Beth Groundwater's Blog, page 20

Action Shots from the Summit County Senior Winter Games

On February 22nd, I blogged about participating in the Summit County Senior Winter Games. Tim Orwick, the event photographer, recently made available to the participants all the action shots he took of us during the games. I selected three to share with my blog readers. The first photo below is of me in the giant slalom race that occurred during a snowstorm, which is why I have my hood up.


The photo below is of me running the obstacle course.


And below is the start of the short snowshoe race. I'm fifth from the right, wearing bib number 11 and a white and light blue hat. As you can see, I was second out of the starting gate.

Today's Mystery Author Guest: Colleen Collins

As promised yesterday, fellow Colorado mystery author Colleen Collins is visiting my blog today. To read her bio and see her photo, please page down to yesterday's post. Also, Colleen is running a contest for a free autographed copy of her latest release, The Next Right Thing , with TWO winners, US addresses only. Tomorrow evening, she will pick the winners from those who comment on this post.

In The Next Right Thing, tough-minded private investigator Cammie Copello always gets results, even if it means stepping into a gray area where rules are broken. That gray area is what caused the breach between her and high-profile attorney Marc Hamilton. But when his career is on the line, and the only one who can save it is Cammie, she has to make a choice that will either redeem or shatter both their worlds…for Cammie, what is the next right thing?

“Colorful, skillful description and lively, fully fleshed-out characters contribute to this great read.”
     - Romantic Times Book Reviews

Sounds like a yummy read to me! Below is Colleen's guest article. Please leave a comment for her, and if you have a question for her, ask it!

Looking Under the Alibi: The Work of a Legal Investigatorby Colleen Collins
Hello, everyone!  Thank you to Beth Groundwater, a friend and fellow writer, for welcoming me to her blog. Besides being a writer, I am also a private investigator. In The Next Right Thing (Harlequin Superromance, March 2013) the protagonist is a female private investigator who, like me, specializes in legal investigations. Because many of you are mystery writers, or love reading the genre, I thought it would be of interest to discuss legal investigations; chat briefly about V.I. Warshawski, a legal investigator character created by author Sara Paretsky; and describe some tasks a legal investigator might tackle.

What Is a Legal Investigator?

In a nutshell, an investigation is the gathering of facts to form a cohesive and well-reasoned picture of a given situation. Legal investigation is also a gathering together of facts for a given situation with the addition that these facts will be presented in a court of law.

The legal investigator applies her evidence/fact gathering through exacting requirements, called rules of evidence, which must be met for their admissibility for the judge and jury to see and hear.

V.I. Warshawski: A Fictional Legal Investigator

I view V. I. Warshawski, a private investigator character created by writer Sara Paretsky, to be a legal investigator. V.I. attended law school and worked for several years as a public defender, which attests to her understanding and passion for the law. She became a PI in 1982. For fans of the V.I. Warshawski books, you know she works independently as well as for attorneys (not uncommon for real-life legal investigators, too).

A Legal Investigator’s Job

Some legal investigators work in-house at a law firm, public defender or district attorney’s office, while others work as independent contractors (under the umbrella of their own investigations agency). A legal investigator’s tasks might include:

- Locating and interviewing witnesses
- Drafting witness interview reports for attorneys
- Reconstructing scenes of crimes
- Helping prepare civil and criminal arguments and defenses
- Serving legal documents
- Testifying in court
- Conducting legal research (for example, drafting pleadings incorporating investigative data, devising defense strategies and supporting subsequent legal proceedings)
- Preparing legal documents that provide factual support for pleadings, briefs and appeals
- Preparing affidavits
- Electronically filing pleadings.

A legal investigator’s training and skills often include:

- Good people skills, sincere interest in people
- Understanding people’s rights to privacy, city ordinances, statutory laws
- A passion for righting wrongs.

Lawyers as Legal Investigators

Sometimes lawyers become legal investigator rather than practice law. That’s certainly true for the PI-character V.I. Warshawski. It’s also true in my private investigations agency. For eight years my husband, who had a lengthy, former career as a criminal defense attorney, was my PI partner. His knowledge of the law was a boon to our investigations business; in fact, many of our first cases came from defense attorneys who had worked with him in the past.

