“Just One More Thing”

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When you hear the phrase “just one more thing,” what comes to mind? If you were around in the 1970s, you probably remember Columbo, starring Peter Falk as Lieutenant Columbo of the Los Angeles Police Department. The series won 22 awards and received 68 nominations, with Falk earning four Primetime Emmy Awards. It aired on NBC from 1971 to 1978 and has since been rebroadcast on numerous networks.

What I liked most about the show was its structure: viewers knew the killer from the start and then watched Columbo patiently unravel the crime. Each episode featured a guest star as the murderer—Martin Landau, Janet Leigh, Ruth Gordon, Vincent Price, Roddy McDowall, Leonard Nimoy, even Johnny Cash, to name a few.

I recently rediscovered the series after making a practical—if slightly risky—decision: changing hairdressers after fifteen years. When I learned my husband’s barber had begun cutting women’s hair for less than half what I’d been paying, I decided to give her a try. I only needed a trim—no shampoo, no styling. The first visit took less than ten minutes, and I was pleased with the result.

On my most recent visit, I didn’t have an appointment. Four people were ahead of me, and I thought about leaving—until I noticed the television was tuned to Columbo. I stayed. The episode featured Ricardo Montalban as a matador in “A Matter of Honor.”

When Columbo arrives on a scene—hair rumpled, trench coat wrinkled, cigar in hand—he’s easy to underestimate. His suspects dismiss him as absentminded, even inept. But his polite, seemingly scattered questions are deliberate. Columbo is a meticulous strategist, noting every clue and quietly assembling the truth. He wears his suspects down with persistence, circling back again and again until—almost as an afterthought—he says, “Just one more thing.”

Alfred Hitchcock also used this technique in his movies Rope, Dial M for Murder, A Shadow of a Doubt, and Frenzy. His forte was suspense rather than surprise. The audience knows what happened as they watch the story unfold. Suspense builds tension, keeping the audience on the edge of their seats as they participate in solving the crime.

Back to my barber. I waited nearly an hour that day and didn’t mind at all. I was hooked as soon as Columbo began his investigation. I knew he’d solve the mystery, and I couldn’t wait to find out how he did it. Next time I need a trim, I may skip the appointment altogether. I’ll take a seat, request Columbo on TV, and bring my writing journal. I’ll study the master detective at work and take notes for the next mystery.

Have you ever written a reverse whodunnit?

donalee Moulton

Cardinal takes flight

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by donalee Moulton

February brought with it a dozen red roses from my husband, some of which are wide open and aromatic even today. I split the dozen flowers into two vases. Beside each vase sits Cardinal. A book, not a bird.

Cardinal took flight, in paper and digital formats, in February. The book is part of the Paranormal Canadiana Collection from BWL Publishing. There is a paranormal mystery for each province and territory in Canada. When my publisher approached me about writing the story for Nova Scotia, I didn’t hesitate to say yes. Then I turned to my friend Lynn, and said, “What does paranormal mean?”

I envisioned aliens, not my most-favorite image. I learned, however, the term refers broadly to anything unusual or unnatural that we can’t scientifically explain. That meant aliens could take a back seat to ghosts. So, I went ghost hunting.

Like most places, Nova Scotia is full of lure and lore about those who have failed to cross over or who have made a return appearance. One of the former is Catherine McIntosh, a little girl who died in rural Nova Scotia before the nineteenth century turned into the twentieth and one month before her ninth birthday.

There does not appear to be anything sinister or suspicious about Catherine’s death. It’s what happened after that has made the little girl part of the fabric of the otherworldly in my province. Catherine decided to stay.

Today people travel the backroads of Pictou County and wind their way along a narrow dirt road to visit her grave and bring her gifts. She likes it when you bring her presents, and this may earn you a giggle or a muddy handprint on your car. Don’t take one away though. Catherine is usually friendly and warm, but she is still a little girl.

Now she is the cornerstone of Cardinal. In these pages, private detective Em Montgomery is hunting for a missing woman. She expects dead ends. She does not expect a dead girl who refuses to stay buried. Em finds herself knee-deep in fog, small-town secrets, and the uneasy sense she’s being watched by more than wildlife.

