C.A. Larmer's Blog, page 4

After Exhaling For Months, I’m Bursting With Big News…

I'M BACK WITH A MASSIVE BOOK SALE - I MEAN, MASSIVE!

I recently went on a wonderful road trip with little more than my hubby, our Bluey and a two-man tent (yes, things got squishy!). But I'm back and feeling better than ever—and you get to reap the rewards.

While the journey was all about switching off—from life, our devices, and even our brains—I'm not surprised my brain was BURSTING when we returned, and before I knew it I'd sat down and pumped out a whole new mystery. There'll be more on that in the next newsletter, but for now, I want to share my other mysteries with you. For less!

TEN eBOOKS FOR UNDER $2 EACH

For the month of JULY I've put TEN of my crime novels on sale online at two eBook sites: SMASHWORDS and AMAZON. Even better…

TWO eBOOKS ARE FREE @ Smashwords!

Yep, you read that right. I'm GIVING AWAY the first books in two of my crime series. That way you get to dip your toes into the series at no cost to you! But that sale is only at SMASHWORDS, folks. They are on sale for JUST 99c at AMAZON, so that's not too shabby either.

• THE MURDER MYSTERY BOOK CLUB
• KILLER TWIST: Ghostwriter Mystery 1

So how do you get hold of all of your discounted copies? Just click on the links above or below. And then sit back and enjoy some summer/winter reads (depending which road you're currently on).

Happy (affordable!) reading, everyone.
xo Christina

THIS ONE'S FREE @ SMASHWORDS

THE MURDER MYSTERY BOOK CLUB: When Alicia Finlay walks out on her boring old book club and decides to start a new one—one totally devoted to her favourite genre, crime—she can not imagine the trouble she is about to unleash…

After gathering seven crime devotees together—including ditzy librarian Missy, fashionista Claire, paleontologist Perry, dashing Dr Anders, a poisons expert, and socialite Barbara Parlour—Alicia grows suspicious when one of them fails to show for the next club meet. Barbara has vanished and her husband, Arthur, is curiously unconcerned. The group suspects him of foul play until he meets his own foul fate.

With two baffling mysteries on their hands, the book club decide to do as their favourite fictional sleuths would do, and investigate!

So begins the first instalment of THE MURDER MYSTERY BOOK CLUB, a motley collection of amateur sleuths who must sort the real clues from the red herrings to solve the murder of Arthur Parlour and the mystery of his missing wife. They must also look closer to home because each of them is hiding a secret that could crack the case wide open.

A contemporary cozy mystery for those looking for fun and adventure at their next book club. Can you solve the mystery before the crime buffs do?

THIS ONE'S ALSO FREE (WooHoo)!

The first of the GHOSTWRITER MYSTERY SERIES — KILLER TWIST, a fun, contemporary crime.

From the Amazon-bestselling author comes ghostwriter Roxy Parker. She has a wicked sense of humour, a taste for cheap plonk and an obsession with crime. It's a good thing, then, that her clients keep getting murdered…

In this stand-alone adventure, socialite Beatrice Musgrave is found ripped to shreds below her cliff-top mansion. The police suspect suicide but Roxy smells a rat. She's been writing the heiress's life story and suspects she was hiding a dark secret beneath her twinset and pearls.

From the posh suburbs of Sydney to small-town Australia, Roxy finds herself lured into a web of intrigue where time has healed no wounds and the bandages are unravelling fast. With a menacing stranger at her heels and a handsome friend hiding a secret of his own, Roxy knows she has to act fast. And in case she doesn't know it, her nagging mother reminds her daily.

A thoroughly modern murder mystery.

Long Service Leave for Artists…

Free Your Mind, and the Rest Will Follow…

For the next few months I'm pushing back from my office chair, deserting my desktop computer and hitting the open road. I'm on a quest to free my creative spirit and I can not get going fast enough!

My musician husband and I have been working in creative industries for thirty-plus years, and running our own businesses from home for at least twenty of them. Along the way we've spent a lot of time and effort building works we can be proud of. I've written and self-published eighteen books (all while writing countless newspaper and magazine articles, editing thousands of words for others, and teaching hundreds of students all of the above). In turn, my hubby has recorded countless albums in his home studio—both for himself and his many extraordinary clients, from award-winning jazz trios to rock bands to filmmakers.

It's been a truly lovely, rewarding life. But now it's time to lay down our pen/microphone and head off for a much needed break.

You could call it Long Service Leave…

While COVID-19 has given many full-time, salaried employees a sense of what it's like to work from home—freedom from the daily commute and the glaring boss and those endless pesky meetings VERSUS the stress of concentrating with screaming kids and never getting a chance to truly get away or unwind—they can not really know the fear that comes with the "freedom" of being a full-time freelancer, which is what my husband and I are.

