Derringer Awards

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Awards Season is Here!

No, it’s not time for the Oscar’s or anything normal people care about.  I’m talking about the extremely niche category of mystery short story awards.  The Short Fiction Mystery Society, a volunteer-lead group of short fiction writers annually hosts the Derringer Awards.  Any member is welcome to submit a short story that has been published in the previous year in four categories.  The stories are judged by volunteers from the society membership and ranked on a standardized score card.

The Rage Cage

While novels are my primary format for writing, periodically I do try to stretch my skills and do some short story writing. The format is different and it makes it much easier to try out some different genres. This year I only submitted one of my short stories – The Rage Cage.  It’s a brisk little story about re-evaluating life, questioning self-narratives, Chuck Norris, and of course… revenge.  It’s also about the manager of a Rage Cage, a business that allows you to suit up and go smash whatever you want. Mostly it was a chance to try out the Rural Noir genre and write a story about telling yourself the right kind of personal narrative.  The year that I helped judge I was impressed by both the quality and the variety of stories and I know that the story I submitted is up against some tough competition. However, judging for the Derringer’s runs from February through March, so I know I’ve got until April to find out if my story picks up a nod.

Larceny & Last Chances is a Derringer Awards Finalist!

Anthology Awards

However, in a break from previous tradition, this year the SFMS is trying a new award for anthologies and Larceny & Last Chances, the anthology containing The Rage Cage has been listed as a finalist.  With 56 anthologies nominated, getting to the finalist stage is pretty impressive, and I’m extremely happy for all of the authors and our editor, Judy Penz Sheluk (a returning Stiletto Gang member). Final awards for the anthologies will also be in announced in April, so send some thoughts and prayers our way. In the meantime, if you’re interested in checking out some award-worthy short stories check out Larceny & Last Chances!

Larceny & Last Chances: https://amzn.to/3xUNg7Z

Sometimes it’s about doing the right thing. Sometimes it’s about getting even. Sometimes it’s about taking what you think you deserve. And sometimes, it’s your last, best, chance. 

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Bethany Maines is the award-winning author of action-adventure and fantasy tales that focus on women who know when to apply lipstick and when to apply a foot to someone’s hind end. She participates in many activities including swearing, karate, art, and yelling at the news. She can usually be found chasing after her daughter, or glued to the computer working on her next novel (or screenplay). You can also catch up with her on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and BookBub.

The Secret to Her Success

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I’m delighted to welcome a remarkably prolific author to the Gang as our guest today. Pamela Fagan Hutchins and I met early in our writing careers. Since then, she has published upwards of 30 books, mostly novels (award-winning romantic mysteries, a couple of children’s books, and some non-fiction, too). Lately, she’s been turning out some modern tales of Western adventure.

The secret to her success? To my mind, it’s that she spins new tales faster than a bullet train, and that her stories engage readers with heart and humor.

Here is her latest OMG work schedule, in her own words:

I’m lucky that I write fast, type fast, and no longer have kids at home or a job outside of writing. I also believe that writing is something you can get more efficient at over time.

After thirty-two novels and seven nonfiction books, I’ve had a lot of practice!

But I am firm about sticking to set writing hours and setting word and page count goals to keep me focused. I eliminate most distractions, and I reward myself frequently… lots of snacks!

Way back in 2020, my agent challenged me to write Big Horn, the Jenn Herrington Wyoming mystery that ultimately won me a publishing contract with Hachette UK’s Bookouture. But my editor wanted me to change it substantially or write a different book. I was happy with Big Horn just how it was. I opted to publish it myself and write a Detective Delaney Pace novel for Bookouture.

Two things happened. First, Big Horn slayed and kept slaying for two solid years. Meanwhile had to write three Delaney Pace books and one Patrick Flint family adventure mystery during the year after Big Horn came out. And move to Denmark for my husband’s work. Then Bakersfield. Then France. Have two foot surgeries. Welcome my first two grandkids.

Ya know—life stuff.

Despite Big Horn having had the best release of any book I’d ever written—better than Delaney Pace did, originally, although it’s picked up a lot of steam!—I did not get the follow-up book out for 18 months. In indie publishing terms, that’s a century. And I had a heck of a time pulling myself out of Delaney’s and Patrick’s worlds and back into Jenn’s.

