Guest Blogger ~ Joni Marie Iraci

~ patyjag

How I came up with the premise for my novel, “Vatican Daughter.” Had the church scandals never come to light, I never would have had the bravado to write this novel. I witnessed first hand the holy than thou behavior of hypocritical clergy both as a child and as an adult. I was visiting St. Peter’s in Rome ten years ago and thought,  I wonder what’s going on there now. I thought what if a girl was somehow involved. The muse hit hard and I had the title, “Vatican Daughter,” jotted down some notes and put it aside while I went to Columbia University for an MFA in creative writing. In 2019, I returned to Italy, walked 88 miles through Rome and Venice. I returned home to New York and wrote and researched every day for a year. The research took me down many rabbit holes where I discovered the little known fact about the papal kidnappings of Jewish children in 1859 by Pius IX. The fictional pope in “Vatican Daughter,” is American because I never dreamed there would ever be an American elected. I did extensive research on the inner workings of the Vatican hierarchy. 

Set in Rome and Venice – with a brief stop in Magallanes, Chile, and New York City – Vatican Daughter propels the reader deep into the heart of Italy. Ensnared by its vivid descriptive language, you will be transported and immersed in this plausible, suspenseful story as it takes you through various cities, tasting their foods along the way, with different characters. At the same time, you will meander along the medieval palazzos of Rome and Venice, sip the wine, explore the countryside, ride the train, step behind the walls of Vatican City and its papal gardens, and imagine experiencing the loss of a child at the hands of men who would go to any means to avoid the exposure of Vatican corruption, papal indiscretion, and the Vatican’s long-buried secrets. A story of a young woman who relentlessly searches for her child while coming head-to-head with the most powerful entity on earth, Vatican Daughter focuses on serious female-centric issues and the Vatican’s controversial, scandalous, and hypocritical behaviors.

The link to purchase can be found on my website: 

https://www.jonimarieiraci.com

Author Joni Marie Iraci holds an MFA in creative writing from Columbia University. Her first novel, Reinventing Jenna Rose, won The Firebird Book Award in 4 categories. She has spoken about her writing, as well as her interesting trajectory of returning to college in her later years, at Strand Bookstore.

https://www.jonimarieiraci.com

https://www.instagram.com-iraci2

I have two facebook pages joni marie Iraci and joni marie iraci author

Home at last

~ Nancy Lynn Jarvis ~ 1 Comment

My books meet the criteria for cozy mysteries: body by the second chapter; an amateur sleuth (usually female) who has a police connection like a boyfriend, relative, or friend; gory details, language, and sex implied but takes place off page; tidy ending with justice served; and there’s even a recipe for mysterious chocolate chip cookies associated with one of the series.

The amateur sleuths, a realtor in Regan McHenry Real Estate Mysteries and a downsized law librarian turned self-styled private investigator in PIP Inc. Mysteries do solve the crime before the authorities do and sometimes in spite of the authorities. The stories end with the murderer coming to justice…at least most of the time. Interestingly one of my most popular characters escaped and readers are constantly asking if the character will turn up in a future book, hopeful that they will.

So my books are cozies by definition if sometimes slightly kinky like good British mysteries, my covers and book titles aren’t. No witty play-on-word titles for me. I prefer real estate related titles for the Regan McHenry Real Estate Mysteries or harsh titles like “The Funeral Murder” or “The Corpse’s Secret Life” for the PIP Inc. Mysteries.

Pets are often another element of cozy mysteries and while my protagonists do have pets: cats for Regan McHenry and a dog and cat for Pat Pirard, they are never featured romping across a cover upending a cake or anything like that. Okay, Pat’s ginger cat Lord Peter Wimsey is on a back cover of “Dearly Beloved Departed” feigning innocence in the downing of a Christmas tree, but a reader has to have the book in hand to discover that.

I didn’t consider the idea of a typical cozy cover for the first book I wrote because when I started writing, a series wasn’t in my  mind. I had a good beginning and an ending that I liked and no idea how to connect them, let alone how to follow “The Death Contingency” with other books to make a series. Later I did modify the covers for the first series, but only to add a real estate sign and make them look like they belonged together. They still don’t look like traditional cozies.

I always considered myself a bit of a contrarian and I love British mysteries, besides, I like my edgier covers which work well with my non-cozy titles. Usually, I come up with what the title will be and a basic sketch of what the cover should look like before I start writing, so both title and cover design are an integral part of the story and make perfect sense to the reader by the time they discover who did it.

