Tag Archive for: Judy Penz Sheluk

The Best Laid Plans: 21 Stories of Mystery & Suspense

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Judy Penz Sheluk

I’m beyond excited to announce that the The Best Laid Plans: 21 Stories of Mystery & Suspense is now available for pre-order on Kindle and in trade paperback at all the usual suspects. This is the first multi-author anthology to be published by my imprint, Superior Shores Press.

The original call for submissions went out on October 18, 2018, with a deadline of January 18, 2019. In all, 71 stories were received from the U.S., UK, Canada, Norway, Italy, South America, and Australia. Cutting the submissions in half, to a more manageable 35, was the first step. That done, I was left with the unenviable task of rejecting 15 stories I really, really liked.

It took multiple reads and an Excel spreadsheet that included word counts and basic theme/location/premise. To be balanced there has to be a mix of length, and premise. Three stories with black cats, for example, would never do. (As an aside, there are no black cats in the book, though there is cat food in one particularly creepy story.)

At the same time, I wanted an overall word count of approximately 70,000 words, and 21 stories in all. Hence, 20 stories at 2,000 words each wouldn’t work, any more than 20 stories at 5,000 words would work. Which means that some great stories had to be rejected. I like to think all of those will find a “home” because they are definitely worthy.

And now, here’s a brief synopsis of the book:

Whether it’s a subway station in Norway, ski resort in Vermont, McMansion in the suburbs, or trendy art gallery in Toronto, the 21 authors represented in this superb collection of mystery and suspense interpret the overarching theme of the best-laid plans in their own inimitable style. And like many best-laid plans, they come with no guarantees. 

 The Best Laid Plans: 21 Stories of Mystery & Suspense is available on Kindle, and in trade paperback at all the usual suspects, including Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and Chapters.Indigo. Release date is June 18, but you can pre-order it now.  

Announcing An Audiobook Giveaway!

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Judy Penz Sheluk here: I’m beyond excited to announce the release of the audiobook version of Past & Present, Book 2 in my Marketville Mystery series and the sequel to Skeletons in the Attic.
To celebrate, I’ve got 1 free download code for US/Canada Audible members and 1 free download code for UK Audible members for two lucky listeners. Narrated by Kelli Lindsay, here’s a bit about it:

Sometimes the past reaches out to the present…
It’s been thirteen months since Calamity (Callie) Barnstable inherited a house in Marketville under the condition that she search for the person who murdered her mother thirty years earlier. She solves the mystery, but what next? Unemployment? Another nine-to-five job in Toronto?
Callie decides to set down roots in Marketville, take the skills and knowledge she acquired over the past year, and start her own business: Past & Present Investigations.
It’s not long before Callie and her new business partner, best friend Chantelle Marchand, get their first client: a woman who wants to find out everything she can about her grandmother, Anneliese Prei, and how she came to a “bad end” in 1956. It sounds like a perfect first assignment. Except for one thing: Anneliese’s past winds its way into Callie’s present, and not in a manner anyone—least of all Callie—could have predicted.

If you’d like to listen to a 5-minute sample, click here. Early reviews have been amazing (4.8 average). 
PS: the audiobook is also available for purchase on Audible, Amazon and iTunes. 
*For a chance to win, please leave a comment requesting UK or US/Canada code. Winners will be notified by May 9th. Note you must be an Audible member to use the code.  If you’d like to try Audible (free trial) I can send you a different code. So many codes, so little time! 

It starts with a premise…

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By Judy Penz Sheluk

People often ask me where I get my ideas and I always tell them “from life.” That may sound trite, but it’s true. And while every author, and every book, follows a different path, I will tell you this secret: It all starts with a premise. Here’s another secret: there’s no such thing as a unique premise. There are, however, different ways to spin the same premise. In other words, the “secret sauce” is the spin.

Consider this example:

The premise behind my 2015 amateur sleuth mystery novel, The Hanged Man’s Noose, is all too familiar story: A greedy developer comes to a small town with plans to build a mega-box store on the town’s historic Main Street, thereby threatening the livelihoods of the many independent shops and restaurants. I took that premise and said, “What if someone was willing to commit murder to stop it? But remember, there are no new ideas, just different ways to spin them. Here’s the synopsis for John Sandford’s Virgil Flowers suspense novel, Shock Wave (which I read long after writing Noose, in case you were wondering.)
 

The superstore chain PyeMart has its sights set on a Minnesota river town, but two very angry groups want to stop it: local merchants fearing for their businesses, and environmentalists, predicting ecological disaster. The protests don’t seem to be slowing the project, though, until someone decides to take matters into his own hands.

