Guest Blogger- Joanne Guidoccio

June 29, 2015June 29, 2015 ~ patyjag ~ 13 Comments

On the Road to Reinvention by Joanne

Move over chick. It’s time for this hen to strut her stuff. (LuAnn Schindler)

Seven years ago, a hen strut wasn’t even on my radar. I had just retired from a 31-year teaching career and was still experimenting with a new and (sometimes unsettling) stage of life. Sleeping in each morning. Leisurely breakfasts. New hobbies. Volunteering.

Three months into retirement, I realized that I needed more than this patchwork quilt of activities. Everything came to a head at a luncheon. After a pleasant meal with stimulating conversation, I watched as over two hundred retired professional women swooned over the entertainment: an Elvis impersonator. They stood and hollered, waving dinner napkins and program. They coveted the flimsy polyester scarves he was draping around the necks of selected women. I took that luncheon as a sign from the universe. It was time to go down another road.

After some reflection, I decided to resurrect a writing dream from my high school years. Within days of making this decision, I received a call from an editor who offered to publish one of my travel articles. Excited, I started my wordsmith business and ordered my first set of business cards.

That first article was only beginner’s luck.

It took twenty-one months to get another one published. In the meantime, I attended creative writing workshops, took online courses, and continued to send out queries. Slowly, a writing practice emerged and articles, book reviews and short stories started appearing in newspapers, magazines and online. This was gratifying, but it wasn’t enough to satisfy my creative bent. I wanted more.

“More” translated into a novel. In my case, two novels: A Season for Killing Blondes and Between Land and Sea. The murder mystery failed to launch. Agents and editors were amused by the premise—A brunette lottery winner never has an alibi when dead blondes turn up in dumpsters near her favorite haunts—but they passed on the novel. Between Land and Sea, a fantasy about a middle-aged mermaid, didn’t fare much better.

Frustrated, I sought the advice of a visiting author. He met with me after reading the first 25 pages of my novel. He got right down to business.

“You’ve got an interesting premise here. Excellent plot development. And I like what you’ve done with the female characters, but—”

“Go on, I can take it.”

He sighed and shook his head. “The “b” word. It’s all over these pages.”

I couldn’t remember using any inappropriate language, let alone the “b” word. What on earth was he talking about?

“Boomers,” he whispered. “All the characters are over 50. You need youngins.”

“What do you mean by youngins?”

“Characters in their twenties and early thirties. That’s what selling now.”

I thanked him for his time but decided not to follow his advice. Unfortunately, that wasn’t the end of the anti-boomer talk. At every creative writing workshop and seminar during that spring, I encountered more of the “youth” talk, most of it spoken in hushed tones.

“It’s okay to have an older woman as a sleuth but make sure you surround her with younger characters.”

“Don’t mention anything about boomers in your query letter.”

“Don’t even think about using retirement homes or nursing homes in your novel.”

I persisted, determined more than ever to feature boomer women and their older sisters as protagonists in my novels. I would love to say that the universe saw fit to reward my efforts, but that was not the case. Instead, more rejection letters followed.

In 2012, the winds of change started blowing.

The term “boomer lit” was bandied about on social media, and groups formed on Twitter and Facebook. The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel, The Intouchables and Quartet attracted record crowds and Downton Abbey became a worldwide sensation.

People were taking a closer look at heavyweights like Maggie Smith, Dame Judy Dench, Bill Nighy and Francois Cluzet. The younger supporting casts added color, but for the most part were forgettable and expendable. I don’t think anyone can imagine Downton Abbey without the Dowager Countess.

Those favorable boomer winds also blew in my direction. On January 31, 2013, senior editor Debby Gilbert of Soul Mate Publishing offered me a contract for Between Land and Sea. The novel was released in mid September 2013.

Feeling validated, I revisited A Season for Killing Blondes and reworked several plot issues and characters. After one round of editors, the cozy mystery found a home. On August 16, 2014, editor Johanna Melaragno of The Wild Rose Press offered me a contract.

Blurb- A Season for Killing Blondes

Three ASeasonforKillingBlondes_w9101_750 (2) thousand euros worth of pastries. Can you believe it?

