Kassandra Lamb's Blog, page 9

Confessions of a Lifelong Horse Lover, Plus a New Release

by Kassandra Lamb ~ It’s not an accident that the protagonist of my cozy mystery series ends up with a horse. (Or that the daughter of the previous series’ protagonist has a pony.) You all might not know this, but I’m a lifelong horse lover.

I fell in love with horses when I read Black Beauty as a kid. But I was thirteen before I had a chance to ride anything other than a pony walking in circles at the county fair. That year, we moved to the rural part of Baltimore County, Maryland, and I was...

Letting Go of Beloved Characters

by Kassandra Lamb ~ I’m ending a mystery series this month, for the second time in my writing career. And letting go of beloved characters isn’t any easier this time around.

The logo on each book (© Majivecka; permission to use purchased through Dreamstime.com)

There are lots of good reasons for ending a series, one of them being that the main character(s) have reached the culmination of their character arc. They start out with flaws, issues, neuroses to overcome, and over the course of th...

In Honor of Martin Luther King, Jr. Day…

In honor of Martin Luther King Jr. Day, we’re giving away an ecopy of Police Protection this week, in our Facebook readers’ group.

Hop over and check the group out HERE. Comment on any post and once you are approved to participate, you can enter the giveaway.

Police Protection, A Kate Huntington Mystery

A story ripped from real-life headlines.

A police detective is found in an alley, standing over the body of an unarmed African-American boy. Groggy from a concussion, he has no...

An Interview with a Fictitious Dog! ~ a Fun Encore (Plus a New Release)

by Kassandra Lamb ~ Back in September, 2022, Sister in Crime Lois Winston had her fictitious character, Anastasia Pollock, interview one of my characters, who happens to be a service dog! It was such fun doing an interview with a fictitious dog (I learned a lot as I typed out his answers to the questions) that I decided to post it again, now that the story Buddy talks about in the interview is coming out, finally.

So without further ado, here’s An Interview With a Fictitious Dog!

Today we ...

6 Reasons Why Your Resolutions Fail (and What to Do Differently) ~ an encore

(image by Nevit Dilmen CC-SA-BY 3.0 Wikimedia Commons)

by Kassandra Lamb ~ Here’s an oldie but a goodie from 2019… Do you make New Year’s resolutions (or goals) that have flown out the window by the end of February? Here are 6 reasons why your resolutions may fail, plus some suggestions for increasing your chances of success.

The problem may be how you are wording the resolutions/goals. Or perhaps they aren’t quite the right ones for you.

Ask these questions to get to the root of why y...

10 Tips for an Imperfect but Happy Holiday (an encore)

by Kassandra Lamb ~ Here’s an oldie-but-goodie post. I’m posting it partly because I’m busy with my own holiday preparations, but the message bears repeating — tips for an imperfect but happy holiday!

This time of year is supposed to be joyful – full of good food, time spent with family, tinsel and bright lights, and lots of packages under the tree.

We tend to have high expectations for the season, and also to feel that we have to meet others’ expectations so that everyone has a fabulous h...

Yes, Police Procedurals Are Character-Driven

by Kassandra Lamb ~ This is our fifth installment in our subgenre series of posts. It discusses police procedurals, which are character-driven most of the time these days, believe it or not.

When I decided to start a new series of police procedurals, I didn’t realize that some people assume mysteries in this subgenre will not be character-driven. I heard comments like, “Oh, I don’t read police procedurals. I prefer character-driven stories.”

This confused me. I much prefer character-driven...

Off-Week Goodie: An eBook 99¢ Sale

Just a quick heads-up! Since I’m launching Book 2 in a few days, I’m currently holding an ebook 99¢ sale of Lethal Assumptions, Book 1 in my C.o.P. on the Scene police procedurals.

LETHAL ASSUMPTIONS, A C.o.P. on the Scene Mystery

Fans of JA Jance’s Sheriff Joanna Brady and JD Robb’s Eve Dallas will love this new female cop on the scene!

Judith Anderson’s no-nonsense attitude and confidence served her well in her climb to homicide lieutenant in the Baltimore County PD, but that confi...

How Sam Spade Came to Be Hard-Boiled, Part 2 (more on The Maltese Falcon)

from Amazon.com

Here is Part 2 of our encore presentation of Kathy Owen’s excellent posts on hard-boiled crime fiction and specifically The Maltese Falcon.

Hi!  K.B. Owen here again, with the rest of the story behind The Maltese Falcon, by Dashiell Hammett.  If you missed Part 1, click here.  Thanks for joining me today!

Dashiell Hammett’s life was more important to his work than is usual with an author.  Hammett was the first detective (a Pinkerton) to write detective novels, and is co...

How Sam Spade Came to Be Hard-Boiled (Crime Fiction) ~ an encore (Plus a New Release)

We’ve been talking about crime fiction sub-genres the last few weeks, so it seemed like a good time to re-run Kathy Owen’s excellent two posts on hard-boiled crime fiction.

Hi, Kathy Owen here, to talk about the “hard-boiled” detective story sub-genre and one of my favorite examples of that style, The Maltese Falcon. (Yes, I’m fully embracing the irony of a cozy mystery writer discussing such a rough-and tumble fictional world.)

This will be in two parts. Today, I’ll talk about the sub-...