Freelancers never really switch off.

Being a freelancer means never knowing if your current project/client/job will be your last, so you're constantly on the look-out for more projects/clients/jobs, constantly spruiking yourself and your services, regularly terrified you will not have enough cash flow to pay for next month's groceries. Even when we're "relaxing", I'm quietly thinking of new ideas for articles/books/courses while my husband is mentally developing songs/mixes/bands/gigs. It's a lovely way to pass the time, but it's not switching off. Not even close.

And here's another thing about working for yourself: after fifteen years (let alone thirty), no one pats you on the back and says, "You've worked long and hard. Here's a swag of money, go enjoy some well-earned long service leave." Just doesn't happen.

Unless you do it for yourself, of course!

And that's why the hubby and I are heading off. We've handed the keys to our home/studio to a full-time caretaker and are jumping in the car with little more than a bag of clothes, a two-man tent, some blank journals and our beloved Bluey. And, apart from a brief stint in the Big Smoke with our beautiful sons, who have now flown the coop, we're winging it. All bets are off. And that is SO unlike me as I am always thinking ahead.

It's terrifying and liberating all at once!

Even better, we're not putting any demands on ourselves. We have no plans or expectations. We're not spruiking for work or trying to conjure up the next Great Novel or Album, although if those happen to pop into our heads as we wander an empty beach or climb a misty mountain, then we won't look a gift horse in the mouth (hence the empty journals!)

We are switching off and just being…

That means, I'll be quiet for a little while so please bear with me, but also know that when I return, I'll be refreshed and reinspired, and eager to fling myself back into my lovely privileged life. Because, yes! I do know our jobs—our life vocations—are a privilege, even when the coffers are low. I get that. But that doesn't mean we don't deserve to exhale from time to time. Because here's what I know for sure—through exhaling we get to breathe new life into the work we love and cherish, the work that pays our bills and that you, dear reader, get to enjoy.

So thank YOU for your patience, don't forget the eighteen books I have written, should you long for a little R&R yourself, and I'll see you on the other side!

Ahhhhh…

The True Story That Launched My NEW Mystery (out soon!)

MY ALMOST-MURDERED MOMENT!

Okay, not really…

Last newsletter I told you about the true crime that inspired my last mystery—Blind Men Don't Dial Zero. Today, you'll hear about the almost-maybe-could've been a crime that happened to me—and inspired book two in that series.

IT started just as this book starts, at a secluded Sydney oval. I was walking blissfully near my mother's place when a stranger appeared and asked me to call his mobile phone. He'd lost his somewhere inside his car, he told me, pointing towards a large luxury vehicle which was parked close by. Could I just call his number so he could follow the ring tone and find it?

"Sure!" I said automatically just as my inner-voice said, "Hang on, what?"

Was this an innocent attempt to locate a phone? Or was he luring me to his car for nefarious reasons?

I glanced around for back-up, but we were the only two people at the oval. So I—foolishly perhaps?—took a gamble, threw caution to the wind and helped him out.

The fact that I'm here to tell the story shows how happily that story ended. But, being a suspicious crime writer, it really got me thinking… what if things had turned out differently?

And so it has become the starting point for the second adventure of my new Sleuths of Last Resort—Smart Girls Don't Trust Strangers.

Sound intriguing?

I'm hoping to have that book out in time for Christmas but will confirm all of that in a week. Until then, catch up on the first book—Blind Men Don't Dial Zero—at all good online bookstores, or click on the links below.

@Amazon. @iBooks. @kobo. @nook. @Smashwords.

The Shocking True Crime That Inspired My Last Mystery

THERE'S ONE REAL CRIME THAT HAS ALWAYS HAUNTED ME…

…and if you wear glasses like I do, it might just haunt you, too. It's also the inspiration for my most recent book.

IT's the story of Jeffrey Gilham, a Sydney man who confessed to fatally stabbing his brother, Christopher, one shocking night in 1993, but insists he did it in a fit of rage after discovering Christopher had first stabbed both their parents and then set the family home alight.

It was such an extraordinary story—and defence—and an uncle, for one, refused to believe it, eventually forcing Jeffrey to be tried for all three murders. He served three years in jail before being acquitted on appeal, and is now living free with his wife and daughters.

While I am in no way suggesting that Jeffrey Gilham is in any way responsible for his parents' murders, there was one teeny detail about the crimes that really stuck with me—according to the police report, the dead brother, Christopher, was not wearing his eyeglasses at the time he went on his stabbing/burning frenzy. Even though he was myopic and, allegedly, could not see without his glasses.

