Getting into the Rhythm

February 14, 2022February 1, 2022 ~ patyjag ~ 6 Comments

My second book in the Spotted Pony Casino Mysteries is up on pre-order, publishing on February 18th. I have been fascinated with my main character, Dela Alvaro, ever since I conjured her up for a short story I entered in a contest. She kept knocking around in my head until I decided to make her a main character in her own series.

Even before starting her series, I introduced her to my readers in a Stolen Butterfly, book 7 in the Gabriel Hawke novels. Readers liked her and the secondary characters who are in her life. I was excited to start her series. I had gathered gambling terms to use for book titles because she is head of security at a casino on a reservation. The first book was Poker Face. It delved deeper into what makes Dela tick as the reader is in her point of view, not someone seeing her on the outside.

She has been medically discharged from the Army due to losing a lower limb from an IED. Her plans had been twenty years in the army, which was cut five years short due to the explosion. In book one she has returned to the reservation where she grew up and is trying to piece her life back together. She’d planned on a job in law enforcement but being an amputee put a stop to that plan. Through Grandfather Thunder, the man who lives next door so her mother, Dela gets a job working security at the casino.

During book one, while Dela and FBI Special Agent Quinn Pierce work together to find out who killed and stuffed a casino employee in a laundry chute, Dela, myself, and readers discover more about her and how determined she is to not let her disability be who she is. One of my beta readers thought I’d talked too much about her disability in the first book. But I wanted readers to feel how she felt. She has only been an amputee for less than two years, a year of that was spent in surgery and rehab in an army hospital.

Fast forward to House Edge, book 2, the same beta reader said she loved how I handled the disability, how she’s coming into her own, and the expanded men in her life. That made me feel good. Because I thought after the short story and Dela having a large role in Stolen Butterfly that book 1 wouldn’t feel like an author exploring what she could do with a character.

As I wrote book 2, the premise I had planned for book 3 took root and I planted a hint of what will happen in book 3 in book 2 and I wrote the opening scene for Double Down while I was writing House Edge. It felt right to get the information accurate while the start of the conflict was fresh in my mind.

It isn’t new for me to come up with ideas for future books while I’m writing the current book. I do it all the time. I generally just jot down the idea and then when I’m not writing, swirl it around in my head figuring out how to make the idea work and where in the line of books it will fall.

I have several ideas for what will happen down the line in various books. Some deal with her friends in trouble and some will deal with the father she was told died before she was born.

There will be more mystery in Dela’s life as she continues to solve murders that happen at the casino and on the reservation. It’s a good feeling when a character becomes real in my mind and writing the book is like walking in their footsteps. That’s when I know I have found the rhythm of the character.

Book 2 in the Spotted Pony Casino Mysteries has Dela Alvaro not only trying to keep her job by discovering the killer before word spreads about the murder, but she also has to deal with FBI Special Agent Quinn Peirce butting heads with her high school sweetheart who has returned to the reservation as a tribal police officer

Zealous Environmentalists

Greedy Power Companies

…and a body

A bitter dispute over the breaching of dams in Idaho sparks emotions at a summit held at the Spotted Pony Casino. When the keynote speaker is murdered, Dela Alvaro, head of security, teams up again with FBI Special Agent Quinn Pierce.

The suspects are many since it appears the victim was playing both sides of the controversial environmental issue. Did someone take advantage of a marital dispute… witnessed by a crowd of casino spectators? Or did an angry wife murder her husband?

Pre-order link:

https://books2read.com/u/bWQ8X0

Guest Blogger ~ J.R. Camelback

February 5, 2022February 1, 2022 ~ patyjag

Although I’m a lady who loves writing international mystery thrillers, I write my international mystery thrillers using a male pseudonym, and I’ve built an “identity” for my writer, J. R. Camelback. His photo is in shadow and I’ve made him a “Marlboro” kind of man, which is apparent when you read his bio. Perhaps because I am a “lady” who writes international mystery thrillers, an unusual romance unfolds when the plot reveals love for the same person can take many forms, but this Kindle eBook Taking the Queen – a Caper Book 1 in the Prometheus Foster series has a plot leaving no doubt this is an international mystery thriller.

