Elena Hartwell's Blog, page 50
July 9, 2022
Wolf Bog: A Berkshire Hilltown Mystery
Wolf Bog, the latest release by Leslie Wheeler.
Guest Post + Book & Author Info + GiveawayDon’t miss any blog tour posts! Click the link here.Wolf Bog by Leslie Wheeler
It’s August in the Berkshires, and the area is suffering from a terrible drought. As wetlands dry up, the perfectly preserved body of a local man, missing for forty years, is discovered in Wolf Bog by a group of hikers that includes Kathryn Stinson.
Who was he and what was his relationship with close friend Charlotte Hinckley, also on the hike, that would make Charlotte become distraught and blame herself for his death? Kathryn’s search for answers leads her to the discovery of fabulous parties held at the mansion up the hill from her rental house, where local teenagers like the deceased mingled with the offspring of the wealthy.
Other questions dog the arrival of a woman claiming to be the daughter Charlotte gave up for adoption long ago. But is she really Charlotte’s daughter, and if not, what’s her game? Once again, Kathryn’s quest for the truth puts her in grave danger.
To purchase Wolf Bog, click on any of the following links: Amazon | Barnes & NobleGenre: Mystery/Amateur Sleuth/Suspense
Published by: Encircle Publishing
Publication Date: July 6, 2022
Number of Pages: 336
ISBN: 164599385X (ISBN-13: 978-1645993858)
Series: A Berkshire Hilltown Mystery, #3
Guest PostHow and Where I Write By Leslie Wheeler
Every writer has their quirks and I’m happy to share mine. In college I had a writing teacher who said he wished he could carve his words into wood. I’ve never had that impulse myself, but the tactile side of writing is important to me. I usually write out in longhand the opening lines of chapters in my mystery novels. I do so on a yellow legal pad with a pen with a medium-sized tip. Then I type my words onto the computer. I resort to pen and legal pad for chapter endings, as well, especially if I’m having trouble getting them just right. Why? Because I believe that the act of putting my words on paper jumpstarts my brain. I also read my work aloud, which helps me break up the overly long sentences I’m prone to, create dialogue that my characters can actually speak, and catch missing words and other mistakes.
I do most of my writing in the morning, when I’m fresh, and also when I’m closest to the subconscious world of my dreams. Mid-afternoon around three is often my low time. Then I leave my desk, stretch my legs, get some fresh air, and clear my head. Returning refreshed, I sometimes put in another hour or two of writing before dinner. I don’t, however, write every day, for the simple reason that there are times when I must attend to other things in my life. Nor do I set myself daily word counts. As a pantser, discovering the story while I’m writing it, I rely on flashes of inspiration to keep going, and sometimes those flashes elude me. When they do come, I’m delighted and give myself a big pat on the back. It usually takes me three drafts to wrestle my unwieldy beast of a manuscript into its more or less final shape and send to the editor at my publisher.
As for where I write, I agree with Virginia Wolf when she stressed the necessity of women having a place where they can retreat to write without interruption in her essay, “A Room of One’s Own.” In the beginning of my writing career, I didn’t have such a place, and thought of myself as migrant writer. In the rental house in the Berkshires, where my then husband and I lived, my migration took me from an alcove in the bedroom during the day, downstairs to a wooden picnic table we used for meals at night. I made the move when my husband went to bed and I stayed up to write.
Later, when we built our own house in the Berkshires, we agreed that I should have a study. My study was and still is a relatively small room built over the garage, while my husband’s studio—he was a graphic designer—was the largest room upstairs. I couldn’t help wondering if the disparity in size reflected the value he placed on his work over mine. Even so, I was glad to finally have a room of my own.
Still later, divorced and remarried to an English professor in the Boston area, I found myself with a huge study that took up most of our condo attic, which had been converted into living space. In a reversal of my previous situation, it was my husband who took an alcove on the second floor for his study. He insisted that I have the larger study because I worked at home all day, while he had an office at his university. After a while, though, he had second thoughts about this arrangement, and wanted to swap his alcove study for my much bigger space. But by then, I was too entrenched on the third floor to give it up. Not only do I have plenty of room, but the almost-floor-to-ceiling windows offer lovely views of our tree-lined side street that I feast my eyes on when my muse deserts me.
And, since I divide my time between the Boston area and the Berkshires, where my study there looks out on woods and a garden, I consider myself to be doubly blessed. Not bad for someone who began her career as a migrant writer!
Readers, do you have writing quirks and/or a special place where you write?
Excerpt from Wolf Bog by Leslie WheelerCharlotte’s brow furrowed as she stared at the bog. “There’s something down there. A dead animal or…?” She raised her binoculars to get a better look.
“Where?” Wally asked. She pointed to a spot on the peat at the edge of the water. Wally had barely lifted his binoculars when Charlotte cried, “Oh, my God, it’s a body!” And took off toward it.
“No, don’t go there!” Wally grabbed at her, but she eluded him. When Charlotte was almost to the body−−if that’s what it was−−she began to sink into the bog. She waved her arms and twisted her legs, trying desperately to get out, but her struggles only made her sink deeper.
Kathryn’s heart seized. They had to rescue Charlotte, but how without getting stuck themselves? Brushing past Wally, Steve started down the slope. Wally caught him, pulled him back, and handed him over to Hal Phelps. “You stay put. Everyone else, too. I’ve had experience hiking around this bog, and I think I can get her out. Stop struggling and try to keep calm,” he called down to Charlotte. “Help is on the way.”
Wally made his way carefully to where Charlotte stood, caught in the mire. He tested each step before putting his full weight on it, backtracking when he deemed the ground too soft. When he was a few yards away, he stopped.
“This is as far as I can safely come,” he told Charlotte. He extended his hiking pole and she grabbed it. Then, on his instructions, she slowly and with great effort lifted first one leg, then the other out of the muck and onto the ground behind her. Wally guided her back to the others, following the same zigzag pattern he’d made when descending. Charlotte went with him reluctantly. She kept glancing back over her shoulder at what she’d seen at the water’s edge.
Kathryn trained her binoculars on that spot. Gradually an image came into focus. A body was embedded in the peat. The skin was a dark, reddish brown, but otherwise, it was perfectly preserved. Bile rose in her throat.
Charlotte moved close to Kathryn. “You see him, don’t you?” Her face was white, her eyes wide and staring.
“See who?” Wally demanded.
“Denny,” Charlotte said. “You must’ve seen him, too.”
“I saw something that appears to be a body, but—” Wally said.
“So there really is a dead person down there?” Betty asked.
“It looks that way,” Wally said grimly. “But let’s not panic. I’m going to try to reach Chief Lapsley, though I doubt I’ll get reception here. We’ll probably have to leave the area before I can.”
“We can’t just leave Denny here to die,” Charlotte wailed.
“Charlotte,” Wally said with a pained expression, “whoever is down there is already dead.”
She flinched, as if he’d slapped her across the face. “No! I’m telling you Denny’s alive.” She glared at him, then her defiant expression changed to one of uncertainty. “Dead or alive, I’m to blame. I’m staying here with him.”
Leslie Wheeler — Author of Wolf Bog
An award-winning author of books about American history and biographies, Leslie Wheeler has written two mystery series. Her Berkshire Hilltown Mysteries launched with Rattlesnake Hill and continue with Shuntoll Road and Wolf Bog.
Her Miranda Lewis Living History Mysteries debuted with Murder at Plimoth Plantation and continue with Murder at Gettysburg and Murder at Spouters Point. Her mystery short stories have appeared in numerous anthologies.
Leslie is a member of Mystery Writers of America and Sisters in Crime, and a founding member of the New England Crime Bake Committee. She divides her time between Cambridge, Massachusetts, and the Berkshires, where she writes in a house overlooking a pond.
To learn more about Leslie, click on any of the following links: www.LeslieWheeler.com, Goodreads, BookBub – @lesliewheeler1, Twitter – @Leslie_Wheeler & Facebook – @LeslieWheelerAuthorVisit all the Stops on the Tour!