But I’d already outlined five follow-up books while I was writing Big Horn. So, the book I rolled out next was Walker Prairie. It had the planned plots and subplots and the same gritty-but-kinda-cozy feel which some people love.

Between the time I outlined Walker Prairie (2021) and when I wrote it (2024), I acquired two Alaskan Malamute sled dogs, Willett and Sibley! They seemed like the perfect lighthearted addition to Jenn and Aaron’s world, so I wrote them in, and just like in real life, they proceeded to WOO and HOWL and JUMP AROUND until they’d pretty much hijacked the book. The plot remained the same, but the adventure elements surrounding the climactic scenes changed to feature two beautiful, often-naughty, and occasionally terrifying FLOOFS (my term for fluffy goofs.)

So, whether you pick up Walker Prairie because you’re dying to read about or continue with Jenn, her veterinarian husband Aaron, her legal associate Kid James, and Jeremiah Johnson (the loveable skunk), or because you love gritty-cozy romantic legal thrillers, or Wyoming mysteries, or just love books with FLOOFS, I am delighted that the wait is over and Walker Prairie is finally here.

And I love the book! You can get your copy here:

USA Today bestselling author of the Detective Delaney Pace series / Host of Crime & Wine / Silver Falchion Best Mystery Winner

Published by Bookouture/Hachette UK and SkipJack Publishing

Thanks for stopping by, Pamela!

Gay Yellen’s writing career began in magazine journalism. She served as the co-writer/editor for the international thriller, Five Minutes to Midnight (Delacorte), a New York Times “New & Notable.” The success of that book led to her first romantic mystery, The Body Business, Book 1 of the Samantha Newman Mystery Series. The Body Next Door soon followed, and The Body in the News in 2023. The series has won multiple awards, including a Readers’ Favorite Mystery / Chanticleer Mystery & Mayhem 1st Place / InD’Tale Crowned Heart for Excellence / Silver Falchion Finalist/ and an American Legacy Best Cozy Award. https//:GayYellen.com

Donnell Ann Bell

What I Learned When My House Burned Down

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I had a post all ready for this month’s blog. Then I opened my friend’s newsletter. After I read something that I consider much more poignant and timely, I asked if I could share. Please welcome Barbara Nickless to The Stiletto Gang. ~ Donnell

Author Barbara Nickless

Friends have called to ask if I’ve been triggered by the fires in Los Angeles. In short, yes. It’s an unsettling fact that more people than ever live in fire-prone areas known as wildland urban interfaces. With L.A. on everyone’s mind, I want to share what I learned when my home of twenty-two years burned down in a wildfire.

When I lost my home in Colorado’s Waldo Canyon Fire of 2012, I went—in the space of hours—from being a middle-class, tax-paying suburbanite to one of the shell-shocked homeless. Overnight, I found myself needy, helpless and so bone-deep tired I suspected a solid year of sleep wouldn’t fix it. Like anyone grieving or in pain or simply raw from the public weight of it all, what I wanted was the one impossible thing: to go home.

I passed through the classic stages of grief: denial, anger, bargaining, depression and acceptance. Some stages, like anger, were brief. Others lingered for years, depression and bargaining looping back in unwelcome refrains. Denial reappeared, too, a kid poking her tongue in the place where there used to be a tooth, surprised by the emptiness.

But tragedy’s sharp-edged gift is that it brings unexpected growth. Pain reshapes us, expanding our capacity for understanding and wisdom. Here are a few things I’ve learned—and am still learning—about loss.

