Guest Blog by Mitzi Szereto
Everyone is always keen to pigeonhole books into a certain category—and that’s not always possible to do. If you asked me what genre my new novel is, I’d have to say crime, mystery, fantasy, magic realism and humor. However, if you put a gun to my head, I’ll go with quirky crime novel. And if that isn’t an official genre, let’s make it one now!
Like most writers, I tend to be very independent when I work, so the idea of co-writing a novel with another author is not natural to me. However, if I had to collaborate with someone, I can’t think of anyone better than my sidekick bear, Teddy Tedaloo. He was instrumental to this book, and neither it nor the series would have been conceived or written without him. The fact that he also happens to be a bear obviously had some…err… bearing on the development of the ursine protagonist,
Thelonious T. Bear. Thelonious isn’t like most bears. For one thing, he drives a Mini Cooper with a Union Jack on the roof. For another, he wears a deerstalker hat and cologne, adores Charlie Parker, and is not one to suffer fools gladly. Thelonious, a photojournalist by profession, seems to have a lot of bad luck. Being a diminutively statured bear living in human society is difficult enough. But through no fault of his, he becomes a suspect in a series of murders of village publicans.
The choice of setting began with a visit to Norfolk. Teddy and I were invited to stay with a friend in an old farmhouse just minutes down the road from Sandringham Estate, the Royal Family’s residence in the county. I’d already had an inkling of a novel ping-ponging about in my head, but I had no idea where to take it. That week in Norfolk cinched it. Everything came together in a matter of minutes. We were chilling out one lunch time with a pint of ale in a village pub when a vicar seated a table away made an inquiry about Teddy. I realized immediately that this was no ordinary Norfolk vicar (his Welsh accent being a dead giveaway!).
We got to chatting, as one does in these village pubs, and he told us that his parish was located in the rather notorious county of Essex. Perhaps you need to be British to comprehend the whole absurdity of a Welsh vicar in Essex, but take my word for it—you couldn’t make this stuff up!
My brain went into quirky overdrive as we continued to banter back and forth with the vicar, with me scribbling down random ideas on bits of paper I managed to forage out of my handbag and scrounge off the barmaid, the entire plotline suddenly coming together where before there was nothing save for the main character. It was truly one of those Eureka! moments that writers probably wish they had more of. Thanks to an earlier visit to what had unexpectedly turned out to be a gastropub frequented by London yuppies, I had yet another motif developing alongside the main one. You might say that gastropub was the catalyst for the whole murder idea (you should’ve seen their prices!).
Norfolk is full of characters and we created plenty of colorful ones for our book. We’ve got a detective chief inspector so annoying and inept that it’s a wonder any crimes ever get solved. We’ve got a tobacco-cured old rock guitarist who downs whiskies at breakneck speed in contest with an ancient old granny. We’ve got a B&B landlady who has a bit of a yen for Thelonious. We’ve got a celebrity TV chef who wants to take over every pub in Norfolk. We’ve even got a couple of thugs from London’s East End—a pair of rough geezers who fancy themselves the 21st Century version of the Kray brothers. Throw in a dead pheasant, a beekeeper, a grumpy vicar (of course I had to stick a vicar in somewhere), and an obnoxious Audi driver, and it’s all go from here!
Oh, did I mention the dog? Yes, there’s a dog in the book too—Lord Nelson, the flatulent old dachshund that belongs to the publican at The Drowned Duck, which is where much of the action takes place.
So maybe now you can understand why just about anything is normal for Norfolk!
Teddy and I hope you will enjoy reading Normal for Norfolk (The Thelonious T. Bear Chronicles). Please be sure to keep an eye out for more books in the series. We’ve already got the next one planned!
Book website: http://mitziszereto.com/normalfornorfolk/
Author website: http://mitziszereto.com
