KILLER HOBBIES

A Brief History of Glass

2012-01-29T21:08:00.001-05:00

And the twelve gates were twelve pearls; every several gate was of one pearl: and the street of the city was pure gold, as it were transparent glass.
--Revelations 21:21

In the Bible, glass was as precious as gold. But in our daily life, glass is so commonplace, that it's difficult to realize how rare it once was.

Researcher believe the first glass was made by the Phoenicians and/or the Egyptians. Perhaps they stumbled over a molten piece of silica and sand and realized that with a high enough temperature, they could copy the end product.

The art traveled through the Mediterranean. Some believe that Jews, with persecutions forcing them to be nomadic, learned the art and carried it with them. By the 1500s, Venice became the major producer of glass in Europe.

To protect their monopoly on glassmaking, the Doge, the chief magistrate of the Serene Republic of Venice, rounded up all the glassmakers and sent them to live on the Island of Murano. Furthermore, he decreed that any Venetian glassmaker who shared with a foreigner the secrets of making clear glass would be put to death.

Then in 1665, Jean-Baptiste Colbert, the French Minister of Finance, lured 18 glassmakers away from Venice. He wanted them to work at the new glass foundry he was funding in the Paris suburb named Courbevois. The glass was necessary to finish the decor of the Hall of Mirrors in Versailles, where 17 archways were built to reflect 17 windows. In each archway, there would be a total of 21 smaller beveled mirrors. The final effect was glorious--and the Venetian control on glass was broken.

Today, when I walk the beach, I look for bits of glass that have been tumbled and made rough by the surf. You can spot these because their color is translucent and darker than that of seashells. As I pluck shards up off the sand or snatch them out of the tide, I examine them carefully. (My favorite colors are shades of green.) I wonder where they came from. Who threw them overboard? What did they once hold? And were any the product of a Venetian glassmaker?

Tell me about the most marvelous piece of glass (or glass object) you've ever seen, and I'll send you a piece of seaglass from my collection!

6 Ways to Energize Your Writing Naturally

2012-01-28T04:07:00.001-05:00

Like most cozy mystery authors, I have a writing routine. For example, right now I need to do a rewrite of Scent to Kill, the follow up to Death Drops: A Natural Remedies Mystery. The best time for me to be productive and hopefully brilliant! is in the morning from 9 to noon. But once I have lunch, I feel less energetic. However, if I’m under a deadline I need to power through less productive times and write throughout the day. That’s when I turn to my favorite natural remedy – coffee! I buy mine from 7-11 because home brewed just isn’t strong enough. I interviewed a doctor at Harvard Medical School years ago for an article and he told me that coffee at 7-11 and Dunkin’ Donuts is 8 times as strong has home brewed!

Not only does coffee give me a much needed pick-me-up, I’ve found it also boosts my mood (recent research shows that coffee can help with mild depression) and helps me see things more clearly. In addition, these natural cures can make you more alert and focused, with writing or whatever you need to do!

1. Sip small amounts of chilled water every 30 minutes. Studies show that when you consume small amounts of chilled water every 20-30 minutes during the day, it sends a clear and immediate signal to your brain to increase alertness and energy.

2. Smell peppermint. According to a study in the North American Journal of Psychology drivers had more energy when exposed to this scent. Peppermint increases alertness and decreases fatigue. Chew a nice strong peppermint gum or peppermint mints while you write or drive to decrease fatigue and increase alertness.

3. Use acupressure on your outer ears. Applying pressure to acupressure points all along the outer ear helps to clear the head, gets rid of dull pain above the neck and charges up your entire energy system. Just take your thumb and first finger and go up and down the entire outer ear two or three times and give it a good brisk rubbing.

4. Drink green tea. Green tea has some energizing caffeine, but it also contains theanine, an amino acid that has a stress-reducing effect on your brain. It calms you while giving you mental clarity, leaving your mind clear and sharp and alert.

5. Inhale Eucalyptus or spearmint essential oil. The nose is the only part of your brain that extends to the outer environment is your sense of smell so it’s very charged. Volatile oils such as eucalyptus or spearmint stimulate a part of your brain that triggers alertness. For a natural pick-me-up place a few drops of eucalyptus or spearmint essential oil on a tissue and inhale deeply.

6. Eat Dark Chocolate. Although it’s weaker than caffeine, the chemical theobromine in chocolate is a mild stimulant. Chocolate also contains phenylethylamine, (PEA) which is a feel good mood elevator. Choose a high quality, imported dark chocolate with 70% or more cocoa content. It has less sugar and its rich flavor will satisfy you with less. Aim for 1 ounce of dark chocolate a few times a week.

About Death Drops: A Natural Remedies Mystery:

Dr. Willow McQuade, N.D., a twenty-eight-year-old naturopathic doctor specializing in natural remedies, has decided to take sabbatical and visit her Aunt Claire, the owner of Nature’s Way Market and Cafe in idyllic Greenport, Long Island. But the idea of rest and relaxation is quickly forgotten when Willow arrives from a morning meditative walk to discover her Aunt Claire dead in the store, a strange almond-like smell emanating from her mouth and a bottle of flower essences by her side.

Despite her Zen nature and penchant for yoga, Aunt Claire had a knack for getting into confrontations with folks. An activist, she held weekly meetings for different causes every week in the store. The police want to believe the death is accidental—but Willow thinks she may have been poisoned.

Things get worse when Aunt Claire’s valuable recipe for a new natural age-defying formula, Fresh Face, is stolen during a store break-in, and an attempt is made on Willow’s life. Desperate for a way out of the mess, she turns to a handsome young cop Jackson Spade. Together the two set about solving the case the natural way—through a combination of hard work, common sense, and a dose of luck.

Praise for Death Drops: A Natural Remedies Mystery:

“With a terrific premise and an interesting topic, Fiedler’s debut shows promise.” - Library Journal

Death Drops is a gem! Entertaining, informative, and with a mystery that had me completely baffled! – Gayle Trent, author of Killer Sweet Tooth

"Fiedler's absorbing mystery is an entertaining debut, featuring a likeable menagerie of characters, filled with natural remedies, with all of it unfolding on Long Island's idyllic East End." Linda Bloodworth-Thomason, author of the national bestseller Liberating Paris.

“An engaging investigative thriller…an enjoyable whodunit.” The Mystery Gazette

Death Drops: A Natural Remedies Mystery is available for pre-order on www.amazon.com and for sale on February 21^st. What helps give you energy? Just leave your answer to be entered in the drawing to win one of 5 free copies of Death Drops: A Natural Remedies Mystery! For more information please visit www.chrystlefiedler.com

Getting Unstuck

2012-01-27T01:02:00.003-05:00

I can tell there is something different going on because I'm knitting instead of crocheting. Even though I can't wait to start on the eight crochet mystery, I had to set aside all my notes and start on the first book in my new series which features Casey Feldstein, a dessert chef who has inherited a business putting on yarncraft retreat at a slightly sinister conference center on the Monterey peninsula. The first book which I think is going to be called Yarn2Go involves knitting. So to get in the mood, I've become a needle head as Adele from the crochet mysteries would probably say.

I thought it would be a breeze to make the tranisition from writing one series to writing the other. Not exactly. I have the first three chapters and the synopsis done. I know who all the characters are and who the victim is and who killed her and why. But it was all the other stuff I wasn't sure about and I discovered my synopsis wasn't as complete a road map as I'd remembered it as being.

My usual choice for starting out is to handwrite on yellow legal pads in the morning. Even with all I have already written and what I know, I found myself with my pen hanging over the page instead of writing on it.

When all else failed, I started writing about how I felt. That I was stuck. That I was panicking because I was stuck. Waht was I going to do if I couldn't write the book. I often put notes like that inside my rough draft. Somehow writing anything helps and it's always funny to read over when I'm rewriting because by then I've gotten past the stuckness.

The one thing I didn't do was give up. I knew that if I kept sitting there with my pen on the yellow pad eventually I'd start to see what my characters were doing and hear their voices so I could write it all down.

It took a few days and a bit of anguish, but suddenly I heard Casey on the phone talking to her boss from when she did temp work at the detective agency. And my pen began to race across the page as ideas about what was going to happen next fluttered through my mind.

The thing about writing is that it isn't like filing or washing dishes or selling toys. You can't grit your teeth and just say you're going to do it. Or at least, I can't. The best I can do is sit there with my pen over the page and wait for the magic to start.

My Zumba Moment

2012-01-25T16:21:00.001-05:00

I’m heading off to teach a mystery writing class at the Roanoke Regional Writer’s Conference on Saturday. I’m a new mystery author, but I’ve studied and learned a lot over the past few years. I’m looking forward to sharing what I’ve learned—and learning a thing or two myself.
I’m always a bit nervous when I head off to a conference, so I’ve been thinking about my presentation a great deal—even while huffing and puffing at Zumba class. For those of you who don’t know, Zumba is an aerobic/dance class with a Latin flair. I love it—and am now doing it three times a week.
The thing about taking a class like this at a gym is that sometimes they switch instructors around on you. They all have different routines, approaches, and so on. So, I’ve been sort of having problems with one of the new instructors. I like her. Her moves are fun. Love the music she selects. What is the problem? Why am I not bathed in sweat when I leave her class like in other classes? I began to research by watching the clock.
In my favorite teacher’s class, I’m sweating at five minutes into the class. In the new instructor’s class, I am not really sweating until half way in. And then the level starts to fluctuate—an easier routine, then a harder on, and so on.
Hmmm.
The pacing was way off. If I were to compare it to a mystery novel, the murder wasn’t happening until midway through the book. How invested would my “mystery” readers be by that point? Not very. Many readers would have chucked the book after the first few chapters. We hear this time and time again—you have to capture your reader’s attention immediately and work to keep them interested.
But if I hooked my reader in with murder in the first chapter, then didn’t give any clues, or any red herrings until the half-way point in the book, they probably would have not finished the book either.
I think it is a tricky balance—this pacing in a mystery novel thing. Have you, as readers, noticed when it’s “off”? Writers, how do you deal with pacing?

The Present and Past in Writing

2012-01-25T01:21:00.001-05:00

Let me start with the present. I’ve got two really fun events coming up in the near future.

The nearest is Mystery on the Menu, a luncheon followed by panels at the Cerritos Library. It’s this Saturday, January 28. The cast of characters--well, writers--has been changing but it promises to be a really fun event. Check it out at the Mysterious Galaxy website: www.mystgalaxy.com/event/mystery-menu-cerritos-library-0128

Next month is Passion and Prose. It’ll be at the Westin Long Beach hotel on Saturday, February 25. The website (www.passionandprose.org) says, “Please join bestselling authors Meg Cabot, Christina Dodd, Gail Carriger, and 50 other fabulous romance authors...” I’m one of those 50 other fabulous romance authors!

Then there’s the past.

We’re spoiled, these days, with being able to research nearly everything on the Internet. It’s so easy, when I’m writing, to stop for only a few minutes and look up something I need for my story.

But, sadly, not everything is there.

I’ve been thinking about the past this week partly because my husband was running some old 8mm films about his family. He showed one movie that was shot in Miami in the early 1950s that had a picture of an old hotel called the Cromwell. I dashed over to my computer to Google it. Yes, it was there--sort of--but the best I could find was an old photo of it for sale on EBay. Apparently, it doesn’t exist any more.

That reminded me of trying to look up the delicatessen owned by my grandparents for years in downtown Pittsburgh. They sold it to someone who kept it up under the same name for several years before it was closed: Richest’s Restaurant. I’ve Googled it at different times, and the best I can find is a few blogs or articles where people reminisce about some of their favorite restaurants that aren’t there any longer.

There is a tad of information online about my relatives who once owned Richest’s--mostly just birth and death data. I’m sure the reason why this is on my mind so much today is that today would have been my beloved uncle Gary Richest’s birthday, but he’s no longer with us.

And there’s more that hasn’t been lost. Some additional things from our families’ pasts do show up on the Internet. Our older son was recently doing some research on ancestry on his dad’s side, and because those particular relatives were notable in history there was apparently quite a bit about them online.

I used to write time travel romances. I’ve also written a suspense novel loosely based on my family history and, yes, Richest’s Restaurant. The time travel romances were published but the suspense novel wasn’t. These days, I’m writing about the present and have gotten away from the past. But it’s still there talking to me, perhaps telling me to resurrect the time travel romances and republish them in e-format one of these days. And maybe I’ll even try the suspenseful version of family history.

What’s your favorite upcoming event? And have you found everything about the past that you’ve looked up on the Internet?

Why We Tell Stories, Part Two

2012-01-24T09:11:00.001-05:00

This is Part Two of an essay I wrote and presented at my church a few Sunday ago on the topic “Why Do We Tell Stories?”

We like stories because they give us information – and we all, at every age, are seekers of information. Stories tell us how to act when presented with a new situation. We eagerly listen as characters behave boldly, bravely, stupidly, cowardly, cleverly, properly, when confronted with an unfamiliar or dangerous situation. Professor Boyd: “Narrative can offer us either particular social information to guide immediate decisions or general principles we can apply in the future.” Stories are another form of socialization, a way of playing with people we have never met. Stories teach us empathy, how to enter the mind of another, to understand motives not our own.

We prefer fictional stories to factual ones, perhaps because fiction strips away the unimportant parts of the narrative, and the lessons are clearer. We particularly love them when they present the exaggerated, the exciting. A favorite word in a story: Suddenly -- !

Stories are vital to us as a super-social species. They reflect our culture and reinforce our expectations and understanding of one another. Professor Boyd says, “. . . fiction cultivates our sympathetic imagination by prompting us to see from the perspective of character after character.” And to see beyond the here and now, beyond things as they are to things that might be. He describes a group of deaf people living on the margins of society in Mexico who have never been taught sign language or any other form of communication. Yet even they tell, through mime, stories to one another – an illustration of how important, how basic, stories are to us as human beings.

Anything important to our survival nature makes pleasurable. Look at food, for example. The word “feast” spills over to apply to anything wonderful, abundant, and admirable. The kitchen is often described as the heart of the home. There are no end of cookbooks. Or restaurants. The joyous Ghost of Christmas Present in Dickens’ “A Christmas Carol” is first presented standing atop a veritable mountain of delicious food.

And equally, look at a child’s delighted, expectant face on hearing the phrase, “Once upon a time . . .” Look at books and bookstores. Look at movies. For heaven’s sake, look at television – which we all do, to the despair of people who wish we would exercise more.

And look at me, in my silly hats and my happy choice of a career: writing stories.

Mop Doll Mania

2012-01-22T02:38:00.001-05:00

Special Post by Lois Winston

Being an author of crafting mysteries, I’m thrilled to be back guesting at Killer Hobbies. A year ago, I was invited to do a guest blog when Assault With a Deadly Glue Gun, the first book in my Anastasia Pollack Crafting Mysteries, was released. Today I’m back to tell you about Death By Killer Mop Doll, the second book in the series.

Like most crafting mysteries, I include craft projects in my books. Because my amateur sleuth is the crafts editor at a women’s magazine, she has to know how to work in a myriad of crafting techniques. In Assault With a Deadly Glue Gun, I featured general crafts, quick and easy projects that could be mastered by anyone, no skills required. A frustrated crafter is a crafter who won’t be crafting long. But give someone a project she can accomplish in a short period of time, with little difficulty, and satisfying results, and you’ve got a crafter for life.

In Death By Killer Mop Doll, I decided to concentrate on one particular craft -- mop dolls. Now, unless you were crafting or frequenting craft shows in the late eighties and early nineties, you probably have never heard of mop dolls. They were a craft that took the crafts industry -- and the public -- by storm. Craft stores devoted entire aisles to stocking the string mops and accessories used to make these dolls.

Mop manufacturers even began selling dyed string mops in a variety of colors to keep up with the crafting demand of what used to be an item found only at hardware and cleaning supply stores and used primarily by janitors. Those same mop manufacturers began making money like they’d never seen before. Inventory flew out of warehouses the moment product came off assembly lines.

Sadly, like all trends, mop dolls went the way of the pet rock. I thought, why not bring back the mop doll in my current mystery? Trends are cyclical, after all, and mop dolls are very easy to make. Besides, Death By Killer Mop Doll is a title that might catch a reader’s attention. At least I’m hoping so!

In Death By Killer Mop Doll, Anastasia finds herself and her fellow American Woman editors roped into a weekly unpaid gig for a revamped morning TV show. No one is happy, and a disgruntled staffer takes action by trashing the studio set, leaving one of Anastasia’s mop dolls as a calling card. Vandalism soon escalates to blackmail and murder when a member of the production team is found with another mop doll sitting on his chest and one of Anastasia’s knitting needles plunged through his heart. When Anastasia begins snooping to prove her innocence, she lands smack in the killer's crosshairs.
Death By Killer Mop Doll includes directions for making a basic mop doll as well as several variations and Christmas string doll ornaments. Do you think you’ll try your hand at crafting a mop doll? How often do you make one of the crafts featured in a crafting mystery? Post a comment, and you could win one of five signed copies of Death By Killer Mop Doll I’m giving away as part of my January blog tour. The full tour schedule can be found at my website, http://www.loiswinston.com, and the Killer Crafts & Crafty Killers blog, http://www.anastasiapollack.blogspot.com. In addition, I’m giving away 3 copies of Death By Killer Mop Doll on Goodreads, http://www.goodreads.com/giveaway/show/15173-death-by-killer-mop-doll

Bio: Lois Winston is the author of the critically acclaimed Anastasia Pollack Crafting Mysteries published by Midnight Ink. Assault With a Deadly Glue Gun, the first book in the series, received starred reviews from Publishers Weekly and Booklist and was recently nominated for a Readers Choice Award by the Salt Lake City Library System. The new year brings with it the release of Death By Killer Mop Doll, the second book in the series. Read an excerpt at http://www.loiswinston.com/excerptap2.html. Visit Lois at her website: http://www.loiswinston.com and Anastasia at the Killer Crafts & Crafty Killers blog: http://www.anastasiapollack.blogspot.com. You can also follow Lois and Anastasia on Twitter @anasleuth.

Take it Slow with a Slow Hobby from a Cozy Mystery

2012-01-21T01:00:00.003-05:00

With my book launch for Death Drops: A Natural Remedies Mystery happening next month (Feb. 21^st) and the PR and marketing and blogging and tweeting that I need to do daily and a re-write for book number 2 in the series looming, and well, life, I’m feeling a little stressed (good stress - I’m very grateful for all these wonderful opportunities but still…) However, I know what the answer is: slow down.

Alternative medicine provides some of the best natural remedies. Even just taking a deep breath and saying, “I am breathing in. I know that I am breathing in” and exhaling, “I am breathing out. I know that I am breathing out,” as Thich Nhat Hanh author of You Are Here, says, can improve one’s outlook by releasing stress.

But did you know that hobbies like knitting, painting, sculpting, crocheting and quilting can also help you slow down? That’s because slow hobbies help you cultivate the lost art of focus, concentration and being in the moment. “Slow hobbies have a meditative quality to them and a calming effect that goes beyond the act itself,” says Carl Honore, author of In Praise of Slowness.

In fact, according to the Craft Yarn Council of America research 64% of knitters and crocheters use these crafts to help them reduce stress and relax. Studies show that the rhythmic, repetitive dance of the needles can lower heart rate and blood pressure, lulling the knitter into a peaceful state.

I’ve noticed that just “reading” about hobbies is relaxing. For example, I feel more peaceful when I’m reading Laura Child’s Tea Shop Mysteries, Anne Canadeo’s Black Sheep Knitters series and Betty Hechtman’s crocheting mysteries. I can’t wait to dive into all the books of my fellow Killer Hobbies blogging sisters and mellow out.

You may even find your new hobby from a cozy mystery. Hobbies in cozies range from scrapbooking to quilting, from knitting and embroidery to cooking. You’ll find many of these cozies right here.

Choose a hobby that you are really interested in, that you enjoy and that you can build a relationship with over time. You’ll be less stressed and happier and you’ll also enjoy your cozy mysteries even more!

Death Drops: A Natural Remedies Mystery (Gallery Books/S & S) will be published on Feb. 21^st and is available for pre-order on www.amazon.com. I’m giving away free copies of Death Drops. Just answer this question: What is Your Favorite Hobby? to be entered in the drawing! For more information please visit www.chrystlefiedler.com!

The Blanket

2012-01-20T01:53:00.002-05:00

I finished making a baby blanket for my agent’s newborn son. I was so inspired by completing something, I began to look around at my many abandoned UFOs (unfinished objects) stuffed into drawers and bags.

I came across an afghan I’d started when I first took up crochet around six years ago. I’d already finished about two thirds of it. It was simple enough - just single crochet on size q hook. I wondered why I had stopped working on it when I was pretty close to finishing. Then it came back to me there was some issue with lost stitches. When I counted, I saw that I had started with 63 stitches and somewhere along the way had lost a bunch of stitches so I was down to 55 stitches.

I debated about what to do. It seemed I’d only kept the 63 stitches going for a short time, so if I was going to unravel, it would be almost the whole thing. The sides were a little wobbly and my stitches weren’t the best, but it seemed a shame to throw away all that work.

So, I decided to just keep going. By now, I have figured out how not to lose stitches. I just mark the first and last stitch in each row with a little plastic stitch marker. And my stitches are more confident than when I started the small blanket. So the part of it I’m doing now won’t quite match the earlier section. Whatever pattern I was using has long vanished, but it doesn’t matter, I will use up the yarn and finish with a nice edging.

As I began to work on it and saw how differently I crocheted now, I had a thought that turned everything around. Instead of being upset by the slightly misshapenness of the blanket, I saw it as a measure of my progress. Once finished, I would always be reminded that by sticking with something and working at it, I’d gotten better. So, instead of being bothered by it’s imperfection, I would be inspired by it. I know I’m going to love that afghan for always.

Do you have something that reminds you of how much you’ve improved at doing it? I hope that sentence makes sense. It’s been a long day and my pillow is calling.

