Beware the Fall - A Great Season for Mystery and Mayhem

The leaves are falling off trees in rapid numbers. As soon as a lawn is cleared, more leaves magically reappear. Next week, the clocks will be turned back an hour, and it will get dark sooner. Those happenings, and many others, lend themselves to mysteries.

So easy to bury a body in the woods, where the leaves will cover the ground, as if the dirt was never broken. So easy to lurk somewhere in the dark, and create mayhem on unsuspecting victims.

Lest I forget - Friday is also Halloween. Seeing grown people wearing costumes that day or around that day will not seem unusual. Who could tell if any of them are up to no-good?

If you haven't already done so, consider the Fall in your setting for a mystery. Or, maybe you've already thought of that!

Find all of Morgan Mandel's mysteries & romances
at her Amazon Author Page:
http://www.amazon.com/author/morganmandel

Excerpts at http://morgansbooklinks.blogspot.com

Twitter: @MorganMandel

My guest: DJ Adamson on Setting

I'm welcoming DJ today, a writer I have something in common with. We're both deeply rooted in the Midwest, me in Illinois, she in Iowa. I love her comfortable description of the setting she uses for Admit to Mayhem!

-Kaye George

A Thought to Setting

My father, who wasn’t a writer but was a successful man, offered me some good advice. He said I needed to be able to see in my mind’s eye the subject I was writing about so clearly that I could almost touch it, in order for my reader to visualize the same to a degree they felt they had touched it.” This is why I set my Lillian Dove Mystery Series in Iowa.

 Not Europe, Asia, India, Paris, New York, Los Angeles? No, Frytown, Iowa.

            I wasn’t raised in Iowa but my family roots run deep there. And whenever I visit, I feel a stirring inside, a seeded core in me from family past who whispers, home. My family immigrated in the 1850s. I am German-French. Some of the original homesteads are still owned by family. No one but family has ever lived in my Great Grandmother’s house—although, after so long, it was rebuilt and modernized. There’s one small town outside Iowa City that when I walked down its streets as a child, I could say “Hi Cousin” and it would have been true.

      Admit to Mayhem’s Frytown is not a real city. It is an unincorporated community in Johnson County, Iowa, about ten miles southwest of Iowa City. The town has been known as Frytown since the 19^th century. My parents pointed the area out where the grange once stood and said they always had a great time in Frytown, dancing. Both were raised on farms not far away.

            Lillian Dove’s Frytown is a mixture of several cities and towns in Iowa. I located it outside Iowa City and gave it a recreational lake. But the people are as real as I can make them in my mind’s eye. So real, they visit me often in my den while writing. I understand their values, the way they live, their understanding of life, and how they handle their problems, or hold secrets, or gossip about others.

            Lillian is forced to move to Frytown to take care of her convalescent mother, who doesn’t want to be convalescent and who was the enabler in Lillian’s alcoholic childhood. Dahlia is the key to a Lillian’s understanding and ability to take on life sober. Because, while she may have five years notched on her sobriety, she finds staying sober much easier than handling life’s problems.

             She finds herself in a real fix when she comes across a house fire and later finds she may be the only eye-witness to arson. As Lillian realizes that her life is in jeopardy, she becomes increasingly involved in a mystery: "If you continue to insist you saw someone, it could mean you’re an eye-witness to first degree arson, a felony”

            Admit to Mayhem is the first book in the Lillian Dove Mystery Series. Book Two Suppose is set to be released in March.

           

In a nutshell, Admit to Mayhem is a well-rounded, engrossing read that creates a memorable, believable protagonist and uses her to immerse readers in a series of challenging probes that end not in court, but in the very human realm of motivation and twisted purposes. - Midwest Reviews

D. J. Adamson is an award-winning author. The second book in her Lillian Dove Mystery Series is set to release in March 2015. A SyFy-Mystery Serial, first book Jake’s Story is coming out this December. Her family roots grow deep in the Midwest and it is here where she sets much of her work. She juggles her time between her own desk and teaching others writing at two Los Angeles Colleges. Along with her husband and two Welsh Terriers, she makes her home in Southern California.

Bears, Mountain Lions and Clowns by Marilyn Meredith

Perhaps you've read or seen in the news, or on the Internet, about the clown who has been turning up in various small towns in the San Joaquin Valley. It began on October 1 in the town of Wasco.

