M. S. Spencer is in the spotlight!
Join me in welcoming her to my blog for an interview. Then read my review of her book, TRIPTYCH.
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Welcome! Welcome! Let’s get started, shall we?
When we first met, I asked you how you came up with the title for Triptych. We had a good conversation. I know you can’t say much without spoiling the story. Could you tell us a little and did the title come first or the story?
Certainly, but first, let me thank you for having me here today. It’s always such fun to talk about oneself…J
I came up with the plotline for Triptych after reading about the legend of the Three Sisters—a set of three rocky islets in the middle of the Potomac River in Washington, DC. The story goes that one of three Indian sisters fell in love with a white settler. When her father forbade the match, she decided to swim across the river to be with her lover. Her sisters followed her, hoping to bring her back, but a huge storm sprang up and all three were drowned. The legend is that the sisters forever guard that bend of the Potomac and will kill any man who tries to cross. I thought a story that entwined the Indian legend with that of three human sisters living high above the rocks would be very romantic. Here’s a summary:
Both Miranda Cabot and her sister Honor prefer their solitude to romance, Miranda having watched her husband die in flames on the Potomac River rocks called the Three Sisters. Not so their younger sister, Sybil, who invites a mysterious Frenchman calling himself the Chevalier du bon Arnaque to stay with them in their mansion overlooking the deadly rocks.
Misgivings about the stranger’s intentions cause Miranda and Honor to ask their neighbors Dieter Heiliger and his grandson Corey to chaperone. Three beautiful, strong-willed women living in a house with three handsome, virile men leads inevitably to an intricate web of jealousy, sex, and intrigue. Add in long-lost master artworks, stolen prototypes and a resident genius and you have a recipe for romance. Who will end up with whom, and will the Three Sisters take another life as the legend calls for?
As to the title, I spent many a wakeful night trying to come up with it. I pored over the thesaurus entries for “three” and “tri.” I checked song titles and quotation books. Passing pedestrians would stare at me as I mumbled “triangle?—nope, clichéd—trimester? Tribbles?” Desperate, I sought solace in dessert. I swear on my mother’s Bible the title Triptych simply dropped into my lap along with the chunk of blueberry pie which I don’t think I’ll ever get out of my white skirt. (Note: a triptych is a work of art in three panels hinged together—hence three separate but interconnected pictures.)
You’ve written many books and each one is quite different. Where do your ideas come from?
The settings are all favorite places of mine: Old Town Alexandria (Virginia), Chincoteague Island, the Gulf Coast of Florida, Paris. The setting often spurs the plot—in Mai Tais and Mayhem, the aquarium at the famous Mote Marine Labs in Sarasota simply cried out for a floating corpse. It certainly wasn’t that I wanted an excuse to loll around on the beach with an umbrella’d drink and watch for dolphins. Some stories also contain autobiographical snippets woven into the fiction (especially my latest, Lapses of Memory).
What is your favorite part of your writing process?
Fifth revision. No, fourth. When the bulk of the writing is done and I can indulge in adding delicate touches and embellishments, enriching the action.
Do you listen to music when you are writing, or is there a routine you have for beginning a new book?
No, I can’t have any noise at all when I write. Even a car passing with radio going full blast halts the process. I start a new book with the last line and then work backward (well, more sideways, like a drunken turtle) from there. The first three chapters are sheer hell, but after that I more or less coast between toll booths (i.e., the intermittent points at which I wonder just where I’m going with this).
What do you do to relax and unwind?
Now that I’m in Florida, I walk to the beach and stare out at the water, giving thanks for the ability to do so. Then I go back home and make a drink (not a Mai Tai, sigh) and watch the news.
Are you working on something now?
Ooh, I’m glad you asked. I’m almost finished the penultimate revision to The Mark of Love and Death (tentative title) set in Old Town Alexandria. Here’s the blurb:
Her first day as docent in the George Washington Masonic Memorial, Claire Wilding finds a distinctly non-Masonic item: a dead body. As she deals with a smitten police detective, a handsome Senator, black ops agents, and two ruthless mothers, she learns more than she ever expected to about jewels and pennies, irregular Masonic lodges, and our first President’s family secrets.
I’ve also started a story called The Wishing Tree, set in Chincoteague. It involves visiting NASA scientists, spies, and mistaken identity. And two romances. So far.
Five Fun Short Questions!
Favorite sweets?
I don’t have much of a sweet tooth (it disappeared the year I discovered beer), but now and then I fancy something chocolate—bittersweet of course, maybe with sea salt and caramel. Or plain old whipped cream!
A vegetable you can’t stand?
