Red Herrings Stink!

I m blogging at Inkspot today, the blog for Midnight Ink authors, about the stinky topic of red herrings, or false clues. Do you have a favorite red herring that you came across while reading a mystery or that you used in writing a mystery? I hope you'll leave a comment there sharing your thoughts!

Interviews, interviews, interviews!

Every time I release a new mystery book (as I did Tuesday with Wicked Eddies), I receive a lot of requests for interviews. Many have appeared on-line recently. The interviewers ask different questions, and I try to vary my responses to similar questions, so I hope you'll read them all and find them to be interesting. Please let me know in a comment here if I say anything that surprises you!

International Thriller Writers featured me in their The Big Thrill webzine. Read the interview HERE.

My whitewater river ranger sleuth, Mandy Tanner, was interviewed on the Killer Characters blog HERE.

I was interviewed on the Inspiration Forum HERE.

I was interviewed by B.R. Stateham HERE. 

And lastly, this isn't an interview, but I applied the "Page 69 Test" to Wicked Eddies and reported on the result (which was VERY interesting) HERE.

More interviews are coming up, so stay tuned!

Today is the Official Release Date for Wicked Eddies!

Today is the official release date for Wicked Eddies, the second book in my RM Outdoor Adventures mystery series. Yee-haw!

Whitewater river ranger Mandy Tanner rides the waves again, this time while patrolling the upper Arkansas River in Colorado during a fly-fishing tournament. And wherever there's competition, there's the chance for tempers to flare, for cheating to occur, and even for murder! But there was also something darker going on in the life of Howie Abbott, the fisherman whose body Mandy discovered in a riverside campground with an ax in his neck!

"Once again, Groundwater, mixing mystery with outdoor adventure, comes up with an excursion that will please most comers."
-- Kirkus Reviews, May 1, 2012

I hope you'll join in the excitement by purchasing your own copy of the trade paperback or ebook from your local bookseller or favorite on-line retailer!

Photos from the 2012 Festival of Mystery

Last Monday, I participated in the Festival of Mystery in Oakmont, Pennsylvania, put on by the Mystery Lovers Bookshop.The photos below are from the event. First, of course, is me behind my book display shortly before they let in the mystery fan hoard that was waiting in line outside. The following photos are of fellow Midnight Ink authors Alice Loweecey, Jessie Chandler, Deborah Sharp, and Vicki Doudera. The last photo is of all the Midnight Ink authors who participated in the festival (including Lois Winston and Joanna Campbell Slan) with store co-owner Richard Goldman. We were at the post-event pizza and beer party at the store. What a fun day!

Photos from the 2012 Malice Domestic Conference

This is the first of two reports on my east coast trip. (The next one will appear Monday.) I started in Hampton, Virginia, visiting my parents. While there, I signed some stock at the local Barnes & Noble store and I gave a talk on "Series Writing for the Organizationally Challenged" to the Chesapeake Bay Writers. In the photo below, I'm with their Vice President, Jackie Guidry, and my proud mother. :)

That was followed by the Malice Domestic conference, where I had a blast! I arrived just in time on Friday to relieve Beth Wasson, the Executive Secretary of Sisters in Crime, at the SinC table in the bookroom, so she could attend the SinC Chapter Meeting. I serve on the National Membership Committee, so I spent the next couple of hours encouraging folks to join the organization. After Beth returned, I attended some panels and schmoozed with old friends such as Liz Zelvin and Leslie Budewitz (winner of the Nonfiction Agatha Award) in the photo below, and made some new friends.

Then I met up with the Midnight Ink gang (see us in the group shot below!) for dinner at a local Mongolian BBQ restaurant. I returned to observe the Live Auction for the JLG-RICA charity and watch a character name in my next RM Outdoor Adventures mystery book, Cataract Canyon, go for $400. Wow! During the dessert buffet at the Welcome Reception, I talked to my hubby on the phone and found out some buyers had signed an offer contract for our Colorado Springs house, which has been on the market almost forever. Double wow!

The New Author Breakfast and more schmoozing and panels filled up Saturday morning, then I joined some fellow members of the Guppies chapter of Sisters in Crime for lunch at Booeymonger (see the two photos below).

The afternoon kicked off with my lively panel, "Three Strikes, You’re Dead: Sports-Related Mysteries" including Laura DiSilverio, Sasscer Hill, Maggie Barbieri, and our referee moderator Alan Orloff. Alan kept things lively with sports-related puns, a Seventh Inning stretch, getting the audience to do the wave, and his whistle.

The panel was followed by a signing, and here I am with a whitewater paddler fan, who is looking forward to reading Wicked Eddies. Below that is a photo of me with Parnell Hall, still in costume from the roast of Elizabeth Peters, and Geezer Lit author Mike Befeler.

Then it was time to get gussied up for the banquet. We had two tables for Midnight Ink authors, with table prizes of Midnight Ink logo T-shirts and books from fellow authors. Our acquisition editor, Terri Bischoff, provided wine, too. I'm with her (sampling the wine) and Jess Lourey in the photo below. Below that, I'm between Maddy Hunter and Darrell James.

Sunday morning began with the Sisters in Crime breakfast, where I gave out Lifetime Membership pins to the lifetime members in attendance. Then Beth Wasson came up to give me my pin. After more schmoozing and panels, I met up with fellow Midnight Ink authors Lois Winston and Vicki Doudera to drive to Oakmont, Pennsylvania, for the Festival of Mystery that would take place on Monday. This coming Monday, I'll post photos from that event!