Inquiring Minds

2012-01-18T19:29:00.003-05:00

I was recently at a mystery writers panel at the Virginia State Library in Richmond, Va. One of the questions we were asked by our moderator was about our craft—no not the craft of writing, but the craft we’re using in our books. Why did we choose it? It gave me pause.
I had never thought to write a “scrapbooking mystery” when I first started writing SCRAPBOOK OF SECRETS. In fact, when I first started writing it, I thought of it more as women’s fiction. But as I started down that path during National Novel Writing month a few years back, something didn’t feel right. But I kept writing.
I had disjointed narratives, characters coming and going, and a big bunch of adjectives and adverbs going nowhere. I mentioned it to my agent, who helped me place the mystery structure to it. She said, “It sounds like a mystery.” Hmph.
The next thing I knew I was on creative fire and couldn’t stop writing it. And wouldn’t you know it, my favorite hobby was front and center in the story line. Funny how that happens.
The thing about hobbies is that if you have one, it’s bound to find it’s way in to your writing. It’s not forced or strained—or just a marketing strategy. Well, for most of us, that is. And scrapbooking isn’t just about pretty paper. There’s also a puzzle quality to it, a social aspect, and a deeper meaning to it.
In the first book in my Cumberland Creek Series, the mystery is partially solved by the scrapbookers through scrapbooking. I wouldn’t have a plot without it. In my second book, the same scrapbookers are tearing apart a scrapbook of a mysterious nature to figure things out.
So I wonder about this subgenre of mystery. And I wonder about our readers. Do you read a book just because it includes a hobby you’re interested in? Or is the writer you follow? The mystery? What is it?
For the writers out there, what comes first when you get an idea for a novel—your craft? Your story? Your characters?
Sorry for being so full of questions today, but inquiring minds, dontchyaknow.

An Abundance of Addresses

2012-01-18T01:31:00.000-05:00

I have 7 email addresses: 5 Yahoo, 1 Rocketmail, and a G-mail.

Too many, you say? Maybe so. But I use them each for different purposes.

One’s my long-time old one that has a lot of stuff saved in it, including an abundance of contacts. One’s mostly for promotional purposes for my writing. One’s to collect names and addresses for my very periodic writing newsletter. One is for my lawyer persona.

Another is one I use to collect junk email that I might actually read, such as Groupon deals and other bargains. Plus, it contains my link to Freekibble, where I answer a question each day about dogs, and each response generates a donation of kibble to help needy canines. (There’s a cat link, too.)

I started my Rocketmail account when I first joined Facebook. My husband joined FB before I did, and his email was immediately hacked. I wanted to protect my other email addresses, so I decided to start a new one to use for social networking, including FB and my website.

My g-mail address has a couple of purposes, including access to the Killer Hobbies blog! I also use it to run Google Alerts on certain subjects, including myself. Always interesting to see what turns up.

I do use different passwords for each. Do I confuse them at times? Not often, but occasionally.

Those are my main addresses, unless you also count other social networking addresses such as my Facebook account...

How many addresses do you have? Do you find them all useful?

Why We Tell Stories

2012-01-17T10:24:00.004-05:00

This is from the text of a talk I gave at St. George's Episcopal Church this past Sunday. There is no religious angle to it, however. Father Paul is just intrigued that he has a professional author lurking in his congregation and wanted to know what it's about. I am going to present this in parts. Here is Part One:

“Minds exist to predict what will happen next.”
- Professor Brian Boyd, Distinguished
Professor of English, University of Auckland,
New Zealand, author of On the Origin of Stories:
Evolution, Cognition, and Fiction

Animals look for patterns. They help them – they help us – make sense of the world. Animals are born knowing some, and strive at once to acquire more through learning and experience.

A barely-dry chick will cower or run for cover if the bird flying overhead has its wings placed more forward on its body than centered, but will go about his business if the wings are toward the back. A duck’s wings are back – a hawk’s wings are forward.

An infant forty-five minutes old will imitate a human adult’s facial expressions, smiling, closing and opening her eyes, and sticking her tongue out, if the adult shows them to her. By the age of three months, an infant can tell the difference between animate and inanimate objects. By eight months, according to scientists who study babies, it understands the basic laws of physics.

It is important to survival to be able to tell if that person approaching a friend or an enemy. We can learn to look for signs of aggression. We can practice until we know we can throw a rock hard enough, accurately enough, to run him off. Survival skills are learned, honed and polished through play. Children run, jump, throw balls and rocks and sticks, wrestle, climb and yell in mock fear or anger at the tops of their lungs. Like other social animals, they’d much rather play with others than alone. They play baseball, football, hockey, basketball, hide and seek, war, monsters, cops and robbers, house. They play games that call for skill and cunning as well as physical exertion.

All animals play games of imagination – ever been stalked by a kitten? Played tug of war with a dog? Have you seen that video of a crow using a bottle cap for a sled?

Play is important not only to survival but to socialization. A scientist interviewed hundreds of homicidal psychopaths and he found ninety percent of them did not play as children.

Not every game calls for it, but one very popular variant of play is make-believe:
“Let’s play King and Queen!”
“Okay, if I can be the dragon!”

I don’t believe children ever play real life, re-enacting actual incidents from their lives. They want adventure, danger, fantasy.

They not only make up stories themselves, they love to listen to stories.

Adult humans play, too. We never seem to lose our affection – our need, actually – for games.

And like children, adults love to listen to stories, to read stories, to watch actors create stories.

And some of us like to invent stories.

Next: But what is the survival use of stories?

Girls Night Out

2012-01-15T21:00:00.001-05:00

Before I moved to Florida, our house fairly hummed with testosterone. My son and husband commandeered the TV on weekends, watching sports together. They talked about poker. I spoiled them both, and happily so, by doing most of the cooking. Without other family around, the guys outnumbered me, so they really set the agenda--and that was fine.

But everything changes, doesn't it? And happily so, for the most part.

One reason we bought a home here is that I'm ten miles away from my two sisters and my four nieces. Tonight I my sisters (Jane and Meg), my brother-in-law (Mike), and three nieces (Katigan, Makenna and Grace) came over for dinner. I marinated the meat. The girls helped chop the veggies for kabobs and load it on skewers. They mixed the salad. Mike was designated "Grill God" for the evening, so he did the cooking. We sat down at the table for a great meal--and then his beeper went off and he was called into work at the hospital.

That left "just us girls."

All of us chattered and worked together to pick up the mess. Then Meg announced she had something to show me. She and Mike had found my aunt's old projector while cleaning out their garage.

Meg set it up, projected the image on my wall, and we watched an old 8 mm tape that must have been made almost 40 years ago! It makes me sad to think that Kodak is having trouble these days, because this puppy still works--and it was like a magic lantern illuminating the past. (By the way, do you remember the sound and smell of these? Trust me, it's distinctive.)

In it, my mom wore big sunglasses and waved to the camera as she walked to our car. Jane and I also walked to the car, then I turned and went back for Meg, reappearing with her on my shoulders. Even without sound, you can see how much we sisters relied on each other.

Of all the gifts my parents gave me, the best by far was my sisters.

Meister Eckhart has been credited with saying, "If the only prayer you said in your whole life was, 'thank you,' that would suffice."

Thanks, Mom and Dad!

22-Inch Quilt Contest/Exhibit Feeds Needy Children

2012-01-15T02:00:00.002-05:00

Special to the Readers of the Killer Hobbies Blog...

The overwhelming need to feed needy children inspired Judy Howard, owner of Buckboard Antique Quilts, to sponsor the “Food for Body and Soul Touring Quilts” Contest and Exhibits. The exhibits are touring the U.S. for three years with all proceeds from the $100/week-end exhibit rental and accompanying 1905 Cookbook—Food for Body and Soul going to local soup kitchens and food pantries. Judy is also donating 100% of sales of her 150 antique quilts, tops, blocks and vintage textiles on to feed needy children. Learn more about the antique quilts at Buckboard Quilts.

See Heavenly Patchwork for quilt photos, entry and rental forms, calendar of shows and sample recipes and stories. Deadline is February 25, 2012.

These two hundred 22 x 22 inches and larger touring quilts capture the essence of pioneer cooking, ethnic customs, vintage kitchen collectibles, passion for food, family, celebrations and holiday traditions.

It's not too late for you to enter your 22-inch quilt to receive a free copy of the 1905 Cookbook--Food for Body and Soul and a chance to win $2500 in prizes.

Please mail your 22-inch quilts to 12101 N. MacArthur, #137, Oklahoma City, OK 73162.

You can reserve this exhibit for your next show, civic or church event by emailing BuckboardQuilts@cox.net or calling 405-751-3885. Displayed in as little as 20 feet, sixty 22” quilts can be hung in 40 minutes displayed three up, back to back, or spread out for maximum effect. Drop-down labels on the quilts feature heart-warming stories.

Yours Naturally

2012-01-14T01:00:00.004-05:00

Hello!

It’s great to be here! I’m a fan of the Killer Hobbies blog and now I’m very happy to be a contributing blogger! This is thanks to my protagonist’s passion (and mine) for natural cures featured in my new book DEATH DROPS: A Natural Remedies Mystery (Gallery Books/Simon & Schuster 2/21/12).

It’s the first mystery cozy series to feature all types of natural remedies, from flower essences, homeopathy, massage, acupuncture, yoga and meditation to specific supplements and herbs. The series stars Dr. Willow McQuade, N.D., a twenty-eight-year-old naturopathic doctor (ND’s take a holistic approach factoring in mind, body and spirit) who specializes in natural remedies.

You may be wondering why write about natural remedies? Well, when I was growing up my mother practiced natural cures such as tea bag baths for sunburn, homeopathic remedies for colds and allergies (she even had her own homeopathic kit), arnica oil for sprains and bruises and, of course, chicken soup with garlic was always a staple. I knew that natural remedies worked and became a believer. This interest became the thread that would run through my entire career as a writer.

So, after I graduated from Boston University with a degree in communications, I dabbled in various vocations including advertising and television production (Designing Women, Evening Shade, Early Edition) in Hollywood, I became a journalist specializing natural health. I’ve written about natural cures for Natural Health, Better Homes & Gardens, Prevention, Vegetarian Times, The Health Monitor Network and was the Good Nature columnist for Remedy magazine.

In 2009 I followed my interest in natural remedies into non-fiction. The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Natural Remedies (Alpha, 2009), was followed by Beat Sugar Addiction Now! (Fairwinds Press, 2010 4^th printing), and the Beat Sugar Addiction Now! Cookbook (Fairwinds Press, 2012) both with noted holistic physician Jacob Teitelbaum, M.D. and The Country Almanac of Home Remedies (Fairwinds Press, 2011) with herbalist Brigitte Mars.

So it was only “natural” that when it came to fiction, I’d focus on natural remedies too. In 2011, my life-long dream came true when Gallery Books/Simon & Schuster bought my natural remedies series.

Now, I’m looking forward to sharing Willow’s (and my) passion for natural remedies along with snapshots of life with my family and friends and my two dachshunds, Holmes and Wallander (from All American Dachshund Rescue) and brother and sister cats, Tinker and Tuppence, also rescues.

For now, here are this week’s natural remedies just in time for cold and flu season:

1. Vitamin C and zinc. Vitamin C stimulates your immune system to fight that cold. Take 1000 mg. (to bowel tolerance) up to three times daily to shorten the duration of a cold. This is confirmed by over 30 studies that were analyzed by the Cochrane Database Systematic Review in 2004. Zinc, especially in the form of lozenges helps prevent viral replication of the cold virus in the throat by stimulating T-cell response. Stay under 50 mg. daily.

2. Elderberry can minimize the duration of flu symptoms including chills, headache and respiratory infection. According to a 2004 study published in The Journal of International Medical Research, when people were given elderberry syrup, (the brand name is Sambucol), 90% felt better after just three days! Elderberry syrup is also delicious! Take a dose every couple of hours you are awake when fighting something off. Decrease as you improve.

3. Drink two teaspoons each of apple cider vinegar and honey in a cup of hot water three times daily to break up mucus congestion. Diluted lemon in hot water or berry juices can help relieve fever.

4. Soothe a sore throat with a nice cup of licorice root tea. It eases irritated mucus membranes and stimulates the immune system.

5. Soaking in a hot bath is good for colds and flu. Draw a bath and add a cup of Epsom salts and 7 drops of essential oil of eucalyptus or ginger to promote sweating release of toxins. You can also sip some diaphoretic herbs in the tub such as elder flower and ginger. Afterwards dress warm and rest. Feel better!

If you have a medical condition check with your doctor before using these natural remedies.

About Death Drops: A Natural Remedies Mystery:

Praise for Death Drops:

Death Drops is a gem! Entertaining, informative, and with a mystery that had me completely baffled! – Gayle Trent, author of Killer Sweet Tooth

“An engaging investigative thriller…an enjoyable whodunit.” The Mystery Gazette

Death Drops is available for pre-order on www.amazon.com. I’m also giving away free copies of Death Drops. Just leave a comment to be entered in the drawing! For more information please visit www.chrystlefiedler.com

Real Characters

2012-01-13T01:36:00.000-05:00

Have you ever seen someone in real life who is the character in some book you’ve read? Or, if you’re a writer have you ever seen one of your characters show up in flesh and blood right in front of you?

We were having lunch a Mexican speedy, but not fast food place when I noticed a blond woman sitting alone in the booth behind us. She was eating the chips that come with everything and seemed to be reading something. For some reason when she got up to go to the salsa bar for a refill, my gaze was drawn to her. She was nicely dressed in dark medium brown slacks and a rust colored sweater. It wasn’t the clothes that caught my eye. It was her belt. It was big and brown and featured a holster with a gun. As she leaned over the salsa bar, I caught sight of the handcuffs and some other little compartments on the belt.

She might have been a little older than my character, but she was definitely Detective Heather from the crochet mysteries.

It was hard not to stare when she sat down with her salsa. I wanted to ask her a million questions about what it was like to be her. Of course, I didn’t. How crazy would I have looked if I slipped her a bookmark and said she seemed just like a character in the books I write? Sometimes you have to look at it from the other person’s point of view. Like the time I went into the sheriff’s station on Catalina and when they asked if they could help me, I started explaining about the book I was writing and how it took place on Catalina and I was curious about their jail cells. Did I mention I was wearing a hat from the Oprah show and sun glasses and a whole lot of bracelets? The female sheriff eyed me suspiciously and pretty much blew me off. Looking back on the episode I can see where I came across as a little odd.

So while the blond woman with the fine features was Detective Heather as far as I was concerned, I kept it to myself.

No surprise, when she left she got into a black Crown Victoria just like the one Detective Heather drives.

Welcome to my Messy Life

2012-01-12T08:06:00.005-05:00

So thrilled to be here today.
By way of introduction, I am a Southern transplant—now living in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia, but I grew up in Western Pennsylvania, just outside of Pittsburgh. Like most Pittsburghers, I love my Steelers (even when they don’t win), my city, and a good pierogie. Oh, and pie.
I’ve always been a writer, even when I was a dancer, actor, bartender, waitress or sales clerk. The first book I wrote was about a childhood crush— the 1970s heart throb, Tony DeFranco. I was 12. My second book was about a gang and a rich ballerina. I finished it when I was a high school senior. I tried for many years to get it published—and now thank the Universe I was not successful.
When I was 16, I took my first job at a restaurant that also had an ice cream parlor and doughnut shop attached—and that’s where I worked and was subsequently fired for being a little too creative with the sprinkles. My first job out of college was as a paste-up artist (now that really dates me) and the editor told me I could write for him “on my own time.” And I did.
Believe it or not, I’ve always been grateful to him—and to my college newspaper, for giving me those layout and design skills. I’m certain it gave me an edge when looking for work a few years later in the Washington, D.C., area, where most writers and editors also had to know how to do layout. I worked as a writer and editor for about fifteen years—until a major life event. At the age of 36, I had my first baby and my husband and I decided to leave the area.
So here we are. I launched a freelance career, published two cookbooks, had a another baby girl. I have two fabulous daughters—Emma, 13, and Tess, 10. A dream come true—both of them. Now, another dream is coming true: I’m a debut novelist. My novel SCRAPBOOK OF SECRETS will launch on February 7 and is being published by Kensington. Even though I’ve always wanted to write a novel, I’ve had to push that goal aside for more practical efforts.
Now I find myself balancing motherhood, food writing, and fiction. I’m an avid reader, love to run, do Yoga and Zumba, and of course, scrapbook. I bake when I get the chance—and cook almost every day. When we get the time, my family and I like to hike through the woods and mountains that surround us. We are blessed to live in such a gorgeous part of the country. As for me, I’ve stopped asking how this messy life of mine comes together. It just does. I am grateful.
Thanks to Joanna and the Killer Hobbies bloggers for asking me to join. In celebration of my first blog post here, I’m giving away a galley of SCRAPBOOK OF SECRETS. All you need to do is comment. I’ll take care of the rest. Please be sure to leave your email address so I can reach you.
About SCRAPBOOK OF SECRETS: A CUMBERLAND CREEK MYSTERY

Having traded in her career as a successful investigative journalist for the life of a stay-at-home mum in picturesque Cumberland Creek, Virginia, Annie can’t help but feel that something’s missing. But she finds solace in a local “crop circle” of scrapbookers united by chore-shy husbands, demanding children, and occasional fantasies of their former single lives. And when the quiet idyll of their small town is shattered by a young mother’s suicide, they band together to find out what went wrong…Annie resurrects her reporting skills and discovers that Maggie Rae was a closet scrapbooker who left behind more than a few secrets – and perhaps a few enemies. As they sift through Maggie Rae’s mysteriously discarded scrapbooks, Annie and her “crop” sisters begin to suspect that her suicide may have been murder. It seems that something sinister is lurking beneath the town’s beguilingly calm facade – like a killer with unfinished business…

Plotting a Class

2012-01-11T01:25:00.001-05:00

I’m currently plotting an online class on plotting. And more. It’s actually called Kiss Me or Kill Me: Cozy Mystery Writing 101 for Romance Writers.

That name is a misnomer of sorts. Yes, the class will be about writing cozy mysteries. And yes, this class is one that I think romance writers will like, at least those who are also interested in writing cozies. However, I plan to do lessons on all aspects of cozy writing, from coming up with a theme, to who the protagonist is, to how to put a cozy plot together.

Romance? Well, I’ll definitely get into how the protagonist may have a love interest and how that can be handled in a cozy. I’ll also describe the differences between cozy mysteries and, say, romantic suspense novels. But people taking the class don’t need to have any background in romance writing.

So why the title that implies otherwise? That’s because I’m presenting this class through the Orange County Chapter of Romance Writers of America, a wonderful chapter of a wonderful organization to which I’ve belonged for years.

The class will take place from Monday, February 13, to Sunday, March 11, 2012. I intend to give two lessons a week plus assignments and feedback. Am I nuts? Maybe. My next Pet Rescue Mystery is due in April. But this is something I’ve wanted to do for a while.

So if you’re interested in learning at least one cozy mystery and romance author’s perspective on how to write a cozy mystery... join me! Here’s the website: http://www.occrwa.org/onlineclassFeb12.html

I’m also inviting you to give me a lesson. Have you taken any online classes? What were the topics? Did you enjoy them? Any suggestions for me to make my class the most fun yet most educational online class so far?

Non-verbal Communication

2012-01-10T09:00:00.003-05:00

Many years ago, when my nephew Aaron was not yet a toddler, we had a few friends over to my parents’ home for an evening. Mom had bought a crib for the several grandchildren still young enough to need one, and had set it up in the doorway of a room that today would be called the family room. Aaron, not ready to sleep, stood in the crib watching us gathered in the living room. Earlier, he had been given a new toy, a large, hard-plastic ball, bright red, with shapes cut out of its surface: a square, a circle, a star, a triangle. It came with plastic bricks of a size and shapes to just barely fit through the openings. He’d been playing with it before being taken off to bed, though without understanding how to use it. One of the visitors picked up the ball and began fitting the blocks into it. And Aaron was outraged. He began to scream, bouncing up and down and shouting in anger, waving and pointing. Not yet walking, he had to hold onto the side of the crib to stay on his feet, and his vocabulary at that time was pretty much limited to ma-ma and da-da. But none of us had any doubt what he was saying: That toy is mine! Not yours, mine! Put it down! Put it down! We all laughed, surprised at our comprehension, but it quickly turned sympathetic. The toy was put away, and his normal good humor was promptly restored.

I sometimes tell that story to illustrate why I think communism will never work, but as a writer, I can see it illustrating another point: There is more to writing than describing settings and reporting conversations.

I know I sometimes get so involved in writing the words of a conversation – hearing them in my head as I transfer them to the computer screen – that I forget to describe the gestures that accompany them. It’s only later, going back to read them over, that I realize how inadequate they seem without the tics and gestures that clarify the underlying emotions of the speakers.

A lot of communicating goes on non-verbally. It doesn’t have to be as blatant as Aaron’s demands that his ownership of his new favorite toy be recognized and honored. A skeptical eyebrow, a placating smile, a betraying giggle, a gesture of refusal, all can be eloquent. Humans are fluent in these non-verbal communications – so are our dogs and even some of our cats!

Most of us are people watchers. We watch children at play, we slow down driving past car accidents, we sit on the beach watching others cavort in the water. But writers carry it to extremes. We like to sit with our backs to the wall in restaurants and enjoy just sitting in a busy mall, soaking up behavior and building characters. We can forget the real purpose of a wedding or funeral, indulging in speculation about the other attendees.

But sometimes we forget to be subtle, and are confronted by a scowling face thrust suddenly into ours accompanying the demand, “Just what’re you looking at?” Today’s lesson: wait till you get home to write down your impressions.

How to Host a Killer Blog

2012-01-08T16:02:00.001-05:00

Little did we know, back in early 2007, when Deb Baker and I noodled around an idea, that five years later, Killer Hobbies blog would still be going strong. It seemed like a good idea at the time for us, two author newbies, to work together and create a blog home for crafters.

