Galvez Hotel
Dead, but Not Forgotten:
Murder at the Galvez
When asked whether I use real people as inspiration for my stories, I tell folks that there are so many imaginary characters in my head vying for my attention that I don’t need inspiration from a real person. Except—there’s always an exception—right?
When I started writing MURDER AT THE GALVEZ, the third mystery in my Sydney Lockhart series set in Galveston, Texas, I used a real person in the first paragraph merely to jump-start the story.
My husband is from Galveston, and his grandfather, PoPo, who was the doorman at the Tremont Hotel, always had a pack of teaberry gum in his pocket. I’d never met him, but I couldn’t help but wonder what life as a doorman at a fancy hotel would be like. (Note: before I chose the Galvez Hotel for the book, I’d planned to set the mystery in the Tremont Hotel until I learned it was temporarily closed during the time the story takes place.) Thus, I gave PoPo the name James Robert Lockhart, made him the doorman at the Galvez Hotel, and Sydney’s grandfather.
As in all my Sydney Lockhart mysteries, Sydney checks into a hotel, someone is murdered, and she’s the primary suspect. I needed a reason for Sydney to be at the hotel, and what better reason than to visit her grandfather? But wait, he’d already passed away, so to bring him into the story, I have Sydney reminisce about the last time she saw him, when she was eleven.
When I was little, I used to run up the hotel’s front steps, and PoPo would say, “Let me get the door for you, ma’am.” He’d bow and open the door with a flourish. As I passed, he’d say, “Welcome to the Galvez, Miss Lockhart. Enjoy your stay.” I would lift my chin like a queen. Then I’d reach into his coat pocket and pull out a pack of Teaberry chewing gum.—Sydney Lockhart
Having Sydney reminisce wasn’t enough, so I had to develop this character and give him more purpose, which led to Sydney’s last visit with him being a traumatic experience.
In the 1940s and 1950s, Galveston was a rough-and-tumble gambling town that earned the title “Sin City of the Southwest.” A few powerful crime families operated illegal casinos, speakeasies, and backroom bookie joints that attracted tourists and celebrities. A hotel doorman would surely have inside information and connections to these establishments and operations. With this in mind, James Robert Lockhart began to develop.
Whenever my family came to the island for a visit, I’d make a beeline to the Galvez Hotel and stand next to Popo while he greeted guests. People who saw us together knew instantly that I was his granddaughter. We were cut from the same mold: tall, thin, and redheaded. I was proud of that fact, for James Robert Lockhart was the most handsome man I’d ever seen. When I found him crumpled on the floor in the hotel foyer, his body riddled with bullet holes, I knew my life would never be the same. Now, as I stepped into the lobby eighteen years later, the memory of that day hit me square in the gut.—Sydney Lockhart
Sydney had no intention of ever setting foot in the hotel again, but when she was assigned to write a news story about a planning conference at the Galvez involving a controversial development project on the island, she had to suck it up and go. As always, someone was murdered, but what if this murder was connected to the murder of James Robert Lockhart? Now I was building him a backstory in which Sydney suspected her grandfather wasn’t who he seemed. Soon she realized that clearing herself of murder charges meant delving deeper into her grandfather’s history.
One thing led to another, and Lockhart skeletons began jumping out of closets too close to home. So, was James Robert Lockhart a notorious con artist or someone who always did the right thing, regardless of the consequences? Either way, Sydney had to find out, and so did I.
Since then, Sydney has shared with me a few survival skills she learned from her grandfather: how to hotwire a car, pick a lock with a bobby pin, and win at five-card draw. Dead, but not forgotten, Popo’s influence and teaching made Sydney who she is.
PoPo had an unquenchable fascination with the wonders of life and had steered me toward more practical directions. He taught me to appreciate the creatures that washed ashore after high tide, the majesty of constellations as they traveled across the sky, and flocks of birds that descended on the beach after fleeing an offshore storm. He even took me on my first Christmas bird count.—Sydney Lockhart/MURDER AT THE MENGER
I’m sure the real PoPo was the benevolent grandfather my husband remembered, and if PoPo is reading this from upstairs, I hope he’s smiling down on me.
