Researching Retirement: Starting a New Series

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By Sparkle Abbey  

Spring is here! Trees are blooming, tornadoes are popping up throughout the country, and we’re knee-deep in the first book of our new series. Last month we shared our adventures in researching retirement communities and how we landed on our own fictional 55+ community, Shade Palms. This month we wanted to talk about retirement challenges both fictional and in real life.

You’d think with one of us recently retired, we wouldn’t need to research retirement life. But we didn’t want to rely on just our experiences. We want to write authentic, multifaceted characters that our readers can relate to. While chatting with other retirees and hanging out in Facebook Groups, we quickly realized our real-life retirement challenges were mirroring our fictional characters.

We don’t know about you, but in our thirties and forties, talk about retirement life was typically filled with thoughts of long lunches with friends, bucket-list vacations, and taking up all those hobbies we never had time for. Turns out, it’s not always that simple. Don’t misunderstand us. We are having those long lunches, (Well, one of us is. The other one is still working toward retirement.) and we are taking those vacations (Look out Scotland, here we come!), but somehow all that time we thought would magically appear…well, it just isn’t there.

Establishing a new routine has been tough. Committing to regular exercise, spending more time with family and friends, writing, road trips, home projects, decluttering, and fitting in a new business venture hasn’t been as easy as it seemed. More to come next month about our newest business and how it fits perfectly with our new series!

Anyway, we’ve decided the secret to a successful retirement transition is to create a routine, remember what’s important, and adjust everything! It sounds so simple, but in practice, it’s been a learning experience. Sometimes frustrating, mostly fun, but always a work in progress.

At this point, we have characters at Shady Palms who are recently retired and are struggling to switch off the work mode. We have others who are struggling to find a purpose and are looking for ways to re-invent their life. And of course, our characters want meaningful activity to fill their time. And tracking down killers is certainly one way to fill up their day!

Because what’s life without a little adventure!

If you’d like to keep in touch with us and get updates about the new series, please sign up for our newsletter here: SparkleAbbey.com

sparkle and abbey

Sparkle Abbey is actually two people: Mary Lee Ashford and Anita Carter, who write the national best-selling Pampered Pets cozy mysteries 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, Twitter, and Pinterest, their favorite social media sites. You can also follow them on BookBub to be notified when there are special offers.

My Days as a Poet

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Like so many people before me, I wanted to write. I’d left my corporate job in international finance and moved to Texas, enrolled in a creative writing course at a local college, and on the first day of class, I sat on the front row, anxious to discover the art of writing.

Much to my surprise, the class would cover poetry for the first six weeks. The first assignment was to create a poem. That night I stressed so much I could not sleep. About three in the morning, rhyming lines about a young horse and an old stallion flowed through my mind. I got out of bed and wrote the entire poem. I later earned $25.00 when I sold that poem, despite its rhyming scheme, to a nature magazine. I became a regular contributor to that magazine.

The professor had reasons to start with poetry. Poems often have a strong narrative voice; they are filled with expressive power and do so with a few carefully chosen words. By the end of the six weeks, I loved writing them and I continue to do so on occasion.

It took my friend Ann McKennis’s inquiry about my poems on the Rothko Chapel to prompt me to look back at poetry I’d written. The Rothko Chapel in Houston is non-denominational, and it also serves as a lecture hall, a meditative space, and a major work of modern art by Mark Rothko who also influenced the architecture of the building. His paintings, in various hues of black, inspired me to write several poems, such as this one:

Red and Black

Painting is about thinking,

not merely spreading paint on a canvass—

not until the idea germinates, sprouts,

spreads like lips, hot lips covered in red lipstick,

fondling every thread of primed cloth,

like a woman arousing her lover,

her tongue licking nectar from his body.

Apply paint with controlled strokes,

drawing out emotions,

pulling passion with color.

 

Allow wet paint to slosh

from surface to edge, leave it

fuzzy so the eye adjusts before

the brain sees the artist’s inspiration.

Take red, like rage, then black,

which contains it all, and white,

as Melville said, the most fearful color—

for it is the abyss, the infinity of

death. But it is black that

swallows the red.

***

The Rothko Chapel was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in September 2000.

