Sharon's Cozy Corner | Celebrate the holidays with a Christmas-themed cozy mystery!

Sharon's Cozy Corner
All about the cozy mysteries: interviews, reviews, books

The holiday spirits are warm, but the winter weather is as chilling as the mysteries on tap as we venture into December.

With Christmas upon us, I thought we’d take a look at the lineup of cozy mysteries with a holiday theme to them. Nether snow, ice, or murder weapons of choice will keep the following authors from dishing up an exciting batch of cozy mysteries sure to entertain us this festive season.


I mentioned Cleo Coyle’s HOLIDAY GRIND: A Coffeehouse Mystery (Berkley Prime Crime, Nov. 3rd) last month, and I include it here again because it is just a delightful holiday offering. The mouthwatering recipes alone makes this novel worth reading, but Coyle also delivers a delicious thriller with a side order of romance that will warm reader’s hearts while it tickles their minds and appetites.

The holidays are coming and that means more than just eggnog lattes and gingerbread biscotti to Clare Cosi, owner of the Village Blend coffeehouse. But when she finds her friend Alfred Glockner, the part-time comic and genuinely jolly charity Santa, brutally gunned down in a nearby alley, a few subtle clues convince Clare that Alfred's death was something more than the tragic result of a random mugging. Much to Clare’s boyfriend Detective Mike Quinn’s chagrin, Clare decides to find out who made the naughty list when they knocked off ol’ St. Nick.

In Kate Kingbury’s latest mystery, DECKED WITH FOLLY: A SPECIAL PENNYFOOT HOTEL MYSTERY, her 17th installment in the wonderful pre-World War I series, readers will be transported back to pre-World War I England in a pleasant mystery that is thrilling to the very last page.

Despite Cecily’s prayers, the busy Christmas season is disrupted when the body of Ian Rossiter is found floating in the pond. A former employee of the hotel, Ian had been lurking around, trying to have a word with Gertie McBride, the mother of his twin children, but no one was a witness to his watery demise. It’s up to Cecily, her good friend Madeline, and the staff of The Pennyfoot to set out to clear Gertie’s name, and find out who really murdered Ian.

DECKED WITH FOLLY is Kingbury’s fifth holiday-themed mystery set at the Pennyfoot. Other titles include NO CLUE AT THE INN, SLAY BELLS, SHROUDS OF HOLLY, and RINGING IN MURDER.


Chocolate and Christmas just go hand in and, and apparently JoAnna Carl agreed when she penned THE CHOCOLATE SNOWMAN MURDERS: A CHOCOHOLIC MYSTERY, (Obsidian Mystery, 2008) her 8th installment of her fan-favorite chocolate series. Although this book came out last year, it is still readily available and is a charming mystery to enjoy during the holidays. (Note: Carl’s latest book in this series, the Valentine themed THE CHOCOLATE CUPID KILLINGS, came out this past October just in time for Halloween – you got me, I don’t know why...)

The much anticipated Winter Arts Festival is about to begin in Warner Pier, Michigan, and as treasurer of the event, chocolate shop owner Lee McKinney Woodyard is up to her elbows in mix-ups behind the scenes. When the art show's guest juror shows up drunk, Lee lets him sleep it off at his motel, only to find out later that someone's put the visiting dignitary into a permanent state of repose. Since Lee and her husband, Joe, were the last people spotted with the deceased, it’s up to Lee to put her sleuthing talents to work to find the real killer before someone else comes to a bitter end.


Readers will get double their murder mystery fun with the two mystery tales found in MURDER SHE WROTE: MURDER NEVER TAKES A HOLIDAY. (Obsidian Mystery, Nov. 09)

Legendary and much beloved mystery author and sleuth Jessica Fletcher finds that the holidays are prime mystery-solving opportunities in two Christmas-themed stories guaranteed to delight her legions of fans.

In Manhattans & Murder, Jessica's new book tour brings her to New York for Christmas, where she sees notorious Cabot Cove crook Waldo Morse dressed as a sidewalk Santa. She agrees to meet with Waldo, but ends up witnessing a murder. With the police slow on their feet, and the victim's wife on the run, Jessica decides to do whatever it takes to stop a killer from spoiling the season.

And in A Little Yuletide Murder, Cabot Cove local Rory Brent is found shot to death on his farm, and everyone assumes the culprit is Brent's longtime enemy, Jake Walther, the meanest man in town. But Jessica thinks otherwise, and she's determined to deliver the real killer before Christmas. The trouble is, the next sound she hears this silent night may be her own screams!


Christmas means lots of holiday goodies, and cookies are right up there with some of the most anticipated treats of the season. But a cookie contest turns deadly in Livia J. Washburn’s latest Fresh Baked Mystery, THE CHRISTMAS COOKIE KILLER.

Retired teacher cum amateur sleuth Phyllis Newsom is more than ready for her unlucky year to be over. But she won’t be hanging up her apron just yet—because this year’s Christmas bake-off is going to be cutthroat.

Phyllis would like to think she’s entering the Christmas cookie contest for the fun of it—but that’s not exactly true. She can’t imagine anyone beating her snowflake-shaped lime sugar cookies. Then, during her annual Christmas cookie exchange, Phyllis heads over to the elderly Mrs. Simmons’s home and finds her dead, in a pile of lime sugar cookies. But with a number of names on Santa’s naughty list, this case may be a hard cookie to crumble.


