My Week Back East - Part Two

And now on to the second half of my very busy week. After the Guppies luncheon at the Malice Domestic conference on Saturday, I sat in on the Tales with Tails: Roles Animals Play in Mysteries panel, did some chatting (networking) in the Hospitality Lounge and Booksellers Room, then changed into a dress for the evening. I met up with some Mystery Babes in the Marriott bar and indulged in a chocolate martini. Yum! The next two photos show the group at the bar (note the empty Margarita glasses and the satisfied grins).



























Next we tried to corral all of the 13 Midnight Ink authors at the conference for a group photo at the reception before the Agatha Awards Banquet. Our editor had asked for one. You can see 10 in the photo below (Alan Orloff and G. M. Malliet are hidden and Jennifer Stanley is missing). The authors shown include (left to right): Vicki Doudera, C.S. Challinor, Lisa Bork, Elizabeth Spann Craig, Joanna Campbell Slan, Elizabeth Kane Buzzelli, Deborah Sharp, me, Sue Ann Jaffarian, and Kathleen Ernst.














On Sunday I went to The Art of Distraction: Using Red Herrings panel, where Joannna Campbell Slan passed out a useful handout on Twenty Types of Misdirection. Next came the Bosom Buddies: Friendships in Mysteries panel, which included Margaret Maron and Nancy Pickard. When I heard Nancy's The Scent of Rain and Lightning was on sale pre-release in the book room, I rushed to buy a copy and have her sign it. The photo below shows Margaret and Nancy at work at their signing following the panel. The last panel I sat in on, Characters We Know and Love:Authors Appear in Character, was a really fun one, especially watching Mary Jane Maffini try to portray multiple characters.













Hank Phillippi Ryan did an excellent job interviewing Rhys Bowen, then came my favorite dining event of the conference, the Agatha Tea. The next photo shows some of the folks at my table, including Luci Zahray, the Poison Lady, and authors Barbara Graham and Peg Herring.










Then L.C. Hayden and I climbed into my rental car and tried to keep each other awake on the drive up to Oakmont, PA. We were both thoroughly exhausted from conferencing, so this was really tough and required a pit stop for more sugar and caffeine. We fell into beds in our hotel and slept like the dead until mid-morning. Just before noon, Linda Randig, who appears as a character in L.C.'s latest book, When Death Intervenes, came by with her husband for a visit. After giving us homemade gifts, she took us to the scrumptious Oakland Bakery for a snack (I took photos and brochures for my pastry-chef-in-training son), then to the Mystery Lovers Bookshop, which puts on the Festival of Mystery. While there, we chatted briefly with co-owner Richard Goldman before heading over to the Author-Librarian Tea at the Oakmont Carnegie Library. The crowded room soon heated up as authors pitched their books to the attending librarians and the book club leaders and members they brought along. The next photo shows a librarian sandwiched between me and thriller author Kevin O'Brien.
















When we arrived at the Greek Orthodox Church for the festival itself, readers were lined up under sun umbrellas outside the door, a sight that warms any author's heart! Mayhem ensued when the doors opened and the crowd descended on the authors. Just like my first visit in 2007, I sold more books at this event than at the Malice Domestic conference. The first photo below shows me with Kathy Sweeney, who liked my first book A Real Basket Case so much that she bought two copies of the second one, To Hell in a Handbasket. Thanks, Kathy!

















The next four photos show authors at the festival. In the first one are L.C. Hayden and Sue Ann Jaffarian. The second one shows Leann Sweeney, Marcia Talley, and Elaine Viets. The third one shows me with Casey Daniels and fellow Colorado Springs mystery author Laura DiSilverio/Lila Dare. The fourth one show Hank Phillippi Ryan, Deborah Sharp, and Joanna Campbell Slan. After the festival finished, the authors and bookstore staff trooped over to the store for a pizza party. I chatted with Nancy Martin about cruising, Donna Andrews about bird and animal invasions, and more. What fun! All in all it was a great trip, but I was glad to finally be home again by Tuesday evening.

"Creative Writer" Blog Award

Some of my fellow bloggers have decided to nominate me for this award. This fun award was created by Lesa Holstein at Lesa's Book Critiques. Are authors natural born liars? That seems to be the point of this blogosphere game.


The rules for this award are fairly simple.

Recipients must -
1. Thank the person who gave this to you. (Thanks Sue Ann Jaffarian, Maryann Miller, and Keith Raffel)
2. Copy the logo and place it on your blog.
3. Link to the person(s) who nominated you. (See #1)
4. Tell us up to six outrageous lies about yourself, and at least one outrageous truth (or the other way around). (See below.)
5. Allow your readers to guess which one or more are true.
6. Nominate seven "Creative Writers" who might have fun coming up with outrageous lies (or as many as you would like).

I nominate the following:
Patricia Stoltey
Bill Crider
Terry ODell
Donna Lea Simpson
Joanna Campbell Slan
Camille Minichino/Margaret Grace
Terri Thayer

7. Post links to the blogs you nominate. (See #6)
8. Leave a comment on each of the blogs letting them know you nominated them. (Done!)

So, below are some things you might not know about me. Truth or fiction? You be the judge and let me know what you think in a comment. At least one is false and at least one is true. Here's a hint: read them carefully! I will post the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth here on Monday.

