Cozy Mysteries and Other Madness with Jackie King

FREE BOOK DOWNLOAD FROM KINDLE--TODAY ONLY!

2012-01-28T11:21:00.000-06:00

Hi Readers! Today my publisher is offering FREE on Amazon Kindle my (one and only) nonfiction book, DEVOTED TO COOKING. (Usually $2.99 ) Today (January 28, 2012) it's FREE!

http://www.amazon.com/Devoted-Cooking-Inspiration-Aspiring-ebook/dp/B003UNLC24/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1327769275&sr=1-1

Not a mystery, but true and written straight from my heart. In my writing, I always tell the truth as I see it.

DEVOTED TO COOKING is a sharing of family stories and individual lives and of cooking food needed to get through each day, whether happy, tragic or just mundane. Everyone deserves a proper serving of both love and food; all it takes is a little determination, a bit of planning, and regular prayer.

The book is written with Jennifer Sohl, chef and caterer, who happens to be my youngest daughter. Her passion is cooking and mine is writing, so we combined our talents for this book.

Jennifer shares hard-learned secrets of creative artistlry in cooking that will delight families and mystify friends. She tells how to organize your time so your family can eat home-cooked meals. She has collected and mastered quick and easy-to-prepare recipes necessary to balance the family budget and at the same time to provide tasty, healthy and attractive meals for her family.

She also tells how she started her business on a shoe string, and gives helpful advice and encouragement for anyone interested in striking out your own.

I share my life's path through divorce, death of a beloved son, and single living.

Today's impossible schedules with overworked parents, harried children, and fast-food eaten on the run, are flaws of our technological society. Although some meals-on-the run can't be avoided, you can learn to prepare and serve beautiful, tasty and simple meals for yourself and/or your family. A new demension of love and devotion is added to life when families eat together with everyone present and with the television turned off.

I hope you each enjoy your free e-book copy of DEVOTED TO COOKING. Available January 28, 2012 FREE on Amazon Kindle.

Hugs,

Jackie

MY THOUGHTS ON SUE GRAFTON'S LATEST MYSTERY

2012-01-19T19:38:00.000-06:00

I just finished reading Sue Grafton’s V IS FOR VENGEANCE and enjoyed it very much. In fact, I couldn’t put this book down. It haunted me like a box of See’s Chocolates! I couldn’t think of anything else until I’d consumed each juicy morsel. Of all her latest books I liked this one the best. I’ve read articles where Grafton said she didn’t plot her books, but this one must have been an exception. It was definitely plotted, not written by the seat of her pants.

http://tinyurl.com/734osb7
Some of the chapters were written in first person with Kinsey Millhone telling the story, which is this author’s usual style. The book started with a chapter that, once upon a time, would have been called a prologue. Of course, that’s not done much anymore. Some readers dislike prologues, so writers solve the problem by calling whatever starts the book, chapter one. Or in this case, Before.

Most of the book was a flashback, and in less expert hands this might have been confusing and not worked. But in Grafton’s talented hands this technique just added to the suspense and was excellent. I loved this book, and I can’t say that about all of Grafton’s novels, even though I’m a huge fan.

Readers, if you have read V IS FOR VENGEANCE, let me know your thoughts. If you don’t agree with me, that’s fine. Just tell why.

Hugs to all,

Jackie

THANK GOD I ONLY HAVE TWO EYES!

2012-01-16T22:42:00.000-06:00

I’ve just spent the last few days remembering my first detached retina in 2008. It was a harrowing experience, but the awfulness of the experience soon faded from my consciousness. Then just before Christmas 2011, my right eye developed symptoms.

It wouldn’t dare! I thought, but just to be on the safe side I went back to my retina specialist as soon as his office opened after the holiday.

“You have another detached retina,” he said. “Do you have someone here to drive you home? We’ll repair it now, just like we did before.”

Well, of course I didn’t have a driver. That would have been admitting that I might really have a problem. So once again I had to call a daughter to come and chauffeur me home. And once again I got fussed at for not telling my daughters that I was having a problem. (I think that’s why grandparents and teens get along so well; we’re both always in trouble with the same parents.)

I’d forgotten about the foot-long (or so it seemed) hypodermic needle, the frozen face afterwards and the deep eye pain. But soon I remembered it all. And once again I lived through it.

My writing was interrupted for a while as were other pleasant routines of my life, but finally I was nearing the end. I’m even almost finished with my steroid drops. Once again I have my sight restored and am feeling grateful. This time because I only have TWO eyes!

Hugs to all my reader and writer friends,

Jackie

DETACHED RETINAS COUNT AS OTHER MADNESS-PART 4

2012-01-15T18:53:00.018-06:00

(Continuing from yesterday's blog about my first trip back to the doctor...)

The nurse seemed unmoved by the fact that I couldn’t see squat. Then the doctor came in and finished his examination and said to continue “positioning.”

“But I still can’t see anything,” I said.

“As you heal your vision will improve,” he said.

This time he gave me permission to stay home alone. In order to make this work, Jennifer became my chauffeur and Susan my maid. It was comforting to be in my own house, but my usual entertainments of reading and writing could only be done in “the position.” Not being “Rubber Woman,” I spent most of my time listening to the cooking channel; white noise to quiet my ever-racing mind and imagination.

Days passed slowly. Boredom was broken only by Susan’s daily visits to tidy my kitchen, empty trash, sort through and read me my mail, and other such mundane tasks that we hardly notice in normal times. But suddenly, every small detail of life became a challenge. My big event of the day was showering and shampooing. (What a relief to be able to stand tall once again, even with one eye tightly shut against water and shower gel.)

I adopted my friend Peggy Fielding’s method of life; the one she calls “The Swiss-Cheese Method:” one small task at a time. Then I would reposition. Peggy called me and talked for brief periods, knowing that every act of life was complicated by my enforced awkward position.

And those eye drops! The never ending eye drops with a schedule so complicated that Susan charted my times with spaces to check off when completed. What a Godsend to have a private licensed Occupational Therapist at my beck and call.

Life without reading and or writing is like a life without sunshine. What do people do who don’t read? What seemed to me like my Technicolor life turned into Black and White. The only advantage was plenty of time to meditate and pray.

Small victories filled my life. Obvious day by day improvement encouraged me to believe that I might eventually recover. On frequent trips to the doctor my eye was checked and progress tracked. I lived for the nurse’s smile and her encouraging, “That’s better.” Especially after it became harder for me to tell if there was improvement.

A big step was the day I was told I could drive, “When I felt like it.” But in order not to trouble my grown daughters, I promised to wait a few more days. (I once was a mother with two daughters, now I’m a daughter with two mothers. How lucky can one woman be?)

And the thought of driving seemed intimidating. I longed for the freedom driving permitted, but doubts troubled me. What if I banged up my new car—that shiny red sedan with the new-car smell I so loved? Although I’ve never received any traffic violations, I feared if I got one now, my girls might “ground” me, fearing for my safety.

Finally I decided to venture to the grocery store for bananas and a bottle of milk. I felt as excited and nervous as a 16-year-old with a brand new license. You’ve seen these folks creeping along and driving other drivers insane? That would have been me on that day.

Almost as quickly as I went blinded, my life was restored. I could read for my own entertainment in addition to handling my own housework and mail. My driving fears quieted, and I once again had wheels. But most important of all, to me at least, I could write.

The first day I put in a serious day of writing, I felt exhausted. So I realized that, like everything else, I’d have to work toward my ultimate goal a bit slowly.

The last milestone was being able to exercise on my treadmill. The doctor wouldn’t release me for this until about two and a half weeks had passed. Again I began very slowly and for shorter lengths of time. But the important thing was:

I had my life back!

To be continued tomorrow…

My best wishes and healthy reading eyes to one and all,

Jackie

The Sad Tale of My Detached Retina

2012-01-14T23:13:00.000-06:00

THE NEEDLE FROM HELL IS STUCK INTO MY EYE!

After learning that the local anesthetic to be used would be the same as used to earlier remove a cataract from my other eye—a procedure I was put under general anesthetic to accomplish when I was conveniently at the hospital—I prepared myself mentally to face exceptional pain. Not an easy task for a self-admitted coward.

But my life was centered around writing and around reading, and good vision was essential to preserve my quality of life as I now knew it. I was willing to endure any type of torture in order to be able to see. Still I was scared. I longed to be someone else for the next couple of hours—to transport myself into a character drawn from my imagination whose circumstances I could control by changing the plot.

I took a deep breath then I called a close friend to ask for prayer.

After the surgery was completed the doctor asked me how I was doing. I was so relieved to have everything over I generously said, “I’ve been through worse.”

He laughed. “I love having women for patients, after childbirth nothing seems overwhelmingly painful to them.”

“I’d have gone through much more pain in order to save my sight,” I said.

During surgery my youngest daughter, Jennifer had arrived. Her facial expression warned me that she was wrestling with both worry and annoyance. I prepared myself for being scolded, but worry must have won out because she spoke in a carefully controlled tone of voice.

“I know you like to be independent, but I want you to promise that the next time you have an emergency, you’ll call me.”

“I’m sorry, sweetie,” I said. “But I know how busy you are. I just thought I could manage on my own.”

Dr. Garrett gave me a preliminary shot, much like that the dentist gives before drilling a tooth. He even made the same shaking motion, saying he’d learned that technique from his own dentist. Next came a needle I thought looked long enough to reach my belt buckle. I closed my eyes and reminded myself that nothing lasted forever.

This shot, which would numb the entire half of my face, taking until the next day to completely wear off, was unpleasant and uncomfortable. But I’ve endured worse—even in the dentist’s chair. The eye was prepared with more drops as time was allowed for the numbing to set in.

The doctor used a freezing technique to repair my retina, and then he inserted an air bubble to hold everything in place. But in order for the bubble to be in the correct spot, I was instructed that for the next two weeks I had to “position” myself for most of the time. At night I had to sleep on my side, my face turned downward. My neck hurt just thinking about that.

He pulled a chair next to me, bent at the waist, rested his chin in the palm of his hand with his elbow in the palm of his hand.

“Like this,” he said.

I mimicked his position until he was satisfied that I understood. I was told to go home and do this for an hour, and then to position myself in sleep mode and stay there the rest of the evening. I was so exhausted I wasn’t sure I could walk to the car, and any kind of a prone position sounded good to me.

The next morning daughter Jennifer took me to the doctor bright and early. The nurse removed my eye patch. I was excited but apprehensive, because I knew there was a chance this procedure wouldn’t work. Also, I’d been told that this easier approach was instantly successful. So I expected to be able to see pretty much as usual when the bandage came off.

Fear washed through me when I opened my eye. Instead of a black nothingness, I now had a blurry gray nothingness. I assumed the surgery had been unsuccessful and I steeled myself to hear the results.

To Be Continued…

See you tomorrow,
Jackie

MY SAD STORY ABOUT TWO DETACHED RETINAS-Second Installment

2012-01-13T17:36:00.000-06:00

Good Grief! I've been recouping from eye surgery (obviously, considering these posts) and trying to continue writing my newest Grace Cassidy mystery THE CORPSE WHO WALKED IN THE DOOR, and my on going saga about going blind slipped my mind. My apologies to one and all. Now. Here is what happened next with my first detached retina.

April 21, 2008 was on a Monday. The “Foxy Hens,” as we call ourselves when promoting our anthologies with the same name, was speaking at the Cowboy Hall of Fame in Oklahoma City. Our audience, pension fund investors from 18 states, was one of the most receptive we’d ever spoken to. The Oklahoma group running their conference had treated us as if we were royalty. We had been showered with gifts, charming conversation and an excellent meal. People from all over the country had taken our pictures as if we were Rock Stars and they were Paparazzi.

The Oklahoma group that hosted the event had bought 125 copies of STATEHOOD FOXY HENS AND MURDER MOST FOWL, our anthology written for the State Centennial. We had autographed copies until our fingers grew numb. (The dream of every writer I know.) Each of us felt as if we were walking on air.

I gathered up the trove of gifts bestowed on me and started out of the large banquet hall with the other women. Suddenly my left eye felt as if I had been dazzled by the sun or by bright headlights at night.

But there was no bright light.

I blinked because that’s what I always do when such a things occurs. But my vision didn’t clear as it usually does. All of this was done on automatic pilot. My mind was still occupied with the happy buzz that occurs after a signing that goes especially well. I blinked again and the distortion didn’t clear.

My mind was now fully focused on the sight in my left eye. The dazzled sensation was quickly followed by a black curve at the bottom right part of my left eye. As if I were wearing plastic rimmed glasses that were askew and the frames were blocking my vision. Except I wore light-weight glasses with no frames on the bottom. A fission of fear shivered through me.

By the time we reached the car I was almost completely blind in one eye. Except for a tiny sliver at the top left hand of the eye it was as if a heavy black velvet curtain had been taped over that eye.

I was so scared I couldn’t think, so I made all of the wrong decisions. I told no one. I didn’t call either of my two daughters who live close to me in Tulsa. I sat in almost mute silence all the way home. My run of good luck seemed to have ended.

A terrifying self-diagnoses sprang to mind. I must have had a stroke in that eye. I knew this couldn’t be treated successfully, so I planned what to do. (Learn Braille at my age?)

To complicate the situation and stress (as if I needed that), I had just bought a new car. Something I only do about ever 10 years. I listened to the hum of tires on the Turner Turnpike with a background of cheery conversation between my companions.

Would I have to sell my car?

Thoughts of an engineer at the company where I’d worked for twenty plus years came to mind. This successful man not only drove, he worked long hours over intricate specs. His one-eyed vision never seemed to bother him. I also thought of a master plumber I’d just had to repair a leak in my house foundation. He also seemed to live a satisfying and successful life.

But could I?

I’d bought the brand new car because it has been pock-marked by one of our Oklahoma hail storms. The price was considerably discounted and a guarantee had been given that the dents could be corrected without repainting. I was assured that the car would still have original paint.

The problem was, I’d agreed to drive the car across town to the dealership for repair on when I got back into town that afternoon. A free rental car had already been reserved for me to use.

For some reason that is totally unclear to me now, I felt compelled to carry through on the agreement. When Paula dropped me off at my car, I loaded my suitcase and other bits and pieces into my car and headed out. I still hadn’t told anyone I had gone blind in one eye.

It was true that I could safely drive with one eye and I delivered my car and picked up a rental. Then I drove home. I had decided to wait until the next morning and contact my ophthalmologist as soon as his office opened. I considered driving to the emergency room (which would have been the right thing to do) but figured they would simply examine me, send me home with the advice that I should call my doctor in the morning.

I’ve had experience with emergency rooms.

The next morning I arose early, showered and dressed. By this time it was about 8:30 and I called the doctor’s office. His clerk listened to my problem, conferred with someone and told me to come in and be prepared to wait. I skipped breakfast and applying makeup and once again drove myself across town. The waiting room was packed. I waited two and a half hours before being shown into an examining room.

The nurse added the necessary drops and tested the eye. Her silence seemed ominous. I considered pressing her for information, but knew she would be unable to share what she was thinking. Then she left me alone.

The knot of fear in my throat grew bigger as I waited for the doctor. I fully expected to hear that I had lost half of my vision permanently. Finally he bustled in with his usual efficiency and carefully checked my eye, having me look up, down, left and right.

“You have quite a problem, here,” he said.

Hearing the obvious made me want to let go of my Irish temper, but my generation of women was carefully trained by Emily Post mothers.

“Yes,” was my clever comeback.

“You have a detached retina and I’ll have to send you to someone else to get this fixed, I don’t do this kind of surgery.”

Fixed? The problem could be fixed? Relief washed through me like warm oil and my limbs grew weak with relief. In that moment I realized that “fixed” was the most beautiful word in the English language.
(TO BE CONTINUED...) I promise to finish this post as promised!!!

Loved all the FB answers from others who had suffered detached retinas and other problems.

Hugs to All,
Jackie

A SECOND DETACHED RETINA AND JANUARY TO BOOT!

2012-01-06T12:48:00.008-06:00

“Thank God I only have two eyes,” I said to daughter Jennifer, co-author of my one and only nonfiction book, DEVOTED TO COOKING. Jennifer laughed, knowing it was a joke, but neither of us was feeling very merry. She was driving me home from having surgery on my left eye for a detached retina. This was my second time to have such a problem, and like most unfortunate happenings the timing was extremely inconvenient.

http://www.amazon.com/Devoted-Cooking-Inspiration-Aspiring-ebook/dp/B003UNLC24/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1325874055&sr=1-1

Christmas Eve, 2011, it seemed as if a curl had fallen over my eye. Without thinking I tried to brush this nonexistent curl aside, and nothing changed. My heart sank. It wouldn’t dare, I thought! Three days later the doctor performed emergency surgery and I knew from experience that I was in for a hard two weeks. This was my second trip around the block for a detached retina. The first time was even more traumatic.

