An investigation leads Daphne Dunn to the Delmarva Peninsula and a woman so desperate to cover her crimes against undocumented workers that she will kill anyone in her way, including the girl who is quite possibly Daphne's mirror image, Charlie.
Celebrate Delaware Day with this "From the Vault" episode of Big Blend Radio featuring veteran author Caroline Taylor who her novel discusses “Death in Delmarva.”
CAROLINE TAYLOR is a novelist and short-story writer who grew up in the mountain west and traveled widely, including a brief stint in the Foreign Service. A former publications manager and editor of
Humanities magazine, she is the author of several mystery novels.
Death in Delmarva was a finalist for the 2016 FREDDIE award.
Loose Ends was the 2018 Goodreads best thriller set in DC and a recipient of a Firebird award in 2022.
The Typist also received a Firebird award in 2022. Caroline's nonfiction book,
Publishing the Nonprofit Annual Report: Tips, Traps, and Tricks of the Trade, won an APEX award for writing excellence. A collection of short stories,
Enough! Thirty Stories of Fielding Life’s Little Curve Balls, features many of the stories that she has had published over the years.
During her career as a publications manager, Caroline received 38 awards for editorial and design excellence for publications and videos produced for the National Trust for Historic Preservation, the National Endowment for the Humanities, World Wildlife Fund, Greenpeace, BoardSource, and the Aeras Foundation.
She is a member of Mystery Writers of America and Sisters in Crime. More at https://www.carolinestories.com/
[MUSIC] So veteran author Carolyn Taylor is joining us as our first guest on today's big blend radio author's happy hour show and along with hearing about the world her world of writing because she's got a lot of books under her back there she's done five novel this is the fifth one she's going to be talking about her fifth crime thriller death in Del Marva so she's going to be talking about that and this book along with murder I love this what she's covering because it's it's rarely showcased she shines a spotlight on the crimes committed against undocumented workers hot topic right now too yeah you know so I encourage you to go to our website Carolyn stories dot com it's Caroline C A R O L I N E Caroline stories I said Carolyn Caroline oh I'm going to get in trouble but welcome to the show how are you fine thanks for having me I love that music hey well cool I'm so glad to hear that so Caroline Carolyn because I always I start twisting people's names around and I don't mean it but it is happy hour it's Caroline Caroline see that's exactly okay I will remember this I remember the E at the end of name and the there's I the I goes long see only and then he knows no mine yes now okay so this and five crime thrillers and I've seen you know that you've also written you know serious things like how to run non-profits and do board meetings and all that kind of stuff how did you go from that to under the right crime well actually it the book I wrote is about how to how to plan and produce the nonprofit annual report and I did this after years of working in nonprofits where I did do annual reports and I realized that no one had ever written about that side of annual reports the corporate annual report is totally different and it has a totally different purpose so I thought this would be a perfect opportunity to to sort of explain the whole process from planning all the way through to distribution wow wow because I think now I mean nonprofits we're having more and more of them they're so in need you know as a lot of government programs go away more nonprofits and it's a scary thing and it's a lot of work nonprofits it's not an easy thing and also having to deal with boards and then sponsors and grants and you know so I really appreciate what you've done there what what was it that led you to crime oh I got good from nonprofit to crime well I mean you did it I did that thing I like crime writing because it's fun yeah it is it is and I love that you know you've got women in here listen Daphne Dunn okay we've got to talk about her she is in your latest novel which everyone comes out tomorrow so she's like that she is like a spring fling here death in Del Marva Daphne Dunn listen she's working in the foggy bottom grocery store like that name this is I want to I want to write like you because this is fun well foggy bottom is a neighborhood in Washington DC and she is working in her cousin's grocery store it's called Olsen's market and it's a terrible job and she doesn't she's not happy with it and she is bored and so and then a woman gets killed in the neighborhood and it's a woman that she knows and she feels kind of guilty about how the woman died and so she decides the woman was pregnant when she was killed but the baby survived so Daphne decided she has to try to find the father and in the process of doing that a friend also asked her if he if she could locate his sister who turns out to look just like Daphne so she's looking for two people I know this is amazing and but then I mean so the undocumented workers and the crimes that are committed against them to me is something really important to talk about and we're in a very weird space in our country right now politically in regards to anyone coming over the border these days and I kind of feel like we really need to I mean we're in Tucson we have you know we live on the border we've lived on the border in a number of places and yeah I don't know we understand there's a relationship that happens between the two countries just on this side I know we lived in Florida you know now we had Cuba and we have you know there's different borders right but this this is like one of those things where you know I have friends who've been advocating for rights for women that are in the world of you know sex and like hey we need to make this legalize so that you know there's medical checkups and things like that if they're going to be a sex worker and the fact is if they're not documented somewhere they can disappear and it's kind of similar to what you're talking about in