Friday, May 12, 2023

Reed Sterling is Visiting and Talking About an upcoming release #BWLAuthor #literary #mystery #Holland and Belgium

 

Like Shades of Persephone, the book I wish to feature in this blog is literary in tone. The Palimpsest Murders, due to be released in the near future with BWL, Inc., is what I subtitle “A European Travel Mystery.” It fits the cosy murder genre but in no way is it all that cosy because it necessitates travel, even in the imaginative sense, and a basic familiarity with characters in Homer’s The Iliad, especially with the royal murders involved in the aftermath to the Trojan War.

 

 

The idea for this novel arose when I took a one-week Boat & Bike excursion through Holland and Belgium. All was agreeable among the thirty guests onboard. Very enjoyable. But why not, my imagination prompted me, introduce the clash of different personalities in close quarters and have that lead to inevitable conflict that would result in two murders?

Thus plot.

In this fictional setting, many obvious questions are asked, but few answers truly satisfy collective curiosity. Why the first body in the canal? Is the second death related to the first and is it suicide or murder? Why two coins for the ferryman? Who among the cyclists is hateful and motivated enough to kill? Twice. And why? Is the ugly jug, both admired and hated, merely symbolic? How does the gold death mask of Agamemnon lead to a resolution?

 

 

Research. I try to stay on point. In composing The Palimpsest Murders I had notes to depend on from my European adventure, on Amsterdam, Bruges, and Paris, to name only the larger centers involved in the story. A week on a boat with thirty or so new faces provided me with considerable material regarding character. Simple observation of people can be very insightful, verisimilitude being the objective of the exercise no matter the setting.

Research done in situ is very gratifying, Greece for Shades Of Persephone and Montreal in large part for Lighting The Lamp and Séjour Saint-Louis. Reading other fiction can also be a source of helpful information.

 

 

How long to write The Palimpsest Murders? Six months.

 

 

Aries motivates me in my efforts to write about the world I inhabit. I have been involved in serious writing since retiring in 1999.

 

 

 Genres. The Palimpsest Murders, as originally conceived, is strictly a murder mystery, which is somewhat of a departure from my earlier novels, although having a protagonist uncover what’s going on behind the scenes is essential to all three previous works. All my endeavours in writing fiction draw on literary, artistic, and mythological allusion. 

Find me at the following:

 

reedstirlingwrites.com

reedstirling@gmail.com

http://bwlpublishing.ca

https://www.smashwords.com/profile/view/bookswelove

Amazon Author central: https://authorcentral.amazon.comgp/home

 

 

 

Blurbs and Buy Links:

 

https://bookswelove.net/stirling-reed/

https://books2read.com/Shades-of-Persephone

https://books2read.com/Sejour-Saint-Louis

 

No comments:

Post a Comment