Morgan Mandel is still riding the rails and creating mysteries and romances on the way to her day job as administrative assistant in Chicago’s Loop.
For Romantic Suspense, look for
KILLER CAREER, a novel about how a career change could be a killer when a lovely lawyer is mentored by a bestselling author who does more than write about murders. For Mystery, check out Morgan’s revenge story, TWO WRONGS, set in Chicago, with Marshall Field’s Walnut Room, the Big Tree and more. What happens when your sister is murdered, your testimony sends the wrong person to prison, and now he’s out?
For Romance, see GIRL OF MY DREAMS and find out what happens when a straitlaced assistant enters a reality show to save her ungrateful boss’s neck.
Morgan is Library Liaison for MWMWA, a past president of Chicago-North RWA, belongs to Sisters in Crime and EPIC. Before being published in fiction, she freelanced for the Daily Herald newspaper.
This is where Morgan lives while working on a new children's lesson book featuring Rascal, who is deaf.
It’s There Somewhere by Morgan Mandel
On payday, I was in a hurry at the ATM when I drew out my weekly allotment. Instead of putting my twenties in the zipper compartment of my purse where they belonged, I jammed them into the middle, amidst the clutter of numerous items. I’m one of those women who tend to be organized as soon as a purse is changed, but that quality doesn’t last long.
Anyway, a few days after going to the bank, when I was looking for the money, at first I couldn’t find it. I knew it was there somewhere in my purse. After all, I’d jammed it inside myself. It was frustrating to move everything around to try and find it, but I had no choice. I needed the money.
As most often happens, the experience turned my thoughts to writing. As writers we walk a tightrope. We don’t want to give away the solution to our plot, so we bury it amongst innuendos, red herrings, and other devices to throw the reader off. The missing money is in the book somewhere, but the reader, along with the book characters, need to dig to find it.
So, we don’t want to be obvious, yet we can’t be too devious. It’s no good if a solution turns up way off base, somewhere it shouldn’t be. Characters not introduced earlier in a novel , yet come out of the blue to play an integral role in the climax are a good way to alienate the reader. That would be like my finding the money in my tote bag, when I knew for sure it was in my purse.
That said, readers do enjoy surprise endings. To achieve this, we need to leave subtle hints in the layers of our story to lay a good foundation. Then, when the reader pulls out the money, it will make sense, or should I say cents. (g)
Morgan Mandel
You can find me on the web at –
Personal blog: http://morganmandel.blogspot.com
Group blogs: http://acmeauthorslink.blogspot.com, http://makeminemystery.blogspot.com and http://bloodredpencil.blogspot.com
My website: http://www.morganmandel.com
My ning site: http://bookplace.ning.com
And very often at http://facebook.morgan.mandel and http://twitter.com/morganmandel