Oh yes, there is also blueberry grunt. You know why they call it grunt, right?


Book Clubs, By Saralyn Richard

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I’ve been thinking a lot about book clubs, and I’ve known a lot of them over the years. Big ones, small ones, literary ones, social ones, online ones, in-person ones. I’ve belonged to a few, myself, but in recent years I’ve attended mostly book clubs where my books were being discussed.

And even those have been varied. Some are book review clubs, where the audience has not yet read the book, but would like to hear about it in anticipation of reading. One of these has been in existence for over 75 years and is still going strong.

Some are into dressing up like the characters in the book and decorating the room with artifacts from the book.

 

Some are serious readers and love discussing the book using Socratic questions.

 

More than a few serve meals and like to model the menu after the foods mentioned in the book.

Many of them are in farflung places and meet online, or they meet in person, but stream me into the fun. These are no less exciting and fun.

I feel so fortunate when I’m invited to lead or participate in a book club meeting. It’s an honor to be able to discuss my book with readers in an intimate setting, where all questions and answers are enlightening and welcome. Getting to know my readers makes the writing of the next book more exciting, as well. Since I have a sharper image of who is reading, what they like, and how they think, I can communicate better with them.

All in all, I think book clubs are the best “invention” since—well, you know, books, themselves. How about you? What is your book club experience like?

 

Saralyn Richard is a multiple award-winning author of seven mystery novels, a children’s book, and numerous short stories, poems, and essays published in anthologies and magazines. Her works include the Detective Parrott Mystery Series, the Quinn McFarland Mystery Series, A Murder of Principal, and Naughty Nana. Saralyn is an active member of Mystery Writers of America and International Thriller Writers, and she has taught literature and creative writing to high school students and adults through the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute. Saralyn and her husband live in Texas in the house she grew up in.

book cover for Risky Biscuits

Judging a Book by Its Title

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book cover for Risky Biscuits

We often get asked about our book titles and we do have some fun with them. The Sparkle Abbey books sport titles such as “The Girl with the Dachshund Tattoo” and “Fifty Shades of Greyhound” and the Mary Lee Ashford books, “Game of Scones” and “Risky Biscuits.” As with most traditionally published authors, we had no guarantee that the publisher would keep the titles we’d created but in almost all cases they did.

Still, in this new world of hybrid publishing and ever more complicated methods of discoverability, we got to wondering about how much impact a title has for readers in finding the books they like to read.

Over time there have been different trends such as the X Y format – two word titles – “Demon Copperhead,” “The Maid” or “Gone Girl.” And then there’s the really long book titles. For example: “The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time” or a children’s favorite of ours, “Alexander’s Terrible Horrible No Good Very Bad Day.” Or the lovely, “Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe.” There also seem to be some new trends with cross-genre type titles and a surge of retro-sounding titles. Though some of these are specific to particular type of books or sub-genres, most seem to cross the lines.

And as with all things in the publishing world, title trends are ever changing. So we’d love to hear your thoughts.

 

Do particular types of titles appeal to you? And how much impact does the title of a book have on whether you would buy it or maybe at least stop to take another look? 

sparkle and abbey

Sparkle Abbey is actually two people, Mary Lee Ashford and Anita Carter, who write the national best-selling Pampered Pets cozy mystery series.

They are friends as well as neighbors so they often get together and plot ways to commit murder. (But don’t tell the other neighbors.)

They love to hear from readers and can be found on social media or contacted via their websites:

Sparkle Abbey: Facebook  Website

Mary Lee Ashford: Facebook  Instagram  Website

Before the Internet Search by Saralyn Richard

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When I was a junior in college, as an English major, I was required to take a course in John Milton. Taught by a professor who had made Milton  his life’s work and who strove to model himself after the legendary poet, the course had the reputation for being the hardest one on campus. I believed it at the end of the first session of class, when Professor Boyette gave us more than fifty topics to research at the library for homework.

The topics were as pedestrian as the Elizabethan world order, the cycle of sin and redemption, Christian  allegory, Dante’s circles of hell, and many others I can’t recall. If the assignment were made today, the homework could be done in an hour or so, courtesy of the Internet, but then we had to trek to the library and find reference books, drag them to the carrels, read about the topic, take notes….you may remember those days, not so fondly.

