Kate Collins's Blog, page 176

The November 2014 Report

* * * * * * * * * *Welcome to Dru's Cozy Report: November 2014. This month we have three recently released new series for your reading pleasure. Enjoy!

By Cook or by Crook by Maya Corrigan
Series: Five-Ingredient #1
Publisher: Kensington

Take one burned-out city girl. Add a crusty codger, a pinch of gossip, and a dash of romance. Stir in a generous helping of murder and you've got the ingredients for one truly delicious mystery.

Haunted by the car accident that ended her career as a cookbook publicist, Val Deniston has traded in the chaos of New York City for a quieter life near the Chesapeake Bay. Living with her curmudgeonly grandfather in the tourist town of Bayport is hardly glamorous, but she enjoys working at the Cool Down Café at the local fitness club, and she finally has time to work on her long-planned cookbook. But when one of the club's patrons is found dead, she'll have to cook up a scheme to find the killer. As the number of suspects rises like crabs in a bucket, it's out of the pan and into the fire for Val. If she can't find the culprit soon, she might as well be chum in the water.

Includes Five Delicious Recipes from Val's Cookbook!

This was a very enjoyable read that began when Val set out to clear her cousin’s name and reputation and from there came twists and turns amid a cluster of suspects who had a stronger motive. A well-designed plot that kept me glued to the pages was easy to follow and I especially enjoyed the five-ingredient dishes that were part of the scripted dialogue. The cast in this friendly whodunit is likable with a sense of comfort from living in a small town. With new beginnings for the heroine, I look forward to the next book in this pleasantly charming series.

Visit Maya at www.mayacorrigan.com
A High-End Finish by Kate Carlisle
Series: Fixer-Upper #1
Publisher: Obsidian

In the seaside town of Lighthouse Cove in northern California, everyone knows the best man for the job is actually a woman—contractor Shannon Hammer. But while Shannon can do wonders with a power drill and a little elbow grease, she’s about to discover that some problems aren’t so easily fixed.

Shannon’s home-renovation and repair business is booming, but her love life needs work. On a blind date with real estate agent Jerry Saxton, she has to whip out a pair of pliers to keep Jerry from getting too hands on. Shannon is happy to put her rotten date behind her, but when Jerry’s found dead in a run-down Victorian home that she’s been hired to restore, the town’s attractive new police chief suspects that her threats may have laid the foundation for murder.

Determined to clear her name, Shannon conducts her own investigation—with the help of her four best friends, her eccentric father, a nosy neighbor or two, and a handsome crime writer who’s just moved to town. But as they get closer to prying out the murderer’s identity, Shannon is viciously attacked. Now she’ll have to nail down the truth—or end up in permanent foreclosure.

This was a good read that was delightfully entertaining. The author did a great job in presenting this drama where everyone could be a suspect but only one is the killer. The clues were there to decipher and as the story progressed, the suspense heighten as the killer upped the ante in her pursuit of not being exposed. A lovable cast, engaging conversations and a small town setting adds to the allure of this charming new series and I can’t wait to see what happens next in Lighthouse Cove.

Visit Maya at www.mayacorrigan.com
Suede to Rest by Diane Vallere
Series: Material Witness #1
Publisher: Berkley Prime Crime

With her career as a dress designer in shreds, Polyester Monroe is looking forward to a fresh start. But as it all unfolds, the pattern to a new beginning looks a lot like murder.

When Poly Monroe was little, she loved playing in her family’s textile store. But after a fatal family tragedy, Land of A Thousand Fabrics was boarded up and Poly never expected to see the inside again. Now, as inheritor of the long-shuttered shop, she’s ready to restore the family business. However her two new kittens, Pins and Needles, aren’t the ones causing a snag in her plans.

Not everyone wants Poly back in San Ladrón, especially a powerful local developer pressuring her to sell—and leave town fast. But even when the threats turn deadly, she’s not ready to bolt. Because Poly is beginning to suspect that the murder behind the shop is tied to a mystery in her family’s unsettled past that she’s determined to solve…before her own life is left hanging by a thread.

