Debra H. Goldstein's Blog, page 13
August 14, 2022
Art as Therapy – Filling the Well by Cheryl Hollon
As some of you know, writers today are responsible for a significant portion of their books’ virtual and in-person promotion work. Marketing is fun but, at the same time, can be draining. I tend to push very hard for the month before and after a book’s release date. That means up to twelve hours a day living, breathing Zoom panels, bookstore events, blog posts, blog tours, and Facebook parties. As a result, I’m a mass of nervous energy and empty of new ideas. At this point, I have trouble writing a simple email. Perversely, the complicated schedules of writing deadlines demand continued progress in the latest manuscript.
At last, I’ve found a solution – an easy solution. I walk into a museum. I wander around with no set plan or no set time limit. I let the exhibits wash over me, and this begins to recharge my creative energy. For the artist, this is cross-training at its most pleasant.
I’m lucky enough to live in downtown St. Petersburg, FL. There are four museums within the space of a half-dozen blocks. Just around the corner from me on Central Avenue is the Chihuly Collection, with a stunning, permanent collection of world-renowned artist Dale Chihuly’s unique artwork in a magnificent setting.
When I’m in the mood for the Chihuly, I usually linger longest the gallery with the stunning installation titled “Ruby Red Icicle Chandelier,” whose flame red swirls dangle from the ceiling. I also adore the multicolored chandelier known as “Milli Fiore.” After I walk through the museum, I spend some time in the gift shop, where items for sale are not the typical selection of cups and postcards.
The Museum of Fine Arts is on Beach Drive, with an extensive permanent collection of French Impressionist paintings. Drawn from public and private collections in North America and Europe, this museum contains my favorite artists in both Impressionist and Modernist paintings. I disappear into these paintings with joy.
At the south end of the downtown area is the world-famous Dali Museum, with touring exhibits and the most extensive collection of Dali art outside of Spain. Salvador Dalí’s art is often as shocking as it is brilliant. There are changing and special exhibits throughout the year, including children’s activities, films, music series, lectures, and more. I enjoy the Spanish-themed Cafe and meander inside the meditative Avant Garden.
We now have two more museums to add to the list. The James Museum of Western & Wildlife Art is a 30,000-square-foot haven of contemporary artwork depicting cowboys, Native Americans, settlers, and wildlife. It’s a fantastic respite on a hot August afternoon. Most of the exhibits are from living artists – I love that.
Further West on Central Avenue is the Imagine Museum, with more than 1,500 top-quality glass objects made by contemporary artists worldwide.
The Museum of the American Arts & Crafts Movement is the newest downtown entry. This is my décor of choice, and I love the inspiration the pieces offer. The exhibits are both beautiful as well as functional for both everyday life and extraordinary works. Inside are examples of Frank Lloyd Wright, Roycrofter, Gustav Stickley, Charles Rennie MacIntosh of Glasgow, and many more. I adore the pottery and the children’s gallery.
This technique for “filling the well” refreshes my creativity, and in little more than an hour, I’m ready for the next promotional challenge.
What’s your favorite method to refresh your creativity?
About Death A Sketch:
In eastern Kentucky, Miranda Trent runs a unique tour company called Paint & Shine, but sometimes the peaceful mountains play host to murder . . .
Miranda’s business—combining Appalachian adventure tours with art and a bit of moonshine—is the perfect place for an outdoor sporting goods company to hold an employee retreat. It’ll be a challenge, but the money they’re paying will help with building her new distillery.
Miranda has many teamwork-fostering activities planned, from sketching classes to Southern cooking, but the executive running things prefers a more competitive spirit. After the workers are split into teams, they’re told that only the winners will keep their jobs, and tensions begin to spike. Even after a participant is found dead, the contest continues—while Miranda starts drawing her own conclusions about the ambitious attendees. Now she just has to find the proof . . .
