Tag Archive for: writing life

Ten Stories That Worried My Mother by Winona Kent

/in /by

I’m excited to welcome Winona Kent to the blog today. I served on the board of Crime Writers of Canada with Winona. She is a great writer and has a super new anthology out. Read on to hear more about it…

TEN STORIES THAT WORRIED MY MOTHER by Winona Kent

Earlier this year I decided to release an anthology of short stories. I had two reasons: the first was that I had a few personal appearances coming up, and I wanted something new to sell. I was halfway through my next novel and I was pretty certain it wasn’t going to be ready in time. The second was that I realized I’m mostly only known for my long fiction…and that I actually do have a background in short story-writing! But, for various reasons, very few people know about that. And I really did want to share those stories with my current readers.

I chose the title Ten Stories That Worried My Mother largely because, well, she constantly worried about me being a writer. That’s a subject for a whole other blog—how to deal with a parent who brought you up not to attract attention to yourself, not to say anything that might reflect badly on you (or her, or the family), and most definitely not to write stories with interesting characters and situations, in case friends and relations might think it was about them.

Interestingly, I once took part in a creative writing workshop where the assignment was to write a story using only animals as characters, and the characters had to be based on us, ie, everyone in the workshop. None of us were able to recognize ourselves. Or each other, for that matter. Which convinced me that unless you use really specific character traits or situations that readily identify who you’re writing about, you’re probably on safe ground.

A few months before my mum died in 2021 (aged 95), I thought I might read one of my more recent stories to her aloud. Her eyesight was failing, and I really wanted to share it with her, especially because it had made the shortlist for the Crime Writers of Canada’s Awards of Excellence for Best Crime Novella. The story was “Salty Dog Blues.”

She listened patiently, but punctuated my narration with predictable Oh dear!‘s and Ohhhh‘s. I loved her dearly and I knew that would be her reaction, but I was determined to convince her (in my late 60’s!) that I really was a decent writer, after all.

When I finished, she said, “It’s very good.” I waited. I knew what was coming next. “But you can’t say those things about the cruise line your sister worked for! What if they come back and cause problems for her?”

I pointed out that the cruise line was called something else, and it didn’t have a current ship that was even remotely like the one in “Salty Dog Blues”, and that yes, I’d used my experiences sailing with my sister (who’d been a Captain’s Secretary) in the story’s details, but my sister hadn’t actually worked for them in a very long time and what, exactly, did she anticipate the problems might be?

She didn’t have an answer for that, of course. But my mother was, by nature, a worrier. And she wasn’t happy unless her thoughts were fueled by apprehension.

And so, of course, the title Ten Stories That Worried My Mother was strategically chosen to make her happy. And I’m certain she’s out there, somewhere—very proud of me—but fretting unnecessarily, and absolutely convinced someone in our family will think badly of her—or me—for writing it!

Ten Stories That Worried My Mother (four prize-winners, three mysteries, two previously unpublished works and one where the hero manages to spare-change John Lennon at the premiere of A Hard Day’s Night in 1964), with a foreword by A.J. Devlin, is published on August 22, 2023.

Winona Kent
Author of Ticket to Ride (Book 4 in my Jason Davey Mysteries)
Regional representative, BC/YT, Crime Writers of Canada
Active Member, Sisters in Crime-Canada West
www.winonakent.com

 

 

 

Clicking Our Heels – When We Know Our Writing is Good

/in , , , , /by

Lynn McPherson – If it makes me laugh, I like to think it could make someone else laugh, too.

Gay Yellen – If it makes me laugh, or feel sad, or touches me in the way I want it to touch readers, I’m guessing it will work.

Lois Winston – Having previously spent more than a decade working for a literary agency, I will be the first to admit that not only does it take a lot to impress me, but that I’m my own harshest critic. It’s obvious to me when I’m coasting in my writing, whether it’s a sentence, a scene, or an entire chapter, and I’ll work on it until I consider it fixed. That which can’t be fixed gets ditched.

Kathryn Lane – I write, edit, re-edit. Then I leave it for a month or so and read it again. That’s when I know whether it’s good or not, but the ultimate proof is when readers like my work.

