Ritter Ames – Organized For Murder

  Ritter Ames is a USA Today best-selling mystery author  who’s equally at home in the world of fast action international art fraud  – as in her Bodies of Art series, or in small town Vermont in the traditional cozy “Organised Mysteries” series  – featuring amateur sleuth Kate in a small town setting. Hi there I’m your host Jenny Wheeler and today we are talking to Ritter about  the secrets of her success, life before fiction and why she loves London and Cary Grant movies. Six things you’ll learn from this Joys of Binge Reading episode: The book that gave her a “light bulb” moment. (She was in fourth grade.) How Ritter got published and the rebirth of cozies What she’s learned in five years of marketing fiction Ritter’s favorite place in London The writers she admires most And the new series she can’t wait to get started on Where to find Ritter Ames:  Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/RitterAmesBooks/  Twitter  @RitterAmes What follows is a “near as” transcript of our conversation, not word for word but pretty close to it, with links to important mentions. But now here’s Ritter. Hello there Ritter and welcome to the show, it’s great to have you with us. Ritter: Hi Jenny Than you for having me on today. Jenny: Beginning at the beginning . . . .Was there a “Once Upon A Time” moment when you realised you had to write fiction or your life would somehow be the poorer for it?  Was there a catalyst? Mystery author Ritter Ames Ritter: Honestly, the first time I realised books were written and I know this sounds completely ridiculous as an adult, but in fourth grade I read Little Women. Until then everybody was like “what do you want to be?” I would say a teacher, a nurse; whatever anyone said sounded like a good idea. When I read Little Women and I read the part where Jo March made her living as a writer, I identified with Jo in the books so that was part of it too. It was like all of a sudden I realised, somebody actually writes all these books! I had read books from the time I first started reading, and I would see the author’s name but it didn’t register that somebody actually sat down and wrote it. They were just magically appearing in the library and I would go check them out. So that was the catalyst where I thought, I can do this! People make a living at this. It was a long journey from fourth grade onwards! But at that point, I realised it was something I wanted to do, and so everything I did despite doing the same studies as everybody else;  I still tended to pay more attention to English and more attention to structure. So I guess early on I was already training to be what I wanted to be when I grew up. Jenny: You’ve so far published two mystery series, both of them very well received and well reviewed.   Four books in the Bodies of Art series and three in the Organized Mystery series. Which came first? Ritter: Actually, the Bodies of Art came first. I had written about 50 pages of the first book, and had completed the story arc I had developed for that. A publisher wanted to read it, and so I sent the first 50 pages off and she said “I want this by the end of the year, I’m going to start a new press. This would be perfect, I’ve got it in my Chick Lit Mysteries.” I really hadn’t written it as a Chick Lit Mystery, I was just having fun with it. I loved reading everything by Elizabeth Peters, and I especially liked the Vicky Bliss series and the way she travelled all over the place. I had a whole idea on how to build a history for my main character Laurel Beacham, and so in doing that it fitted into this publisher’s idea of a Chick Lit Mystery series. So I finished the book and turned it into her, and she liked the book and took the first two, but then she changed her own focus. When she did she dropped the ball on what this series needed. Because like you say, it’s not a cozy – there is not gratuitous sex, violence and cursing, but it doesn’t fit into the parameters of a cozy. I got the rights back from her, that’s when I went to Henery’s publishing, and they took it off for a while and we released everything so we could release it under the new name. It looks like it just started up in 2015, but it was really first published in 2013. Organized For S’More Death Ritter Ames The Organised Mysteries was really written ahead of it, and I had it sitting and waiting for a publisher when I got the publishing contract for Bodies of Art. One lesson I tell writers is never stop writing – the a book  away for a moment because it doesn’t have a publisher at that moment. I couldn’t get an agent interested in it because ‘cozies’ weren’t selling well then, they were midlist books, and different publishers were dropping cozy series. When I did find a publisher interested in it, it it hit the USA Today best seller list. There’s always a lesson in there for everybody to just be patient. Jenny: Your hero Laurel Beacham the art recovery expert in Bodies of Art is a smart, sassy and single international business  spy  …… while Kate McKenzie in the Organised series in quite different  – a mum deeply embedded in domestic life who’s business is helping people get their lives organised….. Tell