March 2025 – Wayne Turmel

Real Actors as Sleuths, Histfic from Mary Ann Noe

I love that as the new novel is closer to done, I’m reestablishing connections with those in the historical fiction community. It’s a very different group from the Urban Fantasy nerds, but just as interesting.

Today we are talking to Mary Ann Noe, who is on her second novel about the famous 20th-Centry theater actors, Lunt and Fontanne. The first book was Deserving of Murder, and it’s now joined by Glass Flowers & Diamond Stickpins.

I love the idea of using a famous real life couple as your heroes, especially someone as legendary (to those of us over a certain age) as Lunt and Fontanne. Tell us about yourself and we’ll get right down to business.

William Shakespeare and I share a birthday. No, darling, he’s older than I am. So, it was inevitable I should become a writer. (Although my early stuff should probably line birdcages.) I got better. By the time I had thirty years teaching English, I was good enough to publish poetry and short stories. After I retired, I went for the big guns and, surprising even myself and my workshop buddies, had my first novel in my hands at age 73. Thank you, Black Rose Writing, my publisher in Texas. The best part? I can write in multiple genres, and my readers like all of them. Already out are family sagas, middle-grade fantasy, murder mystery, historical fiction…and there are more coming. My goal is to live long enough to get all of my manuscripts published!

Tell us about the new book.

My latest, Glass Flowers & Diamond Stickpins, is a second historical fiction starring Lynn Fontanne and Alfred Lunt, real-life globally famous stage actors of the 20^th century. The first Lynn & Alfred Tale, Deserving of Murder, is a closed-room murder mystery. Glass Flowers & Diamond Stickpins puts the couple in 1939 Paris, attempting to help Jaroslav, a Czech glass artist, get his family’s fortune out of Europe. As these three lives come closer and closer together, they are all pulled into Hitler’s maelstrom, encountering a multitude of terrors and horrors. Moving from Czechoslovakia, Germany, France, England, New York City, and, ultimately, to Ten Chimneys, the Lunts’ Wisconsin home, Lynn and Alfred must face the final showdown with Hitler’s henchmen, struggling to survive while hoping against hope Jaroslav has been able to do the same.

Where did such a unique story come from?

I am lucky enough to be a docent at the real Ten Chimneys, Lynn and Alfred’s summer home, so I know a great deal about this fascinating couple. In the books, I try to adhere to facts as much as possible. The Lunts’ lives are a treasure-trove of challenges and excitement, so stretching the truth like taffy is easy. For Glass Flowers, I wanted to work in the real glass flowers that form a garland around Lynn’s dressing table mirror. I finally hit on creating a glass artist who could use his work to somehow smuggle out his fortune. Lynn’s sister was the real artist who created the flowers. That’s one of the joys of writing fiction: the freedom to create a new “reality.” However, I feel a responsibility to others interested in the World War II era to stick close to the history of the times. Sometimes, I spend more time researching than I do writing in order to get it right!

Where can we learn more about your work?

FOR MY BOOKS:

https://www.blackrosewriting.com/search?q=mary%20ann%20noe Click on cover/title to order.

For audible books: https://www.audible.com Search Mary Ann Noe to find all books. Audible also available through Amazon.

Amazon, Kindle, BookBub, Goodreads. I’m on Facebook as well.

Whether your tastes run to historical fiction or award-winning urban fantasy, check out all my work on my Amazon Author Page, and don’t forget to sign up for my newsletter.

This Feral, Nasty, Uncooperative First Draft is Done…

If Mary Poppins is correct (and did you ever think you’d catch me quoting anyone so darned wholesome?) “Well begun is half done.” Actually, Aristotle said it first, but it sounds so much cuter coming from Julie Andrews. Anyway…. announcement time.

The first draft of The Deserter is done. The second draft is going to be more of a slog than anything I’ve ever written, but then the book is different. Darker. More serious. A tragedy.

In other words, fun. I am hoping to do for the Beau Geste/ Foreign Legion stories what Unforgiven did for Westerns. Honoring the tales while demythologizing them.

Stay tuned for more, but for now, me and Mary Poppins are gonna get a drink.

Now Comes the Raven- Jean M Roberts

Hang around the writing business long enough and you’ll keep coming across the same people. One of the finer humans is Jean Roberts. She’s written some solid Historical Fiction, which I think is where we first crossed trails. She also has published some of her work with Black Rose Writing, and there we met up again.

I really enjoyed her time-travel novel The Heron. She’s back with a sequel, Now Comes the Raven. Here’s my catch-up chat with her.

Okay, lady. Tell the uninitiated who you are and what you’ve been up to.

Thank you, Wayne for asking me to be on your blog!

A little about myself, hmm. I’m older, but not old. I’ve lived in four countries and multiple states. My husband and I met in the Air Force when we were stationed in England. After moving around a lot, we settled outside of Houston, Texas, where I worked as a nurse administrator until I chucked in the job to write full-time. I started with historical fiction, then wandered into historical fantasy, and every once in a while, I take a sharp turn into murder mysteries. When I’m not writing, I’m usually in the garden, pulling weeds, watching birds, and thinking about my plot.

We actually share a fascination with birds, although they don’t (or at least haven’t yet) found their way into my work. So, what’s your new book about?

As you well know, the worst question you can ask a writer is ‘what is your book about?’ How many hours have you got? I just published (March 6th) book two in my Midsummer Woman Series, called NOW COMES THE RAVEN. The story is a dual time set in modern-day Devon and in 9th-century Wessex. The main character in each period is a witch with special skills in healing. The antagonist is called The Raven, and he makes life hell for both women. The two must come together to defeat him. It is heavy on historical fiction with a bonus of magical realism/fantasy. There is mythology, mystery, romance, and a rollicking good time. I am currently thinking of ways to torment my MC in a third installment.

You bounce around a lot. What’s your favorite period in history to write about? Why pre-Hastings Wessex?

I’ve loved every time period I’ve written about. I really enjoyed the history of Wessex as it transitioned from pagan to Christian, clinging to some of the old ways and blending it into new traditions. This was the time of King Alfred the Great and the Danish (Vikings) invasion. My MC in the past, is a young woman learning her skills from a master herbalist and healer. They are witches, but not in the hocus-pocus sense, more like cunning women who can see visions and predict the future. The emphasis of the story is woman power, building a sisterhood, coming together to help and heal.

Since apparently it’s my job to ask unfair questions, what’s your favorite scene?

What is my favorite scene? That’s like asking a mother which is her favorite child. One scene I really enjoyed was when Aelfwyn, my witch in training, calls up a storm to destroy the Danish Fleet off the coast of Exeter. This was a powerful moment for her when she realized the possibilities and consequences of her magic. BTW, the Danish fleet really did sink, and who knows, maybe it was a witch.

Maybe. Where can people find more of your work?

You can find my books on Amazon and Kindle Unlimited. Most of them are available as audiobooks. I am all over social media, usually lurking in the dark shadows, but if inclined you can find me in the following places:

My Blog: The Books Delight

Amazon Author Page

Follow me on Twitter

Follow me on Facebook

Website: Home | Jean M. Roberts – Wix.com

Thanks again, Wayne for letting me stop by!

Whether your tastes run to historical fiction or award-winning urban fantasy, check out all my work on my Amazon Author Page, and don’t forget to sign up for my newsletter.