Suddenly Blind—April 2008

On one of the best days of my life I went suddenly blind in my left eye. That glorious April day morphed into being one of the scariest days of my life. Along with the other two authors of Statehood Foxy Hens and Murder Most Fowl, I was about to travel back to Tulsa from Oklahoma City. We had just finished a successful speaking engagement at the Cowboy Hall of Fame. But the glow disappeared when an invisible curtain that could have been made of 4-inch black velvet suddenly blocked almost all sight in my left eye. Only a sliver of light was visible in the upper left-hand corner of half of my world.

http://www.amazon.com/Foxy-Statehood-Hens-Murder-ebook/dp/B004HYHCYC/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1325874166&sr=1-1

Terror blitzed my brain and my reasoning powers froze. My mostly-healthy body had failed! Visions of tapping along with a white cane and learning Braille flitted through my writer’s imagination. I was so scared I couldn’t even speak. I felt unable to communicate my dilemma with my co-authors and friends, Peggy Fielding and Paula Watkins Alfred. If I voiced what had happened it would be real. So I retreated into the comfort of denial.

L to R: Paula Alfred, Peggy Fielding, Jackie King

“You’re really quiet,” Paula said, flashing me one of her dynamite smiles.

For a sensible person, this would have been the time to share the unthinkable thing that had happened. But I couldn’t. Making such a shocking declaration aloud would mean that it was true. So I hedged.

“I’m a private person,” I said a bit woodenly. I knew my smile was tight and no doubt phony, but the trauma seemed to seal my lips.

“She’s a Pisces,” Peggy Fielding said from the back seat. “A dreamer, you know.”

Gratitude swept over me. Thank God I wouldn’t have to talk much on the way home. Little did my friends know that my dream was actually a nightmare.

(TO BE CONTINUED...)

If any of you have suffered a detached retina or other eye problems, I'd love to hear about them. Readers and writers need their sight!

Hugs,

Jackie

THE MOST WONDERFUL CHRISTMAS GIFT EVER

2011-12-23T20:19:00.000-06:00

The following story was told me by June Butts, and made tears come to my eyes. Picture a very poor family in the 1950's in South Texas, down on their luck, but filled with love and courage. June is speaking:

Daddy sat on the floor and gathered us eleven kids around him in a circle. I remember that he had tears in his eyes, so I knew what he was going to tell us was really important.

“Santa can’t come to visit you this year at Christmas,” Daddy said. “But he said to tell you that he could come in the spring. He promised you that.”

Times had been hard since Daddy had been hurt on the job and us kids were really looking forward to getting something special from Santa. But now Daddy was saying that a few reindeer had gone lame and Santa was rescheduling delivering some children’s toys until springtime. We all felt real bad about that, but we knew that it wasn’t our Daddy’s fault.

Then on Christmas Eve, Daddy stuck his hand into his jeans pocket and pulled out a single bill. “I have one dollar left,” he said to Mama. “I’m going down to the dime-store to get something for these kids.” Then he left the house.

A dollar seemed like a lot back then, but I knew that it couldn’t buy presents for so many kids. I also knew that my daddy could do about anything.

When Daddy came home he had bought a package of jacks. He gathered us kids around him on the floor, and played jacks with us for most of that night. And that was the best Christmas we ever had.

***

June’s story made my eyes sting with tears, and I blinked them away. I pictured this sweet man, sitting with his children around him, celebrating the birth of the baby Jesus with an inexpensive package of jacks. How appropriate, I thought. Jesus came from a humble and hardworking family. Our Lord was born in a lowly manger. A thrill of joy filled my heart at a poor man offering all he had to his family on that special night. His offering must have pleased our Savior. June’s Daddy gave everything he had—his last dollar, his time, and most of all his loving heart.

And for your palate:

Heavenly Coconut-Meringue Kisses

Contributed by Nadine Cravello

3 egg whites
¼ teaspoon cream of tartar
3 tablespoons sugar or Splenda
½ teaspoon vanilla
3 tablespoons shredded coconut.

Heat oven to 275 degrees (slow oven). Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper.

Beat 3 Egg whites with ¼ teaspoon cream of tartar until frothy. Gradually beat in 3 Tablespoon of sugar or Splenda a little at a time. Continue beating until stiff. Fold in ½ teaspoon of vanilla. Gradually fold in 3 tablespoons of shredded Coconut. Drop by spoonfuls onto parchment paper. Bake until delicately brown (about 30 minutes). Cool gradually away from drafts.

Enjoy with your family.

Published in DEVOTED TO COOKING by Jacqueline King and Jennifer Sohl. Publisher: Devoted Books an imprint of AWOC.COM Publishing. 2008

Available on Amazon Kindle and Barnes & Noble Nook.

MUSINGS OF A LATE BLOOMING WRITER

2011-12-22T16:05:00.000-06:00

Finally I’m living my dream

A writer never retires and that’s a good thing for me since I was old enough to die when I started. Re-started would be more accurate. After beginning to write early in my life I got sidetracked by circumstances. I went away to college at 16, was married at 18 (my brain hadn’t even stopped growing) and then raised three children. In other words, stuff happened. But the time is now and I’m learning to live in the present moment. That happens as you age and begin to feel your own mortality. So on this post; I’m talking about today, December 22, 2011.

I (re)started writing at age 49, and since I had neither husband nor trust fund, I counted beans for a living and wrote at night and on weekends. That’s what most writers do. I loved those days made rich by writing, reading and hanging around with other scribes when time allowed.

The wonderful thing is that one eventually retires from their day job, and that’s when I became a full-time writer. I had listened to a lot of talk about getting prepared for retirement so I didn’t go into some kind of a funk (aka depression). No need for me or any writer to worry about that particular problem. My job had served me well, but I’d long been counting the years, months and days until I could finally say:

Thank God it’s Monday!

It’s hard to believe that my favorite day is now Monday. (Will those of you who are still paying their dues forgive me? Your time will come, I promise.)

A few years ago, my new (dream) schedule started like this:

Rise at 7:00 a.m. and put on makeup. Reason for bothering with makeup? To signal my auto-pilot self that I had NOT retired, I’d just gone into business for myself. Then I took a walk through the neighborhood and worked at my computer until noon. (Coffee and breakfast fitted in somewhere, depending on the day. You’ve seen my picture so you know that I don’t skip meals. And coffee is essential, not only for my sanity but for the (mental) health of anyone near me.)

About five years into my dream life I gave up putting on makeup except for special occasions. That Pavlov’s dog thing had kicked in and I automatically walked to my computer each morning. I had learned that there just wasn’t enough time for small stuff. I had (finally) come to understand the importance of living in the present. I’d learned that not all good things are expedient. (That’s a King James’ Bible sort of word.) So now, with the limited energy of an old gal, my ‘primetime’ has become shorter. I write in the morning and then again after meals. These are the times when my energy level is highest. In between writing and short rest periods, I do such things as load my dish washer, pick up messy stuff around my house, and call a few friends. I usually read in the evenings.

I love my writer’s life! Back when I came home to write after working a 10-hour day, I loved that, too. When I had the energy to spend long hours at my computer as a younger full-time writer, I loved that even more. But writing today is best of all. Even my rest periods are spent writing; I mull over plot problems and character motivation. Then after I get my second (or third) wind, I hit the keyboard again.

Life is never perfect. Everyone gets their share of tragedy, illness, and cranky grocery clerks. But for this writer, LIFE ROCKS!

Carolyn Hart, Jackie King, Judy Rosser at 2011 Bouchercon

Tell me about your dreams and how you're working to make them come true! I want to hear.

Hugs to all,

Jackie

Jackie King Shares

2011-12-15T13:38:00.004-06:00

MY THREE RULES FOR WRITING
Which I borrowed From the Best Writers on Earth

Rule 1: Don’t allow yourself to be intimidated. Books are written one word at a time, one sentence at a time, and one paragraph at a time. Each day remind yourself that all you have to do is write one sentence, and then one more, and then one more…

Rule 2: Give yourself permission to write a bad first draft. This removes the fear of failure. You can’t fail because it’s okay to write sucky pages. What’s hard is putting your heart on paper. Don’t listen to your internal monitor that says, “You can’t even spell.” (Like that makes any difference? Many successful writers can’t. That’s why God made dictionaries.)

Rule 3: Write every day. Determine to write even in chaos or tragedy, because life is seldom perfect. No matter how busy you are, you have a right to some time of your own; learn to recognize and grasp these moments. Keep either index cards or a notebook close at all times. (I prefer index cards and always carry some in my purse, pocket and car.

Peggy Fielding and me at outdoor signing in June. Too hot for boas!

Modern men and women spend a huge amount of time standing in lines, waiting at the doctor’s office, or the dentist or hairdresser, or for a child at private lessons or activities. Apprehend these moments to make character sketches, brainstorm writing ideas, or write a scene or part of a scene. It’s possible to write a scene in 20 minutes. I know one author who wrote her second book waiting at the airport for her next plane.

Get a large collapsible file to keep all of your notes, character sketches, newspaper clippings, etc., together. Writing time shouldn’t be wasted searching for lost notes. Keep that file somewhere handy and drop each scrap of paper or index card into it.

Writing a book doesn’t always happen in an organized way. Writers are creative folk and there are different ways to begin. Many things can trigger a germ of an idea from which a novel can develop: an overheard snatch of conversation; a newspaper or magazine article; a scene flashing through your mind unexpectedly.

Trust yourself and follow your intuition while you’re writing. This brings out that precious quality called “voice.”

Discipline is primary.

Talent is secondary.

Luck is nice, but a lack of luck can be overcome by persistence.

Use your experiences plus your imagination.

THE INCONVENIENT CORPSE is one thing I imagined first and then wrote down:

I first imagined these feet!

Hugs to all,

Jackie

OBSOLETE THINGS: CHRISTMAS CARDS AND ME

2011-12-11T19:04:00.002-06:00

Today I signed, hand-addressed, licked/ sealed and stamped 65 Christmas cards with this picture of me and my grandchildren.

I know that no one sends cards anymore except a few of us diehards. It would be very dense of me not to know, because folks tell me this on a regular basis. Often someone I’ve sent a card to.

“I got your card, but I don’t send any, so you won't get one from me.”

I’d already figured that out, since none had arrived in the mail, but saying that would be rude. And besides, I like this person, a lot, or I wouldn’t have sent the card.

“That’s okay,” I say, “I just send cards because I enjoy it. I don’t expect one in return.”

I said this to a darling but outspoken cousin last year. She didn’t seem to agree with me about not expecting a card back.

“Yes you do,” she said, “and that’s why I’m calling you…instead of sending a card.”

Gotta love my cousins.

Perhaps I should have explained to her, that sending Christmas cards has been a tradition for me since I was a child. My mother was a teacher in a small town. Usually a different one each year because, although she was a very good teacher, she had the unfortunate habit of telling parents the truth about their child.) She always recruited me to help. I was the stamp-sticker and the envelope licker. This started back when I was very young and postage stamps were 3 cents each. And that was a lot for a teacher to pay. Cards and stamps were a major Christmas expense for Mother. Back then you could actually buy something for a penny.

Anyway, I still send cards because I enjoy sending cards to the people I like. And if you’re a recipient, don’t worry because you didn’t send one to me. I absolve you of your guilt! I love Christmas and all it stands for.

Hugs,

Jackie

ANNOUNCING WINNERS OF FREE BOOK DRAWING!

2011-12-10T00:00:00.029-06:00

For 2 weeks I’ve kept a list of the names of readers who have left comments during our MURDER WE WRITE WINTER BLOG TOUR. These were written each day on the small pieces of paper that I recycled from old-draft copies of my work-in-progress. (THE CORPSE WHO WALKED IN THE DOOR)

I’m huge on recycling, having developed the habit way before it became trendy. My mother was a single parent school teacher with 3 kids, and we used old bread wrappers (waxed paper back then) to wrap our sandwiches for school sack lunches. But I digress…

On our 14 days of posts, I told you that the names were going into my black fedora. And so they did. But this morning, small squares of folded papers were spilling out of that hat onto my dining room table. So I had to switch every name to the biggest basket I own.

My Fedora Runneth Over

This basket was handmade by a weaver in the Upper East region of Ghana, West Africa called Bolgatanga. These lovely and practical works of art are marketed by Bolga Baskets International, and are often the sole income for these families. If you love beautiful things, or need a special Christmas gift, check them out:

http://www.africanbaskets.biz/

But back to my winners!

I said I was going to give away two books, one copy of THE INCONVENIENT CORPSE and one copy of FOXY STATEHOOD HENS AND MURDER MOST FOWL!

But.

In the spirit of Christmas I’m doubling that number. Here are the winners:

INCONVENIENT CORPSE, Carol-Lynn Rossel and Lynn Somerville.

FOXY STATEHOOD HENS AND MURDER MOST FOWL: Silvia Dickey Smith and Caroline Clemmons.

Congratulations to these winners. Would each of you contact me personally by email jacqking6@gmail.com and send me your mailing addresses.

And a huge THANK YOU to each person who left a comment. I hope your holidays are wonderful.

Hugs to all,

Jackie

MURDER WE WRITE BLOG TOUR ENDS

2011-12-09T00:00:00.004-06:00

Can you get jetlag from a bus tour? That idea seems weird to me, but my head is spinning from the 14-Day MURDER WE WRITE BLOG TOUR that ended yesterday. Each day we played musical-blogs and moved from one Mystery Writer’s site to another. It was wild, but I’m declaring it a success because when we climbed off the bus no one was bleeding.

Earl Staggs was driving, by the way, and that guy knows how to take a curve. These Texans all use a heavy foot, and we really booked it.

I never dreamed that I’d take a 2-week trip with 14 other people, much less 14 writers. As I’ve said before, writers are a little different kind of cat. We can’t help it. Something in our DNA tells us that we must record what we see. We’re compelled to write down all sorts of things in the way we see them. Each member of our Team could take the same basic plot, and using our own characters, we would each spin a different story.

That’s what brings magic into writing. And into reading.

Here’s the whole bunch, along with their blog addresses:

~~~~~~~

Tour Guest authors on Cozy Mysteries and Other Madness:
Nov. 25 – Timothy Hallinan
Blog url: http://www.timothyhallinan.com/blog/

Nov. 26 – M. M. Gornell

Blog url: http://www.mmgornell.wordpress.com/

Nov. 27 – Wendy Gager

Blog url: www.wsgager.blogspot.com

Nov. 28 – Alice Duncan

Blog url: http://aliceduncanblog.blogspot.com/

29 – John M. Daniel

Blog url: http://johnmdaniel.blogspot.com

Nov. 30 – Pat Browning

Blog url: http://pbrowning.blogspot.com/

Dec. 1 – Ron Benrey

Blog url: http://blog.benrey.com

Dec. 2 – Beth Anderson

Blog url: http://www.bethanderson-hotclue.com/blog

Dec. 3 – Anne K. Albert

Blog url: http://anne-k-albert.blogspot.com
http://muriel-reeves-mysteries.blogspot.com

Dec. 4 – Earl Staggs

Blog url: http://earlwstaggs.wordpress.com/

Dec. 5 – Jinx Schwartz

Blog url: http://www.jinxschwartz.blogspot.com

Dec. 6 – Mike Orenduff

Blog url: http://thepotthief.blogspot.com

Dec. 7 – Marilyn Meredith
Blog url: http://marilynmeredith.blogspot.com

Dec. 8 – Jean Henry Mead

Blog url: http://mysteriouspeople.blogspot.com/
http://murderousmusings.blogspot.com/
http://makeminemystery.blogspot.com/

DAY 14-MURDER WE WRITE BLOG TOUR WITH JEAN HENRY MEAD

2011-12-08T00:00:00.038-06:00

Good morning Readers, and welcome again to MYSTERY WE WRITE HOLIDAY BLOG TOUR. Today I’m presenting Jean Henry Mead who will tell us how she plots her juvenile mysteries. Jean is the author of 15 books, half of them mystery/suspense and historical novels. She’s also an award-winning photojournalist. In addition to her books, the former news reporter and magazine editor has also published articles domestically as well as abroad.
Welcome Jean to Cozy Mysteries and Other Madness. I’m now turning the cyber-podium over to you.

Jean Henry Mead

~~~~~

Hi Everyone,
Today I’m talking about plotting juvenile mysteries. Plotting is hard work, especially when writing for kids. You need a good setting, a problem, and the kinds of characters that children can relate to. Even the most talented writers often fall by the wayside. Some start a manuscript with a great protagonist and a unique problem, but the storyline often loses momentum and is never finished because of plot problems.