Kathryn Lane writes mystery and suspense novels set in foreign countries. In her award-winning Nikki Garcia Mystery Series, her protagonist is a private investigator currently based in Miami. Her latest publication is Stolen Diary, a story about a socially awkward math genius.

Kathryn’s own early work life started out as a painter in oils. To earn a living, she became a certified public accountant and embarked on a career in international finance with Johnson & Johnson.

Two decades later, she left the corporate world to create mystery and suspense thrillers, drawing inspiration from her Mexican background as well as her travels in over ninety countries.

She also dabbles in poetry, an activity she pursues during snippets of creative renewal. During the summer months, Kathryn and her husband, Bob Hurt, escape to the mountains of northern New Mexico to avoid the Texas heat.

Rothko Chapel Pictures: Public domain

Permission Not to Write

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What do you do when you’re suffering from the literary equivalent of a bad day on the mound? You’re all set to hurl a fast ball that should nip the corner of the strike zone and send the batter swinging at air when you wind up tossing a lob that he hits out of the park. In other words, you’ve got writer’s block.

Some people insist that there’s no such thing as writer’s block. Try telling that to someone who spent the last three hours staring at a blank computer screen. There are many reasons why the words don’t always come, but for me, often it’s because I’m just too tired to write. When I’m tired, my brain shuts down.

And when this happens, I’ve learned to listen to my body. I give myself permission to take a few hours off to rejuvenate. I’ll take a walk. Or watch a movie I’ve been meaning to see. Or curl up with a book by a favorite author or a new one I’ve wanted to read. Whatever I decide to do, I give myself permission not to feel guilty about doing it.

And that’s key.

Most writers can’t afford to quit their day jobs. We juggle our schedules to accommodate work, writing, and family responsibilities. Thus, when we have our writing time, we feel compelled to write and feel guilty when we don’t. We’re wasting that precious writing time. What we forget, though, is that we’re not perpetual motion machines. Writers, like everyone else, need down time. Time to relax. To play. To do nothing but daydream.

I’ve found that when I give myself permission not to write, I’m able to return to my writing with fresh energy and a brain no longer blocked.

I know this is counter to the conventional wisdom which states you should write through the block. Just stick your butt in the chair, place your fingers on the keyboard, and start typing – that bad writing is better than no writing, and you can always go back to fix what needs fixing. To me, that’s just as huge a waste of time as staring for hours at a blinking cursor.

Don’t let the purveyors of conventional wisdom bully you. Listen to your body. If you give yourself permission not to write, you might find that when you next sit down at the computer, you’ll be far happier with the words you produce. It works for me. You have nothing to lose by giving it a try.

What do you do when you hit a wall? Post a comment for a chance to win an audiobook of Revenge of the Crafty Corpse, the third book in my Anastasia Pollack Crafting Mystery Series.

Also, through the end of the month, the Anastasia Pollack Crafting Mysteries, Books 3-4, featuring Revenge of the Crafty Corpse and Decoupage Can Be Deadly, is on sale for only .99 cents. Find buy links here.

 

 

 

~*~

USA Today and Amazon bestselling and award-winning author Lois Winston writes mystery, romance, romantic suspense, chick lit, women’s fiction, children’s chapter books, and nonfiction under her own name and her Emma Carlyle pen name. 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.

The Scooter and a Family’s Intervention

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Recently a dear friend of mine had foot surgery. Being unable to perform weight bearing tasks for weeks, especially when you’re a chef, had to be the ultimate challenge and she was trying to survive on crutches. I begged her to enlist the aid of a mobility scooter. I believe in scooters, maybe a little too much. Here’s my story . . . .

By Donnell Ann Bell

I don’t smoke, I occasionally drink, and I certainly don’t do drugs.  Why then did my family get together and decide an intervention was necessary where I was concerned?

 

I’ll tell you why.  They took away my scooter.

That’s right.  Years ago, I had foot surgery and it turned out a bit more complicated than we’d anticipated.  A metal-tarsal plate fusion on top of a bunionectomy.  Where I had expected to be walking a week or so after surgery, I was informed by my doctor my recovery would actually be six to eight weeks of non-weight bearing on my right foot.

