Debra H. Goldstein's Blog, page 4
February 10, 2025
With Our Bellies Full and the Fire Dying by Debra H. Goldstein
I write long and short – novels and short stories. Most writers prefer one to the other because they require different skills, but I really enjoy the challenge of both. One problem with writing short stories that appear in periodicals and anthologies is that people may read or hear about one story, but they often can’t find it after a few months have passed. I can’t tell you how many times people have asked to read some of my award-winning stories from magazines of yesteryear (okay, maybe a year or two ago) that are now archived. Now, there is a solution for at least eighteen of my early stories – many of which won awards or were finalists for Agatha, Anthony, or Derringers.
Introducing – With Our Bellies Full and the Fire Dying: Tales of Sinning and Redemption.
The stories in With Our Bellies Full and the Fire Dying range from cozy to hard-boiled. The protagonists include children, private eyes, amateur sleuths, undercover cops, accountants, and a housewife with a potentially deadly cooking style. In other words, there is something for everyone in With Our Bellies Full and the Fire Dying.
Because of the chaos of the past few months with my husband’s unexpected death, I didn’t set up a formal book launch or do most of the four months in advance things one does for reviews or to bring the book to the attention of readers. Consequently, this is a book that needs people to learn about it over the long run. If you get a chance to read it – whether you buy it or simply ask your library to get a copy of it – and you like it, please feel free to leave a review on Goodreads, or any other platform or tell people about it. Thanks in advance.
With Our Bellies Full and the Fire Dying is available from White City Press (https://whitecitypress.com/product/fire/MM/8) or wherever you find quality e-books and paperbacks. Presently, it is discounted on the publisher’s website and shipping is free (but you need to mark that box).
White City Press: https://whitecitypress.com/author/debrahgoldstein/MM/8
Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Our-Bellies-Full-Fire-Dying/dp/1963479688
Barnes & Noble: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/with-our-bellies-full-and-the-fire-dying-debra-h-goldstein/1146836374?ean=9781963479683
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February 4, 2025
With Our Bellies Full and the Fire Dying – February 4
With Our Bellies Full and the Fire Dying is available from White City Press (https://whitecitypress.com/product/fire/MM/8) and wherever you find quality books and e-books.
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January 27, 2025
My Favorite Writing Advice by Lynn Slaughter
I’m currently mentoring a gifted fourteen-year-old author who’s writing a novel. Each week, I share a quote with her from a writer that I’ve found either helpful or humorous. Some of my favorites include:
“Writing a novel is like driving a car at night. You can only see as far as your headlights, but you can make the whole trip that way.”
-E.L. Doctorow
“There are three rules for writing a novel. Unfortunately, no one knows what they are.”
-Somerset Maugham
Or, more seriously:
“Don’t try to figure out what other people want to hear from you; figure out what you have to say. It’s the one and only thing you have to offer.”
-Barbara Kingsolver
I would have to say, however, that my favorite writing advice comes from a self-help book written many years ago by Susan Jeffers called Feel the Fear and Do It Anyway. I am an anxious writer. Anxiety hits me each day just before I start writing. And my anxiety is at its peak when I’m beginning a new project and facing that blank page.
Apparently, I’m not alone. In her classic text, Writing Fiction, Janet Burroway reports that whenever she asks writers what they find hardest, “a significant number answer that they feel they aren’t good enough, that the empty page intimidates them, that they are in some way afraid.” She also comments: “It helps to know that most writers share the paradox of least wanting to do what we most want to do.”
The key, though, is that writing is something we want to do, and for many of us, something we need to do. So, rather than telling myself I need to stop being fearful, I’ve found that what works is to say to myself, “Okay, so you’re scared. Big deal. Get going anyway.”
To help kickstart the process, I’ve developed a few writing rituals. I shut the door to my home office and always begin by reading a page from Walking on Alligators, Susan Shaughnessy’s book of meditations for writers. I light a candle and make sure my coffee and water are close by. Once a writing project is underway, I begin by reviewing the previous day’s pages and doing some light editing on them. And if I’m just beginning a project, I start by reviewing my copious notes on my characters and thoughts about the opening scenes.
The strangest thing is, once I’ve actually gotten started, things happen, even when I’ve convinced myself that I’m simply “not in the mood” to write that day. Somehow, the words spill out as I get caught up in the imaginary world I’m creating on the page. Those times when I go “into the zone” while I’m writing are intoxicating, well worth the struggle to take on my fears.
