Repeat Offender: F.T. Bradley

Internal Affairs has been doing some investigations and found out we have to call one of our own authors (who works for this very site!) back in for questioning. Though we usually let our suspects go with a warning, we found this author has plenty to answer for. Hopefully, we'll get some clues about how authors write more than one mystery while keeping the stories fresh and interesting.

To answer our questions, we're bringing in Repeat Offender F.T. Bradley, author of Double Vision (Harper Children's). Along with writing, F.T. Bradley works on Sleuths, Spies and Alibis. You can read more about her in our About Us section. If you'd like to be caught up on her last interrogation (or read it all over again), you can find it right here.



Before we bring her in, you can read about her new book here:

 Washington, DC. Where spies are everywhere.

Lincoln Baker is just a regular kid. Okay, so he had this one undercover mission in Paris and, sure, he might have saved the world, but that's ancient history. He's done being a junior secret agent for Pandora.

The trouble is, Pandora isn't done with him. They've received a threat on the president's life from an agent named Dagger. Now they want Linc to go to Washington, DC, to protect the first daughter, Amy. As if that's not enough, George Washington's legendary coat, rumored to make its wearer invincible, is missing. Pandora needs to find it before Dagger does. Unfortunately for Linc, his by-the-book agent nemesis, Ben Green, is already on the case.

With Amy's help, Linc will have to dig deep into the history of America's first spies to beat Ben at his own game and stop Dagger before it's too late.

Is your second mystery part of a series or is it a standalone?

Double Vision: Code Name 711 is the second book in my MG adventure series featuring Linc Baker. This book was a blast to write--largely because Linc is such a fun character, but also because it allowed me to get lost a bit in my research on Washington, D.C. and George Washington. 

In each Double Vision book, Linc has to find the double of a famous artifact, only the double has mysterious powers. This double of George Washington's coat makes its wearer invisible... Cool, right?

What did you find most challenging about writing this novel? How did you overcome this challenge?

At first, I wasn't too inspired when I started researching George Washington. No disrespect to our first president, but he looks a little serious on the dollar bill... So that was challenging.

But then I started researching Washington, and found out he was a spy in the Culper Ring, a group of deep cover spies during the Revolutionary War. George Washington was code named 711. Once I had that bit of information, I was completely inspired. The research drove the story, honestly.

What did you find easiest about writing this novel?

Linc really makes the writing a breeze--his funny voice, crazy antics, and great heart are the best part of the Double Vision series. He may be a troublemaker, but he always does the right thing. Letting him run with the story during the first draft is always the best (and easiest) part.

Did you approach this novel differently having already written and published one mystery? Or did you use more or less the same approach?

Having established my main characters made it easier. I just had to stay true to Linc, Ben, Henry and the agents of Pandora (the top-secret organization tasked with retrieving the dangerous artifacts). The most challenging part of writing a series is making sure that the second, third, etc. books also work if you haven't read the first, but not boring your devoted fans with too much explanation. 

My process otherwise was pretty similar: I start with an interesting location, historical figure and artifact, and plot an exciting thriller from there. And then I add some cool gadgets--every spy needs those...

What are you most proud of in this book?

Finding that nugget of history, that George Washington gave orders to the Culper Ring, allowed me to bring history to life. I was able to show that just like Washington, Linc has a very strong moral compass: he does what he knows is right, even when the outcome isn't certain. That takes guts and character. 

I'm most proud of making George Washington and his choices and bravery relevant today. I hope the book connects with readers, and that it might make its way into a classroom or two. George Washington is cool.

Okay, F.T. It looks like we're going to have to let you go again... but if we catch you writing another mystery novel we're going to have to haul you in for further questioning!

Want to win a fabulous DOUBLE prize? Fleur's publisher is giving away a copy of DOUBLE VISION and the sequel CODE NAME 711. Click on the Rafflecopter thingie to enter! a Rafflecopter giveaway

Boy or Girl Book? Word from the street...