As of today, we have 300 an incredible followers--and 1672 posts logged. THREE HUNDRED followers! Oh, my gosh, how incredible is that?

We've been through a lot of changes, but we're still here. So I'm officially proclaiming February 9, 2012, as our five-year anniversary. I'm sure we can come up with something really special to thank all of you, our loyal readers.

CHANGES IN CAST

We'll miss Terri Thayer. Terri and I shared a ride from Malice Domestic up to Festival of Mystery a few years back. We yakked like crazy and had ourselves a grand road trip. But I understand that all of us have to change and adjust, so I wave a *virtual* goodbye to her and hope she visits often.

MEET OUR NEW BLOGGERS
To keep our blog filled with interesting posts about life's luscious pastimes, we're introducing two new bloggers: Mollie Cox Bryan (Thursdays) and Chrystle Fiedler (Saturdays).

Mollie has already been a guest here, and I'm confident she'll bring a truckload of energy and fun to this site. Oh, and pie recipes. (I'm "jones-ing" for some chocolate cream pie. Or banana. Or any kind! This dieting is getting old.) She's the author of Mrs. Rowe's Little Book of Southern Pies, Mrs. Rowe's Restaurant Cookbook, and the forthcoming Scrapbook of Secrets: A Cumberland Creek Mystery (Kensington Books, February 2012).

Like Mollie, Chrystle Fielder has already written several non-fiction works, including The Complete Idiot's Guide to Natural Remedies. (Hmmm. I wonder what she suggests for rampant allergies?). She's the author of Death Drops: A Natural Remedies Mystery (Gallery/Simon & Schuster, February 2012).

WHAT'S MY HOBBY?

In case you are wondering if this might turn into an all-scrapbooking blog, rest easy. I still love scrapbooking; however, as you know, I dabble in all sorts of hobbies. Recently, I became a cat-grandmother. Yes, an orange tabby named Keanu has joined our family.

Isn't he beautiful? He's a rescue cat whose prior owner couldn't keep him after her divorce. He's ten months old, and already a BIG cat.

When I'm not writing, chasing the cat, letting the dogs in and out, or scrapbooking, I'm doing Zentangles, or Zumba, or gluing seashells on surfaces. Speaking of gluing down shells, I just shipped a beautiful wreath to the Boynton Beach City Library for them to auction off.

I believe with all my heart that the urge to create is a powerful, healing desire that we can't afford to ignore. The Talmud says it's a sin to pass up a permissable pleasure. Life is full of joys, if you take the time to notice them.

Can you tell that I love my life? I'm pretty fond of my blog-osphere, too!

What changes are afoot for you in this New Year? What would you like to see more of in our blog? Please tell us!

Endings and Beginnings

2012-01-06T03:21:00.000-05:00

I did it. Very early Tuesday morning I hit send and If Hooks Could Kill went through cyberspace and ended up waiting for my editor when she came back after her holiday. Whew!

The rewriting was more extensive than I’d expected and the proofreading, brought up more issues than misspelling and missed commas. But it’s done. For now anyway. Until I get it back with a revision letter, then with comments from the copy editor, and finally when I get the galleys to look over.

I feel like I missed the holidays, which had an upside. No after holiday let down. I’ve given up on sending out cards, so it’s going to be emails and phone calls.

I’m finally getting a chance to finish reading The Orchid Thief, which I started forever ago. I find it hard to read when I’m working on a book. When I’m finished with the book I want to watch the movie Adaptation again. It is a weird movie that is about twin writers writing a screenplay based on The Orchid Thief.

Even if I’d noticed that was New Year’s eve, I wouldn’t have made any resolutions. When I want to change something, I try to do it right away instead of making a big deal about doing it for the new year.

But lots of people do make resolutions, particularly about exercise. Every year about this time at there is an influx of people at my gym. They come in all excited and motivated. They come every day - for a week or two. Then we never see them again. By the end of February, the gym is back to normal.

Now it’s onward and upward. A few days off and it’s time to begin writing Yarn2Go.

So long, farewell.

2012-01-05T09:31:00.002-05:00

John Lennon may have not been the first to say it, but life happens when we're making other plans. Some others say "We plan, God laughs."

This was to be my farewell, fun-filled post. This was to be the week I got long awaited new appliances. This was to be the week my mother moved into her new place in Colorado.

Instead I've got leaky pipes and a plan to catch. My mother's in a hospital in Colorado recovering from a broken hip.

I've been telling you about my intrepid mother's move from her long time home in NY to a lovely patio home near my brother in Colorado. Well, she almost made it. We had a wonderful Christmas together (our first in the same place in a very long time). Three days after I returned home, and one day before her furniture arrived, she tripped and broke her hip. Surgery followed and she's still bouncing back from that. Then she'll have weeks of rehab. Hopefully this is just a blip in her new life.

I owe you one. I'll be back to write that fun post, with plenty of giveaways, I promise. In the meantime, if you want to sign up for my occasional newsletter at territhayer.com, you can watch for the launch of my new website, and the beginning of a new web series, with the Sugar Plum block of the month.

It's been a joy to be here at Killer Hobbies with my wonderful blog sisters and our fab readers. I'll be at the airport and on a plane today, so I'll be a bit sporadic today.

Dang it - I just burned the oatmeal.

Auf Wiedersehen, adieu.

Resolute About Resolutions

2012-01-04T00:27:00.000-05:00

I didn’t exactly make New Year’s resolutions this year except that I am resolved to make this year better than the last one.

That means I intend to be even more focused on getting things done efficiently. So far, I’ve improved somewhat in that department, but there’s lots more I can do this year to get even better.

I want to stay more focused on family, too. Last year was a difficult one because of the loss of my brother. I’ve always loved my family but I intend to make that even clearer this year, if I can. But don’t worry, if any remote family members happen to be reading this. I’ll want to be in touch more, but without being pushy about it--or at least not pushier than I have been!

Other than the efficiency angle, I didn’t have to make resolutions about my writing. I do it, even on days I consider taking off. I always edit, or at least plot, and once I note anything on the computer more stuff just starts to spill out. That’s a good thing. I don’t need to make any resolutions about meeting deadlines or putting together new proposals, since that just sort of happens.

I don’t have to make resolutions about my dogs, either. They remind me about what they want and when they want it. And then they do it again. And again. Who trained whom? I’ll let you guess.

How about you--did you make any resolutions for 2012? How are you progressing in achieving them, a whole four days into the new year?

Happy 2012!

2012-01-03T12:34:00.001-05:00

I took New Year’s Day off. We stayed up late New Year’s Eve, playing penny ante poker with some friends – I came out ahead, but not so much as to antagonize anyone. I was surprised at how many winning hands were three kings. I had two of them myself. We played mostly five card draw, a little seven card stud and seven card no peek. Went easy on the wild cards, too. That may be because one of our regulars was missing: Lawrence Henry. That guy knows more versions of poker than anyone else I know. We paused at midnight for champagne, and by then several folks had departed – one because she’d had a knee replaced two weeks ago and still couldn’t sit with her knee bent for very long. Plus the weather had turned bad and the streets were slippery. When there were no longer enough left to get a good game going, we brought up an Japanese anime movie called, “Laputa, Island in the Sky.” It was dubbed in English but since it was a cartoon, that was fine. I thought it was interesting. The characters didn’t look very Asian and the setting looked kind of old-time European: brick buildings with curved rooflines, castles, steam-powered railroads. The culture depicted was sort of steam punk, with elements of magic. A surreal movie, appropriate for very, very early in the morning after a glass of wine and two glasses of champagne.

A few more chapters of And Then You Dye, and it’s finished. I was working on a chapter last week and one of the characters surprised me, telling quite a different version of an event than the one another character had told. Who is telling the truth? I’m not sure myself, but it makes the story turn a different, more complicated, more interesting corner. Had to sit back and think about it for awhile. I’m going to let it stand, of course. I’ve learned that when a character does that, it’s generally for a good reason.

I’m learning some interesting things about coin collecting – and collectors – for this book. I wish I had time to do more in-depth research. That may come later, the character who collects coins in this novel is a recurring one, and I don’t think he’s going to give up on it readily. I’m not ready to get into it for real, it can be a very expensive hobby, and there are more than a few chances for a beginner to get into some serious difficulty by not knowing what she’s doing. I’m giving Rafael a lesson in that in this book.

Speaking of collections, I’ve become a fan of the History channel show, “American Pickers,” about these two men who drive a van all over the country looking for people who fill barns, sheds, warehouses, even their homes with junk. They bargain for various dusty, even rusty, items – an extremely wide variety of items – the pickers find buried under heaps of trash. There seems to be no end of folk who fill buildings with a mix of rubbish and treasure. I can see where their occupation would make a terrific mystery series. Because who knows what lies buried under all that stuff?

I wrote this yesterday, tucked it away and this morning was so focused on getting over to Saint Paul to retrieve the hats I loaned to the Textile Center for an exhibit I forgot to post this. Sorry.

5 Reasons You Haven't Written a Book--and 10 Steps to Help You Get It Done

2012-01-01T22:35:00.002-05:00

Is writing a book one of your New Year's resolutions?

What's stopping you?

A member of our local Mystery Writers of America chapter said to me, "I would write, if I knew I was any good. I mean, I'm just waiting for someone to read my stuff and tell me I've got talent."

Are you waiting for someone to give you the green light?

A former journalist told me, "I started writing a novel, but then I kind of got side-tracked."

Are you piddling around and wasting your time on other projects when you should be writing?

A young lady I met at a bookstore told me, "I have five or six half-written novels in my desk at home. I just haven't finished any of them."

Are you always chasing a new idea rather than working through an "old" one and seeing it to completion?

A friend told me that he's stopped to outline his book once again.

Are you so busy planning your book that you haven't gotten around to writing it?

Another friend is involved with a critique group. They meet every other week. "We do more yakking than critiquing," she admitted to me.

Are you spending more time socializing and discussing your work than actually writing?

There are a thousand roads to failure, and only one road to success: Just do it.

Let me break that down:

1. Make your writing your top priority.

2. Structure an environment that supports your goal.

3. Resist time-wasters.

4. Eschew negativity.

5. Be rigorously honest with yourself.

6. Measure your progress.

7. Be accountable.

8. Take one step in the right direction every day.

9. Invest in your education. (Buy books, take classes, pay for an editor.)

10. Listen to experts, but trust your gut.

And remember, we all started from a place of fear and doubt. Success begins when you move past that spot.

Happy New Year!

2011-12-31T20:12:00.000-05:00

From all of us at Killer Hobbies...

We hope that 2012 brings you health, happiness and lots of time to read a mystery!

Sincerely,

Joanna Campbell Slan
Monica Ferris
Linda O. Johnston
Terri Thayer
Betty Hechtman

Happy New Year!

2011-12-30T01:33:00.000-05:00

I got my wish for Christmas. I sat out in my backyard in my pajamas, enjoying my morning coffee and the warm sun. Goldy and the cats were out there with me. It was quiet and wonderful. Other than that Christmas went by in a flash this year. I’m embarrassed to admit I still haven’t sent out any holiday cards. I was hoping to make them New Year’s cards, now I’m not so sure.

Even with the extra time I got for If Hooks Could Kill, I am still in a crunch. Last week it was finishing the rewrite which was much more extensive than I’d thought it would be. I’d forgotten that instead of writing some scenes, I’d merely written a sentence describing what was supposed to happen.

There were a few scenes I had struggled with and wrote a bunch of different versions of. It was hard to pick pieces out of each variation and make something that made sense.

Now I’m proof reading. I thought that would just be correcting a word here and there. Ha! Not quite. So instead of whizzing through the pages, I’m going slowly. On top of it, somehow I screwed up the paragraph indentations after a few pages. When I finally figured what I’d done and undid it, almost all the indentations disappeared.

And there are still the recipes to be tried and the crochet patterns to be written before Tuesday.

At the same time, the beginning of the next book showed up. The plot started appearing, too and I can’t wait to start writing it.

As soon as I finish If Hooks Could Kill, I need to start on the first book for the new series.

I’m not complaining. I love every minute of this. Sometimes I want to pinch myself to make sure it is real. How many people are lucky enough to live their dream?

Happy New Year!

Gift making 2011

2011-12-28T23:50:00.009-05:00

I made a lot of Christmas gifts that were a big hit. That isn't always the case. Sometimes I miss the mark, other years I can't seem to find anything to make.

This year started with a pattern from Atkinson Designs. I've made many of Terry's patterns over the years. The directions are fab and the results always look great. I'd found her Stand 'n Stow pattern a few months ago at a local quilt shop. It's a great shopping bag that stands on its own. Most grocery bag patterns are floppy. Not this one. I made a half dozen in fun fabrics including those luscious vegetable prints.

San Jose is outlawing plastic bags come January 1st, so these bags will come in handy. Now that I've finished six for gifts, I'm hoping to make mine next.

Pillowcases are always fun to make. I attended a holiday party earlier in the month where we exchanged pillowcases. I used a Christmas grinch fabric and it was really fun. After that, I decided two animal lovers in my life needed new pillowcases.

Then there was a challenge. A friend gave me some of her old clothing made in Indonesia from batiks. I couldn't let them go to waste, so made as many zipper bags as I could.

Finally I made three bags for my nieces. Two are college age and one will be going next fall. These little duffel bags are perfect for cosmetics. It's so much fun to look through my stash for the perfect print for each personality. The pattern is from Karen West, A Little Duffle Do It.

It was a great year for making fun gifts. I enjoyed the process more than ever and really loved seeing the smiling faces when they were opened.

Did you make anything really great this year?

Welcoming 2012

2011-12-28T00:55:00.001-05:00

This is my last Killer Hobbies blog for 2011. Where has the year gone?

This holiday season has been an offbeat one for me. It started with a wonderful visit with my niece and her husband and my nephew on a beach in Ventura County. The next day, my younger son and I had a delightful holiday meal at the home of some close friends, but we won’t be celebrating by exchanging presents until sometime next week. That’s because my family is doing Christmas at different locations and at different times. My husband Fred celebrated with his mom and our older son and d-i-l this week at the family farm in Ohio. Fred and his mother are heading here for a further celebration with our younger son, my brother-in-law and sister-in-law, and our other nephew and his girlfriend... sometime soon. I’m not sure of the date yet. We also will have another house guest soon, a friend of the family.

If you think I haven’t kept track of what happens when, you’re right!

But I have been busy nonetheless. What have I been up to this week? Writing! I’ve just finished proofreading the page proofs for the next Pet Rescue Mystery, HOUNDS ABOUND, which will be an April 2012 release. I’m also writing the next in the series, OODLES OF POODLES. I’m plotting and planning for what I hope will turn into more Harlequin Nocturnes in my Alpha Force miniseries about a covert military unit of shapeshifters. There’s already another Alpha Force story in the works but I don’t yet have its title or publication date confirmed. My first Harlequin Romantic Suspense, UNDERCOVER SOLDIER, will be published in July 2012.

Plus, although I haven’t gone into full preparation mode yet, I’m doing some planning for the online class I’m teaching beginning in February for the Orange County Chapter of Romance Writers of America: Kiss Me or Kill Me: Writing Cozy Mysteries for Romance Writers. Participants don’t have to be romance writers, though, since I intend to start from scratch about how to write cozies.

How about you--how long does your holiday season last? Did you do anything different this year? What are your plans for next year?

Have a very Happy New Year and a wonderful, safe, healthy and productive 2012!

I Forgot

2011-12-27T16:28:00.002-05:00

I forgot to note that as there were only two entries to my What Do They Want for Christmas contest (one of them related to me), I am cancelling the contest. I guess I'm a Scrooge, but it didn't feel like a proper contest with only two contestants. Maybe another time.

Interview, New Hat, Bethlehem at St. George's

2011-12-27T11:06:00.001-05:00

Andrea Parrott was the name of the reporter from The Patch who interviewed me while I was doing a signing in Excelsior December 20. Here is her report: http://lakeminnetonka.patch.com/articles/monica-ferris-weaves-murder-mystery-into-excelsior for your enjoyment. She did a great job.

Here is my latest hat. Isn’t it the strangest shape? It’s made of two large plastic rings, the bottom one larger than the top, covered with hand-dyed fabric, with a twist of fabric around a trio of smaller rings that dips down over my left ear. A small purple bow and a silk, autumn-colored leaf adorns the twist. I love the silk autumn-colored leaf. It’s a unique original by Candi Kuehn, who lives in the Twin Cities.

Today I am going to St. George’s to rearrange “Bethlehem” so its five-inch citizens are turning to gape at the Three Kings on camels arriving in town with their entourage: two pack animals, a scout and a camel driver. This arrangement will last until January 6, when a new arrangement will show them at the Stable presenting their gifts. I love playing with this setup, even though it’s neither historically or even Biblically accurate. (The Bible mentions three gifts, gold, frankincense, and myrrh, so there grew up a legend that there were three kings or wise men who were not only named – Melchior, Caspar, and Balthazar – but whose alleged graves became pilgrimage sites in Europe.) The set is made by Fontanini. For a glimpse of one of the Kings, go here: http://www.ebay.com/itm/Fontanini-Camel-Magi-King-Wiseman-1-1983-Christmas-Nativity-Creche-Made-Italy-/150716952920?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item23176e3158.

It’s getting late, I’d better get this posted. Happy New Year!

Merry Christmas!

2011-12-25T20:55:00.001-05:00

It's late on Sunday, as I write this. We've had a wonderful holiday. As my blog sisters have noted, it can take a bit of adjustment to Christmas in warm climates. However, when I walked the beach today, I loved every minute of the stroll--and when I've lived in cold climates, I usually suffer from dry skin and general milaise. I 've noticed over the years, that some people don't mind the cold, and others feel it keenly. I'm one of the latter.

Yesterday we went to my sister's house and opened presents. My little grand-nephew Skyler was the hit of the event! No one enjoys Christmas like a little kid. At three years old, Skyler can now take immense pleasure in his gifts.

My son bought Skyler a set of radio controlled cars. These were such fun that everyone took turns "driving" them. In fact, they proved so popular that next year, I think we'll buy everyone a set of radio controlled cars and let 'em all have at it.

We were laughing at the cars bumping each other when Kevin, Skyler's father, arrived. He pulled more toys from a bag, and Skyler was busy playing his AirJam guitar when--WOOSH--a big gray dog came bounding into our midst. Her name is Lulu, and she's Kevin's Weimaraner. She'd managed to squeeze through the pet door, which is sized for my sister Jane's Chihuahuas and cats. I have no idea how she did it, but she frollicked through the wrapping paper as we chased her down.

My husband, my son, my aunt and I were ready to head back to our house when we realized that a gift card was missing. That necessitated a twenty-minute search through all the garbage bags. But it turned up in my purse.

That night, my Aunt Shirley and I went to midnight mass at The Good Shepherd Church. We both love singing carols, so we went to the special Service of Carols before the mass. The church was beautiful with hundreds of poinsettias all around the altar.

After we came home, my husband suggested that we step outside. The sky was filled with stars. We live on an island that practices low light pollution as part of our dedication to conservation of sea turtles. I've been told that if you fly over Jupiter Island, it appears dark, whereas the surrounding communities are all lit up. Without light pollution, the night sky is astonishing. I picked out Orion's Belt and felt quite smug about my astronomical prowess.
Today, I slept a lot. The guys watched sports. Aunt Shirley and I watched the Vicar of Dibley, including the Christmas special.

On Monday, I start proofing Ready, Scrap, Shoot. My next deadline is March for Death of a Dowager Lady, the second book in The Jane Eyre Chronicles. I feel rested and rejuvenated, ready to go.

I hope that you, too, had a Merry Christmas.

I'm Dreaming of a Warm Christmas

2011-12-23T01:51:00.001-05:00

It’s cold here. Okay, maybe not back east sort of cold with winter coats and snow boots, but the wind is whipping and blowing through any cracks it can find. And I’m cold even though I’m wearing a turtle neck, a tee shirt and a vest.

Last week when I was in Chicago it was a whole other story. I needed a coat outside, but inside it was hot. If I was dressed like this, I would have been sweating. But then the building is insulated and the radiators chug with heat.

So, I’m not wishing for a white Christmas. No, I’m longing for a warm Christmas. And if the weather man is right, I’m going to get it. The highs over the weekend are supposed to be in the 70s.

Oh, I’m so looking forward to going outside and not shivering as I hang up laundry. I want to sit outside and drink my Christmas morning coffee and feel the warm sun.

Maybe even a walk in the mountains.

Happy Holidays everyone!

Ho Ho Ho

2011-12-22T00:51:00.002-05:00

I had planned on showing you all the Christmas gifts I've been making. I have been sewing up a storm for the last couple of weeks. However, I traveled to Boulder for Christmas and left the laptop with the pictures behind. So that'll be next week's post. Probably a better idea anyway, so I don't spoil any surprises.

Instead, I'm watching snow fall. Its the best kind of snow - the kind that didn't start falling unitl we were home from the airport. The kind that coats the aspens like trees in a story book. The kind that blocks out all noise, making the world seem peaceful and serene.

I've lived most of my life in places where winter meant snow. i have played in it, skied on it, made snowballs with it, made snow angels, shoveled it and had it melt into my boots. Now after fifteen winters without the white stuff, I can appreciate the lightly falling flakes again. That could be because the forecast is for sunny weather for the rest of my stay.

For now, I'll stay inside and pretend I'm on the inside of a snow globe.

Happy Holidays!

Holiday Honesty

2011-12-21T01:03:00.000-05:00

I had an experience last weekend that got me to thinking about whether people are nicer and more honest during the holiday season than otherwise--including myself!

My husband and I were eating dinner at a restaurant when another patron came over and said “You dropped something,” and pointed toward the floor beneath the chair beside mine. I bent and picked up a nicely folded twenty dollar bill.

