The Pale Rose: It started with a dream
April 14, 2012
I have a lot of dreams that I take inspiration from for stories, but I don’t think I have ever had a dream as vivid and as detailed as The Pale Rose. Almost every aspect of the story, the clues, the crime, the method, were part of my dream and when I awoke, it was only a matter of working out a very few details to turn it into a rather decent mystery.
In the dream the detective was actually Agatha Christie’s Hercule Poirot, who was revealing his deductions on the case in that very dramatic way of his. Naturally I couldn’t keep that aspect of my dream when I wrote the mystery, but as it happened, I had already come up with the character of Amelia Humble, a housewife who has a hobby of solving her consulting detective husband’s cases, faster than he can solve them himself.
The title for the book came from the first sort of clue in the mystery, a rose that had once adorned the missing woman’s hair that is found on the floor in the room she vanished from. I think I used it for the title because I wanted something in ode to Poirot, and to how in the dream he said “the pale rose” in his little Belgian accent. Besides, I think it has a ring to it.
The Pale Rose: A Housewife Detective Mystery Novella is the first in a series, and will soon be available for purchase at Amazon.com
A Mystery Cafe Girl
December 1, 2011
I’ve been writing like mad for the last little while and have just about finished my first novella. So exciting! Anyway, I thought I would post a little something, as a sort of teaser, if you will, that related to my book in a way. The cover art (which is just about finished as well) is in a similar style to this picture and that rose on my café girl’s hat has more to do with the story than you might think. Other than that, I’m going to leave the rest of it a mystery (hint, hint) until closer to publication.