When I started writing the Double Vision series, the goal was clear: these were going to be books for boys. The middle-grade category was (and arguably still is, maybe) a little skinny on boy-friendly reading material, so I was excited to get writing. Linc, the main character, is a cool dude who boys would love.

Fast-forward to launch time. I couldn't wait to start telling everyone and their mother about the book. "It's a funny, fast-paced book for reluctant boy readers," I would proudly proclaim. I had been waiting for this day foreeeever. I knew my marketing pitch, thank you very much.

Then a funny thing happened. At signings, and when talking to kids or getting fan email (coolest thing ever), I realized that Linc has as many girl fans as boy fans. Kids liked how funny the book is, and girls couldn't care less what marketing plan was behind it. They just like the book.

And when I looked at our bookshelf at home, where my tween daughters stack their reading material, I saw this gender indifference reflected. Sure, we have the Dork Diaries and other pink-cover books. But right next to it? Captain Underpants, Wimpy Kid.

Now, my marketing pitch wasn't entirely off--and the talented folk at Harper, my publisher, got it right too. When I sit at the signing table at the bookstore, the cover always makes boys come over to check it out. And girls, too. So Double Vision is a boy book. And a girl book too.

Today, when I meet parents, teachers, librarians and kids at events, I tell them "It's a funny, fast-paced book." Readers are readers, right?

What do you think, Sleuths? Is this boy/girl book business just nonsense?

Are boys just a tougher audience?

COVER REVEAL: Double Vision: Code Name 711

As a debut author, you wait so long for that first book to come out. And then when it finally does, you're busy doing signings, promoting online, going to book festivals, etc. So it's strange to think of the second book's release...

But I'm so excited about Double Vision: Code Name 711 (Harper Children's) , the second book in Linc Baker's mystery/thriller adventure series! And I'm even more excited to reveal the cool cover here...

Drumroll...

Doesn't it look cool? Here's the jacket description:

A funny action-packed spy adventure, perfect for fans of James Bond, Alex Rider, and The 39 Clues.

The supersecret government organization Pandora wants Linc to go to Washington, D.C., to protect the first daughter and find George Washington's legendary coat, rumored to make its wearer invincible. Pandora needs to find it before a deadly CIA mole uses it in a plot against the president.

Unfortunately for Linc, his look-alike agent nemesis, Ben Green, is already on the case and making his life difficult. With the first daughter's help, Linc will have to dig deep into the history of America's first spies--the Culper Ring--to beat Ben at his own game and stop the mole before it's too late.

Code Name 711 features an unforgettable funny voice, high-stakes espionage, and real American spy history dating back to the Revolutionary War.

Linc's second adventure hits the shelves on October 15, so you'll have to wait a little while to read it. But how exciting is this cool cover, right?

F.T. Bradley is the author of Double Vision (Harper Children's, Oct. 2012), the first in the middle-grade adventure series featuring Lincoln Baker and Benjamin Green. Her husband's Air Force career has F.T. and their two daughters moving all around the world, but for the moment the family lives on the Mississippi Gulf Coast. 

To find out more about F.T and the Double Vision series, visit www.ftbradley.com, www.doublevisionbooks.com; or find F.T. Bradley on Twitter @FTBradleyAuthor.

Mysteries Among Us, Or Where Ideas Come From

One of the coolest things about being a debut middle-grade author has to be getting fan mail. Or maybe it's not fan mail exactly--more like kids wanting some info so they can do a book report on Double Vision. Still, I love hearing from readers. I've had a handful of these emails now, and one question is in there every time:

Where do you get your ideas?

I've heard other, more seasoned authors complain about this being a lame question, but I still think it's a good one. This may be because I'm still a relative newbie, I don't know. For the Double Vision series, I started with the idea of a regular kid being recruited as a spy (who hasn't dreamed of that, right?); as the series goes on, I dig through history and biographies for inspiration. It's like mining for nuggets of juicy information--and you never know what will spark your imagination until you find it.

Did you know, for instance, that Amelia Earhart learned to play the banjo? And that Thomas Jefferson and John Adams both died on the same day, July 4th 1826, the 50th anniversary of Independence Day? Those kind of details may seem like boring history to anyone else, but to me, they're just dying to be in a story.