07/05 Showcase @ The Reading Frenzy
07/06 Showcase @ Celticladys Reviews
07/07 Showcase @ BOOK REVIEWS by LINDA MOORE
07/08 Showcase @ Books to the Ceiling
07/09 Guest post @ The Mystery of Writing
07/13 Review @ Novels Alive
07/14 Interview @ I Read What You Write
07/14 Showcase @ Ilovebooksandstuffblog
07/15 Review @ nanasbookreviews
07/16 Review @ Book Reviews From an Avid Reader
07/17 Review @ Review Thick and Thin
07/18 Review @ FUONLYKNEW
07/18 Showcase @ Nesies Place
07/19 Guest post @ Novels Alive
07/19 Review @ sunny island breezes
07/20 Review @ The Page Ladies
07/21 Review @ Reading Is My SuperpPower
07/22 Guest post @ The Book Divas Reads
07/23 Interview @ The Scribblings of Sarah E. Glenn
07/27 Showcase @ 411 ON BOOKS, AUTHORS, AND PUBLISHING NEWS
07/29 Review @ tea. and. titles bookstagram
07/31 Review @ Pat Fayo Reviews
All We Buried, available now in print, e-book, and audio.
Silver Falchion Award Finalist, Best Investigator 2020
Foreword INDIE Award Finalist, Best Mystery 2020
The Foundation of Plot, a Wait, Wait, Don’t Query (Yet!) guidebook. Out July 19.
The post Wolf Bog: A Berkshire Hilltown Mystery appeared first on The Mystery of Writing.
July 7, 2022
Drop Dead: A Brand New Thriller Series
Drop Dead, a brand new thriller series by author James L’Etoile
Guest Post + Book & Author Info + GiveawayDrop Dead: A Nathan Parker Detective Novel
Hundreds go missing each year making the dangerous crossing over the border. What if you were one of them?While investigating the deaths of undocumented migrants in the Arizona desert, Detective Nathan Parker finds a connection to the unsolved murder of his partner on a human smuggling run. The new evidence lures Parker over the border in search of the truth, only to trap him in a strange and dangerous land. If he’s to survive, Parker must place his life in the hands of the very people he once pursued.
Border violence, border politics, and who is caught in between. The forces behind it might surprise you.
Praise for Dead Drop:James L’Etoile is such a talented and terrific storyteller! His real-life experience in the criminal justice system gives his compelling, high-stakes thrillers an authenticity that only a savvy insider can provide. You’ll be turning the pages as fast as you can!
~ Hank Phillippi Ryan USA Today Bestselling Author of HER PERFECT LIFE
Genre: Thriller
Published by: Level Best Books
Publication Date: July 19, 2022
Number of Pages: 300
ISBN: 978-1-68512-114-3
Series: The Detective Nathan Parker Series, Book 1
Thank you for the chance to guest post here at Mystery of Writing. I’m excited about the release of my latest novel, Dead Drop in the next week. Dead Drop involves border violence, border politics, and those caught in between. It’s the first in a new series set in the desert southwest and includes some colorful characters. I thought I’d talk about one of the most asked questions at book events—where do the ideas come from?
In terms of my creative well, I’m fortunate to draw upon twenty-nine years deep in the criminal justice system. I worked in a maximum-security prison where “plots” take on a completely different meaning. I’ve written novels and short stories involving serial killers, prison gang enforcers, and convicts serving life. It gives you a unique view of life in another world.
The storyline for Dead Drop didn’t come together based upon one event or incident. This one’s been wearing on me for a while until it grabbed me and demanded to be written next. We’ve all seen the news over the past six years—immigration is a politically charged issue. Wherever you position yourself on the issue, the one common denominator is the people caught in the center of this struggle.
Dead Drop isn’t an appropriation of a migrant’s journey. My main characters live north of the border and experience the end results of undocumented migration in different ways. Nathan Parker is a detective in Arizona and his partner was murdered by a smuggler bringing people across the border. Billie Carson knows the land and the routes over the border, and together they follow the trail of undocumented migrant murders which tie back to the killing of Nathan’s partner.
In California, there are over ten thousand men serving time, who also have what’s called an Immigration Hold. This means federal authorities have placed a detainer on them. When they complete their state prison terms, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) takes them for federal prosecution and deportation proceedings.
These offenders aren’t the people you see on the news, migrating over the border with their families in search of a better life. Often, they had a record of previous deportation, with long histories of violent crimes in this country. But underneath that long criminal history, most of them made their first entry into the United States to escape conditions in their homelands.
Some left El Salvador to avoid the vicious gang terror inflicted by Mara Salvatrucha, or MS-13. The group began as a collective to protect Salvadoran migrants in Los Angeles, but soon branched out into extortion, rape, and murder. Refusing an order to take part in their criminal organization results in threats to their families. Others sought a means to send money back home until the Mexican Mafia or the Cartels forced them to traffic narcotics. Still, others turned to crime out of desperation, unable to support themselves, or their families, in this strange and unforgiving land. A bleak future for these men.
Talking with these men, observing what had happened to them, it left me wondering how much of their life was determined by chance? A chance they made it over the border and stayed out of the grasp of these criminal groups. A chance they found jobs, supported their families, and avoided ICE raids? A chance they found one person who accepted them?
Chance. It got me thinking about how life would have been different, if chance leaned in a difference direction for the undocumented migrants who ended up spending years in state prison.
Dead Drop blends many of these stories, and while I don’t pretend to capture the immigrant experience, there is a level of fear, hopelessness, and desperation we can all identify with. Hope seeps through the cracks and sometime hope is enough. I heard that theme many times over the years. Little did I know that I’d use my time in prison as a creative wellspring.
Keep an eye out for my upcoming review of Drop Dead! Meanwhile, read a previous interview with James L’Etoile. Click the link here.James L’Etoile —Author of Drop Dead
James L’Etoile uses his twenty-nine years behind bars as an influence for his novels, short stories, and screenplays. He is a former associate warden in a maximum-security prison, a hostage negotiator, facility captain, and director of California’s state parole system.
He is a nationally recognized expert witness on prison and jail operations. He has been nominated for the Silver Falchion for Best Procedural Mystery, and The Bill Crider Award for short fiction.
His published novels include: Black Label, At What Cost, Bury the Past, and Little River. Look for Dead Drop in the summer of 2022.
To learn more about James, click on his name, photo, or any of the following links: Goodreads, BookBub – @crimewriter, Instagram – @authorjamesletoile, Twitter – @jamesletoile & Facebook – @AuthorJamesLetoileVisit all the Stops on the Tour!
06/27 Guest post @ Novels Alive
07/01 Guest post @ The Book Divas Reads
07/04 Showcase @ Silvers Reviews
07/05 Review @ Pat Fayo Reviews
07/06 Review @ Novels Alive
07/07 Guest post @ The Mystery of Writing
07/07 Review @ Book Reviews From an Avid Reader
07/08 Showcase @ Books, Ramblings, and Tea
07/11 Interview @ I Read What You Write
07/12 Showcase @ Celticladys Reviews
07/13 Review @ Wall-to-wall Books
07/13 Showcase @ The Authors Harbor
07/14 Showcase @ Nesies Place
07/15 Review @ Quiet Fury Books
07/16 Review @ Cassidys Bookshelves
07/20 Review @ Avonna Loves Genres
07/21 Review @ Melissa As Blog
07/22 Review @ Enjoyingbooksagain
All We Buried, available now in print, e-book, and audio.
Silver Falchion Award Finalist, Best Investigator 2020
Foreword INDIE Award Finalist, Best Mystery 2020
The Foundation of Plot, a Wait, Wait, Don’t Query (Yet!) guidebook. Out July 19.
The post Drop Dead: A Brand New Thriller Series appeared first on The Mystery of Writing.
July 2, 2022
Preserving the Mystery: By Victoria Weisfeld
Preserving the mystery! Learn how author Victoria Weisfeld manages that in her debut novel, Architect of Courage.
Preserving the Mystery Guest Post + Book & Author InfoDon’t miss any blog tour books! Click the link here.Architect of Courage
Ordinary Man, Extraordinary SituationIn June 2011, September was weeks away, and the full dread of the approaching anniversary hadn’t yet settled on New York City’s residents. But from One Police Plaza to the FBI’s grim headquarters in Washington, D.C., the top brass harbor a rumbling in the gut. Each person who works for them down the line shares their unease, from every rookie cop walking the beat to the lowliest surveillance specialist. And Archer Landis is about to get caught up in their fixation.