Look for my seventh Sydney Lockhart mystery, where PoPo’s lessons save Sydney’s tush once again. It’s scheduled for release in spring 2026. The hotel, and hence the title, remains a secret until pre-lease. Check out my other Sydney mysteries: https://kathleenkaska.com/
Reading: The Panacea for What Ails Me
/in Donnell Ann Bell, Author Life, Families, The Stiletto Gang, writing life/by Donnell Ann BellWhen my children were small, I’d plop one kid on my left side, the other on my right, and open a book. I’d read one page, hand it off to the one on the left and say, “Your turn.”
My daughter would read one page and hand it back to me. I’d read the following page, then hand it off to my son, and the ritual continued.
Over the 2025 Christmas holiday, I was reminded of this special time when I learned the tradition continued. My son and daughter-in-law take turns reading to their children every night before bed.
Reading is the gateway that makes all other learning possible.
Already at age nine, my granddaughter has read nine of J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter series. “Grammy,” she asked, “Do you want to hear me read?”
Nothing would please me more, so I answered, “Of course.”
Not to be outdone, her brother, age seven, cut in, “Grammy, do you want to hear me read?”
“Love to,” I responded immediately.
My grandchildren’s elementary school hosts reading challenges, and clearly the competition is working. When I learned my granddaughter was reading C.S. Lewis’s The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, I reread it so I could discuss it with her.
On this trip, I listened to her read chapters from The Curious Tale of the In Between by Lauren DeStefano, which I found to be an amazing middle grade book. While she stumbled over some of the bigger words, when that happened, we paused and discussed their meanings.
It was such an important, joyous time for me. I can’t think of a better bonding scenario.
Periodically, Stiletto Gang member and critique partner Lois Winston asks if I have time to read a few chapters or even the rest of an edited book before she publishes. In no way is reading her work a sacrifice. I love to spend time with her reluctant amateur sleuth and the rest of her zany New Jersey crew. 😊
I certainly can’t read while I’m driving, so I turn to audio books. During a recent trip to Colorado, I listened to John Grisham’s The Widow. Audio books make long car trips fly by!
Back to the recent 2025 holiday, not everything was perfect. Christmas afternoon, I came down with the flu, which sadly cut my family visit short. The bug lasted well into New Year’s, forcing me to reschedule my planned company for New Year’s.
Don’t feel too sorry for me, though. In between sleeping I spent the time reading. Whether I’m healthy, sick or simply in need of escape, I turn to reading. It’s the panacea for what ails me.
Glad to be back, Stiletto Gang. Wishing everyone a happy and productive 2026!! By the way, what are you reading?
Donnell Ann Bell is an award-winning author who began her nonfiction career in newspapers. After she turned to fiction, her romantic suspense novels became Amazon bestsellers, including The Past Came Hunting, Deadly Recall, Betrayed, and Buried Agendas. In 2019, Donnell released her first mainstream suspense, Black Pearl, A Cold Case Suspense, which was a 2020 Colorado Book Award finalist. In 2022, book two of the series was released. Until Dead, A Cold Case Suspense won Best Thriller in 2023 at the Imaginarium Conference in Louisville, Kentucky. Currently, she’s working on book three of the series. Readers can follow Donnell on her blog or sign up for her newsletter at www.donnellannbell.net.
Dead, but Not Forgotten
/in Author Life, author promotion, Cozy Mysteries, cozy mystery books, Detective, Historical Mystery, humor/by Kathleen KaskaGalvez Hotel
Dead, but Not Forgotten:
Murder at the Galvez
When asked whether I use real people as inspiration for my stories, I tell folks that there are so many imaginary characters in my head vying for my attention that I don’t need inspiration from a real person. Except—there’s always an exception—right?
When I started writing MURDER AT THE GALVEZ, the third mystery in my Sydney Lockhart series set in Galveston, Texas, I used a real person in the first paragraph merely to jump-start the story.
My husband is from Galveston, and his grandfather, PoPo, who was the doorman at the Tremont Hotel, always had a pack of teaberry gum in his pocket. I’d never met him, but I couldn’t help but wonder what life as a doorman at a fancy hotel would be like. (Note: before I chose the Galvez Hotel for the book, I’d planned to set the mystery in the Tremont Hotel until I learned it was temporarily closed during the time the story takes place.) Thus, I gave PoPo the name James Robert Lockhart, made him the doorman at the Galvez Hotel, and Sydney’s grandfather.