I always look forward to Joanne Fluke’s Hannah Swensen Mystery series, but there is always something special about her cozy mystery tales when they are set during the Christmas Season. Her latest book, PLUM PUDDING MURDER, (Kensington Mystery, Sept. 09) does not disappoint! As usual, Fluke includes a bevy of wonderful recipes, with a complete holiday dinner included this time around.

The Cookie Jar's busiest time of the year also happens to be the most wonderful time...for Christmas cookies, Hannah's own special plum pudding—and romance! Holiday orders are high, and Hannah's slated to provide dessert at the Reverend Knudsen's upcoming wedding. She's busy as can be and loving it. She also gets a kick out of "Lunatic Larry Jaeger's Crazy Elf Christmas Tree Lot," a kitschy carnival taking place smack-dab in the middle of the village green.

Larry thinks he's crazy like a fox with his wild business schemes, but this time, the entrepreneur may have bitten off more than he can chew. Rumor has it that Larry's in the red—an idea that takes a sinister turn when Hannah discovers the man himself dead as a doornail in his own office. It seems quite a few people would have liked to fill Larry's stocking with coal and then bash him with it. With the twelve days of Christmas ticking away, Hannah's running out of time to nab a murderous Scrooge who doesn't want her to see the New Year.

A few other Christmas-themed mysteries worth checking out include:

SIX GEESE A-SLAYING: A Meg Langslow Mystery by Donna Andrews (MacMillian Books)

MERRY, MERRY GHOST: A Bailey Ruth Raeburn Mystery by Carolyn Hart (Wm. Morrow Books)

HOLLY AND HOMICIDE: A Domestic Bliss Mystery by Leslie Caine (Dell Books)

THE BODY IN THE SLEIGH: A Faith Fairchild Mystery by Katherine Hall Page (Wm. Morrow Books)

A WEE CHRISTMAS HOMICIDE: A Liss Maccrimmon Mystery by Kaitlyn Dunnett (Kensington Books)

So, there you go! A list of just a few of the great cozy mysteries to make your holiday’s merry and bright. Take a few minutes from the hectic pace that surrounds the season and enjoy a good book and a nice cup of spiced cider – A Christmas treat for yourself!

I hope that you come back by on December 15th, when I’ll be interviewing Joanne Fluke, author of the Hannah Swensen Mystery series.

Until then, cozy reading everyone!

---

Sharon Chance has been a freelance entertainment journalist for the past fourteen years. As a regular contributor to the Wichita Falls Times Record News, she has written well over 1,600 articles covering everything from concert and movie reviews to museum openings to interviewing some of the top musicians performing today, including members of Bon Jovi and Guns and Roses.

But her true love lies in the world of books. A voracious reader from a young age, Sharon began reviewing books at the urging of her sister-in-law, who was a big fan of the Oprah Winfrey Book Club. What began as a simple fun attempt at sharing her views of books she enjoyed has developed into a work of passion for Sharon. In addition to being a senior book reviewer for the Times Record News, Sharon is also a regular guest contributor for the Las Vegas Review Journal’s Book Nook, as well as having written for several other publications.

A distant relative of the great Edgar Allan Poe, Sharon has a fondness for mysteries, especially those of the cozy kind. In her new column, Sharon’s Cozy Corner, Sharon hopes to bring news of the latest in the cozy mystery genre, as well as insightful interviews with the authors who write them.

Read more of Sharon's Cozy Corner

Krista Davis | Everyone Loves A Wedding

Writing about domestic divas, Sophie Winston and her rival, Natasha, is always fun, but for my most recent book, I had the pleasure of planning an entire wedding without having to pay for it. Weddings used to be somewhat uniform. We expected the frou-frou bridesmaids’ dresses that would never be worn again, with dyed to match shoes, no less. The white cake was topped with a plastic bridal couple or flowers, and after a reception or dinner with dancing, the happy couple left for their honeymoon.

Today, brides face a staggering variety of choices. Cakes are topped with rhinestone studded initials, if there is a cake. Cupcake tiers are all the rage as an alternative. And wedding festivities don’t necessarily end with dinner anymore. Some couples arrange for a lounge with dancing and go on to a brunch in their honor before taking off. I was shocked to learn that some brides buy two wedding dresses so they can change between the ceremony and the reception. Of course, a lounge and dancing necessitate a third dress.


In the Domestic Diva Mysteries, Sophie and Natasha write competing lifestyle advice columns. Their tips are included in the books, along with recipes. Sophie keeps things simple but elegant, while Natasha thinks everyone should craft their own wrapping paper, make their own wedding veils, and spend six months cultivating a topiary centerpiece for a luncheon. Their rivalry is a friendly one, though there is that little issue of Natasha taking up housekeeping with Sophie’s ex-husband. Sophie is okay with it, though, since she has a weakness for hunky Detective Wolf Fleishman.

Click to read the rest of Krista's blog, leave a comment or enter her blog contest.

Betty Hechtman | Crafts and Murder

Writing a craft mystery series is the best. I get to mix my love of making things with my love of mysteries. Like lots of other people, I got hooked on mysteries by reading Nancy Drew books - the originals. Who didn’t want to be her with all the adventures and cool little car? I was thrilled to find out I do have one thing in common with her - we both drive roadsters.