I love it. This wonderfully crafted whodunit was a great read that I devoured from beginning to end. The author did a great job in setting up this action-filled drama where the pattern of deceit began to unravel the more the protagonist delved into a case too close to her heart. Who is behind all these incidents? Who’s the stranger lurking in the wind? With a who’s who of suspects, it was fun watching how it all played out with a surprising twist I didn’t see coming. Boasting a friendly cast, engaging dialogue and a place to call home, this was a delightfully pleasant read and I can’t wait to see where the story takes us in the next book.

Visit Diane at www.dianevallere.com

An unexpected use for Holiday Catalogs

by Lorraine Bartlett / Lorna Barrett / L.L. Bartlett

I don't know about you, but I'm being inundated with holiday catalogs.  Yeah, yeah, this happens every year, but this year it's even MORE ridiculous.  One company, Signals.com, was smart.  Right on the cover it says, "SAVE THIS CATALOG! It's the last you'll receive this season."

That kinda makes me want to buy something from them, just to reward them.

But the fun thing I've discovered is that these catalogs are giving me LOADS of ideas for the graphics I can make that could directly apply to my various series.  Take this one, for Tricia and Angelica Miles and the Booktown Mysteries.





Or this one for Victoria Square.


And this one for my Jeff Resnick Mystery series.  (Jeff is a part-time bartender.)


I'm in the process of coming up with some for my new Lotus Bay Mysteries ... which is now available for pre-order ... but it's a little too soon to share one of those.  I'll be doing that on Facebook and Twitter.  If you want to follow along, you can find me by clicking any of the links below:

Facebook Booktown Mysteries Page  |  Victoria Square Mysteries Page

Jeff Resnick Mysteries Page  |  Lotus Bay Mysteries Page

My profiles:  Lorraine  |  Lorna  |  L.L. Bartlett |  Cozy Chicks

My author pages:  Lorraine  |  Lorna  |  L.L. Bartlett

Other fun pages:  The Cozy Chicks  |  Need A Great Read

Incredible Indie Authors   |    Storytellers Unlimited


Twitter:  Lorraine  |  Lorna  |  L.L.Bartlett  | The Cozy Chicks

Bringing the outside in

By Victoria Abbott aka Mary Jane Maffini


It’s 41 degrees (Fahrenheit) here in Manotick, Ontario as I write this and the temperature is dropping. It will be well below freezing tonight and not for the first time this fall.  I don’t mind the weather as it’s high energy with the sun shining at least part of the time and a bright blue sky.  But I miss my summer flowers!  
The house has a two-foot roof overhang by almost all the windows. That keeps us cool in the summer, but it seems dark and unfriendly without a peek of brightness through the windows. Even our hysterical and hyperactive squirrels weren’t able to lift the mood. 


This year I couldn’t bear to part with the beautiful coral geranium that brightened the deck all summer.  We usually let the begonias and geraniums go, but now in our bungalow we actually have a bit of room. What harm could it do to cart some inside and hope for the best?

We’ve salvaged two geraniums, a small begonia and most of the herbs.  The parsley, thyme, rosemary and chives were not looking their best in their newfound window, that doubles as the orchid rest home. They declined to be photographed as did the naked orchids. 



I also made a mad dash with the garden scissors before the driving wind, rain and the odd (gasp!) swirling snowflake destroyed the blooms on the hydrangeas.  They have repaid me by staying perky for two weeks in various little vignettes and I think they’ll last longer.  



And in the middle of typing this, I remembered the lavender.  Although the blooms are long gone and I wasn’t sharp enough to harvest them at the time, too busy promoting The Wolfe Widow and working to meet our deadline for The Marsh Madness, the next book collector mystery.  But never mind, the little stalks smell nice enough and are cheering up the place too.  



