Guest Post

Guest Chick: Carolyn Haines + #Giveaway

A very warm welcome to Carolyn from the Chicks! Kudos to her for having published over eighty books. Keep up the amazing job!

Thank you, Jennifer and Ellen and all the other Chicks for the invitation to blog. It is always such a thrill to hang out with other writers and to get a glimpse of how we all tick.

               Growing up in the small town of Lucedale, Mississippi, books were always my ticket to adventure. While my geographical world was very small, my fictional world covered states, countries, lands distance in miles and time, and solar systems.

               I like to tell people—and there is truth to the statement—that I had the last Golden Childhood of the South. I grew up at a time when kids could ride their bikes all over the county in safety, go swimming down at the river, and enjoy the thrill of adventure. My little town had a population of about 3,000, and everyone knew me and knew my parents. While I was safe, I also couldn’t get away with much mischief. But you know my brothers and I tried!

               Sarah Booth is a pretty frisky amateur PI, and often she finds herself in a pickle while solving cases. She’s athletic and physically competent. In my own life, I’ve survived some crazy episodes, though I am not graceful at all. For instance, when I was 15, I was invited to the high school band hayride. We were traveling a dirt road at a very slow pace. All of us were singing and having the best time when the wagon lurched and threw me off one small wagon under the big one. By some miracle, I wasn’t killed. There was damage—a broken ankle, a ripped ear, and some road rash on my back—but nothing life-threatening.

               While I don’t recommend stunts like this one, I have to admit that some of the crazy things I’ve done have ended up in my books.

               I grew up in a family of journalists, and from a very young age I worked as a photographer for local newspapers. The job of journalist is an important one. My dad taught me that journalists are the watchdogs of the community. We attend meetings and report on what elected officials do so that voters can decide if they are doing a good job.

               Sarah Booth is a private investigator, and she gets a lot of folks upset with her for poking into situations. The same was true for me. People who are engaged in bad conduct generally hate reporters or anyone who will hold their feet to the fire. But it was all excellent training to be a fiction writer.

               The very best thing about Sarah Booth is that for the nearly 30 years I have been writing about her—she has only aged 18 months! Oh, time has not been that kind for me. When I first started writing the series, I was fit and flexible. Not so much now, but I can enjoy “youth” via Sarah Booth.

               I’m putting the finishing touches on the 29th Sarah Booth book, but I’ve published over 80 books altogether. I read a lot of different genres. Mysteries (thank you Nancy Drew) are a big favorite, but I also love Southern gothic, Gothic horror, humor, romantic mysteries, etc.

               I’ll have two Sarah Booth books coming out this year. LIGHTS, CAMERA, BONES will be out May 21. And you can also pre-order BLUE CHRISTMAS BONES (yes, Elvis is in the building!) which will be out in October. And I’ll have re-issues of two gothic horror novels, THE BOOK OF BELOVED and THE HOUSE OF MEMORY out later this summer.

               Along with book writing, I run a small animal refuge (dogs, cats, and horses) so I stay busy. And that’s a good thing because it keeps me out of trouble.

               Stop by for a visit at my website at www.carolynhaines.com. I have a newsletter you can subscribe to.

Carolyn is giving away a signed copy of LIGHTS CAMERA, BONES to a lucky commentator.

Sarah Booth found her roots in Mississippi. If you could live anywhere in the world, where would it be and why?

ABOUT THE BOOK:

The latest novel in the series that Kirkus Reviews characterizes as “Stephanie Plum meets the Ya-Ya Sisterhood” featuring sassy Southern private investigator Sarah Booth Delaney.

Delaney Detective Agency gets a taste of the spotlight when they are called to a case on a movie set in Greenville, MS, right on the Mississippi River. Marlon Brandon, heir to a wealthy and influential political family, has brought a film crew to town to film a drama about the 1927 flood that submerged a great deal of Greenville. Marlon wants the world to know the story of the flood—and the heroic role the Brandon ancestors played in rescuing dozens of local residents from drowning.

Or at least that was the plan until he disappeared. If this weren’t concerning enough, the situation appears even more dire when a severed foot is discovered in the Mississippi River, and clues indicate that Marlon may have fallen victim to a freak bull shark attack. 

