Halfway around the world, war has begun, but for Dorie Lennox, a newly-minted private eye on her first tail, danger is more immediate. The dark streets of Kansas City of 1939 offer swing music, fast cars, gangsters, and the chance to forget about the Depression and her own murky past. Dorie is thrown into a quickly unraveling scam that offers salvation to few - and misery to plenty. With vivid prose and sharp dialogue, the world of Dorie Lennox comes alive, behind the wheel of her Packard, into the packinghouses, race tracks, and mansions of jazz-age Kansas City. The landscape of America and the homefront of World War II are evoked in a thoughtful mystery that lingers for the force of characters and keen sharpness of a slice of history seen through the perceptive, compassionate eyes of Dorie Lennox.
The blank page. A canvas. A rough stone ready to be carved. What is there to say about the creative process that hasn't been said? Only that writing stories, for me, is a crazy personal mission to get these people out of my head. I get obsessed with them and they won't let me sleep. When I don't write I sometimes feel like I'm floating through life, barely touching the ground. When I'm writing, as weird as this sounds, I feel more present in the real world. For a fiction writer, the story is where it all makes sense.
More than anything I love characters. My newest novel, ALL YOUR PRETTY DREAMS, is full of quirky people who I find fascinating and even a bit charming. The way a person presents himself to the world, how the world reacts to that presentation, is only one aspect of who they are. The other aspect, the inner thoughts, dreams, and aspirations, is what story is made of. Without those dreams a character is flat and uninspiring. I try to delve into each person, even if it's only for a little bit.
I hope your reading journey takes you places you never imagined. I'm getting all tingly just thinking about it.
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Lise McClendon writes fiction from her home in Montana. She is the author of nine novels, short stories, and articles. In 1997 she wrote and directed the short film, The Hoodoo Artist, featured at the Telluride Indiefest. She has served on the national boards of directors for Mystery Writers of America and International Association of Crime Writers/North America. She is on the faculty of the Jackson Hole Writers Conference and co-presents the workshop for writers, Truly Richly Deeply: Structure and Depth in the Novel.
Lise also writes under the pseudonym Rory Tate. The first Rory Tate thriller is JUMP CUT.
"After thirty years writing fiction has become as necessary as breathing. Finding the essential story in the novel, chipping away the rock until the solid core is revealed, is an adventure and a joy."