Meet the author:Cheryl Hollon writes full time after she left an engineering career designing and building military flight simulators in amazing countries such as England, Wales, Australia, Singapore, Taiwan, and India. Fulfilling the dream of a lifetime, she combines her love of writing with a passion for art. Cheryl and her husband George live among the museums in downtown St. Petersburg, FL.
You can visit Cheryl and sign up for her newsletter at http://www.cherylhollon.com
The post Art as Therapy – Filling the Well by Cheryl Hollon appeared first on Debra H. Goldstein.
August 1, 2022
The Writer as Vagabond by Molly MacRae
The word vagabond strolled into my head the other day. I’ve always liked the word so I was happy to see it and to have it stick around for a while. I like the sound of it—full and round but with concrete edges in the G and the D, and with that tiniest buzz you get from the initial V. Say it out loud; it’s completely satisfying. I also like the definition—vagabond: one who moves from place to place without a fixed home. But why did vagabond choose now to come calling? Because it’s summer and the word wanted to lure me to the open road and away from a writing deadline? That’s a distinct possibility, but here’s another. Vagabond arrived so that I’d have a word to describe what kind of writer I am. It turns out that, besides being a mystery writer, I’m a vagabond writer, setting my stories in place after place, staying for a while, and then giving in to wanderlust and moving on.
It all started with short stories set in an unnamed bookstore in an unnamed town. The stories are a series that appeared in Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine. They’re about Margaret, who’s a bookseller, and her sister Bitsy, who’s annoying. I knew the town was in northeast Tennessee, but that didn’t particularly matter to the stories. When Margaret and Bitsy appeared in the novel Lawn Order their (fictional) town gained the name Stonewall (not named for the general, but for the walls a man named Grundy built around his cow pastures).
From Stonewall, my stories travelled to Nolichucky, another fictional town in northeast Tennessee. Wilder Rumors, about a museum curator who might also be a burglar, didn’t pull up roots entirely, though. The curator made a quick trip to visit his aunt in Stonewall—a trip with near-disastrous results.
Then comes Blue Plum, Tennessee, and the Haunted Yarn Shop mysteries. Blue Plum is dear to my heart and based on my favorite parts of the small towns I’ve lived in. It’s also suspiciously like Jonesborough, Tennessee, where my family and I lived for close to twenty years. There are six books in the yarn shop series, starting with Last Wool and Testament, and any one of them will give a flavor of that beautiful area snugged up near the border between Tennessee and North Carolina.
After travelling around northeast Tennessee, getting my writing feet wet as it were, my stories flew off to Scotland for the Highland Bookshop Mystery series. Scotland! The Highlands! A bookshop! What could possibly go wrong with a set up like that for my new set of characters? Well . . . dead bodies. Sorry, but that’s an occupational hazard in mystery novels. Starting with Plaid and Plagiarism, there are five books in this series, and the characters acquit themselves well, if I do say so.
As Margaret Welch (that’s Margaret from my Hitchcock short stories—she runs a bookshop and loves books as much as I do, so when I needed a penname, I figured why not let her take credit?) I’ve written about Cape Cod and Monterey County, California.
The post The Writer as Vagabond by Molly MacRae appeared first on Debra H. Goldstein.
July 18, 2022
Punderful Titles
[image error]By Meri Allen (aka Shari Randall)
I’ll never forget the moment I opened the email from my editor announcing the title of my cozy mystery debut in the Lobster Shack Mystery series. I was sitting across the breakfast table from my daughter who was enjoying a bowl of cereal when I read the title.
“Curses, Boiled Again!”
We both fell into gales of giggles, and yes, she laughed so hard milk did squirt out of her nose. The title was hilarious – and perfect. What else would you call a book about an injured ballerina who works in her kooky aunt’s lobster shack and solves murders?
This was my first cozy title, and at first, I wasn’t sure what to make of the it. Those who don’t read the cozier end of the mystery spectrum also find the titles baffling, but cozy readers are in the know.
