How Book Groups Made a Crime Writer Out of Me

Book groups can be dangerous places. Talk about a killer hobby!

Why dangerous? Aren’t book groups places where you get to share your passion for books with like-minded people? Don’t book groups let you socialize and make new friends? Where’s the danger?

You can find the full range of human behavior at a book group and that can add up to one thing: conflict. There are the domineering sorts who take over the discussion with their non-stop chatter. Conflicts arise over what to read and how the group should be conducted. Others don’t read the assigned book. No doubt about it, if you want conflict, a book group can satisfy that need.

But only a crime writer—like me—would elevate a little harmless conflict to murder.

I joined my first mystery book group in 1993 in Southern California. The women in the group were lovely—almost too lovely. I hadn’t started my writing career but I knew I was on my way when the what-if scenarios came to me unbidden—what if these conflict-free women weren’t really so nice? What if this was all for show and they harbored secrets, scandals, hatreds? I gave them backstories and they became the prototypes for Murder at the Book Group.

In 1996 I said good bye to what I would come to consider my favorite book group when I relocated to Charlottesville, Virginia. I took a writing course at the University of Virginia and started penning Murder at the Book Group. I joined a mystery group at Barnes & Noble. Connie, our most prolific reader, showed up at each meeting with a large green loose leaf notebook that contained her book log. Another woman routinely declared that she hated whatever book we’d chosen for that month.

Fast forward to 2002 and I found myself living in Richmond, Virginia. I made a beeline for the Tuckahoe Library mystery group. There I met Mary Miley, who would later publish The Impersonator and Silent Murders and become a fellow sister in Sisters in Crime.

When the Tuckahoe group folded in 2006 a number of us joined the long-running Mystery Lovers Group, led by Lelia Taylor, who runs the popular blog Buried Under Books.

What happened to Murder at the Book Group? It was perishing and had become little more than a rainy day pastime. In 2010 I realized that I had amassed enough knowledge of book groups and their often fascinating dynamics and, yes, conflicts. Besides mystery groups, I also participated in literary fiction groups. I had to face facts—the only way I could get back on track with Murder at the Book Group was to give up book groups!

It still took some time, but Murder at the Book Group finally made its debut in December of 2014.

As for those book groups—I haven’t returned to one but I’m privileged to visit many as a guest author. The picture below shows a group from Truckee, California that I visited by Skype.

 

 

Maggie King is the author of Murder at the Book Group, published in 2014 by Simon and Schuster. She contributed the short story, “A Not So Genteel Murder,” to the Virginia is for Mysteries anthology and “Reunion in Shockoe Slip” appears in the Virginia is Mysteries Volume II anthology (February, 2016).

Maggie is a member of Sisters in Crime and the American Association of University Women. She has worked as a software developer, retail sales manager, and customer service supervisor. Maggie graduated from Elizabeth Seton College and earned a B.S. degree in Business Administration from Rochester Institute of Technology. She has called New Jersey, Massachusetts, and California home. These days she lives in Richmond, Virginia with her husband, Glen, and cats, Morris and Olive.

Visit Maggie at http://www.maggieking.com.

The Fun of Collectibles

Please join me in welcoming Sally Carpenter to Killer Hobbies today!  A Monkees collection.  Sounds fabulous!

What makes a person want to build a collection? For me, I enjoy the chase of finding that  elusive item, having nice things to admire, and putting my hands on a song or book whenever I want.

I began collecting records in the mid-1970s, long before CDs or MP3. A friend gave me a “Sgt. Pepper’s” picture disc (the picture is embedded in the vinyl). As long as I had one record, I may as well collect the entire Beatles catalog, which eventually included some solo works and all of George Harrison. My college town had a great record store (now gone) that I frequented. To save costs I purchased used records, but never ones that were heavily scratched. But even new records were inexpensive, making a low-cost hobby.

My collection expanded to over 300 records including Dylan, Clapton, Donovan, British and American comedy, and other artists. I switched to CDs only because vinyl was no longer produced and the local record stores closed. By then I already had most of the music I wanted anyway.