Today's Mystery Author Guest: Bailey Cates

 As promised yesterday, fellow Colorado mystery author Bailey Cates (AKA Cricket McRae) is visiting my blog today. To read her bio and see her photo, please page down to yesterday's post.

Above is the cover photo for her May 1st release, Brownies and Broomsticks, the first book in her Magical Bakery Mystery series. In the book, Katie Lightfoot’s tired of loafing around as the assistant manager of an Ohio bakery. So when her aunt Lucy and uncle Ben open a bakery in Savannah’s quaint downtown district and ask Katie to join them, she enthusiastically agrees.

In the Honeybee Bakery – named after Lucy’s orange tabby – Katie notices that her aunt is adding mysterious herbs to her recipes. Turns out these herbal enhancements aren’t just tasty – Aunt Lucy is a witch and her recipes are actually spells!

But when a curmudgeonly customer is murdered outside the Honeybee Bakery, Uncle Ben becomes the prime suspect. With the help of handsome journalist Steve Dawes, charming firefighter Declan McCarthy, and a few spells, Katie and Aunt Lucy will stir up some toil and trouble to clear Ben’s name and find the real killer ...

Below is Bailey's guest article about how she researched Savannah, Georgia, so she could set this series in a place she had never been before:

Brownies and Broomsticks is the first in the Magical Bakery Mystery series, and my first book written as Bailey Cates. When my editor at Penguin/NAL suggested I set the series in Savannah, Georgia, I was skeptical. The Home Crafting Mysteries I write as Cricket McRae take place in a fictional town, so I can make up anything I want. I like that.

However, Savannah is a truly lovely city. And heaven knows there’s plenty of fodder for paranormal cozy mystery plots. It’s the most haunted city in America. There’s history going back before the Revolutionary War. There are odd, wild characters both now and then, the famous historic squares, and, of course, The Book.

Which I’ll get to in a minute.

So I agreed. All I had to do was figure out how to realistically set a mystery in a city I’d never actually been to. A city with a very distinct personality, loved by many. Piece of cake, right?

Naturally, the first thing I did was go there. No, wait, that’s not true. The first thing I did was have my protagonist move there in the first book. So she’s not a local. I knew better than to try and fake that.

Then we took the vacation. We did some of the touristy things, but mostly spent time with locals who were friends of a friend. They were generous with their time and in-depth information, sitting and chatting (and drinking) for hours. I walked away with a pile of varied, disjointed notes full of telling details and plot ideas to mine later. While in town, I talked to folks at the fire department (one of my characters is a fire fighter) and made contact with the police department (it’s a mystery, after all).

And then there’s The Book. One of the first things I learned when I went to Savannah is that the famous (infamous?) Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil is referred to simply as The Book.

The Book is responsible for a lot of money coming into the city. Tourist money. And tourism is a major source of revenue in Savannah. The Book is also responsible for what a lot of outsiders think about the fair city.

So I took another look at the copy of Midnight on my bookshelf. Then I read about two dozen other books about or set in Savannah. Now I have a shelf devoted to books on the city.

And I watched movies. Lots of them. Over 80 movies have been filmed in Savannah! In fact, when we were in town some of the streets were closed down – and covered with dirt – for the filming of Robert Redford’s The Conspirator.

As I wrote I looked up restaurant menus online, took virtual tours, kept a chart of sunrise and sunset times for the week in which the story takes place (which I do for every book), and checked out details about the local flora on nursery websites and through the botanical gardens. I read the Savannah Morning News online every day. And I followed Twitter feeds associated with the city, with the Savannah College of Art and Design, and with the tourist association.

Finally, I fell in love with Google Earth. Love, I say. I was able to virtually walk down streets to look at structural layout, architecture, plants and landscaping, parking – all sorts of things. It helped me get my characters from place to place, organize scene choreography, and provide descriptive details.

And last, but not least, I made a bunch of stuff up. As a fiction writer I am, after all, a professional liar. If something served the story, I invented it.

For more information about me or my books, please visit my website. I also blog at Hearth Cricket, and Katie Lightfoot, the main character of the Magical Bakery Mysteries, blogs at The Lightfoot Chronicles.

Thanks again, Beth!

And thank you, Bailey! Does anyone have a question for Bailey? Do you have an interesting story to tell about researching a setting? Have you ever thought about how much WORK is involved in researching a real setting?

Tomorrow's Guest: Bailey Cates

Tomorrow, author Bailey Cates (AKA Cricket McRae) will be a guest on my blog. Bailey Cates believes magic is all around us if we only look for it. She studied philosophy, English and history and has held a variety of positions ranging from driver's license examiner to soap maker. She traveled the world as a localization program manager for Microsoft, but now sticks close to home where she writes two mystery series, tends to a dozen garden beds, bakes up a storm and plays the occasional round of golf.

Having apprenticed with a master herbalist for a year, Bailey's prone to concocting teas and tinctures for family and friends from the stash of herbs stored in the corner cabinet in her office. She owns a working spinning wheel and is on a first name basis with several alpacas and two sheep with questionable dispositions. The first book in her Magical Bakery Mystery series, Brownies and Broomsticks, was released on May 1st.


In her guest post tomorrow, Bailey talks about how she researched the setting for the series, Savannah, Georgia. After you read her post, feel free to ask her a question or leave a comment for her in the comments.