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!

Nothing Ever Happens To Me

~ Janet Dawson ~ 3 Comments

Bad luck comes in threes, right? You’ve heard that one. Where does that saying come from?

In a post back in 2017, the website Folklore Thursday looked at the origins of what it called the superstition of threes.

For example: “Three strikes of a match.” That originates from wartime. The bad luck of “three strikes of a match” comes from trench warfare. If a match burns long enough for three men to light cigarettes, that’s enough time to be spotted by the enemy, pinpoint the position, and launch an attack.

But what about the other half of the equation? Consider the phrase, “third time’s a charm.”

Three is a familiar pattern and maybe if we put a limit on those bad things, we can see that the run of bad luck will end. It’s one small way to gain control of our lives in unpredictable times.

And there’s another familiar phrase to consider: What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger. I’ll go with that one.

When I started writing this blog post, I figured I’d had my three bad things for 2023. But the universe had another surprise in store for me.

To recap: In July, it was the computer/hard drive/cloud storage meltdown. I lost the book I was working on, as well as notes for several others. I had to start the book all over. I am still working to pull the story out of my head. At least it’s in my head. Despite all the claims for the benefits of cloud storage, it certainly didn’t wind up in the cloud.

In August, my 99-year-old mother came to the end of her life. I’d been a long-distance caregiver for years. I hoped that we could see her celebrate her 100th birthday, but that was not to be. At the start of what I figured would be a two-week trip, I thought I’d see her through the hospital stay and rehab, then she’d go home and get along as before, with more local caregiving assistance. I didn’t think I’d be planning a memorial service. Those two weeks lengthened into four.

September brought the condo flood. It was just after midnight when I woke up, thinking it was raining. It wasn’t, at least not outside. I got up to investigate and discovered water pouring from the light fixtures in the kitchen and dining room, courtesy of a pipe under the upstairs neighbors’ sink. They were unaware of the situation until I pounded on their door. They managed to stop the flow and helped me mop up water, using nearly every towel I had. Then came the water mitigation crews with their industrial-sized dehumidifiers and high-speed fans. All that noise for nearly two weeks. The cats were freaked out and my stress level went through the roof.

Weeks later, I’m still dealing with the fallout. The carpet went away, leaving me with bare concrete floors. Many of my belongings were packed into boxes. Those boxes, and much of the furniture, were picked up and moved to storage. Water in the ceilings and walls meant the sheetrock had to be cut open, those big dehumidifiers set so they would dry out the wood. Next step is sheetrock repairs and painting. Then I can think about new flooring. Before that happens, though, the remainder of my belongings must be packed up and put in storage.

Life in the construction zone was put on hold in October, for my long-planned and much-anticipated trip to Greece. Which I thoroughly enjoyed. I climbed to the top of the Acropolis, and back down again. I went to Delphi and saw the Temple of Apollo. I saw beautiful scenery and ancient sites in the Peloponnese, Crete and Santorini. And ate lots of wonderful food.

All in all, the trip of a lifetime. Except for the part about testing positive for COVID-19. That was definitely not on the itinerary.

I’d had all the boosters. I like to think I was careful. But . . . The tour company protocols said I could not sightsee or eat meals with the group. However, that didn’t prevent me from sightseeing on my own. I particularly wanted to see the archeological excavations at Akrotiri on Santorini. After all, I’d come that far and spent a good deal of money on the trip. I wasn’t going to miss a significant archeological site that ranks with Pompeii. Not able to travel on the tour bus? I wore a mask and took a taxi.

I’m home now, testing negative, back to the construction zone. Neither the cats nor the gremlins made repairs in my absence.

Three, or four, bad things. Are they bad? Maybe it’s how I look at them. Challenges, and I’ve had more than my share this year. Dealing with these challenges has made it more difficult for me to write. It takes concentration to write fiction, to organize and pull those thoughts and ideas out of my head. That’s hard to do with all the chaos I’ve been experiencing. It has certainly made it more difficult for me to get ideas out of my head and into the computer.

That computer meltdown and losing the first draft of the book—I hope that the book I’m working on now will be even better. As for the flood and the resulting construction zone—well, I was thinking about replacing the carpet anyway. Just not right now. And the trip to Greece, COVID-19 or not, I came away with ideas for two books.

Besides, there’s something wonderful about reading Mary Stewart’s classic My Brother Michael, which is set in Delphi, after having been to Delphi. As I reread the book, I could see the terrain of Mount Parnassus—because I’d just been there.

And that book has one of the best first lines ever written: “Nothing ever happens to me.”

Guest Blogger ~ Debbie Burke

~ patyjag ~ 4 Comments

What if a video goes viral showing you committing a crime? You’re innocent but how do you defend yourself when a million people on social media saw you do it. Once the court of public opinion finds you guilty, can you get a fair trial?

That’s the premise for Deep Fake Double Down, the eighth novel in my Tawny Lindholm Thriller series.

As a mystery/suspense/thriller author, I felt compelled to explore what happens when you can no longer believe what you see. How could deep fakes be used to create false evidence?

Deep fakes are often called “Photoshop on Steroids” and they frequently make news. Using software, video of real people is manipulated to make them say words they never said and do acts they never did.

Some recent examples of deep fakes are silly entertainment, like the Pope wearing a satin Balenciaga puffer coat.

But, in the wrong hands, deep fake technology becomes a weapon that can potentially affect world history. One not-so-amusing example was a fraudulent video in 2022 of the Ukrainian president ordering his troops to surrender to the Russians. In May 2023, a photo of a supposed explosion at the Pentagon caused stock market jitters before it was determined to be fake.

When I first began researching the topic a couple of years ago, deep fakes were difficult and time-consuming to create, yet fairly easy to detect. But, during the nine months when I was writing Deep Fake Double Down, technology took a giant leap forward. Now anyone with basic computer knowledge can download free or low-cost programs from the net. Then simply record a few seconds of a person’s face, body, movements, and voice, and you can create a video clone that’s nearly impossible to distinguish from the real person.

Scary? You bet!

In my new thriller, deep fakes mean deep trouble for intrepid investigator Tawny Lindholm and her charismatic attorney-husband Tillman Rosenbaum. A biracial female corrections officer begs them for help after video shows her aiding a young Native inmate in a prison escape. She swears she’s innocent and claims her life is in danger because she witnessed a murder. Then she disappears.

At the same time, Tillman’s troubled teenage son makes a deep fake video of his own kidnapping, but that prank takes an unexpected and frightening turn.

In both situations, Tawny and Tillman discover deep fake technology creates convincing but false evidence. While they struggle to save their client and their son, hidden enemies are ready to kill to keep the truth buried. Will deep fakes lead to real deaths?

Deep Fake Double Down is available from online retailers at this link: https://books2read.com/deep-fake-double-down

Or ask your favorite independent bookstore to order the paperback.

Debbie Burke is an award-winning journalist, crime novelist, freelance editor, and blogger on The Kill Zone. She writes from her home in Montana where the scenic, rugged Rocky Mountains offer plenty of locations to kill people…on the page, that is! 

Please visit https://debbieburkewriter.com to learn about my other books in the Tawny Lindholm Thriller series. Join my readers group and receive a FREE bonus short story about Tawny and Tillman.

Email: debbieburkewriter@gmail.com

Twitter/X: @burke_writer