Whole Bunch of Stuff Relating to March

March roared in like the proverbial lion, a not-uncommon phenomenon in SE New Mexico. However, unlike more civilized parts of the country, we expect the weather to keep roaring up to and perhaps including summertime, more’s the pity. You see, spring is what we call our windy season, sort of like we laughingly call summertime our monsoon season. I’m sure folks in India and Pakistan would scoff. Heck, even we’re scoffing, since we don’t expect to get any more rain this year than we did last, which was approximately half our normal yearly boon of around thirteen inches. I know, I know, I live on a desert. But jeez Louise, we’re accustomed to SOME rain, even on our desert! Mayhem, indeed.

On a slightly less mayhemly note, I got some gorgeous covers for three of my e-books from Melissa Alvarez, who does masterful work and has a website at bookcoversgalore.com. These covers are for my three “Land of Enchantment” books (ENCHANTED CHRISTMAS, A GAMBLER’S MAGIC and A GAMBLER’S MAGIC) originally published by Dorchester (and am I ever glad they dumped me when they did! At least I got paid royalties for the books they published and got the rights back on my old Emma Craig books, which is more than many of authors can say since Dorchester went belly-up). Melissa gave them smashing covers, which you can see for yourselves. Here’s a handy link for all my e-books: http://aliceduncan.net/page5.html If I ever have any money again, I aim to get more covers from Melissa.

Speaking of which, the winners of February’s contest for SIERRA RANSOM (Penny Tuttle and Sandy Olubas) will receive copies of their book approximately when the winners of March’s contest for CACTUS FLOWER (Kimberly Maynard and Carole Price) will get theirs. You see, I couldn’t work for about two months because of the surgery I had to correct a detached retina. Then I worked like mad trying to catch up. Unfortunately, I work in publishing, writing and editing. I don’t know if anyone’s ever told you guys this, but publishing time and geological time are approximately equivalent, with publishing being the slightest bit slower than the latter. However, I finally got paid last week! Therefore, everybody’s books will be sent out next week. I’m so glad—both about being paid and about being able to fulfill my commitments. Finally.

As for the rest of the month, Heidi is holding her own! She’s finally eating consistently again and, while she’s still seems mighty skinny to me, she seems to be doing ever so much better than she was for a while there. Daisy is still blind and bumps into things, but she’s okay too. As for me, my left eye remains really blurry, but I see the local eye doc in May. Then he’ll tell me if I need to have the cataract removed (you always get a cataract after retinal surgery. Sort of a bonus, I guess) or merely need a new prescription. I’m hoping for the latter.

And then, in June, something truly magical will occur! My younger daughter Robin will marry her long-time beau Gilbert, and I get to house- and pet-sit while they honeymoon. This means I get to go to California and see all my friends and eat all the food that isn’t available in Roswell, which is . . . well . . . not exactly the center of the universe. Fortunately for me, my wonderful neighbors, Ann and Barry Lasky, will dog-sit for my pack while I’m pet-sitting for Robin’s and Gilbert’s much smaller pack.

So things are moving along. And a good thing, too! If you’d like to enter this month’s contest, during which I’ll be giving away two copies of PECOS VALLEY REVIVAL, a funny historical mystery set in Roswell (called Rosedale in the book), New Mexico, in 1923, please send your name and home address to me at alice@aliceduncan.net . This book was a finalist in the New Mexico Book of the Year Awards, although I’m not sure why.

You can see a photo of the lovely book cover for PVR and read the first chapter on my web site: www.aliceduncan.net  Thank you!

Review of February, a not so hot month, but not as bad as it might have been.

Oh, my, it’s already March. I don’t know why time flies so much faster the older I get, but it does.

As for February, it was a mixed bag. Both magic and mayhem reared their heads at different times. Probably the best thing that happened to me personally was that the blankety-blank gas bubble the eye surgeon placed in my left eye after reattaching the retina finally disappeared completely about two weeks ago. Yay! I still can’t see very well in the left eye, but that problem will be fixed eventually. Either the vision will resolve itself, my local eye doc will have to remove the cataract that formed there after the retinal surgery, or I’ll get new corrective lenses. Life can kind of be more pleasant slightly blurred sometimes anyhow, so I can live with fuzz in the meantime.