Since I write middle-grade, I can't really use much true crime (too grim), but I've heard authors who write for adults say that get their ideas by reading newspapers. There are lots of mysteries among us, dying to be spun into a good yarn.

How about you, fellow writers? Where do your ideas come from?

What's Your Favorite Debut Novel?

We have a lot of exciting news here at Sleuths, Spies and Alibis this month. Did you hear about Laura Ellen's BLIND SPOT that launched this week? You can win a signed copy--pretty awesome, huh?

Since I have a debut novel out myself this month, I've been thinking a lot about first novels. The commitment it takes to get to that launch date, and how exciting it all is. Added benefit to being a debut? I get to make friends with fellow debuts, and discover their great novels. Like my fellow detectives' books right here.

I've also visited my library to take a look at now-famous authors' debuts. Like A is for Alibi by Sue Grafton. Patterson's early novels. Agatha Christie's, Michael Connelly's. They often have a freshness, sometimes a little wobbly like a toddler, but exciting and new.

How about you, fellow Sleuths? Any favorite debuts, new or old?

Interrogation Room #21: F.T. Bradley, author of DOUBLE VISION

DOUBLE VISION from fellow sleuth F.T. Bradley is out in stores today! Internal Affairs has hauled her in for a few questions, but we're finding it hard to pin her down. We do know that DOUBLE VISION is getting rave reviews. Jack D. Ferraiolo, Edgar Award nominated author of THE BIG SPLASH, says, “Lincoln Baker is an awesome main character: savvy, funny, and like a young James Bond, he can’t resist the chance to start some trouble. Give him a mystery to solve, stick him in Paris, arm him with gadgets, and watch stuff go boom.” And Horn Book Magazine calls it, “A great voice, with a good heart, some self-awareness, and a funny style.” We double agree.

Enter to WIN A SIGNED COPY OF Double Vision below this Interrogation Room session!

A bit about F.T. Bradley:

F. T. Bradley is originally from the Netherlands and still likes to travel, like Linc, whenever she gets a chance. Her husband's Air Force career has F. T. and their two daughters moving all around the world, but for the moment the family lives on the Mississippi Gulf Coast. This is the first book in her new series about Lincoln Baker and Ben Green. 

A bit about DOUBLE VISION:

One's a Secret Agent, One's Not.

Twelve-year-old Linc is a trouble-maker with a dilemma. His antics on a recent school field trip went way overboard, landing his already poor family with a serious lawsuit. So when two secret agents show up at his house, Linc is eager to take them up on their offer to make the lawsuit disappear. They just need one tiny favor.

Turns out Linc looks exactly like one of their top kid agents—an agent who's vanished during a vitally important mission. But no debriefing can prepare Linc for how dangerous the mission really is. It's too bad he isn't a black belt, a math genius, or a distance runner like his agent double. He'll need all those skills and more if he hopes to make it out of this mission alive. . . .

Confess please. You sold this book before it was fully written, didn’t you? How did this story idea come about and what was your path to publication?

I had written several YA novels that everyone seemed to like, but no one wanted to publish… After I sent my now-agent a query, he suggested I write middle-grade. So we sort of came up with it all together. Long story short, we worked on the proposal for what is now the Double Vision series, and my nice editor at Harper Children’s liked it enough to buy it.

Then we still revised a lot of the concept and the pages, and I wrote the rest. Throughout the process, Linc (my main character) stayed the same, though. It’s a strange path to publication for a fiction writer, but there you have it.

Congratulations! So, most of DOUBLE VISION is set in Paris. Our sources have told us you have moved a lot. Have you ever lived in Paris? Or did you send spies to do your research? …or perhaps you gleaned information through OTHER means? 

I wish I’d lived in Paris, that would’ve been sweet… And no spies, alas, unless you count Google. I had to do a lot of research on the city, and all the places Linc visits. Don’t tell anyone, but I used the library a lot…

Montmartre, Paris, France

Speaking of Paris, I loved learning that Leonardo Da Vinci would go to Montmartre to buy birds to set them free. What is your favorite Leonardo Da Vinci tidbit of information? 