My love of mystery grew as I read Agatha Christie’s books. I guess I ended up with a little something in common with her, too. Her Miss Marple knits and my character, Molly Pink, crochets. And just like you don’t have to know how to knit to enjoy Miss Marple’s stories, you don’t have to know how to crochet to read my series. Though I have heard from people who were inspired to pick up the hook after reading my books.

Actually mixing in crochet grew out of my own desire to learn the craft. I have a degree in Fine Arts and have always sewed and done different crafts, but always wanted to learn how to make granny squares. I ended up using a children’s kit to learn how. I was so excited about crocheting, I thought it would be fun to put it in a mystery and all that time I spent with my hooks and yarn would be considered research.

Click here to read the rest of Betty's blog, comment or enter her blog contest.

Kate Kingsbury | Summers Past

Many years ago in my distant past, when I was still living on the southeast coast of England, I spent four memorable summers working for my mother in her small seaside hotel. I laid, waited on and cleared dining tables, cleaned rooms, welcomed guests and hauled heavy luggage up two flights of stairs since we had no elevator. It was hard physical work and long hours, made even longer by my mother’s insistence that I entertain the guests on the piano when all the chores were finally done. All I received for my pains were room and board, and tips that were few and far between. A poor return for the efforts I put in. At least, that’s how it seemed at the time, when I was stumbling exhausted to my bed, only to rise a few hours later and do it all over again.

Looking back on that experience much later in my life, I realized it had given me so much more. I made some wonderful friends, met some bizarre characters, and had adventures that would have made my mother’s hair curl if she had ever found out. Life back then was unpredictable, exciting and fun!

More than twenty years later, when I was searching for an idea for a series, I remembered those days. What better background in which to set my Edwardian mysteries! A seaside hotel, run by a strong woman with a dedicated staff, eccentric characters, wild adventures...it was all there, just waiting for me to spin my tales around it.

I have now written seventeen Pennyfoot Hotel Mysteries, and each one brings back memories of those bittersweet days. As I write each book, I’m reminded that there’s a positive side to everything. All we have to do is look for it, believe in it and make it work for us. May you all have a wonderful year making your own unforgettable memories.

Jennie Bentley | Home, Sweet Homicide!

I spent the first half of my life in the same house. My grandfather built it with his own two hands back in 1929, and when he died, my mother inherited it, and lived there until she died. It was my home through childhood and most of my teen years, until I headed out, to seek my fortune in the world.

Since then I’ve lived in...oh...roughly twelve more houses and a few apartments in a couple of different countries, cities, and states. I renovated my first home eight years ago; since then, I’ve owned and renovated seven more. Eight houses in eight years isn’t too bad of a track-record. Especially since most of them were renovated around our ears as we tried to go about our business as usual in the midst of paint and drywall mud and dust and men with their shirts off flexing their muscles as they drove nails and soldered pipes.

And it’s just really hard to keep going about business as usual when there are shirtless men driving nails and soldering pipes in the next room, isn’t there?

Anyway, it’s that background that caused Berkley Prime Crime to offer me a chance to create a series of Do-It-Yourself Home Renovation mysteries last year sometime. Something to capitalize on the current interest in ‘flipping’, and to snag the interest of all the women who tune in to watch Ty Pennington and Carter Oosterhouse flex their muscles every week.

Mmm...

Sorry about that. Slight digression there. As I was saying, something to snag the interest of the people who tune in to ‘Extreme Makeover, Home Edition’ and HGTV every week. Something with home improvement tips and Do-It-Yourself projects, some suspense, a little history, a few dead bodies, and a hot guy with his shirt off.

Yes, there really is a hot guy with his shirt off. His name is Derek, and he’s six feet tall, with hair that’s just a touch closer to blond than brown, melting, blue eyes, and all the right muscles in all the right places—on display—and he’s really, really good with his hands. Not to mention that he has power tools, and knows how to use them. Derek’s the one who teaches Avery—she’s the main character—the ABCs. About home improvement, I mean.

Avery meets Derek when she inherits her Aunt Inga’s Victorian cottage in tiny Waterfield, Maine, and decides that she’s going to spend the summer renovating the place, before putting it back on the market in the fall, hopefully to make a quick buck. Or a quick hundred thousand. A girl can hope, right? Flipping is ‘easy’ and ‘everyone’s doing it’, right?

Well, maybe not. As I know, and as Avery finds out, there’s a lot more to renovating a house than what you see on TV. It always costs more and takes longer than you think it will, and then there are those complications... And that’s where Derek comes in. He’s a local handyman, remodeler, and restorer, and he hires on to help Avery navigate the choppy waters of DIY. And the rest, as they say, is history. There are cats (Maine Coons, of course), scheming relatives (his and hers), historical intrigue dating all the way back to the French Revolution, stolen heirlooms, a missing professor, secret tunnels, a rotting corpse, a sexy Frenchman in a beret... and, as I mentioned, a hot guy with his shirt off. What more could any hot-blooded woman want?

“Fatal Fixer-Upper” first in the Do-It-Yourself Home Renovation mysteries, hit stores everywhere on November 4th. If you decide to check it out, I’d love to hear what you thought, as I’ll hopefully be writing this series for a while!