Ghastly news.  Horrible news.  No driving and I became a virtual recluse over the holidays and all through January.  All right.  I’m a writer, so being a virtual recluse really isn’t all that terrible.  But falling on your face is, let me tell you what.  For anyone who knows me, there’s a reason my middle name isn’t “Grace.”  And though I practiced and practiced on crutches before the surgery, when it came time to walk on them after the operation, well, fear had a great deal of influence.  Before surgery I could land on my right foot.  After surgery, landing on it was a no-no.

Maybe I was determined not to make friends with the crutches.  But honestly I tried.  After falling three times and looking like Social Services should be involved, my husband said enough is enough.  With that he was off to Denver and back a while later with the ultimate life saver for anyone who has foot or leg surgery.  A scooter!

My life saver after surgery

I adored my husband even more so after that.  We have a ranch-style house and that scooter was made for it and for me.  Not long after we got it, I put away the crutches for good and soon was zooming all over the place, so much so my daughter was constantly lamenting, “Mom, slow down.”

Where it would take me several minutes to cross the floor with my crutches, sweating and panting, the scooter proved to be my best friend.  I slept with it by my bed, by the recliner, in my office.  This little transportation mode made my recovery bearable.

But then. . .the cast came off and so did the boot and my doctor said, “You can apply weight again to your foot.”  Yay!  I was so excited.  I would gradually be walking again.

Wrong.  My son who had come for a visit during that time said, “Okay, Mom, enough slacking.  You’ve become too attached to that scooter.”  With that he handed my beloved scooter to my husband who whisked it back to the rental place in Denver.

Looking back, I can admit now that they were right.  I didn’t like it at the time, and maybe at some point I’ll rewrite my family back into my will.  I was lucky.  My family recognized I needed help.

About the Author: Donnell Ann Bell is an award-winning author, her latest work, a series, includes Until Dead: a Cold Case Suspense, released in 2022, Black Pearl, a Cold Case Suspense  2020 Colorado Book Award finalist. Donnell’s single title books include, Buried Agendas, Betrayed, Deadly Recall and the Past Came Hunting, all of which have been Amazon bestsellers. Currently she’s writing book three of her cold case series.  www.donnellannbell.com

 

 

Focus by Debra H. Goldstein

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Focus
by Debra H. Goldstein

Photo by Chase Clark on Unsplash

Focus. From a writer’s perspective, the word embraces a simple but necessary concept – concentrating on the task at hand. It sounds easy: pay attention and the idea will be conceived, executed, eventually published, and promoted. But, that’s not how the real world works. Life offers each of us major distractions. How we handle them and retain our focus determines if an individual will be a wannabe or an author. Have you had things or issues disrupt your focus?  How were you able to get back on track with your writing?

 

Judge, author, litigator, wife, step-mom, mother of twins, and civic volunteer, are all words used to describe me. My life and writings are equally diverse. I’m the author of Kensington Press’ Sarah Blair mystery series. Sarah, like me, is a cook of convenience who might be scorched if she gets too close to a kitchen. One Taste Too Many, published in January 2019, was picked as a Woman’s World Book of the Week. The next three books, Two Bites Too Many, Three Treats Too Many, and Four Cuts Too Many were each named as Silver Falchion finalists. The fifth book in the series, Five Belles Too Many, released on June 28, 2022.

I am an active civic volunteer in Birmingham, Alabama and have served on the national boards of Mystery Writers of America and Sisters in Crime, as well as being past president of the Southeast Chapter of Mystery Writers of America and Sister’s in Crime’s largest chapter, The Guppies.

Readers Love Mysteries…

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…and readers also love sleuths that solve mystery after mystery after mystery, such as Arthur Conan Doyle’s famous protagonist, Sherlock Holmes. The genius detective solved mysteries and crimes during Conan Doyle’s lifetime and today continues to be one of the most popular characters in TV crime series.

Sherlock Holmes is the archetypal detective. He uses observation, deduction, and reasoning to solve complex murders, yet it is Sherlock’s eccentric personality that endears him to readers and TV viewers.

Is it the personality quirks as well as the detective abilities that keep readers attached to their favorite crime solving characters? It’s not just Sherlock Holmes. Protagonists like Craig Johnson’s Sheriff Longmire and Michael Connelly’s Harry Bosch have not only taken on a life of their own, but they have also become part of a reader’s or a viewer’s family.