  1. Losing your home isn’t about karma or offending God or not packing well or living in the wrong place. It’s just life, and life is capricious.
  2. Do your best to eat regularly. Exercise. Go to bed at a reasonable time. As soon as you can, resume your regular pleasures—TV shows, books, coffee with friends, NPR on the radio. If you don’t yet have a TV or books or a radio, go to a friend’s house.
  3. When you start to run down that mental list of everything you lost, stop.
  4. Take comfort in knowing you may go the rest of your life without having to purge your closets. In a land where public storage is a multi-billion-dollar business, this is no small thing.
  5. When a friend complains about his junk drawer, smile and ask, “What’s a junk drawer?”
  6. Aunt Matilda’s bean pot. You hated it. Now it’s gone. And you don’t even have to lie about it.
  7. You have more friends than you realize. The ones who show up at the door of your hotel/rental/friend’s house/car (God bless you) with hiking boots or plates or a set of towels might not be the ones you expected. Tell them you love them.
  8. In fact, tell all your friends you love them. Life is capricious (see above). Don’t wait.
  9. You cared more about those stupid love letters and track ribbons and dorky high school pictures of yourself in big hair and platform shoes than you realized. That says wonderful things about your capacity for humor and self-love.
  10. Your mother will forgive you for losing her mother’s pearls. Your father will forgive you for losing his WWII pilot’s jacket.
  11. A home—not a house—is about emotional resiliency. Put your energy there. Have dinner with your family as often as you can. Kiss your loved ones morning and night. Listen to your kids when they want to talk. And if you are lucky enough to still have a mother, return her phone calls.
  12. It’s okay that you’re not okay. One day you’ll catch yourself laughing, and you’ll realize you’ve made it through the worst.

My heart goes out to everyone who lost their homes in L.A. If you want to take action, here’s how you can help:

  • Give to World Central Kitchen, which is providing meals to communities in Southern California.
  • From the Red Cross: “Help people affected by wildfires in California in 2025 by visiting redcross.org, calling 1-800-RED CROSS (800-733-2767) or texting the word CAWILDFIRES to 90999 to make a donation.”

About Barbara’s latest release: 

The Drowning Game has been named Best Book of 2024 by WRBH Reading Radio. “Although a difficult decision with so many good books, the winner of the 2024 WRBH Writers’ Forum Book of the Year Award is Barbara Nickless for The Drowning Game.” A huge thank you to the Writers’ Forum on WRBH!

“Ms. Nickless continues to be one of our best action/mystery writers. Her deep dives into her subject matter and smooth narratives always guarantee a great experience. Following Nadia down the twists and turns of international industrial espionage and spy craft is a thrilling ride, made more enjoyable by the interior monologues and richly drawn characters. More, please.”

–Amazon Reviewer

We Heart Podcasts

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by Sparkle Abbey

Writers are curious. We’re interested in almost everything. We love to study people, places, and motives, and we’re always eager to learn something new. And in the deluge of digital media, we’ve discovered we really love podcasts.

The beauty of a podcast is that it fits seamlessly into our day. Unlike videos or reading a book, you can listen to a podcast while commuting, working out, or cooking dinner. And for people like us who are all about multitasking, a podcast on how to turn anxiety into action can transform cleaning the kitchen into an enjoyable forty-five minutes. Okay, maybe that’s a stretch, but you know what we mean. Podcasts make the mundane feel meaningful and fun.

Instead of scanning radio stations, we pop in our earbuds and scroll through thousands of podcasts, looking for the perfect episode to entertain, educate, or inspire us. Some days we dive into an in-depth interview with an author we admire, other times we fall down a rabbit hole of unsolved mysteries, productivity hacks, or the latest in neuroscience. Letting someone else’s words refill our creative well or teach us something new? Yes, please!

 

There’s truly a podcast for everything—writing, true crime, self-improvement, finance, comedy, sports, TV show recaps, fitness, and even bedtime stories! If you haven’t tried LeVar Burton Reads, you’re missing out.

Need to boost your creativity? Try The Creative Penn or Scriptnotes for writing advice. And if you want a good laugh, give SmartLess a try There’s a podcast for every mood, every question, and every whim of curiosity.

As writers, we’ve been known to shamelessly eavesdrop on strangers’ conversations. Podcasts are just another form of eavesdropping, except the speakers actually want to be heard. And yet, it’s not just about the content—it’s also about the voice. A voice, whether soft or loud, serious or full of laughter, brings a feeling of connection and even intimacy. Podcasts allow us to feel like we’re part of an ongoing conversation, and they’ve quickly become an essential part of our daily lives.

And in the end, don’t we all want to feel a connection to others? Isn’t that the best part of storytelling? We think so.

We can’t be the only ones who love a good podcast. What about you? Do you listen to podcasts? If so, do you have a favorite? We’d love to hear about it!

