Debra H. Goldstein's Blog, page 18

Guest Blogger: Judy Alter – Never Throw Out a Manuscript

Never Throw Out a Manuscript by Judy Alter

Back in the day we used to say every author had a stack of unpublished manuscripts in the basement or the closet. Today, those hidden gems are on our computers. I recently reclaimed one from the forgotten files.

In the spring of 2017, I started a culinary mystery about a TV chef, Irene Foxglove, and her assistant or gofer, Henny (Henrietta) James. The story was set in Chicago’s historic Hyde Park, the neighborhood of my childhood. It was fun for me to revisit familiar places, but still I ran out of steam. In spite of the protests of a reader who said she liked it and thought it had promise, I abandoned Irene and Henny.

Other nice things intervened—a contract with Rowman and Littlefield to write The Second Battle of the Alamo led to a working relationship with one of the best editors I’ve ever had. She shepherded through a contract for a second nonfiction manuscript and reprints of five of my historical novels. And she was encouraging about a proposal on a project I had in mind.

But then COVID-19 hit, and editorial work at Rowman and Littlefield went on hiatus. I was left at loose ends. I wrote blogs, I read books, I fiddled. Like much of America, I was anxious about the pandemic, but I had nothing to distract me. Work was always my usual refuge when life got tough, but this time work failed me. I couldn’t come up with a new project with several others hanging fire.

Then one April day, impulsively, I opened the file of the culinary novel and re-read. To my surprise, I thought, “This isn’t half bad.” I liked the voice, and I saw plot possibilities. Being a pantser, I began to write. I wrote almost daily, and the story flowed more easily than some of my others By July, I had a finished manuscript.

Not only was it fun to research the Hyde Park and discover changes since I was last there, the story allowed me to explore food writing, a subject that increasingly interests me. With Henny, I figured out new recipes and spent long hours in the kitchen. I fell into the stereotype and gave Irene a faux French background, enough to add to the mystery. Of course, there was intrigue—Irene was clearly distraught and hiding something. And then there was a murder and a kidnapping. And there was a hint of romance. That too-handsome guy next doior became Henny’s best friend as she recognized, with regret, that he didn’t much like girls.

It all came together with a climactic scene at Chicago’s fabled Palmer House Hotel, another fun bit of research for me.

Today that manuscript is a published book, available in print or digital form. The title is Saving Irene, though, being an old-fashioned hymn singer, I’ve had a hard time to keep from calling it Saving Grace. And one of my fans write that though she’s read all my mysteries, this is the best one ever.

Me? I’m exploring other old back files on my computer.

 

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Guest Blogger: Edith Maxwell/Maddie Day – Two Releases in One Month!

Two Releases in One Month! by Edith Maxwell/Maddie Day

First, big thanks and a (virtual hug) to my buddy Debra for hosting me here. It’s been so fun watching our careers develop on parallel tracks. Please read down for a double giveaway.

But two new books in September, you ask? Yes, I am in the enviable (maybe) and crazy position of having two mysteries release in a single month. Taken Too Soon, the sixth Quaker Midwife Mystery (written as Edith Maxwell), came out September 8th. Candy Slain Murder, number eight in the Country Store Mysteries (penned by my alter ego Maddie Day), releases on the 28th. Yes, from two different publishers. Beyond the Page and Kensington arrange their schedules without consulting me, thus the convergence.

So what’s an author to do? How do I promote and celebrate two books simultaneously?

Three years ago I was in the same position, with new books in these same two series both coming out in April. Back then, of course, we were having lovely events like in-person launch parties. I threw one, as I have many times, at Jabberwocky Bookshop, my local indy. I made sugar cookies from the 1880s and Kahlua Brownies from Pans ‘N Pancakes, my fictional Country Store restaurant. I brought my Quaker bonnet and a Hoosiers ball cap.

Here’s what happened. In front of about fifty fans, friends, and family, Edith and Maddie interviewed each other. Maddie picked up her Indiana cap and asked Edith a question about Called to Justice. Then I (Edith) switched positions (and hats), answered the question, and asked Maddie something about When the Grits Hit the Fan. It was fun, and people loved it. I signed lots of copies of both books afterward, too.

Now what to do? Should I repeat the dual self interview? Nah. Been there, done that. There are a couple of common threads between Taken Too Soon and Candy Slain Murder – except I can’t tell you because it would spoil both stories. But I hope you’ll read the two books and tell me what you find.

