The purpose of this blog is to focus on THE MILD MANNERED PROFESSOR MYSTERIES, how they were written (they’re a work in progress), people’s reactions and ideas, beginning with the first book, THE HOUSE AT 190 MOUNT TABOR WAY.

Carrie Shannon, the protagonist in the series, is a mild mannered professor—at least, most of the time. She lives an apartment on the upper, upper West Side of Manhattan and works at a large university in the city. She’s devoted to her work, but, as we learn in 190 MOUNT TABOR WAY, treasures time “uninterrupted by complaining students and demanding bureaucratic details” that have a way of finding her at work. She likes to think that she’s spontaneous, “quick to throw routine to the wind for an adventure,” but truth be told, it’s routine that holds her together. Carrie’s 52-years-old and slightly rounder in the middle than she used to be, largely due to terrible eating habits when she’s writing. In many ways, she’s rather ordinary, so much so that she can fly in under the radar, both at the university and in the world around her. That’s why she’s a good sleuth.

I started the series for the sheer joy of writing. I’ve always loved a good read. My mother read KIDNAPPED aloud and it was pretty hard to wait between chapters. I was also hooked on Nancy Drew and the Hardy Boys as a girl. I especially admired Nancy Drew’s independent thinking. When I was in high school I wrote my first mystery series for the school paper. It was ghastly, but it had all the accouterments of a thriller: secret passages, fireplace sconces that twisted and opened hidden panels. For the life of me, I can’t remember the plot!

Then, years ago, some friends gave me the keys to their house in Ocean Grove, New Jersey while they had to be away. They had a bookshelf full of mysteries. I got started and couldn’t stop until I’d worked my way through the bookshelf!  But not all mysteries are equal. I found myself less satisfied with some.  And I wondered why so many female protagonists acted like men, men I didn’t admire that much to start with. It seemed like cheap feminism to me. I was waiting for another Elizabeth Peters book to come out and I’d finished everything Edith Pargeter/Ellis Peters had written.  So I thought, “Right, if I want a another good story, I should write it!” Then came a foggy night and imagination took over finding its way into 190 MOUNT TABOR:

By the time they reached the house it was completely shrouded by a fog so thick they wouldn’t have recognized it if they hadn’t known where they were going. There was no traffic. All they could hear was the drip, drip of the fog as it met the porch.  “I guess you won’t be driving back to the city for awhile,” Carrie said.

“I’ve never seen it so thick,” observed Nita.

“The perfect night for a murder!” Katty exclaimed.

It became like a puzzle, figuring out what happened, to whom, and why?  Ocean Grove, New Jersey was an ideal location because I love Ocean Grove. It has such an interesting history, is so lovely, and because it was so easy for Carrie to suppose, “nothing ever happens here!”

So who is Carrie?

In a sense, all writing is autobiographical.  I share some of Carrie’s faults, but she had grown into her own person before I finished the first book. My experience definitely shows up in her travels. In the first book, THE HOUSE AT 190 MOUNT TABOR WAY, she imagines that she’s returning from a sabbatical in London to two idyllic weeks at the shore, but walks into a tangle of events that leave her and her twenty-one-year-old daughter Elizabeth in harm’s way.

We write from what we know. I’ve been to the places that find their way into the book and build on experiences I’ve had.  My experiences furnish the context for Carrie’s sleuthing.  I’m confident Carrie wouldn’t have been so devoted to a good cup of tea if I hadn’t spent a sabbatical in London! I’ll blog more about her and other characters in the first novel.

I’ve posted the first three chapters of THE HOUSE AT MT. TABOR WAY. Perhaps you’ll see why it was love at first sight when I first visited Ocean Grove.  I am deeply respectful of its living legacy. The setting is very real, but all of the characters and the tangles they get into are entirely of my own making.

The picture of The Great Auditorium comes from an old linen post card.

THE HOUSE AT 190 MOUNT TABOR WAY is a beginning. Other books in the series are well under way. But for now, posts will be about this first part of the journey and where it takes me.