Tis the season....

by: Joelle Charbonneau

Yikes! There are gifts to buy and packages to wrap. Cookies to bake and a toddler too excited to nap. I have trees to trim and trips to the post office to make. Oh and did I mention the gingerbread houses to bake? It’s the holiday season which is sparkly and bright. And in the middle of it all, I have to find time to write!

Two years ago, I wasn’t under deadline. My first book was under contract. The option book was written and waiting for submission. And for some strange reason, I decided to write book three. Stranger still, I made the choice to finish writing the book during the holidays. My reasoning was that if I wanted to become a multi-contract author, I should be able to be productive at any time. Which meant no matter how many halls needed to be decked or bells needed to be jingled, I should be able to crank out the pages.

Um…yeah….

That plan didn’t go so well. Did I get writing done? Sure. Did I finish that book during the holiday season? Yeah, right. Instead of making myself jolly with pages galore, I frustrated myself during a season filled with joy and love and lots and lots of to-do lists. Needless to say, the book was finished in January—long before the contract for it and the deadline for delivery appeared. But though my attempt to write during the holidays stressed me out, it made it glaringly apparent that I never want to write during the holidays again. Last year, I managed to time the completion of MURDER FOR CHOIR to coincide with the first week of December. Score! I then celebrate the holidays by baking, wrapping and going on a serious reading binge.

Talk about Joy to the world!

Sadly, this year didn’t work out so well. I am halfway through my current work in progress and while it isn’t due until months and months into the New Year, I kind of want to get to the end. I mean, I need to know who done it! Not to mention, I have a few other book ideas I’d like to play with. (Yeah—I can’t help myself!)

However, the one thing that I learned from my last foray into holiday writing is that I should be grateful for every page that I write during this crazy time of year. But more important, I need to be grateful for the time I don’t have to write—the time I spend with my family and friends. While getting those pages written is important, the people who I love and who love me are more important still. So I will sit and type when I can and when those bells need to be jingled I’ll put aside the computer and have a blast jingling them.

Moonlighting at the Mall

Our first mystery, Murder Off the Books was published in 2007. It introduced three memorable characters: Mac Sullivan, retired D.C. cop and newly-minted private detective; Whiskey, his adorable canine sidekick, an Irish wolfhound who could tackle a cheeseburger and a murderer with equal ease; and Rachel Brenner, makeup artist in a funeral home whose clients never complained.

We followed it up two years later with Murder Takes the Cake, a sequel with a killer mystery, lots of laughs, and a nice touch of romance. We also published Riley Come Home, a short story featuring this delightful trio, set in the hard-edged world of purebred dog shows.

And then we moved on to a new series featuring psychic Brianna Sullivan, a distant cousin of Mac's, and set in Lottawatah, Oklahoma. We've written seven Brianna novellas - with lots more to come.

But we missed Mac, Whiskey, and Rachel. And for this holiday season, we are delighted to bring them back in a new story sure to intrigue and enchant you. Moonlighting at the Mall finds Mac Sullivan as an undercover Santa Claus, determined to find the mall thief who is brazenly robbing local jewelry stores. He's got more help than he wants. His girlfriend Rachel Brenner is very convincing as Mrs. Claus; septuagenarian Edgar is a less-believable Elf; and Whiskey steals the show as Rudolph.

We're delighted to be back with the Sullivan Investigations crowd. They're old friends of ours- yours too, we hope. Enjoy this holiday whodunnit with a mystery to confound you, humor to make you laugh out loud, and a romance that doesn't need any help from mistletoe.

Brianna Sullivan Mysteries - e-book series
I Try Not to Drive Past Cemeteries- Kindle - Nook - Smashwords
The Dog Days of Summer in Lottawatah- Kindle - Nook - Smashwords
The Holiday Spirit(s) of Lottawatah- Kindle - Nook - Smashwords
Undying Love in Lottawatah- Kindle - Nook - Smashwords
A Haunting in Lottawatah - Kindle - Nook - Smashwords
Lottawatah Twister - Kindle - Nook - Smashwords
Missing in Lottawatah - Kindle - Nook - Smashwords

Sullivan Investigations Mystery - e-book series
Murder Off the Books Kindle - Nook - Smashwords
Murder Takes the Cake Kindle - Nook - Smashwords
Riley Come Home (short story)- Kindle - Nook - Smashwords
Moonlighting at the Mall (short story) - Kindle - Nook - Smashwords

Romances
Love Lessons - Kindle - Nook - Smashwords

I Owe, I Owe, So Off to Blog I Go!