Of course copy cats followed immediately. Sightings have been reported in Bakersfield, Visalia and believe it or not, in my little town of Springville. Yes, it's true, I heard in an email message from our local resident sheriff.

And to make life interesting, before we learned about the clowns, our neighbor reported seeing a young mountain lion down by the river that runs behind our houses. We knew there was some sort of predator roaming because the feral cat population has diminished drastically.

That's not all--along with these events came the news that a bear or bears have been sighted under the bridge in town and on one of the nearby roads. Others have reported bear scat in various places.

Of course the mountain lions and the bears have always been here, and that's what makes living in the foothills interesting.

But a clown? There has to be a mystery here.

And if you'd like to read more about what goes on in my little town, all you have to do is read one of my Deputy Tempe Crabtree mysteries, since I've liberally borrowed from my surroundings for the setting of these novels.

The latest is River Spirits. And no, Tempe has never dealt with a clown, but she has had encounters with plenty of other wild life--human and animal.

P.S. I doubt I'll ever run into the clown since he/she only appears at night. I seldom go into town after dark.

Marilyn

Writing the Second Book in a Series

I’ve just put up the e-book of Murder the Tey Way on Amazon. This is the second book in my Golden Age of Mystery Book Club Mysteries. A good deal has been written about writing the first book in a mystery series. I thought I’d say a word about the one that follows.

In many ways, writing the second book is easier. You know your sleuth quite well—her personality, how she thinks and acts and relates to people. You’ve established the setting, the tone of the series, and know some of the secondary characters.

But writing second book in a series presents a challenge. For me, it means exploring new territory that includes a deeper understanding of my sleuth’s character and love life.  In Murder the Tey Way, my sleuth Lexie Driscoll is living in a new neighborhood and meeting a new roster of friends and suspects. Of course, her best friends Rosie and Hal, make a few appearances. Her relationships with world-renown architect Allistair West and homicide detective Brian Donovan undergo changes that affect her life significantly.

A second book is a great time to introduce important but distant characters related to one’s sleuth. Lexie’s sister Gayle, whom she hasn’t seen in years, appears at Lexie’s doorstep. Gayle’s been running away from a dangerous situation. The possibility that someone is chasing her to kill her is a very real. A man lies dead in Lexie’s backyard the morning after Gayle arrives, and Lexie fears her sister has murdered him before he could kill her.

Like all the books in the Golden Age of Mystery Book Club mysteries, the various members have secrets and venal weaknesses that may lead to murder  Secret identities, doing business with criminals are a few of the elements in Murder the Tey Way. Lexie sleuths as she leads discussions about Josephine Tey and some of her wonderful novels.

Murder the Tey Way is available as an e-book on Amazon for $2.99: http://tinyurl.com/n6z973o

The Conference Rationale

by Janis Patterson

I’m packing. I always start packing early, partly in anticipation and partly because I am terrified of forgetting something essential to my well-being, style or comfort.

So what brings about this preparational frenzy? Next Tuesday I’m off to St. Pete Beach in Florida for the NINC (Novelists, Inc) conference. I’m going early, and will be there an entire week, as after the NINC gathering ends a group of us self-publishers are going to have a somewhat freestyle indie un-conference.

Normally I don’t go to many writing conferences, but lately it seems that they’re just about all we travel to. Like RWA National. No, I didn’t go as an attendee – haven’t attended an RWA National for years. Too big, too noisy, too frenetic; some people thrive on that – I don’t. What The Husband and I did do was go to San Antonio during the time of the conference, get one of the 1850-era rooms in the Menger Hotel (one of my three favorite hotels in the world) and see San Antonio again. I also had meetings with some of my publishers and editors, attended some parties, saw lots of people I knew, made contacts, attended the Beau Monde one-day seminar and best of all – since The Husband does lots of work as my assistant – almost everything was tax-deductible as a business expense. Sweet, and well worth it.

Likewise, our ‘winter vacation’ will be the Florida Romance Writers’ cruise conference next February. We did this conference the last time they held it – two years ago – and loved it. It was a first cruise for either one of us – if, of course, you discount The Husband’s Navy duty voyages, and I don’t think Navy ships have champagne bars...

