A Puzzling Art Mystery Within an Actual Art Theft Within a Cozy Mystery Novel

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By Lois Winston

Marketing is the bane of every author’s existence. Whether the author is traditionally published or independently publishing, we’re all responsible for much of our books’ promotion these days. Currently, Guilty as Framed, the eleventh Anastasia Pollack Crafting Mystery, is on sale through Amazon, Kobo, and Apple Books for only .99 cents.

In the retail advertising world, that’s called a “loss leader,” a product that’s sold at or below cost in the hopes that customers will make other purchases at the store while they’re there to scoop up a deal. In the book world, our hope is that readers will love the sale book enough to purchase other books by the author.

I often rely on current events and human-interest stories as inspiration for the plots and/or subplot in my books. However, in Guilty as Framed I incorporated an actual unsolved crime into the book.

I fell in love with the paintings of Dutch master Rembrandt van Rijn as a teenager when I first walked through the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City. From that day on, I spent many hours seated in front of my favorite of his paintings, Aristotle Contemplating the Bust of Homer. I even wrote a paper on the painting my senior year of high school.

Because of my love of Rembrandt’s works, I was devastated when the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum was burglarized in 1990. Three of the thirteen works of art stolen were by Rembrandt. These included his only seascape, “Christ in the Storm on the Sea of Galilee”, a painting that was nearly five-and-a-half-feet tall, and the postage-stamp sized etching “Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man,” featured on the cover of Guilty as Framed.

I followed the investigation as it unfolded and have read countless articles on this still unsolved crime. I’ve also watched several documentaries about the burglary and the efforts to find both the perpetrators and the missing artworks. Thirty-five years later, it’s still considered the largest art heist in history. To this day, not only haven’t the perpetrators been caught, but none of the artworks have ever been recovered. Many of the witnesses and persons of interest have since died, some of natural causes, and at least one of not-so-natural causes.

In Guilty as Framed, I wanted to incorporate the actual museum burglary and the missing artworks into the plot of the book. This gave me quite a challenge. I had to figure out how to connect a decades-old museum heist in Boston to my humorous New Jersey-set cozy mystery series.

Writing fiction rather than true crime allowed me to invent some new characters, change the names of real persons (to protect the innocent and not-so-innocent), and weave various events from the actual crime into the plot of Guilty as Framed.

The original sale invoice

“Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man” is also known as “Rembrandt ‘Aux Trois Moustaches.” For those of you who don’t speak French, that translates to “Rembrandt with Three Moustaches.” How could a man have three moustaches? One prevailing theory suggests that the second “moustache” is his beard and the third is the fur on his cap. However, I’ve never heard of a beard being called a moustache, and the cap “moustache” seems quite a stretch. Perhaps “Rembrandt with a Moustache, a Beard, and a Furry Caterpillar on his Cap” would have made more sense.

 

Rembrandt was a serious artist, though. He never displayed a sense of humor in any of his paintings or in the titles of them. It seems unlikely the three-moustache title came from him. Most likely, he titled the etching “Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man,” a frequent title of his early self-portraits. Or he may have called the etching “Self-Portrait Wearing a Soft Cap.”

“Rembrandt ‘Aux Trois Moustaches” is a mystery within the mystery of the heist. I knew I had to explore that in my story. I began researching and discovered the tiny etching was purchased for Isabella Stewart Gardner in 1886 from the art dealer Frederick Keppel & Co., who listed the etching as such on the sales invoice. Was the three-moustache title Keppel’s idea of a joke? We’ll never know.

Finally, and most unfortunately, my research didn’t lead to the discovery of the missing artworks, which is a shame because there’s still a huge outstanding reward for information leading to their recovery.

But what does this miniature Rembrandt self-portrait have to do with my reluctant amateur sleuth Anastasia Pollack? You’ll get no spoilers from me. For an answer to that mystery, you’re going to have to read Guilty as Framed. Through April 7th, you can do so for only .99 cents.

Guilty as Framed

An Anastasia Pollack Crafting Mystery, Book 11

When an elderly man shows up at the home of reluctant amateur sleuth Anastasia Pollack, she’s drawn into the unsolved mystery of the greatest art heist in history.

Boston mob boss Cormac Murphy has recently been released from prison. He doesn’t believe Anastasia’s assertion that the man he’s looking for doesn’t live at her address and attempts to muscle his way into her home. His efforts are thwarted by Anastasia’s fiancé Zack Barnes.

A week later, a stolen SUV containing a dead body appears in Anastasia’s driveway. Anastasia believes Murphy is sending her a message. It’s only the first in a series of alarming incidents, including a mugging, a break-in, another murder, and the discovery of a cache of jewelry and an etching from the largest museum burglary in history.