It wasn’t mine, and I considered what to do with it. I decided just to put it beside me on the table in case someone came to claim it while we were eating.

I also considered what to do if no one came by before we left.

Give it to one of the servers behind the counter to hold onto in case whoever dropped it came by asking for it once we left? Okay, I don’t really trust other people that much. I assumed it would be kept by the servers, which might have been all right as an additional tip, but was that what I wanted to do?

Keep it? Well, if I did that, I’d contribute it to some pet rescue organization.

It crossed our minds that this could be a Candid Camera situation, although we didn’t see any cameras pointed at us anywhere. But I could see some reality show taking shots at what people do with an unexpected, if moderate, windfall.

I thought it very nice of the lady who’d pointed it out to us. I also patted myself on the back for not even considering using it to help pay for my movie tickets that evening. Well, all right, the idea did cross my mind, but I rejected it quickly.

Good news: three young men, probably teenagers, soon converged on our table, obviously looking for something. I smiled and gestured at the bill on the table and they whisked it away. I suspect it was the funding for their evening of fun that night. My dilemma was resolved in the best way possible.

The scenario had gotten me thinking. If nothing else, it gave me some ideas for scenes in novels yet to be written where I’m delving into human nature!

How about you--what would you have done in this situation?

A New Contest

2011-12-20T08:34:00.002-05:00

Someone wrote to ask me a very interesting question: What books is Godwin reading? That question – which I could not answer, at least not right away – got me thinking. Character building is one of the really interesting parts of writing fiction. It’s the telling little details that make a character real, and inventing them is great fun. I dare say most authors know far more about their characters than they tell. (For example, the hero in my first series, Detective Sergeant Peter Brichter, had a bronze star hidden in the back of his sock drawer, a souvenir of an incident that happened during his Navy service aboard an aircraft carrier during the Vietnam War. I never had a chance to work the story of his heroism into a book. He didn’t like to talk about it.)

I have in mind a contest: What does one of the characters in the Betsy Devonshire mysteries want for Christmas? Enter as many times as you like for as many characters as you like. I’m hoping to be surprised and amused and edified. The deadline is Monday, December 26, 2011. I will be sole judge. The prize is an autographed hardcover copy of Threadbare. Good luck!

This past Saturday I did a signing at Excelsior Bay Books. There was a steady stream of book-buyers – and a reporter from The Patch, an on-line news organization. She interviewed me between customers and asked some intelligent, thought-provoking questions. She had one of those tiny, flat cameras and took a picture of me in my Christmas hat, a gold net concoction with sparkles caught up in the wires. If it comes out, I’ll see if I can get a copy of it to post on Killer Hobbies.

Sunday I baked six loaves of Vanocka, an Austrian Christmas yeast bread which is made with grated orange peel, almond slivers, and two kinds of raisins. The apartment smelled fantastic while they were baking, and we ate the smallest loaf with butter as soon as it was cool enough to handle.

Today, from twelve to one, I am to address a gathering at the Minneapolis Textile Center. They borrowed twenty of my hats to make a display, but I’m supposed to talk about my books, with an emphasis on the one I’m currently writing, And Then You Dye.

Merry Christmas – or Happy Chanukah, or Joyous Solstice, or Cheerful Holidays or whatever makes you smile during this time of year!

Mark Your Calendars for Thursday Night!

2011-12-18T20:11:00.000-05:00

We had so much fun at the online Halloween Party that I decided we had to do it again! So mark your calendars and join me on my Facebook Page on Thursday, December 22, from 9 p.m. EST to midnight EST. My guests will include blog sisters Monica Ferris and Betty Hechtman, Diana Orgain, Gloria Alvarez and national best-selling author Julie James. All the authors will be giving away an autographed copy of her book. In fact, I think that Diana is planning to give away a set of her series! Betty is offering a crocheted scarf. How cool is that?

I've never been here in South Florida for the entire fall. Since nothing has turned colors or dropped leaves, I'm having a sort of "out of body" experience where I know that Christmas is right around the corner, but it just doesn't feel real to me. Or more accurately, it didn't feel real until this afternoon when Joyce Roseman came off to drop off a few Christmas gifts for me. She's a whiz at homemade biscotti. (I'll have to see if I can cajole the recipe out of her.) So she kindly brought me some wonderful looking biscotti that I'm having later with a cup of coffee. And she brought me this...

It says, "Gone shellin'" and that's so appropriate for me!
All the shells, the one sea bean, the sea plant and the drift wood was washed up on my beach.

Isn't that absolutely delightful? She and her husband Glen worked together to make it for me. I know I'll treasure it for years to come.

Meanwhile, I'm putting the finishing touches on a "tangle" for my husband to hang in our loft apartment up in DC. Here's what I have so far...

I also did another rendering. It's finished...

I'm not sure which one he'll like best. I bought a frame that would work for either of them, and I'll let him choose. Or maybe he'll want both of them and put one in his store.

This year I was invited to three holiday parties, and every one of them got cancelled. So I'm really looking forward to my online holiday party. It'll be fun to get together with a lot of you. I hope you'll invite a friend!

See you there!

True Crime

2011-12-15T23:40:00.000-05:00

Most of the crimes my blog sisters and I write about are personal. Someone does something to another person for a reason. And they usually know them. But sometimes in real life there are random crimes. Sometimes so random it’s hard to comprehend.

A friend of ours had pulled into a busy Studio City parking lot in the middle of the day. It’s right by CBS Television City and a few blocks from an apartment we lived in a long time ago. It’s the same parking lot where I saw Jay Leno coming out of a store. It’s also the same parking lot that houses a restaurant where we used to always see Robert Blake in his Baretta days.

Our had just stopped to drop off some dry cleaning. He was standing by his open trunk taking out the clothes, talking on his cell phone to his son when a woman he didn’t know came up to him and said something. He felt something odd and thought he’d been hit by a car, but the woman had stabbed him in the back. He saw her knife and raised his arm to protect himself and she stabbed him in the arm. Then she calmly started to walk through the parking lot and down the street.

I saw a picture of her. She appeared nicely dressed, though she was later referred to as a transient. Who would have figured? There were lots of pictures of her because people in the parking lot saw what was happening and took out their cell phones. They didn’t come to our friends aid, but then it probably happened so fast, they didn’t have time to react. And there was the fact she was 6'4" and she had a knife.

However lots of people called 911 and someone had the presence to follow her (no doubt at a safe distance) and was able to give the police her location.

Our friend didn’t realize how badly he’d been hurt and was still walking around. The man who owned the cleaners knew him and had him sit down inside to wait for the ambulance.

It turned out he lost half his blood supply and went into cardiac arrest. But he got more blood and they restarted his heart, probably not in that order. He was in the hospital for a week and came home, shaking his head with disbelief at what had happened.

The woman had been in trouble with the police before and was clearly mentally unbalanced. Even so, the cops were going to let her off with a plea deal, until someone our friend knew (he’s a lawyer) convinced the cops they had to make sure she wasn’t back on the street and she was charged with attempted murder.

If I wrote that in a book nobody would believe it. Maybe they wouldn’t want to believe it. Who wants to think you could be minding your own business, doing errands and end up getting attacked and almost dying?

There is one more detail that makes it even creepier. It’s what the woman said to him. She said “you’re not the only one who has lost a son.”

And what she said was true. Our friend had lost one of his sons a few years back. It makes you wonder.

Shopping

2011-12-15T00:57:00.002-05:00

It's the shopping season, isn't it? Even if like me, you make most of your gifts, some shopping is inevitable. To get in the spirit of the season, I'm going to share some amazing shopping experiences I've been having lately. Because we've all heard the horror stories. We could use some good news.

I've been having a very good run of great companies taking good care of me. I think it started when I got a flat tire a few weeks ago. Used my Honda care to get a pleasant man to come out and put on the spare. Then I made my way to America's Tire. Now, I go to America's Tire because the first time I ever went there more than a decade ago, they fixed my tire for free. Fixed it with a smile and sent me on my way. Made a customer for life. It doesn't hurt that the people who work there are attentive and smile a lot. This time, I was told they didn't have my tire in stock. I was getting ready to limp home on the stumpy spare when the fellow's coworker suggested an alternative plan. They would drive down the street to a place that had my tire, put it on and get me on my way in less than an hour. And that's just what they did. With a smile.

Apple has been a continuous source of great customer service for me. I've taken advantage of their geniuses on more than one occasion. This time I dropped my beloved Ipad. On the asphalt. It cracked. I took it to the Apple store where they replaced it with a new one. For free. While I was there, I mentioned my laptop had a weird line down the middle of the screen. Told them it probably happened when I dropped it. (Yes, I am taking much better care of my electronics these days). But again, my fault. And again, they replaced the screen for free. With a smile. Great customer service.

And then there's Macy's. Where they are handing out Hershey kisses if you have to wait in line.

So there it is. The secret to customer loyalty. Smile, be nice. Fix things when you can. And chocolate.

Got any great stories?

Changing Writing Gears

2011-12-14T01:10:00.001-05:00

It’s one of those times again--I’m in the middle of shifting my writing gears.

Earlier this week, I turned in the manuscript for my first Harlequin Romantic Suspense book, UNDERCOVER SOLDIER. Well, sort of my first in that series. I wrote a Silhouette Intimate Moments in 2004, and that series name was changed to Silhouette Romantic Suspense and, more recently, to Harlequin Romantic Suspense. In any event, what I wrote was a romantic suspense story, one that doesn’t include animals. I had fun with it, but that part felt strange!

My next deadline is for a new Pet Rescue Mystery, the fourth in my series for Berkley Prime Crime. The third, HOUNDS ABOUND, will be an April 2012 release, and that’s also when my deadline is for number four. I’m still plotting it but think I know its direction.

In the midst of all this, I came up with some ideas for possible additional Alpha Force Harlequin Nocturnes as well as another mystery series idea. Don’t know if any of them will turn into something I’ll need to write, but I hope so!

Changing genres and voices isn’t difficult for me. I’ve been doing it for a long time, and enjoy it. Each one is a challenge to my imagination. It’s what I do!

How about you--where are the most enjoyable challenges in your life?

Book News

2011-12-13T16:34:00.003-05:00

I apologize for the lateness of this post. I had a medical appointment early this morning and it’s taken me awhile to get caught up. (I’m still not caught up, but it’s time I got this done and posted.) I have a medical condition known as psoriatic arthritis, an auto-immune disease, and every eight weeks I have to go get hitched up to an IV for a Remicade infusion. It takes about three hours, while I sit in a very comfortable chair and read. I would have brought my laptop along except it’s having battery problems – the charge runs out in minutes. I finished Dr. Bob Brier’s The Murder of Tutankhamen. It’s a wonderful book and I recommend it.

Saturday I had a publication party at Once Upon A Crime Mystery Bookstore in Minneapolis. Pat and Gary are wonderful to local authors, and we had a good turnout. There were Christmas cookies and hot chai tea for the customers. I don’t think any were new readers, though several were buying books as Christmas presents to introduce friends or family to my Betsy Devonshire series. And I bought some books myself: the well-reviewed Ellery Adams mystery, The Last Word. I don’t like starting a series in the middle, but since this got such a rave review I decided I’d take a chance. I haven’t started it yet. And since I finished Professor Huang’s marvelous take on Charlie Chan, I asked Gary if they had any of Earl Derr Biggers novels about the detective – and they do. Academy Chicago Publishers has brought all six out in trade paperback size, and they had all but number one on their shelves. I bought the remaining five, one of my Christmas presents to myself. They'll go on my TBR stack, probably near the top.

I have another signing this coming Saturday at Excelsior Bay Books in Excelsior, MN, where my Betsy Devonshire mysteries are set. They're the ones who found The Murder of Tutankhamen for me.

How many of you – unlike me – are all ready for Christmas?

An Experiment and an Invitation

2011-12-11T19:25:00.001-05:00

I've had a busy week. On Thursday, I finished my rewrite of Death of a Schoolgirl: The Jane Eyre Chronicles, and sent it to my editor at Berkley.

It's a big baby at 98,264 words. The release date is August, 2012. The editor's corrections should come to me on Monday (tomorrow) and I plan to have them back to her within the week. I think the cover is absolutely out of this world! I've been working on the second book in the series Death of a Dowager Lady by doing my research reading at night. That book is due in March.

On Friday, the galleys for Ready, Scrap, Shoot arrived.

They are due to Midnight Ink in January. I'm a third of the way through reading those. I'm dedicating that book to a bookclub that meets at the Barnes & Noble Booksellers in Fenton, Missouri. Those ladies are really excited about the dedication--and we plan to have a big book launch at that store when the book is out in May, 2012.

On Saturday, I got a wild and crazy idea: what if I wrote a Kiki Lowenstein short story every month for a year and made it available to my readers for 99 cents on Kindle? I noodled around a story idea with my sister, Jane. Saturday night, I created a cover for Kiki Lowenstein and the Secret Santa. I hope to have it available on Kindle later this week.

Today (Sunday) we loaded onto Kindle the new Ink, Red, Dead: A Kiki Lowenstein Mystery that features two novellas, one a Kiki Lowenstein mystery and the other the progressive story that my blog sisters and I wrote. It should be available for sale within the next 48 hours. I priced it at 99 cents. I plan to keep the 99 cent price point for everything I offer on Kindle for a while.

I'm curious to see how this works. Here's my hunch: Readers who love my characters will want to have a monthly "fix." I know that I love tuning into my favorite TV shows. And basically, we're in the entertainment business, right?

Will it work? Or will I drop dead trying? We'll see!

MARK YOUR CALENDARS

On December 22 from 9 p.m EST to Midnight EST, I'm hosting an online Holiday Party on my Facebook page http://www.Facebook.com/JoannaCampbellSlan There will be fabulous handmade prizes, signed books given away, and the chance to chat with your favorite authors including Diane Orgain (The Maternal Instincts Mysteries); Betty Hechtman (you know her! and she's giving away a crocheted scarf!); and Monica Ferris. More to come...

Will it work? I dunno. Here's hoping.

A Trip to the Store

2011-12-09T01:56:00.001-05:00

I have come to Chicago to finish my manuscript. I got a month extension, but with the holidays it’s easy to get distracted. In L.A. the outdoors beckons, but in Chicago the coziness of being inside makes it easy to sit at my computer.

Since I come here sporadically, I notice the change of seasons much more than if I was here all of the time. When I was here in October, I watched the golden leaves fall from the trees and litter the ground with their crunchiness. Even with the dropping leaves, still some hung on the trees.

Not now. When I looked out the window, the same tree was naked, just a bunch of brown twigs pointing toward the sky. On my trip to the grocery store, I passed front yards and thought about the yellow forsythia blossoms that had once clung to the bare branches. Everything is brown.

When I was a kid, my father and I would go to the grocery store supposedly to get things my mother wanted, but we’d always come home with oddball items we wanted to try. The one I remember the most was the can of tuna weenies. They looked like hot dogs and I assume were made out a tuna fish. I’m not sure what actually happened to that can. Maybe my father tied the tuna weenies, I know I never did.

In the spirit of trying things, I bought some unusual things at the market, though nowhere close to tuna weenies. I bought kale salad that comes from a soul food vegan restaurant. I always buy some of their barbecue. It’s made out of seitan, and makes a great sandwich. I couldn’t resist the green tangerines. That’s what they’re called, though they were kind of a mottled orange. I tasted one already and they are delicious.

I have pretty much given up drinking soda. I don’t like the sugared variety and I don’t like artificial sweeteners. But every now and then I like a bottle of pop, as it is referred to here. So I got a four pack of real cola sweetened with stevia. Now if it just tastes good, it could be the perfect alternative. Stevia comes from a leaf and adds sweetness with no downside.

I like to drink tea at night. I just read that hibiscus tea is supposed to be great for you and delicious, too. So, I got a tin of the superflower tea. It steeps to a deep crimson and has sort of a fruity taste. I got some Constant Comment tea, as well. The fragrance alone is worth it. The orange spicy flavor is perfect for a cold winter’s night.

The only thing I looked at, but didn’t get was the ugly fruit from Haiti. That’s really the name of it - it has stickers on the fruit that say ugly in big letters. I didn’t think it was that unattractive - just kind of a green ball. Maybe it’s the inside that looks weird. When I go back to the store, I’m definitely going to get one of those.

Do you like to try unusual food items

Get a goat

2011-12-08T09:50:00.002-05:00

I heard this story the other day about a peasant who lived in a very small house with his wife, five kids, chickens, his mother-in-law and a cow. He was being driven nuts by all the chaos. He went to the wise man in his village and asked him how to cope. The wise man told him to get a goat. "A goat? Have you not heard - I have very small house and a wife, five children, chickens, my mother-in-law and a cow." The advice stood. So he got a goat. A week or so later, he went back to the wise man because the chaos was even worse. The man's advice: Get rid of the goat. The peasant did and the house was quiet again.

I have my own personal goat. I live on a busy street with traffic noise, a firehouse nearby and an occasional train that must blow his whistle at each of the two intersections it crosses. For months, construction has been going on across the street from me. First, old tiltups were knocked down and ground into gravel. That was noisy. Jackhammers and such, Then, the site had to be cleared. More noise. Then, construction began. Trucks began arriving at 6:30 to get ready to start right at seven. Six days a week. Noise, noise, noise. Added to my already noisy street.

Then, the overnight deliveries began. Starting at about ten and lasting until three, four in the morning. Do you want to talk about noise? Back up beeps, rumbling trucks, huge shipments of rebar dropped from great heights. NOISE. Did I mention - IN THE MIDDLE OF THE NIGHT???

Two nights ago I woke up in the middle of the night because of the quiet. The deliveries have stopped. The regular traffic sounds and the construction noises are still there but I barely notice them because it's relatively quiet around here. The goat was gone.

This time of year s is like that for me. Adding shopping, making gifts, going to parties to an already full schedule seems like adding a goat. I will enjoy the fun now, but am looking forward to less chaos in January.

And who knows, maybe the construction across the street will be over by then, too.

What's your goat?

Losing Stuff

2011-12-07T01:09:00.001-05:00

I was afraid that today would be a day that would live in infamy in my mind.

Oh, no, nothing even a small fraction as horrible as D-Day occurred to me, and I probably shouldn’t even have thought of the analogy. But I was very concerned it would be the day I realized that my house keys were lost forever.

You see, even though I’m far from being techie, I’m getting spoiled. If I misplace my not-so-smart cell phone, I can still call it and it will answer. Same goes for the portable sets to our landlines. (Yes, we still have two for varied purposes, plus a borrowed third one.)

But I’ve spent the last couple of days diligently editing a manuscript that’s due in about a week, and I wasn’t thinking about much else. Today is our garbage day, though, and I took our trash and recyclables out toward the end of the day yesterday before it got dark, plus I moved the cans to the curb. Because I’m paranoid, I carried my house keys with me even though I unlocked the doors, just to be sure I could get back into the house.

Later, I realized I didn’t have the keys.

My keys are contained in a special holder of a style I fell in love with in Europe--a slim leather case with an inner key ring that comes out when you squeeze the sides. It’s small and dark and not especially obvious--especially if I’d dumped it in the cans with the trash.

I examined my pockets and the inside of my purse first, of course. It wasn’t either place. I looked around the house. Not anywhere there to be found. Then my husband Fred and I went outside to the garbage cans after running the gauntlet of taking a flashlight outside--when our younger pup Mystie goes wild even at the very sight of one, whether or not it’s turned on. She knows what happens when the light goes on--magic that she must bite, and yip at, and dig!

No sign of the keys at first, in the cans... and then I happened to think about my venture earlier that day: climbing the steep hillside behind our fence and beneath the platform where the cans usually rest. I’d dropped some trash there earlier this week and had to retrieve it. Could I have dropped my keys there?

I had! I saw them from the platform on the ground beneath. Because I’d nearly fallen in daylight going after the trash, I figured I’d have to wait till the next day to recover them, but at least I knew where they were. But my sweet husband, using a different, safer route, got them for me right away.

It wouldn’t have been the end of the world to have lost them, although one of the items is actually a hard-to-replace key that turns our burglar alarm on and off at certain entries. We have other ways to turn the alarm on, though. Still, replacing it, the house keys and the other stuff on the ring wouldn’t have been fun, and it’s not easy to find the kind of case I use.

But I suppose it would have been better than dealing with the missing Rolex watch that a neighbor’s friend lost, possibly on our street, last week. Signs are up describing a reward to whoever finds and returns it. It’s not only an expensive watch, but it’s engraved with something meaningfully personal to the owner. I hope he finds it. Rolexes apparently don’t emit signals when lost any more than an old-fashioned key case does.

And now I’m able to go back to my editing without the distraction of missing keys... plus, I’m plotting some new stories. Maybe I’ll use some missing keys--or a disappeared Rolex--as a clue!

And you--have you lost anything lately? Did you find it?

Writers Retreat, More

2011-12-06T08:41:00.001-05:00

This past weekend was our twice-yearly Writers Retreat, held by Creme de la Crime, my writers group. Sometimes we go away but this year we held it in two of our homes. Eight of us attended. Saturday we met at Carl’s house, and he made coffee and his famous cinnamon buns for breakfast – I brought bagels, grapes, bananas and hard-boiled eggs. We had sandwiches, soft drinks, wine and four (!) kinds of chips for lunch with cookies and brownies for dessert. We were going to order pizza for supper, but we’d continued to snack all afternoon and no one was hungry by supper, so we all just went home. Sunday was my turn, we used the really nice party room in my apartment building. We had pretty much the same menu, except Susan brought the ingredients so each of us could build a terrific salad, too.

We each get a chance to read large chunks of what we’re working on at these retreats, with solid critiques after each reading. The readings were particularly fine this year, which gave the commentators a little less to do than usual. Between sessions we talked writing, publishing, books and movies. It was wonderful, total immersion. Tomorrow, Wednesday, we go right back to our weekly meetings, where just one or two people read.