Fledgling writers usually feel that all you need is a strong central theme, memorable characters and a problem that is resolved over the course of the book. I write middle grade mysteries in addition to senior sleuth novels, but after 13 published books, I still needed help, so I took a children’s literature course and was fortunate to have Louise Munro Foley as my mentor. She also laces her books with humor. My book project under her tutelage was subsequently published as Mystery of Spider Mountain, a semi-autobiographical novel set in the Los Angeles hills, where I grew up.

Plotting for juvenile mysteries requires even more planning than mysteries for adults, in my opinion. First, I had to decide on a setting. Most children’s lives are centered around school so I had to decide if my plot was going to take place then, during vacation or after school. When I had decided how the problem or action was going to take place, I needed to develop a time line when events were going to happen. That meant outlining, which I had only previously done with nonfiction books. The outline doesn’t have to be detailed but it should include events that are going to get progressively worse as the plot marches toward its conclusion.

I had to decide which activities and types of characters I needed to complicate my protagonists’ problem. Middle graders don’t require complicated plots so it’s usually best to concentrate on one powerful theme in a simple plotline, such as bullying or losing a friend or parent. I went a little beyond that with three young protagonists and their fears.

One of the things I learned is that child sleuths should have minimal help from adults. So they need to be smart enough to figure things out on their own. However, in my second Hamilton Kids’ mystery novel, I had Jaime 13, Sam 11 and Danny 9, visiting their Uncle Harry at his ranch in Wyoming’s Laramie Mountains, where I now live. That presented a plotting problem because the kids are confined to the ranch, with its variety of game and farm animals they’ve never seen before. They use their Ouija board, as in Spider Mountain, to discover who the culprit is that’s setting fire to their uncle’s hay field. And why he’s doing it. But convincing their uncle is another problem. They also investigate witchcraft on the Internet and attend the Summer Solstice Festival of witches and warlocks that actually takes place annually here on Casper Mountain the first day of summer. The woman who homesteaded the land where the festival is held is said to still haunt the area. Thus, the book’s title, Ghost of Crimson Dawn.

I use actual events and settings in all my books, whenever possible. All fiction has its roots in fact, even fantasy novels. So, in order to suspend disbelief, plenty of research should be conducted before the writing begins as well as spooned-in tidbits as the story progresses. Children are well informed these days and can easily check your facts on their own computers. And if you need a first reader, who better than your own child or grandchildren?

~~~~~

Thanks, Jackie for inviting me to join you and your readers. I’m giving away one of my mystery ebooks at the end of each of my 14 blog appearances, so everyone needs to leave a comment to get their name in the hat.

I’m also giving away three print novels at the conclusion of the tour. Be sure and leave a comment and email address to be eligible for the drawings. My blog tour schedule is listed at: http://jeansblogtour.blogspot.com/_ (http://jeansblogtour.blogspot.com/)

Jean, having you as a guest was all my pleasure. And readers, don't forget to leave those comments for a chance at winning a book.

Jean's latest Logan & Cafferty mystery/suspense novel, Murder on the Interstate, is available at: Amazon.com: _http://tinyurl.com/6znjvsa_ (http://tinyurl.com/6znjvsa) (print and Kindle) and Barnes and Noble: _http://tinyurl.com/3vxzppy_ (http://tinyurl.com/3vxzppy) (Nook)

Murder on the Interstate

Jean’s children’s books are available in print, Kindle and Nook.

Mystery of Spider Mountain: http://www.amazon.com/Mystery-Spider-Mountain-Hamilton-kids/dp/1931415307/ref=sr_1_1_title_0_main?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1317062609&sr=1-1

GHOST OF CRIMSON DAWN is now available on Amazon.

I’ll announce the winners of the books I’m giving away tomorrow.

Hugs to all,

Jackie

DAY 13-MYSTERY WE WRITE BLOG TOUR WITH MARILYN MEREDITH

2011-12-07T00:00:00.008-06:00

Welcome to the 13^th day of our exciting “Mystery We Write Holiday Blog Tour.” Today I’m presenting Marilyn Meredith, author of over thirty published novels. These include the award winning Deputy Tempe Crabtree mystery series, the latest Bears With Us from Mundania Press.

Marilyn Meredith

Writing as F.M. Meredith, her latest Rocky Bluff P.D. crime novel is Angel Lost, the third from Oak Tree Press. Visit her at:

ANGEL LOST

http://fictionforyou.com and at http://marilymeredith.blogspot.com/

Let’s give our guest a warm welcome of cyber applause, please.

Considering Mystery Genres

by Marilyn Meredith

There are so many mystery genres: private eye, police procedural, cozy, locked-room, puzzle, amateur sleuth, hard-boiled, noir, woman in jeopardy, serial killer, religious, thriller, supernatural, suspense, romantic suspense, historical, vampire, werewolf, zombie and more that I can’t think of right now.

As an author, I know that when I started writing mysteries, I merely wrote the kind of mysteries I liked to read—which were many types.

In the good old days I don’t think they divided mysteries into genres. Like many girls I grew up on Nancy Drew and quickly changed to adult P.I novels and then any mystery I could get my hands on. I loved Perry Mason and read every Erle Stanley Gardner mystery I could find.

The very first mystery I wrote had a bit of a supernatural element in it, astral projection, and I called it The Astral Gift.

From there I moved onto police procedurals, beginning with Final Respects. After writing more in that series, I switched to a stand-alone called Guilt by Association. The main character in that book kind of evolved into Deputy Tempe Crabtree, a female Native American deputy in a mountain community I called Bear Creek. The first book in the series is Deadly Trail which has a great deal of Native American lore and focuses on Tempe and the fact that she knew little about her Indian heritage. Of course there is a murder which Tempe solves.

Next came Deadly Omen which begins with a Pow Wow, followed by Unequally Yoked about a missing child and Tempe using an Indian ceremonial to find out what she needed to know which upsets her preacher husband. Then Intervention, what might be termed a locked-room mystery since it takes place during a blizzard and Tempe and her husband are isolated with a bunch of movie people in a mountain lodge. In Wing Beat Tempe discovers a marijuana farm hidden in the mountains. In Calling the Dead she investigates a murder and a suicide and calls back the dead to learn the truth. Judgment Fire brings back memories Tempe had hidden away and explain why she didn’t embrace her Native American heritage. Traveling to Crescent City CA to find out more about a murder victim, Tempe learns a lot about the Tolowa people and ultimately her life is threatened in Santa Barbara in Kindred Spirits. In Dispel the Mist Tempe encounters the legendary Hairy Man on the Bear Creek Indian Reservation. She investigates the death of a popular Native American on the rez and discovers an active paramilitary group in the mountains in Invisible Path.

INVISIBLE PATH

The latest book, Bears With Us, Deputy Tempe Crabtree has her hands full when bears turn up in and around Bear Creek, a young teen commits suicide and his parents’ actions are suspicious, a prominent woman files a complaint against Tempe and her preacher husband Hutch, a love affair from long ago comes to light, and a woman suffering from dementia disappears.

So, the question is how do I classify this mystery series? Native American, supernatural, police procedural, religious, and maybe cozy since I don’t use bad language and always close the bedroom door.

What I think I’ve written is a mystery with all of the above elements. Putting any mystery into one little niche is nearly impossible.

To read Bears With Us and make your own decision, you can go directly to the publisher’s website and order any version of e-book or the trade paperback:

Bears With Us

http://mundania.com/book.php?title=Bears+With+Us/

Or find the book on Amazon.com.

~~~~~

Thanks, Marilyn for that very interesting article on Mystery Genres.

Remember Readers, our 15-member tour group is giving away over 50 FREE BOOKS during our tour. For a chance to win one (or more) of these mysteries, visit each blog and leave a comment. Start here!
Hugs,
Jackie

Day 12-MYSTERY WE WRITE HOLIDAY BLOG TOUR WITH MIKE ORENDUFF

2011-12-06T00:00:00.002-06:00

Welcome to the 12^th day of our MYSTERY WE WRITE HOLIDAY BLOG TOUR featuring 15 dynamite mystery writers, including yours truly. If you leave a comment on each of our blogsites, you may win one of the 50 plus books that will be given away either during the tour or immediately following December 8^th.

Mike Orenduff

Today I’m featuring award-winning author Mike Orenduff, and he’s going to tell us what makes a good mystery story. Mike is the author of The Pot Thief series, which are set in New Mexico. THE POT THIEF WHO STUDED ESCOFFIER is his latest in the series.

http://tinyurl.com/89jera9

What Makes a Good Mystery Story?

by Mike Orenduff

I don’t understand why the most common question I get at signings and talks is, “Where do you get your ideas?” My usual answer is, “I steal them from other writers.” That gets a laugh and – unless the questioner is persistent – also gets me off the hook.

The fact is, ideas are the easiest part of writing a mystery. Ideas are like the atmosphere; they surround us. We breathe them in by the thousands every day. Try this experiment the next time you’re out shopping. Look at the people and things around you and think how they might fit into a mystery story. When you see the young man collecting the carts in the grocery store parking lot, put that in a mystery. Maybe you see a villain making his escape by collecting carts while the police rush into the store because who notices the kid collecting the carts? Maybe you imagine someone seeing a cart with two large boxes of rat poison and remembering that scene when she reads about a mysterious poisoning. Then she wonders if there might be fingerprints on the cart handle despite all the people who may have touched it in the intervening days. Don’t like these? Then make up some better ones. I’ll wager you can come up with them easily.

It’s also easy to create characters and settings. The components of a mystery story are not the challenge. When one mystery is better than another, it ‘s not because it has better pieces, it ‘s because it has better writing. Suppose you want to have your protagonist describe a woman as attractive and then change his mind as he gets closer. You could have him say, “She was a quite a looker, but as I approached her bar stool, I changed my mind.” It isn’t a terrible sentence, just pedestrian. This one is better: “From thirty feet away she looked like a lot of class. From ten feet away she looked like something made up to be seen from thirty feet away." That sentence is from The High Window by Raymond Chandler.

Writing mysteries differs from writing romance, science fiction, or adventure because each genre has its own traditions. Mysteries have a murder, suspects, clues and a solution. There are also guidelines about the order of things. It’s generally a good idea to have the solution closer to the end of the story than to the beginning. But there are no hard and fast rules. You can’t write a good mystery by just lining up the components any more than you can write a good song by just lining up notes.

Obviously, not all good writing is the same. Chandler had Marlowe speak with irony and hyperbole. Lawrence Saunders had McNally speak with whimsy. Two different styles, both successful. If I could teach people to be good writers, I could make a lot more money doing that than writing books. The best advice I can give is find the right voice for your protagonist and stay consistent.

~~~~~

Thanks Mike, for visiting us today and for this most interesting post.

Remember Readers; leave a comment on each of our blogs. This group is giving away over 50 books total, either during the tour or immediately afterwards. I’m giving a signed copy of my cozy mystery THE INCONVENIENT CORPSE and a signed copy of THE FOXY HENS AND MURDER MOST FOWL. Names will be drawn by random from those who take time to leave a comment.

Hugs to all,

Jackie

DAY 11-MYSTERY WE WRITE HOLIDAY BLOG TOUR WITH JINX SCHWARTZ

2011-12-05T00:00:00.011-06:00

Welcome to the 11^th day of our MURDER WE WRITE HOLIDAY BLOG TOUR. Remember everyone; our 15-member tour group is giving away over 50 FREE BOOKS during our tour. For a chance to win one (or more) of these mysteries, visit each blog and leave a comment.

Today's author was born and raised to be an adventuress. Jinx Schwartz is a different kind of writer, and I'm delighted to have her visiting today. Author of JUST DESERTS, 4th in her award-winning mystery series featuring Hetta Coffey, Jinx has lived a life that sounds as if it comes straight from a novel.

The Facts and Nothing but the Facts:

Jinx Schwartz was raised in the jungles of Haiti and Thailand, with returns to Texas in-between. Jinx followed her father's steel-toed footsteps into the Construction and Engineering industry in hopes of building dams. Finding all the good rivers taken, she traveled the world defacing other landscapes with mega-projects in Alaska, Japan, New Zealand, Puerto Rico and Mexico.

Jinx Schwartz

Jinx and her husband, Mad Dog Schwartz, opted over twenty years ago to become cash-poor cruisers rather than continue chasing the rat. They sailed under the Golden Gate Bridge, turned left, and headed for Mexico. Meaning to stay three months, they, much like the crew of the S.S. Minnow, never returned. They now divide their time between Arizona and Mexico's Sea of Cortez.

STOLEN FROM THE HEADLINES: JUST DESERTS is BOOK 4 of the Hetta Coffey Mystery Series (.99 on Kindle and Smashwords) www.jinxschwartz.com

Just Deserts

Jinx speaks:

First off, let us get this "deserts" thing clear. When one gets one's just deserts, it is not spelled desserts, but it is pronounced desserts. There are many such words misused everyday in news, books and just about every other written source, and I could blog about it for-ever, but not today; today's subject is about blatantly stealing book material from the news.

Hetta Coffey's a woman with a yacht, and she is not afraid to use it. The series has garnered an EPPIE Award (Just Add Water, Book 1), and a finalist place for an EPPIE (Just Add Trouble, Book 3.) The judges must have been on vacation for Just Add Salt, Book 2) :-)

Hetta mainly plies Mexican waters these days, not looking for, but finding anyway, a sea of trouble. However, in Just Deserts, Hetta is forced to take on a job to pay for major boat repairs, and ends up on the tumultuous Arizona/Mexico border. With her penchant for trouble, how can she NOT get into deep doo-doo?

I didn't have to look far when researching possible scenarios in Southern Arizona and Northern Mexico, but I dug deeper than the everyday evening news blurbs of cartels offing each other, drug smuggling, and the like. What I unearthed is a strong anti-Gringo (that would be Hetta) movement in Mexico with roots leading straight to al-Qaeda! Scary, but true. Leave it to Hetta to get into it with them, and a batch of human smugglers, leading to a showdown on the border.

My point is, when lifting a subject from the news, I always dig deeper. That deeper digging sometimes has me tunneling to China and way off track of where I thought I was going, but research is always rewarding. As a reader, as well as a writer, I appreciate a book that leads me into an area I didn't know about, even if it does sometimes make me lose a little sleep.

That said, it is also obvious when a writer does not do their homework. I write about what I know, but when I don't know the subject well, I am an obsessive researcher. Amazing, isn't it, what we learn?

I will gift a Kindle version of Just Deserts to whoever makes the best comment (in MY not-so-humble opinion) to this blog.

~~~~~

Thanks Jinx, for stopping by. I’m sure each reader will want to comment on your comment today.

Readers, our 15-member tour group is giving away over 50 FREE BOOKS during our tour. For a chance to win one (or more) of these mysteries, visit each blog and leave a comment.

I’ll be giving away a signed copy of THE INCONVENIENT CORPSE and another of FOXY STATEHOOD HENS AND MURDER MOST FOWL, a collection of 3 novellas. My story, “The Spinster, the Pig, and the Orphan,” is a Historical Mystery set in 1889 Guthrie, Oklahoma Territory. To get your name in the hat for my free books, leave a comment below.

For those who want to download or order a copy of JUST DESERTS for yourself, here’s the link:

http://amzn.to/pYo4tT

Thanks for stopping by,

Jackie

DAY 10-MYSTERY WE WRITE HOLIDAY BLOG TOUR WITH EARL STAGGS

2011-12-04T00:00:00.002-06:00

Good morning Readers. Welcome to the 10^th day of the MURDER WE WRITE HOLIDAY BLOG TOUR. I hope you’re enjoying my guests as much as I am.

Remember: The group is giving away over 50 FREE BOOKS during this tour. For a chance to win one (or more) of these mysteries, visit each blog and leave a comment.

Today our guest author is Derringer Award winning author Earl Staggs. Many of his short stories have been published in magazines and anthologies. He has also served as Managing Editor of Futures Mystery Magazine and as President of the Short Mystery Fiction Society. His novel MEMORY OF A MURDER earned thirteen Five Star reviews online at Amazon and B&N. His column “Write Tight” appears in the online magazine Apollo’s Lyre. He is also a contributing blog member of Murderous Musings and Make Mine Mystery. He hosts workshops for the Muse Online Writers Conference and the Catholic Writers Conference Online and is a frequent speaker at conferences and writers groups.

