Just a few of the pictures from my stay in Estes Park, CO for the Deadly Reality book signing on November 9th.
I was recently honored to participate in the Spilling Ink podcast, where we discussed our books, writing, and life in general. By the way, I hate my camera setup, and I’ll have to change it up the next time I participate in one of these. Anyway, it was great fun to do. Many thanks go to Jason LaVell and Katie Salidas for the opportunity.
And I apologize, but there must have an issue with my internet connection which ended up making my voice garbled. (LAG!)
July 8, 2019
Despite the recent snow in the Rocky Mountains, it’s summer in the Northern Hemisphere. Do your stories and worlds reference seasons and do they play into the plots of your books?
Did you hear about the snow sculpture contest in the park?” she asked.
“No,” I said. How did I miss that? “Who’s sponsoring it?”
“Oh, it’s unofficial.” She put more grated cheese on top of her spaghetti and passed the container to Freddie. “Started with some little kids building old-fashioned snowmen, and then a bunch of high schoolers got involved. Pretty soon parents got into the spirit of things as well. Now there are dragons and castles and all sorts of creations scattered on the shore of the lake. Makes me hope the cold weather sticks around so they last longer.”
That’s a short snippet from Her Ladyship’s Ring, the second book in the Harmony Duprie Mysteries. This is the first scene that came to mind when I saw this week’s topic. Since Oak Grove, the town where she lives, is located somewhere north of Pittsburgh, it seemed only natural to bring the weather into the story.
I could likely find at least one weather-related snippet from every one of my books. The out-of-doors is important in my life, so it’s natural to include it in my stories.
Here’s another from Wolves’ Knight, the second book in the Free Wolves series.
The storm clouds rolling in from the west made the night seem even darker than normal, bearing the promise of an early snow. Tasha had her window down, hoping the cold air would help her stay awake. When she caught the first trace of smoke, she assumed that someone had been smoking in the car, never wondering why she hadn’t caught the scent sooner. When the odor got stronger, she pulled over to the side of the road, thinking the car had developed a problem.
But it’s not just bad weather that get featured, I also set scenes on picture-perfect summer days, crisp fall nights and rainy springtimes. a few happen in the sweltering heat of Florida.
But maybe I have it easy because all my books are set in the real world. (Well, mostly. Do you believe there are shifters among us?) Other authors may not have it so simple. Let’s go find out!
July 8, 2019
Despite the recent snow in the Rocky Mountains, it’s summer in the Northern Hemisphere. Do your stories and worlds reference seasons and do they play into the plots of your books?
Rules:
1. Link your blog to this hop.
2. Notify your following that you are participating in this blog hop.
3. Promise to visit/leave a comment on all participants’ blogs.
4. Tweet/or share each person’s blog post. Use #OpenBook when tweeting.
5. Put a banner on your blog that you are participating.
Welcome! I’m happy to take part as the FSF Readers Lounge Presents its first ever Solstice Scavenger Hunt. It runs from June 16th to June 29th , with 19 authors joining forces to offer readers a chance at $75 cash via PayPal and 19 eBooks as a Grand Prize! 38 secondary prizes (an eBook from a participating author) will be given to randomly chosen participants with the correct answer.
To play for a chance to win you must go to each of the authors sites listed below, collect the “hidden” word(s), unscramble them, and then enter to win! Enter Here
Entering does not enter you into anything! You have the option to choose who to subscribe to and who to follow – the only requirements are 1- you must follow the Facebook page for the Readers Lounge in order to get the winners announcement and -2- use the link to enter the giveaway, but I hope you choose to follow the wonderful authors participating in this hunt!
$75 Cash via PayPal
eBooks up for prizes:
A Bit of Magic
Azimuth
Bonded
Curse Breaker: Enchanted
Dragon Blood
Elven Jewel
Forever People
Ian’s Realm Saga
Schrodinger’s Cat
Shadow’s Hand
Sleepless Flame
Tattoos
The Fox and The Hunter
The Glass Gargoyle
The Hand of Atua
This Cursed Flame
Witch’s Moonstone Locket
Wolves’ Gambit
Make sure to visit all the sites to gather all your words! Happy Hunting!
Before you go, head over Here to find out more about Lori Grenville and Wolves’ Gambit, the book that’s part of the prize.
