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I’m delighted to announce that I’ll have two books coming out this spring! My first cozy mystery, A Greyt Greyhound Recue, is almost ready to send to the printer. It will be available as a paperback or an ebook in about three weeks. I’ll post details when I have them. The publisher is also doing a trailer to promote this book and I’ll share that on Facebook soon.

My historical fiction novel for middle grades students will be ready in April or May. The Indiana Historical Society Press has three editors working on it currently. They’ll send me an updated draft soon and give me a chance to make some final edits. The title is still undecided but a couple of possibilities being considered are Forged by Fire: Tales of Danger and Hope from Early Indiana History or From Fire to Freedom: Stories of Early Indiana. The publisher has the final say on the title in traditional publishing because it is technically part of advertising.

I’m also working on the second book in the Rachel Chance and Will Keller mystery series. I’m almost finished with my first rough draft and will be working with the same editor and publisher IBookLocker). I worked with for A Greyt Greyhound Rescue. It has been great fun writing more about Rachel and Will and seeing how they find themselves in yet another mystery. In book two, Rachel and Will have to peel away layers of deception to try to find answers while at the same time working through obstacles in their relationship. I’m thinking about calling A Greyt Deception or A Greyt and Deadly Deception but am still trying out different possible titles.

I’m in the final phases of editing for A Greyt Greyhound Rescue. The final draft will go to the publisher in early January. I’m looking forward to my first mystery being available in print and ebook formats in just a few weeks.

One of the fun parts of writing a mystery is creating characters and their back stories, putting them in a dangerous situation and then trying out different ways they might react consistent with their back stories. It’s even more fun when a character is trying to figure out a mystery while at the same time having personal challenges.

In A Greyt Greyhound Rescue, Rachel has a history of wanting to help others but also of being impulsive, even when it means putting herself in danger. Sometimes she simply acts without thinking of the consequences. At the same time, she is wondering if she can trust this new man in her life after having been betrayed in the past.

Sometimes I realize that I need to fill in a little more back story in order to explain a character’s actions in the present. Do I need to say more about her professional life or are her actions better explained by a personal anecdote. I realized during the editing process, that it seemed a little odd that Rachel would go to such great lengths to help her neighbor Carol who had been accused of stealing from her rich family. So, I added an anecdote from Rachel’s middle school years that helped explain why she would help someone in Carol’s position.

For my character Will, I had always known that he had been raised by an aunt and uncle who were not nurturing, thus making it difficult for him to sustain a relationship. But. I realized that I needed to balance that with a more positive experience that would give some hope that he might be able to be in a relationship as an adult. At some point during one of my rewrites, I added one good friend, Andrew and it turns out that Andrew had a mother very much like my own mother, Bernice, and she served as a mother figure to him. Add to that mix some neighbors who  provided some nurturing for both Will and Andrew and there you go. A reason for some commitment issues in Will’s adult life but also some reason to hope that the positive impact of others remained with him.

My new challenge is writing book two in the series and continuing to develop my two main characters as well as get them involved in a new mystery. I have an outline finished and am about 50 pages into book two, tentatively titled A Greyt Deception.

Below is a seven page excerpt from A Greyt Greyhound Rescue. I’m working with an editor and the book will be ready to go to the publisher for formatting in a few weeks. This scene is about 60 pages in where Rachel (my amateur sleuth) introduces her new boy friend Will to her Greyhound friends at the dog park. Soon after this, they get involved in solving a murder. I hope you enjoy this scene:

As Rachel and Charley approached with Abby and Gooch, the four dogs already in the dog park ran toward the gate. Abby and Gooch pranced around, turning their owners into knots as they rushed to move the Greyhounds toward the gate, only to be jerked to a halt as they stopped to sniff or pee before resuming their rush to join their friends.

Will walked went through the gates to welcome Rachel outside the dog park. Abby barged between Rachel and Will, so Will stooped down to pat her.    “Hi, Abby. I can tell you’re excited to be here,” said Will.

            “Best part of the week as far as she’s concerned. She always has a welcoming committee.” Rachel held the lead firmly as Abby left Will and rushed toward the gate, pulling Rachel behind her.

            “Do they always . . .”