As readers discover in Book 1 of the Prometheus Foster series, Taking The Queen – a Caper,Prometheus Foster is a flawed truth seeker who often creates confusion when he asks too many questions. He and his partner Smarty Jason use their own special methods to solve puzzles involving a plethora of possibilities. At times there is a certain rivalry between these two, former Washington Post reporters, however, they join forces to unravel the curiously worded tip by a whistle blower who comes forward some fifteen years after the whistle blowing event takes place. They need to seek the secrets hidden within the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) documents, in files the FBI has only partially declassified. The FBI’s awry sting scheme takes place right in the nation’s political cauldron Washington D. C. and in the nation of Singapore where political intrigues are a “winner take all game.”

My multifaceted international mystery thriller has glowing Editorial reviews from the industry leading publications: “Kirkus Review” “Publisher’s Weekly Booklife” and “Writers Digest,” citing a “…intriguing plot with many twists and turns…” A reader who bought my Kindle book and left a 5-star review said: “This book convincingly melds international crime with a tale of determination to uncover an ugly truth. The plot moves fairly quickly thanks to the tight and focused writing. While many characters get mentioned, a journalistic duo propel the narrative. Prometheus Foster and Smarty Jason prove to be as interesting and memorable as their names, and their backstories would no doubt be a great subject for additional books. The author also adeptly connects this fictional story to real-life FBI headlines, further adding to the book’s realism. Taking the Queen is an unusually intriguing and satisfying read.”

Taking The Queen – a Caper” Book 1 Prometheus Foster series has been produced as an Audible book, the Amazon Kindle website lists both the Kindle eBook and the Audible book is located at the link: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08C79RJLP .

Taking the Queen: A Caper Book 1 in the Prometheus Foster series, features investigative reporter Prometheus Foster and Smarty Jason, former collogues at The Washington Post in this international crime thriller tale within opposing lenses of time, Foster and Jason join forces to pursue a whistle blower’s tip about a botched FBI counterintelligence operation hidden within the maze of investigative government agency files under the Freedom of Information Act.

J. R. Camelback

I do my outlines In-between IT security assignments, I conceive the plot with all the twists and turns as I ride the Arizona sacred hills trails. And I am a familiar figure known to all who live in a place sacred to Apache and Comanche Indians for their hunt on ground sacred to ancestors. I do seek to blend into the landscape of wherever I need to be to research the details that I am meticulous about. In my photo, you will see me in my study where I have a bookshelf of books, and of course, my computer for the online sources I need to offer my readers an insight into the environment where the action takes place. I am now at work on the draft manuscript of Book 2 in the Prometheus Foster series, THE WUHAN PUZZLE , this book straddles 2 mystery genres: International Mystery & Crime: Thrillers: Espionage, and I am placing Prometheus Foster in a plot that is swimming the boundaries of integrity to make him question his life’s purpose, and then I test his moral purpose amidst the rivers of circumstances when the life of his beloved wife, Marcy is at stake, she defines his humanity, THE WUHAN PUZZLE tests him in ways that brings him to his knees and in ways he’s never thought emotions sway.

PLEASE NOTE: I am testing Book Covers for THE WUHAN PUZZLE and hope the Ladies of Mystery blog readers can tell me what they think of this one:

The word “puzzle” in another font similar cover

Guest Blogger ~ Millicent Eidson

January 29, 2022January 5, 2022 ~ patyjag ~ 2 Comments

Microscopic microbes that kill—those have been my life’s blood for forty years as a veterinary epidemiologist with state health departments and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Now focused on communicating public health through creative writing, I’ve published ten shorter works and the first novel of my alphabetical series, “Anthracis: A Microbial Mystery.”

Epidemiologists used to joke that everyone thought we were skin doctors. Now in the age of COVID, much of the public is sick to death of public health pronouncements. But there are enough people who are fascinated by the science and inside story of how diseases are routed out and conquered. The West Wing immersed us in the personal and professional challenges for public servants in the White House. The MayaVerse provides a backstage pass to veterinarians in public rather than private practice.

Medical thrillers usually have physician pathologists as the heroes, but medical detectives can include veterinarians specializing in zoonoses, diseases transmitted from animals. “One Health” is the concept that humans, other species, and the environment are intricately intertwined. Ignoring one part places the others at peril.

