Left Coast Crime Replay by Paty Jager

April 9, 2018April 9, 2018 ~ patyjag ~ 13 Comments

Last month, March 22-24, I attended the 2018 Left Coast Crime conference in Reno, NV. It was a five and a half hour drive from my home. A friend and I left Wednesday morning and took our time driving through rain, snow, and sleet to get there.

Thursday morning started with a speed dating event where two authors were teamed up and we moved from table to table talking about our books to readers who remained at the tables. There were 20 tables of 6-8 people per tables. It was a lot of fun. My “dating” partner was Lauri Rockenbeck. She had her first book out, and I was pitching my Shandra Higheagle Series.

I attended a couple of the panels that day and hung out with my friend.

Friday morning I was on the panel “I Still Miss Someone: Ghosts, Hauntings, & Horror” with Michele Drier, Margaret Lucke, Catherine Paul, and Jo Perry. We talked about the supernatural elements in our books. Michele was the narrator and did an excellent job with great questions and keeping things moving.

After my panel I popped in on a couple others where friends were speaking. Then I had lunch with an up and coming writer, who had contacted me before the conference to see if I would take the time from the conference and talk to her about writing and the business side of things. It was fun to meet Heather and share knowledge.

Friday evening, I attended the interview with William Kent Krueger. He was, as always, entertaining. He told how he took his 10 year-old grandson with them on a trip to Arizona to learn about about human trafficking and the border wars. He said while no one would open up to him,when his grandson asked questions, they would respond to him. And that was how Kent found the information he needed for his book Sulphur Springs which won the Lefty Award on Saturday night.

Saturday morning, I read the first chapter of Artful Murder at a “You Had Me At…” where authors could read for ten minutes and talk about their books or do a demonstration. After I read, a talk was given by Nancy Tingley on “Art Historians as Detectives”. I found it fascinating and made sure I watched a few more of these types of presentations by authors.

Saturday afternoon, I hosted my Sundae Social at Rosie’s Cafe in the casino. Thirteen readers signed up and twelve showed up. I was excited to have so many come. I purchased vanilla ice cream in dishes for them, and I’d brought along toppings for them to make their own sundaes, while I visited and talked about my books. They all went away saying it was the best event they’d been to during the conference, because they had one on one time with an author and enjoyed ice cream! I enjoyed each person who came.

I didn’t go to the banquet on Saturday night as a romance author friend who lives in Reno was meeting me for dinner. We had a great time catching up and talking writing.

While standing in line to pay and pick up the silent auction item I won, I started up a conversation with the author behind me (can’t remember his name), and he suggested my Shandra Higheagle books sounded like the the new category Cozy Noir that he’d heard about while at the conference. Anyone else heard of this?

Sunday morning my friend and I rose, packed up, and headed home. For this introvert writer, it was an exhausting weekend just having to stay in a open, welcoming mode for the readers and the authors I connected with.

As a reader and/or author are you a person who thrives on the energy of a conference or do you find it exhausting?

SH Mug Art (2)

Murder From the Headlines by Paty Jager

March 12, 2018March 6, 2018 ~ patyjag ~ 1 Comment

2017 headshot new When 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 5x8 Book 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

March 10, 2018March 6, 2018 ~ 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.

Medium The 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.

Writing is My Life or My Life is My Writing by Paty Jager

February 12, 2018February 6, 2018 ~ patyjag ~ 2 Comments

Artful Murder 5x8 There’s not a writer out there who hasn’t brought something from their life into their writing. Writing whether for pleasure or for money, deals with everyday life experiences. It has to. One can’t bring the full flavor of life into a story without allowing something they have experienced to come into the writing.

Everyday happenings: the pungent aroma of coffee brewing, the dampness of mist walking on the beach, the blinding glare of light from an oncoming vehicle at night, the sweet and sour tingle on the tongue while eating candy. All of these everyday things are used when writing. The senses and what we see and feel around us are used to show the characters in the same or comparable settings.