I noticed that a lonely clematis bloom was resting bravely on the deck.  Where were you all summer, I wondered?   



The good news is that the house looks much more cheerful and the transplants from the garden will keep me happy until the amaryllis and Christmas cactus bloom.   
The bad news is that they seem to have brought a couple of hardy mosquitoes with them!  So smile, slap. Smile, slap.  
I’ll let you know how long they all keep.  And in the meantime, how about sharing your own secrets for saving plants and keeping things bright in gloomy November. 
Tips, tales and all that good stuff gratefully received, my friends.

Fudge it all!

Mackinac Island consists of two main directions...up and down and with no cars and anything horse-drawn being kind of pricey that means if you live on the island for any stretch of time you’ll be in the best shape of your life from walking the hills or riding your bike because these are some hills!
And this is a really good thing so you can walk off all that fudge you can eat!
The town is mainly two streets, Main Street and Market Street. Main faces the water and the one street back is Market. There are the usual tourist shops of t-shirt etc but the one thing that will capture your attention right away is that there are 18...yes 18!...fudge shops in town. Ryba’s, JoAnn’s, Murdocks, Mackinac Fudge...you get the picture

Inhale the mouthwatering aromas. Partake in the deliriously delicious confectioneries. Revel in the experience – your palate will think it won the lottery!The Island doesn’t claim to have created fudge. But after one taste, you’ll agree that it was perfected here. The flavors are unworldly the taste to die for.
The tourist center says… Born in the years following the Civil War, the tradition of fudge making is stronger than ever and fudge remains the Island’s most popular and tastiest souvenir.  I think they sell TEN tons of the stuff a year. That is a LOT of fudge. And of course there are a bazillion kinds of fudge...A typical story of fudge on the island is Sara Murdick. The gal sure knew her way around a kitchen, there’s no doubt about that. After arriving to the United States from Germany in the 1800s, Sara and her family eventually opened a confectionery in southeast Michigan.
In addition to a perfect recipe, the art of fudge making also plays an important role on the island besides eating it...you can watch it being made and there is actually a Fudge Festival every year. Holy cow! Nothing better than a fudge festival!
[image error] [image error] All the fudge shops have big windows where you can watch men…usually it is the guys doing the this ‘cuse tossing fudge is hefty work. They throw big kettles of fudge onto big marble tables then use a thing that looks like a canoe paddle to flip the fudge up onto itself creating a loaf of fudge as they toss in nuts and [image error] chocolate bits and bits of maple and toffee and cookie and peppermint etc…you get the picture on to the loaf as they flip it over and over and over as it cools. [image error]

Sooooo, after all this talk about fudge, what is your favorite? Chocolate-chocolate, maple, Oreo, lavender (yep, it really tastes like lavender) peanut butter, pumpkin pie, turtle, raspberry, blueberry (it’s really blue!)
Happy eating!Yummmmm.Duffy
Geared for the Grave book on of Cycle Path MysteriesBerkley Prime CrimeDecember 2014

BLOODY POLITICS

by Maggie Sefton




I'm excited!  The 3rd and final in the Molly Malone Suspense novels is now available.  BLOODY POLITICS picks up the suspense where POISONED POLITICS left off and ramps up the action.  Molly has been trying to piece together bits of information she's learned from the beginning pages of DEADLY POLITICS.  But powerful players have a great deal at stake and will eliminate anyone who threatens to expose them.  Molly inches closer to the truth. . .dangerously close.  The back cover copy will give you a taste of what's happening-----
available.