Earl Staggs

THE STORY BEHIND THE STORY

By Earl Staggs

I find it interesting to know how authors came to write a particular novel or short story. Where did the idea come from? How did they develop the characters? How did they come up with the plot?

With that in mind, this is the story about a short story of mine which eventually led me to write my first mystery novel with the same characters.

When my wife and I left the cold winters of Maryland behind and moved south, I made two decisions. One, I would retire from full time employment and, two, I’d do something I’d always wanted to do: become a mystery writer. The first step was to sign up for a writing class at the community college.

“By the end of this class, each one of you will have written a short mystery story.”

The instructor made that announcement the first night.

Gulp.

When I signed up for a class called “Writing Mystery,” I thought someone was going to teach me how, not make me do it right away. Okay, I reasoned, she’s a professor of literature at the college, so if she says we can do it, I suppose we can.

Then she said, “You have to come up with your own plot and your own characters.”

Another gulp.

I had no idea where to start, but not knowing how had never stopped me from doing anything before.

I thought about characters first. My protagonist, I decided, would be a former FBI agent who is now a private investigator. That would give him the training and expertise to pursue the bad guys. But I wanted him to offer something different from all the other PI’s already out there. It happened there was a Psychic Fair in town that week. That reminded me of a fascination I’d always had with psychic phenomena. I went to the Fair and talked with several psychics. These were not the storefront psychics who wear flowing robes and put on a bizarre show. They were also not the kind who will tell you everything you want to know over the telephone for three dollars a minute. They were ordinary people who lived ordinary lives when not using their gift. When they did use their gift, it was to assist law enforcement agencies solve crimes. Yes! That’s what I wanted for my guy.

I named him Benjamin Masterson and gave him some psychic abilities. He wouldn’t see or talk with ghosts or dead people. A medium does that, not a psychic. When he visited a crime scene or touched an object related to a crime, however, fleeting images would flash in his mind. Sometimes, those images would steer him in the right direction. Other times, they would only leave him confused because he didn’t understand what they meant. That’s the way it is with real-life psychics. It’s not an exact science. For the most part, Benjamin would rely on his FBI experience and old-fashioned police work.

I made Benjamin a widower because I felt a single PI has more freedom to travel, stay out all night if necessary, and be receptive should one of those beautiful and mysterious women -- a blonde, of course -- enter his life. I also added some close friends, some people who were not friends and, naturally, someone intent on killing people.

The next hurdle was to come up with a plot. I started with Benjamin receiving a phone call asking him to consult on a case that had local police stumped. A sniper had taken shots at a popular politician, but missed him and killed another man instead.

With a lot of help from the instructor and feedback from others in the class, I finished the story. I called it “The Missing Sniper.” I was quite proud of it and thought I’d done a great job even though Benjamin was not approached by a beautiful, seductive blonde. The story was so good, I decided to send it out to a few magazines, then wait to see which one offered me the best deal. Instead of deals, they all offered rejection letters. I was crushed. So crushed, I stuffed that story in a drawer and wiped it out of my mind.

I didn’t stop writing short mystery stories, however, and within a couple years, was fortunate enough to have several of them published. One day, I remembered that first story and dug it out. When I looked it over, I saw many reasons why it had been rejected. I suspect I’d learned a lot about writing by then. I decided to rewrite it.

The first thing I did was change the main character’s name. Benjamin Masterson seemed too stiff and formal for him. After much thought, his name became Adam Kingston. Next, I cut out about 4,000 words. The story shrunk from 13,000 words to 9,000. Apparently, I had also learned something about editing and tightening since that first attempt. I could have filled a large trash can with unnecessary adverbs, adjectives, and anything that didn’t move the story forward.

When I sent the story out this time, two magazines wanted it. One was a print magazine and one was an ezine. What to do? Incredibly, they both agreed to publish it simultaneously. I’d never heard of that, and I was thrilled.

When “The Missing Sniper” appeared, response to the character and the premise was so enthusiastic and encouraging, I decided to put the same guy into a full novel. I did, and a couple years later, MEMORY OF A MURDER featuring Adam Kingston was published and is still selling quite well.

Now, to everyone who read all the way to here, you’re invited to drop by my Blog/Website at: http://earlwstaggs.wordpress.com and visit with my special guest for the day, an author I know you’ll find interesting.

While you're there, you can read Chapter One of MEMORY OF A MURDER, my first mystery novel, which earned thirteen Five Star reviews.

Memory of a murder

You can also read “The Day I Almost Became a Great Writer,” which some say is the funniest story I’ve ever written. There’s another one there called “White Hats and Happy Trails,” about the day I spent with a boyhood idol, Roy Rogers.

Don’t forget to leave a comment on my site. Everyone who does will be entered in a drawing on December 9. The first name drawn will receive a signed print copy of MEMORY OF A MURDER. The second name drawn will have a choice of an ebook or print copy of SHORT STORIES OF EARL STAGGS, a collection of sixteen of my best short stories.

Short Stories of Earl Staggs

Thank you, Jackie, for allowing me to visit here and tell the story behind the story.

~~~~~

Earl, the pleasure has been mine, I assure you. I love your humor and your books, and I'm sure my readers will, too.

Here's Earl's contact information:

Email: earlstaggs@sbcglobal.net

Website: http://earlwstaggs.wordpress.com

Thanks to everyone for stopping by, and remember, if you leave a comment that gives you a chance at winning a free books.

Hugs,
Jackie

DAY 9-MYSTERY WE WRITE HOLIDAY BLOG TOUR WITH ANNE K. ALBERT

2011-12-03T00:00:00.003-06:00

Hi Guys and Gals, I’m glad you were able to stop by on this 9^th day of our MYSTERY WE WRITE HOLIDAY BLOG TOUR featuring 15 dynamite mystery writers. If you leave a comment on each of our blogsites, you may win one of the 50 plus books that will be given away either during the tour or immediately following December 8^th.

Today I’m featuring award-winning author Anne K. Albert. Her award winning stories chill the spine, warm the heart and soothe the soul…all with a delightful touch of humor. A member of Romance Writers of America, Mystery Writers of America, Sisters in Crime, and married to her high school sweetheart for more than a quarter of a century, it's a given she'd write mystery and romantic suspense. When not writing she loves to travel, visit friends and family, and of course, read using ‘Threegio’ her cherished and much beloved Kindle 3G!

Anne K. Albert

Anne is also an original member of the first 2011 Mystery We Write Blog Tour. You’ll find my interview with her here: http://bnbmysteries.blogspot.com/2011/07/mystery-we-write-blog-tour-with-anne-k.html. Today, she’s sharing an excerpt with us.

Anne - Thanks for featuring me today, Jackie. It’s hard to believe it’s already Day 9 of the second 2011 Mystery We Write Blog Tour. Time sure flies when we’re having fun. J

Jackie – It certainly does! Tell us about your book.

Anne - FRANK, INCENSE AND MURIEL is set the week before Christmas when the stress of the holidays is enough to frazzle anyone’s nerves. Tensions increase when a friend begs Muriel to team up with a sexy private investigator to find a missing woman. Forced to deal with an embezzler, kidnapper, and femme fatale is bad enough, but add Muriel’s zany yet loveable family to the mix and their desire to win the coveted D-DAY (Death Defying Act of the Year) Award, and the situation can only get worse. This cozy, comedic mystery is recipient of the prestigious 2011 Holt Medallion Award of Merit.

2011 Holt Medallion Award of Merit

Here’s an excerpt:

My cell phone blared from the confines of my purse. I dug to retrieve it, and then picked up. “Hello?”

“Muriel,” Aunt Val said. “Come home. Quick. I think I accidentally killed someone.”

“What do you mean ‘accidentally’?” Frankie accelerated, steering the Envoy into the outside lane of highway 290 and zooming past everything in sight. Including a police cruiser.

“How should I know?” I said. “Val hung up before I could ask for specifics.”

“She’s at your house?”

“I think so.”

“You think so?”

I checked the rearview mirror for flashing lights. “Slow down. You’ll get a ticket.”

“You’re more worried about a traffic violation than the fact you’re aunt just killed somebody?”

“She thinks she killed someone. Big difference.”

“Right.”

Ten minutes later, we arrived in my driveway. The Christmas lights I’d put up that morning stretched the full length of the front of the house and twinkled on the snow-covered shrubbery with wild abandon. I might have been impressed with my handiwork if not for Val and Big Boy standing guard beside the garage. In the shadows, I saw a body at their feet.

I climbed out of the Envoy and dashed to their assistance. Problem was I had no idea what to do. Dead bodies were new to me. As were missing persons, kidnappers and ransom demands. But I was learning. Fast.

“Are you okay?” I asked, as Frankie joined me.

“I’m fine.” Reigning Big Boy in by his collar, Val toed the body that lay face down in the snow. “Don’t know about him, though.”

“What happened?”

“I took Big Boy out for his evening constitutional. Got as far as your driveway, noticed you’d put up some lights and stopped to admire them. Then, I spotted someone crouching by the side of the garage. I figured he was a burglar, so I let Big Boy loose and, well, one thing led to another.”

“Such as?” Frankie knelt down to examine the body.

“Big Boy lunged at him. I thought he’d tear the guy to pieces. Turns out all he wanted to do was sniff his crotch. You know how dogs are.”

Yeah. We knew.

“Anyway, this guy wasn’t all that obliging. He tried to push Big Boy away. Big Boy pushed back. Then the guy fell backwards into that drift and I think he hit his head on Muriel’s gnome. See?” She pointed to a mound of snow. “It’s right there. You can see the top of its head. It’s the ugliest gnome I’ve ever seen.”

Frankie looked up at me. “You’ve got a gnome?”

“Gargoyle. And it’s supposed to be ugly. To ward off evil spirits.”

“Doesn’t ward off thieves or burglars,” Val pointed out.

Frankie placed his middle finger on the man’s throat. “He’s alive.”

Readers can visit me online at her website http://www.AnneKAlbert.com/ and blogs http://anne-k-albert.blogspot.com/ and http://muriel-reeves-mysteries.blogspot.com. I’m also on Facebook www.facebook.com/annekalbert and Twitter www.twitter.com/AnneKAlbert!

I’d like to encourage readers to enter my comment-to-win contest.

CONTEST DETAILS: Three names will be selected at random from comments on all 14 of my Mystery We Write Blog Tour guest appearances. Winners will receive an e-copy of FRANK, INCENSE AND MURIEL, book one of the Muriel Reeves Mysteries. Visit http://tinyurl.com/3hzpqvv for my schedule and contest details. Good luck!

~~~~~

Link for Anne’s book: http://www.amazon.com/Frank-Incense-and-Muriel-ebook/dp/B004CLYDRO/

Thanks a million Anne, for stopping by to discuss your mystery FRANK, INCENSE AND MURIEL. I loved your book and know that my readers will enjoy it, also.

Remember Readers: leave a comment on each of our blogs. This group is giving away over 50 books total, either during the tour or immediately afterwards.

I’m giving a signed copy of my cozy mystery THE INCONVENIENT CORPSE and a signed copy of THE FOXY HENS AND MURDER MOST FOWL. Names will be drawn by random from those who take time to leave a comment.

Hugs to all,

Jackie

DAY 8-MYSTERY WE WRITE HOLIDAY BLOG TOUR WITH BETH ANDERSEN

2011-12-02T00:00:00.006-06:00

Greetings to all my friends. I’m delighted you’ve stopped by on this 8^th day of our MYSTERY WE WRITE HOLIDAY BLOG TOUR. Remember: our 15-member tour group is giving away over 50 FREE BOOKS during this tour. For a chance to win one (or more) of these mysteries, visit each blog and leave a comment.

Today’s featured mystery writer is Beth Anderson, a multi-published, award winning author in several genres including romance and mainstream crime fiction. A full time author, she now lives in Washington state. Beth has appeared on Chicago's WGN Morning Show, The ABC Evening News, as well as numerous other radio and cable television shows. She has guest lectured at Purdue University, Moraine Valley College, and many libraries and writers' conferences.

Now I’m turning the virtual podium over to Beth Anderson:

Beth Anderson

~~~~~

Sub-Genres

by Beth Anderson

This is a continuation of two other blogs by me in this tour explaining, for the new writer, the differences in different types of mysteries, depending on the sub-genre. Today we start with LEGAL, MEDICAL, and HISTORICAL:

Big, Big, Big on the market. These are often six-figure advance books, folks. As with the police procedural, accuracy in a legal, medical or historical mystery is crucial to weaving a believable plot. You have to do some serious research to be able to write one of these and make it believable if you’re not already a lawyer or doctor or historian.

These books are loaded with legal and medical or historical terminology, although as with anything else, this shouldn’t be overdone because you don’t want to irritate your reader. If you’re a pro at any of these jobs and can toss out the jargon naturally, you’ll be okay. The lay person is going to have a tougher time at this and dialog is the main place where he’s going to fail if he’s going to.

So be aware, if you’re not a pro at one of these professions, better allow yourself lots of time for editing your dialog till it sounds perfect to someone who is a pro, and have one check it. Remember, the editor who may be interested in this type of book has read hundreds of them, maybe more, and this editor will spot phony dialog in a heartbeat. So be aware of that and have it checked out first.

To add to all of this, the main sub-genres have split out into sub-sub-genres. Confused? Don’t be. That simply means using careers like quilting, gardening, cooking, dog sled racing, cleaning establishments, and other main elements, which have become a big part of the cozy scene.

Police procedurals have also split out, now featuring different types of law enforcement agencies, for instance National Park Service, US Fish and Wildlife Service, etc.

Now we come to some new sub-sub categories, which aren’t strictly traditional mysteries as we’ve discussed them above. How about the Woo Woo category, which contains supernatural elements? My newest book, RAVEN TALKS BACK, contains some supernatural/paranormal elements even though it's a mainstream mystery.

Raven Talks Back

You have to be careful with supernatural and paranormal elements so that the book will be believable. Remember, your mystery reader is pretty sophisticated about normal mysteries anyhow, and a paranormal mystery will have to be able to make that same reader suspend disbelief in a big way.

One of the tricks to writing this type of book is to not overdo the drama. Over-explaining can actually wreck the whole thing. Not easy to do, which is why I wanted to do it. Just writing it and making sure I got it right so it would be completely believable had me a little spooked, but the way I wrote it, the supernatural things just are what they are and I never tried to explain them other than what went on in the book. I believed them when I wrote them and I think that has made it come across as believable to people who’ve read it. Your mileage may vary, but I’ve never had anyone challenge me on the paranormal elements in RAVEN TALKS BACK. (So far…;-)

Links for Beth Anderson books:

Website: http://www.bethanderson-hotclue.com

Blog: http://www.bethanderson-hotclue.com/blog

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/?ref=home#!/bethanderson43

Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Beth-Anderson/e/B000APMRR4/ref=ntt_athr_dp_pel_1

Barnes & Noble: http://search.barnesandnoble.com/Raven-Talks-Back/Beth-Anderson/e/2940012515407/?itm=1&USRI=beth+anderson#MeetTheWriter

Also available at your favorite independent bookstores nationwide.

~~~~~

Thanks, Beth for stopping by. I loved your article on sub-genres and I know our readers have, too.

I’ve read RAVEN TALKS BACK myself, and loved every minute.

Remember Folks, our 15-member tour group is giving away over 50 FREE BOOKS during our tour. For a chance to win one (or more) of these mysteries, visit each blog and leave a comment.

Don’t forget to stop by tomorrow for another mysterious writer.

Hugs,

Jackie

DAY 7-MURDER WE WRITE HOLIDAY BLOG TOUR WITH RON BENREY

2011-12-01T00:00:00.034-06:00

Good morning Readers. Can you believe that it’s December already? We’re half way through our MURDER WE WRITE BLOG TOUR, and I hope you’re enjoying my guests as much as I am.

Remember: our 15-member tour group is giving away over 50 FREE BOOKS during this tour. For a chance to win one (or more) of these mysteries, visit each blog and leave a comment.