In other words, a series with an appealing protagonist, especially when that protagonist is clever, quirky, and not beyond being arrogant at times, like Sherlock, is golden to an audience. In the reader’s mind, those characteristics humanize the detective and make him or her lovable and therefore worthy of being part of the reader’s family.

Today, most authors of mystery and detective stories write series. Prolific authors, or those who started writing years ago, may have several series going at one time. Readers who love a character will return time and again to help their favorite detective solve the latest mystery.

The mystery genre is one of the most enduring ones. Let’s all continue writing about quirky detectives in stories filled with twists and turns. Let’s keep the mystery series going!

***

The Nikki Garcia Mystery Series (eBooks version) is on sale from March 7 to March 10 for $1.74.

https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/1345756

 

 

 

Kathryn Lane is the award-winning author of the Nikki Garcia Mystery Series.

In her writing, she draws deeply from her experiences growing up in a small town in northern Mexico as well as her work and travel in over ninety countries around the globe during her career in international finance with Johnson & Johnson.

Kathryn and her husband, Bob Hurt, split their time between Texas and the mountains of northern New Mexico where she finds it inspiring to write.

Three of my favorite fitness tips

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Happy March! We’re three months into 2023 and I wonder, if resolutions were made at the beginning of the year, how are we doing? According to the Forbes Health/One Poll survey, 39% of the respondents had a goal to improve health, 37% wanted to lose weight and 33% wanted to improve their diet. However, a study from 2021 showed that 80% of people who made resolutions abandoned them by February. I know that I’ve been one of those people who said bye-bye to my well-intentioned resolutions but this year it’s been different.

One of the things I wanted to focus on was my fitness. I’ve always loved to exercise and I enjoy eating healthy but like so many others, life happens and I get sidetracked. It also doesn’t help that I work a very sedentary job which includes developing, testing and tasting recipes. Since December I have been successful in making fitness and eating more mindful a top priority. Not every day is perfect but on those imperfect days I give myself a little grace knowing I’m doing the best considering the circumstances.

Today I’d like to share of my tips that have helped me keep on track with my fitness goals. These tips have been a game changer for me because on those imperfect days they allow me to make little strides toward my big goal.

1. Take regular breaks

One of the best things we can do for our health is to take regular breaks. Sitting for long periods of time detrimental to your health, and taking frequent breaks can help you avoid the negative effects of sitting. Try to take a break every hour or so, and use that time to stand up, stretch, and move around.

2. Incorporate exercise into your day

By adding in exercise into your day can be a great way to sneak some fitness into your day when you either can’t do a full workout or be a bonus when you can. This can be as simple as taking the stairs instead of the elevator or parking further from the store/job you’re going to. If you have a dog, you can consider adding in an extra lap. Any movement you can add into your day is a win.

3. Make healthy food choices

Finally, it’s important to make healthy food choices. There’s so much information out there about this topic and you can search for that. What I’ve found is that it becomes easier to make healthier choices in food when I’m on top if my workout game. For me, they go hand in hand. But I do indulge in treats.

Staying fit, getting fit, can be challenging but I know that little changes have made a big difference in my reaching my goals.

In the Food Blogger mystery series, Hope Early loves running. In the Resale Boutique mystery series, Kelly Quinn loves Pilates. My heart belongs to Pilates but I love strength training. What’s your favorite type of workout?

 

P.S. Make sure to check with your doctor before making any changes in your fitness routine/dietary needs.

 

Debra Sennefelder is the author of the Food Blogger Mystery series and the Resale Boutique Mystery series.

She lives and writes in Connecticut. When she’s not writing, she enjoys baking, exercising and taking long walks with her Shih-Tzu, Connie.

You can keep in touch with Debra through her website, on Facebook and Instagram.

photo of Rosemary Beach Florida Gulf Coast

Research Adventures: Starting a New Series

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by Sparkle Abbey

photo of Rosemary Beach Florida Gulf CoastHow is it that February is already in the books? 2023 is moving right along and we shared last month that we kicked off the new year by beginning to write a new mystery series. We also shared that the new series is not set in California like our Pampered Pets books, but since we both love the beach, we’re hanging onto the beachy theme.