Jennie Bentley

______________________________________________________________________________

Jennie Bentley is the author of the Do-It-Yourself Home Renovation mystery series from Berkley Prime Crime. When she’s not writing about real estate, she’s buying it, selling it, or renovating it somewhere in Nashville, Tennessee. You can find out more about her at www.jenniebentley.com/ or www.theabcsofdiy.blogspot.com/

Cynthia Baxter | The Importance of Creating a Compelling Main Character

What goes into writing a good mystery? While it’s critical to have a compelling plot filled with twists and turns, I’ve always believed that the book’s heroine – and the development of her “real life” – was at least as important.

When I started writing the Reigning Cats & Dogs mystery series, I wanted the focus to be my protagonist, Jessica Popper. Jessie is a veterinarian with a mobile services unit, essentially a clinic on wheels. I chose to make her practice mobile instead of based in a regular office because she needed an excuse to go out into the community every day, talking to suspects and ferreting out clues. But since I love to incorporate humor in all my books, I wanted her to be sassy, independent, and strong-headed, as well as someone who was battling a few demons. The main one is her conflict over commitment, which provides the ups and downs she experiences with her boyfriend Nick. (I tried to model their relationship after the sparkling repartee in those wonderful old Katherine Hepburn-Spencer Tracy flicks – or one of my favorite movies of all times, It Happened One Night.)

The Reigning Cats & Dogs series was already moving along nicely when I came up with an idea for a second series, one that featured a travel writer. I’ve done some travel writing, and it occurred to me that it would be fun to set each book in a different location as my heroine researched a new spot for a magazine article. But as I started to write the Murder Packs a Suitcase mystery series, I wanted to create a heroine who was completely different from Jessie Popper. So I made Mallory Marlowe a little older, as well as less secure in her career and herself. Perhaps even more importantly, I made her central conflict the exact opposite of Jessie’s. While Jessie struggles with her fears of getting into a committed relationship, Mallory is dealing with the loss of hers, the result of her husband’s sudden death. And while the members of Jessie’s family all have four feet (one has wings), Mallory has two almost-adult children. That gives her a support system that Jessie doesn’t have – and isn’t sure she wants.

It’s been a challenge, alternating between the two series and having to go back and forth, getting into the head of each of my two heroines. Writing about two such different women requires a totally different mindset. I “hear” them in my head and I “see” them in various situations – and the experience is strangely different. Thank goodness that in the end, both Jessie and Mallory have the same goal: discovering “whodunnit!”

Cynthia Baxter
www.cynthiabaxter.com/

Allyson Roy | Memories

Have you ever been caught by the scent of something that takes you immediately back to a particular time or place in your memory?

Roasted marshmallows. Zing! You’re ten years old at summer camp. Did you know that baby powder is one of the all-time favorite scents, which is why it’s been made into a perfume? Our sense of smell is the only one of our senses that bypasses the conscious part of our brain and connects directly with our primitive emotional region.

The place where our sexual feelings emerge.

And our sense of danger.

This is a key issue in APHRODISIAC, the first book in our romantic suspense series featuring Brooklyn sex therapist, Saylor Oz. Along with the idea that most people have a deep down secret wish to experience what it is like to be irresistible to the opposite sex.

None of us is perfect, and in a society inundated with super-gorgeous media celebrities, that idea can plague even the most sensible, intelligent men and women (especially if you add in some major disses form high school).

Enter our height-challenged heroine, Saylor Oz, who grew up with the revolting nickname, “the munchkin.” She may be small, but don’t let that fool you. When it comes to nerve and determination, Saylor will stop at nothing to get to the truth. Especially for a friend. In APHRODISIAC, a post mortem message from a childhood pal has her pulling out the stops, while leaving Saylor the target of a killer.

But we provided a little backup for her -- roommate and best bud, Benita “Binnie The Bitch” Morales. A former professional boxer, Benita’s always good for that much needed scene where it’s nice to see a beautiful woman deck a big, mean, disgusting dude who’s putting the hurt on somebody.

Guess it was kind of inevitable that friendship would be a theme that runs through our series because, in addition to being a husband and wife, we also happen to be best friends. And as debut authors, it’s great to have a chance to talk to readers about APHRODISIAC.

If you like sassy, sexy suspense, come read the first chapter here.

Allyson Roy
(Alice & Roy)
http://allysonroy.com/
www.myspace.com/allysonroy

Jason Starr | How Do You Co-Write a Book?

This is the question I've gotten most often over the past few years, since Ken Bruen and I published our first book together (BUST in 2006). Writing, obviously, is normally a solitary process and it's hard enough to organize your own thoughts coherently, so people wonder how we can possibly do it when Ken lives in Ireland and I live in the U.S. and we write entirely over the Internet?

Like with any type of writing, I don't think there's any formula for how to write a book with someone else. The most important thing is that the writers need to have chemistry and share the same vision. We knew we had that part down--we both knew the books would have a nourish, darkly humorous sensibility. We were more concerned about the writing itself.

Ken and I have written three books together now and going into each one I wasn't sure we could actually pull it off, but I had my biggest doubts before we wrote the first book. We had a bit of a head start with BUST because it was loosely based on a book I had previously written, but had kept in the drawer. The original manuscript had the basic plot of what became BUST, but we basically needed to do a page-one re-write on the material and make many changes to the plot and add a couple of new characters. While it was exciting and different to co-write, it was also terrifying because we had signed a contract for a book I wasn't sure we could actually write.