Then there’s Heidi, not such a happy story, but one that seems to be getting better. Heidi is a twelve-year-old dachshund, a black-and-tan piebald, and one of the core members of my erd. Heidi stopped eating all of a sudden while I was half-blind. When this went on for a week or so, I took her to the vet, where she weighed in at 8.5 pounds. This was a loss of more than three pounds! As she started out at 12 pounds, it was a catastrophic weight loss for my precious Heidi. She’s been to the vet’s office on and off all month long, and I finally picked her up yesterday after she’d spent five days at the vet’s office, being force-fed part of the time. But they finally found a food she will eat, and on the morning of February 29 she not only ate her breakfast, but she had THIRDS! Unfortunately, she’s back to not eating again. Sigh. We’re all hoping she’ll gain enough weight to be able to take heart meds, since she’s developed congestive heart failure. I just hate it when one of my wiener dogs gets sick! Please send strengthening thoughts for Heidi.

On the book front, not a whole lot is happening. I sold PECOS VALLEY RAINBOW, Book #3 in my Pecos Valley series, to Five Star, so come March of 2013 Annabelle Blue will be stumbling over more bodies in Rosedale (aka Roswell), New Mexico in 1923.

Other than that, my muse seems to be taking an extended leave of absence. I’m hoping s/he will return one day because I’d really like to write more books. My books might not make me any money, but they do give me a sense of satisfaction. Sigh. Any cures for missing muses gratefully accepted!

Happy New Year! Ketchup Blog

Happy New Year, everyone!

On the whole, 2011 was kinder to me than the prior several years were. I guess that makes me an exception to the rule. But my independent editing business picked up, three of my books were published (along with a short story I published on Kindle when I got so sick of writing the book I was writing, and decided to stick it in a drawer and do something else).

Then December happened. You know how it goes: if things are going along smoothly something will hit you upside the head to remind you that life isn’t a bowl of cherries. On or about December 8, the retina in my left eyeball detached itself from whatever it was supposed to be attached to. I felt something funny in that eye, but thought I was being sort of hypochondriacal when I called the eye doc for an appointment. However, when I described my symptoms to the appointment lady, she gave me an appointment for far too early on Friday morning.

After being dilated and poked and prodded and blah, blah, blah, they stuck me in a room, called a place called Eye Associates in Albuquerque, told me to pack a bag and get myself to Albuquerque instantly. As I sat in the little waiting room, waiting and worrying, I called my wonderful neighbors, Ann and Barry Lasky. Ann said she’d be happy to drive me to Albuquerque, Barry said he’d feed my dogs, and we set out.

Unfortunately, neither Ann nor I had any idea what to expect once we got to Eye Associates. All I knew was that a doctor was waiting for me to show up (I honestly didn’t realize a detached retina was considered a medical emergency. I do now). So my eye was dilated again, again examined, Dr. Sidd’s (he’s the Roswell eye doc) diagnosis was confirmed, and I was told to show up at Presbyterian Hospital in Abq. at some ungodly hour on Saturday morning. That’s when we learned that Ann was supposed to stay with me for the entire weekend, and that we’d have to get rooms at a hotel.

Well, what the heck, y’know? I’d been making a tiny bit more money than usual in recent months, thanks to my independent editing work, so I could actually afford to house us at Albuquerque’s Hotel Elegante, a wonderfully misnamed hotel at which the New Mexico Book of the Year Awards banquet was held a few weeks earlier. So I got to spend a lot of time in the Hotel Elegante during the last part of 2011. Ann’s husband Barry brought her some clothes on Saturday (by the way, it’s a 400-mile round trip from Roswell to Albuquerque and back again), and he also brought both of us our laptops, so we were able to communicate with the rest of the world.

Then, on Saturday, December 10, a very nice Dr. Kamalesh Ramaiya reattached my left retina to whatever it’s supposed to be attached to, lasered another weak spot in the same eyeball, installed a gas bubble (which is supposed to dissolve about six weeks from the date of the operation), and I’ve been a one-eyed, extremely bored person ever since. Can’t read. Can’t watch TV. Can’t drive (for the sake of the rest of the world as well as myself). Can’t even go for walks with the dogs. I get to lie face-down on my bed with my head in the holes of a foam-rubber pillow for the duration. If it weren’t for audiobooks, I’d be totally nuts instead of merely partially nuts, as is normal.