But as rumors swirl around the Delta about Marlon’s motives for making the film, Sarah Booth and Tinkie have to wonder whether a shark is to blame, or an equally ferocious human offender. The show must go on, and Sarah Booth and her crew will have to investigate all manner of creatures, over land and sea, in order to solve the mystery and save the day.

Buy link for LIGHTS, CAMERA, BONES

ABOUT CAROLYN:

Carolyn Haines is the USA Today bestselling author of over 80 books in a number of genres. She loves mystery, horror, gothic, suspense, or just about any kind of story that grabs her and pulls her in. In 2010 she was awarded the Harper Lee Award for Distinguished Fiction and has been inducted into the Alabama Writers Hall of Fame and honored with the Mississippi Lifetime Achievement Award.

44 thoughts on “Guest Chick: Carolyn Haines + #Giveaway”

  1. Seven years ago we moved to Florida which has been my dream for many years. We even found a house less than 2 miles from the beach. My husband often walks there and back. I wish I could but I have chronic pain that prevents me from walking too far. I like the heat after living up north for almost 60 years and no more snow and ice. Thank you for this chance at your giveaway. pgenest57 at aol dot com

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    1. Florida is fun to visit for me, but my love is the mountains. But a house by the beach sounds perfect!

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  2. Congrats on Lights, Camera, Bones…and on pubbing over 80 books.

    To answer your giveaway question: I’m not sure where I’d want to live. Maybe somewhere with 4 district seasons. Snow in the winter (but no negative degrees), around 75° or so in the summer, spring flowers, and pretty fall leaves.

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    2. I would love four moderate seasons too. Summer I really hell here in the South. But I am so deeply rooted here. I’m like an old oak tree.

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    1. Rhode Island and that region is so beautiful. My dad was from Kingston, NY, so I’ve visited upstate and it is also very lovely.

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  6. Thanks for visiting, Carolyn! I would love to spend my winters on a beach in the Caribbean and my summers here at home in Indianapolis. The tropics in the summer are way too hot for me!

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    2. I hear you. It is still May and very hot and humid here near Mobile, AL. It is too hot for man or beast!

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  7. I often say the same thing, Carolyn: how lucky I was to get to play outdoors with all the neighborhood kids until we were called in to dinner, in a time before cell phones, computers, or video games.

    Congrats on the new books, and thanks so much for visiting the Chicks today!

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    1. I’m honored to be here, Leslie. And thank you. We have such exceptional memories of childhood–how lucky we are!

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  9. *Chiming in to say that Carolyn is fighting with the WordPress gremlins today. Hoping she wins the battle and can leave comments soon. Also, letting you know that she’s enjoying reading everyone’s thoughts!*

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    1. I am making progress at being able to respond! Can you say Luddite! Honestly, but I am not giving up. Thank you, Jennifer.

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  12. Morgan Freeman , a great Mississippian, was asked why he lives in Mississippi when he could live anywhere in the world. His answer was that he lives in Mississippi because he could live anywhere in the world. Mississippi is my adopted state by marriage and I completely agree! And if I ever want to travel, all I need to do is pick up a book!

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    1. Morgan Freeman did the foreword a collection of short stories I edited back in 2010. He was such a generous gentleman–the publisher was donating to literacy in Mississippi. I love Mississippi so very much, even when I despair at some of the things that happen in the state. I’m so glad you adopted her as your state by marriage.

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  13. Welcome, Carolyn, and oh my goodness, what a wonderful, storied career! Congratulations on the latest, your enduring series, your 80+ titles, and surviving that accident!

    I love living in the heart of Oregon, but I do think of warmer climes, especially when we have snow in the spring (as we did just last week!). Portugal is on my list these days!

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  14. Carolyn, so nice to meet you–and thanks for visiting us Chicks today! Congrats on your latest book baby. I’m looking forward to meeting Sarah as well and catching up on her adventures–so many, wow! What an accomplishment. I’m not sure where I’d like to live. I change my mind from minute to minute. I loved my college town in the Berkshires (4 very definite seasons–5, if you include “Mud”).” But I’d also like a home by the beach, and a pied-a-terre in Brooklyn. How to make this happen…hmm.

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  15. I had a pretty idyllic childhood in Northeast Ohio. I shudder when I think of my nieces and nephews growing up with active shooter drills in school. I cannot even imagine that. If I could live anywhere, I would choose the Bay Area because there is so much to do and see. Plus, I would be around family, and I don’t have any nearby now. The best part? Definitely being around the cutest (and biggest) boy/girl twins you have ever seen! My great-niece and nephew weighed in at a whopping 23 and 26lbs on their recent first birthday lol.