A crate of records is heavy to pick up and the cardboard sleeves are developing that musty old paper smell. But all of my records are still playable and I still listen to them. Some of the used records have minor scratches and popping but overall the sound quality is good. I keep my albums in plastic sleeves and store them upright to help preserve them.

My next collecting binge started in the late 1990s when Nickelodeon reran “The Monkees” TV show and I got hooked. I collected records, books, bubblegum cards, fanzines and the complete video boxed set of the TV episodes.

This photo is from a previous home where I had set up my collectibles for viewing.

 

My special items: Original London cast album of Harry Nilsson’s musical “The Point” signed by both Davy Jones and Micky Dolenz who were in the show; a signed black-and-white poster of Peter Tork; Michael Nesmith’s autograph in his novel “The Long Sandy Hair of Neftoon Zamore”; a 14-inch Monkeemobile model in a psychedelic display box, and a set of “Rare Bears,” little plush teddy bears dressed in red Monkee shirts with hairstyles to represent each guy.

What do these collections have to do with mysteries? My first novel, “The Baffled Beatlemaniac Caper,” is set at a Beatles fan convention, based on conventions I’ve attended. I used Beatle-ly clues to solve the murder.

“TBBC” one of three books in the Sandy Fairfax Teen Idol series. Sandy is a 38-year-old former teen idol making a comeback. He was inspired by The Monkees and the up-down-and-up careers of real teen idols.

Next year I’ll have a new Sandy mystery, “The Quirky Quiz Show Caper.” Sandy has to find a murderer to clear his brother’s name, appear on a fixed TV game show, help save his father’s orchestra from bankruptcy, and woo his girlfriend.

 

Sally Carpenter is native Hoosier now living in Moorpark, Calif.  She has a master’s degree in theater from Indiana State University. Her plays “Star Collector” and “Common Ground” were finalists in the American College Theater Festival One-Act Playwrighting Competition.  She also has a master’s degree in theology and a black belt in tae kwon do. She’s worked as an actress, college writing instructor, jail chaplain and tour guide/page for Paramount Pictures. She’s now employed at a community newspaper.

The Sandy Fairfax Teen Idol series: “The Baffled Beatlemaniac Caper” (2012 Eureka! Award finalist), “The Sinister Sitcom Caper” and “The Cunning Cruise Ship Caper.”

Short stories in anthologies: “Dark Nights at the Deluxe Drive-in” in “Last Exit to Murder” and “Faster Than a Speeding Bullet” in “Plan B: Omnibus.”

Blogs: http://sandyfairfaxauthor.com and monthly at ladiesofmystery.com and The Cozy Cat Chronicles. She’s a member of Sisters in Crime/Los Angeles. Reach her at Facebook or scwriter@earthlink.net.

 

A Vintage Cookbook Collection

Please join me in welcoming Ellen Byron to Killer Hobbies today.  Like me, Ellen isn't a kitchen diva.  But she has FABULOUS taste in cookbooks.  Bring back memories, anyone?

One of the ironies of my author’s life is that although my book, Plantation Shudders: A Cajun Country Mystery, contains three recipes that I’m proud to say I created, I am not much of a cook. Which leads to another irony: I collect vintage cookbooks.

 It all started with this book, which dates back to 1950.

I bought it because of the quaint cover, but loved how the recipes offered a window into mid-century culinary trends. If you are what you eat, folks back then were made of red meat and heavy cream sauces.

 My collection has grown over the last couple of years, thanks to our local monthly library sale.

 

One of the sale volunteers goes to my gym, and she’ll alert me when an interesting donation comes in.

 

 

It’s fascinating to compare these Cooking for Two books, the first from 1952, the second from 1968. (BTW, how hilarious is that 1968 cover? Processed ham slices, canned fruit cocktail, Maraschino cherries… that’s what they considered the cover money shot?!)

Sometimes I’m attracted by the shape of a recipe book…

 

But often it’s the title that draws my attention. How about this one? I bet you can’t guess the year it’s from:

 

1968. That’s right, this cookbook was produced during the height of the fight for women’s rights.

 But I think this 1928 treasure might be my greatest find…

If you want the recipe for Clara Bow’s Chicken Chartreuse, just let me know.

