Trisha Blanchet, author of “Murder Like Magic” -564

0:00Hello and welcome to another edition of On Mike with Jordan Rich, where conversation is alive and well with some very creative people of a lot to say and a lot to offer. I met an author recently who definitely is creative. She's a former reporter editor and award-winning columnist. Her name is Trisha Blanchett and she writes in a work of fiction a wonderfully funny mystery about a particular city north of Boston, Lowell, Massachusetts. It's referred to as Mill City in the book Murder, Like, Magic. I fell in love with this novel almost immediately. For two reasons, I love a snappy, wise-acre private eye, in this case a female test tully. I also love the fact that the main character and many of the other interesting folks in this story happen to be, well, shall we say, witches. Trisha Blanchett has a really interesting take on what these witches are all about and the powers they possess. A very witty novel that's likely to become a successful series. Murder, Like, Magic. Let's meet the novelist Trisha Blanchett as we welcome her to poof, just like that.

1:02A pier on Mike. This is a very fun book and I really hope and I certainly assume that there'll be follow-ups to Murder, Like, Magic. Congratulations, Trisha. Thank you so much and thank you for having me. Yeah, great to have you. I worked in the city that this sort of takes place in. Lowell, Massachusetts. It's called the Mill City here in the book. I worked up there in radio for several years so I'm more familiar with the terrain than you might expect. How fast is great. I didn't know that. That's great. Now, it's called the Mill City in the book and that makes sense, right? Because Lowell has that background of Mills. Right. Yeah, that's sort of its nickname. If you drive around town, you'll see like Mill City pizza, Mill City book, you know, everything has a Mill City in the name. So I thought it would be good to use that rather than the proper name of Lowell. Well, it's working for me and I know that there's a baseball team called the Lowell Spinners. Yes. And they're back after a little hiatus. They're back.

2:03Before we get too far into this, is it a detective story? Actually, very funny and quick and wise-acre stuff all the way through. But give us a little overview as to who our heroine is, Tess Tully. So Murder, Like, Magic is the story of Tess Tully and I like to call her a charmingly grouchy private eye and she's having a really tough time. She's trying to solve an impossible murder case. So what has happened is the victim has been found in a pool of blood, but it's someone else's blood. So the police are stumped. They call in Tess because they think she's a psychic. But the truth is actually a little stranger. Tess is a witch with the ability to read minds. So that would be great, except her ability doesn't work so well. And everyone in town is against her for all kinds of reasons. So she really has an uphill battle here, but it soon becomes clear that if she doesn't

3:08solve this, she might be the next body on the slab in the middle city morgue. So she is determined to make it work. I love this character because I know feisty is sort of a cliche, but she's got a lot of spunk and she fights back against a lot of enemies, both the foreign and domestic. Let's put it that way. And she has an ally in the police department. Tell us about him. Yes. Detective Debbie Swang is, he's what's called a five. So those are us regular people. We're just five. We have five little senses where unlike the witches who hide in plain sight among us. But Debbie knows about them and manages to keep his mouth shut. And he sort of has a crush on Tess. So that's one of the reasons he is so helpful to her. Now if we're fives, what are the spinners or the witches? So they have seven senses and they're seven, as they call it, they're seven cents, is the thing that makes them unique and each person gets their own.

4:11It's sort of like eye color or allergies or anything like that. You get what you get. And in Tess's case, she has the ability somewhat to read minds and other people have all kinds of other weird things. And as the book goes along, you'll see what each person's abilities are. You certainly have a fertile imagination to come up with some of the rare talents that some of these people have. And it makes for a lot of fun. I mean, as you cruise through the book, but in some cases, there's also plot developments that matter related to that. We won't get into anything. We'll know, no giveaways, no spoilers. Give me an example of an odd one that one of the seventh possesses just to give the taste to the audience. Well, some of them are what's called fire starters, so they can shoot sparks out of their fingers. Some can change the temperature. Some can change the weather. Some can quote unquote fly, but as Tess snarkly says, they can't really fly. They can just hover. So it's sort of strange little things.

5:11And they're all a bit frustrated because their powers have been watered down a lot through the years. So it's nothing. It's not like Superman level gifts. It's sort of like small little things. And there's competitions among them because some were just luckily born with a better gift than others. So if you could stuck with a crummy one, like some of them can communicate with insects, for example, but who wants that? Like nobody wants that. But that's the one you got. So they get a little competitive with each other. Now did you do research and if so, what kind of research? Tell me how this developed for you. I did do a lot of research into the witch hunts in Ireland because they're all Irish descendants the witches in this book. And I was a little shocked because you hear about some of the other witch hunts. I didn't realize there were so many in Ireland. It was a huge problem. And actually I learned, believe it or not, that is why there are so few redheads in the world today because back in the day, they assumed that meant you were a witch.