Image by alison updyke at Pixabay

            The research paid off, back then, and the Milton course became my most intellectually challenging and charming—a favorite. In fact, I chose to write and defend an honors thesis on Milton as a capstone course my senior year.

Not surprisingly, then, when I had an opportunity to visit England the summer after graduation, I became fixated on finding things that related to Milton. I saw his bust, but no grave, at Poet’s Corner in Westminster Abbey. I saw his famous mulberry tree on campus at Cambridge University. I asked around and nobody seemed to know where Milton was buried.

That shocked me. One of the most famous Renaissance poets in the world, and I couldn’t find out where he’d been interred. The British are essentially friendly to tourists, and almost everyone I asked had a theory. And every theory sent me on a wild goose chase all over London.

In the end, I had to leave England before finding out the truth. A few years later, my in-laws went to England. They asked me what I would like them to bring back for me, and I replied, “The location of John Milton’s grave.”

Sure enough, when they returned, they had brochures and pictures of themselves next to Milton’s grave, which is in the churchyard of St. Giles without the Cripplegate, Milton’s father had been the pastor of that church. Thus, a three-year treasure hunt came to a successful end, and I had my destination. (I was able to visit, myself, a few years after that.)

Image by Pexels from Pixabay

            Today, just for kicks, I consulted findagrave.com and asked for John Milton’s gravesite. This is what it gave me in a matter of seconds:

John Milton Famous memorial

Birth

9 Dec 1608

Bread Street, City of London, Greater London, England

Death

8 Nov 1674 (aged 65)

London, City of London, Greater London, England

Burial

St. Giles Cripplegate Churchyard

London, City of London, Greater London, EnglandShow MapGPS-Latitude: 51.5187642, Longitude: -0.0938894

            Oh, the power of the Internet, and how it’s changed our lives! One last example—I’m writing the historical mystery I started researching at the library when I was fifteen years old. The aftermath of the Great Storm of 1900 is a big part of the setting, and I had extensive notes taken from primary sources over a ten-year period. For various reasons, I was unable to complete that novel until now, and ta-da! The Internet is such a boon to the story-telling. For example, I can find out how many kopecks to a ruble or what a person could buy with five dollars in 1903 in a New York Galveston minute!

The experience makes me wonder—all the time—what we would do if we lost the Internet, the ability to ask Siri or Alexa, or even the ability to photograph objects for later use.

How about you? Do you have a favorite pre-Internet search to share? I’d love to hear about it.

 

 

Saralyn Richard is the author of The Detective Parrott mystery series, The Quinn McFarland mystery series, A Murder of Principal, and the children’s book, Naughty Nana. Subscribe to her monthly newsletter for contests, prizes, surveys, and other fun content at https://saralynrichard.com.

Blessing or a Heart’s Curse?

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I was elected…

To the Board of the Northwest Chapter of the Mystery Writers of America!  As a cross-genre writer who bounces between mystery and romance, I’m subject to imposter syndrome in every genre I touch.  Is this enough of a mystery?  Is this romance-y enough?  Someone give me a kiss-o-meter!  So when a friend reached out and suggested I run for the Board I thought… eeee, I don’t know.  What if someone finds out that all my mysteries have kissing in them?  Then I realized that was probably the silliest thing I’d thought lately and I said we could maybe think about it.

And now I’m Treasurer.

Where’s that facepalm emoji when I need it?  Although, to be honest, this is also how I ended up as the Treasurer of my local business district a few years ago. And that turned out fine. (We held a wine walk and a farmer’s market!) So I suppose we shall see if I can figure out how to make the MWA hold a wine walk.  What’s the author equivalent of a wine walk?  Now I need the heavy thinking emoji.

