Kaye George's Blog, page 3
August 17, 2021
Lorie Lewis Ham is here today!
I'm so delighted to welcome Lorie Lewis Ham to my blog today, and so excited about her new book. Lorie, in her role as editor of Kings River Life Magazine and the new Mystery Rat's Maze Podcast had been a valueable friend to many writers over the last several years, and one of them is me. Here's my chance to pay her back. Here's her essay on her new novel--be sure to check this out!
GIVEAWAY! LORIE WILL GIVE AN E-BOOK AWAY TO ONE PERSON WHO COMMENTS, LEAVING AN EMAIL ADDRESS (which can be disguised, kayegeorge at gmail dot com, or somesuch.). She will pick the winner before next Wednesday. Good luck!
B
ook Settings-Why I Set My Book in the Tower District of Fresno, CABy Lorie Lewis Ham
My first mystery came out in the early 2000s and featured a gospel singing sleuth. I set that series in a fictional version of my hometown of Reedley, California, largely because it was what I knew. The last book in that series came out 11 years ago.
As I started working on a new book I knew that I wanted to do something different so I decided to set my new book, which is the first in a new series, in a place that is very dear to me, the Tower District in Fresno, California.
The historic Tower District is Fresno's dining, arts, and entertainment hub. People might be surprised to know this, but a great deal of community and regional theatre happens in the San Joaquin Valleyand much of it happens in the Tower. My main character, Roxi Carlucci, actually helps out with a theatre production in this book and that is where the murder takes place. The Tower is also the home of the Rogue Festival, a fringe festival where performers from all over the world come to perform (this festival will be featured in a future book). You will also find unique shops, restaurants, clubs, coffee shops, tea shops, and much more.
Here is a bit of description of the area from my new book “One of Us”
“As we walked to the heart of the Tower and its many shops and restaurants, I felt like I'd gone back in time. I had read in an article that most of the houses had been built between the 1920s and the 1950s. There wasn't a new house in sight—each home had the kind of character only houses built before the 1960s seemed to have. The streets were lined with various kinds of tall trees. Even the sidewalks had a bit of character with its cracks and unevenness here and there.”
I love the Tower District, it is my favorite place in the area to hang out, so I hope you will all take a journey with me to the Tower District in my new mystery novel, and I hope some of you will come check it out in person as well. Keep in mind that my version is somewhat fictionalized—adding businesses that were needed for the sake of the story and changing some of the names—but it is still just as wonderful!
One of the locations mentioned in “One of Us” (it is also on the cover of the book), is the Tower Theatre. Its very existence and the Tower District way of life is currently at risk. If you would like to know more you can find information on the Facebook page for “Save the Tower Theatre.”
“One of Us” is available on Amazon, on the Nook at Barnes and Noble, and Kobo.
“One of Us” A Tower District Mystery by Lorie Lewis Ham-
A woman starting over. A gossip website. A handsome playwright with a dark side. A director with an explosive temper. And a murder without a motive. It’s a mystery set in the historic Tower District—Fresno's dining, arts, and entertainment hub.
Bio- Lorie Lewis Ham lives in Reedley, Californiaand has been writing ever since she was a child. Her first song and poem were published when she was 13, and she has gone on to publish many articles, short stories, and poems throughout the years, as well as write for a local newspaper, and publish 6 mystery novels. For the past 11 years, Lorie has been the editor-in-chief and publisher of Kings River Life Magazine, and she produces Mysteryrat’s Maze Podcast where you can now hear an excerpt of her new book One of Us. You can learn more about Lorie and the new book on her website mysteryrat.com and find her on Twitter @mysteryrat and Facebook. Another way to keep up with Lorie’s writing is to subscribe to her newsletter, which you can do on her website.
Lorie has been married to Larry for 30 years and they have 2 grown children—Jayce and Joseph Ham. She currently has 5 cats (Merlin, Sam, Dean, Sidney, and Willow), 4 dogs (Lestat, Huey, Xander, and Phoebe), and a pet dwarf rabbit (Sherlock). For many years, she worked in pet rat rescue, and has had many pet rats of her own over the years.
August 3, 2021
What Is Broken and What Is Not?
I asked myself that question after I reviving a mental health help that I last used just about exactly a year ago. My crutch is a Worry List. I started it when my husband was ill and dying and I was worrying all day every day. When I put my concerns and issues on a list—actually wrote it out, I found I could read my Worry List once a day, give myself some fretting time, then spend the rest of the day less concerned. It worked, well enough anyway.
Last year at this time it held things like Covid, our political problems, the condition of my yard, my failing car, and some red spots that were on my carpet.
