Beth Groundwater's Blog, page 66

Engineering a Mystery

I have begun a new manuscript, and each time I do that, I flounder around for awhile, throwing ideas into a file until things start to gel and I begin envisioning crucial scenes in my mind. Then I apply my engineering background to build some scaffolding for the project or to formulate a recipe for the mystery.

The first essential ingredient in a mystery is the sleuth, who investigates the murder(s) and tries to deduce who the killer is. In the case of this new manuscript, the sleuth is well-d...

Visiting the Killer Crafts and Crafty Killers Blog

Today I and my gift basket designer sleuth, Claire Hanover, will be visiting the Killer Crafts and Crafty Killers blog. Claire has written a post about "Tips for Effective Gift Baskets" and will be available to answer questions about designing gift baskets and about her adventures in A Real Basket Case and To Hell in a Handbasket. I'll be available to answer questions about my writing. I hope it will be a fun and interesting day! Please make a comment there.

My mystery author guest: Jeri Westerson

As promised yesterday, mystery/suspense author Jeri Westerson is visiting my blog today, or at least her sleuth, Crispin Guest, is! Above is the cover photo for the second book in Jeri's Medieval Noir series, Serpent in the Thorns. The upcoming third book, The Demon's Parchment, will be released in October. If you haven't read the first two books in the series, Veil of Lies and Serpent in the Thorns, yet, I suggest you do it quickly, so you'll be ready to devour the third book when it comes o...

Tomorrow's Guest Blogger: Jeri Westerson!

Tomorrow, fellow mystery/suspense author Jeri Westerson will be a guest on my blog. Noir and hard-boiled fiction seem to be in Jeri's blood. She was born and bred on the mean streets of Los Angeles. Reporter, would-be actress, graphic artist; these are the things she spent her time on before creating the newest hardboiled detective, Crispin Guest—ex-knight turned PI, solving crimes on the mean streets of fourteenth century London in her Medieval Noir series. The Boston Globe called her detec...

Book clubs, book clubs, book clubs!

My schedule has been blooming with with book clubs lately. Last Thursday, I met with the book club at the Pikes Peak Towers, a seniors high rise complex in Colorado Springs. Members were in their 60s, 70s and 80s and were all very alert and astute. And it was a good-looking bunch, too, as you can see from the photo! They fired questions at me faster than I could answer them, and we had a lively discussion about my books and the writing life.

I had so much fun with the group that I recommen...

My mystery author guest: Cricket McRae

As promised yesterday, mystery author Cricket McRae is is is visiting my blog today to answer interview questions. Above is a cover photo of Something Borrowed, Something Bleu, the fourth book in her Home Crafting mystery series, which was just released on July 1st. In the book, Sophie Mae has accepted Barr's marriage proposal, and they're trying to keep her mother, Anna Belle, from taking over their no-fuss, no-muss wedding plans. But when Mom finds a cryptic suicide note Sophie Mae's brot...

Tomorrow's Guest Blogger: Cricket McRae!

Tomorrow, fellow Midnight Ink mystery author Cricket McRae will be a guest on my blog. Cricket's interest in traditional colonial skills is reflected in her contemporary Home Crafting Mysteries. Set primarily in the Pacific Northwest, they feature everything from soap making to food preservation, spinning to cheese making. She currently resides in northern Colorado. So, as well as sharing a publisher with me, Cricket lives in my state. And I must say that there's no more mutually supportive g...

Solving A Murder Mystery During Dinner

A week and a half ago, my husband and I attended The Dinner Detective interactive murder mystery dinner show in Denver, Colorado, at the invitation of the Executive Producer, Stephen Wilder. Along with their Denver location, this company puts on its fun shows in Boulder, Colorado Springs, Fort Collins and Golden.

I sold copies of my Claire Hanover gift basket designer mystery books before and after the show and gave a short presentation before the show. In the presentation I defined the essen...

More Whitewater Rafting Research in the Royal Gorge

On July first, I joined a dozen other intrepid souls--family and friends--for a whitewater rafting trip through the Royal Gorge, carved by the Arkansas River in Colorado. The trip was arranged through Raftmasters in Canon City, Colorado. Our group filled two rafts, guided by Raftmasters owner, Dennis, and one of his guides, Kiel. I was in Kiel's raft, and two questions I always ask river guides are how they got into the guiding business and what they do in the winter. Kiel, like Dennis, was a...

A festival, a signing, and moving a county line

How's that for a title? The weekend before last was hopping in Salida, Colorado because it was the weekend of the 62nd annual First in Boating on the Arkansas (FIBArk) festival in town. My husband and I drove out to Salida from Colorado Springs for three reasons that Friday: to scout out locations for the second book (Wicked Eddies) in my Rocky Mountain Outdoor Adventures mystery series, to spend the afternoon at the festival, then to conduct a signing at the Book Haven bookstore in downtown...