Themes - a Very Special Military One

Themes - a Very Special Military One by Debra H. Goldstein

Themes.  Historical themes.  Plotlines.  These words are running through my head as I lie in my bed, laptop in hand, writing today’s blog (too much information?).  My intent was to describe how, when an idea comes to me, I never know if what I write will turn out to be long or short. The piece only works if I follow the theme to its natural end.  The blog I thought you would be reading won’t work because themes related to Veteran’s Day and visiting the John F. Kennedy Library keep intruding.

Tuesday was Veteran’s Day.  Birmingham, Alabama is known for the large parade it has to honor the men who protect our right to be free.  I exercise at Lakeshore, a gym and facility that offers Lima Foxtrot, a comprehensive sports, fitness and recreation program for members of our Armed Forces who were injured after 9/11.  The program, which was begun in 2006, has served over 1,800 servicemen and women injured in the line of duty and their families.  Alabama isn’t the home of most of these wounded warriors. So far, they have come from thirty-six states and territories to utilize the Lima Foxtrot programs that meld sports, recreation, and the way their lives will be forever changed post their injuries.

Themes of survival are apparent whenever I glance from the able-bodied machines that I am working out on to an individual next to me exercising at a far higher level of intensity on the same type of machine, albeit one that is adaptive.  On Veteran’s Day, I joined in honoring and thanking the men and women of the Armed Services, but because happenstance brought me to work out at Lakeshore, with its integrated facilities, the theme of gratitude to members of the military is brought home to me daily.

Last Friday, when I was in Boston to attend the Crime Bake mystery conference, I had a few free hours so I went to the John F. Kennedy Library.  Kennedy is the first president I personally remember.  He was ruggedly handsome, his wife beautiful, and their children kids like me.  Walking through the library brought back the memories that the public now refers to as our country’s days of Camelot.  In many of the pictures and displays, the themes of youth and hope are juxtaposed against those of civil rights, possible nuclear war, and poverty.  I don’t usually buy souvenirs, but after watching a tape of JFK’s inauguration speech, I bought a mug to remind me every morning of his famous “…ask not what your country can do for you – ask what you can do for your country” charge to the American public.

I will save talking about how social issue themes form my writing until another day.  I will hold off telling you how redemption and what happened during Hurricane Katrina was the theme behind the writing of Who Dat? Dat the Indian Chief! or how family dynamics is behind Thanksgiving in Moderation because the faces of each of the young veterans striving to move forward with their lives after doing all they can for our country are truly the themes and plotlines to be thought of on Veteran’s Day and everyday of the year.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Thanksgiving in Moderation recently was published in the short story anthology The Killer Wore Cranberry: a Fourth Meal of Mayhem.  Although it is available from many sources, until November 30, Untreed Reads Publishing is discounting it and an extra 10% off of orders over $10

can be obtained by using Code:  Thankful at checkout.  http://store.untreedreads.com/ 

Who Dat? Dat the Indian Chief! is included in the Mardi Gras Murder anthology edited by Sarah Glenn. 

Hell What Now?

by Bethany Maines

The Navy SEALs must pass through something called Hell Week in order to become an actual SEAL.  If they can’t take Hell Week they can always ring the bell that signals that they are opting out and then they get coffee and donuts.  For five and a half days the SEAL candidates are expected to operate on four hours of sleep while being cold, wet, and presumably yelled at (since no one seems to do anything in the military without being yelled at).  To this I say… What pansies. 

OK, the cold and wet does sound miserable.  But try operating for three months on four hours of sleep while being constantly yelled at and then having someone puke in your pants.  And in your hair.  And on just about everything else.  Then we’ll talk.  OK, OK, so you can snap a man’s neck with your bare hands.  I can shoot milk out my boob.  What else you got?

All kidding aside, one of the unfortunate side effects of becoming a mother (or probably a Navy SEAL) is that sleep is immediately curtailed. Which makes lots of things, for instance, writing novels and running a business, more difficult. 

Side effects of prolonged sleep deprivation include:

• Weight Gain
• Loss of Sex Drive
• Impaired Alertness, Concentration, and Problem Solving
• Depression
• Aging Skin
• Memory Loss
• Greater chances of death due to accidents
• Greater chances of other health problems

It’s not that being a mom is so difficult; it’s that being anything else, while being a mom just increased in difficulty due to our adorable little time sucking children and the constant sleep deprivation.  Which makes every word I type a minor triumph. I will not be ringing the bell today. 

