RoguesAngels: McNair Mysteries

Please welcome Don McNair author of Mystery at Magnolia Mansion and Mystery on Firefly Knob.

Don will giving away reader's choice of a copy of one of his books on http://www.donmcnair.com/ to one randomly chosen commenter.

INTERVIEW:

QUESTION: What or who inspired you to start writing?

ANSWER: I guess the beacon shined on me in grade school, the day my teacher asked us to write a short story about Mother’s Day. I turned mine in and the next day she gushed about it and read it to the class. A pretty little girl came up to me later and said, “I loved your story, Donnie.” That started both my writing career and my fear of girls.

QUESTION: What elements are necessary components for this genre?

ANSWER: A deep interest in exploring the human mind, and presenting characters in a non-plastic way. Once a writer decides to write about a relationship between Dirk and Angel they must take them apart to see what makes them tick. If Dirk says or does this, how would Angel react in real life? How can I build conflict between them, and let them spend the book trying to make things right? Conflict sells books.

QUESTION: How did you come up with your idea for your novels?

ANSWER: The muse visits in various ways. The plot for “Mystery at Magnolia Mansion” occurred to me when I bought and renovated the subject house. Why not write a book where the heroine goes through the same experiences I did? The plot for “Mystery on Firefly Knob” was launched when I visited Eastern Tennessee and found an actual knob and an old cabin on the Cumberland Gap overlooking a beautiful valley. When I read an article about exotic fireflies that blinked at the same time instead of individually, my mind put these things together and the story was born.

I ran into another effective method for developing plots in a night course at a nearby college. Each week the instructor told us to write a story using two specific things for the next week’s assignment. One assignment, I remember, was to write a story about an old woman and a young boy. Each week we read our stories, and I was amazed at how good and diverse they were. That method led to the short stories in my book “The Man on the Park Bench, and Twelve More Tales of Intrigue.”

QUESTION: What expertise did you bring to your writing?

ANSWER: Actually, it was forty years of writing for others. I spent eleven years on a magazine’s editing staff, six as a professional at a major PR firm, and twenty-one running my own marketing communications business. When I decided to write fiction I had already conquered the writing basics.

QUESTION: What are your future writing plans?

ANSWER: After forty years, six novels, and three how-to books, I now put that experience to good use helping other writers jump their own writing hurdles. I started my McNairEdits.com editing service, enjoy it very much, and plan to do it forever. Well, maybe not forever…

QUESTION: Can you give us a sneak peek into your books?

ANSWER: Certainly. Here’s a thumbnail of both romance novels.

Mystery at Magnolia Mansion: Brenda Maxwell’s new interior design client tells her to “paint, wallpaper, whatever” his hundred-year-old landmark mansion, “but for God’s sake, don’t go overboard.” When she figures her grandiose plans will fit handily into his edict’s “whatever” section, they’re launched into a constant head-bumping mode. Brenda’s poor money management skills (that’s his view, but what does he know?) and lawyer David Hasbrough’s ridiculous need to control her life (that’s her well-reasoned evaluation of the situation) combine to keep the battle going. Is this couple’s romantic goose cooked? Well, she can’t be near him without sparks flying and goose bumps popping out everywhere. But that mansion has to be done right!

Mystery on Firefly Knob: When Erica Phillips visits choice inherited property on a Cumberland Plateau knob overlooking a beautiful valley, she finds scientist Mike Callahan camped there to study unique fireflies. She needs to sell it fast to buy a new building for her antiques business, but he freaks out when a condo builder offers her a contract. Miffed, she tells him, “If I have my way, this place will be sold within the week. And, Mr. Callahan, I will have my way!” Their budding romance plays out before a background of a murder mystery, distrust, and heart-racing hormones. Will it blossom into a lifetime relationship?

QUESTION: Do you belong to a critique group? If so, how does this help or hinder your writing?

ANSWER: I belonged to critique groups for many years, and found them invaluable. Now, I have a built-in critique partner: my brother, a published novelist himself. We trade manuscripts and feel lucky to have each other.

QUESTION: When did you first decide to submit your work? Please tell us what or who encouraged you to take this big step?

ANSWER: I’ve been published all my working life, and for years was actually an editor and agent on my own. I developed hundreds of stories for my clients and, using my magazine editing experience, placed them with other magazine editors.

But fiction is a different animal, and requires a separate set of skills. My first finished fiction manuscript, “The Long Hunter,” was my first serious attempt to be published in that world. I spent months on research and writing, then many more months trying to find a publisher who liked the book as much as I did. After thirty tries, I placed it. Looking back, I realize that experience helped make me the writer I am.

QUESTION: What is the best writing advice you ever received?

ANSWER: I think my best advice was, “write what you know.” But I hasten to add that you don’t have to know everything.

For example, in “Mystery at Magnolia Mansion,” I knew the house and the things I wanted heroine to do to it, since I’d done those very things myself. I also knew the geographical area that would be her world. But I still had to build a story, and that, of course, was new.

For “Mystery at Firefly Knob” I quickly developed my storyline based on the location I’d found, then set about fleshing it in with research. When I read about the actual exotic firefly in a newspaper, I researched it. When I decided to make the hero a scientist I built him a backstory that required my actually visiting his supposed workplace, Oak Ridge National Laboratories, to see what it was like and to find a real-life position for him to assume there. I didn’t have to be an expert myself, of course. I just had to find enough information to make him one.

QUESTION: Do you outline your books or just start writing?

ANSWER: Definitely, I have an idea of where I’m going. While I don’t make an outline per se—with Roman numerals, etc.—I make sure I can see the stepping stones ahead and my final destination beyond. My plan is fluid, of course, because my brain is always evaluating and re-evaluating things as I write. If I see a huge oak tree blocking my way I decide how to skirt it. But adjusting things as one goes along is okay!