Flying blind…

Now, I've been short-sighted since I was thirteen and that felt so strange to me. Who would possibly embark on a killing spree WITHOUT their specs? Who could? For me it would be an impossibility. And even if I did get carried away in a moment of madness (watch out, folks), I'd have to stop very early in the piece to fumble my way back to my bedroom to find my specs. I'm as blind as the proverbial bat without them.

But that's what happened that gruesome night, and that's what's always haunted me. So, what is an author to do when something just won't budge? She pops it in a novel, of course!

If you've read my latest—Blind Men Don't Dial Zero—you'll know exactly what I mean. If not, you've probably already guessed from the title. It's a juicy little clue that really helped move my plot along, and encouraged my motley sleuths to take the case seriously.

The result is a very different story to the true crime I mentioned above—and again, I make no judgement on that case. But it does give you an idea of how crime writers conjure up their mysteries, let alone source their clues. It's not all fiction, folks. At least, not all of it I can assure you!

But that's not all…

When I sat down to write book two in the series (because, yes, there is now a book two!), I couldn't help but be kick-started by a real-life incident, this time one that happened to me. It was an incident so eerie, I just HAD to get it into a book.

I promise to tell you more about that incident in the next newsletter, but for now, let me share one clue with you—the title.

Drum roll, please…

Smart Girls Don't Trust Strangers
(Sleuths of Last Resort, Book 2)

This book will be out in time for Christmas, until then, don't hesitate to meet the sleuths and catch up on the story now, at all good eRetailers, including Amazon. It's available as an ebook and a paperback everywhere. Or return to the home page for more sales links and story deets.

Happy (clue-laden) reading, everybody!
xo Christina

New blog, new look, new era

Hi guys, I've developed an exciting new blog that's snappier and easier to use at: calarmerspits.blogspot.com.au/
If you've found your way to this page, welcome and I hope you enjoy my future rants (and a couple of older rants I've pasted below, FYI).
If you're on my old blog: christina-larmerspits.blogspot.com.au/ you'll still find plenty to read here. Just scroll down and enjoy. However, please be aware that all my future rants will appear on my new blog page, so I do hope you tag that page and continue following my regular sprays.
I want to take this opportunity to thank you ALL for your past support and hope you'll follow me on my new journey at: calarmerspits.blogspot.com.au/
Do get in touch with me below, or at: christina.larmer@gmail.com
Happy reading!xo Christina (C.A.) Larmer

Death by Smart Key

You know what they say: there are two types of people who are fascinated by murder—sociopaths and crime writers. I like to think I fall into the second category but I do have to wonder whether there's a little of the former in me as well.

You see, just the other day I was thinking about the new fangled 'smart key' and how easy it would be to kill someone with it. For anyone who doesn't drive a swanky new luxury vehicle (which would be, er, me) take a look at my latest Ghostwriter Mystery— Words Can Kill (now out on Amazon and slowly making its way to other ereaders). I feature a Mercedes 'smart key' in this one, although it's not used as a means of murder. But it could be!

I read how some poor woman was trapped in her own car in soaring heat by her smart key. She used the keyless entry remote to get into the luxury vehicle. Then, once in, the doors automatically locked and she couldn't reopen the car. What's more, she couldn't start the engine to get the airconditioning going. The key had glitched! Suddenly, the desperate soul found herself trapped on a sundrenched parking lot, in the heat of the day, with no-one else about. She couldn't get out, the heat inside the car was almost unbearable, and her screams for help went on deaf ears. Well, no ears, as the parking lot was empty at that time.

Fortunately for the woman, the so-called 'smart key' suddenly unglitched and she was able to free herself, collapsing onto the searing pavement with great relief and, I suspect, never quite looking at her fancy new vehicle with the same innocent delight again.

So, of course, that got me thinking. How could it not? What a clever way to murder someone without leaving so much as a print! Here's how it would go: You have two smart keys and one car. You give your husband—let's bump him off shall we?—the wrong key and keep the right one. Then you lure him to a secluded spot on a hot day and watch as he goes to unlock the vehicle with the useless key. You press your smart key at the same time, so he thinks his key has worked and gains entry to the car. Then, once in, you lock it again and stop him from getting out.

He tries to start the car and his key fails. He tries to get out, but you have secured the doors. He starts to panic and you walk away (or drive your old bomb, whatever works for you) as his final gasping cries for help go unheeded, his screams echoing down the empty road. (Cue sinister laughter now.)

Okay, so it's a little elaborate and he could probably just smash his way out, but it gives you a tiny glimpse of the worrying way my mind works. And it must make you wonder how my husband sleeps so soundly in the bed beside me each night. I certainly do.

