Falling Down, London Town

For the new year, three new Izzy titles have been released. One, Desert Girl, is the fourth installment in my Elodie Fontaine series. Another, 3 Elodie Fontaine Mysteries,  is a compilation of the first three books in the series—at a whopping savings—so here's a chance to get them all now.

The the third book,, London, Falling, is the one I want to discuss here because it is one that I have been thinking about for a very long time and am very proud of. And it is very different from my other books.

First of all, it is historical in that it takes place 50 years ago, in the hippie era. Second, it takes place in London, with brief stops in Paris and Venice. And third, it is not a mystery. No characters from any of my other books appear in London, Falling.

It is the story of Dawn Blackwell, daughter of the British Home Secretary, who wanders into the dark dens of the hippie scene, trying to find--well, she doesn't know quite what. In a London coffeehouse called The Rat's Nest she meets characters like Syd the Bass Player, Reefer John, The Skunk, Mr. Dark, Tristan the Jamaican, and various other waifs and tatterdemalions who live primarily on the street. But Dawn soon becomes obsessed with a mysterious young woman called Callie, who seems as much out of place at The Rat's Nest as is Dawn herself.

And like Dawn, Callie is a member of the so-called ruling class. Callie's desire to integrate herself into the hippie culture while trying to educate its members into finding purposes for their dire lives both puzzles and infuriates Dawn. Yet her attraction for the woman grows.

Remember that during this time the Vietnam War was raging and protests were flaring up in France, followed closely by the Kent State killings and other university protests in the U.S. Young people like Dawn were rebelling, not necessarily because they wanted to or because they had anything real to believe in, but because society was pushing them that way.

The 1960s shaped much of the way we live today. In fact, without that era, we would still be trapped in a world that despised homosexuals, paid women half of what men made, and discriminated fiercely against people of color.

Since that time, and especially in the last 3 years, society has split; half of us wants to go forward into universal acceptance, the other half wants to ban the existence of most people that do not think--or look--like them. It was interesting for me to delve into this world and find out--partially at least--where we came from.

Remember that all of my books except the "boxed sets" are available in both ebook and paperback. The ebooks can be read for free if you are a member of Kindle Unlimited.

Izzy's World

Almost a decade ago, I began my fictional writing career on a whim and with a scene I had been carrying around in my head for years. The novel that resulted, The News in Small Towns, spawned three sequels. I found that, in fact, I had been carrying multiple scenes in my head and, with one exception, they all took place in the same world--Izzy's World.

Looking back, I can see that there is an intererconnectedness in my books. Characters from one book sometimes pop up in another.  They all take place in the same geographical area and within a single lifespan; in other words, the same reality. Except for the fantasy element--dragons and witches and such--my own literary world is little different from Terry Pratchett's Discworld, for instance, or from C.S. Lewis' Narnia. Another major difference is that the protagonists of all of my novels are lesbians.

My first four books--The Small Town Series--take place in Pine Oak, a fictional town in North Florida. In them, Suee-Ann McKeown, after quitting her high-profile job as a war correspondentr in Iraq, returns to Pine Oak in Jasper County to work in a small bi-weekly newspaper. Her experience as an nvestigative reporter stands her in good stead to solve various and sundry small-town crimes. The first three books, The News in Small Towns, Madness in Small Towns, and Secrets in Small Towns, are complete novels in which there is usually a main mystery and a fedw smaller ones as well. The fourth and last book, Mysteries in Small Towns, is a number of  shotr stories that tie up the series.

My next book, The XYZ Mysteries,  also consists of a series of interconnected mystery stories. These features three sisters--Xande, Yolande, and Zoe (who seems to have disappeared)--who run a private detective agency in Miami. It not onlyshowcases the problem-solving abilities of the siters, but chronicles their lives and loves over several decades.  As it takes place 500 miles from Jasper County, it seems at first blush to be a one-off, but it isn't. One of the sisters plays a large part iin my next novel, while another retires to, you guessed it, Jasper County.

The closest large city to Pine Oak is Tallahassee, which is the setting of my next book, the literary mystery The 5. In it, five young women are invited to be part of a special university clas--about themselves. But when the professor doesn't show up for their first meeting, these five very different women are forced to work together to not only investigate her disappearance, but their own very existence. As I mentioned above, one of the XYZ sisters, Zoe Calhoun, shows up to help.

The two main charactersof The 5, Sandra Croft and Carmah Williams, return in supporting roles in my next series, The Elodie Fontaine Mysteries. Unlike The 5, though, The Elodie mysteries are for young adults, new adults, and girls who are questining their sexual identity. This is an ongoing series, with 4 novels already published and as many to come as I have imagination for. Although I love each of my books dearly, I think that my Elodie mysteries are the most important because they speak to the LGBTQ community in a way that Nancy Drew spoke to straight girls.

I like the fact that, in scratching my writing itch, I have come away with womething that seems more than just a series of books, but my own little micrososmos.

As I mentioned, I plan to write several more Elodie Fontaine mysteries. In addition, I am working on a real fantasy novel, Persephone's Mare, that begins in my original setting, Pine Oak, Florida, and that features at least one character from my Small Town Series. And last, a protege of mine is considering expanding Izzy's World with a series of romantic thrillers about the two main characters of The 5, so look for The Carmah and Sandy Adventures sometime in the future.