But will Anastasia solve the mystery behind these shocking events before she falls victim to a couple of desperate thugs who will stop at nothing to get what they want?

Buy Links:

Amazon

Kobo

Apple Books

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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. 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.

Book Marketing is a 4-Letter Word

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Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay

By Lois Winston

Book marketing? Unless you’re someone who majored in marketing in college (and maybe not even those people,) most authors will tell you the part of being an author they hate most is marketing their books to readers. Unless you’re James Patterson, Nora Roberts, or one of the few other “anointed ones,” no matter if you’re traditionally published or indie published, the bulk of book marketing rests on our shoulders. Most publishers, including what is known as The Big Five, do very little, if anything, to promote their authors’ books these days. For most, if they’re lucky, they receive a box of free promotional bookmarks or postcards.

And it doesn’t matter the genre you write in, the awards you’ve received, or whether you hit a bestseller list. I have friends who consistently make the New York Times list with each new release and are still required to do the bulk of the promotion for their books, including arranging their own events and handling social media marketing.

The competition is stiff out there, and it’s getting worse. Every author I’ve spoken with, whether traditionally published or indie published, is complaining about falling sales. This year has seen a flood of A.I. generated books going up for sale on etailer sites. There were so many flooding Amazon that they instituted a new policy, limiting uploads of new books to three a day. It maybe stemmed the influx from a major tsunami to a tidal wave.

Moreover, various marketing that once worked well for authors no longer shows the same results. What’s an author to do?

At the Killer Nashville conference in August, I attended a workshop on creating landing pages at Bookfunnel. Most marketing gurus will tell you every author should have a newsletter, that it’s one of the best tools in your author toolbox. I have a newsletter. Prior to Bookfunnel, I had about 1800 subscribers, some of whom are loyal fans. But the workshop instructor had tens of thousands of subscribers. Talking to other authors at Killer Nashville, I learned the best way I could increase sales of my books was to increase my newsletter subscribers.

The thing about a landing page, though, is that you offer a freebie in exchange for the reader subscribing. I’ve always been opposed to giving away huge numbers of books. I’ve heard from too many readers who only download free books and brag that they haven’t bought a book in years. I have newsletter readers who have told me they love my books but only read them if they can get them from the library or by winning a copy when I do the occasional contest giveaway. They won’t even spend .99 cents for a sale book.

I’ve never had a problem with putting a book on sale for .99 cents for a limited time. I think of it as a loss leader to spur sales of the other books in my Anastasia Pollack Crafting Mystery Series. That series currently has 13 novels and 3 novellas. Historically, I’ve seen good results from sales of other books in the series when one is on sale for .99 cents. But even those results have not been what they used to be lately.

So I decided to create a landing page on Bookfunnel and offer one of the novellas in the series for free with sign-up to my newsletter. I’m also taking part in two group promotions with other cozy authors on Bookfunnel throughout November, the Thank Goodness for Cozies promotion and the Cozy Mystery Month promotion. Signing up for any of the authors’ newsletters will get you a free book by that author.

My landing page has been up on my website and on Bookfunnel since mid-October. When the group promotions end at the end of November, I’ll be able to judge the results of the book giveaway. I’ll see how many downloads and new subscribers I’ve had and if all those free books translated into sales of other books in the series. I’m crossing fingers and toes that I’ll be pleased with the numbers.

Love it? Hate it? How do you really feel about marketing? Post a comment for a chance to win a promo code for a free audiobook download of any one of the first 11 Anastasia Pollack Crafting Mysteries. (US and UK residents only)

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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. 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.

An Interview with Raegan Teller

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I met Raegan Teller through our local Sisters in Crime Palmetto Chapter. In fact, Raegan and I were two of the founding members of the chapter. Since that time, she has independently published seven Enid Blackwell mysteries, marketing them herself through personal appearances at unique festivals and events, most of which are not focused on books. In addition, she has written numerous short stories and organized local Noir at the Bar programs.

Raegan, it’s a great pleasure to have you here at The Stiletto Gang to tell us about your writing journey.

If you have not already read Raegan Teller’s work, add it to your “to be read” list. You’ll truly enjoy it and find it’s an excellent holiday gift!

                                                                        Paula Gail Benson

Raegan Teller

Q: What was your earliest memory of wanting to be an author?

RT: I began reading mysteries as a young girl: Nancy Drew, Trixie Belton, and then later Agatha Christie, Daphne Du Maurier, Victoria Holt, and Phyllis Whitney. Those were the mystery authors the library carried. And like most avid readers, I dreamed of writing my own novels one day. But it was just a pipe dream for most of my life.