As in all my Sydney Lockhart mysteries, Sydney checks into a hotel, someone is murdered, and she’s the primary suspect. I needed a reason for Sydney to be at the hotel, and what better reason than to visit her grandfather? But wait, he’d already passed away, so to bring him into the story, I have Sydney reminisce about the last time she saw him, when she was eleven.
When I was little, I used to run up the hotel’s front steps, and PoPo would say, “Let me get the door for you, ma’am.” He’d bow and open the door with a flourish. As I passed, he’d say, “Welcome to the Galvez, Miss Lockhart. Enjoy your stay.” I would lift my chin like a queen. Then I’d reach into his coat pocket and pull out a pack of Teaberry chewing gum.—Sydney Lockhart
Having Sydney reminisce wasn’t enough, so I had to develop this character and give him more purpose, which led to Sydney’s last visit with him being a traumatic experience.
In the 1940s and 1950s, Galveston was a rough-and-tumble gambling town that earned the title “Sin City of the Southwest.” A few powerful crime families operated illegal casinos, speakeasies, and backroom bookie joints that attracted tourists and celebrities. A hotel doorman would surely have inside information and connections to these establishments and operations. With this in mind, James Robert Lockhart began to develop.
Whenever my family came to the island for a visit, I’d make a beeline to the Galvez Hotel and stand next to Popo while he greeted guests. People who saw us together knew instantly that I was his granddaughter. We were cut from the same mold: tall, thin, and redheaded. I was proud of that fact, for James Robert Lockhart was the most handsome man I’d ever seen. When I found him crumpled on the floor in the hotel foyer, his body riddled with bullet holes, I knew my life would never be the same. Now, as I stepped into the lobby eighteen years later, the memory of that day hit me square in the gut.—Sydney Lockhart
Sydney had no intention of ever setting foot in the hotel again, but when she was assigned to write a news story about a planning conference at the Galvez involving a controversial development project on the island, she had to suck it up and go. As always, someone was murdered, but what if this murder was connected to the murder of James Robert Lockhart? Now I was building him a backstory in which Sydney suspected her grandfather wasn’t who he seemed. Soon she realized that clearing herself of murder charges meant delving deeper into her grandfather’s history.
One thing led to another, and Lockhart skeletons began jumping out of closets too close to home. So, was James Robert Lockhart a notorious con artist or someone who always did the right thing, regardless of the consequences? Either way, Sydney had to find out, and so did I.
Since then, Sydney has shared with me a few survival skills she learned from her grandfather: how to hotwire a car, pick a lock with a bobby pin, and win at five-card draw. Dead, but not forgotten, Popo’s influence and teaching made Sydney who she is.
PoPo had an unquenchable fascination with the wonders of life and had steered me toward more practical directions. He taught me to appreciate the creatures that washed ashore after high tide, the majesty of constellations as they traveled across the sky, and flocks of birds that descended on the beach after fleeing an offshore storm. He even took me on my first Christmas bird count.—Sydney Lockhart/MURDER AT THE MENGER
I’m sure the real PoPo was the benevolent grandfather my husband remembered, and if PoPo is reading this from upstairs, I hope he’s smiling down on me.
Look for my seventh Sydney Lockhart mystery, where PoPo’s lessons save Sydney’s tush once again. It’s scheduled for release in spring 2026. The hotel, and hence the title, remains a secret until pre-lease. Check out my other Sydney mysteries: https://kathleenkaska.com/
Clicking Our Heels – Some of Our Favorite Things
/in Clicking Our Heels, Inspiration/by DebraSome of Our Favorite Things
Welcome to 2026. This year, the gang wants to give you more insight into all of us. That’s why our theme each month will address something personal or share some of our favorite things. This month, the topic is what would surprise you, our readers, most about each of us.
T.K. Thorne: I am a short, grey-headed, sweet old lady, and I get a chuckle out of the typical disbelieving reaction when people learn I was a police captain.