So are these little excursions just ‘tax-deductible vacations’ or work? Of course it’s nice to go to a swell place instead of some dreary ordinary city, which is probably why so many conferences are held in such nice locations, but the main thrust is strictly professional. We’re only a couple of hours from San Antonio, and go there with some regularity just for the fun of it. Likewise, if we were going to take a cruise for the sake of taking a cruise (and someday when we’re planning to when we have time) it would be much longer than a three day jaunt from Florida to Cozumel and back.

No, conferences are much more than just a couple of days in a fancy place. If the conference is done properly, it’s quite possible to go and never want to leave the hotel! One of the blessings of the internet and our interconnected world is that we can work at home, but it is also one of the curses because it separates us, and nice as they are, eloops and the vastly inferior fori are just not the same as face to face interaction. A conference not only allows us to meet editors and agents and make contact with our publishers and agents, it allows us to interact with our peers. Yes, the internet does that too, but personal contact is different, and in many ways much better. Writing is a lonely profession, and personal contact is to be prized.

Especially when it comes with a beach attached.

UPDATE

Believe it or not, my publishing blitz is almost over. Amazingly, it’s stayed on schedule! There were times I doubted I’d make it, but there are only two books to go. 15 October’s offering is a re-release, a tasty gothic romance set in a forbidding house on the Connecticut coast just preceding the Southern War of Independence. A spunky heroine looking for a lost cousin, two handsome brothers, sinister Oriental servants, and the Devil walking in Connecticut abducting young women... it’s a fun tale that I greatly enjoyed writing. Of course, it has been thoroughly re-edited, re-formatted and given a lovely new cover, as well as a first-time paperback edition.

Bits and Pieces By Lynn Cahoon

Life is winning this week. Or should I say the last three weeks. I won't go into my tale of woe, but if I'm not back on today to respond, I beg some grace. :) 

So what's going on in Lynn's writing world?  It feels as fractured as the rest of my life. I pressed SEND on the email for Tourist Trap #5 which will be available in March 2015. Then I started two new projects, hoping to get a generous word count on one before I had to get serious on the next Tourist Trap mystery due the end of the year.  

And when I couldn't write, I spent time editing a third story (romance) that I'll self publish near the end of the year. 

See, fractured.  Three plots in my head, three heroes, and even three different styles. 

I've decided to go back to focusing on one story - Tourist Trap #6. And when I meet my weekly word goal, that's when I can play in the other worlds, but not before. 

Homework first, right?

How do you handle too many projects trying to claim your time?  

BTW, if you haven't checked out The Tourist Trap mystery series, MISSION TO MURDER is on sale now for #99cents at all fine digital outlets.  Amazon/Nook/Kobo

In the California coastal town of South Cove, history is one of its many tourist attractions—until it becomes deadly…

Jill Gardner, proprietor of Coffee, Books, and More, has discovered that the old stone wall on her property might be a centuries-old mission worthy of being declared a landmark. But Craig Morgan, the obnoxious owner of South Cove’s most popular tourist spot, The Castle, makes it his business to contest her claim. When Morgan is found murdered at The Castle shortly after a heated argument with Jill, even her detective boyfriend has to ask her for an alibi. Jill decides she must find the real murderer to clear her name. But when the killer comes for her, she’ll need to jump from historic preservation to self-preservation…

Spoiled

With well intentions, I created a monster. It started innocently enough. I felt sorry for my dog, Rascal, who would eye my people food longingly. Since she's getting older, I thought she may as well live it up, and enjoy what I denied her before. I started slipping scraps into her bowl, along with the dog food. Unfortunately, the result is she's become very picky and won't eat her dog food unless something for people is mixed in with it. And, even then, she's become picky. Only certain kinds of people food meet her qualifications. However, when she's happy with what I've provided, she grunts with pleasure and snarfs it down, like she can't get enough of it.

I couldn't help relating her experience to mine when it comes to books, especially on kindle. Before, when I picked up a book and it didn't meet my expectations right away, I was content to keep reading and wait for at least one good part to turn up. Sometimes, I would read an entire book, not because it was so great, but only because I'd started it and felt obligated to finish it.