Nevertheless, I’ve always felt discomfited that I didn’t look like I belonged in the cozy genre and worried readers might skip over my books because they didn’t feel right. All that changed a few months ago when I heard someone say they enjoyed reading cozy-adjacent books. Cozy adjacent. Perfect. Now I have a home and I don’t have to apologize for my covers and titles. I’m free to use a non-cozy title like “What Lucy Heard” for my latest book.

You can see all the covers of my cozy-adjacent books, the other books I’ve written, the cookbook and anthologies I’ve edited, and read the first chapters of the mysteries at my website www.nancylynnjarvis.com or check them out in print and ebook format at Amazon https://www.amazon.com/Nancy-Lynn-Jarvis/e/B002CWX7IQ/ref=ntt_dp_epwbk_0

Guest Blogger ~ Kris Bock

~ patyjag ~ 3 Comments

Kris Bock on Two Very Different Heroines in her Mystery Series

My two mystery series have first-person (past tense) narrators, so I’m writing from their close point of view and the reader gets their thoughts. A novel, being fiction, doesn’t merely copy people from real life, of course. Still, an author might use bits and pieces of several people to create some characters, and completely make up others. We might also use personal experience – a great way to develop characters who feel authentic!

In the Accidental Detective humorous mystery series, a witty journalist solves mysteries in Arizona and tackles the challenges of turning fifty. I wrote it as I was facing fifty, and Kate has some of the same concerns, such as perimenopause and aging parents. I drew on my experience with chronic back pain, which sometimes throws off my walking stride, in order to write about Kate’s bombing injury and use of a cane.

Those things bring Kate to life, but she’s not me. I’ve been a full-time freelance writer for nearly 30 years, but I’m definitely not a war correspondent. Kate is me if I’d gone into journalism instead of other forms of writing – and if I was much more outgoing and fearless.

My new mystery series, The Reluctantly Psychic Mysteries, star Petra, who can touch an object and sense the emotions people have left behind. To create her character, I tried to imagine what it would be like growing up with a “gift” like hers. She avoids friendships so she won’t have to explain her psychic power or feel like she’s spying on people. Because she’s such a loner, she has many pets. She went into geology because it typically doesn’t force her to handle objects that have emotional residue from prior handling.

In some ways, she’s less me. She’s younger than I am, at thirty. I have no psychic powers. But I drew on the more anxious, cautious parts of myself in creating her, and used plenty of imagination to explore what it might be like to grow up with a challenging psychic power.

Extrovert or Introvert

Because these two characters are so different, they investigate mysteries in very different ways. Professional journalist Kate is used to interviewing people. She’s had practice seeking out the truth. People ask for her help, and she craves the adventure.

Loner Petra has childhood trauma due to neglect, abandonment, and betrayal from both family and friends. She tries to understand people’s behavior so she can protect herself. Her caution and fear mean she overanalyzes everything, but that works pretty well for an amateur detective.

Readers seem to like both characters. People think Kate is fun. They enjoy her eccentric sidekicks, including her sister, her father, and a couple of her father’s wacky friends. Many people would like to be like Kate – or they identify with her attempts to start over in midlife. Readers have said:

“I so related to Kate and her struggles to get back to her regular life. Can’t wait for the next book in this series!”

“A fifty-year-old who is wondering what she wants to do when she grows up? That’s more like it! Bock’s story offers proof positive that no one outgrows the need for more maturity and self-discovery.”

“I loved her smart world traveler, foreign war correspondent heroine. I loved reading a story where the heroine is so fascinating, as fascinating to me as the mystery.”

Something Shady at Sunshine Haven (the Accidental Detective book 1) is FREE this month at all E-book retailers!

From Isolation to Friendship

Most people don’t want to be Petra, but they sympathize with her (and often identify with her caution and anxiety). Book reviews have said:

“What truly resonated with me was Petra’s emotional journey. Her anxiety about being discovered, her cautious approach to forming friendships, and her affection for her pets (the cats! the ferrets! my heart!) made her character incredibly relatable. I found myself laughing, gasping, and perhaps shedding a tear or two.”

“What wrecked me emotionally was Petra’s struggle with trust. She’s spent her life pushing people away to protect herself, but now she has to rely on others to solve this murder. That slow, painful opening-up? The tentative friendships? I felt every second of it… Petra’s journey is one I won’t forget.”

“Petra is such a compelling lead. Her psychometry isn’t just a plot device—it’s a curse that’s shaped her entire life… And her journey from isolation to finally letting people in? Perfection.”

I’m sure most readers don’t have psychic powers. (If you do, please tell me all about it!) So why do people respond so much to Petra’s isolation? Maybe because we can feel isolated for so many reasons: neurodiversity, gender nonconformity, being artist types in a corporate world, feeling out of tune with our community’s or country’s politics … Who among us feels “normal”?

