Kate Collins's Blog, page 180

Trade Paperback Copies Available----At Last!

by Maggie Sefton

You may wonder why the excited title to my blog post today.  After all, paper copies are available in all of my Kelly Flynn Mysteries, the Molly Malone political suspense novels---DEADLY POLITICS, POISONED POLITICS, and BLOODY POLITICS in November.  Heck. . .there are even old paperback copies available on Amazon of my very first mystery, DYING TO SELL, and my 1995 historical romance, ABILENE GAMBLE (bright red cover).     So. . .what's the big deal?

Well, for me it's a big deal because there is finally a trade paperback copy available for my E-book original fiction Historical Mystery---SCANDALS, SECRETS, AND MURDER:  The Widow and the Rogue Mysteries.  Set in 1890, Washington, DC.  There has been an E-book version available since March 29th on Amazon and Barnes and Noble as well as other formats, and it has been selling well.  Plus, reader response has been wonderful.  I've been really gratified at the 5-Star reviews.  Thank you, thank you, Readers.

But----there are a LOT of readers out there who do not like to read E-books.  They want a paper book they can hold in their hands.  We writers hear from them regularly, and we writers listen.  Believe me, we want every reader to be able to meet our characters, so we'll bend over backwards to find a way to accomplish that.

Thankfully---there's no need for acrobatics.   Enter Amazon.   Amazon noticed a few years ago how many authors wanted to have paperback versions of their E-book originals.  So, Marketing Seers that they are, folks at Amazon clearly recognized a need in the marketplace and decided to fill it.  Amazon developed a separate division of their company, a subsidiary actually, called CreateSpace, to literally create physical books out of authors' ebook manuscripts.   The books come in the trade paperback size which is much more popular than the smaller mass market paperback.  Readers love the larger font size.

If you're interested in checking out the book and taking a look inside, simply go to Amazon.com, select Books, then click on Maggie Sefton Books.  All of my books will appear, so scroll down to SCANDALS, SECRETS, AND MURDER.  It's the first in the Widow and the Rogue Mysteries, so there will be others.  In fact, I'll start working on the second in the series this month.  Please let me know if you give SCANDALS a try.   And----I'll have some more "writing news" soon.  Something completely different.  I'll let you know later this month.  :)  

Meanwhile----ATTENTION: All residents of New York State and New England----There's a huge festival coming up October 18th and 19th (Saturday/Sunday) in Rhinebeck, New York.  The New York State Sheep and Wool Festival.  There will be hundreds of sheep (all breeds), alpaca, llamas, sheep dogs herding sheep, all sorts of demonstrations, and a small city worth of vendors displaying fibers and fiber art of every description---spinning, weaving, plus knitted, sewn, and crocheted items.   I'll be signing books at the Merritt Bookstore Author event location.   If you are in the area, I hear it's a heckuva great festival, so come on down and see us!

Grumpy Geese

by Kate Collins

I'm sitting at my desk working on a scene from my current mystery in progress, FLORIST GRUMP, (Nov. 20150) in which poor beleaguered Abby is under all kinds of stress (you'll have to read the next book to find out why). Because of factors beyond her control she's not getting enough rest or down time and with everything else going on in her life, she's a big grump.

My desk faces a corner with windows on both walls, giving me a panoramic view of a large pond. On that pond today are at least a hundred geese, honking, splashing, showing off by beating their wings, and generally distracting me. I could only capture a fraction of them with my iPad camera, but you get the picture. Literally, I hope. I also snapped a pic of a white egret contentedly fishing all by his lonesome. I relate to that.

What you can't see are several bad-tempered geese that I watch  in fascination. A group of them will be picking at things in the grass and suddenly one will put his head down, hiss, and charge another one, scaring him away. The puzzle is why. There isn't anything that's apparent in the other bird's behavior to cause it. So I'm guessing Mr. Grump simply got up on the wrong side of the nest.


It still leaves me wondering what would make a goose grumpy. The sun is shining, the weather is mild, the others are eating congenially . . . What's your problem, Bub?

I know people like that. They have everything going for them and yet they're grumpy. They scowl and make disparaging remarks for no apparent reason, just like the charging goose. They have a negative outlook that makes everyone around them miserable. Do you know people like that?

I try to get away from the grumpy geese when I meet them. Sometimes, however, it's impossible, and so I imagine a clear plastic bubble around me, a shield, if you will. I read once that when negative people send their negative energy towards a shield, it bounces back and makes them uncomfortable. I tried it and it worked. The person moved away.

