Tag Archive for: #Sarah Blair mysteries

Oh Where, Oh Where has my launch gone? by Debra H. Goldstein

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Oh Where, Oh Where has my
launch gone? by Debra H. Goldstein

June 28 is the release date from Kensington of my fifth
Sarah Blair novel, Five Belles Too Many. As I write this blog, three days
before it will appear on the Stiletto Gang blog, I have yet to confirm a physical
launch location (which would be in mid-July). That’s unusual for me.

 

When One Taste Too Many, the first book in the series, was
published, there was a table at Barnes & Noble at the Summit in Birmingham
and not only did I have the initial signing there, but two nights later, I had
an indie signing at Little Professor. Both were successes and the events were repeated
when Two Bites Too Many was released. And then, a few weeks later, after I had additional
live signings in Alabama, as well as in California, Arizona, Georgia, Tennessee,
Texas, and Colorado, the world shut down because of Covid.

 

We weren’t sophisticated with virtual panels and signings
during the height of Two Bites Too Many’s

release, but we definitely were by
the time Three Treats Too Many and Four Cuts Too Many were published. I crisscrossed
the country doing zoom presentations. It wasn’t the same as being able to sign
books live for readers, but it did give me an opportunity to partner with
writers I adore from other parts of the country for the same presentation. I
was sure by the time, Five Belles was published, I’d be able to have a launch
similar to my first ones, but that isn’t the case.

 

B&N in my area of the world has not returned to live signings.
Our indies are beginning to do events, but with certain health protocols still
being followed. I am in limbo. I’m ready to meet fans in person again, but I’m
not jumping through hoops to make the live signing happen. Instead, I’m taking
a step back and watching and waiting, figuring the official live launch may be
replaced by smaller bookstore gatherings in July and August.

 

In one way, it is a shame. Five Belles Too Many is my
second favorite book in the series. In it, Sarah is forced to chaperone her
mother when Maybelle is a finalist to win the perfect Southern wedding. When
the reality TV show’s producer is found dead with Sarah’s greatest nemesis
kneeling by the body, Sarah must find the true killer before any more of the
contestants or crew are permanently eliminated. 

Because of the humor and nature
of the book it would be fun to interact with a live audience, but that’s not to
be. In the meantime, I’m
going ahead with virtual plans, including a takeover of Joanna Slan’s Readers
on June 20 and an incredibly special Summer Blast/New Release Party with three
other cozy authors, Terry Ambrose, Maggie Toussaint/Volana Jones, and Nancy J.
Cohen, on June 28 from 7-8 EST. I’ll also be participating in a Great Escapes
Tour (June 17-30) and visiting other blogs including The Wickeds, Jungle Red
Writers, Chicks on the Case, Dru’s Book Musings, and Mystery Lovers Kitchen. The
fun part of the parties and blogs for readers is that there will be plenty of
prizes to be won. I’ll also be offering additional prizes if you are a newsletter
subscriber (you can sign up on my website – https://www.DebraHGoldstein.com ).

 

For more chances to read reviews, win prizes, and find out
how Five Belles is taking off, don’t forget to visit me on:

Twitter: @DebraHGoldstein,

Facebook
https://www.facebook.com/DebraHGoldsteinAuthor

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/debrahgoldstein/
, or

Bookbub: https://www.bookbub.com/profile/debra-h-goldstein
.

 

Or, make my day by pre-ordering a copy of Five Belles Too
Many from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, or your favorite indie bookstore. We’ll
call it being part of the silent launch.

 

How do you feel about not having as many live signings? 

Come Read-A-Long with Me

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Come Read-A-Long with Me by
Debra H. Goldstein

I’m excited! Five Belles Too Many, which will be
released on June 28, 2022. In anticipation, I’m throwing a multi-month celebration
virtual Read-A-Long to give readers an opportunity to discuss each of the books
in the Sarah Blair series and to ask this author anything you ever wanted to
know.

 

In March, we discussed One Taste Too Many. The
session was a huge success. Not everyone who was on the Zoom call had read the
book, but it didn’t matter. We talked about concepts, themes, and why I did
certain things without giving away any of the plot spoilers.