Q: Your work experiences have shaped your writing. Tell us about your background and how it helped or found its way into your stories.

RT: I worked for a Fortune 100 company for most of my working life. I held numerous positions and roles, but the ones I enjoyed most were those with a lot of writing involved. But working for a large insurance company, I also investigated auto and other accidents, took statements from accident witnesses, and much more. When I left that company after 20+ years, I started my own management consulting company and found myself doing a lot of writing for my clients. I particularly enjoyed writing white papers because they are just another form of storytelling. I also did some editing work for clients. While my dream of writing a mystery got buried somewhere along the way, little did I realize that all those experiences would help me write mysteries. And my main character, Enid Blackwell, mirrors a lot of my own frustrations with large corporations. All of my work and life experiences have contributed in some way to my stories.

Q: In developing your craft, you studied a number of places with wonderful instructors. Tell us about your journey to becoming a fiction writer.

RT: I’m laughing as I respond to this question because my journey was rocky. First of all, while I was an experienced business writer and editor, I had never written fiction. The goal of business writing is to make sure all questions are answered and that you keep yourself and your feelings out of your writing. I was good at that. But when I tried to write fiction, I was baffled when it came to diving into my emotions and letting them feed by stories, or how to hide information from readers. Worse yet was allowing myself to mislead the readers with red herrings—false clues. Writing fiction was the total opposite of what I knew how to do, and it was maddening! So I took a number of workshops from writing experts around the country. One was Jerry Cleaver, who wrote Immediate Fiction and taught classes at The Writers’ Loft in Chicago. I quickly became annoyed with him, even though he was right. I can still hear him repeatedly saying “add more conflict.” As acclaimed as he was, his teaching style just never clicked for me—but I did learn to add more conflict! I also took a few workshops with Donald Maas (Writing the Breakout Novel), where I learned that my first novel would not be a breakout by his definition. At some point in my journey, I saw an advertisement for Alan Watt’s LA Writers Lab. He believed you should quickly write a novel in 90 Days and clean it up later. And I actually did finish a draft of my first novel in 90 days. (I’ve kept it to remind me how awful my writing can be.) But Watt clicked with me for reasons other than writing quickly, and I ended up doing individual coaching and numerous workshops with him. I loved how he taught story structure and made it less intimidating. He is a screenwriter, so I learned to visualize my story as I wrote. Like Cleaver, Watt offered me a constant reminder, but his was “go deeper.” By far, Watt was the most influential instructor I worked with. With his coaching, I produced the final version of my first novel, Murder in Madden, after three years of trial and error. (I wrote the second novel in eight months.)

Q: You base your novels on cold cases and pending court matters. How did you decide the subject matter for each of your novels?

RT: My novels are inspired by, rather than based on, real-life crimes and events, that either happened near me or just resonated with me in some way. The genesis of my series was the murder of my husband’s seventeen-year-old cousin, who disappeared from a bus stop in Columbia, SC, in 1990. Several days later, they found her body but no has ever been charged with the murder. I wanted to write a non-fiction book about her with the message that we shouldn’t forget these victims. But I didn’t have enough material for a book. Instead, I decided to write a fictional story about a forgotten teenage victim, Rose Marie Garrett, in Murder in Madden. Following that pattern, I chose a real-life victim to be my muse for each subsequent novel.

Q: Is your protagonist, reporter Enid Blackwell, based on a real person? Does she share any of your characteristics?

RT: One of my earliest childhood heroes was Nellie Bly, one of the first female investigative journalists. From the time I read her biography, I wanted to be a journalist just like her. But like many young people, I was encouraged instead to pursue a more practical career. In many ways, Enid Blackwell is a contemporary version of Nellie Bly. As to whether Enid and I share characteristics, I get asked that question a lot. Many of my close friends and family see a lot of me in her. We both have red hair, and we’re both determined to accomplish what we set out to do—some would call that hardheaded. We both value friends and family. But she’s far braver than I, and unlike Enid, I like to cook.

Q: How did you decide to publish independently? What benefits does that offer? What difficulties does it present?