That was one bit of info I loved too. Apparently Leonardo da Vinci was a vegetarian. And he painted two versions of the Virgin on the Rocks painting—one hangs at the Louvre in Paris, and one is in London.

For my kid readers, I thought it was important that da Vinci wasn’t always seen as the genius we view him as today. The man didn’t finish a lot of projects he started. I think we can all relate to that a little bit…

I love that--makes me feel a little better about some of my works-in-progress! One character that doesn't seem to leave things unfinished is Linc’s friend Henry. Henry is Linc’s “gadget guy,” an inventor of sorts who designs tools and technology to help Linc out. How did you come up with all the ideas for the gadgets? What’s one gadget you wish Henry could invent for you? 

I tried to think of something that would be helpful to get you out of a jam, and then I’d have Henry work his magic to create a gadget to suit the scenario. Henry is one of my favorite characters, so that part of the story practically writes itself.

I wish I could have a device that stops time—it seems I never have enough of it…

So...our investigations have turned up that you are a self-proclaimed reluctant reader and that you wrote DOUBLE VISION with reluctant readers particularly in mind. How are reluctant readers different than regular readers? And, as a writer, what did you pay attention to in order to address this?

I think we’re all a little bit reluctant in our reading: we skip lengthy narrative passages, and avoid books that don’t strike our fancy… I’m very guilty of this. As a writer, I use a lot of dialogue and action. It’s what I would like to read—and you can still have meaningful moments and depth.

To get on my soapbox for a second… There are kids that wouldn’t pick up a book at all unless you made them—part of the problem is that assigned reading is just not their speed. We need more fast-paced mysteries and thrillers, adventure stories that keep you turning the pages. I worry that the middle-grade department doesn’t reflect what we like to read when we grow up (like mysteries/thrillers), and I hope that Double Vision is a book that connects with kid readers.

If we lose readers, it’s at the middle-grade level.

Ouch! Someone just kicked me off my soapbox…

DOUBLE VISION is the first book in a series. How much did you have to plan out what happens in subsequent books as you wrote the first book?

Because of the way the book sold (as a partial), we made most of it up as we went. I think the double artifact element was established early on, and the characters were already in place—that’s the hard part. The series now can go anywhere I want to drop Linc… It’s fun.

More importantly, I have young readers in my house who need to know: when is the next book is coming out—and will it involve more farmyard mishaps?

No farmyard mishaps—I think Linc is happy to leave the chickens behind this time around.

For book two, I’ll reveal that we go deep into the spy world of Washington D.C. Oh, and Linc is still getting himself into plenty of trouble. It’s out sometime in 2013…

And finally, DOUBLE VISION is packed full of codes and ciphers. First, this investigator has been dying to know: what IS the difference, exactly, between a code and a cipher? And, second, do you have any parting code/cipher messages for your readers?

I had to look that one up, I’ll admit, but I think a cipher is a coded message, where a code can just be numbers and letters. If that makes sense *scratches head*.

On a related note: I have a bunch of links on the Double Vision books website (www.doublevisionbooks.com) to the NSA, CIA and International Spy Museum with code-breaking games, and lots of kid-friendly secret agent fun. You know, for the kids (or adults, if you’re like me).

A parting code… Here’s a book code I came up with. You’ll have to use Double Vision to decode it:

24-2-1

31-4-8

57-2-4

70-4-4

150-27-5

187-8-1

Uh-oh. Readers, we need your help. Please check out the links below for more on F.T. Bradley and to find out where you can get a copy of  DOUBLE VISION to help us crack this code!

Website: www.doublevisionbooks.com

Twitter: @FTBradleyAuthor

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Upcoming Fall Mysteries for Kids and Teens

We're kicking off a little change in our blogging here at Sleuths, Spies, and Alibis! We're going to loosen things up a bit and instead of blogging to a theme or feature, we're simply going to take turns blogging about what makes our little mystery-loving hearts sing. (Don't worry, we'll still hauling plenty of authors in to our interrogation room, too.)

