Iza Moreau's Blog: Blogging in Small Towns, page 2

New, newer, and newest

Hi everybody, just a word or two or three about the present and the future of Iza.

The present: On August 22, I published the penultimate Small Town short story. It is entitled "Archer's Paradox," and contains the only murder mystery in the entire Small Town Saga. Today,I uploaded the final story, "Ghosts." It ends the saga, hopefully on a positive note. I have enjoyed working with Sue-Ann, Gina, Clarence, The Creeper, Krista, Smokey, Dilly Dollar, and all the rest of the characters that populate Pine Oak,Florida. I hope you have enjoyed them too.

Today I also published the three novels in the Small Town Series as a boxed set. Get The News in Small Towns, Madness in Small Towns, and Secrets in Small Towns for the low price of $9.99 at all the major e-book retailers. If I could choose, though, I would ask you to buy from Smashwords.com. They care about their authors and don't take every penny like some other retailers I could mention. At over a quarter of a million words, this set will keep you reading for a while. It may be only the second boxed set to be published in the Lesbian Mystery Category.

The future: In early 2015 the last volume of the Small Town Saga will be published in e-book and paperback. It is a book of stories and novellas called Mysteries in 'small Towns. It includes the two stories mentioned above along with six others. At over 82.000 words, it will be well worth the price of admission. Presently, all the stories are available separately at most of the on-line retailers, but they will disappear when the volume is published. As a side note, there is only one other book of lesbian mystery short stories featuring the same protagonist. It is Barbara Wilson's The Death of a Much-Traveled Woman. I feel like I am in good company.

What then?: Life after Small Towns? Well, what about mysteries in large towns?. I have almost completed writing a set of completely different mystery stories set in Miami in 1974. This will feature XYZ Investigations, made up of the sisters Xande, Yolande, and Zoe Calhoun. Xande is a hippie with blonde dreadlocks whose one passion is thwarting crime. Yolande is a law-student who cares more about finding a girlfriend than unraveling crimes. Zoe is so mysterious it is difficult to even describe her. Unlike The Small Town Series, which rarely touches on murder, The XYZ Mysteries is full of murder. Here' the publication schedule:
January, 2015: "Brothers and Sisters and Brothers"
March, 2015: "There Was an Old Woman"
May, 2015: "The Case of the Headless Heir"
July, 2015: "Queen's Honor"
September, 2015: "Xmas"
November, 2015: "Z"
Then, in January, 2016, these stories will be published as the volume The XYZ Mysteries in e-book and paperback. I can't wait.

Awards: As you probably already know, The News in Small Towns was a top-5 finalist in the 2013 Next Generation Indie Book Awards in the categories of Mystery and Regional Fiction. The next book in the series, Madness in Small Towns, was also a top-5 finalist in the Mystery category. Secrets in Small Towns has been nominated for awards in four different contests in five categories. It would sure be nice to win one. And with Mysteries in Small Towns and The XYZ Mysteries I have at least two more chances after this year.

Anyone interested in Lesbian Mysteries should check out the Goodreads reading group called Lesbian Mysteries. From time to time they give me a little shout out.

I guess that's all the news that's fit to write. Read everything and tell your friends. I'll be back next time I have something to say. If you are interested in buying my books in paperback, remember that the major on-line retailers give the author virtually no royalties. Do me and my publisher, Black Bay Books, a favor by purchasing them directly from Black Bay Books.

Summer Reading

I've just published a novella in the Small Town series called "Indian Summer." It stems from a visit I made years ago to the Crow Fair in Montana, a celebration of Native American culture and cuisine. The bright colors of the tribal garb, the beating of the drummers, and the swirling of the dancers makes a wonderful setting for a story.

Sue-Ann gets a call from her old friend from Iraq, Ossie Enemy Hunter, asking her to come to Montana. It seems that his niece, a talented athlete, has disappeared. But when she and Gina arrive, Sue-Ann finds out that there is way more to the story than she was told.

In a way, it is Indian Summer for the Small Town series as well as for the characters in the story. The second novel followed her sister as a top-five finalist in the Next Generation Indie Book Awards. The third novel has been published and is being read far and wide.

"Indian Summer" is another blip in the series,k but it is a big blip. Not only is is twice as long as any of the other short stories, but it heralds a major change in the lives of some of the characters. Because of this, I hope you will all read the novels first.

The short stories, including "Indian Summer," will be released as a paperback and an e-book in early 2015. And like the new story, it will be available in all the major retail locations, including Smashwords, Apple, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, and Amazon.

There is currently one more story that has already been written to close out the saga. Anyone with any good mystery ideas for Sue-Ann to solve, let me know. There is still time for to write a couple more.

Can I tell you a secret?