RT: I used to teach a class on self-publishing that was four hours long, but I’ll try to be brief here. When I began looking at publishing options for my first book around 2015, I interviewed both traditionally published and independently published authors—of which there were few at that time. Self-publishing was just emerging as a viable option and was still shaking off its vanity press reputation. The indie authors I talked with had all turned to SP when they were unable to get an agent and/or publisher. SP was not their choice but their fallback. After spending all my working life in large corporations and then owning my own consulting firm, managing my own publishing company was appealing. I knew how to set up and run a small business. And I made a vow to myself that if I made the decision to go indie, I would not try traditional publishing at all. I wanted to choose SP, not use it as a fallback. So I formed Pondhawk Press LLC. SP is a lot of work because you’re running a business. You make investments in cover design, editing, proofing, etc., with your own money, so you need to have cash to get started. DIY is not advised! I do a lot of in-person events, so my husband, who is also my business partner, manages our inventory, provides set-up assistance, helps scope out new venues, and much more. I couldn’t do it without the help of my team, which also includes my editor, proofreader, cover designer, and more. And of course, you have to promote your work constantly on social media and elsewhere. You have to have a marketing plan. It’s a lot of work, but very rewarding for me. I’ll conclude by saying that SP is definitely not for everyone, but for some of us it’s the only way to go.

Q: Which characters have you particularly enjoyed writing? Are they the characters readers identify with most?

RT: My protagonist, Enid Blackwell, has become a close friend. We talk all the time, and she helps me when I get stuck—usually in the dreaded “middle.” I sometimes ask her questions before I fall asleep at night, and she usually gives me an answer. Aside from Enid, there are many “favorite” characters in my books. In addition to Enid, my readers love Jack Johnson, the newspaper editor, and Josh Hart, Enid’s love interest. Some of my favorites include Sheriff Boogie Waters (Secrets Never Told) and Drake Harrow the police investigator and Cassandra the fortune teller, in my latest novel Murder Vision. Harrow, aka Big D, is part Jamaican and I enjoyed learning a bit of Patois, a form of Jamaican creole, for his character. My readers love the series’ characters and often comment on them. I’m fortunate to have both male and female loyal readers, and I’m always surprised and delighted when they tell me who their favorite characters are and what they like about them.

Q: Did you always know you would write a series?

RT: Heck no! I wrote Murder in Madden as a way to honor a real-life, forgotten victim. But I fell in love with my characters and knew they had more stories to tell. So I declared at my first book launch that I would have four books in the series—a number I just pulled out of the air. But after four books, I kept going. The seventh novel in the series, Murder Vision, was published in September 2024 and will be the last in that series—at least for a while. But I already miss talking with Enid.

Q: You also write short stories. What challenges do they present?

RT: I love the challenge of developing a character and telling a story in a few words. My sweet spot is around 2000 words, but I enjoy flash fiction also. Short stories are fun to write, and they keep me writing between novels. I love to write stories from image prompts. There’s a picture on the bulletin board in my office of a lone grave in the middle of a field in Lexington that I took not long ago. I can’t wait to write a story about it.

Q: How do you like organizing Noir at the Bar events? What do writers learn from reading their stories out loud?

RT: I absolutely love Noir at the Bar! I host these at a local bar several times a year and invite other authors to participate. Humans are storytellers by nature, and sharing stories with others is very primal for me. Writing for an audience, like at Noir events, is different than writing for print readers. For one thing, you have to use more dialogue tags because the audience can’t see where the characters change as they would on a page, so they can get confused if the writer isn’t clear on who’s speaking. I read all my novels and stories aloud during the editing process, and it’s a great way to spot areas that may be confusing. Also, writing for a live audience is not the place to be “literary.” Stories that might be appropriate for a literary magazine typically don’t play well to an audience because they are often abstract. Reading for a live audience works best when you stick to writing an entertaining story that has a clear beginning, middle, and end—like a story you’d tell around a campfire.

Q: What advice would you give to writers?

RT: Two things. The first is to keep writing. It’s easy to get distracted and lose focus. There are many reasons you can give yourself for not writing but only one reason to keep going: you must write because your heart compels it. The second piece of advice is to be clear to yourself about your writing goals. There’s nothing wrong with writing as a hobby with no inclination to get published. But if you do decide to publish, be clear about what you want from it—recognition or fame, money, self-satisfaction, or something else. And whatever your goal is, be certain you’re willing to invest your time, money, and other resources into achieving that goal. Self-publishing has made it somewhat easy to publish a book, but then many writers despair because their sales are low. And many traditionally published authors are having to do most of the promoting themselves because of budget cuts. Many writers I’ve talked with have admitted they have no marketing plan, run no ads, and have no goals other than to “sell more books.” Then I have to ask, “Why are you writing? What do you hope to achieve? And if that goal is important, what are you willing to do to make it happen?”

Q: How has your family influenced your writing?

RT: My own family has been very supportive, and my husband in particular is my rock. Without him, I couldn’t do what I do. My sister is always talking about and selling my books. While I’m fortunate to have a wonderful, loving family, I know that not everyone is as blessed. Relationships in general are complex. My books often explore the complexities within both blood and chosen families, which often include betrayal, heartache, and worse.