And that’s where this research adventure begins…

After attending the NINC (Novelists, Inc.) conference in St. Pete last September we decided to research some Gulf Coast retirement communities as that is where we planned to set the new series. We’d already had great fun fleshing out characters, coming up with titles, and plotting murders on the drive down. (Side note: From Des Moines, IA to St. Pete Beach, FL is 1,380 miles or about 21 hours. A few more hours if you take time to track down a fabulous lobster food truck in Nashville, but that’s a story for a different day.)

We’d researched several possibilities that based on their online descriptions seemed to match what we had in mind. For the drive back we’d planned to visit our top four or five and check out some details. Now the books will be set in a fictional 55+ community but we’ve found we really need to have a feel for our setting as it plays such a strong role in a story – especially in mysteries.

  • Stop 1 – Too fancy and almost hotel like. Not the right vibe.
  • Stop 2 – More reasonable but surrounded by a residential neighborhood. Not the close-knit community feel we were looking for.
  • Stop 3 – Almost there. Nice community feel, but no people out and about doing things.
  • Stop 4 – Bingo. There it was. A great gated 55+ village with a community center, indoor pool, golf, shuffleboard, walking trails. There were people out walking their pets and a wonderful friendly feel as the walkers waved at us. And there were plenty of places to hide a dead body. A very important detail.

Success! We found our fictional Shady Palms and were able to take some photos, research details, pick up some materials on the floor plans, download the layout of the neighborhoods, learn the flora and fawn, and so much more.  Feeling good that our mission was accomplished we decided to backtrack and have lunch at a Greek restaurant we’d passed a few miles back. What a great choice. (Well, it wasn’t a lobster food truck but it looked promising and also seemed very busy which is always a good sign, right?) It was amazing. We highly recommend Mr. Souvlaki’s. If you ever get the chance to dine there, you are in for a treat. And no matter how full you are, you must finish up with the Loukoumades – fluffy clouds of pastry with honey & cinnamon. They are to die for! Definitely worth a thousand-mile road trip and we’re trying to figure out if we use them in the books if they can be considered a tax write off. All in the name of research, of course.Poster for Heavenly Puffs

At this point, we’re feeling great, though a bit overstuffed. It’s time to head north and so we leave the more scenic itinerary and move to Interstate travel. But first we need to stop for gas so we can get back on schedule and make some time. Our first stop was a Starbucks (big surprise) with a nice gas station nearby. But wait, they are out of gas.

But what’s an adventure without a little conflict?

Oh, did we mention that there was a hurricane by the name of Ian bearing down on the Gulf Coast? No problem, we’ll navigate to the next nearest option. It’s not far. But all the pumps are bagged. You guessed it – out of gas! It took three more stops and finally following a fuel truck back to our first gas station, but we finally got a full tank of gas and we were back on the road. Heading north and praying for everyone in the path of the hurricane.

We are continuing to research and build the story lines as we work on this new series. We’re loving the new characters who continue to evolve and make us laugh. We hope our reader enjoy the fictional Shady Palms and the new stories as much as we’re enjoying writing them!

If you’d like to keep in touch with us and get updates about the new series, please sign up for our newsletter here: SparkleAbbey.com

Sparkle Abbey is actually two people: Mary Lee Ashford and Anita Carter, who write the national best-selling Pampered Pets cozy mysteries 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.)

The love to hear from readers and can be found on Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest, their favorite social media sites. You can also follow them on BookBub to be notified when there are special offers.  Currently Downton Tabby is a featured deal at 99 cents in all ebook formats.

book cover for Downton TabbyIn Downton Tabby, Caro Lamont, amateur sleuth and well-respected animal therapist to Laguna Beach’s pampered pets, works with office mate and tech wizard, Graham Cash, whose beloved Scottish Fold tabby cat, Toria, is purported to have anger management issues. But when Caro drops by the charming Brit’s Tudor-inspired mansion to return Toria, she finds his business partner dead and Cash missing.

Caro is left with the cuddly cat and a lot of unanswered questions. Is Cash the killer, or has he been kidnapped? What’s up with the angry next door neighbor? And what about Cash’s girlfriend, Heidi, who isn’t sharing everything she knows with homicide detective Judd Malone?