Sparkle Abbey is actually two people, Mary Lee Ashford and Anita Carter, who write the national best-selling Pampered Pets cozy mystery series. They are friends as well as neighbors so they often get together and plot ways to commit murder. (But don’t tell the other neighbors.)

They love to hear from readers and can be found on Facebook and Pinterest, their favorite social media sites. Also, if you want to make sure you get updates, sign up for their newsletter via the SparkleAbbey.com website

Clicking Our Heels – Crimes We’ve Avoided Writing About

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Clicking Our Heels Featured ImageClicking Our Heels – Crime We’ve Avoided Writing About

Each member of the Stiletto Gang has dragged their heels in the dirt rather than write about certain types of crime, but if we did, we’d have to develop a special protagonist or antagonist.

T.K. Thorne – Murder has been my go-to crime, although I have written about others in the course of telling stories—rape, theft, and some crimes that have no name have found their way in there! I have a very competent police officer, who is also a witch, to deal with them. (House of Rose, House of Stone, and House of Iron.)

Lois Winston – Because I write humorous cozy mysteries, I don’t write about certain crimes, especially ones involving children. I won’t read about them, either. They give me nightmares. I’d never want to get into the mind of someone so depraved as to commit such crimes.

Saralyn Richard– One of my novels deals with sex trafficking, but I’ve stayed away from sex crimes like rape. A novel about rape would require a different protagonist, antagonist, AND author.

Donnell Ann Bell – I am not a fan of sexual or physical abuse or writing about it. As a former volunteer victims’ advocate, I know what victims endure. If abuse is part of a character’s backstory, I do my best to place it off scene. I’m not a fan of gratuitous anything in any form.

Bethany Maines – I recently wrote a short romance story and had the hardest time not having any crime. Crime makes everything fun. So let’s run through the list… murder (solved by an ex-CIA agent and his granddaughter), criminal organization with all the drug dealing and trafficking that goes with it (mob enforcer and the high school’s fixer go toe to toe with a mob boss), diamond smuggling (struggling dog walker and TV news cameraman catch feelings and the bad guys), murder and white collar crime (the Deveraux cousins all take a swing at this Big Pharma baddie) and of course there are the paranormal shenanigans that require some witches, wolves, and selkies to keep the world from disaster.

Paula G. Benson – Suffocation. I wonder about a protagonist and antagonist who have been co-workers on an auto assembly line as the air bag was being developed. Why would one focus on it as lifesaving and the other see its deadly potential?

Debra H. Goldstein – I’m an equal opportunity crime user, but I prefer not to write about children or animals being injured or killed. If I did, I would have to give my protagonist a good reason to save the day and my antagonist a better reason for being deviant.

Donalee Moulton – I don’t do gruesome, at least I haven’t to date. That is partly because I dread having to do research into some of these topics. It’s also because would prefer not to dwell on the dark underbelly. That said, I can see I time coming when the underbelly may demand a scratch or two.

Gay Yellen – My novels deal mainly with homicides, but the tone is ultimately light-hearted, so Samantha Newman is an amateur sleuth and the killers often multi-task with fraud, petty theft, and plain old fibbing.

Judy Penz Sheluk – I’ve never included a cat burglar, but if I were to do it, I’d like to emulate something along the lines of the very clever 1960s Robert Wagner /Fred Astaire TV series, It Takes a Thief.

Mary Lee Ashford (1/2 Sparkle Abbey) – Although I spent the last several years of my public service career in IT, I’ve not tackled a cybercrime in any of my stories. It could be an interesting premise, right. There are so many possibilities. But I’d need a super smart villain and a tech savvy protagonist with mad skills to set up the story. Still thinking on this one…

Barbara J. Eikmeier – Something on a farm that seems like part of the daily operation but over time could become toxic. A death could easily look accidental.

Anita Clark (1/2 of Sparkle Abbey) – I haven’t dealt with crimes that involve children. I just can’t go there and can’t imagine I ever will.

 

 

 

Trust

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Our stories are our children. We nurture them, worry about them, and entrust them to others on their journey into the world. As writers, we trust our beta readers, critique partners, agents, and most of all, our publishers to care for and not share our work inappropriately.

