Cosy Mystery Book Release!

Christmas has come to St. Ives and it is murder. 

Tis the season of goodwill toward all men...

No one in St. Ives sheds a tear when the reviled Bernie Dixon falls to his death from the belfry of the clock tower right before Christmas. Murder is out of the question. The only access to the tower was locked and Bernie had the key in his pocket when his body was found. At first glance, death by misadventure is the obvious conclusion. But when the St. Ives Book Club is approached by his widow to investigate, the amateur sleuths discover first glances can be deceiving. As the villagers celebrate with parties and tree-trimming, Elliot Marks leads his gang of crime solvers on a hunt for a killer.

Set in the tiny hamlet of St. Ives, Ontario, a murder mystery book club discovers they have a taste and talent for solving unsolved crimes. Led by the brilliant and eccentric Elliot Marks, five active retirees and two young reporters unearth secrets that certain residents of the cosy village would prefer remained buried.

Buy it Now on Amazon!

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Seeking Cosy Mystery Reviewers!

 Read more. Pay less. 

Join in the fun. Become a reviewer on Booksprout starting with  DEAD TO THE WORLD due for release December 7, 2021. 

This is the link: https://booksprout.co/arc/80590/dead-to-the-world

Click it and find out whodunit before anybody else! It's easy. Download an Advance Reviewers Copy in .mobi, .epub or PDF. Read. Review. Post when the book is live. 

St. Ives Book Club Mystery is exclusive to Amazon until February 1st. It is what it is. I tried but exclusivity is not my jam. 

Tis the season of goodwill toward all men...

No one in St. Ives sheds a tear when the reviled Bernie Dixon falls to his death from the belfry of the clock tower right before Christmas. Murder is out of the question. The only access to the tower was locked and Bernie had the key in his pocket when his body was found. At first glance, death by misadventure is the obvious conclusion. But when the St. Ives Book Club is approached by his widow to investigate, the amateur sleuths discover first glances can be deceiving. As the villagers celebrate with parties and tree-trimming, Elliot Marks leads his gang of crime solvers on a hunt for a killer.

Set in the tiny hamlet of St. Ives in Southern Ontario, a murder mystery book club discovers they have a taste and talent for solving unsolved crimes. Led by the brilliant and eccentric Elliot Marks, five active retirees and two young reporters unearth secrets certain residents of the cosy village would prefer remained buried.

My Secret Weapon for 2022 - Plottr

I've always been a pantser. I'd get an idea for a story, see the end or the main point in my head and off I'd go writing myself in and out of corners until I lurched to the finish line. 

The "finish" line was followed by weeks of (hair-pulling, teeth-gnashing) editing until I could declare the book complete or too stupid to live. 

My process was long, tedious and increasingly joyless. Worst of all, it did not result in book that was as tight as I would have liked it to be because I was exhausted and hated the thing by the end. 

There has to be a better way, right? Well, there is. It is called drafting an outline which is something normal people do. I've tried to nail that sucker down for years without success. The act of writing an outline to write only led to me hating my story faster. 

I can't even remember when I heard about Plottr or where, but on impulse I signed up for the online demo of the software. I am cheap. Some might even say stingy. I am immune to impulse buying or sales pitches. But I loved the demo. I could see instantly how this program could work for me. I could play with it, I could manipulate it to work the way my brain works. Sometimes I plot very tightly with it. Sometimes I follow one of the templates. Sometimes I use it for the timeline to shift scenes where I need them to be. I can see how the story is progressing in each box where I jot down everything from dialogue to clothing to weather.

The random bits that flesh out a scene get plugged into Plottr and make writing faster, easier and stronger. Less editing, less time wasted hunting around for where I put what. My daily word count went from an exhausting 2K day to a relaxed 5K a day.

I'm not sure how it does what it does. It's visual so that's a huge help when you're trying to figure out what comes next. It's also liberating because it's easy to plug in the bits that come to me and dump them if they're not working. I can move stuff around. It's not set in stone. There's room for some pantsing but I get a look at the dead ends before I start writing. I waste less time and brain energy when I'm cranking out the words. 