PS Please forgive any typos I may make.  I blame them on my daughter.

  

Bethany Maines is the author of the Carrie Mae Mystery series and Tales from the City of Destiny. You can also view the Carrie Mae youtube video or catch up with her on Twitter and Facebook.

Fragile Art

by Marjorie Brody

Have you ever visited a Chihuly gallery? In addition to glass bowls, vases, and baskets, Dale Chihuly and his team of artisans create magnificent glass sculptures, or as they say in the art world, glass installations. Each piece demands time and patience, creativity and skill. The pieces pick up light and reflect color. They are dazzling and are unique and yet . . . And yet, created from blown glass, they will always remain fragile.

Can you imagine spending hour after hour, day after day, creating something that may easily be broken?

One part of me says, “What’s the sense of working that hard only to have someone carelessly—or even accidentally—shatter your masterpiece? All your effort, all your investment, destroyed.”

The other part of me says, “Creating is its own reward. Celebrate the process, don’t just admire the end result.”

The glass blower and the author have striking similarities. Both blow life into their work to give it shape. Both rely on turning up the heat and pushing their subjects to the breaking point. At their best, both create a sense of delight and wonder in others.

This week, as I move forward with my work in progress, I’ll remind myself to enjoy the process. I’ll remind myself that, like blowing glass, writing a novel demands time and patience, creativity and skill. I’ll remind myself, with a huge sigh of relief, that a well-told story is sturdier than blown glass.

Marjorie Brody is an award-winning author and Pushcart Prize Nominee. Her short stories appear in literary magazines and the Short Story America Anthology, Vols. I, II and III. Her debut psychological suspense novel, TWISTED, was awarded an Honorable Mention at the 2013 Great Midwest Book Festival and won the Texas Association of Authors 2014 Best Young Adult Fiction Book Award. TWISTED is available in digital and print at http://tinyurl.com/cvl5why or http://tinyurl.com/bqcgywl. Marjorie invites you to visit her at www.marjoriespages.com.

First Impressions - Julie Mulhern

Wow! I can’t believe I’m here! As a writer, I have a NEWBIE sign around my neck. Thanks to the Stiletto Gang for taking a chance on me.

So, this is it. My one chance to make a first impression. I’d better not blow it. May I say pressure?

First impressions are promises of sorts. The serious young woman with no make-up, the one with her nose in a book, will probably not be body surfing tonight. The man who uses cheesy pick-up lines is probably not your soul mate. Impressions. Perceptions. Promises.

First impressions are like the first line of a novel. It is a truth universally acknowledged…does not set the reader up for a tragedy.

Then there’s this rather prescient opening…

Inasmuch as the scene for this story is that historic pile, Belpher Castle, in the county of Hampshire, it would be an agreeable task to open it with a leisurely description of the place, followed by some notes on the history of the Earls of Marshmoreton, who have owned it since the fifteenth century. Unfortunately, in these days of rush and hurry, a novelist works at a disadvantage. He must leap into the middle of his tale with as little delay as he would employ boarding a moving tramcar. He must get off the mark with the smooth swiftness of a jack rabbit surprised while lunching. Otherwise, people throw him aside and go out to the picture palaces.

Written by P.G. Wodehouse in 1919, the opening to A Damsel in Distress promises fun and comedy. As for those picture palaces, one has to wonder what Wodehouse would have thought of the television.

I have three (maybe four) books coming out in 2015. I thought I’d share my first lines. Hopefully, they’ll give you an idea what I’m all about (hint: no body-surfing).

From The Deep End to be released February 17, 2015 – My morning swim doesn’t usually involve corpses.

From A Haunting Desire to be released in the spring of 2015 - Go to Marie Leveau’s tomb. Find the woman who can tell you about voodoo. She has what you need.

From Guaranteed to Bleed to be released November, 2015 - My second mistake was dropping my lipstick.

From A Haunting Need to be released late 2015 - Christine Lambert’s life changed with a waft of odor. The acrid stench of sulfur. The sickly sweetness of rotting fruit. They eye-watering sting of oily smoke.

So there you have it. Four chances for a first impression.

If you're interested in a second line, I'm giving a copy of The Deep End away on Goodreads. Enter here to win!

Goodreads Book Giveaway

The Deep End

by Julie Mulhern

Giveaway ends December 08, 2014.

See the giveaway details at Goodreads.

Enter to win

Thanks for joining me on this new leg of my journey. I’ll end with a question. What is your favorite first line?

