Judith Post's Blog, page 80
July 1, 2018
June 30, 2018
Favorite authors take up a lot of room
One of my favorite authors, Ilona Andrews, just came out with a new book. While I was at the book store–yes, I actually drove to the store to buy it, BUT Barnes and Noble didn’t have it–I ended up buying another favorite author’s book that I was on the fence about, Patricia Briggs’s latest Mercy Thompson novel. I probably would have passed on this one, since Mercy is on her own in Europe without her usual cast of characters (or so the blurb makes me think), BUT my online friend Midu read it and told me I HAD to give it a chance, I’d like it. And I trust Midu, so it’s waiting its turn near the top of my reading list.
I’ve bought more than a few books lately to read on my Kindle. No matter. For the next week or two, they’re all getting bumped. It made me think. I have NO name recognition as a writer and when I come out with a new book, I probably get bumped by a whole battalion of favorite authors before a reader is willing to take a chance on me. It’s not easy to get readers to notice you, let alone buy you. Even harder to get them to read and review you. Favorite authors, though, have EARNED your loyalty. They deliver what you like.
Even my bookshelves verify that it’s hard to find room as a new writer. I can’t bear to part with my favorite books, and as soon as those authors come out with a new one, I want to buy and read it. Which means they get more and more space and new authors get squeezed or shuffled to the bookcase upstairs, along with Harry Potter and the favorite children’s books I read to my kids. (I’m slowly but surely giving these to the little girls who live next door when they come to visit).
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I have quite a few shelves, but two of them are filled with cookbooks. (I just bought another one of those today on the clearance rack, like I don’t have enough recipes already:) Agatha Christie takes up most of another one. Elizabeth George’s book are so thick, she spills from one shelf to another. Ilona Andrews and Patricia Briggs each have a shelf of their own, then Nancy Pickard and Martha Grimes share another.
A lot of my brand new favorite authors exist in my Kindle. I’m more willing to take a chance on someone unknown to me when I can buy their books at a cheaper price. Sad, I know, but true. The other bright spot of storing Kindle e-books? I don’t have to dust them. I admit, though, it’s not the same as walking into my office and being surrounded by books I love.
Someday, I hope each one of us will have our books lining someone’s bookcase, that someone will cherish our words and characters too much to part with them. But for now, happy writing! And have a great July.
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June 29, 2018
Uncommon Allies–part 1–is up
If you like castles, magic, witches, and vampires, you might like this short lunch hour read. Part one’s up now. https://www.judithpostswritingmusings.com/
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June 27, 2018
June 24, 2018
New pages up for Beware the Bogeyman
This short novella came from the Babet & Prosper collection II. I kept these stories short (trying for around 40 pages each) so that a person could read them over a lunch hour or a commute. When I was writing urban fantasy, I really enjoyed creating these short pieces. I hope you enjoy them, too.
June 21, 2018
Let’s Talk Recipes
My friend and fellow Kensington author, Mae Clair, guested on Esme Salon recently. She wrote a fun post about the ingredients needed to write a good book and her recipe for a dynamite tortellini salad. (Well, sort of a recipe…maybe…I copied and pasted it in case you want to give it a try:) You can find the entire post here: https://esmesalon.com/guest-post-cooks-books-and-suspense/ And just in case you can’t wait to get in the kitchen, here’s the recipe:
Mae Clair’s No-Fail Tortellini Salad
Mix a healthy dose of delusions with 1 cup of vigorous pep-talk.
Remind yourself you’ve created complex characters and plots. How difficult can an oven/stove thingie be?
Ignore spouse who reminds you about the “infamous cake fiasco” that resulted in one overly large, hockey puck-like biscotti. Apparently, there is a legitimate reason a box cake mix calls for water. Who knew?
Settle for making a simple appetizer and breathe a sigh of relief.
Ignore husband when he comments the last appetizer you made should have been killed before it multiplied.
Blow the dust off cookbooks and search for an appetizer recipe.
Turn deaf ear to the husband who suggests you have yet to outgrow the adult supervision stage.
Decide you’d rather spend your time writing than crushing tortilla chips and slicing up fat black olives. Celebrate with a glass of wine.
Head for your nearest gourmet deli and clean them out of tortellini salad.
For the highly skilled (I wouldn’t suggest something this complex on the first try): place tortellini salad in a festive bowl and pass off as your own. Blank expressions and stammering rarely work when someone asks for the recipe. The best you can hope for is a diversion. Fainting usually does the trick
Now Mae’s recipe was obviously tongue-in-cheek, but for my new mystery series, my editor asked me to include two recipes for the first book. I have more recipes than any file folder can hold, but I always worry about how much I have to tinker with them to make them mine. I love puttering in the kitchen, but my two sisters have never met a stove/thingie they like. Even if I do the cooking, they don’t like it when I get too “chefy.” So, I was curious how other authors who write “food” mysteries handled the cooking and recipes. To find out, I’ve been reading a lot of them.
I just finished The Diva Runs Out of Thyme by Krista Davis. Clever, huh? Davis combines cooking, characters, the mystery, and more twists and turns than San Francisco’s Lombard Street. It was the first book in her Diva series, and I plan to buy more. I was relieved to see that she included only two recipes at the back of the book, but she DID include lots of Martha Stewart type entertaining and decorating tips. I got hooked on food mysteries when I first discovered Diane Mott Davidson’s Goldy Bear’s catering novels. When Goldy catered an event, Davidson included most or all of the recipes. Shirley Jump–who used to live in my city and was a gracious hostess for writing get-togethers–wrote a series of Sweet and Savory romances, starting with The Bride Wore Chocolate, where she shared a witty recipe at the end of every chapter. (She said she gained weight testing them all).
