Category: Guest Blogger

Guest Blogger – Arlene Kay

~ patyjag

Mystery novels have always delighted and intrigued me. From the Bobbsey Twins straight through to Nancy Drew and Agatha Christie, I prided myself on following the clues, identifying the miscreant, and serving justice by solving the crime. What a challenge to match wits and triumph over wily authors who salted their prose with red herrings and misdirection! Cozy mysteries, police procedurals, private eyes and thrillers—I devoured them all. When former colleagues at that alphabet government agency asked about future plans, I had but one answer: I will write mystery novels!

Like many readers, I felt bereft when literary characters I had grown to love suddenly vanished. After all, I’d spent a good deal of time with them and established a sense of intimacy. They were friends. Family even. Thus, I became enamored of mystery series where the saga continued with each novel. In these books, Spencer and Susan (not to mention that dishy HAWK) lived on; Lord Peter and Harriet nourished their relationship; Emerson and Amelia Peabody flourished in an exotic land where adventure and danger lurked, and Dr. Alex Cross kept the streets of DC reasonably safe.

My first three published novels were stand alones featuring smart, sassy heroines matched by equally desirable partners. As each saga ended, I felt a tug of sadness. These lovingly crafted children of my mind had slipped forever into the abyss never to reappear. I missed them. Ultimately the urge to write a series was born. The Creature Comfort series sprang from my experience in the dog show world. While trudging across the North East with my Belgian Tervuren, I became painfully aware of how easily thwarted ambition, snubs and extra-curricula hijinks could lead to murder. Tennyson’s famed observation about “…nature red in tooth and claw…” was on open display but not from canines. Show dogs are bound by strict behavioral standards, so my Lord Byron and his comrades repressed their baser instincts. Their human companions sometimes did not. Bared teeth, growls and nips were common fare on that menu and became my inspiration for Death by Dog Show, followed closely by Homicide by Horse Show and Murder at the Falls.

I modeled my protagonist Persephone Morgan on the master leather-smith and dog breeder who produced Lord Byron. Smart, snarky and independent, Perri keeps one eye on the bottom line and the other on the odd assortment of friends and neighbors who surround her. She loves all animals, is a steadfast friend and an implacable foe with a weakness for a certain little girl and her toothsome dad. Perri, the kind of friend we all seek and seldom find, is a sleuth in the proud tradition of Amelia Peabody with a touch of Harriet Vane. Some purists resist the idea of a cozy character with emotional and physical needs. I celebrate a flesh and blood woman who can solve crimes while finding balance in her own life.

HOMICIDE BY HORSE SHOW

Leathersmith Persephone “Perri Morgan makes the kind of beautiful custom leashes and saddles that make wealthy dog and horse show lovers swoon – until murder strides onto the course…

When Perri’s BFF Babette hosts a meeting of Fairfax County’s affluent animal lovers to save a local horse rescue farm, the agenda gets sidetracked by the discovery of a corpse in the master bedroom. Everyone present is a suspect, including Perri’s main squeeze, Wing Pruett-Washington, DC’s sexiest reporter.

While Perri scours local horse and dog shows hoping to unmask the killer, she uncovers band manners, infidelity, and low-level crime in her hunt for the killer- but what she can’t find are grounds for murder. When the killer strikes again and she gets a warning to stop her sleuthing, Perri has to muster all her training-and all her allies, human and animal alike-to make it out of the ring alive.

Buy Link  https://amzn.to/32iDGqo

Praise for Arlene Kay’s Boston Uncommons Mysteries

‘Reminiscent of the comedy-mystery movies of the thirties…An entertaining first entry into the Boston Uncommons Mystery series

  • New York Journal of Books on Swann Dive

“Highly entertaining…I can’t wait for the next book”

  • Jaye Roycraft, author Rainscape

An artful combination of humor, satire and savagery make Arlene Kay’s tales unique. The published author of nine mystery novels, is a former Treasury executive who traded the trappings of bureaucracy for the delights of murder most foul. She wisely confines her crimes to fiction although like all mystery writers she firmly believes that most deaths are suspicious, and everyone is a suspect. Her Creature Comforts series from Kensington (lyrical), includes Death by Dog Show; Homicide by Horseshow; and Therapy by Murder.

Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/Arlene.Kay.author/

Twitter1 – https://twitter.com/Arlenekay1

Twitter2 – https://twitter.com/AKMysteries

Guest Blogger: Lois Winston

~ patyjag ~ 15 Comments

Putting a Humorous Spin on Murder

By Lois Winston

I write the Anastasia Pollack Crafting Mysteries about a magazine crafts editor who is forced to become a reluctant amateur sleuth. However, I began my writing career penning dark romantic suspense. The first, after quite a few years and countless revisions, became the second book I ever sold. However, somewhere along the way I discovered my funny bone. Or maybe I should say funny bones because rather than being situated in my elbow, they reside in my ten fingers.

No one was more shocked than I. I’m one of those people who can never remember a joke’s punch line. When it comes to scintillating repartee, I always come up with a brilliant retort hours after the moment has passed. So years ago when my agent suggested I try to write a chick lit novel because Bridget Jones’s Diary had taken the publishing world by storm, and editors were clamoring for similar works, I laughed.

But she was serious. Apparently, she saw something buried deep inside me and knew it needed to be released. Turns out, she was right. On paper I’m quite funny, and the book I wrote, Talk Gertie to Me, became my debut novel.

Then one day my agent asked me to try my hand at writing a cozy mystery. She had been speaking with an editor who was looking for a series featuring a crafter. Since I designed needlework for craft kit manufacturers and craft book publishers in my day job, my agent thought I was the perfect person to write such a series. She also requested I use the humorous writing voice I had developed in Talk Gertie to Me. The woman was obviously clairvoyant because even though I hadn’t read a mystery since I devoured the Cherry Ames books as a kid, the moment I sat down at the computer to attempt writing a cozy mystery, I found my true literary calling.

I had always enjoyed reading books that make me laugh. There really is something to that old adage about laughter being the best medicine. Laughing releases endorphins in the brain, and the more endorphins, the happier we are. Given all the problems in the world, not only do I need to laugh more, I also realized I’d much rather make people laugh than have them sleep with one eye open at night.

So when Assault With a Deadly Glue Gun, the first book in the series was released in 2011, I was thrilled that critics embraced it. Publishers Weekly and Booklist both gave it starred reviews, comparing my writing to that of Tina Fey and Janet Evanovich. Kirkus described Anastasia as “North Jersey’s more mature answer to Stephanie Plum.” With praise like that, why would I ever go back to writing gritty romantic suspense?

Of course, Anastasia doesn’t see anything funny about the dead bodies I leave lying around for her to discover, the trouble I get her into with gangsters and psychopaths, or the communist mother-in-law I gave her. Luckily, she has no say in the matter. Besides, I’m not a total sadist when it comes to my reluctant amateur sleuth. I have given her a Shakespeare-quoting parrot and a drop-dead hunk of a boyfriend. Although, on second thought, maybe I am a bit sadistic because when it comes to photojournalist Zack Barnes, he may or may not also be a spy.

Handmade Ho-Ho Homicide

An Anastasia Pollack Crafting Mystery, Book 8

Two and a half weeks ago magazine crafts editor Anastasia Pollack arrived home to find Ira Pollack, her half-brother-in-law, had blinged out her home with enough Christmas lights to rival Rockefeller Center. Now he’s crammed her small yard with enormous cavorting inflatable characters. She and photojournalist boyfriend and possible spy Zack Barnes pack up the unwanted lawn decorations to return to Ira. They arrive to find his yard the scene of an over-the-top Christmas extravaganza. His neighbors are not happy with the animatronics, laser light show, and blaring music creating traffic jams on their normally quiet street. One of them expresses his displeasure with his fists before running off.

In the excitement, the deflated lawn ornaments are never returned to Ira. The next morning Anastasia once again heads to his house before work to drop them off. When she arrives, she discovers Ira’s attacker dead in Santa’s sleigh. Ira becomes the prime suspect in the man’s murder and begs Anastasia to help clear his name. But Anastasia has promised her sons she’ll keep her nose out of police business. What’s a reluctant amateur sleuth to do?