So, how do these vintage recipes compare to today’s offerings? To be honest, I don’t know. Like I said, I’m not a cook. But also, people cooked differently back in the day. The older the recipe, the vaguer the instructions seem to be. (That Clara Bow recipe is a real headscratcher.) Sometimes they feature ingredients and brands that no longer even exist.

 But I did make at least one vintage recipe. When my daughter was ten, I bought a Good Housekeeping Children’s Cookbook for her. Then I remembered that I still had my Betty Crocker Boys and Girls Cookbook from the late 1960s.

 
Comparing the two was a lesson in how much healthier we eat now than we did back then. But my daughter wanted to make a recipe from my book.  We found one for a stew made from hot dogs, canned vegetables, and tomato soup. And we threw the whole mess out after two bites.

While I love collecting recipes from decades past, I think I’ll continue to avoid actually making them!

Ellen Byron is a native New Yorker who loves the rain, lives in bone-dry Los Angeles, and spends lots of time writing about Louisiana. She attributes this obsession to her college years at New Orleans’ Tulane University. Her debut novel, Plantation Shudders: A Cajun Country Mystery, was chosen by the Library Journal as Debut Mystery of the Month.  Her TV credits include Wings, Just Shoot Me, and many network pilots.  She’s written over 200 magazine articles, her published plays include the award-winning, Graceland, and she’s the recipient of a William F. Deeck-Malice Domestic Grant.  Visit http://www.ellenbyron.com/

Write What You Know

Hi all!  Please join me in welcoming Gloria Alden to Killer Hobbies today.  Personally, I can totally see a third grade teacher getting involved in murder. At PTA meetings, sports events, the staff lunchroom...But that's why I'd make a terrible teacher.  But a botanist sleuth sounds fabulous. Take it away, Gloria!

 

 

Every writer has heard that.  And yet I’ve read mysteries in which the writer didn’t seem to know what they were writing about whether it was the place or the occupation their main character had.  So when I started my first mystery some time ago, I thought about what I knew. I’d read mysteries since I was a kid a long time ago so I knew what kind of mysteries I liked. Okay, that’s step one. Believe it or not I heard a writer on a panel at a small college tell the audience after she read her first mystery, she decided she could write a mystery and she did. She got it published by a vanity press and was pleased to be published. Was it any good? I doubt it.

Okay I’ve read a gazillion mysteries in my lifetime. That’s step one. Next I had to pick a place. That was easy. All my life I’ve lived in N.E. Ohio with ancestors that go way back. So I have my place. I created a fictional town, Portage Falls, a composite of the small towns around me. So far so good. I once read a mystery set in Amish country not too far from where I live. The author was from California. Did she get the Amish culture right? No. In fact there was little about the Amish and what there was didn’t make sense.

 

Now I needed to create my main character. Originally I started the  book with one of my sisters.  However, it was hard to team write living fifty miles apart and both teaching, so I took over after the first three or four chapters. She wanted our main character to be in her twenties, but I found I couldn’t feel a character that young and made her forty. It felt better.  Even though I’m still much older than that, I could relate to her. I gave her something in her background that was something I’d experienced – the death of a child. That gave her more depth.

Next I needed to give her an occupation I understood. Teaching third graders wouldn’t fit. How could a third grade teacher get involved with murder? I’ve had many interests and hobbies in my life, but probably gardening was the one that had been ongoing. Because on numerous camping trips with family that almost always included gardens like Longwood Gardens, my sister and I decided we should make Catherine Jewell a botanist who works at Elmwood Gardens, large public gardens, albeit not real. She also has a small nursery Roses in Thyme, and is a relative newcomer to town. I also have another sister, who is a botanist, so I can call on her for any questions I have.

Since I’m an animal lover Catherine had to have a cat, and in later books she acquires a dog, too. And what’s a mystery without a little romance? I have that, too.