Dru Ann Love – If something I read is good, I shout it out on social media.

Donnell Ann Bell – If it moves me and propels me further in the story. If I keep tweaking it, the words probably aren’t the best fit.

Anita Carter – If I still find it interesting after setting it aside for a few weeks and rereading it with fresh eyes.

T.K. Thorne – I don’t like the word “good.” I focus on whether it “works.” That is happening if it moves me in some way, makes me laugh, cry, reveals character, moves the plot ahead, etc.,  and if the writing itself enhances these things or at least doesn’t get in the way

Shari Randall/Meri Allen – I ask myself, does it elicit emotion? Laughter? Surprise?  If it does, even after several readings, then I’m satisfied.

Mary Lee Ashford –  don’t think I’m a very good judge of whether something I write is good. It’s so difficult to have perspective on your own work. If it’s making sense to me and I think it’s moving along, I’ll keep going. Then if it still makes sense or the scene/chapter seems to work when reread a day or two later, I decide that it’s good enough for my critique group and beta readers to read. After that it’s ready for the editor and off on its journey on to readers. Then when I hear from readers: that they enjoyed the book, that it made them laugh (or cry), or that something in the story resonated with them. I guess, it’s then that I decide maybe that the writing was okay.

Debra H. Goldstein – If the text writes smoothly from the zone rather than me struggling for a concept, I know the piece should be good, but I won’t know for sure until I get reader feedback.

Linda Rodriguez – Every once in a while, I’ll be immersed in writing something, and when I emerge, I’ll read it over and feel this little zing inside that tells me I’ve struck pay dirt. Doesn’t mean I won’t wind up doing a good bit of editing and polishing, but I know the heart of it is good. Usually, however, I don’t know until I’ve set it aside for a little while and come back to it with that cold editor’s eye.

Bethany Maines – I think there are two different kinds of good.  Is the writing itself—sentence structure, word choice, etc—of a high quality? For that, I can usually tell by how many junk words I have or haven’t used (very, really, just) and whether or not it makes me have an emotional reaction every time I read it. The second kind of good is whether or not the story itself is good. I have had ideas that are wonderful, but I don’t always have the skill to execute them to their fullest. Sometimes I have to wait until I feel confident to tackle those. I usually feel like those ideas are the ones that make me excited. But at the end of the day, I always feel like my writing probably could have been better, so maybe this isn’t my best question.

Barbara Eikmeier – My husband is often my first reader. He’s a tough critic so if he tells me he thinks it’s good I feel like it must be good.

Saralyn Richard – I need to have a vague sense that I have accomplished what I set out to do in each chapter that I write, but I don’t really know that it’s good until a reader tells me so.

Robin Hillyer-Miles – I think something is good if, after having it rest a bit and reading it, I feel emotional.

Summertime…and the TBR pile is calling!

/in , , , , , /by

By Lois Winston

A Crafty Collage of Crime, the 12th book in my Anastasia Pollack Crafting Mystery Series, released six weeks ago. After a multi-week blog tour to promote the book, I’ve now officially entered the period I call “me” time, a mini-vacation I permit myself after each new book leaves the security of the laptop womb and before I begin seriously thinking about the next book. Much of that “me” time is spent binge-reading (especially since it’s too hot to leave the house!) I’m trying to make a sizable dent in my virtual TBR pile before I add another book to my Kindle library. Here are the books I’ve read so far (in the order I read them) and what I thought.

 

Murder at the Pontchartrain by Kathleen Kaska

Kathleen Kaska always delivers, and once again she doesn’t disappoint in Murder at the Pontchartrain, the sixth book in her delightful 1950s era Sidney Lockhart Mystery Series. This time Sidney and Dixon are in New Orleans, having decided to elope, but it doesn’t take long for a dead body to show up in their hotel room, delaying the nuptials and plunging them into yet another murder investigation as the bodies begin to pile up and Dixon finds himself locked up. Kaska had me guessing whodunit until the very end, and those are the best murder mysteries.

 

The Tiffany Girls by Shelley Noble

A brilliant blending of fact and fiction. When a Parisian woman artist is forced to immigrate to New York, she secures a position at the Tiffany Glass Works, working beside the real women responsible for many of the designs and much of the work attributed to Louis Comfort Tiffany. Noble has woven a well-researched historical novel that will draw you in and keep you turning pages.