Imagine, after years of working with an agent and a publisher, you’re told your story won’t sell. Then, to your horror, you walk into a bookstore, pick up a bestselling novel, and discover it’s almost exactly like your story that wouldn’t sell.

Author Lynne Freeman claims this happened to her. She alleges her former agent worked with a publisher to find another author to write the YA paranormal fantasy romance Crave that infringes her unpublished YA paranormal fantasy romance Blue Moon Rising. In 2022, Freeman brought a copyright infringement lawsuit (1:22-cv-024350), naming her agent and publisher among others as defendants. Her complaint consists of 87 pages detailing the similarities she alleges between CRAVE and her manuscripts and notes.

In an order on the defendants’ motion for summary judgment, the judge summarized the factual background as follows. (Internal citations are omitted for ease of reading.)

Freeman and Kim started working together in December 2010, when they executed a contract for Kim and Prospect to serve as Freeman’s literary agent. Freeman’s book, Blue Moon Rising (“BMR”), is about Anna, a 16-year-old girl living in Anchorage, Alaska. Anna falls in love with a boy, Ash. She learns that Ash is a werewolf-like creature, that she is half-witch, half-werewolf, and that forces of good and evil have waged supernatural war since the beginning of time. Upon turning 17, Anna will hold the key to maintaining the balance of good and evil.

For more than three years, Freeman and Kim worked together to publish BMR. During that period, Freeman sent Kim at least 10-15 different versions of BMR, as well as many sets of notes. Kim provided Freeman with edits and sent BMR to various publishers. During rounds of revisions, Freeman changed her novel’s title to Masqued. Kim sent that iteration to Stacy Abrams, Entangled’s Executive Editorial Director, in 2013. Ultimately, Kim and Freeman were unable to secure a publishing deal. In March 2014, Kim and Freeman terminated their contract and amicably parted. ways. BMR remains unpublished.

Kim has represented Wolff since 2007. In 2019, Elizabeth Pelletier, Entangled’s Chief Executive Officer, decided that Entangled should publish a young adult novel with a “fish out of water trope” or an “ordinary girl in a super rarified world” plot. Pelletier instructed Abrams and other Entangled editors “to find an author to write a book in the paranormal genre for Entangled’s teen line.” Abrams reached out to Wolff directly to see if she could quickly write that book for Entangled. Wolff expressed interest and sent five plot ideas to Abrams, including a plot about a warlock or vampire boarding school. In May 2019, Entangled and Wolff officially decided to work together on that project, which would become Crave.

The protagonist in Crave is Grace, a 17-year-old girl who moves from San Diego to remote Alaska following the death of her parents. Grace attends a magical Hogwarts-like boarding school and falls in love with Jaxon, a vampire. Grace learns that she is half-witch, half gargoyle and participates in supernatural battles. She ends up in a love triangle with Jaxon and his believed-dead brother, Hudson. After hitting major commercial success, Crave became a four-book series, with Crush, Covet, and Court following the first book. All four books have been published by Entangled and distributed by Macmillan. Universal Studios is planning a movie based on Crave.

The parties hold different views about who wrote Crave. According to the Defendants, Wolff wrote the series, Pelletier provided substantive edits, Abrams provided copy edits, and Kim provided moral support. Additionally, Kim suggested some chapter titles and contributed to the Crave series “bible,” an internal guide detailing Crave’s many subplots and characters. Freeman suggests a different truth. Freeman asserts that Pelletier, Abrams, and Kim all helped write the Crave series.

While some of Freeman’s state law claims were dismissed, the case is currently headed to a jury trial. You can read more in Did a Best-Selling Romantasy Novelist Steal Another Author’s Story? by Katie Waldman in the January 6, 2025 edition of The New Yorker. This is definitely a case to watch.

Unfortunately, this sort of dispute isn’t new to the publishing world. Over the years, there have been other notable cases. Think back to when Nora Roberts sued Janet Dailey. And don’t forget Tess Gerritsen’s Gravity Lawsuit.

Trust, like an ancient Ming dynasty vase, is priceless. And like a Ming vase, once broken, can never be fully restored. Has this every happened to someone you know?