Landis is not one of his city’s guardians, and a different sort of electricity runs under his skin on this warm Thursday evening. A highly successful Manhattan architect—a man you’d say has his life totally, enviably, in order—Landis works the room at a Midtown reception, shaking hands, being seen, accompanying his cheerful greetings with the convivial clinking of ice in an untouched glass of scotch.
When the noisy crowd becomes sufficiently dense and everyone present can say they’ve seen him, he will slip away. Out on Fifth Avenue, he will grab a cab for the run south to Julia’s Chelsea apartment. It’s a trip that will hurtle him into deadly danger. Everyone and everything he cares about most will be threatened, and he will have to discover whether he has the courage to fight his way clear.
To purchase Architect of Courage, click the following link: AmazonGenre: Crime / Murder Mystery
Published by: Black Opal Books
Publication Date: June 4, 2022
Number of Pages: 350
ISBN: ‘9781953434708
Mysteries and thrillers are the genres I most enjoy reading, so it seems natural to me that that’s what I’d want to write. If I’m going to spend a boatload of time with a project, through writing editing, revising, reediting, rererevising, it had better be one that holds my interest!
My first novel, Architect of Courage, is scheduled for publication June 2022. It’s a mystery, which means a number of things. The story’s told from a single point of view. There’s an occasional puzzle. People do things that are suspicious, or are they? The plot threads have to be gradually untangled so that by the end everything make sense, and the world is set right. Or, at least as right as it can be.
The protagonist of Architect of Courage, is a successful Manhattan architect, Archer Landis. But when it comes to dealing with bad guys, Arch has no extraordinary skills. He isn’t like the classic thriller hero trained in a dozen arcane martial arts, a crack shot, Formula One driver, Navy SEAL, and wine connoisseur. The dangerous situations he finds himself in are totally outside his experience and, as far as he knows, not of his making. When bad things start happening and keep happening, he’s not prepared to deal with them. Is he somehow putting everyone he cares about at deadly risk?
He may be smart and analytical, but that isn’t going to be enough.
The story begins when he visits the apartment of the woman he loves and finds her shot to death. Who would do this? Why? He cannot imagine. These are the first big story questions. When I write, I keep a running list of these questions—including all the little mysteries buried in the big ones. I make sure all those questions, large and small, are eventually answered, so that my readers aren’t left wondering “Whatever happened to . . .?”
TV is especially prone to leaving story questions on the table. No explanation. “But how did he know such-and-such?” I ask my husband as the credits roll. My readers should feel confident their questions have been answered. And if they can’t be answered, they should know the reason.
Before covid-19 (an era we should maybe call B.C.N.), my writing group met once a month. Several of us wrote mysteries, and the non-mystery writers would read our first few pages and start quizzing us. They wanted motives explained. They wanted actions justified. “Keep reading” was the reflexive response. “It’s a mystery. If I explain all that on the first page, there’s no story.”
There are a few actual puzzles in Architect of Courage, one a physical puzzle and the other a coded message. They had to be not immediately solvable, but not so arcane that the clues they held would seem unfair. I hope readers find them a bit of extra fun.
Arch manages to be pretty well grounded for someone with his accomplishments. His colleagues and staff like him. They trust him. And he returns that trust. Until . . . With all that has been happening, behavior of his key staff that he formerly wouldn’t have paid any attention to begins to look suspicious. Actions that might have been merely odd take on a sinister cast. He sees this in himself and doesn’t like it. What was really going on with them? More story questions.
While I suspect a great many readers may figure out at least part of what is behind Arch’s troubles, they will also want to know, I hope, whether he comes out of this terrible summer with his faith in himself on the mend. That’s a mystery of the human heart, always the hardest to solve.
Don’t miss my interview with Victoria about her debut! Click the link here.Preserving the Mystery — Victoria Weisfeld, Author of Architect of Courage
Vicki Weisfeld’s short stories have appeared in Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine, Mystery Magazine, Sherlock Holmes MM, and Black Cat MM, among others, as well as in a number of highly competitive crime anthologies, including: Busted: Arresting Stories from the Beat, Seascapes: Best New England Crime Stories, Passport to Murder (Bouchercon), The Best Laid Plans, Quoth the Raven, and Sherlock Holmes in the Realms of Edgar Allan Poe. Her stories have won awards from the Short Mystery Fiction Society and the Public Safety Writers Association. She’s a member of Sisters in Crime, Mystery Writers of America, and other crime fiction organizations. For the past decade, she’s blogged several times a week at www.vweisfeld.com. She a frequent book reviewer for the UK website, crimefictionlover.com.
06/21 Interview @ Quiet Fury Books
06/23 Guest post @ The Book Divas Reads
06/24 Podcast – Mysteries to Die For: Toe Tags
06/24 Showcase @ Brooke Blogs
06/25 Showcase @ Nesies Place
06/26 Interview @ I Read What You Write
06/29 Review @ Pat Fayo Reviews
07/01 Review @ Novels Alive
07/02 Guest post @ The Mystery of Writing
07/02 Showcase @ nanasbookreviews
07/06 Showcase @ The Authors Harbor
07/09 Review @ Book Reviews From an Avid Reader
07/13 Review @ Paws. Read. Repeat
07/14 Showcase @ Celticladys Reviews
07/15 Review @ Melissa As Blog
All We Buried, available now in print, e-book, and audio.
Silver Falchion Award Finalist, Best Investigator 2020
Foreword INDIE Award Finalist, Best Mystery 2020
The Foundation of Plot, a Wait, Wait, Don’t Query (Yet!) guidebook. Out July 19.
The post Preserving the Mystery: By Victoria Weisfeld appeared first on The Mystery of Writing.
July 1, 2022
Murder at the Wedding: New Cozy
Murder at the Wedding by debut author Christine Knapp
Author Interview + Book & Author Info + Author Pet Corner!Don’t miss any ITW Debut Author Interviews! Click the link here.Murder at the Wedding
Birth, death, mayhem, and murder…..
Maeve O’Reilly Kensington loves her job as a nurse-midwife at Creighton Memorial Hospital in the quintessential New England seaside town of Langford. Nothing could bring her more pleasure than helping women usher new life into the world… except possibly having a child of her own with her husband, Will. In the meantime, she’s happy to celebrate the families of those she treats, and content to support her husband in his newly formed catering business.
However when Creighton Memorial’s Chief Obstetrician suddenly drops dead at his daughter’s extravagant wedding reception, catered by Will, Maeve’s two worlds collide in the worst possible way. Suddenly murder is on the menu, and Maeve is desperate to help her husband and find out who killed the doctor.
With the help of her wealthy, acerbic sister Meg and quick-witted Boston Irish mother, Maeve sets out to solve a murder and clear her husband’s name. Can she stay one step ahead of the killer? Or will they strike again… this time closer to home?
“A fun mystery set against a delightful New England backdrop! You won’t want it to end!”
~ Gemma Halliday, New York Times bestselling author
Langford is the quintessential New England coastal town. It has a beautiful shoreline and a working harbor. The community is a mix of some very wealthy families, including some that go back generations, and working-class people that make up the bulk of the citizenry.
Amateur sleuth Maeve O’Reilly Kensington is a nurse-midwife, your own career in real life. What made that the perfect career for your protagonist?Nurse-midwives are highly skilled observers who possess unique problem-solving abilities.
They also have the patience to allow things to sort themselves out combined with the skill to intervene when the need arises. And as Jennifer Worth, the author of, ‘The Midwife: A Memoir of Birth, Joy, and Hard Times’ said, “Whoever heard of a midwife as a literary heroine? Yet midwifery is the very stuff of drama.”
Murder at the Wedding features a woman who teams up with her mother and sister to solve a murder. What drew you to creating that family dynamic for your debut?I wanted to tell the story of three intelligent women with diverse personalities who use their combined skills to solve the crime.
A close-knit family, two sisters and their mother, seemed a perfect fit to do this. It also helped that the relationships between the two sisters and between the mother and the sisters made good stories in themselves.
Tell us about your path to publication:I have been writing off and on for years, but I really became serious about a modern midwife mystery series a few years ago.
After numerous revisions, I started querying agents and living through many rejections. I was very fortunate when Dawn Dowdle of Blue Ridge Literary Agency looked at the manuscript and connected with the idea of a modern midwife series. She is a phenomenal agent and kept me informed throughout the process.