By Laura Spinella

Panic mode. I owe a blog. It’s two plus weeks until Christmas; I haven’t bought a single gift, and I owe a blog. My regular part-time job at the newspaper stops for no one. Ever work at a newspaper? News staffs endure worse hours than the ER at Cook County Hospital. My beat, while a tad tamer, isn’t much different with two front-burner stories slated for my byline. News stops for nothing, certainly not holidays, and definitely not a blog. But never mind that, I still owe one.

A couple of weeks ago, a dream job that is a dotted line to the publishing world fell into my lap. I’m not at liberty to spill the details, but let’s just say you couldn’t make it up. Hopefully, it will replace the newspaper gig, but in the meantime, I get to do both. Oh, yay! That and I also get to write a blog. So far, the new job is crazy hectic with bizarro hours and fly-by-the-seat-of-your-pants directives. I’m okay with that. While I wait for the Lifetime people to call, I can busy myself with a cash-in-hand challenge. The perks are kind of cool. Just this week, I spoke with two bestselling authors! Very nice peeps, those mega bestsellers. I get to do the new job from home, which you’d also think would be a plus. Actually, it’s been the bump in the road. Book writing and newspaper work moves at my pace, meaning I deal with interruptions as they pop up. There’s something about a six-month old kitten flying across your keyboard while taking copious author notes that isn’t quite as cute as it sounds. Well, like anything new, glitches are to be expected. In between working the insane and fascinating new job, I owe a blog.

Add to this the endless treadmill of promoting BEAUTIFUL DISASTER. (makes a great holiday gift!)I went on a binge a few weeks back and sent copies to bloggers we’d missed during its debut. I haven’t heard back from all of them, but one did manage to put it on her radar. Happily, luckily, gleefully, she found favor with the book. And while I could have spent a good chunk of this week trading complimentary emails with her, I had zero time penciled in for self-adoration. Two, “I need it yesterday,” jobs, plus, you guessed it, I owe a blog. Of course, strategically woven into the psychedelic tapestry of my day is a WIP. This past Tuesday, I started feeling the stress of my Ringling Brothers juggling act. I was tearing through a late chapter revision, having changed the name of a minor character. I’d decided too many characters’ names started with a vowel. A seared-to-my-mind memory from a book club reader prompted this fear: “I would have enjoyed your book more, but so many of the characters names started with an M, I got confused.” (I’m sure as an author you eventually reach a place where crap like this doesn’t stick. I’m not there yet.) So along with banning the letter M from my WIP, at least concerning names, I launched a preemptive strike to keep complaints about vowel sounds to a minimum. Only after completing the change did I realize I’d given both the character and Isabel’s cat the same name. What a mess. But I couldn’t fix it, as the alarm had sounded announcing the afternoon session of musical jobs. No worries, I’ll get back to my WIP soon. There I’ll spend a chunk of coveted writing time with a 377 page, one-by-one search and replace. In fact, I’ll relish it, because despite cash flow or an incredible opportunity, that WIP is what gets me moving. It’s important not to lose sight of that. A little stressed, slightly overwhelmed, wishing Rudolph would postpone until Valentine’s Day, I’ll still be excited to sit down with it. And I’m going to do just that… You got it, as soon as I don’t owe a blog. 

Happy Holidays to my fellow Stiletto Gang and all our wonderful readers!

Why the Dog Will Never Die in My Books

When we were young, we had a host of animals, mostly cats and dogs, but with a couple of Guinea pigs and hermit crabs thrown in for good measure.  One of our best, and most ill-behaved, pets was a sixty-pound Golden Retriever named Dusty who had a habit of escaping at the first sound of the open screen door, usually taking my frail grandmother down with him as he bounded outside, happy to be running free and in the fresh air.  I can speak favorably and lovingly of him now because he’s been dead for thirty-five years but back when he was living with us, well, he was a royal pain in the tuchus.

