Guest author: Kent Westmoreland

A native of North Carolina, Kent Westmoreland grew up on a farm; a locale he did not cotton to. After high school, he moved to Charlotte to seek fame and fortune. Instead, he worked as a haberdasher, a waiter, and a painter (of barns) while obtaining an Associates degree from Central Piedmont Community College. Armed with his degree he worked as a software developer for two years before stumbling into New Orleans. Since moving to New Orleans he has earned a Bachelors Degree from Holy Cross College and has performed many roles in the IT field. He is currently a project manager with a bank. Westmoreland and his wife Leslie live with their three cats in uptown New Orleans.

His award-winning Burleigh Drummond short stories have appeared in the magazines Blue Murder, Tangled Web, Thrilling Detective, and Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine. His first novel Baronne Street, a Burleigh Drummond mystery, was published in September 2010.


After a recent reading some members of the audience suggested we continue the discussion of Baronne Street over a cup of coffee. My wife says I love to pontificate. She must be correct because I accepted the offer without hesitation.

For those who aren’t familiar with Baronne Street, the protagonist is Burleigh Drummond. Twenty-eight year old Drummond is the fixer New Orleans bluebloods and politicians run to when their problems become too complicated for their titanium-hearted lawyers.

In Baronne Street Drummond must employ his Machiavellian skills to solve and avenge the brutal rape and murder of Coco Robicheaux, an ex-girlfriend. As Drummond investigates he discovers Coco lived a clandestine existence in the city’s netherworld and had been drafted as an unwitting pawn in a plot to disrupt the upcoming mayoral election. As often happens with pawns, she was sacrificed.

During the discussion one of the most interesting questions posed was “What were the influences that led you to create the character of Burleigh Drummond?”

I have lived with Burleigh Drummond through four short stories, a novel, and outlines for several more of each. His biography, his life events, his motivations are what I think about. It had been quite some time since I had given any thought to how the character was developed.

Even before fleshing out the character I knew setting was a key component. I wanted to place the series in a small city with an insular society. A city controlled by the old money crowd who fears progress may disrupt their lives; for that reason they will thwart progress by any means necessary.

Initially I had planned to base the series in Palm Beach, but Lawrence Sanders had beaten me to that prime real estate with his fine Archie McNally series. In retrospect Palm Beach would have been the wrong choice. Palm Beach is less of a city and more of a winter vacation community for the ultra-wealthy; they only stay for “The Season”. And then there is all that beautiful sunshine, white sand, and crystal-blue ocean. Burleigh Drummond needed to operate in a dark city with even darker secrets.

Then I discovered New Orleans. A city filled with secret societies whose members don masks once a year and toss trinkets to the masses. The bluebloods make backroom deals to restrain new business and influence politicians. The politicians bleed every dime from the city coffers and do nothing for the city. Then the bluebloods and politicians dance together at formal balls while the city decays.

New Orleans was the perfect location for Burleigh Drummond to set up shop.

An early decision was to create a character who went against type for the hard boiled genre. He wouldn’t carry a gun or get involved with fisticuffs. His primary weapons would be brains, charm, and aplomb. Occasionally trickery, blackmail, and bribery would be used; I never intended for Drummond to be a choir boy.

For irony I chose to call the character Burleigh Drummond because it sounds like a tough guy’s name.

During the discussion I remembered three fictional detectives are in Drummond’s DNA: James West from the TV series The Wild, Wild West, Sherlock Holmes, and Phillip Marlowe.

What I always loved about James West is wherever he went people said “There’s James West, secret agent for the Secret Service”. It was so absurd. But I realized this would happen to Burleigh Drummond since he operates in a small city which only has three degrees of separation as opposed to the standard six. So I worked that concept into the stories. He seldom engages anyone who doesn’t know him or know of him. In one of the short stories a police detective mentions Drummond’s clients consider it a status symbol to say “Burleigh Drummond is fixing the situation for me.”

Many people think Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson are middle-aged or older; probably because older actors have primarily been cast in those roles. (At forty-five Robert Downey Jr. is middle-aged.) Holmes began his career as a consulting detective after graduation from college; he was about twenty-four. He was twenty seven or twenty-eight when he met Dr. Watson and Watson began chronicling their adventures. Watson was few years older; in addition to being a physician Watson was an ex-military man who missed the excitement of war.

Also more often than not Holmes’ clients were wealthy blokes and government officials asking him to fix a situation for them (the italics are mine).

Baronne Street begins when Drummond is twenty-eight and has been working as a fixer for three years. His best friend and occasional partner, Morgan Cross, is obviously an ex-intelligence agent, though it is never explicitly stated. Like Watson, Cross knows his way around guns and death.

Phillip Marlowe – How could he not be an influence? Marlowe is the platinum standard for the hard-boiled genre. He is cool, hip, a great wisecracker, and obsessed with the truth while seeming not to care. Still he is haunted by his inability to make things right in an imperfect world. Just like Burleigh Drummond.