Cormac McCarthy Loves My Dog

by Linda Rodriguez

I’m a big rescue-animal person. I’ve had rescue dogs and cats all my adult life. When I’ve lost a dog to the cancers and other vicissitudes of old age, always a heartbreaking situation, I go looking for a replacement in the dogs on death row—those scheduled for euthanasia. I have found so many wonderful dogs in this way.

I’m thinking about this because next week is the adoption anniversary of our current dog, Dyson. Five years ago this fall, we had lost our much-beloved sixteen-year-old Husky-Sharpei, who’d been adopted at seven on what was supposed to be the last day of her life and given us so many more wonderful years. After grieving for a month, we began looking online at the adoptable dogs of local shelters. Hearing that the Kansas City Animal Shelter was overcrowded, we decided to go visit and adopt one of their desperate dogs slated for death.

I walked into the shelter the week before Thanksgiving with certain criteria in mind. I wanted an older female dog who was already housebroken and calm. I knew older dogs were harder to find homes and figured I’d be able to choose among several older females. No stubborn, rambunctious, untrained young males for me. I was no longer the young, strong woman who had trained such dogs years before.

As luck would have it, someone showed us an emaciated, big, male dog with a strange brindle coat, starved and sad-eyed, who was scheduled for euthanasia the next day. He walked placidly for me on the leash and looked at us without hope. My husband and I were hooked by those big sad eyes. Even when we were informed that he had heartworm, which costs hundreds of dollars to treat, we weren’t dissuaded and signed up to adopt him that day, all the time telling ourselves how crazy this was. As we signed papers and laid down money, people who worked at the shelter began to filter into the office. “Are you the folks taking Dyson?” they would ask, and then shake our hands and thank us, telling us what a good dog he was. Then, we found out he was less than a year old, big as he was—and that he was a breed of dog we’d never heard of before, the Plott hound.

Dyson, who should have weighed at least 70 pounds at that time, was so starved that he weighed less than 40 pounds. (The first photo is of him then, the later photo of him now.) He had never been neutered and never been in a house, we discovered. We would have to keep this long-legged creature crated for weeks at first because of the heartworm treatment. If he became too active, he could have a stroke. What possessed us to continue and sign up for this dog, I can’t begin to understand.

Thus, began my education in the dogs Cormac McCarthy calls “the ninja warriors of dogdom” and of whom he says, “They are just without fear.” Developed by a German immigrant family (from whom they get their name) in the Great Smoky Mountains who never sold any outside of the family until after World War II, Plott hounds are the state dog of North Carolina. They were bred for centuries as trackers and hunters of bear. They are practically triple-jointed and can perform acrobatic feats while avoiding the claws of huge bears they have brought to bay. They are highly valued by big game hunters all over the world, who pay thousands of dollars for trained Plott hounds to use to hunt bear, cougars, and other large predators.

We don’t hunt. While on a leash for walks, Dyson constantly charges into the hedges and emerges with a big possum or feral cat in his mouth, which we’ll make him drop—always uninjured since he has the softest mouth. Other things we’ve discovered about Plotts are that they are extra-smart and yet goofy and playful. And so he is. Also, loyal, affectionate, protective, and he loves fibers and textiles, often in early days pulling my knitting out without harming it and lying before it confused at why he couldn’t do what Mommy does with those sticks.

Though he was the opposite of the placid, female, older dog we wanted, Dyson has been the perfect dog for us, always a source of fun and joy. And the inevitable mischief that a young, boisterous male (for once he regained his health, he regained his personality) commits is a small price to pay for the love he shows when he lays his massive head in my lap and looks at me with love in his big, now-happy eyes.

Happy birthday to His Majesty Dyson the Toy King Sweetie Boy Rodriguez-Furnish!

REPLY TO COMMENTS (because Blogger bah!):

Lil, you're right. He was the dog we needed. We've often thought our late, lamented Mina was guiding that choice of her replacement.

Blogger still won't let me comment.

Bad to the Bone!

Is it November already?

This last week has been jammed packed with activity in Sparkle Abbey’s world. Besides the typical day job and normal family craziness, book six, The Girl with the Dachshund Tattoo hit the virtual bookshelves. We knew it was coming, but we didn’t realize it was coming so soon. Not that we’re complaining!

The Girl with the Dachshund Tattoo

We’re really excited about our latest cozy mystery. In The Girl with the Dachshund Tattoo, Mel is tracking a killer in the cutthroat world of dachshund racing. Cheating. Doping. Gambling. Who knew doxie dashes were surrounded by so much controversy? Certainly not us.