regards to these undocumented workers. You know I wrote this before this current bruhaha about the wall I started writing it thinking about the basically the workers in Delmarva a large number of whom are undocumented they work in really horrible industries like chicken processing and also crab picking and these are jobs that are probably not paid minimum wage and they're exploited workers but these are people who came not in the relative safety of a migrant caravan but were probably trafficked across the border in semi-trucks and other conveyances and really had a very dangerous trip to get here to just to make a living and then it's hard work I mean when you think about what they go through to even get into the country and then now you're not getting the money I mean I know undocumented workers now I know someone you can't come to my doorstep because we're leaving tomorrow you know what I mean there's a they really do work for basically nothing and no one's helping them I know there's some nonprofits that help but I think depending on who is you know what what a person's household is like and what their material gains are and their money is like and their experience in traveling like you can travel the world on a yacht and be rich and never really see the countries because you're traveling in the rich phase or you can travel countries in the middle class phase and see a little bit more or you can go walk the streets that you're told not to walk in different countries and and really find out what a country is like and then you might start to understand immigration and people who find me have had enough and they're scared for their lives leaving and hoping to find a place where they can actually bring up their children and live and it's you know it's political but not to them it is about saving their life. The story of this country it's the story of America exactly exactly so for this I mean what kind of research goes into this and geographically I know you're now in North Carolina but you were in DC for a long time so Belmarva wasn't that far from you right so tell us about this give everybody the lay of the land well Delmarva is the entire peninsula of Delaware it's the entire state of Delaware and then it also includes Maryland's eastern shore that is the part of Maryland that's on the other side of the Chesapeake Bay and then a little narrow strip of Virginia that's also on the eastern part of the Chesapeake Bay and the middle of Delaware is largely of farming and chicken plants and I spent many many years going across that peninsula to a beach house in Bethany Beach. Now the chicken farms and you would see the conditions under which some of these people worked and it was pretty horrifying because you you knew that they were probably undocumented. I didn't ever play journalists and go actually investigate it but it was pretty sure. It's interesting when you talk about that we've done radio interviews in regards to the dumping not just poultry but hogs out in Delaware areas in the river keepers coming on our show the dumping of waste into the water. That's also a problem here. Okay so yeah it's all kind of connected up there. Yeah we're always trying to get that you know that visualization of a place until you get there you know when you hear about like Maryland or DC in that area I'm just like okay I just see the White House. I'm going to get moved forward from that but this book does take you all over the place with her you know Daphne going out there. Tell us about her as a person because she just decides to go and do this even though she wasn't she isn't a person that you know has even the funds to do this. She doesn't but she suffers from I would say misplaced guilt that children often feel when a parent at least a household or when which is a case with her mother. Mother travels a lot and disappears often when she was a child and then also the housekeeper was caught she thought stealing and it because she saw the housekeeper but the housekeeper wasn't caught so she feels guilty about the fact this is the woman who was murdered and she feels guilty about this and feels like she has to make restitution. Wow everyone this is you know she's going out there you've got to work your things out but this is a way to work out your emotions you know. It's okay to go out there and solve a crime basically you know and find these people where did she come from for you? Well to be perfectly frank she came from my first two novels which were a series based in Annapolis in which there was a wannabe private eye named PJ Smith who was also a woman and this was going to be the third novel in that series but the publisher of those two novels stopped publishing mysteries so I had to find another publisher and it just seemed better to make this a different kind of novel altogether different characters. And so do you think death in Del Marva will definitely return or is it going to be that's that because you know. I think that's that unless the publisher says do another one. I don't know but I haven't been planning to do another one. I think I've had better success with novels that are just standalones like the loose ends and the typists both which are alone. Listen you're covered I want to touch on your cover art because it kind of takes me back you know a few decades and I miss that kind of art on books. We've become so I don't know different now let's just put it that way but there's a there's a vibe with your covers that it just it is like you know this is a mystery thriller and you already know and there's a feminine touch to it when you see them and you're like okay but there's fire in it there's there's character and it's like okay what's going on. Your cat yeah your covers are they all kind of gel together. Well thank you I used to be a graphic designer. Yeah so you did the covers. Well no I didn't do the covers but I had the idea. Yeah okay cool. Awesome. Yeah I love the covers I just like okay this is cool because like even you know with Death and Del Marva I feel like that's almost like super woman's coming in you know there's like that and then it's like okay wait there's a motorbike involved