Kate Collins's Blog, page 67

Do You Remember Camelot?

by Karen Rose Smith
Do you remember Camelot?
Camelot is probably the one movie that became the basis of my writing style. At its core, Camelot is an emotional tale based on myth and legend about a woman who falls in love with two men who are very different.  One love is all about the head and heart—Guinevere does love the king. Theirs was an arranged marriage.  Her other love with Lancelot is all about heart and passion. 
Love, conflict and a wrenching ending. True, I aim to provide a happy ending whether I write mystery novels or romances. But unlike other favorite movies, I can watch Camelot over and over.  Maybe I expect the ending to change! Maybe each time I watch it, I rewrite the ending in my head. 

The musical by Lerner (book and lyrics) and Loewe (music), hit Broadway in 1960.  It won four Tony Awards.  The movie was released in 1967 and became associated with the Kennedy administration—the Camelot era.  The movie won 3 Academy Awards and the soundtrack was a top selling LP.  I watched the play several times as a young girl--the production developed by Little Theatre groups.  When the movie was released, I watched it several times.  In college, I played the vinyl album whenever I was in my dorm room. 
The conflict in Camelot underlies some of my conflicts in mysteries today.  My sleuth has to choose between two men. Family relationships that become motives for murder can be at the bottom of figuring out the puzzle of the case. 
Yes, I have the DVD of Camelot and never tire of the story or the music.  After all, Camelot is a magical place where it only rains after sundown, where a king has a wizard as a childhood mentor, where love is a force used for right. 
Do you recognize this actress and actor?

Goodreads...In or Out?

This is about Goodreads. Personally I find it a total pain to use. The whole site is not very straight-forward and it’s downright cumbersome. 
I often want to write the person who runs the site and tell them to take Amazon lessons. Now I ask you, is there any site easier to handle than Amazon! I’ve never been asked to update my password or been kicked off. Maybe that’s because Amazon wants you to spend money. LOL
Goodreads is a great way to connect with authors, I think. It does break it down into genres and that helps but I hate that when you post a blog etc you can’t attach pictures. I’m a very picture person.And if you are an author you can run ads and giveaways. That’s great and helps get readers interested in your books. I like that you can get friends and have your own bookshelf and do reviews…love the review part.
In fact I get more reviews on Goodreads than Amazon!

If you don’t have a ton of money to spend I wonder if the ads on Goodreads are worth it.
Did you ever buy a book from an ad that you see on Goodreads? Have you ever connected with an author though Goodreads from the contests or ads or group recommendations and suggestions ? Do you belong to any of the cozy groups on Goodreads?
And most of all what suggestions do you have for an author using Goodreads? Since it’s hard to post a comment here if you could email DuffyBrown@DuffyBrown.com I’d really appreciate it and I’ll send you Lethal In Old Lace tote! 
Thanks for the help.
Hugs, Duffy

Dogs, Kids, and a Cello

by Maggie Sefton



Granddaughter AnaSofia playing her cello for Nana (that's me).  :)  She's in the fourth grade---and yes, she's very tall for her age.   We grow them tall in 6'1" daughter Christine's family.     


You folks know that I'm capable of posting blogs on all sorts of subjects and combinations of subjects, so just chalk this post up as one of those.  I'm presently back in Northern Virginia, in Vienna, to be exact.  Visiting with family and friends.  Relaxing time.  I've gone to dinners with friends and dinners with family, and everyone in-between.  :)






Some of the other kids from the Odyssey of the Mind competition.



Plus, I joined family on Saturday for a trip to the Odyssey of the Mind competition for local grade schools.  Each school had one team of kids that came up with their own ideas, wrote their own scripts, and performed for parents and family and other interested folks.  That was fun.











And here are some doggie photos.  To the right is Grayson, a pit bull mix with a very sweet disposition.










And below is Wrigley, a very sweet-natured Rottweiler, that's also very protective.
         
