Rag Lady
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***Synopsis***
Recent college graduate Holly Schlivnik dreams of being a writer, but fate has other ideas. A family crisis throws her into an improbable situation and her life will never be the same. Determined to make her own luck when things don’t happen the way she plans, the wise-cracking, irreverent transplanted Californian goes on a raucous, rollicking rollercoaster ride of hysterical adventures as a ladies apparel sales rep traveling in the deep South and finds herself along the way.
The Holly Swimsuit Mystery Series: Rag Lady is the prequel to the series and is the story of how the series protagonist, Holly Schlivnik, got into the rag business.
The books in the series are related by locale and by a cast of continuing characters. All the books in the series take place in the Los Angeles garment center. Holly Schlivnik, the protagonist, and the Yentas, her group of colleagues, appear in every book, as does Doctor Sophie Cutler, Holly’s lifelong friend and a Los Angeles County Assistant Coroner.
What is the sub-genre and trope?
The sub-genre for Rag Lady is women’s fiction. The trope for Rag Lady is that several of the characters in this story appear in subsequent books in The Holly Swimsuit Mystery Series.
For the series: The sub-genre is humorous cozy mystery. The trope is the stories all take place in the LA garment district. The main characters meet every morning for coffee at the same place and time. Garment jargon is in every story.
Did your characters lead you to this genre or was that decided before the story began?
This genre was decided before the story began.
Are you more character or plot-driven?
As a career ladies’ apparel sales exec, I am by nature a people person, so I am naturally more character than plot driven.
With many main and secondary characters, how do you keep them separated in your mind? Do you have a story/vision board above your workspace?
All of my characters in this story are based on real people I know or knew, so it is easy for me to keep them separated in my mind. So, no, I do not need a story/vision board above my workspace to keep the characters straight.
I know from previous interviews that characters take on a life of their own. Were any of the characters in this series determined to take their own direction instead of where you initially wanted them to go?
Are you kidding? With my cast of annoyingly pushy characters, ALL of them were determined to take their own direction instead of where I initially wanted them to go! LOL.
The cast of continuing characters and I have worked out a compromise: I write the beginning and ending of the story and the characters take the plot from the middle to the end of the story.
BUT…I have the last word. They know that they MUST get to my ending, not one of theirs. Generally, they behave, because if they don’t and I get really upset, they know I can write them out of the story…or kill them off.
Nothing as lasting as a relationship based on fear…
Are any of the male POVs based on anyone you know?
For Rag Lady: all of the male POVs are based on someone I know.
For the series: With the exception of the homicide detective and the Assistant LA County Coroner, all of the female POVs are based on someone I know.
Are any of the female POVs based on anyone you know?
For Rag Lady: all of the female POVs are based on someone I know.
For the series: With the exception of the homicide detectives and the Assistant LA County Coroner, all of the female POVs are based on someone I know.
Was there any one character/scene that was harder to write about than the other?
Yes. There is a scene when the beloved grandmother of the protagonist dies and the main character is giving the eulogy at the funeral.
What is your favorite book in the series?
In the entire series, Rag Lady is my favorite and closest to my heart as it is the fictionalized story of the beginning of my ladies’ apparel sales career.
But amongst the mysteries, Death by Cutting Table is my favorite. The murder victim in this story is based on a real-life villain who actually stole the CEO job from my boss. Then this terrible man proceeded to steal the firm blind and eventually put it out of business. He destroyed many careers and put hundreds of employees in financial harms’ way. While many of his employees dreamt of doing the deed, in real life he was not murdered. Candidly, I got great pleasure giving the devil his do, if only in my imagination.
I know that we aren’t supposed to have “favorites” as far as our children, but seriously, who’s your favorite character and why?
Hands down, Holly Schlivnik is my favorite character because she is based on me. Holly is the me I always wanted to be and more.
Series question - Who is your favorite couple and why did you decide on their dynamics?
My favorite couple in Rag Lady and the series as well is Natalie and Mike Schlivnik, the protagonists parents. I loved that they were the epitome of opposites attracting because the dynamic made for interesting interactions and created the tension that ran through the plot.
Think Ballet and opera versus football and rock. Beef Bourguignon versus barbeque.
How do you get inside these character’s heads to find their perfect HEA?
Since these two characters are based on real people I knew, it was quite easy to get into their heads and find their perfect HEA as I imagined it to be.
What scene in this book sticks out the most for you?
The protagonist is visiting her parents after graduating from college and her apparel sales rep dad calls her from a tradeshow in Atlanta and asks her to pinch hit for him so he can leave to attend to a family emergency.
Why? This scene is the pivotal one of the entire book and everything that subsequently happens is as a result of that life-changing phone call.
Series - Were any of the books harder to write than others?
Yes. Because of the auto-biographical nature of the story, Rag Lady was the hardest of all the books in the series to write.
This question is if you write in MULTIPLE POVs not just the hero and heroine - I love the multiple POVs in a book. It’s not just the hero and heroine, but we get inside the heads of multiple characters throughout this series. I feel that it gives the story further depth. Do you think you will write another book or series following this multiple POV outline?
I write all my stories in the first person from the POV of the protagonist, so multiple POVs are not part of my writing scheme.