 

Gloria Alden writes the Catherine Jewell Mystery series; The Blue Rose, Daylilies for Emily’s Garden, Ladies of the Garden Club. The Body in the Goldenrod, Murder in the Corn Maze,and a middle-grade book, The Sherlock Holmes Detective Club. Her published short stories include “Cheating on Your Wife Can Get You Killed” winner of the Love is Murder contest, “Mincemeat is for Murder” and “The Body in the Red Silk Dress” in Bethlehem Writers Roundtable, “The Professor’s Books” in FISH TALES, “The Lure of the Rainbow’ in FISH NETS, “Once Upon a Gnome” in STRANGELY FUNNY and “Norman’s Skeleton’s” in ALL HALLOWS EVIL. She lives on a small farm in NE Ohio with assorted critters; her collie, Maggie, two house cats, a canary, two old African ring-necked doves, two ponies, and five rather old hens, plus one loud guinea fowl. She blogs with Writers Who Kill on Thursdays.  http://writerswhokill.blogspot.com/ Website: www.gloriaalden.com 

 

Fudge Free-for-All

Hi all!  Please welcome Christine DeSmet to Killer Hobbies today.  Watermelon fudge?  Really?  I may have to try that!

Tracy Weber

 

 

Watermelon fudge? Key lime fudge? Sour apple fudge? Root beer fudge?

Those are real flavors I found on my travels this fall to Door County, Wisconsin, known as the Cape Cod of the Midwest. It’s also the setting for my cozy mystery series.

People often ask me:  Where do you get your plot ideas? Fudge recipe ideas?

Taking on the role of my mystery series character “Ava Oosterling,” I’ve become a fudge hobbyist and researcher.

I travel to taste new fudge flavors and to observe candy-making techniques. On a recent autumn trip I stopped on a whim at Seaquist Orchards Farm Market, Hwy. 42 north of Sister Bay, Wis., http://www.seaquistorchards.com/. The candymaker had made about 20 astounding fudge flavors.

For my mystery series I’ve created a fairy tale fudge flavor line beginning with Cinderella Pink Fudge (cherry vanilla). Door County is known nationally for its cherry orchards. 

Successful fudge making requires respect for science. You’re messing with heating crystals. We fudge makers watch for a “sheen” to happen, as one example. That means the crystals are lining up in a new way, often going from soft to hard—even making glass.

Many people use marshmallows to make fudge. Marshmallows and fudge have a possibly intertwined history.

-       Forms of fudge-like candy and marshmallow have probably been around since the ancient Egyptians made edibles mixing the sticky substance from the marsh mallow plant with nuts and honey. (I imagine they put that mixture over a fire once in a while and stirred it until it became a form of fudge. Early Egyptians were also expert at glass-making.)

 

-       The Scots have made tablet—a grainy, brittle fudge—since the early 18^th century by heating cream, sugar, and butter flavored with vanilla or whisky.

-       France’s confectioners refined the marshmallow making in the early 19^th century.

-       Fudge was popularized in the U.S. by Vassar College women in 1888 when they cooked ingredients over Bunsen burners for a fundraiser.

-       Around 1954 in the U.S., a precise process involving sucrose, proteins, and controlled temperatures created the modern marshmallow that stays puffed.

-       Fudge making requires high temperatures (238 degrees on a candy thermometer for most recipes, and 260 degrees for divinity fudge). Turning it to glass can happen at 300 degrees. Recipes for sugar glass—used in movies—are available online.

-       Fudge doesn’t melt in a hot car like chocolate bars. It’s about the science!

-       If your batch of fudge doesn’t set up, reheat it once and try again.

-       A botched batch of fudge can become frosting, ice cream topping, or an addition to cake batter or cookie dough.

Fall is fudge time. Maybe making it will find its way into your child’s school science lab. The kids will learn about heat and crystals, and cleanup is easy—they can eat it. No dangerous chemicals to cause a major evacuation of the school.

What’s your favorite fudge recipe? Or memory about fudge-making?

www.ChristineDeSmet.com

 

Christine DeSmet is the author of the Fudge Shop Mystery Series (Penguin Random House), including Five-Alarm Fudge. She teaches writing at University of Wisconsin-Madison Continuing Studies and is director of the Write-by-the-Lake Writer’s Workshop & Retreat.

Puzzling Through Ancient China

Welcome P. A. Devoe here to Killer Hobbies today.  A cultural anthropologist who compares herself to a magpie?  Tell me more!

 

Tracy Weber

 

First, thanks so much for inviting me to share my killer hobby today, Tracy.