The problem is that I am unable to work. I am also unable to fulfill my obligation to the people who have won books in various contests. That, however, doesn’t mean I’ll always be incapacitated. As soon as I can read again, I’ll send books to everybody to whom I owe books!

These folks include winners of November’s contest and this month’s contest wieners, Brenda Williamson and Jacquie Seewald, who each won copies of GENTEEL SPIRITS in my December contest.

Also, anon at book9k@woway.com and Karen Mayers, who were kind enough to leave comments on our Magical Christmas Mystery Book Blog Tour, out of which I had to drop precipitately when my eye done me wrong, also won books. If you two could send me your home addresses at alice@aliceduncan.net I’ll eventually get your books to you. Of course, you’ll need to decide which books you want first. You can choose by looking at my web site: www.aliceduncan.net

Anyone who wants to enter my January contest (I’ll be giving away two copies of ANCIENT SPIRITS, Daisy Gumm Majesty’s sixth [and perhaps last] adventure) please send your name and home address to the same e-mail address: alice@aliceduncan.net

As for 2012: onward and upward! Forward into the unknown! As P.G. Wodehouse wrote: the future lies ahead!

Okay, I’ll quit now. Thank you. And please do have a happy new year!

Wendy Gager Joins Us Today!

Thank  you so much Alice (and the other names your write under) for letting me guest blog today. I have a little fun post. Today is the last stop and I’m just a little bit slap happy to have it over. I hope you will appreciate the humor I’ve attempted. 

Mary will never appear in my Mitch Malone Mystery Series, neither will a Mark or Mike. As you can see from my crime reporter sleuth’s name, Mitch Malone, I’m a big fan of alliteration. That being said I must illiterate in moderation. Too many mentions of many characters sharing a beginning moniker, whether manic or merry can give readers bad memories. Okay I will stop with all the M-words, just trying to make a point.

I love alliteration but authors must take care with multiple people’s names starting with the same letter. I have given up reading one best-selling series because two of the main supporting characters have very similar names. I can’t keep them straight and it’s pivotal to the story. Experts say when using names in your books for characters you have to avoid duplicating first letters at all costs. Your reader will get confused between who is who. Research shows readers read in groups and phrases, not individual words. Have you ever taken the test that takes all the vowels left out and just leaves consonants and you can still figure out what it says. Same applies to writing. Too many names that are similar will make your reader frustrated and maybe not even finish the book. You could have the best story in the world but if readers can’t keep the characters straight, it won’t matter. So sorry Mike and Mark, Mitch Malone must remain the main man. (I couldn’t help myself!)

What do you think of too many Ms? Do you have a hard time keeping characters straight? Weigh in.

“A Case of Hometown Blues” Synopsis

When Pulitzer-winning reporter Mitch Malone's editor presses him for a favor, Malone breaks his vow to never return to his hometown. It seemed simple enough--lead a seminar for Flatville, MI's newspaper, keep a low profile and get back to the city post haste. But memories of his parents' death swarm him, and, to avoid solitude, he stops for a beer. In the crowded bar, Mitch is dismayed to see many of his former classmates--including the still-lovely Homecoming Queen, Trudy. Once the object of his teenage crush, Trudy joins Mitch. He quickly realizes she is upset and inebriated. Always the gentleman, Mitch sees her safely home, and returns to his B&B, still trying to shake memories of his parents' sad demise. The next day, he is stunned to learn Trudy was murdered and he is the prime suspect. The locals treat the murder charge as a slam dunk, and Mitch realizes he must track down the real killer to keep his butt out of jail. As he investigates, facts he thought he knew about his family unravel, and danger ratchets up. Can Mitch discover the truth that will allow his parents to rest in peace, or will he be resting with them?
Author Bio
W.S. Gager has lived in Michigan for most of her life except when she was interviewing race car drivers or professional woman's golfers. She enjoyed the fast-paced life of a newspaper reporter until deciding to settle down and realized babies didn't adapt well to running down story details on deadline. Since then she honed her skills on other forms of writing before deciding to do what she always wanted with her life and that was to write mystery novels. Her main character is Mitch Malone who is an edgy crime-beat reporter always on the hunt for the next Pulitzer and won't let anyone stop him, supposedly.