Buy Links

Amazon https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07VG2QZXV/

Kobo https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/handmade-ho-ho-homicide

Barnes & Noble https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/handmade-ho-ho-homicide-lois-winston/1132607263

iTunes https://books.apple.com/us/book/handmade-ho-ho-homicide/id1473711082

Bio:

USA Today bestselling and award-winning author Lois Winston writes mystery, romance, romantic suspense, chick lit, women’s fiction, children’s chapter books, and nonfiction under her own name and her Emma Carlyle pen name. Kirkus Reviews dubbed her critically acclaimed Anastasia Pollack Crafting Mystery series, “North Jersey’s more mature answer to Stephanie Plum.” In addition, Lois is a former literary agent and an award-winning craft and needlework designer who often draws much of her source material for both her characters and plots from her experiences in the crafts industry.

Website: www.loiswinston.com

Newsletter sign-up: https://app.mailerlite.com/webforms/landing/z1z1u5

Killer Crafts & Crafty Killers blog: www.anastasiapollack.blogspot.com

Pinterest: www.pinterest.com/anasleuth

Twitter: https://twitter.com/Anasleuth

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/722763.Lois_Winston Bookbub: https://www.bookbub.com/authors/lois-winston

Guest Blogger – Vicki Vass

~ patyjag

Why I write

Hi, Ladies of Mystery, thanks for letting me drop by and share some of my story with your readers. I thought I’d start by introducing myself. My name is Vicki Vass, and I write two different cozy mystery series, The Antique Hunter’s Mystery, and Witch Cat Mysteries.

My writing journey started very early actually almost as soon as I could read. I was a precocious child. So when I was four years old and saw my older brother reading a book, I decided that’s what I wanted to do. I read everything from cereal boxes to billboards to newspapers to books. It wasn’t long after that I decided I wanted to write. I wrote short stories through grade school, often killing off all the characters because I didn’t know how to end the story. I adapted the books Caddie Woodlawn and Alice in Wonderland into plays that my friends and I performed in our suburban Chicago neighborhood.

When it came time to go to college, I wanted to major in English and become a fiction writer. My uncle, a reporter for the Chicago Sun-Times, encouraged me to major in journalism, stating that there was more career opportunities. I ended up in journalism and knew it was the right path for me. At my college, I covered government for my daily newspaper and also was able to write some feature articles.

Following college, I wrote for community newspapers until moving to the Chicago Tribune, first as a freelancer and later as a staff writer for special sections. I covered everything from city councils, library boards, artists and community festivals. It was a wonderful experience and taught me how to write fast under deadline pressure. As newspapers began to decline, I moved on to social media and into my current full-time path as an editor of a medical journal.

Working for a peer-reviewed medical journal means that I don’t write nor do I edit. I found myself missing writing so one day I took pen to paper and drafted a story which eventually became Murder for Sale, the first book in my Antique Hunter Mystery series. I loosely based the two lead characters, Anne and CC, on my close friends and our weekend adventures antique hunting together. That book was a finalist in the Mystery and Mayhem contest, and the sixth book in the series, A White Rabbit’s Tale, will be released in winter 2019.

While the characters were originally based on my two close friends, the characters have developed their own unique storylines and personality traits. Now the characters live outside of the real individuals.

The stories also focus on a historical element usually centered around a significant antique. That’s where reality ends and fiction takes over. The historical elements are a tribute to my father who taught American history and government for 30 years in the Chicago Public School District. He taught me to study and respect history.

As the series has evolved, I have found my passion for writing fiction to be restored, and I cannot wait to start the next story. My only shortage is time.

Thanks again for letting me stop by!

Vicki Vass

Vicki Vass gave up her reporter’s notebook to chronicle the near real-life adventures of her two best friends and fellow antique hunters. Like the fictional Anne, Vicki enjoys shopping and is always in the hunt for the next great deal. When not writing, Vicki can be found walking her two Australian shepherd puppies, Atticus and Tracker. She writes about her reading and adventures on her blog vickiscozycorner.com.  