The jogger’s throat was cut leaving a pool of blood on the pedestrian path. Molly Malone could tell by the neon yellow running shoe dangling off the end of the stretcher that the body belonged to her friend Natasha Jorgenson.  A junior congressional staffer, Natasha was on her way to meet with Molly to hand over important research on an international banking bill. Natasha was the third person who knew of the research to die. Molly fears she won’t be the last.  As she and her colleagues are targeted by break-ins, wiretaps, and harassment, Molly discovers that powerful players are working out a plan to change the course of history . . . and they will stop at nothing to make sure they succeed.
Crackling with tension and suspense, the latest Molly Malone mystery from New York Times bestselling author Maggie Sefton is a masterpiece of intrigue that will leave you breathless.   
Praise for the Molly Malone Suspense series:
“A marvelous look at the shady underbelly of insider Washington.”—Mystery Scene
"Sefton has a sharp ear for dialog and knack for writing strong female characters.”—Library Journal
I hope you decide to give BLOODY POLITICS a try.   It's available in Trade paperback from bookstores and online as well as in E-book formats from Amazon, BarnesandNoble.com, and other
E-book retailers.

"WORST TITLE EVER" CONTEST

by Kate Collins
 Fans of the Flower Shop Mystery series have heard me say how hard it is to come up with a new title for each book. Now I’ve got double – no, make that quintuple -- trouble.

I need five new titles for FSM #17, which I’m working on now. I can’t give you the details without ruining one of the subplots, but I can tell you that all five winning titles will appear in the story and all of the winners’ names will be on the book’s acknowledgement page.
Also the person whose title is chosen as The Best of the Worst will get an autographed copy of the book when it’s released November, 2015.

Here are the rules:
1.     The title must combine two themes: floral and mystery.2.     The title has to be so bad it is groan-inducing.3.     It should be from three to eight words long.4.     Original titles only (i.e. it can’t be from a published book no matter how bad it is.)5.     You can enter more than once but you can only win for one of your titles.6.     The contest will close Saturday, November 15, 2014, at midnight CST, 1 a.m. EST. 7.     The winner will be notified via email and the winning titles will be announced Monday morning, November 17, on my Facebook page. (If you haven’t “liked” my author page yet, please do so here:
8.     Submit your entry using the link below (and it will be available from my Facebook page starting on Tuesday, November 18.)  
       Okay, put those thinking caps on. Good luck, and may the worst title win!

ENTER HERE

Like the Old Days ... Except I'm Old Now

by Leann

I am lucky to be visiting with my daughter this weekend. She has two cats that require a nurse ... and with all of Marlowe's troubles and my diabetic cat before
him, and all the sick and injured children I took care of in my first career ... well, I have been recruited.

My son-in-law has been touring in Europe with live shows of the very successful podcast he has created with Joseph Fink, Welcome to Night Vale. But the tour ends
today and my daughter is flying to Dublin to take a two week vacation with her guy, so I get to watch the grandkitties! Yay!! Four cats for two weeks? I love it. And 3 out of 4 are on medicine.

But since she was here for two days before heading off to Ireland, we did something we haven't done in a long time. We shopped. We used to shop together all the time from as early as I can remember. We always had lunch and just made a day of it when she lived at home and then when she would come home for college. Well I don't shop much anymore, mostly because it's pretty darn tiring.

At the very first store we went to, she found the shoes and bag she was looking for, but she is a child who takes after her father. She had to go to three more stores to see if there was a better deal or something that might appeal to her more. Of course we ended up back at the first store and on that last stop I stayed in the car. My back, my feet and my brain were all hurting by then. When did this happen? How did I get to be an old lady overnight??

It is disconcerting, my friends. But it is what it is. Now I have kitty antics to look forward to until Thanksgiving. Now THAT I can handle! And here is a pic of a
hallway standoff. No one is getting too close yet and Marlowe has turned out to be the biggest grump of a cat with all kinds of hissing and growling. It's great to hear him acting like so normal, because 99% I don't hear a peep out of him!

