Rebecca Cantrell's Blog

The Girl Who Would Finally Finish a Book!

 

My first brand new thriller in a long while is set during the Christmas season. THE GIRL WHO WOULD LIVE FOREVER is a standalone thriller introducing a science fiction novelist named Ivy Corva who’s having a series of very bad days leading up to the holidays when she’s forced to fight her own Christmas trolls and try to save her friend’s legacy.

Here’s the longer description:
Ivy Corva’s first novel makes her the target of online trolls. As the threats get nastier and her address is posted on the Internet for all to see, she runs from her old life and moves to San Francisco to work for her friend Shelby.

But Shelby isn’t there.

Shelby threw herself off the Golden Gate Bridge right after their phone call to avoid her own demons: accusations of financial fraud and lying about her new immortality drug. As the world seeks to destroy her friend’s legacy, Ivy searches for the truth.

But when Ivy’s trolls move from the virtual world to the real one and Shelby’s foes close in, Ivy fears that her search for the truth will cost her life.

“Rebecca Cantrell’s THE GIRL WHO WOULD LIVE FOREVER is a wildly Hitchcockian tale of friendship and murder set within the cutthroat world of biomedical research. It has a ripped-from-the-headlines authenticity and is written at a blistering pace that left me breathless. I defy anyone to anticipate the twists and shocking revelations in this taut mystery. It’s a pure adrenalin thrill ride.” — James Rollins, New York Times bestselling author

Ready at your favorite retailer:

 

Meet the Voice of Fred the Seagull

I am here with Madeline Mrozek, the fantabulous narrator of “F” is for Fred, to talk with her about audiobooks, her process, and private investigators.

Which character is your favorite to voice? Sofia, Ms. Soloff, or Aiden?

See, here’s the thing…I love bringing ALL of the characters in the Malibu Mysteries to life so it would be impossible for me to choose just one.  They’re quirky, funny and sometimes downright crazy but they’re always REAL, and I just love that.  Each book in the Malibu Mysteries series always has at least one or two “co-stars” I find particularly enjoyable to bring to life and F Is For Fred definitely brings forth that tradition.  Sofia’s niece, Violet and Mrs. Solov were two of my faves this time.  Mainly because Violet is sassy and brave and reminds me so much of my granddaughter, Molly Rose!  And then there’s Mrs. Solov, who’s dramatic and totally “extra”…just like ME

Sundays with Seagulls: Top 10 Seagull Memes

On this Sunday with seagulls, we will be looking at the top 10 best seagull memes, as selected by Sofia Salgado, and our mascot himself, Fred!

Better than the terrible fate of the gulls who live with the bees, and have to become dogs.

Self-improvement is a vital part of any healthy lifestyle. Especially when one has to deal with the stresses of finding freshly washed cars to poop on and caviar to engulf.

This meme works on so many levels, because not only would the eagles have been a much easier answer to bringing the ring to Mordor, having a lowly seagull do the deed instead would thoroughly bypass the corruptibility of the powerful eagles by the one ring. If only Fred had been there! Unfortunately, there are a few problems with this theory as seen below.

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Seagulls have a unique fuck giving properties, that if correctly harvested could produce negative fucks which could be the key to faster than light travel.

For those of you who are curious that seagull just ate a dumpster full of gas station sushi and taco bell, and isn’t just happy to see Rose here. In the seagull’s defense, she looks like a Maserati from the top.

And this is why you never want the seagulls to take the ring to Mordor.

Finally, we have found the secret to producing exotic matter! This seagull’s ability to give negative fucks has solved it for us. All we have to do now is bring in the scientists and run some tests. I’m sure the seagull won’t mind.

Famous in his role as air support in his hit movie above the law.

Looks like the Habsburgs really outdid themselves this time.

That one’s for Aidan…

And, for more of our favorite seagull, check out F is for Fred! Remember if you don’t, then that Nigerian prince will not transfer the money into your bank account. 

Seriously, which meme was your favorite?

 

Maxwell Cantrell is the author of A Tale of Gods, Mortals, and Jell-o Shooters and Power, Poseidon and Pina Coladas. He lives in Estonia, but is currently on the Big Island of Hawaii where there are, oddly no seagulls.

Saturdays with Seagulls: Casting Fred

Hello everyone! Happy Saturday! This is the first of several Saturdays with Seagulls. Today’s post is written by the head of Fred’s fan club: my son, Maxwell Cantrell.