I’ve been asked by Father Paul of St. George’s to give a talk between services on January 15. We met at a local coffee shop to discuss the topic and decided on: “What’s A Story For?” We are agreed that there is a difference between a story that’s true and a story that’s factual, and while all the stories in the Bible are true, not all of them are historical fact. They are lessons in how to – and how not to – act in relation to God. Father Paul also wants me to talk about how and why I write mystery fiction. My stories are less true, though I sometimes get something off my chest in a story. I do try hard not to let the ax I am grinding get in the way of a good story.

And Then You Dye is moving along pretty well now. It’s interesting watching some of the returning characters complicate their lives – sometimes when writing a story a character will step up all by herself or himself and surprise an author with an idea. Betsy is finding this a tough puzzle, but she’ll figure it out. I did have to drop a significant coincidence into the mix to aim her at a clue, but I allow one of those per novel, and I don’t think my readers will mind.

Threadbare will be in bookstores December 10, just four more days from now. I’m excited about it, and looking forward to hearing what you think of it.

Sharpening My Axe

2011-12-04T18:40:00.002-05:00

Once upon a time, two woodcutters challenged each other to a contest. The woodsman who could cut the most wood during daylight hours would win. On the appointed day, when the sun rose, the men started chopping. Throughout the day, one man chopped steadily. The other man took frequent breaks. When the sun went down, it became clear that the man who had worked steadily had lost. "How can this be?" he said to his opponent. "I worked without ceasing. You stopped so often!"

The winning woodsman smiled. "When I stopped, I sharpened my axe."

**

I've been digging in on my Jane Eyre re-writes like a crazy woman. All in all, it's been going well, but reworking a 100,000-word historical novel is no small task. I reached my saturation point last Thursday. Suddenly I couldn't get any traction. I spent the day working and reworking a single section and still didn't like what I had. I started to feel overwhelmed.

Isn't this cover gorgeous? Love it!

Months ago, I had scheduled a presentation at Murder on the Beach, a lovely independent mystery bookseller in Delray Beach, Florida. The date that once seemed so far away was now imminent.

My sister Jane called me with a proposal: She'd drive me to Delray Beach, if I'd agree to come with her on over to Cape Coral. She had tickets to see Kip Winger, the composer and singer, who was performing in Cape Coral.

"I've booked a hotel room. You'll have peace and quiet. A change of scenery will do you good. You can sit in the room and do nothing but write. I'll bring you food," she said.

I went back and forth about her idea, but finally, I decided to go with Jane. For one thing, I was too tired to drive safely down and back to Delray Beach!

Admittedly, I felt a bit nervous. I kept thinking, "Maybe I should just stay home and write." However, on the way to Delray, Jane and I worked through a particularly sticky plot point. She then helped me think through another change I wanted to make. We even brainstormed Book #2 in The Jane Eyre Chronicles. My sister is an excellent sounding board!

Saturday morning I woke up very early and got to work. Jane started reading this newest iteration of The Jane Eyre Chronicles. When I took a break, my sister hugged me and said, "You are a wonderful writer! I love what I'm reading!" For the rest of the day, I sat there on the hotel bed and wrote while facing a beautiful view. True to her word, Jane brought me coffee and food. I reworked 40 pages. I mean I flew through my material! That night we rocked out to Kip Winger. Today (Sunday) we got up early and drove home. Since arriving at my house, I've been working for hours, and another chapter has shaped up nicely.

Best of all, I feel reinvigorated.

Before I left I was banging my head against the wall. Sometimes we keep trying harder when we need to stop, re-consider, and work smarter. Sometimes we just need to sharpen our axe!

How about you? Do you ever forget to sharpen your axe?

Blowing in the Wind

2011-12-02T00:00:00.000-05:00

The Santa Ana winds are blowing through Southern California with a vengeance. The newscaster said these are the worst winds we’ve had in a decade. But then the news people always try to make things sound as bad as possible.

Some people call them the devil winds. They come from inland and the air they blow is so dry it makes your skin itch. Not only that, but they stir up the bad kind of ions. It’s easy to feel edgy and in a bad mood.

I had them blowing in the beginning of an old manuscript to set a creep tone. My character walked out into a parking lot at night as the dry wind whipped around scraping the palm fronds scrap together so they made an eerie sound. She walked right into a mugging and despite her heels and celery green suit with a pencil skirt, plowed into the middle of it. Of course, she saved the day – and ruined her clothes. BTW, this character, Casey Feldstein, ditched that manuscript and jumped over to my new series.

There is a real reason to feel edgy when these winds blow. A careless spark can lead to an unstoppable wildfire in the mountains.

As I’m writing this, a wind gust whined through my window. The lime tree is bending and shaking for dear life and dropping it’s old fruit.

The sky looks different. There is only a hint of clouds, but the blue is watered down and it’s as though all the dust in the air has put a filter over the sun.

Outside the streets are littered with fallen trees. Palm fronds have bombarded our roof all afternoon. I have cabin fever from being inside all day.

A memory connected with these winds surfaces. My son was small and carryable. We were going through a shopping center parking lot, when all of a sudden the giant sign above the grocery store in front of us began to break apart and huge pieces flew off into the air. Where were they going to land? Where was the safe place to walk to get away from them? I remember bending forward to shield my son and trying to get to a covered area, as the pieces of sign landed around us. Miraculously they all missed hitting us.

Maybe the memory of that is why I don’t feel like going outside today.

Have you ever had weather related scares?

December 6, I am going to be interviewed by Zontee Hou on the Lions Brand podcast. http://yarncraft.lionsbrand.com/

Change

2011-12-01T00:54:00.003-05:00

I like this quote: We go through our daily lives without noticing change, then suddenly everything is different.

That's what has happened to me in regards to my house. I've been on my own for a few years now. For more than a year, I've been clearing out old things - papers, pictures, yes, even fabric and books. Remnants of another life. I garage saled, freecycled, donated boxes and boxes. At the time I thought I was moving into a smaller space and so had to divest myself. That didn't happen, but I can't say that I've missed anything that I gave away. Once I realized that, I dug a little deeper and questioned the value of everything in my house.

Slowly, space freed up. Over time.

You know my brother was here putting in hardwood floors for me. Those floors became the linchpin. Once he put the floors in, I was able to get rid of two pieces of furniture that no longer suited my needs. These pieces have felt like albatrosses around my neck. One was a large baseball glove colored leather sofa. Not my style. The other was a large (and very heavy) wall unit circa 1988. These piece took two very strong guys a lot of huffing and puffing to get out to the dumpster. I was so happy to see it go. The sectional went to a couple whose six year old entertained me with tales of a king who had guards who looked a lot like sofa cushions.

I could take pictures to show you the new floors, but they wouldn't mean much. I like the way the house looks now (although I still a new paint job) but what's most important is what isn't here anymore. The only things left in my house are things that I love.

That's the change I can see, even if no one else can.

The Pack is Back

2011-11-30T01:06:00.001-05:00

In the past we’ve done our dog grooming ourselves, but this year our two Cavalier King Charles Spaniels have received professional grooming. We tried it first with Lexie, the older dog, and then had Mystie groomed a couple of months later.

Yesterday, we had them both groomed at the same time. They look adorable and seem even more energetic, so it’s a good thing for all of us.

But having both babies gone from the house at the same time was definitely depressing for me. I missed their demands for attention every few minutes. I listened for their barking or panting, waited for one or both to paw at me to go outside. I waited for them to bark when I heard a package being delivered or neighbors walking by with their pets.

My husband Fred was out running errands for some of the time the pups were gone--and I felt lonely! It didn’t help that we’d loaned our other vehicle to our younger son. I wasn’t exactly housebound, and I did get some editing done... but I still felt bereft!

The pups are home now and of course remain amazingly cute. I always appreciate my dogs, but at the moment I appreciate them even more. They think they’re alphas in our pack, and maybe they are.

How about you? What’s your pack like in your home?

Threadbare, Charlie Chan

2011-11-29T08:02:00.002-05:00

December 10 is suddenly very close. That’s the pub date of Threadbare, the fifteenth Betsy Devonshire needlework mystery. I think it’s a pretty good story, about the murder of two homeless women. The murderer obviously thinks they were throw-aways, but they were people with dreams and hopes like anyone, and they had families who cared about them. It was interesting doing the research on the homeless. And sad. Some of them are people fate ganged up on, but others seemed to set out to make themselves homeless and no amount of intervention or aid could stop them.

I keep having to get out a bookmark listing the needlework titles and counting them, as I find it had to believe this is number fifteen. It didn’t seem all that long ago I was working on number seven. But number seven was Cutwork, and now I think again, that was a long time ago.

Meanwhile I’m still struggling with And Then You Dye, though it is moving, if reluctantly. I got a one-month extension of the deadline, for which I am grateful.

I keep a book on my headboard to read a little before I go to sleep. Right now I am reading a marvelous book: Charlie Chan, the Untold Story of the Honorable Detective and His Rendezvous with American History, by Yunte Huang, who was born in China and who is currently a professor of English at the University of California at Santa Barbara. I have loved the Earl Derr Biggers’ novels, which I read after enjoying the Charlie Chan movies, particularly the ones in which the title role was played by Warner Oland. I never thought of the Charlie Chan stories as racist – Charlie was brighter, more honest, and had more integrity than any of the other characters. Some of the other characters were racist about the Chinese and were always shown as seriously mistaken in their attitudes. The racist element in the later movies involved an irritating black caricature played by Mantan Morland, who played him as excitable, stupid and cowardly – nobody like him appears in the novels. Considering that these novels appeared at about the same time as the Fu Manchu stories, which were very racist, Charlie Chan is even more remarkable. What’s interesting is that Charlie Chan was based on a real Honolulu police detective named Chang Apana, whose extraordinary life story is told by Professor Huang in the first half of the book. I can hardly wait for bedtime to continue reading.

What are you reading right now?

Welcome to Our Home

2011-11-27T22:59:00.000-05:00

We had 27 people over for Thanksgiving--and still wound up with TONS of leftovers. I mean, we had two turkeys and one was hardly touched! I sent food home with guests, but still had more chow than I could manage.

I'm a Scot, and I hate waste. But there was more food in my refrigerator than I could manage. So...we had a party tonight! I set out a platter of turkey and honey-baked ham. We added rolls, carrots, cheese slices, chips and dip, brownies, fruit salad, lettuce salad, and brownies. For drinks, I made Campari and orange mixers. We also had an assortment of beers, wine (white and red), and "dark and stormies" (rum and ginger beer).

Fourteen people came. My pal Linda Hengerer brought her fabulous cookies, which we call "crack" because you get hooked on them. Her husband Ray made German potato salad. Here's his recipe:

Ray Hengerer's German Potato Salad

Boil 5 lbs of potatoes
Cook 1 lb bacon and 1 chopped red onion. When done, add cider vinegar to taste.
Drain potatoes. Add bacon and red onion and cider vinegar. Season with salt and pepper.
Serve it warm.

Oh, man. Is it ever good!

Joyce Roseman played the keyboard to get us warmed up. Then my husband David, my son Michael, and Ray played jazz. Michael took over as DJ, playing all the hits they demand in the clubs in Miami. We danced until we were all hot and flushed. The party moved out onto the deck to take advantage of the cool breeze. We danced under the stars with the surf in the background.

I'm not sure what makes a good party. I believe it's probably a combination of things--food, music, and friends. I love the fact that we have friends from all walks of life, and I think that makes for stimulating conversation. The food must be plentiful, so that people don't feel shy about eating. The job of the host/hostess is to not only introduce people, but to share something interesting about each person so the conversation can flow.

David thinks the key is a good combination of people and a comfortable environment. We don't stress about spills. Our furnishings are comfy. I like to buy a couple dozen white washclothes and put them in the bathrooms along with baskets marked "clean handtowels" and "dirty handtowels" so folks can dry their hands comfortably. (Silly maybe, but I hate paper towels and I also hate using communal hand towels. Uck.) I love paper plates and plastic cups--it's so easy. We fill coolers with ice and drinks, so folks can always find their favorites.

What do you do to make people feel welcome? What do you think makes for a good party?

Thanksgiivng

2011-11-25T02:42:00.002-05:00

I had a very California Thanksgiving.

What says California more than going to the gym. For the first time my gym was open on the holiday and I started the day with an aerobic dance class. The class was mobbed and everyone was in good spirits. The routine was easy to follow and I had a wonderful time. I came home sweaty and happy.

Afterwards, we all set off for Malibu. The ride through Topanga Canyon with its twisty road, abundant trees and rustic houses was a treat. All week long, the weather man had been saying there’d be rain on Thanksgiving, but by last night they had reduced the prediction to drizzle. They were wrong. The clouds and gloom had cleared up by the time we got our first glimpse of the ocean and by the time sat down at Duke’s, it was clear enough to see Catalina.

Just being at the ocean felt refreshing. We lucked out and got a booth at the window. A nearby window was open, letting in the salty air. The buffet was traditional with a Hawaiian touch. Think coconut in the yams and fresh coconut macaroons dipped in chocolate. The place was mobbed and people were dressed in everything from old fashioned dressy dresses with pearls to shorts and Hawaiian shirts.

For the ride home we took another canyon. It began with the huge, very green lawn of Pepperdine University then, after a few twists and turns of the road, we were surrounded by giant rock covered mountains. Around more curves and the mountains gave way to open spaces and soft golden hills with squat California Oaks dotting them. Finally, we ended up on the freeway which even on Thanksgiving was busy.

Back home, I took Goldy for a walk just as it was getting dark. The air was brisk, but not close to back east sort of cold. We passed a huge sycamore tree with leaves turning golden, but most of the trees were full of green. The lawns were, too, since we’ve had rain. We passed rose bushes full of blooms and lavender plants with their pungent smell.

It took me a long time to get used to Thanksgiving without winter coats and the promise of snow.
But now I wouldn’t have it any other way.

Happy Turkey Day

2011-11-24T01:06:00.005-05:00

Happy Thanksgiving! I hope you are having a wonderful day. Studies show that gratitude makes you happier, so let's get to it.

Today when I was taking my nice hot shower, the hot water felt so good sluicing down my back, I gave out a big thank you. I know how lucky I am to have hot water at my disposal and I appreciate it every time.

Other things I am thankful for:

People who buy books and read blogs. Thanks, fans!
Fans who send emails. Love them all.
Coffee shops that allow me to hang out on the dregs of one cup of coffee for hours and hours.
Libraries for their vast collection of books and DVDs and helpful people.
My publishers, Midnight Ink, for their well thought out launch of MONKEY WRENCH next spring.
Apple for making products that bring me so much pleasure.
The woman in the turkey hat for making me laugh.
Relatives for reminding me who I am and who I could be.
Cable TV shows. Shows like Homeland,Mad Men, Justified and Sons of Anarchy are so satisfying. Love spending time with the characters.

Those are a few of my faves. What are yours?

Many thanks!

2011-11-23T00:57:00.001-05:00

Tomorrow is Thanksgiving, and I have a lot to be thankful for.

First and foremost, I’ll be surrounded by family. Our older son and d-i-l are in town from Chicago, plus our younger son will also be with my husband and me, even though they all have upcoming travel plans soon.

Then there are the dogs, Lexie and Mystie, who’ve been vying for a place warming my lap this week at the computer and the table as I both write and edit.

I’m thankful that I’m so busy writing. I have several books coming out next year, including HOUNDS ABOUND, my next Pet Rescue Mystery, UNDERCOVER SOLDIER, a Harlequin Romantic Suspense, and the next book in my Alpha Force miniseries for Harlequin Nocturne. One manuscript is due on December 15, and I’ve more books to write and edit. My writing is a delight!

It’s been a hard year, though, after the loss of my brother. But I’m thankful for the rest of his family, including my niece and her husband and my nephew, as well as other members of my family including my dad in Pittsburgh.

I’m thankful for my friends, a lot of whom are writers who share critiques with me.

I’m thankful that I live in L.A.--too much traffic, yes, but generally weather that’s tolerable or even great.

I’m thankful for Killer Hobbies and how much fun I have here, and for all of you who’re reading this!

There’s more, too, but I’ll stop here.

How about you? What are you particularly thankful for this year?

YouTube, Christmas Spirit

2011-11-22T08:28:00.001-05:00

Well, they did a great job! The YouTube five-minute version of my interview is up: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XHkIyRz_pIY

I’m trying to get as wide a distribution of the video as I can, so if any of you want to send it to friends, please do so. I know it’s not splashy or funny or spectacular, but it is well done and I do make a point about the traditional mystery being a “comfort read” sorely needed in today’s scary world.

Besides, that lavender straw hat is something special.

Monday I took a friend to lunch then we went to a store with the curious name Missal Leaflet. It is a Roman Catholic supply store that caters to both clergy and lay people. It’s in a nondescript building in a middle-class neighborhood not far from downtown Saint Paul. No big display windows, and a modest glass door in the side of the building marks the entrance. A life-size statue of St. Francis releasing a bow of doves from his upstretched hands greets you inside the door. That and the scent of incense. Ann and I go there once a year to buy a new Fontanini piece for the really big collection I donated to my church a few years ago. (When we moved from our townhouse to our apartment, there was no longer room to display it.) Bless St. George's kind hearts, they put me in charge of setting up the display every year, so I still get to play with it. The collection is so huge it takes two eight-foot tables to display it. It’s not just the Stable with Mary, Joseph and the Babe, and the shepherds with their sheep (and a multitude of angels descending over them), it’s Bethlehem: the green grocer, the rug seller, the baker, the carpenter shop, the street musicians, etc., etc. With shrubs and palm trees. And Leaflet Missal is the only store in the area that carries so many Fontanini pieces I can generally find one not already in the collection. And that I want. I don’t have Santa Claus kneeling at the Manger, for example. Or the Little Drummer Boy. This year I bought the blacksmith at his anvil and the smithy. And a new camel for the Three Kings’ train – one of the old ones developed a weakness in an ankle and could no longer stand.

This past Sunday was the Feast of Christ the King, the last Sunday of Pentecost – the end of the church year. That makes this coming Sunday the First Sunday of Advent, and the display should be ready by then. It will stay up till January 6.

I thought I wasn’t going to get in the Christmas spirit very easily this year, but walking into Leaflet Missal did it for me. How do you inspire the spirit within you?

A Guest is a Gift from God

2011-11-20T16:00:00.001-05:00

My friend Deborah Sharp writes the Mace Bauer "Mama" series. She and her husband Kerry Sanders, the NBC reporter, live in a charming Floridian home on a waterway in Fort Lauderdale. Deb asked me if I'd like to stay over at their house so I wouldn't have such a long drive to the Miami Book Festival on Saturday (Nov. 18)--and I eagerly said, "Yes!"

Now, Deb proclaims long and loud that she's not crafty, but believe me, she doth protest too much. She has a terrific eye for decorating--and that's very crafty in its own way. Her home showcases fascinating objects d'art that capture the essence of "old Florida."

In particular, she and Kerry love the art of the Highwaymen, a group of African-American painters whose name came from their sales method, driving up and down Highway I-95 and selling their paintings.

The Royal Poinciana tree is an iconic South Florida image, and a favorite subject of the Highwaymen.

Shoot, I was thrilled to get the invite just so I could nose around her house and neighborhood, which goes by the delightful name "Sailboat Bend." It's Fort Lauderdale's only Historically Registered neighborhood.

That's Deb's yacht. (Kidding!)

Friday night we walked to dinner, going past the impressive Broward Center for the Performing Arts and through the Riverfront area. I loved the walk, the company and the sights. Even though it was growing dark, I enjoyed seeing the local architecture, which is uniquely Floridian.

A typical Florida sunrise. How cool is this?

The next morning we were up at dawn. Then we drove into Miami for the Miami Book Festival.

Our host Jose, Bob Williamson our moderator, Deb Sharp and me. Deb loaned me one of "Mama's" boas so I would be appropriately dressed.

Our panel was fun, probably because we know and enjoy each other so much. I left right afterwards because I needed to get home to take care of my dogs.

I hope to go back and spend a day with Deb, poking around. I really enjoyed my visit to her home--and I loved learning about the Highwaymen.

What about you? Is there a friend whose house you enjoy visiting? A place you'd like to go back to? The Muslims have a saying: A guest is a gift from God. So I think that being welcomed into someone's home is the penultimate of graciousness. For Thanksgiving, we're having twenty people for dinner! Family is coming from all over, and then we'll also have friends that we've "adopted" as family. I think it's going to be a BLAST!

What are your plans?

It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas

2011-11-18T00:12:00.003-05:00

I hadn't been out in my car for awhile. The rest of the family has satellite radio in theirs, so I didn't notice. But this morning as I was heading out, I was shocked by what I heard on the radio. I mostly listen to two stations. If I don't like a song on one, I hit the button for the other. That's exactly what I did. But when I went to the other station, I did a double take. They were playing The Little Drummer Boy.

I know that station has played Christmas music from Thanksgiving until Christmas nonstop. I thought that was overkill, but this year they didn't even wait until Thanksgiving. I don't even know how long the Christmas music all the time has been going on. Did it start right after Halloween?

It's not that I don't like Christmas music. A week or two would be fine, but this is so over the top, I just avoid the station all together until the day after Christmas when the regular pop music returns.

When I was in college I used to work Christmases at Marshall Fields in Chicago. I sold toys in their huge toy department. The real start of the shopping season was the day after Thanksgiving. That Friday was the busiest shopping day of the year. We didn't open extra early or try to entice shoppers with the kind of bargains they'd trample each other to get. The decorations, the carolers that went around the store, the special boxes for Christmas, and the extra supply of toys was enough.

That tradition has been changing for awhile, but now it's stepped into new territory. I thought having stores open at 5 a.m. with special bargains on that Friday was pushing it. Now, their opening at midnight and Walmart is opening at 10 p.m. on Thanksgiving. How much longer until the malls start staying open all day on Thanksgiving and start calling it Black Thursday.