                                                              

ARE YOU CREATIVE? YOU PROBABLY HAVE A MESSY DESK

By Mary Kennedy                                                         

If you're a writer, chances are you have a messy desk. No, I don't have any scientific studies to back this up, just anecdotal info from my writer pals.  And personal experience. (My own desk and office are so messy, I don't dare post a photo!)
Why do writers tend to be messy? Maybe it's because we tend to be pack rats, maybe we're just drowning in papers, books and notes that we might use "someday." Most of us are working on more then one project at a time, and we have ideas for future projects percolating on the back burner. 
I like to keep several writing projects going at once and I find it makes me more productive. Right now, I'm working on book 5 of the Talk Radio Mysteries, Death of a Shady Shrink. The Talk Radio Mysteries is set in Florida and the protagonist, Dr. Maggie Walsh, is a psychologist-turned talk radio host. Besides working at a wacky station called WYME-ME, she manages to solve a murder in every book.                                                                         
I like to collect travel piece on south Florida, sites I might include in my series, personal notes on "possible" plot twists.  This leads to a lot of paper and post-it notes!  
I do the same for my Dream Club series which is set in Savannah. The digital version of the first book in the series, Nightmares Can be Murder is on sale right now for $2.99.                                                                              

But I have other items on my agenda. I write the occasional article on books for USA Today, along with healthy living pieces for Gannett News. And that leads to yet more piles of paper!
The only glimmer of light is that a recent study by psychologist Kathleen Vohs at the University of Minnesota shows there can be some benefits to messiness. She did an experiment, published in the journal Psychological Science that seems to show that creativity thrives in a messy environment. Two groups of participants were asked to come up with new uses for ping-pong balls. One group was assigned to a messy office (papers strewn about) and the other in a pristine office. Guess what? The participants in the messy office came up with more creative answers that the other group.
                                                                               
So if your office looks like this, don't despair. It might be ramping up your creativity. 
Mary Kennedy

Join me for a Day-Long Discussion!

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


Today on my Facebook Group Page we're discussing the first three novels in the Jeff Resnick mystery series.

As the author, I know a lot more about the characters than gets in the novels and short stories.

Did you know there were 7 novels?


There is also a companion series (Jeff Resnick's Personal Files) of short stories and novellas.


There will be questions answered, secrets spilled, and giveaways!

And don't forget, the first book in the series, MURDER ON THE MIND, is FREE for all ebook formats, and is also available in Trade Paperback and on audio.

Kindle US |  Kindle Worldwide  |  Nook  |  iBooks  |  Kobo  |  Smashwords

Trade Paperback  |  Audio

Can't make it today?  The posts will be there tomorrow, but you won't be eligible for the giveaways.

Will I see you there?

Bringing Rainbows Inside

by Karen Rose Smith


How often do you see a rainbow? 

In Pennsylvania I might catch sight of a rainbow now and then after a rainstorm. But it’s not an ordinary sight. For me, rainbows signify hope.  They are light bending and dancing in a spectacular way.  Why wouldn’t I want to bring that experience inside. 
Ever since I was a child and watched the movie Pollyanna with Hayley Mills, sun-catchers have had an important significance to me.  They brought rainbows and hope into an elderly man’s and an orphan’s life through Pollyanna. Using prisms from light shades and chandeliers, Pollyanna strung them across a window.  The sun shining through them made rainbows on the walls that were beautiful. 
I became familiar with prisms again when I hung a sun-catcher in the window and our cat began playing with the rainbows on the wall. I hung another sun-catcher.  Then my husband and I visited Sedona on a research trip.  In one of the shops, I found sun-catchers that were fashioned with round prisms and beads.  
Some of the sun-catchers include a piece of Sedona’s Red Rocks to bring positive vibrations into the house.  I strung a few across our kitchen window with a beautiful rainbow wall effect.  When the open window or the heat vent produces a breeze, the cats chase the rainbows on the walls that originate from the swinging prisms. 



Whenever I see a rainbow inside or outside, I smile.  Rainbows are a precious part of life’s beauty. 

Release Day for Lethal In Old Lace!

Yesterday was release day for Lethal In Old Lace! Yippee! 



Here’s a little bit from Reagan Summerside on what’s happening in Savannah these days.

