Carla and friend Nancy Martin

Crazier-than-normal week here, and my friend Nancy Martin's stepping in for me today. Please welcome her to RWQ. Nancy and I met when our daughters were in pigtails and we were both having a grand time writing category romances. Nancy's fast-paced style and quirky characters earned her a huge number of fans and, for me, are an indelible part of her "voice" as a writer. I'm a sucker for a strong voice. I've followed many writers across genres and sub-genres just because of their voice.

Thanks, Nancy!

Carla

Girls Gone Wild

After writing nearly forty romance novels, I slung my writer’s bag of tricks over my shoulder and tried writing a book in the genre I grew up avidly reading—a murder mystery

I mixed my mayhem with a dash of romance as I wrote the first Blackbird Sisters Mystery series, HOW TO MURDER A MILLIONAIRE. I took a chance, because I thought most mystery readers liked just the facts, Ma’am, no lovey-dovey stuff. Who knew my mysteries would be greeted with such enthusiasm? The quirky characters I loved writing in romance novels made an easy trip across the aisle in the bookstore, and mystery readers declared I’d created something totally new with the “romantic mystery love interest,” which is a hoot. Any romance reader will recognize the “love interest” in my Blackbird Sisters mysteries in a heartbeat. But to the average mystery reader, the alpha male, the man who breaks the rules, the criminal with the heart of molten gold—he’s a totally new character.

When Michael Abruzzo, son of a New Jersey mobster, meets my amateur sleuth and

Philadelphia society columnist Nora Blackbird, it’s love at first sight. He’s attracted by her gentle and genteel ways—not to mention the broken heart that only he can see. And she’s the proverbial moth drawn to his hot flame. Can he give up his mob ties and go straight? Can she solve murders on the Main Line using his insider knowledge of criminal ways . . . without getting him arrested? In seven books, the path of their true love runs rocky, but for me—a writer who had penned nearly forty romance novels--the luxury of exploring the same complex romantic relationship for many years was a great pleasure.

But recently I started thinking mystery readers were ready for another “new” character with roots in the romance genre--the trickster heroine. I’ve always liked the hot-tempered woman who hides her softer side behind snappy dialogue, plenty of action and chutzpah. So I spun Michael Abruzzo’s wild child little sister Roxy into a series of her own. I figure it’s time a female amateur sleuth gets as much action—in bed as well as on the mean streets--as her male counterpart.

OUR LADY OF IMMACULATE DECEPTION hit bookstores last week, and many cozy mystery fans immediately got the vapors. Roxy is too tough! Too sexy! She’s actually—gasp!—corrupt!

Mystery readers love their male tough guys, but if a female detective so much as forgets to feed her cat, they complain about her character.

In the first chapter of OUR LADY OF IMMACULATE DECEPTION (available for you to re

ad here: www.nancymartinmysteries.com ) Roxy steals a priceless statue. (After all, what red-blooded girl can resist a handsome naked man?) But the statue’s disappearance triggers the murder of a philandering tycoon and an international art scandal, too. Roxy’s caught in a big mess of her own making. And there are other difficulties to cope with: Her teenager is p

robably smarter than she is. The father of her child has problems that may make him an impos

sible life partner. And

Roxy also has what I’ll delicately call sexual issues. Like a serial killer, she even keeps mementos from her conquests. Plus she doesn’t quite know the difference between right and wrong.

I think I came up with a dynamic character who’s every bit as unrestrained as the male detectives who roam the mean streets. She’s free to act in ways that make her exciting to read about. But she’s not for the faint of heart—readers who only want to read about nice girls.

I’m thinking romance readers will understand Roxy. Do you remember the most exciting heroines you’ve ever read? And how many of them are faint of heart?

Nancy Martin is the author of nearly 50 popular fiction novels including the award-winning Blackbird Sisters Mystery Series. She serves on the board of Sisters in Crime and teaches writing workshops around the country. In 2009, she was awarded the Romantic Times Lifetime Achievement Award for mystery writing.