Saralyn Richard: I’m super organized when it comes to my house, my closet, and my former work as a school administrator and consultant, but my writing desk and first drafts are rather chaotic. I can’t explain this dichotomy, except that creative work may involve the opposite side of my brain.
Kathleen Kaska: I’m a Yankees fan.
Judy Penz Sheluk: Probably that I listen to talk radio while I write. And that I can’t write if there’s music on in the background because I find it too distracting.
Lois Winston: I hate peanut butter! Can’t even stand the smell of it. It triggers my gag reflexes. When my kids were little, I had to hold my breath while making them PB&J sandwiches.
Bethany Maines: I think that most readers would be surprised by how instantly anxious I get when someone says those fearsome words “I read your book.” Because I never know what is going to come next.
Gay Yellen: Readers seem to love the passages in my books involving food. But I do not cook. I just like to eat, and so does my protagonist!
Mary Lee Ashford: I’m not sure readers would be surprised by much of anything because I share a lot of things about my crazy life and my loves with them. I guess I don’t talk much about what I did before retirement because boring… So I guess readers might be surprised to know I spent 30 plus years as a public servant, at first in Customer Service aka complaint central, then as a Management Analyst/Congressional Liaison, and then a Business Analyst, and finally as the Deputy Director of Information Technology.
Donalee Moulton: That depends, to a certain extent, on what book they’ve just read. If it’s Hung Out to Die, my first mystery novel, readers will be surprised to learn I do not drink coffee (at least with caffeine) and I do not like donairs. (I hope they would not be surprised to learn I am not a psychopath.) Readers of Bind and Melt might come to believe I have a penchant for PowerPoint presentations. I do not.
Debra H. Goldstein: That I’m shy.
An Unexpected Gift
/in Author Life, Christmas/by Brooke TerpeningMy sister-in-law is a dynamo in a tiny package — an opera singer, actress, clown, energy healer, and animal lover. Lately, she’s been concerned that my elderly dog Teagan is overdoing therapy dog work.
True, together Teagan and I have done more than 200 visits to hospitals, courts, police departments, and even the King Soopers grocery store in the aftermath of the shooting. That’s a lot of draining emotional contact for both of us. If I thought Teagan didn’t enjoy the work, she’d retire, but she barks, dances in circles, and beats me to the car when I bring out the working vest she wears on visits (called a cape).
I expected the communicator to talk in generalities or say things my SIL may have told her about my dog. I was even more skeptical when I learned the session could be done remotely over the phone based only on Teagan’s picture.
I dove into the session with some questions I’d prepared.
What was Teagan’s favorite toy? A little brown stuffed animal she calls Baby.
Okay. Good guess. Teagan does have a little brown moose she loves, but that’s a pretty common type of dog toy.
Who’s Teagan’s favorite parent? Your husband.
What!? That’s a question I never should have asked (LOL). But I’m the one who gives Teagan pills, injections, trims her nails, and performs all sorts of other unpleasantries whereas my husband rolls around the floor wrestling with her. Again, a good guess.
I shared that Teagan is allergic to chicken.
What food should I feed her? Definitely no fowl.
Of course not. I didn’t need the communicator to tell me that. I checked my watch. How much longer was this session?
Then the communicator continued: Try other proteins like beef, pork, and . . . hmmm . . . this can’t be right . . . kangaroo? Where did that come from all of a sudden?
Interesting. We’d recently tried a novel protein Teagan loved, which was — you guessed it — canned kangaroo. No way my SIL could have known that tidbit.
Okay, now I decided to throw the communicator a question from left field.
Was Teagan reincarnated? Turns out, Teagan never was a wild animal, and most of her past lives were as a human. Most vividly, the communicator saw Teagan in a small 18th century village as a midwife or healer, wearing a cape.
Whoa. Stop right there. A healer? Wearing a cape? Therapy dogs were known healers, but no way anyone outside the hospital therapy dog world called the dog vests “capes.”
At that point, the communicator had my complete attention, so I asked about Teagan’s health. After a few minutes, the communicator told me: Watch her liver.
Her liver? Teagan’s last blood work had shown slightly elevated liver values. No one other than the vet and my husband knew that.
Anything else about her health? Her left hip.