When I agreed to import the pastries, I had no idea I would be subsidizing the failing Italian economy and helping Silvio Berlusconi stay in power for a few weeks longer. Left to my own devices, I would have gone down the street to Regency Bakery, picked up some pastries and just walked them over. But my mother and Aunt Amelia were adamant. The open house for my new career counseling office needed a proper launch, one that could only be achieved with pastries from a Sicilian bakery.

To be fair, both of them were horrified when they saw that final four-figure amount on the invoice and swore me to secrecy. While conspicuous consumption is valued in the Italian community, being taken for a ride is not, and we would never hear the end of it from Uncle Paolo who is still complaining about the ten cents he has to pay for a shopping bag at No Frills.

I watched my mother rearrange the amaretto cookies, stuffed figs, biscotti, and other delicacies that had arrived yesterday. She and Aunt Amelia had brought in their best silver trays and carts and spent hours—according to Uncle Paolo—creating a colorful Italian corner.

“Everything is perfect. Maybe too perfect.” My mother made the sign of the cross and mumbled a Hail Mary.

“Relax, Ma. I’ve got everything under control. Nothing bad will happen.”

“Things have been going too well, Gilda. The lottery win. Your new career. This beautiful office. I’ve had one of my dreams, and you know what that means.”

Buy Links

Amazon (Canada) – http://is.gd/t0g1KZ

Amazon (United States) – http://is.gd/jADjPp

Amazon (United Kingdom) – http://is.gd/8mknFJ

Amazon (Australia) – http://is.gd/r843iX

Kobo – http://is.gd/BpO9gY

Bio

In high school, Joanne dabbled in poetry, but it would be over three decades before she entertained the idea of writing as a career. She listened to her practical Italian side and earned degrees in mathematics and education. She experienced many fulfilling moments as she watched her students develop an appreciation (and sometimes, love) of mathematics. Later, she obtained a post-graduate diploma as a career development practitioner and put that skill set to use in the co-operative education classroom. She welcomed this opportunity to help her students experience personal growth and acquire career direction through their placements.

In 2008, she took advantage of early retirement and decided to launch a second career that would tap into her creative side and utilize her well-honed organizational skills. Slowly, a writing practice emerged. Her articles and book reviews were published in newspapers, magazines, and online. When she tried her hand at fiction, she made reinvention a recurring theme in her novels and short stories. A member of Sisters in Crime, Crime Writers of Canada, and Romance Writers of America, Joanne writes paranormal romance, cozy mysteries, and inspirational literature from her home base of Guelph, Ontario.

Where to find Joanne…

Website: http://joanneguidoccio.com/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/joanneguidoccio

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/authorjoanneguidoccio

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/joanneguidoccio

Pinterest: http://pinterest.com/jguidoccio/

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/7277706.Joanne_Guidoccio

Life Would Be Boring Without Mystery by Paty Jager #mystery #cozymystery

June 8, 2015June 8, 2015 ~ patyjag ~ 4 Comments

The creaking door, missing papers, an unusual scent hanging in the air…Mystery is all around us every day of our lives. It could be the phone call you answered to find no one there. The new cat hanging out in your back yard. Or something that’s gone missing at work. Mystery is what keeps life interesting and always testing our brain.

Life would be boring without mystery.

Growing up I was an avid reader and my favorite books were those that had a bit of mystery to them. In junior high I devoured the Nancy Drew and Hardy Boys series. Even the Walter Farley books I read had mystery to them even though I initially picked up the books for the horses.

When I first started writing historical westerns I couldn’t keep the mystery out of the stories. It was building the mystery in the story rather than the romance that made the plotting interesting to me. I recently had a conversation with the editor who published my first westerns. When I told her I was writing mysteries and loving it, she said, “I always thought your voice leaned toward mysteries.” That kind of validated my decision to write mysteries.

My other interest is Native American cultures, specifically, the Nez Perce. I grew up in Wallowa County, the area where the Chief Joseph band or Lake Nimiipuu as they call themselves, summered and wintered. Of course this was way before I lived in Wallowa County, but they were always on my mind growing up. I found it unfortunate that the only time the Nez Perce were allowed in the county was during Chief Joeseph Days a rodeo weekend where the locals benefited from the history of the county yet the people who lived there before them it was the only weekend they were allowed to return.

