Tag Archive for: Sparkle Abbey

Bad to the Bone!

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Is it November already?


This last
week has been jammed packed with activity in Sparkle Abbey’s world. Besides the
typical day job and normal family craziness, book six, The Girl with the Dachshund Tattoo hit the virtual bookshelves. We
knew it was coming, but we didn’t realize it was coming so soon. Not that we’re
complaining!
We’re
really excited about our latest cozy mystery. In The Girl with the Dachshund Tattoo, Mel is tracking a killer in the cutthroat world of dachshund racing. Cheating. Doping. Gambling. Who
knew doxie dashes were surrounded by so much controversy? Certainly not us.

We had a ball researching this book. 








We even attended a
couple of wiener races just to make sure we captured the enthusiasm and
competitive nature of the racers. We can attest that these pooches may
have short stubby legs, and long wiggly bodies, but they are all heart. 







If you’ve
never seen a Dachshund Dash, check out this YouTube video. We dare you not to smile.
Running of the Wieners at Oktoberfest Zinzinnati




Next week
we’ll be on a jet plane to Long Beach, California to attend the Bouchercon Mystery Conference! If you’re there and see us, make sure you say hi. 

If you’re not familiar with Bouchercon, let us explain. Bouchercon is the Annual World Mystery Convention for anyone who loves mysteries. Readers, writers, authors, librarians, and booksellers all gather for a weekend of fun and conversation. And we like to hangout in the bar. Attendees can pick from a plethora of panels and attend author signings, along with other programs. There’s even an awards ceremony. If you’d like to learn more about this wonderful mystery conference, here’s a link. Bouchercon 2014, Murder at the Beach.

Our question to you is this: If you could hang out in the bar with any mystery author, who would you choose?

A Sense of Place

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One of the comments we
see frequently in reference to the beautifully written and award-winning Louise
Penny series is: “I want to live in Three Pines!” Or words to that effect.
And isn’t that exactly
what we authors hope for when we create a fictional world? We hope readers love
our worlds so much they want to take up residence! It’s true with all books
but seems especially true with a series where the community created is revisited with each book.
Also this sense of
place is a big part of who the characters are. Just like where we’re all from tells
so much about us. How they feel about where they’re from is important. And whether they’ve always lived there and continue to do so; or
perhaps they couldn’t get away from their roots fast enough.
Some strong examples
of series with a sense of place are:

  • Stephanie Plum and her
    irreverent Jersey burb surroundings,
  • Jessica Fletcher and
    her cozy Cabot Cove community,
  • Tess Monaghan’s rough
    and tumble Baltimore,
  • And, of course, the aforementioned,
    Three Pines with     Chief Inspector Armand Gamache of the Sûreté du
    Québec and the cast of complicated characters who invite us into their village.
We chose Laguna Beach, California for the
setting of our Pampered Pets mystery series for several reasons.
Our two amateur sleuths aren’t originally from
California, they’re from Texas. Those Lone Star roots are a big part of Caro
and Mel even though they both have pretty distinct reasons for leaving the
great state of Texas. 

Laguna Beach is not only the perfect place for
a pet-themed mystery with its pet-friendly merchants and off-the-chart number
of pet owners (more registered dogs than there are kids), it’s also the perfect
place for Caro and Mel.
The community is a seaside resort in southern
Orange County located midway between Los Angeles and San Diego. It has
spectacular cliffs, glistening beaches, and breathtaking views of the Pacific,
but it also has a uniquely artsy and almost European feel. The quaint
boutiques, coffee bars, and sidewalk cafes provide a sense of place that
brings together people who care about their community and each other. A
community interested the greater good and setting things right when they go
wrong.
In our fictional Laguna Beach there are some
great restaurants and stores, just like in the real village. However, though we’ve used a real place we’ve populated the tree-lined village area, the Hills
and the fabulous beachfront homes with characters from our imagination.

In our make-believe world you’ll find: 

  • Judd Malone, no nonsense, stay-out-of-police-business homicide detective, 
  • Diana Knight, former screen star who still brings to mind the magic and glamour of a bygone era in Hollywood, 
  • Darby Beckett, wholesome and sometimes naive owner of Paw Prints pet photography, 
  • Ollie Hembry, former rocker turned pet rescuer, 
  • Kendall Reese, flamboyant dresser and pet groomer extraordinaire, 
  • Fan favorite, Betty Foxx, silk pajama-wearing senior with a strange sense of fashion and an eye for the gentleman, 
  • And, of course, assorted adorable cats and pups.