Social media Facebook.com/vickivassauthorTwitter:@vickivass

Guest Blogger- Baird Nuckolls

~ patyjag ~ 3 Comments

Researching My Historical Novel

By Baird Nuckolls, author of “Shattered Angel, Morelli’s Private Inquiries, Book 1”

My new novel, Shattered Angel, is set in New York City in 1923. While millions of people have been to New York, even more have seen it in movies, television or photographs. You may feel like you know New York, but I want you to know New York back in the days when my story is set. The Roaring Twenties were a time of great change in society and technology. Society was recovering from the first world war; women had more freedoms, Prohibition had an impact on society’s activities, new jazz music was the rage and new inventions were changing daily life forever.

Doing research is as important as plotting the mystery. You can spend hours or days finding out things that may never make it into the book. For example, we think of the radio as being pretty ubiquitous. Yes, the radio was invented in the late 1800’s, the first radio broadcasts happened in 1906 and the first radio station opened in Philadelphia in 1920. But in 1923, there were few radio stations, fewer programs, and the radios themselves were expensive. So, my detective, Morelli, does NOT have a radio that he can listen to it at night, as he might be doing if the year was 1926 or 1927. Those few years make all the difference.

Another little thing that needed a lot of research was cigarettes. If you watch old movies, everyone smoked like chimneys and pre-rolled cigarettes had become popular during WWI, when they were shipped to the troops overseas. They’d even become popular with women in the 1920’s and the long cigarette holders became a major fashion accessory, in part to keep ash off their clothes and prevent their hats from catching fire, but also to look sophisticated. However, there was still a cost factor. Morelli continues to smoke hand rolled cigarettes because it’s cheaper and he would rather spend his money on whiskey. Telephones were available, including pay phones, but deciding who would have one and who wouldn’t, was part of my initial research as well.

The original genesis of the story came from two articles in the NYTimes. One was about a rum-running tugboat seized by government agents and some missing drugs. The other was about a payroll robbery on the subway. As the story continued to develop, I read more and more of the newspapers of the day and decided to add things to the plot. Stories about the politics, including the mayor and the commissions came straight from the pages of the news. The Jack Dempsey heavyweight title fight was a huge event in 1923. I even found film footage of the fight on YouTube, so that I was able to accurately describe the experience of being there.

Ultimately, these details are what make the story feel like it’s set in a real place. The characters are mostly fictional and the story is my own creation, but New York City is alive and truly a character in its own right.

SHATTERED  ANGEL

Set amid the growing roar of the 1920’s, a beautiful young flapper named Angel has hired Adriano Morelli, an ex-cop turned private detective, to follow her cheating husband. When Morelli steps into the rarified hush of a Fifth Avenue apartment looking for his client, what he discovers changes the stakes of the game.  

He now has a murder to solve while staying one step ahead of the cops. And with a history of failure, especially when it comes to beautiful women, Morelli is hoping to redeem himself for past sins. From the Cotton Club and the city’s speakeasies to the Polo Grounds where heavyweight Jack Dempsey faces his greatest opponent, the life of New York City comes right off the pages of the newspapers of the day in this riveting historical mystery. 

Buy  Links: Amazon Ebook:  Paperback: 

Baird Nuckolls has had a multifaceted career, from banking to baking. In addition to writing, she has been a partner and editor for The Wives of Bath Press, as well as an assistant editor for Narrative Magazine. She has previously published short stories, as well as a middle grade novel, “The Dragons of Graham.” She lives in Seattle and Orcas Island, Washington with her husband. 

Website: bairdnuckolls.com

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/baird.nuckolls 

Author Central: 

Guest Blogger- Daisy Pettles

~ patyjag ~ 2 Comments

Why I Write a Humorous Cozy Mystery Series for Feisty Older Ladies

Here’s a mystery for you … a study by Sisters in Crime, a professional women writers mystery and crime association, found that the vast majority of mystery readers are women. Moreover, 71% of the genre’s readers are 50 or older. (Source Link:https://cdn.ymaws.com/www.sistersincrime.org/resource/resmgr/imported/ConsumerBuyingBookReport.pdf)

The mystery? Why is it, then, that the leading lady of the cozy mystery today is a baby-faced, early career, 30-something, rather than a mature, perhaps somewhat disgruntled, widowed or divorced, half-retired woman of 50+ years?

