Beth's comments (member since Jan 09, 2008)

Beth's comments from the Cozy Mysteries group.

Thanks so much for the suggestions, folks, and Mary Ellen, if your book fits the request, you should feel no hesitation in suggesting it. I'm off to Amazon now to look for the titles!
- Beth

I'm looking for gift ideas for my daughter who likes to bead and create her own jewelry. Does anyone know of a craft cozy mystery series that features beading or jewelry making?

I prefer regular printed books. Since I spend so many hours of every day on the computer, writing and doing writing-related business, I don't want to read from a screen, too. I'll occasionally get a large-print book for the easy reading.

Along with Donna Andrews funny mysteries, I enjoy Tim Cockey's undertaker series for humor.

And here's a new one. It's a group blog by mystery authors published by or to-be-published by Midnight Ink. I joined the blog soon after I signed my 2-book deal with Midnight Ink and am in the posting rotation. MI has quite a few cozy authors in their stable, so check out Inkspot:

http://midnightwriters.blogspot.com/

I read mainstream, literary, and women's fiction books for my monthly in-person book club. This month's book is The 19th Wife by David Ebershoff.

I've met William Kent Kruger, and reconnected with him at Bouchercon. I really need to add his books to my reading list!

I just got back from the Bouchercon mystery convention in Indianapolis (for a full report go to: http://bethgroundwater.blogspot.com/ ), and I couldn't pass up the opportunity to ask C.J. Box to sign two more books in his Joe Pickett Wyoming game warden series for me, which I just love but have fallen behind in. I poured through the first half of IN PLAIN SIGHT (#6) on the plane ride home, and have FREE FIRE (#7) on my TBR list. I really recommend this series! His books are a little more suspenseful than a true cozy, but I'm a cozy fan and hate gory thrillers, and I thoroughly enjoy these.

Are any of you attending the Bouchercon conference in Indianapolis next weekend? I'll be there and would love to meet some of my cozy mysteries friends in person. I'll be on the "Killer Hobbies" panel 9:00 - 9:55 am on Thursday and will be teaching a class on making killer mystery baskets in the Craft Room on Saturday 10:30 - 11:30 am. You have to sign up for this class ahead of time at the Bouchercon website (http://www.bouchercon2009.com/). Please come up and introduce yourself to me if you're going to be there! And if you haven't heard about the conference and would like to attend, it's not to late to register.

Some other useful mystery review sites are:

Jen's Book Thoughts
http://jensbookthoughts.blogspot.com/

Kevin's Corner
http://kevintipplescorner.blogspot.com/

Lesa's Book Critiques
http://lesasbookcritiques.blogspot.com/

Reviewing the Evidence
http://www.reviewingtheevidence.com/defa...

And most mystery authors just LOOOOVE to hear from readers! I know I do.

Do you ever visit the websites or blogs of mystery authors? If so, which ones do you really like? Some of my favorites are Margaret Coel's (http://www.margaretcoel.com/) and Ann Parker's (http://www.annparker.net/).

Many mystery authors band together in groups to operate blogs. Some of my favorite group blogs are:
Femmes Fatales (http://femmesfatales.typepad.com/)
Ink Spot (http://midnightwriters.blogspot.com/)
Poe's Deadly Daughters (http://www.poesdeadlydaughters.blogspot....)
The Lady Killers
(http://theladykillers.typepad.com/)

I'm curious to hear if any other Cozy Mysteries members have favorite mystery websites/blogs. Of course, I have my own and I invite you to visit and let me know what you think:
http://bethgroundwater.com/
http://bethgroundwater.blogspot.com/
(includes a recent article with photos about my research into competitive fly fishing).
- Beth

I recently finished The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie by Alan Bradley and gave it 4 stars. I discussed it with another online reading group, and here's what I had to say about it:

I was initially irritated by the portrayal of Flavia, finding her to be shallow, unsympathetic, and unrealistic. However, as the story progressed and I understood her better, she grew on me. She had both her good points and bad points, as real people and realistic characters do. So, you can put me squarely on the fence, neither being charmed by Flavia nor wanting to wring her neck. ;-)

I wonder if the author came to know her better, too, as he wrote further into the story. I find that when I'm writing a new character, after I've finished the first draft of the manuscript, I have to go back to the beginning chapters where that character first appeared and rewrite the character some, to make him or her agree with the final version that blossomed over the course of the writing. I almost wonder if Alan Bradley needed to do some similar work with Flavia's early chapters and didn't accomplish it.

I think it's very difficult to have a child character narrate an adult mystery, because the narrator must usually be a knowledgeable and perceptive person, aware of what the other characters are doing and being able to deduce motives and feelings from that awareness, so those keen observations can be passed on to the reader. This can seem very unrealistic behavior for a child, even one as precocious as Flavia. I think it rarely works. Certainly it worked in The Lovely Bones and The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time (where the author was able to make the reader aware of motivations that the narrator character was NOT aware of--a very, very difficult & clever thing to do). I think Alan Bradley succeeded at this some of the time, but not always.

Love your comment, Denise! Reminds me of watching the old Moonlighting series and yelling at the two main characters to "get a room already!" The scriptwriters kept teasing the audience for multiple seasons with the characters' sexual attraction that was never consummated.

I'll comment on Hannah, Denise's character, being a mystery author myself. We authors spend so much time developing our characters, especially the main character, and living with them in our heads so much that they become almost real people to us. As such, we can't force them to do anything that's out-of-character, even if it's convenient for the book's plot or would fulfill the desires of readers. The characters have to do what they themselves decide to do. ;-)

Hi Betty,
I looooove Donna Andrews's zany mysteries, too!
- Beth

I just finished reading Rex Stout's SOME BURIED CAESAR, the sixth in the Nero Wolfe series, and the "all conference reads" book for the Bouchercon mystery conference. I gave it 3 stars as an average mystery. My overall impression is that all the characters were very rude to each other. Maybe it's just because most of them were posturing males in the 1930s.
--
Beth Groundwater, http://bethgroundwater.com/
A REAL BASKET CASE, Five Star, 3/2007, Best First Novel Agatha Nominee
TO HELL IN A HANDBASKET, Five Star, May 2009

Thanks for the suggestion, Betty! I'll put Victoria Houston's books on my TBR list.

As a mystery author, I feel that I should research a new hobby/occupation that I'm going to include in a book at least enough that I understand how characters talk who engage in that hobby or occupation. For instance, in my next manuscript, I plan to include a fly-fishing tournament as part of the plot. I am not a fly-fisherman myself and don't intend to become one. However, I took a 2-hour introductory class with a guide, bought and read how-to books, interviewed a youth fly-fishing team member, and in August I will spend a day and a half observing a fly-fishing tournament taking place nearby. Not only will I record the competition procedures, equipment, fishing techniques, etc. but I'll also be writing down snippets of language that the fisherman and judges use.

Having my characters "speak the lingo" is all-important to me because that more than anything gives that semblance of reality. I also try to get someone in the hobby/occupation to review scenes for me after I write them to make sure they are authentic sounding.

As a reader, I like to learn something when I read, so I appreciate it when other authors go to the same trouble to research their history in a historical mystery novel or the hobby or occupation in a cozy mystery that features that hobby or occupation.

I've participated in the Goodreads Giveaways from both sides, entering to win and giving away books, and I think they're very valuable. I've entered quite a few giveaways (for mysteries, my genre, and books I think my book club might like) and have won one book. I enjoyed reading it and wrote a review for that book. Also, I created a contest for my new release, TO HELL IN A HANDBASKET, had quite a few entrants and gave away 2 copies. I'm not sure if either winner has written a review yet.