            “Do they always act like this? Excited to see a friend even if they already know her? Yep. Every week it’s the same. I suggest you stand back until the greeting is over with.”

            Will did as Rachel suggested and waited outside the fencing. He saw Rachel maneuver Abby through the outer gate, take off her lead in the space between the gates, and then open the inner gate to let Abby in. The other Greyhounds rushed toward her, sniffing her all around. Rachel looked toward Will and shrugged her shoulders. Just another Saturday at the park.

            Within a minute, Gooch had also entered and the greetings were complete. The Greyhounds separated to find sniffs throughout the dog park. The entire area was the size of two football fields in an L shape with one side of the L reaching toward the lake.

            Suddenly the Greyhound named Maggie started running and all the other Greyhounds followed her to the far end of the dog park and back. After a moment’s hesitation, Maggie barked at Tattoo and they were off, again running all the way to the far end of the dog park and then back.

            Charley turned toward Will. “Did Rachel tell you about how Greyhounds play?”

            “How they play?”

            Seeing the puzzled look on Will’s face, Charley continued. “Many dogs like to retrieve things. Thus, owners throw a ball or stick. The dog runs after it and brings it back and then the owner throws it again.”

            Will nodded in agreement and now was curious.

            “Not so our Greyhounds. For them, play means running, preferably chasing something. The way Greyhounds play actually can be traced back about two thousand years ago to ancient Rome,” said Charley.

            “And here comes the history lesson from the history teacher,” said Stephen with a smile on his face as he spoke.

            “Some of you could use a remedial lesson in history based on your attention span during my fifth period world history class about nineteen years ago…. when you were sitting in the third row, four seats back.” Charley looked pointedly at Stephen who kept smiling. This was clearly a kind of bantering that they had engaged in before. “As I was saying, nearly two thousand years ago, the ancient Romans trained Greyhounds in hunting and coursing. The difference being that when coursing, Greyhounds were trained to chase something but not kill it. The Romans introduced coursing which evolved into racing around an oval track and what we would today recognize as Greyhound racing.

          “Coursing?” said Will.

“Ah yes. Coursing,” said Charley. “My favorite quote about coursing comes from Flavius Arrianus. As anyone who took my class in world history knows.” Charley looked toward Stephen. “I should say anyone who paid attention during my world history class knows this quote about hunting and coursing. Arrianus is attributed as saying the following about the objective of coursing: ‘The true sportsman does not take out his dogs to destroy the hares, but for the sake of the course and the contest between the dogs and the hares, and is glad if the hare escapes.’ Therefore, Greyhounds have been bred to run and chase, but not always as hunting dogs.”

            “I had no idea,” said Will.

             Charley continued after the short pause. “The Romans loved their Greyhounds so much that they brought them to England with them. I’ve read some accounts that say Henry VIII was the first person to actually wager on Greyhound coursing so that would have been in the early 1500’s.”

            “Not sure I would have wanted to lose a wager to King Henry VIII,” mumbled Stephen.

            “Indeed. It might not bode well for someone wishing to live a long life. Perhaps not all world history facts were forgotten after all, but we digress.” Charley turned toward Will. “Greyhounds originally came to the United States to help settlers who were having trouble with jackrabbits eating their crops. They taught Greyhounds to take care of their jackrabbit and coyote problem. Greyhound racing didn’t begin until the early 1900’s.”

            Charley turned toward Stephen. “Perhaps a multiple-choice quiz is in order to make sure we all know our basic facts about Greyhounds?”

            Stephen laughed and started to answer Charley when suddenly Maggie started running again and the race was on. Again, all the Greyhounds followed her, running toward the small dog park area on the far side of the park and then back again in an oval as though there were running around a track. They paused by their owners and then Tattoo started running again and the other Greyhounds followed the same pattern.

            Rachel looked toward the parking lot at the red SUV that had just pulled into the parking lot. She smiled and looked toward Will. “Wait until Casey gets here. This is always interesting,” said Rachel, looking toward Will.

            “Interesting? What does that mean?” asked Will.

            “You’ll see.” Rachel looked toward the other Greyhound parents who were standing around the bench near the entrance. “Here comes Casey and Violet.”

