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Clicking Our Heels – What is Your Favorite Game or Pastime?

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Clicking Our Heels Featured ImageClicking Our Heels – What is Your Favorite Game or Pastime?

Everyone needs a little fun, so we asked each member of The Stiletto Gang to tell us their favorite game or pastime:

Judy Penz Sheluk: Golf. This past summer, I belonged to four ladies leagues (two different courses). But the season here is short (May-Oct.) so in the winter my pastime is to catch up on my TBR pile! I also do some binge watching if a series grabs me. And I do enjoy watching baseball and hockey.
Lois Winston: Going to the theater.
Bethany Maines: I enjoy watercolor painting. This past summer I took a painting class in Greece and it was absolutely amazing. I’m hoping to work in more of that this year.
Debra H. Goldstein: Lately, mindless jigsaw puzzles on the computer and reading.
Mary Lee Ashford – My favorite pastime is absolutely spending time with my grandchildren and attending their activities. With six, that’s a lot so it can leave me some days not knowing whether I’m coming or going. Next in line would be reading. I love mysteries, suspense, and women’s fiction. And also, non-fiction such as biographies, cultural commentary, and business dynamics. I never feel like there’s enough time to read. I keep threatening to do a week-long retreat and just read… Who’s in?
Donalee Moulton: A friend and I play crib almost every day at lunch. I also play poker (a nickel an ante) with a group of friends every month. We’ve been doing this for more than 20 years. At present, I also seem to be hooked on some silly match three game on my phone that requires me to find and delete pesky images. I am not a fan of losing.
Donnell Ann Bell: I love cards. My husband and I play gin rummy, Spades and Golf (card game) in that order almost daily. When we have a foursome, we play bridge.
Gay Yellen: Almost every day, my husband makes a great chopped salad for us to share at lunch
while we play backgammon. It’s a great way to refresh from a morning at my computer
and share a bit of fun with him before we reconnect with whatever’s going on that day.
Kathleen Kaska: Baseball!
Saralyn Richard: Not surprisingly for a writer, I love puzzles—all kinds of puzzles, and especially word puzzles. My favorite game is Scrabble. One of my friends gifted me with a beautiful Scrabble game produced by the Franklin Mint.
T.K. Thorne: I play one game of Wordscape at night after I go to bed, followed by one game of sudoku and one of solitaire. Then my body/mind knows it is time to sleep. Kind of strange, actually, but it keeps my mind from wandering and worrying about stuff.

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Clicking Our Heels – Anything Personal Incorporated Into Your Writing?

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Clicking Our Heels Featured ImageClicking Our Heels – Anything Personal Incorporated Into Your Writing?

For fun, we asked each member of The Stiletto Gang if there was anything personal they do (sing, exercise, etc.) that they have incorporated into their writings?

Donnell Ann Bell: I play the piano by ear and incorporated it into Deadly Recall.
Donalee Moulton: I love to do yoga, and a yoga studio is the foundation for the friendship that springs up in Bind and deepens in Melt. My friends and family do not share my enthusiasm for a downward dog. I hope readers do.
Mary Lee Ashford: I wish I could sing, but sadly no. Also, I wish I loved exercise, but again no. However, in recent years, I’ve developed an interest in genealogy, though I’m careful to limit the time I spend on it. Talk about a rabbit hole. In several of the Sugar & Spice books, I have incorporated some of what I’ve learned. Mostly as it relates to Sugar and how little she knows about her father and her search for more information about that part of her family.
Gay Yellen: Eat yummy food!
Bethany Maines: As a long-time karate student and instructor I feel like I would be remiss if my self-defense techniques on the page weren’t possible. Not to say that I don’t ever have super hero moments, but the punches and kicks should definitely be plausible.
Lois Winston: I’ve imbued Anastasia Pollack, the reluctant amateur sleuth of my Anastasia Pollack Crafting Mysteries, with many of my favorite pastimes—like her love of musical theater, anything chocolate, and the NY Mets.
Debra H. Goldstein: I personally find the kitchen terrifying, so I decreed that Sarah Blair, the protagonist of Kensington’s Sarah Blair mysteries, would find the kitchen more frightening than murder. I do enjoy playing Mah Jongg, so I put that into Should Have Played Poker: a Carrie Martin and the Mah Jongg Players mystery.
Judy Penz Sheluk: Golf. The third book in my Glass Dolphin Series (A Hole in One) is about a murder on a golf course. The actual scene of the crime was inspired by the third hole of Silver Lakes Golf Course in Holland Landing, Ontario.
Kathleen Kaska: In my Sydney Lockhart series, Sydney enjoys birdwatching.
Saralyn Richard: I like to plan parties and entertain friends. (I even worked with a wedding consultant at one time.) The over-the-top birthday party in Murder in the One Percent was so much fun to write.
T.K. Thorne: Rose, my police officer witch is a martial arts practitioner in her trilogy, House of Rose, House of Stone, and House of Iron. It’s lots of fun to employ her skills!