So I’m sitting tight and writing posts like these and others. Please check my web site for a list of other guest posts, including at least one post featuring a recipe from the book. And – I do have a box of Candy Slain Murder. I’d love to give away a signed copy to one of you and an ebook of Taken Too Soon to another.

Readers: Which other authors do you read who write under different names? Do you prefer historical mystery or contemporary?

Taken Too Soon

Quaker midwife Rose Carroll’s maiden aunt calls Rose to Cape Cod with her new husband when Tillie’s teenage ward is found dead. Rose and David’s modest honeymoon turns into a murder investigation. A Native midwife and her family are among the suspects, as is David’s own brother. With the help of the local detective, Rose digs in the shifting sands of the case until the murderer is revealed.

Candy Slain Murder

As December sweeps through South Lick, Indiana, Robbie Jordan’s life seems merry and as bright as the string lights glistening around town – until things get bumpy. A man claims to be the long-lost half-brother of Robbie’s assistant. A fire destroys the home of a controversial anesthesiologist, exposing skeletal remains in his attic. Unavoidably intrigued, all Robbie wants for Christmas is to stop her winter wonderland from becoming a real nightmare. With a decades-old mystery taking shape, can she run as fast as she can in pursuit of a killer who’s harder to crack than a stale gingerbread man?

 

Maddie Day pens the Country Store Mysteries and the Cozy Capers Book Group Mysteries. Agatha Award winning Edith Maxwell writes the historical Quaker Midwife Mysteries and short crime fiction. With twenty-two mysteries in print and more underway, Maxwell lives with her beau and their energizer kitten north of Boston, where she writes, gardens, cooks, and wastes time on Facebook. She hopes you’ll find her on social media under both names and at her web site.

 

 

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Guest Blogger Susan Van Kirk: The Mix-Ups of Multiple Mysteries

The Mix-Ups of Multiple Mysteries by Susan Van Kirk

Several years ago, when I spent winters in Phoenix, I heard multiple marvelous mystery writers at the Poisoned Pen Bookstore. On one occasion, I listened to a gentleman who was writing a series with four books published. Several times people asked questions about events that happened to his characters, and he had trouble remembering which book contained the deeds in question. That’s odd, I thought. You would think a person would remember what he wrote.

Nowadays, I find I must eat my words. I’ve now written three mystery series, two of them published and the third off to publishers. The first series took place in the small town of Endurance with a protagonist, Grace Kimball, age 56, dating a newspaper editor, Jeff Maitlin, during the three novels. In the second series, Sweet Iron is the small town where Beth Russell goes to find out about an inheritance. Beth, age 48 when that series begins, is interested in a police detective named Kyle Warner. The first book of the Apple Grove series isn’t out yet, but its protagonist, Jill Madison, is the youngest of all—age 30. She is a painter and curator of an art center, and she meets a young doctor named Sam Finch, but their relationship is just getting off the ground.

Today, I’m working on the plot for the second Sweet Iron series and I think I may need a coroner. That’s easy, I think. There’s Alexander P. Atkins, III, who is quite a crazy character straight out of the wild West. Oh, no, wait. TJ Sweeney talked to him. That was in The Locket: From the Casebook of TJ Sweeney in the Endurance series. Well, there’s Abe Calipher, spiffy dresser and always carrying a cup of coffee from some coffee shop. Hmmm. He won’t work because he’s in Death in a Pale Hue. Did I have a coroner in the Sweet Iron series? I guess I didn’t. No coroner, so I may have to invent yet another coroner.

I also have three protagonists. Grace Kimball is most like me, a retired schoolteacher, but younger than I am. She’s a cautious woman and curious about everything. A widow, she has been single and raised three now-adult children. Grace has a circle of friends who support her, and a detective friend, TJ Sweeney, who was a former student. A trip to her downtown will elicit many humorous conversations with former students.

Beth Russell, from the Sweet Iron Series, is a bit of a loner, although she’s becoming more social as the series continues. She’s a historical researcher and genealogist, and shares Grace’s intellectual curiosity. Beth has developed a circle of friends very slowly as she becomes more involved in the life of the town. Her past has been unlucky in love, but that doesn’t seem to stop her from falling for the town detective.