Writing Life and Inspiration: Strangers + “What if?” = Plots and Characters in Fiction

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By Lois Winston

Whenever I hear a writer complain that she can’t come up with an idea for a plot or character, I offer this advice: “Get off your phone and keep your eyes and ears open.” No matter where I go—from the supermarket to a doctor’s appointment to the line at the DMV—I see people with their noses buried in their phones. I’m the outlier. As an author, part of my writing life is spent eavesdropping on conversations and observing the behaviors of those around me. That’s where I get much of my writing inspiration. For me, strangers + “what if?” = plots and characters in many of my Anastasia Pollack Crafting Mysteries.

Ideas for plots and characters are all around us if we just take the time to look and listen. Neighbors, friends, relatives, strangers, and the daily news provide constant sources of ideas for plots and characters. All you need to do is channel your inner snoop gene while pretending not to pay attention.

I’ve been privy to the most sensitive of conversations while sitting on a commuter train, in a department store dressing room, and even while doing the necessary in a mall ladies’ room stall. Sometimes, I’ve even heard both ends of the conversation, thanks to the person on the train or in the dressing room or lavatory having placed the call on speaker. Those lavatory experiences became the source of a scene in Assault with a Deadly Glue Gun, the first book in my Anastasia Pollack Crafting Mystery Series.

The world is full of interesting and odd individuals, and I came across some of the oddest back in 1998 when my husband and I moved to a new house. These people and their strange habits have stuck with me over the years. With the encouragement of some of my readers to whom I told about these former neighbors, I incorporated them into my latest Anastasia Pollack Crafting Mystery. To my knowledge, none of the real people were ever murdered or committed murder, but the traits I observed did make their way into Seams Like the Perfect Crime, the fourteenth book in my series, currently up for preorder with a release date of February 2, 2025.

Seams Like the Perfect Crime

An Anastasia Pollack Crafting Mystery, Book 14

When staffing shortages continue to hamper the Union County homicide squad, Detective Sam Spader once again turns to his secret weapon, reluctant amateur sleuth Anastasia Pollack. How can she and husband Zack Barnes refuse when the victim is their new neighbor?

Revolutionary War reenactor Barry Sumner had the odd habit of spending hours mowing a small patch of packed dirt and weeds until his mower ran out of gas. He’d then guzzle beer on his front porch until he passed out. That’s where Anastasia’s son Nick discovers his body three days after the victim and his family moved into the newly built mini-McMansion across the street.

After a melee breaks out at the viewing, Spader zeroes in on the widow as his prime suspect. However, Anastasia has her doubts. There are other possible suspects, including a woman who’d had an affair with the victim, his ex-wife, the man overseeing the widow’s trust fund, a drug dealer, and the reenactors who were blackmailing the widow and victim.

When another reenactor is murdered, Spader suspects they’re dealing with a serial killer, but Anastasia wonders if the killer is attempting to misdirect the investigation. As she narrows down the suspects, will she jeopardize her own life to learn the truth?

Craft projects included.

Preorder now. Available 2/4/25

P.S.: On Monday evening, January 27th at 7pm ET (6pm CT, 5pm MT, and 4pm PT), I’ll be the guest of the Cozy Mystery Party Facebook Group, hosted by Heather Harrisson and Shawn Stevens. If you’d like to join in for a fun hour + of all things murder, mayhem, and cozy mysteries (there will be prizes and surprises!), join the group at https://www.facebook.com/groups/cozymysteryparty. 

Hope to see you there! 

~*~

USA Today and Amazon bestselling and award-winning author Lois Winston writes mystery, romance, romantic suspense, chick lit, women’s fiction, and children’s chapter books. Kirkus Reviews dubbed her critically acclaimed Anastasia Pollack Crafting Mystery series, “North Jersey’s more mature answer to Stephanie Plum.” In addition, Lois is a former literary agent and an award-winning craft and needlework designer who often draws much of her source material for both her characters and plots from her experiences in the crafts industry. Learn more about Lois and her books at her website www.loiswinston.com where you can also sign up for her newsletter and follow her on various social media sites.

Sisterhood of the Traveling Book featured image

Sisterhood of the Traveling Book

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Today we’re traveling to meet T.K. Thorne!

