Month: November 2023

Guest Blogger ~ Pamela Cowan

~ patyjag ~ 1 Comment

I love diving into mystery and suspense thrillers because there’s nothing quite like the satisfaction of seeing an everyday person take on tough challenges and come out on top. It’s like a cathartic rollercoaster ride, and writing thrillers gives me the advantage of being able to control the ride — at least as much as my characters allow.

The inspiration for my latest suspense thriller, “Repoe Man” happened during the early months of Covid. My husband and I had decided to retire so I was living in our vacation home in Southern Oregon while he was 300 miles north, prepping our primary house for sale.

During that time, I got into the habit of nightly chats with an old writing buddy, who used his pen name, Jake. We’d start Facebook threads, and our friends would chime in. One of his friends was Bobby Poe. Their banter was a mix of reminiscing about their rough hometown, and their love for heavy metal and fast cars. I thought their friendship and the way they reminisced was funny and interesting and Bobby’s name was perfect for the character who had started to coalesce in my mind. With their blessing and loads of helpful feedback, I got started on what I affectionately called the “Bobby Poe and Jake book.”

As a person who’d spent most of their career in probation and parole and then in social services, I’d seen the struggles of kids growing up in the foster care system. In fact, my agency was key in helping address one of the more tragic aspects, which is kids who age out of the system and must leave their homes, often with no resources to fall back on. There is no one to help pay for college, or a car, or even offer a place to stay in tough times.

I wondered, what would happen if Jake and Bobby grew up in foster care and were forced to deal with that issue. I decided that without resources or support they might dabble in some sketchy stuff, but since they were basically good and had each other, they would escape real trouble. Bobby would join the military while Jake would discover a marketable talent as a writer.  

That doesn’t fix all their problems though and the novel starts with Jake picking up Bobby, who has just been released from jail. Bobby is ready to make a fresh start, until Jake asks him to help a mutual friend with a problem they can’t take to the police. Bobby agrees and soon finds himself drawn into a dangerous world of crime and criminals.

For this book I did research on burglary, munitions (or how to blow things up), sports gambling, sports memorabilia, cars, motorcycles, sex workers, and law enforcement. I spoke with a drug dealer, a professional thief, a pimp, a retired munitions expert with the Army, a lawyer, and a car mechanic. Each one was fascinating in their own way.

The book was nearly done but I still didn’t have a title. When I told subscribers to my newsletter the problem, I got a flurry of responses. One of them suggested, “Repoe Man.” I thought it was the perfect title for a book about a character who retrieves things for others.

Please note that it is a thriller written in a male voice and contains scenes of erotica and violence. If that doesn’t bother you, I hope you enjoy reading “Repoe Man,” as much as I enjoyed researching and writing it. You can find it here REPOE MAN: A Bobby Poe Novel: Cowan, Pamela: 9781957638966: Amazon.com: Books

Repoe Man

Bobby Poe and his best friend Jake grew up together in foster care, bonding over their rebellious natures, and shared love of fast cars and heavy metal music.

When Jake asks him to help a mutual friend with a problem, Bobby finds himself drawn into a dangerous world of crime and corruption.

Will love, friendship, and the support of a makeshift family be enough to assure his safety and success, or is the damage inflicted by his past too great?

“Suffering from PTSD and a broken heart Bobby Poe still stands up and fights for everyone. A new hero!” ~ Corky Alexander, Simon Says Book Reviews

“Zoey is an idiot.” ~ Haley Lane, Author of The Twilight King

https://www.amazon.com/REPOE-MAN-Bobby-Poe-Novel/dp/1957638966

Pamela Cowan is a Pacific Northwest author most recognized for her psychological thrillers. Her books are known for their dark and gritty themes, exploring the uglier side of human nature. Her short stories have been featured in various magazines, and anthologies, and have been broadcast on public radio.

With an education in communications and organizational psychology, Pamela spent most of her career in social services, honing her understanding of human behavior, which she incorporates into her books. She has two grown children, a supportive husband, and a dog whose life-long goal is to end the tyranny of UPS, USPS, and FedEx drivers. To date, she has not been successful.

