Lynn Cahoon's Blog, page 12

The start of summer

Memorial day weekend. When I was growing up, we used to visit the graves. My father died when I was young so the ritual held a special place for me. A pilgrimage to a man I didn't get to know. My paternal grandparents were also buried in the same cemetery. When I was older, I'd go to his grave to think through the big decisions in my life. It helped me feel more centered and as I talked through the issues, I felt closer to the man I don't remember as my father. Now, my mom has passed on as well. I live 1600 miles away from their final resting place. Together again. So I won't  be visiting the graves this year, but I'll remember. And isn't that what we carry forward from generation to generation? Our memories? I hope you have a wonderful weekend, no matter where it finds you. Lynn

Hospitality and Homicide

Book 8 of the Tourist Trap series is releasing Tuesday, May 16. I love the little town of South Cove and it's quirky characters.  I can't believe we're on book 8 with book 9 coming up in a couple of months.A series grows along with the stories. I have a map of South Cove in my head. I know if Jill wants to go to the gym, she turns left when she leaves Coffee, Books, and More. More often than not, she turns right, toward home. Or the police station to visit Greg. Or her BFF Amy. Or to stop at Diamond Lille's for a bite to eat. Or to go walk on the beach.As part of the release of Hospitality and Homicide, I was asked to write a side story that was included in the Kobo edition. This Bonus story will be exclusive to Kobo for a period of time.Esmeralda is the star of this little vignette that tells us more about her life as a fortune teller. And how she found herself in South Cove. She's a lot more front and center in this book than she has been, so knowing a little more about her has been interesting.Enjoy your trip back to South Cove. I know I enjoyed touching base with Jill and the gang when I wrote the book.Lynn

Home again, home again...

With a broken toe.Okay, so I'm a klutz. The good thing is I didn't break it until this morning when I was packing to come home from Atlanta.Otherwise, I had a lovely three weeks of travels. First, I stopped by Southern Kentucky (Bowling Green) for a panel and book-fest.Then I was in Milwaukee for Barbara Vey's Reader appreciation weekend.And finally, in Atlanta GA for the Romantic Times convention.If I got to meet you during these three events, keep in touch! I love talking to readers, especially when they love my characters as much as I do.

Shauna from Warm Springs Writers' Retreat takes the stage

NOTE: Since I'm out of town this weekend at Southern Kentucky Book Fest, I thought  I'd give the time to one of my friends, I mean, characters. :) This post was first published as part of the Great Escapes Book Tour for Fatality by Firelight on a blog called, The Bookwyrm's HoardHi, I’m Shauna Marie Clodagh, and I’m the one that makes Warm Springs Writer’s Retreat work like a fine-tuned clock. I’m also Cat’s best friend.We met in Los Angeles when she started visiting the gay bar where I bartended. No, I’m not outing the girl. She’s as straight as an arrow and is dating that hunk of a guy, Seth Howard. He’s a sweetheart and became a fast part of the Warm Springs team.I enjoyed working there because I didn’t have to worry about being hit on. Cat came into the place because she liked the location. The girl’s a little naïve. But we had a lot of time to talk and when she got the word that her ex-husband had died and left her this amazing Victorian, I was ready for a change.So here we are in Aspen Hills, Colorado. The town lives and dies around the college. Covington is a small private school full of privileged brats if you ask me. Although I didn’t go to college, so maybe it’s different when you get to extend your childhood for four more years and still drink at the local bar. I went right to work after graduation at a little restaurant in Ohio. That’s where I’m from. Then I followed a loser out to California. I stuck and the loser left.  I liked the weather out there a lot more than Ohio, so I stayed on. Well, until last year.Colorado’s nice, but this is my first winter. The good thing is we can ski right outside of town. The bad news is I hate driving on the roads when it ices up so I tend to stay at home when the weather takes a turn. And when I’m home, I bake.I’m always trying out new recipe to use during the retreats. Some of the treats I share with our neighbor, Mrs. Rice. She’s always looking for a new piece of gossip to share or hear.I don’t think she really knows what to think about Cat, Seth and me. But I feed her, so she’s generous with the town gossip. Of course, she’s not the only source I have. Cat’s more of an introvert. She likes her people in small groups. I love the big party. And I talk to everyone. The library, the grocery store, I even know people at the hardware store. Seriously, Aspen Hills is a very welcoming town.Come on by one morning for coffee and treats. I don’t know what I’ll have baking in the oven, but I can promise it will be yummy!

Taking a break...