Today our guest author Ron Benrey, co-author of 9 books with his wife Janet, tells us how a married couple can collaborate without bloodshed.

~~~~~

Ron Benrey

When is a Mystery Novel Ready to Publish?

By Ron Benrey

My wife, Janet, and I write mystery novels together. One of the more challenging aspects of co-writing a novel is that the two authors are likely to disagree as to when a manuscript (or even a proposal) has reached the point of publishability.

Back when we were writing our first novel, I tend to be far more critical of our work than Janet:

Janet: “Everybody says our stuff is good — my friends, your friends, our critique group. Let’s send it out. We can’t sit on it forever.”

Ron: “It’s not ready yet. Good writing is alive, but our fiction seems dead. No... I can’t explain what I mean.”

Janet won. We sent it out—and received a large stack of rejections:

“Not up to our standards.”

“I didn’t fall in love with your book.”

“We don’t find the story sufficiently compelling.”

“Your protagonist, while appealing, seems distant and unapproachable.”

“Your novel is not right for us.”

These examples of standard “rejectionese” demonstrate the unhappy truth that gatekeepers rarely take the time to diagnose publishability problems and suggest specific fixes. We later learned that experienced agents/editors often make publishability decisions after reading a single page. They often read more, but rarely need to — because new novelists are likely to keep repeating the publishability errors they make on the first page.

We finally figured out that our writing lacked a critical element of publishable fiction: it didn’t create and establish what John Gardner (the well known teacher and novelist) named “the fictional dream.” That’s the experience the reader enjoys when he or she “falls” into the pages and enters the protagonist’s head. Calling our writing “dead” was a fairly apt description.

Once we diagnosed the problem, we were able to learn the craft behind creating a fictional dream. We rewrote our manuscript and sold our first novel soon thereafter.

My point is that you have to develop a “Publishability Meter” that lets you diagnose problems in your fiction. Without an accurate “instrument” to evaluate quality, wishing will likely triumph over reality; you like us will not be able to gauge when you writing is ready for prime time.

Ernest Hemingway said, “The most important thing a writer needs is “a built-in, shock-proof, manure detector.” (Ernest used a different word than manure.) I prefer Publishability Meter because I often speak at writers’ conferences and find it tricky to quote “pure” Hemingway. However, you get the idea.

Looking back, my “manure detector” was more highly developed than Janet’s—chiefly because I’d been a non-fiction writer for decades. I knew the smell of successful writing.

On the other hand, Janet was also right. You don’t want to sit on your work forever. Your Publishability Meter must be realistic—otherwise you will keep revising publishable fiction until the cows come home.

How do you develop such a finely tuned device? I know only one answer: Read mountains of fiction in your genre—and try to think like an editor when you do. I found it very useful to read works-in-progress at different writers’ conferences. They are great places to find problem-filled manuscripts that make ideal “good examples” of un-publishable fiction.

~~~~~

Ron’s impressive background:

Ron Benrey has co-written nine published mystery novels—in three series—with his wife Janet. Ron has been a writer forever—initially on magazines (his first real job was Electronics Editor at Popular Science Magazine), then in corporations (he wrote speeches for senior executives), and then as a novelist. Over the years, Ron has also authored ten non-fiction books, including the recently published “Know Your Rights — a Survival Guide for Non-Lawyers” (published by Sterling). Ron holds a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, a master’s degree in management from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, and a juris doctor from the Duquesne University School of Law. He is a member of the Bar of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.

~~~~~

Ever wanted to host one of the famous English Cream Teas? You can learn all the details in DEAD AS A SCONE, the first novel in the Benrey’s “Royal Tunbridge Wells Mysteries” series. You’ll also love the twists and turns in this traditional mystery:

Dead as a Scone

The story without any spoilers:

Murder is afoot is the sedate English town of Royal Tunbridge Wells … and the crime may be brewing in a tea pot!

Nigel Owen is having a rotten year. Downsized from a cushy management job at an insurance company in London, he is forced to accept a temporary post as managing director of the Royal Tunbridge Wells Tea Museum. Alas, he regrets living in a small town in Kent, he prefers drinking coffee (with a vengeance), and he roundly dislikes Flick Adams, PhD, an American scientist recently named the museum’s curator.

But then, the wildly unexpected happens. Dame Elspeth Hawker, the museum’s chief benefactor, keels over a board meeting—the apparent victim of a fatal heart attack. With the Dame’s demise, the museum’s world-famous collection is up for grabs, her cats, dog, and parrot are living at with Flick and Nigel—and the two prima donnas find themselves facing professional ruin.

But Flick—who knows a thing or two about forensic science—is convinced that Dame Elspeth did not die a natural death. As Flick and Nigel follow the clues—including a cryptic Biblical citation—they discover that a crime perpetrated more than a century ago sowed the seeds for a contemporary murder.

~~~~~

Thanks, Ron for stopping by. I’ve loved hearing more about your writing techniques. I’ve read DEAD AS A SCONE myself, and loved every minute.

Remember Readers, our 15-member tour group is giving away over 50 FREE BOOKS during our tour. For a chance to win one (or more) of these mysteries, visit each blog and leave a comment.

Be sure and stop by tomorrow for another mysterious writer.

Hugs,

Jackie

DAY 6-HOLIDAY BLOG TOUR WITH PAT BROWNING

2011-11-30T00:00:00.012-06:00

Hi Readers, it’s the 6^th day of our fabulous MYSTERY WE WRITE HOLIDAY BLOG. Remember, our 15-member tour-group will be giving away over 50 FREE BOOKS during this 2-week period. For a chance to win one (or more) mystery, visit each blog and leave a comment.

Today I’m delighted to present Pat Browning as my guest author. Pat draws ideas from her exciting personal experiences and uses them to conjure up her mysteries. She’s been a newspaper reporter and columnist, a travel agent, a correspondent for a travel magazine and a globetrotter. Wow! I’m breathless just thinking of all these things.

Pat Browning

Browning’s mystery ABSINTHE OF MALICE was published by Krill Press. (An earlier version titled, FULL CIRCLE, was published by iUniverse. ) An extensive excerpt can be read at Google Books --

http://tinyurl.com/23pojdm.

Absinthe of Malice

Now Pat’s going to amuse us with tales of her some past experiences, including what she sometimes cooks for breakfast.

~~~~~

PERFECT PITCH

By Pat Browning

Iwas going through three days' worth of mostly junk mail when I remembered that I was frying potatoes for breakfast. Rushed to the kitchen, lifted the skillet lid. Sizzle, sputter and snap. The spuds were just this side of burned. Dark, dark brown. Just like I like 'em.

It has something to do with growing up in Oklahoma. I picked up some new eating habits in California, but they didn't always replace the old ones. I still like my steaks well-done and I like my country fries crisp. Don't just drag the potatoes through the grease on their way to my plate. I want them crisp, darn it, CRISP.

Fred Harris wrote the perfect description of old-time Okie cooking in his mystery, COYOTE REVENGE:

(Quote)

Most of Mama's recipes, if she’d ever written them down, would have probably started out with: "First get the grease hot.” All the meat we ate—home-cured ham and sausage, newly killed chicken and meat-locker steak—was salted with a heavy hand and then fried nearly stiff. She salted and fried potatoes and mealed-okra, too, in plenty of lard. And Mama’s string beans or a mess of greens always went into the pot with a good dose of bacon drippings that she’d saved in a tin can on top of the stove. Then, salted generously, too, they were boiled to kingdom come.”
(End Quote)

The North Canadian River runs through Central Oklahoma.

Harris grew up in Walters, Oklahoma in the 1930s and ‘40s, which may be why he nails that time and place. mostly, though, I think God gave him perfect pitch.

I lived in Walters in the late 1930s. Harris’s writing fits my memories down to the last fried pork chop and we remember some of the same people.

Coming to a bookstore near you: Mr. or Ms. Famous Author, reading from his or her latest novel. Question and answer period will follow; refreshments will be served.

If you see such a notice in the newspaper or on a telephone pole, move heaven and earth to get there, and learn from a pro. Rules Number One and Two: Serve refreshments; drop a famous name if you know one.

Harris is a star of considerable magnitude in the worlds of politics and academia. He’s now Professor Emeritus of Political Science at the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque but he's a former U.S. senator from Oklahoma and a former presidential candidate. He has written 17 non-fiction books, plus a couple of mysteries.

I first met him when he signed copies of COYOTE REVENGE at the Full Circle Bookstore in Oklahoma City. It was another example of perfect pitch.

We were seated on the mezzanine, not far from a coffee cart. The host circulated with a carafe of wine. Harris told a couple of funny stories about writing the book and the tips he got from Tony Hillerman. He opened the book and read the first chapter aloud, then answered questions before taking his place at a signing table.

Fred Harris signs a copy of COYOTE REVENGE for Tom Lucas, Cleveland County District Court Judge, at the Red Dirt Book Festival 2007

Blabbermouth me, I told him about my sojourn in Walters, and about the little red-headed boy who chased me into the cloakroom and gave me my first kiss, along about the 4th or 5th grade. I remembered the kid’s name, and so did Harris.

Well … some things a girl doesn’t forget. I wonder if that red-headed kid is still around …

~~~~~

Jackie, thanks for hosting me today. It was great fun!

The pleasure is all mine, Pat. I loved your stories about some of the famous people you’ve known and I know my readers have been entertained, too.

Here’s a little more information about Pat and her books:

ABSINTHE OF MALICE can be ordered through any bookstore or online from Amazon.com and Barnes & Noble.

Barnes and Noble, print and Nook
http://tinyurl.com/43lgk5u

Amazon, print and Kindle
http://tinyurl.com/3ry9gya

The second book in the series, METAPHOR FOR MURDER, is a work in progress. ABSINTHE takes place on a Labor Day weekend. METAPHOR picks up the story the week before Christmas. Log line: Small town reporter Penny Mackenzie tracks an offbeat Christmas story and finds herself in the middle of a murder and the mysterious desecration of an old Chinese cemetery.

Remember Readers, our 15-member tour group is giving away over 50 FREE BOOKS during this tour. For a chance to win one (or more) mystery, visit each member’s blog and leave a comment.

Thanks to everyone who stopped by today.

Also Hugs,

Jackie

DAY 5-HOLIDAY BLOG TOUR WITH JOHN M. DANIEL

2011-11-29T00:00:00.008-06:00

Welcome Readers to the 5th day of our MYSTERY WE WRITE HOLIDAY BLOG TOUR. Today I'm delighted to present John M. Daniel as my guest writer. His stories have appeared in dozens of literary magazines. His thirteen published books include four mysteries: PLAY MELANCHOLY BABY, THE POET'S FUNERAL, VANITY FIRE and his latest BEHIND THE REDWOOD DOOR, recently published by Oak Tree Press.

John M. Daniel

A true Renaissance man, John has worked as a bookseller, a free-lance writer, an editor, an entertainer, a model, an innkeeper, and a teacher. He and his wife, Susan, live in Humbolt County, California, where they are small-press book publishers. Today he's going to do a bit of bragging about the birth of his latest brainchild, BEHIND THE REDWOOD DOOR.

~~~~~

A PROUD PARENT SHOWS OF HIS BRAND NEW MONSTER

By John Daniel

As I write this post, long before it will show up on Jackie’s blog, I have just received a first look at the cover of my new book, Behind the Redwood Door, which will be published in November. By the time you read this post, the book will be born, and I’ll be handing out cigars.

I am knocked out by that cover! I knew there were a few (all right, more than a few) scary moments in the novel, but I could never have imagined such an ingenious way to represent threat! Those fierce red eyes glowing and glowering in the treetops! I thank the artist for turning a quiet, peaceful forest into a nightmare. Be afraid…

The unfolding story is about a feud between the gentle Websters and the Connollys, who have always run Jefferson City and County with fists of iron. The Connollys are the dark side, and a crime writer must not be afraid of the dark. We must face our monsters. In Behind the Redwood Door, I (thanks to Guy Mallon, my intrepid shrimp of a bibliophile sleuth) face the bullies, not only in the present timeline—in which a teenager is hazed and a good man is stabbed to death behind the Redwood Door saloon—but in the past, when the Connollys landed on the rocky redwood cost of northern California and started pushing people around, generation after generation.

I admit it: I am afraid of bullies. They’re monsters. They’re our worst enemy. When you read Behind the Redwood Door, you’ll probably face some of the unwelcome visitors to your own nightmares. But then you’ll cheer when the bullies are…oops, I’ll stop there and skip the spoilers.

Anyway I want you to know, in light of the dark forest on the cover, that this novel is also romantic, light-hearted, even funny at times, if I do say myself. It’s about sweet, friendly, kind-hearted people…mostly. As with all of my crime novels, Behind the Redwood Door is about love as much as it’s about death. It’s just that this time the duel between love and death is turned up to nine.

Here’s my newborn monster. Ain’t he adorable?

~~~~~

I love this line, John:

'...the duel between love and death is turned up to nine.'

Your baby isn't a monster at all, but complicated and fascinating. I can hardly wait to download my copy, or perhaps I'll call your 1-800 number and order a signed copy.

john@johnmdaniel.com

www.johnmdaniel.com

blog.johnmdaniel.com

amazon.johnmdaniel.com

facebook.johnmdaniel.com

Behind the Redwood Door is sold by Amazon and Barnes & Noble. It can be ordered by your local independent bookseller, or bought directly from the publisher at http://www.oaktreebooks.com/. For an autographed copy, call John at 1-800-662-8351.

john@johnmdaniel.com

www.johnmdaniel.com

blog.johnmdaniel.com

amazon.johnmdaniel.com

facebook.johnmdaniel.com

~~~~~

Thanks John for such an interesting article, and thanks to my readers for stopping by. Be sure and leave a comment on today’s post and your name will go into a drawing for FREE BOOKS. I’m giving away a signed copy of my cozy mystery THE INCONVENIENT CORPSE and another signed copy of the anthology THE STATEHOOD FOXY HENS AND MURDER MOST FOWL containing my novella The Spinster, the Pig and the Orphan. The book celebrates a Land Run in 1889 Guthrie, Oklahoma Territory.

There will be others books given away by each of our authors, so be sure and visit and comment on each blog.

Hugs to all,

Jackie

DAY 4-HOLIDAY BLOG TOUR WITH ALICE DUNCAN

2011-11-28T00:00:00.012-06:00

Welcome to the 4^th day of our MYSTERY WE WRITE HOLIDAY BLOG TOUR featuring 15 dynamite mystery writers. If you leave a comment on each of our blogsites, you may win one of the 50 plus books that will be given away either during the tour or immediately following our last post on December 8^th.

Today I’m featuring award-winning author Alice Duncan who lives with a herd of wild dachshunds (enriched from time to time with fosterees from New Mexico Dachshund Rescue) in Roswell, New Mexico. She's not a UFO enthusiast; she's in Roswell because her mother's family settled there fifty years before the aliens crashed. Alice no longer longs to return to California, although she still misses the food, not to mention her children, one of whom is there and the other of whom is in Nevada.

And now Alice is going to tell us why she prefers to live in the past, at least on paper.

~~~~~

Alice Duncan, award-winning author

Every now and then, when I’m sitting and ruminating about things whilst dachshunds cavort on, around, in front of and behind me (I’m serious about that. It gets downright annoying at times), I wonder why I can’t seem to force myself to write contemporary stories. The conclusion I inevitably come to is that I don’t like life as it is and prefer to make up life the way it probably wasn’t a long time ago. I mean, sure, people make up mysteries and romances about modern-day people, but I’m someone who not only doesn’t follow trends, but actually had to be told what a “Jimmy Choo” was. In other words, I’m hopeless in today’s world and like to get as far away from it as is humanly possible, as often as possible.

Therefore, I write historical novels. For several years I wrote historical romances set in the Old West (or my version of it). I had help in this endeavor from my mother, who grew up in Roswell, New Mexico, in the teens and twenties. Yes, I’m old. But my mother was old when she had me, her mother was old when she had her, and there’s room for at least three more generations in the spaces between my Swiss maternal grandmother and me. I won’t even talk about my paternal great-grandfather, who was a deserter from the Confederate Army. At least, I won’t do it here.

Anyway, Mom used to tell me stories about growing up in Roswell, and it sounded as though she lived in the wild, wild west. When she was a little girl, ranchers ran cattle down Second Street (the main east-west street in town); she and her three brothers and one sister lived in a three-room house made of adobe brick; her mother (having been widowed two days after my mother was born) earned a living for the entire brood as a seamstress; my uncles occasionally went out on the desert and captured wild burros, which they’d then ride until they got bucked off; there was no electricity in town; and there weren’t even any trees to block the relentless spring winds. Heck, I wrote an entire novel (COOKING UP TROUBLE) about the spring winds here in Roswell (Mom said she’d sometimes arrive at school with her legs having been sanded raw by the blowing dirt, dust and pebbles), and another one (PECOS VALLEY DIAMOND) that began with kids running to stay under the shadows made by clouds so that they could be cooler during the vicious summer heat. Today when the wind blows, which it does constantly during the springtime, the only vicissitude I endure is finding shingles that used to be on my roof in my front yard. And, lucky me, I have air conditioning.

