February 2009

Women of Mystery
w/Meaningless Sax

Tired of reading one awful mystery novel after another, a local book group decided “we can do this bad,” explained Gayle Ortiz at the recent installment of Pizza and Prose, Art & Lit series.  Ortiz, who also happens to be Gayle of the beloved Capitola landmark, Gayle’s Bakery and Rosticceria described how five of the original 13 women went from the fun notion of writing a story to becoming serious authors committed to publishing a book they could all be proud of. Little did they know it would take six years, countless re-writes, and the painful loss of one member to leukemia.  

Two published books later, Ortiz shared the microphone at the cozy Cava Wine Bar with co-authors Tomi Newman, Pat Pease, and Judith Feinman to talk about how so many authors were able to produce a novel that speaks with one voice.

On a fittingly stormy evening for talk on a mystery novel, they demonstrated the chemistry that helped them write those two books as they described their evolution from casual members of a book club to published authors giving interviews. The fifth author, Marybeth Varcados, passed away just 3 weeks before on January 23. A former editor of the Santa Cruz Sentinel and the one computer savvy member of group, she was clearly missed by her friends. Even in her absence, the audience was able to get a good sense of who she was and what she meant to the success of the books.

 The first novel, The Jewel Box, which refers to the neighborhood just above Capitola Village where most of the story takes place, was started by Denise Osborne. Author of the Feng Shui Mystery series, she was the only member of the group with experience getting novels published. She wrote the first chapter to get the group started before moving out of town. After making a few changes to the main character the rest of the group was off and writing.

 With no rules except to work in a democratic manner, the story developed as each writer became drawn to particular people or aspects of the story. Ortiz was surprised to find how much she enjoyed the gruesome details of a good mystery. “Don’t really get to do that with cookbooks,” said the author of two such books who “found fun and amazing, the horrible situations that started flowing out.”

 Newman became attached to Detective Dan. “I would just know, Dan wouldn’t do this, say that,” she said describing how she became the expert in this central character’s modus operandi.

 Pease was more drawn to the romance or “ridiculous sex” scenes she told the audience just before reading one from A Killer Festival  that she wrote between a key character and her ex-husband the morning after their daughter’s wedding.

 To help picture what each character would look like, the women looked for “visual inspiration from magazines,” explained Feinman. They would see a photograph and know “that’s really him, really her.”

 In addition to being able to “divide and conquer” the work involved, Feinman talked about other advantages to writing with a group. “Sometimes came to a point when you couldn’t do it. Lovely to have four other people say “yes you can”…courage is given to you to go on.”

 Once the writing was complete, each woman asked one person to read it through. Lisa Hindley, who works at Gayle’s Bakery helped design the cover and Ortiz’s husband Joe learned the painstaking task of laying the book out end to end. With the help of ibooks on design he became an expert in preparation of the first printing of this self-published book. Once those first 1200 copies were printed the woman divided and conquered again with each one covering a different part of the county to distribute the book, now in its second printing.

 With Capitola’s Begonia Festival as the backdrop, the second book was written much quicker than the first. Their deadline was to have it ready for sale at the beginning of this annual event in 2008.

 A third book, however, is not in the works. Fans of Detective Dan and Karen will have to imagine what happens next in their lives. The four authors unanimously decided they cannot write another in this series without their good friend and writing coach, Marybeth. However these popular books can be found at various book and crafts stores in and around Santa Cruz County .

 The February installment of this series opened with a special performance by the jazz quartet, Meaningless Sax. Elizabeth Torres, Angela Hardy, Jessica Loranger, and Joel Ford entertained the crowd with their great chemistry and a mix of styles from a Bach Fugue to ‘Polka Dot & Moon Beam’,  ‘Ain’t Misbehavin’ and ‘Sir Duke’. Ending with the classic ‘Theme from the Pink Panther’, the group was a fun addition to Pizza and Prose which will be celebrating its two year anniversary next month. They can be contacted at 831-241-3545 for gigs and CDs.  

Gayle’s cookbooks, The Village Baker and The Village Baker’s Wife can be found at her website www.gaylesbakery.com/bakery/books.html.