Crime’s of the Heart

But as I ponder if I’m mystery enough for the mystery crowd, or romance enough for the romance crew, I realize that I couldn’t have written my most recent book without my mystery and crime fiction background. The idea was simple enough—I hate The Shining.  (Confession: I’ve never read the book.)  The movie bugs me.  It’s stylish, terrifying, and (for me) the characters behave in completely unbelievable ways.  Every time I’ve seen it, I think… why would the caretaker leave?  Why would she not leave her husband prior to going to a snowed-in hotel?  Why has no one ever noticed the creepy ass shit before this? What kind of hotel owner would let a hotel be empty for six months of the year? And then I had the action movie thought, that this could be solved a lot of ways that weren’t… any of this.  It’s like how most action movies could really be avoided if someone just shot the bad guy the moment he started pontificating.  Which led me to think that this kind of nonsense wouldn’t fly in Vegas. Cursed hotel?  Oh, hell no.  The mob is not standing for that—they would be getting in a priest the first time some evil twin ghosts interfered with a slot machine.  Crime families cannot be having blood dripping from the walls.  That would cut down on the profits.  And then I said, “Ooooooh. I might need to do something with that.”  And since I’m an adult and I can give in to all of my intrusive thoughts if I want… I did just that.

Heart's Curse

Heart’s Curse

Writing under the pen name Sirena Corebeau for Varus Publishing, Heart’s Curse is about Lucas Kane, a hotel boss who’s on his way up the ladder and his first shot at the big time in Vegas is The Lucky Heart Hotel & Casino.  There’s just one tiny problem… it’s cursed.  Charlotte “Charlie” Auvray has always been told she’s nothing special—just the magicless daughter of a powerful witch family. But when a disastrous spring break lands her in Las Vegas, she stumbles into the path of Lucas Kane, a dangerously magnetic casino boss with secrets of his own. Lucas is juggling mob ties, a cursed hotel, and powers he can never reveal. What he doesn’t need is a heartbroken college girl counting cards at his tables… or kissing him in front of her cheating ex. But when blood rains from the showers and guests descend into madness, Charlie proves she sees what no one else can—the curse that haunts the Lucky Heart’s Casino. To break it, she’ll have to embrace her hidden magic and trust Lucas with her heart. Because in Vegas, the stakes aren’t just money—they’re life, love, and destiny.

ORDER NOW: https://amzn.to/49fdeli

Heart’s Curse releases March 3, 2026!  Whether or not my reign of terror at the MWA treasury position goes as well as the romance for Lucas and Charlie remains to be seen.

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Bethany Maines drinks from an arsenic mugBethany Maines is the award-winning author of action-adventure and fantasy tales that focus on women who know when to apply lipstick and when to apply a foot to someone’s hind end. She participates in many activities, including swearing, karate, art, and yelling at the news. She can usually be found chasing after her daughter or glued to the computer working on her next novel (or screenplay). You can also catch up with her on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and BookBub.  She has also writes under the pen name Sirena Corbeau for spicier paranormal romance novels. Learn more at: bethanymaines.com or sirenacorbeau.com 

See more books from the Stiletto Gang: BOOKS

 

typed pages and a red rose

This One Goes Out to the One I Love

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by Sparkle Abbey

pages and a red roseBecause February is the month of love, we thought this was the perfect time to tackle the debate among mystery readers, as well as mystery authors, as to whether romance belongs in crime fiction. Or not.

In this age of genre-bending, there seems to be two camps: those who are all in on blending the two, and others who’d prefer a clear line between the two genres.

Arguments for inclusion of romance include making protagonists more relatable and adding tension to the story with personal stakes alongside the mystery-solving. Also, romance can act as a counterpoint to the dark nature of crime fiction.

On the other side of the coin, critics argue that romance can feel like unnecessary filler or even serve as a distraction from the main plot.

Both sides agree that the love interest in a story should not conveniently act as a constant rescuer to the protagonist. We like our main characters strong and competent, thank you very much. Or at least most of the time.

Because we write what are considered cozy mysteries, our viewpoint skews a bit more light-handed and lighthearted, both on the murders and the romance. And frankly, it never occurred to us not to have a sprinkle of love in the storyline. Though not as dark and gritty as real life can often be, our storylines do deal with realistic issues of murder and mayhem. But ultimately, our stories are about people. We hope to write characters that are relatable for our readers, and to do that, our story people need to have the full range of human emotions. So they need to feel anger, disappointment, disgust, anxiety, happiness…and love.