We’re choosing actors and actresses to play our favorite investigators in a hypothetical F is for Fred movie. I’ve selected a few candidates for each role, but you’re welcome to pick others.

Let’s start with Sofia Salgado, former child star, and detective in her early 20’s. Her dad is Mexican, and in A is for Actress she is actually mistaken for Selena Gomez, so that’s a nice Easter egg for our first candidate.

          

Selena Gomez (with yellow background): Actress, Singer, and professional Sofia Salgado lookalike.

(from celebmafia.com)
Maia Mitchell (with fun hair): Veteran Actress and former child star.

(from tvguide.com)

Next up is Aiden Maloney, Sofia’s partner at Maloney investigations and former Los Angeles policeman. He’s in his early 20’s, and he’s a bit annoying.

          

Bo Burnham (left): Stand up comic who gained popularity on YouTube as a singer and comedian.

(from wikipedia.com)
Liam Hemsworth (the other left): Actor who became famous after his role as Gale in the Hunger Games.

(from Wikidata.com(sic))

Then there’s Gray Cole, action star, and the sexiest man in the world. He’s Sofia’s neighbor at Nirvana Cove, and he’s not interested in the ladies, even if they’re interested in him. Here’s a lovely head shot.

Keanu Reaves (keanuworld.tumblr.com). I know he’s older than Gray, but he’s still my number one choice. Shut up.

Last but never least there’s Fred. He’s a rofessional seagull and part-time cameraman. He’s in his early 5’s and is a known caviar addict. Look at these gorgeous fred shots.

          

Johannis Battersby (right): Fly-up comic, famous for his Netflix comedy special, “Oh how the time flies”(from theanimalstalk.blogspit.com)
Emanuel Cruz (left) seen with his husbird Jackson Smith. Emanuel, a professional actor, is known for his love of exotic clothing, as seen in this asphalt carpet shot at the 2017 Oscars, for his performance in Gone Gull. (from Metro.co.uk)

These are my picks in no particular birder. What do you think?

Ghost of Christmas Past

After a hearty breakfast overlooking the ocean and watching the spinner dolphins (and seeing my first whale of the season), I trotted home and saw an old blog post on Facebook. The original seems to be gone, but I dug it out of my files and decided to post it as a ghost of Christmas past. From the old, old days of 2013:

Christmas Markets!

I love Christmas markets! When I lived in Hawaii, there were no Christmas markets to speak of. Instead, we went to the regular farmer’s market in the bright warm sunlight and bought mango bread and star fruit and blood oranges and ate them while looking out at the shiny blue sea.

I’ve moved back to Berlin now and I could go to a different Christmas market every day for the whole month of December and not run out. Just today I was at the market on Gendarmenmarkt, which is lovely. This picture, however, is from the Christmas market at Potsdamer Platz during the blue hour.

When I talked about the markets with James this time last year, when we were in the middle of our upcoming novel INNOCENT BLOOD, I told him about the scents of gingerbread and chocolate and burnt sugar almonds and the beautiful knitted scarves and handmade brushes and glass ornaments and he said, “You know, we could really wreak havoc at a place like that!”

He was, of course, right. This led to the scene in INNOCENT BLOOD set at the Christmas Market in Stockholm.  It has all the scents and sights you would expect in a fairy tale Christmas Market, but it also has strigoi and Sanguinists.  It’s a Vampire Christmas Market.

Provided there aren’t any children’s choirs full of young singers with old eyes who seem impervious to the cold, and you’re not limited to blood or transubstantiated wine, the market can be the perfect place for Christmas-related eating . Here is how I eat my way through a Christmasmarket