This year it’s more like, Covid, the impending destruction of the planet, the looming demise of democracy worldwide. You know, actual apocalyptic stuff.
Which led me to these two questions: What is actually broken? But, more importantly, what is not broken? Maybe the concentration should be on the latter. There’s plenty there. What would my Non Worry List look like? The things I don’t have to worry about. Thing that don’t weigh me down.
I always start with this one. I am above ground, one more day.
I have three health children and their spouses, plus seven healthy grandkids, all of whom get together and love each other, and love me. And I love them.
I am able to do something I wanted to do all of my life, without impediments—write novels and short stories and actually get them published and read.
The community I belong to, mystery writers, are the best people, as a group, on the planet. I firmly believe that. They are wonderful, supportive, kind, helpful—just everything you need from a support group and a bunch of colleagues.
These are way down on this list, but they are not unimportant. I had a house with heat and AC. I have enough food. I have medicine when I need it. I have all the clothing I need and the ability to buy more when I feel like it. The basics, right? Food, clothing, shelter.
What’s on your Worry List? But, better yet, what’s on your Non-Worry List? One might even call it a List of Things to Be Thankful For.
Image of weight by Castlelass at Morguefile
Image of balloons by davide25 from Pixabay
July 29, 2021
Thoughts on This Week
I guess my thoughts are on Russia today. You might not understand this without a few words about my background. I majored in Russian Studies at Northwestern University for a reason. One reason was that I couldn’t really major in Russian, per se. I knew I would never be proficient in the language in the three years I had left in college when I changed my major.
My interest in the country, which was then USSR, was in the culture. As a classical violinist, I had fallen in love with Russian classical music, and loved the more contemporary composers, too. Tchaikovsky, Rimsky-Korsakov, Mussorgsky, and also Rachmaninoff, Stravinsky, Prokofiev. Even if I do still have to look up the spellings.
Also, as a reader, I was just as deeply in love with Russian classical literature, Dostoevsky, Pushkin. Tolstoy, Chekhov—and many, many more.
An anecdote from my college years. I was reading Crime and Punishment in paperback on the El, on my way to a horrible telephone soliciting job (I attended school on a partial scholarship and worked whatever jobs I could find). Coming back to my dorm from the job, I had to take a bus, and two trains, one underground and one elevated. When I changed trains, I had to cross the street and go up the wooden stairs to the El platform. I did this, got on my train, and buried myself in my book. Eventually, something made me look up. The conductor was calling out street numbers, not street names. I was one of two white people in the car. I asked the woman next to me if this train goes to Evanston.
“Oh, honey,” I can still hear her alarmed voice. “You’re on a southbound. You need to get off and change trains.”
I went to the door and got off at the next stop. I needed to cross the street to get to the northbound elevated platform. Two large Black men were concerned about my safety and they accompanied me to the steps, for which I was grateful.
Back on the train, going the right direction, I buried myself in Dostoyevsky again.
Maybe that’s why the plight of the Russian athletes at the Olympics affected me so profoundly when the “ROC” team wins and the Piano Concerto #1 is played. Honestly, it moves me to tears. I never equate the politics of a country with the people. They have endured so much, those people.
https://twitter.com/i/status/1420010978662486017
June 15, 2021
Interviews All Over the Place
For some reason, I’m doing a lot of interviews in the last few weeks. If you have a burning desire to read my thoughts, mostly on writing, here are some places to quench that conflagration.
Fire!
(I should also mention that my blog posts lately have been about writing only in the most tangential sense. The pandemic has figured prominently. I guess that’s understandable. http://travelswithkaye.blogspot.com/)
Quenching. Whew!
So, the interviews. One just appearing yesterday from a place I hadn’t heard about before, NFReads. The contact, Tony Eames, is very good to work with. He had some terrific questions for me to pick from. He said I could add my own, but his were good!
https://www.nfreads.com/interview-with-author-kaye-george/
The one before that one was with Lois Winston’s Anastasia Pollack—a cute concept. Her character runs the blog behind her back. My character, Tally Holt, did the exchange with her, natch.
https://anastasiapollack.blogspot.com/2021/05/book-club-friday-interview-with-amateur.html
At the end of March, Leah Bailey at Cozy Ink did this podcast, which turned out to be run, even though I was nervous. https://cozyinkpodcast.com/author-interview-with-kaye-george/
Just before that, Tiffany, the Beach Bum Book Worm, aka beachbumbookworm had a long video chat with me. I was nervous for that, too, but quickly relaxed since she is such a warm, bubbly person. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VuyNu9EDkEk
All of my recent publicity can be found on my Press Kit page, https://kayegeorge.wixsite.com/kaye-george/press-kit. Press Kit, doesn’t that sound impressive? I thought so.