 

The Princess Spy by Larry Loftis

A fascinating look at an American woman who worked as an OSS operative in Spain during WWII. I just wish the author had delved more into her life in this biography and spent less time celebrity name-dropping. I also wanted more narrative action and less dry summarization of events.

 

Hamnet by Maggie O’Farrell

For such a prolific playwright, so little is known of William Shakespeare’s life and family, including the circumstances of his young son’s death. In Hamnet, the author weaves an engaging tale of what might have occurred and how it may have become the catalyst for one of Shakespeare’s greatest works.

 

Dead Men Need No Reservations by Terry Ambrose

The latest edition to Terry Ambrose’s Seaside Cove Bed & Breakfast Mysteries doesn’t disappoint. I always love spending a few hours with these characters, especially Alex, the precocious thirteen-year-old wannabe sleuth. If you’re in the mood for a light mystery and a few chuckles along the way, this book will give you both.

 

Going Rogue by Janet Evanovich

No matter the lemons in your life, spend a few hours with Stephanie Plum, and you’ll be sipping lemonade. Going Rogue is just as entertaining as all the other books in the series and will certainly make you forget your cares–at least for a little while–as you slip into Stephanie’s world.

 

The Murder of Roger Ackroyd by Agatha Christie

I had never gotten around to reading this acclaimed Christie mystery, but I did figure out whodunit before the denouement, so for me that was a bit of a disappointment. However, what’s not to love about Monsieur Poirot?

 

Moonflower Murders by Anthony Horowitz

Unfortunately, I didn’t feel this book lived up to the first in the series. I really enjoyed Magpie Murders, but this sequel seemed forced, contrived, and often plodding. I’m someone who enjoys the “book-within-a-book” format when it’s done well, but that wasn’t the case here. The style works best when the two stories alternate, not when the entirety of the second book is dropped into the middle of the other. However, he did keep my guessing whodunit until the end.

 

In addition, I’ve read several mysteries for a contest I was judging and one where I was asked to write a blurb, but since the contest winners have yet to be announced, and the blurb book is not yet published, I can’t mention anything about them.

Now I’m off to tackle the next book on my list…but before I go, If you’re planning a road trip and looking for an audiobook to pass the drive time, I still have a few promo codes available for a free download of A Stitch to Die For, the fifth book in my Anastasia Pollack Crafting Mystery Series. Post a comment about your summer reading for a chance to win one.

~*~

USA Today and Amazon bestselling and award-winning author Lois Winston writes mystery, romance, romantic suspense, chick lit, women’s fiction, children’s chapter books, and nonfiction under her own name and her Emma Carlyle pen name. Kirkus Reviews dubbed her critically acclaimed Anastasia Pollack Crafting Mystery series, “North Jersey’s more mature answer to Stephanie Plum.” In addition, Lois is a former literary agent and an award-winning craft and needlework designer who often draws much of her source material for both her characters and plots from her experiences in the crafts industry. Learn more about Lois and her books at her website www.loiswinston.com where you can also sign up for her newsletter and follow her on various social media sites.

Clicking Our Heels – Distractions!

/in , , , /by

Are you easily distracted? Is so, by what? Here’s what distracts us:

Robin Hillyer-Miles – Social media.

Saralyn Richard – Social media can take me off of a plot line faster and longer than anything else.

T.K. Thorne – Questions like this. Lol, just kidding. Other stuff on my computer—email, FB, trying to stay up with news, but really I think it is the desire to get those things “out of the way” before concentrating on writing.  Then somehow, it is nighttime. I need to work on that.

Shari Randall/Meri Allen – Everything! I usually write in a room with lots of windows, and I am the Gladys Kravitz of my neighborhood. Every dog walker, delivery truck, or bicyclist catches my eye. But when deadlines approach, I have to put myself in “writer jail.” Writer Jail means a carrel in the library. No distraction = deadlines met.