Cozy titles – with their humor and puns – are a little wink, and cozy readers are in on the joke. The titles are fun but they serve a purpose beyond humor, too. They’re clues that a reader will have a particular experience reading a cozy. They’re promise of danger and mystery, with a nod to the hook, and a signal that the book is fine for the whole family to read. The whimsical wordplay lets the reader know what to expect: a book that’s more Gilmore Girls than Gone Girl, more Murder, She Wrote than Goodfellas.
How did we get from The Mystery of the Blue Train or Murder at the Vicarage to
Ho Ho Homicide? Hard to know exactly when the cozy titles got so punny. Some say the magnificent MC Beaton’s Quiche of Death kicked off the trend in 1992. Debra’s cozy series about hapless cook Sarah Blair has fun with her titles starting with One Taste Too Many. All I know is, I get a kick out of these punny titles. Here are a few particularly clever and groan-worthy titles:
Wonton Terror (Vivien Chien)
Owls Well that Ends Well (Donna Andrews)
Last Wool and Testament (Molly MacRae)
Cheddar Off Dead (Korina Moss)
Dewey Decimated (Allison Brook)
So when I needed titles for my upcoming Ice Cream Shop mystery, I started brainstorming with friends, family, readers, and my editor. Before my publisher decided each title would have a flavor in it, I’d come up with THE COLD ART OF DEATH for book two (fantasy ice cream social plus death of a much-reviled avant garde artist at a castle owned by a reclusive super model) You see the problem. The title’s not cozy or ice creamy enough. So after several tries, we hit on MINT CHOCOLATE MURDER.
Book Three in the series is done, but has no title (the set up: murder of the wealthy, cold-hearted bride at her Halloween themed wedding). Here’s the scoop on the contenders so far. What do you think?
MOCHA AND MURDER
PUMPKIN SPICE AND NOTHING NICE
PUMPKIN SPICE ICED
PUMPKIN SPICE VICE
PISTACHIO PLOT
FATAL FUDGE SWIRL
Do you have a favorite cozy title? Share in the comments.
Shari Randall is the author of Lobster Shack Mystery series with the punny titles CURSES, BOILED AGAIN!, AGAINST THE CLAW, AND DRAWN AND BUTTERED. As Meri Allen, she writes the Ice Cream Shop Mysteries. The debut title is THE ROCKY ROAD TO RUIN (because what else do you call a murder mystery about a former CIA librarian who runs an ice cream shop?) Book Two, MINT CHOCOLATE MURDER , drops on July 26, 2022 and you can preorder now.
The post Punderful Titles appeared first on Debra H. Goldstein.
June 20, 2022
Countdown!
Five Belles Too Many, the fifth Sarah Blair mystery from Kensington, releases June 28th and there still is so much to do. Here’s what’s going on, here’s what needs to still be done, and here’s where you might be able to help:
Five Belles Too Many is a fun and clever look behind the scenes of the reality TV craze. Sarah Blair is a 
determined amateur sleuth who knows her limits…particularly when it comes to the kitchen. This twisty cozy mystery filled with red herrings will leave readers guessing until the final pages. ~Anna Gerard, author of the Georgia B&B Mystery series
I love this book and this series, and I highly recommend it! Once again Sarah finds herself in the thick of things, and she will do everything in her power to help out Jane, even though Jane has caused much trouble for Sarah and her twin sister Emily in the past. This story has so many plot twists and turns, and I was glued to the book from beginning to end. I am glad that Sarah and Cliff are friends again. If you love cozy mysteries with great characters, awesome pets, wonderful food, and a beautiful setting, then this is definitely the book and the series for you! – Robyn K.
