by Karen Harper
And, sad to say, some invasive animals have been released and thrive in that region, especially the dangerous Burmese pythons, which are hatching hundreds of eggs in the Everglades. Wildlife experts are asking the public to report any sightings of these large snakes through the IveGot1 app or hotline. Python hunters like Bronco do go out to catch and kill.
The Naples Zoo at Caribbean Gardens is in a lovely setting. We have enjoyed watching it grow from “Jungle Larry’s African Safari” to the great facility it is today. The BAA is fictional, as is the Trophy Ranch; however, such entities do exist in South Florida. There are legitimate hunting ranches without the likes of someone like Stan Helter.
A Big Cat Public Safety Act is a bipartisan bill being considered in the US Congress, which would ban the possession and breeding of lions, tigers, leopards and other big cats by private individuals or unqualified exhibitors at “roadside zoos.” Bill supporters say that thousands of big cats are being kept in people’s backyards and basements or in poorly maintained facilities, creating a safety hazard for the public while threatening the cats’ health.
As for a tiger killing a keeper, a zookeeper was killed recently by a tiger in the Palm Beach Zoo. The ruling was that the keeper did not follow established safety procedures. In May of 2017, Hamerton Zoo Park, eighty miles north of London, England, also reported a female keeper killed by a tiger when she somehow entered the same area with the animal, which did not escape or threaten others. The Hamerton Zoo blamed a freak accident. Such zoo clashes between wildlife and their human custodians once again emphasize that the closeness of wild animals and humans can go very wrong.
I hope you have been able to read the first three books in the South Shores series and that you will look for the next suspense novel featuring Claire and Nick Markwood. There is a prehistoric burial bog in Florida not far from Disney World. I love the clash of cultures in a novel, and, of course, Claire’s idea that helping with Kristen Kane’s dig would be safe is hardly a possibility in a Karen Harper suspense novel.
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Writers Helping Writers
P.D. James and Mary Higgins Clark
Up Close and Personal
As a reader, I look up to certain authors. But as a veteran writer, I look up to particular trailblazing authors too. I was blessed to spend time with Mary Higgins Clark (who needs no introduction to readers of suspense) and had dinner with the famous and fabulous British crime writer P.D. James. Time with those two veteran authors has been one of the highlights of my thirty-five years (and counting!) as a published novelist.
In early February of 1996, I was invited to be on the faculty of a three-day writer’s conference sponsored by the University of South Florida in St. Petersburg. I accepted happily (we were snowbirds in South Florida) but I was even happier when I saw that famed British author P.D. James was on tour in the US and was also speaking at the conference. I had begun to write contemporary suspense as well as historical novels, and I remember thinking, If I can just breathe this woman’s air, it will help me!
I attended two workshops she gave and was seated next to her at the faculty dinner. I’m used to being with authors and have met and learned from some of the best, but this was special to me.
Granted, I am a rabid Anglophile in general, but I greatly admired her work. This was five years after P.D. (Phyllis Dorothy) was dubbed by the queen as “Dame James,” Baroness James of Holland Park. How well I recall (and still have my notes from) her advice in her workshops and during our meal together.
One thing she shared was that she always began to build a book with a particular setting in mind, rather than a plot or character coming first. This surprised me, since her police procedurals present character and plot so well. Of course, her best known work—the Adam Dalgliesh crime novels—has continuing characters. So perhaps she had those “persons” well in hand, but they did evolve and change within the fourteen Dalgliesh novels that stretched from 1962 to 2008.
I always begin planning my stories with a place that intrigues me but I know I’m in the minority; most authors I’ve talked to take one of the other two routes to their stories. It gave me a big boost to know she conceived of a new story the same way I did. She told me, “If the place seems real to the reader, everything else should too.”
Another piece of advice I’ve hung my writing hat on for over twenty suspense novels is to keep the suspects (she called them possible villains) to about three, so each one can have the attention he/she needs in the story: character development, motives, unique personalities.
In short, I found the (then) seventy-six-year-old Dame James not only charming but generous with her advice. In addition to meeting and spending time with Mary Higgins Clark when I won her award in 2006, my time with P.D. James was one of the most moving and valuable events in my career.
Mary Higgins Clark also always gives her readers a great suspense novel; she specializes in “woman in jeopardy” stories. I believe one reason I won her award for my Amish-country-set book Dark Angel (and was also rewarded with some time and advice from her!) was that I strive for that story structure too. And in the South Shores series, family drama, danger and the love story of a woman with an unusual disease make a great mix for romantic suspense.
P.D. James died in 2014, but Mary Higgins Clark is still going strong with great books. I found both women generous and willing to uplift newer authors. I really appreciated the advice from them about writing great suspense and hope I can “pass it on” through my novels to my readers and other writers.
ISBN-13: 9781488028014
Shallow Grave
Copyright © 2018 by Karen Harper
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