So, even though Susan Jeffers didn’t write her book specifically for writers, I’ve found her advice incredibly helpful, right up there with “Butt in Chair” and my other favorite, “You can’t fix a blank page.”
I’d love to hear what writing advice ranks among your favorites!
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Lynn Slaughter is addicted to the arts, chocolate, and her husband’s cooking. After a long career as a professional dancer and dance educator, Lynn earned her MFA in Writing Popular Fiction from Seton Hill University. She is the award-winning author of five young adult romantic mysteries: MISSING MOM, DEADLY SETUP, LEISHA’S SONG, IT SHOULD HAVE BEEN YOU, AND WHILE I DANCED, as well as an adult mystery, MISSED CUE. Lynn lives in Kentucky, where she’s at work on her next novel.
Website: https://lynnslaughter.com
Universal Buy Link for MISSING MOM: https://books2read.com/u/mqOKB9
About MISSING MOM:
Never mind the circumstantial evidence. Seventeen-year-old Noelle, an aspiring ballet dancer, doesn’t believe her missing mother would ever have committed suicide and undertakes her own investigation. Meantime, she’s dealing with growing romantic feelings toward Ravi, her best friend and fellow dancer, as well as worries about why her little sister is so reluctant to visit their dad.
Threaded throughout the novel is also the story of Savannah, a young woman nearly twenty years earlier whose escape from an abusive marriage turns out to be related to Noelle’s investigation.
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January 20, 2025
Murder on the Menu – February 2, 2025
On February, 2, 2025, in Wetumpka, Alabama, Debra will be a Murder on the Menu panelist. Murder on the Menu is sponsored by the Friends of the Wetumpka library. For more details: https://www.wetumpkaal.gov/221/Upcoming-Murder-on-the-Menu .
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Murder in the Magic City – February 1, 2025
Debra will be a panelist at Murder in the Magic City on Saturday, February 1, 2025, at 9:50 a.m, at the Homewood Library. Tickets and more information can be obtained from http://www.mmcmysteryconference.com/
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With Our Bellies Full and the Fire Dying – NOW Available for pre-order
With Our Bellies Full and the Fire Dying, a collection of eighteen of Debra’s award-winning short mysteries, from cozy to dark, centering around family and friends, their sins and their sometimes redemption, is available for pre-order. It releases in print and e-book from White City Press on February 4.
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January 13, 2025
It’s Not Always a Mystery: Following a Series Protagonist’s Journey by Erica Miner
It’s been said that San Francisco considers its opera only slightly less sacred than the Holy Grail. The city is totally an opera town. That’s one major reason why I chose to set Overture to Murder, Book 3 in my Julia Kogan Opera Mystery series, at San Francisco Opera. The City by the Bay and its opera are the perfect milieu for this new episode in the investigative journey of Julia, young violinist turned amateur sleuth and protagonist in my Julia Kogan Opera Mystery series.
Not only is San Francisco Opera the second most prestigious company in the US after the Met Opera, which makes for a high-stakes environment for our protagonist, but as the writer I have a deep personal connection with the company. Numerous family members and close friends have lived in the city and worked at the famed War Memorial Opera House, whose history forms a key part of the book’s plot. I’ve spent immense amounts of time in the city and its opera house over the decades.
San Francisco is also home to some of the most iconic landmarks in the world. Nob Hill, the legendary crooked Lombard Street, Pier 39, Fisherman’s Wharf, Chinatown, Ghirardelli Square, the Presidio, Lands End, Golden Gate Park, the Golden Gate Bridge, and many others come to mind. Julia explores all of these in great detail, and they figure prominently in the mystery she attempts to solve.
In the world of opera, aficionados who are hooked on the works of 19th century German operatic giant Richard Wagner have been known to travel the world in search of the next best production of his famous 4-opera Ring of the Nibelungen. Two zealous members of the New York Wagner Society recently admitted to having witnessed more than 35 productions of the cycle. As a former violinist with the Met, and a frequent lecturer on opera, I’m exceedingly familiar with this special breed of fanaticism.
Wagner’s Ring forms the core of the mystery in Overture to Murder. This ups the ante for Julia. Having survived murder investigations and subsequent targeting by ruthless killers in Books 1 and 2 of the series, Aria for Murder and Prelude to Murder, in Book 3 Julia finds herself in a new type of high-pressure situation when she is called upon by San Francisco Opera to fill in for Ben, their all-important concertmaster (first of the first violinists), in the fiendishly difficult Ring. Ben has been seriously injured in a hit-and-run accident, which Julia senses was anything but accidental. And we’re off and running.