In the small town of Apple Grove, Jill Madison is the youngest protagonist at 30, and I occasionally must call my daughter-in-law, who is also 30, to ask her questions about how she reacts to things and uses language from a different generation than mine. Jill deals with depression caused by a past event, but she is doing much better now that she is back in her hometown with her family supporting her. Unlike her more intellectual protagonist-cousins, she is an oil painter who takes some stupid chances when she gets involved in a murder investigation.

A different day, a different book to work on, and I work a little harder now to remember who is where with which love interest. Sigh.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Susan Van Kirk is President of the Guppy Chapter of Sisters in Crime and a writer of cozy mysteries. She lives at the center of the universe—the Midwest—and writes during the ridiculously cold and icy winters. Why leave the house and break something? Van Kirk taught forty-four years in high school and college and raised three children. Miraculously, she has low blood pressure.

Her Endurance mysteries include Three May Keep a Secret, Marry in Haste, The Locket: From the Casebook of TJ Sweeney, and Death Takes No Bribes. Her Sweet Iron mystery is A Death at Tippitt Pond. She is a member of Mystery Writers of America and Sisters in Crime.

Website:  www.susanvankirk.com

 

 

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Guest Blogger: Donnell Ann Bell – My Scrap File: Then and Now

My Scrap File: Then and Now by Donnell Ann Bell

When I was a new fiction writer, I joined a critique group in which a multi-published author said to us, “You’ll write one million words before you’re any good.”

At the time I thought that was a rather narrow statement. I’d met authors who were natural born wordsmiths. They’d sold their novels shortly after completing them. Surely, they hadn’t written one million words. Surely, I wouldn’t have to wait that long.

Later, I realized I’d heard that author’s words through a young writer’s lens. She wasn’t criticizing our work at the time. She wasn’t even talking about selling, which we all desperately wanted to do. She was sharing her philosophy about craft. What she meant was that with every sentence we write, and every manuscript we finish, the more we grow and fine tune our skills as a writer.

Just for fun I pulled out my earlier scrap files. My first abandoned files have less words than my files of today. Was I a better writer then? I hope not. My scrap files of yesterday were from a novice writer learning. My scrap files of today are of a more advanced writer, more critical of the work she puts out, and who still has a lot to learn.

For the record, I’ve written a great many words since I began my fiction career, and I’ve easily surpassed one million words. Know what I plan to do? Keep on writing. I hear if you write two million, you get even better.

How about you? Do you share my critique partner’s writing philosophy?  Or how about that of Edgar Rice Burroughs?  Do you look at future projects as a job, a contract, or a chance to get better?

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Donnell Ann Bell gave up her nonwriting fiction career in newspapers and magazines because she believed she could write a mystery or thriller. An award-winning author, including finalist in the 2020 Colorado Book Award for her latest release Black Pearl: A Cold Case Suspense, Donnell’s other books have been Amazon bestsellers. Currently, she’s writing book two of her cold case series. www.donnellannbell.com

 

 

  

 

 

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New Beginnings – But With Old Friends

New Beginnings – But With Old Friends

To put it mildly, the world is in a crazy state. Hugs, sitting close and laughing, randomly dining out, and big get-togethers for family celebrations, book events, or down home fun have been replaced with social distancing, hand sanitizer, and washing hands for the same amount of time it takes to sing “Happy Birthday.”

My normal reaction would be to pull back and hide until a new normal replaces the present one, but I can’t. Instead, my husband and I have been busier than ever while wearing masks. We got the brilliant idea, during a pandemic, to build a new house. It’s coming along nicely, I think – I social distance from it when I see people working in or on it (and I mean literally on the roof). We also decided to sell our current home. To avoid being there when strangers were coming and going, we moved into a hotel room that I carefully sanitized. The house sold in seven hours, closed in two weeks, and I found myself one of those people going in and out of places finding us a temporary place to live until the new house is ready and watching movers pack and move our possessions into storage units.

We’ve seen a few friends – at proper social distancing. That has proved to be an enjoyable experience though I held my breath waiting for my husband’s hearing aid batteries to die in the middle of dinner. I had images of us yelling, which is a no-no, to make him hear us.