Website: https://www.pamelacowan.com/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pamelacowanwriter/

Seasons of Celebration and Frustration

~ Pamela Beason

It’s mid-November, and our leaf color display in the Pacific Northwest this year has been nothing short of spectacular. Our drought is finally over, and all the waterfalls along the trails I typically hike are back. I had avoided those areas in the late summer, because it was just too depressing to observe all the dry creek beds. The weather in autumn is typically my favorite, with cool, crisp sunny days.

But I enjoy all the seasons. Spring is always full of anticipation as the hours of sunlight get noticeably longer each day and the blooms and new leaves emerge. Spring, for us along the coastline in the Pacific Northwest It always takes way too long for the snow to melt in the Cascades here, but it’s often fine for spring snowshoeing, so I can conjure up a little patience to wait for the ability to hike on dry trails.

And then there’s summer, the most amazing season of all for high-country hikers, with all the trails melting out and the North Cascades mountain vistas that extend as far as you can see. Mountain goats and bears are around all year long, but are rarely seen in the winter. We are so blessed in this area to have millions of acres of national forests and so many national parks. There are so many trails to explore in Washington State in every direction, I’ll never be able to hike all of them.

So, now it will soon be full-on winter and all the rainbow colors in the trees will be gone. I will, however, still walk the local trails here in the lowlands. I may be one of the few people who actually enjoy seeing the trees in their naked glory. It’s interesting to me to view the branch structures, the differing textures of bark, and the nests that birds and squirrels have built or hollowed out over the seasons. Without leaves, it’s much easier to see the birds that perch on the branches. Owls and hawks are my special favorites.

We still kayak in the winter, but it’s more of a challenge with wind and cold weather and short hours of sunlight. However, it’s always a delight to get out on the salt water. With luck, there will be kingfishers and all kinds of birds along the shorelines, and in the water, seals and harbor porpoises, and the chance to see orcas and whales.

But then there’s snow. I love to drive to the mountains and play in the white stuff there and receive enthusiastic visits from the gray jays that are always ready for a handout. However, I don’t like to see snow here along the coast of the Salish Sea. Snow mucks up the traffic here like you would not believe, because only a few arterial streets get sanded or cleared, so our neighborhoods are left to cope on their own, and many have steep hills to climb or descend. In my area, I often see folks pour out of their houses to help push a stranded vehicle up the street.

I love my independent single life, I truly do. I have lots of friends and all kinds of fun activities that I participate in, such as hiking and kayaking and snowshoeing, and going to movies, plays, and lectures in town. But each year, the holiday season feels to me like it has been uniquely designed to make those of us who don’t have big families feel like total losers.

But now it’s nearly Thanksgiving and the dreaded holidays are fast approaching! While many people look forward to Thanksgiving and Christmas, I detest those holidays, and I guarantee you that many other single, childless people do, too.

I especially dislike Christmas, when everything gets shut down, and so many useless and unwanted items are passed around because of a feeling of obligation. Most Americans have WAY too much “stuff.” It’s awkward to receive a gift that you don’t value. If anyone has to give me a gift, I hope they give me an experience: invite me to dinner or a play, or volunteer to help me fix something around my house.

While I don’t have much in the way of family, many of my friends do, and so they understandably vanish off to spend Thanksgiving and Christmas with their relatives. With luck, I may be able to patch together a potluck with a few single friends or married couples who don’t mind having a single woman at their table. For Christmas, instead of buying token items to the few family members I have, I use that money to make donations to worthy causes who help those who truly need assistance.

So, with more time on my hands in this season, I can finally sit down at my desk to write. I’ve been very slow to work on my next mystery, which will be a crossover novel between my Sam Westin wilderness series and my Neema the Gorilla series. Yes, some days it’s hard for me to imagine that, too. But now that I can focus, I’m sure I can pull it off. Stay tuned.

I plan to call this novel If Only, because the theme is about how we all are born into circumstances that may be lucky or unlucky, and we all make choices that may change our lives for better or worse. Imagine how different our lives would be right now if we had been born in Gaza or in Ukraine or Haiti or Ethiopia. Imagine how we might feel if we had bought a lottery ticket for the first time and won a million dollars, or if we had decided to take the boat out and got caught in a big storm.

That’s how the seasons go in my life. I try to “carpe diem” in all of them. And I hope you do, too.

Tis the Season for…Mystery Reads!