They all, like us love the unique and close-knit community. We think it’s the perfect place for Caro and Mel. And for a bit of fictional murder… 


What specific things do you love about the settings in your favorite mysteries? Do you enjoy returning to those favorite places? 



Our most recent book, Fifty Shades of Greyhound, has been called “A real tail-wagger!” (That’s from Buttercup aka Trixie the smart puppy who stars in the Paws & Claws series by NYTimes bestselling author Krista Davis). It follows Desperate Housedogs, Get Fluffy, Kitty Kitty Bang Bang, and Yip/Tuck. Next up is, The Girl with the Dachshund Tattoo. 


Find out more and sign up for updates by visiting our website!

Much Ado About Something

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by Sparkle Abbey

When we attend conferences, besides meeting readers (our favorite part of cons and the biggest reason we attend) we’re often on panels with fellow authors, and we also try to attend as many of the other panels as we can. We admit we’re sometimes (okay, frequently) distracted by catching up with friends and finding out what’s going on in this crazy world of publishing. And margaritas.

But we do attend panels.

Often these panels are so great that a panelist says something and we go away and need to think about it. It may be just a snippet but there are times when the “something” hangs with us long after the plane ride home. After the unpacking. After the laundry’s all been done. After we’re back to the routine of the day job. It often pops back into our heads the next time we sit down to write.

Lee Goldberg said one of those “somethings” in a panel we attended. At this point, we’re not even sure of the topic of the panel, but in any case, Lee said, “No one remembers the mystery plot of a Monk episode.” We shared a shocked look, sure that wasn’t true. Lee must be wrong. However, he went on to explain that mostly when fans of the series talk about a storyline, they say ‘the one where there the trash collection workers were on strike’ or ‘the one where Monk had a look-alike who was a crime boss.’

His point was that as writers we often think that the backdrop of the story is secondary, but really it’s vitally important to the story as a whole. If plot is “what” the book is about, the backdrop or sub-plot is tightly hooked into “who” the book is about. And together the what and who make the why, and that’s the trifecta that creates the richness in a series. It’s what makes us remember a book and come back to a character. As a reader, you’ve now lived through an experience with Monk. (Or in our case, Caro and Mel.)

That’s a very cool something.

We belong to an online book discussion group and recently everyone was sharing their all time favorite book(s). Wow, what a wide variety of novels were noted as favorites.

We were again reminded of Lee’s statement.

Fiction books are read for entertainment. We don’t read fiction for knowledge – though it’s very cool when we learn new things as part of the experience. We’ve tried to sprinkle in a few of things we learned about Greyhound rescue in our latest book, Fifty Shades of Greyhound. But when readers talk about the book we hope what they remember is the unique adventure Caro had as she worked to solve this whodunnit.

Because when we discuss our favorite books we talk about the people in the books and all that was happening to them while the story was going on. We share their experience. And that’s the magic of a memorable book.

Now, it’s your turn to think about Lee’s “something”

How about you? When you talk about you favorite books what do you remember?
(Oh and thanks, Lee.)

Sparkle Abbey is the pseudonym of mystery authors Mary Lee Woods and Anita Carter who write the Pampered Pets mystery series for Bell Bridge Books. They are friends as well as neighbors so you’ll often find them writing at ML’s dining room table or at their local Starbucks. They live in the Midwest, but if they could write anywhere, you would find them on the beach with their laptops and depending on the time of day either an iced tea or a margarita.

They love to hear from readers and you can find them online at:
Website: www.SparkleAbbey.com
Facebook:  facebook.com/sparkleabbey  
Twitter: @sparkleabbey
Goodreads: goodreads/sparkleabbey

Will the Real Kate Davidson Please Stand Up?

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by Sparkle Abbey with Tracy Weber

Today we’d like to share a guest post from our friend and fellow dog-lover, Tracy Weber.

Take it away, Tracy!

I’m delighted to be here today with The Stiletto Gang, this fabulous group of authors. Most of you probably don’t know me. I am, after all, fairly new to the writing business. My first mystery, Murder Strikes a Pose was published this past January.

Long before my book arrived at your local bookstore, my mother
received a personal laser-printed copy of the manuscript. Of course she told me
she liked it.  What self-respecting
mother wouldn’t? One of her comments caught me off guard, however.