He has since returned to the practice of law, but he tells me that sometimes he misses being out on the streets and investigating cases. On his law blog bio, he writes that he is “proud of the many hours he has spent on the streets working as a legal investigator” because he knows that “not-guilty verdicts and huge jury awards are won on the street as much as they are won in the courtroom.”

As for me, I’m still on the streets (and in the office) conducting investigations.  Or writing about them.


Thanks, Colleen! Now, who has a comment or question for her? Good luck in the contest!

Tomorrow's Guest: Colleen Collins

Tomorrow, fellow Colorado mystery author Colleen Collins will be a guest on my blog. Also, Colleen will run a contest for a free autographed copy of her latest release, The Next Right Thing , with TWO winners, US addresses only. Colleen will choose the winners from among those who leave a comment.

Colleen Collins has written several dozen novels for Harlequin and Dorchester, as well as an indie-published mystery, The Zen Man, and two indie-published nonfiction books on private investigations, How Do Private Eyes Do That? and How to Write a Dick: A Guide for Writing Fictional Sleuths from a Couple of Real-Life Sleuths. Her current release, The Next Right Thing (Harlequin Super Romance, March 2013) features a female private eye protagonist, and is available in print and ebook.

Colleen's books have placed first in the Colorado Gold, Romancing the Rockies, and Top of the Peak contests, and placed in the finals for the Holt Medallion, Coeur de Bois Readers Choice, Award of Excellence, More than Magic, and Romance Writers of America RITA contests. Colleen graduated with honors from the University of California Santa Barbara and completed graduate work in telecommunications. She has worked as a film production assistant, improv comic, telecommunications manager, technical writer/editor, speech writer, and private investigator. All these experiences play into her writing.

In her guest post tomorrow, Colleen talks about "Looking Under the Alibi: The Work of a Legal Investigator", and I'm sure you'll be intrigued by what she has to say. Then, please make a comment or ask her a question in the comments, and good luck in her contest!

Having Fun at the Puerto Vallarta Writers Conference

I recently spent six days in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico to speak at the Puerto Vallarta Writers Conference, which took place Friday, February 21st, to Sunday, Frebruary 24th, at the local library, Biblioteca Los Mangos (see two photos below). Thriller author David Lyons was the keynote speaker, and presenters other than myself included author James Callan, editor Terra Mar, publisher Billie Johnson, mystery author Jinx Schwartz, and literary agent Suzie Townsend.


My husband and I arrived Thursday, and after lunch and a chance to unpack and unwind, we were whisked away by our hosts, conference organizer Douglas Danielson and his wife Karen to the Sea Monkey Bar for a beachfront gathering of the conference committee and speakers. The bar is next to the town's new artistically designed pier that looks beautiful lit up at night.




On Friday, after helping Karen with food preparation for the conference's Friday evening reception, I headed over to the library for a relaxing and inspirational visit with my muse, a workshop led by Terra Mar. Then I sat in on a fun "guess the author" session led by Ginger Tindall and Gina Lopez, the leaders of the local "Sweaty Ladies Literary Club." After a conference welcome by Douglas and a Keynote Speech on "Writing and the Writer's Life" by David Lyons, it was time to break and eat all that wonderful food prepared by Karen (a petite powerhouse, as shown with me in the photo below).



On Saturday, I went to work. I presented two workshops on "Unleashing Your Inner Schmoozer" and "Series Writing for the Organizationally Challenged" twice each to the two different conference tracks of about 25-30 people each. During my break in the middle of the day, I listened to James Callan's talk on "Character Development."



That night, some of the speakers and conference committee members got together again for dinner at a restaurant alongside the Cuale River, a lovely setting and yummy food.



Sunday morning at the conference, fellow mystery author Jinx Schwartz and I presented a panel on "Internet Marketing for Dummies" that was followed by a sharing of personal stories by attendees about overcoming obstacles for success. Then it was time for the Book Fair and a dancing show put on by a local children's troupe. In the fourth photo, I'm sitting next to my husband, who took all of these wonderful pictures.







After that excellently organized conference, on Monday we got to be tourists and spent the day along Puerto Vallarta's Malecon (boardwalk), taking photos of the excellent statues there, relaxing over a seafood lunch and touring the old town.