Then, a few months later, she called and told me that Gemma Halliday Publishing wanted to publish the series. It was thrilling and truly a dream come true.
What do you love most about cozy mysteries?I love getting to know every aspect of the town and the characters.
Sometimes an author will make these amazingly believable and compelling. When that happens, I can get so caught up in the character’s lives that I forget to keep track of the mystery.
What are you working on now?I’m just finishing the next book in the Modern Midwife Mystery series, Murder on the Widow’s Walk.
Words of Wisdom for Aspiring Writers:Well, as the great Walter Mosely said, “Write every day.”
I found that advice incredibly helpful. Also, don’t give up. Don’t let rejection crush you or cause you to lose faith in yourself. Sometimes writing can get a little isolating, and when that happens, it can help to get some outside perspectives on how others have gone about the craft.
A great book I read from time to time was, Swallowed by a Whale, How to survive the Writing Life, edited by Huw Lewis-Jones. And finally…read, read, and read.
Surveying her kingdom with her dragons.Author Pet Corner!
Dixie!Christine’s rescue pup, Dixie.
She found her when Dixie was 4 months old and she lived until age 12.
She was the best dog in the known universe.
Christine Knapp — Author of Murder at the Wedding
Christine Knapp practiced as a nurse-midwife for many years.
A writer of texts and journal articles, she is now thrilled to combine her love of midwifery and mysteries as a debut author.
Christine currently narrates books for the visually impaired. A dog lover, she lives near Boston.
To learn more about Christine, click on any of the following links: Facebook, Twitter, Instagram & Thoughtfulmidwife (Blog)Elena Taylor/Elena HartwellAll We Buried, available now in print, e-book, and audio.
Silver Falchion Award Finalist, Best Investigator 2020
Foreword INDIE Award Finalist, Best Mystery 2020
The Foundation of Plot, a Wait, Wait, Don’t Query (Yet!) guidebook. Out July 19.
Header photo from Pixabay
The post Murder at the Wedding: New Cozy appeared first on The Mystery of Writing.
June 30, 2022
Goodreads Giveaway: The Foundation of Plot
Goodreads Giveaway!
Enter the Goodreads Giveaway to win an autographed copy of The Foundation of Plot!The Foundation of Plot — Goodreads Giveaway!Structure underlies every story, but without a strong foundation, even well-written sentences can fail to result in a marketable manuscript. The Foundation of Plot defines the components of a story arc, details the differences between plot and story, and covers common errors writers make. It also includes exercises which apply concepts to works in progress or new projects.
Drawing on the author’s decades of storytelling and teaching experience, this short guide provides the framework for fiction, narrative nonfiction, and memoir, walking writers through a first draft, the repair of a failed manuscript, or any draft in between. For experienced authors and first-time writers alike, applying the concepts outlined in this manual can help launch a submission from the slush pile to the bookstore shelf.
What the experts are saying . . .This concise and practical guide to story structure is destined to become a classic, one that every author will want on their reference shelf.
—M.A. Monnin, author of the Intrepid Traveler Mysteries
The Foundation of Plot is a must-read for aspiring novelists and a welcome refresher for already established authors. Drawing from decades of experience, Elena Hartwell provides simple exercises and fresh perspectives that can help writers work their way out of any plot conundrum. It is an invaluable guide that takes the mystery out of plotting a novel. I can’t wait for the rest of the series!
—Lori Duffy Foster, author of the Lisa Jamison Mystery Series
If you’re even thinking about writing a book of any kind, Elena Hartwell’s The Foundation of Plot is essential reading before you pick up the proverbial pen. Written in concise prose, Taylor provides a clear outline of what it takes to write a book with relatable examples and exercises. She also provides an authorial perspective lacking in most how-to-writes—the impact of what you write on selling your work. A short read packed with actionable information for the beginner from a clearly experienced writer.
—Christina Hoag, author of Law of the Jungle, Skin of Tattoos and Girl on the Brink.
The Foundation of Plot is a concise guide that doesn’t shoehorn the writer into a single set approach. It’s so good, I’m using it to help my review of a manuscript I was about to submit to my publisher.
I look forward to the rest of the series.
—Edward J. Leahy, author of the Kim Brady Mystery Series
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The Foundation of Plotby Elena HartwellGiveaway ends July 18, 2022.
See the giveaway details
at Goodreads.
All We Buried, available now in print, e-book, and audio.
Silver Falchion Award Finalist, Best Investigator 2020
Foreword INDIE Award Finalist, Best Mystery 2020
The Foundation of Plot, a Wait, Wait, Don’t Query (Yet!) guidebook. Out July 19 in eBook, Paperback, and Hardback.
The post Goodreads Giveaway: The Foundation of Plot appeared first on The Mystery of Writing.
June 29, 2022
When We Return: Spotlight
When We Return, the latest novel by Eliana Tobias[image error]
Book & Author Info + Rafflecopter GiveawayWhen We Return by Eliana Tobias
Who should be held responsible for public wrongs?
By 2008, it finally seems that the Peruvian government is ready to make amends to its citizens following the violent guerilla movement of the last three decades.
Otilia and Salvador, a mother and son torn apart during the conflict and separated for twenty years, are eager for the government to acknowledge he their pain and suffering, but they hit a roadblock when the government denies responsibility in their legal case.
Things begin to look up when Otilia meets Jerry, a kind man and the son of Jewish parents who escaped the Holocaust. Grappling with his own upbringing and the psychological struggles his parents endured, Jerry is just the person to empathize with Otilia’s situation. Together, Otilia, Jerry, and Salvador must support one another through the turbulent journey that is healing from historical trauma, and through it, they must find the courage to rebuild their lives and open themselves up to love and companionship.
Artfully weaving together different timelines and countries, Tobias examines the nuanced topic of grief a community endures after a collective tragedy. In this exploration of the culture of remembrance following displacement and loss, we discover what happens when our past calls us back to what we must do to achieve justice and reconciliation when we return.
“Eliana Tobias has managed in this moving and intelligent novel to show us two characters who, coming from very different worlds, at the end are telling the same story. The story of disarray, discrimination, and injustice. Showing us as well that hate is everywhere and the only antidote we have is memory and love.”
—Carla Guelfenbein, Alfaguara-award winner and internationally recognized author of eight novels including In the Distance With You
When We Return: A Novel
Multicultural Fiction
River Grove Books (May 17, 2022)
Print length : 297 pages
ASIN : B09ZBN14ML
Eliana Tobias was born in Santiago, Chile, to immigrant parents who had escaped the Holocaust. She graduated from the University of Chile and later completed graduate degrees in the US and Canada. After working in the field of education in various capacities, including teaching at the National University in Trujillo, Peru, she discovered her love of writing.
Eliana’s rich experience of political turmoil—listening to stories of the Holocaust when Jewish communities in Europe had been shattered, losing family in Chile under military dictatorship, and living in Peru during a time of intense civil conflict—fueled her passion to write about the ways people caught in devastation find to rebuild their lives.
Eliana’s first novel, In the Belly of the Horse, received an award from the International Latino Book Awards in 2018 and was also nominated for the Latino Book Into Movies Awards. Eliana splits her time between California and British Columbia.
To learn more about Eliana, click on her name or photo.Visit all the Stops on the Tour!
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All We Buried, available now in print, e-book, and audio.
Silver Falchion Award Finalist, Best Investigator 2020
Foreword INDIE Award Finalist, Best Mystery 2020
The Foundation of Plot, a Wait, Wait, Don’t Query (Yet!) guidebook. Out July 19.
The post When We Return: Spotlight appeared first on The Mystery of Writing.
June 28, 2022
Rook: Crime Fiction Based on Real Life
Rook by Stephen G. Eoannou
Author Guest Post + Book & Author InfoDon’t miss any author interviews! Click the link here.Rook by Stephen G. Eoannou
Rook is based on the true story of Al Nussbaum. To his unsuspecting wife, Lolly, Al is a loving, chess playing, family man. To J. Edgar Hoover, he is the most cunning fugitive alive. Al is the mastermind behind a string of east coast robberies that has stumped law enforcement. After his partner, one-eyed Bobby Wilcoxson, kills a bank guard and wounds a New York City patrolman, Al is identified as one of the robbers and lands on top of the FBI’s most wanted list. He is forced to flee his hometown of Buffalo, New York as the FBI closes in and Lolly learns of her husband’s secret life.