If "they" were trying to elongate the Christmas season because it was such a time of joy, happiness and goodwill, I wouldn't mind. But this is all about getting people in the shopping spirit. It's not even shopping. It's more like hunting. The stores drive the people wild with the promise of something valuable for a low price, get them worked up waiting in line in the dark and cold, then let the frenzied group pour into the store intent on bagging their quarry and heaven help anyone who gets in their way.

I understand the economy needs a boost and Chrismas is the big season for it. But did they have to take out the joy and magic in the process?

DIY part two

2011-11-17T00:37:00.005-05:00

The hardwood floor install is about halfway complete. My poor brother spent the better part of today putting together a flat pack TV stand. No wonder it was so cheap - five hours of labor later, it was together. But the new TV looks great. Now I just need to figure out which cable goes where...

One of the lovely offshoots of this project is spending an entire week with my brother, just the two of us. I don't believe that's happened in more than forty years. As kid, we were paired off and sent to visit relatives in the summer. First my two old brothers would go, later the two youngest kids. Rick and I would always go together.

My father had relatives living in Atlantic City, New Jersey, where he'd grown up. We would be dropped off at Uncle Wayne's to reacquaint ourselves with our cousins and the very finicky ways of their mother. In the daytime, we were free to roam. Atlantic City in the early sixties was a wonderful place for a kid. There were jitneys to take you to the Boardwalk,

the same Boardwalk where the Miss America Pageant would be held around Labor Day. We could cruise the Boardwalk, looking in the shops, admiring the fancy hotels, buying salt water taffy and getting it stuck in our teeth.

There was the ocean of course, and the wide sandy beach, but I don't recall spending much time there. What I loved was the Steel Pier. You paid an admittance fee and once on the Pier, you could pick from a zillion things to do and see. There was a movie theater (I recall seeing a Bob Hope movie called "Call Me Bwana" three times). Spin Art was a favorite pastime. Watching the Diving Horse or going down in the Diving Bell were also great fun. You could attend concerts - I remember the group The Birds driving past me on the Boardwalk on their way to perform.

There was always plenty to do on the Steel Pier. Once he finishes, we're going to take a drive to the beach. A different ocean, a different pier, but I'm hoping we can recreate some of the fun of our chidhood.

Plotting

2011-11-16T01:44:00.001-05:00

Okay, subconscious. Get to work!

That’s me, talking to my subconscious via the computer page as I write this. That’s because, at this moment, I need it to develop a few plots.

I have a manuscript in the hands of some critiquing friends that I’ll need to edit quickly once I receive their comments. I’m also doing copy edits on my upcoming Pet Rescue Mystery, HOUNDS ABOUND. But I’m also working on some plots for two new Pet Rescue Mysteries. Plus, I intend to propose some more stories in my Alpha Force miniseries about shapeshifters for Harlequin Nocturne and need to come up with ideas to pitch. Then there’s the idea for another mystery series that I’m working on.

I’ve got family arriving for visits in the next couple of days. I’m delighted, but the distraction may give my subconscious an excuse to take some time off. I’m an unyielding taskmaster, though, so--if you’re reading this, subconscious, you’ve got to stay busy no matter what!

All right. I admit it. I’m not really worried about my subconscious coming through for me. It always has before, and it’ll rise to the latest challenges as well. It knows that my favorite quote is “Reality is only for those who lack imagination.” My imagination is my friend, and it’s tied to my subconscious.

How about you--what orders do you give to your subconscious--and does it always listen?

Television Interview, Thanksgiving

2011-11-15T09:38:00.003-05:00

Well, that was interesting. Two men came over to our apartment with two good-size cases. In one was a television camera, in the other was a big rectangular light. I wore a lavender blouse, my new purple shawl, and my new lavender straw hat – I know, I know, it’s after Labor Day and straw is over. But I just love that hat, so I wore it anyway.

They set up in our living room, in front of our floor-to-ceiling shelves of books, and for forty-five minutes I was thrown some very nice “softball” questions about my writing. Did I ever use real people in my books? Did I like my covers? Who is my favorite character? It was very pleasurable.

Then we did a segment on my hats. I tried on several hats and they took brief videos of them. I put some hats on the dining room table and they panned across them. That was fun.

Then came the bad news: All this is going to be severely cut into a five-minute presentation! I’m looking forward with some trepidation to the result.

But then came the good news: This is going to be put up on Face Book. Yay! I can’t wait.

We’re going to do something this Thanksgiving I’ve never done in my life: eat out. Oh, okay, while I was in the Navy I ate in the mess hall. But that is not the same thing. At all. We’re going to brunch at my sister-in-law’s house which will probably last until noon or close to it, then at five we’re going to a nice restaurant for a turkey dinner. It felt really strange when I went grocery shopping yesterday and walked past the bins of frozen turkeys and the canned-good shelves of sweet potatoes and kidney beans (I make a killer kidney bean salad just twice a year, at Easter and Thanksgiving) and didn’t even take a good look. But a friend at water aerobics said I was going to love dining out. She’s been doing it for years and wouldn’t have it any other way. So I wonder if this isn’t the start of a new tradition.

I remember many years ago I was working a stressful job and wasn’t looking forward to the annual gathering of my family for Thanksgiving – my five siblings had young, noisy children and were often rubbing up against one another in unhappy ways. So I did a very selfish thing: I didn’t go. I stayed in my small, quiet apartment. I cooked half a turkey breast, made a salad, and watched “Miracle on 34th Street” on commercial-free public television, just me and the cat. It was heaven, a gentle, refreshing break I needed badly.

What’s your Thanksgiving tradition? What’s your favorite Thanksgiving dish? What’s your favorite Thanksgiving memory?

Love and Lies

2011-11-13T20:31:00.002-05:00

Online dating services give social scientists a new angle on the study of attraction, according to an article called "Love, Lies and What They Learned" in the Sunday (Nov. 13), New York Times.

The sheer amount of information available to researchers is unprecedented. So are the lies.

Here are highlights:

* 81 % of the people misrepresent their height, weight or age
* on average, women describe themselves as 8.3 pounds thinner
* on average, men describe themselves as 2 pounds lighter--and rounded their height up a half inch
* the average woman's photo is a year and a half old
* the average man's photo is six months old
* people have a tendency to present an idealized self. (For example, "I hike" might be an exaggeration of "I went on a walk in the woods.")
* women want men who are tall and wealthy
* men want women who are slightly underweight and shorter than they or the same height
*and people in long marriages are most likely to align politically.

My author friends and I lie all the time. We get paid to lie. The bigger the whoppers we tell, the more daring the wild stories we invent, the better.

But sometimes the truth is better than fiction. Take this ad, a real ad, that ran in the Atlanta Journal:

SINGLE BLACK FEMALE seeks male companionship, ethnicity unimportant. I'm a very good girl who LOVES to play. I love long walks in the woods, riding in your pickup truck, hunting, camping and fishing trips, cozy winter nights lying by the fire. Candlelight dinners will have me eating out of your hand. I'll be at the front door when you get home from work; wearing only what nature gave me...Call (404) 875-6420 and ask for Annie, I'll be waiting.....

More than 150 men responded.

They wound up talking to the Atlanta Humane Society!

Here's Annie!

Okay, what would YOU lie about in a personal ad? Hmm? I'd change my height, my weight AND my age. How about you? (Oh, and I'd say I love sports. That's a WHOPPER!)

Serendipity

2011-11-11T02:17:00.003-04:00

I am wearing two hats right now. On one hand I am working hard to finish my next manuscript which is due December 1, and at the same time, since I had two books released last week, I'm making the rounds of local bookstores to sign stock.

It's always an adventure. Sometimes more than others. I am lucky someone in my family comes along. More than comes along, they do the driving, the routing, abd figure in coffee and ice cream stops. It is surprising how tiring going to four bookstores in a day can be.

On Tuesday, we went to the Barnes & Nobles in and around the western part of L.A. It was exciting to see Behind the Seams on an endcap at the Marina del Rey store. The Santa Monia store had You Better Knot Die displayed on the tower. When we left that store, we decided to get a little food before moving on and picked a place across the way. It turned out they were filming a TV show in the restaurant. We figured why not and signed a release and had our picture taken and sat down at the sushi bar. They had been pretty vague about what the TV show was and just said there would be some singing and dancing.

I was thrilled because the book I'm manuscript I'm rushing to finish has a TV shoot in it. So, I was checking out the crew and their equipment. The restaurant is supposed to look like a couryard somewhere in Southeast Asia. So there is a center square and what looks like a veranda running around three sides. The veranda portion had a few booths filled with people. The center square had a number of table and they were all filled. If we turned around at the sushi bar, we had a view of the whole place.

Anything with TV seems to take forever. I'd long since finished my vegetable roll when a guy I assume was the director said something about it being a hot set. I turned around to see what was going to happen. A woman had a microphone on a tray and put it on the table right in front of us that had a couple sitting at it. The man picked it up and started to sing. Someone wisked their table away as all the people at the other tables got up and started singing and dancing in a what could only be described as an elaborate productrion number. Even the sushi chef turned out to be a performer. It seemed like the only people not singing and dancing were us.

The woman who'd been sitting with the man who became the lead singer, was helped up on a table as the production number continued. Finally the guy singer took out a ring box and proposed.

The music stopped and a man I suppose was the host of the show joined the happy couple. Of course, she said yes. They were joined by a singing and a dancing coach who'd prepared the guy for the production number. Then we found out what was going on. The guy was a comedian and had told his girlfriend someone was making a documentary about him, but it was all a set up for the production number proposal.

The one good thing was that since it was a set up, they could only shoot it once.

I don't know what the show is called. We just remember it was something the musical. Anyway, we had fun.

And then we went on our way to the next B & N.

And I had some happy news. You Better Knot Die was #7 on the Barnes & Noble mass market mystery bestseller list and Behind the Seams was #21 on the Barnes & Noble hardcover mystery bestseller list.

DIY

2011-11-10T10:43:00.001-04:00

I'm putting on my DIY hat for the next week. Who am I kidding? I don’t have a DIY hat or tool apron or anything like that. I’ve never been one who has done house projects. I’m more likely to sew a new wall hanging than paint a wall. Luckily I have a brother who’s a professional and he’s coming to help me out. (By that I mean, do the work.)

We are ripping out my fifteen year-old carpets and putting in new hardwood floors. By we, of course, I mean he. I’m not exactly sure what my role in all this will be, but I’m picturing runs to the hardware store and making healthy, nutritious meals.

I'm excited but also apprehensive. I've never seen my place with wood floors. I know I like the idea but will I love them once they're in? There will be no going back.

After the floors are done, new paint is next on the agenda. I've been trying out colors on the walls, which are now mostly white. Again, I have an idea of what the walls might look like in blue or aqua or gray, but I can only imagine the actual results. You might say it's only paint, but I have high ceilings and need professionals in to do the work. So I’ll dive off the high dive and pick a shade.

Its always that way with transformation, isn't it? Never really knowing what the outcome will be, only knowing that a change is necessary. We try a new hair stylist, we eat a different ethnic food. My mother was right when she said, you won't know until you try. Who knew Brussels sprouts could actually taste good?

Maybe the DIY hat will fit me after all.

Round and Round

2011-11-09T02:56:00.000-04:00

I’m home! I’ve been traveling for nearly two weeks, fortunately with Internet access a lot of the time so I could join in Joanna’s Halloween party and mostly keep up with Killer Hobbies.

I’m so happy to be back with my dogs! I’ve been able to visit them online, too--via the CavCam--the camera my husband set up to keep an eye on our Cavalier King Charles Spaniels and our house and our dog-sitting younger son. Isn’t the Internet amazing?

This trip involved meeting up with some family members in Maryland: our older son and d-i-l, and her parents--a delightful time! Then on to New York City where I met with my agent and two editors, among others. Next was a fun shareholders meeting for the Baron Funds--an event we attempt to attend many years because of the delightful “free” entertainment. (It is actually free, but you have to be in NYC to indulge.) This year we had lunch watching an absolutely wonderful show by Wolverine--well, Hugh Jackman. I knew he could act, but he sings and dances marvelously, too. By seeing him, we missed the other two lunchtime venues where James Taylor and Bebe Neuwirth were the entertainers. The main entertainment was Sting, whom I enjoyed but not nearly as much as Hugh Jackman.

Another really fun part of the conference this year was that I knew one of the CEOs who were invited to speak about their companies in which the Baron Funds invest. Mark Smith is the CEO of Molycorp. Molycorp used to be a subsidiary of Unocal when Mark and I were both in-house attorneys there.

Finally, I ended up in Pittsburgh to visit family--also great but never long enough. Even so, it’s great to be home in California--except for those upcoming deadlines...

This weekend I’ve got a bunch of events brewing, including a couple of signings: at Mysterious Galaxy in Redondo Beach on Saturday at 2:30 PM, and at Mystery Ink in Redondo Beach on Sunday at 10:00 AM. If you’re around here, please come and say hi!

How about you--any trips planned soon? Any book signings you’re having or attending?

Various Topics

2011-11-08T09:01:00.001-04:00

I’m going to be on television! Tyler Rabe of Lake Minnetonka Communications Commission is coming to our apartment on Thursday afternoon to videotape an interview of me about my books and my hats. They saw an article about me in a magazine called Lake Minnetonka, an elegant monthly. It had a nice photograph of me in one of my big hats and it struck a chord with LMCC. I knew wearing hats would pay off one of these days. Now I have to decide which hat to wear. Maybe I can change off halfway through? I hope I can be witty on command – we’ll see.

I went out with a friend last night to dinner and a movie. We saw “Puss in Boots,” a Dream Works production. It was so elaborate and detailed it hardly seems the term “cartoon” does it justice, and almost makes me wonder if live movie actors are doomed.

The weather was so nice I went out with only a sweater, but that might well be the last time I can do that this year. We went off daylight savings time on Sunday, and it’s shocking how early it gets dark now. Time to come indoors, close the windows, turn on the lights. The year is drawing in, Thanksgiving is on the horizon, and there are already Christmas ads on television. There is a sweet sadness to this season, along with an urge to check provisions, make sure there are the basics in the pantry: flour, onions, potatoes, canned soups. Will the winter coat do for one more year? Are the gloves, mittens, scarves, boots present and in good repair? Is the furnace ready to heat the place? On Sunday I cleared off the flower boxes, and put away the gardening tools. The geese were honking overhead and the squirrels, their coats thickening, were dashing about gathering seeds and burying pine cones. There is already a scent of wood smoke in the air and a general feeling of hustle. Summer is a memory, autumn is making her exit. This morning the pewter sky warns of snow.

Catching Up--and Why You Should NEVER Buy a Red Bic Lighter

2011-11-06T19:22:00.000-04:00

We had a blast at my online Halloween party. If you didn't get the chance to join us, don't despair! It was such a success that I think I'll have another next year. My author friends showed up, donated books, and answered questions. So a big round of applause for: Angie Fox, Laura DiSilverio, Mollie Cox Bryan, Sparkle Abbey, Monica Ferris, Linda O. Johnston, Deb Sharp, Alan Orloff, Vicki Doudera, Julie Compton, Sharon Hopkins, Penny Warner, Casey Daniels, Camille Minichino, Terri Thayer, Betty Hechtman, Emilie Richards, and Ellen Byrrum. (The last two were an extra-special unplanned treat!)

My friend Linda Hengerer and me at the CROPtacular.

I lucked out. We managed to finish the party hearty, and then my Internet server crashed. My husband hooked my computer up to a "hot spot," and I had intermittant service, but gee...once you've known the wonder of fast Internet, you are HOOKED.

On Saturday, I spent most of the day in Vero Beach at the Vero Beach Scrapbook Store's Third Annual Christmas CROPtacular. A lot of people have asked me, "What is a crop?" It's a term derived from the journalism verb as in to "crop" a photo, or to trim off the edges. But for scrappers it's a party! And this one started at 9 a.m. and went until 11 p.m. My dear friend Linda Hengerer came and helped me set up and meet readers. Linda is the Queen of all things football. Check out her football book--and you'll never be "lost" at a football game again!

Her dear pal--Suzanne Fox--stopped by and dropped off treats in case we got hungry. Suzanne was in and out quickly, or I would have shown her the 8th Wonder of the World...THE KITCHEN, aka Heaven. I mean, most of the scrapbookers brought sweets to share. Oh, golly. There were cakes, cupcakes, cookies, fudge, and brownies. I mean, everytime I walked through on the way to the bathroom I nearly swooned with delight.

So today is Sunday (since I usually try to get my Monday posts up early so they'll be waiting for those of you who might read them at work), and after a lot of chores around the house, I decided to take my usual walk on the beach. Oh, my! The ocean is roiling like a pot on a hot burner! I was hit by a rogue wave and the water came nearly to my waist. The beach is covered with foam and as always, lots of plastic. I've been reading Plastic Ocean: How a Sea Captain's Chance Discovery Launched a Determined Quest to Save the Oceans.

Want to get scared? Really scared? Read that book. See, for years, we've thought that plastics were inert and could not be broken down. WRONG. Bits of them cover a section of the Pacific so big its SURFACE is twice the size of Texas. And we don't know how deep those pieces go. Furthermore, plankton is feeding on the plastic. That means that plastic is invading our food chain.

This is why sea oats are so important. The waves came up to their roots. An aggressive ocean!

What can we do? I'll try to share my ideas as I get them, but to start...Never, EVER, buy a RED Bic plastic lighter. Why? That particular color is very attractive to a type of albatross that thinks the lighters are squid and feeds them to its babies. Evidently, the Bic lighters float, unlike lighters before them, and that makes them especially easy for the birds to grab.

Okay, the lights have flickered. The ocean gods are angry! Will say, "Goodnight," for now.

This Week

2011-11-04T03:54:00.003-04:00

What a week!

My son’s wedding was Sunday. The food was wonderful, and I think everybody had a great time. I got through the dance with my son without tripping over my feet. I gave my toast and got a laugh from the audience and a hug from my new daughter.

Monday was Halloween. The neighbor down the street who rents his house out for movie and film productions had gone over the top decorating for Halloween. I mean really over the top. The whole front yard is hidden from view by extensive greenery and they had created a creepy entrance by putting a castle sized gray gate over their driveway. Next to the entrance there was a car up on the curb as if it had been in an accident. There was a fake dead cow underneath the car. I didn’t actually go in their yard, but I saw a lot of life sized skeletons. Out front, a cherry picker held up a big screen that something was being shown on.

Their house must have gotten on one of the TV news shows or all over Facebook, because the crowd this year was a record breaker. We had 683 trick or treaters. I handed out candy and my husband kept track. For the first time in our personal Halloween history, we ran out of candy - and it was only 7:45.

Later that night we began to notice Goldy, or Blondie as she is called in my books, wasn’t well. She kept skittering around all night, going from one spot to another and then back again. When I got up in the morning, I found her laying in my closet. Anyone who has pets knows that isn’t a good sign. I wrapped her in a towel and we took her to the vet. I was afraid it was going to be a one way trip. We had to leave her because the vet was in surgery and we had to take my brother to the airport. We got the call just as we reached Burbank airport. Thank heavens Goldy wasn’t as bad as she seemed. He thinks she had some arthritis in her spine and gave her some medication.

She is back home and seems okay. I have written about Goldy before and what an unpredictable dog she is. Apparently she liked that first night she spent in my closet because now it has become her sleeping place of choice.

Tuesday Behind the Seams came out in hardcover and You Better Knot Die came out in a paperback edition. Wednesday I began making the rounds of local bookstores to sign stock. I have to say it was pretty cool when I walked in Bookstar in Studio City and saw Behind the Seams on display right by the cash register.

Starting on November 7, I’m going to be one of the featured authors on the Barnes & Noble Mystery Forum. I would love to have you stop by and leave a comment. To get there you go to BarnesandNoble.com. If you click on books, a menu drops down. At the bottom is Blogs and Forums. Click on that and look through the list until you come to Mystery Forum.

I am also guest blogger today at Cozy Chicks www.cozychicksblog.com and Dru’s Book Musings http://notesfromme.wordpress.com.

For Sale

2011-11-03T01:28:00.002-04:00

The family house is up for sale. The one my mother has lived in for nearly fifty years. It doesn't resemble a homestead; it's not a big rambling farmhouse with a wide porch. It's a sixties bilevel on a busy suburban street in a good school district. It had a large yard, plenty of room for six kids and their friends to play in.

It was my home for about fifteen years. Like most homes, it is a place with a lot of memories. Good and bad.I don't feel sad about losing the place. At least not now. Maybe I will feel differently when the deal is done. Right now it's a bit of an abstraction.

Moving from the house we lived in before that, hundreds of miles away, felt like a loss. Maybe because I was twelve and that was the only place I remembered living in. The choice to move had not been made by me but rather by my father's job transfer. I'm sure my mother was happy to leave that bungalow. Eight of us were living in 800 square feet with one bathroom. Three of my brothers slept in trundles stacked up in a narrow space. The neighborhood was right near the train tracks and some of the kids were well on their way to juvenile delinquency. We walked to school, to the neighborhood candy store, to the library. My grandparents lived nearby. It was a typical idyllic 50s childhood.

Moving to Long Island in the early sixties was a culture shock. This house had new furniture, what was then called a playroom and four bedrooms. The half bath in the laundry room felt like the height of luxury. We were living large.

Moving from this house has been a choice. It was for me when I left. And it is for my mom now. Maybe that's why it's not so difficult.

How about you? Have you left a house behind?

Today's Guest Blogger Rochelle Staab

2011-11-02T09:27:00.001-04:00

Welcome to Rochelle Staab, the author of WHO DO, VOODOO?, the first book in her new Mind for Murder mystery series for Berkley Prime Crime.

Tell us about your hobbies and books, Rochelle...

MY FICTIONAL FAMILY FOTO ALBUM
First I want to send a huge thank you to Linda O. Johnston for inviting me to share my killer hobby here today. What started as a mindless pastime ended up as a creative joy.