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Rafflecopter link: http://www.rafflecopter.com/rafl/display/3d87297f10/?
site links:
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https://sjeckert.wordpress.com/2019/06/16/solstice-scavenger-hunt-2019 |
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https://marshaamoore.blogspot.com/2019/03/solstice-scavenger-hunt.html |
Welcome to another week of MFRW Book Hooks. This week’s edition highlights Her Ladyship’s Ring, the second book in the Harmony Duprie Mysteries.
In this excerpt, Harmony is having supper with her friends, Freddie and Sarah, and her ex, Jake.
Excerpt:
Amazingly enough, no one extra showed up. So the four of us sat around my table and acted like we were old friends and nothing was wrong. Except I caught Freddie scrutinizing Jake when he thought Jake wasn’t watching. And Jake took every opportunity possible to touch me, and each time he did he let his fingers linger a moment too long. Sarah was the only one who didn’t feel the tension. Either that or she was a better actress than I’d realized.
“Did you hear about the snow sculpture contest in the park?” she asked.
“No,” I said. How did I miss that? “Who’s sponsoring it?”
“Oh, it’s unofficial.” She put more grated cheese on top of her spaghetti and passed the container to Freddie. “Started with some little kids building old-fashioned snowmen, and then a bunch of high schoolers got involved. Pretty soon parents got into the spirit of things as well. Now there are dragons and castles and all sorts of creations scattered on the shore of the lake. Makes me hope the cold weather sticks around so they last longer.”
“You and I should go see them tomorrow,” Jake said smoothly, touching my forearm.
I would have loved to go, but not with Jake. “I really need to go to the library tomorrow,” I said. “If I get too far behind, I’ll never catch up. I have a deadline coming up in a day or two.” I hadn’t even checked my email to see if I had any new requests.
Sarah sighed. “It’s not like you have to punch a time card. Sometimes you take yourself too seriously.”
We’d had this discussion before, and I had no desire to rehash it now.
But Sarah was on a roll. “You loosened up for a while, now you’re slipping back into your old habits.” She winked at Jake. “You were good for her, except for that whole drug and attacking the police stuff.”
Was she flirting with Jake in front of Freddie? She’d hardly touched her wine, so she couldn’t be drunk. Unless she’d been drinking before she and Freddie got to my place.
I glanced at Freddie. His expression was more puzzlement than anything else. He caught me looking, and barely shook his head. He didn’t know what she was up to either.
Jake, on the other hand, winked back at her. “I’ll try to change that.”
“Yeah, the whole long-distance relationship thing she’s got with Eli isn’t working out if you ask me.”
“Sarah!” I hissed.
Jake leaned towards her, ignoring me. “What makes you say that?”
“Do you know they haven’t had sex yet?” She giggled. “At least the last time we talked about it. But it might have changed when he was here a couple of weeks ago.”
My face burned as she reached for her wine. Freddie distracted her by putting his hand on her shoulder. “Did you take one of your pills today?” he asked.
Sarah had occasional bouts with a panic disorder but the prescription her doctor gave her usually helped. She laid a finger across her lips and looked thoughtful. “Yes. I had a really bad day today. In fact, I may have taken two. One this morning, and one before we came here.”
That explained it. “Let me get you something else to drink, Sarah,” I said, rising. “How about some ice water?” A trip to the refrigerator would give me time to regain my composure.
“Why, am I acting loopy?”
Blurb:
Harmony Duprie is back, and so is trouble in Oak Grove.
When a man is murdered in the back yard of the old Victorian house she is remodeling, Harmony is determined to locate his next-of-kin so he can be put to rest properly. But with her ex-boyfriend Jake out of prison, back in town and one of the suspects in the murder, she takes on the challenge of solving the crime.
With Eli, her current love interest, in Florida and Jake close by, old emotions come back to haunt her. Can Harmony clear Jake’s name and solve the mystery of her own heart?
Buy Links
Amazon
You can check out more authors participating in Book Hooks in the list below.
June 10, 2019
What’s the most difficult thing about writing characters from the opposite sex?
You know those silly on-line quizzes that tell you what superhero you are? Or which Star Trek character? Or whether you think like a male or a female?