It's great to be able to announce that the third and final novel in my Small Town Series, Secrets in Small Towns, is up and running.Here's the skinny:

The ball starts rolling when Sue-Ann McKeown, editor of The Pine Oak Courier, finds a zonked-out teenager in her woods. When it turns out that he has escaped from a juvenile detention center long rumored to abuse its charges, Sue-Ann senses that she's on a new case. But the kid goes missing, and Sue-Ann has to find him--especially given that Sgt. Joe Bickley of the local sheriff's office is threatening to "out" Sue-Ann and her girlfriend unless she produces the boy. Then a Courier reporter who is investigating the juvenile center is nearly killed, and Sue-Ann realizes she has a lot more to worry about than putting out a newspaper.

And for those of you who have been reading the Small Town short stories, I have must uploaded revisions of "Grand Theft" and "A Question of Breeding." Be warned, however, that all of the short stories, which will be collected next year under the title of Mysteries in Small Towns, take place after Secrets in Small Towns. You don't have to read all three novels first, but it would be nice.

All of my work is available here.
If you like any of these, please review them here on Goodreads and on the site where you downloaded them. Your reviews mean a lot more than you might think.

Stealing the unexpected

My new Small Town story for August--I call it "Grand Theft"--is now available on Kindle Select. Only 99 cents. One of Sue-Ann's bowling team members is missing. Because all she seemed to live for was bowling and working, her disappearance comes as a surprise, especially to her roommate Betty. This is further complicated by the fact that Sue-Ann has always suspected that Betty and the missing woman are secretly a couple.

"Grand Theft" continues the themes of quirky mysteries, strong lead characters, and subtle gender discrimination that underlie the series as a whole.

Keep the good reviews coming: they help loads. And, as always, all my work is available here.

Hey, wanna go on a trail ride?

Well, because there are people out there who don't want to wait until 2014 for Secrets in Small Towns to come out, I have decided to write a stand-alone Small Town short story every month for the rest of 2013. I have just posted the story for July. The title is "Trail Ride and Barn Dance After," and as usual it features Sue-Ann McKeown, editor of the Pine Oak Courier, and her friends. In this one, Sue-Ann and Gina join a trail ride through a state forest, and are looking forward to the food and dancing at the end of the ride. But other things intervene . . . things that are not quite right.

For those of you who are following the Small Town series (and also for those of you who are not, few though I hope you are), here is the list of what has been published so far, as well as a few that are firmly scheduled to be published in the near future.
The News in Small Towns (Novel, 2012).
Madness in Small Towns (Novel, 2013).
Secrets in Small Towns (Novel, forthcoming, 2014).
Stories in Small Towns (Collection of stories, forthcoming, 2014 or 2015).
"A Question of Breeding," (Story, June, 2012).
"Sensei," (Story, November, 2012).
"Trail Ride and Barn Dance After," (Story, July, 2013).
"Grand Theft," (Story, August, 2013).
"Wonderful Town," (Story, September, 2013).
"Crow Fair," (Story, October, 2013).

All of my work is available here.
If you like any of these, please review them here on Goodreads and on the site where you downloaded them. Your reviews mean a lot more than you might think.

Happy endings are good

Detour: A Hollywood Story by Cheryl Crane

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


Cheryl Crane was the daughter of iconic Hollywood sweater girl Lana Turner, who had a bad habit of choosing her men unwisely. One of the men with whom Turner had a relationship was a small-time hood named Johnny Stompanato. A jealous and abusive man, Stompanato was eventually stabbed to death by Crane, who was 14 at the time and claimed she was protecting her mother. The court agreed and ruled the killing a justifiable homicide. And there the story ends. Or so I had supposed.

In truth, Cheryl's story is just beginning. After her trial she was made a ward of the state and sent to a girl's boarding school, where she rebelled and eventually escaped. She later had a bout with drugs, was arrested for lewd conduct, and placed in a mental institution, where she attempted suicide. After treatment, she was released and began working in her father's upscale celebrity restaurant as a seater. Her life was finally on the upswing.

What really changed her life, though, was meeting Joyce "Josh" LeRoy at a party at Marlon Brando's one evening. The two quickly became a couple and are still together at this writing, over 35 years later.

Because Crane was assigned a co-writer for Detour, it is impossible to know which actual words are hers and which Cliff Jahr's, but it is the story--the history--that is the main lure of the book. It gives us a glimpse into the very interesting life of a woman who became an early gay-rights pioneer and influential AIDS activist. Not something you would have guessed from the scandalous tabloid headlines about her in the 1950s.

It is not a literary classic, but it is an important autobiography. For its insights and its revelations, I am rating this book a 3.5 or a little higher--closer to a 4 than a 3.





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Ghosts and prisons

Affinity by Sarah Waters

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


The best thing about this novel is its setting: Millbank Prison in London. The descriptions of the cells, the offices, the grounds, and especially the architecture, are exquisite. Combine this with the protagonist's wanderings into the occult world of Victorian England and you have the makings of a suspense thriller combined with a touching love story. The quality of writing is what I have come to expect from Sarah Waters.