Thanks for coming by!
Images from pixabay.com, as usual
June 8, 2021
Normal?
6 9 2021
Normal? What’s that? I posed this on Facebook, saying:
I see people wondering if life will ever get back to normal. Was it EVER normal?
Of course not. Normal doesn’t even exist. I’m glad a discussion ensued. A couple of people said it’s a setting on a washing machine or a dryer. Others said it was more normal before 2016.
But was it? I’m one of the people who has become aware of how others live in the last year or so. I mean, I always knew that racism (and all the other “ism”s) exist in our country, on our globe, everywhere. But I really had never stopped to think what it’s like to BE Black in this country, or to raise Black children and to have fears that no parent should ever have.
There are, of course, many other issues that deserve discourse, but I’m tackling this one today.
Maybe, before the overt racism emerged with the twice-impeached president, things were “normal” for some people, people who were comfortable, complacent, and unaware, much as I have been for most of my life. Now that I know, and that everyone else who was unaware should know, too, I see through a different lens. There’s no rose tint. There’s not even a clear view of many things I used to think I saw.
I always knew that there are no people who are normal—those don’t exist. Everyone is their own person and none of us are the same. But I see that my grocery store, my town, my neighborhood are not even the same for everyone.
I have yet to see how this will affect my writing. First I have to see how it will affect my life.
Images from Pixabay.com
June 1, 2021
What Month IS This?
6 2 2021
I have collected a concoction of things to inspire me when/if I get stuck. One thing I like to do is to look at my list of special days and month. For instance, June is the month of all these things!
Pride Month (This is a good one, of course.)
Aquarium Month (I can see that someone might want to rejoice in their fish collection)
Candy Month (Here’s one I can get behind one hundred percent. I even wrote a series on the subject!)
Dairy Month (OK, I can have some. Probably not every day, but some.)
Fight the Filthy Fly Month (Um, it’s couched in a pretty belligerent way, isn’t it?) (Maybe this year, we should celebrate Brood X cicadas.)
National Accordion Awareness Month (Are people really not aware of accordions?)
National Adopt a Cat Month (Another good one.)
National Fresh Fruit and Vegetables Month (I suppose this is necessary, but aren’t we supposed to eat them every month?)
Rose Month (Mine are looking good now, so this is timely.)
Turkey Lovers Month (I’m not sure how this is meant, if you know what I mean.)
I can get with some of those, some of them I’ll just let pass by me.
Do any of you celebrate any of these? If so, how do you do it?
May 25, 2021
Social Life and Other Elusive Things
I’ve been battling a condition caused by a combination of my scoliosis (which never gave me a moment’s trouble before August of 2019) and the aftermath of my hip replacement surgery (coincidentally, in August of 2019). I won’t bore you with the many details, but this happened yesterday.
I started back with the Physical Therapist I was with in March of 2020, the one I had to quit for the pandemic. They start everything over after a 6 month hiatus, so I filled out the form again. There was a section asking what things are affected, and how much they’re affected, by my pain. The part that made me laugh was “social activities.” They wanted to know how my social activities are impacted, things like dancing and sports.
Hilarious! Dancing? Sports? They’re dealing with a woman who is happy she can walk. In discussion with another writer about my age, we both laughed about the social life thing. She thinks it made the pandemic easier on her to not have one in the first place. Nothing to miss. I might agree with her on that.
The only part I lament is my inability to handle my flowerbeds over the past couple of years. I can hire people to weed (after trying to find them for a long, long time), but they don’t weed like I would. They don’t do it right! I just discovered there’s a big pokeweed and several baby maple trees growing in my beautiful rhododendron right now. I broke off the pokeweed, but also need to cut off the trees. It would be best to dig them out, but I’m not up to that!
I count myself lucky that I haven’t had trouble concentrating on my writing during the plague. I know lots of writers have had that problem. Maybe I had good practice using my writing as escape in other situations in past years. Whatever, I’m so happy to be able to work on my projects and to even get some of them published.
Do you have leftover trauma from the pandemic? Or are you able to do things better now than you could during the shutdown? Or was your life mainly unaffected? We’re all different!
Rhododendron and bookshelf photos by me
Other images from pixabay.com
May 20, 2021
INTERRUPTIONS AND CONTINUING
5 20 2021
I decided to interrupt my normal schedule of posting her on Wednesdays. What, you say, you have a regular schedule? Well, I don’t post every Wednesday, that’s for sure, but my posts are always (mostly) ON Wednesdays.