1. I have snorkeled with sea turtles, barracudas, and stingrays, but not sharks or dolphins.
2. I love to ski the green (beginner), blue (intermediate), and single black diamond (advanced) ski slopes of my home state of Colorado, but I stay off the double-black diamond (expert) slopes.
3. I broke my arm on the playground when I was young, then danced the Virginia Reel with it afterward because I didn't want to miss the dance.
4. I wore a walking cast for six weeks after dancing on a bar at a college fraternity party and slipping on a beer puddle and falling.
5. I've hiked the Inca Trail to Machu Picchu in Peru.
6. I used to have a car vanity license plate that read FAKE IQ.
7. I've spent a night in jail.

My mystery author guest: Sue Ann Jaffarian

Sue Ann Jaffarian's February release is Corpse on the Cob, the fifth book in the Odelia Gray mystery series published by Midnight Ink. Isn't that the cutest cover you've ever seen? I can't wait to read the book myself. Here's how Sue Ann describes the book:

What do you have to lose when you go searching for the mother who walked out of your life thirty-four years ago? I mean, besides your pride, your nerves, and your sanity? Odelia finds herself up to her ears in trouble when she reunites with her mom in a corn maze. For starters, there’s finding the dead body in the cornfield—and seeing her long-lost mom crouched beside the corpse with blood on her hands.

Now, here's Sue Ann's guest blog post:

I see dead people. When Haley Joel Osment uttered those now iconic words a decade ago in The Sixth Sense, little did I realize I was hearing what was to become my life and passion.

I see regular dead people. I see the ghosts of dead people. I see vampires, which are undead dead people. What I’m trying to explain is that I write three very specific amateur sleuth mystery series. The Odelia Grey series features a middle-age plus size paralegal stumbling over bodies much to the chagrin of her friends and family. The Ghost of Granny Apples series joins a 100-year-old ghost with her great-great-great granddaughter to solve the murders of ghosts. And my most recent entry, the Fang-in-Cheek mysteries, teams up a young edgy woman with a community of vampires to solve murders that threaten to expose the vampires’ existence. The first book in the vampire series, Murder In Vein, will be released September 1st.

One of the most asked questions I get these days is how do I keep these three different series straight in my head. Truth is, I’m not sure, but so far it hasn’t been an issue. But part of that success is that although all three feature amateur sleuths, they are very different from each other in tone. For starters, the Odelia Grey mysteries are written in first person, the other two in third. If I were measuring them with the cozy vs. hard boil measuring stick for sex and violence, the Ghost of Granny Apples mysteries would be considered cozy or PG-rated, while Odelia Grey books would be soft-boiled or PG-R rated. The vampire mysteries would be labeled medium boiled or given a soft R-rating. The body count and violence is definitely ramped up in the vampire books. What they all have in common, besides the author, is that all take place in Southern California and all use humor to leaven the horror of murder.

The next question I get asked a lot is why did I sign on to write three different series, which boils down to writing three books a year. That question has several answers. The consensus is that I’m insane. Maybe. But maybe I’m also crazy like a fox. In today’s unstable publishing world, it’s difficult to get published and just as difficult to stay published. Having three solid series helps build my reader base throughout the year, instead of a once a year book release hopeful stab. Having three very different types of mysteries also exposes my work to readers with different tastes – readers who may discover my other series after enjoying the one they are drawn to initially. Writing is about words. Publishing is about numbers. Writing more than one series can help build a writing career faster and keep your publisher happier longer.

Another reason I write three series, is that I simply want to do it. I love writing each of the series and they force me to discover and hone very different skills. While the Odelia Grey series is based on a more normal lifestyle, the vampires allow me to explore fantasy. It’s a kick as a writer to flex my different make-believe muscles.

As for juggling the three series time-wise, together with my personal life and my full-time career as a paralegal, it does take a lot of discipline and sacrifice to meet the various deadlines thrown at me with regularity. It seems if I’m not writing or editing, I’m promoting or plotting. There is seldom any down time from the writing world. But I love what I’m doing, and that is what makes the long hours at the computer or attending conferences and book events fun and satisfying.

Whenever I feel I can’t write another word, let alone another book, I hear Tim Gunn of Project Runway fame whisper in my ear: “make it work.”


Everyone should be sure to check out Sue Ann Jaffarian's website to get more information about her books. Okay, readers, fire away! What do you want to know about Sue Ann? Want more information on her paranormal visitors? :) Got anything else to say or ask?

Tomorrow's Guest Blogger: Sue Ann Jaffarian!

Tomorrow, a fellow Midnight Ink author, Sue Ann Jaffarian, will be a guest on my blog and talk about seeing dead people. Brrr!

Sue Ann is the best-selling author of the award-winning Odelia Grey mystery series,the most recent of which is Corpse on the Cob, to be released in February, 2010, as well as the Ghost of Granny Apples mystery series. Coming in September 2010 is Murder In Vein, the first book in Sue Ann’s new vampire mystery series. In addition to writing, Sue Ann is a full-time paralegal for a Los Angeles law firm, and is sought after as a motivational speaker. And I can tell you that the cover art for Murder In Vein is an absolute killer!

Sue Ann guest post is guaranteed to be fascinating, and I should know because I've already read it. :) If you have additional questions for her, or if her post makes you want to know more about something, Sue Ann will be available to answer questions that you pose in comments. I hope my blog readers will give her a very warm welcome!