Super exciting news!! We’re starting a Facebook Readers’ Group with monthly contests and other fun stuff. It’s calledmisterio‘s Magical Mystery Ride.
The group’s banner!
Our misterio press authors will be hosting the group, one each week, and they will be posting about monthly contests and daily and weekly giveaways, as well as interesting background tidbits related to their stories. There will also be book reviews, reading challenges, guest author posts, fave recipes, and maybe a magic spell or two from our paranormal authors. 🙂
If you’re on Facebook, pop over and take a look — https://www.facebook.com/groups/misteriopressmysteries/ We hope you’ll join our Facebook Readers’ Group (and don’t forget to click on notifications and mark All Posts or Highlights.)
This month’s contest has a summer beach read theme.
Prizes are this cute beach towel and 7 FREE ebooks (winner’s choice, some restrictions apply).
Click HERE to enter the contest — runs July 27 to August 29, 2020.
Good luck!
We blog here at misterio press about twice a month, usually on Tuesdays. Sometimes we talk about serious topics, and sometimes we just have some fun.
Please sign up via email (upper right sidebar) to follow us, so you don’t miss out on any of the interesting stuff, or the fun! (We do not lend, sell nor otherwise bend, spindle or mutilate followers’ e-mail addresses. 🙂 )
Part of the fun of writing witch mystery novels is the research. And since my trio of witchy sisters in imaginary Doyle, CA are busy trying to get rid of a cursed spell book, it’s led me to thinking about the mystery of magic. What is it? How does it really work, if at all?
The infamous occultist Aleister Crowley defined magic as “the Science and Art of causing Change to occur in conformity with Will.” But what does that look like? How does it work?
A magic spell is a form of ritual that may be simple or complex and is believed to have magical force. The spoken part of the spell is the incantation. But the words and the ritual don’t in themselves create the magical force – it’s the magician’s intention behind them. That intention is built and amplified by the ritual. And yes, that is a bit circular.
A spell-caster will usually start by psychically “clearing” the space and creating a protective barrier for the spell work. Then the incantation will be chanted, focusing the spell worker on the intent of the spell. Other magical objects, such as candles or items representing the elements, may be used to further charge the intention.
While no one really understands the mystery of magic, there are several working theories.
photo by Joanna Kosinska on Unsplash.com (cropped)
Quantum physics has a different answer to the question, what is the mystery of magic? It tells us the act of observing or paying attention to an object may affect its behavior – at least on a sub-atomic level. Can a spell-caster, by paying attention, amplified by ritual and intention, affect an outcome at a molecular level?
The psychologically-minded argue that a spell changes the caster’s own behavior, and once her behavior changes, the people and things she interacts with react differently to her. She changes, therefore, so does her world. I like this answer, because it gives us all some personal agency… if we can change. As many of my characters have discovered, change doesn’t come easy, but it is possible.
Maybe.
Author Dr. Masaru Emoto tested the impact of intention on water. He printed out words and taped them onto bottles of distilled water, leaving them out overnight to see if the structure of the water molecules changed. Photographs taken of the water the next day showed that they did – loving words created gorgeous snow-flake molecule patterns. However, Dr. Emoto concluded that it was his thoughts and intentions that affected the molecules; the words were just the medium.
My Witches’ Magic
Doyle witch Lenore Bonheim is a shamanic witch. She sees ghosts and can seek the help of her animal spirit guides in Middle World. In Oak, the first of my novella trilogy about the cursed spell book, she must not only try to keep the book’s evil in check but she’s recruited by Doyle’s sheriff to help solve a murder.
Her sister Jayce unconsciously practices a simpler kind of magic. She’s attentive to the present moment, otherwise known as mindfulness. She pays loving attention to her world—not an easy thing to do in this era of constant tech distractions. But it’s a way of life that can unfold in surprisingly magical ways.
In Stone, she and her sisters continue to search for a way to destroy the book, and Jayce discover its ties to a local haunted house where a recent murder occurred.
And yet sister Karin, who sees the magical bonds that tie things together, may be the one who finally finds a way to break the cursed book’s grip on the witch triplets. Check out her story in my new release, Stream.
What’s your answer regarding the mystery of magic? What do you think it really is?
Stream, A Doyle Witch Cozy Mystery ~ releases 7/23/20
Will murder cancel this Doyle Witch’s Christmas?
Certain holiday spirits are keeping Karin’s hands full. And the challenges of motherhood and a cursed spell book have already put a dent in her usual good cheer.
But when she discovers the body of a man in a mountain stream, she’s swept into a mystery that will take all her magic and mental powers to solve. Because the dead man’s mysterious colleagues have taken an interest in Karin’s children…
This Christmas holiday novella is a complete cozy mystery and wraps up the story of the cursed spell book once and for all. If you’re a fan of Charlaine Harris, Heather Blake, or Amanda M. Lee, don’t miss Stream, book 9 in The Witches of Doyle cozy mysteries.
