Supplied photo\nMaureen Flynn\u2019s debut novel, Buckle My Shoe, was inspired by the murder of Grace (Edith) Cook at the Marlborough Hotel in December 1943.<\/figcaption>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/figure>\n“I learned about the ghost Edith there,” Flynn said. “I did some research on the Internet and found out a little bit about the true story of her murder. I was intrigued and I felt like I wanted to tell her story.<\/p>\n
“At times when I was writing her part, I felt like I wasn’t writing it all. You can take that for whatever it is.”<\/p>\n
Buckle My Shoe is Flynn’s first book, but the lifelong Selkirk resident is no stranger to writing, having been a freelance reporter and columnist for the Selkirk Enterprise and the Selkirk Journal, as well as having short stories published in Chicken Soup for the Soul.<\/p>\n
A Manitoba Hydro employee, wife and mother of three, Flynn said finding time to write is her biggest challenge, but notes she’s a quick writer and is never short of ideas.<\/p>\n
“They talk about ‘think outside the box,’ well, my husband says ‘I don’t even know that there is a box,’ Flynn said. “That’s (coming up with ideas) no problem, it’s just trying to keep up with my fingers to write them down or type them.”<\/p>\n
In fact, Flynn’s ideas are piling up. She’s currently working on a followup to Buckle My Shoe, titled Shut the Door, and plans for it to be a five-book series.<\/p>\n
If Flynn has a hit murder mystery series on her hands, she can thank a well-timed reference to the 1980 film The Shining.<\/p>\n
“A friend of mine, we were having a little tour of the Marlborough and as soon as we were in the old part, I nudged him and said ‘Red rum, red rum’ and I could almost see the two girls in the blue dresses floating down the hallway,” Flynn said.<\/p>\n
“When I started getting brave enough to ask some of the staff if there were any ghosts at the Marlborough, I learned about Edith and when I read up on her, I read that when she was murdered she was wearing a blue dress, so that kind of freaked me out a bit.”<\/p>\n
Still, Flynn said she’s skeptical when it comes to the existence of ghosts.<\/p>\n
“I’m not sure, but I find the possibility unnerving,” she said.<\/p>
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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/a>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t