Now, I expect the good part to start right from the beginning, and it has to keep being good until the end, or I'll start another book instead. If the next doesn't work immediately, I'll start yet another, until I find one to my liking.

I'm afraid, like Rascal, I've become spoiled. With the proliferation of books available, either free or at reasonable prices for my kindle, it's so very easy for me to be picky.

I suspect a lot more readers have become as spoiled as I am. Are you?

See Morgan Mandel's books on her Amazon Author Page:

http://www.amazon.com/author/morganmandel

Excerpts & buy links at Morgan's Book Links Blog:

http://morgansbooklinks.blogspot.com

Facebook:

http://www.facebook.com/morgan.mandel

Twitter:@MorganMandel 

My guest today, Judy Alter, one of my favorite writers

My guest today is Judy Alter, writer extraordinaire. She gives a thoughtful post on Gone Girl and her own The Perfect Coed. --Kaye George

Make Mine Mystery

I’ve been following a lengthy thread on a crime writers’ list about Gillian Flynn’s Gone Girl, which has been on the best-seller list for two years now. The comments on the thread range from “literary masterpiece,” “wonderful prose and careful construction,” “satire, not mystery” to “I could get into it,” “I gave up after twenty pages,” and “I didn’t like the characters.” The latter interests me most. I’ve not read the book—and probably won’t—but I’ve heard a lot about how unlikeable both the husband and wife in this book are. It leads me to wonder why people read it and why it’s been on the best-seller list so long.

There seems to be widespread consensus that Gone Girl is not a mystery. Several readers classify it as a suspense thriller—but is that not a mystery subgenre? I’m a little confused here.

Many readers will tell you they tire of light fiction—cozies where there are few dark moments, often lots of humor, and usually a satisfying ending. They want deeper, darker stories that challenge them to think about the nature of mankind. I saw one suggestion that we live in such time of turmoil that our reading tastes reflect the times we live in. I’m not sure I buy that argument—certainly, we live in dark times of political dissatisfaction, world terrorism, racism at home, difficult dilemmas for all of us, not just our leaders. But if our reading tastes reflect our times, is the darkness of the Middle Ages what made The Canterbury Tales great? I suspect today, like all ages, it’s different strokes for different folks. The one principle that I find most commentators agree on is that a novel has to have a satisfactory ending with some sense of morality triumphing.

But that leaves another question about Gone Girl.  How important is character to your reading interest. And which comes first—plot or character? Do you get involved in a book where you either don’t like or don’t care about the characters but the plot fascinates? I don’t. I like to feel I’ve been into the world of the characters, that I care about what happens to them, just as I would care about what happens to a good friend. And I want to feel sad when I come to the end of the book because I don’t want to leave the world of the characters. They’ve become friends. If I don’t like the characters or feel some identification with them, plot doesn’t matter. I don’t care what happens. This is not to say that characters should be without flaws. Heaven forbid! Even in the lightest cozy, I want characters to be true to life…and there’s not a one of us without a whole bunch of flaws.

Passing judgment on  Gone Girl when I haven’t read it borders dangerously on arrogance, and I wouldn’t even bring the topic up if it weren’t that I’ve read so much about it, mostly negative, and I’m puzzled about its lengthy run on the best-seller list. It’s set to me to thinking about what I really like in a book when I read, and I confess—I like, and I write, cozies. I identify with the (usually) single female sleuth even if I am a tad older. I dislike violence and am not particularly interested in graphic sex and plain don’t like erotica. But I enjoy a good puzzle, so a well-plotted cozy mystery with likeable characters is my choice for escape reading. Bad confession for one who has written and edited all her life: I don’t want to read a book just to admire the skill of the prose. I want to become involved in the story.

Lest you dismiss me as a lightweight, let me say that my latest book, The Perfect Coed, is barely a cozy, if at all—I’m thinking of promoting cozy noir as a subgenre—and the protagonist, Susan Hogan, professor of English, is likeable but prickly—that’s the best term for it. But I hope you’ll like her.

Judy Alter is no stranger to college campuses, like the one she invented for The Perfect Coed. She attended the University of Chicago, Truman State University in Missouri, and Texas Christian University, where she earned a Ph.D. and taught English. For twenty years, she was director of TCU Press, the book publishing program of the university. The author of many books for both children and adults, she retired in 2010 and turned her attention to writing contemporary cozy mysteries. She is the author of the Kelly O’Connell Mysteries and the Blue Plate Café Mysteries.