Reviews

"A Case of Hometown Blues" by Jackson author W.S. Gager (Oak Tree Press, $14.95) is the third in her series about Mitch Malone, who was twice nominated for a Pulitzer Prize Investigative Journalism Award. This oversized paperback is set in the small fictional town of Flatville, Mich., where Malone grew up. He's returned to give a seminar on investigative journalist techniques.The seminar is the same weekend as Malone's high school reunion, but he really doesn't want to participate. A classmate's body is found and Malone becomes the prime suspect.While Gager's highly entertaining tale wraps up a little too neatly, it's still solid escapism by a promising new talent.

Ray Walsh, owner of East Lansing's Curious Book Shop, has reviewed crime novels and noir thrillers since 1987. 

Let's Welcome MM Gornell!

Happy to have M.M. Gornell (who is a friend of my friend and tenant, Ann Wilmer Lasky, by gum)!

Thank you, Alice, for hosting me on your blog. I thought I’d take the opportunity to talk about rewriting—I know— boring, possibly even a turnoff. But, how I feel about rewriting has been evolving, and our blog tour is providing me a lot of opportunities to “talk” about my writing. So here goes!

When I use the word rewriting, I’m talking about:

-         In-process rewriting of scenes, chapters, etc.,

-         Going back through and editing my completed first draft without editorial input,

-         Rewriting based on my first editor’s input,

-         Rewriting based on my second editor’s input,

-         Rewriting based on my third editor’s input,

-         And then, final polishing before going to my publisher.

Only recently have I realized how important rewriting is to my total writing experience and process. The truth I think, is I no longer see rewriting as an activity separate from writing, but an essential ingredient. For me, it is that part of my work where all the bits and pieces actually come together. Where I tighten and refine my prose and story. And, I’ve come to eagerly anticipate thoughts and suggestions from my editors. Rewriting is now one of the good parts of writing. But it’s been a journey getting to this point.

How could it be that my first written thoughts are not perfect? How could I misspell a word, use incorrect grammar, put a comma where a period should be? The first time around, others pointing out these problems were blows to my ego. Ha, has that ever changed! Now it’s more like a lament, “Please, please, find all my screw-ups!” Not to forget those other-dimension gremlins that attack between drafts…

Then there’s what I call my find-the right-word-syndrome. I keep looking for the perfect word—the one with just the right connotation—even if it feels like it’s taking forever. And if I can’t find the right word, or phrase? DELETE! At first, deleting was so, so hard—easy now. And thinking back, what I’ve left out has always been for the better—sometimes that’s been pages, even a whole scene.

And on a philosophical level, rewriting is one of the few times in life I can “take back” what I’ve said. Indeed, in the real-world, so many times I’ve wished for that “erase” capability!

Alice, thanks so much for allowing me the time and space on your blog to go and on… It sure has been fun!

Madeline (M.M.) Gornell has three published mystery novels—PSWA awarding winning Uncle Si’s Secret (2008), Death of a Perfect Man (2009), and her latest release, Reticence of Ravens (2010)—her first Route 66 mystery. Reticence of Ravens is a 2011 Eric Hoffer Fiction finalist and Honorary Mention winner, the da Vinci Eye finalist, and a Montaigne Medalist finalist.

She continues to be inspired by historic Route 66, and has recently completed Lies of Convenience, which hopefully will have a 2011 winter release date. It is a tale that fictionally connects murder, truths untold, and Chicago’s Lake Michigan with California’s high desert on the opposite end of The Mother Road. Madeline is also a potter with a fondness for stoneware and reduction firing. She lives with her husband and assorted canines in the Mojave in a town on internationally revered Route 66.