The first bomb goes off on the top floor of PyeMart’s headquarters. The second one explodes at the construction site itself. The blasts are meant to inflict maximum damage — and they do. Who’s behind the bombs, and how far will they go?
 

Okay then, what if we were to take the same premise and turn it into a Hallmark-type Christmas movie? The synopsis would go something like this:

When a ruthless, but handsome, developer comes to a small town with plans to build a mega-box store, the local shop owners band together to stop him, led by the beautiful and widowed owner of an indie bookstore started by her late husband many years before. 


In other words, it all starts with a premise. But then again, you already knew that, didn’t you?


And now it’s time for the inevitable Shameless Self Promotion. The Hanged Man’s Noose is currently on a .99 e-book promo on Kindle, Kobo, Nook, Apple, and GooglePlay. That’s a $4 savings — so pitter patter, let’s get at ‘er because the sale ends March 10th. Seriously, do you want to miss it? I think not.

Creating Fictional Food

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Congratulations to Dianne Casey! You’ve won the Clicking Our Heels prize of two books by Linda Rodriguez: Every Last Secret and Dark Sister. Please DM your mailing address through the Stiletto Gang Facebook page and we’ll send the books to you ASAP!

Judy Penz Sheluk

Let me start by saying I’m a terrible cook. I can make a decent veggie lasagna, and my mac and cheese is better than most, but that’s about where my repertoire ends. No one knows this better than my long-suffering husband, Mike (who is, by the way, an excellent cook), but he came into our relationship eyes wide open. The first time he stayed overnight, I asked him what he wanted for breakfast. I expected him to say cereal, or toast and peanut butter, but he asked for scrambled eggs. When he caught me looking in my trusting Betty Crocker cookbook for the recipe—yes I needed a recipe—he could have cut and run. But he stayed, probably thinking my culinary abilities would improve with age.

Fast forward three decades, and I’m now writing murder mysteries. And while I don’t write the sort of cozy that includes recipes in the book, food definitely plays a part.

In my latest book, Past & Present, my protagonist, Callie Barnstable makes homemade croutons and a tourtiere (for those of you who don’t know what that is, it’s a French Canadian meat pie, traditionally served around the Christmas holidays).

Have I ever made croutons? Of course not. There are perfectly good ones available at any grocery story. What about a tourtiere? A pie of any sort? Another no (unless you consider one of those Bisquick Impossible Pies a pie…I’ve made a few of those with limited success).

Now, you might be thinking, “how can a terrible cook create fictional food, let alone write about it?” Well, the internet helps with the plethora of recipes, but I do have to tweak anything I find to make it my own. And photos…I either have to make it, get a friend to make it (yes, I have resorted to that with Tourtiere — I don’t eat beef or pork), or find a royalty-free photo online (wikipedia commons and morguefile are both good resources). In the end, though, it’s mostly about letting my imagination run wild, sort of like creating a fictional town, character or setting. And what can be more fun than that?

Garlic Butter Croutons





PS: you can find my recipes for Easy Peasy Veggie Lasagna, Garlic Butter Croutons, Tourtiere and more on my website’s Food & Drink page.






Tourtiere
Easy Peasy Veggie Lasagna

Left Coast Crime Vancouver

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Judy Penz Sheluk

I’m Canadian, did you know that? Born and raised in Toronto and have lived within a two-hour drive of that city ever since. Many Americans are surprised when I tell them I’ve never been to Vancouver, British Columbia. After all, it’s in Canada too, right? Except Vancouver is over 2,000 miles away from Toronto! Not exactly next door. And while I’ve always wanted to go there, travel in Canada is expensive and (here’s a secret) I’m not exactly earning Steven King money.

Then the good folks at Left Coast Crime agreed to host their 2019 conference in Vancouver! At last, a reason to visit, with the added bonus of being able to write off at least a portion of my travel. I’m already planning my (non-tax-write-offable) side trips to Whistler and Victoria and have booked a full week at the host hotel.

What’s also exciting is that this is my first Left Coast Crime, I have two books released in 2018 (A Hole in One and Past & Present) to talk about to anyone willing to listen — and I am also the Crime Writers of Canada LCC Member Liaison (a fancy term for making sure our members have their CWC buttons, and for organizing a silent auction gift basket on behalf of CWC – so far we have 27 members attending).

The countdown is on! 