So, according to those, I’m Spock and I think like male 70% of the time. Since I grew hanging around with five brothers, it doesn’t surprise me too much. I’m also employed in a field comprised mostly of males, and get along well with my coworkers. I guess that gives me an advantage when writing my male characters. It doesn’t mean I know everything that goes on in a male mind.
When a reviewer complimented me on how well I wrote my female characters, I was puzzled. So, I asked her about it. Turns out she thought I was a guy based on how well-written my male characters were! I’ll take that as a compliment.
Here’s the catch: I rarely write from a male point of view. I like strong female characters, and that’s what POV I write from. That means I don’t have to dive too deeply into the male psyche. The males are written thru the eyes of my women. I have plenty of experience in observing males in their natural habitat and can easily translate that to my books.
What I have to be careful about is making sure my men are not cookie-cutter replicas of people I know and that they each have their own personality. I have to make sure that their motivations and desires reflect what is right for the plot.
The hardest part is making sure my female characters react to each male character as suits their personality. Obviously, my female sleuth can’t respond to her friend , a police detective, the way she does to her lover. I also have to make sure the men don’t all treat her the same way. That wouldn’t be realistic. The most important thing to remember is that they are just people, too.
The one thing I’d have the most difficult time writing would be a man’s thoughts during sex. Obviously, my brothers and coworkers don’t talk about that to me! But I don’t write sex scenes, so I’m off the hook.
There’s one male character who I have a real hard time writing, and that’s Jake, my anti-hero in the Harmony Duprie Mysteries. Or is he a villain? I’m not sure, he has secrets he’s not telling.
Now, follow the links below to see what the others in the hop find the most difficult about writing their “opposite sex” characters.
June 10, 2019
What’s the most difficult thing about writing characters from the opposite sex?
Rules:
1. Link your blog to this hop.
2. Notify your following that you are participating in this blog hop.
3. Promise to visit/leave a comment on all participants’ blogs.
4. Tweet/or share each person’s blog post. Use #OpenBook when tweeting.
5. Put a banner on your blog that you are participating.
Welcome to my contribution to this week’s MFRW Book Hooks. It’s the first time I’ve done this on my new website, and I’d be tickled if you took a moment to look around while you are here!
The Marquesa’s Necklace is the first book in the Harmony Duprie Mysteries. Each book is a stand-alone story (no cliffhangers!) but the series is best read in order. This book is on sale for 99¢. Now, on to the fun!
Excerpt
Officer Felton left me in the barely-furnished lobby. It was a place you don’t want to stay in too long—several hard plastic chairs, a beat-up fake wood end table and a few old magazines scattered about. It smelled like stale cigarettes, and appeared not to have been cleaned for weeks. I perched on the edge of a chair and put my hands between my knees to keep from touching anything. Thankfully, it was only moments until Detective Thomason appeared. I gave him the once over—brown hair still cut short—check. Glasses hiding those dark brown eyes—check. His shirt rumpled and in need of an iron—check. No wedding band in his finger—check. Yep, nothing had changed.
As I stood, his eyes wandered from my face down to my shoes. The corners of his lips curled upward, but I wouldn’t say that he smiled. A smile would have looked odd on his normally grim face.
“If you would come with me, please?” he said.
He even put the please in there, unlike our previous encounters. Of course, those times, I had been either in booking or in one of the interrogation chambers. I know, I know, they’re interview rooms. Whatever. I followed him through a maze of desks and hallways and into a small but comfortable office, my heels clicking on the tile floor. I’d never noticed before what a nice behind he had. I wondered if it was just the pants he was wearing, or if I’d just not looked before, having other things on my mind. Like calling a lawyer.
“Have a seat, please,” he said, indicating an armless office chair—at least its seat was padded. He sat on the other side of a desk covered with an assortment of files and paperwork, and picked up a file from the top of the stack.
“Harmony,” he said tentatively.
“Detective Thomason,” He might be trying to be friendly, but I still hadn’t forgiven him for arresting me.
He cleared his throat, and set the file back on his desk. “Did you let anyone borrow your car today?” he asked.
“No, my keys are right here.” I started digging through the contents of my purse.