Opera stories are among the most violent ever written. All the books in my series have one or more of these bloody tales woven into their mystery plots. Each opera in the challenging 4-part Ring contains at least one murder if not more, creating the perfect background for the grisly homicides that take place onstage and off in Overture to Murder.
The pressure mounts as Julia becomes entangled in the investigations. As one reader wrote, “There is nothing like a heroine violinist capable of practicing a tricky passage from a Wagnerian opera score while simultaneously pondering the clues she has collected during a murder investigation.”
That’s exactly how I envision Julia. She has evolved immensely since Book 1, in which she was a starry-eyed, unsuspecting neophyte excited to make her debut in the orchestra of the world’s most prestigious opera house. By the time we catch up with her in Overture to Murder, her experiences have transformed her into a savvy, keenly intuitive amateur sleuth who manages to solve operatic murders the Police can’t unravel. This is the kind of character journey that hopefully will keep readers eager to follow Julia into whatever series adventure might follow.
What will she be up to next? Stay tuned.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Award-winning Seattle-based author, lecturer screenwriter and arts journalist Erica Miner believes opera theatres are perfect places for creating fictional mischief! Drawing on her 21 years as a violinist at the famed Metropolitan Opera, Erica’s fanciful plot fabrications reveal the dark side of the fascinating world of opera in her Julia Kogan Opera Mystery series (Level Best Books): Aria for Murder (2022), finalist in the 2023 CIBA and Eric Hoffer Book Awards; Prelude to Murder (2023), a Distinguished Favorite in the NYC Big Book Awards (https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/erica-miner/prelude-to-murder/ -‘A skillfully written whodunit of operatic proportions’--Kirkus Reviews); and Book 3, Overture to Murder, released in Oct. 2024.
Erica’s debut novel, Travels with My Lovers, won the Fiction Prize in the Direct from the Author Book Awards. https://www.ericaminer.com. Her screenplays have won awards in the Writer’s Digest, Santa Fe, and WinFemme competitions. When she isn't plumbing the depths of opera houses for murderous mayhem, Erica frequently contributes reviews and interviews for the well-known arts websites www.BroadwayWorld.com, www.bachtrack.com, and www.LAOpus.com.
AUTHOR WEBSITE:
https://www.ericaminer.com
SOCIAL MEDIA HANDLES:
https://www.facebook.com/erica.miner1
https://twitter.com/EmwrtrErica
https://www.instagram.com/emwriter3/
BUY LINKS:
Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Overture-Murder-Julia-Kogan-Mystery/dp/1685127819/
Barnes and Noble: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/overture-to-murder-erica-miner/1146432661?ean=9781685127817
Bookshop.org: https://bookshop.org/p/books/overture-to-murder-a-julia-kogan-opera-mystery-erica-miner/21899693?ean=9781685127817
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December 30, 2024
Farewell to a Decidedly Eventful 2024 and a Wish for All for 2025 by Debra H. Goldstein
When 2024 began, it appeared that all but one thing would be status quo. The only change would be the birth of a new grandchild in April. That child, a boy, arrived as planned and immediately charmed everyone by being easy going.
For me, writing became complicated when my Sarah Blair series ended and a new book I wrote didn’t sell. But things worked out in the end. Because of time constraints, I concentrated on short stories. As of today, nine new ones are slated to appear in anthologies and periodicals in 2025, but that count will probably go up. A traditional publisher is also bringing out a collection of some of my older short stories. It should be available in February.
So, it appeared that 2024 would be an uneventful year, but things changed at the end of October. Out of the clear blue, my husband developed significant health problems beyond the movement issues associated the Parkinson’s that necessitated him using a walker for the past few years. He was in and out of the hospital and skilled rehab three times within five weeks. On November 5, with our four children and me with him, he peacefully passed away. Consequently, 2024 became the year that for any of us, things will never be the same in the future. Happily, we treasure the years we had with him and appreciate how we pulled together during those last few weeks (our kids flew or drove in and out of Birmingham constantly), so he knew how much he was loved.
Our road in 2024 ended in a manner none of us could have predicted last January, but now, as our family looks forward, they all join me in wishing you and yours a healthy, happy, prosperous, and uneventful 2025.