The MayaVerse is the world of Dr. Maya Maguire, a young veterinary epidemiologist starting her first assignment as part of the CDC shock troops called Epidemic Intelligence Service Officers. I had the honor of beginning my own public health career as an EIS Officer, and my creative writing is inspired by my mentors, peers, and successors. Maya is partially modeled on my daughter, adopted as an infant from China. She’s been a close collaborator at creating the story of a ‘fish out of water’ growing up Asian in the American Southwest.

The author Edward Abbey said that our definition of beauty is formed by the land imprinting our brains during childhood. I bless my good fortune for growing up in Arizona. No place on earth is more spectacular to me than the Sonoran desert.

With climate change scorching the earth and increasing asthma-inducing wildfires, my retirement home is along the gorgeous shores of Lake Champlain in Vermont. However, the Southwest still has my soul and is the initial setting for the MayaVerse. In the second novel “Borrelia” to be published June, 2022, Maya’s investigations into this squiggly spirochete will take her to Europe, and the fifteen years of her life until “Zika” will take us all on a worldwide adventure.

Shorter works, many available for free at HOME (drmayamaguire.com), provide some prequels and side stories for lively secondary characters. Those who sign up for my Reader list will be emailed the e-book and pdf versions of my award-winning short play “Monuments,” which dramatizes a fictional encounter in Santa Fe’s Plaza inspired by real-life controversy over its phallic monument.

“Anthracis” is published wide so available through bookstores, libraries, and multiple online sources including Amazon. Links for the e-book, paperback, hardcover, and large print versions are available at ANTHRACIS (drmayamaguire.com). Please join me on this grand adventure through the microbial world!

Anthracis: A Microbial Mystery

In the hottest summer on record, the spectacular southwestern desert is alive with Bacillus anthracis spores. Maya Maguire, new veterinarian with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, battles the largest anthrax outbreak in U.S. history.

Despite lingering trauma from a childhood accident, Maya’s confidence builds with a supportive team of passionate physician Manolo Miranda and enigmatic veterinarian Dave Schwartz.

But Homeland Security and the FBI are suspicious when spores match Dave’s home Texas Triangle of Death. If Maya can’t find the source, thousands may perish. Anthracis takes us to the front lines with scientists betting their lives on the investigation outcome.

Buy Links: https://drmayamaguire.com/anthracis

MILLICENT EIDSON is the author of the alphabetical Maya Maguire microbial mystery series. The MayaVerse at https://drmayamaguire.com includes prequels, “El Chinche” in Danse Macabre and “What’s Within” in Fiction on the Web, and a side story, “Pérdida” in El Portal Literary Journal. Author awards include Best Play in Synkroniciti and Honorable Mention from the Arizona Mystery Writers.

Dr. Eidson’s work as a public health veterinarian and epidemiologist began with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and continued at the New Mexico and New York state health departments. She is a public health faculty member at the University at Albany and the University of Vermont.

Millicent discusses her first novel “Anthracis: A Microbial Mystery” at Microbial Mystery Author Dr Millicent Eidson on Big Blend Radio – YouTube.

She can be found on Twitter, @EidsonMillicent, and Instagram, @drmayamaguire.

Guest Blogger ~ C L Bee

January 15, 2022January 8, 2022 ~ patyjag ~ 1 Comment

THE GHOSTLY AND PARADISE TAXI – Book 1 in the 3 book series The Ghostly And Paradise Taxi is a mystery with no predictability, essentially a book for our time when no one knows whether they will survive another day.

From the first chapter with the heading “Remembrances of time past and present” the mystery of this cross genre Kindle eBook begins. The unnamed “he and she” are having a conversation, but I drop a few clues the reader can pick up when “she” indicates that finally, she’s written the first paragraph of the book she has always wanted to write. And “he” asks whether she will use her pseudonym. Another clue for the reader to pick up comes when she asks him to read the first paragraph. And the title of “her” book is the same as the title of this book.

The process of writing an intriguing mystery involves knowing how to plot a step by step to parts of the puzzle. For my book to have its twists and turns, early on in the writing, I keep a time line file in my head until I get the sense of how to move the plot and characters toward the denouement. Sometimes I use a time line that is part of the chapter heading. I want flawed characters to write about, because I am offering the reader a view of humanity, and as we know, no one is perfect. In writing the book I’d like to read, I have to plot a way to move my characters toward a life changing experience, in other words, their epiphany, but some of us never learn, and those are the characters I want to receive a punishment apropos to their malicious intent.