us about writing these two characters… are they both different aspects of yourself? Ritter: I’m not a super organised person. I don’t like to look for things though. I’m one of these people who puts things somewhere and hate it being moved, because that’s where I’m going to go back and find it. If I have to go back and look for it, you’re in trouble! I have my files, I have everything the way I want it and it may not look as organised to everybody else, but I know where it is. I’m not an uber organised person, but I understand the concept that I want it to be fun. Like with Kate, I didn’t want her too perfect. I didn’t want her to be this perfect person who was totally organised and everybody hated her for it. So that’s why she has a slight OCD problem, just so you have a little bit of an edge to her. As far as the two series go, I would love to be Laurel. I mean don’t get me wrong, I watch the Amazing Race with my husband every week and he sees the gleam in my eye and every time he says “now if you ever sign up for this thing, don’t include me!” But as far as the Organised series go, I’m a little like Meg. I’m a little irreverent, I will do things short cut and figure a way around the longer route. I pop off things and say things I shouldn’t. So as far as characters go, I’m probably closer to Meg than I am to Kate. That’s one of the fun things about writing the series- I’ve written Kate as an outsider because I don’t currently live in Vermont, but I let Meg be the person who lives there so that my point of view character doesn’t always quite know. She has to be advised about how the community thinks, so that I don’t get myself into trouble that way by acting like I know what I’m talking about. I’m not a person who lives there at this time. I write in third person in that series for the same reason- it stays completely in Kate’s point of view. In writing in third person, I’m not writing as an ‘I’ person like I do with Laurel. I can be a lot snarkier with Laurel, whereas Kate is a much nicer person. Don’t get me wrong, I love Laurel dearly! But Kate isn’t the sarcastic person that Laurel comes across as. Organized for Scheduled Sabotage mystery Jenny: Laurel seems to have quite severe trust issues too- in terms of trusting others, she wants very much to keep herself all under her own control and not rely too much on others. Ritter: Right. And when she does, she wants to rely on people that may not be people that her employer or whoever might want her to do. She has a very strange idea of right and wrong. In her mind, it’s OK to steal if you’re stealing something that was already stolen and you’re returning it to the person whom it was stolen from. So she’ll bypass the law if it suits her own purpose. Jenny:  And of course Laurel gets on international flights like other people pop out to the local shops.  I gather if you didn’t have domestic pets and a hubbie keeping you anchored at home you’d like to do that too? Ritter: We’ve travelled a lot since before I got the contract. To me, all vacations should start in London and you should just take off from there! At the end of the first series, there is a situation that ends up making her tied to Europe and the UK. I did that so that I could really focus in on a geographical location for her. Whereas when the books start, she has kind of been all over. In this respect she was still in Europe the entire time, but she wasn’t tied to Europe initially like she ends up being later in the series. That’s one of the things I did on purpose to limit the series a little more. Jenny: Yes, and also without wanting to bring any spoilers. The character of Jack continues on into the other books, and that relationship develops as well, doesn’t it? Ritter: Right, it does. To me, this is like my homage to the old Cary Grant movies- especially movies like Charade where you were never quite sure whether Cary Grant was on the good side or the bad side. That’s kind of how I modelled Jack, because I wanted especially in the first few books to leave readers kind of guessing. Cary Grant and Audrey Hepburn in Charade Laurel’s guessing – Laurel doesn’t know, and as long as Laurel doesn’t know anything the readers can’t know anything. That’s part of the fun of the mystery; finding out new information not only about Jack, but Laurel as the series develops and she finds out a lot of surprising information about herself that she didn’t know before. I love seeing the evolution of the characters – how they grow, change and think differently because of new information down the line. Jenny:  What made you choose cozy mysteries as your genre? Ritter: I’ve always read cozies. I grew up with adoring the Trixie Belden series, which technically isn’t a cozy – it fits the parameters of a cozy, you’ve got the mystery and the regular characters, the setting in one place. For a children’s series, I think it’s the closest thing to a cozy. After I grew out of that, I went on to Agatha Christie. In the 80’s with the real rebirth of cozy, I was hooked on all the new cosy authors like Katherine Hall Page. Katherine Hall Page- a favorite author I’ve read Elizabeth Peters since the dawn of time- I think she started publishing