Sugar-glazed peanuts are always the first thing I buy, because I believe in eating dessert first. Also because they are usually close to the door and the burnt sugar smell draws me over there like a powerful stomach magnet. Back at my first Christmas market, they only sold sugar-glazed almonds, but now you can get all kinds of nuts. Today I saw: almonds, peanuts, cashews, macadamia nuts, and pumpkin seeds. I get a small paper cone and munch while I’m shopping. It’s easy to tuck into a pocket when I need my hands to be free for touching lovely felt jackets and delicate ornaments under the watchful eye of the stands’ proprietors.
Roasted chestnuts. I buy these more because I love the smoky smell and the feeling that I’m in a Dickens book than because I like the taste.  If you’re lucky, you can buy them out of a soot-blackened cauldron. They come piping hot and are excellent handwarmers which is good because my hands are always getting cold.
Grünkohl with sausage. At this point I feel guilty that I have eaten nothing but sweets and a few chestnuts.  Grünkohl translates as kale, but it’s not like the kale I’m used to from the States. Here they boil it up with tasty German sausage and give it you in a paper bowl that is so hot you have to wear gloves to hold it. It’s filling, gives you a virtuous feeling because you’re eating greens, and tastes wonderful.
Glühwein (mulled wine). Now the trip is coming to an end. I’ve eaten dessert. I’ve browsed. I’ve had dinner. It’s time for a cupful of warm wine.
Chocolate covered strawberries. These aren’t specific to Christmas, but that doesn’t stop me from eating them. I count them as fruit and, if I get dark chocolate, a dose of antioxidants. Practically health food. Don’t tell me otherwise, because I don’t want to know.

Then I head home. If you go to the Christmas market, have a great time! But don’t go into the ice maze. Bad things happen in there. Rasputin is in there and *spoiler deleted.*

What are your favorite holiday treats?

Have You Ever Been Through a Big Storm?

Remember watching the recent hurricanes on the news as they swept across Texas, Florida, the British Virgin Islands, and Puerto Rico? Or maybe you didn’t just watch them, maybe you hunkered down in your home or in a shelter and watched them firsthand. I watched it on the news and became one of 25 authors donating ebooks to be part of the giant 25 to 1 $10 bundle with all the proceeds from the sales to go directly to One America Appeal. Yup, you donate $10 to a worthy cause and get 25 novels. It’s a diverse group of New York Times, USA Today, and Amazon bestsellers, and the novels are about mystery, espionage, science fiction, and political intrigue.

I asked these authors for their accounts of storms they’ve lived through in the past and some generously shared their stories. Some of them are real doozies!

From Richard Bard:

I’ve never personally experienced a big storm, knock on wood. Short of a heavy snow now and then when I lived in Indiana during my college years, I guess the weather’s been friendly to me, particularly since moving to southern California. Of course, that doesn’t mean I haven’t ‘weathered’ more than my share of earthquakes, including a couple violent shakers that toppled shelves, cracked windows, and half emptied the neighbor’s pool. I can still remember huddling under the dining room table with my wife and visiting friends during a big one, feeling helpless and fearing the worst. But the shaking subsided, my family was spared, and after a few repairs and cleanup life returned to normal. We dodged a bullet. But what about those who suffered the loss of their homes and treasured belongings in the face of the recent devastating hurricanes? One day they’re enjoying a BBQ with the family, and the next day they’re clinging to one another in a shelter with hundreds of other lost souls. Their lives will never be ‘normal’ again, and if we can join together and help them in even the smallest of ways, then they are truly deserving.

From Russell Blake:

It’s impossible to forget riding out a big hurricane. I’ve suffered through quite a few, in Hawaii and in Mexico, but like a first night of love, Odile’s brutal landfall in Cabo three years ago will forever live in my memory.

Nothing prepares you for the fury of a storm of that intensity. The sheer destructive power as buildings collapse like tissue, roof tiles become bullet-speed projectiles, winds the force of a jet on takeoff tear at your world hour after relentless hour.

When it finally ends, the silence is indescribable – like walking out of a wind tunnel into complete calm.

The weeks after, without power or water or medicine or the rule of law, can be worse than the storm. There’s no way to overstate the ferocity or devastation, and no way to exaggerate the damage left in its wake.

From RE McDermott:

I’m no stranger to storms. I grew up near Galveston, where the 1900 storm left over 6,000 dead and remains the deadliest natural disaster in US history. My Mom’s first memory was being carried through rising water to the hayloft, seeking refuge from yet another great hurricane in 1915. We had a summer business on the beach, but our home was 15 miles inland. Each year we’d track storms, hoping to avoid hauling all our stuff back home from the beach to Winnie, a lofty 26 feet above sea level and a ‘safe haven.’ It was a place folks fled TO, not from. No storm surge ever reached Winnie.

Then Harvey came with unprecedented rain. When the water stopped rising, over a third of the homes were flooded to the rooftops. Winnie, Texas, is just a dot on the map, like countless other places in the paths of these storms. They’re all homes to someone, just as Winnie is home to me, though I no longer live there. They’ll recover, because that’s the way they roll, but the path will be hard. I’d like to do what I can to make it at least a little bit easier.