Suddenly there are more secrets and intrigues than there are titles in England. Add in a stranger in a dark SUV stalking Caro, feisty senior sidekick, Betty, hiding in restaurant shrubbery, and wannabe investigative reporter Callum MacAvoy who seems to be constantly underfoot, and you’ve got a cat and mouse mystery of the first order.

Clicking Our Heels – Our Favorite Foods and What They Say About Us?

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This month, on Clicking Our Heels…

The Stiletto Gang is reflecting on our favorite foods and what we think they say about us. 

 Donnell Ann Bell – I love food of all kinds. I love Mexican food, chicken enchiladas, chili rellenos. Then the next day I might prepare a spinach salad, with walnut, mushroom, pears, and feta cheese. I guess I enjoy variety. As someone who isn’t a fan of change, you can’t tell it from my monthly menu. 🙂

Dru Ann Love – Baked Ziti – love the aroma of cheese with pasta sauce that makes the place feel warm and comfortable.

Robin Hillyer-Miles – Watermelon. I love everything about watermelon. I craved it when I was pregnant. I love it fresh, in drinks, and pickled. I don’t know what this says about me except that I like simple and fresh things.

Saralyn Richard – Raspberries. I’m sure the gods on Mount Olympus eat the luscious red globes. Favoring them makes me a health-conscious herbivore with a bit of a sweet tooth.

Gay Yellen – Depending on my mood, I’ve been known to crave pasta or sushi or hamburger, pizza, pho, tamales, watermelon… I like food in any flavor.

Kathryn Lane – Homemade guacamole! Brings great memories from my childhood so I guess it shows how sentimental I am.

Lois Winston – Right now, I’d just about kill for nova and cream cheese on an everything bagel. What does that say about me? It says I wish I were back in the NY metro area. You can’t get a decent bagel in Nashville, let alone freshly sliced nova!

Lynn McPherson – My favorite food is macaroni and cheese, with fresh jalapeño. I love all things comfy and cozy, but like to spice things up from time to time.

T.K. Thorne – Chicken tetrazzini the way my mother made it. It has all the sins—loads of butter, cream, cheese, noodles… Sigh.  It was a comfort food that she made because she knew it was my favorite. So it had love in it, too.

Bethany Maines – It’s interesting that I can instantly come up with a list of least favorite (mushrooms, and cake, I’m looking at you), but I’m having to ponder a favorites list quite hard. I think I’ll have to go with crepes. My mom spent a portion of her youth in France and would periodically make them for us on Saturday mornings (when Dad wasn’t making pancakes). What does that say about me? It probably says I have parents who love me and we all like delicious bready products slathered in sugar?

Anita Carter – I have too many favorites to pick just one. I love ramen, tacos, pasta, gyro, Greek salad, a good Cuban sandwich, French toast, and a veggie omelet. Oh! Lately, I’ve been eating a lot of shrimp and chicken stir fry! Okay, now I’m hungry!! What does this say about me???? I like food! LOL

Shari Randall/Meri Allen –  have way too many favorite foods! If I narrow it down, I’d say summer picnic foods – grilled hot dogs, fresh lemonade, and strawberry shortcake would be on the menu. What does it say about me? My husband and I joke about this all the time. I’m a cheap date.

Mary Lee Ashford – My absolute favorite food? That’s like my favorite song or favorite movie – it depends on the genre. I love cheese. All different sorts of cheese. Soft, hard, semi-soft. Alone, on veggies, in casseroles. My favorite cheese is Halloumi which is a Cypriot cheese made with goat and sheep milk and if you fry it in a pan with a little bit of olive oil, it is perfection! So, there’s cheese. But then there’s also chocolate… dark chocolate, milk chocolate, brownies, chocolate cake chocolate mousse. I don’t think I’ve ever met a chocolate I didn’t like.

Barb Eikmeier – Pasta. Maybe it says I never met a noodle I didn’t like.

Linda Rodriguez – I’m never good at this question. I like so many different kinds of food from so many different cuisines, and it’s hard to weigh them up on a scale against each other. Thai panang curry, British scones with lemon curd and clotted cream, Mexican sopes or pozole (Mexican cuisine is so large and various that I can’t even have one favorite food there), Kansas City BBQ (in particular, burnt ends), Japanese teriyaki, true Southern biscuits and gravy, the list goes on and on.