~ patyjag ~ 7 Comments

Having been published in romance before I wrote mystery, I can remember hearing romance writers talk about listening to Christmas music in the summer to get a Christmas story written. While I’ve been known to listen to music to get into a character or a story, I’ve never listened to Christmas music to write a Christmas story. No matter what time of the year I write it.

The one thing I do know is I prefer Christmas mysteries to Christmas romance. Thinking on it, I believe it’s because you know in a romance that the two who love one another will get together and there will be a wonderful time had by all.

But a Christmas mystery… Someone may or may not be killed. Is it a relative of the main characters or is it someone special to a relative? Or it could just be the nice old man or woman down the street. But there will be suspense, there will be clues, and there may or may not be a holiday. It depends on how hard the main character is working to solve the murder or it could be because he or she is being detained by the murderer and they can’t make the celebration with their family or loved ones. Hmmm… So much more can go on with a Christmas mystery.

Possibly there is a favorite aunt’s special Christmas letter from her lover that was stolen, and the main character has to get it back before the aunt opens up the music box she always plays on Christmas Eve as she reads the letter. Why does the letter have to be there? What will the aunt do if the letter is gone? So much to think about and so much to do to get that letter back. It makes the season more intense and interesting to have so much hanging on whether or not the letter is replaced before the aunt knows it is missing.

I’ve written two, well three, Christmas mysteries, and I’ve found every one of them to be entertaining to write due to urgency in the main characters to get the murder solved by Christmas. For some reason ending the book on Christmas Day just feels right to me. After a long game of cat and mouse between the clues and the main characters to solve the murder(s), I like to give them the treat of spending Christmas with the people they love.

Okay, so that sounds like a romance. The Happy Ever After ending doesn’t always stay that way in a mystery or a mystery series. You never know when the main character’s life could blow up. But for that brief moment at the end of the mystery set right before Christmas, it gives the reader and the character a moment of peace believing their loved ones are safe and they survived the murderer.

If you like a fun Christmas mystery novella, I enjoyed The Thirteenth Santa by Joanna Pence last year. I listened to it on Chirp. In fact, I enjoyed it so much I listened to it twice.

Or you could read my new novella in the Shandra Higheagle Mystery series, Christmas Chaos. This novella came about because my fans kept asking me for more Shandra Higheagle. I’m hoping having set this book ten years after the last book in the series, the readers will finally see how the future turns out for Shandra, Ryan, the twins, and all their friends and family.

Christmas Chaos

Check out a super-special Christmas surprise— a continuation of the Shandra Higheagle Mystery series. Ten years later the twins are at college but there’s trouble brewing.

Shandra Higheagle Greer is anxiously awaiting a visit from her twins as they head home from college for Christmas break. After a ten-year absence, her deceased grandmother is back in her dreams and the message seems clear. The twins are in trouble. After giving a young woman a ride to a nearby town, they become suspects in her murder.

Even though he’s been removed from the case, Shandra and her husband, Weippe County Sheriff Ryan Greer, continue to investigate, determined to dig up proof that the twins had nothing to do with the homicide. Even if that means putting one of the twins in danger to uncover the truth.

Universal buy link: https://books2read.com/u/47dKjq

I hope you are having a wonderful November. I’m at a marketing and promotion conference right now. November 10th I’ll be at the RAVE- Readers Authors Vegas Event. If you’re in the Vegas area come on down to the Horseshoe Casino. There will be 300 authors from all genres sitting in the Event Center all day Friday the 10th. I’d love to have you come by and say, “Hi!” This is only a few of the mystery authors who will be there.

I’ll be home for four days and then I’m headed to Portland Oregon to sell my books and the books of other NIWA (Northwest Independent Authors Association) members at the Portland Holiday Market at the Expo Center from Nov. 17th – 19th. If you live around Portland or are passing through one of those days, come on by and visit. I always have goodies for people who stop by to talk.

My Muse and My Editor Talk About Challenges

~ Margaret Lucke ~ 2 Comments

“Yesterday my critique group was chatting about challenges we’re facing with our works in progress,” I announce as I walk into my office. “What would you two say are the biggest challenges when it comes to writing fiction?”

You two means my collaborators, my partners in crime—the Muse and the Editor who inhabit my head when I write.

