WHAT I LEARNED FROM THE SCREENWRITERS AND FILMMAKERS OF YELLOWSTONE, THE SOPRANOS, AND THE HARRY POTTER MOVIES

 YELLOWSTONE, created by Taylor Sheridan and John Linson, directed by Christina A. Voros.

An expansive setting will support larger-than-life characters.

Big sky country Montana is the backdrop for the drama of The Yellowstone, an immense ranch owned by John Dutton, played by Kevin Costner. Dutton is a complex character with one goal in life: to hold onto his family ranch. He’ll do whatever it takes to achieve this. He’s clever, driven, secretive, and ruthless. When I first watched this TV series, my immediate reaction was “The Sopranos on horseback.”  Like Tony Soprano and his lieutenants, nothing is off limits when achieving an end. Dutton and his ranch manager go so far as to physically brand their ranch hands—you can hear the sizzle when the red-hot branding iron touches the skin. Dutton’s daughter is equally ruthless—she lives to destroy their enemies and never holds back. The actions of the characters fighting to save their land are often over the top, but the sweeping vistas, vast plains, and majestic mountains support them. The series is shot with long lenses so the viewer gets the wide panoramic scene with the characters comfortably implanted. Every character is strong enough to hold their own in this vast setting.

Kaycee Dutton, favorite son, and Rip, ranch manager, confer in Yellowstone Season 2.

PHOTO CREDIT: https://www.tvinsider.com/791606/yellowstone-season-2-episode-3-sneak-peek-kayce-rip/

THE SOPRANOS, created by David Chase.

It’s the characters that keep us coming back for more.

I rarely watch (or read) anything that contains graphic sex or violence. So, why did I absolutely love The Sopranos? The characters. This series shows a rare inside look at the hidden side of mobsters and their families. Yes, the violence and justification for their illegal and immoral behavior are on view but also present is normal, day-to-day family life. I find the juxtaposition of the two fascinating. It’s a behind-the-scenes look at people whose jobs and lifestyle are foreign to me. Tony Soprano is a classic antihero and I found myself rooting for him. He’s violent and ruthless but he truly loves his wife and children and believes he’s doing his best for them. I watched him worry about his kids, struggle with his domineering, elderly mother, try to sweet-talk his wife. I was fascinated by the secret and revealing sessions he has with his psychiatrist. These are complex and intriguing characters. Despite the fact that the mob world is far removed from our daily lives, we can relate to what the characters go through each day. We keep coming back to find out if they solve their problems, how they deal with the familiar challenges they face, and if there’s a happy ending.

Tony Soprano (James Gandolfini) flanked by his top two lieutenants Silvio (Steve Van Zandt) and Paulie (Tony Sirico)

PHOTO CREDIT: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0141842/mediaviewer/rm3622563841/?ref_=tt_md_3

THE HARRY POTTER MOVIES, based on the books by J. K. Rowling, screenwriters Steve Kloves and Michael Goldenberg, producer David Heyman.

To make it believable, ground the magic in reality.

During a book club discussion about Doorway to Murder, the first in my Blackwell and Watson Time-Travel Mysteries, a reader said, “I’ve read a number of time-travel books and they never seem believable to me. But somehow I feel like yours could really happen.” Three other people spoke up and agreed that they felt the time travel aspect of my books seemed real. That was a serious consideration when I started writing—I wanted the time travel to feel real and possible. I sensed I could accomplish this by incorporating it as one aspect among many. After their initial meeting, my characters—Depression-era cop Steven Blackwell and 21^st-century journalist Olivia—go about their days with time travel as just one part of their lives. The reader sees, hears, smells, and identifies with normal everyday items found in all of our houses and lives. Paul Franklin, visual effects supervisor on the movies, notes, “There are things we hope the audience will recognize from their own experience in the real world. Because…that allows them to become emotionally invested.”  Nick Dudman, special effects designer, comments, “If you can create a false reality that people buy into … it works.” And finally, Alfonso Cuarón, director of Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, says, “We have to be sensing the magic all the time. You just accept that this is a universe in which this kind of stuff happens.” These insightful comments are always in my mind while I’m writing in the hope that my readers will feel that the time travel is—or could be—real.

We can all relate to Diagon Alley, the main street in town where witches and wizards do their shopping.

  PHOTO CREDIT: Carol Pouliot

CELEBRATING THE RELEASE OF RSVP TO MURDER

AND ANOTHER CHALLENGE MET

I love a good challenge. When I started writing, I was well aware that it would be challenging and that’s exactly what I wanted. After thirty-four successful, happy years teaching, I had been retired for five years and needed a mental challenge. I decided to see if I could fulfill a lifelong dream of writing a mystery.

After rewrites too numerous to count—twelve? fifteen? twenty?—I finally had a decent draft to submit to an editor. Five years later, I held a printed copy of Doorway to Murder in my hands. The thrill was indescribable. (I know, not a good thing for a writer!)