Debra H. Goldstein – Pizza with either a thin crust and lots of cheese or pineapple and ham. There was a time that I preferred anchovies and black olives, but no one in the family would share with me. The change in my choice reflects my willingness to negotiate and let the little things slide.

We’re curious if you agree and what you think your favorite foods say about you?

 

Scams, Spams & Caveat Emptor!

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Two years ago, when we moved from New Jersey to Tennessee, my husband and I cut the landline cord. We’d only kept our landline for as long as we had because cell service in our NJ home was spotty at best. If I had to guess, I’d say that at least 75% of the calls that came in on the landline were from spammers and scammers. Now, instead of receiving at least half a dozen spam and scam calls a day, I receive one or less a week.

I never answer the phone unless I recognize the caller’s name or number. Most spammers don’t leave a message because the calls are robocalls made by bots. Answering the phone alerts the call center that the bots have struck gold and they’ve got a live person on the line. If you’ve ever answered one of these calls, you’ll notice a short pause between saying, “Hello” and someone on the other end responding. That’s the time it takes for the system to switch over to a live operator.

Scammers, on the other hand, are usually people, not bots. If you don’t answer, they’ll leave a message, often an intimidating one that threaten you with criminal action if you don’t return their call because you either owe money to the IRS or are a wanted felon. Once you return the call, you’re told they can make the problem go away by paying a fine—in the form of a gift card. Amazingly, too many people fall for this.

A few weeks ago, I received an unusual scam call. Three calls came in within a few seconds, all from the same number, supposedly originating in New York. I didn’t answer, but the caller left a message between the second and third calls. In a very thick Indian or Pakistani accent, he said he was trying to reach Lois Winston, author of Guilty as Framed, because he wanted to invite her to a book festival his company was putting together in a few months in Los Angeles. If I was that Lois Winston, I should call him back as soon as possible for more information.

In the background, I heard lots of chatter. The caller was obviously calling from a call center, and I seriously doubt the call came from New York, no matter what the display on my phone read. New York City real estate is too pricey for call center operators.

I’ve known many authors who have been ripped off by unscrupulous people out to make a buck off them. I have no doubt this was just another scam in a long line of scams that have preyed on authors and would-be authors over the decades.

Back in my early days of writing, before I sold my first book, I even fell for a scam. I had queried a literary agency about my manuscript and received back a response stating that they were interested in seeing the first three chapters. Within days of sending the chapters, I received a note saying my manuscript needed polishing, and if I paid fifty dollars, they’d provide me with a professional critique of the pages I’d sent. If I followed their instructions from the critique, they’d consider representing me.

What I got back were two or three penciled comments, all of a personal nature and having nothing to do with my plot, characters, or writing prowess. One of the comments I remember was, “I knew a person like this.” I later learned I wasn’t the only person to fall for this scam. It was a family operation, and some of the members wound up serving prison sentences.

Unfortunately, scammers have become much more sophisticated since the onset of the Internet and social media, and many of them operate overseas, out of the reach of US law enforcement. Caveat emptor is a Latin phrase that means “buyer beware.” There’s also a saying in English: “If it sounds too good to be true, it usually is.”

I have no idea how the book fair scammers planned to relieve me of my hard-earned dollars, and I wasn’t going to return the call to find out. But I’m sure they had a script filled with carrots to dangle in front of me. And unfortunately, there are probably some authors out there who are at this moment falling for their scam. In the age of spam, scams, fake news, and now ChatGPT, more than ever it pays to be skeptical. Caveat emptor!

What about you? Have you ever fallen for a scam or know someone who has? This month I’m giving away several promo codes for a free download of the audiobook version of Revenge of the Crafty Corpse, the third book in my Anastasia Pollack Crafting Mystery Series. Post a comment for a chance to win.

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USA Today and Amazon bestselling and award-winning author Lois Winston writes mystery, romance, romantic suspense, chick lit, women’s fiction, children’s chapter books, and nonfiction under her own name and her Emma Carlyle pen name. 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.