“That’s easy,” says my Muse. She is lounging in the easy chair in the corner of the room, sipping from a cup of Earl Grey. “The biggest challenge is keeping her out of the way so I can let the ideas flow freely.”

“Ha!” snorts my Editor, who is sitting cross-legged on the desktop, a grammar book on her lap. “The biggest challenge is to keep her under control.”

“Control!” My Muse jumps up, and tea sloshes out of her mug. “Writing a story is a creative process. It’s all about inspiration. It’s not something you can control.”

I run to get paper towels so I can control the rivulet of tea that’s flowing across the floor.

“Writing is only ten percent inspiration,” the Editor is saying when I return. “It’s ninety percent perspiration. You do the easy part.”

Getting down on my hands and knees, I mop up the spill.

“Easy! You think coming up with ideas is easy? It’s grueling work.” The Muse clasps a hand to her brow and nearly kicks me as she flops back into the chair cushions.

The Editor blows a Bronx cheer. “Without me, your ideas would run around wildly all over the place. There’d be no coherence, no order, no story at all.”

“Nonsense,” the Muse retorts. “All you do is pester me about little stuff. ‘That word is spelled wrong. Put a comma here.’ Commas, shmommas. Who cares?”

“Who cares!” The Editor yells as she throws the grammar book to the floor. “Everyone should care. A misplaced comma can change the whole meaning of the sentence. Remember that time when—”

The Muse sticks her fingers in her ears. “La, la, la, la, la … ”

I toss the soggy paper towel into the trash. “Come on, you two, you know we’re all a team. You each have an important job to do.”

They’re too busy arguing to pay attention to me.

“You’re lazy,” shouts the Editor.

“You’re rigid,” yells the Muse.

“Airhead!”

“Stick in the mud!”

I raise my hands in surrender. “Enough! I’m getting out of here. I’ll see you two later, when you’ve settled down.”

“Wait a minute,” the Muse says. “You can’t leave.”

The Editor chimes in, “Yeah, what about our schedule? We’re supposed to be getting some writing done.”

As I walk out of the office, the Muse says, “There she goes again. Know what the biggest writing challenge really is?”

“Yeah,” says the Editor gloomily. “It’s getting the author to sit down and do it.”

The Problems of Being Dumfungled

~ janispattersonmysteries ~ 3 Comments


by Janis Patterson

Dumfungled is a Scots word that means to be physically and mentally worn out, which is as good a definition of burn out as I’ve ever heard.


Burn out. It’s an ugly word, and an uglier truth, and right now I’m feeling like a charred match.


It’s been a tough year. On the personal front, I lost three long-time friends to Death, two of whom were younger than I. Now that The Husband is retired we have been traveling more, including a recent expedition to dig for diamonds in Arkansas. Yes, Arkansas. It seems that at a rough estimate 25% of the world’s surface diamonds are in the 40 +/- acres of the Crater of Diamonds State Park. Not that we found any – the only things I found were a couple of muscles I didn’t know I had. Ouch!


On a professional front, in case you’ve been living under a rock this year and missed my continual updates, I republished 22 reverted books – each freshly edited, freshly formatted and most with new covers – one every other Wednesday beginning on 15 January and the last one released 25 October.


That’s a lot of work, and a lot harder than you’d think, and because of it I only wrote two new books this year instead of my normal four or five. Oh, and just in case I get bored four dear friends and I are putting out our own anthology in the spring. (Follow this blog for more information…)


I’m tired.


I have a book that I would like to finish, a book I really like, but when I sit down to write it always seems that suddenly there is something else that absolutely demands to be done at that exact moment, like cleaning the dishwasher’s gasket or paste waxing the top of the dining table. I know, I know… escapism.


However, I’m proud of what I have accomplished. Those books are out there, and they will be there for as long as I want them to be.


And to reward myself, I am taking the rest of the year off. My kitchen and office both need excavating, my wardrobe desperately needs some attention and as I sorely need a distraction The Husband is taking us to Germany in December to see the Christmas Markets. He says I need to see something outside the parameters of my computer screen. I didn’t argue!


So this is my last blog for 2023. I’ll be back in January, probably with lots of tales about Germany, and hopefully with a couple of ideas for new books… and the enthusiasm to actually write them!
Wishing you all a Happy Thanksgiving, a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year! See you in 2024!