We’ve all had an interruption, that’s for sure. Most of us have lived through it, some of us have gotten sick. Some are having still trouble recovering.
Here’s something I just learned about. It’s kind of the opposite of PTSD. It’s called Post Traumatic Growth, PTG. It’s not new, by any means. The first article I found about it is from 2016 and it may have been a term before then. But it’s new to me. And it’s something that gives me hope. This article in Scientific American has some details.
But, mostly, it’s about getting through adversity and coming out on the other side. Maybe not stronger, maybe not better, but at least okay.
Further, on the theme of interruptions, I found that the way people sign up to follow this blog isn’t going to work someday down the line. I poked around and found a good solution, I’m happy to say! I’ve replaced Feedburner, the program that’s going away, with “follow.it.” I HOPE it’s set up so that my followers all came over to the new thingie. I had some help from their helpful people. You can reach them at help@follow.it. IF YOU WANT TO FOLLOW THIS BLOG, SEE THE BOX TO THE RIGHT. OKAY?
Another few things about getting through the pandemic interruption—I’m seeing the term “re-entry anxiety.” I don’t think I have that. I went out to lunch today in a restaurant with my cousin and his wife, who were driving through, on their way to see a very young grandson they haven’t seen in over a year. His picture shows those irresistible fat baby cheeks. They’ll have such fun! And I had fun being in a restaurant, ordering food, eating it, even having some wine. Almost like old times. They do have fewer tables and there’s distance between them, but it was almost back to normal. Here’s where we went.
If you do have this kind of anxiety, I hope you don’t have it long. Or that you find some help with it.
One more thing about coming out of COVID (which I sure hope we are doing!), I’m reading about little kids, for whom this loooong year has been a large proportion of their lives, who have gotten so used to wearing the mask, they don’t want to take it off. My youngest granddaughter wears it all the time, even at home. My youngest grandson does, too. He wears it for his virtual Sunday School class! They just don’t want to abandon it. That makes sense, doesn’t it? They’ve been told that wearing it is the right thing to do. So they’re doing it. It will be awhile before they can go back to a time they may not even remember all that clearly.
What’s wonderful, is that the world is emerging. What’s not all that wonderful is that the 17-year cicadas are doing that, too.
Carry on. As Lester Holt has been saying for his news signoff, take care of yourself, and each other.
All images from pixabay.com
May 11, 2021
Guest L. A. Sartor asks: What do you do when a 20-Year-Old manuscript won’t leave you alone?
I'm delighted to be hosting best-selling author L. A. today! Also delighted to be able to offer a giveaway to a commenter below. I'll pick a winner for the ebook next Tuesday night.
What do you do when a 20-Year-Old manuscript won’t leave you alone?
I have a vanity wall in my office. You know, that wall where you hang your awards? And I swear the award for a book I wrote in the late 1990s kept nagging me. “Fix me, publish me, don’t let me sit in the drawer.” I could literally hear it.
Finally, I caved. I pulled out the iterations of the novel called Betrayal of the Trust and dug in. And dug myself into a hole, actually a crater. I realized that I couldn’t simply just fix the book. It needed a deeper plot, characters with stronger motivations and a tad bit more conflict. It needed a couple of new characters. It needed to be brought into the 21st Century.
It needed a lot of time, tears and wanting to call it quits too many times to count. But I’m stubborn and I kept on.
Finally, Brushed By Betrayal was born. My 9thbook. I had help with the title, which at first was like pulling teeth to think of changing, but is now the perfect title. The story morphed from a Romantic Suspense to a Suspense with romantic elements, and I discovered a whole new me as a writer. Not bad for one story, eh?
Now I’m afraid some of my screenplay awards will nag me about making them into books. I did one, Stone of Heaven, and even created The Carswell Series from it with Viking Gold as book two and the 3rdto come. I swear I hear the whispers of jealousy from the other screenplays rustling those frames.
Are you wondering what the catalyst was for a multi-published writer to feel like I’d found myself finally as a writer?
Well, did you know there are plot-driven and character-driven writers? I didn’t, and I’ve been writing for decade(s). But I was told by someone I highly respect that I was definitely a plot-driven writer. At first, I bristled at that “label”, very insulted. But by the end of the day, researching the two differing concepts, I realized that indeed that’s what I am.
And because I embrace the label now, I’m very comfortable with my new direction in writing (those screenplays will just have to wait their turn.) DRUM ROLL … I’m starting writing in an entire new genre and creating a cozy mystery series set in the mythical Colorado ski town of Angelcroft. The Jenna Hart Jewelry Mysteries will debut before Christmas as Tick Tock Dead is set during Christmas. Another first for me is that I’ll be writing this series in first person. And I’m completely surprised that I love writing in first person. It’s different and challenging.