QUESTION: Anything else you might want to add?

ANSWER: Yes. If you’ve written a manuscript, have an experienced editor look it over before sending it to a publisher or self-publishing it yourself.

I say that not because I happen to be an editor, but because as a fiction editor working through an editing network I’ve seen hundreds of novels written by writers who are confident their work is top quality. While a handful are almost ready to go, eighty percent need heavy editing, and most of the rest, light editing. The rest are simply not editable.

But remember, these are the writers who realize their work might not be the best it could be. The rest are sending their work directly to agents and publishers, and most will get them back with a nice note thanking them for their interest. They won’t know what mistakes they’re making and for the rest of their lives will make the same mistakes, producing manuscript after manuscript that will find their way back to them.

BOOK ONE

MYSTERY AT MAGNOLIA MANSION

Don McNair

BLURB:

Brenda Maxwell’s new interior design client tells her to “paint, wallpaper, whatever” his hundred-year-old landmark mansion, “but for God’s sake, don’t go overboard.” When she figures her grandiose plans will fit handily into his edict’s “whatever” section, they’re launched into a constant head-bumping mode.

Brenda’s poor money management skills (that’s his view, but what does he know?) and lawyer David Hasbrough’s ridiculous need to control her life (that’s her well-reasoned evaluation of the situation) combine to keep the battle going. Is this couple’s romantic goose cooked? Well, she can’t be near him without sparks flying and goose bumps popping out everywhere. But that mansion has to be done right!

NOTE: Don McNair actually lived in this house, and did the very things to it that he has heroine Brenda Maxwell do.

Excerpt

“Well, hello!”

She jumped. There he stood, directly in front of her, stark naked! Well, except for a bath towel wrapped snugly around his hips. He was dripping water on her nice clean floor. She tried to turn away, but her muscles refused to budge. His chest, sprinkled with curly black hair, narrowed to a tight stomach which showed off six-pack abs. His muscular bare arms and legs were certainly not those of a desk jockey. No, the man got exercise somehow.

“Oh! Oh, I’m sorry!” She finally insisted that her muscles work, and they grudgingly turned her toward the door. Her cheeks burned. Her mind was in turmoil.

“Me, too,” he said. He flashed a silly grin, backed into the room he’d come from, and closed the door. It was a downstairs bedroom right off the kitchen, complete with a full bath, which she’d earlier pegged as a live-in maid or cook’s living quarters. He’d apparently swung a big deal at that garage sale because she’d noticed the mismatched bed, chest, and end table in that room, which weren’t there on her first visit. The only other furniture in the whole house was the rusty chrome-legged kitchen table and its four matching chairs he’d apparently bought at the same time. If that was his idea of a great décor . . .

BOOK TWO

MYSTERY ON FIREFLY KNOB

Don McNair

BLURB:

When Erica Phillips visits choice inherited property on a Cumberland Plateau knob overlooking a beautiful valley, she finds scientist Mike Callahan camped there to study unique fireflies. She needs to sell it fast to buy a new building for her antiques business, but he freaks out when a condo builder offers her a contract. Miffed, she tells him, “If I have my way, this place will be sold within the week. And, Mr. Callahan, I will have my way!”

Their budding romance plays out before a background of a murder mystery, distrust, and heart-racing hormones. Will it blossom into a lifetime relationship?

Excerpt

Mike stepped aside, and she saw a clearing. The treetop canopy opened to let in sunlight and blue sky. Grass, kept at bay by constant shadows in the deep woods, covered an open area the size of an average yard. Weeds and wildflowers sprinkled the ground, and sapling maples and vines fringed the woods.

“This is it?” she said.

“Yep. The original site. See if you can spot where the cabin stood.”

She saw nothing but the woods and grass. To her left she noticed a stone outcropping. Beyond it was blue sky, and the hazy distance of Sequatchie Valley.

“Why, we’re right at the knob’s edge,” she said.

“That’s right. If you jumped off that big rock you’d fall almost two thousand feet."

As she approached the rock she gazed about the clearing. And then she saw it—a vertical stone chimney that at first glance resembled the tall trees surrounding it. Now she made out its individual stones. She stepped closer and saw beneath it the stone foundation of a one-room cabin. The chimney rose from one corner, with its hearth opening toward the center. She stared at it in awe. It was the precursor of the cabin her father lived in. Perhaps it was even built by Rymer himself, the knob's namesake, in the early eighteen hundreds.

The sun's slanting rays streamed through the tree canopy and threw light patterns on the chimney and foundation. She touched Mike’s arm. “It’s like a shrine,” she whispered. “I feel like I’ve just stepped out of a time machine.”

AUTHOR INFORMATION:

Don McNair, now a prolific fiction writer, spent most of his working life editing magazines (11 years), producing public relations materials for the Burson-Marsteller international PR firm (6 years), and heading his own marketing communications firm, McNair Marketing Communications (21 years). His creativity has won him three Golden Trumpets for best industrial relations programs from the Publicity Club of Chicago, a certificate of merit award for a quarterly magazine he wrote and produced, and the Public Relations Society of America’s Silver Anvil. The latter is comparable to the Emmy and Oscar in other industries.

McNair has written and placed hundreds of trade magazine articles and three published non-fiction “how-to” books (Tab Books). He’s also written six novels; two young-adult novels (Attack of the Killer Prom Dresses and The Long Hunter), three romantic suspense novels Mystery on Firefly Knob, Mystery at Magnolia Mansion, and co-authored Wait for Backup!), and a romantic comedy (BJ, Milo, and the Hairdo from Heck).

McNair now concentrates on editing novels for others, teaching two online editing classes (see McNairEdits.com), and writing his next romance novel.