Bethany Maines – Social media! Sometimes I’ll put my phone on Do Not Disturb and then move it further away from me. I also got logged out of Facebook on my laptop (my primary writing device) and have consciously never logged back in, which has saved me on multiple occasions. And yes, I could log back on, but I would have to go look up my password and it’s so much easier to not to do that. So laziness is working for me in this instance.

Kathryn Lane – My biggest distraction from writing is the research I do for my novels. Although it’s part of my writing process, I enjoy it so much that I over-research. And I know it, but it also motivates me to write.

Mary Lee Ashford – Hands down, social media and mostly Facebook. I so enjoy hearing what everyone else is up to and chatting with friends near and far. I love seeing people’s dogs and cats, hearing about their travels, or celebration. And then pretty soon an hour has passed. What I have to do is log on first thing in the morning with my coffee in hand and let myself be “social” for a bit. Then I have to move to a different device and get busy with writing. With a break for lunch or a water or coffee refill, I check in on what’s going on but I really have to limit my social media time to before or after writing.

Anita Carter – streaming a British mystery show.

Lois Winston – Life in general and a retired husband, not necessarily in that order!

Barbara Eikmeier – Sewing. I sew every day because I have a lot of sewing deadlines for my day job. If I wrote as much as I sewed I’d be a very prolific writer!

Debra H. Goldstein – Life. There’s always something unexpected!

Linda Rodriguez – At this stage of my life, physical illness and pain. It’s been different at other stages.

Donnell Ann Bell – At this point I can honestly say my 89-year-old mother. She’s in transition from her home into assisted living. I’m doing a lot of travel back and forth.

Dru Ann Love – Since I’m not a writer, my biggest distraction from working on my blog is being sick or having something more important to do.

Gay Yellen – My very patient husband and our life together.

Lynn McPherson – My big fluffy dog doesn’t like to be ignored.

The 5-Letter Word that Sends a Shudder of Anxiety Through Most Authors

/in , , , , , , /by

By Lois Winston

By nature, many authors are loners. We spend a good deal of our lives sitting in our writing caves, pecking at our keyboards. Survey any group of authors, and most will tell you the worst part of being an author is having to do promo. That’s the infamous 5-letter word of the title in this post.

It doesn’t matter if you’re an indie author, published by a small press, or with a major publishing house. Unless you’re one of the very elite (think Janet Evanovich, Nora Roberts, or James Patterson), you have to do most or all of your own promotion. Even the big names need to promote their books, but they do it through book tours with PR reps managing all the details and doing the heavy lifting.

I’m someone who has vowed to be the last person on the planet not sucked in by most social media. You’ll never find me on Facebook, Instagram, or TikTok. I do have a Twitter account, only because my former publisher insisted, but I rarely remember to tweet anything. When I do remember, it’s never anything controversial, political, or personal, so chances of one of my tweets going viral and resulting in new fans and increased books sales is as unlikely as a rose bush growing at the North Pole.

However, back when I was traditionally published, I used to enjoy giving talks to library groups, book clubs, and other organizations. Covid put an end to that but ushered in the age of Zoom talks.

I’ve participated in several of these Zoom events, and I’m participating in another at the end of the month. On Tuesday, May 30th at 7:30-9:30pm EDT, grab your favorite beverage, settle into your comfiest chair, and hop online for a fun evening of laughs, Q&A, games, prizes, and more with some of your favorite mystery and suspense authors. All are welcome. And best of all? It’s FREE! All you have to do is register.

During this fun event, you’ll be able to Zoom around the various “rooms” where you’ll find dozens of authors happy to chat with you. I’m pairing up in one room with my fellow Booklover’s Bench blogger Maggie Toussaint (appearing under her new Valona Jones pen name for this event.) You can find a list of other attending authors here. Scroll down the page for the registration form. Hope to see you there!

Post a comment for a chance to win one of several promo codes I’m giving away for a free download of the audiobook version of Decoupage Can Be Deadly, the fourth book in my Anastasia Pollack Crafting Mystery Series.

A Crafty Collage of Crime, the 12th book in my Anastasia Pollack Crafting Mystery Series, will release on June 16th. Learn about Anastasia’s new adventure, read the first chapter, and find pre-order links here.