            The group all took note of where their Greyhounds were. Will remembered that Rachel had told him that Violet had adopted Casey after she had been returned by her first family. Casey never responded to the name her first family had given her. Nor did she respond to her racing name. Violet figured that once her first family returned her, she wanted to forget them. Will wondered why they were all so attentive when Casey came. He didn’t have long to wait.

            After the same welcoming and sniffing ritual as when Abby entered, Casey came into the park. She walked around casually while all the other Greyhounds watched her in anticipation. Will looked at Rachel.

            “Just wait. It won’t take long.”

             It didn’t.

            Suddenly, Casey started running toward the far end of the dog park. Just as they had when Maggie and Tattoo led the pack, the other Greyhounds quickly followed the leader, but a few steps into the run, Casey suddenly veered to the left nearly crashing into Abby. Some Greyhounds paused with her and some went on. Casey started again then suddenly stopped and ran in another direction with Abby and Monroe following her. Then she turned again and ran toward the end of the dog park where the other Greyhounds had just turned to come back.

            Will looked at Rachel. “What am I seeing?”

            “Well,” answered Charley. “We’re not sure. Casey is the only Greyhound we’ve ever known who doesn’t run in circles as though she’s running around a track. She stops and goes. She changes direction.” Charley shook his head.

            “She came that way,” said Violet. “That and her propensity to want to jump up and lick you in your face are just two of her endearing qualities that she’s had since the day I picked her up.”

            “Endearing,” said Charley. “Well, that’s one way to look at it I suppose.”

            The Greyhounds ran for a few minutes, stopped to rest, then ran some more. After about thirty minutes, Violet said, “I think Casey’s made some progress. Can we try again?”

            “For goodness sakes,” said Charley. “Do we have to do this today?”

            Will looked at Rachel who was smiling. “Sure,” said Rachel. “Abby’s game.”

            Charley and the other Greyhound owners distracted Abby, Monroe, and Casey with Will assisting while Rachel, Violet and Stephen jogged to the far end of the dog park. They spread out, each person kneeling behind a bush or tree as the other owners waited. Then Charley opened three bags and took out a piece of clothing from each. He held them out, the first one for Abby, the second for Monroe, and finally Casey. Each Greyhound was being held by one of the owners.

Charley said, “Ready? Go Greyhounds. Find your person!”

            The three Greyhounds sprinted to the far end of the dog park while other Greyhounds were held back. Casey circled back toward Charley, but Abby and Monroe kept sprinting forward. Both of them went straight to their person and happily wagged their tails anticipating a treat.   

            “So, what exactly did I just see?” asked Will.

            “That’s a game we’ve been playing for weeks,” said Charley. “We’re trying to see if Greyhounds can be trained to follow a scent. They are great sight hounds, but it’s fun to see if we can expand their skills a bit. One of our friends who has a Golden Retriever said her dog was a better tracker than any Greyhound. We couldn’t resist the challenge.  I’m still not convinced it’s really working. I think they can see through those bushes.”

            “No way,” said Violet, walking toward them. “Abby and Monroe are doing great and Casey is getting better each week.”

            Charley rolled his eyes again and started to walk away. “Actually, I think this proves that Abby loves Rachel and that Monroe loves anyone who’ll give him something to eat.”

After creating the characters of Rachel Chance and Will Keller, one of my next decisions was the setting. I knew I wanted it to be a relatively small town in Indiana but not too small. So what about Richmond? I live here and grew up here. Hmmm.

I decided that I wanted to create a town a lot like Richmond, but not Richmond. So the mystery is set in Glen Falls, Indiana, a town on the eastern side of Indiana split by a gorge, where once tribes of Shawnee, Delaware and others counted on it for hunting. I purposely changed some significant details, but also created some scenes that are very similar to Richmond.

Spoiler alert. There may also be a connection to my book Hoosier Beginnings as it’s just possible that one of the characters lives on property that was once owned by early Whitewater Valley Settler, Richard Rue.

Back to Glen Falls. One of Rachel’s neighbors is Charley, a retired high school history teacher who is an expert on local history. He works at a historical museum located in a large building that was once a Quaker Meetinghouse. If you live in Richmond, this might sound familiar. Very familiar.