Do you have a book club, garden group, or other social gathering that you’d like to have an author visit live or by zoom? Drop me an email directly or go through the contact page from my website – https://www.DebraHGoldstein.comTell a friend about the Sarah Blair series. That’s the best way to help an author promote a series.Join Maggie Toussaint, Nancy J. Cohen, Terry Ambrose and me for a facebook party on June 28 from 7-8 est https://www.facebook.com/NewReleaseParty (giveaways)Here is a smattering of the blogs you can find me at in the near future:
June 20 – It’s Not Always a Mystery
June 20 – Writers Who Kill
June 22 – Chicks on the Case
June 22 – Killer Crafts and Crafty Killers
June 27 – The Wickeds
June 28 – Jungle Red Writers
June 28 – Dru’s Book Musings
Here are the Great Escapes Tour blogs you can find me at during the next few weeks:
June 21 – Christy’s Cozy Corners
June 21 – Lisa K’s Book Reviews
June 22 – I Read What You Write
June 22 – Lady Hawkeye
June 23 – Mysteries with Character
June 23 – MJB Reviews
June 24 – StoreyBook Reviews
June 25 – Maureen’s Musings
June 26 – Brooke Blogs
June 27 – My Reading Journeys
June 28 – Sneaky the Library Cat’s Blog
June 28 – The Mystery Section
June 29 – My Journey Back
June 29 – Escape with Dollycas into A Good Book
The post Countdown! appeared first on Debra H. Goldstein.
June 6, 2022
The Art Center Mysteries by Susan Van Kirk
By Susan Van Kirk
For the past eight years, I’ve written a series called the Endurance Mysteries. Their setting is the small town of Endurance in west central Illinois. The same main characters inhabit each book, so over these years I’ve grown to know these imaginary people quite well. It would be easy to keep writing this series—and I plan to write more—but I needed to head off in a new direction. And so the Art Center Mysteries were born. New setting, new characters, new research.
The characters in my Endurance series are like old friends, and many of them are seniors. My first novel in the new series is called Death in a Pale Hue. Jill Madison, the protagonist, is thirty years old, and her best friend Angie is the same age. I, on the other hand, am well into my senior citizen years, and I found myself calling my thirty-something daughter-in-law to ask advice about Jill’s frame of mind.
Jill has two vastly different brothers. The oldest Madison, Tom, is a detective in their town of 15,000. His ringtone on Jill’s phone is the theme from Law and Order. He is by-the-book, dot the I’s and cross the T’s, and protect his younger sister, Jill. Andy, the middle adult child, is the owner of a gift shop with his partner Lance, and his ringtone is “Welcome to the Jungle.” Jill thinks of her brothers as John Wayne and Looney Tunes. Tom cautions her to be careful, while Andy encourages Jill to do crazy things. Their family endured a tragedy together a few years earlier that has sealed their shared bond.
The new setting is Apple Grove, a small town with an art center Jill will manage. It’s named for Jill’s mother who was a world-class sculptor. The old building they refurbished was built in 1870. It has needed a great deal of work, including lifting the floors a good six inches. Jill oversaw this work despite the worries of some of her board members. Returning to Apple Grove after living in the Chicago art scene for nine years meant Jill would need to prove herself to people who remembered her as a kid. The president of her board and personal nemesis, Ivan F. Truelove III, emails her daily with suggestions about what she could do to make her work at the art center better. He is like a gnat, flying around her with irritation. But many people on her board have faith in her, so she must make sure her first big exhibit goes well. Nothing can go wrong.
All would go well except some unforeseen events throw Jill’s life and job into jeopardy. She needs good publicity and a smooth first exhibit to make sure her job is secure. Would an author let that happen? Of course not. It doesn’t take long for everything except a plague of locusts to show up, and Jill Madison—even with the help of her family and best friend—will find herself in trouble with her board and with a murderer who plans to paint her out of the picture permanently.