The main issues were voice and style. Normally, Ken and I write in very different styles. Ken has a much more relaxed, stream of consciousness style than I do, and we have very different rhythms to our prose, and we don't even write dialogue the same way. So we both knew that a big challenge was to make the book read as if one person had written it. We sent some notes back and forth discussing the plotting of the first few chapters, then Ken did his take on chapter one. It was great, but it read like one of his books. So I did my take, and by sending the chapter back and forth a few times we eventually created a new style, some kind of unholy union of our writing. It had the same darkness as our individual writing, but it was a lot funnier. Some readers have falsely assumed that since we co-write and have Irish and American characters that we must switch off writing chapters. But, actually, we write the same chapters at the same time and we both write the Irish and American (and in our new book THE MAX) the British and Greek characters. I love it when someone assumes that Ken wrote a line when I actually wrote it, or I get complimented for one of Ken's lines. It's an indication to me that we really got the voice part down.

My other big concern was the plotting. I was afraid that we'd want to take the stories in different directions and the plots would become confused. But it's turned out that the plotting hasn't been an obstacle at all; it's actually been a strength for our co-writing. Normally when I write, I always think about the plot ahead of the characters; I need to know where the story is going. Ken is just the opposite, and he always starts with the characters first. So, in this way, our styles complimented each other. I could take the lead with the plotting and Ken could push the characters into new directions and we got--as Hannah Montana might say--the best of both worlds.

I think a collaboration either works or it doesn't work. The advantages are that you can write twice as fast (it's very cool to write 8 pages a day instead of 4), and it can also be very enjoyable if you're writing with someone who is also a close friend. But I think the best co-written books are the ones that couldn't have been written by the individual authors.

There are a lot of great writing teams currently at work today, P.J. Tracy, P.J. Parrish and the Todds jump to mind. Who are some of your favorite writing teams (past or present)? If you are a writer, have you ever considered co-writing a book? What do you think would be the major obstacles for you?

As I mentioned above, The Max, my latest novel with Ken Bruen (in what we are now calling The Bust Trilogy) is now on-sale everywhere. Check out www.jasonstarr.com/ and sign up for my newsletter to win free books (I gave away 10 books already this month). If you live in the New York City area, please join Ken Bruen and Jason Starr at the official THE MAX launch party at The Mysterious Bookshop on Thursday Sept. 4 at 6:30 pm. Alison Gaylin will launch her new thriller Heartless at the same event. Hope to see you there!

Jason Starr is the multi award-winning author of nine crime novels, including his latest novel, THE FOLLOWER (paperback on Sale 12/2/08 from St. Martin's Paperbacks). He is also-co written three novels with Ken Bruen for Hard Case Crime, edited an anthology of horse racing fiction for Vintage Books, and written an original graphic novel which will be published in 2009. Visit his website at www.jasonstarr.com/

Vicki Lane | No Manolos, No Makeup, and the Romantic Interest is Bald

"She flowed into his arms and they stood silently for a moment: two middle-aged people, much encumbered by heavy winter outerwear and vintage emotional baggage, but, for the moment, in perfect harmony."

So, I get the invitation to blog on Fresh Fiction and I accept joyfully, especially since the kind folks here have named my recent release In a Dark Season “Pick of the Day” (5/25/08). I start checking out some past blogs and then I see the covers of featured books. Hmmm. Flowing hair, heaving bosoms, and more six-packs than a convenience store. Oh dear! This isn’t what I write – do they really want me?

Mind you, I have nothing against tempestuous heroines and hunky heroes – I’ve drooled my way through a Judith Krantz title or two before this. But when I began to write in 2000 – at the age of fifty seven – I’d already spent about ten years, looking around for role models -- older women who were aging in the way I hoped to. It seemed as if the media was crawling with gorgeous twenty-somethings and the occasional cute, feisty old lady and in real life there was a great middle ground of women trying desperately to give the illusion of being younger than they really were. But I was looking for women who were unapologetic about aging -- un-lifted, un-dyed, and un-Botoxed. I was looking for women who didn’t feel defined by their age – women to whom age was irrelevant. So I invented her.

My Elizabeth Goodweather Appalachian Mysteries have as protagonist a woman ‘of a certain age’ -- not beautiful or even beautifully dressed -- but a woman in her fifties whose long braid of dark hair is shot with silver threads, a woman whose knees aren’t what they once were, and who wouldn’t know a Jimmy Choo if it stomped on her instep. (Wouldn’t feel it either, as she’s usually wearing hiking boots.)

Elizabeth doesn’t dwell on her age or her hot flashes or her weight or her graying hair – she just gets on with solving the mystery – traveling up and down the dark hollows and coves of her mountain county (Signs in the Blood), weaving her way through the quirky art scene of nearby Asheville (Art’s Blood), exploring the world of the Cherokee (Old Wounds), or deciding what to do about the man who wants to marry her (In a Dark Season). And yes, he’s balding.

Really, Elizabeth’s age is peripheral to the story – this is NOT “Geezer Lit.” But she is aging gracefully -- and my greatest pleasure is hearing from the many women who feel like she’s a friend they look forward to visiting every year.
My very favorite email was from a woman who wrote: “Elizabeth makes me want to stop dyeing my hair and be who I really am.”

Amen, sister!