 

The next Read-A-Long, on April 19, features the second book
in the series, Two Bites Too Many. Subsequent months will cover the next
books until we pop the cork and celebrate the birth of Five Belles Too Many in
July 2022. To join in the fun email me at DHG@DebraHGoldstein.com to get the
study guide and the zoom link. Put on your calendar:

 

When: April 19 – Two
Bites Too Many

May 17 – Three Treats
Too Many

June 21 – Four Cuts
Too Many

July 19 – Five
Belles Too Many

Time: 7 PM CST/ 8 PM
EST (and you can figure out the rest)      

 

The remainder of the series, Three
Treats Too Many, Four Cuts Too Many, and of course, Five Belles
Too Many, will be our topics for the May, June, and July sessions. The
goal is to have fun and gain a better understanding of these books culminating
in the month when Five Belles is published.

I mentioned above that I am celebrating the journey of the
Sarah Blair series, and I am. I have had a blast writing Sarah, the woman who
is more afraid of the kitchen than murder, but more importantly, it has been a
joy getting to know you, the readers.

 

Want to catch up on Sarah Blair so you’re ready for the big
finish in July? You can pre-order Five Belles. start at the beginning of the
series (Amazon has the e-version of One Taste Too Many on
sale for $1.99) or come in any week you want as the books, while a series, each
standalone. Sarah, RahRah, and Fluffy hope to see you on April 19th to talk about Two Bites Too Many!

F8, F2, and no, they aren’t football commands by Debra H. Goldstein

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F8, F2, and no, they aren’t football commands by Debra H.
Goldstein

I bet I know something you don’t know! It’s something I’m not
even sure the protagonist of the Sarah Blair series I write for Kensington
knows. For those of you who don’t recall, Sarah, as she demonstrated in One
Taste Too Many, the first book in the series, is more frightened of the kitchen
than she is of murder. Although her amateur sleuth skills improve in Two Bites
Too Many, Three Treats Too Many and the upcoming Four Cuts Too Many, the
reality is that she still doesn’t really know the difference between a walk-in
freezer and a regular one or between a butcher’s knife and one used for
de-boning. That’s why I’m certain she doesn’t know what it means when an oven
stove combination flashes F8 or F2.

Sadly, I do.

I say sadly because I learned about each of these flashes
the hard way. My story, and I’m sticking to it, is that a few years ago, I
decided to clean my oven. I locked the door, turned the buttons accordingly,
and waited. Nothing seemed to engage properly, so I flipped the knob to off and
tried to start again. Suddenly, there was a sizzling sound, a slight flash and
everything was silent. The only thing out of

place was the F8 where the time on
the clock had been. I’d blown the brain of my oven. That one took about three
weeks from diagnosis to receipt and installation of the parts.

Recently, I’ve been doing a lot more cooking. Because my
usual fare was getting boring, I decided to try a service that my daughter
uses. For the past five weeks, I’ve ordered 2-4 dinners that come complete…and
luckily the ingredients are labeled because I don’t recognize half of them. My
husband and I have been pleased with the results and actually amazed that most
of the dinners look exactly like the pictures they send as a model for plating.

This is where the F2 comes in. One of the meals was small steaks,
a vegetable, and an au gratin type potato. The instructions called for slicing
the potatoes into thin slices, putting them in a tablespoon of oil on the stovetop,
coating them a bit, and then putting the cast iron frying pan or whatever one
used into the oven to finish them off while the steaks cooked – all at 350
degrees. Well, I don’t have a frying pan that I wanted to put in the oven, so I
took a cookie sheet – put the steaks on one side and the coated potatoes now
topped with some butter on the left and put everything in to bake. There was no
question that the potatoes got done like they should, but the steaks weren’t
the way we were going to want to eat them. They needed more time to cook.

I took the potatoes out, leaving the residue of them on the
cookie sheet, and turned the dial from bake to broil. Only problem, I forgot
the rack was higher than it usually is for broiling. Sitting in my sunroom, I
looked up at the oven and didn’t even need to put on a light to see the flames
coming off the part of the cookie sheet where the potatoes had been. Needless
to say, I put the fire out. As I did, I noticed that where the time is usually
reflected on the stove, it now read F2 – the universal message for the oven is
on fire.

Need I say anymore? Sarah Blair comes by her skills
naturally. Oh, and the steaks – perfectly seared. My husband thought it was one
of the best meals I’d made.  

Recognition, Writing and the Ladies Room

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 Recognition, Writing and the Ladies Room by Debra H. Goldstein

Do we write for recognition? Or, is it something in our
blood that makes it impossible to do anything else?  I’ve heard many people say, “I write because
I have to” or “Even if I never become a New York Times bestseller, I have
stories that need to be told.” These remarks may be true, but let’s face it,
even the shyest among us loves to be recognized.  Of course, there are preferred time and
places to be singled out.

