fatal-intensions

Google Play: https://play.google.com/store/books/details?id=UqkDDgAAQBAJ

iBooks:  https://geo.itunes.apple.com/us/book/fatal-intentions/id1200301796?ls=1&mt=11

Blindsided by Love

I don't know about you guys, but I've discovered the universe works in mysterious ways. My mother used to say, "Everything happens for a reason." I'm sure you've all heard that one. It's just hard sometimes when something really horrible happens and you have to make sense of it. Why must horrible things happen and how can we begin to make sense of it? Those are always the toughest questions. I try to think that I learn from everything that happens to me every day. Be it a good thing, bad thing or mundane thing. This may not seem like the perfect segue into my topic, but actually it's very apropos. I was talking about the universe working in mysterious ways. How a random minute in any given day can change your life. (Be it for the better or for the worse.)

Let me give you a personal for instance. Twenty-something years ago, I had sworn off men. (I was all of nineteen when I did this. LOL.) The guy I thought I loved didn't return the feelings so I jumped into a relationship with a guy who I knew liked me... But I didn't feel the same way about him. It soon became apparent that relationship wasn't going to work out either. The last thing I wanted was to get involved with another man when I was feeling so lousy about my recent choices. (You can bet there was a lot of self-doubt happening at that point too!)

As I'm becoming comfortable with my decision to take some time for myself and decide what I wanted in life, I met a guy at work. I didn't think too much about it. Although I'd heard his name from the grapevine, it didn't dawn on me until after he introduced himself that he was the one everyone had told me about. (I will confess to thinking he had a great ass as walked away from me, up a flight of stairs. I do love a nice ass on a man...but I digress...<G>)

A couple of weeks after that meeting, a big group of us from work decided to go dancing when we finished for the day. If I remember correctly, there were supposed to be a dozen of us going to a dance club/bar in Hollywood, not far from work. The guy I'd met a couple weeks before offered to take me since he knew the place. I didn't see a reason to decline so together we went to the club. Well, after about 45 minutes it looked like no one else was going to show, but instead of bailing, we decided to make the most of the night and ended up dancing our brains out for the next five or six hours. Seriously, it was about the most fun I'd ever had. We really hit it off. Later, he drove me back to my car and I went home. No kiss goodnight, just a wave and a smile, which was fine with me because it really hadn't been a date. A few days after that the same group of people decided to see a movie together and I ended up up sitting next to the same guy. Long story short, at the very end of the night when I thought all was lost and he really wasn't as in to me as I was into him, I decided enough was enough and called it a night. He walked me to my car, kissed me goodnight and the rest is history. I've been married to the guy for over 24 years.

My whole point is that I never saw it coming. I was in a place of not looking for anything and love found me. (Actually, Sean found me...but you get my point.) Some of the best things in life happen when we least expect them, including falling in love.

The same thing happens in my latest release, Against The Wall. Jess St. John has to pair up with an ex-con to save her family and the last thing she expects is to fall in love with the guy. Not only is she not looking for love, but it comes at the worst possible time in her life. Tanner, too, has no plans to fall in love. The only thing on his mind is a little bit of revenge combined with a whole lot of retribution. Running into Jess and falling for her was never in his plans, but her presence changes things. These are two people who never would've been together if circumstances hadn't made them a team. Everything happens for a reason.

What about you? Did you see it coming or are you still looking for love? Or maybe you knew exactly when the love bug bit you. I'd love to know!