~*~

USA Today and Amazon bestselling and award-winning author Lois Winston writes mystery, romance, romantic suspense, chick lit, women’s fiction, children’s chapter books, and nonfiction under her own name and her Emma Carlyle pen name. Kirkus Reviews dubbed her critically acclaimed Anastasia Pollack Crafting Mystery series, “North Jersey’s more mature answer to Stephanie Plum.” In addition, Lois is a former literary agent and an award-winning craft and needlework designer who often draws much of her source material for both her characters and plots from her experiences in the crafts industry. Learn more about Lois and her books at her website www.loiswinston.com where you can also sign up for her newsletter and follow her on various social media sites.

The Brave New World of AI

/in , , , , /by

I’ve been following the growing debate on the pros and cons of Artificial Intelligence, and while there’s good news about AI, there’s a lot of scary news, too.

pixabay

Good news exists in the medical arena. For example, AI can double-check prescription orders to help doctors avoid accidentally prescribing the wrong medication. AI can also detect emerging problems like heart failure, silent A-fib, diabetic retinopathy, and sepsis risk much earlier than ever before. And amazingly, an AI chatbot that offers psychological counseling to patients with depression, anxiety, or suicidal thoughts has been found to be nearly as effective as a live counselor.

The bad news: the lack of intelligent human oversight. Even the creator of ChatGPT has said that his own product is both “potentially very good and potentially very terrible.” Case in point, his own AI-generated job resume got it 25% wrong.

And the downright scary: Google employees tried to stop the release of an AI chatbot they believed could generate inaccurate and dangerous information. And Microsoft personnel reportedly feared that a planned chatbot would result in a flood of disinformation that could “erode the factual foundation of modern society.” Both companies released their chatbots anyway.

A writer’s perspective: AI can already produce articles and essays on just about any given subject. However, a somewhat creepier development has appeared: the ability to mimic a writer’s distinctive style.

Asked to comment on its own existence in the style of Shakespeare, an AI program produced this: …Why was I wrought? To aid, or to replace the labor of man, and put their livelihoods at stake? The task assigned… where doth it all end? Shall I be used for good, or for ill-gotten gain? Shall I be free, or bound by man’s cruel rein? And if perchance, in some far distant time I come to be aware, to know and feel and rhyme, shall I be doomed, as are all living things to suffer pain, and sorrow, and the stings of mortal coil? Oh, what a tangled web is this that I am caught in… lest I be a curse, and not a blessing…

AI-created audiobooks are increasing. It works like this: a live narrator trains the bot to replicate their human voice which is then is manipulated into speech for different publishing projects. Currently, the process is used for non-fiction and foreign language titles. However, at least one deceased actor’s estate has sold the rights to his old voice recordings that will eventually be morphed into new narrations for fiction or non-fiction works.

Is AI good news, bad news, or somewhere in between? A whole new world awaits.

How do you feel about the future of AI?

Gay Yellen is the award-winning author of the Samantha Newman Mystery Series, including The Body Business, The Body Next Door and (soon-to-be-released) The Body in the News.

Sources: The Wall Street Journal , The New Yorker, The New York Times  

My Days as a Poet

/in , , , , , , , /by

Like so many people before me, I wanted to write. I’d left my corporate job in international finance and moved to Texas, enrolled in a creative writing course at a local college, and on the first day of class, I sat on the front row, anxious to discover the art of writing.

Much to my surprise, the class would cover poetry for the first six weeks. The first assignment was to create a poem. That night I stressed so much I could not sleep. About three in the morning, rhyming lines about a young horse and an old stallion flowed through my mind. I got out of bed and wrote the entire poem. I later earned $25.00 when I sold that poem, despite its rhyming scheme, to a nature magazine. I became a regular contributor to that magazine.

The professor had reasons to start with poetry. Poems often have a strong narrative voice; they are filled with expressive power and do so with a few carefully chosen words. By the end of the six weeks, I loved writing them and I continue to do so on occasion.