Q: What are you writing now?

RT: I recently started writing a new series set in Raven’s Rest, NC, a small, fictitious town in the Blue Ridge Mountains. I prefer to read and write about small towns rather than large cities because I love the interplay of everybody-knows-everybody and everybody-has-a-secret. I’m also working on what I think will be a stand-alone novella titled Burning Memories. I can write short and I can write long, so I want to challenge myself to write a mid-length 30K to 40K story. It will be a departure from murder mysteries—more in the style of Nicholas Sparks. Recently, I’ve been reading Stephen King’s novellas because he’s a master of the novella, as is Jo Nesbo.

For more information, visit Raegan Teller.com or the Enid Blackwell Mystery Series on Amazon.

Bethany Maines drinks from an arsenic mug

Rejection

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Rejection is Knocking

Part of any creative endeavor that gets shared with the public is rejection.  I understand that not every person will love my creative projects.  And I even get that somewhere out there is someone who hates my books and art.  In fact, I kind of hope there is.  I would like to have a nemesis who howls with rage every time I put out another book.  After all, if I’m not sparking unnatural fury in the heart of someone, what am I even doing with my life? However, hatred would be welcome compared to the banal everyday “meh” of rejection.

Rejection Corgi with the caption... Dear Writer: It's not you. It's me. Sincerely, The editor.

Thanks, but no thanks…

I would not care to count up the number of rejection letters and emails I have received over my career, but I would guess that it’s in the hundreds. And by and large, most of them are a polite form of “it’s not for me.” There have been many that have been intentionally or unintentionally condescending. “You’re doing so well” is not the compliment some people think it is. Many people (particularly those under 30) seem compelled to offer tips and suggestions rather than stating why they personally did not accept something.  There’s a big difference between “you should work on your hook” and “I couldn’t see how I would sell this in the current marketplace. I needed a something to more strongly differentiate it.” One tells me why you rejected it, the other sounds like I suck as a writer. (You may say that is a slight misinterpretation, but my brain does not believe you.)

So why sign up for rejection?

Because the risk is worth the reward. And, of course, there are the corgi memes. And after the first fifty, the polite “no thank you” rejections don’t sting quite so much and you can move on to ice cream, alcohol, and burning the really crappy rejections. And as much as I hate to admit, the rejections have helped me become a better writer. Admittedly, they’re a bit like following street signs in a foreign language as I try to decipher what exactly they mean, but they still give some clues.  Right now, I have two projects out to various entities and I’m crossing my fingers that they don’t try to send me searching down the back alleyways to self-improvement. I’d much rather they went with a large flashing sign that says “I love it!” But just in case, I’ll keep the desserts, memes and cocktails at the ready.

***

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.

What Influences a Book?

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In many of my books, something from my past has influenced the story. The Past Came Hunting came from a police ridealong. Deadly Recall resulted from my memory of a piano lesson I greatly exaggerated and fictionalized.

On June 16 through June 30, my fourth single title romantic suspense goes on sale. I was actually living the idea behind Buried Agendas at the time and I’d like to share the story behind it.

Although my husband is happily retired these days, in his work life he was a chemical engineer who specialized in industrial water treatment. Over the years, I met his customers and clients. As a storyteller, I’d listen with rapt attention to the goings on of their businesses. Naturally, when I learned his company had been awarded a contract to help with the cleanup of the Rocky Flats Nuclear weapons plant rocky-flats-site-colorado-fact-sheet (energy.gov) I was intrigued but also concerned.

That project started me thinking about the dangers of environmental contamination, not only nuclear but chemical. I’d read and listened to broadcasts about states rightfully objecting to where nuclear waste should be stored. About drums of illegal chemicals buried in the desert.

Conversely, I learned about the stiff fines and penalties the Environmental Protection Agency inflicted on corporations should they not adhere to these regulations.

Such was my idea behind Buried Agendas and the book would not have been written without a wonderful resource of an EPA staffer in Denver. Not only did we have a long informative phone conversation, afterward, she sent me reams of information on superfund sites (by snail mail no less).

Neither would the book have been written without the help of chemists, plant managers, and an underground tank expert. And by the time I completed interviews and consumed an enormous amount of research material, I came up with what I thought might be a believable inciting incident.

What if a chemical was created that should never have been created?

All right. That seemed to work. But how to develop a romantic suspense plot around such a complicated subject? Here’s what I came up with.

A devastating secret drove her from her lover’s arms; will a secret equally as deadly lead her back to him?