Since my husband passed away, I've read a lot of books on spirituality and quantum theory, like the Law of Attraction, the Law of Abundance, and so on, and I understand that everything is energy. We vibrate with energy that depends on the kind of emotion we're experiencing at any given moment. And like a magnet, negative emotion pulls in more negative emotion. So I've made it a habit each morning to set my intention to be positive. My pep talk goes something like this: Today you're going to have a good day, and something unexpected will happen.  And it does. It might be little, but it'll make me smile.

I wonder if I can send a positive intention to the Mr. Grumps floating outside my window.

Have a positively great week.

Me And The Fish

by Leann

Saturday in South Carolina was probably the prettiest day I can remember in years. A little north wind and lots of sunshine. Now that we finally have a lawn--and it's a beautiful lawn--the birds are returning, the no-seeum bugs that
love sandy soil have retreated and I can walk down the slope of our backyard to the edge of the lake.

The birds right now are mostly blue birds, and we never saw them in south Texas. So pretty! I can watch birds for hours and so can my cats. Wexford chatters away when they perch on the railing of our deck and smarty-pants Rosie the dog knows what the chattering means so she joins Wexford. We are doing human and cat things again and it feels wonderful. I haven't breathed such clean air in years and I know this will improve my health over time.

Today, after the husband didn't want me to lure the ducks or the geese to shore because they're "messy," I was a little bummed. Funny how the messiest person I know is concerned about this, but that's another blog. I do get to see this big old
heron everyday, but I wanted more! So I took out a loaf of bread, crouched by the shore and started feeding the school of little fish that gather there. I actually went outside 3 times today because it's so quiet and pretty. On the last trip I saw a big turtle swimming by because the water is that clear. I was filled with a happiness I haven't enjoyed in a long time.

Me and the fish and the birds and no doubt the deer that will eat our plants (and drive my husband crazy) are back together again. I used to spend a lot of time fishing and just wandering in the woods near our house when I was kid. We had pheasants, deer, foxes, all kinds of animals. I wanted to see them up close. Being with the animals takes me to a place where being alone is absolutely fine--because I am not alone. I am surrounded by good. As awful as the rent house was, this home is better by thousands and was well worth the wait. Me and the fish will be meeting up everyday, I believe. Yup. Peaceful thoughts are great.

THE KENNEDY CATS, part two

by Mary Kennedy   Part two of the Kennedy Cats. Since I have 8 cats, I couldn't fit them all on one blog. If you didn't read Part One, last Saturday, Kennedy Cats part one Oliver, Henry, Clyde and Calpurnia will be wildly disappointed. So please go there right now or I'll never hear the end of it. Cats can be divas, you know. They all want their moment in the sun. Okay, are you all caught up?

Let's start with today's 4 cats. Pictured above is Eliza, a small little tuxedo cat. She's a highly resilient cat and she is (or was, their romance has cooled a little) Clyde's girlfriend. Clyde is a beat up orange and white Tom cat I was feeding. For some reason, I could never persuade him to come inside.
                                                        
 And then everything changed. One night Clyde brought his pregnant girlfriend (Eliza) to my house for dinner. (He was too cheap to take her to Red Robin.) It was bitterly cold and he stood by and guarded her while she ate; he didn't eat a bite of food himself. I managed to lure Eliza onto the sun porch and she gave birth to five kittens two days later. (Five kittens--the gift that keeps on giving.)  Meanwhile Clyde continued to be on the prowl, but I eventually trapped him and now he is a happy house cat. He has the run of the house but he adores the sun porch and spends hours out there watching the birds and squirrels;  relaxing and happy to be an indoor cat. He loves to be pet and be brushed, but I'm the only one who can get close to him. The sun porch is heated and air conditioned and it is cat heaven.                                                                                                    Like many semi-feral cats, I seem to be the only person Clyde has bonded with. I'm sure he was a housecat at one time, but I think someone dumped him and he's had a rough life. When cats are forced to live on their own like that, they often acquire "feral ways" and become mistrustful of humans. Fur-Face, (her real name is Felicia) is an adorable calico and one of Eliza and Clyde's five kittens.                                                         
She's the kitty on the far right. She was the feistiest of the kittens, and still is first in line at chow time. (In case you're wondering what happened to the other four kittens, I found wonderful homes for them.)

Shadow had a sad history. I found him curled up in the rain, weak and emaciated, hiding under a bush in the garden. He was starving, missing half his fur and immediately wolfed down two cans of cat food. He looks quite handsome with his lion cut for summer and has such a sweet personality.
                                                          

So now you've gotten a look at the 8 Kennedy cats and we'll kick off a contest this week and another one at the end of the month. I'll be giving away fun prizes for humans (a large box of chocolate pretzels, a very nice tote bag that folds into a clutch) and oodles of cat toys! (including something called "catnip candy mice" that sound a little strange, but I assure you, they exist.) They're made of compressed catnip.
                                                                                                                 
 So stay tuned, and I promise to get the contest up and running this week. It will be easy to enter, all you have to do will be leave a comment, send me a message with your name and e-mail addy. More later from the Kennedy Cats and The Cozy Chicks!! Mary Kennedy

Fun with Graphics on National Cat Month

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

Well, I'm still experimenting with graphics ... but I can't say my technique has gotten much better.  Still, it's FUN.