Vicki Lane

Website -- http://vickilanemysteries.com/
(Almost) Daily Blog - http://vickilanemysteries.blogspot.com/
Monthly Amazon Blog
Random House Podcast

Brian Freeman | Are Crime Thrillers Moral?

It’s an odd way to make a living when you think about it. We write about things that would terrify and dismay people if they were real. Murder. Serial killers. Violence. And we do all this to entertain people.

I think about this issue whenever a news show covers an intimate tragedy like the disappearance of Natalee Holloway in Aruba or Madeleine McCann in Portugal. Cable news shows play on our love of mystery and drama to boost ratings. The difference is that, unlike a novel, the crime is real. Our news programs treat these dramas as whodunits, to an extent that we often cheapen or even forget the actual tragedy.

The question is: Are those of us who write mysteries any different? We invent our stories, but we strive to make the fear, crime, and drama real for the reader. The best writers make us gasp and cry, afraid to turn the page, but unable to put the book down. My only explanation is that mysteries make us confront difficult moral choices and decide for ourselves. Mysteries also give us something that the real world often cannot. Order. Resolution. Truth. The frustration in watching the news is in not knowing what really happened. In mysteries, in the end, we usually do.

That may explain it, but I’m not sure it gives us moral cover. Would there be a fictional Hannibal Lector without the real-life Zodiac killer? I’m not so sure. Those of us who make our living writing about murders perhaps owe more of a debt of gratitude to the people who commit them than we are comfortable admitting.

BRIAN FREEMAN

www.bfreemanbooks.com/
brian@bfreemanbooks.com

Author of STALKED (2008), STRIPPED (2006), and IMMORAL (2005)

Denise Swanson | School Psychologist, Writer, and People Watcher

One of the first questions I’m often asked when I speak about my writing is why I chose to write mysteries instead of romances (I assume this is because I have such an innocent, baby face). My answer is simple: after twenty-two years in public education there are a lot of people I want to kill, there are very few I want to have sex with.

Seriously, although I enjoy writing mysteries because I like knowing that the bad guy is going to get caught and pay for his crime at the end, I would like to write in other genres such as romance and fantasy.

On the other hand, I love the sense of justice a well-written mystery brings to its readers. One thing I’ve learned from being a school psychologist for so long is that justice rarely happens in real life, so it gives me a sense of fulfillment to have it happen in my fiction.

Having worked in almost every type of school setting, from the poorest areas surrounding Washington DC to upscale suburban Chicago, and from rural to urban, I’ve heard so many stories and seen so many bizarre situations I’ll never run out of plots.

My Scumble River Mystery series is set in a fictional small town in Illinois, and features a school psychologist-sleuth named Skye Denison. It's got a lot of humor, a bit of romance, and I’ve based many of the stories on my personal experiences—although I've never found a dead body—at least not yet.

When I decided to write a series, one of my goals was to highlight the profession of school psychologist. Most people have no idea what a school psychologist does, or even that they exist. I still get reviews where they call Skye a school counselor or a psychiatrist, both of which are very different jobs.

One of the reasons I enjoyed being a school psychologist is my abiding interest in people. I love studying them and figuring out what makes them tick. This is also, why I enjoy writing. My books are character-driven, and one of the things I like most is examining the relationships. Throughout the series my sleuth is torn between two men, and my readers seem very interested in this relationship. When I do book signings there have even been some skirmishes between readers who have different opinions on which guy Skye should end up with.

Another aspect of writing that is similar to school psychology is that the characters surprise me every time I write about them. In Murder of a Sleeping Beauty, which deals with body image among teenagers, I was surprised by my research when I found a large number of parents living their lives through their kids, as well as by the rising number of teenage girls who think they are only a pretty face and thin body. (Girls should be judged for something besides their looks. For that reason I made Skye a plus-size woman who is comfortable in her own skin. I’m hoping that the teens that read my books will come to understand that people come in all sizes, and weight is just another attribute, like hair or eye color. Skye shows that whether a woman looks like a Barbie doll or a Rubens painting, she can do anything and experience life to the fullest.)

In Murder of a Barbie and Ken, Skye’s then boyfriend, Simon’s mother appeared out of nowhere. I had thought she was dead up until that point. In Murder of a Smart Cookie, nearly all my characters surprised me, especially Simon.

In my newest book, Murder of a Chocolate-Covered Cherry, Skye’s current boyfriend, Wally’s father comes to town and reveals their family secrets.

--Denise Swanson writes the Scumble River mystery series published by Penguin/NAL/Obsidian. Her books have been nominated for the Agatha, Mary Higgins Clark, Daphne du Maurier, and RT Reviewers Choice awards. She is married to classical music composer, David Stybr. To hear some of David’s music go to Denise’s website http://www.deniseswanson.com/

Kimber Chin | What's In A Name?

"What's in a name? That which we call a rose/By any other name would smell as sweet". Ummm… okay, Shakespeare. That's why Juliet fell in love with Romeo and not some guy named Fred. Yeah, somehow, I'm not buying the names are meaningless sales spiel.

Why? Because names aren't meaningless. They're important. That's why most parents spend the entire nine months trying to decide on one (I, on the other hand, was named after the toilet paper and one of my brothers was named after a box of tissues). They set expectations, invoking feelings and passions.

For the rest of your life.