The biggest loss for me, though, has been the interaction I had planned this spring for promoting my second Sarah Blair mystery, Two Bites Too Many. I relish being in different cities and having the chance to meet new readers and make new friends. I was able to do almost a month of conferences, store visits, and library talks before everything shut down in March. Since then, promotion has been through the written word, zoom, crowdcast, and when old friends tell their friends about the series. Happily, old friends apparently were my best promoters (and it doesn’t hurt that our recently re-opened Barnes & Noble at the Summit has a table displaying my books as their local featured author), but I’m worried.

On August 25, Three Treats Too Many will be released. Although I still will donate the proceeds of the first month of the book to charity, I haven’t aligned with a special one, yet. I haven’t wanted to bother them as they fight to survive and take care of people in need. I also don’t know if first month sales will be as good as they were for One Taste Too Many and Two Bites Too Many because I won’t be introducing the book at conferences or hands on meetings. I’m having to depend on word of mouth (old friends introducing my book to their friends) and pre-orders.

Where in the past I looked forward to signing your book in a bookstore, I hope you will trade the fun of getting an immediate signature for pre-ordering the book. Not only will it help me have stronger sales numbers, but it consequently will enable me to do more good with what the book earns in the first month. Am I begging for a pre-order of Three Treats Too Many or for you to tell others about the book? Yes. Why? Because I’d hate to break the string of making a nice donation to those in need that you’ve previously made possible. Promoting Three Treats Too Many will be “a new beginning,” but I’m hoping my “old friends” will make it as successful as in the past.

Thank you for being my friend…and helping me help others with the gift and joy I’ve been given.

Three Treats Blurb

When a romantic rival opens a competing restaurant in small-town Wheaton, Alabama, Sarah Blair discovers murder is the specialty of the house . . . 

For someone whose greatest culinary skill is ordering takeout, Sarah never expected to be co-owner of a restaurant. Even her Siamese cat, RahRah, seems to be looking at her differently. But while Sarah and her twin sister, Chef Emily, are tangled up in red tape waiting for the building inspector to get around to them, an attention-stealing new establishment—run by none other than Sarah’s late ex-husband’s mistress, Jane—is having its grand opening across the street.

Jane’s new sous chef, Riley Miller, is the talk of Wheaton with her delicious vegan specialties. When Riley is found dead outside the restaurant with Sarah’s friend, Jacob, kneeling over her, the former line cook—whose infatuation with Riley was no secret—becomes the prime suspect. Now Sarah must turn up the heat on the real culprit, who has no reservations about committing cold-blooded murder . . .

 Includes quick and easy recipes!

Pre-Order/Buy Links — any of our local bookstores can order it for you or:

Amazon – https://www.amazon.com/Three-Treats-Sarah-Blair-Mystery/dp/1496719492

Barnes & Noble – https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/three-treats-too-many-debra-h-goldstein/1135275342?ean=9781496719492

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Guest Blogger: Mary Feliz – Joseph Campbell’s 17 Stages of Myth – The Seamstress’s Journey

Joseph Campbell’s 17 Stages of Myth–The Seamstress’s Journey

Covid-19 transformed my life into an epic adventure, aligning neatly with the seventeen stages of Joseph Campbell’s Hero’s Journey. For added drama, imagine this essay accompanied by music from Star Wars, Indiana Jones, or Chariots of Fire.

Ordinary World

My husband and I live with our cat Charlie in a tiny beach condo, enjoying salt air and sunshine.

Call to Adventure

Covid-19, the adversary that never tires, drew close and threatened my family.

Refusal of the Call

Do masks make a significant difference for the general public? Science at first said no. I did too.

Meeting the Mentors

Medical appointments require masks. Patterns pop up in newspapers and on the internet.

 

Crossing the Threshold.

I hauled out my sewing machine only to find it covered in rust and mold—the downside of beach living.

 

Belly of the Whale.

I dive into the internet to order supplies, ignoring my husband and cat.

Road of Trials

One machine is available to ship from Home Depot. Can I type fast enough to get it? Will it arrive before the crisis peaked? There’s no way to tell. I can’t locate elastic. I order the machine, put elastic on backorder, and sew two masks by hand. It takes forever.

Meeting with the Goddess

A UPS driver delivers the sewing machine. I’m tempted to kiss her feet, but for social distancing.

Woman as Temptress

My sister suggests I ditch the patterns I’ve found. A friend says pantyhose and paper towels form the best shield. Neighbors report that creating masks ruined their sewing machines. They all urge me to give up.