However, Charley also volunteers at a Jazz Museum. A very generous donation apparently allowed a museum to be built to honor many of the jazz greats who once traveled to Richmond to record at the Gennett Recording Studio. It’s one of those things I wish had happened – that someone had donated money to restore the old Starr piano factory and Gennett recording studio in the Gorge. So in my book? Voila. It happened! And maybe, just maybe, in a future book, there is a gala on the site of the recording studio in the gorge, but a murder interrupts the festivities and Rachel and Will once again are involved in the hunt for a killer.

I haven’t decided what other ways to rewrite history as I create the town of Glen Falls, Indiana, but it will be fun thinking about it. Perhaps some of my readers who live or lived in Richmond have some ideas?

I’m delighted to announce that I’ll have two new books coming out soon. Early in 2023 the Indiana Historical Press will be publishing Hoosier Beginnings, a historical fiction novel that includes a history of The Whitewater Valley and also some early Indiana history. I’m hoping middle school students might enjoy reading about some of the adventures during The Revolutionary War that happened in this part of the country. I also hope readers will come to a better understanding of the culture of the Shawnee and Delaware and others who passed through this area to hunt prior to the development of towns and roads. It was originally scheduled to be published in 2019, but Covid and other delays conspired to get it off schedule.

I have also finally written that mystery that I’ve been thinking about for years. It’s called The Greyt Greyhound Rescue and – wait for it – features a Greyhound as well as an amateur sleuth, Rachel Chance. This will be the first time I’ve written a book for an adult audience. It’s a cozy mystery set in a town a lot like Richmond, but called Glen Falls. I enjoyed creating the characters and hope mystery lovers will enjoy trying to figure out who committed the murder along with Rachel – and her Greyhound Abby. I am working with an editor and a publisher currently and will let readers know whether The Greyt Greyhound Rescue will be available before Christmas or after.

I’ll say more about Hoosier Beginnings later this fall when I revisit my research and work with an editing team to get it ready for publication. In this post, though, I want to say something about the mystery.

I have always loved reading mysteries and wondered how writers were able to keep me turning the pages. Part of it, of course, is building in the suspense. Putting characters in danger. Putting obstacles in their way. Giving them too little time to figure things out. But for me it still comes down to characters. I knew I had to create characters that readers would care about. Not much point in creating suspense if a reader doesn’t really care whether a character succeeds or fails. So characterization was on my mind every step along the way – first making sure I cared about my characters because if I lost interest, surely my readers would as well.

One of my biggest challenges was deciding on tone. I wanted to write a cozy mystery, so I tried to balance some light moments with some tense moments. I wanted readers to smile, maybe even laugh, in some places, but be on the edge of their seats worrying about the fate of a favorite character in other places. I’ll be anxious to find out whether I was able to strike a nice balance or not. Who knows? If I did strike a nice balance, perhaps Rachel and Abby will have more adventures in the future.

If you have been wondering, yes I did sign a contract to have my new book published, an early history of The Whitewater Valley including some Indiana history from the mid 1700’s through 1840. The pandemic caused yet another delay but the book, tentatively titled “Hoosier Beginnings”, is now set to be published in 2022. An editor has been assigned to work with me and plans are underway to add pictures and supplementary material.

Over the next several months, I’ll be updating my author page regularly, at least once a month and I’ll shoot for twice a month. Initially, I’ll be reviewing my latest draft of the book and revisiting the research I did. Later, I’ll reflect on my work with an editor.

I’m looking forward to reviewing my research about the early white settlers of The Whitewater Valley – Richard Rue, George Holman and their families. I’m also looking forward to learning even more about the Delaware and Shawnee and other nations that used this area for hunting grounds for many years. I wanted to make sure their story was part of my book as well.

I’m anxious to revisit the relationship between Richard Rue/George Holman and their captors. Richard and George were captured and lived with their captors for years before returning to their families. They had fought with George Rogers Clark before being captured. Then they spent years living with Delaware, Shawnee or Mingo and developed friendships with them. How did it happen that they could both fight members of these tribes and also be taken care of by them?