I’m a ripper. Not that kind. I claim no resemblance to the 19th century London killer. Nope, my ripping is focused on photos and articles from magazines, newspapers, or off the Internet. Clever sayings, cute outfits, furniture, oddities, recipes, holiday ideas, headlines, and quotes—if something catches my eye, I rip, cut, or tear it out to file for future inspiration.

My habit became a valuable tool as I wrote Who Do, Voodoo?, the first novel in my Mind for Murder mystery series. Being a visually oriented gal, I craved illustrations of my characters and settings beyond what I envisioned in my head. I began to scour catalogs, magazines, and the Internet for representations of the world of my story. If I spotted a brunette catalog model in an outfit my character Liz Cooper would wear, I tore out the page. I drove to actual locations used in the story and took photos. I even printed out the Internet sales page for dinnerware I used in a scene. And when my stack of tear-sheets grew unwieldy, I had the idea to create a Who Do, Voodoo?scrapbook.

The result was a cool and helpful keepsake. Each major character and theme, like voodoo, has a page. Each page holds photos of what my character might look like, how they might decorate their home, and oddities they might collect. The photos aren’t literal—Liz Cooper, Nick Garfield, Robin Bloom, and the rest of the gang don’t look exactly like the people on their scrapbook pages, but close enough.

And because my Who Do, Voodoo?scrapbook helped to spark my writing, I built another scrapbook for Bruja Brouhaha, the second novel in the series, and I’m in the process of starting a third.

An added bonus was the creative distraction I got from organizing the pages. I’m still learning how to add the frills that come with real scrapbooking. I could spend hours in the scrapbook aisle shopping for stickers and backgrounds.

When I hit a writing standstill the cross-creative activity of populating the scrapbook inspires me. When words won’t come, the plot is stuck, or the characters take an artistic break, I flip through magazines for photos and clever headlines to stimulate my imagination. The exercise reignites my creative right brain and gives my over-thinking, analytical left-brain a time out. And sometimes I just pull out the scrapbook as a reminder of how much I love working with my fictional pals. It’s my family album of characters. ~ Rochelle

Who Do, Voodoo?, the first novel in Rochelle Staab’s Mind for Murder Mystery series featuring Los Angeles psychologist Liz Cooper and Religious Philosophy Professor Nick Garfield was released by Berkley Prime Crime on November 1.

When Liz Cooper’s friend Robin Bloom discovers a threatening tarot card tacked to her front door, Liz writes the card off as a prank. Robin refuses to ignore the omen—two years ago her late husband drew the same card, the Three of Swords, in a tarot reading the night before he was killed in a car accident. As more cards and darker threats appear on Robin’s door, Liz realizes someone very dangerous is upping the ante. Her brother’s old college roommate, occult expert Nick Garfield, takes Liz into the voodoo community to locate the origin of the deck. Their search ends with a dead body and Robin becomes the prime murder suspect. Determined to clear her friend, Liz joins forces with Nick to unravel otherworldly secrets and seek help from beyond—or risk being outwitted by a cunning killer.

Rochelle Staab is an award-winning, former radio and music industry executive.
Visit her website at: www.rochellestaab.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/rochelle.staab
Twitter: http://twitter.com/#!/rochellestaab
Goodreads: http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/4705211

One lucky commenter will win a copy of WHO DO, VOODOO? (US residents only) Be sure to give a good email address.

Magna cum Murder Report

2011-11-01T09:31:00.003-04:00

We spent this past weekend in Muncie, Indiana, attending Magna cum Murder, a mystery conference sponsored by Ball State University. This was its seventeenth annual, and I’ve been to most of them.

We generally drive, and this year was no exception. We took a friend along. Judy was good company and an excellent driver. We left around nine Thursday morning, took I-94 East to I-39 South down the middle of Illinois to I-74 East and stopped for the night a few miles short of Indiana.

Things didn’t get started on Friday until around 3. We signed in and renewed acquaintances, introducing Judy around. Ellen went off to a panel, but I got distracted by a vendor: Mattie Coleman and her wonderful hats! She had some outfits as well, but I didn't see one I had to have. There were a lot of gorgeous hats and I couldn’t decide which one to focus on. A purple one was beautiful, but way too big. There was a magnificent black one, but I have several black hats. On the other hand, there was a red one with an upright brim shaped like a fan. And a very elaborate lavender straw. And a shimmery golden straw mod-style cap with a fancy bow. Which one? Oh, this was going to be difficult! At four, I went to a discussion led by Jeanne Dams – who wears a mean hat herself – on the book every attendee was supposed to read, Death on the Nile, by Agatha Christie. It was lively and some really interesting insights were revealed. Was the murder victim a bitch or sadly lacking in insight? Did Christie miss an important clue?

Saturday morning I went to a panel called “The Wave of the Future,” on why Ebooks shouldn’t be a thing to fear. It was aimed at authors considering Ebook publishing and very informative. At the noon luncheon, guest of honor Parnell Hall was interviewed. On full display was his wacky sense of humor. After lunch I attended a panel “You Drive A Car, I Ride a Horse,” on western novels and their curious similarity to mysteries. At four I had my first book signing, in anticipation of my first panel, which had an unusual title: “You Know What’s Cool? A Billion Dollars.” It was on using the Internet to entertain and increase a fanbase. A lot of good suggestions were offered, while I offered a complaint that following all the suggestions would take a lot of time away from my writing – and also call for a level of computer sophistication I didn’t have and wasn’t sure I wanted to acquire. We went back to our hotel to change into dress-up for the banquet. It was a delicious pork loin meal, and it was followed by a fantastic talk by archaelogist Bob Brier on the possible murder of King Tut. He made a very convincing case, backed by slides, using the history of the period - he was succeeded by his vizier who married his frightened, unwilling widow - as well as physical evidence.

Sunday at nine was a panel “Thou Shalt Not Kill,” a look into how spirituality relates to mysteries. The panelists were intelligent, educated and thoughtful. At ten-thirty I was on my second panel: “It’s Not a Vacation, It’s Research,” on locales, how they are chosen and the fun of finding an interesting, tax-deductible setting. It was followed by another signing, then another luncheon, then fond and sad farewells and starting for home. We didn't break the trip home, but made it on one big gallop, arriving some time after midnight. I didn't get up for water aerobics Monday morning.

Which hat? I bought all three!

The Winner of a Copy of Miscellany of Murder Is...

2011-10-31T20:56:00.002-04:00

Carol S.

Carol, please email me at joannaslan@aol.com and put Miscellany of Murder in the subject line. (I sure hope I spelled that right!)

Your Invitation to an Online Halloween Party!

2011-10-30T18:08:00.002-04:00

Looking up to Spiderman--A REAL Hero, my grand-nephew Skyler.

Join Me and More than a Dozen of My Author Buds

to PARTY HEARTY

on Facebook--Monday, October 31

9 p.m. to Midnight Eastern

We will be giving away signed books, e-books, and more!

Just come to my new Facebook Fan Page

~SCHEDULE~

9 to 9:30 p.m. (Eastern)

Mollie Cox Bryan (Scrapbook of Secrets--ARC)

Angie Fox (A Tale of Two Demon Slayers)

Sparkle Abbey (Desperate Housedogs)

9:30 to 10 p.m. (Eastern)

Betty Hechtman (Behind the Seams)

Laura DiSilverio (Die Buying)

Deb Sharp (Mama Sees Stars)

10 to 10:30 p.m. (Eastern)

Julie Compton (Tell No Lies & Rescuing Olivia)

Alan Orloff (The Taste)

10:30 to 11 p.m. (Eastern)

Casey Daniels (A Hard Day's Fright)

Vicki Doudera (Killer Listing)

Penny Warner (How to Party Like a Vampire)

11:30 to Midnight (Eastern)

Margaret Grace (Murder in Miniature)

Joanna Campbell Slan (Make, Take, Murder)

Sharon Hopkins (Killerwatt)

Drop in guests include: Linda O. Johnston (The More the Terrier), Monica Ferris (Buttons and Bones)

Also, we'll be welcoming Sparkle Abbey--and I'll post more info about their visit as it becomes available!

Time Out of Mind

2011-10-28T01:40:00.000-04:00

I have totally lost track of time. I haven’t done any of my usual things this week. The kind of things that mark the day. Like on Mondays I usually go to a class that is half cycling and half weight. Tuesday is a cardio class. It suddenly hit me it is Thursday night and time to write my blog. And Sunday is my son’s wedding. And next Tuesday Behind the Seams is released and the paperback edition of You Better Knot Die comes out.

I have this problem. I live in the moment and tend to dismiss things in the far off future. But eventually the future becomes the present.

So I had to scramble and get the updates to my web guy. Thanks heavens he was Mr. Speedy and the updated version of www.BettyHechtman.com went public this morning.

Then it was time to focus on the wedding. My brother came in last night. I haven’t seen him in ten years. He’s not fond of traveling, so his going to all the trouble to fly cross country means even more. It is nice to have my family all together.

I know that the next two days will go by in a blur of final details and then all the months of planning will have turned into now.

Are you surprised when the future becomes the present?

Skipping Halloween

2011-10-26T17:38:00.002-04:00

Can one be a humbug about Halloween? I guess so, because that's me.

Not that there haven't been great Halloweens in my past. The year my five-year old asked me to make him a King Tut costume was a good one. He was so happy in his fake bejeweled collar, he wore it until Christmas. He loved explaining to ignorant adults who he was. His grammar school years were fun, too. Mostly because the entire school would march up Main Street in their costumes. I especially enjoyed his first grade teacher dressed as a nun. She was, however, missing the ruler so many of the nuns who taught me wielded.

As a kid, our costumes were made from bits and bobs around the house. I never had a handmade or store bought costume. We just made outfits out of old clothes or boxes. I can recall one spectacular robot made of boxes covered in tin foil. I also remember being very confused when a kid told me he was going as a bum. I only knew one definition for that word—as a synonym for a person’s behind. You can imagine what my fertile 8-year old mind conjured up!

I don’t like to be scared. I don’t like horror movies or books. Stephen King creeps me out. While I don’t mind gore (although I have the remote ready during shows like Dexter and True Blood), being scared is not my cup of tea. I remember having to leave the theatre several times during the Clint Eastwood movie, Play Misty for Me. Things just got too tense for me. And I’m still scarred from Wait Until Dark. I can’t imagine deliberately watching Halloween or Scream.

So convert me if you can. Most likely, I’ll get out of the house for a few hours Monday night and avoid Halloween all together. Bah, humbug.

Halloween and Horror

2011-10-26T01:29:00.001-04:00

Halloween seems to be our theme this week on Killer Hobbies, and everywhere else, too!

Halloween’s one of my favorite holidays, and always has been. I once loved to figure out what costume to wear--partly because it was another way of being someone else. Playing a role. Enjoying the fiction. When I was a kid, I loved to act and go on stage, even took classes at the Pittsburgh Playhouse. Being myself and giving a speech--no way!

That’s reversed these days. I give a lot of talks, plus I’m on panels and teach classes. That’s all related to fiction, too--what I’m writing.

But my taste in fiction has changed over the years. I used to love to see horror movies. Not today! I like action and adventure, comedy, biographical stories, inspirational, suspense... but nothing that’s likely to scare me. That’s reflected in what I write, too, or at least I think so. I suppose people could be scared a bit by my Harlequin Nocturne shapeshifters, but if so it’s because those who are scared are the bad guys in my stories and deserve their comeuppances.

My Halloween costume these days usually consists of a black, flowing witch dress that I sometimes deck out with accessories. That’s not intended to scare anyone. Should people consider me a good witch? Why not! I admit to a crazy cackle now and then, though.

My dogs seem to take my dressing up in stride. And since we hardly get any trick-or-treaters at our house to bark at, they don’t seem bothered by Halloween.

How about you--do you have a favorite Halloween costume? What do your pets think about the holiday?

Halloween

2011-10-25T09:23:00.003-04:00

I wonder how it is that Halloween is now the second most popular holiday in America. It seems kind of unlikely that a holiday devoted to scaring people half to death while feeding them huge quantities of candy could be so beloved.

I remember being told in Catholic grade school that the origin of the holiday – whose name means “all hallows eve” because it falls on the eve of All Saints Day – was that some people believed that the souls of the departed were allowed to come back on that night to beg for prayers to be said for them at Mass the next day. I don’t know if that’s true, it sounds like a retrofit explanation to me.

I have lots of happy memories of childhood Halloweens. We always went trick or treating in our home-made costumes. My mother was an excellent seamstress, so our costumes were a step above the bedsheet-as-ghost variety. I remember a gypsy costume I wore one year. It had a frieze of cards around the hem and I was thrilled to wear gold earrings to complete the look. I remember a clown costume I wore when I was very young – four or five – but what I remember most about it is that the lipstick on my face wouldn’t come off even with cold cream!

When we moved to the big city my brother and his chums would go out trick-or-treating with pillow cases. They’d be gone for hours and come home with an enormous quantity of candy.

I was disappointed when my husband and I moved to the suburbs and landed in a neighborhood where trick-or-treaters were few and far between. It was always such a pleasure watching the different costumes and eager faces of the children coming to our door in South Minneapolis.

One of my favorite parts of celebrating the holiday was carving a pumpkin. My Jack-O-Lanterns were pretty good and it was always sort of sad when, after a few days, they collapsed and were thrown away. Even as an adult, I liked carving them, and when Pumpkin Masters started offering wonderful patterns, I bought a new edition each year and would sometimes carve two Jack-O-Lanterns. But it took hours to produce one and again, after a short life, they were discarded. Then I discovered artificial pumpkins at Michael’s. No longer would my masterworks last only a few days. But: now they last forever. When we moved from our townhouse to an apartment, I culled my collection, and donated most of the rest to the co-op to use decorating the party room. I think I’m pretty much over my Jack-O-Lantern habit, but I couldn’t resist the pattern on this page this year.

What’s your favorite Halloween memory or custom?

Today’s Guest Blogger: Rochelle Staab

2011-10-24T11:46:00.005-04:00

A Halloween Invitation--and A Gift for One Lucky Commenter!

2011-10-23T21:19:00.000-04:00

Skyler and Lexie at the Pumpkin Patch...sort of.

It takes a bit of getting used to, but here in Florida, a "pumpkin patch" is a concrete slab decorated with pumpkins. I grew up wandering muddy fields with dying vines and rotting orange globes. This is MUCH more sanitary--and a bit scary. Here's a photo of my drop-dead gorgeous niece Lexie and her 3-year-old son Skyler picking out the gourd to go ghoulish. As you might guess, Skyler is our own "pumpkin." We're having all sorts of fun watching him grow. He's going to be Spiderman for the big Spook Fest.

On Wednesday night, I'm lucky enough to escort Skyler to the Jupiter (FL) Community Center where they're having a Halloween event especially for kids his age. I'm so excited I can barely wait! I love Halloween! I'm dreaming of Snickers bars. Sigh.

In the spirits of the spirits, I'm giving a Halloween party ONLINE on my new Facebook fan page. From 9 p.m. to midnight (Eastern Time) on Halloween (Monday, October 31) join me at http://www.Facebook.com/JoannaCampbellSlan Simply watch for my status updates and participate by reading the comments.

We have a great line up of guests. So far, we have commitments from Mollie Cox Bryan (Scrapbook of Secrets: A Cumberland Creek Mystery, coming February, 2012); Penny Warner (How to Party Like a Killer Vampire); Camille Minichino (Malice in Miniature); Sparkle Abbey (Pampered Pet Mysteries); Julie Compton (Tell No Lies and Rescuing Olivia); Deb Sharp (Mama Sees Stars); and Linda O. Johnston (The More the Terrier). And since I've been slow about sending out the invites to my author pals, you can bet that list will grow. Most of the authors will offer copies of their latest books or ARCs (Advance Reading Copies) to give away.
I hate the fact that I need to move folks from my "old" personal FB page to a fan page, but...the times are a changing. Here's a great explanation of the advantages of a fan page.

Okay, so what would encourage you to come to my fan page? Hmmm? How can I bribe you to make the switch?

Speaking of bribes, we have a copy of A MISCELLANY OF MURDER: FROM HISTORY AND LITERATURE TO TRUE CRIME AND TELEVISION, A KILLER SELECTION OF TRIVIA to give away to one lucky commenter, thanks to one of the five co-authors, Stephen D. Rogers.

So come on, readers--tell me what you're thinking! One of you will randomly be selected to receive Stephen's new book.

Our Guest Blogger Kylie Logan

2011-10-22T01:08:00.004-04:00

Today our guest blogger is Kylie Logan, author of the new Button Box Mysteries. Welcome, Kylie! Tell us about your hobby and your new mystery series.

Killer hobbies, eh?

When asked by my buddy Linda O. Johnston to guest today, it was the first thing I asked myself.

Killer hobby? Which one should I talk about?

There are times my knitting pretty much nearly kills me. Like a couple weeks ago when I decided on the morning of my daughter’s birthday to knit her an earwarmer headband (complete with black and white skeleton heads) so she could wear it when she coaches her cross country team, the Rocky River (Ohio) Pirates. Actually finished it by cake and candle time that night, and yes, it was a killer. Could barely move my right arm the next day!

There are times my attempts at spinning are definitely killers, too. Witness my husband’s question, "Why are you sitting there making dirty string?"
But when it comes right down to it, I guess it’s my other hobby that relates to my writing that has really turned into a killer.
The hobby?

Buttons.

I know what you’re thinking. Buttons are so commonplace. So ordinary. They’re everywhere, and because they are, they’re not something we pay a lot of attention to. But think about it . . . a few hundred years ago, buttons were a revelation. Before that time, buttons were used as a clothing adornment. That is, until some clever person thought of the button hole to go with them. That ingenious invention changed the way clothes were made and worn.

Since then, the history of buttons has also been the history of society. Want to know how a person lived? Take a look at her buttons! From them, you’ll learn social class, the way a person took care of her clothing, even something about her love life. Back in the nineteenth century, young woman wore pictures of their beaus on their coat buttons!

To me, this is all fascinating. It becomes even more so when you take a look at antique buttons. They come in all shapes and sizes and materials and the workmanship on many of them is breathtaking. Miniature paintings, enamel, jewels. Buttons truly are tiny pieces of art.

It was my interest in buttons that made me decide to write the Button Box mysteries, and the first of those, "Button Holed" was published by Berkley Prime Crime in September. In it, readers meet Josie Giancola, proprietor of a brownstone button shop in Chicago who is enlisted to help in a murder investigation when an actress is killed in her shop and a button is found under the body–one that didn’t come from Josie’s collection.

I’ve had a great time doing research for the series, including sitting in on a judging panel at a button competition (yes, there are such things) and visiting button museums. Buttons are small, easy to store, portable and many are inexpensive. In fact, they provide the perfect hobby.

And for Josie, the perfect excuse to get involved in murder!

　
Kylie Logan’s next book, "Hot Button," will be published in June. As Casey Daniels, she also writes the Pepper Martin mysteries. The eighth book in that series, "Wild, Wild Death," will be published in January.

Prize winner!

2011-10-22T01:07:00.000-04:00

At long last, here is the winner of a copy of the book LIVER LET DIE, as offered by Liz Lipperman on her Killer Hobbies guest blog post last week:

Lynn!

If you’d please send your snail mail address to me at lindaojohnston@rocketmail.com, Lynn, I’ll pass it along to Liz

Updating My Website

2011-10-20T22:52:00.008-04:00

I am trying to get everything together to update my website. I have a webmaster, but I have to send him all the stuff to master onto the web. Some of it is easy. Sending him the book cover for Behind the Seams is no big deal, nor giving him the quote from Vanna White, so he can put it in the space next to the cover.

Typing in an excerpt from the book is just tedious, but not hard. I have to use the ARC (advanced readers copy) and hold it open with my elbows so I can copy the first few pages.

Then comes the I’m not sure how to do it part. I think there’s an Amazon associate code that goes with my books., but I’m not sure how to find it. I can’t even figure out how to get into my Amazon associate account. I’m sure there’s a way and if I spend enough time fiddling around, I’ll figure it out. But I don’t look forward to doing it.

I include at least one pattern in my books and since there are just instructions with no visuals, I like to include photographs of the finished items. Something I call impatient crochet is featured in Behind the Seams. The book has patterns for a cell phone sock, an eyeglass case and a small purse. But when I went to look in the room that has all my crochet stuff, I couldn’t find the samples I’d made. So, I had to make new samples. That was fun, sort of. I worried that the pieces wouldn’t turn out to be perfect. But then if they were perfect, they wouldn’t look handmade.

My son was nice enough to photograph them, but then he said something about each photo being huge file and that my web guy will have to compress them or something. I’m hoping Mr. Web Master knows what the “or something” is because I don’t know what to tell him. I had enough trouble trying to get the photos off the card from the camera and save them on my computer. I just hate those screens were none of the options they offer are what you are trying to do.

I think starting to get everything together was really the hardest part. Once I get past that obstacle, I know I will finish. What about you? Do you find it harder to start something, or to finish it?

Oh, and I’m including the photo of the cell phone sock. It is in it’s huge file state, so who knows what will happen. And if anyone has suggestions about the Amazon associate code, I'd love to hear it.

PIQF

2011-10-20T01:07:00.003-04:00

For the first time in fifteen years, I missed Pacific International Quilt Fest. I spent the weekend with family, so no feeling too sorry for me. Today I figured out what I missed the most about not attending.

First let me tell you that PIQF is a enormous quilt show with hundreds of quilts from all over the world (hence the International part). There is wearable art and plenty of creativity on display. Tens of thousands of quilters descend on the Santa Clara Convention Center for four days of classes, lectures, exhibits. And shopping. There are rows and rows of vendors, selling all things quilt-related. Even fiction, thankfully.

For a fictionalized version of this extravaganza, see my first book Wild Goose Chase. Dewey sets up a booth in a similar setting. Someone is killed with a rotary cutter in a place where at least a thousand identical rotary cutters can be found. Murder and mayhem.