6:17So they were killed like a long, long, long time ago. And that's one of the reasons being a redhead is rare today. But in terms of the setting, this all came about. I was trying to come up with this murder mystery idea. And then my husband and I went too low to visit one of the museums on one rainy Saturday three years ago. And I was shocked at how much I did not know about the industrial revolution here in America and how it started literally in the next town over from where I live. But I learned so much, but the thing that fascinated me the most was the mill girls. So I had no idea that probably three quarters of all the workers in those mills were young women and some teenage girls. And they really started this industrial revolution. They made it happen. And it was the first time in America where women and girls had any chance to earn their

7:19own money. They had savings accounts, which was a huge deal. They could spend their money how they wanted. It was just a really unique opportunity for females in America in the 1800s. And they took full advantage of it. And they were kind of really hardworking. They had grueling hours as you might imagine. Terrible conditions. But they made the most of it. And they started a literary journal in Loll that you can still read today at UMass Loll. They started at Union to fight for better working conditions. And incredible luminaries came to visit them, to speak to them, some of whom became presidents of the United States. So they really had an unusual, very cool situation. So I was very inspired by that. So I decided to set it in Loll, but a modern day Loll with a modern day mill girl who has just as many uphill battles. But she's got the courage and the spunk to sort of make it happen.

8:23Very telling. And if you go to Loll and visit and thousands of people come from all over the world to visit Loll, there are these mills that still exist, the buildings exist, and they turn into museums. And you can learn a lot about this stuff. But taking it to the next level and adding the supernatural part of it has to be a lot of fun for a mystery writer because you know you get a lot of wiggle room to play with, right? That's why I love working with magic because anything is possible. And in test's case, she hears people's thoughts and she also hears the way she puts it is there's memory in the mortar of the bricks. She sort of feels every memory and she really is in touch with those women of the past. And it sort of gives her strength. So I thought that was an interesting play on it. And there's a hierarchy in terms of leadership in this particular setting in this particular group of spinners. Did you find that to be the case when you looked at the old Irish or is this something that

9:24you just made up or what? Yeah, no, I just made that up. All right. That's fine. Somebody had to be in charge. Well, you need to have a headhunch or a weapon or whatever to do that. When you're crafting a mystery, it's like writing a song. I mean, I am so envious of composers because in my estimation, every song possible has been done, every combination. And the same thing with mysteries. I mean, you faced with a challenge to come up with something that stumps the reader. Otherwise, they're not going to be interested. Right. So the idea of finding blood that doesn't belong to the murder victim is bizarre, right? In my case, I have to write it backward. I don't know how other mystery writers do it, but I outline it sort of backwards. So I know who done it and why and how. And then I come up with all the other suspects. I feel like every suspect has to be a viable suspect to prevent you from guessing. I mean, you might guess anyway, but every suspect has to have like a strong motive and

10:29a means and all that sort of thing. So for me, that comes from writing it backward, outlining backward. And then I write forward. That's interesting. I've talked to many, including somebody you had a conversation with recently, Hank, Philippi Ryan. Hank. She's great. And we talked about the method of operation, the modus operandi, putting together a mystery. I think a lot of mystery writers have their own GPS system as to how they're going to arrive at the conclusion. Sometimes they start at their conclusion and work their way back. Right. And Hank never knows the ending. She doesn't want to know the ending as it goes along, which I find fascinating. But for me, it's sort of like going on vacation. I need to know like how I'm getting there, how I'm getting home. I need to have my flights booked. In other words, you know, I need to know what hotel I'm staying in. I don't just want to show up in a country and not know what's going on. So I leave a lot of wiggle room, but the main things I have to have in place before I can move forward. One of the things that is a standout in the book, the character's obviously, but the humor.

11:34The idea of a wise cracking detective is not new. I mean, Robert Parker was Spencer. It starts there, doesn't end there. It seemed really kind of fun and unique, especially coming from a woman's perspective. I'm just wondering if you had any models or nuanced characters in mind when you created this character. Anybody is, she's based on anybody. I was influenced weirdly enough by those 1940s noir movies where the guy like the day walks into my office, see, and she's, her husband's messing around on her and that it was, I was trying to come up with sort of that, but with a young female contemporary voice. So she's just got that sort of been there, done that. You can't do anything else to me. I'm already in huge trouble. So I'm just going to tell it like it is and I'm just going to shoot straight and that's just sort of her attitude. Well, people love that pastiche when it comes to detectives and private eyes and trying