Neon Sign with the word "love"

In life and in fiction there are different types of love. Sometimes the love is romantic. Other times it’s the love of a best friend or a cherished pet. Sometimes it’s giving and unselfish, and other times it stirs jealousy. Sometimes love creates more problems, and other times love solves them. It may be a matter of taste, but to our way of thinking, without it the story would be flat and the characters one-dimensional. So as we’re continuing previous mysteries and working on new ones, we’re probably always going to have a dash of love in the story.

What are your thoughts?

Do you prefer straight crime fiction without the love factor? Or do you like a bit of romance with your murder?

And what do you think is the proper mix?

Mary Lee and Anita

Sparkle Abbey is actually two people, Mary Lee Ashford and Anita Carter, who co-write the national best-selling Pampered Pets cozy mystery series. They are friends as well as neighbors so they often get together and plot ways to commit murder. (But don’t tell the other neighbors.)

They love to hear from readers and can be contacted via their website –  SparkleAbbey.com  Also, if you want to make sure you get all the latest news, sign up for their newsletter on the website.

Full Circle Moments

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By Saralyn Richard

Once in a while in the writers’ journey, serendipitous moments occur, and they seem magical. I’ve had three such moments recently and will share them with you.

First of all, I’m writing an historical mystery that takes place in my hometown, Galveston, Texas, after the 1900 Storm, which is still the deadliest natural disaster in the history of America. In the information-gathering stage, I invited newsletter subscribers to send me names and/or stories of relatives from that place and time.

While I waited for responses, I worked on making burial arrangements for my cousin, Jill Jacobson, a Hollywood actress who grew up in nearby Beaumont, Texas. The plan was to bring Jill’s remains to Beaumont for burial in the family plot.

One of my newsletter subscribers sent me an email saying that I would be hearing from her friend, Betty, who had some 1900 Storm stories. Betty and I ended up chatting on the phone for more than an hour about her family’s experiences in the storm. During the conversation, Betty mentioned growing up in Beaumont, so I asked her if she knew my cousin Jill, and I told her what I was setting up with the cemetery.

To my surprise, and Betty’s, we realized that Jill is Betty’s cousin, too, on the opposite side of the family. So Betty is going to come to the memorial service, which she wouldn’t have known about if not for my work-in-progress.

The second full circle moment occurred last week at Then and Now Bookshop during ArtWalk. I was selling books at a table in the bookstore, when a mother and her nineteen-year-old daughter came over to look at my books.

The cover of Naughty Nana, the children’s book narrated by the real Old English sheepdog puppy, Nana, caught their eyes. “Oh, we remember Nana! We’re big Nana fans!” the mother said. “We were at the library when you brought Nana there to do a reading a long time ago, and we’ve followed Nana ever since.”

They were sad, but not surprised, that Nana crossed the Rainbow Bridge two years ago, but we reminisced about Nana’s many appearances in parades, on tv, at schools, etc. They purchased some of my other books, signed up for my newsletter, and left. The next day, I sent the mother an email with pictures from that long-ago library event they attended. Something made me include a drawing that one of the children did for Nana that day.

The next day I received a return email. The daughter was indeed one of the children in the picture, and she was the one who drew that treasured note to Nana. Thirteen years later, I still have the original!

The third full circle moment happened that same day at the same bookshop. One of the customers came up to my table asking if I was a local author, and if I was “BOI” (born on island). Being a BOI locks you into an immediate fraternity of special people. In fact, there are pregnant women who insist on delivering their babies in Galveston, so the babies can attain that status.

Turned out that customer was also a BOI, and she mentioned her connection to Dominican High School, a Catholic girls’ school here. I said, “I’m sure you knew my dear friend, Father Frank Fabj.”

That opened up a squealing that galvanized the entire bookshop. Yes, she knew Father Frank well. He was important to her and her family through several life cycle events. She was astounded to see that I dedicated A Palette for Love and Murder to him. She clutched the book to her chest, the same way I do sometimes when I think of and miss Frank’s presence.

The two of us, complete strangers moments before, bonded over the dedication in a book, and we ended up shedding tears and hugging together.

Recently, an interviewer asked me what surprised me most about becoming a writer, and I answered something about the network of readers and fellow authors I’ve met and the friendships I’ve made. The books that I’ve published are only the vehicles. The transmission of thoughts and feelings and ideas that comes from being a writer and a reader is what really counts—that is the basis for these magical, delightful, and, yes, thrilling connections with others.