Stream is a witch cozy mystery featuring true-to-life spells in the back of the book, a trio of witchy sisters, and a dash of romance. Stream can be read as a standalone.
Posted by Kirsten Weiss. Kirsten’s never met a dessert she didn’t like, and her guilty pleasures are watching Ghost Whisperer re-runs and drinking red wine. The latter gives her heartburn, but she drinks it anyway. She writes genre-blending cozy mystery, supernatural and steampunk suspense, mixing her experiences and imagination to create vivid worlds of fun and enchantment.
We blog here at misterio press about twice a month, usually on Tuesdays. Sometimes we talk about serious topics, and sometimes we just have some fun.
Please sign up via email (upper right sidebar) to follow us, so you don’t miss out on any of the interesting stuff, or the fun! (We do not lend, sell nor otherwise bend, spindle or mutilate followers’ e-mail addresses. 🙂 )
During this off week for our blog, we thought we’d share a recent article written by our own Gilian Baker on overcoming writer’s block if you are an intuitive writer.
If you’re having trouble following the rules like “you must have an outline” or “you should write every day,” you might be an Intuitive writer.
Using personality theory and brain science to explain how Intuitives need to take a completely different approach to writing, this article gives specific tips for breaking through writer’s block and becoming a “real” writer. READ MORE
And be sure to watch out for next week’s post by Kirsten Weiss, on MAGIC!! What it is, how it works…
We blog here at misterio press about twice a month, usually on Tuesdays. Sometimes we talk about serious topics, and sometimes we just have some fun.
Please sign up via email (upper right sidebar) to follow us, so you don’t miss out on any of the interesting stuff, or the fun! (We do not lend, sell nor otherwise bend, spindle or mutilate followers’ e-mail addresses. 🙂 )
Celebrating Independence Day this year was bittersweet for me.
I’ve lived through the Civil Rights Movement, the Vietnam War, multiple assassinations of leaders, the Gulf War, 9/11, the War Against Terror and never have I seen our society so disrupted for so long. And the end is not yet in sight.
I believe that good will ultimately come out of much of this upheaval, that our society will have a better appreciation of what is most important in life, and a better appreciation for others’ lives and experiences.
But in the meantime, how do we do the tasks we need to get done?
Especially the tasks that require a lot of focus. And especially when a lot of us are working from home, where structure, peace, and quiet may be harder to come by.
(Note: I’m using authors’ problems with focus as an example, but these tips apply to any focus-intense tasks.)
Like many other authors I’ve talked to recently, I’m having trouble focusing. Not surprising. The job of writing requires a lot of focus. So this thing we writers love, this thing that is often the refuge from other stressors in our lives, is now harder to do.
(For a quick explanation of why it’s harder to focus, check out this article on Fiction University; it’s a bit oversimplified, but basically accurate.)
Here are some things I’ve found that help with focus in these stressful times. I hope they work for you as well.
#1 – Don’t blame yourself
Don’t beat up on yourself for not being able to be as productive as you usually are. It’s not your fault. These are extraordinary times.
And self-blame is not motivating. It is depressing. It makes us want to curl up and forget about everything, not buckle down and get things done.
I love this quote I saw recently in an article from BookBub (emphasis is mine):
“Your writing is not garbage. Even your draftiest of drafts … And those few words you managed today? Not trash. Moving away from that thinking is one of the kindest things I ever did for myself. I am in the business of words, so I know words can be weapons. Why would I weaponize them against myself? My words are a part of me and I am worthy of grace, first and foremost, from myself. You are, too.” —Samira Ahmed, NYT bestselling author of Mad, Bad & Dangerous to Know
So be gentle with yourself. The obstacles to productivity and focus during these stressful times are real. And the most productive use of our brain power, instead of mentally berating ourselves, is to look for ways around those obstacles.
#2 – Break the tough tasks into chunks
One of the things I’m struggling with most is editing, either my own work or that of other authors I’m supposed to be critiquing/proofreading. Editing takes a different level and kind of focus than writing a first draft, or even a blog post like this one.
One of the tasks I’ve had on my desk this month was copy-editing the last two installments of Kirsten Weiss’s trilogy of Doyle Witch novellas. They were only about 150 pages each, and I love this series of hers. Should’ve been a piece of cake.
Where I normally do the first read-through, on my chaise outside. Not this time, I couldn’t let myself get too comfy or I’d lose focus.
Normally, I would breeze through the first read-through in a couple of days, during my reading-for-pleasure time. Then it would take me maybe another few hours to do a second skim-through to make sure I didn’t miss anything.
Less than a week to get the entire task done, usually.
This time, it took me a week to get through the first read-through. And I had to schedule it during my work time, because if I was in read-for-pleasure mode, I couldn’t concentrate enough to catch the mistakes.
