Agatha Christie and Me
Terry Odell

If you’ll pardon a little BSP, Beyond the Frame is now out in the world. This is a stand alone, although there’s a possibility it might spin off another book. Or two. Not something I had in mind when I started writing, but as the book drew to a close and I was doing all the editorial reading, I noticed some potential sequels. Subconscious at work?

Anyway, you can find more about the book here, along with buy links if this not-really-a-mystery is something you’d find interesting.

What I’m really doing is getting ready for a vacation, one of my ‘retirement’ goals. This was one of those times when the Hubster and I both came up with the same idea for our next trip, so naturally, we booked it.

Since the trip begins in Istanbul, and it’s a place I’ve never been to, nor likely to return to, it made sense to arrive a few days early and see some of the sights. We decided to splurge and stay at the Pera Palace, the hotel built for travelers on the Orient Express back in the day. I mean, why not? And it just so happened that the hotel was putting the Agatha Christie suite on sale. Of course I wanted to stay there. Here’s what their website said:

Agatha Christie Room
The Agatha Christie Room preserves the spirit of its era, offering an unforgettable stay for literature and mystery enthusiasts. This 46 m² room features a private library with the author’s works in various languages, a replica of her typewriter, and antique furnishings that reflect the soul of the early 20th century.

Whether she wrote Murder on the Orient Express there is still questionable, but she did stay there.

After our stay there, we’ll be on a 310 passenger yacht sailing through the Greek Isles and ending up in Barcelona. Of course, we’re not likely to return there, so we’re adding a couple of extra days on that end of the trip as well.

(And yes, I’ll be taking pictures!)

Am I going to set another book there? That’s a question I’m not ready to answer. Of course, I’ll keep an open mind, and at the very least, should be picking up some character fodder.

Here are some of my tips, shared in earlier posts, but I thought they were worth repeating here:

Less is more. My first drafts went into phenomenal detail about absolutely everything. Airports. Train stations. Hotels. Food. All the places we stopped, what we saw on the drives. Given we were traveling for well over two weeks, that would have been a LONG book. A sense of place is good. Overwhelming readers is not. I had to keep reminding myself to make sure everything related to the plot and characters. I wasn’t writing a travelogue.

Stay true to time. Readers familiar with the area will know that you can’t get from A to B in two hours, or that when you’ve had your characters on their bus for five hours, it’s really a twenty-minute drive.

You’ll always miss something. Unless you’ve got your plot mapped out before your trip, once  you start writing, you’ll have a scene to write and—lo and behold—you missed taking a picture, or didn’t take the right notes. I spent a LOT of time on the internet rechecking facts, looking at maps, and refamiliarizing myself with some of the attractions we visited. If I couldn’t find exactly what I needed, I reminded myself I was writing fiction—another reason not to name real places. On the occasions where my characters were eating in real, named places, I made sure I had pictures and menus. Same for attractions.

Don’t make up real stuff. One of the reasons I made this book a stand alone was because our trip didn’t include visits to police departments (although I snapped a picture of a vehicle in Ireland, “just in case”). Also, it would be unrealistic for my American characters to have any access to law enforcement in several different countries.

Be nice. I also opted not to name the specific hotels or restaurants (mostly). For one thing, it gave me the freedom to change the décor, layout, amenities, or the restaurant menus. And, if something “bad” happened, I wasn’t going to incur the wrath of those establishments.

It’s about flavor. Although my characters didn’t visit Northern Ireland, I did include a character from the same town we’d visited when we stayed with my daughter. I made sure she vetted all his dialogue. For example, people in Northern Ireland use the word “wee” as a meaningless adjective. I was asked for my wee credit card, given a wee receipt, offered a wee bag for my purchases. My British critique partner was very helpful with vocabulary as well.

Find me at Substack with Writings and Wanderings

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Beyond the Frame
When the camera lies, who do you trust?

When deepfake photos threaten their careers, dog-park friends Evvie and Colton become each other’s only allies. Evvie, who vanished behind her camera years ago to escape a painful past, uncovers humiliating fake images of herself.

Colton, an insurance adjuster with ranch roots, trusts her eye on a suspicious claim. A family emergency pulls them to Wyoming—where Evvie’s own dangerous secret waits.

Terry Odell is an award-winning author of Mystery and Romantic Suspense, although she prefers to think of them all as “Mysteries with Relationships.”