Freebies from The Cozy Dude
Men who solve mysteries with cats! What's not to love?
Guest Freebies from The Cozy Dude
5 Quick Questions with The Cozy Dude, Ron Tucker
Ansley: Hi Ron, so great to have you here. I ran across a promo you were doing where you were looking for mysteries that were both cozy and male protagonists. Even though my protagonists are all girls, I thought my audience would be interested in your books. Let's tell them a little about you.
Ron: Thanks for having me, Ansley. My first series features a female main protagonist. She’s a witchy baker, and I really enjoyed telling her stories. But I’ve been wanting to try to do a cozy mystery featuring a male main character for a while. I know there are some cozy mystery critics out there that insist the main character must be female and has to be an amateur sleuth, but I’m a huge fan of Monk and Psych. I’d consider both of those cozy mystery TV shows, and they both star men as some sort of investigators. I really wanted to write something along the lines of those shows. But I also love paranormal stuff, so I wanted magic in it too.
Ansley: And who is your favorite Psych character?
Oh, man. You’re hitting me with the favorite question right off the bat. I mean, my instinct is to say Shawn. All the little things that James Roday did to bring Shawn to life just worked to perfection. But, on the other hand, I really like Henry Spencer. Which is odd to me because in the first season I didn’t like him that much. In the flashback scenes he came off like a jerk to young Shawn. Over the course of the series though, yeah, Henry is great.
Ansley: How old were you when you knew you wanted to be a novelist?
Ron: So, I always knew I wanted to be a storyteller even from the time I was a little kid, but I was always focused on comic books. I was the prototypical boy who didn’t like to read, which is odd because I’m actually a very good reader. I just never found novels that interested me. They all felt too long and too boring. Comics took hold and I loved the quickness and the action. But—and I know some people have a problem with these books—I really got into both reading and writing when a co-worker at the time was reading the Twilight books. She would not stop talking about them and kept telling me I HAD to read them. So I did. And I actually like them. They moved super-fast and kept me interested. That just unlocked all kinds of YA books for me at the time, and yeah, I started to want to write my own.
Ansley: What drew you to the cozy mystery genre?
Ron: It’s actually Psych and Monk. I must admit, Monk edges out Psych for me, if only by a smidge. I like mysteries and thrillers in general, but when I came across those TV shows, I saw a fun way to tell mystery stories that were both serious but were also light-hearted.
Ansley: I love both of those shows. I agree, they are both cozy genre with unusual male leads. It was definitely appoint TV to watch both of those shows while they were on in my house. Even now, I re-watch one or the other of them at least once a year. Who is your favorite mystery novelist?
Ron: Dean Koontz. I know he’s known for more suspenseful types of books, but he hooks you in the beginning with needing to know the who/what/why/how. He’s probably my favorite writer in general.
Ansley: I find Koontz work fascinating as well.
What was your inspiration for Harry Ferriman?
Ron: Harry is actually named for both inspirations. When I was coming up with him, I wanted to create a fun magical mystery like Harry Potter, but with adults, like Harry Dresden, from the Dresden Files. The thing is, I’ve actually only seen the Dresden Files TV show and never read any of the books. ::shame faced:: It’s something I’ve been meaning to fix, but now that I’m writing Harry’s stories, I actually don’t want to read any Dresden Files because I don’t want to get too influenced by what’s in the books.
Ansley: Thanks so much for coming and sharing with the Substack! Ron’s work is available in KU!
Thanks again for talking with me Ansley!
My latest book is The Ferriman Returns to Wickemore and can be downloaded here: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0DN3DQ27Y
Also, if you’d like to add a freebie book, my first series features a witchy baker, Magical, Murderous Cupcakes. You can download her first book for free here:
A Quick Note
For those of you who caught the first livestream, you may already know about my love for Anne Perry. I would like to note, that while she did commit and was convicted of murder as a teenager, she remained remorseful of that action her entire life. And she was always humble about it.
Part of the reason her books resonate so well with me, is that inside of each character she has them choose these little moral choices. Good characters wrestle with their flaws, and for love, or for honesty’s sake, they frequently choose to be better people. While evil characters succumb to things like vanity, angry, impatience. They don’t digger deeper inside of themselves to be a better person.
I believe this was what teenage Juliet (Anne’s name at the time of the murder) wanted from her parents, and they were too wrapped up in their own failures her needs went unmet. And it led to her doing an evil deed.
Had she been unrepentant. Had she tried to justify it. Had she tried to run away from those dark acts, I would not admire her.
What follows is a review of the Peter Jackson film.
Heavenly Creatures, by Peter Jackson
The Movie
Set in 1950s New Zealand, the movie traces the real life story of two best friends, Pauline Rieper (Parker) and Juliet Hulme, as they become best friends, and perhaps more throughout the course of two years. They get lost in an imaginative world of their own making, becoming quite manic in the process. Until, at the end they murder Pauline's mother.