On our last day, we went with our hosts to a marina at the north end of the bay, where Douglas had to survey a damaged sailboat and check out another one that he and two crew mates are currently moving for the owners, sailing it from Puerto Vallarta to San Diego. It was a gorgeous sunny day and I enjoyed my last fresh seafood meal there, shrimp ceviche. What a great trip!

$1.99 Kindle Sale for Wicked Eddies!!

No one told me this was coming or had happened, but I discovered recently that Amazon has the Kindle version of my Wicked Eddies mystery that was nominated for THE ROCKY award at the Left Coast Crime conference on sale for a measly $1.99. I have NO IDEA when the sale ends, but here's the link if folks want to take advantage of the deal:

WICKED EDDIES on Amazon

Last time I looked, the sale had pushed me up the ranks of Kindle mystery authors to less than 300. I'm hoping to bust through 200, so if you could help out by buying a cheap copy of one my mystery books for less than many cups of coffee cost, I'd really appreciate it!

Today's Mystery Author Guest: L. C. Hayden

 As promised yesterday, fellow mystery author L. C. Hayden is visiting my blog today. To read her bio and see her photo, please page down to yesterday's post. Also, L. C. is running a contest for a free autographed copy of one of her books with TWO winners. One will win a copy of the latest mystery in her Harry Bronson series, When the Past Haunts You, and the other will win a copy of the first Aimee Brent mystery, ILL Conceived. L. C. will choose the winner from among those who leave a comment!

In When the Past Haunts You, retired police detective Harry Bronson is forced to face a painful, secret past when his estranged sister begs him to help her. What he learns about her life over the past decades leads him on a serpentine path through the corrupt underbelly of the rich and powerful. The novel’s many twists and turns will leave the reader breathless and will keep him guessing until the very end. The book goes beyond the mystery novel as its themes explore family relationships, bitterness, and forgiveness. If Bronson is to solve his sister’s murder and ultimately become a better man, he must confront yesterday’s ghosts, not an easy task When the Past Haunts You.


Sounds pretty exciting to me, and I can't wait to read the first book in L. C.'s new series, too! Below is L. C.'s guest article. Please leave a comment for her, and if you have a question for her, ask it!

The Birth of a New Series
Readers seem to like my mystery series character, Harry Bronson. He’s tough and determined. Yet he has a gentler side to him. The series has been an Agatha Award Finalist for Best Novel of the Year (Why Casey Had to Die), an Left Coast Crime (LCC) Award Finalist for Best Regional Novel (What Others Know), and is now a nominee for the LCC 2013 Watson Award (When the Past Haunts You). In addition, this book hit number two on the Kindle Best Seller Police Procedural List and is my best selling mystery novel.

You could say that the Harry Bronson Mystery Series is both popular and successful. If so, then why did I decide to leave the series and start a new one, the Aimee Brent Mystery Series? Simply because I’m looking into the future. What if at one time or the other, I get tired of Bronson? What if I can’t come up with a fresh plot? Is that when I should start thinking of a new series?

No, by then it would be too late. Why? Because if you lose interest in your series, chances are that so will the readers. This is the one point authors who write more than one series are adamant about. They all advised the same thing: start the new series at the height of the previous one. It stands to reason. Your readers feel enthusiastic about your series, and when they learn that you’ve started a new one, they’re likely to give it a try.

On the other hand, if readers don’t care for the original series, they’ll be less likely to try the new one. If this is the case, what can you as the author do to generate interest in the new series?

Several authors said that this is the time to reinvent yourself. Start the series using a different name. Make no reference to the previous series and go with the idea that you’re a new author who’s written that first book.

Another piece of advice I received from established authors who pen two or more series is to make each series unique. Don’t use characters that act the same way or are similar to each other. The settings should contrast. Dialogs must be different and so should the relationships between your characters.

Some authors prefer to take the idea of creating two different series to the extreme. They’ll make one series a cozy and the other noir. However, I feel that isn’t necessary. It’s okay to pen two different thrillers or two different romantic mysteries or whatever the case you want to write about. The key here is to create a different series with different characters.

One question that often pops up when an author decides to deviate from the original series is should the author forget about that series. That would depend on the reason why the author chose to create the new series. If it’s because that first series is at its death bed, then of course, trash that series.