I turned 60 this year, and I read like a demon, devouring novels like M&M’s. Why, I wondered, was my feisty generation—all prime readers for Pete’s sake—so invisible in women’s mystery fiction today?

I found myself agreeing with one sister in crime writer, Dianne Harman,  https://www.huffingtonpost.com/dianne-harman/boomer-reads_b_3210208.html, who mused in 2013 that, “[Boomer Lit] is the most overlooked, underwritten genre out there.”

OK, so the term “baby boomer lit” has gotten a bad rap. Much of that is justified. The indie market is awash with badly written “boomer” novels that feature highly forgettable “senior sleuths,” seeking second chances in the confines of gated retirement villages.

Too much of this lit pounds home a “sundowner” theme – think cancer, moving into assisted living, fighting over men with competing ladies in Leisure Village – OR a “second chance” theme. Think “widower dares to date again” or “the search for the one that got away.”

Problem. I don’t see my life as in need of “second chances.” I see it as more of what it always has been: a bit of a hair-raising adventure. Why not, I thought, write about cantankerous, every day women who are aging, but who are also busy having a go at life, every morning, pretty much as they always have?

Oldsters are as varied as youngsters (really, they are). Being of the mind that if there’s a problem it’s my responsibility to engineer a solution – a great notion from the 70’s when I first hit the road out of high school — I began to create a new crime comedy series loaded with oldsters of all varieties.

In my new amateur detective series, The Shady Hoosier Detective Agency, the protagonists are lifelong gal pals, ages 67 and 71, living in small town Indiana. They share a house, a 1960 Chevy, and reluctant custody of grown children who still reside in their basement.

One in particular (Veenie) has been a lifelong snoop. The other (Ruby Jane) has great computer skills. For them, the decision to punch a time clock post-retirement as sleuths with the Harry Shades Detective Agency is as much a way to exercise their curiosity as it is a path to supplementing their social security.

Back in the 90’s the TV drama “Golden Girls,” about older widowed and divorced women sharing a home and laughter, broke through ageism to show that the closing chapters of life can be as varied and exciting as the beginning and middle. I believe that there remains pent up demand for older, feisty women characters in the cozy mystery niche.

My goal in creating the Shady Hoosier Detective Agency, with Book 3, The Chickenlandia Mystery, coming out as this is posted, is to update the cozy to better serve publishing’s core reading demographic by creating books that mirror the more diverse evolving lives of Boomer women like me.

Like all publishing undertakings, it is up to the cosmos to decide if the series will find a readership, but a few stars do seem to be aligning. The Shady Hoosiers’ debut book, Ghost Busting Mystery, has thus far won three Best Indie Humor Book Awards and two Best Indie Cozy Mystery Book Awards,

In the end, I write what I want to read. There has never been a more active, curious, diverse, witty, kick-ass generation of women. Why not gift ourselves leisure reading that reflects this?

Author Daisy Pettles

Daisy Pettles was born in southern Indiana, in a tiny river town. As a child, she was fed a steady diet of books, pies, and Bible stories. Her debut cozy series, the Shady Hoosier Detective Agency, crime comedies set in fictional Pawpaw County, Indiana, won the 2019 Gold Medal as Best Humor Book from the Indie Reader, The Next Generation Indie Book Awards, and the American Fiction Awards. Visit her anytime at https://www.daisypettles.com

CONTACT: Daisy@daisypettles.com

TWITTER: @DaisyPettles

FB: https://www.facebook.com/daisypettles

WEB: https://www.daisypettles.com

Amazon Buy Links:

Ghost Busting Mystery (Book 1)

Baby Daddy Mystery (Book 2)

Chickenlandia Mystery (Book 3)