When I started planning Artful Murder, book 10 in the Shandra Higheagle mystery series and my March release, I had to draw on past experiences. Far back experiences. LOL In Artful Murder, Shandra volunteers in a high school art department.

While figuring out who the murder victim would be and lining up suspects, I went back to memories of high school and found the one teacher who the boys made fun of and the girls found creepy. He became my murder victim.

I made the victim worse than the real life teacher. And I gave the principal a reason for ignoring the complaints of the other teachers and students. Which, of course, added more suspects and widened the net of suspects to parents and significant others of the female teachers.

Students are more savvy to what is going on in their schools than teachers think. I used this and a person with a grudge to add even more fuel to the ffire that was about to explode at the school.

I can honestly say that I have more fun fleshing out my mystery books than I do the other genre I write. There is something therapeutic about putting the people or events that I’ve come across through my life into books and find my own justice.

SH Mug Art

Guest- L. Lee Kane

January 20, 2018January 13, 2018 ~ patyjag ~ 1 Comment

California Drinkin’

I decided I wanted to write a book about the Central Valley, where I’m now from which is a vast, hot, 300- mile-long expanse extending from Sacramento to the north and the San Joaquin Valley in the South, and has the most fertile areas in the United States for growing grapes. We produce a full 60 per cent of all the agricultural products in California and we crush 75 per cent of all wine grapes. Wineries are huge. And so are the crops.

One of the core differences between the wine industry in California and that in Europe is the people who run it. The California wine revolution of the 1960’s and 1970’s was largely initiated by men and women who were not from winemaking families. After the Prohibition, which lasted 13 years there were few people to train the newcomers, including Ernest and Julio Gallo, which makes close to 70 million cases, including popular inexpensive wine and Robert Mondavi Woodbridge wines which make slightly more than 6 million cases a year. The interesting thing is that these three self-made men were self-taught. Everything they learned they read out of a book.

More than 90 per cent of the wine made in the United States is made in California.
The state’s incredibly diverse climate and geography allow California wines to be made in a profusion of styles from dozens of different grape varieties.
California’s winemakers are among the most innovative and open to experimentation in the world.

Of course, my book, ‘Death on the Vine’ is not so factual, I have romance, murder, intrigue, lots of money, a socio path, and revenge. Some of this has some true parts in it but for the most part, it’s fictional. I will have a sequel to the book, I haven’t quite decided on a title but again it’s set in the small town of Oakhurst, California not too far away from Yosemite. Daisy, Frisco, and a whole host of characters will play a part…and another socio path.

I think you can see from my bio that I have familiarity with socio paths and quirky characters.

I have a contest running on amazon for a free book for Death on the Vine and if you read it, review it, I’ll want to put your name in my next book and maybe we can have a contest for a new title.

Murder on the Vine picture

Murder on the Vine

Just before high school graduation, Daisy Murphy returns home from a football game and finds her mother standing over her abusive boyfriend’s body—holding a bloody hammer. In the aftermath, Daisy flees her home and eventually establishes a new life as an expert winemaker in the Central Valley of California. But as hard as she tries to get away from her past, the effects of that horrible night travel with her.

Detective Jake Frisco has unearthed a murder at the vineyard where Daisy is employed as the winery’s expert winemaker. It doesn’t take long to discover that Daisy is haunted by her past and carries a heavy burden. It seems that possible involvement in an unsolved murder is part of her life’s baggage. Does this put Daisy at the top of the suspect’s list? Can he put aside his growing feelings for her and follow the leads in the case, even if they take him straight to her as the murderer?

Can Daisy finally face her past and trust that the truth she offers the Detective will be enough to save her? Will she find the courage to ask for a future beyond the sorrow of her youth—a future filled with love and self-worth?

Linda L. Kane MA in Education, PPS, School Psychologist, and Learning Disability Specialist, is the author of Death on the Vine, Chilled to the Bones and an upcoming release of the The Black Madonna. She lives with her husband, three dogs, one bird, and eight horses in California.