Greg Herren - Murder in the Rue Ursulines

A month later, there was some turmoil at the publisher of the Chanse series, but once it settled down, it turned out they wanted Murder in the Garden District- but there was a catch; they needed it as soon as possible. As I hadn’t even started writing it yet, we went back and forth for a few days-and then a solution occurred to me: I’d already written the first draft of a New Orleans mystery; I could probably rewrite and revise that in ten weeks and convert it from a Scotty book to a Chanse book.

But if I was going to put myself through this, I also wanted a contract for Murder in the Garden District, which I would write next.

They were desperate enough to agree to my terms, and I was very proud of myself…right up until the moment I started trying to convert a Scotty Bradley novel into a Chanse MacLeod.

I wasted probably two weeks before I realized it wasn’t possible.

I threw out almost everything I had already done and kept some basics: I kept the Hollywood South stuff and the characters, and the basic skeleton of the plot: the ex-wife of a major film star is murdered, and their divorce had been very public and very ugly. I wrote like a demon, and even managed to incorporate the ‘mistaken identity’ trope (which had sold me on the story in the first place) into the book. I turned it in, and even convinced my publisher to contract my friend and mentor Julie Smith to work with me as my editor once it was finished.

And once Julie got her hands on the book, we wound up throwing out about a third of the story-as well as a new boyfriend for Chanse I had introduced-and I had to rewrite like crazy all over again. We didn’t have much time-perhaps a month at most-and we both worked like demons, but we got it done, finished, and turned in.

And then I had to start writing Murder in the Garden District.

When the opportunity came along to bring Murder in the Rue Ursulines back into print as an ebook, again the temptation was there-as it was with the others-to revise and rewrite it. From beginning to end, the book was written, rewritten, edited and rewritten again, in a little over three months.

But, as with the others, I decided against it. Murder in the Rue Ursulines, whatever it’s faults, should remain what it always has been since it was first published in the fall of 2008. I hope you enjoyed it.

And who knows? I might resurrect that original Scotty novel again someday. It was really a good idea-and pretty damned funny.

– Greg Herren

New Orleans, February 2012