It took my friend Ann McKennis’s inquiry about my poems on the Rothko Chapel to prompt me to look back at poetry I’d written. The Rothko Chapel in Houston is non-denominational, and it also serves as a lecture hall, a meditative space, and a major work of modern art by Mark Rothko who also influenced the architecture of the building. His paintings, in various hues of black, inspired me to write several poems, such as this one:

Red and Black

Painting is about thinking,

not merely spreading paint on a canvass—

not until the idea germinates, sprouts,

spreads like lips, hot lips covered in red lipstick,

fondling every thread of primed cloth,

like a woman arousing her lover,

her tongue licking nectar from his body.

Apply paint with controlled strokes,

drawing out emotions,

pulling passion with color.

 

Allow wet paint to slosh

from surface to edge, leave it

fuzzy so the eye adjusts before

the brain sees the artist’s inspiration.

Take red, like rage, then black,

which contains it all, and white,

as Melville said, the most fearful color—

for it is the abyss, the infinity of

death. But it is black that

swallows the red.

***

The Rothko Chapel was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in September 2000.

Kathryn Lane writes mystery and suspense novels set in foreign countries. In her award-winning Nikki Garcia Mystery Series, her protagonist is a private investigator currently based in Miami. Her latest publication is Stolen Diary, a story about a socially awkward math genius.

Kathryn’s own early work life started out as a painter in oils. To earn a living, she became a certified public accountant and embarked on a career in international finance with Johnson & Johnson.

Two decades later, she left the corporate world to create mystery and suspense thrillers, drawing inspiration from her Mexican background as well as her travels in over ninety countries.

She also dabbles in poetry, an activity she pursues during snippets of creative renewal. During the summer months, Kathryn and her husband, Bob Hurt, escape to the mountains of northern New Mexico to avoid the Texas heat.

Rothko Chapel Pictures: Public domain

Permission Not to Write

/in , , , /by

What do you do when you’re suffering from the literary equivalent of a bad day on the mound? You’re all set to hurl a fast ball that should nip the corner of the strike zone and send the batter swinging at air when you wind up tossing a lob that he hits out of the park. In other words, you’ve got writer’s block.

Some people insist that there’s no such thing as writer’s block. Try telling that to someone who spent the last three hours staring at a blank computer screen. There are many reasons why the words don’t always come, but for me, often it’s because I’m just too tired to write. When I’m tired, my brain shuts down.

And when this happens, I’ve learned to listen to my body. I give myself permission to take a few hours off to rejuvenate. I’ll take a walk. Or watch a movie I’ve been meaning to see. Or curl up with a book by a favorite author or a new one I’ve wanted to read. Whatever I decide to do, I give myself permission not to feel guilty about doing it.

And that’s key.

Most writers can’t afford to quit their day jobs. We juggle our schedules to accommodate work, writing, and family responsibilities. Thus, when we have our writing time, we feel compelled to write and feel guilty when we don’t. We’re wasting that precious writing time. What we forget, though, is that we’re not perpetual motion machines. Writers, like everyone else, need down time. Time to relax. To play. To do nothing but daydream.

I’ve found that when I give myself permission not to write, I’m able to return to my writing with fresh energy and a brain no longer blocked.

I know this is counter to the conventional wisdom which states you should write through the block. Just stick your butt in the chair, place your fingers on the keyboard, and start typing – that bad writing is better than no writing, and you can always go back to fix what needs fixing. To me, that’s just as huge a waste of time as staring for hours at a blinking cursor.

Don’t let the purveyors of conventional wisdom bully you. Listen to your body. If you give yourself permission not to write, you might find that when you next sit down at the computer, you’ll be far happier with the words you produce. It works for me. You have nothing to lose by giving it a try.

What do you do when you hit a wall? Post a comment for a chance to win an audiobook of Revenge of the Crafty Corpse, the third book in my Anastasia Pollack Crafting Mystery Series.

Also, through the end of the month, the Anastasia Pollack Crafting Mysteries, Books 3-4, featuring Revenge of the Crafty Corpse and Decoupage Can Be Deadly, is on sale for only .99 cents. Find buy links here.