My parents both worked in those days so my grandmother was charged with getting us off to school with our frozen bologna sandwiches and Devil Dogs, a dime each for the carton of warm milk we would buy when lunchtime rolled around.  My grandmother didn’t drive, so getting us on the bus was imperative because once the bus left, if one of us hadn’t made it on, we would have to walk close to two miles to get to school.  Now that doesn’t sound like a long distance now, but back then, our legs were shorter and the miles seemed interminable.  Suffice it to say that we would ran, en masse, when we heard the squeal of the breaks, someone older pushing someone younger ahead so that we didn’t have to hoof it.  We always made it.

Except for one day.

Dusty had a travelin’ jones that beautiful fall morning and was just waiting for the chance to get out and run pell-mell throughout the neighborhood.  I went out after him, chasing him all the way down our street toward the reservoir, begging him to come back home.  I knew I had all of five or six minutes to make this happen, but as luck would have it, he was out without his leash or even his collar so I had to pin him to the ground and basically drag him up the street, his sixty pounds feeling like a thousand as we inched our way up the street toward home and the bus stop.  We were about halfway up when I heard the familiar siren song of the bus coming down the street and saw my siblings running toward its open doors.  That’s when I began to cry.

Through some sheer force of will, I did manage to get the dog the two hundred and fifty feet back to the house, where I threw him inside and cried to my grandmother that not only would I have to walk to school, I would now be late and probably have to serve detention, meaning that I would have to walk home, too.  She cried right along with me, apologizing for never having gotten her license and trying to figure out what we could do to get me to school in time for the bell.  Desperate, I ran outside and spied my neighbor, Bobby, getting into his brand-new Mustang convertible, the one with the white leather seats, the one that he didn’t let any of us near.  He was on his way to his job as a first-year teacher at a local high school and while I won’t go so far as to say that he was unhappy to see me, let’s just say that, well, seeing me crying in my uniform with my book bag wasn’t the way he wanted to start his day.  I begged him for a ride, explaining the tale of dragging Dusty up the street and missing the bus, the same one that two of his younger brothers rode with me to St. Catherine’s.  He finally relented after my grandmother intervened, making me sit at the edge of the passenger-side seat, lest my plaid uniform leave some kind of deleterious stain on the white leather upholstery.

I spent the day smoldering with rage at the dog, who was a colossal pain in the butt about 90% of the time.  In addition to escaping, he ate our socks, our sweaters, our shoes; he stole things from kids disembarking the school bus; he barked at things we couldn’t see; and he needed to be loved and petted constantly even in the middle of dinner.  But when I got home, and he ran to me, slobbering and jumping and just so excited to see me, I could do nothing but hug him and kiss him because when all was said and done, he was just a dog.  And a beautiful, fun, loving one at that who adored me in spades and who had a bad habit of escaping when he should have been napping next to my grandmother.

Dusty died at the age of two, after a brief, but horrible, illness, right around the time that he stopped escaping and started becoming the dog we always wanted.  I will never forget my mother, painting the trim in our bathroom, crying and telling me that she didn’t think we could ever get another dog because she just got too attached and it was too painful when they died.  She cried for several days and while I couldn’t really understand it then—the kids and I moved on with extreme alacrity—I do now.

Intellectually, when we get a pet, we know that they are only ours for a short time in the grand scheme of things but the comfort and pleasure we get while they are here on earth with us is so powerful and all-encompassing that we can’t resist the pull to ownership.  With my dog advancing in age, I’m already thinking about getting another dog so that when she goes—and it will happen—I’ll have someone else to comfort me in her absence.  She is a part of our family and plays just as important a role as the humans who make up our little band of Barbieris.