The movie opens with a faux documentary of what 1950s New Zealand was like and is interrupted with two girls running up the hill, blood soaked, screaming that "Mummy had an accident. Mummy is dead! From there Jackson takes us backwards in time, to the day when Juliet Hulme was enrolled in Christchurch Girls High School and caught the eye of angry, working class Pauline Rieper. The two bonded during gym class, as neither was allowed to participate, Juliet because she was still recovering from tuberculosis, and Pauline, because she had had osteomyelitis as a child and her bones were thought to be too brittle. Finding out that they had both spent long periods in hospitals and away from home as children, they became fast friends. Pauline was fascinated by Juliet's upper class family, their suave, artsy lifestyle, and Juliet's endless imagination. Juliet was an extremely intelligent girl, at one time registering a genius level IQ of about 170. Pauline, though from a modest background, was smart enough to stay in school and excel.
Both girls are moody teenagers, prone to tantrums and fighting with their parents. During the course of their friendship, they are discovered to have a calming effect on each other. Their parents allow the friendship to grow, as each girl is easier to manage. As their friendship grows, they each find in the other a fertile ground to expand their imaginary world. They decide they want to become writers. They write several novels during this time period. All is going well, until Juliet's father is sent back to England and her mother is dead set on accompanying him. Because Juliet had been promised not to be separated from her family when she came to live in New Zealand, Juliet is angry. It is quickly agreed that Juliet can stay with Pauline.
But fate intervenes, when Juliet's tuberculosis reactivates, and she has to spend several months in the hospital. Her parents leave her there, much to Juliet's anger. Pauline, remembering how difficult it was to be in the hospital for such a long time, comes up with the brainwave of writing letters to each other in the voices of the main characters from their imaginary world. Over the course of the following months, Pauline's writings become violent, and she slides into delinquency, pursuing boys and shoplifting. When one of her relationships turns sexual, she is wracked with guilt, and breaks up with him. Juliet is pleased. It doesn't last long, Pauline goes back to the boyfriend for a few weeks, but when Juliet gets out of the hospital, Pauline leaves the boy for good.
Meanwhile, Juliet's charismatic mother moves her lover into the house. When Juliet catches them in bed together, she attempts to blackmail them, to get her way. It backfires. And Pauline's mother is convinced Juliet is the reason Pauline's behavior has become so moody. They are forbidden from seeing each other.
Now convinced both sets of parents are only out to make the girls miserable, they plot run away to America and become movie stars, novelists or screen writers. The girl's behavior becomes more manic and wild, until they murder Pauline's mother with a brick.
My Thoughts
The murder and the then shocking allegations of lesbianism caused a sensation in New Zealand, a country which barely had three murders a year at the time.
Made in 1993 and released to critical acclaim in 1994, in time for the 40th anniversary of the grisly murder, Heavenly Creatures exploded onto the international scene, when just the day before the film's debut, an investigative journalist named Lin Ferguson revealed that Juliet Hulme had changed her name upon her release from prison and was now popular murder mystery novelist Anne Perry. The resulting international press, especially in the US—Perry's best selling market, made it possible for a wider release and eligible for more prestigious awards. The resulting Academy Award nomination for Best Original Screenplay propelled Jackson and his partner, Fran Walsh through The Lord of the Rings selection process.
If you are a The Lord of the Rings fan, then this movie is a must see. The quality of the story telling is phenomenal. First of all, the way Jackson orders the story was copied first by Joanne Drayton (although she starts her story where Ferguson got in touch with Perry's agent) and later by Peter Graham. As if ordering the story in any other way would make less sense. This is the power of Jackson's ability to select the correct scenes to convey the story.
While the Rieper and Hulme of the books are emotionally different, and less likeable creatures than the girls portrayed in the movie, the performances by Kate Winslet and Melanie Lynskey are incredible. Winslet's Hulme is dynamic, charismatic, with a soft vulnerability. And Lynskey's Rieper is moody, erratic, lonely and imaginative. The chemistry between Winslet and Lynskey is palpable, leaping off of the screen. This movie artfully dances between a fantasy world artistic beauty and a more mundane, if to American eye exotic New Zeeland of the 1950s. Despite the grim nature and grisly ending of the movie, the airy feel of much of story makes it well balanced. The cinematography is in places stunning, and a real glimpse of how much depth Jackson the movie maker has in him.
How Much My Library Card Saved Me
I checked this movie out of my library when it is not available to be streamed anywhere, not at a cost, much less for free. As such, I would have spent $12 to have it shipped to me from Amazon, if I had to purchase a second hand copy. It was shipped in from the Warren-Newport Library, which is two districts over from mine in this county. As such, the savings reflected on my receipt follow whatever convention their library uses. I checked it out with the Peter Graham book of the same topic and the total came out $25.29. The hardcover book has $24.95 listed as the price. Which, by way of math, leaves $0.34 as the price of the movie. I don't like that answer. I clearly remember this movie being in the $3 bin at Walmart a decade ago, when we all had DVD players, but it is the number, so I will use it.
This Movie $0.34
I’ll be back again in next week with more trivia. Until then, keep on reading!
Love,
Ansley
Thanks so much for talking with me, Ansley!