Today I'm thrilled to welcome a dear friend and fellow author, Karen C. Whalen. Karen is offering to gift one lucky person with an ebook copy of Toes on the Dash. Read through to see how to enter.

Writers are told to write what they know.

I’ve stopped reading books that had the facts wrong. If I can’t trust what is easily verifiable, how can I trust anything else the writer is telling me? But if writers only wrote what they knew, their books would lack the creative and unique story readers are looking for to transport them to another place or time. Would any science fiction or fantasy be written? How about historical fiction? Murder mysteries?

The answer, of course, is not writing only about things you have experienced first-hand. It’s about writing from a place of knowledge. This is the ticket: write about what you’ve come to know. Read, research, and imagine.

Because I write about murder, I’ve attended countless forensic classes and the citizen’s police academy to learn about police procedure and evidence. I’ve made friends with police investigators and pose questions to them regularly. Thank goodness my genre is not science fiction, but kudos to all those writers, like best-selling author Andy Weir, who studied orbital mechanics, astronomy, and the history of spaceflight before writing The Martian.

In my most recent book, Toes on the Dash, Delaney Morran receives an unexpected inheritance—the keys to a tow truck—from a dad she’s never known. Despite the fact she hasn’t changed a tire in all of her twenty-eight years, she decides to give the rough and dangerous business a chance. And when her jerk of an ex-boyfriend is found dead in the trunk of a car she’s towed and her toe prints are discovered on the dash of said car, Delaney becomes the prime murder suspect.

What I knew about the tow business was very little. Before I began to write novels, I worked as a paralegal at a law firm that represented tow truck operators. These car haulers are an under-appreciated, crazy breed, with interesting stories to tell. At the time all the tow truck drivers represented by the firm were men. This is the part I knew about.

What if a woman was in charge? What if the woman was young, trying to make her business a success in a man's world? What if she wore high heels to set herself apart? This is the part where I used my imagination.

As for the research, I watched hours of YouTube videos made by tow truck operators. I learned there are many different types of tow trucks, not just the type with the big hook on the back. I gained knowledge of the lingo and decided upon the type of tow truck my protagonist would drive. I contacted the truck manufacturer for additional details. Did my truck have to have a winch? No. How heavy is some of the equipment? Heavy. I spoke with local tow truck companies, and was disappointed none let me ride along. They said for liability reasons, but I think that was just their crazy talking. I did not let that deter me! I read every book on the tow truck business I could find. I joined towing groups on social media and that’s where the wealth of information exploded. There I met a couple of female tow truck drivers who were excited about my story and provided essential information.

It took me a couple of years to write about tow truck drivers from a place of knowledge, but you may be able to do your research in less time.

Learn what you don’t know and write about that.

Leave a comment, and we'll draw randomly for a lucky winner of her spotlight book.

Excerpt:

 I kicked the black tires with my pointy-toed, high- heeled shoes. Isn’t that what you did when you bought a car? Only I wasn’t buying, I was inheriting. And it wasn’t a car, it was a tow truck. 

A heavyset man, pushing fifty or sixty, stepped out of an open auto bay and strode over. “Hello, there.” His deep, striking voice was at odds with his mechanic’s overalls and dirty work boots. His eyes swerved down to my heels. “Ya’ here for the truck?” 

“I am.” Me, all of five-foot-two, weighing in at 110 pounds, wearing my skinny jeans and slingback stilettos. The man probably thought I couldn’t handle such a big rig. He was probably right. My freckled face was certain to have turned crimson to match the single red braid down my back. 

I offered my hand. “I’m Delaney Morran.” 

“Byron Oberly.” He returned a hard handclasp, his fingers rough and cracked with dark oil stains. “So, you’re Del’s girl. When the lawyer told me you were comin’ over, that’s the first I heard a’ you. Your dad didn’t say anything to me ’bout a daughter, but I can see the resemblance. Sorry for your loss.” 

I stared hard at the truck. The rig was faded white with “Del’s Towing” painted in navy blue on the door. It appeared fairly new and only had a few scratches. 

“Thanks.” My chest felt tight, but I gave the man in overalls what I hoped was a confident smile.

About Karen:

Karen C. Whalen is the author of two mystery series for The Wild Rose Press: the Dinner Club Mysteries featuring Jane Marsh, an empty nester who hosts a gourmet dinner club, and the Tow Truck Mysteries starring Delaney Moran, a super feminine shoe-a-holic who drives a tow truck. Both are cozy mysteries about strong friendships and family ties set in Colorado. The first book in the Dinner Club series tied for First Place in the Suspense Novel category of the 2017 IDA Contest sponsored by Oklahoma Romance Writers of America. She worked for many years as a paralegal at a law firm in Denver, Colorado and was a columnist and regular contributor to The National Paralegal Reporter magazine. She loves to host dinner clubs, entertain friends, ride bicycles, hike in the mountains, and read cozy murder mysteries. 

Find me online:

http://karencwhalen.com

https://www.facebook.com/whalencozyauthor (author page)

https://www.facebook.com/whalenkarenc  (personal page)

https://twitter.com/whalenkc

https://www.instagram.com/whalenkarenc