I was thinking about our pets—both past and present—this weekend after I got a call from a good friend telling me that her beloved dog, a miniature Schnauzer named Stella, had died suddenly and unexpectedly.  The shock of hearing that, coupled with the knowledge of how much I love our little Westie and our big, giant cat, made me so sad that I burst into the tears, my friend and I crying over the loss of this twenty-pound animal who loved to bark at squirrels, who played with my dog in the summer while the kids swam in the pool, and who loved to bury her bone in the couch cushions to protect it for later consumption. So while this blog may seem like just a bunch of ramblings about a disobedient Golden Retriever named Dusty, it is a tribute to all of our beloved pets, the ones who grace our lives for a short time but who bring us so much joy and happiness while they are here.

To Stella—I hope you are enjoying a big, giant JumBone in heaven.

Stiletto faithful, tell us about your favorite memory of a beloved pet.

Maggie Barbieri

Sometimes I Wonder if I'm Crazy

The day after Thanksgiving I jumped on a virtual tour bus with 13 other mystery authors on a 14 day book tour. Of course we started long before the tour began by sending each other information about what we wanted to be sent for each blog post, and then of course we had to comply with the requests. Some of the writers took much longer to get their information sent off. Once it was received, in my case I immediately posted it to my blog with the correct date and time for it to appear.

Once the tour began it was important to promote the blogs as much as each author had time to do it. So far I've been promoting my blog with the guest author and whatever blog I'm appearing on that particular day. I've also made an effort to visit each of the other blogs and leave a comment.

Many books are being offered as prizes on this tour and some folks who love books, especially those that are free, have begun to catch on and there names and comments are appearing on the different blogs.
For my blog at http://marilynmeredith.blogspot.com/ I asked the authors to write a post about setting. If you read each of their posts, you'll see that none of them are alike at all. Some spoke about setting itself, others described the settings of their books. I found it fascinating.

Today I'm appearing on Timothy Hallinan's blog http://www.timothyhallinan.com/blog/ he's the author of The Queen of Patpong, a wonderful book.

We have authors of all genres within the mystery field, I think you'll recognize most if not all of these names:
Beth Anderson, Ron Benrey, Pat Browning, John M. Daniel, Alice Duncan, W. W. (Wendy) Gager, M. M. (Madeline) Gornell, Timothy Hallinan, Jackie King, Jean Henry Mead, Mike Orenduff, Jinx Schwartz, Earl Staggs, and Anne K. Albert who organized this whole tour.

It's been a bit of work, but I do think it's paid off. I kept checking my numbers on Amazon for the e-book and they've been going down, which is a good thing.

Being with a small press (two, actually), I've had to work very hard to promote any of my books. The one I've been focusing on for this tour is Bears With Us.

Of course I've also been busy with in-person events, some of which I've written about on this blog.

All that's left for this year is spending two days, December 9 and 10 at the Christmas Boutique at the Porterville Art Gallery from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. I've done this several years and it's a lot of fun. The artists who have their jewelry, cards, pottery, and of course paintings on sale are fun to chat with and their work is wonderful. It's like going to a Christmas party that lasts for two days.

And in the mean time, I had 13 for Thanksgiving dinner, then the next day hauled the leftovers to may daughter's so we could do it all again. (Daughter and granddaughters and great-grand daughter had spent the whole night and most of the day shopping for bargains. I was not crazy enough to do that.)

Hubby and have put up all the Christmas decorations we felt like and it doesn't amount to much.

My collection of moose--not a collection I planned, people just kept giving them to me.

And sort of an Indian display. Oh, we have a small tree with lights that you just have to plug in and the stockings are hung on the mantel, and few other decorations here and there. But with no kids to help me decorate a big tree, not bothering with that this year.

Oh, and about being crazy? This virtual blog tour has taken up a lot of my writing time, but as I tell other authors, if you don't let people know about your book, how will they know to buy it?

And I think I'll take this time to wish everyone a Happy Holiday Season no matter what you might celebrate, as for me it'll be a Merry Christmas.

Marilyn

The Zen of Giving

Around this time of year the discussion inevitably turns to the crass commercialism of the holiday season; the need for everyone to get a grip on the amount of money spent; the debt incurred; the environmental impact of wrapping paper; the need to focus on the less fortunate.

And it's all absolutely true.

Which is why what should be a time of delight is, for me, also often a time of guilt. Now my kids would say that I have two middle names: worry and guilt. So it's no surprise that I worry that I send the wrong message about the holiday and that I'm guilty of all the transgressions mentioned above.