On the other hand, if the author started a new series to prevent future stagnation and if that series is popular, the author would be foolish to abandon the series. Authors who write one more series recommend that you write two or three of the second series before releasing another title from the first series. From there on, it’s up to you. One of each, some suggest. Others disagree. Better to do two or three from each series, they say. I suppose, the decision will depend solely on the author.

As for me, I’m introducing the Aimee Brent Mystery Series, which focuses on Aimee, a reporter based in S. Lake Tahoe, California. Her first book ILL Conceived will be released in late February. I’ve already written the first draft of the second Aimee Brent mystery, Vengeance in My Heart. I expect that book will have a late 2013 release date.

Soon as I finish with Vengeance in My Heart, I’m back to the next Harry Bronson book. Harry and I have been having some late night conversations and a plot is starting to form. I’m excited and looking forward to working with Harry again.

But in the meantime, I’m enjoying the heck out of Aimee Brent.

I hope you will too.


Love those late night conversations with my characters. Thanks, L. C.! Now, who has a comment or question for her? Good luck in the contest!   

Tomorrow's Guest: L. C. Hayden

Tomorrow, fellow mystery author L. C. Hayden will be a guest on my blog. Also, L. C.  will run a contest for a free autographed book, with TWO winners. One will win a copy of the latest mystery in her Harry Bronson series, When the Past Haunts You, and the other will win a copy of the first Aimee Brent mystery, ILL Conceived. L. C. will choose the winners from among those who leave a comment.

L. C. Hayden is the creator of the award winning Harry Bronson Mystery Series. Critics are hailing her latest release When the Past Haunts You as the best mystery of 2012. This month, the book was nominated for the 2013 Watson Award and hit the Number 2 Kindle Police Procedural Best Seller spot. Hayden has also just introduced a new mystery series. The first Aimee Brent Mystery is ILL Conceived and will have a late February release. You can visit L. C.'s website and check out her books on Amazon.  She invites you to be her Facebook friend at Lc Hayden and Tweet her @LCHayden1.

In her guest post tomorrow, L. C. talks about The Birth of a New Series, and I'm sure you'll be intrigued by what she has to say. Then, please make a comment or ask her a question in the comments, and good luck in her contest!

Fun Punctuation Marks

A writing friend of mine alerted me to this fun article about "13 little-known punctuation marks we should be using." I personally like the certitude point the best. What's your favorite, and which one would you use the most if it was on your keyboard?

Summit County Senior Winter Games

As those of you know who follow me on Facebook, I competed in four events of the Summit County 2013 50+ Open Winter Games. The Games offered many different kinds of winter sports events, including figure and speed skating, hockey puck shoot, nordic and alpine skiing, snowball throw, snowshoeing and a biathalon. I entered three alpine skiing events, the Giant Slalom, Rally Race (where you try to match a time), and the Obstacle Course, and I entered the Short Snowshoe Race (about 1 km). The photo below is of me primed for the snowshoe race.


The medal count for the Summit County Senior Winter Games is sky high, because they award gold, silver, and bronze for each event for men and women separately for every 5-year age group. It's like kindergarten! Anyway, I earned a medal in every event I entered. Gold for the Short Snowshoe Race, where I was the fastest woman OVERALL, silver for the Giant Slalom and Rally Race and bronze for the Obstacle Course (got to work on my backward skiing speed). The award ceremony/party was a lot of fun. The photo below is of me and my husband with our medals.


I will admit that I was also the youngest woman in the short snowshoe race. But there are some really athletic seniors in their 70s here that I huff and puff to keep up with on my summer hikes and winter snowshoe excursions. The oldest woman competing in the games is 86, and the only woman in her age category (85 - 89). She entered LOTS of events, and her neck was weighed down with gold medals by the end of the award ceremony. Gals like her are my role models! 

Today's Mystery Author Guest: Judy Alter

As promised yesterday, fellow mystery author Judy Alter is visiting my blog today. To read her bio and see her photo, please page down to yesterday's post. Also, Judy is running a contest for a free autographed copy of Murder at the Blue Plate Café, and will choose the winner from among those who leave a comment!