The early years of this area, what would become Indiana and Ohio, are filled with stories of interactions between the whites who relentlessly moved west and the peoples who had lived here for many years. Some of the interactions were violent. Other times, the Delaware or Shawnee would help the white settlers. What did they really feel toward each other? I’ll reflect more about how that theme is explored in my book soon.

If anyone is looking for an opportunity blending history and writing for students out of school for the summer, I will be doing a writing workshop focused on ages 10-14 on Saturday June 22 at the Levi and Catharine Coffin Interpretive Center in Fountain City. I am pasting the link below to sign up. Please feel free to share this with anyone who might be interested.

https://www.indianamuseum.org/Default.aspx?p=142288&evtid=1380140:6/22/2019

I am also happy to announce that Friends United Press is now making the new edition of Luke’s Summer Secret available as an ebook . You can visit Amazon for the Kindle edition.

In a couple of months, I’ll have an update on my new book that tells the story of some early settlers of the Whitewater Valley in the context of Indiana and U.S. history from 1760 through 1830. It will be coming out in 2020.

I have signed a contract with The Indiana Historical Society to publish my book about two of the early settlers of The Whitewater Valley, Richard Rue and George Holman. The picture above is the house that Richard Rue built after The War of 1812 that is still standing just south of Richmond.  The book is due to be published in 2020.

Although that seems to be a long time to wait, I have a couple of other writing projects going and will revisit my manuscript for final revisions during 2019. It has been a lot of fun to learn about some historical figures from the 1770’s through 1833 and create some characters to interact with them.

I was initially drawn to the story of Richard Rue and George Holman when I read about their escape from Shawnee warriors after almost being burned at the stake. They fought with George Rogers Clark in the Midwest during The Revolutionary War and I researched some of the early battles that took place in what is now southern Indiana and Illinois. Rue and Holman both lived in captivity with Shawnee and Mingo families before finding their way back to Kentucky and then in 1805 to The Whitewater Valley just south of what is now Richmond, Indiana. I became fascinated by the relationship they had with their Shawnee and Mingo families during my research.

I knew I was finally ready to write this book when I sensed some characters tapping me on the shoulder saying, “We’re ready. Let’s tell this story.” Really. I’m not kidding. That is what I wait for. And my research drives that. As I read about how the Shawnee were driven out of Ohio and Indiana, I wondered what my characters would think about that. How would they react to hearing others talk about it. As I read about the clash or cultures in this area – pacifist Quakers living close to settlers who had been Indian fighters but also some from Kentucky who had both fought Indians and seen Shawnee as an extended family – I wondered what would happen if they’re all together in one place.

I’ll write more about Hoosier Beginnings periodically before its publication in 2020. I have a couple of other writing projects  that I hope to get started on and I’ll write updates on those during 2019.

I traveled to Vincennes, Indiana in order to walk where some of the characters from my new historical fiction novel walked. Richard Rue and George Holman, early white settlers of The Whitewater Valley locally but also George Rogers Clark, Tecumseh, and William Henry Harrison. I visited the Harrison home and looked out of the second story of the house at Grouseland at the lawn between the house and the Wabash River where Harrison and Tecumseh nearly came to blows. I also visited the site of Fort Sackville, now part of a National Park site. I walked along the river and imagined what it might have been like for my characters to approach the French settlers in Vincennes and then take on the British troops at Fort Sackville.

I will write more about my new book as I go through the editing process with the Indiana Historical Society.

I am excited about the opportunity to do an author book tour at the Levi and Catharine Coffin House on Saturday July 21. I’ll be going along on the tour and talking some of the scenes from Luke’s Summer Secret as we tour the house. I’ll also be adding some thoughts about the importance of this site for our local and national history. I’ve been reading a book entitled Bound for Canaan which suggests that The Underground Railroad was the beginning of the Civil Rights movement in the U.S. It has been an interesting read and I’ll share some thoughts about that as well.

At the end of the tour, I’ll be doing a book talk and book signing. Two tours are scheduled, one in the morning and one in the afternoon. I am pasting the link below in case anyone would like to sign up.

If you can’t make it but would like an autographed copy of my book, you can contact me through my website randallwisehart.com and I’ll sign a book and get it to you.

https://www.eventbrite.com/e/meet-the-author-tour-and-talk-with-randall-wisehart-tickets-46991485799