As I understand, giving presents as part of the Christmas tradition follows the example of the gifts brought by the three wise men to the baby Jesus. For Chanukah, the traditional gift was gelt (Yiddish for money). The rationale was twofold. First, Chanukah celebrates the Jewish defeat of the Greeks who had defiled the Holy Temple. Chanukah comes from the same word as Chinuch which means education. The Rabbis believed that the Jewish people, adults and children, needed to be reeducated about the Torah after years of Hellenic domination. Gelt was given to children as an incentive to learn the Torah, with the idea that as youngsters grew older they would understand the beauty of learning the Bible without the incentive. Giving gelt was also used to model charitable behavior and to teach children the concept of giving charity with their own money.

None of which explains me and the Barbie doll purchased for my granddaughter, wrapped in Chanukah paper festooned with colorful dreidls.
The truth is I like finding just the right gift for each person on my list. I adore wrapping paper and making crisp corners and neat folds around cardboard boxes. I have way too much tissue paper for a normal person, but when I find it, on sale, in colors or designs never before seen by these eyes, I can't resist. Is there a 12-step program for wrapping paper addicts?

But most of all, I love the joy that the perfect gift elicits – especially when the recipient hadn't even asked for that item. Being able to indulge someone's wish is a blessing for both the giver and the receiver. It doesn't have to be expensive or even new. It can be homemade. But it has to be thoughtful.
One mother I know wrapped up a box of sugared cereal, usually a no-no in the house, and gave it to her son as one of his gifts. Bingo! I still smile, lo these many years later, at the look of sheer delight when my oldest son opened a Star Wars action figure. It cost $3. I had searched all over town because they were in such short supply, but my child looked like he had won the lottery, heck even the Powerball, when he opened it. I was so happy for his happiness.

I do try to give generously at holiday time. Surely the concept of charity, especially in this difficult economy, is more important than ever. When my kids were little, I would take them to select gifts to donate to Toys for Tots and the local children's hospital.

And so I am making an early New Year's resolution to give reasonably and thoughfully – and to enjoy, without guilt, the experience. However, you choose to celebrate, I wish you a time of peace and joy.
Happy Holidays!

Marian

As our gift to you, we'd like to provide you with a coupon for a free ebook copy of I Try Not to Drive Past Cemeteries from Smashwords   Please email us at evelyn@evelyndavid.com and we'll send one to you.


Brianna Sullivan Mysteries - e-book series
I Try Not to Drive Past Cemeteries- Kindle - Nook - Smashwords
The Dog Days of Summer in Lottawatah- Kindle - Nook - Smashwords
The Holiday Spirit(s) of Lottawatah- Kindle - Nook - Smashwords
Undying Love in Lottawatah- Kindle - Nook - Smashwords
A Haunting in Lottawatah - Kindle - Nook - Smashwords
Lottawatah Twister - Kindle - Nook - Smashwords
Missing in Lottawatah - Kindle - Nook - Smashwords

Sullivan Investigations Mystery - e-book series
Murder Off the Books Kindle - Nook - Smashwords
Murder Takes the Cake Kindle - Nook - Smashwords
Riley Come Home (short story)- Kindle - Nook - Smashwords

Romances
Love Lessons - Kindle - Nook - Smashwords

All I Want for Christmas is Escada Couture Swarovski Crystal Jeans

by Susan McBride's Second Cousin Once Removed, Tiffany Van Cleef Arpel

My dear cousin, Ms. Susan, has to get cracking on a book deadline, so I told her I'd fill in on the blog today, offering my always fabulous holiday shopping tips. If I'd left Susan to discuss the subject, she'd be all about "Take care to mind your budget, blah blah blah." Budget? Hello! That word's not even in my vocabulary, unless my stable hand says, "Hey, Tiff, can't seem to get Appletini's ass out of the stall, even when I try to budge it."

Look, I've done my best to pick out truly reasonable items for everyone on your gift list (meaning: me, me, me!); so don't panic, even if your trust fund is tied up in litigation because your money manager finally got caught running his silly ol’ Ponzi scheme. I know how to spot a bargain, particularly if it's really sparkly. So without further ado, here are my awesome recommendations!  No need to thank me.