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December 16, 2024
Lifelong Learner by Mary Seifert
From Lord Byron’s Don Juan (1823)
“Tis strange—but true; for truth is always strange; Stranger than fiction.”
In our quest to ‘get it right,’ authors are natural researchers and lifelong learners with a penchant for discovery, and as we satisfy our curiosity, the quest for truth builds and enhances our tales.
When I began writing my Katie and Maverick Cozy Mysteries, I walked, drove, and biked paths my characters might take because the contemporary town I use once existed in Minnesota. Checking out tomes of information on forensics, pathology, and poisons baffled my local librarians. I learned about weapons from the educator/teacher at our local gun club, visited hospitals and police stations, and even scoured the internet. Unfortunately, I discovered not everything in cyberspace comes from a reputable source, so I sought out professionals in the fields I needed for accuracy: pharmacy, medicine, law, music, art, cryptology, and mathematics.
My amateur sleuth, Katie Wilk, attended the Royal Holloway for cryptanalysis, a career decrypting and encrypting codes. Life took a wrong turn and though her path changed, I still felt the need to share stories of her unsung heroes—the female cryptographers of WWW I and WWW II—who are only now being heralded for their keen intelligence and profound contributions to the war efforts. Instead, Katie accepted a job teaching high school mathematics, and numbers turn up in strange places. The varied enigmas in my stories aren’t just for show; the calculated conundrums lead Katie in and out of trouble and exist for the reader to work out as well. If you want to hone your skills, there are similar puzzles in my newsletters.
Katie teaches her students the art of problem solving—mathematical and personal. As teachers in the real world often do, she supervises students in extra-curricular activities. Fortunately, in my distant past, I taught high school and college math, guiding participants in similar undertakings. Many incidents are based on real events.
Advising science club, Katie provides opportunities for investigation. To validate the electronic experiment for Maverick, Movies & Murder, I built the requisite telegraph with a switch, wires, batteries, and a light bulb. Rescue, Rogues & Renegade used DNA so I administered a blood typing kit. I created my own periodic table with bits of elements I could locate. When my knowledge base needed a lift, I learned how to use a blow torch, fly a drone, and tune a piano. The patient instructors gave practical advice I could use for my stories. My latest, untitled Book 9 references the Kentucky Derby. I’ve not yet attended, but my mother-in-law gave a detailed first-hand account of her dream-come-true. The closest I could get was attending the races at Canterbury Downs in Minnesota where I could see, hear, taste, smell, and feel the excitement.
The mock trial Katie’s students study is a civil case—the wife of a victim of the Titanic sinking is suing the White Star Line for loss of life. With museums full of material, I’ve barely scratched the surface of the information existing on the tragedy.
And then there is the dog. Maverick embodies all the astonishing traits of our local hospice therapy dogs: canines who bring joy to their patients, dogs who can rouse the lethargic, relax the nervous, gently touch someone repeatedly prodded and painfully poked, or just provide an opportunity to make a choice because sometimes that possibility has been taken out of their hands. I’ve met search-and-rescue dogs with other special gifts and have been able to share similar extraordinary stories of the work those animals undertake.
Never knowing exactly what a dog may decide, I have vignettes from the flip-side—the mischievous, fun, loud, slobbery moments, reflecting actions of my own pooch.
The fount of knowledge is bottomless. We can learn something new every day. I write fiction, but there is an abundance of wonder and mystery in real life—some of it, I just can’t make up.
Did you know, as of August 31, 2024, the grandson of John Tyler, the tenth POTUS, is still alive?
~~~~~~~
Mary Seifert’s Impact Award winning Katie and Maverick cozy mystery series delineates Katie’s first year teaching. The mysteries include the 2023 American Fiction Award finalist Maverick, Movies & Murder, the 2024 Chanticleer Murder and Mayhem finalist Santa, Snowflakes & Strychnine, and a Top Pick for the 2024 Killer Nashville Silver Falchion Award with Fishing, Festivities & Fatalities. In the eighth book, Pranks, Payback & Poison, Katie balances care for the ones she loves with a murder investigation she shouldn’t be part of.
Mary is a member of Sisters in Crime and loves talking
about books in libraries, bookstores, book clubs, coffee shops, anywhere someone will converse. With her terrifichusband and canine companion, she calls Minnesota home, but loves to travel to far-flung places around the United States and beyond. She is also a member of Mystery Writers of America, American Cryptogram Association, and PEO.