~~~~~
Susan Van Kirk is a Midwest writer, living in downstate Illinois. Her writings include the
Endurance Mysteries: Three May Keep a Secret, The Locket: From the Casebook of TJ Sweeney,
Marry in Haste, Death Takes No Bribes, and The Witch’s Child. Harlequin Worldwide
Mystery is currently republishing her entire series. A Death at Tippitt Pond is her standalone
mystery. She is a member of Mystery Writers of America, Sisters in Crime, and is President of
the Guppy Chapter of Sisters in Crime. Her website and blog are at
http://www.susanvankirk.com
Buy Link: https://www.Amazon.com/dp/B09YZ153HN
Links:
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/SusanVanKirkAuthor/
Amazon Author Page: https://tinyurl.com/ybrs73kb
The post The Art Center Mysteries by Susan Van Kirk appeared first on Debra H. Goldstein.
May 23, 2022
Putting a little thriller in the cozy
By Terry Ambrose
One million words. It’s a big number. Right? Somewhere along the way during my writing journey, I passed that number. In fact, I’m probably closing in on two million now. Originally, I started out writing a psychological thriller. I soon realized I couldn’t do it. My villains were way too wimpy. Unfortunately, I wrote three books before I realized psychological thrillers and I had irreconcilable differences.
After realizing I’d set myself up for an impossible task, I thought about what I really wanted to write. Something fun. Maybe set in a tropical location. A mystery with an edge, but not a thriller. Those thoughts led me to a character—McKenna. A retired skip tracer whose life had fallen apart and who had moved to Honolulu to escape his past. McKenna was happy being miserable—until a beautiful young woman dragged him into a murder investigation. And so, I had the idea for McKenna’s first Trouble in Paradise Mystery.
While working on the McKenna series, I added another series to my writing stable. The License to Lie series featured dual protagonists. The tag line for the first book was, “With $5 million and their lives on the line, can a determined criminologist and a beautiful con artist learn to trust each other? Or themselves?” I envisioned that series as a trilogy. After all, there was only so far I could take the trust/distrust issue before it started feeling stale. I’ve just released the sixth Seaside Cove Bed & Breakfast Mystery. While mostly a cozy mystery, I just can’t stop myself from adding some thriller elements. I try to keep the dialogue edgy when it’s appropriate, refuse to get bogged down in tons of backstory, and strive to follow the mantra, “Good writing is like barbecue sauce. If it ain’t done bold, it ain’t worth doing.” Lies, Spies, and the Baker’s Surprise is written from the viewpoints of B&B owner Rick Atwood and his eleven-year-old daughter, Alex. Rick, seasoned by years as a crime reporter in New York, is used to doing thing methodically. Alex, however, with the boundless enthusiasm of youth, takes a very different approach. As you can probably guess, the two approaches always mix—just not well.
Book Description for Lies Spies, and the Baker’s Surprise
Seaside Cove B&B owner Rick Atwood’s wedding to Marquetta Weiss is only days away when a killer strikes. While Rick helps the police, his daughter Alex dives in on her own. On a rocky bluff over the ocean, Alex finds not only the truth, but also her life, hang in the balance.
Win a $35 Amazon gift card
How would you like to win a $35 Amazon gift card? Click here to enter my Book Birthday Contest. Use the bonus code #NotAlways for the “May 23: Not Always a Mystery” entry option and you’ll get three bonus entries!
About Terry Ambrose:
Terry has written over twenty novels, several of which have been award finalists. In 2014, his thriller, “Con Game,” won the San Diego Book Awards for Best Action-Thriller. His series include the Trouble in Paradise McKenna Mysteries, the Seaside Cove Bed & Breakfast Mysteries, and the License to Lie thriller series.
Website: https://terryambrose.com
Amazon buy link: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09X12RR5Y
The post Putting a little thriller in the cozy appeared first on Debra H. Goldstein.
May 9, 2022
Welcome Home to Murder
By Rosalie Spielman
Being a military spouse makes it challenging to have a career. Due to moving often, if you didn’t have a “portable career” like nursing or teaching, it’s very hard to find work when experience is required. I’ve noticed many of my peers have gone into creative endeavors. Myself, I played with the idea of writing for years. Between being a history major in college, then an Army Officer, my topics of interest were not surprising. From historical novels set during World War II to non-fiction on females in the military, I would occasionally start researching or outlining. So it’s no surprise that when I started writing fiction, naturally I wrote a female military veteran as my main character.