I’d love to hear about one of your full circle moments.

 

Saralyn Richard writes award-winning mysteries, including the Detective Parrott mystery series, Bad Blood Sisters, Mrs. Oliver’s Twist, A Murder of Principal, and Naughty Nana, a children’s book. An active member of International Thriller Writers and Mystery Writers of America, Saralyn has taught creative writing and literature. Her favorite thing about being an author is interacting with readers like you. For more information, check https://saralynrichard.com.

Bethany Maines drinks from an arsenic mug

Derringer Danger!

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Short Fiction Mystery Society logo showing a Derringer surrounded by the SFMS titleI’m Being Judged… by the Derringer Awards

Every year, the Short Mystery Fiction Society holds the Derringer Awards. Judged by volunteers from the society’s membership, these competitive awards recognize short mystery stories published that year.  The judging process and program management are a lot of work and I’m always impressed at the volunteers who bring the awards program to life.

Derringer Categories

  • Best Flash Story (Up to 1,000 words)
  • Best Short Story (1,001 to 4,000 words)
  • Best Long Story (4,001 to 8,000 words)
  • Best Novelette (8,001 to 20,000 words)

Derringer Judging

Each category requires three primary and one alternate SMFS members to whittle their assigned category down to five finalists.  Each judge is provided with a criteria sheet and a batch of short stories, and then the scores are totaled by the Derringer coordinator. And having judged before, I know that the quality of the stories is fantastic and that anyone who submits is up against some top-notch writers. I loved getting to read such a wide spread of stories with different mystery sub-genres and sensibilities.  Believe me, getting down to top five is hard!

Stiletto Gang Stories

Several of the Stiletto Gang are also SMFS members and have submitted their stories.  With the array of submissions below, I’m hoping that at least one of the Stiletto Gang can take home a Derringer Award medal.

donalee Moulton

donalee has three stories in consideration.  With a 2024 finalist spot, donalee is shooting for a repeat with one of her three stories. “Bon Ami” from the Signed, Sealed…Deceased Cozy Mystery Anthology. “Maladaptives Anonymous” from the Midnight Schemers & Daydream Believers Anthology.  And “Zebra Finch” from The Most Dangerous Games.

Judy Penz Sheluk

Judy submitted  “Baby, It’s You” from Lunatic Fringe and “A Foolproof Plan” from the Midnight Schemers & Daydream Believers Anthology. This fantastic mystery/crime anthology features 22 tales of mystery and suspense. Last year, the previous anthology, Larceny & Last Chances picked up a Finalist spot in the Derringer’s Anthology category, so we’re all hopeful for a repeat with Midnight Schemers & Daydream Believers!

CrimeucopiaDebra Goldstein

Debra has “Candy Cane on the Case,” from Crimeucopia: The Not So Frail Detective Agency and “Opera Dinner Club, ” which was both a podcast and print story in Anything But Murder: Larceny and Lies. Like Bethany, her stories are falling in two different categories.  If you visit her website you can see her extensive list of short stories! Visit: https://www.debrahgoldstein.com/short-stories/

Bethany Maines

In 2025, I wrote two mystery stories that qualify to be submitted for the Derringers – “Front Desk Staff” (published in Midnight Schemers & Daydream Believers) and “Love, Lefse, & Murder” (published in Cooking Up Death).  “Front Desk Staff” went into the highly competitive Short Story Category and “Love, Lefse, & Murder,” which clocked in at 9k words, will be in the Best Novelette category.

Wish all of the Stiletto Gang members luck as our precious stories make their way across the judges desks!

Buy Now

Want to check out these award-worthy stories?

