Today, I bring a double treat to the Gang, with S. Lee (Sandy) Manning and J.B. (Jim) Manning, award-winning writers who bill themselves as “A Killing Couple” for a couple of good reasons.
One, they’re married. And two, the award-winning books they write include a few murder victims along the way.
Jim’s books are chock-full of entertaining craziness, while Sandy’s tales are chilling and thrilling.
I am delighted that they agreed to tell us more, in their own words:
We are a couple, but we only kill in our books – hopefully in both senses of the word.
We write thrillers. Not together, at least not so far, because we have very different sensibilities.
Jim writes hilarious action adventures, wild romps with wacky over-the-top characters.
His latest, The Kingdom of Hatch, features a disillusioned attorney who flees the craziness of Manhattan for the peace of the Northeast Kingdom of Vermont only to find trouble in paradise. Hilarity ensues.
Sandy writes serious thrillers with troubled characters. Her Kolya Petrov spy series explores themes of betrayal and difficult moral choices, and her latest, Deadly Choice, involves a mother seeking revenge for her daughter’s death.
Though we write separately and in different parts of the house, we share many components of the writing world.
We attend conferences together. We do appearances and book talks together. Neither would think of sending a novel out without the other reading it. We bounce ideas off each other; we read and comment on each other’s work.
Writing has brought us closer together, even as we maintain our distinct styles and spaces.
The emotional component is even more important. Writing can be a lonely and sometimes frustrating pursuit. Since we both experience the ups and the downs, we can understand what the other is going through. We encourage each other when writing or the writing world gets difficult.
Is there jealousy or competition?
Maybe a little. But we’ll live with it. We’ve cheered for each other’s awards—Jim’s debut novel, Richter the Mighty, won the 2023 Silver Falchion for Best Comic Action Novel, and Sandy’s Bloody Soil won the 2023 best genre novel from Independent Publishers of New England—even when both of us were up for an award but didn’t win.
We’ve recently embarked on a new joint venture together.
It’s a YouTube channel called “A Killing Couple on the Prowl,” where we explore interesting, intriguing, or weird people, places, and things, using our backgrounds in journalism. So far, we’ve interviewed sixteen authors at Killer Nashville and at Bouchercon, to get the inside scoop on their different views of the writing experiences. We visited a town in Quebec, Canada and a library that straddles two countries. At a taco restaurant, we enjoyed great food and threw axes. (Actually, Jim threw an axe; Sandy kind of just dropped hers.)
We haven’t gone viral. Yet. Hopefully, we’ll continue to expand our audiences, for our books AND for our videos. In the meantime, we’re having fun together. In the scheme of things, maybe that’s what matters.
So, readers, there you have it: two accomplished writers offering laughs and thrills. Thanks guys, for sitting in on The Stiletto Gang today!
J.B. Manning’s debut novel, Richter The Mighty, won the Killer Nashville Silver Falchion Award for Best Comic Action Novel of 2023. His second novel, The Kingdom of Hatch, launched on September 25, 2024 from Encircle Publications. In prior lives, he was an attorney in New Jersey and New York, a college professor teaching English literature, and a newspaper reporter in Tampa, St. Petersburg, and New Orleans.
S. Lee Manning is the author of the Kolya Petrov international thriller series: Trojan Horse, Nerve Attack, and Bloody Soil. All three were finalists for Silver Falchions. Bloody Soil won best genre novel of 2023 from Independent Publishers of New England. Her stand alone, Deadly Choice, launched in September from Encircle Publications. Formerly, she was an attorney, a high school English teacher, and a magazine editor.
S. Lee and J.B. live in Vermont with their very talky cats, Dmitri and Xiao.
Gay Yellen is the award-winning author of The Samantha Newman Mystery Series: The Body Business, The Body Next Door, and The Body in the News.
Killing it Together
/in Author Life, Book Clubs/by Gay YellenToday, I bring a double treat to the Gang, with S. Lee (Sandy) Manning and J.B. (Jim) Manning, award-winning writers who bill themselves as “A Killing Couple” for a couple of good reasons.
