Aaron Lazar, copyright
2014
I didn’t intend to write a series when I created the rather
kooky and slightly paranormal mystery, For
the Birds. I knew it would feature a pretty little red bird on the cover (see
below), because I’d just had an unforgettable dream about her. Out of the wild
blue yonder, Ruby came to me, landed on my shoulder, and insisted I begin a new
mystery. I’ve never owned a bird, never even knew anyone with a feathered pet,
but this dream was so vibrant I couldn’t get Ruby out of my mind.
Marcella and Quinn “Black Eagle” Hollister popped onto the
scene as Ruby’s owners, and Marcella’s mother, Thelma, appeared out of nowhere.
Before I knew it, I had envisioned a dynamic and diverse family and their pets.
Staying true to my dream, I set the story in the Adirondack Mountains, which incidentally
set me craving the mountains, woods, lakes, and rivers that I’d come to love. After
this dream, I just had to get up
there again.
Fortunately, or unfortunately,
as the case may be, I was laid off from my engineering job at Kodak right
around the same time. So, with lots of free time on our hands, we headed up to
the mountains and discovered the cabin where the story ultimately takes place.
Tall Pines is a rustic, wonderful cabin situated on seven acres of pines above
the Sacandaga River in Hope, NY. We fell in love with it and visit as often as
possible. It has become the center of the series that grew from For the Birds.
When Marcella Hollister’s prize parakeet gets
zapped by a wayward power line in the same pool as her mother, the ensuing
psychic link helps Marcella chase her mother’s kidnappers through the
Adirondack Mountains, where she unearths a fifty-year-old secret about her dear
father with shocking links to a hidden treasure.
I really didn’t plan to include paranormal or spiritual
elements in For The Birds, either. I
just went ahead, guns blazing, and let the story pour out of me.
You can’t exactly call me a planner, can you? I never outline
my stories and usually plunge into them with just vague ideas about the
conflict, mystery, and locale. I actually have a hard time keeping up with
myself and all the books that want to come out. I know, that sounds nuts. But
it’s how I write.
When I finished this book, I was in love with the
characters. My readers wanted more of Marcella and her gorgeous half-Seneca
husband, and they seemed to enjoy our jaunts to the Adirondacks. At the same
time, I’d recently become infatuated and obsessed with essential oils. There
was no question that my characters would also discover them, and it came as no
surprise that I used the healing power of essential oils as one of the main
themes in the second Tall Pines book, Essentially
Yours.
Strangely enough, however, this book was a bit different.
Although it’s dubbed a mystery, it had more suspense and action than the first
book. If I had to give it a genre on its own, I would have called it romantic
suspense, although in general terms it could fall in the broader mystery
category.
Where’s the consistency?
Perhaps there is none, and this is where I started to break
the rules about keeping ones series in the same exact genre.
If push came to shove, I’d say the consistency and appeal of
the series is in the characters and the telling of a rollicking story set in
the same locale.
Marcella’s
first love has been MIA for eighteen years. Callie, her best friend and Sky’s
sister, flips out when a mysterious package from Sky arrives on her doorstep.
Inside his old backpack are bottles of precious essential oils, a memory stick,
and a bag of emeralds. Are these his final effects? Or is Sky alive?
Drug company goons want the data on the memory
stick, because it links a newly discovered essential oil with a leukemia cure.
They kidnap Callie, hoping to lure Sky into the open. Marcella and Quinn track
her to the wilderness of the Adirondack Mountains, where against all odds they
fight to save Callie and preserve the proof that could change the world.
The characters screamed at me to write more, especially
Marcella’s newly introduced old flame, Sky Lissoneau, and his damaged, but
adorable, sister, Callie. I thrived on the tension between Marcella’s husband
and her first love, who showed up after eighteen years with a whole gang of
villains chasing him through the Adirondack woods. Quinn—usually a quiet and
passive soul—is insanely jealous of Sky. After all these years, Sky still adores
Marcella, and can’t get that look of desperate heartache out of his eyes.
I let all hell break loose in Marcella’s family and in the
mountains where the scientific medical studies were being held to prove that a
common lake week held the key to curing leukemia. Mix together some nasty drug
company thugs and a bit of mysticism with crystals, oils, and the love of a big
old Bernese Mountain Dog, and you have Essentially
Yours.