Apparently, I don’t shy away from challenges.
I’d love to hear in the comments what you think about the differences in the two terms. I’m happy to give away an ebook copy of Brushed By Betrayal to someone who comments. Kaye will randomly pick the winner.
And please sign up for my newsletter if you want the latest updates on books and my new series. I won’t slam you with mailings, usually one a month. https://lesliesartor.com/contact-me
Blurb:
“You’re next and the circle will be complete.”
Jade Laurent, art expert and owner of the prestigious Laurent Art Brokers in Boulder, Colorado, is mourning the one-year anniversary of her father’s death when a close associate is killed and that chilling message for Jade is found by his body.
Private Investigator Malcolm Talbot is coming off his latest grueling case when he receives a request that he cannot refuse. To discover who’s put Jade’s life in jeopardy. The problem is that Jade refuses to stand by idly and let him do his job.
The last thing Malcolm needs is an amateur getting in the way and maybe getting dead. The last thing Jade needs is a professional who can’t find an ounce of compassion for her need to be involved.
While matching wits with a killer who is always one step ahead, dark secrets are revealed, putting everything Jade has believed in at risk.
If you like nail biting suspense, complicated mysteries, and characters who find their soul mates, then you’ll love L.A. Sartor’s newest story Brushed By Betrayal.
Buy it today to find new characters to love and revisit old friends from Dare to Believe.
Sales Link:
Bio:
I started writing as a child, really. A few things happened on the way to becoming a published author … specifically, a junior high school teacher who told me I couldn’t write because I didn’t want to study grammar.
That English teacher stopped my writing for years. But the muse couldn’t be denied, and eventually I wrote, a lot, some of it award winning. However, I wasn’t really making a career from any of this.
My husband told me repeatedly that independent publishing was becoming a valid way to publish a novel. I didn’t believe him, I thought indie meant vanity press.
I couldn’t have been more wrong.
I started pursuing this direction seriously, hit the keyboard, learned a litany of new things and published my first novel. My second book became a bestseller, and I’m absolutely on the right course in my life.
Please come visit me here, see my books, find my social media links, and sign up for my mailing list. I have a gift I’ve specifically created for my new email subscribers. And remember, you can email me at Leslie@LeslieSartor.com
Find L.A.:
May 4, 2021
Brave Deeds of Derring Do**
How very strange that taking a plane trip should count as an act of courage! But these are strange times. I got back on Friday from a plane trip! I considered it a brave and daring act.
I flew to DCA to visit my daughter's family. There were so many firsts on that trips. Well, the firsts since last March anyway. On the way there, I had a three hour layover in Detroit. I ate at the Longhorn Steakhouse in the airport --another feat of bravery, and something I hadn’t done since March of 2020. It was odd seeing all the bare naked unmasked faces. It felt like we were all looking around at each other. That peach tea, loaded potato soup, and chicken Caesar salad tasted a lot better that I ever thought they could.
When I got there, my daughter met me and we had a big hug. Another first-for-the-year. Then the grandkids! I hadn't seen those two grandsons in over a year. I got lots of snuggles and hugs and they fed me TONS of food. I think I gained 10 pounds. I insisted they give me hugs, and snuggled were all them. We have a couple of traditions which they had not forgotten one little bit. They crawl into bed with me in the morning and the little one chatters on and on while we huddle beneath the covers.
The other tradition is something we call Birdies. I don’t remember exactly how it started. I think I was trying to teach the older boy about birds, and what they eat. Maybe we were on the blowup bed when we had the conversation. At any rate, the “game” is that I’m the mama birdie and they are the babies. They hatch out of their eggs and I forage in the blankets for worms for them, if we’re robins. If we’re cardinals, I have to get bugs and seeds.
I flew home on Friday, having a stressful time of almost-missed flights, but I mad it. The next day Delta started filling the empty rows and middle seats that were left vacant on my flights. It'll be a while before I attempt that again, because of that. There are no requirements to be vaccinated or even test negative to fly domestically. I’m very glad I squeaked that trip in.
I feel like we’re traveling out of COVID, bit by bit!
Oh yes, I did one hour of editing on the trip one afternoon.
**late 16th century: from late Middle English dorryng do ‘daring to do’, used by Chaucer, and, in a passage by Lydgate based on Chaucer's work, misprinted in 16th-century editions as derrynge do ; this was misinterpreted by Spenser to mean ‘manhood, chivalry’, and subsequently taken up and popularized by Sir Walter Scott.
From https://languages.oup.com/google-dictionary-en/
All images from pixabay.com