Hmm. The Good Old Days don’t sound like a whole lot of fun, do they? Well, they probably weren’t for the folks who lived in them. However, when it comes to history, a novelist can fudge a bit. In my western historical novels, for instance, I leave out the cholera epidemics, floods (Roswell is in the middle of the desert, the soil is like clay, and it takes a long time for water to soak in. Before a couple of dams were built in the thirties by the CCC, the place flooded once or twice a year), ptomaine poisoning due to lack of refrigeration, lack of antibiotics, etc. Mom told me about tent revivalists who used to visit town and the Chautauqua folks who’d lecture in Roswell, etc. Therefore, I decided to give Annabelle Blue, heroine of PECOS VALLEY DIAMOND (available on Kindle and Smashwords) and PECOS VALLEY REVIVAL (published in January of 2011 and a finalist in the New Mexico Book of the Year Awards), a lot of the stuff my mom used to talk about only without the grime, illness and so forth.

· PECOS VALLEY REVIVAL (featuring Annabelle Blue and set in Roswell, NM, in 1923): http://tinyurl.com/3uafvqg

Oddly enough, once I moved to Roswell, I became nostalgic about Pasadena, California, where I’d lived for most of my life. Mind you, it was the smog, crowds, expense and general chaos of So. CA living that drove me away from it (I recall trying to shop for Christmas dinner after work once, and finding no parking anywhere even close to the market, much less in its parking lot, which was full to bursting. It was quite frustrating), but it used to be a beautiful, serene place where wealthy easterners wintered, and refugees from the motion-picture industry fled to escape their hectic lives. Of course, all those rich folks needed people like me (poor ones, in other words) to do their chores for them, so I decided to give Daisy Gumm Majesty, heroine of my “Spirits” books, a working-class background and a strong work ethic learned from her parents. The fact that she learned quite early in her life that rich folks can be just as gullible as poor ones, and that they sometimes have a good deal more money than sense, only added to the fun with Daisy, who’s a phony spiritualist. The latest Daisy book, GENTEEL SPIRITS, was published in July of this year.

· GENTEEL SPIRITS (featuring Daisy Gumm Majesty, and set in Pasadena, CA, in 1922): http://tinyurl.com/3ndzcff

I chose to set my historical mysteries in the 1920s, because so very much was going on then. Women, after decades of trying, finally got the vote in 1920 (in Turkey, by the way, women got the vote in 1918. Go figure); the world had lately endured two ghastly crises (the Great War and the 1918-1919 influenza pandemic); radio was being invented and improved upon almost daily; baseball was truly the great American pastime; the sale and consumption of alcohol was outlawed, giving rise to bootlegging and the murdering gangs who fought for control of the illegal stuff; and young people had begun questioning the values of their elders with a vengeance. The last item on that list is probably as old as the human race itself, but in the twenties the rebellion of the “Bright Young Things” seemed to take on an almost hopeless ethos. After years of war, illness and death, lots of young people concluded there wasn’t anything they could do about life, so they might as well party (if you need proof of this, read F. Scott Fitzgerald’s books).

Unfortunately for her, Daisy Majesty, my favorite character to date in any of the books I’ve written, and who has appeared in five books to date, suffered through the worst of what life had to offer, too, but she couldn’t waste her life partying because she had a war-injured husband to care for and support. Although I have a lot of fun with the “Spirits” books, Daisy has many burdens to bear.

So now I get to write about both Roswell, NM, and Pasadena, CA (and Los Angeles, CA, in my Mercy Allcutt books), and still pretend that life was better in the Good Old Days. It’s mega-fun!

· FALLEN ANGELS (featuring Mercedes Louise Allcutt and set in Los Angeles, CA, in 1926): http://tinyurl.com/3wh2a6t

Alice would love to hear from you at alice@aliceduncan.net. And be sure to visit her Web site at http//www@aliceduncan.net

· PECOS VALLEY REVIVAL (featuring Annabelle Blue and set in Roswell, NM, in 1923): http://tinyurl.com/3uafvqg

· FALLEN ANGELS (featuring Mercedes Louise Allcutt and set in Los Angeles, CA, in 1926): http://tinyurl.com/3wh2a6t

· GENTEEL SPIRITS (featuring Daisy Gumm Majesty, and set in Pasadena, CA, in 1922): http://tinyurl.com/3ndzcff

~~~~~

Thanks for chatting with us today, Alice. You've given us a lot of fascinating information that makes me want to read each of your books.

Don't forget to click in tomorrow.

Hugs,

Jackie

Day 3 -HOLIDAY BLOG TOUR WITH W.S. GAGER

2011-11-27T00:00:00.005-06:00

Welcome to Day Three of our MYSTERY WE WRITE HOLIDAY BLOG TOUR. A special thanks to today's guest Wendy (W.S.) Gager, a newspaper reporter turned novelist. Today she’s going to tell us how a wanna-be romance writer started murdering folks instead of sending them off to Happily-Ever-After.

The Birthing of the Mitch Malone Mystery Series

By W.S. Gager

How can the best and worst days of your life be on the same day, the same minute? It was more than six years ago when I met with a woman who was critiquing the novel I’d spent the last six months writing and editing. I was so nervous. I was sure it was perfect and the next best seller but writers always carry that secret fear that no one will get what you are saying.

I had written my first romance. I’d chosen romance because I had read thousands of Harlequins and knew I could easily copy the formula of the heroine’s journey. I’d researched publishers, book lines and editors and was so ready to submit. This was my last step. A bit of editing from the critique and I was ready.

“Honey,” the woman said grabbing my hand to keep me from bolting from the booth with her next words. “You’re not a romance writer. You are a mystery writer.” I was crushed and managed to get through the rest of the meeting, but I don’t remember much of what she said. I took the marked up pages home and set them on my desk and didn’t look at them for a week. Then I sucked it up and started reading. She was right and pointed to several parts that demonstrated it.

The more I thought about it, the more I realized that what I enjoyed about writing the first book was about the crime that had brought my couple together and that they had to solve to have the happily-ever-after moment. The Mitch Malone Mystery Series was born a few months later. I searched for contests to enter to get feedback on my manuscript because I didn’t know anyone in the mystery community. I won the Dark Oak Mystery Contest in 2008 for A CASE OF INFATUATION garnering a publisher contract as the prize. I’m still stunned by how fast that book was published. I wasn’t ready and could hardly believe it.

My third book is A CASE OF HOMETOWN BLUES and the ideas for mysteries just keep coming. While I wanted to die after with the initial comment about my romance manuscript, it was the best critique I could have received. I am a mystery writer and I challenge you to see if you can figure out whodunit in my books. Let me know what you think?

“A Case of Hometown Blues” Birdseye view:

When Pulitzer-winning reporter Mitch Malone's editor presses him for a favor, Malone breaks his vow to never return to his hometown. It seemed simple enough--lead a seminar for Flatville, MI's newspaper, keep a low profile and get back to the city post haste. But memories of his parents' death swarm him, and, to avoid solitude, he stops for a beer. In the crowded bar, Mitch is dismayed to see many of his former classmates--including the still-lovely Homecoming Queen, Trudy. Once the object of his teenage crush, Trudy joins Mitch. He quickly realizes she is upset and inebriated. Always the gentleman, Mitch sees her safely home, and returns to his B&B, still trying to shake memories of his parents' sad demise. The next day, he is stunned to learn Trudy was murdered and he is the prime suspect. The locals treat the murder charge as a slam dunk, and Mitch realizes he must track down the real killer to keep his butt out of jail.

A CASE OF THE HOMETOWN BLUES by W.S. Gager (Oak Tree Press, $14.95)

The third book in this series finds Mitch Malone, twice nominated for a Pulitzer Prize Investigative Journalism Award, returning to his hometown of Flatville, MI, to give a seminar on investigative journalist techniques. The seminar is the same weekend as Malone's high school reunion. When a classmate's body is found and Malone becomes the prime suspect he realizes he must track down the real killer to keep his butt out of jail.

Blog:

http://wsgager.blogspot.com

buy link:

http://www.amazon.com/Case-Hometown-Blues-W-Gager/dp/1610090179/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1311040194&sr=1-1

IMPORTANT NOTICE TO READERS:

Leave a comment each day on all of our blogsites. The group is giving away over 50 books, either during the tour or immediately afterwards. I’m giving a signed copy of my cozy mystery THE INCONVENIENT CORPSE and a signed copy of THE FOXY HENS AND MURDER MOST FOWL. Names will be drawn by random from those who take time to leave a comment.

DAY 2 - HOLIDAY BLOG TOUR WITH M.M. GORNELL

2011-11-26T00:00:00.000-06:00

Good morning Readers,

Today we will hear from the award winning mystery author Madeline (M.M.) Gornell: what inspires her, what she likes best about writing and what she wants her readers to experience while reading her books.

Madeline has published three mysteries: The PSWA awarding winning novel Uncle Si’s Secret (2008), Death of a Perfect Man (2009), and her latest release, Reticence of Ravens (2010)—her first Route 66 mystery. Reticence of Ravens is a 2011 Eric Hoffer Fiction finalist and Honorary Mention winner, the da Vinci Eye finalist, and a Montaigne Medalist finalist.

I'll bet you'd also be interested in knowing that Madeline is a potter with a fondness for stoneware and reduction firing. She lives with her husband and assorted canines in the Mojave in a town on internationally revered Route 66.

Now I'm turning things over to Madeline.

~~~

Thank you, Jackie, for hosting me on your blog!

Since it’s early days on our tour, and since you’ve graciously let me talk about whatever I want, I thought I’d offer my answers to the three questions I’ve asked all my fellow tour members to answer for my blog. Seems only fair. I picked these three because they were representative of many that come up when I’m talking to readers at events—especially at festivals and fairs.

My questions were:

What/who inspires you and your stories?
What do you most like about being an author?
What do you most want readers to take away from your novels--what you want them to think and feel when the last page is read?

Inspiration? My inspiration for writing initially came from—and has been reinforced throughout my life by—all the great mystery authors that have led the way. My earliest memories are of falling in immediate love with Agatha Christie—her style, her plots, her protagonists. She was my rock star! Now, I’m continually inspired and re-energized by P.D. James. (I am an admitted and unashamed anglophile)

For each of my novels, my inspiration and first kernel of an idea has come from a location that has reached out, grabbed me, and wouldn’t let go. That sounds a bit silly, and it’s not the whole story, but truly, so far, I’ve been inspired to start a story because a location said, “Me! Me! Write about me!” From the location, I’ve then wondered—who would have lived there, or come that way? What is their story? And in the case of my first, Uncle Si’s Secret—the compelling thought at a particular place along the Snoqualmie Valley Trail on my dog walks kept returning—“What a perfect spot for a murder!” (Another reason why exercise is good for you)

I don’t just like being an author, there’s nothing else I rather be doing. Truth be told, I certainly could do without the promotions part, but I love developing an idea (usually as I go), creating characters, devising the murder mystery—and surprisingly as my writing adventure moves forward—love rewriting! Making it all come together—my ideas(plot and philosophical), words, phrases, hints, clues… Thank goodness for my great editors! Of the bits-and-pieces that come with writing, I particularly enjoy meeting readers, authors, and especially hearing people say they liked by book(s)!

Reader Wishes? First off, I sure hope they enjoy reading my book and are taken away for a few hours into an interesting world that captivates them—either because it’s so different from theirs, or because they can identify with the characters and locations. Especially with Route 66 and the desert, hoping the “feel” of the place came through.

Then there’s my wish they find themselves in my characters mind (the protagonist’s especially)—feeling and hearing their voice.

My most cherished hope, is that when you close one of my books, there’s a smile on your face, and thoughts, questions, ideas beyond who the murderer was remain with you—at least for awhile.

Jackie, thanks for letting talk about what keeps me going as an author. Thanks so much for the visit!

~~~~

You are so very welcome, Madeline. I've really enjoyed your thoughts on writing and I'm sure our readers have, too. You're welcome on Cozy Mysteries and Other Madness anytime.

Lies of Convenience, Madeline's next Route 66 mystery, will be released soon. It's a tale that fictionally connects murder, truths untold, and Chicago’s Lake Michigan with California’s high desert on the opposite end of The Mother Road.

Madeline’s books are available at Amazon.com, Barnes & Noble.com, and Smashwords, in paper and e-book formats. You can visit her online at her website http://www.mmgornell.com, or her BLOG http://www.mmgornell.wordpress.com, or email her directly at mmgornell@earthlink.net

Reticence of Ravens is available at:
http://tinyurl.com/3oaaupp

Remember Readers! Our MURDER WE WRITE Holiday Blog Tour Writers are giving away over 50 FREE books. To be eligible for all drawings, visit each blogsite and leave a comment.

I’m giving away signed copy of THE INCONVENIENT CORPSE and another of FOXY STATEHOOD HENS AND MURDER MOST FOWL. To get your name in the hat for my free books, leave a comment below.

And be sure to check in tomorrow to meet a new Mystery Writer.

Hugs,

Jackie

Day 1--HOLIDAY BLOG TOUR WITH TIMOTHY HALLINAN

2011-11-25T00:00:00.006-06:00

Hi Readers, are you in a mood to travel? Vicariously, of course and via our Cyber-Bus which is loaded with 15 outstanding mystery writers including me.

This is the 1^st day of our Holiday Mystery Tour, and readers, do I have a treat for you!

Timothy Hallinan, an Edgar and Maccavity nominated author tells us how his latest Junior Bender novel LITTLE ELVISES was conceived and birthed. And what a story his article 'Picture Perfect' tells! Keep reading, because now I'm letting Timothy drive:

Picture Perfect
By Timothy Hallinan

The most frequent question at bookstore events is, “Where do your ideas come from?”

Well, most of the time, they appear out of thin air. But once in a great while something from what I try to think of as “real life” prompts a story development. Here's an example.

Some time ago, my wife and I had the good fortune to make friends with someone whom I'm not going to name, but she had been famous for several decades due to a series of very funny books she'd written for a large audience of women who, like her, hated to cook and do housework.

We had mutual friends, but we met her face-to-face for the first time in Hawaii, when I was on my way to Asia to write and my wife was accompanying me as far as Bali. What we had feared would be a slightly awkward lunch turned into a prolonged, delightful, and highly lubricated lunner, comprising lunch, dinner, and many, many drinks in between.

We were in love with her when we left, and remained so for years and years.

She was in her early seventies when we met, and more vigorous than either my wife or I, who were in our late forties. Ten years later, we got a note from her saying she was going to marry. (Her first husband died before we met her.) Enclosed were three pictures of her and her husband-to-be.

They scared me silly.

She (let's call her Margaret) was sitting on quite a bit of money; she'd sold a very large number of books. And she was now in her eighties. The pictures she'd sent us were Polaroids, and she looked ecstatically happy in all three of them. I couldn't tell you how happy her fiance looked, because we couldn't see his face.

In any of the pictures.

In the first, he had his head down, and his features were obscured by the bill of his cap. In the second, he'd turned his head as the shutter snapped, and he was a blur. In the third, he was kissing Margaret on the cheek and her profile obscured most of his.

I immediately called to congratulate her and to grill her diplomatically about him. She'd known him forever, she said; he'd been a friend of her husband's and was, in her words, richer than God. I relaxed and offered an unnecessary blessing, and the two of them lived happily until Margaret passed away.

But in the nasty, nefarious part of me that makes bad things happen to good (if imaginary) people, those photographs had taken root. I thought about them almost every time I wrote a book, but the opportunity to use them never came up until my new ebook, LITTLE ELVISES.

LITTLE ELVISES

The hero of LITTLE ELVISES is a Los Angeles burglar named Junior Bender, who moonlights as a private eye—for crooks. That's a good way to make dangerous enemies, so Junior lives in a succession of dreadful motels in an area—the San Fernando Valley—that's especially rich in dreadful motels.

His first day on his new case has been a bad one; he's just been shot at. Already unhappy at this turn of events, he becomes even more unhappy when he sees there's a light on in the room adjoining his, which gives him pause, because he's rented it, too. (An adjoining room can be used as an escape route.)

But the room's occupant turns out to be Marge, the surviving owner of Marge 'n Ed's North Pole, the motel of the week, and Marge has a problem: her daughter has disappeared after running off with a man of whom Marge instinctively disapproves because he wears a pinkie ring. Junior tries to fob her off with assurances until:

“Look at these.” Marge dug into a purse the size of a saddlebag and came out with two color snapshots. She dealt them at me, giving each of them an expert, Vegas-worthy flick that carried them from one bed to another. I picked them up and found myself looking at two shots of the same couple.

The female was clearly the issue of Marge's loins, if the pronounced nasal apparatus and the long upper lip were any indication, but the man was a complete mystery. In one shot, he was shading his eyes from the sun, and he'd tilted his hand down until nothing showed but his mouth, and in the other, he'd turned his head away at the last moment, creating an interesting modern abstract where his face should have been.

Not good.

Marge said, “Tell me about that.”

“Okay,” I said. “I'll think about it.”

And he does.

So it took 30 years, but I finally got to use Margaret's Polaroids. And they lead Junior toward a monster who preys on the lonely and the unhappy. And, at the end, a big surprise.

Okay Guys, I'm back in the driver's seat again. I know you're dying to learn more about Timothy, so here's the scoop on him:

Timothy Hallinan is the Edgar- and Macavity-nominated author of the traditionally-published Poke Rafferty Bangkok thrillers (most recently THE QUEEN OF PATPONG), and the Junior Bender mysteries, which are ebook originals. The newest Junior book is LITTLE ELVISES. Earlier this year, Hallinan conceived and edited a volume of original short stories by twenty first-rate mystery writers, SHAKEN: STORIES FOR JAPAN, which is available for the Kindle at $3.99, with every penny of the price going to the 2011 Japan Relief Fund. (Please buy it.) He lives in Santa Monica and Southeast Asia, and he is lucky enough to be married to Munyin Choy. His website is www.timothyhallinan.com.