From Annette Shaw :

I grew up in south Texas. In fact, I was in Houston in 83’, when a hurricane decimated the area. I believe I was 13 at the time. It was probably my first experience in survival and thus why I write in the post-apocalyptic genre.

I remember the storm hitting us like a freight train. In pitch dark, you could scream at the top of your lungs, and the person right next to you could hear nothing other than the storm itself. Though that was not the biggest obstacle, what happened later threatened our lives. Three feet of water stood outside our home. No power, no running water and worst of all, dead and or dying animals tried escaping the murky water by finding higher ground or anything they could cling to.

Snakes and rats slithered and swam up the side of our home and tried to make their way inside. Someone was constantly on watch with a stick to poke them away night and day. The worst was having to dislodge bloated dead dogs away from our home, their stench so awful. This went on for three weeks without power until the flood waters finally subsided and power poles replaced.

My extended family still lives in south Texas. They are hardened Texans. They’re used to what Mother Nature brings, however, this was no ordinary storm season. Right before Harvey hit, my aunt’s father passed away. She relocated to Crosby, Texas to be with her mother, leaving my uncle in Austwell, TX…right next to the town of Rockport where Harvey made landfall. He was required to evacuate, so he went just north to Victoria, TX to stay with my cousin’s family.

By the time they meteorologist realized the size of the storm it was too late for them to evacuate. When Harvey hit, they lost all power, all cell phone service, etc. My grieving aunt was panic-stricken. She had no way to contact her family. I live in Idaho, and I’m a HAM radio operator. Even radio contact was out of the question at the time. There was simply no way to link up communication. We tried to have faith that in a day or so, cell service would resume and that’s exactly what happened. They’d lost power and dealt with the same flooding that always occurs but no one was hurt and everyone, thankfully was accounted for.

My cousin in Houston was not so lucky. She was trapped with her husband in their one level home. At one point the water was flooding to perhaps four inches, and then suddenly they were dealing with a survival situation the next. They ended up escaping to their neighbor’s second story home and still the water rose. Again, they were stranded and the water continued to rise. Our family frantically flooded Facebook with posts of a needed boat rescue. Finally, someone was able to rescue my cousin and her husband as well as their neighbors by boat from a second story window, and they relocated to her daughter’s home. Sadly, they lost everything. Both vehicles were towed away once the flood water receded completely totaled. Their home was so damaged everything had to be torn out from the carpet to the rotting sheet rock…everything. Unfortunately, we also lost several treasured family heirlooms.

We were fortunate really. No one was seriously hurt, and above all, it brought out the best in everyone. I’m lucky to know several authors in the area. My elderly aunt and uncle are very precious to me. So back in the small town of Austwell, Texas, the damage was unbelievable, and most services in the reconstruction effort went to the larger cities. I put out a call for help to clear debris in the hot, humid, and mosquito-infested area.  A fellow author, who writes under the name Joe Nobody, grabbed a buddy and together they drove south to meet up with two people they’ve never met, my aunt and uncle, spending the day cutting tree limbs and clearing the way to allow power to be restored. I’ve never met these men either, but they are truly friends. I cannot be more thankful.

This cause is near and dear to me. I will help in anyway I can. When this anthology was floated by me, I jumped the chance. I’m so very thankful to have the opportunity to give back. Hurricanes provide no discrimination. May we all act without hesitation when humanity calls.

From Christine Kling:

Andrew, Frances, Jeanne, Katrina, Wilma, Irene. I know the terror of sitting up through a seemingly endless black night listening to that wind that sounds like a giant 100-mile-an-hour blender trying to grind its way into your house, what it’s like to go for days without power, to suffer property damage, to drive through 8-lane wide traffic intersections with no traffic signals for weeks on end just to get to work, and to yearn for a return to what life was like before.

The worst storm I ever experienced was the one that was similar to what Irma did to the Florida Keys. In 2016, my husband and I were aboard our 52-foot, 30-ton steel sailboat in a boatyard in Nadi, Fiji. Our big heavy boat was propped up with stands and resting on her wide keel, but when category 5 Cyclone Winston passed over us, that boat blew over–with us inside. I flew through the air like I had been catapulted and hit the teak wardrobe on the far side of the cabin. It took us 21 days to get power restored, and six months to repair the damage to our boat and our bodies. Many people helped us. Now it’s my turn.

