Month: March 2018

Late Again!

~ marilynm ~ 4 Comments

This month is zipping by so daggone fast, I didn’t realize this was the last Monday until just a few minutes ago.

I suppose at this stage in my life I ought to be slowing down, but it seems I’m as busy as ever. One reason is because my family keep growing, and of course there are always special occasions to enjoy. Most recently was the wedding of one of my great-grandkids. Yes, that makes three of them married–the rest are so  young I probably won’t be around to see them walk down the aisle. This wedding was beautiful despite the fact my great-grandson proposed this last Christmas. The date of the wedding was set for when the bride’s brother could get leave from the Marines to give her away.

My latest writing project has been set-aside as I’ve taken care of other business, like income taxes, and few jobs that actually bring in money, spending time with my hubby and other family members. Though I have four chapters done I really need to go on a field trip to check out the setting I’m using this time. I’ve decided to send my heroine, Deputy Tempe Crabtree and her hubby off on a trip to Tehachapi mainly to deal with a ghost and some Indian spirits. I know Tehachapi, but there are some details I need to check.

I have sent off my latest Rocky Bluff P.D. to the publisher, but have no idea when that might be available. Frankly, I’m too busy to worry about it right now.

Hubby, daughter and I have a trip to see family coming up next week, and I’ve signed up for a first-time book festival in our local area that will happen in April. So things are not slowing down.

Because photos are always great, here’s one of the bride and groom.

Aaron's wedding 1

I took it from where I was sitting.

So tell me, what are all of the rest of you up to?

Marilyn

 

Disorienting Dilemma

~ Amber Foxx ~ 2 Comments

I came across this concept in a textbook on wellness coaching: people are most likely to change when they’re faced with a disorienting dilemma. Immediately, I shifted gears from my fitness professional role to thinking as a writer. Disorienting. I pictured someone unable to get their bearings, losing their sense of direction, and being forced to look at things differently. Dilemma. A difficult choice.  Usually the hardest choices are between two highly desirable but incompatible actions, or between two equally unpleasant actions.

Death Omen, book six in my series, ends with the protagonist, Mae Martin, in a disorienting dilemma in her personal life, a side effect of resolving the mystery. I intended to pick up her story over a year later and get on with the next mystery, after this romantic dilemma had been partially resolved, and after one of the men involved in her difficult decision has been through a serious illness and treatment. I didn’t plan on taking readers through that rough ride with him, or through intertwined the ups and downs of the love story. But a friend who follows the series said over dinner last week that I had enough material for a whole book in exactly the stuff I’d planned to skip over.

She’s right. I’m excited about the setting and the characters in the year-and-a half-later book, and I’ve already completed the first draft, but I had a problem skipping so much, and it nagged at me during that draft. How much backstory did I need to explain the way Mae resolved her dilemma? Should I let readers simply guess some of what happened while she had two men in her life? And was I absolutely sure how it would turn out, if I didn’t tell the story?

Years ago, a critique partner warned me not to coddle my characters. If there’s something painful and hard coming up, put them through it. And I’ve followed that advice—until I almost didn’t. The completed draft has to wait and become book eight. I have to write the “gap story,” putting Mae and the men in her life in the middle of a mystery that challenges all of them, while one the men is sick and while she’s sorting out her choices in love and commitment. It will only make everything they have to do that much harder. I found an instigating event in my “scenes to recycle for unknown stories” file that perfectly sets up the mystery I need to involve all three of them in yet another disorienting dilemma.

 

Fictional Crime

~ janegorman ~ 4 Comments

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The Adam Kaminski Mystery Series are fiction. I base the stories on some true events — historical events, for example, or crimes I read about in the newspapers, or interactions I’ve had in the past with diplomats and law enforcement officers. But in the main, the stories originate in my head. No one was hurt in the making of these books.

No Animals Harmed

This past weekend, I was thrilled to once again join the Delaware Valley Chapter of the Sisters in Crime for a lecture by a local expert in crime and murder. Of the true variety.

I’m not usually a fan of true crime stories. I love reading about fictional murders, with fictional victims and fictional sleuths. Hearing about grisly murders that really took place, about a sick, twisted individual who really did kill innocents, is disturbing. Fascinating, yes, but disturbing.

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Our speaker this month was Sam Cox, an archaeologist at the University of Pennsylvania. Sam spoke to us about her involvement in the exhumation and identification of the remains of H. H. Holmes, commonly known as America’s first (known) serial killer.

Holmes is suspected of killing as many as 200 people. During the 1893 World’s Fair in Chicago, he ran a hotel just off-site that was later determined to have a lime pit and large incinerator in the basement — handy for getting rid of unwanted bodies.

Hearing Sam tell this story, I was hooked. Sam’s work was included in a recent series by the History Channel, American Ripper. Her team is featured in the final episode. I recommend it!

History Channel
I loved hearing her talk about the techniques they used to dig up his grave then identify the bones they found. She told us about what was actually proven in the case and what was still conjecture. She explained how the detectives at the time tracked him and the bodies he left in his wake as he ran.

As a writer, this lecture was invaluable as a source of ideas and information. We learned about investigative and exploratory techniques that law enforcement can use in identifying victims and killers. We got a glimpse behind the scenes.

As a reader, I’m intrigued by the personalities involved. The nonchalance of the serial killer, the determination of the detective who finally tracked him down.

That said, I don’t think I’ll become an avid reader of true crime stories. There’s something comforting about murder mysteries: the killer always gets caught, the hero always saves the day (well, not for the victims, but for those who survive).

I like the feeling that once you’re done, all is right with the world. And I try not to think too much about the true killers still lurking, out there, in the real world…

Adam-Kaminski-Mystery-Series

Learn more about Jane Gorman at JaneGorman.com or follow her on Facebook or Instagram.