So I “chunked down” the second skim-through into 25-page chunks and set myself the task of doing two of them a day, if possible, but at the very least one a day. (Fortunately she didn’t need it back in a hurry.)
And it worked. I did a 25-page chunk the first morning and actually went on to do another 15 pages in the same sitting.
The psychology of this is that if we give ourselves goals that feel doable, we are more likely to attack them with gusto. And may even be able to exceed the goal, once we get rolling.
And if we’re dreading a task, we can tell ourselves that it’s just a little chunk—not that hard to just get it done and out of the way.
If it still feels overwhelming and de-motivating, chunk it down again into even smaller bite-sized pieces.
#3 – Rethink the timing of when you do the most focus-intense tasks
Usually when I sit down at my desk to start my workday, I go right for the toughest tasks that need to get done that day. To get them out of the way while I’m fresh.
I’ve been rethinking that lately, when it is harder to focus in these stressful times. Now I will often do two or three little tasks first, to give myself a sense of accomplishment. Then I take a deep breath and knock out that tougher task.
Having had to change your work environment, say from an office to your home, may present other reasons for rethinking the timing of certain tasks. When’s the best time to create the privacy and quiet that a tougher task might require?
I’ve been doing a lot more writing lately after my husband goes to bed. 🙂
#4 – Stop and savor the little achievements
Have you ever stopped and noticed what a “sense of accomplishment” feels like in your body? For me it’s a full, proud feeling in my chest, sometimes accompanied by little bubbles of excitement. And I often feel warm and good all over.
Right now, close your eyes and recall a time when you accomplished something big. Let yourself sink into that experience again, recalling the details, and especially pay attention to how it feels in your body.
Then take a few moments, or at least a few seconds, to stop and notice that feeling after each task you complete. Even little things like doing a load of laundry or scrubbing the kitchen sink. Give yourself permission to stop and savor. It’s a huge motivator, and mood elevator too.
#5 – Give yourself little rewards for getting the tougher tasks done
Pick some self-care things that give you pleasure—a bubble bath, reading a magazine with your feet up, taking a walk—then take a break and indulge in one of those things after finishing a tough task.
I know I shouldn’t be promoting the idea of food as a self reward, but the truth is, I’m a chocaholic. I allow myself one dose of chocolate per day. It may be a bowl of ice cream or a couple of cookies or candies (love me some Dove dark chocolate!) And I usually have it whenever the mood strikes.
But lately, I’ve been using that chocolate break as a reward for getting the toughest task of the day done.
As a matter of fact, I’m going to tackle another chunk of Kirsten’s last novella right now, and when I’m done I’m going to tackle some Famous Amos cookies!
Do any of these tips strike a chord for you? Have you found new ways to help with focus in these stressful times? Share with us, please.
And speaking of Kirsten’s stories, here are the first two of them. I really loved them!
Destroy a magical book that threatens to devastate the world.
But try to tell that to her small-town sheriff.
When a decade’s old corpse turns up in the hollow of a haunted oak, Sheriff McCourt drafts Lenore into service. Since the coroner can’t identify the body, why not ask a shamanic witch who can see the dead?
Little does the sheriff know how dangerous the spirits of Middle World can be. And once they have Lenore in their sights, she can only keep moving forward – into a cold case at a local winery that threatens her sanity, and her life…
This novella is a witch cozy mystery featuring true-to-life spells in the back of the book, a trio of witchy sisters, and a dash of romance. Oak can be read as a standalone.
A murder. A haunted house. A possessed spell book…
What could go wrong?
Since childhood, Doyle Witch Jayce figured the old stone house was haunted. Turns out, she may have been right.
A string of odd deaths in the house has culminated in murder, and newlywed Jayce is on the case. She is a witch after all. So what if it’s Samhain season, when the veil between the worlds is thin?
Right?
But when Jayce finds creepy connections between the old house and the spell book she’s sworn to destroy, she’s plunged into a conspiracy darker than anything mysterious Doyle has thrown at her before. Are supernatural forces at work? Or is Jayce facing a mortal foe?
If you’re a fan of Charlaine Harris, Heather Blake, or Amanda M. Lee, don’t miss this Halloween novella.
Will murder cancel this Doyle Witch’s Christmas?
Certain holiday spirits are keeping Karin’s hands full. And the challenges of motherhood and a cursed spell book have already put a dent in her usual good cheer.
But when she discovers the body of a man in a mountain stream, she’s swept into a mystery that will take all her magic and mental powers to solve. Because the dead man’s mysterious colleagues have taken an interest in Karin’s children…
This Christmas holiday novella is a complete cozy mystery and wraps up the story of the cursed spell book once and for all.
We blog here at misterio press about twice a month, usually on Tuesdays. Sometimes we talk about serious topics, and sometimes we just have some fun.