When I was doing my first Sarah Blair book tour for One Taste Too Many, I flew from Alabama to Michigan for
two speaking engagements.  In the waiting
area, I noticed a compact curly white haired woman. Her multi-colored plaid
shirt made her standout from the grey crowd waiting for the plane to load. When
we got on the plane, our eyes met for a moment, but we both looked away.

After we landed, I did the age old action of jumping up,
grabbing my stuff, deplaning and heading for the restroom. As I was coming out
of my stall, she exited the one across from me and said, “Debra?”

“Yes/”

“I’m Becky.” How nice. 
I had no idea who Becky was, but I could tell she believed herself to be
a long lost friend. “I loved that mystery conference in Birmingham.”

Clue number one – she attended Murder in the Magic City in
February. She must have remembered I was a panelist this year. 

“I was sorry to miss that conference with Reed Coleman conference.  I just love that Reed Coleman.”

I hastened to agree with her. While she gushed on about Reed
and his books, I racked my brain trying to remember how we knew each other
while sticking my hands under three different sink soap nozzles before one
finally worked.   Distracted wondering
about some of the people wandering the airport who had been in this bathroom, I
glanced up to see she was already drying her hands.

“You spoke to our book group years ago, before we disbanded.
I liked your Maze in Blue book and your talk was funny.”

 Eureka, now I knew
where we’d met. “If you enjoyed that book, you might like my new one, One Taste Too Many.  It was released a few weeks ago. In fact, that’s why I’m here in Michigan.  I’m doing two book talks and signings”

“Can I get it on my kindle? 

After I replied in the affirmative and pointed out it was
only $3.99 for the e-book, she smiled. “I’ll have to get it. I’m on my way to
my vacation house for three weeks. What did you say the name of the book is?”

“One Taste Too Many.” Thinking like the marketer I
have had to become, I asked: “would you like a bookmark?”

“Oh yes,” was the answer. 
Only problem, she was ready to walk out of the bathroom and my hands
were still under the running water.

“Um, here, let me dry my hands.”

Another woman and I grabbed for the small piece of exposed
paper towel.  I won, but it wasn’t enough
to do the job.  In the meantime, the
other woman got the next two sheets. I finishing the drying process on my
jeans, searched inside my purse for a bookmark, and proudly presented it to
her.  She smiled and slipped it into her
pocket.

We walked out of the bathroom together – a fan and an author
whose only thought was “Now, I know why they say never approach an agent in the
bathroom.”

—-Since then, Two Bites Too Many and Three Treats Too Many have been published. Four Cuts Too Many comes out May 25, 2021, but is already available for pre-sale.  And here’s a secret, Kensington is running One Taste Too Many on various promotions for $1.99 for the e-book —a better price than Becky paid.

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My Little (Southern)
(New England) Town by Barbara Ross and Debra H. Goldstein

It’s axiomatic that settings in cozy mysteries are a part of
the subgenre’s appeal. In the ideal cozy series, the reader mentally moves into
the series setting. People who don’t read cozies often think the towns are
generic, but actually, a setting for a cozy has to specific. Even if the town is fictional, it needs to feel like it could exist for the magic to work.

Debra H. Goldstein
and Barbara Ross both recently
released mystery novels. Debra’s One
Taste Too Many, the debut in her Sarah Blair Mystery series, takes place in
Wheaton, Alabama. Barbara Ross’s Steamed
Open, the seventh in her Maine Clambake Mystery series, takes place in
Busman’s Harbor, Maine.

Recently, Debra and Barb got together to talk about the
differences between their small southern and New England towns.

Barb: First off,
Debra, congratulations on your series debut. So exciting!

Before we dive in, tell the readers something about Wheaton, Alabama.
Is it a real town? Is it near

a bigger metropolitan area?

Debra: Thank
you!  Except for the bridge and river
walk I stole from Wetumpka, Alabama, Wheaton

is a composite Southern town. A center
square houses its Alabama crystalline white marble public

buildings, including
city hall, the library, and the fire and police departments. Standing in the
square, one can turn in three directions to find where most of Wheaton’s five
thousand residents reside. While married, Sarah and Bill lived in a big home on
Main Street, with his mother in the carriage house behind them. The streets in
the fourth direction contain businesses, including the law firm where Sarah
works and the strip center with the restaurant where her twin is employed. There
is a big city fight going on as to whether Main Street should be rezoned as an
entertainment district.