One, they’re married. And two, the award-winning books they write include a few murder victims along the way.
Jim’s books are chock-full of entertaining craziness, while Sandy’s tales are chilling and thrilling.
I am delighted that they agreed to tell us more, in their own words:
We are a couple, but we only kill in our books – hopefully in both senses of the word.
We write thrillers. Not together, at least not so far, because we have very different sensibilities.
Jim writes hilarious action adventures, wild romps with wacky over-the-top characters.
His latest, The Kingdom of Hatch, features a disillusioned attorney who flees the craziness of Manhattan for the peace of the Northeast Kingdom of Vermont only to find trouble in paradise. Hilarity ensues.
Sandy writes serious thrillers with troubled characters. Her Kolya Petrov spy series explores themes of betrayal and difficult moral choices, and her latest, Deadly Choice, involves a mother seeking revenge for her daughter’s death.
Though we write separately and in different parts of the house, we share many components of the writing world.
We attend conferences together. We do appearances and book talks together. Neither would think of sending a novel out without the other reading it. We bounce ideas off each other; we read and comment on each other’s work.
Writing has brought us closer together, even as we maintain our distinct styles and spaces.
The emotional component is even more important. Writing can be a lonely and sometimes frustrating pursuit. Since we both experience the ups and the downs, we can understand what the other is going through. We encourage each other when writing or the writing world gets difficult.
Is there jealousy or competition?
Maybe a little. But we’ll live with it. We’ve cheered for each other’s awards—Jim’s debut novel, Richter the Mighty, won the 2023 Silver Falchion for Best Comic Action Novel, and Sandy’s Bloody Soil won the 2023 best genre novel from Independent Publishers of New England—even when both of us were up for an award but didn’t win.
We’ve recently embarked on a new joint venture together.
It’s a YouTube channel called “A Killing Couple on the Prowl,” where we explore interesting, intriguing, or weird people, places, and things, using our backgrounds in journalism. So far, we’ve interviewed sixteen authors at Killer Nashville and at Bouchercon, to get the inside scoop on their different views of the writing experiences. We visited a town in Quebec, Canada and a library that straddles two countries. At a taco restaurant, we enjoyed great food and threw axes. (Actually, Jim threw an axe; Sandy kind of just dropped hers.)
We haven’t gone viral. Yet. Hopefully, we’ll continue to expand our audiences, for our books AND for our videos. In the meantime, we’re having fun together. In the scheme of things, maybe that’s what matters.
So, readers, there you have it: two accomplished writers offering laughs and thrills. Thanks guys, for sitting in on The Stiletto Gang today!
J.B. Manning’s debut novel, Richter The Mighty, won the Killer Nashville Silver Falchion Award for Best Comic Action Novel of 2023. His second novel, The Kingdom of Hatch, launched on September 25, 2024 from Encircle Publications. In prior lives, he was an attorney in New Jersey and New York, a college professor teaching English literature, and a newspaper reporter in Tampa, St. Petersburg, and New Orleans.
S. Lee Manning is the author of the Kolya Petrov international thriller series: Trojan Horse, Nerve Attack, and Bloody Soil. All three were finalists for Silver Falchions. Bloody Soil won best genre novel of 2023 from Independent Publishers of New England. Her stand alone, Deadly Choice, launched in September from Encircle Publications. Formerly, she was an attorney, a high school English teacher, and a magazine editor.
S. Lee and J.B. live in Vermont with their very talky cats, Dmitri and Xiao.
Special Guest – Barbara Barrett
/in Guest Blogger, Uncategorized/by Mary Lee Ashfordby Sparkle Abbey
Today we welcome long-time friend and fellow mystery author, Barbara Barrett to the blog. She is chatting about her latest release, Murder on the Court, which is the second book in her Unscripted Detective series. But first she shares a bit about the television series Parenthood and why she found it to be a great study in character development. Take it away, Barbara…
I watch a lot of television. Even while I’m writing. Bad habit I developed as a teen doing homework. I don’t apologize. I learn a lot from the medium. Recently, I binged Parenthood, which originally aired from 2010-2015. I’m hooked on the Braverman family: the Baby Boomer parents, their four kids and significant others and their offspring. They spoke their minds, sometimes on top of each other; they meddled in each other’s lives; and their love for each other got them through the worst life had to offer.