But it wasn't the array of quilts that I missed, nor the decent soup in the luncheonette, or even the disseminating of my carefully hoarded PIQF spending money. It was my peeps.

For you see, I'd spent the weekend with folks who love sports. Any kind of sports but mostly soccer and football. I believe an important baseball game was going on, too. The TV was always tuned to sports. No HGTV, no Glee DVD. Not even The Good Wife. Did you know soccer starts at 8 AM on Saturdays? Those rabid British Manchester United fans have nothing on my family. Not a thing.

Conversations revolved around penalty kicks and trades and downs. My ears bled from the yelling at an interception. Dinners were rearranged to catch all the action.

Meanwhile at PIQF, women were dressed in colorful garb with hand made necklaces and bulging tote bags. They were talking about shot cotton and raw edge applique. People were buying ribbons, and new books, and patterns for purses they will never make. And I missed it!

These are women (and men, too) who think like me. Who are gobsmacked by a display of quilted table runners. Who swoon over a single pearl button. Who are convinced that they will never, ever, see this particular shade of rose hand dye again.

They are me. And I missed them. But there is always next year. For PIQF. And the Yankees.

The Fate of Blogging

2011-10-19T01:30:00.001-04:00

Last Sunday, I participated on a panel for the Women's National Book Association National Reading Group Month Celebration at The Last Book Store in downtown LA. That’s a new store, by the way, large and full of mostly used books that are hard to resist, even though fiction isn’t the focus.

There were five authors on the panel, plus a moderator. I really enjoyed the whole experience including hearing everyone else’s story of how they began writing and got published. The audience was enthusiastic, too, and asked a lot of great questions.

One thing that was discussed was blogging--whether the panelists blogged, how often, and what we thought of blogging.

I’ve been here on Killer Hobbies for years and really enjoy it. I’ve been guest blogging on other sites now more than ever, and also enjoy that.

But some of the people there--audience members and panelists--appear to believe that, with other social networking options like Facebook, Twitter, Goodreads and more, blogging is disappearing. They believe it’s not as helpful or relevant as the other choices.

Well, heck. I hate to think that could be true. And I’m not giving up my blogging, at least not yet.

Yes, writing a blog post is more time consuming than describing on Twitter, or even on Facebook, what someone had for dinner. Well, for me, I’m more likely to be describing on Facebook what my dogs, or my books, are doing.

But it’s also still enjoyable to me to come up with a relevant topic and expound on it for a few paragraphs--a subject as important as whether blogging still works, and whether it has a future.

What do you think?

Keeping It Real?

2011-10-18T08:08:00.000-04:00

My friend Maru, visiting from Mexico City, and I went to Excelsior today. We had lunch at Antiquity Rose, then walked down to the little waterfront then up the main street of the town. At first glance, it looks unchanged. Haskell’s, the liquor store, is still there. The Dock, the movie theater is there – but what’s this? The little row of storefronts that faced the lake across a parking lot, their backs against the movie theater, are all gone. And as we walked up Water Street, other, smaller, changes appeared. Some of the little shops have changed hands. There’s a dentist’s office now, on the same street as Antiquity Rose (which has been painted a new color). The tiny jewelry store is still there, and Leipold’s, and Cynthia Rae’s clothing store. And so on. So some things remain, while others are gone. The buildings are the same, but the signs are different. Small changes, but changes. This is not the first time I have noticed that the town is moving along.

The question was, do I reflect all these changes? Some of them? None of them? My readers like visiting Excelsior, it has become as familiar as any of the human characters. One of the pleasures of using a real town is that I didn’t have to invent streets and shops. One of the dangers is that I can’t – or won’t – keep up with the changes.

The question of absolute accuracy was answered some while back, when I disallowed the sushi bar. I mentioned in one book that someone had bought the Waterfront Cafe to make a sushi bar of it, but in the book, the plan failed. Then in a later book, I turned the Waterfront Cafe into a micro brewery, a major change that was totally fictional. But that meant that when the real Excelsior turned the old hardware store into an Irish pub, I couldn’t allow that, either, as it would be too competitive with the Barleywine micro brewery. So I’ve already made some changes to the real town.

It’s sort of the same when I use people I know – with their permission, of course – in a book. I always have to make some changes in their real person for purposes of plot, but at what point do they become real-with-minor-changes and where are they more inspired-by? (You’ve seen movies “based on a real event” or “inspired by the story of” and if you know the real event you know how ephemeral these inspirations can be.)

Those of you with this dilemma, how are you handling it?

The Glamorous Side of Doing Research?

2011-10-17T06:00:00.007-04:00

By Penny Warner

Smart writers set their books on fabulous cities, exotic jungles, or romantic beaches, knowing they’ll have to go there to “research” the place for their books. But I somehow end up in a cemetery. That’s because my latest murder mystery, HOW TO PARTY WITH A KILLER VAMPIRE, features a film wrap party for big-time movie producer Lucas Cruz. Cruz is celebrating his latest release—a vampire parody film—by throwing a lavish party in a graveyard. It’s a pretty gloomy venue for Presley, but she’s hoping to make it so much fun that partygoers won’t even notice there are more dead than living guests…

Meanwhile, I get to hang out in Colma, AKA the “City of Souls,” to do my research. Nestled in the hills just south of San Francisco, Colma claims the deceased population outnumbers the living, 1.5 million “souls” to 1,600 residents. The city was founded as a “necropolis” in 1924, and offers 17 cemeteries for humans, plus one for pets. Apparently, the city of San Francisco ran out of room for its dead, evicted all existing cemeteries in the city limits, and relocated them to the south. The motto there: “It’s great to be alive.”

What better setting for a book featuring vampires.

Truthfully, I found cemetery city to be fascinating. After checking out the shops that offer fancy granite headstones and flower marts with “easy to install” bouquets of floral arrangements, I headed for the pet cemetery called Pet’s Rest, (not to be confused with Stephen King’s Pet Sematary, where the pets actually came back to life after they were buried.) This pet cemetery is filled with tiny headstones that mark the names of well-loved pets—“Shadow” the rabbit, “Gyzmo” the dog, “Mr. Furry-Face” the cat. They’re buried here, along with the occasional bird (“Tweety”), fish (“Ahab”), lizard (“Godzilla”) and monkey (“Darwin”), plus thousands of other well-loved companions.

Next I headed for Hills of Eternity and located the grave of Wyatt Earp, the famous lawman. There are lots of well-known names resting in Colma, like William Randolph Heart (he’s at Cypress Lawn), Joe DiMaggio (at Holy Cross), and Emperor Norton (Woodlawn). There was even an award-winning musical filmed in Colma called, appropriately, “Colma: The Musical.” Not many towns can claim the same.

When I finished my research, I concluded that Colma is certainly a peaceful place, with its immaculately kept lawns, colorful floral bouquets, and quiet pathways. It’s a nice place to visit, but I wouldn’t want to live there. And I really need to start setting my books in places like Paris, Hawaii, or at least the Amazon Jungle.

**

Penny Warner has published over 50 books for both adults and children. Her latest is a mystery series featuring event planner, Presley Parker, and set in the San Francisco Bay Area. HOW TO HOST A KILLER PARTY, features a wedding on Alcatraz, HOW TO CRASH A KILLER BASH, offers a Murder Mystery Party at the de Young Museum, HOW TO SURVIVE A KILLER SÉANCE, features a Séance Party at the Winchester Mystery House, and HOW TO PARTY WITH A KILLER VAMPIRE is set in Colma, the City of Souls. Her middle-grade mystery, CODE BUSTERS CLUB: THE SKELETON KEY, was just published.

Contact Penny Warner at www.pennywarner.com or pennywarnerink@yahoo.com.

Our Guest, Liz Lipperman

2011-10-14T18:40:00.008-04:00

Let’s welcome Liz Lipperman, the author of LIVER LET DIE, which is the first book in her new Clueless Cook Mystery series for Berkley Prime Crime.

Tell us all about your new book, Liz...

First of all, thanks to Linda and all the lovely ladies at Killer Hobbies for allowing me to hang out with them today. Before I get started I want to mention that I have one copy of LIVER LET DIE to give away, thanks to Berkley. To enter, leave a comment with a valid email address. This is open to US only (publisher’s request.) Linda will pick the winner. Since this is a blog about killers and hobbies, I thought I'd talk about both, but in order to do that, I have to give you a little blurb about LIVER LET DIE, the first book of my Clueless Cook Mystery series which debuted October 4. Here it is.

Jordan McAllister, a wannabe sports reporter who follows her boyfriend to Dallas, gets dumped, and ends up in a small Texas town where she lands a job writing personals. When she’s offered an opportunity to fill in for the culinary reporter who's rehabbing a broken hip, she jumps on it, thinking it’s one step closer to writing that sports column she wants so badly. The problem is she was raised in West Texas, the only girl with three brothers who needed her outside every day to even up the sides for football games, and although she can throw a razor-sharp touchdown pass from 50 yards, she can’t cook her way out of a box of macaroni and cheese

Her first assignment is reviewing the new steakhouse in town where she inadvertently orders foie gras (fatty duck liver) that ends up untouched and shoved into a borrowed purse. Back home she discovers that she has ruined her friends beautiful handbag, but that's nothing compared to finding her waiter from the steakhouse murdered outside her door along with her name and number in his pockets. Now she’s the prime suspect as well as the main course on the murder menu.

I love writing killers—find it fascinating to be in their heads. I particularly love the kind that you least suspect—you know, the one who tips the pregnant waitress an extra twenty bucks or gives his seat to an elderly woman on the subway train. Just when I start to like him, he goes and kills someone. I love being surprised and hate it when I guess who he is too close to the end.

As for hobbies, in a lot of ways I am like Jordan, my protagonist in LIVER LET DIE. She hates all red meat and seafood. Check. She loves all sports. Check. She loves fried bologna sandwiches and Hostess Ho Hos. Check. She can't cook a lick.—Um, not exactly. I was number eight of nine children and grew up eating casseroles. My mother was an awesome cook and the funny thing is, I am the only one of four sisters who cooks and actually enjoys it.

So what does that have to do with the hobby? I love going to restaurants and trying different things. If I like what I'm eating, I take a little in a doggie bag and play around with it until I come up with something just as good or better. The good part is, I go for the shortcuts—cake mixes, bottled spaghetti sauce, packaged mixes, etc. After I doctor them up, they taste really good.

One of the recipes I’ve played with is my Mom’s beef stew. She’d spend hours cooking it and add lots of spices. She passed away before I was old enough to care about cooking, so when I craved it one day, I decided to try to capture that same tasty dish. I started off with a package of beef stew seasoning mix and went from there. My sisters think my beef stew is as good or better than our Mom’s And I can promise it is a whole lot easier to make. Here it is. Make it on a cold winter day and enjoy.

LIZ’S TASTES JUST LIKE MOM’S EASY BEEF STEW

1 ½ lbs. Beef stew meat with all the fat removed and cut into small pieces
Flour mixed with 2 Tbsp. Lawry’s Seasoned Salt
1 can Tomato paste
¼ cup ketchup
Salt and pepper to taste
2 pkg. Lawry’s or McCormicks beef stew mix
6 cups water
5-6 potatoes cut into bite size pieces
1 bag baby carrots

Dredge beef stew meat in seasoned flour. (Easiest way to do this is to put about ½ cup flour with the Lawry’s into a brown paper sack. Put the meat into the bag, several pieces at a time and shake.) Brown on both sides in hot oil in a Dutch oven. Add water, tomato paste, ketchup, 2 pkg. Beef stew mix and salt and pepper. You can add more ketchup if necessary. (My Mom used to save all her empty ketchup bottles and add water to really clean them out?) Bring to boil. Reduce heat. Cover and simmer for 1 hour. Add vegetables and again bring it to a boil. Cover and simmer this until vegetables are tender. (approximately 30-45 minutes.)

And one more thing. I am having a fantastic contest to celebrate the release of LIVER LET DIE, and the first place winner will receive a Pandigital Kitchen Technology Center with an HD TV, a digital recipe file, a digital photo album and internet access. Go to my website-- www.lizlipperman.com –for details.

A Cat's Tale

2011-10-14T03:14:00.000-04:00

Monica and Linda both blogged about dogs. I thought I’d blog about a cat, and it’s not even my cat. His name is Julius, or as we call him That Julius (spoken in a tone of being amused and amazed by what he’s done). I had hoped to include a picture of him, but the last time I had a chance, my camera jammed. So, just picture a black cat, not too big, with poufy long fur and arresting yellow eyes.

I talked to his owners once and they were surprised to hear he was a frequent visitor to my yard. Julius lives down the street, but he considers a whole two block stretch to belong to him. Our yard is right in the middle of what Julius views as his domain.

Most of his visits have occurred when our cats are inside. I did hear some bad cat noises coming from the backyard once and discovered Julius and Rocky wrestling on the ground. Rocky lives up to his name and is a big, black and white, bruiser. Julius maybe smaller, but he has a presence and I hate to admit it, but I think he won. Eventually, Julius taught Rocky how to escape from our backyard. But apparently Julius left out how to get back home. We found Rocky a half a block away sitting in Julius’s neighbor’s yard, waiting to be picked up.

Thanks to Julius’s lesson, we had to erect what we call The Great Wall of Kitty. It sounds more impressive than it is. Actually, we just took two folding laundry dryers and hung them on the gate they were jumping over and then covered the whole thing with a blue tarp. By the way, it is very effective. Rocky looks at it, but doesn’t jump over.

However, The Great Wall of Kitty seems to have no effect on the comings and going of Julius. But thankfully this time he’s keeping his route to himself.

When Julius comes in the backyard, he takes off if I try to get close to him. But the other day I noticed him lounging on our front porch. I was actually putting out bags of giveaway things for a charity pick-up. Julius didn’t make a move to leave. He just looked me in the eye. Maybe it was my imagination, but there seemed to be a lot going on behind those eyes of his. I reached out my hand and to my surprise Julius made contact with it. He made no move to leave as I went back and forth, bringing out the bags. He finally got up and I realized he was planning to follow me inside. What a gutsy cat.

Meanwhile Rocky watched the whole episode from the living room window and our other cat Spago patrolled inside the front door.

Julius lives with a corgi. They are Queen Elizabeth’s favorite kind of dog and have bulky bodies and little short legs. I’ve had a few runs in with Pepper when the dog came charging into the street on those little short legs as I was walking by with Goldy. But apparently Pepper and Julius get along very well. Every now and then I see the man down the street walking the corgi on a leash. Not to be left out, Julius scampers along behind them, making side trips into everybody’s yard. It’s my favorite Julius moment and every time I see it, I can’t help but say that Julius!

Halloween Crafts

2011-10-12T22:51:00.004-04:00

Thank you Terri Thayer for inviting me to guest post here today.

You may know me as the best-selling author of the Maternal Instincts Mysteries Series: Bundle of Trouble, Motherhood is Murder and Formula for Murder but I am also a mother of three and with Halloween just around the corner, I’ve got a lot of fun Halloween crafts planned for kids.

Crafting with kids over the holidays is a great way to keep them busy and out of trouble. Nowadays with a home PC and printer you can make any craft just from your desktop. For Halloween designs we searched “Halloween printables” and came up with too many to use. Fortunately, my 8 year-old is good at making decisions!

We used colored construction paper, scissors, glue, and markers and were able to create a wide variety of ghosts, bats, witches, pumpkins and skeletons that the kids put on my windows and doors.

For extra Halloween fun we visited the pumpkin patch on Monday, now on my doorstep sits a princess pumpkin (thanks to my 8 year-old), a pirate pumpkin (created by my 4 year-old) and one that is…well….one that is a bit indistinguishable (oh dear – that one was created by my 2 year-old!)

Happy Halloween!
Diana Orgain
www.dianaorgain.com

Inspired by Dogs

2011-10-12T00:13:00.001-04:00

I was inspired by Monica’s post yesterday to think about all the dogs in my past--and to blog about some of them here.

I was born a dog-lover, I think, even though the adults in my family were relatively indifferent to them when I was a child. When I was eight years old, my maternal grandfather took pity on me and bought me a puppy at a pet shop. I assume he checked with my parents first, but I’m not sure.

We named that puppy Cuddles--and we had her all of one day. My mother took her to the vet while I was in school the day after we got her, and he diagnosed Cuddles with distemper. We returned her to the pet store that evening--and it was my understanding that all the puppies there were sick.

These days people who know better generally don’t buy puppies from pet shops because they so often come from puppy mills, but back then I don’t think anyone believed the worst about some pet stores selling pets. I learned my lesson, though.

Plus, we were faced with a quarantine for a while. We couldn’t bring another dog into our house for three months, for fear of it catching distemper. I spent that entire three months studying dog breeds, including reading DOG WORLD MAGAZINE, to decide what breed would work for us. My grandfather again came through, and we adopted an adorable brindle Boston Terrier we named Frisky. Frisky was with us for thirteen years.

A few years later, I happened to be visiting London, England. I saw a woman on the Underground carrying adorable red and white puppies. I asked what they were and she told me they were Cavalier King Charles Spaniels.

The rest is history--my history! I fell in love with the breed. Cavaliers were rare in the U.S. at the time, but I found a breeder coming to my area who could bring a male puppy available for adoption. That was Azorese Pandaemonium--Panda--my first Cavalier, and that breed has been my favorite ever since!

And of course my older current Cavalier, Lexie, starred in my Kendra Ballantyne, Pet-Sitter Mystery series and sometimes has cameo appearances with Kendra in my new Pet Rescue Mystery series!

How did you happen on your favorite kind of pet?

Three Dog Tales

2011-10-11T08:16:00.000-04:00

My dad had a happy way with dogs. The first dog I remember in my family came along before I did. He was a border collie mix named Bingo, and a very bright individual. Dad taught him many tricks, the usual ones like dead dog and shake hands, but others as well. Often at night Dad would tell him to “say his prayers,” and Bing would get up on a chair and put his forepaws up on the back, bow his head on them and close his eyes. You could call his name and Dad could even order him down and he wouldn’t move – until Dad said, “Amen.” There were three of us children in the family and when we were out playing and Mom wanted one of us, she’d send Bing. He’d trot out and find the one needed, grasp the child by the wrist or the seat of the pants and start pulling. He never hurt us but the only choice was for the child to say, “I gotta go now,” and let him bring us home. We lived in a tiny hamlet with a general store up the road and Mom could put some money and a note in Bing’s mouth and send him to the store. He could be trusted no matter what was wanted, even meat. And he never lost the change or spent it on candy like one of us might. Bing was crossing the road when a car struck and killed him. I remember the driver stopping and taking Bing’s body away with the comment, “Well, he’s a real dead dog now.” I was five years old.

Another dog I remember was brought home as a still-blind puppy by my sister Therese. She named him Kelly treated him like a human baby, feeding him from a bottle while holding him on his back. He grew up to a medium size mongrel with shaggy hair, brown with black trim, a friendly, funny creature. He didn’t know he was a dog – he even had a “bankie,” which he carried around and sucked on. Then, at about age four, he learned his true nature and did he go to town. He became something of an escape artist and for the next several years, puppies all over the neighborhood grew up to be shaggy creatures, brown with black trim.

I had wanted a Scottish terrier from early childhood, but I was in my middle twenties before I finally got one. I went to a kennel and, following advice, let a puppy choose me. His mother’s name was Lark, his father’s was Tangerine. I registered him with the AKC as Meadowlark Lemon – with Mr. Lemon’s permission (I had met the Harlem Globetrotters in London and maintained the relationship for some years after). His calling name was Piper. He was very typical of his breed, bright, stubborn, brave, chipper. I had heard that they can turn mean as they age, so I took him to obedience school, where he finished next to the bottom of his class. A major goal of his life was to catch a squirrel, though he never succeeded. Indeed, a squirrel took him as a pet. Every morning we went for a walk. There was a narrow passageway down beside the house bordered by a tall fence. A big tree was at the far end. Every morning the squirrel lurked in that passageway. Piper went roaring after him and the squirrel made it to the tree barely ahead of him. It took me awhile to realize the squirrel was laying for the dog, carefully gauging how close it could begin the run to the entrance to the passage. Piper never caught on that it was a game, and would hit that tree so hard he actually went up the trunk a yard or so before falling on his back. He’d come trotting jauntily back to me, satisfied he’d taught that squirrel to fear him, and I just know that squirrel was giggling up in the branches. I’ve got lots of stories about Piper, and often thought about writing a children’s book about him. I never did, though a certain cat I once owned is in my current series.

Have animals you’ve known ever made it into your work?

Ink, Red, Dead--You Asked for It!

2011-10-09T16:48:00.000-04:00

Coming this Halloween will be Kiki Lowenstein's latest adventure--Ink, Red, Dead--a novella that finds Kiki and her friends drawn into the world of a cat hoarder. The book will be available on Kindle.

Why did I decide to write a new adventure for Kiki? The next traditional Kiki mystery--Ready, Scrap, Shoot--won't be out until April, 2012. Fans have clamored for more Kiki, and I had an idea that wouldn't go away. The plot fit neatly between Make, Take, Murder and Ready, Scrap, Shoot.

The Kindle book will include a wonderful recipe for pumpkin cookies and a free gift, A Crafty Kind of Murder, the progressive story that my blog sisters and I wrote.

To help celebrate the new release, I'll be hosting a Halloween party on October 31 from 9 p.m. EST to midnight EST on my new Facebook page. There will be prizes and special guest appearances and surprises galore. Just go to that new page and hit "like," and then visit during the party on October 31. We'll select lucky commenters (I hope my guests and my status updates will inspire comments!) as winners.

You know, Kiki is like an old friend of mine. I always enjoy spending time with her. You, my fans, have told me you want more Kiki. I'm lucky to be able to respond to your request!

Now, I'm curious. You know that each of my Kiki books hits on a social problem or concern. What would you like to see me tackle in an upcoming book?