We had a ball researching this book. 

We even attended a couple of wiener races just to make sure we captured the enthusiasm and competitive nature of the racers. We can attest that these pooches may have short stubby legs, and long wiggly bodies, but they are all heart. 

If you’ve never seen a Dachshund Dash, check out this YouTube video. We dare you not to smile. Running of the Wieners at Oktoberfest Zinzinnati

Next week we’ll be on a jet plane to Long Beach, California to attend the Bouchercon Mystery Conference! If you’re there and see us, make sure you say hi. 

If you're not familiar with Bouchercon, let us explain. Bouchercon is the Annual World Mystery Convention for anyone who loves mysteries. Readers, writers, authors, librarians, and booksellers all gather for a weekend of fun and conversation. And we like to hangout in the bar. Attendees can pick from a plethora of panels and attend author signings, along with other programs. There's even an awards ceremony. If you'd like to learn more about this wonderful mystery conference, here's a link. Bouchercon 2014, Murder at the Beach.

Our question to you is this: If you could hang out in the bar with any mystery author, who would you choose?

Changing My Life Style

by Kay Kendall

Five years ago I left my public relations career of three decades and devoted myself to writing full-time. I thought I knew what this would be like, but I was so wrong. My expectation was that my life would be solitary, with little outside contact. My world would shrink and my conversations grow few and far between—held mostly with my husband, my dog Wills, and our three house rabbits. Well…wrongo!

Instead, my friend list—both real and virtual—has multiplied like crazy. I converse with new people all the time and have never been happier. Sure, I do spend hours in what I fondly call my writer’s lair, dreaming up mystery plots and scheming villains. But when I need a break, I go online and talk to my virtual friends all over the continent or attend an author’s event. If it’s my own, I hang out with my readers, and if it’s for other writers, I talk to writers I admire.  

T. Jefferson Parker and me

I don’t know if this is true for authors who write in categories other than mystery/thrillers, but in this genre, the writers are fantastically warm and welcoming. I expected the readers to be generous, but the friendliness of other mystery authors was a wonderful surprise.

A case in point was a signing event last night at Houston’s great Murder by the Book. T. Jefferson Parker talked about his latest novel, FULL MEASURE.  He has written twenty acclaimed mysteries over the course of his thirty-year writing career, and I’ve read and enjoyed many of them. I first met him at the annual ThrillerFest conference held by International Thriller Writers each July in New York City. That was in 2013 when my debut mystery was released. We shared experiences of writing a book with the Vietnam War as a background. I talked to him again at ThrillerFest in 2014, introducing myself again because I didn't expect him to remember me, even though we had emailed a few times. He said, “Of course I remember you, Kay.”

His opening words at last night’s event were, “Great to see you, Kay.” Well, if one of your writing heroes says that, of course your sense of well-being soars. We talked about books, and he shared the genesis of his new book, his first literary novel. A young Marine returns from hard duty in Afghanistan to find his America riven by discord and his family farm under threat from the economic collapse of 2008. I’m eager to read what this wonderful author has to say on these important subjects. (He is only one of three writers who've won more than one Edgar Award.)

Some of my new friends are writers on this blog. As a matter of fact, I am a participant because Linda Rodriguez invited me into the Stiletto Gang after I met her just briefly. Gang member Majorie Brody and I did a book tour together in Alabama and met another gang member at Killer Nashville a few months ago, Debra H. Goldstein. So far other gang members are online friends whom I hope to meet some day soon. Again, mystery authors are wonderful! My life is now quite literally a dream come true.

Lest you think it’s this way with all groups of writers, I hear it is NOT so! A mystery novelist on a Bouchercon panel a few years ago said he often went to meetings with his wife, a poet, and when poets gather, it gets downright chilly, and even vicious. Therefore he was stunned at his first attendance at Bouchercon to find all the mystery authors so welcoming. That was my first Bouchercon too, and I had just put my toe into the big ocean of mystery authors.  I can’t speak for poets (Linda Rodriguez can though), but I guarantee you, mystery/thriller authors are wonderful people.

Have you had similar experiences with mystery authors or readers? I hope you have, and if so, I'd love to hear your tales. Please share.