Fortunately, I was by myself when I watched the finale in the sixth season. It tore me up.
Each character was well-defined and different from the others. Some were likeable. A couple (the father and one of the daughters) I wanted to shake some sense into when they inserted their opinions into the others’ lives. One experienced breast cancer, and her story took me back twenty-two years to my own experience, especially the part about losing her hair.
I’ve been justifying the time spent with this family by telling myself it was an incredible study in character development, which a writer can always use
What have I learned that I can share with you?
This is probably the most powerful lesson learned because it challenges the reader to revise the opinion they’ve already formed about a character. It can be jolting, because we all like our heroes. We don’t like to see them do or say anything negative, but these are the actions and qualities that make them human. And that is the bottom line in character development.
Some characters didn’t even realize they were stepping out of bounds when they assumed they knew best what another character should do. Assumptions were further ramped up when the character doesn’t even realize they were interfering. For the writer, though, situations like this are ripe for exploiting human problems dealing with each other.
Sometimes a character not only assumed they knew best, they acted on that opinion without asking permission or checking with those affected. In these instances, as the reader we know trouble is on the horizon. These situations raise the suspense as we wait for the next shoe to fall.
Just as I was ready to write off a character that didn’t appeal to me, they did something nice, something I didn’t expect. That surprise forced me to reevaluate how I felt about that character. Readers like to pigeonhole characters because that helps understand those characters, and positive actions we weren’t expecting for us to reconsider those pigeonholes.
The husband came home from work early because he wanted to surprise his wife recovering from breast cancer with a gift. But all he succeeded in doing was to throw her off her routine, catching her in her most vulnerable moment when she thought she was alone. So she took offense at the gift and he didn’t understand. He came home early. She wasn’t ready to see him. And out of the best of intentions came conflict. And conflict builds interesting, memorable characters.
Great character insights! And here’s a little bit about Barbara’s background and an overview of Murder on the Court, Barbara’s latest book.
Barbara Barrett writes the Unscripted Detective Mystery series. Murder on the Court, which is out now, is the second book in the series. She has previously written the Nailed It Home Reno Mysteries series (seven books) and the Mah Jongg Mystery series (nine books). She has also published eleven contemporary romance novels and two novellas. Degrees include a BA from the University of Iowa and an MA from Drake University. She previously worked for the State of Iowa HR system. She resides in Iowa and Minnesota. Married, she has two adult children, eight grandchildren and two great grandchildren.
No good deed goes unpunished, as television star Marla Dane learns the hard way. The recently fired TV detective, trying to figure out her next move at her sister’s Minnesota condo, reluctantly agrees to sub as Water Girl at a weekend pickleball match. Which makes her the first suspect of many when the team captain turns up dead.
Eloise Wallace, owner of a local PR company, will never receive the title Boss of the Year. She’s dragged her staff, her old college roommate, and even her ex-husband and ex-employees onto her pickleball team. No wonder their success on the court is so sad. They all have reasons for wanting her dead, and Marla and former cop Rex Alcorn are enlisted to figure out who poisoned her.
As Marla’s sister Kitty distracts them with a new obsession, pie baking, Marla and Rex find their suspects crusty and evasive. The victim excelled at making everyone around her miserable, so what did the killer have to gain by staying in her life — or ensuring her death? The answer may be more toxic than either of them bargained for.
Murder on the Court is available at
Amazon
Kindle
BN
Kobo
Google Play
Apple Books
Thanks for joining us today, Barbara. We loved Murder on the Court and we look forward to reading the next installment and finding out what Marla is up to next!