Murder From the Headlines by Paty Jager

~ patyjag ~ 1 Comment

2017 headshot newWhen I started brainstorming the newest Shandra Higheagle Mystery, I didn’t think about what was in the headlines. I don’t even watch the news. It’s too depressing.

Every time I start brainstorming a book, I think about the world around me or my life. It is easier to write about something you have a vested interest in. I’d already determined that Shandra would volunteer at  Warner High School. That had been mentioned more as an excuse for her to ferret out information in the previous book, but it was an option for the next book. I took it and ran.

She’s at a high school. Who could I murder and why? I traveled back to my high school days. There had been favorite teachers and not so favorite teachers, but the one that stuck out in my mind the most was the one who gave me the creeps. I didn’t like his smile, he dressed too fancy for the area where we lived, and everyone knew, that if a girl sat in the front row wearing a dress, they received a A for the day and enough of those would get you an A for the class. I didn’t hear any more rumors about him than that, but as I stated before, he kind of gave me the creeps, and I had two classes with him.

I took that feeling and information and came up with a much more lecherous teacher in my fictional school. I gave him a mental disorder that made him a pervert. He was short of stature and preyed on the women his size of smaller. Teachers and students alike. Then I gave the principal a misguided reason for not following through on the harassment charges.

And I had a murder victim.

Adding an autistic boy, who’s older brother looked out for him, and cyber bulling, I found a story full of possible suspects and lots of hidden secrets.

When I finished the book, I saw it as a misleading mystery.  My reviewers wrote in their reviews, “ripped from the headlines.” So I’m guessing my latest book is not only a mystery, but it has subjects that are being talked about in the news. Which is good for my story and promotion, but I hadn’t planned it that way. It was a story born of my past experience and adding in the culture of today.

Do you like stories that incorporate what is happening in the news?

Artful Murder 5x8Book ten in the Shandra Higheagle Mystery Series

Secrets… Scandal… Murder…

An autistic boy and his brother need potter Shandra Higheagle’s help when a teacher’s body is found after a confrontation with the older brother. Shandra knows the boy is innocent. Digging into the teacher’s life, she and Ryan turn up scandal.

Detective Ryan Greer has believed in Shandra’s dreams in the past, but she can’t always be right. When his investigation uncovers a principal on the take, females being harassed, and parents kept in the dark, he discovers more suspects than the brothers. Shandra’s time at the school is coming to an end, and the killer has struck again.

Universal buy link: https://www.books2read.com/u/bapvjq

Artful ad

Guest Blogger- Nan Dale

~ patyjag ~ 1 Comment

The Promotion was inspired in part by my own career in finance, and life in Brooklyn Heights and Montclair in New Jersey; and in part by my very dramatic imagination. I was the kid that would daydream in all my classes through middle school. Although this is my first fiction novel, writing has always been part of my life either through blogs, unpublished short stories and then a lot of research roles at work.

The idea for a financial thriller was born many years ago in Brooklyn heights. Not only did I have have vivid dreams of random escapades there – I would often walk around the neighborhood with my 3 boys, 2 in a double stroller and one on a scooter thinking ‘this is the perfect spot for a kidnapping’. And when I interviewed babysitters, I would wonder if the candidate was actually an uncover spy!!!That said, I have had 3 German au pairs, and no, I haven’t ever wondered whether they had a double identity 🙂

I think the world of finance provides perfect fodder for financial thrillers.

After I graduated business school, I joined the sales and trading program at a small Wall Street firm in New York. Ruth’s character in the book and meeting her husband is partly based on my own life experience. Although we didn’t work for the same firm, I met my husband while out for dinner with about eight folks from my training program.

Ruth’s career mirrors that of three very successful, senior women at the firm I worked with early on in my career. All three were very quantitative, married and rose through the ranks quickly. Similar to Ruth, one woman that I worked briefly with, left the firm at the peak of her career to become a stay at home mom. Note in real life, I am very different from Ruth professionally, my strengths are in writing, research and relationship building but we do share the same love for family and are very athletic.

John’s quest for a promotion was my way of adding drama to an already challenging situation. Because I worked mostly with men, I saw the sacrifices that were made in trying to get to the top. Some men gave up their marriages since they spent long nights and weekends working. Health became an issue for some. There was a BEVY of swearing (I chose not to include this in the book).

I wanted to highlight the nonlinear path to promotion. This is especially acute once you reach the top since the corporate world is a pyramid structure and there’s only room for a chosen few. I loved the fact that even though John had everything lined up in his favor: gender, upbringing, experience, education, looks, family, and a lot of hard work -that there could be unhidden forces at work that could preempt his ascent.

Do John and Ruth get to live their happily ever after ? Well – you would have to read the sequel to find out.

MediumThe Promotion

Like many heavy hitters on Wall Street, John is an alpha male with good looks, intellect and the tenacity to run with the big dogs. His wife, Ruth, a former investment banker now turned Stay-At Home Mom, is every bit the perfect partner.

John is steps away from achieving his lifelong dream of becoming a partner at a prestigious investment firm in New York City. When unanticipated events over the weekend put his promotion in jeopardy, he starts to question who is obstructing his career and why?

As life gets increasingly complicated, how far will John go to achieve his end and will he sacrifice his own values and those of his family to fulfill a lifelong dream?

Buy Link: https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B079VSGGNR

Nan Dale recently moved to Montclair, New Jersey from Brooklyn in New York. When she’s not breaking up a fight among her three boys, or playing basketball with them, she hangs out with her husband, does yoga or stages Just Dance competitions with her au pair. During the day, she works full time for a financial firm. She has spent 12 years in the world of finance – in which she describes the personalities as highly entertaining.