like okay wait like you're already questioning from the cover what's going on. And that's a I wanted I wanted people to think oh I've got to find out how is what does this have to do with motorcycle. Yeah so you've got you've got your other two you've got what are friends for and jewelry from a grave okay that's your they were coupled together loose ends and the typist so those were the first two right? The first two were what are friends and jewelry and then the third one was a loose ends and the fourth one was the typist. Okay and you've also done short stories you have a book enough thirty stories of fielding life's little curve balls so tell us about that. Well I have written a number of stories a lot a great many more that are in that book and my husband said to me why don't you try to put them in a book. So I thought that's a good idea. So I decided to pull together the ones that sort of sort of the underlying theme being okay now what do I do and so most of these stories deal with somebody facing some kind of problem and how they solve it or if they don't solve it why they give in or why they just run away from it that sort of thing. That's cool and then you go into crime so what do you do in regards to research when you're you know writing crime fiction are you do you go to places where things have happened in the past do you do a lot on the internet do you read other you know crime fiction novels or true stories to crime to crime stories. I don't read true crime I'm a horrible book addict I read voraciously a lot of crime fiction I don't do any research in the actual place although I you know having lived in Washington the stories that are based in Washington there's a lot of that based on my knowledge of the city and the surrounding area but I do a lot of research on the internet because it's so convenient and you know I'll be writing along and I'll think well you know is is Georgetown really the place I want to have this house being in death in Delmarva and yes that's the most logical place that's the kind of thing that the internet is helpful with and it certainly costs less than getting in a car and driving all over the place. Are you doing Google Maps and looking at people's houses? Oh I'd love no I'm inventing houses based on based on what I thought the house in loose ends was actually the house that I lived in when I lived in Washington and I had it burned down. Oh oh that oh look at her she'd be like that said I'm gonna burn that down okay but see that's the cool thing about being a writer man but Google Maps when you do the street view you can drive right up into somebody's driveway they don't know but there's a photo of it you're like oh I see everyone do not give Nancy your address yeah because I've got you out. No it's fun you just drive around in the little car that you're not driving and then you pull up into driveways and make you turn from there's no cops you never get a ticket and you do whatever you want. Alright I can actually go that far. I'll make a note of that. I do have a question I've been dying to ask you. Beatrice Cabeza da Vaca and she she was you know I mean this is a big part you know she was the one killed. Cabeza da Vaca is like a Spanish explorer I mean there's there's a story we've actually been covering on him and you know how everybody came in to Texas and died in the desert he died in the desert well he got part way but all these people came in on his boat and died in Texas with was this a land so strange? This is a real this is a real you got to look him up he he's missionary he's like he cabeza da Vaca the book the title of the book oh I know the land so the book this is a true thing that happened only four people survived it was in 1527 he's a Spanish explorer of the New World and yeah so I just didn't know if you you know read about that story or go on fire. Well I read I read about Cabeza da Vaca in a book called a land so strange then I also I was in the foreign service briefly when I was much younger and I served a tour of duty in Quito Accador and one of the people who worked in the empty was named Cabeza da Vaca and I thought that is such a wonderful name I have to use it. Wow you know we we got into the story of I'm I have a thing about explorers and people who go off and do things and prove that the world is round but we've been covering it for a there's a artist here in Tucson Ted DeGrazia he's passed on now but he painted a whole series of this you know of when they got off the ship and all of them in the desert and trying to live on the cactus and you know it's it's just an interesting series so we were we're still in in the works of covering that's going to be kind of a non-stop thing when we get to Texas but yeah so I was just like oh my gosh she's got that name in there I'm dying to know you know so that's that's interesting about how that comes from so okay so now what's next because you've got all these books under your hat here. Well I'm I'm writing a novel based the it's another crime fiction novel the sub-seam of which is fracking which is a hot issue in North Carolina and so I'm working on that and I'm also working on another one that is based on the fact that they're very near where I live is an old Cold War communications facility that is has been deactivated but it's still fenced off with these ominous looking no trespassing signs creepy yeah this would make a perfect place to put this novel so I'm I'm working on that as well it's like area 51 the Manhattan Project yeah the Manhattan Project is increasing bodies that the government will never say they saw but they got oh we're gonna get into conspiracy theories I like that I like that so when you okay so now you've got two things you're working on these gonna be novel short stories and how do you balance two different stories like that well I I've learned that I don't plot them I just start writing and I reach a point where I thought I don't know where this is going so I set it aside and I go to whatever else I'm working on and then work on that for a while until I reach the same point and then I go back and read what I've written in the other one and I decide you know is