Hobbies. That’s an interesting topic. We all have hobbies—pleasurable ways to spend time. I do garden and knit and spin yarn from various fibers: sheep, angora, mohair, and—lately—alpaca. I even create little bears out of old fur coats found in antique shops. All of those things definitely fit into my life as hobbies. But, I’d probably have to say puzzles are at the top of my killer hobby list. Not necessarily the visual type we buy in the store, which I do enjoy, but a “search and assemble” type of puzzle.

My favorite puzzling hobby begins with puttering around libraries and book stores searching for and reading through books on traditional China. I love stumbling upon odd bits of information, or even great chunks of information, about something I had no previous idea about. This is especially true when I find that the new bit fits together nicely with another piece of information which had been sitting in the back of my mind. That’s why I compare myself to a magpie—a bird that delights in collecting seemingly odd bits of unrelated items. And, it’s probably why I like and write historic mysteries and adventures set in ancient China: they are puzzles requiring me to pull together apparently random pieces to create a whole picture for the reader.

In Hidden, the first novel in my ancient China series for young adults, Mei-hua, our protagonist lives in the year 1380 and is the daughter of a magistrate, a high level government official. When danger threatens her father, he sends Mei-hua away to a friend in order to protect her from his enemies. Unfortunately, as she flees her home she is kidnapped and sold as a lowly indentured servant to another wealthy family. Without friends or family Mei-hua finds herself on her own and in desperate straits. She has to come to terms with her new situation and at the same time, seek out her father’s friend without alerting her father’s enemies.

My puttering lead me through academic books, movies, fiction, paintings, etc. I found all kinds of details about travel, clothing, language, to name a few. For example, I found minutiae on what kind of home a wealthy family had and how they dressed, compared to a middle class or poor family. My search included how and what people ate and the dishes they used. And, of course, I wanted to know what kind of hobbies they had—how they spent their leisure time.

In Warned, the second novel in the series, my puzzling took me in another direction. I needed to find out about the details of ancient Chinese medicine: about the informally trained folk doctors and imperially trained doctors, about medicinal herbs, about people’s beliefs as to why and how of illnesses, and even about the role of spiritual beliefs in how people understood illnesses and cures.

In the end, I find puzzles to be wonderful and lots of fun, whether they are the commercial, store bought pictures cut into tiny, irregular pieces or the “search and assemble” type of historical fiction.

 

Author P.A. De Voe is a cultural anthropologist, which accounts for her being an incorrigible magpie for collecting seemingly irrelevant information. She writes contemporary and historical mysteries and crime stories. Hidden, the first in her young adult ancient China trilogy is available on Amazon as an ebook or paperback. Lotus Shoes, a short story prequel to the Mei-hua trilogy, is also available on Amazon. Warned, the second in the trilogy, will be available in September, 2015. To read a free Judge Lu case files from the Ming Dynasty—historical short stories for adults—visit padevoe.com.

The Hanged Man’s Noose by Judy Penz Sheluk

Hi all!  Please help me welcome Judy Penz Sheluk to Killer Hobbies today. Judy chose to make her protagonist a runner, like she is.  But a bacon eating vegetarian?  That I need to hear about.  Judy, please tell us more!

Tracy Weber



Read the first four chapters of The Hanged Man's Noose free and get a 35% off coupon to buy the book at: http://barkbks.me/1bLqA9Q

 

I am a runner. I’m not a particularly fast runner, I don’t necessarily “look” like a runner, and I’m far from being a natural athlete. Nonetheless, running has been a passion since I took my first tentative steps fifteen years ago. Since then, I’ve covered a lot of miles. Because, well, runners run.

It seemed only natural, then, that Emily Garland, my protagonist in The Hanged Man’s Noose, would be a runner. Initially, I thought Emily might run along a trail and find a dead body (it doesn’t happen). Or perhaps she’d run around the neighborhood and meet up with the murderer (also doesn’t happen). In the end, Emily’s running became merely incidental (at least in this book), but the references to it still help the reader get to know her a little bit better. Here are a couple of examples:

·        Emily started her day with a five-mile run followed by a visit to the Sunrise Café, where she ordered black coffee, an asparagus and red pepper egg white omelet with rye toast, lightly buttered, and two strips of well-done bacon on the side. She experienced a pang of moderate guilt over the bacon, but dammit, she needed something to calm her nerves, and the run alone hadn’t done it. [Author’s note: Emily is a bacon-eating vegetarian.]