“I’m not very far into the book yet. I just reached the part
where you found the body.”
“Mom,” I replied, a little concerned. “You do know this is fiction, right?”
Let me assure you, I have never found a body near my yoga
studio—or anywhere else for that matter. And although a part of me exists in
every character, my books aren’t autobiographical. Still, people often tell me
that they see me in my yoga teacher sleuth, Kate Davidson. So, for the record,
here are some ways Kate and I are similar—and different.
Similarities
1
        1. We both
own yoga studios in Seattle.
Kate and I both teach yoga in the
Viniyoga tradition, and we both prefer it to other, more strenuous, types of
yoga. Although we both own small neighborhood yoga studios, mine (Whole Life Yoga)
is dedicated to the Viniyoga lineage. Kate’s (Serenity Yoga) offers a mixture
of yoga classes and styles.
        2. Kate
and I both have body image issues.
Kate and I are both short, and we
both have “normal” body types (whatever that means). But when we look in the
mirror, we see the “before” image in a Jenny Craig commercial. We’re working on
that.
3      3. Kate
and I both live with a horse-sized German shepherd.
Kate fosters Bella, the German shepherd
in the series; I own a German shepherd named Tasha. Both of our dogs have Exocrine
Pancreatic Insufficiency, will weigh over 100 pounds when full grown, and have,
shall we say, “quirky” personalities. But in spite of their issues, Kate and I
would be lost without them.
4      4. Neither
Kate nor I are perfect yogis, but we keep trying.
Occasionally a reader tells me that
Kate isn’t believable as a yoga teacher. She’s not thin enough, emotionally well-balanced
enough, or flexible enough. I’m not a typical yoga teacher, either. Kate can’t
do advanced yoga poses; neither can I. Kate wants to live according to yoga
philosophy but often fails. So do I. If Kate’s not a realistic yoga teacher, then
I’m not either. Hopefully my yoga students won’t figure that out any time soon.
Here’s Where We’re
Different:

1      1. I’m
not afraid of commitment.
Kate has what she terms “relationship
ADD,” meaning she can’t stick with a relationship for more than a date or two.  I, on the other hand, seek commitment. Just
ask my husband. I pestered and goaded and hounded him for three years before he
finally gave in and asked me to marry him.
2      2. Kate
and I had different childhoods.
Kate was raised as the only child
of a single-parent Seattle cop. I grew up with both of my parents on a dairy farm
in Billings, Montana. Kate’s a city girl through and through. I’m a farm girl
who has taken root in the city.
3      3. My neuroses
are different than Kate’s.
I’m as neurotic is the next yoga
teacher, but I’m neutral to facial hair. Kate has a very real phobia called pogonophobia.
Being near a man with a beard makes her feel anxious, itchy, and subtly
nauseated, which really sucks for her since she has a crush on Michael, the
bearded owner of Pete’s Pets, the pet store near her studio.
4      4. I
adore dogs to a fault.
Kate likes animals, but she never
wanted one of her own. I, on the other hand, yearned and planned and plotted
for over ten years before my husband gave in and agreed to adopt our German shepherd.
And unlike Kate, I knew that cute little fur ball would be the love of my life
the moment I laid eyes on her.
To be honest, personality-wise, I’m think I’m closer to Rene,
Kate’s best friend: a plotter, a jokester, a prankster, a conniver. Unlike
Kate, I don’t throw coffee mugs at the heads of little old ladies, and it’s
pretty rare for me to yell at anyone.

I’m too busy plotting murder.

Tracy Weber is a certified yoga teacher and the founder of
Whole Life Yoga, an award-winning yoga studio in Seattle, where she current­ly
lives with her husband, Marc, and German shepherd, Tasha. She loves sharing her
passion for yoga and animals in any form possible. When she’s not writing, she
spends her time teaching yoga, walking Tasha, and sip­ping Blackthorn cider at
her favorite ale house. Murder Strikes a Pose is her debut novel.  You can connect with Tracy on her website or on Facebook. 




Thanks for visiting The Stiletto Gang, Tracy. What a great post! The only way Caro and Mel, the cousins in our Pampered Pets Mystery Series, are like us is their love of animals and their choice of coffee drinks. Other than that…uhm…not so much.