While Al assumes another identity and attempts to elude the police, Lolly is left alone to care for their infant daughter and adjust to her new life as ‘The Bank Robber’s Wife’. Friends, family, and federal agents all pressure Lolly to betray Al. While Lolly struggles at home financially, with unrelenting FBI agents, and her conscious, Al and Bobby continue to rob banks, even as Bobby grows more mentally unstable and dangerous.
Al has only two goals: avoid capture and steal enough money to start a new life with his family. Returning to gather his wife and baby is suicidal, but as Al said, he’d only stick his neck in the Buffalo noose for Lolly.
To purchase Rook, click any of the following links: Unsolicited Press, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org& AmazonGuest Post by Stephen G. Eoannou, Author of RookCheckmateI met Al Nussbaum on November 4, 2012, sixteen years after he died. I was standing at my kitchen table with the Buffalo News’ Sunday edition spread before me. An article written by Charity Vogel caught my attention: “The strange, true story of a Buffalo robber-turned crime novelist”. I’ve always been fascinated but the idea of a writer as hero or anti-hero in fiction, and my excitement grew as I read the article.
Al Nussbaum, I read, was a regular guy, a Buffalo guy. He came from a good, middle-class family raised on the city’s east side. People said he was always the smartest person in the room. He married his high school sweetheart, Lolly, and they had a baby girl. Al liked to read and play chess. He also like to rob banks, but Lolly didn’t discover that until later.
The more I read, the more fascinated I became. J. Edgar Hoover at one time called Al (we were on first name basis by this time) the most cunning fugitive alive. Readers Digest offered a $10,000 reward for information leading to his arrest. One million wanted posters were printed and distributed. And they still couldn’t catch him. I knew I wanted to write about Al before I finished the article.
Al was such a public figure, it was easy to research him. I made myself dizzy reading Buffalo Evening News and Courier Express articles about Al and his one-eyed bank robbing partner Bobby Wilcoxson on microfiche at the Buffalo Central Library. I obtained Al’s FBI and prison files under the Freedom of Information Act. On eBay, I won copies of Alfred Hitchcock’s and Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazines that contained Al’s short stories as well as his YA novels published by Scholastic Books. At some point, I stumbled across Charles Kelly’s biography of Dan J. Marlowe, Al’s writing mentor while in prison. A moment came when I felt full, satiated, like I had learned enough about Al, Bobby, and Lolly that I could create a fictional world based on their true-life story and began writing.
Rook was never intended to be a novel. My original intention was to write three connected novellas—the first detailing Al’s crime spree up to his arrest; the second novella would focus on his prison years when he became a writer; the third would focus on a brazen bank robbery that occurred in Peoria, Illinois, after he was paroled, a crime that was never solved. I could make the argument that I chose the novella because I liked the form (which I do), and that I love story cycles (which I also do), but the real reason is that I chose to write a novella trio was that I was afraid. Afraid to write a novel. Afraid to write a bad novel. Afraid I wouldn’t do Al’s story justice.
Just. Plain. Afraid.
In 2015, my short story collection, Muscle Cars, was published by SFWP. After the book launch party, I found myself in a dark Maryland bar late at night with SFWP founder Andrew Gifford and novelist Ashley Warlick. Kyle Semmel, Muscle Cars’ editor, was there, too, I think, but the evening is bourbon hazy. It was decided that I needed to turn Rook into a novel. I’m almost positive I had a say in the matter. I’m almost also positive (it was very, very late and very, very hazy) that it was Ashley’s idea that Lolly’s story needed to be more fully told. And, as always, Ashley was right. In the subsequent revisions, I dropped the prison section and alternated points of view between Al’s life on the run and Lolly’s imploded life back home. To me, the story became much richer as the reader could now see how Al’s bank-robbing obsession impacted the innocents in his life and how his family led to his eventual arrest. I had written my first novel.
It’s been almost ten years since I met Al in my kitchen that Sunday morning. Since then, I’ve read his words, visited his grave, and tried to tell his story as best I could. When I submitted my final edits to Unsolicited Press, I felt a sense of loss I couldn’t quite identify at first. It became clear over the next few days when I woke at 4:45am to write and realized that there was nothing left to write. Rook was done. Really done. No longer would I watch the sun rise with Al and Lolly every morning. There would be no more revisions or polishing or final edits. My version of Al, Lolly, and Bobby would be published and sent out in the world where they would take on their own, newly printed lives where I could no longer control them, as if I ever could.
And I miss them. Even Bobby. I hope Rook’s readers enjoy spending time with these characters as much as I did.
Stephen G. Eoannou, Author of Rook
Stephen G. Eoannou holds an MFA from Queens University of Charlotte and an MA from Miami University.
His award-winning short story collection, Muscle Cars, was published by the Santa Fe Writers Project.
He has been awarded an Honor Certificate from The Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators, and won the Best Short Screenplay Award at the 36th Starz Denver Film Festival. He lives and writes in his hometown of Buffalo, New York, the setting and inspiration for much of his work. Rook is his first novel.
To learn more about Stephen G. Eoannou, click on his name, photo, or any of the following links: Facebook & TwitterElena Taylor/Elena HartwellAll We Buried, available now in print, e-book, and audio.
Silver Falchion Award Finalist, Best Investigator 2020
Foreword INDIE Award Finalist, Best Mystery 2020
The Foundation of Plot, a Wait, Wait, Don’t Query (Yet!) guidebook. Out July 19.
Header image from Pixabay.
The post Rook: Crime Fiction Based on Real Life appeared first on The Mystery of Writing.
June 27, 2022
Theatrical Murder Mysteries: Death & the Conjuror
Theatrical Murder Mysteries, discover Death and the Conjuror by Tom Mead
Author Guest Post + Book & Author Info + Giveaway!Don’t miss any book tour posts! Click the link here.Theatrical Murder Mystery Death and the Conjuror
A magician-turned-sleuth in pre-war London solves three impossible crimesIn 1930s London, celebrity psychiatrist Anselm Rees is discovered dead in his locked study, and there seems to be no way that a killer could have escaped unseen. There are no clues, no witnesses, and no evidence of the murder weapon. Stumped by the confounding scene, the Scotland Yard detective on the case calls on retired stage magician-turned-part-time sleuth Joseph Spector. For who better to make sense of the impossible than one who traffics in illusions?
Spector has a knack for explaining the inexplicable, but even he finds that there is more to this mystery than meets the eye. As he and the Inspector interview the colorful cast of suspects among the psychiatrist’s patients and household, they uncover no shortage of dark secrets―or motives for murder. When the investigation dovetails into that of an apparently-impossible theft, the detectives consider the possibility that the two transgressions are related. And when a second murder occurs, this time in an impenetrable elevator, they realize that the crime wave will become even more deadly unless they can catch the culprit soon.
A tribute to the classic golden-age whodunnit, when crime fiction was a battle of wits between writer and reader, Death and the Conjuror joins its macabre atmosphere, period detail, and vividly-drawn characters with a meticulously-constructed fair play puzzle. Its baffling plot will enthrall readers of mystery icons such as Agatha Christie and John Dickson Carr, modern masters like Anthony Horowitz and Elly Griffiths, or anyone who appreciates a good mystery.
To purchase Death and the Conjuror, click on any of the following links: Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Goodreads | The Mysterious BookshopGenre: Mystery
Published by: Mysterious Press
Publication Date: July 12th 2022
Number of Pages: 254
ISBN: 1613163193 (ISBN13: 9781613163191)
Series: Joseph Spector #1
My book Death and the Conjuror, a locked-room mystery set in 1930’s London, begins backstage at a fictional London theatre called the Pomegranate. My fictional sleuth is a retired music hall conjuror called Joseph Spector; a man who knows all the tricks of the theatrical trade. As such, my research gave me the opportunity to delve into the rich history of the West End, and to revisit some of the many great golden age theatrical murder mysteries. It also made me wonder—why is theatre such potent subject matter for mysteries?