This link will take you to Mary’s website with connections to many online retailers where you can find out more about Mary.
Amazon buy link to Katie and Maverick Cozy Mysteries
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0B2N876FZ
Social Media:Facebook: www.facebook.com/mary.seifert.144
Instagram: @maryseifertauthor
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November 18, 2024
Spycraft 101 by Terry Ambrose
Have you ever wondered what, exactly, cracking a secret code involves? Wonder no more. We're going to dive into the world of spycraft. Sorry, I won't be giving away any secret code books or nifty decoder rings. But I am extending an invitation to dive into the intriguing world of spycraft, a subject that takes center stage in my latest Beachtown Detective Agency mystery, "The Case of the Beguiling Brooch."
The Caesar Cipher
Codes have fascinated humanity for centuries, serving as the language of secrets. Used by governments, lovers, and those who want to keep a secret, they create a veil of intrigue and protection over vital information. The Caesar cipher gets its name from none other than Julius Caesar, who created a way to send encrypted military messages. The Caesar cipher works by shifting each letter of the alphabet a certain number of places to create a new code. For example, if you shift each letter three places, "A" becomes "D," "B" becomes "E," and so on. The receiver of the message would then know to reverse the process by shifting each letter back three places to reveal the original message.
The Vigenère Cipher
Another popular cipher is the Vigenère cipher, which takes the Caesar cipher to a whole new level. Instead of shifting each letter by a set number, the Vigenère cipher uses a keyword to determine the shift for each letter in the message. This makes it much more difficult to crack, as there are countless combinations that can be used with different keywords.
The Enigma Machine
During World War II, the Enigma machine encrypted Nazi communications. It was a puzzle that eluded many until Alan Turing came along. Turing was a mathematician and codebreaker whose work on the Enigma machine is credited with shortening the war by two years. The Enigma machine operated similarly to the Caesar cipher but used multiple rotors to create an even more complex code.
Modern Encryption
Today, encryption techniques have become even more sophisticated. You've probably heard the phrase, "We use military-grade encryption." The thing is, military-grade encryption isn't a technical standard or method. The term is actually marketing jargon meant to ensure customers that the company uses complex encryption methods. The good news is that those methods are almost impossible for a human to decipher and can even take a supercomputer years to solve.
The Vigenère Cipher and "The Case of the Beguiling Brooch"
"The Case of the Beguiling Brooch" begins at the funeral of Benji Thompson. I never started writing the second Beachtown Detective Agency intending to dive into codebreaking, but as the character of Benji took form, I soon realized he might well have had those skills. He was, after all, a world-class art thief who had settled down and now ran an art gallery. A Vigenère Cipher became the perfect tool for the catalyst in this story when Jade is hired to find an antique brooch that was stolen during World War II. Jade's only clue is a seemingly indecipherable jumble of letters—a cryptogram created using a Vigenère Cipher. In the book, she combines forces with an art restoration specialist to decipher Benji's message.
Spycraft 101: Final Thoughts
From the ancient Caesar Cipher to the complex Vigenère, codes invite us into a universe where every letter harbors a mystery. They spark our imagination, urging us to explore the hidden and the unknown. I hope you enjoyed this look at the world of codes and that you check out "The Case of the Beguiling Brooch."
Buy Link: Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0DJ8MDHCM/
About “The Case of the Beguiling Brooch”
While attending the funeral of family friend Benji Thompson, Private Eye Jade Cavendish is handed a check for $10,000 by an elegant woman. The assignment? Solve a cryptogram and find a family heirloom that has been missing since World War II.
As Jade delves into the puzzle, she learns that Benji’s death was no accident—it was murder. And it’s somehow tied to the cryptogram.
Determined to solve both Benji’s murder and find the brooch, Jade dives into the enigmatic art world where she unearths Benji’s link to an international art theft ring. Each clue brings Jade closer to the truth but also deeper into danger. With every step forward, a shadowy figure known only as Valkyrie looms larger.
With time running out, Jade must crack the cryptogram to recover the brooch and unmask the mysterious Valkyrie—or become the next victim.
Terry Ambrose has written more than two dozen books, several of which have been award finalists. In 2014, his thriller, “Con Game,” won the San Diego Book Awards for Best Action-Thriller. His other series include the Trouble in Paradise McKenna Mysteries, the Seaside Cove Bed & Breakfast Mysteries, and the License to Lie thriller series.
You can learn more about Terry and his writing at terryambrose.com.
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