The photo above is the cover for Judy's February 10th release, Murder at the Blue Plate Café, the first book in the new Blue Plate Café series. In the book,when twin sisters Kate and Donna inherit their grandmother’s restaurant, the Blue Plate Café, in Wheeler, Texas, there’s immediate conflict. Donna wants to sell and use her money to establish a B&B; Kate wants to keep the cafe. Thirty-two-year-old Kate leaves a Dallas career as a paralegal and a married lover to move back to Wheeler and run the café, while Donna plans her B&B and complicates her life by having an affair with her sole investor.

Kate soon learns that Wheeler is not the idyllic small town she thought it was fourteen years ago. The mayor, a woman, is power-mad and listens to no one, and the chief of the police department, newly come from Dallas, doesn’t understand small-town ways. Worst of all, blunt, outspoken Donna is not well liked by some town folk. The mayor of Wheeler becomes seriously ill after eating food from the café, delivered by Donna’s husband, and the death of another patron makes Kate even more suspicious of her grandmother’s sudden death. When Donna’s investor is shot, all fingers point to Donna and she is arrested. Kate must defend her sister and solve the murders to keep her business open, but even Kate begins to wonder about the sister she has a love-hate relationship with. Gram guides Kate through it all, though Kate’s never quite sure she’s hearing Gram—and sometimes Gram’s guidance is really off the wall.

Sounds like a fun read to me! Below is Judy's guest article on her path to publication. Please leave a comment for her, and if you have a question of your own for her, ask it!

Beth, thanks for inviting me. It’s exciting to get a chance to talk about my long career in writing and my devious path to mysteries. I believe what we always hear: Persistence pays off.

I always knew I would write, starting with short stories when I was ten or twelve, a story submitted to (and rejected immediately by) Seventeen in high school, a career as a medical editor while in graduate school, with quite a few articles on medicine for lay readers: “Tell me, doctor, if I have a pain in my side, is it appendicitis?”

 I majored in English because I liked to read. I kept going back for another degree because it was easier than looking for a job. Then one day I had a Ph.D. in English with a special interest in the literature of the American West and no idea what I wanted to be when I grew up.  I planned to get married, and some man was going to take care of me—it didn’t quite work out that way, and I raised four children as a single parent, supported by a career in academic publishing.

Academically trained, I didn’t think I could write fiction. I’d been trained to support, defend, document but not give way to my imagination. One day, as if a light bulb went off, I realized I could turn a memoir I’d been given into a novel: I did, and it was sold by a New York agent to a major publisher as a young-adult novel. I was pigeon-holed by that 1978 novel, After Pa Was Shot.

For the next 25 years I wrote fiction and non-fiction, primarily about women in the American West. I won some nice awards, was president of Western Writers of America, and eventually earned their lifetime achievement award. Some of my earlier titles are available as e-books on various platforms. But a series of changes in the publishing world and the death of my agent left me adrift, so I wrote nonfiction for children on assignment from companies that sold to libraries.

All my life, I’d been an avid reader, and I was addicted to mysteries. Finally I thought if others can do this, so can I, and I leapt blindly into the world of mysteries. Oh, my, what I didn’t know! The best advice I ever got was from Susan Wittig Albert:  join Sisters in Crime and the sub-organization, Guppies. I kept telling myself if I could get just one mystery in print, I would be content.

It took six long years and some hard lessons about publishing and agents plus lots of rewrites before I decided the small press route was for me. Turquoise Morning Press published Skeleton in a Dead Space in August 2011, and two more Kelly O’Connell Mysteries followed: No Neighborhood for Old Women and Trouble in a Big Box.

This month, we’re launching a new series, Blue Plate Café Mysteries, with Murder at the Blue Plate Café. Another Kelly O’Connell will follow in July, and two books, one in each series, are under contract for 2014. So much for just one mystery! I’m particularly excited about the new series because it’s based on a café in East Texas where my family shared many good times with dear friends. And it’s fun to move my settings from inner-city Fort Worth and a historical district to a small town in East Texas.

I remember the days when I used to sit at my desk and think I’d write if I knew what to write. Now retired, my days are so packed and full I don’t know how I ever worked. But I love my new life and am so grateful to the many, especially Sisters, who have helped me along the way. Quit writing? Never.

Follow me on Facebook or my website. My blog is Judy's Stew and my food blog is Potluck with Judy. Or write me at j.alter@tcu.edu – I’d love to hear from you.

Thanks, Judy! Now, who has a comment or question for her? Good luck in the contest!