My new release, Welcome Home to Murder, originally had a hook of my protagonist being a mechanic, in addition to be a retired Army Officer. The mechanic aspect was a hard sell. I thought publishers might want something different, but it was too different. The publisher who made an offer for my series asked that I de-emphasize the mechanic aspect (so long to my punny mechanic titles!) but they were right. The focus of the book had always been my character having served and the meaning of “home” for her. Thus was reborn the Hometown Mysteries series.
I’ve been “military” for as long as I can remember. After I got out of the Army, I still lived in the military community as a spouse for more than twenty years, where “home is where the Army sends you.” Where we live now is the first time I’ve lived in a civilian community since I was in college. There are military folks around, but it is still as different as night and day.
My biggest problem during editing of Welcome Home to Murder was the repeated, “I don’t know what you mean / what this is” from my editor. I thought I had written without military terms, avoiding ranks, occupations, and using acronyms without explanation. But I hadn’t realized how ingrained my base of knowledge was. It went deeper than not using a page full of military jargon. Some terms and acronyms are understood, like MIA, but what about if I say “motorpool” or “rank and grade” or a slang term like “grunt,” would it be understood easily? Some terms can be understood through context. But if I see a blank look on my civilian neighbor’s face when I say, “I’m running to the commissary, do you need anything?” then I probably need to reword for the readers as well. (The civilian meaning of commissary is not the same as the military one. The civilian word means a restaurant inside a store or office building, but to military folks, it’s the grocery store!)
When all was said and done, at its heart, my story is about someone who is hurting, returning home but feeling out of place. There are many, many people, civilian and military, who understand that feeling. My character does discuss some of the harder issues facing military personnel, but I didn’t want her mental health to be a driving theme of the story. But it is part of experience. She had a fiancé who was killed in action, as well as other losses that weigh heavily on her, and she does discuss with other characters what we refer to as the hidden wounds of war.
I was incredibly touched when my publisher, Gemma Halliday Publishing, offered to donate a portion of the proceeds of all sales in the release month of June to the veterans charity of my choice. The DAV, or Disabled American Veterans, helps so many service members with the physical and mental wounds, as well as assisting retirees when they exit the military, and was my choice for Gemma Halliday Publishing’s generous offer.
Welcome Home to Murder arrives 7 June, 2022! https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09ZCG6FJ6
Originally from a tiny town in the Palouse region of Idaho, as a military brat, veteran, and military spouse (retired), Rosalie Spielman has moved more times than she has fingers to count on!
Somewhere along the way, she discovered that she could make other people laugh with her writing. Rosalie enjoys reading to escape from the real world and hopes to give you the same sense of escape with her stories.
Rosalie’s first book, Death Under the Sea, part of the Aloha Lagoon mysteries series, was released in 2021. In addition to Welcome Home to Murder, she will have a second Aloha Lagoon mystery, Death On a Cliff, releasing this August, as well as a short story in the Chesapeake Crimes: Magic is Murder! anthology. She also blogs with Writers Who Kill and is a member of Sisters in Crime.
Please subscribe to my newsletter!
www.Rosalie-Spielman-author.com
The post Welcome Home to Murder appeared first on Debra H. Goldstein.
April 25, 2022
Back to Book Clubs
Galveston Author Saralyn RichardBy Saralyn Richard
The isolation of the pandemic led to creative solutions, and I was fortunate to have several book club meetings by Zoom or FaceTime. These were exciting get-togethers, given the circumstances, but now being able to get together in person has provided a thrill beyond any gatherings on Zoom.
Such was my experience last week, when I met with a group of avid readers who call themselves THE Book Club. The member of the group who invited me gave me a heads-up that this was a fun-loving book club, and that there would be lots of surprises.
