FROM WHENCE COMETH YOUR IDEAS? by Carl Brookins
FROM WHENCE COMETH YOUR IDEAS?
A common question, I wager every
writer of thriller, cozy, and mystery novels fields at one time or other. I
have and I do, so I thought I would answer it this time by addressing a single
novel, one of my recent episodes in my Sean NMI Sean detective series.
The novel is titled “The Case of
the Purloined Painting.” All Sean's novels are “The Case of...” It's my small
way of saluting a famous and very successful writer of mystery detective
stories from a previous era, a man named Earle Stanley Gardner.
A while ago I read a story in the
local paper about a local art museum curartor and director who had had an
interesting job in the army during World War II. He and a group of other art
directors from around the country became
increasingly worried about the loss of art and culture of Europe. This was in
the mid 1940's, as the Allies stepped up the bombing and prepared to invade
Fortress Europe as it was called. The Allies were at war with Nazi powers,
Germany and Italy, if you remember your history classes.
These arts and cultural directors
went to President Roosevelt and
persuaded him that the Allied forces of
the United States and Britain needed some direction in helping to avoid
the destruction of important historical sites in Europe, cathedrals and large
statuary that couldn't be moved. This small group of older men joined the US
Army and went off to fight a very special war. The successes of the Monuments
Men, as they became known, resulted in a
book, a movie and a foundation dedicated to restoring stolen and damaged art
after the war.
Fast forward a few years and I
read with dismay a story in local papers that American military units stood
around in the city streets while local
thieves robbed several Bagdhad museums of fragile and irreplaceable artifacts
because, “they had no orders to protect the collections.” More people need to
read history, I thought.
I decided there might be a
mystery in those events, so I had a mythical soldier steal a painting from a
destroyed home in Poland at the end of
WWII. Back home the soldier used the painting to create a manufacturing business.
Then he decided to try to return the painting
to its real owner and that
triggers international criminals who know the real owner is still alive and
holdingvastly incriminating information about other crimes. That leads to
murder, more mystery and danger and
involves my short detective here in Minneapolis. The original theft of the
painting is only the initial crime and has little directly to do with the rest
of the story.
Brief bio and links for Carl Brookins:
Before he became a mystery writer and
reviewer, Carl Brookins was a counselor and faculty member at Metropolitan
State University in Saint Paul, Minnesota. Brookins and his wife are avid
recreational sailors. He is a member of Mystery Writers of America, Sisters in
Crime, and Private Eye Writers of America. He can frequently be found touring
bookstores and libraries with his companions-in-crime, The Minnesota Crime
Wave.
He writes the sailing adventure series featuring Michael Tanner and Mary Whitney. The third novel is Old Silver. His new private investigator series features Sean NMI Sean, a short P.I. The first is titled The Case of the Greedy Lawyers. Brookins received a liberal arts degree from the University of Minnesota and studied for a MA in Communications at Michigan State University.
He writes the sailing adventure series featuring Michael Tanner and Mary Whitney. The third novel is Old Silver. His new private investigator series features Sean NMI Sean, a short P.I. The first is titled The Case of the Greedy Lawyers. Brookins received a liberal arts degree from the University of Minnesota and studied for a MA in Communications at Michigan State University.
@carlbrookins
Buy
links:
The Case of the
Yellow Diamond
http://www.amazon.com/Case-Yellow-Diamond-Sean-Mystery/dp/0878398163/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1448218939&sr=8-1&keywords=the+case+of+the+yellow+diamond
Come and enjoy a time of conversation with author Carl
Brookins as he talks about translating his sailing adventures to fiction and
creating fictional characters that feel like old friends. Brookins is a member of Mystery Writers of America,
Sisters in Crime, and Private Eye Writers of America. He can frequently be
found touring bookstores and libraries with his companions-in-crime, The
Minnesota Crime Wave.
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