I'm not going to launch into a long-winded description here. I will only add that Affinity has the same kind of grab-your-throat surprise as Fingersmith, but without, I think, the overall satisfaction. It does not add nor detract from my current opinion that Waters is one of our greatest living writers--a relative youngster still who already has at least one masterpiece and two near-masterpieces to her credit. Give this one a solid 4.



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Indie Book Award Finalist

The News in Small Towns, the first novel in my Small Town Series, has just been named one of the top five books in the nation in two categories: Mystery and Regional Fiction by the 2013 Next Generation Indie Book Awards committee. Being a finalist in both categories is quite an honor. And, hey, the e-book version is available for free at Smashwords.com. The second book of the series, Madness in Small Towns, is also available there for a reasonable price. Paperbacks are available from Black Bay Books with free shipping.

An honest PI

Family Honor by Robert B. Parker

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


Imagine that you are losing your eyesight. You know that you can read only a limited number of books before things become too blurry to distinguish one word from another. Would you alter the criteria you have in selecting books to read? Probably. Would you give up on a book sooner if it didn't lure you in in the first couple of dozen pages? You bet you would.

In fact, that was the situation I found myself in when I picked up Robert Parker’s Family Honor. I had never read a Parker book before. I had never even watched an episode of Spenser on TV. But I had become a recent fan of the screen adaptations of his Jesse Stone books. I liked the honesty of the character, the spare dialogue that is also found in Larry McMurtry’s best novels), and the situation that Parker had set up for his adventures. So when I found out that Parker had written a third series of mystery novels—one featuring a female detective—I was intrigued enough to buy the first one. The problem was, was it good enough to spend on it some of the remaining time I still have to read? It turned out that the answer was yes.

Sunny Randall, the protagonist of Family Honor, is very much a Jesse Stone-type character, yet she is unarguably female—not just some guy’s fantasy of what a woman should look, talk, and feel like. The Prologue, a chapter that set the table for the story’s beginning, was a trial, not just because it was clumsy, but because it was in italics, which does not agree with my eyes. I almost put it down then, but I’m glad I didn't. Once the story started, I was hooked; and the farther I got into it, the better the book became.

As I mentioned before, it is written very much in the tone of the Jesse Stone stories, and as such, it is very honest. In fact, Sunny is fascinated by the concept of honesty, especially when she rescues a runaway teenager from the streets of Boston and tries to keep her safe from all kinds of mayhem. How honest can she be with the girl when the girl’s parents may be involved in illegal activities? The question becomes personal as she ponders some of the decisions she has recently made in her own life: why she chose to become a PI? Why she can’t give up her dream of becoming a painter? Why she has divorced a man that she loves?

These questions are at the heart of the book, but even after 30-plus novels, Parker managed to come up with a unique character in an unusual setting. Yet what surprised me most about this book was the wisdom I found there. Sunny’s feelings, thoughts, and the advice she doles out to her teen-aged charge. Her way of handling things. The fact that Parker was able to call up this level of ability and interest after so many other books is a testament to him, and I take off my hat to his memory.

Will I begin to read his Spenser novels now? No. Nor will I revisit the Jesse Stone novels in their print form. But if the second book in the Sunny Randall series comes my way, I may just devote a little of remaining reading time to it. I can always get Moby Dick on tape, right?

As usual, having five stars to use as rating quantifiers is inadequate. Four stars is too much, but I am forced to round up from a very satisfying 3.7.




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Small Towns Behaving Badly

The Casual Vacancy by J.K. Rowling

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


I think that the most surprising thing about this novel is how good it is; well-written and brilliantly paced with a large and interesting cast of characters. Most of these characters are fairly repulsive and maybe because of this there is no real protagonist--no single character we follow from start to finish and with whom we identify. The real main character is the town of Pagford itself: a bubbling, seething miasma of emotions, jealousies, and petty politics. The Casual Vacancy is, in fact, a literary novel of high quality and almost microscopic realism.

I have heard Jim Dale--who read the Harry Potter Books for their audio release--described as having the ability to make over 200 characters sound different. After reading The Casual Vacancy, I am not sure that he deserves the bulk of the credit. Rowling is simply superb at dialog and dialect. It is what her characters say and how they say it that distinguishes their individuality rather than the sound of their voices.

It is a longish book--over 500 pages--but there are many characters and lots of things happening--both on and beneath the surface. Outwardly, it is the story of a small English town that loses one of the Town Council members to a stroke, and the machinations that are involved in replacing him. At stake is a section of the town with "at risk" residents and a drug treatment center that serves them. In reality, though, the stakes are much higher: friendships, marriages, even families. The story builds and builds and builds, and as it does, much is destroyed.

A solid 4 here. Not a major literary classic, but one good enough to recommend to everyone. It is a book that will put J. K. Rowling on a new literary map, with much territory still to explore.



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