·        “I’d love a shot of cognac.” Emily was grateful for the invitation to sit. Her feet were as tired as the time she’d run the Toronto Marathon—and that was twenty-six point two miles.

The best part about giving your characters a hobby—whether it be running or baking or knitting—is that it adds another layer. And people have layers. Lots of them. As writers, we have to remember that, because if we don’t, our readers will simply stop reading.

Bio

Photo by Jen Short

Judy Penz Sheluk is the author of The Hanged Man’s Noose (July 21, 2015, Barking Rain Press), an amateur sleuth mystery featuring journalist-turned investigator, Emily Garland. Her short fiction has appeared in literary publications and anthologies, including The Whole She-Bang 2 and World Enough and Crime. She also contributed to Bake, Love Write, a dessert cookbook featuring recipes from 105 authors.

In her less mysterious pursuits, Judy works as a freelance writer, specializing in art, antiques and the residential housing industry. She is currently the Editor of Home BUILDER Magazine, and the Senior Editor for New England Antiques Journal.

Judy is also a member of Sisters in Crime International, Sisters in Crime — Guppies, Sisters in Crime — Toronto, and Crime Writers of Canada.

Find Judy at www.judypenzsheluk.com where she interviews authors and blogs about the writing life. You can also find her at www.facebook.com/JudyPenzSheluk, on Twitter @JudyPenzSheluk, and on www.pinterest.com/judypenzsheluk.

 

Killer Buns

Hi all!  Please welcome author Judy Alter to Killer Hobbies today!  So...did you think the  buns in the title would be attached to a male model?  These buns are of a hotter variety. Sticky buns!  Judy, please tell us about your creative cooking!

Tracy Weber

 

I’ve never been creative in the craft sense. When my grandson brought home “projects” from school, I threw up my hands in despair and told him to ask his father. When my grandchildren were born, I got it into my head that I had to knit something for each one—disaster loomed. For the fourth, a girl, I knit a hooded sweater that was far beyond my capabilities. Her other grandmother grew up in Norway, where knitting was taught in elementary school. The contrast between our gifts was appalling in my mind, though everyone assured me it was the love that mattered. I’ve tried oils a few times but no visible reminders hang in my house, whereas I do display a painting done by one of my sons in kindergarten when he had his own one-man art show at Texas Christian University. I’ve done pottery and actually often serve from dishes I’ve thrown but I never pursued it. Even did macramé back in the day, and a bit of weaving.

You can’t say I haven’t given arts and crafts a chance—they’re just not me. If I have a hobby, it’s cooking. All things about food interest me, and though I’ve written some food-related things, I sometimes wish I were a professional food writer, like Ruth Reichl. The culinary cozy market is overwhelmed with entries, so I don’t try to jump in. I have several favorites, but to me Diane Mott Davidson leads the field. Besides I don’t think of myself as a creative cook—I’m excellent, as long as I stick to the recipe.

I love upscale foods—coquille St. Jacques, almost any form of lamb, veal scallopini, even a bit of foie gras. Those however are best eaten from someone else’s kitchen. For guests in my home, I often experiment with a dish I’ve never served before—spaghetti with capers and anchovies, a cold salad of smoked salmon with potato salad, eggs baked in a tomato sauce. Everything usually turns out fine.

But for writing, I keep my recipes simple. The closest I’ve come to writing culinary mystery is The Blue Plate Café Mysteries, set in a café in a small East Texas town. They serve chicken-fried steak or chicken, fried catfish, meatloaf, chicken and dumplings, and, of course humongous breakfasts. Recently I spent a morning assembling recipes for the third book in the series (Murder at Peacock Mansion, October 2015). I’m not quite brave enough to tell someone how to fix chicken-fried steak, but I chose a lasagna-like casserole, a hearty vegetable soup, shepherd’s pie, and a chicken enchilada casserole along with the café’s classic sticky buns (my mom’s recipe). Here’s my version of sticky buns:

Basic coffee cake dough

2 pkg. granular yeast
½ c. warm water
Pinch of sugar
1 12-oz. can evaporated milk, plus enough water to make 4 cups
1 scant c. vegetable oil
1 c. sugar

Dissolve yeast in water (add just a pinch of sugar to help the yeast work) and let it rise about five minutes. Mix milk and water, oil, and sugar. Add dissolved yeast. Stir in enough flour to make a thin batter, the consistency of cake batter. Let this rise in a warm place until bubbles appear on the surface (probably 1 hour—check it at 30 minutes).