Buy Lethal In Old Lace here

Reagan Summerside here and I think I’m losing my mind...bodies are going missing! How can this happen? I misplace stuff all the time like my keys and where the heck is my purse, I always misplace my purse—Old Yeller, big yellow plether thing that hold my life--but a body takes misplacing stuff to a whole new level.

It all started when I was cutting through a back alley to get to Walker Boone’s house. We just got engaged so I was taking a shortcut to get to his place fast. I would like to say I was in a hurry because I missed him and I did miss him but the fact is I had questions. I needed to know where were we going to live once we got married and who would do the cooking and what kind of toothpaste were we going to use? But that’s another issue and right now there’s a missing body.
When I was cutting thought the alley there was a white Caddy with a body in the back. At first I thought the person in the back was maybe a tired old soul needing a place to take a nap but no one sleeps with eyes open, right?
I would have stuck around to take a closer look but a big rat and bigger roach ganged up on me and I ran for it. When I bought Boone back to the car the body was gone. Okay, this is all pretty bad but what makes the situation worse is that I know who owns the Caddy. It belongs to the Abbott sisters who live next door to me. They are adorable retired school teachers who supplement their income by being Savannah’s fave professional mourners. No one can get a funeral weeping like the sisters.

So what should I do? Call the cops? What if the sisters are responsible for that body? Then they’d be arrested and I can’t have my neighbors in jail now can I especially if they had a real good reason? Not neighborly at all. Should I just forget the whole thing like Boone suggests? He says I’m on dead-body overload from tripping across them all the time.
Got any suggestions? What would you do if you found a body and then it went missing? Here’s a recipe for one of Auntie KiKi’s martinis to help you find an answer.

Lethal In Old LaceConsignment Shop MysteriesDuffy Brown.
Auntie KiKi’s Death by Chocolate Martini Chocolate martini for when you need both chocolate and a martini
1 1/2 ounces chocolate liqueur1 1/2 ounces Creme de Cacao1/2 ounce vanilla vodka2 1/2 ounces half-and-halfchocolate syrup, for rim

Mix all ingredients in a cocktail shaker filled with ice and shake.
Pour into a chilled cocktail glass rimmed with chocolate syrup. Add cherry skewered on toothpick. Does that sound delicious or what!

Traveling Back In Time

by Maggie Sefton


I still hear from readers who have no idea I also write Historical Mysteries.  SCANDALS, SECRETS AND MURDER.  If you give it a try, let me know and tell me how you enjoyed the story.  :)   So, for today, here's a closer look at the first in what I hope to be a series----The Widow and the Rogue Mysteries.  Here's

SCANDALS, SECRETS AND MURDER: The Widow and the Rogue Mysteriesby Maggie Sefton

The 1890s---A time of Robber Barons and Reformers, Suffragettes and Swindlers.  Wall Street millionaires made fortunes overnight only to lose them the next day.  They all came to Washington, D.C.  Some to plead their causes, others to bribe the politicians who held power.  America was changing and re-inventing itself in time for a new century, and Washington was the center of it all.
Powerful and corrupt U.S. Senator Horace Chester is stabbed to death in a Murder Bay brothel, wrapped in the arms of his evening’s entertainment.  His assailant escapes into the crush of unwashed bodies filling the streets of 1890 Washington’s notorious red light district---a dense warren of taverns, gambling dens, and bordellos just a few short blocks from the President’s house.  There, the wicked and the wretched alike find myriad vices to tempt their darkest desires.  Anything is for sale in Murder Bay---including murder.
Hero/Sleuth:  Devlin Burke, English investor, aristocratic family, amateur scientist and sometime sleuth.  He’s in Washington to oversee his family’s investments and rescue his wayward nephew Freddie who’s gone bankrupt in Sen. Chester’s risky investment scheme.  In a fit of rage, Freddie attacked Chester in a crowded Capitol Hill hallway only days before the senator’s gruesome murder.  Freddie has no alibi for that night and is now the police inspector’s prime suspect. 
Heroine/Sleuth:  Amanda Duncan, wealthy young Washington widow, has spent years trying to ignore the clairvoyant visions that flash unbidden before her eyes, but she can no longer.  If only her husband had believed her vision of the fiery train crash, he and her young daughter would still be alive.  Since she couldn’t save her own loved ones, Amanda turns her back on Washington society and deliberately treads where no respectable lady would dare---into the grimy and violent world of Washington’s tenement alley slums.  Perhaps her visions can help others.  This latest vision, however, was most troubling.  She saw a man stabbed to death by a shadowy assailant and a young girl screaming. 
Not surprisingly, the police scoff at Amanda’s visions.  But Devlin does not.  Her account of the murder causes the hair on the back of his neck to stand on end.  He had been present in London two years earlier when the famous psychic Robert James Lees led Scotland Yard to the very door of the Ripper--only to be ignored.
Devlin and Amanda form a prickly partnership to find Senator Chester’s murderer, which takes them from the Capital’s poshest salons into the crime-infested streets of Murder Bay.  Devlin’s sleuthing instincts and Amanda’s psychic detection lead them ever closer to the truth.  But the closer they approach, the more desperate the killer becomes---and the more dangerous. 