Madeline’s books are available at Amazon.com, Barnes & Noble.com, and Smashwords, in paper and e-book formats. You can visit her online at her website http://www.mmgornell.com, or her BLOG http://www.mmgornell.wordpress.com, or email her directly at mmgornell@earthlink.net

Buy link for Reticence of Ravens:

http://www.amazon.com/Reticence-Ravens-M-Gornell/dp/1608300390/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1314747098&sr=8-1

So Happy to Host Tim Hallinan Today!

Stone Walls

Once in a very great while, which is to say three or four times per book, I find myself facing a stone wall.

Now, there are several kinds of stone walls. Some are only a few feet high, and can be vaulted with a middling leap of imagination. Some are considerably higher but have possible hand- and foot-holds that might get you up and down again with your neck and your self-regard unbroken. These usually seem to be a prompt for a methodical review of where I am in the manuscript, and how (and why) I got there. Often, the process of going through the story, up to the point where I hit the wall, will tell me where I went wrong and/or what direction to pursue next.

And then there are the stone walls that are polished smooth as glass and stretch into the clouds. Like the one I'm facing right now.

These walls often require something I almost never recommend to anyone. They require that I quit writing.

It's probably obvious by this point, but maybe I should have started this piece by telling you that I write by the seat of my pants. Since I think that plot is what characters do I discover my story by following my characters. There is much to recommend this method, but security isn't one of them.

When that stone wall looms and the process collapses, so do forward momentum and confidence, and I have the dizzying sensation of a first-time rope walker when they decide, far below, to take down the safety net.

I think anyone who wants to write a book should work seven, or—at the very least—six days a week. I have dozens of reasons for this, but the one that's probably most relevant here is that it keeps the world of the book tended, irrigated, and ready to welcome you back. Annie Dillard once compared writing a book with taming a lion; the longer you stay out of the cage, the more dangerous it is to go back in.

But when the smooth, apparently infinitely high stone wall looms in front of me, it's usually time for me to get away from the book, long enough to develop a 20,000-foot view.

I find most of the time that the worst wall is telling me I have a potentially lethal disconnect, which is to say that the book as it's written is incompatible with the unwritten portion, as I'm imagining it. In other words, there's a breakdown of character or logic or both. And the only way I know to find my way through the wall—since there's no going over it—is to take a last long look at the story thus far, and then close the computer.

Just live my life. Be aware when something that happens, or something that someone says, nudges me and says, “bookbookbook,” because that's a little gleam of light. I write down whatever it was and then whatever is triggered by the act of writing it down, and then I close the notebook and move on. Sometimes, I'll talk about the problem very broadly to a sympathetic listener. This can be very valuable—not so much because of what the listener says, but because I get to hear myself stating the issue. Sometimes, the solution presents itself instantly, either whole or in pieces.

If I do these things, sooner or later—most of the time—a new path will open, and it usually involves reconceiving where I'd thought the book was going. This can be disorienting, but in the end, it's a lot easier to reconsider an as-yet-unwritten portion of the book than it is to toss the written part. And I know, because I've done both.

So the message I hope I'm conveying is that stone walls are actually a prompt. Depending on which one you hit, you need to make a minor imaginative adjustment, or review your story in detail to figure out what's gone wrong, or pull out of the whole thing for a while, keeping your mind wide open to whatever the universe throws your way or whatever emerges, waving a tiny white flag, while you're describing the problem to someone.

And once you're over the obstacle—or through it if it was one of those—write like there's no tomorrow, and with the awareness that you've hit (and managed to overcome) a stone wall.

Bio:

Timothy Hallinan is the Edgar- and Macavity-nominated author of the traditionally-published Poke Rafferty series of Bangkok thrillers, the most recent of which is The Queen of Patpong, and the Junior Bender Los Angeles mysteries, which are ebook originals. The most recent Junior Bender adventure is Little Elvises. Earlier this year Hallinan conceived and edited an ebook of original short stories by twenty top-ranked mystery writers, Shaken: Stories for Japan, which is available from Amazon for $3.99. He lives in Santa Monica and Southeast Asia and is lucky enough to be married to Munyin Choy. His website is www.timothyhallinan.com, and the largest area of it is devoted to helping writers finish their first novel.