A pink leopard guitar for a piddly $9,900. It’s, like, musical art with a mahogany neck, rosewood finger board, and hand-applied Swarovski crystals. Do I know how to play the guitar? Heck, no! Well, not any better than Brittany Spears knows how to sing without Auto-Tune. But I’m a rock chick at heart so I’d just wear this puppy around my neck instead of pearls.

While you’re pretending to play that guitar, you’ll need to look hot, right? So how about a pair of Escada Couture Swarovski Crystal Jeans, available at Neiman Marcus for a mere $10,000. Honestly, you can never have too many jeans, and why not have some that glitter like the Vegas strip when you're caught in the headlights of your boyfriend's Lamborghini? Just be really careful about wiping sweaty palms on your thighs when you're wearing these babies, as you can cut yourself up pretty good. (Don't ask.)

If you like something simpler, you can always go with the Dolce & Gabbana Astrakhan Jeans, which are incredibly priced at $3,950. It's like stealing, I swear.

For the very special woman on your list who likes things soft and fuzzy (and that's me, me, me!), how about a lovely and practical Louis Vuitton mink scarf, a mere pittance at $1,710. It can double as a mink pillow if you stay at a hotel where the sheets smell too bleachy (yeah, Paris Hilton, and you can tell you dad I said so!).


Not into scarves? Then go for J. Mendel silver fox vest (price tag: $5,475). Though I'm afraid my arms would get cold, so, please, spring for both. You wouldn't want me wandering into Donald Trump's Christmas Eve bash hacking up phelgm 'cuz I've got pneumonia, now would you?

The perfect outfit for any holiday party is the little black dress, and Miu Miu has the cutest ruffled one for a paltry $820. I know. What a deal, huh? And since you'll only wear it once, you won't feel like you're getting ripped off or anything.

You're probably saying, "Tiff, my God! What fantastico ideas! Surely you can't have more?"

Ah, but I do.

Like this little gem: Faraone Mennella for Carolina Herrera citrine, rose quartz and pink tourmaline brooch. It's understated yet pretty as my picture. "But what's that cost, Tiff?" I hear you asking. To which I reply, "You can easily afford it AND the mortgage payments on your villa in Tuscany without selling off those Rembrandt etchings." $14,000. Yes, that's right. Unbelievable, huh? So make it two, please!

If you're wondering about New Year's Eve ‘cause you'd like to bring a bottle of bubbly to that party Skip and Bitsy Vanderhaven are throwing in Greenwich, my suggestion would be to take them a set of Hermes cocktail glasses (just $400 a glass) and the Louis Roederer Cristal Champagne 1990 ($231). I guarantee Skip and Bitsy will be your pals for life, or at least until they run out of the Cristal.

And, finally, the perfect holiday present. One that will never be returned or re-gifted. Here goes (drumroll, please, Ringo): a yoga retreat at Hotel Tugu in Bali. At $2,590 per couple x four nights, it's even cheaper than the jeans!

So there you are, my darlings. Just have your valet and/or your personal assistant wrap 'em up, and you can call it a day. It was a lot easier than you thought, wasn't it? Because life is too short to waste a lot of time in places called "The Galleria" when you could be at the spa, getting high colonics and Brazilian bikini waxes and your eyebrows plucked to smithereens.

If you need further inspiration, just repeat this ditty (my personal mantra): "Gucci, Pucci, Prada, Fendi, nothing's wrong with being trendy."

Ciao, babies...and happy shopping!

Tiff

(Note from Susan:  Tiffany wrote this lovely piece for me a few years back so some of the prices may have changed, although I'm not sure if that matters much, if ya know what I mean.)

When Can I Raid My Character's Closet?

By Kris Neri

Do you ever long to raid your characters’ closets? I do, though only when that character is Samantha Brennan the fake psychic featured in my Magical Mystery series HIGH CRIMES ON THE MAGICAL PLANE and the newly-released, MAGICAL ALIENATION.