This month is National Cat Month, so I've had some fun with that (and will have more as the month goes on).  Here are a few of the graphics I've done for myself and The Chicks.

 You can't get much more simple than the above.

Still pretty simple.  (Mostly because I'm not good at isolating objects and need a white background.)

Still pretty simple, but at least there's a background.  And if you were wondering, there WILL be more Victoria Square books, but they have not yet been added to my publisher's production schedule.  I'll keep you posted when they are!  (Even though it says Mason and Della, those are really my cats, the late Bonnie and her sister, Betsy, who just turned 18 this week.)




Syrah is back with his National Cat Month message, too.  I'll be doing more for Leann's Cats In Trouble and some of the other chicks as the month goes on.
Speaking of the Chicks ... The next one is the most important ... but I'll let Mary tell you more about what's in store for our readers tomorrow.



Don't miss Mary's post.

How will YOU celebrate National Cat Month?  Do you have a rescue?  (Betsy and Bonnie came from a kill shelter.  Whew!  And just in the nick of time, too!  I can't imagine these last 18 years without my girl.  Who was sitting on my lap as I typed this post.)

After the party's over ...

By Mary Jane Maffini (aka half of Victoria Abbott)              
Well, this week I am resting up after the fun and excitement of the book launch party for The Wolfe Widow, the third in the book collector mysteries that I write with my daughter.  I really wished that you all could have been there.  Some of you California and Ohio and Indiana folks did mention how the odd thousand miles or so journey might not work out this week.  I’m sure I shouted back, “But there will be chocolates!  And nachos! And chicken wings … And Peachy the Pug (aka Walter)  in her tutu!”   




  Never mind! It was great to welcome to our new book alongside Book Fair and Foul, my very good friend(and former business partner)  Erika Chase’s fourth book. Here's the poster that Victoria did up:

 I often wonder if we should keep on having launch parties. It’s a lot of work with the planning, finding a venue, deciding on refreshments and making invitations and posters.
But after all, it was my sixteenth book. Or maybe that is only book 14 ½ as I am only half of Victoria Abbott.  Math might not be my best thing.  But never mind that, I was also celebrating the fact that fifteen years ago, my first book, Speak Ill of the Dead: a Camilla MacPhee mystery, was released and I thought I would die from excitement.
              
 Now I had to ask myself, once again, if there might not be a limited number of times you could drag your friends out to buy your latest book.  In the end, I always go with it.  A book takes close to a year to write, involves many ideas, takes much staring at the computer screen, plus pacing in the office and possibly a bit of nail-biting.  A new book has to be celebrated!  That’s why I always attend the launches for my friends’ books too. 
 Victoria,  Erika and I had a great time.  We were glad to see familiar faces and new ones.  Writing can be such a solitary experience, even when you write together as Victoria and I do.  Or even if you spend quite a bit of time together as Erika and I do.  Looking around the room we saw many friends who are involved in the book business: librarians, booksellers, publishers’ representatives and other writers, published and not published, but mostly we saw readers. It is always a thrill for us to connect and reconnect with readers. It is very gratifying and even emotional to see people who love books and think they are worth leaving the house for. That’s why we do this: to tell the best stories we can in the best way we can to people who love to read them.  Our readers are very important to us.
Let me also say, a book launch party is also a great reason to get out of the slouchy writing gear (too often involves pajamas and slippers) and put our best foot forward. 
We were lucky to have our friend Cathy (a bookseller) as emcee.  She kept things moving and ensured the mood stayed high. Those rowdies in the back of the room (many of them librarians) behaved! That's Cathy on the left, Erika with the mic, me and Victoria next. Our friend Terri T. is in the background.


Now the party’s over and it’s time to buckle down and finish up the fourth Book Collector mystery, The Marsh Madness.  As many of you know that involves reading the fabulous stack of Ngaio Marsh books that my friend Nancy Reid (a regular reader here too!) gave me.       So here are some questions for you: do you ever go to book events: Launch parties? Readings? Conferences?  Bookstore events? Library happenings? If so, what do you like about them?
 And here’s the most important question: if you had been at ours, would there have been any chocolate left?  Tell the truth! 

Ellery's Mystery Cozy Contest

Hosted By Ellery Adams

It's the first of the month! Time for me to give away a $10 card to the bookstore of your choice.