A lot has changed in the thirty years since I moved away. The Nez Perce have purchased land in the county. They have a yearly powwow, Tamkaliks, the weekend before Chief Joseph Days, and they have put up interpretive centers as well as are now monitoring the salmon runs in the county. I’m happy they are having voices into how the county is moving forward.

My interest in the Nez Perce and my love of mystery is combined into the Shandra Higheagle Mystery series. Shandra Higheagle is a half Nez Perce artistic potter. Her father was a rodeo bareback bronc rider. He was killed in a rodeo accident when she was four. Her mother remarried and Shandra was told to keep her Native American heritage a secret. However, her paternal grandmother a shaman in the Nez Perce Seven Drums society made sure Shandra was drawn back to her roots.

The first book, Double Duplicity, starts with Shandra returning from her grandmother’s funeral. Shandra finds a murdered art gallery owner after seeing her best friend, also an art gallery owner, hurrying across the street. When Shandra is dropped as a suspect, she begins digging to find the real killer before her friend becomes the scapegoat. Her grandmother comes to her in dreams, directing her to clues that help Shandra and a detective find the real murderer.

Double Duplicity: A Shandra Higheagle Mystery

Book one of the Shandra Higheagle Native American Mystery Series

Dreams…Visions…Murder

On the eve of the biggest art event at Huckleberry Mountain Resort, potter Shandra Higheagle finds herself in the middle of a murder investigation. She’s ruled out as a suspect, but now it’s up to her to prove the friend she witnessed fleeing the scene was just as innocent. With help from her recently deceased Nez Perce grandmother, Shandra becomes more confused than ever but just as determined to discover the truth.

Detective Ryan Greer prides himself on solving crimes and refuses to ignore a single clue, including Shandra Higheagle’s visions. While Shandra is hesitant to trust her dreams, Ryan believes in them and believes in her.

Can the pair uncover enough clues for Ryan to make an arrest before one of them becomes the next victim?

Buy Links:

Windtree Press http://windtreepress.com/portfolio/double-duplicity/

Amazon http://authl.it/2ng

Kobo http://store.kobobooks.com/search?Query=Double+Duplicity

Nook http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/double-duplicity-paty-jager/1120790322

Apple https://itunes.apple.com/us/book/id942249867

Paty’s contacts:

www.patyjager.net

Writing into the Sunset

Newsletter: Paty’s Prattle

Paty’s Posse: Facebook Street Team

Paty’s Facebook Fan Page

Kindle Author Central Page

Dying for a Deadline

June 4, 2015May 31, 2015 ~ jlsimpsonauthor ~ 10 Comments

By JL Simpson

Last year I decided to take on a new role. Not only was I going to be the author of my Daisy Dunlop mystery series, but I was also going to be the publisher. Gone were the days of typing ‘the end’ and then sending it off to someone else to do all the other stuff. Now I needed to sort out an editor, a cover artist, learn to format the finished masterpiece, set up accounts with Ebook retailers and finally to upload and publish the books. The feeling of power when you’re master of your own destiny is amazing. I can give books away, change the price, advertise where I want, and do my own thing with the plots, provided the readers still enjoy the story.

This was all positive stuff. I love power, it’s a heady drug. But with the positive comes a couple of negatives. The first, if my books fail I only have myself to blame, and the biggest negative of all, no one is cracking the whip. I don’t have anyone to set deadlines for me, and that can be a real problem.

From my experience people fall into two categories, those who are self-motivated and normal people. Self-motivated people are the ones who set their own goals and meet them. You seem them out running as the sun’s rising. Meanwhile, normal people are flailing an arm out from under the bed covers in a desperate bid to hit the off switch on the alarm clock whilst mumbling “coffee” into the pillow, hoping their spouse will rise to the challenge and get the much needed caffeine fix they require to jump start their brain.

Self motivated people nibble on a salad, whilst normal people inhale doughnuts swearing they’ll get back to dieting next week. Self motivated people stride down the confectionery aisle at the grocery store without so much as a sideways glance, because chocolate is not on the list. Self motivated people have organised desks, tidy houses, color co-ordinated wardrobes, their whole lives are planned, and everything runs like clockwork. They don’t forget to pay a bill, or realize they are out of milk after the stores are shut for the day. They’re not the ones running around the shopping mall on Christmas Eve looking for gifts.