Facing the Abyss

A friend calls. Within the past 24 hours, she’s lost her mother and brother to Covid-19. My adult children live in virus hotspots. My 93-year-old mom is required to wear a mask in Connecticut. A neighboring county reports rapidly increasing cases and deaths. Locals fight to hold the line by wearing masks in public. Suddenly, making masks has more urgency. But I still have no elastic. And only 25 pins.

 

Apotheosis/Realization

Physician friends tell me masks with ties are more comfortable and easier to adjust than elastic ones. My path forward is clear.

Ultimate Boon

I complete the first mask on the machine.

Refusal of the Return

It’s time to put away the machine, get my 10,000 steps, and prep for the upcoming release of Snowed Under. But making masks is fun. And easier than writing or promotion. I make twenty-four more.

The Magic Flight

In isolation, I’m not going anywhere, but the treasure still makes its escape. I place them on neighbors’ doorknobs, knock, and run away. I send them priority mail, watching tracking details, and living vicariously.

Rescue from Without

My publicist sends me the Snowed Under marketing plan–with deadlines. I put the machine away.

Crossing the Return Threshold

I knock out blog posts and interviews like a champ, but am still drawn to making masks. I order new materials online. And decide to share my experiences in a blog post.

Master of Two Worlds

New fabric arrives, masks become mandatory, and book-promotion requests pile up. Eventually, I learn to manage both projects.

Freedom to Live

With everyone I love outfitted, we all have more freedom and more protection from Covid-19. (Hero music crescendo.)

What’s all this got to do with Snowed Under? For thousands of years, solid narrative structure creates powerful stories that keep readers turning the page and theater goers in their seats. My job is always to use all the tools I can to create the most gripping stories possible. Did I succeed? Only my readers can decide.

Are you making masks? What pattern are you using? Here’s one I used. https://www.deaconess.com/How-to-make-a-Face-Mask I altered the design to make two-inch-wide tie pieces. It uses more material but makes handling the fabric much easier.

 

I used this pattern for the ones with elastic. https://buttoncounter.com/2018/01/14/facemask-a-picture-tutorial/

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Guest Blogger: Nancy Nau Sullivan – Location, Location, Location

Location, Location, Location by Nancy Nau Sullivan

My sister asked me if I knew of a ghost writer. I tried to be a ghost writer one time. It didn’t work. I couldn’t get into the head of character, nor the setting. Especially the latter.

My sister is the tireless founder of a non-profit for mothers and children. I’ve never seen anyone more passionate about a project—she gives me inspiration. I suggested to her: Why don’t you write the story? I think she could do it. She’d a terrific speaker and a prolific writer of letters asking for money!

My response was four emojis, crying, green, with their tongues hanging out.

Well, I guess I better find her a ghost writer. I’m a mystery writer, and if I wrote her story, there would be a murder or two, and I don’t think she would like that. Especially because she’s trying to save lives!

So I ask the question, Do we write what we write because we are inspired and passionate about….what? The character? The setting? The plot?

For me, it’s setting, and I arrived there through a series of explosions.

I’d been a working journalist for years, always looking for the story, the angle. Writing dibs and dabs of this and that. Then I got a divorce, my mother died, and my father told me he was leaving Indiana and coming to live with me and the kids on an island in Florida. It was quite an explosion of events, all at once, and I struggled to put the pieces back together. I’d always been a proponent of writing as therapy (besides, it was my job), and so I set out to write a memoir. The events were crazy enough, but the setting is what drew me into my story: Anna Maria Island on the Gulf coast of Florida. Ever since I was six, I’d been going down there, and it was my haven. When things got hot up north, I went hotter, back to the place I loved. I know, for addicts, the saying is that change of setting will not cure the disease. For me, the island was my cure.

The memoir, THE LAST CADILLAC, was published in 2016, a roller-coaster ride of high family drama that pit me between my elderly father and the two kids. The mistakes I made, and the joy I found, propelled me to tell my story so others who found themselves in similar circumstances could glean something from this tale. One thing that struck me was that this set of circumstances usually happens overnight—to almost everyone. Everything is hunky dory, and the parents fall ill, the child is in command, and there is no manual for it.

Fortunately, my dad and I had Anna Maria Island, the place we loved best.