That’s odd. Teagan’s right hind leg sometimes gave her trouble, not her left one. I made a note to ask the vet on her next exam.
And, at the exam, the week before Christmas, the vet found a cancerous mast cell tumor on Teagan’s left hip. Since we’d caught the tumor so early, it hadn’t metastasized and was small enough to be cleanly removed.
Thanks to my sister-in-law and an animal communicator for the best gift ever.
Now I’m an openminded person. Do I believe? Well, I certainly don’t disbelieve. How about you?
A Fatal Affair: The Murder of Helen Grier [Part I]
/in A Fatal Affair, Helen Grier, Judy Penz Sheluk, True Crime/by Judy Penz ShelukI say “more or less forgot about it” because every now and again I’d hunt through old newspaper archives to learn a bit more about Helen Grier. And with every thing I read, I knew one thing: Helen Grier’s story deserved to be told. And it deserved to be told as fact, not fiction. I just didn’t know how I was going to do it.
And then I met Amanda Capper, another Sault Ste. Marie author. Turned out she’d been wanting to write about Helen Grier for more than a decade. In fact, she even knew the current owner of the hunt camp where Helen Grier was murdered. We applied for Ontario Arts Council funding (to assist with research and other expenses) and were approved in October 2025. A Fatal Affair: The Murder of Helen Grier, will be published on October 28, 2026, the 89th anniversary of Helen’s death.
Here’s a brief recap:
Some believe Vernon Spencer got away with murder. Others believe Helen, with a history of depression, may have taken her own life. Still others think one of the “bachelors” (single men in the area, in search of logging work) may have been responsible.
Amanda’s opinion on whodunit and mine differ. But what we think doesn’t matter. Our job is to research historical archives, present the facts we discover without bias, and let the reader be the judge.
Follow A Fatal Affair: The Murder of Helen Grier on social media:
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The past Chair of Crime Writers of Canada, Judy Penz Sheluk is the bestselling author of seven mystery novels, five anthologies, and two award-winning books on publishing, including Finding YOUR Path to Publication and Self-publishing: The Ins & Outs of Going Indie. Find her at www.judypenzsheluk.com.
Wishing You a Wonderful 2026
/in Sparkle Abbey/by Mary Lee Ashford“Learn from yesterday, live for today, hope for tomorrow.” — Albert Einstein
As we welcome the arrival of 2026, we can’t help but reflect on the past year with all its ups and downs. And twists and turns. So we’d like to take a moment to say thank-you. To our readers, our supporters, friends and family, and fellow Stiletto Gang authors. It’s been a crazy year and we’re so thankful to have you on this journey with us.
We wish you all a magical new year with good health, new opportunities, and lots of love and laughter!
Happy New Year!
Mary Lee & Anita aka Sparkle Abbey
“And now we welcome the new year. Full of things that have never been.” — Rainer Maria Rilke
From the Gang!
/in Uncategorized/by TK ThorneIt’s Christmas Eve. Is Anybody Out There?
/in Christmas/by Lois WinstonSince my December Stiletto Gang post falls on Christmas Eve, I’m wondering if anyone will even read what I’ve written. For that reason, I’ll keep this post short for the few of you who might take a break between cooking and wrapping gifts to grab a cup of coffee or hot chocolate and scroll through your feeds for a few minutes. Or maybe you’re traveling and camped out in an airport awaiting a flight or connection.
Happy Hanukkah and Merry Christmas!
For those of you who recently celebrated Hanukkah, I hope you had a wonderful Festival of Lights. For those of you who celebrate Christmas, Merry Christmas!
This has been a difficult year for many. I hope, as the calendar turns the page onto a new year, we’ll all see peace, hope, and good health on the horizon.
Thank you for being readers of The Stiletto Gang and the books written by our authors. You are why we do this. See you in January!
Embroidered Lies and Alibis, the latest Anastasia Pollack Crafting Mystery, will release on February 10th and is currently available for preorder.