back in 1969, and I have a copy of everything she wrote, even if I wasn’t reading her when the book came out; I’ve got a copy of it since then. While her books aren’t technically cozy they fit that same parameter too. I guess some of them do and some of them don’t – it’s kind of like Bodies of Art, but they fit that escapism kind of thing. To me, they’re the reading equivalent of an old Cary Grant movie. I loved old Cary Grant movies where you had the very smart woman and the very smart man, and they had very smart conversations. You just had to watch to see what happened because you couldn’t take your eyes away; it was a lot of fun. That’s what I wanted to write with that particular series. The cozies to me are no different; there’s going to be resolution at the end. I’m able to follow the footsteps of the protagonist who goes in and solves the crime. I like especially the series option, so that I can go back and pick up the next book- I know part of those people there and what they’ve been doing in the mean time. What I love about writing is going back and seeing what my characters have been doing while I’ve been gone- it’s like they’ve been subconsciously working and I don’t really know it till I sit down and write. Jenny:  You were first published in 2013?   Is that right?  What came before that. . ..  Tell us something of your life before you became a writer?. . . Ritter: Before I started with a publishing contract in fiction, I was already making a living selling non- fiction. I transitioned when my daughter was born, because I was working corporate acquisitions and I never had to travel outside the United States, but I did a lot of travelling inside the United States where I had to just pick up and go, working in specific offices. A lot of acquisition work is confidential. Some of the information could be sent outside the office, and other times I had to go into the offices in order to see the paperwork and computer detail. Once my daughter was born and she started school, she needed help with homework and she had stories she needed to tell me about the other kids at school. It just became more difficult as she got older. When she was younger,  I had a niece that kept her full time for me when I was gone so that worked out. But when she started school, she really needed Mom there. So that was when I started transitioning doing non- fiction. I did non- fiction really because it was easier to get a fast pay check. With fiction you have to wait. Even with self publishing, you have to wait a couple of months before you get paid for a book that somebody bought two or three months ago. With a publisher, you have to wait three to six months and even a year depending on when the sales hit, and which quarter you hit and that sort of thing. So to begin with, when I wanted to transition out of corporate, I started writing non-fiction – company histories, ghost writing, I did a lot of ad copy. Things that would bring in a quick pay check so that I didn’t have to worry about missing my corporate pay check. Counterfeit Conspiracies by Ritter Ames Once I got to the point where I was making as much in the writing side as I was on the corporate side- once I got the salary the same, that was when I made the leap and started writing non- fiction. So I already had that idea in place. But non- fiction is a lot different than fiction. In non- fiction, I never had to market myself at all. It was just a matter of turning in the assignment and fulfilling the contract. Whether it was a book or magazine publisher, they took it in and I didn’t have to do any of this “oh look at this, read my book!” because they did all that. So that’s been a big change with fiction. I had to learn the marketing side real quick to make an impact with my writing, because there’s so many books that are published every day. Every new one can get lost in the masses if you don’t get your name out. Jenny: Sure.  You mentioned that you did copyrighting as part of that work- that must of been a real advantage when you came to marketing your own books. Ritter: It is to a degree but it’s almost like I have to turn on that part of my brain. Writing copy is so focused, that it’s so different from novel writing. It’s closer to back blurb, but not even back barb writing.  I have to usually stop and say this is going to be a day for marketing and really turn on that copyrighting brain. Then I’ll get it done in just a few hours  but I cannot just stop, do it and then go on. It just doesn’t come that easily for me. Moving  to a more general focus, away from specific books to your wider career Jenny:  Is there one thing you’ve done in your writing career more than any other that’s been the secret to your success? Ritter: Probably just building up friendships with other authors. I’m always willing to lend a hand if anyone has a question, because I’ve had so many wonderful friendly authors who have given me information. I think doing non- fiction and interviews with people for so many years helped me have no problem asking questions. If I don’t understand something, I have no problem saying “I don’t understand this, can you explain it”. People are always ready help, but most of