~~~

Thanks a million Timothy for this fascinating story. Of course we're all dying to know who 'Margaret' was, but then again we all love solving mysteries.

Timothy will give away a set of his Poke Rafferty Bankgkok thrillers at the end of our Holiday Tour. To get your name in the hat for the drawing, make a comment on each of the 15 participating blogsites. Our group is giving away more than 50 books during the 2-week period.

Thanks to everyone for stopping by, and please leave a comment. You'll be glad, because, besides the other author's books, you'll be in a pool to win a copy of THE INCONVENIENT CORPSE or STATEHOOD HENS AND MURDER MOST FOWL.

See you tomorrow!

Hugs,

Jackie

MYSTERY WE WRITE BLOG TOUR STARTS TOMORROW!

2011-11-24T00:00:00.027-06:00

TIMOTHY HALLINAN WILL BE MY GUEST BLOGGER!

Timothy Hallinan

Timothy Hallinan is the Edgar and Macavity-nominated author of the traditionally-published Poke Rafferty Bangkok thrillers (most recently THE QUEEN OF PATPONG), and the Junior Bender mysteries, which are ebook originals. The newest Junior book is LITTLE ELVISES. His website is www.timothyhallinan.com.

THE QUEEN OF PATPONG

LITTLE EVISES

14 Dynamite Mystery Authors will be on this tour, a different one each day:

November 25 through December 9^th

OVER 60 FREE BOOKS WILL BE GIVEN AWAY BY BY THE TOUR TEAM DURING THE 2-WEEK PERIOD!

Each participating author will be giving away one or more of their books. When you leave a comment on that particular blog, you’ve in the drawing for a book (or more).

Each time you visit COZY MYSTERIES AND OTHER MADNESS during our 14 day tour (November 25 through December 9) your name will go into my fedora hat for a chance to win a signed copy of THE INCONVENIENT CORPSE and THE FOXY STATEHOOD HENS AND MURDER MOST FOWL!

Click on Mystery We Write Holiday Blog Tour listed under my pages for all of the names and websites of our Mystery Writers.

LITTLE ELVISES

Looking forward to seeing you on the tour!

Hugs,

Jackie

WANT TO WIN A FREE BOOK OR TWO?

2011-11-16T16:03:00.002-06:00

COMING ON BLACK FRIDAY!

HOLIDAY MYSTERY WE BLOG TOUR Featuring 14 Dynamite Mystery Authors and moi.

November 25 through December 9^th

OVER 50 FREE BOOKS WILL BE GIVEN AWAY BY THIS TEAM DURING THIS 2-WEEK PERIOD!

Each participating author will be giving away one or more of their books. When you leave a comment on that particular blog, you’re in the drawing for a book (or more).

If you visit COZY MYSTERIES AND OTHER MADNESS during our 14 day tour (November 25 through December 9) I’ll put your name in a drawing for a signed copy of THE INCONVENIENT CORPSE and THE FOXY STATEHOOD HENS AND MURDER MOST FOWL!

FOURTEEN DAYS--YOU'LL BE ENTERED 14 TIMES. Each day you visit COZY MYSTERIES AND OTHER MADNESS and leave a comment, your name in the drawing hat. (A fedora, of course.)

I'm looking forward to seeing you on the tour!

Click on MYSTERY WE WRITE BLOG TOUR listed under my pages for the names of the 14 other authors who will be on the tour bus!

Hugs,

Jackie

I DIDN'T FALL OFF THE FACE OF THE EARTH

2011-10-09T19:48:00.000-05:00

Greetings to all my friends! I’ll bet you all thought that I’d fallen off of the face of the earth. I felt that way myself during the month of September. But no, I’m still on this planet, though feeling a bit dazed. In September I attended Bouchercon 2011 in St. Louis and had a fabulous time. My friend and first reader Judy Rosser did the driving and kept me company. Since I'm a sleepy-head she even had coffee ready when I rolled out of bed in the morning. What a wonderful friend! A big thanks to her husband Gary, for sharing.

Last weekend I attended the RWI, Inc. Writer’s Retreat at Meadowlake Lodge close to Sand Springs, Oklahoma. What a lovely and rustic spot. (This was my kind of roughing-it: air conditioning, microwave, internet service.) Jean Brashear was our speaker and very inspiring. I came home refreshed and eager to get back to my work-in-progress.

My stay at the retreat was cut short by a call to do Grandma Stuff. I couldn’t call this babysitting, because my 13-year-old twins end up taking care of me in one way or another. My grandson is my IT expert.

Tomorrow I’ll tell you about an exciting new Mystery We Write Holiday Blog Tour. For two weeks, November 25 to December 9, fourteen top-notch mystery authors and moi will be swapping posts. BIG NEWS: We’ll be giving away lots of FREE books! More about this very soon so stay posted.

Hugs to all,

Jackie

Mystery We Write Blog Tour with Sharon Ervin

2011-08-11T00:00:00.062-05:00

We’ve come to the 12^th and final week of our Mystery We Write Blog Tour. For the last three months top notch authors have shared writing tips, personal glimpses into their lives, and fascinating information on how each crafted her stories.

A million thanks to each writer who has shared her life, books and talent with my readers and me. It's been a fun ride and I've learned to admire and love these talented artists.

Sharon Ervin

I first came to know Sharon when we worked together on an anthology CHIK~LIT FOR FOXY HENS. This was my first published work, but Sharon had already been selling for some time. We learned that we shared a love of mystery and all things mysterious.

WHAT IS VOICE?

By Sharon Ervin

A writer’s voice is her writing style.

Individual writers have a rhythm, a cadence. Some are jolting, startling, stimulating. Others lull and are recommended as bedtime reads.

Currently, I enjoy books by David McCullough. His voice works for me, and for millions of others. Also, I love Dorothy Sayers mysteries, written in the 1930s. Her cadence and her word choices massage my brain. Oddly, when I refer others to these two great, very different writers, their work does not appeal to everyone. What is that about? I came up with an analogy to explain differences in voice.

Imagine you are the passenger in a large luxury car traveling with friends along a smooth interstate highway. The car is the story’s plot, expansive, comfortable. The friends are the story’s characters. The roadway is the voice, smooth, rhythmic.

The car turns onto a rutted gravel road. You brace yourself, resisting the bumps and jolts. You are still in the same vehicle with the same charming company, but you are ill-at-ease. The surface (voice) is a rub board that steals the enjoyment from the trip for you. Others in the car either don’t notice or enjoy––are even stimulated–by the rougher ride.

I read a romance novel once by a well-known writer. The premise (plot) was really good, the characters well-developed and compelling. But the writer’s voice lurched, tossing me one way, then another. The story was so good that I slogged through to the end, annoyed with myself and with the author the entire time. Relieved to be finished, I felt as if I had been roughly treated by the erratic voice. But the characters haunted me.

Two weeks later, certain that my disregard for the author had more to do with me and my attitude, I read the book again. It was as ragged as I thought, yet I still loved the plot, the pace and the characters.

Three weeks later, unable to stop thinking about it, I picked up the book again, this time to edit the pages, to mark the awkward places in the jolting text. There was too much.

I stewed some more, then, Eureka! I decided to rewrite the book the way it should have been written in the first place. It didn’t matter if I plagiarized because no one else would see my version. Maybe rewriting would allow me to come to terms and let it go.

As the story reeled onto the pages, however, it was not a copy of the original, but my own. I gave the motivations more substance and realized the characters’ responses to weak provocation was part of my annoyance. My concerns about plagiarism vanished with the realization that, like writers through history, I had breathed in an idea––a premise––and exhaled a brand new work.

COUNTERFEIT COWBOY became my third published book. I no longer had concerns about similarities. Even the author of the other book would not have seen a resemblance.

COWBOY won fourth place in the First North American Fiction Contest that year. A New York Editor called after she read three chapters thinking it could fill a slot that had suddenly opened up in her schedule. I didn’t believe the manuscript was polished enough for her. Three weeks later, when I thought it was, the slot was filled. COWBOY, however, did get published eventually.

Not long ago, I reread the other book. I still have it, of course. As before, I stumbled along, skimming over the especially tedious places. The author is well-known and well-liked.

Some readers like my work, too.

The cadence of my own writing voice suits me. The talent, inborn, has been shaped and polished by critique groups, creative writing classes, workshops, conferences, and editors. Some of those like my voice; others, not so much. I enjoy what I write, so I’ll keep on keeping on. That’s what I recommend to all writers.