If you want to be an Indie Author then you need to keep working. I’ve just read a book called, “Write, Publish, Repeat” and it’s brilliant. It says the way to success is to keep getting books out there. The more books you publish the easier it is for readers to find you. So you might think, seeing as I have only two books to my name, I’d be writing up a storm, but you’d be wrong.

I have the curse of being a normal person. My desk is cluttered, as is my mind. My house is clean but untidy, my color co-ordination is hit and miss. I forget my glasses. I lose my keys. I even forgot my son when he was a new born and left him parked at the meat counter in the supermarket until the girl at the checkout asked when my baby was due.

My day job is deadline driven. As a tax accountant their are lodgement dates that need to be adhered to. Miss one of those and the tax office let you know about it. At work I’m organised and regimented because big brother is watching. With my writing no one is watching. I used to write to publisher’s deadlines. I used to have a critique partner who read along one chapter at a time telling me to hurry up and write the next, but her career took off and I was lost in the madness of it all. Now it’s all down to me. Time marches on. Days, weeks, months fly by with little progress.

I may never stick to my diet, wear clothes that go together, tidy up my desk, empty my inbox, remember my sister’s birthday, but if I ever want to make something more than an on-again off-again hobby of writing I simply have to get a grip. And the best way to do that is set a deadline. I know that if I’m ever going to focus and finish book 3 in my Daisy Dunlop Series I need to set a publication date and book an editor. Maybe I should set a date for just before Christmas, but that still leaves the question, ‘which Christmas?’

JL Simpson

Where mystery and mayhem collide.

Website | Facebook | Twitter | Goodreads | Amazon

Meet Carole Sojka

May 21, 2015May 21, 2015 ~ patyjag ~ 6 Comments

Mysterious Ladies are mysterious in many different ways. Today I’m going to tell you something about the life that led to my becoming one.

I grew up in New York City, went to Queens College there, and met my husband on a blind date. Do those still exist? Boris was exciting to me: newly discharged from the Navy, about to enter college, he read almost as much as I did, and had a taste for adventure and travel. He’d been stationed in San Diego and had lived off-duty with a friend who was a Formula One race car driver. That was the source of one of his first pronouncements: “When I get my engineering degree, I’m going back to California.” So I knew the future—and it sounded like fun. So after we married and he graduated, we moved to California—first to San Francisco, later to Southern California.

Together we spent two years in Somalia with the Peace Corps followed by six months traveling through North Africa and Europe. The Peace Corps was a great adventure for us at a time of hope in many newly independent African countries. I taught English as a second language to students who already spoke three or four languages, while I spoke only English and some “kitchen Italian” I learned from Hassan, our houseboy.

Our house in a beautiful town on the Indian Ocean had so many holes between the floor boards that Hassan cleaned by pouring buckets of water over the floor. We made friends with the town officials: the Harbor Master; the headmasters of the two local schools; the Police Chief, a large man with two wives and several stainless steel teeth; Italian teachers; and the District Commissioner, from whom everyone concealed their drinking of alcohol, forbidden to them as Muslims.

Somali children, knowing their market, dragged wild animals through town, sure we would buy them just to end their suffering. We had baboons, including Gina who thought I was her mother, and later became my rival for male attention; blue-skinned monkeys named Daniel and Nutmeg; and a beloved cheetah. One day I even bought a leopard, thinking it was a serval. Fortunately, the leopard escaped, and no leopard-related injuries were reported after he vanished.

Then we returned home to real life: adopting a baby boy we named Mark and earning a master’s degree in judicial administration that led to a career as the administrator in a public law office. We also rediscovered our love of traveling and over the years have visited thirty or more countries on every continent except the Antarctic—no museums there, I’m told.

I had avoided fiction writing ever since I overheard unkind criticism of an early short story, but I regained my courage, joined a writing group, found a terrific group leader and wrote a lot of short stories, becoming inured to rejection. I most liked writing mysteries of the kind I like to read: traditional whodunits with multiple suspects.

My first novel, A REASON TO KILL, was published in October 2014, and my second SO MANY REASONS TO DIE, just came out in April. Both are set in Florida—don’t ask—and feature a pair of detectives in a small town on Florida’s Treasure Coast.