So Happy Jackie King is Joining Me Today!

Thanks Alice, for hosting me on this 11^th day of our Holiday Blog Tour. And thanks to each of your readers for taking a break from their holiday shopping to travel with us on our big cyber-bus. Remember Readers, make comments on each of our blogsites. This group is giving away over 50 books total, either during the tour or immediately afterwards. I’m giving a signed copy of my cozy mystery THE INCONVENIENT CORPSE and a signed copy of THE FOXY HENS AND MURDER MOST FOWL. Names will be drawn by random from those who take time to leave a comment.

I thought it might be a nice change for our readers to have another writer’s opinion of THE INCONVENIENT CORPSE:

Review by Pat Browning

The Inconvenient Corpse

By Jackie King

Deadly Niche Press 2009

The Inconvenient Corpse

Grace Cassidy asks herself: “How did a native Okie end up alone in a Northern California town with some stranger’s corpse on her bed and a dead cell phone in her Louis-Vuitton purse?”

How, indeed? Grace was minding her own business, took a long walk on the beach to ponder her husband’s infidelity, returned to her room in a Victorian inn to find a naked dead man on her bed.

The police are called. The guests are herded into a sitting room for questioning. An unpleasant sergeant named Sam Harper badgers Grace, doubting her story that she didn’t even know the dead man. Will Grace and Harper prove the old saying that opposites attract?

Life piles it on, but Grace practices what her Mama preached: “When your heart’s the heaviest, put on a little extra rouge.”

So what if there’s a snarky cop on her case? So what if her cheating, soon-to-be-ex-husband doesn’t care enough to return her panicky phone call? So what if the owner of Wimberly Place blames her for disturbing the inn’s peace and quiet by finding a dead body on her bed?

 Grace is flat broke and deeply in debt but lucks out as a temporary inn sitter so the owner’s wife can take a planned vacation. The job is hard work but serves two purposes: it keeps Grace off the streets and makes a handy location for investigating the first murder and a second that occurs shortly thereafter.

Grace is a likeable and resourceful protagonist. The guests and employees at the inn are a colorful lot, each with secrets that might cast them as murder suspects. Grace befriends them all and they become almost like a family, making it hard to believe that one of them is really guilty of murder.

She's such a good cook that the way to Sam Harper's heart does seem to be through his stomach. After a few good breakfasts he's treating her with respect. I should warn you: Sam Harper isn't the only one who falls under Grace's spell. I kept raiding the refrigerator all the way through the book.

This is a delightful book, with a thoroughly satisfying twist at the end.

Pat Browning

ABSINTHE OF MALICE, a study in small town secrets

http://pbrowning.blogspot.com/

Thanks again, Alice for being such a gracious host, and thanks to each reader for stopping by. Be sure and leave a comment so your name will be in the hat to win a signed copy of THE INCONVENIENT CORPSE or a copy of STATEHOOD FOXY HENS AND MURDER MOST FOWL. My novella The Spinster, the Pig and the Orphan is one of three stories in this anthology, a historical mystery set in 1889 Guthrie, Oklahoma Territory. I’m giving away a signed copy of each book.

Also, don’t forget to leave comments at each of our Holiday Blog Tour team members for a chance to win their books.

BIO:

Jackie King is a full time writer who sometimes teaches writing at Tulsa Community College. Her latest novel, THE INCONVENIENT CORPSE is a traditional mystery. King has also written five novellas as co-author of the Foxy Hens Series. Warm Love on Cold Streets is her latest novella and is included in the anthology THE FOXY HENS MEET A ROMANTIC ADVENTURER. She is a member of Sisters in Crime, Mystery Writers of America, Romance Writers of America, RWI, Inc, Oklahoma Writers Federation, and Tulsa Night Writers.

If you’re interested in learning more, THE INCONVENIENT CORPSE is available at:

Website: www.jacqking.com

Blogsite: Cozy Mysteries and Other Madness: http://bnbmysteries.blogspot.com

Amazon and Barnes & Noble as well as available through all bookstores. Paper trade back: $15.95.  Kindle $2.99  http://amzn.to/gMv7CH

Nook $2.99  http://bit.ly/fovbLR