Listen to that unique voice within you. Savor it. Develop it. And enjoy the ride.

~~~~~~~

CANDLESTICKS is Sharon Ervin’s ninth published novel, the third in the three-book Jancy Dewhurst series. Seven of her early books are now available on Amazon Kindle.

Sharon’s website: http://www.sharonervin.com/

Blogsite: http://sharonervin.wordpress.com/

Thanks a million Sharon!

Readers, let's hear your comments.

Cyber hugs,

Jackie King

Mystery We Write Blog Tour with Pat Browning

2011-08-04T00:00:00.002-05:00

TAKE A BIRDSEYE VIEW INTO MYSTERY WRITER PAT BROWNING’S LIFE!

The following article by Pat Browning, gives us an in-depth view of this top-notch storyteller’s struggle to create her books, including ABSINTHE OF MALICE. I found “Two and a Half Books,” fascinating, and I think that you will, too.

Two And A Half Books

by Pat Browning

“My novel was stuck on page 70. I was in a rut, out of juice, badly in need of a change of scenery. I didn’t need a complete break, just a little variation in the routine, something more than a brisk walk around the block, something less than a climb up the Matterhorn.

“The perfect retreat turned out to be the Irwin Street Inn, a bed-and-breakfast across the street from the post office in Hanford, the small Central California town where I lived. The inn had new owners, a new brunch menu and a new cream tea service. I didn’t have to pack a suitcase. I could go home to check my answering machine and read my mail any time I felt the need. The inn was only two miles away from my computer.”

So began my article “White Noise,” published in the SouthWest Sage of June 2007 and reprinted in The Report (OWFI) of September 2007.

Irwin Street Inn

It’s something most writers experience from time to time. Without some kind of break, that weariness can lead to a real burnout. My few days at the Irwin Street Inn not only revived my flagging spirits, but the photos I took are tacked up where I can see them every day. I use the inn as a model in METAPHOR FOR MURDER, the further adventures of a small-town reporter named Penny Mackenzie, and a work still in progress these several years later.

Work in progress. There’s so much history in those words maybe I should write a book about it. Maybe I will, but another time. Right now I have a book and a half, one already in print – twice – and one half-finished, in progress.

What I’m writing is a limited series, three or four books. After all, the setting is a very small town and there’s only so much that can happen in a very small town. I’m even thinking of whisking my main characters off to Santa Fe, New Mexico for Book #3. The only thing standing in my way is Book #2.

Let’s start at the beginning. Here’s the logline for Book #1, originally called

FULL CIRCLE

: “It’s just another Labor Day weekend in a small California town until discovery of a skeleton in a cotton field leads to murder—and romance.”

When it comes to that book I always quote The Grateful Dead: “What a long strange trip it’s been.” I self-published it as

FULL CIRCLE

in 2001. Sold maybe 100 copies before I got tired of promoting it. In 2008, an online friend started a new press, read my book and made me an offer: a new title, a new cover, a few revisions, a two-year contract and an advance.

After I stopped laughing I thought, why not? And we went to work. A couple of months later I had a brand new book titled ABSINTHE OF MALICE and it’s racking up sales as an e-book in Amazon’s Kindle Store. You can still buy

FULL CIRCLE

. It’s lurking around out there, rattling its chains like The Ghost of Christmas Past. If I could afford it I’d buy up all the copies just to get rid of it. I’ve heard of people who have a split personality, but a book?

So now I have two versions of Book #1 and half a version of Book #2, working title METAPHOR FOR MURDER. Here’s the logline for Book #2: “Small town reporter Penny Mackenzie tracks an offbeat Christmas story and finds herself in the middle of a murder and the mysterious desecration of an old Chinese cemetery.”

Which brings us back to “White Noise” and my retreat at the Irwin Street Inn.

From Chapter 3 of my WIP, here’s my description of a fictional version of the inn: “… a pale gray house with a skirted wraparound porch, dark blue trim, second floor balconies, assorted wings and several outbuildings. In the gloom of fog, with Christmas lights twinkling inside and out, the place looked like an old-fashioned snow globe.”

One of the photos I snapped during my retreat became a fictional apartment for Watt, my protagonist’s first and only love. In real life it’s a separate house. In my novel I make it part of the main house, with an inside staircase leading down to the parlor. I also added another window to the bayed window so I could place Watt there, looking down on the street.

That’s the great thing about writing a novel. You can rearrange the facts to suit your fiction. To set a key scene in Chapter 15, I used the photo I call “Watt’s apartment.” In this scene, Penny accidentally learns that Watt paid a visit to an old girl friend while on a business trip. She gives him what-for and ends up throwing her shoe at him, while he looks out the window and wonders how many bones he would break if he jumped.

Every once in a while writing should be fun, and this scene was fun to write. Who has more fun that than writers? Nobody I know.

Several years ago I made a story board. It has been leaning against a wall all this time, with yellow sticky notes stuck in the squares I marked off to represent chapters. Lucky for me, too, because it has kept the story alive while I was doing a million things besides finishing my book.

But the fun’s over for now. It’s time for a close encounter with my story board. Stay tuned!

Jackie, thanks for inviting me to do a guest blog today. I hope your readers enjoy it.

Pat Browning

Pat, I’m sure they did! I certainly found your tale riveting. I’m envious, I want to take a break from writing and visit this wonderful sounding Irwin Street Inn. My mouth is watering to try their cream tea.

Pat Browning

More about Pat, plus some of her websites::

Pat Browning is a native Okie and also a veteran traveler. Her globetrotting led her into the travel business as a correspondent for TravelAge West, a trade journal published in San Francisco. In the 1990s, she signed on fulltime as a newspaper reporter and columnist, first at The Selma Enterprise and then at The Hanford Sentinel.

http://pbrowning.blogspot.com/

www.authorsden.com/patbrowning.

http://patbrowning.weebly.com (under construction)

Readers, If you have questions or comments for Pat, I’m sure she would be delighted to respond.

Happy reading to all!

Jackie

Mystery We Write Blog Tour with Beth Anderson

2011-07-28T00:00:00.001-05:00

BETH ANDERSON: CHICAGO CRIME WRITER, TELLS ABOUT HER NEWEST MYSTERY

Book blurb for RAVEN TALKS BACK by Beth Anderson:

Raven Morressey is living the good life. Nice home, husband, three healthy children, and it's finally summertime, when life is again lovely in Valdez, Alaska. All this explodes one morning when builders, digging up her back yard, uncover a recently murdered headless, handless female body covered with scarification—hundreds of colored designs cut into the skin to resemble tattoos. As if this isn’t enough, where the corpse’s head should have been is a large rock with a face painted on that resembles an Alaska Native mask.

Raven's eight year old son, Timmy, is the first one to see the body and is suddenly unable to walk or respond in any way. On that same day, Raven hears the voice of her long dead Athabascan father coming from Timmy, who is unaware of the ancient hunting chants he sings in his sleep and the words he suddenly speaks in Raven’s native tongue—a language he does not know.

Jack O’Banion, Valdez’s Chief of Police for the past few years, faced with his first murder case in Valdez, begins his official investigation. Everywhere he goes he finds nothing but deception. The town seems to have closed into itself and nobody will tell him anything that might help him solve this case. Then one murder quickly morphs into two, then three, and the Alaska State Troopers are hot on his back to find the killer now.

Between Raven’s voices and the visions she develops, and Jack, whose career as well as his contented life in Valdez are on the line, they both feel they have to find the killer and restore some sanity to the town—not to mention their own lives, which are quickly unraveling out of control

Beth Anderson Looking Suspiciously Benign

INTERVIEW WITH BETH:

Would you tell us a little about your latest mystery and how it came about?

My most recent mystery novel is just now making its appearance, first in ebook and by the time you read this, should be out in print at both links above. RAVEN TALKS BACK takes place in Valdez, Alaska, a small fishing village at the very end of the Alaska Pipeline where the ships come in to collect the oil. It originally came about on the first full day I spent there, watching the fog roll down the mountainsides. I heard, inside my head, a voice speaking that would become Raven, my Alaska native heroine, who is married to a Caucasian man, Red. The first few words became my first two sentences in my one page intro, right before the first murder is discovered: "The spirits of my ancestors live in the towering Chugach Mountains that surround my world. I know they are there."

I wasn't even thinking of a plot right then, but I started watching everything I could see in this beautiful small town. The mountains. How they looked in early summer. The glaciers, always there no matter what season it is. The fishing boats down by the wharf. The people I saw around the town. Then I started talking to an Alaska Native woman who told me some about their culture. I was completely fascinated by everything and everyone I saw, and curious about all of it. But still no plot, just a feeling that one day I'd write a book about it because I loved it all so much. And naturally, being me, it would have to be a murder mystery even though there had been mostly only things like bar fights, marital problems, in Valdez. There had been no bigtime murders that took a while to solve. So again, being me, I dreamed some up and started writing.

Have you always wanted to be a writer? If so, have you written anything else?

Yes. My family has writers going back several generations that I know of. I always, as a child, had the feeling that someday I would write a book. My childhood friends have told me that I was always talking about it, although I don't remember this myself, and I had said I'd put them in a book someday. I wrote a Junior High newspaper gossip column (wouldn't you know it) and also had a short but somewhat lucrative career writing love stories for my girlfriends until the school principal squashed that idea. Later, after I married and had a couple of kids, I wrote a story for a magazine which made it to the top three, and the desire to write grew. But not enough yet for me to really pursue it. I was too busy pursuing four children and driving them around here and there to do much about writing a novel, which I really wanted to do...but not ENOUGH yet, or I would have already been doing it.

Eventually, after they were grown, I started learning how to write a novel all by myself since I didn't have sense enough to go to a library and see if they had any know-how books. So, after winging it for a long time, I sold my first novel called Count On Me to Harlequin Superromance. Lo and behold, it contained a mystery even though it was a romance novel. My second book to come out, after I had an agent, was All That Glitters, at Ballantine/Ivy. A murder mystery taking place in Hollywood. Third book out was Diamonds, taking place in Las Vegas, at Dorchester/Leisure. Another mystery, can you believe it, this time including Mafia connections. By this time I was getting the picture. I was never going to be a good romance writer because I laughed at the love scenes. Evidently I was bent on fulfilling my destiny as a crime writer. After that came three more books at Amber Quill: Murder Online, Night Sounds, and Second Generation. These were more fun because I had way more control over going after reviews, etc. and I got a lot of them, almost all five stars (none were from relatives). I also won quite a few awards with those books. They were also...wait for it...all mysteries.

Then my life took another sidetrack. My husband became seriously ill and stayed ill for a long time until he died just three years ago. Which brings us up to my current book, RAVEN TALKS BACK, a mainstream mystery that includes, along with all the thriller/mystery stuff, some supernatural stuff too, which I had never thought of doing before. This time though, the location itself provided the push for the supernatural. If you ever visit Valdez, Alaska in the summertime, you'll see why I was so drawn to it. It's a very mysterious, spiritual place, especially when it's foggy. The whole atmosphere and ambiance there speaks of the supernatural, spirits talking. At least it did to me, and definitely not because I went looking for it. It was just there, and I felt it.

Do you find yourself talking to your characters when you’re doing ordinary tasks such as putting on makeup, washing dishes, driving your car?

I find myself talking to them, yes, and they talk back to me. Or they talk to each other, and I just listen and often laugh, because they're funny a lot of the time. That's one of the things about my books. They're all mysteries or thrillers, but they also all contain laughter. Funny things happen to people that they weren't expecting and that's where the real joy comes in for me. I love it when they're being funny. Those are the easiest scenes to write.

If you could travel anywhere in the world to research a book, and if someone else pays expenses, where would you pick?

I'd go back to Valdez in a heartbeat, and I also feel almost as strongly about Anchorage, Alaska, a gorgeous, cosmopolitan city where the streets and parks are kept clean and most of their houses just give up the feeling of having sprung by themselves out of the surrounding area. Just beautiful. It's no colder there in the winter than it is in Chicago. I could be happy there.

Do you have a pet? If so, tell us about this special relationship.

I have a dog, half St. Bernard and half Boxer, named Denali. I call him DenaliDawg on Facebook. I'm putting him in the next book (which I'll be starting soon) of the Raven Morressey series. He's a wonderful, full of personality dog, and if his legs weren't getting so bad I'm sure he'd be good at tap-dancing. I also have two cats, both with different personalities. BooBoo is just the softest, sweetest little guy in the world...to me. Everybody else has to look out, because although he likes to watch people, he's not too hot on getting close to them. And Sarge, my little girl cat, so named because she has stripes on her arms. What a little lover SHE is...to me, LOL! She has been known to be quite obnoxious to others, although I'm convinced it's all their own fault. Spoiled my cats are, yes. I love all of my animals very, very much.

Thanks a million for sharing your work and history with us today, Beth. You’re a fascinating woman, and your book is going on my soon-to-be-read list.

Jackie, thank you so much for letting me visit your blog today. It was a pleasure! I hope it is for your readers, too, Beth Anderson

It was indeed a great pleasure! Below is Beth’s bio and some websites where everyone can learn more about this fascinating woman and her books.

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Author Bio

Beth Anderson is a multi-published, award winning author in several genres including romance and mainstream crime fiction. A full time author, she lives in a Chicago, Illinois suburb. She has appeared on Chicago's WGN Morning Show, The ABC Evening News, as well as numerous other radio and cable television shows. She has guest lectured at Purdue University and many libraries and writers' conferences. She loves music, particularly jazz. Her website and blog are both at http://www.bethanderson-hotclue.com

===========================================

Links to my author pages on Amazon and Barnes & Noble:

http://www.amazon.com/Beth-Anderson/e/B000APMRR4

http://search.barnesandnoble.com/Raven-Talks-Back/Beth-Anderson/e/2940012515407/?itm=1&USRI=beth+anderson

Website and blog: http//www.bethanderson-hotclue.com

Publisher's Website: Krill Press http://www.krillpress.com/books.html

RAVEN TALKS BACK ISBN #: 9780982144398

Mystery We Write Blog Tour With Anne K. Albert

2011-07-21T00:00:00.006-05:00

Special Interview with Anne K. Albert—Mystery and Suspense Author

Welcome Anne, to Cozy Mysteries and Other Madness. Thanks for dropping by to tell us about your latest book and to share your secrets.

It’s said that Anne’s books chill the spine, warm the heart, and soothe the soul…all with a delightful touch of humor. That kind of a read sounds wonderful to me. So Anne, could we start with you telling us a little about your latest novel, FRANK, INCENSE AND MURIEL?

Frank, Incense and Muriel is the first book of my Muriel Reeves Mysteries. This story takes place the week before Christmas when the stress of the holiday season is enough to frazzle anyone's nerves. To find a missing woman, Frank and Muriel must deal with an embezzler, femme fatale, kidnapper, and of course, Muriel's eccentric, (but loveable) family.

This story received a 5-star review and Reviewer Top Pick award from Night Owl Reviews.

Your mystery sounds really exciting, is your private life as thrilling as your books? What do you do when you’re not writing?

I love to travel. I could literally be on the road 365 days of the year and never feel homesick.

And I’ll bet that every mile you traveled, another story idea popped into your head. What challenges did a prolific writer such as you face in getting published?

Like so many other authors, I completed and submitted five different manuscripts and I received countless rejections from agents and editors on all of them. The year prior to getting “the call” was the most difficult. It was also the most disheartening. I’d get positive comments about my writing ability. Some would point to my interesting characters and storyline. Others enjoyed my dialogue, etc. They’d include best wishes for a long and prosperous future in the publishing world, but still reject my work. That polite sorry, “not right for me,” comment left me reeling. As the weeks and months wore on, I began to question if anyone would offer me a contract. It got so bleak I quit for almost a year. That period of my writing life really was the dark before the dawn!

You came back to writing after a year’s hiatus. I suspect that means that someone encouraged you to continue writing. Who was this special supporter of your writing?

My husband. He’s always been supportive of me, no matter what I do.

Now, here are some of my writing questions: Do you find yourself talking to your characters when you’re doing ordinary tasks such as putting on makeup, washing dishes, driving your car?

I don’t actually ever talk to them directly. I’m more of a fly on the wall, watching their every move.

What a picture you paint in my mind, Anne. Without closing my eyes I can see you sitting quietly and observing the realm you imagined! Ever find yourself zoning into the world you have created when you’re supposed to be listening to something else such as church services, friends talking, or during a class of some sort?

All of the time! I actually get annoyed with the real world for interfering or disrupting what is happening in my imaginary world.

Have you ever found yourself growing too fond of a villain? How does this affect your story and how do you deal with the problem; assuming it is a problem for you?

Not a problem so far. But I do have trouble with secondary characters that just walk onto center stage and take over. It’s tough getting them to back off!

Those naughty characters; when you breathe life into them, they go their own way and refuse to mind. I have the same problem.

If you could choose another time in history to live, when would that be?

I’m very happy right where I am, thank you! The idea of going any place where women might not enjoy equal rights or have access to an education and top-notch medical care terrifies me.

That’s a very good point. Perhaps all of us would be better off to just travel vicariously through books.

If you could travel anywhere in the world to research a book, and if someone else pays expenses, where would you pick?

I have three places: Ireland, Newfoundland and Cornwall. All provide stunning landscape that overlooks the ocean. Oh, and I’ll pay my own way! All three are on my bucket list.

How do you celebrate special times: finishing a novel, signing a book contract, or solving a tough plotting problem?

I tend to be pretty low-key when it comes to celebrating any milestone in my life. My philosophy is to enjoy and cherish each and every day rather than focus on one or two days out of the year. Or worse, one day out of an entire lifetime!

However, I was visiting the U.K. when my debut novel was released. A pair of sterling silver earrings caught my eye, and I realized they would be the perfect memento. Neither flashy nor expensive, they fit perfectly into my lifestyle…and my budget!

What a wise woman you are, Anne Albert. It’s been so interesting to meet you. Could you give readers some internet sites where you can be found?

Thank you so much, Jackie, for featuring me today on this stop of the Murder We Write Blog Tour. I’d like to invite readers to visit my website http://www.AnneKAlbert.com/ or my main blog http://anne-k-albert.blogspot.com.

If they drop by my Muriel Reeves Mysteries blog http://muriel-reeves-mysteries.blogspot.com and leave a comment mentioning this interview, I’ll enter their name in a draw to win a pdf copy of FRANK, INCENSE AND MURIEL. I’ll announce the winner at the conclusion of the tour, sometime during the week of August 22, 2011.

How about that Readers? I’d love for you to leave a comment here, then go directly to Anne’s Muriel Reeves blog site and sign up for a chance to win this great book. May you all have a blessed day.

Hugs,

Jackie

Mystery We Write Blog Tour with Vivian Zabel

2011-07-14T00:00:00.011-05:00

AN INTERVIEW WITH VIVIAN ZABEL, MYSTERY WRITER AND PUBLISHER

Vivian, welcome to Mystery We Write Blog Tour, and thanks for spending time with us. We appreciate your sharing details about your life and about your latest novel? Would you start by describing STOLEN and how it came about?

My latest novel, Stolen, is a mixture of mystery, suspense, and even love, but it is not a classic mystery. Torri Adamson discovers her playboy husband has a second wife and takes her children home to Oklahoma. She rebuilds her life with her grandparents, mother’s brother and his wife, and closest friend, until her friend dies of cancer. Torri rebuilds her life again and shared grief with her friend’s widower develops into love. Then her life is torn apart when her children are stolen.

The story is one I had to write after I couldn’t find a way to deal with the pain of two grandchildren being taken by their father. When the novel was written, we didn’t know if they lived or not or where they were. I took the agony, loss, and frustration and gave them to Torri. Of course I still felt the loss, deeply, but at least could better deal with it.

Losing a child must be the most frightening thing imaginable. Just the thought makes my blood run cold. This book is in now my TBR stack. Will you be writing any other books of this sort?

I have a sequel to Stolen in the works, titled Betrayed, because that how missing or kidnapped children feel when they return home and discover everyone else’s life continued.

I’d never thought of the emotional trauma kidnapped children must suffer after they’re safe. Just their coming home has always seemed like a happy ending to me, but just your one sentence has opened my eyes. Of course, that’s exactly how they would feel: BETRAYED. Now I have a new title on my book list.

Were there any challenges in getting STOLEN published?

I had my novel “sold” to two different publishers at different times, but they wanted a happily-ever-after ending. I couldn’t change the ending because doing so would change the whole theme of the book: rebuilding one’s life when trauma and destruction hits. Therefore, I put the manuscript back in the computer and waited.

When I started 4RV Publishing, I wasn’t going to do self-publishing. My submissions go through the acquisition editors just as every submission does, anonymously. Stolen was accepted, however one of my submissions has been rejected.

It’s astonishing that you were ejected by the publishing company you started and now operate. That’s what I call a testimony of integrity. I’m going to check out more of the 4RV books! Now, another question: Who designed your book cover and did you have any say in the final result?

Willow Raven designed the book cover. I was able to give suggestions after she did the design, but I didn’t have any other control. She captured the essence of the writing.

I think readers would like to know something about your personal life. Do you have a pet? If so, tell us about this special relationship.

I have two cats. I love German shepherds, but we don’t have a room for a dog. Therefore, we have Funny Face, who’s nearly 15 years old, and Shadow, who’s about six months old. Funny Face can count to three and knows “treat” means run to the kitchen because I’m going to give him canned cat food. He isn’t able to climb into my lap well any more, but he will sit by my chair until I help him up. Shadow is the great-great-great-great (etc.) grandson of a tom cat I had for over ten years, and he’s smart as can be.

Your cat stories put a smile on my face. I love cats! So independent, a bit like writers, don’t you think? Tell us what are you now reading and who are your favorite authors?

I read Carolyn Hart (what a delightful woman), J.A. Jance, Merline Lovelace, William Bernhardt, Jordan Dane, and others. However the ones named are from Oklahoma, even though Jordan has now moved to Texas, and I know or at least met them all.

If you could choose another time in history to live, when would that be?

I would want to live in the future when houses cleaned themselves and the medical world healed us easier.

Good choice! I think that we’d all like that. Now just a couple more questions:

If you could travel anywhere in the world to research a book, and if someone else pays expenses, where would you pick?

Just one place? Hmmm … I would love to go to Europe and visit the countryside. Yes, a few places in some of the major cities would be enjoyable to see, but I would want to visit the country, castles, villages, and such. I’d like to see places where some of my ancestors lived.

Another good choice and I’d like to trail along. Now for one final question: How do you motivate yourself to write when you’re not in the mood to create even one more sentence?

I allow my mind to take over and create more of the “movie” of my manuscript in my head. That’s how I do my writing anyway, in my head. I have the characters, plot, everything real to me before I put my fingers to the keyboard or pen to paper.

Ah! The magic of writing.

Thanks so much Vivian for stopping by and sharing your life and experiences with us. It’s been fun.

Readers, post any questions or remarks that you have for Vivian, I’m sure she’d be glad to respond. May all of you have a joyful and creative day.

Vivian's Links:
Blogsite: http://vivianzabel.blogspot.com/

Website: http://vivianzabel.com/

STOLEN and other books by Vivian Zabel can be purchased through any bookstore, on Internet book stores, and through http://4rvpublishingcatalog.yolasite.com/

Hugs,

Jackie