the time they aren’t going to unless you ask them. And I’ve learnt asking is really important. Now I’m getting to the point where I can help other authors with the information I know, just based off the information other authors have told me. The other thing I’ve learnt really has been the fact that everything in publishing changes so quickly- nothing stays the same every six months. You have to be versatile, and ready to forget about everything you thought was going to work a year ago because it’s completely obsolete now. You just can’t hang onto those things- as a writer, we laugh about not wanting to kill our “darlings” which are words, phrases or sentences. But marketing is the same way- you can’t keep the “darlings” that were the way that marketing worked for you, because they may not work out in 6 months time. Jenny: Sure. So you always have to be testing and measuring, is that what you’re saying? Ritter: Yes. I do a lot of spreadsheets, and I go in and mark down what tweets I put together and with which pictures and words, and which markets I used for each one, and which tweet teams I used for each one. Then I can go back and see which tweet team is effective for which type of book, and whether they’re better for Amazon or non- Amazon booksellers. I don’t want to waste my time – I send so much time marketing then I do writing now. I spend about four to five hours a day writing, and I will easily do five to six hours of marketing a day. There’s just so much work to it, and making sure you’re getting the blogs and podcasts, making sure you’ve written the guest blog that you need, or you’ve contacted this person to see whether you can get an ad in this particular marketing venue. There’s just so many moving parts with marketing I just don’t want to spend any more time then I have to. Jenny: Wow, five to six hours a day on marketing – that’s a full time job on its own! Ritter: When I say that, that’s for new releases and things- not an every day thing. That’s when I’m really focused on working hard at it. When the book came out and I got the USA Today title, I Iiterally only did marketing for six weeks ahead of that book release. I didn’t even try to write. And it really made all the difference because it really got my name out there. Had I not done all that work and made an impact with Ritter Ames, which in turn made people start reading my other series too. You do have to stop and say “I’m only going to do so many hours”, or “I’m not going to write at all and only focus on this so I can get back to full time writing later”. London – Ritter’s favorite place Jenny:  If you were going to suggest a magical mystery literary tour of your books where would you suggest people go?  I know Laurel goes everywhere – but any favorite destinations? Ritter: There’s no place in London I don’t love- that’s just a hands down favourite! Probably in London my favourite spot is the Tower complex. I just love it. I especially love the Promenade, and the Thames right there beside it- I could just sit for days on one of the benches there and watch people go by. I also like the bird cage walk where you can see the castle and Buckingham Palace and everything in the background. Buckingham Palace There’s so many places that are known that everybody knows about, and when you see them in real life it’s exactly how you imagined. That’s what I love about London! As far as other places to go- I have such a huge bucket list. I have never been to the Scandinavian countries, and I’d really like to go there. I’ve never been to Switzerland even though it’s always been very high on my bucket list, but we’ve never made it there yet. My husband is from a German background and he’d like to go back there again, and there’s so much that we haven’t seen in Germany so that would be another place I’d want to go to. I really couldn’t just narrow it down, but I would definitely suggest to a person that has read a lot of British mysteries to start in Great Britain, Ireland or Scotland- wherever your books have drawn your attention. I think that’s always a good place to start exploring the world, because you always feel a little at home already. Turning to Ritter as reader Jenny: The series is called “The Joys of Binge Reading” because I see it as providing inspiration for people who like to read series . . . .So – turning to your taste in fiction who do you “binge read”  ? Ritter: Elizabeth Peters is hands down my favourite. I have to read the Amelia Peabody series from start to finish at least every five years- it’s like a summer reading binge for me. This year I binge re-read the Kate Atkinson and her Jackson Brodie series, another one of favourites. I like the early Thomas Lynley series by Elizabeth George. I still like Elizabeth George, but I really the earlier books best – I liked Helen, (Thomas’s wife) . After she was written out of the series,  I haven’t tended to read it as quickly anymore. I love the Christopher Fowler Bryant & May series too – also set in London – anything a little bit off the wall. Also one of favourite series is the Dirk Gently series by Douglas Adams- I had originally started reading him with Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy, but