Clicking Our Heels – Challenges Being a Female Writer
/in Author Life, Clicking Our Heels, Mystery, Racism, Writing and the Arts/by Stiletto GangClicking Our Heels – Challenges Being a Female Writer
Sisters in Crime was founded when Sara Paretsky and other female mystery writers saw a lack of parity between male and female authors. A later advertising slogan claims: “You’ve Come a Long Way Baby.” But let’s look at reality. What has been one of your challenges in being a female mystery writer, and how have you dealt with it?
Donalee Moulton – Ironically, perhaps, the challenge I find we face as female mystery writers is convincing agents and publishers we are not all the same. As writers, we bring our own voice to the conversation and that voice is singular regardless of our gender, our age, our place of residence.
Mary Lee Ashford – One of the challenges with being a female mystery writer (and especially an older female) is that you are constantly dealing with assumptions. I have to say that I think it’s gotten better and organizations like Sisters in Crime have helped. But it’s often still a challenge to be taken seriously.
Anita Carter – Balancing the day job, family, marriage and writing. There are many times I feel pulled in all directions. I’m sure that’s not only indicative of female mystery writers, but probably just writers in general.
Debra Sennefelder – Honestly, I’ve dealt with challenges so many other authors have dealt with like getting an agent, getting an editor to fall in love with my book idea. I kept working hard. I don’t recall a situation where being a female was an added challenge to my pursuit of writing. Thanks to all those who have come before me for that.
Donnell Ann Bell – Because I’m a woman I have a tendency to put other people’s needs before my own. If I am to grow this career, I need to develop a bit of selfishness. Not rudeness or lack of consideration, you understand, but an ability to know my own limits and to realize I can’t help everybody as much as I want to.
Gay Yellen – When my first book was published, a few acquaintances confessed they wouldn’t be reading it because they were only interested in reading non-fiction or “literary” fiction. Their genre prejudice was a shock I soon got over. As for being female, I’m aware of the historic bias of mainstream publishers which made it difficult for women writers to achieve contract parity. Change is slow, but it’s happening, I hope. The antidote is to write the best book I can and, hopefully, earn validation that my work is worthy.
Debra H. Goldstein – Breaking out of being stereotyped in my work.
Lois Winston – Trust me, it was worse being a female romance author, especially when my husband’s male coworkers would ask how I research my sex scenes. (This occurred every year at the company holiday party after they’d downed one too many egg nogs!) Now I worry the FBI will come knocking because I’m researching different ways to kill people. I employed sarcasm to deal with the former, and I keep my fingers crossed to deal with the latter.
T.K. Thorne – Women writers in the genre struggle to get equal recognition, reviews, etc. as documented by groups like Sisters in Crime. When I started writing (several decades ago) I was keenly aware of this, and I think it fed into my decision to write under my initials (T.K).
Dru Ann Love – So far I have not experienced any challenges.
Bethany Maines – I think there are loads of female mystery writers and in general no one even blinks. I think it’s when the genre starts to skew more toward thriller or crime and away from cozy that readers might start to think “those are masculine!” But I think that the rise of indie publishing has sort of stomped down a lot of the genre/gender barriers. It’s one of the great benefits of indie publishing that I don’t think enough people are looking at.
Barbara J. Eikmeier – I’m still working full time so always my biggest challenge is carving out time. Not just for the writing but also the agent search, finding first readers and follow up on so many little things.
Saralyn Richard – Ironically, I detest violence of any sort and faint at the sight of blood, yet I love mysteries. Sometimes my characters put me in uncomfortable situations, and I have to write my way through.
Writers Without Borders
/in Author Life, Book events, Brooke Terpening, Mysteries, Mystery/by Brooke TerpeningOf the many reasons I love living in Colorado, the Jaipur Literature Festival is one of them. Wait a minute. Jaipur? Isn’t that in India? And they have a literature festival? Yes, they do. Known simply as JLF, it’s the world’s largest, un-ticketed event free to all, no matter how rich or poor.
The motto of the festival is “Stories Unite Us.” Geographically, Boulder, Colorado is 7,825 miles from Jaipur, but each year JLF brings the city a wealth of international writers, humanitarians, business people, artists, and philosophers. Boulder is one of five locations in the U.S. to host the event, much more convenient for me to participate in this feast of ideas.