Anyone who has published one book knows that the itch goes on. It’s like hitting a hole in one; that’s just great, but then the hunt is on for the next one. Since I love mysteries, and since I looked around and saw what was happening to my beloved island, the story began to hatch. The land-grabbing goons were coming to take down the cottages and build McMansions on “Santa Maria Island.” (I changed the name.) Throw in a dead body, a kidnapping, a hurricane, and Blanche Murninghan was born of mishap on an island she would defend to the death (almost). My mystery, SAVING TUNA STREET, launches June 23, the first in the Blanche Murninghan series. And since Blanche can’t sit still, the series will find her in a bunch of places: Mexico City next, then Vietnam, Ireland, Argentina, and Spain. The girl was born with a bitty little suitcase in her hand.

I don’t think I would have written these books if I hadn’t been so inspired by setting. The island sustained and fed me, the warm breeze, the crackling palm trees and parrots, the white sand and turquoise Gulf. It is where I healed myself and found a way to get my stories into shape. Although Blanche will travel, you can bet she will always land back in her cabin. On the beach. On Tuna Street, Santa Maria Island.

` ` ` ` ` `

Nancy Nau Sullivan invented the life and times—and island—of Blanche Murninghan after returning to Anna Maria Island, Florida, the setting of her award winning memoir, The Last Cadillac.  Blanche and Nancy both have the travel bug, and the new mystery series is all about that. Saving Tuna Street launches June 23; Trouble Down Mexico Way is slated for June, 2021. A former newspaper journalist, Nancy later taught English in Argentina, in the Peace Corps in Mexico, and at a boys’ prison in Florida. She lives in Northwest Indiana and, often, anywhere near water. Find Nancy at www.nancynausullivan.com.

 

 

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A Parade of Caring by Debra H. Goldstein

A Parade of Caring by Debra H. Goldstein

Tonight, a group of my friends gave me a “get well quickly” parade.

As many of you know, I had foot surgery on Monday, June 1. Happily, unlike when my foot had to be rebuilt a few years ago, this was merely the removal of hardware and a minor adjustment, so recovery will take weeks rather than months. Friends have been wonderful lending me a scooter and bringing Joel and me meals.

With the pandemic, this has been an isolating experience. Most of the friends have made their drop offs at the door, but tonight was different. A group had one person trick me into believing she was running dinner to our home. Just before she was due, she gave us a heads up. I rolled to the door, with my mask on, to be positioned to thank her. Instead, I saw 8-10 cars drive around our cul-de-sac. Each parked and the driver got out, wearing a mask, and with my permission came in and sat six feet apart so we could visit. It was only 30 minutes and we had masks, but my mask couldn’t hide my smile, gratitude, and appreciation. These women took a moment to show their care for me —- I will never be able to express the extent of mine for them.

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Guest Blogger: Cathy Perkins – Write What You Know

Write What You Know by Cathy Perkins

Every author has heard that mantra at least once—and probably a lot more often. Anyone who’s taken a writing class or read a craft book has seen that adage. Whatever the answer, like all writing advice, it’s up to you to take it or leave it.

I hunted around a bit, looking at what different people thought that phrase meant. My favorite response? It doesn’t always mean writing about what you “know.” It means writing about something in a way that’s going to get you to use your best and most troubling material.

It’s emotion. It’s imagination.

What you know shouldn’t limit you on any level.

See why I love research?

When it comes to writing about what you know, there’s also my personal challenge. What I know—my day job—is specialized and very definitely a niche area. For some reason, a lot of people seem to think the entire subject area is scary or complicated or otherwise to be avoided at all costs.

Yes, I’m talking about the M word. Math. And even worse, finance and accounting.

I’ll give you a moment to recover.

When people ask me what I do, I usually offer a vague, “financial industry.” If pressed, I’ll admit I’m an accountant. It’s such a wonderful answer because it covers a whole waterfront of territory. Accountant can mean whatever the questioner wants it to mean. Bookkeeper, tax return preparer, my personal least favorite bean counter, and so on.

Based on a lot of life experience, however, when the Holly Price mystery series began, I knew I had to make Holly an engaging character whose profession happened to be in accounting. She bolted out of her small town after high school, headed for college and the big leagues, away from her family’s local accounting practice. She chased the brass ring to Seattle and a high-flying position with Falcon, handling mega dollar mergers and acquisitions.