This is how it works: I post a few lines from a cozy mystery. You post the title and author in the comment section. Then, I'll draw a random name from the winning guesses and post that person's name on this page and on Facebook by 10 p.m. on October 2nd.


Okay, here we go! Here are the lines from this month's mystery cozy:

"People in Pecan Springs just plain don't like witches. Especially these days, what with the grand jury investigatin' the old Ellis case and diggin' up poor old Leota."


Ellery's helpful hint - This mystery was published around 20 years ago, but it's still a perfect Halloween read!

Football, Volleyball, and Waiting For the Zamboni

[image error] by Maggie Sefton


Granddaughter AnaSofia standing with other attendees at a friend's birthday party celebration at an area ice skating facility. Waiting for the Zamboni to finish preparing the ice.  


Well. . .after reading the reader and fan comments about what you folks like best about our Cozy Chicks Blog, I figured I'd post a bunch of photos which give a taste of what I've been up to since I arrived back in Northern Virginia last Friday evening to join my oldest daughter's family for a whole bunch of activities, a.k.a.  Family Fun.  :)


[image error]


Granddaughters 16-year old Natale and 
7-year-old AnaSofia.  Those stamped paw 
prints are for the Penn State University mascot, the Nittany Lion.  












Granddaughter Natale at last night's volleyball game against their equally unbeaten opponent in Northern Virgina.  It was a hard fought contest because both teams were SO good.  Natale's team from James Madison H.S. vs. Southridge H.S.  Boy. . .it was like watching two gladiators in the arena---brandishing swords and shields (indulge me, I'm a historical writer too).  They were so evenly matched, it went to four out of five games, with the score going back and forth.  Games went to 25 and the winner had to win by two points.  Madison won finally, 3 games to 1.  What a contest!  Natale is the tall one closest to the camera in this warm-up shot.








Grandson Matthew, wide receiver for Penn State,  with granddaughters Natale and AnaSofia plus some fellow Penn State students.  You haven't lived until you've been in Beaver Stadium listening to the students, alumni, and fans roar:  "We Are Penn State!"  You don't have to believe me.  Ask fellow Chick Jennifer Stanley/Ellery Adams.  She's a Penn State alum.  :)  

Will You Take My Poll?

by Kate Collins

I and my friends, the rest of the Cozy Chicks, are always interested in what our friends and fans like to see on our pages.  So today's post is going to be short and sweet like that cupcake -- and all about you!

What do you most enjoy seeing on our pages?

Some suggestions:  News about our books; troubles with our writing; things to make you laugh; personal photos; vacation stories; congratulations to our friends for getting a great book review; shout outs about our book releases; our contest information; other writers' contests;  (your ideas)

What don't you enjoy on our pages?

See suggestions above.

I'm sure there are things I haven't thought of. I'm hoping you will share your feelings and ideas with us. We value your friendship and input.

Have a wonderful, happy week.

Anyone Else Get Excited About a Grocery Store?

by Leann

For most of my adult life I have lived in a suburban area close to a large city. The second largest mall in the area was only fifteen minutes away. Shopping was not a problem. I had many choices and took advantage of them all.

When we moved to South Carolina, the nearest interstate is probably forty-five minutes away. We wanted it that way and I am grateful for the peace and beauty here. The air is clean and when the sky is blue, it is crystal clean blue. No pollution here.

That being said, I was missing a "nice" grocery store nearby that sells organic
food and great produce. This small city has fast food galore and K-mart and Walmart and a few local grocery chains. To buy the kind of food I need for my health, I had to drive to Greenville, more than an hour away. But a 2 hour round trip takes its toll on me. I get pretty fatigued.

Imagine my excitement when a brand new, BIG Publix opened in our town this
past week. I've already been there twice. I went  to get my hair cut this week and one of the stylists was talking about how the new store would be her "go to" place from now on. I'll be right there with her. Grocery shopping is something I enjoy, probably because I love cooking so much.

There is plenty to explore that I haven't yet seen--it's a big place and the crowds were a little much for me to handle. Both times I shopped, I left without an item on my list because I needed to get out. I am not a fan of crowds. But there's a lovely
wine section (even though I don't drink, it's still pretty), a bakery with pastries and fresh-baked bread, a salad bar, an Asian food bar, sushi galore (not for me), a deli and every kind of yogurt you can imagine. And of course they have organic chicken and grass fed beef. Now, that's what I'm talking about.

What about you? Do you enjoy a trip to store? I know plenty of people who don't like buying groceries--it's a chore worse than ironing for them. Oh wait. Some folks like ironing. I'm not on that list. But I'd head to Publix every day if my pocket book could handle it.