This year, JLF Colorado in Boulder was awash in brightly colored banners and saris. Vibrant music and tantalizing smells of Indian food filled the air along with animated discourse. Among the speakers were local authors David Heska Wanbli Weiden and Margaret Coel discussing the crossroads of crime—a topic near and dear to my writing.
I was fortunate to attend a talk by the famed writer and JLF founder Namita Gokhale. A journalist and award-winning author, she recalled growing up in the mountains in India with her grandmother, who believed a tablespoon of brandy was the cure to all illness. Many of her works dealt with how a culture’s mythology defines behavior. When asked what was a writer’s responsibility, she replied, “A writer’s responsibility is to be irresponsible.”
A simple statement, which at first, struck me as an oxymoron. However, the more I consider her viewpoint, the more I agree. As writers, we need to challenge our strongly held cultural myths, to take risks, to shake our own convictions. That is the true power that all art wields.
For more information on JLF, please see https://jlflitfest.org.
A Virus Changed Us—T.K. Thorne
/in T.K. Thorne/by TK ThorneCovid-19 changed us.
Our grandchildren, or those who were very young during it, might forget all about it by the time they are grown, as most of my generation has little knowledge of the 1918 flu pandemic and the fact that President Woodrow Wilson tried to suppress news of that devastating because he thought it might lower moral during war time (WWI). Spain, being neutral in the war, reported their cases, hence, the pandemic was misleadingly dubbed the “Spanish” flu.
We, who lived (and are living) through Covid, have memories of the terrible stress of those early months—watching freezer trucks lined up in NYC to hold bodies, disinfecting our groceries, not being able to see or touch a newborn grandchild or elderly loved ones, and dealing with the seclusion of our home santuaries/prisons. Grocery stores had a strict limit on how many people could be in the store at a time. We tried to stay six feet away from other humans. Those who worked from home had to learn new technology and simultaneously deal with children who would normally be at day care or in school. People were dying by the thousands; jobs and housing were often hanging by a thread. It felt like the end of the world.
Screenshot
I dealt with the stress by learning to swing a mattock (a pick/hoe combo tool) and attacking the wisteria invasion in my back yard, then pulling tiny plants from the moss along my brick walkway, rescuing two horses, and creating a small pond in my yard. I learned Tai Chi from Internet videos, started watercolor painting, and growing vegetables with my flowers. Fortunately, I was working on a non-fiction writing project (Behind the Magic Curtain: Secrets, Spies, and Unsung White Allies of Birmingham’s Civil Rights Days) and had a lot of research and editing to do—because my creative writing muse was on ice.
During the hay days of Covid, people relished the opportunity to get outside, to breath the healing air exhaled by forest or gardens. Passing someone on a path or sidewalk (even at a distance), we felt an instant connection, happy to see a person of any sort, perhaps the same way those who lived in isolated villages throughout the world have always eagerly welcomed visitors.
Friends who live on their boat in the Caribbean during non-hurricane months told us that during Covid, they were “stuck” near a small island with five other boaters with whom they developed close relationships. The island was closed, but the owner of a small restaurant on land snuck them groceries and took in laundry.
My cousins in the suburbs north of Atlanta began gathering weekly in someone’s yard with their neighbors for a drink and conversation, a ritual they continue.
Today, tending my garden (and two fish—meet “Blue” and “Golda Meir”) and horses, practicing martial arts, and painting give me joy and peace. I look at the land around us with a different eye, thinking about whether and how we could supplement our food if needed. My writing Muse woke up after throwing water in her face and shaking her, and I finished a new novel.
The changes are internal and external. The downtown of our nearest major city has transmuted. More people live there; less people work there. Working from home has left commercial buildings across the country empty but given millions of people options about where they live and how they work. We are still adjusting. I hope we are also remembering.
Today, despite all the scary stuff going on, I have more faith that people will adjust. What a strange gift from a pandemic. If you think about it, nature regularly reminds us what we are capable of.