Anyway, this is my question. When a writer includes recipes in a novel, have any of you tried them out? How many recipes do you expect at the end of a book? Can a writer include too many? Do you prefer simple recipes to complicated ones?
For now, I’ve moved on to reading No Cats Allowed, a Cat in the Stacks mystery by Miranda James. Cats and librarians. How can you beat that?
Whatever you’re reading now, I hope you enjoy it. And happy writing!
June 20, 2018
Fiend Fest
Today, I’d like to welcome Mae Clair as my guest. I read Mae’s blog every week and enjoy it. I’ve read a good share of her writing, too. She writes paranormal suspense with a mix of eerie happenings and strong characters. Her novel, CUSP OF NIGHT, came out June 12th. I bought it and, for me, it was a five-star read. I’ll let her tell you about it:
Thanks so much for having me as a guest on your blog today! I’ve been making the rounds with my newest release Cusp of Night. This is a book that blends past and present in a mystery/suspense theme, laced with paranormal elements. I’ve set the story in a fictional river town called Hode’s Hill. In the latter part of the nineteenth century, a devil-like creature terrorized the town and committed several horrific murders. The beast was never caught, but the legend remained.
Each June, Hode’s Hill holds an annual Fiend Fest to commemorate the legend. Filled with music, food vendors, arts and crafts, there is even a “Fiend” costume contest for anyone who wishes to compete.
My main character, Maya Sinclair, has recently moved to the town to accept a job as a reference librarian. She attends the Fiend Fest with her friend Ivy, then on the walk home witnesses an assault on Leland Hode—one of the town’s leading citizens—by someone (or some “thing”) that resembles the Fiend.
I brought along a short excerpt that takes place the day after the attack. In this scene, Maya shares what she saw with Ivy:
~ooOOoo~
Once situated at the table in the breakfast area, Maya relayed what happened on her walk home.
Ivy’s eyes grew rounder with each detail. “Wow,” she said once Maya had finished. “Maybe Leland has a mistress. What else would he be doing in an alley?”
Maya hadn’t considered that. “I’m worried about him. He passed out before the ambulance got there. And you didn’t see the creature. It was huge.”
“Probably a leftover from the festival.”
“That’s what Detective Gregg thought.” Maya still wasn’t certain. “Either that, or someone taking advantage of the festival as cover.”
“You don’t sound convinced.”
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How could she explain without sounding like an idiot? “It’s just that…” Dropping her gaze, she cupped her glass between her hands and conjured a mental image of the previous night. The nest of shadows in the alley, Leland slumped against the building like a discarded ragdoll, the dark form beside him swelling in size. “It seemed too big to be human.”
Ivy blew out a breath. “What are you saying? That you saw the Fiend?” A look of incredulity crossed her face. “We’re not going to see you on one of those Bigfoot reality shows, are we?”
Maya laughed. “I’m not that crazy.” She swiped her thumb over the glass, collecting condensation. “But something attacked Leland.”
“You mean someone.” Ivy leaned forward and rested her forearms on the table, her expression a blend of common sense and concern. “Leland has a lot of enemies. I’m more worried about you. Whoever was in the alley…did they get a good look at you?”
“Oh.” Maya flinched, sensing where Ivy was headed. “I…I don’t know. But why should that matter? I couldn’t ID the person. They were in a costume, if I’m to believe you and Detective Gregg.” The thought of someone wanting to silence her made her uneasy, but the alternative was worse—that the thing she’d seen truly was a nightmarish creature of lore. For her own sanity, she needed to learn more about the Fiend of Hode’s Hill. Not just rumors and myth, or even the oft-repeated urban legend, but actual accounts. Something had attacked Charlotte Hode and several others at the turn of the century. There had to be newspaper reports.
~ooOOoo~
I hope that little snippet sparks some interest! The story switches back and forth with Maya’s story in the present, and that of a 19th Century spiritualist named Lucinda Glass in the past. Eventually, both converge at the end. Perhaps the blurb explains better:
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BLURB
Recently settled in Hode’s Hill, Pennsylvania, Maya Sinclair is enthralled by the town’s folklore, especially the legend about a centuries-old monster. A devil-like creature with uncanny abilities responsible for several horrific murders, the Fiend has evolved into the stuff of urban myth. But the past lives again when Maya witnesses an assault during the annual “Fiend Fest.” The victim is developer Leland Hode, patriarch of the town’s most powerful family, and he was attacked by someone dressed like the Fiend.
Compelled to discover who is behind the attack and why, Maya uncovers a shortlist of enemies of the Hode clan. The mystery deepens when she finds the journal of a late nineteenth-century spiritualist who once lived in Maya’s house–a woman whose ghost may still linger.
Known as the Blue Lady of Hode’s Hill due to a genetic condition, Lucinda Glass vanished without a trace and was believed to be one of the Fiend’s tragic victims. The disappearance of a young couple, combined with more sightings of the monster, trigger Maya to join forces with Leland’s son Collin. But the closer she gets to unearthing the truth, the closer she comes to a hidden world of twisted secrets, insanity, and evil that refuses to die . . .
You can find Mae Clair at the following haunts:
Website | Blog | Twitter | Newsletter | Facebook | Goodreads | Amazon | Other Social Links
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June 19, 2018
June 18, 2018
June 16, 2018
Just saying…part 1 of a new novella is up
This novella is longer than Babet & Prosper’s, so I decided to divide it into three parts. Hope you like it!