Petra masks her true self most of the time, for her safety, but she craves connections with people who understand and accept her. Don’t we all feel that way some (or much, or all) of the time?

Maybe Kate and Petra represent reasons readers turn to books: We want to identify with characters and believe they would like us too, or we want to feel what it would be like to be entirely different – or sometimes a bit of both.

A Stone Cold Murder: The Reluctant Psychic Murder Mystery book 1: Petra Cloch has the gift, or curse, of psychometry – she can sense the emotions people had while wearing or using objects. Now she’s starting a new job at a quirky private museum in smalltown New Mexico. When she picks up a rock in her new office, she feels flashes of rage, fear and death. Everyone says her predecessor died in a car crash, but what if he was murdered? If he died because of the job, she could be next.

Purchase link: https://tulepublishing.com/series/reluctantly-psychic-murder-mystery/

Readers say:

“[A Stone Cold Murder] is both heartwarming and suspenseful. For those who appreciate mysteries that offer depth, a distinctive supernatural element, and a protagonist to cherish, A Stone Cold Murder is an essential read.”

“The murder mystery is fantastic. The idea that a museum curator was killed with a rock (how chillingly ironic) and that Petra is the only one who knows? Genius. And the small-town setting? So atmospheric. The Banditt Museum feels like a character itself, full of hidden corners and whispered history.”

Kris Bock writes mystery, suspense, and romance, often with Southwestern landscapes. The Accidental Detective humorous mystery series starts with Something Shady at Sunshine Haven, which is FREE this month at all E-book retailers!

Sign up for the Kris Bock newsletter and get an Accidental Detective short story, a Reluctantly Psychic short story, and other freebies. Then every two weeks, you’ll get fun content about pets, announcements of new books, sales, and more.

Kris’s romantic suspense novels include stories of treasure hunting, archaeology, and intrigue. Readers have called these novels “Smart romance with an Indiana Jones feel.”

As for Kris’s romance, the Furrever Friends Sweet Romance series features the employees and customers at a cat café. Watch as they fall in love with each other and shelter cats. Start the series for free at all e-book retailers!

In the Accidental Billionaire Cowboys series, a Texas ranching family wins a fortune in the lottery. Who wouldn’t want to be a billionaire? Turns out winning the lottery causes as many problems as it solves.

Kris also writes a series with her brother, scriptwriter Douglas J Eboch, who wrote the original screenplay for the movie Sweet Home Alabama. The Felony Melanie series follows the crazy antics of Melanie, Jake, and their friends a decade before the events of the movie. Find the books at all E-book retailers.

Find Kris:

Website

Kris Bock newsletter signup

GoodReads Author Page

BookBub

BlueSky

Amazon US page or Amazon UK page

VILLAINOUS REWARDS

~ Kimila Kay ~ 2 Comments

Hello, Ladies ~

Have any of you cried when you had to kill your villain? I’m not sure why, but it upset me greatly when my villain in “Chaos in Cabo” sailed off a cliff in a hail of bullets. I sobbed as I finished Alida’s story, trying to find comfort in the fact that she sacrifices herself to save Antonio, the man she loves.

Or maybe I listened to a recent reader who said, “I love that your villains find redemption, but don’t you think they should also pay for their crimes?”

Years ago, when I submitted my very first manuscript, “Murder in Margaritaville,” to agents and editors, I received the standard “No Thank You” form letter. But each letter had an interesting addition: You do write a very good villain.

Encouraged by the repeated comment, I studied how I had written my villain. Of course, as with all my characters, my villains are created with traits from people I’ve met throughout my life. From men who treated me badly to women who betrayed our friendship, I have a plethora of evil qualities to attribute to my villains.

I also learned from studying how I wrote my very first villain, Damian Garza, that his character had more depth than my heroine, Clara. Another tidbit was that I wrote Damian in third person instead of Clara’s narrative in first person. However, the biggest revelation was discovering that writing in the voices of my three main characters — the heroine, the hero, and the villain — allowed me to create more three-dimensional characters.

“Murder in Margaritaville” would never obtain an agent or publishing deal. Luckily for me, though, my fabulous friend, Paty Jager, helped me begin my self-publishing journey, and this novel became “Malice in Mazatlán.”

The words, “You do write a very good villain,” have stuck with me throughout my writing career and helped to hone my process. I always start with a title because, for me, the title guides the story. The next book in my Mexico Mayhem Series is “Lost in Loreto.” It took me a few months to decide who was lost and what had caused them to be missing. The cause, of course, originates from my villain’s actions. When the opening line appears in my writer’s brain, I get giddy with excitement to know how the story begins.