Separately, mix
1 c. flour
1 tsp. salt (or less)
1 heaping tsp. baking powder
1 level tsp. baking soda

Sift seasoned flour into first mixture. Keep adding flour until it is too stiff to stir with a spoon. Knead well. Don't let the dough get stiff with too much flour, or your coffee cakes will be heavy. This dough will keep a week or so in the refrigerator.
To make sticky buns for breakfast, roll the dough out to a flat rectangle. Sprinkle with cinnamon and brown sugar and dab with butter. Roll up into a tube and slice into pieces of about 2 inches. Grease the bottom of an 8x8 pan thoroughly and then cover it with Karo white syrup and pecan halves. Place rounds of dough, cut side down, on the Karo/pecan mixture. Bake these at 350^o until brown and center rolls appear cooked. Be sure to turn out of the pan immediately, while still warm. Cold cooked syrup turns to concrete. Rinse the pan immediately with very hot water.

About Judy

An award-winning novelist, Judy Alter is the author of six books in the Kelly O’Connell Mysteries series.She also writes the Blue Plate Café Mysteries. Finally, with the 2014 The Perfect Coed, she introduced the Oak Grove Mysteries.
Judy is retired as director of TCU Press and the mother of four grown children and the grandmother of seven. She and her dog, Sophie, live in Fort Worth, Texas.

About Murder at Peacock Mansion
Arson, a bad beating, and a recluse who claims someone is trying to kill her all collide in this third Blue Plate Café Mystery with Kate Chambers. Torn between trying to save David Clinkscales, her old boss and new lover, and curiosity about Edith Aldridge’s story of an attempt on her life, Kate has to remind herself she has a café to run. She nurses a morose David, who spirit has been hurt as badly as his body, and tries to placate Mrs. Aldridge, who was once accused of murdering her husband but acquitted. One by one, Mrs. Aldridge’s stepchildren enter the picture. Is it coincidence that David is Edith Aldridge’s lawyer? Or that she seems to rely heavily on the private investigator David hires? First the peacocks die…and then the people. Everyone is in danger, and no one knows who to suspect.

Find Judy’s books at http://www.amazon.com/Judy-Alter/e/B001H6KPU6/ref=sr_tc_2_0?qid=1438708361&sr=1-2-ent

Protagonists, Talents, and a Violin Named Clare.

Hi all!  Please welcome the wonderful Marni Graff to Killer Hobbies today!  Like Kate, Marni's protagonist loves dogs. Unlike Kate, she has true musical talent.  She plays a violin named Clare.  Why Clare?  Read on to find out.

Tracy Weber

When I designed the ‘bible’ for the protagonist of the Trudy Genova Manhattan Mystery Series, I knew I wanted nurse Trudy to have interests outside her medical consulting job at a movie studio, working on medical scenes filmed in New York City. She’s a dog lover who regularly walks in Riverside Park near her apartment to play with the dogs.

And since I’m a music lover, Trudy is one, too, but I went a step further: for her solace, I gave her the hobby of playing the violin.

Do I play the violin? Nope, the piano, a stringed instrument, too. But I love listening to violin music, and I have three close friends who are all violinists who gave me great descriptions of the kind of wood Trudy’s violin would be made of and how she should care for it.

I also had Trudy name her violin: Clare. Why Clare? Because that’s the name she wishes she’d been named by her German mom and Italian dad, instead of Gertrude Sofia Genova. Hence Trudy—because if your name was Gertrude, wouldn’t you rather be called Trudy?

