Lane, Vicki

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Lane, Vicki

PERSONAL: Born in FL; married; children: two sons. Hobbies and other interests: Quilting, painting, reading, gardening.

ADDRESSES: Home—NC. Agent—Ann Collette, Helen Rees Literary Agency, 376 North St., Boston, MA 02113-2103. E-mail—vicki_lane@mtnarea.net.

CAREER: Former English teacher in Florida.

WRITINGS:

Signs in the Blood, Bantam Dell (New York, NY), 2005.

Co-author of two books about quilting.

WORK IN PROGRESS: Another "Elizabeth Goodweather" mystery.

SIDELIGHTS: After teaching English for nine years in Florida, Vicki Lane and her husband decided it was time to move from an increasingly congested state. They settled on a farm in North Carolina, where they have since homesteaded and raised their two sons. Among Lane's hobbies is quilting, and after coauthoring two quilting books, she decided in 2000 to take a fiction-writing class taught by novelist Bill Brooks, which was offered at a local community college. Lane had always been an avid reader, citing Tony Hillerman's "Leaphorn and Chee" series as a favorite among the many mysteries she reads. So at the end of the class when Brooks challenged her by saying she would never write a novel, she decided to prove him wrong. After a year of writing, she had penned a mystery about an Appalachian sleuth named Elizabeth Goodweather. Yet, when she sent the manuscript to agents, they rejected it. Finally, one agent told Lane that she needed to write the first novel set in Elizabeth Goodweather's home area—rather than a vacation locale—so that readers could fall in love with not only the sleuth, but the setting as well. So, saving her initial attempt for a later book in her projected series, Lane penned the debut novel, Signs in the Blood, which a Publishers Weekly reviewer called a "well-crafted, dramatic tale of murder, miracles and midlife romance." Set in Ridley Branch, North Carolina, Goodweather, a middle-aged widow and owner of a flower and herb farm, investigates the death of a longtime friend's son. Among the novel's enthusiasts number Romantic Times reviewer Sheri Melnick, who praised Lane's "evocative descriptions" of the mountain setting, and Book Loons online reviewer Pat Elliott, who found "all the characters who people this land … engrossing." For her part, Lane wrote at her home page: "I think that, as an outsider, I sometimes see more clearly the wonderful things that people who grew up here take for granted."