Diana Reid is an investigative reporter skilled at uncovering other people’s secrets. It’s her own she works to keep buried. Eight years earlier, she promised to leave her fiancé and hometown of Diamond, Texas forever. That pledge vanishes when she receives a letter stating people are going to die, implicating her hometown’s largest employer, and making a veiled threat against her mother. With no other choice, Diana will return to Diamond, albeit in disguise, to discover the anonymous author.

Brad Jordan moved on with his life after Diana left him. Preferring to practice law rather than assume his birthright, Jordan Industries, he turns the chemical processing plant over to his brother. Later, Brad runs for office and is elected mayor on his promise to rebuild his struggling hometown. Those plans are jeopardized when he’s notified that the company is suspected of wrongdoing and may be sacrificing the public’s health.

Diana Reid is the last person Brad Jordan wants to see, personally or professionally. But, when he discovers her presence in Diamond, he’s forced to accept that a woman he vowed to forget may be his only avenue to get to the truth.

 

What readers have said:

“Buried Agendas is a well-written, well-plotted romantic suspense. It kept me reading late into the night to find out what happens to the star-crossed lovers. The story had enough technical detail to be realistic without coming across as a chemistry lesson–well done! I felt the heat of the Texas setting and enjoyed getting to know the characters. I’m looking forward to Ms. Bell’s next one.”