PS If you’re going, I’d love to meet up with you sometime during the week, even if it’s just for a quick cup of tea or coffee. Leave a comment and we’ll figure it out. Judy 

For the Love of Christmas Movies

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Judy Penz Sheluk

I’ll admit it. I love those impossibly cheesy holiday movies, the cheesier the better. In fact, I have a Holiday Movie Rating System (HMRS) that goes something like this (maximum 55 points):

Paper-thin plot or wildly implausible plot: 5 points

Female lead is either widowed, divorced, recently broken up with fiancé  or can’t seem to find true love: 5 points

Male lead is fabulously rich: 5 points (5 bonus points if female lead isn’t aware of his money OR is not impressed by it)

Male lead seems nasty at first or has a not-so-hidden agenda: 5 points

Male lead has a best friend who’s in love with the female lead and doesn’t stand a chance: 5 points

Movie title sums up the entire plot line: 5 points

Movie title is a clever pun: 5 points [Seriously, don’t you think MERRY Me at Christmas would have been a catchier title than MARRY Me at Christmas?]

Recognize the same actors/actresses in multiple cheesy movies: 5 points

Ending is completely predictable from the opening credits: 10 BONUS points!

Do you have a favorite cheesy Christmas movie? Something to add to my Holiday Movie Rating System?  Post a comment and let me know!






PS: Books make great stocking stuffers! Find mine at all the usual suspects, including Amazon, Kobo, and Barnes & Noble

Eintopf or how a one-pot soup is like writing a first draft

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Judy Penz Sheluk

My mother was raised in a time when you didn’t waste anything: scraps of fabric left over from sewing or hemming a pair of pants, odd buttons and pieces of lace or ribbon, these went to making clothes for my Barbie (actually I had a Midge, never have been a conformist, but I digress).

When I was a kid, Fridays were grocery shopping day, probably because that’s the day my father got paid. That meant Thursday was Eintopf day (literally translated to One Pot from German). Nothing leftover in the refrigerator was spared: a chicken leg, some broccoli that was heading into yellow-green territory, a eye-sprouting potato, even the [raw] turnip my dad and I had managed to avoid eating through the week—it all went into the pot for soup. Sometimes those soups were amazingly delicious; other times…well, let’s just say turnip does not belong in soup.

Recently, while working on the first draft of the third book in my Marketville Mystery series, I got to thinking how much a first draft is like Eintopf. You toss all your ingredients (ideas) in the pot (page) and keep on stirring (typing), hoping it will taste good (read well). And the stuff that doesn’t (turnips) finds it’s way into yet another folder filled with bits and bites of stuff that didn’t get used…this time.

What can I say? I am my mother’s daughter. And yes, I still make Eintopf. But I never add turnips.





BLATANT SELF PROMOTION~
The Hanged Man’s Noose is now in its Second Edition with a new look PLUS a four-chapter excerpt of A Hole In One. Pre-order now on Amazon, Chapters.Indigo, Kobo, Kindle, Nook, GooglePlay or iBooks for Nov. 8 delivery. $14.99 print/$3.99 eBook.

Agatha Christie’s Ariadne Oliver

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Judy Penz Sheluk

I spent the better part of my teen and early-mid twenties reading everything Agatha Christie wrote (including the six books written under the pseudonym of Mary Westmacott. Recently, after the rather 2017 dismal remake of Murder on the Orient Express—sorry, Kevin Branagh, you are not a convincing Poirot (though perhaps no one can achieve David Suchet’s spot-on interpretation of the Belgian detective)—I reread the book and was pleasantly surprised to find that it held up very well.

That got me thinking about Christie’s alter-ego, Ariadne Oliver. A middle-aged woman and successful detective novelist, she’s an apple-chomping woman described as “handsome in a rather untidy fashion, with fine eyes, substantial shoulders, and a large quantity of rebellious grey hair with which she was continuously experimenting,” having written The Affair of the Second Goldfish and The Cat It Was Who Died.

While Christie always insisted that her characters were entirely fictional, she admitted that Mrs. Oliver had “a strong dash of herself.” The character appeared in Cards on the Table, Mrs. McGinty’s Dead, Dead Man’s Folly, The Pale Horse, Third Girl, Hallowe’en Party and Elephants Can Remember.

So why would Murder on the Orient Express make me think of Ariadne Oliver? Well, consider these quotes of Ariadne’s as she laments creating her Finnish detective, Sven Hjerson.