12:35to solve cases and they all have some kind of anchor around their legs that holding them back, whether it's the bottle or the dame or the, in this case, the boyfriend. By the way, there's a ginger in the book. I can use that. That's good to know. No, it's really fun. It's called Murder Like Magic and it's, is this your first novel or do you have others? I wrote a trilogy, 22, 23 and 24. They came out, but it was under TM Blanchett and not Trisha, but it's called The Nith Trilogy and it's Herix End, Herix Lie and Herix Key and that's young adult fantasy. But it's fantasy in the realm of magic, in other words, right? Something like that. Okay. Now, I want to just briefly talk about a couple of other things. A mighty blaze is a podcast. I was doing a little research into it. We're part of this and it involves really a clearinghouse of authors of all kinds who get a chance to talk about their words. Tell me about your involvement with this. So a mighty blaze started in 2020 and March, right at the height of, when everything shut down during the pandemic and Caroline Levin and Jenna Blum, who are New York Times best

13:38selling authors, decided to start this initiative to help authors who couldn't go on book tour. So they couldn't tell people about their books. So Jenna and Caroline started these online interviews and it just ballooned from there and I was a volunteer so I did every type of possible job on it. You can imagine. And I migrated towards the podcast, which is where I am now. So I'm the host and producer of the podcast and I take interviews that have happened throughout the year and I turn them into audio versions and I write an introduction and I read that and we post them anywhere you can get podcasts, you can find it and we have all the most amazing authors from around the world. Come on and it's just a pleasure and a joy to be able to talk to them. What a gift too for you. I mean, learning from all of these people, they're different perspectives. I imagine you soak it up like you can, right? It's amazing. Because you know, it's like you're sitting on a Zoom with somebody and it's like they're in the room with you.

14:38It's these incredible authors that you've admired your whole life or new authors too. We get lots of debuts and you can learn something from everybody. So I really enjoy it. Of all the interviews I've done and I've done thousands, most of the successful ones involve some kind of authorship. I mean, there's somebody who wrote a book, a biography, history, in this case, a fun murder mystery romp with magic. I mean, an author can bring anything to the table and that's what makes them interesting to talk to. Also, I want to give you a chance to plug something that is very special to you and I believe very important. It's called Operation Delta Dog Service Dogs for Veterans. Tell us more about that. Thank you. Yes. In 2013, I found an Operation Delta Dog and we have a dual mission to rescue shelter dogs and train them to work as service dogs for disabled veterans. We're trying to reduce the veteran's suicide rate. So our dogs are specialized to help people with PTSD and traumatic brain injury.

15:43And something called MST, Military Sexual Trauma. And these are thought to contribute to the veteran suicide rate. So we thought we'll train dogs to help with those invisible disabilities. And to this day, we've placed, I believe, we're over 120 now, 120 dogs with veterans in New England. That's fabulous. And do you have a personal connection? Veterans in the family, whatever? My dad is a Vietnam veteran. He was an Army helicopter pilot. Wow. Great guy. I've had some correspondence with him over the month. Well, listen, I am so happy for you. I can see this becoming a regular series. I can see Netflix calling you in a couple of weeks or a month or a year and saying, let's do this. It must be filmed on location, kind of like the fighter was. Remember that? Oh, yes. That would be great. And those characters in that movie are as real as it gets. I mean, I remember in Lowell going to the Worthen, which is the place where Carrowack hung

16:45out. I remember Old Warehouse buildings and dilapidated things. And then it all blossomed in the 80s. It started to come up and reform itself. And now it's a bustling city, great food and lots of ethnic variety. It's got so much character. It's a great place. Yeah. And if you heard from anybody in the Wicken World today, no, no, no, maybe I will. Yeah, maybe you will. I mean, oh, and one more thing. We mentioned the service ducts. Animals play a part in this story, too, don't they? Don't give anything away. They sure do. I had to throw a cute little animal in there. Yes. And inappropriate animal for what we're talking about. Yes. We used to figure that out. Listen, just can figure that out. It's called Murder Like Magic. It's a novel. It's created by Trisha Blanchett. And that is your website, TrishaBlanchett.com. Is that correct? Yep. That's it. Excellent. Well, you're a delight. Thank you so much. I'm glad you sent me the book early so I could read it, cover to cover. And it's a hard book to put down. Thank you so much, Trisha. Thank you, Jordan. Oh, she's terrific. Trisha Blanchett, her book Murder Like Magic.

17:47It's a novel. I couldn't put it down. It's so much fun. It's a sort of telepathic witch slash PI. Murder Fantasy Mystery with a good dose of humor. Murder Like Magic. Thanks for listening to On Mike with Jordan Rich. Find out more at my website, JordanRich.com. And remember to be well so you can do good. Take care. your football