 

 

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Clicking Our Heels – Caffeine or Not in the Morning?

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Clicking Our Heels Featured ImageClicking Our Heels – Caffeine or Not in the Morning?

Although there are many writers who, over the years, supposedly demonstrated an affinity for alcoholic beverages, the Stiletto Gang has a thing for coffee. Here’s what happens if each doesn’t get caffeine in the morning:

T.K. Thorne: I’m napping.
Saralyn Richard: I don’t drink coffee or tea, so the better question for me would be, “What are you like if you have caffeine in the morning?” I’d probably talk a mile and minute and zoom all over the house.
Kathleen Kaska: Tired and uninspired.
Judy Penz Sheluk: I do drink coffee in the morning, but it’s not a must-do. I can do herbal tea just as well. Has to be hot and in a mug. Other than that, I’m flexible.
Lois Winston: Not fit for polite society…or any other society!
Bethany Maines: I was poor in college and stopped drinking Diet Coke because I couldn’t afford my habit. And it wasn’t until after my daughter was born that I tried caffeine again. But my caffeine intake is about the amount of one cup of coffee (or less) and it’s not every morning. Which is not to say that you should approach me in the morning. I’m not a morning person and regardless of caffeine intake, and quite honestly, I’m grumpy as hell until about ten.
Gay Yellen: Unplugged.
Mary Lee Ashford: I’m not sure and I’m not sure we want to test that out. I’d have to go very far back to remember a morning without caffeine. Maybe it would have been prior to a medical test and we definitely don’t want to talk about that. The truth is, I very much enjoy my morning coffee routine – both the coffee and time to adjust to the day. My family claims I’m grumpy without my coffee, but I’m not. I just don’t yet have anything to talk about.
Donalee Moulton: My normal self. I don’t drink caffeine. Although I can slurp back numerous decaf mochas in any given week.
Donnell Ann Bell: Absent!
Debra H. Goldstein: Unhappy.

 

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Clicking Our Heels – Cheesecake, Ice Cream, Pizza, or Anything Chocolate?

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Clicking Our Heels – Cheesecake, Ice Cream, Pizza, or Anything Chocolate?

Kathleen Kaska – Cheesecake.

Judy Penz Sheluk – Check, check, check. But if I absolutely have to choose – cheese pizza, no other toppings.

Lois Winston – How about spinach/mushroom thin crust pizza with chocolate cheesecake a la mode for dessert? And don’t forget the whipped cream (on the dessert, not the pizza!)

Mary Lee Ashford – Anything chocolate definitely! Dark chocolate preferably, but pretty much any kind of chocolate works for me. And with strawberry, blueberry, or cherry flavors…perfect. Or wait, maybe with nuts. Okay, clearly anything chocolate.

Donalee Moulton – I’m not sure humans were meant to make decisions like this. If pushed to the edge of a cliff, however, I would pick … Chocolate.

Debra H. Goldstein – Dark Chocolate is my first food group, but cheese pizza and coffee ice cream aren’t far behind.

Gay Yellen – Pizza.

Donnell Ann Bell – I can resist cheesecake. I also worked at Baskin Robbins in high school, which curbed my cravings for ice cream. That leaves me with pizza and chocolate, two items at which I fail miserably 🙂

Bethany Maines – Ooh, that is a tough call. I would probably pick in the following order: chocolate, pizza, ice cream, and very far behind all of those is cheesecake which is one of my least favorite desserts.

Saralyn Richard – I’ve known and loved them all, but they are not currently my friends.