I know readers will enjoy solving my mystery along with me when I also wonder what happens next. For me, writing is like tending the grapes in a vineyard. To make certain my words are conveying the story, it’s like making fine wine, I know my story ends when all the pieces complete the puzzle, then I’m ready to send my manuscript to my publisher. For years I wrote for editors who edited writers to “put a coat of polish” on the contents of their magazine or newspaper. I wrote a popular monthly column entitled “Travel Agent Spotlight” for a travel industry magazine, but for the two years I had written the column, I couldn’t find one word that I wrote. I finally told the Editor that I would send her a summary. She told me to keep handing in my copy as usual, but I had an idea for a book, and I quit.

Now, I’d like you to read my book, here is the Amazon Kindle url: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09PYL8NDT?asin=B09PYL8NDT&revisionId=d39fd049&format=1&depth=1

As a bonus for the readers of Ladies of Mystery’s blog, you can read this book for free.

My publisher is Kindle exclusive, and Daccord Press plans to offer a free Kindle ebook promotion, the website is:

https://www.daccordpress.com/

Use the link on the right of the Daccord Press website for the email contact, but if you are reading this blog, here it is: mailto:daccordpress@yahoo.com Ask to be on the email list and leave your email contact. Daccord Press will send out an email to you with the “day” or “days” you can take advantage of this offer, all you have to do is put the url of the book:

Claim your free Kindle ebook, if you don’t have a Kindle, download to your computer.

CL Bee is a former freelance writer who worked overseas and was based in Paris, France. Now she’s back in the USA and writing the fiction she didn’t publish during those years when she was freelancing. CL Bee is currently at work on her first eBook, The Ghostly and Paradise Taxi Book 1, in the series The Ghostly and Paradise Taxi, published by Daccord Press, an indie small press.

Gathering my Thoughts

January 10, 2022January 6, 2022 ~ patyjag ~ 8 Comments

When a new year comes around and I’m starting a new book, it just feels right. My desk is clean. Something I do the end of every year is make sure my desk is tidy and ready for the coming year. (I also do it between each book/project) It wipes away what I had been working on and makes a clean slate for the next project.

This first project of the year is book 9 in the Gabriel Hawke series. I enjoy writing these books. They are set, mostly, where I grew up and have a unique character who I feel I can tap into better than my female protagonists. I don’t know why, but Hawke flows from me without doubts or self recriminations that the character isn’t this or that.

This book will push me and my character. He and his significant other are going to be pushed to their limits trying to help a wounded person and survive a blizzard in the Wallowa Mountains. I have my research books stacked up and have started reading them. I have even ran some tests in our snow to see what blood looks like when it first drips onto the snow. I took photos and studied the spot for about four days, until our snow melted. I know what my character will see or be on the look out for when they follow the sparse drops of blood from the bleeding person who left a dead body behind.

Several of the scenes have played over in my mind since I came up with the premise of this book. I have sat down and discovered who the person they are following is and who the dead person was. I wrote out the chain of ideas for scenes. Once I do some more research on snow conditions and animals that would be accessible for food or to follow to stay warm, I’ll start writing the book this week.

While some people don’t like to have a “road map” or outline to follow when they write, I’ve found, after the last Spotted Pony Casino Mystery that I “mapped out” that it helped me to know my story better when I started and while I didn’t stick to the road or route I’d mapped, I felt I had a stronger book throughout because I knew a bit more about my characters and who I wanted to highlight as possible suspects.

As yet, I don’t have a title for book #9 in the Hawke books. I’m waiting to see what animal makes sense that is out in the winter and would work for the premise of the book. I’m a writer that either has the titles before I start the book or I come across it as I’m writing. It looks like it will be the latter this time.

If you have any thoughts on a winter animal put it in the comments and I’ll look up its habits to see if it might work.

At the moment I have Churlish Badger being made into an audiobook as well as the Shandra Higheagle Mystery book, Homicide Hideaway. But what you really need to know is through the month of January, if you like audiobooks, Book 1 in the Shandra Higheagle Mystery series, Double Duplicity is $1.99 at Authors Direct.

If you don’t have the app it’s easy to download and free. This audiobook resource gives me and the other authors using it more royalties than the other audiobook vendors. (and my books are priced lower here.)

https://shop.authors-direct.com/products/double-duplicity-shandra-higheagle-mystery