Now that I know my villain’s crime, I spend time with him or her asking those pertinent questions: Why? How? When? What? Where? At the beginning of my villain, Arlo’s story, he has no redeeming qualities at this point. But I know from experience that it can change as the other characters begin their search for the missing Gabriella.

In this series, my hero, Javier, is a character who has moved forward from “Chaos in Cabo,” but I needed to introduce a new heroine. In “Lost in Loreto,” this character was a bit of a challenge. When Scarlett Quinn finally materialized, I was thrilled with the direction the story would now take. Oh, what “fun” she’s going to cause.

I usually know the general storyline of the novel I’m writing, although I’ve had characters change the trajectory of their story, which changes everything. In “Lost in Loreto,” I knew as soon as I researched the location of the crime, fleshed out my victim, and wrote the first chapter … what awaits my villain, Arlo. And if my characters stick to their roles, I doubt any tears will be shed when Arlo receives his “punishment.”

Even though I’m back to working on my next WIP, tears still fill my eyes when I think about Alida. I know she needed to pay for her crimes in some fashion, but until I wrote her last two chapters, I didn’t know she would be the one to end her story.

I’ve written six novels and three novellas now, and I’m so thankful for the creative license that self-publishing allows me. Without anyone demanding a finished product by a certain date (except me, of course), I can work on three different books at the same time if I want to.

But I’m also thankful for the time those agents and editors took to tell me: You do write a very good villain.

Happy writing, Ladies, and may all your villains be deliciously villainous!

The Book without End

~ dzchurch ~ 2 Comments

There are some strange pitfalls for those of us who write by the seat of our pants. And pantsers come in all sorts of varieties. There are those who start out knowing the beginning and end. Those who have specific emotions and adventures they want to tell. Those who do a brief outline, including chapters and chapter headings as hints. So, as you can see, a wide, wide variety of pants are involved.

I fall into the I know the mystery in the book, where I want my characters in the end, what I want to put them through, and, a real plus, I know what they were up to and how they were relating with each other at the end of the preceding book. Since I do not write detective stories, no one walks into my characters’ offices to hire one or the other or calls over the phone (especially since the telephone has just been invented).

Do you know how much I love The Rockford Files? Of course, that may be an enduring affair with James Garner, whom I first saw at the drive-in leaning on a Quonset hut in a movie that I was too young to see. The drive-in showed the kid-friendly movies first, then the adult movies. I never could sleep through the second feature, unlike my older sister, who could zonk out pretty much anywhere. All of which is off topic, but maybe not. When writing the first draft, which is really the world’s longest synopsis/outline, I distract easily. Especially when a new character pops into the tale, or when I find the perfect historical nemesis to worry my hero(ine), like James Garner in that movie, though I think Marlon Brando was the star.

Draft cover

Imagine then, the distractions when you are writing a historical mystery/adventure taking place on a Mississippi riverboat in 1877. So many possibilities for action, adventure, scoundrels and growing passion. Oh, my!

I have the perfect beginning, three riverboat tickets to find a missing person, and two men wooing the same woman (one believing he is in the lead), that being the ending to the preceding book. And what I hope is the perfect ending. Though, to be honest, I am still struggling because the ending as envisioned will cause upheaval in my little town of Wanee, not to mention complicating the rest of the series. Though I admit to being eager to give this particular complication a keen run for years.

I thought I had the tale in hand until I discovered a wonderful, magical, evil, talented man who became the first gang boss in Chicago. One with ties to New Orleans. The whole book went south, which was good since the boat was on its way to New Orleans.  By south, I mean, it was suddenly invigorated in unanticipated ways, which required rewiring some of the plot, then, while seeking adversaries to the boss, another historical discovery added yet more possibilities and whimsy.

Which means the passengers have been meandering toward the ending I wrote months ago. So long ago that the text disappeared from the end of my working draft, where I drape things like that. You know those bits and pieces that fit somewhere. Or, in this case, the destination for the entire book, like Memphis for my Waneean passengers, if they make it that far. I found it in an archived draft from last month, when it suddenly occurred to me that if I didn’t hang the ending off the paragraph I was writing, the book would never end. 

Now, part of the problem is that I enjoy my Waneeans, their characters, and their conniptions, and part of it is that the ending is a conundrum, because of what it means for the series in the future. As for the length, the Cora Countryman books average 84,500 words. The new one? Well, it sits at 90,000, meaning I have some trimming to do. Which, as any pantser knows, is what the second, third, fourth, fifth — draft is all about.

So, Sayonara for now (hint, hint).

Find out more about me at: https://dzchurch.com.