Please sign up via email (upper right sidebar) to follow us, so you don’t miss out on any of the interesting stuff, or the fun! (We do not lend, sell nor otherwise bend, spindle or mutilate followers’ e-mail addresses. 🙂 )
We are delighted to announce that we have a new misterio author, Sasscer Hill. Please help us welcome her to our happy band of mystery writers! (She was already scheduled for a crime writer’s interview when we invited her to join us.)
Sasscer Hill was involved in horse racing as an amateur jockey and racehorse breeder for most of her life. She sets many of her novels against a background of big money, gambling, and horse racing. Her mystery and suspense thrillers have won multiple awards and many award nominations.
Her newest title and first non-horse racing mystery, is Travels of Quinn, a mystery-thriller based on a real American group of gypsy con artists.
Kass (on behalf of the whole gang: I am so pleased to welcome you to misterio press, Sasscer! What can you tell our readers to help them get to know you better?
Sasscer Hill: I was born with horses in my veins and started galloping about the family farm on a stick horse when I was four years old. By the time I was seven or eight, I was sneaking rides on the Belgian plow horses. I did this because my father didn’t like horses and considered ponies dangerous. So instead, I drummed my heels on the sides of a 2,000-pound draft mare, while grasping whatever string or rope I managed to tie to her halter.
When I was sixteen, my father passed away. Shortly after that, a wealthy banker and racehorse breeder, Alfred H. Smith, Sr. took me under his wing and gave me a right-off-the-track steeplechase horse to ride.
At sixteen, I was fearless, and by the time I was thirty-six, I was breeding racehorses on my family farm and even rode in and won a timber race in Potomac, Maryland.
Because I had so much experience breeding, raising, training, and racing my horses, writing a horse racing mystery seemed logical. My first book, Full Mortality was nominated for both Agatha and Macavity Best First Book Awards.
Kass: What subgenre of mysteries do you write—cozies, traditional whodunnits, historical?
Sasscer’s first book
.
Sasscer: I call my subgenre, “Edgy Cozies.” Some of my characters swear every so often, and sex fires a bit of heat in some of my books.
Not the kind of graphic, gratuitous sex you find in some romance novels, but if there’s a particularly handsome and sexy male in the story my heroine will always look twice, and sometimes more if it moves the plot forward.
Kass: What was your favorite book/author as a child? Why was it your favorite?
Sasscer: My favorite childhood book was The Black Stallion by Walter Farley. I loved all his wonderful action-adventure horse stories and devoured them, starting with a picture book of The Black Stallion given to me when I was three or four.
I’ve always loved books filled with mystery, action, and adventure. After reading everything by Walter Farley, I graduated to the Dick Francis horse racing mysteries. As I got older, I read everything by Robert Parker, then went through all the Dorothy Sayer, Ngaio Marsh, Josephine Tey, and other excellent writers of British mysteries.
The spare writing style of Francis and Parker is what I loved best, and my style tends to go in that direction. I’ve never liked books where the author wanders off into tangents and long descriptions. Anything that slows the pace down too much is a turn off for me.
Kass: So, you already have several books out, most traditionally published. With the latest book, what led to your decision to become an indie author?
I never fit in all that well in the work world. I much prefer self-employment. Novel writing is wonderful; if you write a good story, the readers don’t care if you’re the independent type.
I’ve been with two traditional publishers, one a very small press and the other a larger, better known one. I loved my editor there, but neither publisher did much in the way of marketing—despite the fact that Flamingo Road (my first book with the second publisher) received excellent reviews, including an editor’s pick in the Toronto Star, a starred Booklist review, and it won the $10,000 Ryan Award for Best Book in Horseracing Literature.
When I started working on Travels of Quinn, I suspected it was different enough that traditional publishers wouldn’t be interested. My agent did make an effort to sell it to several of them, but I became tired of the waiting game and self-published it in February of 2020.
Kass: And I read it and loved it, and that started the whole process that culminated with you joining us here at misterio. By the way, huge congrats for winning the Ryan Award!
Tell us, has there been anything particularly interesting you’ve ever had to research for your books?
Sasscer: The oddest thing I’ve ever researched was for the first Fia McKee book, Flamingo Road. There is a drug called Demorphin that was first used at Remington Park racetrack in Oklahoma. It is up to 100 times stronger than morphine and a few of the shoddiest and most horrible trainers were using it. Their sore or injured horses would run through the pain and win—if they didn’t break down before the finish line. The drug was made from enzymes and peptides collected off the skin of a certain South American tree frog. Race trackers referred to the drug as “frog juice.”
I got a tip from a former trainer that I should call Dr. Craig Stevens, a professor of pharmacology at Oklahoma State University. I did and he was delightful. We talked about everything from frog juice to how much we loved the series, “Breaking Bad.” Stevens was the doctor who produced the first test for Demorphin. Thanks to him, trainers were stopped from using this drug.