When I arrived, it was like stepping into the setting of my book. Props from the story graced every surface, and as time went on, more appeared. Breakfast was served, and every item on the menu was something mentioned in the book. Later, the same was true for lunch.
Between breakfast and lunch, we partnered up to answer higher level discussion questions related to the book. The insights that these readers had about the characters, setting, and plot impressed me with their depth and thoughtfulness.
All book clubs are great fun, but this one was over the top. Here are just a few of the specific details from BAD BLOOD SISTERS captured by the book club planners, Joanne Meyer and Gina Goodman. We had games and puzzles and lots of laughter that lasted for hours.
I’ve always said that the best thing about the author journey is connecting with readers. This morning and afternoon with THE book club proved that to be true.
Saralyn Richard’s award-winning humor- and romance-tinged mysteries and children’s book pull back the curtain on people in settings as diverse as elite country manor houses and disadvantaged urban high schools. Saralyn’s most recent release is Bad Blood Sisters. A member of International Thriller Writers and Mystery Writers of America, Saralyn teaches creative writing and literature at the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute, and continues to write mysteries. Her favorite thing about being an author is interacting with readers like you. Visit Saralyn here, on her Amazon page here, or on Facebook here.
The post Back to Book Clubs appeared first on Debra H. Goldstein.
April 10, 2022
Come Read-A-Long with Me
To: You – readers whom I adore
From: Me – Debra H. Goldstein
When: April 19, May 17, June 21, and July 19, 2022
Time: 7 PM CST/ 8 PM EST (and you can figure out the rest)
What: A celebration of each of the Sarah Blair books … let me explain:
It appears that Five Belles Too Many, which will be released on June 28, 2022, will be the last in the series. I could bemoan that fact as some of you have been doing to me and directly to Kensington, but instead I am celebrating the journey that you, my readers, and I have been on together by throwing a series of virtual Read-A-Long parties. Each party focuses on discussing themes and concepts in one of the books in the series plus having an Ask the Author Anything session.
The first one, where we discussed One Taste Too Many, was held in March. It was a huge success. Not everyone who was on the Zoom call had read the book, but it didn’t matter. We talked about concepts, themes, and why I did certain things without giving away any of the plot spoilers.
The next Read-A-Long, on April 19, will discuss Two Bites Too Many. To request the study guide and link please send an email to DHG@DebraHGoldstein.com . The remainder of the series, Three Treats Too Many, Four Cuts Too Many, and of course, Five Belles Too Many, will be our topics for the May, June, and July sessions. The goal is to have fun and get a better understanding of these books culminating in the month when Five Belles is published.
I mentioned above that I am celebrating the journey of the Sarah Blair series, and I am. I have had a blast writing Sarah, the woman who is more afraid of the kitchen than murder, but more importantly, it has been a joy getting to know you, the readers.
Want to catch up on Sarah Blair so you’re ready for the big finish in July? You can pre-order Five Belles or start at the beginning – Amazon has the e-version of One Taste Too Many on sale for $1.99. For a chance to win an ARC of Five Belles Too Many, leave a comment below telling me what you like about the Sarah Blair series and whether you prefer to read the books in a series in order or however you pick them up.
Looking forward to seeing you on April 19 for Two Bites Too Many!
The post Come Read-A-Long with Me appeared first on Debra H. Goldstein.
March 28, 2022
Give me the Beach
I’m writing this from the beach. Ostensibly, I’m on a writing retreat, but while it is a time to hopefully zero in on finishing my newest work in progress, it is far more than that. It is a few days to visit with friends without being bombarded by family and civic responsibilities. And, for me, it is a time to recharge. 
Something about watching white caps swirling on the top of the water as the water and the sky merge into one relaxes me. Observing the sun playing on the water lets my mind empty of the tensions of the day and be creative. Better yet, walking in the surf early in the day or near sundown gives me time to reflect on goals and dreams.
Some people find the mountains bring them peace, but not me. Give me the beach and water. What about you?
The post Give me the Beach appeared first on Debra H. Goldstein.