In Cards on the Table
“I only regret one thing — making my detective a Finn. I don’t really know anything about Finns and I’m always getting letters from Finland pointing out something impossible that he’s said or done. They seem to read detective stories a good deal in Finland. I suppose it’s the long winters with no daylight. In Bulgaria and Roumania they don’t seem to read at all. I’d have done better to have made him a Bulgar.”

This one makes me laugh: how many times, I wonder, did Christie hear that her Belgian Poirot wasn’t “Belgian” enough.

In Mrs. McGinty’s Dead

“I can’t help it,” said Mrs. Oliver obstinately. “He’s always been a vegetarian. He takes round a little machine for grating raw carrots and turnips.”

“But Ariadne, precious, why?”

“How do I know?” said Mrs. Oliver crossly. “How do I know why I ever thought of the revolting man? I must have been mad! Why a Finn when I know nothing about Finland? Why a vegetarian? Why all the idiotic mannerisms he’s got? These things just happen. You try something – and people seem to like it – and then you go on – and before you know where you are, you’ve got someone like that maddening Sven Hjerson tied to you for life. And people even write and say how fond you must be of him. Fond of him? If I met that bony gangling vegetable eating Finn in real life, I’d do a better murder than any I’ve ever invented.”

Robin Upward gazed at her with reverence.

“You know, Ariadne, that might be rather a marvelous idea. A real Sven Hjerson – and you murder him. You might make a Swan Song book of it – to be published after your death.”

“No fear!” said Mrs. Oliver.

Shades of Poirot’s vegetable marrow garden, and Curtain, his last case? I leave it for you to decide. But without question, this last quote from Dead Man’s Folly is my absolute favorite

“If you know anything about writers, you’ll know that they can’t stand suggestions. People say ‘Splendid, but wouldn’t it be better if so and so did so and so?’ Or ‘wouldn’t it be a wonderful idea if the victim was A instead of B? Or the murderer turned out to be D instead of E?’ I mean, one wants to say: ‘All right then, write it yourself if you want it that way!’”

Ahh…to create my very own Ariadne Oliver…not a bad idea, that.

Tell me, readers, do you have a favorite Agatha Christie quote, movie or book?









And now, for some Shameless Self Promotion: My latest Marketville mystery, Past & Present, is now available in trade paperback at all the usual suspects, including Barnes & Noble, and on Kindle and Kindle Unlimited. 

Judy Garland’s Ruby Slippers

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Judy Penz Sheluk

Something you may not know about me: I was named after Judy Garland. In fact, my real name is Judy (not Judith). My mom, Anneliese, (who everyone called Ann) was a practical woman who determined that no one would shorten Judy. Of course, she was also the first person to call me Jude (before you get any ideas, I do not take kindly to the abbreviated version of Judy and under no circumstances should you sing “Hey Jude” to me).
Anyway, this month, the Stiletto Gang is celebrating our new logo and so I thought it would be the perfect time to share some fun facts about Judy Garland’s ruby slippers from The Wizard of Oz.

  1. In Frank L. Baum’s book, the slippers were silver. They were changed to ruby red for the movie to show up more vividly against the yellow brick road.  
  2. The ruby slippers owe their glitter to burgundy sequins.
  3. Several pairs were made for the movie; the exact number is unknown as studio records have long been destroyed. There were four pairs known to survive, only three pairs remain.
  4. A well worn pair was donated to the Smithsonian in 1979; the bottoms have felt soles to muffle the sound of Judy’s dancing footsteps on the yellow brick road. They are size 5.
  5. In 2005, one pair of ruby slippers, on loan to the Judy Garland Museum in Grand Rapids, Minnesota, were stolen. They were recovered on Tues. Sept. 4, 2018 — details have not yet been released, but keep watching the newsfeed!
  6. Actress Debbie Reynolds owned an off-screen test pair, which she purchased for $300. She sold them at auction in 2011 for $690,000 to a private buyer at auction.
  7. Lady Gaga was given a pair of ruby slippers in 2011 for her 25th birthday.
  8. In 2012, Steven Spielberg and Leonardo DiCaprio purchased one of the four remaining (known) pairs of the ruby slippers from an auction house, and donated them to the future Academy Museum (opening in 2019). The price paid was never disclosed. 

Do you know any more Ruby Slippers trivia? If so, share your knowledge in the comments below and start clicking your heels.
PS: I think Judy Garland would approve of me telling you that my latest mystery, Past & Present, will be released on Sept. 21, 2018. Pre-order the trade paperback at all the usual suspects or pre-order on Kindle for the special introductory price of $2.99 (reg. $5.99) and thank you! 