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  17. Well, the book looks like it has been given away but I will answer anyway. I grew up in way South Texas (Brownsville) and grew up 30 miles north of there in Harlingen. It was a town of about 40,000 people but you would never know that because everyone knew everyone. Maybe part of it was because my father who had lived there since about 1915, graduated from high school there in 1932 and became an usher at the Rex Theatre (later the Arcadia was built over it and larger) in Harlingen that year, working his way up to District Manager of 4 local theatres. He left the theatre business to be Postmaster there in 1962. Before him, his mother started the first hospital there in 1923 and then about three years later had a boarding House and restaurant downtown called the Gilbert House until about 1946, I think. We also grew up in a time that you played outside until the streetlights came on. There was no AC and even at night the windows were open for the airflow without the worry of peeping toms. When I look back now, it seems idyllic. Some people do not consider Texas the South, but it really was part of the South and more so, the Republic of Texas once. I was a “Valley Girl” before the Valley Girls came about from California–the Magic Rio Grande Valley. Some people referred to us as Valley Rats, but I like the first title better. We now live north of Atlanta (a move with my husband’s work). You can take the girl out of Texas, but you can’t take Texas out of the girl. I would love to get back there to live (probably in either the Hill Country or near Fort Worth. but the move would cost us as a retired couple too much. This area of Georgia is beautiful. It is easier to travel all over form here than it was from Harlingen. You could drive the whole day and still be in Texas. We traveled to Mexico more back then as it was so close. Favorite places are the Florida Keys (in 13 consecutive years, we stayed there for a total of 72 weeks), New Orleans (we have visited there since the late 1970s until Covid hit about 20 times and San Francisco and northern California (visited about 10 times but would not go back now). There is a lot of the South in me, “bless my pea-pickin’ little heart.” I love these blogs. You all ask great questions and make me remember so much.

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  18. Well, the book looks like it has been given away but I will answer anyway. I grew up in way South Texas (Brownsville) and grew up 30 miles north of there in Harlingen. It was a town of about 40,000 people but you would never know that because everyone knew everyone. Maybe part of it was because my father who had lived there since about 1915, graduated from high school there in 1932 and became an usher at the Rex Theatre (later the Arcadia was built over it and larger) in Harlingen that year, working his way up to District Manager of 4 local theatres. He left the theatre business to be Postmaster there in 1962. Before him, his mother started the first hospital there in 1923 and then about three years later had a boarding House and restaurant downtown called the Gilbert House until about 1946, I think. We also grew up in a time that you played outside until the streetlights came on. There was no AC and even at night the windows were open for the airflow without the worry of peeping toms. When I look back now, it seems idyllic. Some people do not consider Texas the South, but it really was part of the South and more so, the Republic of Texas once. I was a “Valley Girl” before the Valley Girls came about from California–the Magic Rio Grande Valley. Some people referred to us as Valley Rats, but I like the first title better. We now live north of Atlanta (a move with my husband’s work). You can take the girl out of Texas, but you can’t take Texas out of the girl. I would love to get back there to live (probably in either the Hill Country or near Fort Worth. but the move would cost us as a retired couple too much. This area of Georgia is beautiful. It is easier to travel all over form here than it was from Harlingen. You could drive the whole day and still be in Texas. We traveled to Mexico more back then as it was so close. Favorite places are the Florida Keys (in 13 consecutive years, we stayed there for a total of 72 weeks), New Orleans (we have visited there since the late 1970s until Covid hit about 20 times and San Francisco and northern California (visited about 10 times but would not go back now). There is a lot of the South in me, “bless my pea-pickin’ little heart.” I love these blogs. You all ask great questions and make me remember so much.

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  19. My life turned topsy turvy unexpectedly about a dozen years ago, and I lost track of this series. I love the combination of mystery and humor, and lived vicariously through the relationship among the characters.

    Thank you for this interview as it will be propelling me to find out what I’ve missed!

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  20. I love this series, and really appreciate the authors support for animal rescue! Congrats on the new release 🙂 khpinelake (at) gmail (dot) com

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  21. I love this series and appreciate the authors support of animal rescue! Congrats on the new release 🙂 khpinelake (at) gmail (dot) com

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