I think the fascination can be traced all the way back to Shakespeare’s Hamlet, where the travelling players re-enact the murder of Hamlet’s father onstage. This collision of crime and stagecraft still resonates today. And what is the title of that play-within-a-play? The Mousetrap. It’s no coincidence that the most popular mystery writer of them all, Agatha Christie, used this title for her own play, which has been running in London for over seventy years, breaking all kinds of box office records.
Of course, actors are adept in the art of disguise. Their vocation revolves around pretending to be other people. This also makes them ideal subject matter for mystery fiction. Indeed, there have been occasional real-life instances where actors have given such convincing performances in criminal roles that their audiences have been unable to see through the façade. Take for instance Richard Mansfield, one of Victorian England’s most famous actors, whose dual role in Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde led audience members to speculate that he might be the notorious murderer Jack the Ripper. Christie’s novels Lord Edgeware Dies and Three Act Tragedy feature actors and actresses embroiled in crime. Likewise her Miss Marple mystery Sleeping Murder reveals a key clue during a performance of the Jacobean tragedy The Duchess of Malfi.
Another Marple novel, They Do it with Mirrors, is not overtly theatrical—it’s not set in a theatre, after all- but nonetheless there is an unmistakable air of staginess to it. The title comes from an observation in the story that the crime scene is like a stage set, where the “audience” (witnesses) are deceived by a conjuring trick orchestrated by the killer. This is a very apt analogy, and one which goes a long way toward explaining the mystery genre’s preoccupation with performance.
But Christie is just the tip of the iceberg. New Zealand-born Ngaio Marsh, often called one of the four “Queens” of classic crime, along with Dame Agatha, Dorothy L. Sayers and Margery Allingham, wrote a long-running series featuring suave sleuth Roderick Alleyn. Many of his cases feature a theatrical setting, as Marsh was an accomplished theatrical director whose professional experience informed her writing and her characters. Enter a Murderer is the first of Alleyn’s stagy escapades, while Vintage Murder features a travelling theatrical troupe in Marsh’s native New Zealand. Overture to Death is set in the world of amateur dramatics, and involves a rather ingenious method for murder.
Even Death and the Dancing Footman, a classic country house mystery, includes overt references to Pirandello’s stage masterpiece Six Characters in Search of an Author, a play which had a profound impact on Marsh. Likewise Final Curtain also transposes the theatrical milieu to the classic English country house. Opening Night is, as the title suggests, heavily theatrical, with much of the plot taking place at the fictional Vulcan Theatre. False Scent features a murdered actress, while Death at the Dolphin includes a glove which supposedly belonged to Shakespeare’s son, Hamnet. Many characters from the latter title return in Marsh’s final Alleyn mystery, Light Thickens. Published in 1982 (the year of the author’s death), the plot focuses on a production of Macbeth which is blighted by murder.
There are of course plenty of other fine examples, including one of the greatest murder mysteries ever written—Death of Jezebel by Christianna Brand. It’s hard to say too much about this title without giving the game away, so the best thing you can do is to check it out for yourself. Another example is Come to Paddington Fair by Derek Smith, which deserves a much wider readership. It deals with an actress who is murdered onstage in full view of an audience, and yet the exact circumstances remain shrouded in mystery. A truly brilliant book.
In a more mainstream vein, the very first novel by the writing duo known as “Ellery Queen” is set in a Broadway theatre. It’s called The Roman Hat Mystery, and it laid the groundwork for a dazzling and monumental series. But even better is their “Drury Lane” tetralogy, Tragedy of X, Tragedy of Y, Tragedy of Z and Drury Lane’s Last Case. The eponymous sleuth, Drury Lane, is a great and eccentric character; a retired actor who has taken an interest in solving crimes. As such all the titles in this series have a richly dramatic flavour, but arguably the last is the most outright theatrical, as it deals with the discovery of what appears to be a long-lost play by none other than William Shakespeare. Incidentally, this is a theme which recurs in golden age author Edmund Crispin’s Love Lies Bleeding.
I couldn’t write an overview of theatrical murder mysteries without mentioning my absolute favourite writer: John Dickson Carr. He was the master of the locked-room mystery, and a major inspiration to me. Naturally he featured theatres in some of his stories, though not as prominently as other golden age authors. Panic in Box C is the most openly dramatic, dealing with an apparently impossible murder in a theatre box, but there are plenty of other references throughout his oeuvre, including a particularly ingenious Shakespearean clue in the fabulous novel The Plague Court Murders.
Naturally, the larger-than-life personalities which inhabit the theatrical sphere lend themselves to comedy, too. Alan Melville’s Quick Curtain is a golden-age example of this, recently reissued as part of the British Library’s “Crime Classics” series. And more recently, Simon Brett’s light-hearted mystery series features actor-detective Charles Paris. Here the emphasis is very much on humour, and these books have also been adapted successfully for radio featuring the excellent Bill Nighy.
Perhaps the best explanation for the frequent overlap between mystery and theatre is that in both cases the audience actively wants to be deceived. We go to see a show to get lost in a story, told with smoke and mirrors. We read murder mysteries to see if the killer (and the author) can trick us. The delightful artifice of the theatre perfectly complements the artful deception of the classic mystery. I hope that readers of Death and the Conjuror will enjoy exploring its theatrical setting, and lose themselves in its world of trickery and intrigue.
Excerpt Death and the Conjuror, a Theatrical Murder MysteryOlive already had the phone in her hand. “Two three one, Dollis Hill,” she announced. “Dr. Anselm Rees has been murdered.”
While she provided a few scant details, she looked around the room and noticed something.
“The windows are locked,” she said as she hung up the phone.
“Mm?” Della sounded startled.
“The windows. They’re locked on the inside.” To prove this, she gripped one of the handles and rattled it. It would not move, and the key protruded from the lock.
“So?”
“Then how did the killer get away?”
“What do you mean?”
“He can’t have come out through the hall. I was there the whole time. And not five minutes ago—not five minutes—I can tell you that the doctor was alive and well in this room because I heard him talking on the telephone.”
Della thought about this. “It can’t be locked.” She reached out and tried the handle for herself. But the windows did not budge.
“It’s locked on the inside,” said Olive, “just like the door.”
Della turned and looked at the corpse. He had sunk down in the chair like an unmanned hand puppet.
In the far corner of the room lay the wooden trunk. Olive caught Della’s eye and nodded toward it. Della frowned incredulously. Olive shrugged, as if to say, Where else would he be?
The two women crept across the soft plush carpet toward the trunk. Olive looked at Della and held a finger to her lips. She seized the poker from the fireplace and raised it above her head. Then she gave Della a quick nod.
Della leaned forward and wrenched open the trunk.
Olive let fly a fierce war cry and swung the poker like a tennis racquet. But all she hit was empty air. The two women peered inside the trunk. It was perfectly empty.
Olive led the way to the kitchen—but not before pulling shut the study door behind her, sealing in the late Dr. Rees once again.
They both felt slightly better after a tot of brandy. No less horrified, but more prepared to deal with the practicalities of the situation.
“What I don’t understand,” Della said, “is where the killer could have gone.”
“Nowhere,” said Olive. “There was nowhere for him to go.”
***
Excerpt from Death and the Conjuror by Tom Mead. Copyright 2022 by Tom Mead. Reproduced with permission from Tom Mead. All rights reserved.
Theatrical Murder Mystery Author Tom Mead
Tom Mead is a UK crime fiction author specialising in locked-room mysteries. He is a member of the Crime Writers’ Association, International Thriller Writers, and the Society of Authors.
He is a prolific author of short fiction, and recently his story “Heatwave” was included in THE BEST MYSTERY STORIES OF THE YEAR 2021, edited by Lee Child. DEATH AND THE CONJUROR is his first novel.
To learn more about Tom, click on any of the following links: TomMeadAuthor.com, Goodreads, BookBub, Twitter – @TomMeadAuthor & Facebook – @tommeadauthor
Plus, join the Instagram – #TomMead
Visit all the Stops on the Tour!
06/27 Guest post @ The Mystery of Writing
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Elena Taylor/Elena Hartwell
All We Buried, available now in print, e-book, and audio.
Silver Falchion Award Finalist, Best Investigator 2020
Foreword INDIE Award Finalist, Best Mystery 2020
The Foundation of Plot, a Wait, Wait, Don’t Query (Yet!) guidebook. Out July 19.