But I needed frog juice for my book and asked him what if there was a different South American tree frog which also produced a Demorphin-like substance? And what if the chemical makeup was different enough that Stevens’s test wouldn’t catch it in a horse’s bloodstream? He said it was possible, and I almost did a happy dance knowing I had my drug for Flamingo Road.
In the recent Travels of Quinn, I had to write about Quinn’s time in prison. The novel takes place here in Aiken, SC, and I was lucky enough to meet with Capt. Nick Gallam, who runs the Aiken County detention center. He took me on a tour of the entire facility and answered every question I had.
Armed with accurate information and mental images of the women I’d seen in this prison, I was confident and enthusiastic as I wrote about Quinn’s experience in jail.
Kass: What are you working on now?
Sasscer: I was able to get the rights back for my Nikki Latrelle series. I’ve re-released them with new covers. My novel in progress, Shooting Star, will be my fifth Nikki Latrelle book, and I am delighted to be bringing it out with misterio press!
Kass: And we are delighted to have you as a misterio author!! Folks, see Sasscer’s new book, Travels of Quinn, below…and you can see my review of it on BookBub HERE.
Born into a subculture of American gypsies, Quinn’s father and stepfamily raise her to be a con artist. Can she escape a binding marriage contract and a life of crime?
Jailed for theft, Quinn pays restitution working on a horse farm. Unfamiliar with horses, her love for them surprises her. They make her hope for a better world.
Until the farm’s owner is brutally murdered and Quinn is the prime suspect.
On the run, Quinn uses every scam and con she knows to save herself. Can she find the real killer before she’s imprisoned for life or murdered because she knows too much?
A mystery-thriller of deceit, murder, greed and hope, by multiple award-winning author, Sasscer Hill.
We blog here at misterio press about twice a month, usually on Tuesdays. Sometimes we talk about serious topics, and sometimes we just have some fun.
Please sign up via email (upper right sidebar) to follow us, so you don’t miss out on any of the interesting stuff, or the fun! (We do not lend, sell nor otherwise bend, spindle or mutilate followers’ e-mail addresses. 🙂 )
Folks are doing all kinds of things via Zoom these days. Our own Vinnie Hansen is participating in an online book reading event via Zoom, next Friday, July 3rd.
She’ll be introducing the event and then later reading from a short story that came out last year in Fishy Business, a Sisters in Crime Guppies Anthology. See below for how to sign up.
Please join us for a reading featuring selected writers from the Santa Cruz Women of Mystery: Mary Feliz, Mary Flodin, Vinnie Hansen, Katherine Bolger Hyde, Nancy Lynn Jarvis, Leslie Karst, Christina Waters, and Nancy Wood, on Friday, July 3 at 5:00 pm PST.
The Zoom room will be open by 4:30, so come early in case you have technical difficulties.
If you need assistance, send an email to jory@cruzio.com or hannah@santacruzwrites.org.
To subscribe directly to the Santa Cruz Writes email list, which will provide you with weekly announcements for upcoming readings, use https://mailchi.mp/cruzio/zoomforward. You will be sent a link to JOIN MEETING on Friday for the Zoom book reading.
~~
We blog here at misterio press about twice a month, usually on Tuesdays. Sometimes we talk about serious topics, and sometimes we just have some fun.
Please sign up via email (upper right sidebar) to follow us, so you don’t miss out on any of the interesting stuff, or the fun! (We do not lend, sell nor otherwise bend, spindle or mutilate followers’ e-mail addresses. 🙂 )
You’ve heard of comfort food, well this article talks about comfort words. What are the words that you use to help you cope, to get yourself through hard times?
It’s a great article (although you might want to skim the first part).
Also, Kathy Owen is guest posting this week on Elizabeth Spann Craig’s blog, talking about the challenges (and rewards) of using a real historical figure in your writing.
Money, love, and murder in 1880s Newport high society…
Pinkerton detective Penelope Hamilton is summoned to fashionable Newport to investigate the two-year-old death of a wealthy matron. Did she fall from the Cliff Walk’s Forty Steps in the middle of the night, as was presumed, or was she pushed by her much-younger husband?
The case is personal this time, since Pen’s client is her own mother—breaking her near-decade of silence—and the man under scrutiny is to marry Pen’s cousin in a week’s time.
The lady detective discreetly enlists the help of a local, but the inquiry quickly unravels when he turns up dead. To make things worse, Pen’s identity as a Pinkerton is uncovered by Newport’s most prominent summer resident, whose complaint to her boss brings Pen’s estranged husband and fellow Pinkerton, Frank Wynch, to Newport.
With her cousin’s wedding day nearly here and no answers yet, Pen has no choice but to accept Frank’s help while dodging his romantic overtures. Nothing like a little danger to heighten an already-fraught relationship, as they work to expose a desperate adversary…who could prove deadly to them both.