If you would like to continue the discussion there’s always email. I can be reached at Kent@KentWestmoreland.com or if you’re shy just go to the web site – www.KentWestmoreland.com .

—Kent Westmoreland

SAYING GOODBYE TO 2010

Hard to believe truly that we have come to the end of yet another year. Seems like only 365 days or so ago I was saying the same thing.

Makes you wonder about the very early years of civilization when there were no years, months, weeks, days, hours, minutes, or seconds. The people then just lived from moment to moment with no boundaries to guide their every move. Imagine that. Yet I suspect they managed just fine till the time came to start and finish days, week, months, years, decades, and centuries.

That as it may, things are as they are in modern times and that means having to say goodbye to another year, for better or worse. I have always found this crossover from one year to the next a bit intimidating, for while you can lock in the year past as one for the history books, there are no guarantees of what the next year may have in store. Will I be around to help usher in 2012? Will any of us? Can I use this year's wisdom to make the smart moves next year? Or will I have not learned anything meaningful?

I am sure others may not share my feelings here, but I am really going to miss 2010. For sure, there were some things I'd just as soon forget. Or wish had never happened. Second for second, minute to minute, hour to hour, day by day, week to week, and month to month, though, it was a good year with lots of memories I will long hang onto.


There was that terrific victory by the Saints to win the Super Bowl that seemed to be a victory for the nation itself, alongside New Orleans.

It wasn't quite as exciting to see the Giants of San Francisco win the World Series, but was happy nonetheless for that great city, having once lived within shouting distance.

Seeing Julie Andrews and the entire cast of my all time favorite musical, The Sound of Music, on Oprah, was quite a thrill. Looking at them, it hardly seemed that 45 years had passed since the movie came out and had us all singing, "Doe, a deer, a female deer Ray, a drop of golden sun..."

I had several novels come out in 2010, including my first young adult coming of age tale, HER TEEN DREAM, and mainstream suspense, THE SECRETS OF PARADISE BAY.
But what I will miss most about this year is that it was another year for personal growth and professional achievement.

I can only hope that 2011 offers as much to look forward to and well beyond.

What will you miss most about 2010?

Any memories that stand out?

Unfinished Business in 2010

This is my last post for 2010. It has been one of those landmark years chocked full of varied experiences; new countries, career changes, new friends, illnesses and lost loved ones. It is always interesting to me that the end of a year takes on such significance in our lives. For practical purposes, it is an abstract concept and the first of January will follow on after December 31 much in the same way that January 2nd will come into being and the days after that.

Despite this understanding that life will go on (all things being equal), I feel a bit panicked as I realise that I did not take enough time to make notes to capture the emotions that I have felt at different junctures in this period of my life. I feel (irrationally) as if these memories may be dulled, even wiped clean and I will be presented with a clean slate on January 1, 2011. These notes could be the key to helping me to relive the raw emotions and impressions and thus enrich a character or scene in a future best selling novel.

So excuse the brevity of this post while I pull out my notebooks and write, write, write!

What I Learned From Bad Writers

Even as a kid I loved telling stories, but I first thought about becoming a writer in my late teens and of telling stories on paper for others to read.

Two things persuaded me to try my hand at the author thing. First, I wanted to enthrall others the way I’d been enthralled by L’Amour, Bradbury, Burroughs, Howard, MacDonald, and many others. Second, I figured I could do better, or at least put more effort into it, than some of the other writers I was reading. I won’t mention names, but I was finding books that just didn’t move me. The prose was leaden, the pace stagnant, the characters as stiff as new jeans.

Sometimes the poor writers just didn’t know how to tell good stories. But more often it seemed these authors were writing too fast and not giving the care to their work that being a craftsman required. To me, this became, and remains, the definition of a hack. Turns out, however, that I learned quite a bit from the hacks, mostly, I hope, about the things a writer should not do.

I learned that well-written prose strikes the ear like music, not like the sound of a bell without a clapper. I learned that description is boring unless it fires the imagination or sets a mood. I learned that good characters can’t become chess pieces to be shoved around, that they have to have integrity of action and consistency in their behavior over time. I learned that fiction should give the illusion of reality even when it can’t illustrate reality absolutely, as when dialogue sounds as if real people are talking rather than serving mechanically to advance the plot.

One important thing I learned from bad writing is that there is no suspense for readers when things come too easily for the characters. I read a book where the villain gathered a huge army and cornered the last heroes. The villain had a great bomb but the hero defused it, and the enemy army just suddenly ran away. I might once have thrown that book across the room, but this time I kept reading, wondering what other gems of “thou-shalt-not-do” wisdom might be found between the lines of a weak tale.

Of course, the most important thing I’ve learned from poor writing is that good writing takes concentration and effort, and there is no substitute for either. It’s easy to tell a bad story. The good ones take time.