From Tom Abrahams:

I am a television reporter in Houston. During Harvey’s worst, I was trapped on a highway overpass for 32 hours. My photographer and I were surrounded by rising flood waters and spent the better part of a day and a half on the air. We saw firsthand people waving for help from their rooftops, stranded atop sunken cars in the middle of streets, rescue boats plucking people from the water and motoring them to safety. We watched helicopters airlift parents and children from danger and lower them onto the highway. It was unlike anything I’ve witnessed in 25 years of covering storms.

But it was once the water receded that I saw the gravity of the need; the people left homeless, entire neighborhoods abandoned and littered with curbside debris consisting of appliances, furniture, clothing, drywall, flooring. That need still exists. And that’s why I felt compelled to help.

Here’s a link to the 25 for 1 website with more information. Or you can buy the books here. Or donate directly here. The most important thing is that we help those whose lives have been devastated by the storms.

Would you like to tell me your storm stories?

Inside the Narrator’s Studio: A Trace of Smoke

I’ve been trying to get an audio version of A Trace of Smoke created for years, but only recently re-acquired the rights. Then I faced my first quandary: should Hannah have a German accent when she speaks English? An American one? Or a British one? I decided that German might be too offputting for American listeners, so struck that out. An American accent felt wrong, too, as I often used British words (petrol instead of gas) to make Hannah’s world feel more European. So, English accent it was too be.

I opened the book up for auditions and was unprepared for the various accents and voices, but was thrilled to discover Beverly Murray. Her voice and delivery brought the novel to life. Would you like to hear how she did it? Me, too! So, I asked her over for an interview.

What led you to decide to start performing audiobooks? A theater bug, perhaps?

I used to take theatre and public speaking at school back in the UK, but then college, career and family took over. Last year I was asked to do some narration work for the Fine Arts director at my son’s high school. After hearing my narration of The Giving Tree for a dance show one of the parents at the school suggested I try audiobooks. He showed me the ropes in terms of the technical side too.

Where do you record? What’s an average recording day?

I record in our spare bedroom, where I have made a cosy little booth.

I am able to record, on average, 3 days a week as I also have a part-time job. I prefer to narrate in the morning when the house is quieter and I feel most alert. As I turn the air conditioning off before I record, early morning is cooler in the heat of a Texas summer too! I edit in the afternoon/evening.

We have a little rescue dog who follows me everywhere so I take off her collar (tags rattle) and let her sleep on her favorite cushion whilst I get to work.

How do you choose which projects to work on? What made you choose A Trace of Smoke?

I find it much easier to narrate a book I am engaged with. A Trace of Smoke is the genre of book I would anyhow read as I am a WW2 nut! 930s Berlin is fascinating. I love Hannah’s spirit and determination. I also liked the fact Ernest and his struggles are written with such compassion.

Do you do any warm-up voice exercises? If so, what?

I gargle with warm water and floss my teeth before I narrate. Weird I know but having a really clean mouth seems to make my diction more crisp.

What are you working on now?

I am working on a children’s book about magical travels around Europe. Great fun and I am more confident with accents in a children’s book as the author anyhow wants them exaggerated. After that a thriller set in Paris. I speak a little French.

Where can people hear more of your books?

A Trace of Smoke was my first audiobook. I have 3 more due to be released in November and early December and they will all be on Audible and iTunes.

Where can authors reach you to hire you as a narrator?

I can be reached through acx.com, Findaway Voices.com and Voices.com. My email is murrayvoices@gmail.com

An interview from beyond the void

Today I’m turning over my blog to my son, Maxwell Cantrell, so he can talk to the narrator of his new audiobook. Take it away, Max!



Many audiobooks exist, yet few contain such glorious vocalizations as A Tale of Gods Mortals and Jell-O Shooters as voiced by Christopher J. Mayer. Behold below the thoughts from the voice of Lacerto, Gordon from the Dream of Empty Crowns saga, Ian and Rayne from the Weir Chronicles, and many, many others who would otherwise be silent. Now the voice behind the voices gets a chance to speak as I interview my talented audiobook narrator.

Which voice was the most painful for you to do?