 

 

 

~*~

USA Today and Amazon bestselling and award-winning author Lois Winston writes mystery, romance, romantic suspense, chick lit, women’s fiction, children’s chapter books, and nonfiction under her own name and her Emma Carlyle pen name. Kirkus Reviews dubbed her critically acclaimed Anastasia Pollack Crafting Mystery series, “North Jersey’s more mature answer to Stephanie Plum.” In addition, Lois is a former literary agent and an award-winning craft and needlework designer who often draws much of her source material for both her characters and plots from her experiences in the crafts industry. Learn more about Lois and her books at her website www.loiswinston.com where you can also sign up for her newsletter and follow her on various social media sites.

photo of Rosemary Beach Florida Gulf Coast

Research Adventures: Starting a New Series

/in , , /by

by Sparkle Abbey

photo of Rosemary Beach Florida Gulf CoastHow is it that February is already in the books? 2023 is moving right along and we shared last month that we kicked off the new year by beginning to write a new mystery series. We also shared that the new series is not set in California like our Pampered Pets books, but since we both love the beach, we’re hanging onto the beachy theme.

And that’s where this research adventure begins…

After attending the NINC (Novelists, Inc.) conference in St. Pete last September we decided to research some Gulf Coast retirement communities as that is where we planned to set the new series. We’d already had great fun fleshing out characters, coming up with titles, and plotting murders on the drive down. (Side note: From Des Moines, IA to St. Pete Beach, FL is 1,380 miles or about 21 hours. A few more hours if you take time to track down a fabulous lobster food truck in Nashville, but that’s a story for a different day.)

We’d researched several possibilities that based on their online descriptions seemed to match what we had in mind. For the drive back we’d planned to visit our top four or five and check out some details. Now the books will be set in a fictional 55+ community but we’ve found we really need to have a feel for our setting as it plays such a strong role in a story – especially in mysteries.

  • Stop 1 – Too fancy and almost hotel like. Not the right vibe.
  • Stop 2 – More reasonable but surrounded by a residential neighborhood. Not the close-knit community feel we were looking for.
  • Stop 3 – Almost there. Nice community feel, but no people out and about doing things.
  • Stop 4 – Bingo. There it was. A great gated 55+ village with a community center, indoor pool, golf, shuffleboard, walking trails. There were people out walking their pets and a wonderful friendly feel as the walkers waved at us. And there were plenty of places to hide a dead body. A very important detail.

Success! We found our fictional Shady Palms and were able to take some photos, research details, pick up some materials on the floor plans, download the layout of the neighborhoods, learn the flora and fawn, and so much more.  Feeling good that our mission was accomplished we decided to backtrack and have lunch at a Greek restaurant we’d passed a few miles back. What a great choice. (Well, it wasn’t a lobster food truck but it looked promising and also seemed very busy which is always a good sign, right?) It was amazing. We highly recommend Mr. Souvlaki’s. If you ever get the chance to dine there, you are in for a treat. And no matter how full you are, you must finish up with the Loukoumades – fluffy clouds of pastry with honey & cinnamon. They are to die for! Definitely worth a thousand-mile road trip and we’re trying to figure out if we use them in the books if they can be considered a tax write off. All in the name of research, of course.Poster for Heavenly Puffs

At this point, we’re feeling great, though a bit overstuffed. It’s time to head north and so we leave the more scenic itinerary and move to Interstate travel. But first we need to stop for gas so we can get back on schedule and make some time. Our first stop was a Starbucks (big surprise) with a nice gas station nearby. But wait, they are out of gas.

But what’s an adventure without a little conflict?

Oh, did we mention that there was a hurricane by the name of Ian bearing down on the Gulf Coast? No problem, we’ll navigate to the next nearest option. It’s not far. But all the pumps are bagged. You guessed it – out of gas! It took three more stops and finally following a fuel truck back to our first gas station, but we finally got a full tank of gas and we were back on the road. Heading north and praying for everyone in the path of the hurricane.

We are continuing to research and build the story lines as we work on this new series. We’re loving the new characters who continue to evolve and make us laugh. We hope our reader enjoy the fictional Shady Palms and the new stories as much as we’re enjoying writing them!