Okra. It’s that gooey, stringy stuff that oozes out of it—yuck. Other than that I love pretty much any vegetable, luckily for me since my family includes two vegetarians and a vegan. We always had a garden and planted, besides the usual suspects, things like artichokes (too big), corn (also too big), sorrel, lots and lots of herbs, golden beets, etc. Now my son establishes urban gardens and teaches sustainable agriculture. Where did I go wrong?
Wine or beer?
Do I have to choose? I drink a lot more wine (buttery French burgundy when I can get someone to pay for it) because it’s low-carb but I do love a nice brown or red ale.
Slow blooming romance or wham I’m in love?
Slow—I like the heroine to discover that she’s in love after she’s gotten to know her hero.
Sexiest man ever?
Sean Connery. No question. Sexiest bad boy: Robert Downey, Jr.
Thanks again for having me Laura. I hope you read and enjoy all my books—and tell your friends!
Thank you for taking time away from your beach walk to answer my questions. I had a few chuckles from some of your answers. I wouldn’t mind sitting down and shooting the breeze with you, enjoying one of those yummy Mai Tais. Maybe we’ll spot Sean or Robert!
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M.S. Spencer
Although M. S. Spencer has lived in Chicago, Boston, New York, France, Morocco, Turkey, Egypt, and England, the last 30 years have been spent mostly in Washington, D.C. as a librarian, Congressional staff assistant, speechwriter, editor, birdwatcher, kayaker, policy wonk, non-profit director and “domestic engineer”, aka parent. Once she escaped academia, she worked for the U.S. Senate, the U.S. Department of the Interior, in several library systems, both public and academic, and at the Torpedo Factory Art Center. She holds a BA from Vassar College, a Diploma in Arabic Studies from the American University in Cairo, and Masters in Anthropology and in Library Science from the University of Chicago. She divides her time between Maine and Florida. All of this tends to insinuate itself into her works.
Writing as M. S. Spencer, she has published seven best-selling contemporary romantic suspense novels, Lost in His Arms and Lost and Found from Red Rose Publishing, as well as Losers Keepers, Triptych, Artful Dodging: the Torpedo Factory Murders,Mai Tais & Mayhem: Murder at Mote Marine (a Sarasota romance), and Lapses of Memory from Secret Cravings Publishing. All but Lost & Found are available in print-on-demand.
I’d love to hear from readers. Click on MY BOOKS on my blog for full information on each of my books:
Goodreads: http://www.goodreads.com/msspencer
Blog: http://msspencertalespinner.blogspot.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/msspencertalespinner
Twitter: www.twitter.com/msspencerauthor
Pinterest: http://pinterest.com/msspencerauthor/
Amazon Author Page: http://www.amazon.com/M.S.-Spencer/e/B002ZOEUC8/
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My Review
Funny, flirty, and downright sizzling in a few places.
Triptych is a tale of three sisters. They all live together in a mansion on the bank of the Potomac River.
Sybil is the youngest, and keeps her older sisters on their toes with her propensity for flitting around willy nilly and lifting her skirts.
Honor is the oldest and more staid of the three, kind of like their fairy godmother, tempering their rash decisions.
Miranda is the middle child and seems to be the most grounded. She’s funny, self-confident and adventurous.
When Sybil takes an off the cuff comment seriously and goes to Craig’s List to find an aristocrat for a companion, the other sisters, after getting over the shock of someone actually answering the ad, decide to let the mysterious Luc Rever, Chevalier du Bon Aranaque, come and stay for a week. Who knows, maybe it’ll work and she’ll land her man.
Just as a precaution, they invite a family friend, Dieter, and his visiting grandson, Corey, to stay at the house while the stranger is visiting.
Pretty soon this quaint life on the river is thrown topsy-turvy as the sisters are drawn into the middle of an art theft.
In the beginning, the story flows smoothly along the shores of the Potomac, but as you read on, it picks up pace, the current rushes around the configuration of the three rocks called The Three Sisters, and as you get caught up in the chase, you end up in the rapids, rushing to the conclusion.
Triptych may be categorized as erotic, but I found more developed romance than just beyond the bedroom door scenes.
It was fun watching these sisters interact and live together. I sometimes felt like I was in another time. A step back to when life was gentler, more family oriented.
Then, situations jolt me back to the present as characters step forward and take charge.
Filled with pictorial surroundings and down to earth characters, Triptych is a grand adventure with a sensual bouquet of women looking for love.
I have three older sisters and we are all so different. Triptych took me back to when we all lived under one roof. Wow, what wonderful, outrageous fun we had. We may have gotten on each others nerves now and then, but in a pinch we were a united front, a Triptych plus one!
5 Stars
Now I have to decide which of M. S. Spencer’s books to read next!
Want to help me decide?
Go HERE to see her list of books and pop back here to let me know which one you picked!
Thanks so much for visiting fuonlyknew!
