Countdown to Christmas: 12 Days Dorothy Dodge Robbins Guest Speaker and Co-Editor of "Christmas Stories from Louisiana"

Dorothy Dodge Robbins was the guest speaker at both NOLA STARs (North Louisiana's Chapter of Romance Writers of America) and Grave Expectations (Shreveport, LA Chapter of Sisters in Crime) guest speaker for the December 13th meeting.

Dorothy Dodge Robbins is co-editor along with her husband, playwright Ken Robbins, of four volumes of seasonal literature, including Christmas Stories from Louisiana (University Press of Mississippi 2003), Christmas on the Great Plains (University of Iowa Press 2004), Christmas Stories from Georgia (University Press of Mississippi 2005), and Christmas Stories from Ohio (The Kent State University Press 2010). She served as volume editor for Critical Insights: Mrs. Dalloway (Salem Press, 2014). Dr. Robbins is the Charlotte Lewis Endowed Professor of English at Louisiana Tech University where she coordinates the Graduate Program in English. In addition to her work as an editor and a scholar, she teaches courses in Twentieth-Century British Novel, Virginia Woolf and Bloomsbury, and Mystery and Detective Fiction. As caretaker of the university’s Shakespeare Garden, and an avid amateur gardener, most weekends she plays in the dirt.

Available on Amazon

She did a wonderful power point presentation for NOLA STARs reminding us of historical Christmas stories, romance (even with corpses), murders, and the ghosts and supernatural spirits who have played key roles in winter tales.  She offered autographed copies of her books, Christmas Stories from Louisiana being the most popular, and inspired us to create Christmas themed stories. 

Plus, she included a bit about her cats, Miss Marple and Colonel Mustard.

In the less formal setting of Grave Expectations, she settled right into to the group of ladies and entertained as well as educated us on delightful way to kill someone off during the holiday season. Just kidding...well, maybe just a little. But mostly, she lead a delightful discussion of how murder mysteries were so popular during the holiday season. 

I met Dorothy years ago while taking playwriting courses from her husband; however, when I see the two of them out at Louisiana Tech events, it is usually Ken I converse with, so I truly enjoyed her agreeing to come speak at my groups and this occasion to get to know Ken's "better half" :) 

Bob Lenox with KEDM (NPR) interview Geri G. Taylor, author of The Kitchen Dance

"The Darkhouse" by Geri G. Taylor

 

A work in progress.

 

Now that "The Kitchen Dance" has been published by Melange Books, LLC I can take time from my promotional efforts and work on my new book.  I am currently over forty thousand words into my one hundred thousand plus goal of writing my second book, "The Darkhouse". For all the Southerners, like myself, whose idea of a frozen lake is a puddle is something you can skim a snowball across but can poke a pine twig through, the thought of sitting out on a frozen lake may be alien but I am doing my best to help the reader "feel" the cold and if you've ever have been cold, injured and frightened...well, imagine the discomfort my poor Kakie is going trough.

Filling the story with suspense and tension between the main characters is exciting for me as a writer. Getting my facts straight about the Hennepin County Sheriff's department and the research I have to do is proving to be very educational. I even visited Minnesota during the summer of 2012 to get a better feel for Minneapolis and the area where "The Darkhouse" takes place. I love that city and the research I have done on the local crime and corruption in the police department actually surprised me.

So, here is just a taste of where this story is going. Told in a combination of real time and flashbacks, I intend for it to be a bit of an intellectual challenge for the reader.

 

Chapter One 

 

“I’ll kill her.” Sam Quinn’s voice bounced off the ice like a snare drum. “I can do it.” He dropped the seven-pronged spear, impelled by its own weight, and grinned as it quickly sank deep into her flesh. “I just don’t know how I am going to live with myself.” He swiped at the cold water slopped on his weathered face as he pulled the twenty inch great northern pike from the hole in the ice. The sunlight penetrating the ice cast a dull green glow on his prize.

The last streaks of evening sunlight stretched across the lake glistening off the large chunks of ice piled beside the small tent-like structure used for spear and ice fishing. A small sleigh, spud, auger and a pair of ice tongs leaned against the hut hidden inside the long shadows cast across the frozen Minnesota Lake.

Quinn, a few months shy of sixty, was dressed suitable for the frigid weather, stepped from the door of the darkhouse and squinted in the harsh sunlight. He pulled down the brim of his Stormy Kromer to shield his eyes. He laid the thrashing pike on the frozen lake and, bracing her beneath his boot, tore the trident from her flesh. He tossed the pike with the rest of his catch ignoring her as she gasped for her last breaths.

 

Doesn't Sam Quinn sound like a nice guy? Oh, it gets better...or should I say, "worse".

Please visit www.melange-books.com for more information on "The Kitchen Dance" and www.g2taylor.com for more information about the author.