Guest Blogger Judy Penz Sheluk: Ruts, Shoes and Imagination

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Today, I’m excited to bring you a guest blog from my Canadian friend, Judy Penz Sheluk, whose new book, Skeletons in the Attic, was just released.  See you in September…..Debra

Ruts, Shoes and Imagination by Judy Penz Sheluk

I used to teach an online creative writing course. While a
large part of the 20-part course curriculum was structured, there was also the
opportunity to create personalized assignments. One of my favorite assignments
was meant to spark the imagination of the less-than-imaginative student. Here
it is:
1.     
Read one
book you wouldn’t normally read.

2.     
Go to
one movie you would never go to see.

3.     
Watch
one popular TV show that you’ve never watched because you didn’t think you’d enjoy
it.

4.     
Read one
magazine you’ve never read before.

5.     
Go into
one store you’ve always avoided (too expensive, too cheap, whatever) and buy
something.

6.     
Try to
make (or bake) one new recipe you’ve never made and always wanted to try.

7.     
Go to somewhere
different (a different park, a different shopping mall, a different coffee
shop…it doesn’t have to be exotic).

8.     
Try one
new activity.

9.     
Sit down
and really listen to the conversations around you (at a family function, at a
coffee shop, wherever). Take notes.

10.  Strike up a conversation with a stranger in a
grocery store (without coming across like a stalker).

The students who
embraced the assignment inevitably found plenty of inspiration to include in
future

writings. But until very recently, I’d never actually done the
assignment myself. That changed when Debra H. Goldstein invited me to guest on The Stiletto Gang. “You can write about shoes if you want,” she said,
and I knew I was in trouble. Stilettos? Haven’t worn them since my twenties…and
that’s a long way behind me in the rearview mirror (although I fondly remember
a pair of two-tone pink and mauve stilettos with a slight platform, and dancing
in them to John Mellencamp’s Authority
Song).

Today, however, my favorite
shoes are my Asics runners. They start life as a running shoe, and at the
300-mile mark, they become my walking shoes. Even my protagonists (Emily
Garland in The Hanged Man’s Noose,
and Callie Barnstable in Skeletons in the
Attic) are runners, and they both dress for comfort vs. style.

Of course, I do have
other shoes, though they tend to be low-heeled and sensible: a pair of black patent
leather ballerina-style flats is about as fancy as I get these days. As for
sandals, my pretty white ones with the bling-y rhinestones tend to get
overlooked for my much more comfy Birkenstocks. Simply put, I was in a
shoe-rut.

But was I also in
another rut? I thought about the books I’d been reading, the movies I’d been
watching, and determined that maybe I was. I haven’t done all ten parts of the
assignment yet (well, I always do #9, so I’ll take a pass on that one) but I’ve
added The Book Thief to my to-read
pile, and just the other day I watched an episode of America’s Got Talent—and found myself enjoying it. Who knew?

Does this mean I’ll
be wearing stilettos any time soon? Doubtful. But you can bet your bottom
dollar that one of my characters will be. They’ll probably be two-tone pink and
mauve with a bit of a platform…
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Skeletons
in the Attic

What goes on behind closed doors doesn’t always stay there…

Calamity (Callie) Barnstable isn’t surprised to learn she’s
the sole beneficiary of her late father’s estate, though she is shocked to discover she has inherited
a house in the town of Marketville—a house she didn’t know existed. However,
there are conditions attached to Callie’s inheritance: she must move to
Marketville, live in the house, and solve her mother’s murder.

Callie’s not keen on dredging up a thirty-year-old mystery,
but if she doesn’t do it, there’s a scheming psychic named Misty Rivers who is
more than happy to expose the Barnstable family secrets. Determined to thwart
Misty and fulfill her father’s wishes, Callie accepts the challenge. But is she
ready to face the skeletons hidden in the attic?

Judy Penz Sheluk’s debut mystery novel, The Hanged
Man’s Noose, was published in July 2015. Skeletons in the Attic, the first book
in her Marketville Mystery Series, was published in August 2016.

Judy’s short crime fiction appears in World Enough and
Crime, The Whole She-Bang 2, Flash and Bang and Live Free or Tri.

Judy is a member of Sisters in Crime, Crime Writers of
Canada, International Thriller Writers and the Short Mystery Fiction Society.

Find Judy on her website/blog at www.judypenzsheluk.com,
where she interviews other authors and blogs about the writing life.

Find Skeletons in the Attic:http://getBook.at/SkeletonsintheAttic