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Kay Kendall set her debut novel, DESOLATION ROW--AN AUSTIN STARR MYSTERY in 1968. The sequel, RAINY DAY WOMEN, comes out next year. Amateur sleuth Austin Starr must prove her best friend didn't murder women’s liberation activists in Seattle and Vancouver. A fan of historical mysteries, Kay wants to do for the 1960s what novelist Jacqueline Winspear accomplishes for England in the 1930s–write atmospheric mysteries that capture the spirit of the age. Kay is also an award-winning international PR executive who lives in Texas with her husband, three house rabbits, and spaniel Wills. Terribly allergic to the bunnies, she loves them anyway! Her book titles show she’s a Bob Dylan buff too. 

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Too, too busy! by Marilyn Meredith

Here I am, an old lady, retired from several jobs over the years--now I'm just supposed to be a writer.

However, I'm still doing some consulting for folks who are either in the residential care business or want to be. For the first mentioned, I do a monthly newsletter, attend their organization's meetings, and answer questions via phone. (I used to teach various subjects to these same people and have become somewhat of an expert on regulations.)

For the folks who want to get into the business, I write program designs. Sometimes that is a fairly easy prospect--at others so complicated I wish I'd charged double my going fee.

The only reason I'm mentioning both, is because it seems this is the time of the year when I'm being asked to do a record amount of these things. What I really need to be doing is working on my next Rocky Bluff P.D. mystery. It should have already been finished and sent to the publisher. Fortunately, she's moved the publishing date a couple of months away from the original one.

And of course, I'm in the throes of promoting my next Deputy Tempe Crabtree mystery, River Spirits. On November 1st, I embark on a virtual book tour. Here is the first two week's schedule in case you are interested in following along.

Nothing ever happens without problems, so instead of beginning on Nov. 1, I have two posts on November 2nd.

Nov. 2    http://judys-stew.blogspot.com                   

Coming Up With a Title

Nov. 2    http://lindathorne.com/

The Bumpy Road of Publication for the Tempe Crabtree Series

Nov. 3.   http://wordmuseum.com/

Where Deputy Tempe Crabtree Came From

Nov. 4    http://Susanvankirk.com   

The Setting for the Deputy Tempe Crabtree Series

Nov. 5   http://gumbojustice.blogspot.com/

Indians or Native Americans

Nov. 6   http://livevicarrieous.com 

A Few Questions and Answers

Nov. 7  History of the Indians I Borrow From

http://jrlindermuth.blogspot.com/

Nov. 8 http://drusbookmusing.blogspot.com 

A Day in the Life of Kate Eileen Shannon

Nov. 9. http://mmgornell.wordpress.com/ 

My Relationship with Tempe Crabtree

Nov. 10 http://pat.wrtersforum.blogspot.com/  

How Tempe Got Her Name

Nov. 11   http://lornacollins-author.blogspot.com/ Where My Inspiration Comes From (after writing so many books}

Nov. 12  http://www.masoncanyon.blogspot.com/  

How Long Will the Series Continue?

Nov. 13  http://murderousmusings.blogspot.com/  

My Writing Process

Nov. 14 http://gdcramer.com gdcramer@msn.com 

Why it’s Okay to Take a Break from Writing

Nov. 15   http://www.marywelk.com/  

The Supportive Mystery Writing Community

Nov. 16 http://crimewriters.blogspot.com 

Where I Get My Energey

Nov 17 http://jwillsbooks.com/ 

Avoiding the Jessica Fletcher Syndrome

Nov. 18 http://bookbrowsing.wordpress.com    Promotion Tips

Blurb for River Spirits:

While filming a movie on the Bear Creek Indian Reservation, the film crew trespasses on sacred ground, threats are made against the female star, a missing woman is found by the Hairy Man, an actor is murdered and Deputy Tempe Crabtree has no idea who is guilty. Once again, the elusive and legendary Hairy Man plays an important role in this newest Deputy Tempe Crabtree mystery.

Bio:

Marilyn Meredith is the author of over thirty-five published novels, including the award winning Deputy Tempe Crabtree mystery series, the latest River Spirits from Mundania Press. Marilyn is a member of three chapters of Sisters in Crime, Mystery Writers of America, and on the board of the Public Safety Writers of America. She lives in the foothills of the Sierra. Visit her at http://fictionforyou.com and her blog at http://marilymeredith.blogspot.com/

Contest: The winner will be the person who comments on the most blog posts during the tour.

He or she can either have a character in my next book named after them, or choose an earlier book in the Deputy Tempe Crabtree series—either a paper book or e-book.

Oh, and I didn't mention, I have a bunch of kids, grandkids and great grands I like to spend time with too.

Marilyn