But not for long. I'm in the final pages of the first book in my Farm to Fork series.  It's far from really being done as we have many rounds of edits to go through before it reaches readers hands in Spring 2018. But it's so close to being the start of that finished product, I'm giddy.I'm asked about my writing process a lot. And I always wonder what people are looking for? Do they want to know I sit down at my computer every morning and lovingly craft the people they come to know in my book? Or am I a binger? Spending hours and hours getting pages down, then not touching it for days.I'm kind of in between. I don't mind writing 500-1000 words a day in the beginning. Especially when I'm thinking about setting, character development, and plot twists. My mind works while I'm not sitting at the computer. Kind of like not thinking of where your lost keys are so you can find them. At the end, the book tends to flow faster, if I schedule time for it to play.That's what's happening today. We're home for the weekend. I'm writing, the Cowboy is painting and trying out his new rototiller.  I've gotten one writing sprint done - 2K and have at least one more today to match it. Then, I'll finish up tomorrow.I'm really loving this new group of cozy crime fighters. And River Vista is home for me, just a little polished up and the name changed to protect the innocents.I hope you enjoy Who Moved My Goat Cheese when it releases. I've loved crafting the story for you.

Does what you do define who you are?

Sometimes we’re stuck in the roles we play, child, wife, mother, employee, church member, reader, writer . . .[image error]The words that describe the roles in your life allow others to categorize the world around us. We expect certain things from the baby of the family versus the first born, and in most cases, those kids grow up to meet our expectations.But what if the baby wanted to break out of the wild, reckless life he’d been living. The life he’d been expected to live? Break out to find the career and vocation that spoke to his soul. Would we be able to see him as anything but a screw up or playboy, or even bull rider?Jesse Sullivan is facing that exact challenge in The Bull Rider’s Keeper, the final chapter in the Bull Rider series that started with The Bull Rider’s Brother.  Jesse’s been a big part of the stories that surrounded four friends from Shawnee, even when it wasn’t his story to tell.  Now it’s his turn to find the one place in the world that he feels at home instead of wandering from rodeo to rodeo, camping out on his brother’s sofa at the Boise ranch house in between gigs.Taylor DeMarco is exactly the opposite of Jesse. As the much loved, only child of a well to do Boise family, she’s known her role well since she was able to walk. She would be run Main Street Gallery, an art institution in Idaho and the Pacific Northwest.  At a certain age, she would marry (probably a doctor or a lawyer), have two children, a girl and a boy, and live in a restored historic house either on Warm Springs or Harrison streets. The exact right neighborhood for her exact right life.You can guess that neither Jesse or Taylor are prepared for what fate has in store for them.Have you ever thrown caution to the wind and changed your life? Re-invented yourself and your roles?

The other part of a writer's life...

I'm a planner. I celebrate my birthday for the entire month. And I tend to do the same thing for my book birthdays, or release days.  March was no exception. Fatality by Firelight released February 28th and I did my last March event (an online book club) on Tuesday.It's been a busy month with library events and a trip to Scottsdale and Tucson. I've had an amazing time with readers including one Missouri couple who were visiting and came to see me at the Arizona signing. I also got to visit with my niece and her lovely girls.But now, I'm back home and have a book due the end of April. I also have two April weekend trips, one to SOKY (Bowling Green) and the other to Milwaukee for the Barbara Vey Reader Appreciate Weekend. (Check out my upcoming events for more information.)Until then, I'll be writing book one (Who Stole My Goat Cheese) in my new Farm-to-Fork series. I'm loving going back (at least in my mind) to southwestern Idaho and creating fun new places for my chef/amateur sleuth to hang out. And of course, there's the food...

What happens in Phoenix...Cover reveal.

Actually, I've been all around the St. Louis area this last two weeks, signing stock at B&N's in the area and talking to fans at the St. Charles Library. I also took a spin east to Louisville to meet and greet some library patrons and sign books there.This week, I'm off to Scottsdale (Saturday - 18th) and Tucson (Sunday -19th.)I'll be signing with a group at Poison Pen at 2pm. If you're in the area, come by. I'd love to meet you.The B&N at Foothills' mall is hosting us Sunday at 1pm.So what am I doing except running around? I've been writing the first book in my Idaho based, farm to fork mystery series, Who Stole My Goat Cheese. You'll be able to get your hands on this new series in 2018.  I believe we're releasing three books in the series next year. I'll let you know as soon as I get specifics.But since we're talking future books, I wanted to give you a first look at my new cover for Of Murder and Men, book three of the Cat Latimer series.Isn't it lovely?

Release week mania

It's already started. Fatality by Firelight has had three recipe blogs in the last week, a few review blogs, and two character posts. And it doesn't release until Tuesday.So what's up with a release week? Authors try to get the word out about the new book as much as possible. I'm on a virtual blog tour, and I'm doing two library events next week. Later this month, I'll run around to all the St. Louis bookstores and sign stock. Then I fly off to Phoenix for a couple of signings with Laura Bradford.Sales, reviews, timing - it all works together to give the publisher a snapshot of how the book is doing and if they should continue to support the series and the author. I love working with Kensington, so I hope this series will continue.I'll get this release process done about mid month, then I'll have to start planning the release events for Hospitality and Homicide.It's a good problem to have, but, man, I'm busy.Do you have questions about the release process? Ask away and I'll see if I can answer.