Tracy has offered to give away a copy of her book to one lucky reader who leaves a comment. So, please leave a comment below for a chance to win! We’ll do a random drawing from all the contributors and announce the winner right here tomorrow. Good luck!

The Mind of a Writer

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by Sparkle Abbey

“The mind of a writer can be a truly terrifying thing.
Isolated, neurotic, caffeine-addled, crippled by procrastination, consumed by
feelings of panic, self-loathing, and soul-crushing inadequacy. And that’s on a
good day.”

Not exactly complimentary, yet as soon as Robert DeNiro
delivered those words on the Academy Awards show last Sunday, Facebook and
Twitter lit up with cyber-nods of agreement from writers everywhere.

Yes, we’re an odd lot.
So what really goes on in the mind of a writer? 

For most of us we’ve always known we were different. Or at some point we’ve had an ‘ah-ha’ moment where we realize that not everyone rewrites the endings of books or movies.

Writers are curious. We’re interested in almost everything. We take movies apart, we question, we dissect. Writers study people and things and motives and places. We wake up in the middle of the night and write down story ideas. Sometimes they even make sense in the morning. 


A writer’s mind wanders off – sometimes in the middle of a conversation. We’re sorry about doing that. It’s not that we’re inattentive or uninterested in what you’re saying. It’s just that something you said clicked in our heads, and suddenly we’ve figured out that troublesome plot point. Or you said some random thing like “oranges” and it get us thinking about Florida and we realize our suspect couldn’t have been the real killer because he was on a plane to the Sunshine State.


We shamelessly eavesdrop on strangers’ conversations. Writers are people-watchers. Observers. We wonder what makes people do what they do. And then we wonder what might make them do something different. We ask, “What if?” The writer’s mind is always working. Always questioning. Writers see story possibilities in almost every situation. An off-hand comment, a newspaper article, an overheard personal drama.


Writers spend hours searching for the perfect word. We work very hard to find the precise words to describe for you the stories in our heads. To help you see the characters who are so real to us. Then we change the words, polish them, revise them. Sometimes we dump full sections of a chapter we’ve spend hours on. And then we begin again. We want it to be perfect. Yet we know it can’t be.

The writer’s mind is packed with worry. When we’re stuck, the doubts come trooping in. Can we do it? Maybe this time we really did bite off a story idea too big for our skills.

The mind of a writer is also magic. It creates people and worlds from nothing more than a speck of an idea. And then it somehow gives us just enough courage (or maybe insanity) to throw our hearts, our stories, out there to share with the world.

At least on a good day.




Our publisher has recently repriced all of our backlist on Amazon Kindle and Barnes & Noble Nook and we also participated in a fun short story collection. We hope you’ll check it out. 

Love and Murder

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by Sparkle Abbey


February, the month of love, brings thoughts of hearts and flowers, and (at least for those of us who write crime fiction) murder.

Love and murder go so well together. Why? Maybe because both
involve strong emotion. Let’s see, what do you suppose the main motives are for murder?
Thriller writer, John Lescroart lists on his website “14 Motives for Murder” but he summarizes them as love, lust, lucre, and loathing. We think
he’s onto something.


As
motive for a crime of passion, love and murder are clearly a great match. However, in addition, love also often becomes a part of the storyline for the characters solving the mystery. It’s no accident that popular crime shows, like Castle,
often feature a bit of romance. There’s been a lot of online discussion about
the Castle/Beckett pairing, and whether their upcoming wedding vows will ruin
the romantic tension in the show. Many fans of the 1980s private detective show Moonlighting felt getting
Maddie (Cybil Shepard) and David (Bruce Willis) together was responsible for
the demise of the popular show.

The idea of love and crime together has become so popular
over the years that there has become a whole sub-genre in movies and novels called
romantic suspense. These stories often have a central romantic theme as well as
the intrigue.
Lisa Gardner, a master of suspense
fiction, talks about the hazy definitions of the sub-genre and some of the
prejudices in her great series of lectures on the Secrets of Romantic Suspense. Kinsey Millhone, Sue Grafton’s, no-nonsense PI isn’t really the romantic type, but still there have
been a few men her in life from Dietz, a fellow PI, to longtime friend, Cheney. In some mysteries, there’s a full-blown love interest and in others there’s just a hint of romance.

In our Pampered Pets mystery series featuring former Texas beauty queen cousins,
Caro and Melinda, we truly had no plans to go there. But…well, the stories just
naturally evolved to encompass a bit of “love, lust, lucre and loathing.” And
no spoilers here, but we think you’ll like where the series is headed. 



