Hello, I'm Mara Kalyn, author of mysteries and women’s fiction.
Why two genres? Because I grew up reading mysteries and general fiction. Starting with the Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew, onward to adult favorites: Erle Stanley Gardner, (Perry Mason Mysteries); Agatha Christie, (Hercule Poirot, Jane Marple and other protagonists); Rex Stout, (Nero Wolfe). Can’t forget Ellery Queen, can we? All voraciously consumed and enjoyed.
On the less mysterious side of fiction, I loved 'Little Women' by Louisa May Alcot, and 'Anne of Green Gables' by Lucy Maude Montgomery.
Today I devour everything by Louise Penny; I have all of her books. I adore Miss Fisher Mysteries by Kerry Greenwood. These two authors inspire my writing because I appreciate their narrative voices. I feel like I’m reading about friends. I want to write characters that my readers can connect with.
Writing in two genres allows me the perogative to explore events from two perspectives. What makes a person love so much they will resort to murder? Why do people love each other? Why are they sometimes jealous or protective.
Love is love, whether it’s romantic love, parental, filial, or love for pets, houses and gardens. I see a recurring theme here. Humans are love, they love everything. Maybe that’s why we’re so attracted to romance and why we explore that theme so often in our literature. We want to erase that which causes innate love to sour, to become dark and dangerous.
Is it a warping of societal expectations? A skewed view of right and wrong? An attempt to impose one’s fractured, perhaps damaged life experience on others? Make them conform?
Questions that haunt the ages and become the subject of many discussions around the fireplace.
The human condition is knit of many yarns and many colors, reflected in many swatches that combine into a universal patchwork.
Like most writers, I fell in love with words, books and pens the moment I was introduced to them. Every September, on the first day of school I eagerly awaited the distribution of those wonderful books, their pages pressed into a stack of white between hard covers. My mom would issue sufficient clean brown paper grocery bags to make protective envelopes for them.
It was the texture of the book paper, the sharp edges that sliced into finger pads if you weren't careful, that seduced me. And of course, the words within.
Once I learned how to collate words myself, I wanted to write stories like the authors whose words I read.
After so many years learning and practicing,
retired now from the necessity to earn a salary, I have made much progress in this art of writing readable prose.
I spend my days either writing or thinking about my characters and their doings.
On the home page, there is a currently published novelette, two chapters of the current work and short introductions to two more titles in progress.
I am living my lifelong dream now. Please don't wake me up!
I hope you enjoy reading my stories as much as I enjoy writing them.
Be safe, be strong and carry on!
Mara