 

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Bethany Maines drinks from an arsenic mugBethany Maines is the award-winning author of action-adventure and fantasy tales that focus on women who know when to apply lipstick and when to apply a foot to someone’s hind end. She participates in many activities, including swearing, karate, art, and yelling at the news. She can usually be found chasing after her daughter or glued to the computer working on her next novel (or screenplay). You can also catch up with her on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and BookBub.  She has also writes under the pen name Sirena Corbeau for spicier paranormal romance novels. Learn more at: bethanymaines.com or sirenacorbeau.com 

See more books from the Stiletto Gang: BOOKS

 

The Christmas Carols - 3 Novellas of romance and crime from Bethany Maines

Christmas the Movie Way

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Christmas Strikes Back

A few years ago, I became interested in scriptwriting. Like many people, I assumed that after a lifetime of watching movies that writing them couldn’t be that hard.  I’ll pause here for your laughter to die down.  Specifically, I was interested in Christmas movies and why they sucked.  Which is unfair, one person’s terminally bland Christmas movie is another person’s soothing blankie that keeps the holiday season from emerging from under the bed and devouring them whole.  I didn’t want gritty reality Christmas, but I did want something more.  And since that didn’t exist, I set out to write it myself.

Cookies for Christmas

On the whole, I enjoy Christmas movies, but the problems arise from the Hallmark rules that keep Hallmark movies on brand — no cancer or dying, celebrate small towns, low stakes, etc.  I get why those movies exist.  Viewers want a sugar cookie movie, not a complicated dessert.  But I didn’t understand why we couldn’t have Christmas stories with a little more… ass kicking.  You see, I also love action movies — they are an excellent chocolate chip cookie of a movie.  (Which is why I also stand firm in my belief that Die Hard is a Christmas movie, but that’s a topic for another blog.)   So over the last several years, I’ve explored how to make the perfect Christmas cookie.  They have all the sugar, fluff, and icing, but sometimes you need a few chocolate chunks and nuts.  And I’ve accumulated three novellas worth of Christmas desserts.

Christmas Traditions

The challenge to writing a Christmas crime story was in finding the right mix of romance, holiday tropes, and humor to make people feel both awwww Christmas and Yippe-kai-yay MFers!  This required research and I dutifully watched, Die Hard, It’s a Wonderful Life, Lethal Weapon, and White Christmas as well as many others.  And OK, I also took a few classes on writing Hallmark and Christmas movies.  But popcorn and couch time is way more fun than studying and learning from experts. So if you’re looking for a Christmas story that feels a little more hefty, but still hits that sugar craving, check out The Christmas Carols.

The Christmas Carols

Blue Christmas: Buy Now • GET IT FOR FREE

Blue Jones just stole Jake Garner’s dog. And his heart. But technically the French Bulldog, Jacques, belongs to Jake’s ex-girlfriend. And soon Jake is being pressured to return the dog and Blue is being targeted by mysterious attackers. Can Jake find Blue and Jacques before her stalkers do? For Blue, Christmas has never been quite so dangerous. For Jake, Christmas has never been quite so Blue.

Oh Holy Night: Buy Now

Graphic designer Violet Harper is usually found at her local Starbucks. Handsome Roman Knox is usually carrying a gun. But tonight they’re both in a bank and there’s a body on the floor. It’s a mess, a robbery and almost the worst day ever, but maybe a Christmas miracle can get them out of the bank and into love.

Winter Wonderland: Buy Now

When Marcus Winters, a photographer with a bah humbug take on the holidays, meets Larissa Frost, a set designer who loves all things Christmas, sparks are destined to fly. But when a famous diamond goes missing from the shoot they’re working on Larissa finds that Marcus may be the only one who can keep her from being framed for a crime she didn’t commit.

Or get all three Christmas Carols in hardback: https://amzn.to/3Uj9PLh

Like your chocolate chips, but not at Christmas?

Try out the 12 Knights of Christmas anthology from Buttonhall Publishing featuring 12 delightful tales of Christmas, including my story “Carol of the Bells.” These stories are all romantic and certified sugar sweetness. (Available from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and as an audiobook.)  BUY NOW: https://books2read.com/12Knights

 

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Bethany Maines is the award-winning author of action-adventure and fantasy tales that focus on women who know when to apply lipstick and when to apply a foot to someone’s hind end. She participates in many activities, including swearing, karate, art, and yelling at the news. She can usually be found chasing after her daughter or glued to the computer working on her next novel (or screenplay). You can also catch up with her on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and BookBub.

And don’t forget to check out all the books from The Stiletto Gang: Books