I write about what moves me, following a flight path of curiosity, reflection, and imagination.
Check out my (fiction and nonfiction) books at TKThorne.com
What’s on Your Nightstand?
/in Author Life, amateur sleuth mysteries, characters, Cozy Mysteries, crafting cozies, Historical Mystery, History, Lois Winston, Mystery, Settings, Summer Reads, women sleuths/by Lois WinstonI’m an extremely eclectic reader. There are a few genres I don’t read because they turn me off. My apologies to the vampire and werewolf fans out there, but I just don’t get the allure of falling for someone who wants to drain me of my blood or sup on my entire body.
I used to read a wide range of science fiction and fantasy, everything from The Lord of the Rings Trilogy to Arthur C. Clark’s Space Odyssey series to the Harry Potter books. At one point in my life, I devoured books by Leon Uris and James Mitchener, then Michael Crichton.
These days, though, besides reading books by other cozy authors, I find myself drawn to novels featuring historical people, women’s fiction, literary fiction, and books that cross genres. For my post today, I thought I’d tell you about some of my recent reads, all in different genres, and what I enjoyed about them.
The Unexpected Mrs. Polifax by Dorothy Gilman
The Dutch House by Ann Patchett
11/22/63 by Stephen King
The Colony Club by Shelley Noble
What’s on your nightstand? Post a comment for a chance to win a promo code for a free download of any one of the first ten audiobooks in my 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. 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.
Short Mystery Fiction: Events and Publications
/in Anthologies, Paula Gail Benson, Short Stories/by Paula Bensonby Paula Gail Benson
This past weekend, I thoroughly enjoyed Desert Sleuths’ WriteNow virtual conference. One panel had short mystery fiction experts Barb Goffman (whose short stories have been nominated for 43 awards, winning 3 Agathas, 2 Macavities, 1 Anthony, and 1 Silver Falchion, and who received this year’s Golden Derringer Lifetime Achievement Award from the Short Mystery Fiction Society), Michael Bracken (author of almost 1,300 stories and editor of 32 anthologies), John Connor (editor and publisher of Murderous Ink Press and Crimeucopia), and moderator Jay Hartman (a 30 year publishing veteran, who previously served as Editor-in-Chief for Untreed Reads and now operates Misti Media). They gave an excellent overview of the craft and business of writing short crime fiction.
Janie’s Got a Gun: Crime Fiction
is available for pre-order and will be released November 8, 2024. The anthology is inspired by the Music of Aerosmith, a rock and roll icon for fifty years that has announced it will no longer tour. This anthology is edited by Michael Bracken and features stories by the following sixteen crime fiction authors, Ed Ridgley, Bill Baber, Eve Fisher. Avram Lavinsky, John C. Bruening, Jeffrey Marks, Mary Dutta, Tom Mead, Steve Liskow, Joseph S. Walker, Adam Meyer, John M. Floyd, Leone Ciporin, M.E. Proctor, Tom Milani and Jim Winter. With all these extraordinary writers, this anthology is a must read.
Guest Blogger: Winona Kent
/in Author Life, author promotion, characters, Guest Blogger, Uncategorized/by Stiletto GangThe Stiletto Gang welcomes Winona Kent as our guest blogger today as she celebrates the upcoming release of her musical mystery Bad Boy. Winona Kent is the current Chair of the Crime Writers of Canada, and is also an active member of Sisters in Crime-Canada West. She lives in New Westminster, BC with her husband, and a concerning number of disobedient houseplants, many of which were rescued from her apartment building’s compost bin after being abandoned by previous owners.
CLIMBING PRIMROSE HILL
Most of my Jason Davey stories take place in England. Jason himself is English, it’s where I was born, and it’s the country I’ve always been happiest writing about. So when I flew over to London in 2022, I knew there were a few locations I really had to visit—not just for old time’s sake, but for practical research for my next mystery, Bad Boy, which was then in its earliest planning stages.