I know this first hand. Who do you picture when you hear the name Kimber Chin (or, if you prefer, the Dr. Seuss version Kim Chin)? Perhaps Lucy Liu from Charles Angels and Kill Bill? Or Ziyi Zhang from Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon? Or…

I'll stop naming gorgeous Asian actresses now before I get depressed. You see, that's SO not me. Even the top Photoshop expert in the world (i.e. my hubby or so he thinks) can't make me look like Lucy Liu. I had to marry to get that last name. My background is Irish, my two sisters are redheads, and I'm paler than Casper, the Friendly Ghost.

Names are even more important for our fictional characters. I doubt any of the great characters in fiction were named carelessly.

There's the wicked George Wickham in Jane Austen's Pride And Prejudice. I just knew with a name like that, he'd turn out to be a baddie.

What about Elena Michaels from Kelley Armstrong's Bitten? She couldn't be plain Ellen Michaels, no, because there is something just a tad bit off with her. Hhhmmm… like being a werewolf, perhaps?

Dr. Jekyll, from Robert Louis Stevenson's Strange Case Of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde is also betrayed by his name. When I hear Jekyll, I think jackal, the animal, the beast. Not exactly good doctor material.

Sisters are extremely interesting. The D'Averette sisters from Margaret Moore's King John series share a surname emphasizing their ties to their land (De meaning of or from). However, they have very different and distinct first names, stamping each character as an individual. Lady Adelaide, with her almost masculine given name, is a woman of strength and bravery. As for the second sister? I've never met a meek Gillian, dull appearance or not. Lady Elizabeth or Lizette, with her amateur theatrics, won't be tied down to a single moniker. Margaret Moore doesn't say so but I'd bet big money Lizette is a Gemini.

In my first novel, Breach Of Trust, quiet, unassuming Anne James has the plainest name I could think of. Or almost does. She isn't a Smith, is she? No. I thought James more royal and, as our hero, the oh-so-French Philippe Lamont, can attest to, Anne can be a royal pain in the… well, never mind. She appears mild mannered (the Anne) but is truly fierce (the James). Contrasts.

What fictional names do you find interesting or amusing (Dumbledore, anyone?)? Do you try to guess the character's personality by his or her name? I look forward to hearing your thoughts!

Kimber Chin
Author of Breach Of Trust (Champagne Books)
http://businessromance.com/

L. J. Sellers | Taking the Plunge

At the end of last year, I decided that 2008 would be different. I had several goals:

1) start a new novel

2) work on my novel first thing every day, even if I had to get up an hour earlier

3) find or create paying work that I enjoyed more than what I was currently doing to earn a living

4) sell my detective series to another publisher

By March 1, I had accomplished the three things I had control over—although not the way I expected to. January first, I began to outline my new Detective Jackson novel with working title, SECRETS TO DIE FOR. I began getting up at five o’clock to write for an hour before I went to work. At the time, I worked as an editor for an educational publisher, a demanding job that left me too mentally exhausted at the end of the day to feel creative enough to fill blank page after blank page (which is how a novel comes into existence).

Next, I started sending out letters to agents, publishers, and writers, announcing my services as a fiction editor. And I contacted some corporate clients and magazines about nonfiction editing as well. Then I took the biggest step: I asked my employer to let me cut back on my hours at work, thinking it would be long slow transition to self-employment. They promptly laid me off.

Thank you very much.

Terrified, but joyously liberated, I plunged into a new routine: Write for three or four hours exclusively on my novel first thing every morning, break for an hour of exercise, then freelance edit for others. And the work poured in—enough to pay the bills. Now in the evenings, instead of trying to squeeze in a little bit of uninspired writing, I have time to network and market my novel that's currently in print, THE SEX CLUB. Most days I’m at my desk from six in the morning until ten at night, but very little of it feels like work.

I love my new life! My bathroom is perpetually untidy, dinner is often an unimaginative freezer-to-oven meal, and there's laundry backed up everywhere. But yesterday, I passed page 150 on my novel, so who cares? My husband says he's never seen me so happy. It's the first time in my life that I've put my personal writing first. Making a living, raising kids, taking care of extended family, and keeping the house together were always a priority. These things are still important, but they are no longer most important. (Don't call child services; my kids are adults now.)

My goal is keep it going for as long as possible—because I finally feel like my real self. I know that not every writer is in a position to make this kind of change, but I heartily recommend it if you can.

L. J. Sellers

http://thesexclub.net/

Jane K. Cleland | Jane’s Time Management Strategy: Just Say No to Cookies

For many years, I was the official "cookie baker" for my family’s holiday get-togethers. Chocolate chip cookies were my specialty, but I dabbled in sugar, chocolate, apple, creamy fillings, and other gourmet styles, too.

As the years passed, and I became busier at work, I grew less entranced with the prospect of baking dozens of cookies under enormous time constraints. In fact, to me, baking cookies for the holidays became a duty, not a pleasure. Then came the year when I was up past midnight completing the task. I was irritated and snappy. The next day, I grumbled to my husband that this had to stop. “I’m too busy to bake all these cookies!” I complained. And, cleverly, I thought, I asked him to call my mother and tell her that I was no longer going to bake cookies. He declined.

The next year, as cookie-baking time approached, I girded myself, picked up the phone and said, “Ma, I’ve made a decision. I’m just too busy. This year, I’m not going to bake cookies. I’m going to buy them instead.”