We blog here at misterio press about twice a month, usually on Tuesdays. Sometimes we talk about serious topics, and sometimes we just have some fun.
Please sign up via email (upper right sidebar) to follow us, so you don’t miss out on any of the interesting stuff, or the fun! (We do not lend, sell nor otherwise bend, spindle or mutilate followers’ e-mail addresses. 🙂 )
I had a lot of fun last week when my character, Marcia (pronounced Mar-see-a, not Marsha) Banks was interviewed on Anastasia Pollock’s blog. (She’s the character of author Lois Winston.)
Click HERE to pop over and check out what Marcia had to say about me and her latest adventure in Lord of the Fleas (plus what’s coming up for her).
We blog here at misterio press about twice a month, usually on Tuesdays. Sometimes we talk about serious topics, and sometimes we just have some fun.
Please sign up via email (upper right sidebar) to follow us, so you don’t miss out on any of the interesting stuff, or the fun! (We do not lend, sell nor otherwise bend, spindle or mutilate followers’ e-mail addresses. 🙂 )
This year, we would like to honor three groups: our fallen warriors, our first responders/ healthcare workers, and our readers.
First, we’d like to recognize all those who have given their all to defend our country! It is hard to even find words (and I’m a writer so words are my thing) to express our deepest appreciation for their sacrifice. Where would the U.S. be today without these selfless warriors?
And this year, we would like to include our gratitude to first responders and health care workers, who are on the “front lines” of our current war against coronavirus. Your fortitude and courage are amazing and awe-inspiring! Thank you so much for all that you are doing.
Also, today we’d like to honor our readers, and explore a bit the symbiotic relationship between writers and readers.
We ran a contest for free books recently, and, as you can imagine, we got a lot of responses. It was gratifying to connect with our readers through those comments. But one comment in particular touched my heart.
I love this blog. The authors are treating us like friends. That makes us very happy. Thank you so much.
comment from Joyce W.
That comment got me thinking about the symbiotic relationship between writers and readers.
Obviously readers need authors to produce the books for them to read.
photo by Dan Dumitriu on Unsplash
But authors need readers as well, and not just because of the “trying to make a living” thing. Authors, of course, want to be paid for their efforts … but I think if I were making a million dollars a year in book sales, and I never heard from a single reader, I would get pretty discouraged after a while.
The pleasure of receiving an email from a reader is right up there with the thrill of holding one of my new books in my hands for the first time. Yes, I love writing, and I love seeing my work blossom during the editing process into something worthy of sharing with the world.
But that sharing it with others is a huge part of the satisfaction of being a writer.
Early on in my writing journey, I went to my first writers’ conference. An established author asked if I was a writer.
When I stumbled over my answer, he said, “Do you write?”
“Yes.”
“Then you are a writer.”
“But I’m not published yet.”
“If you write, you’re a writer.”
I ran into him the next day, toward the end of the conference, and I said to him, “I’ve been thinking about what you said. Yes, I am a writer. And you know what? I’m going to get published, one way or another. I have to. Otherwise, my characters will die a slow death inside my computer.”
And that is the essence of the symbiotic relationship between writers and readers.
photo by Kourosh Qaffari RrhhzitYizg on Unsplash.com
You, the readers, keep our characters alive.
We create characters out of thin air, but they become real to us. We have a relationship with them.
Without readers, though, they would die.
Every time a reader opens a book, they breathe life again into the characters in that story.
So thank you, Readers! We love you!
We couldn’t do this without you. And to show our appreciation, we have new releases!
What could be more innocent than a country flea market?
When service dog trainer Marcia Banks takes up temporary residence with her best friend in Williston, Florida, her goals are simple: spoil her toddler godchildren and train her newest dog’s veteran owner, a vendor at a local flea market.
Ha, the universe has other plans. When the owner of the flea market is found dead and her client is a prime suspect, she discovers that nothing is as it seems—from the flea market owner himself to the ornate dragonhead cane he gave to her client.
The only true innocent seems to be her guileless client. But when he shares a confidence that puts her in a double bind with local law enforcement, she’s not sure she can even trust him. Despite her promises to her new husband, the only way out of her no-win dilemma seems to be to find the real killer.
The flea market, however, is hiding more secrets…and one of them could be deadly.
Just $2.99 for a limited time, so grab a copy quick!
Tea and Tarot room owner Abigail Beanblossom is used to running interference for her socially-awkward former boss, tech billionaire Razzzor. So when he invites her on a stakeout to investigate the sale of counterfeit wine from his latest venture – an upscale winery – she barrels on in. But the two stumble across the corpse of a wine merchant, and new wine in old bottles is now the least of their problems.