Character takeover - Jade Blackwell

We have a guest blogger here with us... Jade Blackwell's the amateur sleuth in Gilian Baker's Blogging is Murder.  So I'll turn it over to the professionals...the fictional blogging professional.***Hi there, fellow cozy mystery lovers! I’m Jade Blackwell, the protagonist of Gilian Baker’s new series justly named, The Jade Blackwell Mysteries. It’s so cool to have a series named after you, just sayin’.Lynn asked me to pop in today to tell you about how I became a professional blogger, and I was only too happy to. So, here we go. {Clearing my throat}Five years ago, I was working as an English professor at the University of Wyoming, near my hometown of Aspen Falls. I’d worked there since receiving my Ph.D., and had finally clawed my way to the top to earn one of the few coveted tenured positions in the department. It’s what I’d always wanted to do—teach others about my passions—literature and writing.But with each passing semester, I was losing interest. I felt blasé. I was ready for a new adventure. But where to begin? Teaching was the only thing I’d ever known. But the endless department meetings, apathetic students and mounds of grading were wearing me down. I wanted control of my life back. I worked every evening and weekend grading papers, and was still always buried. Who was I kidding? I wasn’t convincing anyone to study the classics with zeal or to write coherent literary analyses.One day, I was flipping through a literary writing magazine and saw an article about how blogging was changing the writing world. I’d been on very few blogs, and only then to verify them as unfit to be included in a scholarly paper when they ended up on a student’s reference page. What I learned in that article led me to do research on ways to make a living writing online. And so my new adventure began.I started by creating a ghostwriting service for bloggers and other online entrepreneurs. I kept my position at the college for as long as I could, wanting to make sure I liked the lifestyle before going gung-ho. Turns out, I loved it. Instead of  “publish or perish” writing, I got the chance to do research and write on a huge number of topics I’d never known much about. And, I was getting paid handsomely for me expertize. I turned in my notice, effective at the end of the current semester and gave myself over fully to living life as a solopreneur.As my number of ghostwriting clients grew, I added a blog to my repertoire. A Writerz Block is for fledgling writers who are looking to make a living writing online. There I cover topics such as finding freelance writing work, blogging for income, self-publishing fiction and non-fiction, as well as writing and marketing tips. It’s the best of both worlds—I get to teach people who actually want my help, and I get paid to write.You want to know another amazing thing about my blogging journey? I have time to play the amateur sleuth! Even though I taught classic lit for years, to my way of thinking, there’s nothing better than a well-plotted mystery. I got a chance to put mystery-solving knowledge to good use in my first sleuthing adventure, Blogging is Murder. If you’d like to see how I nimbly cracked the case (okay, I did it by accident) follow this link to pick up a copy.***About Gilian BakerGilian Baker is a former writing and literature professor who finally threw in the towel and decided to just show ‘em how it’s done. She has gone on to forge a life outside of academia by adding blogger & ghostwriter to her CV. She currently uses her geeky superpowers only for good to entertain cozy mystery readers the world over. When she’s not plotting murder, you can find her puttering in her vegetable garden, knitting in front of the fire, snuggled up with her husband watching British mysteries or discussing literary theory with her daughter.In her next life, she fervently hopes to come back as a cat, though she understands that would be going down the karmic ladder. She lives in Flagstaff, Arizona with her family and their three pampered felines.Blogging is Murder-Though she was certainly born with all the traits of a world-class private detective, blogger Jade Blackwell believed she would do nothing more than solve the murders in her latest favorite cozy mystery book.Set in mountainous south-eastern Wyoming, Jade Blackwell lives in a log home in the quaint village of Aspen Falls with her husband, Christian and daughter Penelope (Ellie). She left her life as a tenured college English professor at the University of Wyoming four years ago, sick of the bureaucracy, mounds of essays to grade and apathetic students. She turns to blogging and ghostwriting as her new career.Jade’s promising career as a blogger halts abruptly when she learns of a hacker who is controlling her friend and fellow blogger Liz Collin’s business remotely. When the hacker is found dead in her home, Liz is thrown in jail.Determined to help her friend regain her life and livelihood, Jade teams up with Liz’s reluctant lawyer, Gabriel Langdon, to get Liz off the hook and out of jail. What she learns will break the case wide open, while unraveling her faith in humanity and the safety she feels living in the Rocky Mountain hamlet she calls home.An exciting thrill ride from the first page, to the last. Read Gilian Baker’s Blogging is Murder, the first book in the Jade Blackwell cozy mystery series!Contact Gilian Baker directly at gilianbakerauthor@gmail.comBLOGGING IS MURDERon AmazonGILIAN BAKER’S WEBSITE