 

T.K. Thorne wanted to make first contact with aliens. When that didn’t work out, she became a police officer. Although most people she met were human, some were quite strange…. Retiring as a precinct captain, she writes full-time. Her books include two award-winning historical novels (Noah’s Wife and Angels at the Gate); two nonfiction civil rights era works (Last Chance for Justice and Behind the Magic Curtain: Secrets, Spies, and Unsung White Allies of Birmingham’s Civil Rights Days); and then she turned to crime with murder and magic in the Magic City Stories trilogy (House of Rose, House of Stone, and House of Iron). Read below to find out where her books have traveled.

 

Belize or Bust!

A reader sent this picture from Belize! It was special to me because my husband had picked Belize as a place he wanted to go for our 20th anniversary. We stayed in a grass cottage in the heart of a tropical jungle. Howler monkeys woke us the first night at 3 a.m. We thought the world was ending! If you have never heard howler monkeys, horror movies used the sound for zombies!

One day, we climbed a steep Mayan temple for a breathtaking view over the jungle canopy. My husband had gotten a breathtaking view of my butt climbing ahead of him and thought it would be funny to take a picture. No, they never grow up, and no, I am not posting it!

The resort staff surprised us with a romantic anniversary dinner for us on board a pontoon boat and left us to float on the deserted lagoon by ourselves. Above, stars gleamed against a deep black sky like crystal dust. More than I have ever seen. I felt I could reach up and grab a handful. Then, our boat (which we had no way to steer) bumped into the shore and a mass of thick vegetation. Remembering the crocodiles we had seen on a previous night’s tour, we called for extraction.

How Deep Did You Say?

A few days later, we transferred to Ambergris Caye. At home, before the trip, my husband and I had gotten certified in scuba diving, planning to dive into the Belize Barrier Reef. It’s the largest reef in the Northern Hemisphere, but it’s accessible with only about a 40-50-foot dive. However, before our trip to the reef, an opportunity arose to dive the famous Blue Hole, which would mean going down 150 feet, way deeper than we’d ever been.

The Hole is over 400 feet deep and wide enough to be seen by satellite! I had cold feet, but by the following morning, I decided this was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, and I would regret it if we didn’t go. We had to scramble to get headlights (it’s dark that deep down!) and make the group cast off.

 

Screenshot

At the Hole, we donned our gear and started down. I could feel the pulse beating in my temples as we went deeper and deeper. Strangely, there was no sensation of increasing pressure, but we were accompanied by a circling escort of sharks I only later learned were harmless nurse sharks. However, I also later learned that hundreds of divers have died in the Blue Hole, something I guess the sharks were aware of. . . .

Stone Teeth

At about 150 feet, we encountered the top of the underwater caves and swam around a three-foot-wide stalactite that plunged below us like a gigantic stone tooth, disappearing into the darkness. Not only had we descended into the water’s depths, but we had traveled through time. During the last Ice Age (about 10 – 19,000 years ago), the sea was below the cave floor, meaning  400 feet below the current sea level!

Though there was a tense moment regarding air supply, we made it back to the surface without becoming shark food. The next dive was the Reef, which was, in a different way, as dramatic as the Blue Hole. To my left, every square foot was crammed with diverse, colorful coral and marine life. I was mesmerized and could have stayed in one spot the whole time! To my right, the deep, almost black blue vanished into infinity.

We had other adventures, but too much to tell. So, when a reader sent the picture of my book as her beach read in Belize, it was a treat to learn Rose (the heroine of House of Rose) had also traveled there. I doubt her trip was similar to mine, but Rose had stuff to deal with:

When rookie patrol officer Rose Brighton chases a suspect down an alley, she finds herself in the middle of every cop’s nightmare—staring down at a dead body with two bullet holes from her gun . . . in his back.

He’s dead and now she has to explain it, which is going to be a problem because what happened was so strange, she doesn’t understand it herself. Rose must unravel the mystery of what happened and who she really is—a witch of the House of Rose. If she doesn’t figure it out fast, there will be more bodies, including her own.

House of Rose, set in the Deep South city of Birmingham, Alabama, is the first book of the Magic City Stories.