I don’t long to borrow any duds from her co-protagonist, Annabelle Haggerty because, although Annabelle a genuine Celtic goddess, descended from the gods that fill the mythology books, she’s also an FBI agent. She dresses not the way female FBI agents are often depicted on TV, with their tight blouses and bare midriffs, but as I imagine they dress in real life, in stodgy professional suits with sensible heels.

Samantha, on the other hand, is anything but sensible. Here’s how she presented herself to me when she first introduced herself to me early in the planning stage of the first book of the series, HIGH CRIMES ON THE MAGICAL PLANE, a Lefty Award nominee for Best Humorous Mystery:

"Man, what a sight I was! Long blonde hair curling wildly in every direction, crowned with a wreath of battered silk flowers held together with Christmas tree garland. Makeup by Crayola. And that dress I wore—half Renaissance ball gown in bright blue satin and lace, half soothsayer garb with its filmy organdy layers, half jester suit. Too many halves, I know, but it was quite a dress.”

That was exactly how I heard it in my head, and that’s also exactly how it appeared in the book. How could I, a mere writer, hope to top the appearance of such a determined fake psychic?

HIGH CRIMES ON THE MAGICAL PLANE was so much fun to write, not just because of Samantha’s eccentric wardrobe, but because of the wild paranormal adventures it contains. And the latest in the series, MAGICAL ALIENATION, was even more fun.

Here’s a little tease of the story to tell you what it’s about:

“A spaceship crash in Roswell…a rumored alien…the mysterious Area 51…a harmonic convergence in Sedona. No connection, right? With its rock stars and shape shifters, gods and haunting militia leaders — MAGICAL ALIENATION will turn what you think you know upside down.

Fake psychic Samantha Brennan and Celtic goddess/FBI agent Annabelle Haggerty team up again. While the rock people twist the surface of the earth and Sedona heads into the darkest night the planet has ever seen, Samantha wonders which, if any of them, will survive it. But when Celtic gods are involved, nothing is ever as it appears.”

The trouble with setting the bar high, though, is that next time you have to top it. I’m happy to say that in MAGICAL ALIENATION, Samantha and I successfully did top her first appearance. Here’s how she’s dressed in one of her early appearances in MAGICAL ALIENATION:

The dress I wore today was a medieval gown I’d bought from some touring attraction that had shut down. The floor-length gray silk dress had looked too simple for me, so I covered it with red and black graffiti; snotty jibes written in Middle English. I’d also placed my wimple properly on my head, but my long, curly blonde hair was so wild, it kept knocking that pointy hat askew. Now I probably looked more like some crazed lunatic who’d been mugged by the Middle Ages.”

And then there was this outfit:

I wore a court jester suit today, with puffy jacket sleeves and short pants in magenta and gold. Under the pants I wore bright purple tights. A bell dangled from the jester hat perched at a rakish angle on my curly blonde hair. I’d chosen high-heeled gold lamé pumps in lieu of jester shoes. Normally, I preferred dresses, but since I was visiting a politician, I thought the occasion called for some whimsy.”

Samantha insists she dresses as she does so potential clients will take her seriously as a celebrity psychic, and yet she’s continually shocked when people regard her as a flake. I personally believe her taste in clothes simply reflects the inner girl, who’s definitely marching to the beat of a tone-deaf drummer.

And here’s another little secret: While I doubt I’d have the guts to dress as Samantha does, a tiny part of me probably wishes I could. If her wardrobe expresses her true spirit, it expresses my buried-too-deep-to find-it spirit, which I’m only able to access through her.

The real reason why I have such fun clothing Samantha? She’s dressing for me, too. With a pronounced taste for the offbeat, Kris Neri writes the Samantha Brennan and Annabelle Haggerty Magical Mystery series, HIGH CRIMES ON THE MAGICAL PLANE, a Lefty Award nominee for Best Humorous Mystery, and MAGICAL ALIENATION. She also write the hilarious Tracy Eaton Mysteries, featuring the daughter of eccentric Hollywood stars, the latest of which was REVENGE FOR OLD TIMES’ SAKE, also a Lefty Award nominee.

website:  http://www.krisneri.com
buy Magical Alienation at Well Red Coyote