When I wrote Sanctuary,
book three, I was obsessed with what I call “my Indian soul.” In my very
distant past, on my father’s side, there was a lady of native heritage up in
Canada. I’d been feeling a close connection with her and my heritage for my
entire life, even though the cold light of dilution of many generations, her
blood flowed in less than 3% of mine. Here is an essay
I wrote about this, just for grins.
With the help of a Cherokee historian friend (Thank you,
Pineleaf!), I wove substantial elements of Native American traditions into this
story. Using mystical elements of crystals, smooth river stones, essential
oils, and a haunted mountaintop, I pushed the psychic barrier a bit here and
allowed a bit of mind-melding.
This doesn’t belong in a mystery, does it? You’d really
expect it more in Star Trek. But hell, like I said, I didn’t care. I just
forged ahead.
Marcella’s
husband, Quinn “Black Eagle” Hollister, severed ties to his family and friends
on the Seneca reservation years ago. He rarely mentions his past—until his
young cousin Kitty collapses on the couple’s doorstep in the dead of a
rainswept night.
After two Seneca men break into their home with intent to kill, the Hollisters flee with the mute and injured girl to Tall Pines, their cabin in the Adirondacks. Marcella, unable to bear a child of her own, unleashes her motherly instincts caring for Kitty. As the girl slowly recovers, they start to piece together who wants them dead, and why.
When it came time to write Betrayal, book four, it flowed seamlessly after Sanctuary, I wanted to create a winter
mystery full of threats, sexual upheaval, and plenty of chase scenes. I didn’t expect
to introduce a pair of serial killers who left bodies on the icy shores of the
Sacandaga, but that’s what happened.
I also introduced some pretty dark relationship issues into
Marcella’s marriage. She feels Quinn betrays her, and flees to Tall Pines to
escape for a while. Trouble is, Sky is waiting there for her, and it’s all she
can do not to let herself fall into his arms. The old passion is still there,
and it tortures her to look into his sea green eyes. She fights the urge to
give in, but wants him so much it kills her.
Marcella Hollister realized a lifetime of hopes and dreams when she was
given custody of a child. A cousin of her half-Seneca husband, Quinn, the
baby’s mother was murdered in a political plot—and Marcella, who’s never been
able to have children of her own, formed an instant bond with little Kimi. Then
a distant relative comes forward to claim Kimi—and Quinn, who Marcella thought
understood her pain better than anyone, allows them to take the baby without a
fight.
Confused and deeply wounded, Marcella takes off for
Tall Pines, their secluded Adirondack cabin. She hopes the peace and natural
beauty of the mountains will help clear her head and decide whether to forgive
Quinn…or leave him. But the situation at Tall Pines is anything but peaceful.
Her high school lover, Sky, arrives to help out—and Marcella discovers her old
feelings may not be as distant as she thought. Worse, a serial killer is
stalking young women in the area. And when a teen girl whose mother works with
Sky goes missing, Marcella and everyone she cares for wind up dead center in
the killer’s sights.
If I were to read Betrayal
on its own, I might classify it as a romantic thriller.
Uh huh. Not a kooky, paranormal mystery like For the Birds. Not a romantic suspense,
like Essentially Yours. Not a Native
American spiritual mystery, like Sanctuary.
I know! Where’s my platform planning?
That said - I must tell you my Tall Pines fans and readers
don’t give a darn into which official genre my books fall. You could certainly
still broadly classify them as mysteries. But they don’t care, and frankly,
neither do I. It’s the characters we care about, and they are going to
experience life at Tall Pines no matter what genre the story falls into.
So, yeah. I broke the rules. Please don’t shoot me. Just go
buy my books and see what you think? ;o)
Aaron Paul Lazar
Aaron
Paul Lazar writes to soothe his soul. A bestselling Kindle author of 22 books,
including three addictive mystery series, writing books, and a new love story,
Aaron enjoys the Genesee Valley countryside in upstate New York, where his
characters embrace life, play with their dogs and grandkids, grow sumptuous
gardens, and chase bad guys. Visit his website at http://www.lazarbooks.com and
watch for his upcoming release, UNDER THE ICE. Aaron has won over 18 book
awards for his novels and finds writing to be his form of "cheap
therapy." Feel free to connect with him on Facebook or his website; he
loves to connect with readers!