How long did it take you to write this
book/series?
It took me a year to write Rag Lady and six years to write the five books in the series.
How did you come up with the title for
your book and series?
All of my book titles give the reader a clue of the plot. Rag Lady tells the readers the story is about a woman in the apparel industry.
For the series, my book titles give a clue as to how the murder victim is killed. So, all the titles begin with “Death by…” For example, Death by Surfboard gives the reader a hint that the story is about someone who meets their death while surfing.
In coming up with the series title, I wanted to give the reader an idea of what all the stories in the series were about. The Holly Swimsuit Mystery Series tells the reader who the continuing protagonist is, a hint as to her profession, and that the series is in the murder mystery genre.
If you met these characters in real life would you get along?
Since I actually did meet in real life the real people that these characters are based on, the answer is quite simple:
Some of them-absolutely yes. Some of them would be just colleagues and others close friends.
BUT there are others-definitely NOT. We would buck heads most of the time.
Series question – Did you know in advance that you were going to write this as a series or did one of the characters in book one demand their own story?
I knew in advance that I was going to write this as a series, but the protagonist definitely demanded that every story featured her as the star.
If your book/series were made into a movie, which actors do you see as playing your characters?
Sarah Silverman- Holly Schlivnik
Charlotte Rae-Nana
John Goodman-Mike Schlivnik
Juliette Rylance-Natalie Schlivnik
Can you give us a hint as to what we can expect next? Whether a new book and series or a sequel to an existing series? Can you share a small tease?
The sixth book in the series has been submitted to my editor. Fingers crossed, Death by Jelly Beans will be released spring 2024. Here is a little tease:
The door to Sue Ellen’s office flew open and a six-foot tall rabbit I’d later learn named Pedro Conejo, President of Rent A Rabbit Characters, stalked out and bowled me over as I tried vainly to get out of his way.
The messenger bag containing samples and the presentation information fell off my shoulder and bounced across the room. I groaned as the flap of the unzipped messenger bag flipped open, scattering samples and documents and everything else inside it from one end of the room to the other.
The rabbit gripped the two ears atop the head with his paws. He ripped the head piece straight up and off with a furious jerk and shoved it under his right armpit. He turned, faced Sue Ellen’s open door and screamed loud enough for anyone at the mart three blocks away to hear. “You can’t prove a damned thing. Think you’ll get away with this? We have a contract. I’ll get you fired for this; you bitch!”
Then the rabbit removed the left paw of his costume with his teeth and gave Sue Ellen the middle finger salute. He hurdled over my prone body splayed out on the floor and stomped out of the office without so much as an apology for knocking me over, let alone an offer to help me up.
I sat up and poked my extremities to make sure nothing more than my pride had been injured. Satisfied my body, if not my self-respect, remained in one piece, I shook myself to get out the kinks the way my standard poodle Siggie does after a bath. I stretched as far as possible and grabbed the messenger bag. I spent the next five minutes crawling on all fours around the room, stuffing everything back inside the case. Note to self: Next time, zip the damned bag closed.
As I shoved the last sample back in the messenger bag, Sue Ellen’s assistant came out of the buyer’s office and observed me sprawled across the floor. I bit the inside of my cheek not to laugh as Abby deadpanned. “Sue Ellen will see you now.”
I am also working on a prequel that features the series protagonist as a high school newspaper reporter and amateur sleuth. I have the first book plotted out already. Fingers crossed: The Case of the Croaked Coach- the first book of the prequel- will be out sometime in 2024.
Check out all my reviews/interviews for Susie Black!
https://readingbydeb.blogspot.com/2022/11/author-at-glance-susie-black.html
Named Best US Author of the Year by N. N. Lights Book Heaven, award-winning cozy mystery author Susie Black was born in the Big Apple but now calls sunny Southern California home. Like the protagonist in her Holly Swimsuit Mystery Series, Susie is a successful apparel sales executive. Susie began telling stories as soon as she learned to talk. Now she’s telling all the stories from her garment industry experiences in humorous mysteries.
She reads, writes, and speaks Spanish, albeit with an accent that sounds like Mildred from Michigan went on a Mexican vacation and is trying to fit in with the locals. Since life without pizza and ice cream as her core food groups wouldn’t be worth living, she’s a dedicated walker to keep her girlish figure. A voracious reader, she’s also an avid stamp collector. Susie lives with a highly intelligent man and has one incredibly brainy but smart-aleck adult son who inexplicably blames his sarcasm on an inherited genetic defect.
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After Mermaid sales exec Holly Schlivnik finds colleague Queenie Levine standing over Oldham’s battered corpse nailed to a fabric cutting table with a pair of cutting shears plunged deep into his chest, the cops soon recover Queenie’s hidden blood-soaked sweater, discover her stormy relationship with the victim, and her public threats to make Butch pay for destroying Mermaid by stealing it blind.
When Queenie is arrested for Butch’s murder, Holly jumps into action to flesh out the real killer. But the trail has more twists and turns than a slinky, and nothing turns out the way the wise-cracking, irreverent amateur sleuth thinks it will as she tangles with a clever killer hellbent for revenge.
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