The post Theatrical Murder Mysteries: Death & the Conjuror appeared first on The Mystery of Writing.
June 24, 2022
Catalyst Press: A Literary Spark
Catalyst Press — Change can be gradual, a slight shift that over time becomes a huge movement. Or it can be quick, a frenetic burst that suddenly makes everything new. But it all begins in the same way—with a spark, a catalyst.
Interview with Staff + Press InfoDon’t miss any posts on publishing. Click the link here.
Catalyst Press was founded in 2017 as a literary spark, bringing voices from around the globe to readers everywhere. We publish books that reveal the world from different perspectives and different understandings. Publishing literary fiction, graphic novels, memoir, travel, crime fiction, science, and books for young readers, our authors explore lives, stories, and places in ways that make our global community feel more connected. Change can happen in lots of ways, but we think it begins one page at a time.
Jessica Powers, Publisher; Ashawnta Jackson, Marketing Manager; Tsepo Dube, Social Media & Publicity; Jill Bell, Copy Editor & Production Manager; and SarahBelle Selig, Catalyst Press’ South African office head and publicist
The Interview with Catalyst PressTell us about the origin and mission of Catalyst Press:AJ: Catalyst was founded in 2017 by Jessica, who is a writer, editor, and, until recently, an editor at Cinco Puntos Press. She has a background in African history, teaching it at several universities. She’d been reading all of these amazing African authors who hadn’t been published in the US yet, and Catalyst was the result of wanting to bring those stories to a wider readership.
Our first two releases were thrillers in translation— Dark Traces by Martin Steyn and Sacrificed by Chanette Paul (trans. Elsa Silke). Since then, we’ve published almost 40 books.
What genres/categories do you publish?
JLP: We publish across all age groups including children’s and middle grade, young adult and adult books. We have published almost 40 titles, including literary fiction, graphic novels, memoir, travel, crime, and illustrated and chapter books for kids.
But since this blog is particularly interested in crime, we want to emphasize that we do have an African crime imprint— the African Crime Reads Series.
So far, our crime novels have focused on southern Africa but we’d love to expand from there. A couple favorites include Outside the Lines by Ameera Patel, a crime novel set in Johannesburg, which explores the overlapping connections between families of African, Indian, and European cultures after a young white woman disappears; and Divine Justice: A Rae Valentine Mystery by Joanne Hichens, which explores missing diamonds and the rise of a white supremacist religious organization, in a female-authored story about a female detective, both facts unusual in the world of crime books.
Tell us about the imprints, Story Press Africa and Powers Squared:JLP: Story Press Africa is a collaboration with Jive Media in Pietermaritzburg, South Africa, with a global mission to tell African stories from an African perspective. PowersSquared is an imprint created with my (Jessica’s) brother Matt, with a particular interest in narratives around science subjects, to sort of “humanize” science.
Introduce us to your team members:Ashawnta: One of the things that makes this team unusual (less so these days, of course), but our three core team members are all spread out all over the globe. We’ve always been a remote-first company, and so we’re all rarely in the same physical space at the same time. Despite that, we’ve managed to become our own little community, something that I think lots of indie publishers can relate to. It’s an all-hands-on-deck situation for every book because we’re so small. But our size also makes us special, and makes the work special. Nothing is happening at Catalyst that someone has worried over, deeply cared about, or championed in some way. That’s something that you won’t see in our bios.
Jessica has a clear vision of what she wants to see Catalyst become, but is always open to suggestions, improvements, and ways that all of our voices can be heard. SarahBelle is the go-gettingest go-getter I’ve ever met. She’s always eager to learn, she has great ideas, and in just the first few months she was with us, she got us into shape as far as processes, administration, and organization. She’s been expanding her role more recently, and is already excelling at it.
The other things that our bios might not show completely is how many irons each of us has in the fire. Both Jessica and SarahBelle are writers, editors, and publicists in addition to the work they do at Catalyst, and I’m also in awe of how they find the time to do it all!
SarahBelle Selig is our South African office head, where she liaises with our local authors, booksellers and distributors, and she’s also helping out with publicity in North America. She’s a North Carolina native based in Cape Town with her partner, and recently wrapped up her MFA in Creative Writing at the University of Cape Town.
Jessica Powers is publisher, founder, and editor. She is a young adult writer (www.jlpowers.net), formerly an editor and director of foreign rights for Cinco Puntos Press (www.cincopuntos.com), and now owns and operates Catalyst Press. She lives in El Paso, Texas with her son and their little 3-legged miniature blue heeler.
Ashawnta Jackson is Catalyst’s marketing and publicity manager, and lives in Brooklyn, New York with her husband, his three giant basses (the instruments, not the fish), and their record collection. She’s also a freelance writer (https://www.heyjackson.net/), and has written for NPR, Artsy, Bandcamp, and CrimeReads, among others.
Your submission process is on your website but describe for writers what that process is like. How do you make decisions about working with an author and what can an author anticipate if they sign with Catalyst Press?JLP: We have a reading period during the North American summer (June-August) and try to make our decisions during that time, as a team.
Ultimately, I’m responsible for making the call as to whether a book is published or not, but we all try to weigh in. We try to commit to books that we love, that we believe are important and challenging for the world, that are dynamic in voice and style and plot, and which, currently, are either set in Africa and written by an author with a longstanding connection to the continent, or authored by an African writer.
We may expand to include voices from other parts of the globe but we distinctly want to see voices from outside of the United States featured in our catalog.
When an author signs with Catalyst, they can expect to be one of 5-8 books in a calendar year (at least, as of 2022). Every book is, to us, as important as any other, and receives dedicated publicity and marketing support, access to all of us, and devotion to the book’s success–as best as we can do.
These have been challenging times for everyone, and independent presses have struggled, how have you managed during these difficult times?JLP: By taking it one day at a time! 2021 actually was our best year yet, in terms of sales. And in 2022, it’s been our best year in terms of awards and publicity. That doesn’t mean it isn’t a challenge but we remain hopeful and optimistic.
What are the long-term goals for Catalyst Press?JLP: Long-term goals are to become known as the go-to press for great African writing, and to expand but sustainably. Also, in particular, there is a dearth of children’s books by African writers, and we’d like to be part of that change. Children’s writing on the continent is still plagued by a lot of moralizing or religious content. Hopefully, we can find ways to encourage more nuance. Finally, we’ve been publishing more African graphic novels, and we’d like to see that both grow and be sustainable.
AJ: We’re also really proud of our #ReadingAfrica initiative, which is a social media campaign we launched in 2017 to celebrate the diversity of African literature. It’s been something that has helped raise our profile, but also something that has allowed us to share some great books and host events to spotlight some of these authors. One event that The Mystery of Writing readers might be interested in is this roundtable discussion with African crime writers. Currently, we only do a big #ReadingAfrica celebration once a year, but in the long-term, we’d like to make it a year-round initiative.
Outside of the books you publish, what are some of the staff’s favorite books?SB: I’ve been on a sci-fi/fantasy bent lately, reading the likes of S.A. Chakraborty, Tomi Adeyemi, Lauren Beukes, N.K. Jemisin, Naomi Novik. I’m brand new to the genre, so it feels like a whole new world (and I’ll take any recommendations I can get). Besides that, I will read anything by Sally Andrew, Tana French, Ruth Ware, or Sarah Ladipo Manyika, and I pledge to read every word Lucia Berlin ever wrote.
JLP: I’m a sucker for middle-grade children’s books and also graphic novels. And I’m a big big fan of crime novels, which is why we started the crime imprint to begin with.
AJ: When it’s not a Catalyst book, lately I’ve mostly been reading non-fiction, and mostly about music history because of my non-Catalyst work. As for fiction, it’s actually shocking how long it’s been since I’ve read a novel unconnected to work. I should do something about that. But some of my favorite books are The Fire Next Time by James Baldwin, Drinking Coffee Elsewhere by ZZ Packer (which is everything I want in fiction, honestly, and is a huge influence on my own writing). I have Hanif Abdurraqib’s A Little Devil in America on deck. I love his work, and am looking forward to digging into it this summer.