So, I'm up first in this new schedule and what's on my mind is back to school--I headed back to work at my elementary school library last week. All summer, I've been building a book order, but now I get to focus all the books coming out this fall (not to mention my OWN book coming out this fall--eep!). As I build my order, here are some of the mysteries I can't wait to read!

My 13-year-old and I love the Hunchback Assignments series from Arthur Slade. So excited to read Modo's final adventure.

Agatha Christie's And Then There Were None is one of my all-time favorite mysteries. This sounds like it's a retelling of it--with teens in a modern day setting.

Secrets? Shakespeare? Graves? Kids driving a car on the cover? I'm in.

I love the Red Blazer Girls. Now, they are investigating a secret message in an antique fountain pen!

This is the sequel to The Emerald Atlas, which I'm reading right now. If EA holds up, I'll definitely be looking for this one this fall.

Two sixth graders solve an eighty-year-old mystery at their school--told through notes and lists? Yes, please.

Another sequel, another school setting. This is the follow up to The Big Splash, a middle-school riff on the noir genre, which I loved.

And of course, I can't wait to read fellow detectives' books:

 (October 16!)

(October 23!)

My list has a little bit of a middle grade focus because that's what I write and teach, but if you want to see a more complete list of upcoming mysteries for kids and teens, check out this Pinterest board: http://pinterest.com/whbeck/fall-2012-mysteries-for-kids-and-teens/.

How about you? What mysteries are you looking forward to reading this fall?

____________________

W.H. Beck is school librarian and author of the forthcoming middle grade mystery, Malcolm at Midnight. (She is also way excited about its fall debut, but it seemed self-serving to list it as one of her top books for this post. Plus, she's already read it.)

Pondering The Fun of Research And Icebergs

Summers are pretty hot and miserable here in Mississippi, so I've resigned myself with staying indoors, and decluttering the house. As I was cleaning out my office, I was amazed by how much of my stuff is related to research for various book projects. Dozens of notebooks, sticky notes, printouts of internet research--all ideas waiting to be used in a story.

I love research. I love the hunt for those tiny bits of obscure information that make the story come to life.

My current series Double Vision is all about the hunt for artifacts that have dangerous powers; the first book features a famous Leonardo da Vinci painting, which meant I got to dig deep into the man's life history. Double Vision is set in Paris, so I had to map his route, and refresh my memory with Parisian photos off the internet and travel guides, to get the details right.

Something I realized as I cleaned up all that paperwork is how little information I actually end up using in the book. Da Vinci is a fascinating guy, but much of his life history is not appropriate to a middle-grade kid reading a mystery/thriller like Double Vision.

But still. A lot of what made da Vinci interesting--his kindness toward animals, his tendency to start things but not finish them--that stuff made it into the book in small but (to me) significant ways.

 I guess research is like an iceberg. You need that pile of books and web surfing to find those nuggets that make up the tip. Or something like that...

How about you fellow writerly people? Do you enjoy research as much as I do?

From The New Kid On The (Cell) Block

Hello Sleuths, Spies & Alibis readers! I'm the new kid on the (cell) block--that's my mugshot to the left. Promise you won't steal my lunch or make fun of my freckles?

On a more serious note: I'm really honored to join this great lineup of middle-grade and YA mystery writers. Hopefully, my posts will be interesting to those of you who love mysteries and books for t(w)eens. My love for mysteries started when I discovered Agatha Christie (since there was no YA in my teen years), and I've been hooked ever since. I love a good crime show, book, or real-life mystery.

After spending a few years write crime short stories, I found a publisher crazy enough to take a chance on me: Double Vision is a middle-grade mystery/thriller series I wrote (due out Oct. 2012) that features Linc Baker; find out more here, if you're the nosy type like me.

But I won't go on talking about myself--hopefully, you'll get to know me a little better through my blog posts. What I really want to know...

Who are you Sleuths, Spies & Alibis readers, and what are you reading?? I'm always looking for a good book...