“I’ll take your word for it,” he said, after I pulled out my checkbook, a packet of pink tissues, and a paperback with an almost-naked man on the front cover and piled them on the corner of his desk. His mouth twitched. “Have you made any new enemies recently, Miss Duprie?” I guess he got my message about the terms of our relationship.
“Besides a certain insufferable cop?” Even in the artificial fluorescent light, I saw the red rising in his cheeks. I could almost hear him counting to ten as I pretended to consider the question. “I think Larry, the florist, is ticked off that I’m not receiving flowers anymore. And Bart at the grocery store yelled at me last week when I went through the ten items or less line with fourteen items. But what does that have to do with someone stealing and wrecking my car?”
He took a deep breath, held it for a moment, and exhaled. “Bear with me a moment. Did you go anywhere today?”
I couldn’t figure out where this line of questioning was going, but I answered anyway. “No, I woke up with a killer headache, realized it was going to rain, and decided to stay home and work.”
“And when was the last time you saw your car?”
“This morning. I planned to go to the library, but it started to storm as I was leaving. Why?”
He swiveled his chair so he was facing away from me. I fidgeted in my suddenly uncomfortable seat and waited. He turned back around and leaned forward with his forearms on his desk. “Your headache may have saved your life. We’ve asked for help from the state police to verify our theory, but our preliminary investigation and accounts from a few eyewitnesses indicate your car exploded.” Sitting back and rubbing his forehead, he added. “A tall man in a brown suit was seen in the vicinity.”
I sputtered. “What do you mean my car exploded?”
“In a fireball. Burnt to a crisp. If you had been in the vehicle, you’d be dead.”
Blurb
Harmony Duprie enjoyed her well-ordered life in the quiet little town of Oak Grove—until her arrest for drug trafficking. Cleared of all charges, she wants nothing more than to return to the uneventful lifestyle of a historical researcher she once savored.
But when her beloved old car “George” is stolen and explodes into a ball of flames, it sets off a series of events that throws her plans into turmoil. Toss in a police detective that may or may not be interested in her, an attractive but mysterious stranger on her trail, and an ex-boyfriend doing time, and Harmony’s life freefalls into a downward spiral of chaos.
Now she has to use her research skills to figure out who is behind the sinister incidents plaguing her, and why. And she better take it seriously, like her life depends upon finding the right answers.
Because it might.
Note: This book has been re-issued with a new cover, but the story remains unchanged.
Buy Links
When you are done here, don’t forget to hop around to some of the other links and check out the other authors!
Hello to those of you coming here from CyCon, and welcome! And another shout-out to those of you who recently subscribed to my blog.
When I wrote the first book in the Free Wolves series, I realized I wanted a way for my shifters to be part of today’s world. Of course, I wasn’t planning for Wolves’ Pawn to be part of a series. I thought I was writing a standalone story, so I didn’t plan for a long-range universe.
Then I plopped my wolf shifter pack in the middle of a state that has no wolves and created another challenge for myself. How did they maintain some pieces of pack structure while living in a modern society?
My answer was for the pack to run it’s own company and have a small village for the members to live in. Pack members weren’t obliged to stay there, although many chose to. This set up conflicts with other packs who didn’t adopt modern ways or were business competitors.
In turn, that let me to creating a “council” for the packs with a strong alpha as its leader, with the purpose of negotiating terms between packs to keep the peace. It also led to the formation of a loose opposition group, for shifters who didn’t want to play by pack rules. Thus was born the Free Wolves and a book series.
But one goal all the characters have is protecting the knowledge of their abilities from getting out to the mainstream population. Sure, a few normal humans are aware of the shifters’ special abilities, but on the whole, it’s a closely guarded secret. Don’t look now, but that computer geek who lives down the street just might be a wolf in his/her “other” form.
Now let’s go find out what Timothy Bateson, author of “Shadows Over Seattle” has to say. Timothy Bateson
For those of you not familiar with OWS CyCon- it’s a 3 day event, a cyber convention for books. It was started in 2013 and has grown each year. There are booths for each author, divided by genre. The main website is here OWS CYCON. Go take a look! I have booths in both the urban fantasy and mystery groups.
And if you haven’t entered the Giveaway I’ve got going for a $10 amazon Gift card or first edition copies of my mystery series, check it out here: Rafflecopter