Embroidered Lies and Alibis
A Stitch in Time Could Save a Life…
When Anastasia’s mother Flora is offered a free spa vacation from Jeremy Dugan, a man connected to her distant past, Anastasia and husband Zack suspect ulterior motives. After all, too-good-to-be-true often spells trouble. Their suspicions are confirmed when the FBI swoops in to apprehend Dugan. However, Dugan isn’t who he claimed to be, and his arrest raises more questions than answers.
The Feds link Dugan to a string of cons targeting elderly single women across the country, but his seemingly airtight alibi leaves investigators stumped. Then, shortly after his release on bail, he’s kidnapped. A certain segment of New Jersey’s population is known for delivering deadly messages, and the FBI believes Dugan received one of them.
Meanwhile, bodies begin showing up in the newly created public garden across the street from Anastasia and Zack’s home. With two baffling crimes, no clear suspects, scant evidence, and every possible motive unraveling, both the FBI and local law enforcement are once again picking Anastasia’s brain. This time, though, her involvement is far from reluctant. Will she stitch together enough clues before she or someone she loves becomes the killer’s next victim?
Craft project included.
Buy Links
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What are you looking forward to in the coming year? Post a comment for a chance to win a promo code for a free audiobook download of any of the Anastasia Pollack Crafting Mysteries or the Empty Nest Mysteries.
~*~
A Lifetime of Resolutions
/in New Years Resolutions, Uncategorized/by DebraThe 2025 holidays are almost behind us. As part of celebrating the beginning of a new year, people tend to make resolutions. I stopped doing annual ones several years ago when I realized they were often short sighted. Instead, I’ve tried to live a life that exemplifies my resolutions.
Here’s a few:
My legal and writing career:
A combination of career and life in general:
The others still exist, but this is the most important one now:
What exemplifies you? Did you make any resolutions for 2026?
Happy Holidays!
Welcome to Suite and Savory. Can we help you?
/in Uncategorized/by donalee MoultonBy donalee Moulton
Lotus Detective Series #2
Lotus Detective Series #1
Shopping plays a big role in my new book, Melt. The second in the Lotus Detective Agency series, it follows three women who meet in a yoga studio and discover they have a penchant for solving crime. In the first book, Bind, a very expensive watch is stolen from the gym where the yoga studio is located. Not surprisingly the women get involved in solving the crime. Not surprisingly there is a lot of focus on the yoga studio and downward dogs.
Melt takes Charlene, Lexie, and Woo Woo outside their comfort zone, literally and figuratively. There is less action centered around the yoga studio and more around the women and their growing ability to solve crimes. One new location that plays a central role, and will likely make guest appearances in future books, is Suite and Savory, a fictional gift store in downtown Halifax.
The manager of the upscale store is Sofia Makri. She is the daughter-in-law of a key suspect in the book. She is also an acquaintance of Woo Woo and, therefore, offers the detecting triad a way in to the suspect’s world.
That was the reason Suite and Savory made its way onto the pages of Melt and into the world of my characters. As so often happens, the location became much more than a backdrop as originally anticipated. It became a meeting place, it became a place where friendships grew stronger and new ones blossomed; it became a place with a hint of romance.
It also became a place where characters searched for how to perfectly show their affection for one another. The story takes place around the holidays and the three women, the detective who has become part of their lives – and the crimes they solve – find themselves searching store shelves for the “perfect” gift.
Suite and Savory is a place to find the weird and wonderful. There are bright scarves and elegant notebooks and mandala bracelets and snuggly slippers. There are water bottles that clean themselves and slow sweaters. There are figurines, including three miniature pewter figures in yoga poses: lotus, shoulder stand, plow. There is choice, and the choice highlights the dilemma of the main characters as they strive to show what they mean to one another.
Suite and Savory also turned out, to my surprise, to be central to the plot. It’s where something that never should happen happens to one of the three main characters, and as a result, it is the launchpad for an intense and immediate interplay of scenes.
The gift store also plays one more key role in the story. It is the reason the world unravels for one of the characters, and how that character, in turn, unravels the world of those around them.
I had no idea as I started to plot out Melt that a retail outlet would take centerstage. It started out simply as “gift store.” Then the question became what kind of gift store. The answer: the kind that makes a difference to the story.
I also had no idea as I started to plot out Melt that a place that sells fusion side tables and $500 candles would come to mean so much. I hope it will mean as much to you.