LIFE LESSONS FROM MY CATS

By Mary Kennedy

 . Sometimes you have to do things that make other people happy (no matter how crazy it may seem to you.)
   2. Raise your children with lots of love and affection. This is probably the most important task you can accomplish in life.   3. Take time to diet and exercise. A healthy mind in a healthy body. Don't let yourself go, You're too important!  4. Sometimes you really CAN have too much of a good thing. Your time and energy are limited. Choose wisely and don't act impulsively.   5. Take time to read. It will open a whole new world for you.   6. Ask and you shall receive. (well, sometimes.)                         7. Embrace new technology, sometimes it can be a time-saver. If it becomes a time-sink, you can always ditch it.    8. Sometimes you need to just get away and think. Find a place where you won't be disturbed and enjoy the solitude.                                       9. Be sure to think outside the box. Even if society tries to put you in one.   10. Be calm, confident and think before speaking. Keep your own counsel. Words said in haste can never be taken back.    I hope you've enjoyed this glimpse into the life lessons I've learned from cats! Mary Kennedy

Traveling Rug

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

Ever since I can remember, my parents had "traveling rugs."  What's a traveling rug?

1. cloth having a crisscross design2. blanket 
When I was small, we only had a red-and-black traveling rug. It was 100% wood and SCRATCHY.  They brought it with them when they first came to America from England. For some reason, I always associate that traveling rug with being sick. If we were sick, we slept on the couch and what did we get covered up with? Yup, the traveling rug. 
I'm not sure on what trip my folks got a second traveling rug. It's a wool/acrylic blend and much softer. When my Mum passed away almost three years ago, I found it stuffed in a suitcase.  Well, that was one item that wasn't going to Goodwill! Unfortunately, when I washed it, I must not have put it on the delicate cycle, because it ripped. Oh no!  I really wanted that "rug." I took it to the tailor around the corner, and in five minutes, the owner had sewn it up. It's not as pretty as it once was, but it's back to being useful. 
Oddly enough, when I went on Google to look for traveling rug pictures, I found that very one! Wow!
I asked Mum what she used a traveling rug for when she was in England, and she said they brought it along to sit on for picnics. She may have said something else about them, but that's what I remember. 
It wasn't until earlier this week that I remembered that they brought me a traveling rug back from one of their trips.   How could I forget?  Well, I have a laundry hamper in my laundry room that I haven't looked at in at least 20 years.  No lie.  It took me two years to find one like that (white wicker) and then I stuffed it full of items that didn't get used often (including my favorite two rayon shirts that are now too small for me and have to be ironed) and just never opened it, forgetting about everything that was inside.  It's handy to place the recycling stuff on top of that hamper before it makes it to the garage and the recycling bins. It's now empty, and it's going to stay that way.
Anyway, my traveling rug is going to live in my office on the back of my chair where I sit and edit. 
Anybody else have a traveling rug?
P.S.  I still have that first traveling rug. It's stored in a tote. Must find a way to use it, too.