Story Press Africa, an imprint of Catalyst Press (USA) and Jive Media Africa (South Africa) is a collaborative platform for sharing African knowledge. Launched with our flagship African Graphic Novel Series, Story Press Africa publishes graphic novels and comics. These are authentic, challenging and frequently controversial visions of the continent that birthed humankind— created by Africans about Africa for a global audience. Story Press Africa has its own logo and website, www.storypressafrica.com.
Powers Squared marries science and story with an eye towards bringing global voices closer to home. In the same way that historical fiction has often introduced the public to past worlds and the important events of the period, we publish books in a kaleidoscope of color to illuminate the stories inside, outside, and upside down that make up the scientific world. Matthew Powers serves as the imprint’s chief editor.
To learn more about Catalyst Press, visit their Website, or follow them on Twitter, Instagram & FacebookThank you for sharing your work with my readers!Elena Taylor/Elena Hartwell
All We Buried, available now in print, e-book, and audio.
Silver Falchion Award Finalist, Best Investigator 2020
Foreword INDIE Award Finalist, Best Mystery 2020
The Foundation of Plot, a Wait, Wait, Don’t Query (Yet!) guidebook. Out July 19.
The post Catalyst Press: A Literary Spark appeared first on The Mystery of Writing.
June 22, 2022
Death of an Heiress: Historical Mystery
Death of an Heiress by Anne Louise Bannon
When the unmentionable stalks the pueblo
It starts when the inheritance that Lavina Gaines was to receive is stolen by her brother Timothy. Then an old Indian healing woman is murdered. Winemaker and physician Maddie Wilcox wants to find the person responsible for Mama Jane’s death, but is also occupied with another killer – the measles.
When Lavina’s friend Julia Carson dies trying to rid herself of a pregnancy, Lavina asks Maddie’s help finding the man responsible for Julia’s child. Soon after, Lavina is killed and her murder bears an uncanny resemblance to that of Mama Jane’s. The only motive Maddie can find involves Julia’s death, which is not the sort of thing one talks about. Not only that, Lavina’s nether garments are missing.
It’s a difficult challenge, but Maddie rises to it, searching among the many men of the pueblo, including some of her dearest friends.
How does a proper lady in 1872 get the answers she needs to stop a killer determined to stop her first?
To purchase Death of an Heiress, click on any of the following links: Amazon – Bookshop – VRoman’s Bookstore – B&N – Kobo – Apple – Google Books
Death of an Heiress
Historical Mystery
4th in Series (Old Los Angeles)
Setting – California
Healcroft House, Publishers (June 14, 2022)
Paperback : 306 pages
ISBN-10 : 1948616211
ISBN-13 : 978-1948616218
Digital ASIN : B09W5NLMT8
I’ve always liked historical stuff. When I first started reading Agatha Christie and Dorothy L. Sayers part of what I really liked about them was that they were historical. Not technically in the historical novel genre, because they were written from their contemporary perspective. But for me, they were a part of history.
Then I got hooked on Ellis Peters and the Brother Cadfael mysteries – and this was long before Dereck Jacoby took them on. I eventually found my way to Margaret Frazer, Priscilla Royal, Fiona Buckley, and a host of others, far too numerous to mention here. I read and still read contemporary mysteries of all kinds. But there is a special place in my heart for novels set in the past, when there are no friendly coroners setting time of death, fingerprinting, etc.
My first mystery novels, however, were not historical. They were contemporary. I wrote them in the early 1980s, and never really did anything with them. But later, they became the Operation Quickline series, which I publish as fiction serials on my blog. Book eight, A Little Family Business, is currently running. Link to Chapter One
A few years later, when I wrote my first historical mystery, Fascinating Rhythm, I ended up setting it in the 1920s, December 8, 1924, to be precise. I had recently discovered Dorothy L. Sayers, and Freddie Little, one of the two main characters in Fascinating Rhythm, may have just a little in common with Lord Peter. I hope it’s an homage, at any rate. It was not my intent to write a historical mystery, but Freddie and his counterpart, Kathy Briscow, were who spoke to me and that was the world they inhabited.
For my next two novels, Tyger, Tyger, and A Nose for a Niedeman, I went back to writing contemporaries, including the start of a sequel for each of them (they’re currently stand-alones).
You’d think that with my love of Medieval and Renaissance sleuths, that’s when I’d be setting my work. But I suspect my love of those eras plays more into my love of fantasy. I have written a Medieval-style fantasy – definitely not on the cozy side, though. I wanted to stretch myself by writing grittier and it sure came out that way.
It’s not that I don’t want to do the research. I love research and I love historical research in particular. I guess the thing is that my characters have to be talking to me in my head before I can write about them, and for some reason, no one from the Medieval or Renaissance eras has talked to me yet.
There may also be my preference for from my own cultural background. That’s why, when Maddie Wilcox (of the Old Los Angeles series) started coming to life for me, I set her stories in the Los Angeles of the 1870s, not the Mexican era. I’m not Hispanic, and I did not want to tell someone else’s story. I do include characters from other cultures – don’t get me wrong. It wouldn’t be historically accurate not to. But the stories are from the perspective of someone who shares my ancestry.
Of course, the Old Los Angeles series has as much to do with my husband being the Archivist for the City of Los Angeles as anything. I’ve told the story so many times of how his talk on the zanja system of irrigating L.A. in the years before Mulholland and the California Aqueduct inspired Death of the Zanjero, the first book in the series. But it was delving into the rest of L.A. history that got the next three books written, with book four, Death of an Heiress, now available.
I have written a couple contemporaries since then. Rage Issues came out last fall. Not to mention the fact that I really hate calling the Operation Quickline series historical, even though I left it in its original 1980s setting. As for my next historical? I still have some Freddie and Kathy stories left to tell, so I’ll be re-reading up on the 1920s really soon. And Maddie isn’t letting go of me, and I’ll be writing another Old Los Angeles book probably this summer. I’ll also keep listening for whatever monk, nun, or lady from Medieval or Renaissance Europe who wants to talk to me.
Anne Louise Bannon
Anne Louise Bannon is an author and journalist who wrote her first novel at age 15.
Her journalistic work has appeared in Ladies’ Home Journal, the Los Angeles Times, Wines and Vines, and in newspapers across the country. She was a TV critic for over 10 years, founded the YourFamilyViewer blog, and created the OddBallGrape.com wine education blog with her husband, Michael Holland.
She is the co-author of Howdunit: Book of Poisons, with Serita Stevens, as well as author of the Freddie and Kathy mystery series, set in the 1920s, the Operation Quickline series and the Old Los Angeles series, set in the 1870s.
Her most recent title is the current stand-alone, Rage Issues. She and her husband live in Southern California with an assortment of critters.
To learn more about Anne, click on her name, photo, or any of the following links: Blog, Facebook, Twitter, GoodReads & Library Thinga Rafflecopter giveawayVisit all the Stops on the Tour
June 13 – Novels Alive – GUEST POST
June 13 – Books a Plenty Book Reviews – REVIEW, CHARACTER GUEST POST
June 14 – FUONLYKNEW – SPOTLIGHT
June 14 – #BRVL Book Review Virginia Lee Blog – SPOTLIGHT
June 15 – Readeropolis – GUEST POST
June 16 – Maureen’s Musings – SPOTLIGHT
June 17 – Sapphyria’s Book Reviews – SPOTLIGHT
June 18 – Escape With Dollycas Into A Good Book – AUTHOR INTERVIEW
June 19 – Lady Hawkeye – SPOTLIGHT
June 20 – Christa Reads and Writes – REVIEW
June 21 – Literary Gold – SPOTLIGHT
June 21 – The Mystery of Writing – GUEST POST
June 22 – Brooke Blogs – SPOTLIGHT
June 22 – Storied Conversation – CHARACTER GUEST POST
June 23 – Celticlady’s Reviews – SPOTLIGHT
June 24 – I Read What You Write – AUTHOR INTERVIEW
June 24 – Nellie’s Book Nook – REVIEW, CHARACTER GUEST POST
All We Buried, available now in print, e-book, and audio.
Silver Falchion Award Finalist, Best Investigator 2020
Foreword INDIE Award Finalist, Best Mystery 2020
The Foundation of Plot, a Wait, Wait, Don’t Query (Yet!) guidebook. Out July 19.
The post Death of an Heiress: Historical Mystery appeared first on The Mystery of Writing.