T.K. Thorne – I don’t know what inference anyone will draw from this, but I prefer pie to cake. That said, cheesecake is as close to cream pie as you can get and still call it “cake.”

 

Clicking Our Heels – Name a Characteristic You Admire in Your Antagonist

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Mary Lee Ashford – As I mostly write series mysteries, the antagonist often changes from book to book. However, in the book I’m working on I have to say the I admire the antagonist’s confidence. He simply assumes that everyone will go along with his plans as he is very sure he is right.

Gay Yellen – That’s a hard one. I mostly find them fairly loathsome. Perhaps, perversely, it’s the
ability to lie without compunction.

Bethany Maines – What I like about most of my antagonists is that they are often quite ruthless. Which I know doesn’t sound like a good quality, but ruthless means that someone commits to the most efficient way of reaching their goals. And I like efficiency.

Lois Winston –The most antagonistic person in my Anastasia Pollack Crafting Mysteries is Anastasia’s communist mother-in-law Lucille. There’s really nothing I admire about the woman (who is based on my own communist mother-in-law,) but I have to admit, I’ve never met a woman with more tenacity.

Debra H. Goldstein – What I admire about my antagonists is that they blend good and bad characteristics in the same way real people do.

Judy Penz Sheluk – Well, I’ve had a few of those throughout my books and short stories. I suppose the one thing I admire about all of them is their tenacity. That said, I don’t like any of them very much. Which is why they are antagonists!

Kathleen Kaska – Too bold for her own good.

Saralyn Richard – I believe a great antagonist is someone who is so charismatic that he/she can charm anyone into doing or believing in almost anything.

T.K. Thorne – Jason is a jaw-dropping hunk, single-minded and determined to have what he wants, no matter the cost, even to himself.

Donald Moulton – In Melt, the antagonist is excluded from the family. I admire their vulnerability, their need to be accepted. (And I admire that without a personal pronoun, so no spoilers.)

Donnell Ann Bell – I love to read about an antagonist that is not 100 percent evil. Even during recreations of Superman movies, screenwriters had to go back and explain Lex Luther’s goal, motivation and conflict.

 

 

 

 

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Clicking Our Heels – Have You Ever Killed a Real Person Off in Your Books?

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Clicking Our Heels Featured ImageClicking Our Heels – Have You Ever Killed a Real Person Off in Your Books? If So, How and Why?

Teresa Thorne – Not yet, but watch out!

Saralyn Richard – I haven’t exactly killed off a real person, but in A Murder of Principal a maverick principal comes to an urban high school with an unpopular student-centered agenda and is victimized. Because I worked as an administrator at urban high schools, and one, in particular, for many years, I knew people would try to match up the murder victim with one of the real-live people in the school. I went to him before I wrote the book and made sure he was okay with the book’s premise and whatever assumptions people might make about his being the model for the character. His reply was, “I would be honored to be represented in your book, even if you kill me off.”

Donalee Moulton – All the deaths in my books are fictional, both interestingly by hanging. In Hung Out to Die, the victim’s death was intended to look like a suicide. In Conflagration!, the enslaved Black woman accused of burning down the entire lower town of Montreal in 1734 was sentenced to death by hanging. She was then burned at the stake. Reality can be so much more brutal that fiction.

Kathleen Kaska – No.

Donnell Ann Bell – No. But I have had people contact me and request to be the murderer in my books. I use their name (with permission) and they for some reason are delighted! 🙂

Debra H. Goldstein – Yes, but I’ll never tell because I’d have to kill you, too.

Judy Penz Sheluk – Gosh, no, though I will say I’ve been sorely tempted. I have managed to exact revenge in a two of my short stories. ‘Live Free or Die’ (included in Live Free or Tri) and ‘The Last Chance Coalition’ (in Midnight Schemers & Daydream Believers) were both inspired by true events. It was very cathartic to get even all these many years later, if only on paper.

Lois Winston – Yes, but I held no animosity toward the person in real life and didn’t use his real name. He was a neighbor from about twenty-five years ago. I write humorous mysteries and couldn’t pass up the chance to immortalize his quirkiness in Seams Like the Perfect Crime, the 14th book in my Anastasia Pollack Crafting Mysteries. When I began the book, I didn’t intend to kill him, but as I wrote, it became evident that he’d be the perfect victim for the book.