Even if you don’t recognize Primrose Hill’s name, I guarantee you’ve seen it in countless films and tv episodes. Every time a character ends up in a place that offers a high-up panoramic east-to-west view of London’s church spires and skyscrapers, 95% guaranteed, they’re standing (or sitting) on Primrose Hill. (The other 5% are probably at Parliament Hill, which is a little bit further to the north, on the edge of Hampstead Heath.)
Not uncoincidentally, I spent the first three years of my life in a flat which is an eight-minute walk from Primrose Hill. My mum used to wheel me there often, in my pram and then in my push-chair. After we moved to Canada, I kept faint pictures of it in my mind (I’m apparently one of those exceptional people who can remember back to when they were aged two, and occasionally, even earlier.) And each time we returned to England to see relatives, there was that obligatory pilgrimage to reinforce those memories.
No Ashes Here
My mum died in 2021 (aged 95). The primary purpose of my visit in March 2022 was to scatter her ashes. I won’t tell you where in London my sister and I left a small part of her, because, while not technically illegal, it is very highly discouraged. I will add that we had a little ceremony that involved a blanket (to sit on, and also a handy cover); some gin (mum’s favourite tipple, good for encouraging absorption into the ground); lots of handfuls of tufted grass; and several startled earthworms.
There is a place in Bad Boy, near the end, where Jason has the opportunity to scatter the ashes of a dearly departed friend. I thought about sending him to the same spot where my sister and I nearly drowned the worms, but thought the better of it, and (spoiler alert) sent him to Level 72 at the top of The Shard, instead.
Kite Flyers, Bike Riders, and Macaws
It’s quite a steep hike up the paved path to the summit of Primrose Hill (64 metres, or 210 feet). On the day we visited, there were people flying kites, a few kids on bikes, and there were two guys exercising three brilliantly coloured red, blue and yellow macaws. I’d never seen macaws up close before—they’re immense!—and apparently these ones are quite famous—if you pop onto YouTube you can see videos which feature them. They’re entirely free-flying, but they don’t ever abandon their owners. They always come back. We asked how this could be, and were told that they knew who was going to be feeding them their dinner.
I thought, how absolutely marvellous. The top of Primrose Hill in London’s probably the last place in the world you’d expect to see huge tropical birds flying around free. And, since I was in the middle of researching Bad Boy, I wondered if I might include them—as well as the bike riders and the kite flyers—in the story.
Of course, I did. And in quite a spectacular way, too. In the novel, Jason finds himself at the summit of Primrose Hill, following clues which will, presumably, lead him to a collection of stolen manuscripts by the well-known British composer, Sir Edward Elgar. There’s a bit of subterfuge and some clever diversions (after all, there’s a nasty Russian who’s also after the collection, as well as a notorious Soho crime lord). And those macaws prove to be highly effective when chaos is called for.
Chalk Farm Murderer?
Oh, and I also managed to work in the block of flats—and, indeed, the individual apartment—where I spent my first three years, just up the road from Chalk Farm tube station. Different chapter and no macaws. Just a beautiful art-deco lobby in a posh building constructed in the 1930s, with a porter guarding the front door, and an inscrutable woman living upstairs who may or may not be a murderer. She’s highly connected to London’s musical past, anyway…a fact which isn’t lost on Jason, who is, himself, a professional guitarist with a permanent gig at a Soho jazz club—and an amateur sleuth, on a bespoke basis only, when his skills are called upon to solve just such a mystery.
Bad Boy, Book 5 in The Jason Davey Mysteries, is released on September 26, 2024. You can read the first two chapters on my website: http://www.winonakent.com/badboy.html and you can find it on Amazon (ebook and paperback) here: https://www.amazon.com/stores/author/B001KDWQ9E
The Stiletto Gang wishes Winona Kent the best for her new release!