She holds awards from the Western Writers of America, the National Cowboy Museum and Hall of Fame, and the Texas Institute of Letters. She was inducted into the Texas Literary Hall of Fame and recognized as an Outstanding Woman of Fort Worth and a woman who has left her mark on Texas by the Dallas Morning News. Western Writers of America gave her the Owen Wister Award for Lifetime Achievement.

Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Judy-Alter/e/B001H6NMU6/ref=sr_tc_2_0?qid=1377217817&sr=1-2-ent

Turquoise Morning Press: http://www.turquoisemorningpressbookstore.com/search?q=Judy+Alter

Smashwords: http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/462168

Web page: http://www.judyalter.com

Blogs: http://www.judys-stew.blogspot.com; http://potluckwithjudy.blogspot.com

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Judy-Alter-Author/366948676705857

Twitter: @judyalter

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/5446.Judy_Alter

Blurb for The Perfect Coed:

Susan Hogan is smart, pretty—and prickly. There was no other word for it. She is prickly with Jake Phillips and her Aunt Jenny, the two people who love her most in the world. And she is prickly and impatient with some of her academic colleagues and the petty jealousies in the English department at Oak Grove University. When a coed’s body is found in her car and she is suspected of murder, Susan gets even more defensive.

But when someone begins to stalk and threaten her—trying to run her down, causing a moped wreck that breaks her ankle—prickly mixes with fear. Susan decides she has to find the killer to save her reputation—and her life. What she suspects she’s found on a quiet campus in Texas is so bizarre Jake doesn’t believe her. Until she’s almost killed.

The death of one coed unravels a tale of greed, lust, and obsession.

Announcing the Debut of River Spirits

River Spirits is #14 in the Deputy Tempe Crabtree mystery series.

Blurb:

While filming a movie on the Bear Creek Indian Reservation, the film crew trespasses on sacred ground, threats are made against the female stars, a missing woman is found by the Hairy Man, an actor is murdered and Deputy Tempe Crabtree has no idea who is guilty. Once again, the elusive and legendary Hairy Man plays an important role in this newest Deputy Tempe Crabtree mystery.

It doesn't matter how many books an author has written, it's always exciting when a new one arrives on the scene.

The book can be obtained from the usual places, and in every format directly from the publisher at http://mundania.com/

Bear Creek is very much like the town where I live with a few big exceptions. I moved Bear Creek 1000 feet higher into the mountains for better trees and the chance of more weather.(You can do those things when you're an author.) 

I've given all the places of business new names because sometimes the businesses don't last long in the real town--but I'd like to keep the ones I have in my fictional Bear Creek. Even our historical inn closed this year--but the one in my book is thriving.

October 13-17th, an earlier book in the series, Bears With Us, one of my favorites, will be offered for Kindle for .99 cents. Of course the idea is to have readers sample the series in hopes that they'll want to try others.

In November I'm having a blog tour and I'll be discussing all sorts of things from details about the characters in the series and some insights into my life as a mystery author.

Of course I'll also be doing several in-person events during October.

On the 11th, I'll be with my Rocky Bluff P.D. series publisher at Taste of the Arts in Visalia, CA--a street fair for artists, with a few authors in attendance.

On October 18th, I'll be at the Great Valley Book Fest in Manteca, CA from 10 to 4.

And on October 25th from 1-4 I'll be on a panel with Central Coast Sisers in Crime from 1- 4 at the Atascadero Library.

Can you tell I'm excited?

Marilyn

Fly Away Home

by Janis Patterson/Janis Susan May

Last weekend The Husband and I went to a reunion celebration for the Flying Tigers at one of our local air museums. Yes, those brave men who fought as American Volunteer Group with the Chinese against the invading Japanese. Believe it or not, a very few of them are still alive – elderly, walking with help or in wheelchairs, stooped and terrifyingly frail. To see these few age-withered old men it's hard to picture them as young, vibrant daredevils taking on an immense and pitiless Empire, fighting in a pretty much ignored theatre for a country not their own simply because it was the right thing to do.