One of the first lessons I learned was be very careful about voice selection and characteristics.  You might be able to do a gravelly or scratchy voice, like a smoker or Louis Armstrong or something, but sustaining that voice for hours is something else entirely.  None of the characters were particularly difficult on me.  Lacerto’s voice is my “monster voice” that I’ve been practicing since I was a kid, just shy of a Cookie Monster imitation.  I pulled him out occasionally as “Grogolothgar, the Demon Lord of the Nine Hells.”  In another book I’m just finishing up, though, a couple voices have “a slight squawk” to them, slightly parroty.  That little subtle scratchiness really wore on me.  I think you can hear some of that in one of the Librarian’s voices.

How many times did you crack up during a take?

I actually didn’t, that I can remember.  I come from theater and comedy improv, and I’m very good about not breaking while performing.  I did, however, have to stop several times while editing to laugh.

Did you add a cut every time you needed to change voices or did you just change from line to line? If so, how did you do it so smoothly?

When you record these things, you just do it.  There is a lot of stopping and starting, yeah, but you don’t really stop rolling for a change in dialog.  You may pause a little longer to make sure you change cleanly, and then that gets tightened up in editing.  Editing took anywhere from one to five minutes of dead air out of each chapter.

Did the comic timing take a while to get down?

Not to toot my own horn, but I’m a pretty funny guy (but looks aren’t everything).  I was influenced from childhood by the Muppets, Laurel and Hardy, Abbot and Costello, the Marx Brothers, Monty Python, the Three Stooges…. it’s a big list.  So when I started doing theater, I pretty much had it down already because I was just doing what all the greats were doing.  It was almost like second nature to me from being brought up watching all these great comedians.  I don’t do stand-up myself because I have stage fright and can’t write my own jokes, so shutting myself in a booth reading books was a natural fit.

Although I know, what other audiobooks have you narrated?

I’m still a rookie, actually.  I only just started doing this a couple years ago, still part time with that pesky day job, and haven’t even finished my First Ten, though I’m close.  My first fiction book is a fun little mystery, but the detective’s a robin, and it’s all animals.  I’m doing The Weir Chronicles, by Sue Duff, the fifth and final book of which is being written and should be out either at the end of the year or early next year.  I’ll be starting book 3 of that series soon.  I’ve been really enjoying it and can’t wait for the last book as a fan, myself.  Finally, there’s a pair of YA fantasy novels that form the first two books in the Chosen King series, by Mike Sewell.  They were delightful to do.  (Plug alert!) You can find all the books by searching “Christopher J Mayer” on Audible.  I put the middle initial in because it makes me sound like I know what I’m doing.  Two initials is really the way to go, but I think that’s mainly for authors.

When I read for a few minutes I get tired, how do you read for so long? Do you do many cuts?

Practice.  You sort of hit the nail on the head.  When people want to “go into audio books,” some of the best advice is sit down and read out loud for six hours.  Commercials are a sprint, Audio Books are a marathon.  I usually go for about an hour at a time, then take a small break (with no talking).  Sometimes less in the summer when I have to turn my air conditioning back on or melt.  At the moment, my stamina is about three to four hours a day.  And it’s not just vocal stamina.  This is an acting job, and you’re performing every second of that time.  It’s mentally and sometimes emotionally draining, as well.  I pushed myself last week to get the last couple hours of a book finished (which translates to about four-to-five hours of recording) and I was wiped out the next day.  It was the exciting climax and emotional denouement of the book and that really took a toll.

How can authors reach out to you to hire you for audiobook production?

Thank you for the shameless plug opportunity.  I can be found on ACX.com by searching for “Christopher J Mayer,” or you can email me at chris@chrismayervoiceover.com.  That reminds me, I need to update my samples on ACX.  chrismayervoiceover.com has all the latest demo sample goodness.  You can also find me on Facebook as Chris Mayer Voice Over.

Things Writers Talk About: Coolest Ways to Kill a Character?

I’m part of a group of mystery writers in the Dark Crimes Storybundle, and I put this question to them: ‘what’s the coolest way you ever killed someone?’ I followed that up with ‘in a book, of course, in a book.’ None of them were the slightest bit surprised. They’re a tough group.

I know to the non-writer it sounds like a gruesome question, but since we write murder mysteries, someone has to die and, as my sometime collaborator, James Rollins, once said, “Never kill someone twice in the same way.” I think he was talking about characters in a book. Or at least I hope he was! I better be careful around him.

And around my fellow authors. Here are a few bloodthirsty responses that will make me keep a close eye on them.