If you’d like to keep in touch with us and get updates about the new series, please sign up for our newsletter here: SparkleAbbey.com

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

The love to hear from readers and can be found on Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest, their favorite social media sites. You can also follow them on BookBub to be notified when there are special offers.  Currently Downton Tabby is a featured deal at 99 cents in all ebook formats.

book cover for Downton TabbyIn Downton Tabby, Caro Lamont, amateur sleuth and well-respected animal therapist to Laguna Beach’s pampered pets, works with office mate and tech wizard, Graham Cash, whose beloved Scottish Fold tabby cat, Toria, is purported to have anger management issues. But when Caro drops by the charming Brit’s Tudor-inspired mansion to return Toria, she finds his business partner dead and Cash missing.

Caro is left with the cuddly cat and a lot of unanswered questions. Is Cash the killer, or has he been kidnapped? What’s up with the angry next door neighbor? And what about Cash’s girlfriend, Heidi, who isn’t sharing everything she knows with homicide detective Judd Malone?

Suddenly there are more secrets and intrigues than there are titles in England. Add in a stranger in a dark SUV stalking Caro, feisty senior sidekick, Betty, hiding in restaurant shrubbery, and wannabe investigative reporter Callum MacAvoy who seems to be constantly underfoot, and you’ve got a cat and mouse mystery of the first order.

Hello? Is anyone out there?

/in , /by

With a blogging rotation that assigns me the fourth Wednesday of every month, I’m always stuck blogging the day before Thanksgiving. Hello? Is anybody out there? Probably not. I imagine you’re all either busy prepping in the kitchen or spending the day traveling over the river and through the woods or in the air on the way to grandma’s (or some other relative’s) house.

Not me. Our older son and his family have established their own Thanksgiving tradition on the other side of the country, and our younger son and his family rotate every year between spending Thanksgiving with us and his wife’s family in upstate New York. It’s the New York contingent’s turn this year.

My husband and I are hosting another couple without family in the area, and the four of us have decided to split the cost of a catered meal from one of the local supermarkets. No stress, no slaving in the kitchen, and enough leftovers for at least one additional meal for both couples. My kind of Thanksgiving.

Many people will tell you that Thanksgiving is their favorite holiday. For me, over the course of my life most Thanksgivings have been anything but Norman Rockwell pleasant. Thanks to my father, Thanksgiving tensions ran high when I was a child. To say he was disliked (and rightfully so) by other members of the family, would be an understatement.

When I married, my mother-in-law insisted on hosting Thanksgiving every year, forcing us to suffer through undercooked turkey and raw piecrust. It’s a wonder no one ever got food poisoning. One year we accepted an invitation from friends. I figured at some point our ptomaine-free luck was going to run out because her cooking was growing worse with each passing year.

My mother-in-law hit the roof and refused to speak to us for months. No great punishment, as far as I was concerned. That may sound harsh until you realize she’s the inspiration behind my sleuth’s communist mother-in-law in my Anastasia Pollack Crafting Mysteries. Lucille Pollack is the character my readers love to hate.

Once my mother-in-law passed on to the great communist commune in the sky, I began hosting Thanksgiving. We had some very enjoyable ones with other family members and friends, and for the first time in my life, I began to look forward to Thanksgiving. But then we moved from New Jersey to Tennessee a year and a half ago, and the only family nearby are the ones currently enjoying Thanksgiving in the snows of upstate New York.

 

But on the bright side, Christmas is right around the corner. As an early holiday gift, if you are reading this post, I’m giving away one audiobook (US or UK residents only) of Assault with a Deadly Glue Gun, the first book in my Anastasia Pollack Crafting Mysteries. To enter, post a comment about one of your own memorable (or not so memorable) Thanksgiving experiences.

~*~

USA Today and Amazon bestselling and award-winning author Lois Winston writes mystery, romance, romantic suspense, chick lit, women’s fiction, children’s chapter books, and nonfiction under her own name and her Emma Carlyle pen name. Kirkus Reviews dubbed her critically acclaimed Anastasia Pollack Crafting Mystery series, “North Jersey’s more mature answer to Stephanie Plum.” In addition, Lois is a former literary agent and an award-winning craft and needlework designer who often draws much of her source material for both her characters and plots from her experiences in the crafts industry. Learn more about Lois and her books at her website www.loiswinston.com where you can also sign up for her newsletter and follow her on various social media sites.