DO YOU FEED WOODLAND CREATURES?

by Mary Kennedy                        

 The cashier at Lowe's clearly thought I was crazy. "How do you cook these?" She asked. "They're hard as a rock. And they don't look very tasty." She was eyeing the 20 pound bag of dried corn cobs I'd just bought.
                                                          
 "I don't cook them," I told her.  "I put them out in the backyard for the squirrels to eat. They love them."                                                             
"You feed the squirrels?" she asked in amazement. She literally took a step backwards, as if such insanity might be catching.  "Yes, of course, and the raccoons, and the possums and well, anyone else who wants to stop  by." The truth is, I try to make my yard a wildlife refuge, especially in the cold winter months here in the northeast, where woodland creatures have a hard time finding food. I realize a lot of people don't agree with my project, especially when deer from the neighboring state park invade us during the summer. Do they eat my shrubs and flowering plants? Yes, sometimes. Do I care? Heck no! The animals were here way before the developers so I figure they're more entitled to the land than I am. My name may be on the deed, but they've been here for hundreds of years.                                                        I'm fortunate that our lot is very "woodsy," and we've let the backyard go "natural." The soil is clay, not dirt and there are so many drainage problems, it's almost impossible to grow anything. So I decided to turn a negative into a positive. I turned my backyard into a wildlife haven! Since my 8 rescued cats are all indoor cats, we have raccoons, squirrels, rabbits and mice as regular visitors.  They really have no natural predators and my cats love to sit on the sun porch and watch their antics. Some of the braver "critters" come right up on the deck and peer inside. And if I'm late putting out their "buffet" (nuts, berries, peanut butter crackers, apples and dried corn) they cluster in front of the glass sliders waiting for dinner time. (The food's good and it's free, no wonder they like to eat at my house.)                                                                                                                  I also save Christmas trees, potted plants and tree branches to make "shelters" for the outdoor animals. You'd be surprised how rabbits and squirrels love to burrow inside and make a warm den for their babies.                                                                If you'd like to do the same with your backyard, here are a few tips to get you started. *Don't follow the typical gardener's advice to "cut back, cut back!" in the Fall.  Let it go, you can clean it up in the Spring. In the Fall garden, there are plenty of tall stalks topped with seeds, and trees drop nuts and fruits on the ground. The birds will thank you! You can make a cool bird feeder with a coat hanger and some fruit slices. And keep the bird bath filled with water, preferably warm water it so it will freeze less quickly.                                                           *Migrating birds flying along the Atlantic coast rely on fruits and seeds to sustain them on their way. Native birds need the same nutrients to help them survive the bitter winter. Asters and goldenrod make great food sources for songbirds, so please leave them until the Spring. *Dying plants provide shelter for small mammals, so please leave them. To you, they may look "messy," but to a small woodland creature, it's home. Mammals and small birds use these withering plants as a place to hide and keep warm. Insects use them for hibernation. *Plants with hollow stalks can shelter native bees and other insects. *Instead of bundling and disposing of branches and debris, try stacking them out of sight in the garden. Piles of brush give small animals  place to hide from predators and a cache to store their food. Squirrels will hide their seeds and nuts in brush piles so they can find them later, when the yard is covered in deep snow.  Try these simple tips and more animals will make it through the winter. After all, you like having a cozy home and they do too! by Mary Kennedy

The next Booktown Mystery!

by Lorraine Bartlett / Lorna Barrett / L.L. Bartlett

As most of you know, I write the Booktown Mysteries under the name Lorna Barrett--one third of my trifecta of writing personalities.  The next book in the series, is A Fatal Chapter.  (Note I didn't say final. Too many peoples seem to be calling it that. This is NOT the last Booktown Mystery.  I'm about to start #10.)

While we write the books, the publisher's marketing department writes the "blurb" that goes on the back cover and to all advertising places. (Think Amazon, etc.)  Usually, the author is kept in the loop about these things.  For some reason, this little detail seems to have fallen through the cracks for A Fatal Chapter.  I read the blurb for the first time on Amazon.  Here it is:

While out walking Sarge, Tricia is led by the agitated dog to a man lying in a gazebo. She’s startled when she recognizes Pete Renquist, the president of the Stoneham Historical Society, who appears to be suffering from cardiac arrest. When Pete later dies in the hospital, the discovery of a suspicious bruise and a puncture mark on his arm suggests he may have been murdered.