when Dirk Gently came out in the 80’s I still have the hard copies of that! Every reading adventure is just that; an adventure. There’s so many incredible authors out there. I love reading Larissa Reinhart and the Cherry Tucker series, not to mention the Maizie Albright- it’s just a hoot, it’s so much fun to read. The list just never ends, I could just go on! Circling back to the end  Jenny:  At this stage in your career, if you were doing it all again, what would you change – if anything? Ritter: Other then finding a cloning machine and finding a clone of myself to do all the marketing stuff- I think early on I would have started looking at marketing before I started signing the first publishing contract. Everybody had always said “build your platform”, but I couldn’t see the point of building a platform when I didn’t have a book that I wanted to publicise. I didn’t have to do that with my non- fiction books, and until I had a publishing contract, I didn’t have a book to publish. So it seemed ridiculous to do that. Everybody’s idea of a publishing platform is so different anyway- and the idea has changed hugely in the last five years, so that’s a big difference too. I think really, I would have just spent more time researching what you really had to do to market a book. That’s the only thing I can think off – I feel like I’m finally reaching the level plain on that and it has taken me five years where it no longer feels like an uphill struggle. Jenny:  What is next for Ritter the writer? What projects do you have under development? Ritter: The fourth book in the Organised Mystery series comes out in early March  and is called Organised for S’More Death. Meg has taken Kate completely out of her comfort zone, and taken her camping. That was a lot of fun. And of course, they find a dead body! Then at the end of June, the last Tuesday of June sees the fifth Bodies of Art book come out, Bronze Betrayals. Laurel will finally find out way more about herself then she ever imagined. One of the criminals get caught finally – they start off with one and then it gets up to three, but we’r finally back down to one again! The next series I’m starting at the end of this summer is actually another cozy series – it has been in the works for a couple of years, but I just haven’t had the time to spend on it to market it and get it out. I didn’t want to put out the first book until I knew I could finish the second. That was originally titled the Frugalista mysteries, but then I found out that Frugalista was a trademark name, and so it became the Frugal Lissa mysteries; the main character’s name is Alissa. She’s a blogger who finds ways to save money and keep herself working at home. She has two boys, and her husband has a job as a photo journalist outside of the country so he’s not there- she pretty much has to run the household. This is more of a funnier series- it has two younger boys in it, and they’re just a hoot to write. This has a different concept than my other ones, but I want books that people can fall into and say “I know I’m going to have a good time when I finish reading this”. Jenny:  Where can readers find you on line? Ritter: The easiest way is just www.ritterames.com. I blog from there when I have time, I have all the information on my books there. I have a lot of fun stuff there- since I have the art mystery series, I have colouring pages that people can download that relate to my books, excerpts of books that people can download. I let everybody know when there’s a sale on my books and there’s a link there to sign up for my newsletter which is probably the best way to get information from me, because with the newsletter the people come first. They’re my bread and butter. I’m on Facebook and Twitter, @ritterames on both. My author page is just Ritter Ames Books for Facebook. Jenny: You blog on other people’s blogs from time to time don’t you? Ritter:  I do.  I love doing that- I love when the bloggers like to interview my characters instead of interviewing me. They’re a lot more fun. I’ll have more probably coming up in the Bodies of Art series in June, but that kind of information again is on my website- alongside the link for this podcast! Jenny: Well Ritter thank you so much for giving us you’re valuable time. It’s been wonderful to talk to you today, and we’ll keep a close eye on you with interest! Thank you so much. Ritter: Thank you so much for inviting me, I’ve had a great time. Thanks To Our Technical Support: The Joys of Binge Reading podcast is put together with wonderful technical help from Dan Cotton at DC Audio Services. Dan is an experienced sound and video engineer who’s ready and available to help you with your next project… Seek him out at [email protected] or Phone + 64 – 21979539. He’s fast, takes pride in getting it right, and lovely to work with. Our voice overs are done by Abe Raffills, and Abe’s another gem. He got 20 years of experience on both sides of the camera/microphone as a cameraman/director and also voice artist and television presenter. Abe’s vocal delivery is both light hearted and warm and he is super easy to work with no matter the job. You’ll find him at [email protected]