Remember to check out books from the Stiletto Gang as well on the Our Books page: https://www.thestilettogang.com/books/
FROM HUNG OUT TO DIE
/in Mystery, Uncategorized/by donalee MoultonI’m running to Norm’s office now, tirade at the ready. The only thing that can prevent the outside security system from working, aside from someone hacking into our server, is if the door doesn’t latch firmly behind the entering employee. A loud audible click lets you know the system is armed, and then you can move forward. Employees are trained to wait for the click; if they don’t, an alarm will sound for two minutes, albeit relatively soft as alarms go. But at this time of day, no one is around to hear it.
It must be Norm’s fault, which may mean the system has only been down for minutes if he just arrived. It’s a question I’m tossing at our comptroller even before I’ve stepped inside his office.
Norm doesn’t answer.
He can’t because he’s swinging from a rope tossed over an open beam (the designer’s brilliant idea), a noose tight around his neck. He’s blue, but not as blue as I believe a dead man should look. This poses a dilemma. I need a few moments to assess my options and identify the safest and most effective course of action. However, I am aware I don’t have the luxury of time. I’ve seen enough Law and Order episodes to know if you don’t call the cops immediately, the delay in time will get noticed, and you’re more likely to find yourself on the suspect list.
Dammit. I’m a suspect.
This realization hits at the same time I’m dialing 911. The perky young woman on the other end asks how she can help.
“I’m in the administrative office of the Canadian Cannabis Corp., and my comptroller appears to have hanged himself. He is dangling from a noose and turning blue.”
“Sir, I have radioed for police; they are on their way,” she says, inhaling to continue with her script.
I cut her off. “Look, I know I shouldn’t disturb anything, but Norm may be alive. I’m going to grab his legs, so the noose doesn’t cut into his windpipe.”
Great, now she knows I understand how hanging kills someone.
It doesn’t matter. I’m going to reduce the pressure around Norm’s neck. His feet are tucked into the crease in my left arm, his testicles on par with my bottom lip. I’m not a small man, 6’2”, and I work out regularly, so I can maintain this, albeit a distasteful posture, for quite some time.
I hear sirens, and it hits me. The police won’t gain access to the building without destroying expensive technology. I explain this to the 911 operator. She is not that interested in the cost of our tech.
“I’m going to get someone to open the gate for the police,” I tell her. “That means I’ll have to hang up. I’m on the third floor of the admin building, inside the only office with a light on. My name is Riel Brava. I’m the CEO.”
Book Trailers
By Saralyn Richard
I’m not sure when book trailers became “a thing,” but now the internet is flooded with video teasers that make prospective readers want to buy books in all genres. Some are professionally done; others are created with easy-to-use software, such as Canva, MovieMaker, and VistaCreate.
What I like about successful book trailers is that they crystallize the essence of the book into short, pithy artistic statements. The selected text, graphics, and video make the book description come alive with aesthetics, movement, action, sound, and emotional appeals.
The cover is hot, but the trailer is even hotter.
The advertising potential is vast, and, assuming the trailer is widely viewed, it becomes a valuable marketing tool for the book.
A lesser realized, but no less important outcome is what the trailer does for the author. In writing seven novels and one children’s book, I’ve found it easier to write a hundred-thousand-word work of fiction than to write a book description or blurb. Condensing the book into its essential parts and highlighting its purpose is extremely difficult and frustrating. What to include? What to leave out, because it’s a spoiler? What to emphasize?
Brevity may be the soul of wit, but for a novelist, brevity can suffocate. Figuring out what to put into a book trailer, both in images and words, simplifies the task. While writing is a left-brain activity, movie-making is right-brain.
Even if the trailer is “hired out,” the author must give the artist the basic information: characters, setting, and plot. If the book is a mystery, the trailer needs to capture the elements of suspense, suspects, clues, and mood, all provided by the author
. The trailer requires a script and storyboard, and a great hook at the beginning.
The video for my book, CRYSTAL BLUE MURDER, is an example of a trailer that helps the audience get a feel for the book. It also helps me clarify the important plot points and messages of the book. You can currently view the trailer here:
Crystal Blue Murder Book Trailer v2
Does it make you want to read the book? Do book trailers in general appeal to you when you are deciding what to read next? I love hearing from you!
Saralyn