Haunted by Pete’s enigmatic last words to her, Tricia begins to consider who had a motive to kill her friend. Did Pete take his flirting too far, only to have a jealous husband teach him a lesson? Or did he discover something in the town’s historical records that his killer wanted kept secret? Tricia is determined to get to the bottom of things before someone else becomes history…

Yeah, that's a lot of the story, but not what I consider the most important part of the book.   So I wrote a shorter version, that I think introduces the most important aspect of the story. 

Have you ever been on a ghost walk? The Stoneham Historical Society plans to give nighttime tours of the Stoneham Rural Cemetery, but someone wants to prevent that--taking extreme measures. Can Tricia figure out who is behind the attacks before someone else becomes the cemetery's newest resident?

What's your take on the story?  Are you intrigued by either description?  If so, which one?  Should they be combined?

And by the way, how do you like the cover?  (I think it's the prettiest one yet.)

A Fatal Chapter will be released on June 2nd. It is now ready for preorder from the following places:

Amazon  |  Kindle  |  Barnes & Noble  |  Nook  |  iBooks  |  Kobo
Chapters | Book Depository | Books A Million

Tales of the Typewriter - Chapter One

By Mary Jane Maffini AKA Victoria Abbott

At last, a forever home for little Underwoody.
Our story begins some time ago when I bought something I always wanted to have: a solid old Underwood typewriter, just like the type I remember being old when I was a kid.   In fact, I started my first Fiona Silk mystery on an Olivetti many years ago. 

This Underwood seemed so iconic that I had to have it and so I scooped it up for fifty dollars at an antique shop.  So far so good.  It wasn't as though I'd be doing my Camilla MacPhee WIP on it or that Victoria and I would create the next book collector mystery.  No. I was thinking small: I will type envelopes with it, I decided. I decided that would be much less aggravating than setting them up on the printer.  Or writing them by hand when even I can’t read my writing. 
But when I slipped in that first envelope and clicked on the keys, nothing happened. That ancient ribbon was dry and useless.   
Of course, no one in our region of just under a million people sells typewriter ribbons anymore. Time passed and the typewriter lived as a mere decoration.  Then I decided to try to find the right ribbon.  I was surprised to learn that there were ribbons out there all right. For around $25 plus delivery!
Does this hat make me look useless? 

The typewriter went back to being a charming decoration.  Sometimes I dressed it up. Or gave it accessories.

Gnome Sweet Gnome

Meanwhile we moved to our little village (that’s actually part of Canada’s capital – although that’s a story for another day).  Now we can walk places including Office Pro Manotick, the small but mighty office supply shop where you can get pretty much anything (Knitting needles? Buttons?  Artists’ canvasses? Sure thing)  
But they had no ribbons for the Underwood.  However,, Sheila, (who I now think of as Mrs. Fix-it) said, “We just sell people ribbons for calculators and show them how to re-spool. That will be $3.99." (Canadian!)


You can see why I’d be happy about that.  Thrilled, I carried home the ribbon in triumph.  I was thinking that those other ribbons were a bit of a rip-off. 
My husband decided to re-spool for me.  He likes to be the one in charge of engineering and public works and leave the arts and entertainment to me and there are good reasons for this.


Of course, all  good stories need a bit of conflict and some obstacles.  Ours was coming.  Things weren’t entirely perfect.
Here’s a peek at the back of our first envelope and my note.







 And here’s a shot of DH’s hands after they’d already been washed twice.  



But never mind. 
We'll keep at it for a while.  Yes, yes. I know. It's $25 not $250, but it's the principle of the thing!
So what do you think? Should we visit Sheila again for help? She is quite remarkable at solving problems. Should we cave in and buy the new ribbon?

Got any typewriter tips or tales of your own? How about some time-saving tricks that didn’t quite work out?  
We'll pour a cup of tea and wait to hear from you!