Melissa Yuan-Innes:

“In honour of Harry Houdini, an escape artist/Elvis impersonator has himself chained and nailed into a coffin and lowered into Montreal’s St. Lawrence River, but can’t break free. Dr. Hope Sze must resuscitate Elvis and figure out who sabotaged his stunt. [Terminally Ill, Hope Sze book #3; international Amazon link].”

This one wins for style–Houdini and Elvis and a coffin escape? Melissa clearly throws cool parties.

JF Penn:

“Stone of Fire – disguising a Catholic nun as a Hindu corpse and then burning her alive on a pyre on the Burning Ghats of Varanasi, India; and  One Day in New York – crucifying a nun and then setting the cross on fire on The Highline above New York City.”

Does anyone else here wonder if JF Penn went to one of those Catholic schools full of mean nuns with rulers? Not that I can talk, considering the number of priests I’ve had killed by vampires.

Kristine Kathryn Rusch:

“I killed a runner–on the Moon–in the middle of a marathon, in my Retrieval Artist series.”  [Extremes]

As it running a marathon on the Moon weren’t tricky enough. My husband runs marathons, on Earth, and I’m not telling Kris when or where now.

Rebecca Cantrell:

“I rammed a guy with a submarine. Left a red ribbon of blood for the sharks to find.” [The Steel Shark]

I thought that was really cool until I read the descriptions above. Now I’m thinking I’ll need to get very creative in the next book.

How did I meet these bloodthirsty folks?

We’re in a Storybundle called Dark Crimes, of course! You can get 5 novels for $5 or the entire set for $15. That should give you a summer of mystery reading all in one easy purchase. If you’re feeling generous, please leave a donation to the Storybundle’s chosen charity, Able Gamers, to help someone else have a great summer, too. Head on over to see what I mean! But hurry because the Bundle turns into a pumpkin in just two more days!

What’s YOUR favorite character death in a mystery? Did it make you wonder about the author?

Hannah Vogel is BACK!

At the end of A City of Broken Glass, *spoiler alert* Hannah Vogel was driving out of Switzerland with her son Anton at her side, and Lars Lang was bleeding in the back of the truck with Frau Doktor Spiegel. Berlin was in flames behind them and it was unclear how or if they’d get out. Then…nothing happened…for five long years.

That’s why I am SO EXCITED to announce that Hannah Vogel is back! The books have been reissued, newly-covered, and repriced to reach a wider audience. Even better, I’m working on a Hannah Vogel short story for the first time in half a decade and after that work will begin on a brand new Hannah Vogel novel, where we will discover that Hannah and her crew made it safely out of Germany and into Switzerland and…well, let’s just say she got right back into trouble! I can’t tell you anything more than that, except it will all be revealed in 2018!

I’m doing the happy dance over here in Hawaii!!!

If you haven’t read the Hannah Vogel novels yet, this is the perfect time to start. In case you’re curious about the new books, here are the new covers. What’s your favorite?

 

 

We first meet Hannah in Berlin in 1931. She’s going about her day as a crime reporter when she spots her brother’s picture in the Hall of the Unnamed Dead. He’s been murdered, and she cannot rest until she finds out who killed him. Her search leads her through the cabaret, a sexy banker with secrets of his own, the police station, anti-Semitic protests, and into the tops ranks of the rising Nazi party.

 

 

 

Hannah is on board a zeppelin from South America to Switzerland when it is diverted into Germany on the eve of the 1934 purge that would come to be known as the Night of the Long Knives. When Hannah is separated from Anton, she risks everything to get him back. Along the way she bears witness to the deaths of many young men and the ones they have left behind, tries to comfort a grieving widow, endangers the man she loves, and finds an unlikely ally.

 

 

 

 

Now working as a spy for the British, Hannah comes back to Berlin for the 1936 Olympics. During the opening ceremony, her mentor, Peter Weill, dies in her arms. His death pulls her into a deadly conspiracy where those she trusts–and those she loves–are the most dangerous foes of all.

 

 

 

While investigating the plight of Jewish refugees in Poland, Hannah is arrested and brought back to Berlin on the eve of the November pogrom of 1938, an event often referred to as Kristalnacht. Adrift in a city she barely recognizes, Hannah tries to find one lost Jewish girl and save herself and Anton from a deadly fate in the powerful Third Reich. Her only ally, and onetime lover, is a man she once trusted who betrayed her. With the lives of everyone she loves at stake, she can’t afford a single mistake.