I’m on the Board of Sisters in Crime/LA, the largest chapter of Sisters in Crime/National, a great group and very supportive of new writers. In June we’ll hold our every-two-year-CALIFORNIA CRIME WRITERS CONFERENCE, which is sold out. It should be a blast!

Hello! by Janis Patterson

May 14, 2015May 12, 2015 ~ patyjag ~ 11 Comments

I’m so glad to see you here – this new group blog is so exciting and I am so honored to be a part of it. Now – we have been asked to use our first post as an introduction, so here we go – which sort of terrifies me, since I’m really rather a boring person.

I’m a seventh generation Texan who grew up in a wordsmithing family – primarily advertising and newspapers. I sold my first novel (to the old Dell Candlelight series) in 1979. In 1980 I was one of the original 40 or so women who met to see if an organization of romance writers was feasible – an organization that was later officially named RWA. I’m still a founder/charter member. Currently I’m also a member of The Author’s Guild, NINC, Sisters in Crime and MWA (where I help run the local chapter and sit on the SW regional board.) I also belong to several individual RWA chapters.

I bore very easily, so I write in a lot of different genres – as Janis Susan May I write romance, horror and a couple of other things. As Janis Susan Patterson I write for children. As JSM Patterson I do scholarly and non-fiction work. As Janis Patterson I write cozy mysteries. And there are three very good reasons I use Janis Patterson for mysteries – first, I wanted a definite brand, something that was different from my other names. Second, it is my legal married name, and using it honors my wonderful husband, who supports me in every way possible. Third, with any luck at all it will get me shelved next to James Patterson!

I married for the first time very late in life – 54 – after a life of very varied experiences. My husband is the most wonderful man in the world and I am so blessed to have him. Incidentally, he is also a number of years younger than I. Before we married I did a lot of things – among them talent agent for film and tv, editor in chief of two multi-magazine publishing groups, singer, document checker in a cruise agency, comparative analyst for a real estate firm specializing in apartment complex sales, Supervisor of Accessioning for a bio-genetic DNA testing lab… I did tell you I bored easily, didn’t I?

One thing that is never boring is my fascination with Ancient Egypt. I was one of 8 who founded the North Texas Chapter of the American Research Center in Egypt (a scholarly support organization almost 70 years old) which is arguably the largest chapter in the country. I also founded, published and edited the Newsletter (now retitled Menhedj) which for the 9 years of my reign (word chosen deliberately) was the only monthly publication for ARCE in the world. From the second year it was archived as a scholarly publication in museums and universities around the country.

My husband and I met in that chapter, and several years later he proposed in the moonlit garden of the Mena Hotel in Giza, which sits across the road from the Pyramids. Yes, those Pyramids. We were married 6 months later and have lived happily ever after. We have been back to Egypt several times since, our most recent trip being just two months ago. To aid in researching a new book we were invited to stay at a dig house and have complete access to an entire archaeological dig – and believe me, civilians are NEVER invited to stay at dig houses. It was one of the most wonderful times of my life.

After leaving the dig house, we rented a flat in Luxor for a little relaxing vacation time – well, The Husband vacationed. I worked every day. Sometimes a lot and sometimes just a little while, but I never missed a day. I am going to buy a tablet though; hiking my 17 inch laptop to Egypt and back nearly killed me. Our flat faced the Gurnah Hills (where the Valley of the Kings is) and every morning I would get up early, fix a good cup of tea and sit on the balcony to watch the light from the rising sun dribble down the rough rock hills while the morning’s flight of tourist hot air balloons rose. Sigh. I really didn’t want to come back.

But – writing on the new book brings Egypt back to me. It is a straightforward mystery called A KILLING AT EL KAB, and is about the murder of a really unpleasant archaeologist and a missing treasure. I’m about a third in and it should be ready for release in late fall.

One more thing – they asked that we send a ‘mysterious’ picture of ourselves for the blog. I only have the one picture, so I sent it, but it is very mysterious. I think so, at least – it is a mystery that it makes me look so good. I really don’t look much like that!

Anyway, that’s about all there is I can think of. I’m so glad you’re here, and on my next rotation I promise to talk about something truly writerly. See you then –