Good thing amateur detectives Abigail and her partner, tarot reader Hyperion Night, have a nose for murder. Their investigation takes them from elegant wine cellars to chic tea parties on the California coast. But just as the investigation starts to get its legs, Abigail discovers there’s more than wine at the bottom of this crime.
We blog here at misterio press about twice a month, usually on Tuesdays. Sometimes we talk about serious topics, and sometimes we just have some fun.
Please sign up via email (upper right sidebar) to follow us, so you don’t miss out on any of the interesting stuff, or the fun! (We do not lend, sell nor otherwise bend, spindle or mutilate followers’ e-mail addresses. 🙂 )
We periodically introduce our readers to other mystery writers whom they might find interesting. Because as we all know, there is no such thing as too many books to read, especially in these strange times when distraction is a very good thing.
Today, please help us welcome Nancy Nau Sullivan. Nancy has led an interesting life and has many stories to tell…
Nancy Nau Sullivan began writing wavy lines at age six, thinking it was the beginning of her first novel.
It wasn’t. But she didn’t stop writing. After eight years of newspaper work in high school and college, she contributed to editorial posts at New York magazines and for newspapers throughout the Midwest.
Nancy grew up outside Chicago but often visited Anna Maria Island, Florida. She returned there with her family and wrote an award-winning memoir, The Last Cadillac-––a harrowing adventure of travel, health issues, and adolescent angst, with a hurricane thrown in for good measure.
She went back to the Florida setting for her first cozy mystery, Saving Tuna Street, creating the fictional Santa Maria Island. Nancy now lives, for the most part, in Northwest Indiana…or anywhere near water.
Kassandra Lamb (on behalf of the misterio gang): We like to start with an open-ended, “tell us about yourself” question. What two or three things do you feel people need to know in order to understand who you are?
Nancy Nau Sullivan: I must have been born with a bitty little suitcase in my hand, because I can’t sit still—except to write. I was born in San Francisco, but grew up in Lansing, Illinois, in the steel belt outside Chicago. I moved 19 times with my ex-husband, a West Pointer. Over the years, I’ve lived in Spain, Argentina, Mexico, Germany, the South, and now I’m back home in Indiana near the kids.
This peripatetic life has influenced my writing. My new series has an international bent, starting in Santa Maria Island, Florida, a fictional adaptation of Anna Maria Island, my favorite place in the world.
Kass: What subgenre of mysteries do you write?
Nancy: The Blanche Murninghan mystery series is somewhere between traditional and cozy, mostly the latter. The first book, Saving Tuna Street (due out June 23, 2020), takes place on Santa Maria Island when the quiet little island comes under threat from land-grabbing goons. They want to turn it into a mecca of McMansions. Blanche, who lives in a cabin on the beach, is having none of it—especially when her suspicions tell her the goons are also murderers, kidnappers, and a front for drug-runners.
I picked Santa Maria (fictional Anna Maria Island) because it’s the beloved setting for my memoir, The Last Cadillac. I’m inspired by setting. Blanche will go on to Mexico next, then Ireland, Spain, Argentina, and maybe Vietnam.
Kass: What was your favorite book/author as a child? Why was it your favorite?
I loved the Brooklyn “family” and their customs, and I can still see the maple syrup coming out of those trees in the “big woods.”
Later, I read all of Nancy Drew in her little motor car, finding lost jewels, with a doting father in the background.
Kass: I adored Laura Ingalls Wilder’s books as a kid. So, where are you in your writing career? Tell us a little about your stories.
Nancy: I worked at newspapers all through high school and college, and in New York City publishing following graduation, then went back to my first love, newspapers, for almost 20 years. Along the way, I was always diddling with stories. But it wasn’t until the 1990s, when my life exploded, that I wrote my first book, The Last Cadillac, a memoir of high family drama.
I joined the Peace Corp in 2013, and with no TV (the writer’s enemy), I started writing short stories and sending them out for publication. I think that was a springboard to getting the memoir published in 2016. I went back to that setting to write Saving Tuna Street, my first mystery due out in June.
I’ve also written a novel about a woman who teaches in a boys’ prison and gets mixed up in their escape plan. The Boys of Alpha Block will be out next year. It’s based on my own teaching experience in a boys’ prison in Florida for five years. They did not escape, but they darn near did everything else in this novel.
Kass: What do you find to be the most fun and/or the most difficult part of the writing process—first draft, editing, researching? Why is that?
Nancy: I dread the first draft, and I don’t know why. Once I sit down to write it, it usually flows. I figure if the writing gets boring, then the reader will be bored, so I stop. Take a walk or mop the kitchen floor (I have a very clean kitchen floor).
I am pretty much of a pantser, but I can see the rough arc of the story when I sit down to write. Once I’m in, I don’t want to get out until it’s done. And I love to edit and research.
I’m an old newspaper type with a master’s in journalism, so I guess it’s coded somewhere in my brain to edit and research, or the writing just won’t work.