I’d expected a long, sad silence, followed by, “All right, dear,” or some similar, kindly worded phrase that left me feeling inadequate and guilty. Instead, do you know what my mother said? “Sounds smart!”

And in that one flash of a moment, I learned an important lesson. I learned that what I’d perceived as an obligation had never, in fact, existed at all. My family thought I liked baking cookies. And I did! I just didn’t like having to bake them. I’d volunteered once, then a second time, then a third, until finally it became an expected part of family get-togethers. I could have stopped any time, but I didn’t think I could The sense that it was a non-negotiable duty was all in my own head.

I recall that story a lot when I’m struggling with time management issues. I really, really want to spend my time doing things I value—not doing things other people value—or doing things because I think other people value them—or doing things that have become part of a tradition simply because they’re been done in the past.

That’s pretty unconventional thinking, I know. Most people value traditions for their own sake. I don’t. I value traditions for the deeper meaning they convey to me at that moment in time. And those deeper meanings shift as my circumstances and needs change.

For instance, I used to decorate like a wild woman for every holiday. I don’t anymore. For Halloween, as an example, I used to suspend paper skeletons from the ceiling in front of windows, adding backlighting so they’d glow eerily as they fluttered. To say nothing of the spiders and cobwebs and jack-o-lanterns! Now I put a few mini-pumpkins on the fireplace mantle and call it a day.

Why the change? I liked my big-time decorations—a lot. It was fun to do and fun to live with. I don’t do it anymore because I don’t need the joy the decorations provided to fill a void and I’d rather spend my time doing other things.

During the period when I’d decorated every nook and cranny of my apartment, I was enduring a tough time in my life—my mother had died, my brother had died, my beloved cat had died, and I’d gotten divorced after a 20-year marriage—all within a year or so. Decorating provided joy during a joyless time.

Things are different now. I’m happily remarried and doing work I adore. For the moment, all is well in my world.

In the Josie Prescott Antiques Mysteries, my protagonist, Josie Prescott, is an antiques appraiser who uses her knowledge of antiques to solve crimes.

Josie likes to cook. She uses the recipes her mother wrote out by hand in a leather bound book as she lay dying, part of her legacy to her beloved daughter. Josie likes it when the recipes take time. She doesn’t want to hurry when she cooks. To her, multiple steps and complex instructions mean that she gets to spend extra time with her mom.

That’s luxury! To be able to spend time as you choose.

All of Josie’s mom’s recipes are on my website: www.janecleland.net/. (There are oodles of fun, free elements on the website in addition to the recipes, including several autographed book give-away drawings, an opportunity to pit your antiques appraisal skills against those of the experts in What’s It Worth? You Be the Judge, text and audio podcasts of excerpts, and book club discussion questions... and more. Sign up for the free newsletter, too!)

Time—we all have only so much of it. If you’re like me, you strive to spend it wisely, by your own definition of "wise."

But if you bake cookies for the holidays, may I please have one?

Your thoughts? I’d welcome your comments.

Jane K. Cleland

ANTIQUES TO DIE FOR, available April 2008.

Emilie Richards | Finding Nemo

Nemo came into our lives the way the best ideas for novels often do. One morning my husband and I had no dog. We had memories of two who had aged and died, dogs we had loved for years and mourned with a startling intensity. We also had vows that we would not get another pet while our lives were so busy. Then we got the phone call.

"Mom," our oldest son, the lawyer and country gentleman began, "we found a puppy dying in the grass off our road. Jim–" their neighbor, "nearly ran him over with a bush hog. If I hadn't stopped to talk to him, and he hadn't turned off the tractor. . ."

We didn't need a dog. "What kind of puppy?" I asked, because like any mom I wanted to keep the conversation going. "Who knows. Spotted, starving and sick. I'm not sure he'll make it."

He did make it, of course–or why would I tell this story? My son and daughter-in-law carefully nursed the foundling back to health. Then puppy came to visit one afternoon and simply never left. I couldn't bring myself to name him for days, not until my husband returned home from a conference and saw the baby blue tick beagle with his own eyes. "Nemo," we decided together, because our dog had been lost, then found.

Tonight Nemo is sleeping in his bed beside me. Months later, he is thirty-five pounds of healthy energetic adolescent. He's adored and adorable, the quintessential happy ending. But it occurs to me that Nemo came into my life the same way my idea for a new mystery series did. I had other plans. I knew what was best for my career. I knew from experience that one impulsive detour would take me so far from my planned route that I might never find my way back. And somehow, none of that mattered.

That's how my series arrived. I was happily writing women's fiction, one book a year, then wham, out of nowhere, an idea about a minister's wife who finds murderers appeared at my doorstep. I told myself I was too busy. I told myself this was too far removed from what I was known for. Apparently telling myself anything is a waste of time.

The Ministry is Murder series for Berkley Prime Crime debuted in 2005, and in November of 2007 the third book, Beware False Profits made its debut. I've given up worrying about how sensible an idea is or how much attention I should pay to it. If it wags it's little tail and licks my hand, I'm hooked for life. I've learned that the best books, and the best dogs, are found in the least likely places. They are the gifts we aren't expecting, the joys we only have to reach out and embrace. Nothing else is required.

Please visit my website at http://www.emilierichards.com/ for more information on both my Ministry is Murder and my Shenandoah Album series. And watch for my updates and the new blog coming sometime later this month. Nemo will appear, I can guarantee it.

Emilie Richards