Also available as Audio Books on Amazon or Audible.com

What Folks Are Saying:

“Thorne delivers a spellbinding thriller, an enthralling blend of real-world policing and other-world magic.—Barbara Kyle, author of The Traitor’s Daughter

“A deftly crafted and riveting read.”—Midwest Reviews

“Thorne, a retired captain in the Birmingham PD, grounds the fantasy with authentic procedural details and loving descriptions of the city and its lore. Readers will look forward to Rose’s further adventures.”—Publishers Weekly

“T.K. Thorne is an authentic, new voice in the world of fantasy and mystery. An explosive story that will keep you on the edge of your seat. Pick up this story—you’ll thank yourself over and over again.” —Carolyn Haines, USA Today bestselling author of the Sarah Booth Delaney, Pluto’s Snitch, and Trouble the black cat detective mystery series

 “Although House of Rose is speculative fiction, a kind of fantasy, T.K. Thorne is so knowledgeable about Birmingham and law enforcement that it is also, truly, a police procedural and a thriller—something for everyone. “House of Rose” is the first of a series which should be a hit.”—Don Nobles, reviewer for Alabama Public Radio

 

It’s No Secret by Saralyn Richard

/in /by

     

 

 

It’s no secret that I worked in urban high schools as a teacher, administrator, and consultant before becoming an author of fiction. So, when I wrote A MURDER OF PRINCIPAL, all of my close friends and colleagues couldn’t wait to see whether they would make an appearance in the book as a character.

The problem was, I had worked in lots of schools, so which one had I chosen for the setting of Lincoln High School? Which principal was the inspiration for R.J. Stoker? More intriguingly, who was the killer?

When people asked me, I gave my most enigmatic smile and said, “The book is purely fictional. Any resemblance to people, living or dead, is pure coincidence.”

Truthfully, when the story was just a glimmer in my mind’s eye, I called one of the principals I had worked with. I told him about the book’s premise. “People who know us may think that the principal is based on you. Are you okay with that?”

He said he’d be honored to be thought of as a character in my novel, even if said character were to be killed. I dedicated the book to him as a thank-you for being such a good sport.

Of course, the dedication fueled rumors that the book was not, after all, fiction, but a memoir of my time at that particular high school. When asked if character A was real-live teacher X, and character B was real-live administrator Y, I smiled enigmatically and said, “The book is purely fictional….”

And it is. Yes, there are scenarios in the book that occur in high schools, issues related to scheduling, discipline, curriculum, and instruction. That life is hard-wired into my brain after so many years.

Something amazing happened, however, when A MURDER OF PRINCIPAL was published. Readers began commenting that Lincoln High School was exactly like the school where they went, taught, worked. They could name real people for each of the characters in the book. And these readers hailed from all over the United States.

That spoke volumes about the universality of experience in high schools, something I had taken for granted and hadn’t considered.

Susan Van Kirk, another former English teacher and the author of Death in a Ghostly Hue, had this to say about the book:

“Ms. Richard was a school administrator in a large urban high school, so her story rings true at every turn. When Lincoln High School gets a new principal named RJ Stoker, it                                 also gets a new agenda designed to shake things up a bit. He creates a student/parent-oriented plan to change the atmosphere of the school and chooses Sally Pearce as his                                         assistant principal. Sally is like so many teachers I’ve known who are dedicated to the welfare of “their kids” and try to help them with far more than their English homework.

A fire in the school and the murder of Stoker starts this story off with multiple subjects of gangs, racial tensions, community grievances, and teacher-union politics. The kids are                               caught in the middle, especially the quarterback of the football team who’s resisting gang pressure and trying to protect his girlfriend. A second murder occurs, throwing Sally                                   Pearce into the uncomfortable position of next in line…as administrator and possible murder victim.

Ms. Richard has masterfully created a gritty urban school atmosphere with pressures in every direction. The assistant principal’s intentions are clear, the stakes are high, and her                             fears are real. The school community is also a huge part of the conflict. By the time a few murders occur, you suspect everyone. Beautifully written and filled with realistic                                           portrayals of urban school life.”

What book have you read that seemed more like true narratives than fiction? Did the parallels with real life increase your enjoyment of the novel?