Journalism requires tight writing and deadlines and checking the facts. The practice has helped because I can see where to cut and fill in later, how long it’s going to take (always longer), and where to pace.
Kass: What’s the oddest and/or most difficult thing you ever had to research?
Nancy: How to make a mummy!
In the No. 2 mystery in the Blanche Murninghan series, Down Mexico Way, which should be out in the summer of 2021, Blanche discovers that a mummy in a museum exhibit is not “real,” but was more recently manufactured.
I had to research ancient methods, and it was fascinating. You should have seen what turned up on my news feed!
Kass: In Saving Tuna Street, your first mystery, what was your favorite (or hardest to write) scene?
Nancy: Those tense scenes involving the kidnapping were the most fun and the hardest. The sentences had to be short and snappy, and I had to put myself in the moment. Fortunately, I’ve never been kidnapped, but I do know fear, and so I channeled it. A friend who was once mugged also helped, and she picked apart that first draft.
At a conference I attended once, Lee Child said: The action scenes have to be longer, and the descriptive, backstory, more mundane scenes have to be on the shorter side (I paraphrase. Sorry, Lee.)
Kass: In Saving Tuna Street, what changed the most from the first draft to the last?
Path to the beach on Anna Maria Island
Nancy: The main character. The first time I wrote her up, an editor told me she was “flat.” How dismaying.
So I let that puppy out of the cage. Pretty soon she was using her anger as a tool and throwing back shots of tequila with her friend (Blanche is a bit of a drinker). I also got a good look at her appearance—She lives on the beach, and her T-shirt is stiff with salt and the only footwear she has are sandals.
That is a drag when you get kidnapped and have to kick your way out of a van.
Kass: And last of all, what question do you wish interviewers would ask you that they usually don’t? What is your answer to that question?
Nancy: Are you in it for the money?
And the answer is HAHAHAHAHA. What money?
Kass: LOL…Thank you so much, Nancy, for joining us today.
Readers, please check out her debut novel, Saving Tuna Street, now available for preorder! (see below) It’s due to be released by Light Messages on June 23, 2020.
Nancy will hang out for a while to answer any questions you may have. And you can also connect with her on Twitter (@NauSullivan), Facebook, Instagram and via her website.
Blanche “Bang” Murninghan is a part-time journalist with writer’s block and a penchant for walking the beach on her beloved Santa Maria Island. When land-grabbing tycoons arrive from Chicago and threaten to buy up Tuna Street, including her beachfront cottage, her seemingly idyllic life begins to unravel. Blanche finds herself in a tailspin, flabbergasted that so many things can go so wrong, so fast.
When her dear friend is found murdered in the parking lot of the marina, Blanche begins digging into his death. With her friends Liza and Haasi by her side—the latter a mysterious, tiny Native American with glossy braids and dark eyes, who seems to appear just when she’s needed most—Blanche stumbles into a pit of greed, murder, drug running, and kidnapping. She has survived her fair share of storms on Santa Maria Island, but this one might just be her last.
Tea and Tarot room owner Abigail Beanblossom is used to running interference for her socially-awkward former boss, tech billionaire Razzzor. So when he invites her on a stakeout to investigate the sale of counterfeit wine from his latest venture – an upscale winery – she barrels on in. But the two stumble across the corpse of a wine merchant, and new wine in old bottles is now the least of their problems.
Good thing amateur detectives Abigail and her partner, tarot reader Hyperion Night, have a nose for murder. Their investigation takes them from elegant wine cellars to chic tea parties on the California coast. But just as the investigation starts to get its legs, Abigail discovers there’s more than wine at the bottom of this crime…
What could be more innocent than a country flea market?
When service dog trainer Marcia Banks takes up temporary residence with her best friend in Williston, Florida, her goals are simple: spoil her toddler godchildren and train her newest dog’s veteran owner, a vendor at a local flea market.
Ha, the universe has other plans. When the owner of the flea market is found dead and her client is a prime suspect, she discovers that nothing is as it seems—from the flea market owner himself, to the ornate dragonhead cane he gave to her client, to the beautiful but not very bright young woman whom her client has a crush on.
The only true innocent in the bunch seems to be her guileless client. But when he shares a confidence that puts her in a double bind with local law enforcement, she’s not sure she can even trust him.
Despite her promises to her new husband, the only way out of her no-win dilemma seems to be to find the real killer. The flea market, however, is hiding more secrets, and at least one of them could be deadly.
We blog here at misterio press about twice a month, usually on Tuesdays. Sometimes we talk about serious topics, and sometimes we just have some fun.
Please sign up via email (upper right sidebar) to follow us, so you don’t miss out on any of the interesting stuff, or the fun! (We do not lend, sell nor otherwise bend, spindle or mutilate followers’ e-mail addresses. 🙂 )
