Eine Kleine Murder with Guest Author Kaye George

Welcome back to Kaye George, author of several murder mystery series. Kaye is here to share the prologue to her new book, Eine Kleine Murder, and to tell us how she wrote the book and found a title. Kaye has generously offered to give away a paperback copy of the book, so leave a comment to be entered in the drawing.  ~ Sheila

 

Prologue

Stinguendo: Dying away. (Ital.)

What was that sound? A foot, snapping a twig in the woods? Ida knew she shouldn’t be swimming alone at night, but she’d been antsy all day. She needed to get her mind off Cressa's visit.

Grace usually swam with her, but Grace had taken relatives to the Quad-City airport tonight.

Besides, Ida was a strong swimmer. She knew every inch of Crescent Lake. And she thought she knew every sound. But there was that snap again. It prickled the hairs on her arms.

She stopped stroking and listened, straining toward the trees on the opposite bank, just ahead. It didn't repeat. Must have been a night creature in the woods. A raccoon out foraging?

How I came to write Eine Kleine Murder (and where the title came from)

This book has been a long time coming. After I had written a couple of mysteries that showed me how much I had yet to learn about writing mysteries, I put together one I considered decent. Since I’m a musician and composer (although I do a lot more arranging than composing), I wanted my sleuth to be both of those, too. Because everyone, as far as I know, composes on a keyboard, I thought it would be simpler to make her a keyboardist. (I’m a violinist.) On submission, I was told, over and over, that classical music wasn’t a good hook. However, whenever I described the project to anyone, I didn’t hear that. I heard a lot of interest. So I never gave up on this one. After my success with the Imogene Duckworthy mystery series, I dusted this one off, gave it a bit of a rewrite, and sent it to a small press where I knew the writers were happy, Barking Rain Press. I was so pleased when they accepted it!

It started life as Song of Death. The publisher didn’t like that, so I got out the drawing board, better known as friends and family. One title I came up with was, I thought, very cute. Eine KleineWassermusik. It was a hybrid of the titles of a Mozart piece (Eine Kleine Nachtmusik) and Handel’s Water Music, or Wassermusik. The Mozart title means A Little Night Music. Since the bulk of the action takes place at a lake resort, my title seemed a perfect fit. Not one person liked it. I wonder why!

Fellow writers brainstormed and came up with a lot of good suggestions, but the one my daughter suggested was the one the publisher liked: Eine Kleine Murder. A little bit of murder, or A small murder.



Kaye George is a short story writer and novelist who has been nominated for Agatha awards twice. She is the author of four mystery series: the Imogene Duckworthy humorous Texas series, the Cressa Carraway musical mystery series, the FAT CAT cozy series, and The People of the Wind Neanderthal series.

Her short stories can be found in her collection, A PATCHWORK OF STORIES, as well as in several anthologies, various online and print magazines. She reviews for "Suspense Magazine", writes for several newsletters and blogs, and gives workshops on short story writing and promotion. Kaye lives in Knoxville, TN.

You can find Eine Kleine Murder  online at Barking Rain Press , Amazon , and Nook