When her world was upended (the first book in the series, So About the Money), Holly put her life on pause. She returned to her hometown, not because she messed up and had nowhere else to go, but because her father took off after a mid-life brain fart. Holly stepped in to bail out her mother and the family business—and the employees and clients of that business. Throw in fraud and other financial shenanigans, a murder or two, and rural America’s love of pheasant hunting, monster trucks slo-mo races, and llamas, and you aren’t in Seattle or any other big city any longer. (Yes, I had fun with other things I’ve learned.)

In the latest book in the series, Calling for the Money, Holly has returned to her previous position at Falcon, lured back to manage a billion-dollar transaction. Rather than setting the story in Seattle, Calling for the Money takes place primarily in Los Angeles, specifically Venice Beach. (I was in Venice Beach a good bit recently for the day job and found the transitions occurring in the area intriguing. Travel for business and research—score!)

So, while I still hang that nerdy accountant label around my neck, my favorite comment from a reader (echoed by my editor)—”you’re the only person I know who can make accounting interesting.”

Don’t worry, family and fraud still drive the action in my stories.

No math required.

Calling for the Money

Holly Price has it all—or does she?

Holly worked her way to the top of her field. Now she has the job, the money, the whole package. Behind the scenes, however, she’s wresting with a crushing workload, a backstabbing boss, a ruthless reporter, and the devastating worry she’s made a massive life choice mistake.

Then a friend goes missing and a ruthless gang is … calling for the money.

Holly must confront her past… and define her future.

 

 

 

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Guest Blogger: Kaye George – Vintage Sweets?

Vintage Sweets? by Kaye George

Are you wondering how on earth I came to write a series based on that (somewhat odd) topic? It was an evolution, a rather round about one.

I had my location from the start, Fredericksburg, Texas, a German tourist town in the Hill Country, full of wineries and interesting places. My agent at the time had actually been there, though she lives in New Jersey, and she was enthusiastic about that setting.

Sweets were on my mind from the very beginning. My first idea for the new series was a combination candy and cupcake shop. I worked up the idea, two friends running the place, one specializing in candy, the other in cupcakes. The candy maker would be named Taffy and she would be the sleuth. They would buy two shops and knock out the wall between them, sharing a large kitchen running across the back of the enlarged space. I worked up an outline and wrote three chapters, a standard proposal.

However, my agent felt there were too many cupcake cozy mysteries out at the time, which was a couple of years ago. She suggested the vintage candy theme and wanted two separate shops. Being from New Jersey, she named a number of candies from her Eastern seaboard childhood, some of which I had never heard of, or never tasted: Mary Janes, Whoopie Pies, Mallomars?

Since the cupcakes were out, I had to think of another product that would go well with these ancient candies. I was glancing about and my eyes lit on my basket collection, which was stashed on top of a set of bookcases. Of course! A basket shop. The candies could be incorporated into the basket themes.

Now, to figure out what these candies were. Google to the rescue—there were even recipes. I could change them up a bit and use them for Taffy’s shop. However, my agent had suggested so many changes, including changes to her personality and background, that she was no longer Taffy. So Tally Holt was born. Now I just had to figure out why a Texas would make candies she had never heard of. That wasn’t too hard. She had had a grandmother from New Jersey. Close to the beginning of the first book, her grandmother died and left her an old metal recipe box, oddly similar to one my mother had, which I now own. The grandmother’s hobby had been recreating the candies of her childhood and the recipe box, with those creations on index cards, was given to Tally in the will.

Voila! A Vintage Sweets cozy mystery series!

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Kaye George is a national-bestselling, multiple-award-winning author of pre-history, traditional, and cozy mysteries (her latest is the Vintage Sweets series from Lyrical Press). Her short stories have appeared online, in anthologies, magazines, her own collection, her own anthology, DAY OF THE DARK. She is a member of Sisters in Crime, Smoking Guns chapter (Knoxville), Guppies chapter, Authors Guild of TN, Knoxville Writers Group, and Austin Mystery Writers. She lives and works in Knoxville, TN.

Links:   Amazon; Kobo; Barnes & Noble; Books A Million; Powell’s Books; Indie Bound; Book Depository

The post Guest Blogger: Kaye George – Vintage Sweets? appeared first on Debra H. Goldstein.