I’m a huge fan of any musician who can play the violin like an extension of his or her arms, and of the amazing melodies they coax from what could otherwise sound like a screeching mouse caught in a door! Itzah Perlaman playing the theme from “Schindler’s List” is a favorite and it’s haunting melody is one I have Trudy trying to master in a scene where she describes her backstory and the mystery revolving around her father’s death. That mystery won’t be solved in the first novel, DEATH USNCRIPTED, premiering this month, but it will be addressed in a future novel.

In this debut, Trudy is working with womanizing actor Griff Kennedy, teaching him how to fake a heart attack. During taping he points his finger dramatically to Trudy just as he collapses, only this time the actor isn’t playing dead. With suspicion lighting on Trudy, she snoops and pokes her nose into the murder investigation to clear her name, frustrating NYPD Detective Ned O’Malley—whose family are regulars just down the street from Trudy’s studio at Lincoln Center. And Ned is a Perlman fan, too, which Trudy has yet to discover …

 

 

 

Marni Graff is the award-winning author of The Nora Tierney Mysteries set in England. Her first Trudy Genova Manhattan Mystery, Death Unscripted, is based on Graff’s own favorite nursing job, working for a movie studio as a medical consultant. Available at Bridle Path Press (www.bridlepathpress.com) and on Amazon this July.

Characters, Fashion and a Writer's Budget.

Hi all!  Please welcome guest author Claudia Lefeve to Killer Hobbies today!  Like she and her protagonist, Kate and I share the same taste in clothes--though that's not surprising since we both make our living teaching yoga.  Claudia, tell us more about your protagonist, Jules Cannon and the fashion choices you share.

Tracy Weber

Many readers wonder if characters are modeled after their creators. I can't speak for other authors, but there is a little piece of me in all my main characters. In this case, Jules Cannon, my immature sleuth in Destined for Trouble, shares the same taste is fashion as I do (and that's pretty much where the similarities end). 

Basically, Jules wears much of what I personally own in my closet. She wears a lot of brightly colored shifts, shorts, and skorts. And flip flops—always flops. We’re both Gulf Coast beach gals  (okay, another similarity) and our style reflects that.

As I’m sure you might have noticed, if you’ve pursued my website, Jules and I both have a penchant for Lilly Pulitzer and all things comfortable. But it can come at a price. Yes, I own a lot of Lilly, and even though I search on Ebay, consignment shops, and other sites for vintage shifts, it's not always in my writer’s budget. 

So this year, I decided to sew my own summer shifts, using real vintage 1960’s patterns I found online. Since I work from home, I can pretty much wear what I want, and shifts are what I want. They are great to run errands in, play fetch with the pups, and even sitting at my desk writing at home or at the coffee shop. In Jules Cannon's case, she's comfy enough to solve crimes while catching some rays in her hometown of Trouble Island, Texas. 

So it comes as no surprise that the second Jules and I ditched our government jobs (fine, a third thing we have in common), so did our drab, dark business attire and high heels…remember, always flops! 

Destined for Trouble (Book #1 Jules Cannon Mystery Series)

After getting dumped by her boyfriend, FBI crime analyst Jules Cannon flees to her hometown of Trouble Island, Texas, to nurse her wounds. All she wants to do is unwind, forget about her failed relationship, and work on her tan.

But when the owner of the local crab shack is murdered at Jules’s welcome-home party, she is forced to scrap her rest-and-relaxation plans. Now her best friend, Abby Lee, is the prime suspect, and her high school sweetheart, Deputy Chief Justin Harper, is working the case. Even though Jules knows she shouldn’t, she just can’t keep herself from getting involved in the investigation—and entangled with handsome Assistant District Attorney Hartley Crawford. While an old flame threatens to rekindle and a new one sparks, Jules must find a killer and prove her friend’s innocence. But will she put two and two together before trouble catches up with her?

Buy Link: http://www.amazon.com/Destined-Trouble-Jules-Cannon-Mystery/dp/1477829830

Bio:

Claudia Lefeve was born and raised so far down the Texas Gulf Coast she has to pull out a map to show people it's nowhere near Houston. Now living in Northern Virginia, she is taking a hiatus from a civilian career in law enforcement to write full-time. She lives with her husband and three dogs.