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BURIED AGENDAS follows the romantic suspense plots that Bell is known for. A fast compelling read with hot topics in the news today– Chemical waste and the hazards of border crossing. The characters are well developed and carry the reader through an exciting pace to the finish. If you haven’t read her previous books, you’re missing out on great storytelling.

~~~

“This is a well written, suspenseful thriller with fully drawn characters and a fast paced plot. Diana, forced to return to her hometown, confronts the fact that she still has feelings for the man she betrayed eight years ago. And now she’s in town to investigate his family’s business and possibly destroy all that he holds dear. Donnell Bell’s character emotions ring true and her plot is all too believable.”

 

If you enjoy romantic suspense, I hope you’ll check out Buried Agendas, particularly when it goes on sale June 16-30 for $.99.

How about you? Has something in your past influenced you? For authors, did said influence inspire you to incorporate it in a book or to write an entire novel?

About the Author:  Donnell Ann Bell writes both romantic suspense and multi-jurisdictional task force plots, keeping close tabs on her theme SUSPENSE TOO CLOSE TO HOME. Her single-title romantic suspense novels, The Past Came Hunting, Deadly Recall, Betrayed, and Buried Agendas, have all been Amazon e-book best sellers.

Traditionally published with Belle Books/Bell Bridge Books, Black Pearl, a Cold Case Suspense was her first mainstream suspense and book one of a series, and a Colorado Book Award finalist. Her second book in the series, Until Dead, A Cold Case Suspense, released in May of 2022 was voted best thriller in 2023 at the Imaginarium Celebration Conference in Louisville, Kentucky.  Sign up for her newsletter or follow her blog at https://www.donnellannbell.com

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Deep in the Promo Weeds

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By Lois Winston

My post last month talked about the five-letter word that sends a shudder through most authors. I’ve been in the promotion weeds ever since, due to the recent launch of  A Crafty Collage of Crime, the 12th book in the Anastasia Pollack Crafting Mystery Series. Between my own blog, Killer Crafts & Crafty Killers, and the two group blogs I belong to, this one and Booklover’s Bench, I also signed up for a blog tour with Great Escapes Book Tours and booked a few guest blogs on my own. The grand total came to—drumroll, please—26 blog posts through the middle of August!

And here lies the conundrum: How many ways can I talk about my series and the newest book in it without sounding like a broken record? Or worse yet, a carnival barker? Step right up, ladies and gentlemen. Be the first to experience the latest murder and mayhem author Lois Winston has dumped on her poor reluctant amateur sleuth!

No one likes being bombarded with “buy my book” pleas on social media. Hard sell often works against an author. Years ago, when I was still writing romance, I attended a conference where a well-known, bestselling author kept pleading with the audience to buy her books because her teenage son was growing so fast that she was spending a fortune every month at Foot Locker. From the sideways glances those of us in the audience were giving each other, I had the sense that this author’s attempt at a cute marketing ploy was backfiring badly. Especially since we’d all seen her latest advance recently posted on Publishers Marketplace. I’ve been published since 2006, and to this day, if you added up all my advances and royalties from the past seventeen years, the total would still be less than what that author had received in one advance.

At any rate, Anastasia and I (some bloggers requested posts written by my sleuth or interviews with her instead of me) have tried—desperately—to keep each of the posts fresh and different. My Great Escapes blog tour began June 19th and runs through July 2nd. You can find the schedule here. Visit each site to enter the Rafflecopter for a chance to win one of three copies I’m giving away of A Crafty Collage of Crime. Because the drawing won’t be held until after the last guest post goes live on July 2nd, you can also go back and enter at the blogs that have already posted.

I promise I won’t implore you to add to my sons’ or grandsons’ sneaker funds!

Instead, if you post a comment here, I’ll enter you in a random drawing for a chance to win a promo code for a free audiobook download of A Stitch to Die For, the fifth book in the Anastasia Pollack Crafting Mystery Series.

~*~

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.

When One Thing Leads to Another by Judy Penz Sheluk

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I’m delighted to welcome Judy Penz Sheluk as my guest to talk about her new release: Finding Your Path to Publication: A Step-by-Step Guide. Because I’ve loved her two fiction series: The Glass Dolphin mysteries and the Marketville mysteries, I know this will be a valuable non-fiction tool for writers. See you next month!  —Debra H. Goldstein

When One Thing Leads to Another by Judy Penz Sheluk

I’m new at this. Oh, I don’t mean I’m new to blogging. I’ve been writing a blog for my own website for years, and I was a Stiletto Gang member for a time until life got in the way (thankfully, they invite me back every now and again, for which I am grateful).

I don’t even mean that I’m new to shameless self-promotion, though it never seems to get any easier (I can always hear my mother saying, “never forget where you came from,” “where” in our world being a very humble place).

What I do mean is that I’m not used to blogging about a how-to book. It’s not like I can be cutesy and write this from a character’s point of view or get all authorly and talk about the narrative arc. Hmmm…maybe I can talk about how one thing led to another.

Okay, that’s settled. It all started when I led a NaNoWriMo debriefing in November 2021 at my then-local library. I’ve attempted NaNoWriMo a few times but have never yet completed the 50,000-words-in-a-month challenge. The librarian thought that made me more accessible. I’d tried and “failed,” and yet I was a published author.

What I learned from that event was that the attendees were more interested in how-to get published and publishing options than whether I (or anyone else) had succeeded at NaNoWriMo. That led to the librarian asking if I might be willing to prepare a presentation on the topic. I remembered how much I’d learned since signing my first book contract in 2014, and not all those lessons came easy. In fact, some of them were downright painful.

The presentation—Paving Your Path to Publication—had record attendance, with more questions than time to respond. It also gave me an idea. What if I wrote a book based on it? I’m a total pantser when it comes to writing mystery fiction, but here, at least, I’d have an outline.

After months of research (I knew virtually nothing about social publishing platforms like Wattpad or Hybrid/Assisted publishers, and was surprised at how much I still had to learn about traditional and self-publishing platforms) and vetting every chapter with my front-line editor (also an aspiring author from a very different generation than mine), the result is Finding Your Path to Publication: A Step-by-Step Guide, which released on May 2 in trade paperback, large print, hardcover, and e-book. It’s the sort of book I wish I’d had back when I was starting out, but then again, I wouldn’t be where I am today without experiencing the highs and low of my journey as an author.