Of course we can't afford a luxury vehicle with a smart key, so he's safe for now. (Cue more sinister laughter, then fade away...)

Happy reading, everybody.
xo Christina

Free/99c book celebration!

To celebrate the launch of my latest Ghostwriter Mystery, Words Can Kill , and to thank my many devoted readers, I'm giving you all a fabulous gift! For a limited time, the fouth book in the series will soon be FREE through Smashwords (that's iPad, Nook, Kobo and Sony) or just 0.99c at Amazon . (Sorry, Kindle lovers, but Amazon won't allow me to charge less than that, the party poopers!)

Still, you're getting a pretty cool deal. It now costs very little to download Dying Words via your favourite eReader. This way, if you haven't got 'round to reading it, you can quickly catch up before you get the latest installment. If you have already read it, download it anyway and offer it to your flatmate, hubby or BFF.

We're spreading the Roxy magic this month, and the more readers who share in her adventures the better.

Thanks again for all your support. Don't forget to drop me a line, below, send me an email (see above), or pop a quick review on Amazon if you have the time.

Happy reading!

xo Christina

She's baaaaack!

Good news for Roxy Parker fans. Australia's favourite Ghostwriter is back, this time traipsing all over Europe—from the snow-capped heights of Mt Pilatus to the craggy cliffs of the Italian Riviera—in her quest to track down her estranged boyfriend Max. He's vanished from a luxury Swiss resort and his flatmate, Jake, has just shown up murdered back in Berlin. The cops think Max did it, but Roxy knows better ...

To find out more about the fifth Ghostwriter Mystery, Words Can Kill , head straight to Amazon where it's now available on Kindle. You can also download a copy through other readers, including iPad and Nook, in a few days.

In the meantime, I do hope you enjoy the read and, if you do, please jot me a quick review. It helps to spread the word and enable more Roxy Parker adventures to come.

Happy reading, everyone.
xo Christina

$1.99 Ghostwriter Mystery Sale!

Fast-talking, merlot-swilling, fashion savvy Roxy Parker is back and better than ever. In her fifth, death-defying adventure, Australia's favourite ghostwriter finds herself on the hunt for her estranged boyfriend Max. He's disappeared while working in Berlin and all she has to go on is a cryptic text message and some unsettling Facebook photos.

Has he run off with a married bimbo? Are the Swiss Army hiding something? And why has his flatmate shown up bludgeoned to death with his 1920s Gibson guitar?

Before you get a chance to find out, why not catch up on Roxy's previous adventures? Exclusive to Amazon, and in the lead up to the release of Ghostwriter Mystery #5 (out soon), I'm offering the first four books for the discounted rate of $1.99!

The sale will only last a short time so get in quick. (And a word of advice: if you haven't read book #4, Dying Words , be sure to download that now. It helps pave the way to Berlin!)

Happy reading.
xo Christina

Your chance to name Roxy's 5th book!

Fans of my Ghostwriter Mystery series will be happy to hear I have finished the latest Roxy Parker adventure, and my children are still in one piece—see blog below. Of course the fact that they've spent the past few months being ignored by their mother, staring at far too many screens, and generally learning that writers are a grumpy bunch on deadline, is neither here nor there.

We're alive and we're happy. Well, actually, not everyone is. There are at least three very unhappy people in my latest novel. One of them has just fallen off a cliff on the Italian Riviera, so that's not so much fun. Another has been bludgeoned in his Berlin apartment, and it's ruined a perfectly good guitar (not to mention his head). And the third? Well, you'll have to read the book to find out what happens to the third. It's Roxy's boyfriend Max and he's gone missing while working in Europe.

Why has Max vanished?
Is he still alive?
Can Roxy Parker find him, even with his annoying, self-absorbed sister by her side?

Before you can find the answers to those questions, I need YOUR help. The manuscrpt is currently with my US editor and will be online in a few weeks, but I'm looking for a creative title.

What would you name it?

If you can think of a good title you get to name the book and be credited in the Acknowledgements section. How good is that? All you have to do is think of a snappy title that encapsulates what the Ghostwriter Mysteries are all about: writing, murder, adventure, fun. But this time we need to add a spice of travel.

I've been playing with the titles: Lost in Translation or Globe Plotting. My cover designer tells me the former is a film, the latter an embarrassment. Can you do better than that?

I'd love to hear from you. Don't forget it HAS to include some kind of reference to writing, words, books etc, just like the previous four titles (but also mystery and travel, tricky huh?):

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You have one week to complete your task. Good luck!

xo Christina