So what do you think? Do you like a serving of love with
your mystery? Or would you rather keep the hearts and flowers far away from
your crime fiction? We’d love to hear what you think!
Coming soon: Our first short – “Project Dogway” (Out
February 24th) 

Sparkle Abbey vs. Downton Abbey

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Downton Abbey’s long-awaited new season begins in just a few days!

And
just in time for the new season of Downton Abbey, we have a special contest for
all of you Downton Abbey fans!

The
idea came to us in part because we have a Google alert set up to notify us
whenever Sparkle Abbey is mentioned out there in the cybersphere. However, being
new at this gig and not exactly understanding the set-up at first, we kept
getting tons of notifications whenever the “sparkle” of anything in “Downton
Abbey” was mentioned. Needless to say, we got a bit of a giggle out of it.

Then
a little while back we were guests on the Seekerville blog and the superbly
talented Vince from Philosophy of Romance asked if we’d ever considered doing a
TV series “Sparkleton Abbey.” He suggested perhaps it could star a roguish
English Wolfhound and an adorable red-haired Irish Setter. 



We had a lot of fun
with the idea and then…well, you know the creative spark that happens when a
bunch of writers get together. From that point on we were off and running with
the Downton Abbey and Sparkle Abbey comparisons.

So,
we’ll start it off and then we’d love to hear your ideas on all the ways
“Sparkle Abbey” differs from “Downton Abbey.”

We’ll collect all the ideas and draw a winner from all the participants. The prize is the wonderful Downton Abbey bell ornament pictured above. 



And as an added bonus, if you sign up for our newsletter via the Sparkle Abbey website there will be a drawing for a “Downton Abbey/Sparkle Abbey” basket.

Sound
like fun? 

Okay, let’s get started!


All the Ways Sparkle
Abbey Differs from Downton Abbey

1)
Downton Abbey has high fashion and intrigue, Sparkle Abbey has high fashion and
intrigue, plus pets!

2)
Whilst Downton Abbey does full justice to the Queen’s English, Sparkle Abbey
kills the Queen’s English in a shroud of mystery.

3)
Downton Abbey has the Dowager; Sparkle Abby has a dog-wagger.

4)
While Downton Abbey is actually set in Highclere Castle, Sparkle Abbey stories
are more often set in a downtown alley.

Now
you go…

* ˚Gifts ✰˚* ˚

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by Sparkle Abbey

It’s that
time of year, isn’t it? The time of year where we think about gift-giving. So,
we thought it would be a great time to chat with you all about gifts. 

Storytelling
could be considered a gift that writers give to readers. Our local writers’
group has an event every December to celebrate members achievements for the
year, whether it’s been completing a book for the very first time (First
Manuscript Slain), or making a bestseller list (Summit Award), or helping each
other (Tender Heart).

Because the
event is in December, we also exchange gifts. But to give things a different
twist, we decided several years ago to do a “white elephant” gift exchange. No
purchases are allowed. Instead, you must rummage through your house to find
something to give as a gift. Maybe it’s a chance to re-gift a present from a
previous holiday or even a chance to share an item you no longer need. We’ve received some wonderful “white elephants” such as cookbooks, candles, fuzzy
socks, and a talking fish. Needless to say, we have a lot of fun!

“Yesterday’s
the past, tomorrow’s the future, but today is a gift. That’s why it’s called
the present.” – Bill Keane

Most families
and friends don’t give “white elephant” gifts, but instead shop for a present.
And we all have our own shopping style, don’t we?. Some of us begin shopping
very early, others are last minute shoppers. We may spend hours picking out
just the right thing, or we may choose the simplicity of gift cards. Some
talented folks make gifts for their friends and family.

Some of our favorite
gifts are not necessarily the biggest or most expensive ones; they’re the gifts
of the heart. A notebook of thoughts during time away from a husband, a box
full of scraps of paper noting family memories from a son, an intricate origami
from a grandchild, a picture made up of words that connect us from a friend.

We’d like to
hear what you think. What is it that makes a gift special? What’s the best gift you’ve ever received? 


As our gift
to you, we’ll be drawing a name from among everyone who leaves a comment today (don’t
forget to leave your email address) and we will gift you with two Sparkle Abbey books. One for you, and one for you to give to a friend!