After all, one thing almost always leads to another. And I wouldn’t have it any other way.

Readers: Have you experienced “one thing leading to another” in your life? If so, how’d that work out for you?

 

About Finding Your Path to Publication: The road to publishing is paved with good intentions…and horror stories of authors who had to learn the hard way.

For the emerging author, the publishing world can be overwhelming. You’ve written the book, and you’re ready to share it with the world, but don’t know where to start. Traditional, independent press, hybrid, self-publishing, and online social platforms—all are valid publishing paths. The question is, which one is right for you?

Finding Your Path to Publication is an introduction to an industry that remains a mystery to those on the outside. Learn how each publishing option works, what to expect from the process start to finish, how to identify red flags, and avoid common pitfalls. With statistics, examples, and helpful resources compiled by an industry insider who’s been down a few of these paths, this is your roadmap to decide which path you’d like to explore, and where to begin your author journey.

Available in trade paperback, large print, hardcover, and e-book. Universal buy link: https://books2read.com/FindingYourPathtoPublication

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

A former journalist and magazine editor, Judy Penz Sheluk is the bestselling author of two mystery series: The Glass Dolphin Mysteries and Marketville Mysteries, both of which have been published in multiple languages. Her short crime fiction appears in several collections, including the Superior Shores Anthologies, which she also edited. Judy is a member of the Independent Book Publishers Association, Sisters in Crime, International Thriller Writers, the Short Mystery Fiction Society, and Crime Writers of Canada, where she served on the Board of Directors for five years, the final two as Chair. She lives in Northern Ontario. Find her at www.judypenzsheluk.com.

 

New Year’s Resolution: Read a Short Story a Day

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by Paula Gail Benson

Happy New Year, everyone! I hope it has been healthy, comfortable, and prosperous for all.

Barb Goffman

If you are still considering resolutions and have any interest in short story craft, may I suggest a recommendation by well-known, award winning writer and editor Barb Goffman? Why not read a short story a day? Debra H. Goldstein has already made an excellent suggestion to get started: the Guppy Chapter of Sisters in Crime’s latest anthology, Hook, Line, and Sinker. In addition, there are plenty of online and periodic publications to choose from, all featuring outstanding authors. Many of the Sisters in Crime Chapters have organized and released anthologies to showcase their members and give newer authors a chance not only for a writing credit, but also to learn how to promote their work.

Even if you are not interested in writing the short form, seeing how it is put together can help you strengthen skills for longer efforts. With a short story, characters, setting, and mood must be established quickly, in only a few carefully chosen words. It has to be wrapped up concisely, without leaving loose ends or unsatisfied questions. Those elements are important for novellas and novels, too. Figuring out how to develop a story and keep a reader engaged is a primary focus for shorts.

If you are interested in writing short stories, please consider the Bethlehem Writers Roundtable’s Annual Short Story Contest. This year, submissions must include a holiday element, from Thanksgiving through New Year’s Day. They must be 2000 words or less and submitted as provided in the description of rules. An entry fee of $15 is required for each submission. The top awards are: First Place, $200 and publication in the Bethlehem Writers Group’s anthology Season’s Readings; Second Place, $100 and publication in the Bethlehem Writers Group’s online quarterly, the Bethlehem Writers Roundtable; and Third Place, $50 and publication in the Bethlehem Writers Roundtable.

Maybe the best news about the contest is that this year’s celebrity judge is Barb Goffman. Here’s a link with an interview where Barb talks about the most appealing aspect of writing short stories, how her careers as a journalist and lawyer have influenced her writing, what some of the most frequent mistakes she sees writers make, and what’s her best advice for submitting to an anthology or contest.

Start you New Year right: reading and writing shorts!

Mystery! Suspense! Thriller!

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When I pitched my first book to a publisher, I described it as a mystery. “Tell me about it,” said the acquisitions editor. After hearing the the storyline, she asked to see the full manuscript and gave me her card.

 Glancing at the card, I noticed that the publisher she represented specialized in romance novels. I repeated that the book I had written was a mystery.

“Sounds like romance is a substantial part of it,” she countered. “Send the manuscript and let us decide.”

Long story short, her company published The Body Business as a Romantic Suspense novel. Thus began my initiation into the wacky world of genre madness and the marketing issues that plagued the book for the duration of the publishing contract.

Fast forward to the day the contract ended. At last, I had more control over how, when, and where the book was advertised.

Thankfully, the new edition took off and led to the launch of the Samantha Newman Mystery Series. As published authors know, trying to slide your novel into the perfect preset niche that book retailers and other marketers require can be daunting. My books tend to cross genres, so picking a single category was like aiming a fistful of darts at one teeny tiny target and hoping the right dart would hit the bullseye.

Mystery? Thriller? Suspense? Which one suits the stories best?

Here’s a simple way to differentiate them according to best-selling, multi-award winning author Hank Phillippi Ryan: “I always think a mystery is ‘who-done-it?’ A thriller is ‘stop it before it happens again.’ And suspense is ‘what’s going on here?’”

These simple guidelines help me define the books in my series, even though each one fits into a different category.

Reviewers describe The Body Business as a “roller-coaster ride” and a “page-turner.” In other words, it reads like a thriller. As for The Body Next Door, some reviewers have called it a cozy. Like a cozy, there’s humor and a quirky character or two, but the absence of cats, crafts, or a charming village could risk the wrath of traditional cozy fans. It’s also been described as “full of suspense,” which is how I wrote it, straight-up.

Romance runs through the series as a subplot, due to my fiercely independent-minded main character, who continues to deflect the happy-ever-after ending romance readers crave. The romance continues into the next book, but the main plot is a true who-done-it.

To label a book as a mystery, suspense novel, or thriller is purely a marketing game. What an author really cares about is that people enjoy reading it. When our readers share a book they really like with their friends, they can describe it however they want.

Readers, do you rely on a bookseller’s categories to choose a book?

Writers, have you struggled with labels, too? Tell us about it.

Gay Yellen is the award-winning author of the Samantha Newman Mystery Series, including The Body Business, The Body Next Door, and the upcoming Body in the News.