cj
Sez:
Lyrical Pens is pleased to present author Ellen Behrens. If you don't know her work, Ellen has a
unique mystery series…the protagonists are a couple of retirees living full
time in their RV, chasing the sun, and encountering mysteries along the way.
Lyrical Pens: Tell us about your
latest book, Yuma Baby… where you got
the idea, how long it took from concept to publication, and how you came up
with the title. (The title is usually a
real challenge for me.)
Ellen Behrens: I’m lousy at titles, so I actually try to
come up with the titles before I actually write the books now. Yuma
Baby was the first Rollin RV Mystery idea to occur to me—even though it’s the second book in the series. Driving along an
interstate, I saw a little girl in the back of a car just as Betty does. In my
case, the writer’s “What If?” brain took over—what if
we followed those people? What would it be like to try to chase them down in
the big truck with the huge RV hooked to it (plus two bikes on a rack on the back)?
What would we find? Why is the little girl with them? How can I flip the
obvious on its head and do something different? And so it went.
Pea Body got its title pretty
easily: Pea Island National Wildlife Refuge plus body found there equals Pea
Body. I tried out a lot of ideas for Yuma Baby and have some
in backup for the Rollins’ return to Yuma (they will be back), but stuck with
this one because of the idea of children being involved.
LP: Where can readers find out about you and
your events online?
EB: I have two blogs – one tracks (belatedly)
our travels on the road:
The other tracks my writing adventures with
information on my books:
Ellen Behrens described herself as
“seasonally confused” because chasing 70-degree weather year-round means she
thinks it’s July in February or September in July, depending on where she
happens to be on the continent. Her short stories, articles, essays, and
reviews have been widely published. Her books include the novel None But the
Dead and Dying and the short story collection Road Tales: Short Stories About
Full-Time RVing. She is former fiction editor of Mid-American Review and the
recipient of an Ohio Arts Council Individual Artist Fellowship. She and her
husband have been living the “full-timer” RV lifestyle since 2009, which has
inspired Pea Body and Yuma Baby, novels in her Rollin RV Mystery series.
Contact her at ellenbehr[at]aol[dot]com for more information about her writing—or to swap RV experiences.
YUMA
BABY blurb
A little girl in the back of a car, a lost
stuffed toy in the desert, a frantic mother missing a child.... They all seem
related, but can Walt and Betty Rollin stay out of trouble long enough to make
the connections—before someone ends up dead?
Retired, living and traveling full-time in their RV, Walt and Betty are hoping to relax under the winter sun in Yuma, Arizona, until word of their third grandchild's birth summons them to snowy Ohio. But a chance encounter with a troubled young couple changes everything—and forces them to re-evaluate what "family" really means.
Retired, living and traveling full-time in their RV, Walt and Betty are hoping to relax under the winter sun in Yuma, Arizona, until word of their third grandchild's birth summons them to snowy Ohio. But a chance encounter with a troubled young couple changes everything—and forces them to re-evaluate what "family" really means.
cj Sez: Yuma
Baby and Pea Body are certainly not travelogues. They're about retired RVers solving
mysteries. Who’d a thunk it? Well, duh, obviously Ellen Behrens. The books are available on Amazon and Barnes&Noble. Congratulations
on the series, Ellen, and best wishes for great sales and wonderful reviews.
If you ever travelled in an RV; if you’ve
ever wanted to travel in an RV; or if you like mysteries, this is the series
for you. And if you’ve got a question about the books or RVing, please don’t
hesitate to leave a comment. Ellen would love to hear from you.
That’s it for today, folks. You-all guys
keep on keeping on, and I’ll try to do the same.
PS:
Mark your calendars to stop by the ebook launch of The Posse on Facebook, Wednesday, March 15 from 6 p.m. to 11 p.m.
CST. I’m scheduled to be on tap from 9 to 10 p.m., but I’ll be popping in and out
during the whole session. Follow this link to “like” the page and to come by: https://www.facebook.com/events/218447238560116/ . . . there will be prizes.
Choosing Carter -- Kindle / Nook / Kobo / iTunes/iBook
“Bad Day at Round Rock” a short
story in The
Posse, a Western anthology of tales of action, romance, myth and truth.
I'm very impressed with the idea of a full-time RV lifestyle, and what a great idea to use it in a mystery series! "Pea Body" really brought back memories for me. While living in central North Carolina, some years back, we spent many wonderful days going to the beach near there. In fact, we would kid because "Pea" Island offered the closest restroom to our favorite beach:)
ReplyDeleteHey, Becky...Ellen is having WiFi trouble at the RV park, so she asked me to post this for you: "So glad to hear "Pea Body" brought back good memories of the Outer Banks for you, Becky! It's a special place, no doubt about it. We spend most of our time out West, so our visits there are less often than they used to be but no less precious."
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