Bethany Maines – I don’t think I’ve actually killed anyone off, but I have made several real people be the butt of a joke or made them look stupid. One was an English teacher who said I wasn’t very creative.
/Gay Yellen – All victims from my mystery series are fictional, though some have characteristics of people I’ve known: a young woman from a small town who couldn’t cope with a highstakes
job in the big city, an egotistic journalist, and a male chauvinist.
Mary Lee Ashford – I have not killed a real person off. I’ve considered auctioning off an opportunity to be a victim but in the end decided against it. Though when I first started writing mystery, I was working on a project where the first line was, “It was a regular day at City Hall, except for the dead body in the lobby.” And I have to say the victim varied depending on who was behaving badly that day. Of course, none of that made it into the actual book. And my lips are sealed.

 

 

 

 

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Clicking Our Heels – Favorite Musical Instruments – One We Dream of or One We Actually Play

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Clicking Our Heels Featured ImageClicking Our Heels – Favorite Musical Instruments – One We Dream of or One We Actually Play

donalee Moulton – If I could play a musical instrument, and sadly I don’t, I’d like to think it would be something offbeat and out there, like the glass armonica invented by Benjamin Franklin. Most likely, when forced to make a decision, I would opt for something more practical and familiar, like the piano. But I would rest a wine glass in the corner to remind me of what could have been.

Mary Lee Ashford – I play piano – not well but I play – but only with sheet music in front of me. I very much wish I could play by ear. I envy those who can hear a song and pick it out on an instrument after hearing it. My husband can do that. And his late sister, Joy, was a master at it. What a gift!

Gay Yellen – I would have kept up my piano lessons.

Bethany Maines – I think if I was forced to pick, I’d like the cello. I love the deep, resonant sound it produces. That being said, learning any instrument just looks hard. My daughter took up clarinet last year, and I was impressed that her instructor got any noise out of them, let alone an entire classful of kids to make a recognizable song. I think music is one of the miracles of human existence.

Lois Winston – Piano, but I wound up taking violin lessons because a relative had a violin that wasn’t being used, and my parents wouldn’t buy a piano. After my husband and I bought our first house, we purchased a used upright for $75, and I began taking lessons. Then I became pregnant, and it was just too tiring to work all day and come home to practice in the evening

Debra H. Goldstein – I’ve always thought the harp has a romantic look to it, but being practical, I play piano.

Judy Penz Sheluk – I wish. In grade 9 we had to pick an instrument. By the time I sauntered in, the only one left was the viola. Let’s just say “resin your bow” became my teacher’s desperate plea. I’m sure he was grateful I dropped the class in grade 10. But since then I’ve seen fabulous violin/viola players in rock bands and folk groups. Maybe if I’d stuck with it…but then I remember that I always forgot to resin my bow.

Kathleen Kaska – I’ve always wanted to learn how to play the piano.

Saralyn Richard – I’ve played the piano since I was five years old, but not consistently, and not very well. I don’t have my piano anymore, but keep thinking that one day I will get another one and resume lessons.

T.K. Thorne – I play the piano, and I wish I could play it.

 

 

 

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Clicking Our Heels – Some of Our Favorite Things

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Clicking Our Heels

Some 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.

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Clicking Our Heels – Jobs Each of Us Would Never Want

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Clicking Our Heels Featured ImageClicking Our Heels – The Job Each of Us Would Never Want

In addition to being authors, many of the Stiletto Gang members have or still are working other day jobs. Some of the jobs include government worker, judge, graphic designer, police officer, newspaper reporter, and realtor. Because most of us thrived with our chosen duo career paths, we thought an interesting Clicking Our Heels would be what job or profession each of us would never want.

Donalee Moulton – Cod dewormer. Really, really don’t want to do this.

Gay Yellen – Garbageman. Imagine smelling the stink of it all day, every day, for years and years.

Judy Penz Sheluk – Flight attendant. I absolutely hate airports and flying, not to mention that I’m a complete homebody. Plus, I’d have to put up with all sorts of rude or entitled behavior, and smile while doing it. Not sure I’d be equal to that task.

Anita Carter – Anything medical. I don’t have the stomach for it.

Debra H. Goldstein – Being only a retiree. I’d go crazy.