2011

On my way to my day job, I popped in a Luther Vandross's CD. I love Luther and enjoy his romantic lyrics. His songs are a wonderful muse when I hit a brick wall with my writing. As I drove, I thought back to one of his final interviews. He spoke of his career and how lucky he'd been to find the type of career that he could love. Listening to his music, I considered how fortunate I am to have two careers that I enjoy and how important it is to enjoy your job and have fun along the way.

With 2011 a few days away, I want to say follow your dreams. Make 2011 the year you complete your manuscript and submit it to a literary agent or publisher. It's so easy to sidetracked by real life, stay focused.

Have a safe and fun New Year's Eve and I'll talk to you in 2011.

Karen

It’s Christmas day today. I had all intentions of writing my blog and posting it at the stroke of midnight. But as usual, I got caught up in the Holiday preparation. After spending all Christmas Eve into Christmas Day cleaning, wrapping gifts, and decorating, I was just too tired to visit the computer.

As I got up this morning and began cooking, cleaning again, and more cooking, writing the blog took a bit of a back seat. Christmas is a lot of work, especially if you have kids. But it is work I enjoy. Why? I love Christmas. I love the sights, the sounds and the smells. I especially like the tastes.

There are some foods we only eat at Christmas. We brew Sorrel, a blood red drink made from the Sorrel flower. The aroma fills the room and fills my heart with nostalgia. We make black cake. It is a fruit cake filled with wine and sometimes rum. I soak the dried fruits: raisins, prunes, currents, cherries etc in port wine for a few weeks then bake them into the cake. After the cake is finished, I pour port wine and a tiny bit of CSR, a rum made in St. Kitts, over it.

The smell of cake baking, ham baking, sorrel brewing and ginger beer fills me with memories of a time past. A time when there were no gifting or myths of Santa bringing presents. A time when Christmas and carnival went hand in hand… when people dropped by our home just to have some Sorrel and Black Cake. A time of joy that did not involve the excessive materialism that characterizes Christmas today.

Yes I love Christmas. And as I enjoy my roasted lamb, yam pie, and fried plantains with my sorrel and black cake, I’ll remember all who celebrate the holidays in different ways. So for all who take the time to visit Novel Spaces today, here’s my wish for you:

I wish you a merry Christmas and a bright and prosperous new year!

Christmas books: A list

The end of the year is list season, especially in the world of books. What better reason is there to come up with my very own list of 10 Christmas-themed books? If you can't get away from the jollity and insanity, the next best thing is to throw yourself in wholeheartedly, even down to the books on your bedside table. So here goes:

Liane's list of Christmas-themed books

1. The Life and Adventures of Santa Claus by L. Frank Baum
The creator of Wizard of Oz unleashes his imagination again in this story of the origin of Saint Nicholas.

2. Christmas Day in the Morning by Pearl S. Buck
My mother was a fan of this author and I read several titles from her bookshelf, all of which gave profound insights into the Chinese culture. This story is a departure from her pet setting and themes: here a penniless teenage boy finds a way to give his father a precious Christmas gift.

3. A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens
What list is complete without this classic? Especially a list by someone nicknamed 'Scrooge' at this time of year. Meet Tiny Tim, Ebenezer Scrooge and all the Spirits.

4. The Cricket on the Hearth by Charles Dickens
This novella is divided into Chirps instead of chapters. Published in 1845, it tells the story of a family with a cricket in the house. The cricket, their guardian angel, warns the master that his wife may be having an affair. Doesn't sound like Christmas fare, does it? Despite the sobering premise the spirit of the season manages to prevail.

5. Holidays on Ice by David Sedaris
Sedaris turns his sardonic wit to Christmas and pulls it off with style in this collection of Christmas-themed stories. From the hilarious SantaLand Diaries in which Sedaris chronicles his time working as an elf at Macy's ("You are not a dancer. If you were a real dancer you wouldn't be here. You're an elf and you're going to wear panties like an elf.") to Dinah, the Christmas Whore and Six to Eight Black Men, these stories are funny and sad, hilarious and sobering.

6. On A Snowy Night by Debbie Macomber
Love romance novels? Love Christmas? Here are two heartwarming Christmas stories in one package from a queen of the romance genre.

7. The Christmas Train by David Baldacci
Baldacci has been venturing beyond the thrillers that made him a household name into historical and science fiction mystery. Here he takes a shot at the Christmas-mystery-humour-romance racket with a thriller set aboard a cross-country train. If you're a fan of train lore, you're in for a treat.

8. Hogfather by Terry Pratchett
A hilarious Christmas satire set in the fantasy universe of Discworld. The Auditors want people to stop believing in things that aren't real, so they've hired an assassin to eliminate Hogfather - you know, that fat, white-bearded, red-suited guy who cries "HO HO HO!"

9. Chicken Soup for the Soul: A Christmas Treasury by Jack Canfield
Looking for Christmastime inspiration? Pick up this book for a bowlful.

10. Amazing Peace: A Christmas Poem by Maya Angelou
First read at the 2005 White House tree-lighting ceremony, this stirring poem and the lovely artwork will resonate with all ages.

—Liane Spicer