My niece Erin Sadowski designed my first cover.

Now, I had a new challenge: write a second book and make sure it’s at least as good as the first one. Could I do it again? Was I going to be a one-hit-wonder? I worked even harder the second time around and was happy with the results.

By the time that I was sketching out mystery #3, I felt more confident and challenged myself with a different aspect of the plot’s structure. I decided to include multiple time periods because the story I wanted to tell happened over several decades. Could I keep the book clear and easy to understand while taking the reader back and forth across time? After meticulous tracking of every detail and multiple charts and hand-written timelines, I worked it out and was very happy with Death Rang the Bell.

With RSVP to Murder, I tried something new…again. My series takes place near the Adirondack Mountains in Upstate New York. I wanted to write a story with a new twist on the classic English country house mysteries—which I love—and use one of the legendary Adirondack Great Camps to stand in as the country house.

In RSVP to Murder, Steven and Olivia travel to the Great Camp for a Christmas party. Their host, a wealthy New York publisher, has planned a weekend filled with holiday activities, but, as the last guest arrives, temperatures plummet and a blizzard hits. Before long, the area is buried in snow, the roads are impassable, and the publisher is poisoned.

PHOTO CREDIT: Level Best Books

So, where’s the challenge? 

How do I keep the story moving at a good pace while my characters are snowed in and can’t do any fun activities—no singing Christmas carols, no holiday games—because some of those present are genuinely grieving? How do I incorporate action when Steven (my cop) is stuck in the Great Camp with four feet of snow outside? 

Needless to say, I figured it out and was thrilled when my editor told me it was her favorite of the four books. She called it “a classic holiday movie and Agatha Christie mashup.” It doesn’t get any better than that!

Now, on to book #5…and a new challenge.

WHO SAYS RESEARCH ISN’T FUN??

Not me! I recently had one of the most fun days I’ve had in ages doing research.

I’m currently working on the manuscript for RSVP to Murder, the 4^th book in my Blackwell & Watson Time-Travel Mysteries. In the story, a wealthy New York City publisher invites my cop Steven to a Christmas party at his Great Camp in the Adirondack Mountains. He tells Steven to bring a guest. Naturally, he brings Olivia. When their host suggests a sleigh ride in the snowy forest, Olivia asks if she can watch him get the horses ready.

So…I know less than nothing about horses and how to harness them, let alone how they’re hooked up to a sleigh. But, I happen to live within an hour’s drive of the magnificent Highland State Forest, south of Syracuse, where they give horse-drawn sleigh rides in the winter. I called the lodge and explained what I wanted to do and why, and arranged to meet with the man who owns the horses and sponsors the rides. Then I called my friend Anna and invited her to come with me. She immediately gave me an enthusiastic Yes!

It was a gray winter day, well below freezing with Arctic winds whipping everything in sight at the top of the mountain—the forest sits in a spot where the Appalachian Mountain Range meets the northern-most part of the Alleghany Mountain chain. Believe me, in their heavy coats, the horses were the only ones really comfortable on this brutally cold day.

 Who wouldn’t want to spend time with a sweet face like this?

We met Scott Case who, as far as I could tell, knows everything there is to know about horses and their paraphernalia. I explained the scene in my book and thanked him for letting me watch as he readied the three beautiful animals—one Belgian draft and two Haflinger ponies. While Scott worked, hoisting the harness up over the horse’s back, I asked what everything was called. After several minutes of breeching holds, back pads, collars, hames, straps, bridles, and bits, I was lost. Then I heard Scott say, “Three buckles and four snaps.” Now that I can understand.

When these beautiful beasts, with their deep purple finery, were ready to be hitched to the sleigh, Scott drew my attention to the most wonderful part of all: 21 tone bells, likely from the very time my series takes place—the 1930s. He explained that each vintage brass bell, attached to a leather strap on one of the horses, was expertly tuned on a regular basis. As I rang each one from the bottom of to the top I could hear the changing notes. I was thrilled to hear that classic sound of sleigh bells, and was reminded of the little boy in The Polar Express and the precious bell that Santa gives him.

21 Tone Bells

While I watched Scott and his co-worker attach the side-by-side horses to a horizontal pole then the pole to two long poles on either side of the sleigh, I noticed that one of the horses’ tails was much shorter. “Well,” they told me, “that’s a bob-tail like in the song.” They laughed.

Anna and I joined two families with their children and climbed into the sleigh then we took off on a path into the forest. With each step that the horses took, the clear, joyful sound of ringing bells echoed along the trail and through the pines.

Of course, we had to end our ride with a song: “…and bells on bobtails ring, Making spirits bright. Oh, what fun….”

An exhilarating sleigh ride in the forest.