this working is it not working where do I want to go from here that sort of thing so they sort of just evolve you know I actually I really understand that because as as a painter I would start a painting and think oh I know exactly what I want to do and then you get to a point like okay now I really don't know and then something else pops in your head and that was started another one and I would be working on maybe three four paintings at once when you get to that block moment you just go oh fresh look new environment let's go back to that other painting because now I know what to do exactly it's weird yeah but it's amazing how that works yeah whereas if you if you try to force yourself to okay I've got to keep going on this it just doesn't work oh wow no I get that you know and I remember one art class went to the teacher said stand on your head and you'll see a whole other painting I'm like you know it's really easier just to turn the painting upside down well yeah just a fresh look how do you take notes I mean so you're talking about oh it's driving around thinking about this do you do you like record notes as you have these thoughts because that's the thing about writing you do with it for a long time and then by the time you get to the place so you can write it down or something it could leave that's the hardest thing that is the hard thing but I actually so far knock on wood have been lucky that most of the time these inspirations hit at night when I'm in bed so I get up and I turn the light on and I make a little note oh cool yeah yeah yeah do you hand write it or do you type it yeah no it's because it's not a very complicated thought it's just this is where this has to go or try this angle or see if this works that kind of thing so she can actually hand write that's what I'm that was my real question you can go ahead write that most people can't hand write anymore including myself yeah we all look like we're studying doctor I know description I know because of everything being so digital these days you know we're our handwriting skills have gone gone and some I know some authors I know when one author Mike Wartier he writes his entire book long hand and entire I mean and I've read his book they're they're massive and it's all military you know battles and things like that long hand and I'm like how do you do that you know I could have done that a few years ago but maybe not now no I know so Caroline are you ready to play happy hour yes I am cool because the happy hour bell is waiting for you so we love this question the happy hour question is cool it is if you could spend happy hour with anyone who would it be where would you spend it what are you going to drink alcoholic or non it's not about the the boots but it can be if you want it but what are you going to talk about it's about gossip so Caroline who who is hanging out with you for happy hour anyone a lot of time my husband John and I would go to the old anglers in in Potomac Maryland it's on the Gartherville of art and it's just this beautiful old building and especially in the winter time because they have a huge real fireplace in the bar room so you can have your drink and sit by the fire cool and I would always order Valentine's scotch on the rocks cool and we would we would talk about the current political situation which was really be more of a gnashing of teeth than anything else at the moment you'd need another drink well I mean yes I know I know well you appreciate your writing and appreciate you being on the show with us today and congratulations and a toast to you for your new book coming out tomorrow March 21st 2019 everyone death in Del Marva again by Caroline Taylor and you can go to Caroline stories dot com go to Amazon all those places to get it and you can buy it now you can pre-order it right now do it right now isn't that right Caroline they can do it yes do it now enjoy and thank you so much again and thanks to JK is communications keep up with them at JK is communications dot com we've been you know partnered with them for over 10 11 years now and they do amazing work and so if you're an author check them out and we've got a song for you because there's a lot of you know there's a motorcycle involved in some travel and this song is from our friends the Cravens they're based in West Palm Beach area of Florida so we thought we'd play the song highway because there is a motorcycle and so we want to play this and it's from their latest album on the line and everyone can keep up with the band Craven Songs dot com is the place to go thanks so much for joining us thank you for having me you take care and thank you I've been thinking of something I've been thinking of something new to do I'm part of ♪ They don't think I'd get old ♪ ♪ Well I can't spend this in my time ♪ ♪ Thinking about all the things that make me ♪ ♪ I'm stuck in my middle mouth ♪ ♪ Where do I want to be ♪ ♪ Like the two kinds of falling ♪ ♪ They're calling my name old ♪ ♪ They're alone on your highway ♪ ♪ Feel the wind against the face of your life ♪ ♪ Throw it in your eyes now ♪ ♪ You can't take it to the morning light ♪ ♪ Oh, oh, oh ♪ ♪ Wait ♪ ♪ Don't be talking about me ♪ ♪ Don't be talking about me ♪ ♪ We can wait ♪ ♪ I'm loving the valley ♪ ♪ Where do we take time ♪ ♪ Like the two kinds of falling ♪ ♪ They're calling my name old ♪ ♪ They're alone on your highway ♪ ♪ Feel the wind against the face of your life ♪ ♪ Throw it in your eyes now ♪ ♪ You can't take it to the morning light ♪ ♪ Oh, oh, oh ♪ ♪♪ ♪ Have you ever wondered ♪ ♪ Where the road ahead is up to ♪ ♪ Have you ever wondered ♪ ♪ Why, yeah ♪ ♪♪ ♪ Where the road ahead is up to ♪ ♪ Oh, oh, oh ♪ ♪ Are you thinking about me ♪ ♪ Love me thinking about me ♪ ♪ Love me thinking about you ♪ ♪ I've thought of the same reality ♪ ♪ And my things I do ♪ ♪ And true ♪ ♪ The things that I do ♪ ♪ The things that I do ♪ ♪♪ ♪ Feel the wind against the face of your life ♪ ♪ Throw it in your eyes now ♪ ♪ You can't take it to the morning light ♪ ♪ Throw it in your eyes now ♪ ♪ You can't take it to the morning light ♪ ♪ Feel the road on your highway ♪ ♪ Feel the road on your highway ♪ ♪ Oh, oh, oh ♪ ♪♪ ♪♪