For contrast and excitement, I located Wheaton about fifteen
minutes from Birmingham, the largest city in Alabama. Birmingham has more than
two hundred thousand people and has become a foodie destination


How about Busman’s Harbor? Does it being a tourist town have any impact
on your series?

Barb: Busman’s
Harbor, Maine is also fictional, though it has a lot in common with Boothbay Harbor,
Maine where my husband and I owned a house for many years. As the name
indicates, the town is on the water and the primary occupations are lobstering
and tourism. The populations swells to over 20,000 in the summer, but is only a
little over 2,000 in the off-season. Midcoast Maine is beyond the more
populated southern part of the state, but it’s still a lot more populated than
other parts of Maine

Being a tourist town has a huge impact on the Maine Clambake
Mysteries. My protagonist, Julia Snowden, runs a tourist business, an authentic
Maine clambake. One of the really fun things about writing the series is the
effect the seasons have on the stories. One thing my town has that I imagine
yours doesn’t is big snowstorms. There’s one at the climax of the fifth book, Iced Under.


Does being Alabama-based have any significant effect on your series?

Debra: As you
noted, we don’t get many snowstorms. Every few years, though, we have an ice
storm that completely closes everything and, unfortunately, we have a tornado
alley. Other than the weather, being Alabama based influences my character
portrayal. My protagonist, Sarah Blair, speaks slower and softer than, for
example, a New Yorker. Many residents, like her mother, are colorful story
tellers; all of them take religion, politics, friendship, loyalty, and their
animals very seriously; and, none, except the Sarah we meet in One Taste Too Many, have a problem
looking anyone straight in the eye and saying, “Bless your heart” before
delivering an expression of sympathy or an insult. 

Do your characters reflect your region of the country?

Barb: I’m
laughing because the main regional trait all my characters have in common is
that they don’t feel the need to chat when they run into one another in the
grocery store, and they don’t butt into (or even comment on) each other’s
business, which is occasionally handy when I don’t want Julia to get information
too quickly. My Main-i-est character is Gus, the proprietor of a restaurant and
Julia’s landlord. Gus only serves people who he knows, no tourists. He is based
on a real person who really did that. Julia’s mother comes from a wealthy
summer family, which is another kind of Mainer.

What about the food in your series? Is it regional?

Debra: For dishes
prepared by Chefs Emily, Marcus, or Jane, I incorporate a lot of farm to table
fresh ingredients, but there are some recipes that must be breaded and fried.
Sarah, being allergic to her kitchen, uses as many pre-prepped short-cut foods
and methods as she can find.

Barb: The other
difference to my mind is the food. In addition to the clambake, the recipes in
my books focus on seasonal, local ingredients, so lots of fish, chowder and
wild Maine blueberries.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Barbara Ross is the author of seven Maine Clambake Mysteries. The latest, Steamed Open, was released December 18,
2018. Barbara’s novellas featuring Julia Snowden are included along with
stories by Leslie Meier and Lee Hollis in Eggnog Murder and Yule Log Murder. Barbara and her husband
live in Portland, Maine. Visit her website at http://www.maineclambakemysteries.com

Steamed Open by Barbara Ross

It’s summertime in Busman’s Harbor, Maine, and the clamming
is easy—or it was until a mysterious new neighbor blocks access to the beach,
cutting off the Snowden Family Clambake’s supply. Julia Snowden is just one of many
townspeople angered by Bartholomew Frick’s decision. But which one of them was
angry enough to kill?

Judge Debra H.
Goldstein is the author of One
Taste Too Many, the first of Kensington’s new Sarah

Blair cozy mystery
series. She also wrote Should Have Played
Poker and 2012 IPPY Award winning Maze
in Blue. Her short stories, including Anthony and Agatha nominated “The
Night They Burned Ms. Dixie’s Place,” have appeared in numerous periodicals and
anthologies including Alfred Hitchcock
Mystery Magazine, Black Cat Mystery Magazine, and Mystery Weekly. Find out more about Debra at www.DebraHGoldstein.com

One Taste Too Many by Debra H. Goldstein

Sarah knew starting over would
be messy. But things fall apart completely when her ex drops dead, seemingly
poisoned by her twin’s award-winning rhubarb crisp. Now, with RahRah, her cat,
wanted by the woman who broke up her marriage and Emily wanted by the police
for murder, Sarah needs to figure out the right recipe to crack the case before
time runs out. Unfortunately, for a gal whose idea of good china is floral
paper plates, catching the real killer and living to tell about it could mean
facing a fate worse than death—being in the kitchen!

Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Taste-Many-Sarah-Blair-Mystery/dp/1496719476