Mary Lee Ashford – I know some people say they would never want to waitress. Or work in retail. Or man a front desk. I’ve done all those and found them both challenging and entertaining. They are fabulous jobs for observing people. There are a couple of professions that I would not want to take on, though: Stockbroker – too stressful. Factory worker – too monotonous. And I think I’d be horrible at both.

Paula Benson – I admire greatly the women who were the “human computers” in Hidden Figures, but I could not imagine undertaking their responsibilities.

Bethany Maines – Anything in corporate middle management. The cubicle is not my friend.

Donnell Ann Bell – I don’t think I would want the job of a police officer. They require nerves of steel, a heart of gold, patience of a saint, and courage when they’re most afraid.

Saralyn Richard – When I taught public speaking to high schoolers, I challenged them to come up with an occupation that doesn’t require good speaking skills. To my surprise, one student said, “I know one! A fisherman.” I had to smile. Although I pointed out that the fisherman must use speaking skills to sell his fish, the student had a point. So, I wouldn’t want to be a fisherman. Hours of silence would not be healthy for a person with many stories to tell. Also, I wouldn’t want to bait my own hooks.

T.K. Thorne – A cashier has always seemed an awful way to make a living, but my cousin has done it for many years and enjoys the interactions with people, so maybe it is not as bad as some jobs where you are isolated from that altogether. Our world has changed with the ability to work remotely, but I think that may take a toll on us eventually. Like everything else, it has positive and negative consequences.

Lois Winston – I would never want to be a politician because no matter what you do or don’t do, you always have too many people angry with you.

 

 

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Clicking Our Heels – Our Thoughts on the Most Beautiful Thing in Nature

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Clicking Our Heels Featured ImageClicking Our Heels – Our Thoughts on the Most Beautiful Thing in Nature

Some of us are city folks, some love the outdoors and nature. Today, the gang members share our thoughts on what we each believe to be the most beautiful thing in nature.

Donnell Ann Bell – Banff Canada and the amazing waterfalls and hiking trails. Zion National Park in Utah for its colorful rock formations. The Atlantic and Pacific Ocean. The wildlife in my former neighborhood, everything from deer, bobcats, bears, turkey, geese, oh my!

Bethany Maines – Probably Bryce Canyon. It’s unforgettable, unique and different in every light. Go visit.

Gay Yellen – Almost any National Park will do, but back when there were actual glaciers in Glacier National Park, every sight was breathtaking.

Mary Lee Ashford – There are so many beautiful places and gorgeous spaces around us. I’m a beach person and the first thing that came to mind with this question was a particular sunset in Hawaii. The colors were mind-blowing, the sea air was so soft, and the sound of the waves so calming that it was like time stood still for a breath.

T.K. Thorne – I have written about beauty and how it is entirely a construct of our minds. It does not exist outside of our interpretation of the world. LOL, that is a “TK answer,” isn’t it? Most beautiful things I have seen: a baby’s first smile; missing my father and stumbling upon a field of sunlit blue wildflowers; the majesty of the Grand Canyon and New Zealand’s Milford Sound; and the ever-changing diversity of my little garden pond.

Lois Winston – A star-filled sky. Because of ambient light, it’s been decades since I’ve seen one.

Saralyn Richard – The calving of the Hubbard Glacier in Alaska. It was an extraordinarily hot day, and the pieces of ice literally exploded from the glacier, forming smoke, shapes, and splashes.

Paula G. Benson – A clear, blue, sunny sky—what my Grandfather called, “October’s bright blue weather, after Helen Hunt Jackson’s poem.

Judy Penz Sheluk – Watching the sun set while sitting on our waterfront deck on Lake Superior, especially in summer. It’s a new view every night, and it’s almost always spectacular.

Anita Carter – The Redwoods. It’s vibrant, lush, and surprisingly quiet. So quiet you can hear nature grow. Absolutely amazing.

Donalee Moulton – Sable Island, Nova Scotia, a thin crescent of shifting sand at the edge of the Continental Shelf that wild horses, grey seals, and one-of-a-kind plants, birds, and insects call home. There are also more than 350 shipwrecks surrounding this Graveyard of the Atlantic.

Debra H. Goldstein – Niagara Falls.

 

 

 

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