Most of the celebrants were sons of these young gods, and they themselves were of an age more suited to retirement than war. One of the most fascinating speakers was a Chinese man whose father was a mechanic for the Tigers. He was born during the conflict, and therefore has no personal memory of it, but he was generous enough to share the memories that his father had given him – through an interpreter. He spoke only Chinese. Probably a third of the people there were Chinese, perhaps more properly said of Chinese origin. Some had lived in America for two generations, yet all were very vocal in their thanks of the Tigers' fight to save thousands of Chinese from certain death or slavery.

There were three of the original airplanes there, planes that actually fought the Japanese in the skies over China. Holding one man each, they were painted with fearsome expressions. Don't ask me what kind or model or whatever they were; my mind is not the sort that retains such technical data. I can speak to the gracile beauty of these winged warriors, their sturdy compactness, the aura of power and history that radiated from each.

You've all seen pictures of these planes. They're low-winged taildraggers, with a protuberant nose and, under that, a great air scoop that feeds the engine. Usually the side of these air scoops are painted with a stylized shark's mouth filled with no-nonsense teeth. Sometimes eyes are added above the nose.

Which made it all the more startling that as we arrived there were museum volunteers standing in front of each plane, dumping bags of ice down the air scoop. I thought that either they were making an offering (it was a hot day) to an implacable alien god or that they had found a really neat place to store their beer. The truth was a lot less creative; the planes run hot and especially in a hot Texas day tend to hold their heat. A volunteer explained that they had run the planes that morning and wanted to cool them down before the flight.

Yes, these aged exhibits actually fly. I saw them. Before the luncheon there was a fly-over, where all three planes flew in a precise triangular formation over the field. It was Texas, it was sunny – meaning it was hot! - and yet as they roared overhead I felt goosebumps. Yes, this was just a showcase, a tribute, a tip of the hat to things gone by, but my romantic mind went on to what it must have been like in those same planes back when they were flying off to fight merciless men without any guarantee that they would ever return. The thought of such valor and courage made me weep.

That is not the most poignant memory of that afternoon, though. I was sitting in the shade (a prized commodity at the airfield) sipping the last of my luncheon iced tea and waiting for The Husband to return from his photo expedition. Across from me on the tarmac were the planes, sitting and waiting as they have sat and waited for almost seventy years. One of the frail old men hobbled to the closest plane, accompanied by the man who had flown it in the flyover and a couple of the air museum volunteers. A rolling ladder was produced and, braced and lifted by many hands, the elderly man shakily climbed into the pilot's seat. He sat there for a few minutes and the volunteers waited patiently, letting him enjoy a moment of the past. You see, this frail old man had been one of the Flying Tigers pilots. He had ridden a plane like that one out to fight and perhaps be killed or worse. Now, like the two old veterans they were, as an old man he and the plane were rejoined.

At last he signaled his readiness to get out and the process was reversed, helping him from the plane (no simple operation) and steadying him until he was once again firm on the ground. Leaning firmly on someone's arm he walked away from the plane, pausing just at the edge of the tail to reach and give it a valedictory pat. I couldn't see for sure, but it seemed that as he walked away there was the glint of a tear in his eye. I know there was in mine.

UPDATE :

Believe it or not, my publishing blitz is still right on schedule. And that schedule is getting shorter – after this book there are only two more in this particular round. The Husband is insistent that once this is done I am to take some time away from the computer and – according to him – reacquaint myself with the kitchen. He does like frozen pizza and takeaway, but even the mildest mannered man has his limits!

This fortnight's offering is THE OTHER HALF OF YOUR HEART, a romantic adventure set in the jungles of Mexico – not far from Puerto Vallarta, where I lived for a while. None of the wild escapades that befall the heroine ever happened to me (drat!) but writing about a country I love was great fun.

A weekend in a Mexican resort with the man she loves quickly becomes a nightmare of fear and danger for Cara Walters. If she can just survive being lost in the jungle, captured by the army, hunted by drug lords and a man who wants to kill her, all the while being held prisoner by the man who has stalked her, she just might find out who is the other half of her heart.

And – for all you calorie lovers – my super-special dessert recipe called Chocolate Sin (try it and you'll know why it's named that!) was chosen for inclusion in the new book of desserts called BAKE LOVE WRITE, a wonderful compendium of calories and advice.