To make a living in self-publishing, we have to produce and Plottr is my secret weapon to amp up production. I have five books planned and instead of feeling overwhelmed and discouraged, I have this cool little tool at my side to get the stories out. 

If you are interested and want to check it out for yourself go to www.plottr.com. There is a rate for a lifetime license which is what I bought. The service is excellent. The thing works. 

Canadian Cosy Mystery Cover Reveal!

You know that old saying "Don't judge a book by its cover"? Yeah, well, it wasn't written by a self-publisher. I'm on my third cover for the St. Ives Book Club Mystery series. The retired covers are still out there because I made paper copies and thus forever will be haunted by my old "what the hell, it's only a cover" covers. 

Hair-pulling, tweaking and gnashing of teeth later, I've settled on this design for the series. If you are a lucky owner of one of the old covers, well, that's what you get for being an early adopter.

Lord, I hope this is my last foray into covers. Trying to nail the cosy-amateur-sleuths-vibe is not easy. Without cats, cupcakes or witches in my books, I didn't fit in with the other cool kids in the cosy mystery section of my favourite book site. (Goodreads)

While I'm here, the third murder mystery in the series, Dead to the World, is coming out in November, exact date is still to be determined. But follow me on Amazon to be notified when it releases. 

When Bernie Dixon falls to his death from the belfry of the St. Ives clock tower while ringing in the Third Night of Christmas, the book club is approached by his widow to find out if his death was indeed an accident - or was it something far worse?

 

Once upon a time, there was no Internet and people were just fine with that.

 Feel Sorry For Us. Go Ahead. 

After a day of wrestling with downloading, registering accounts requiring acres of confirmation, phone calls to young'uns to talk me off the ledge.... Accepting the new digital reality and trying to work with it.... Google asking me if I want to send that email because I used 'attachment' without attaching anything......

I reach for the wine that I swore I wouldn't drink until we were in a "Break Glass in Case of Emergency" situation. The glass is breaking. 

And then, on cue, Amazon Prime suggests I might want to listen to Elton John on this Friday with my wine and crankiness. 

I click the link because Elton has got me through many a bad time since 1974. And what do I find? Demands for my ENGAGEMENT because God forbid I just listen to the tunes and don't GIVE a bloody thing but my ears and appreciation. Since I own his records and I've paid to attend his concerts, Elton has got what he needs out of me to pursue his craft.

So go ahead. You have my permission to feel sorry for us as I used to feel sorry for my mom who thought ATMs were the spawn of Satan. Because we feel sorry for you. We feel sorry that you are commodities instead of recipients of bliss. We feel sorry that you aren't poring over liner notes in the privacy of your home instead of being prodded online for your "opinion" before you've had time to form one. 

I'm terrified to log in in this day and age. Bombarded with demands to know what I thought about certain artistic product. Did you know there was an era when artists put out their art and if it sold, it sold and if it didn't, they created something else? Elton got rich without my online input and his music will survive just fine without it now. 

I'm not a luddite. I know new performers depend on online reviews. So I would advise youngsters to reserve their review energy for their generation. We oldsters did that by buying records. No online reviews. We just bought in extraordinary numbers and that's why you have U2 and Elton and Alanis now. 

Elton is singing "Candle in the Wind" right now. We were kids when he recorded this. He made us feel something for celebrities, to care about them as much as we cared about our social justice issues. We had hearts then, not Twitter. So go ahead and feel sorry for us for not knowing we have to download our whole fucking lives. Or upload to a Cloud. We had hearts. 

One day, I promise you, you will be saying the same thing to the generation after you. 

Alvina Moon knows what I'm talking about:

The River Bride

New Book Launch Day!

A St. Ives Book Club Mystery

Death Knocks Twice

 

The St. Ives Book Club is at it again when one of their members discovers human remains in Lucinda Pye's field. The grisly discovery turns out to be Professor Gower Pye, Lucinda's common-law husband, who disappeared after a fractious dinner party at the farm seven years ago. St. Ives's amateur sleuths have questions. Why was Gower not found by before this? If the professor of medieval studies was murdered, who did it and why? Their questions lead them to an abundance of suspects. Eight guests at the dinner party had reasons to wish Gower dead. A scandalous tell-all memoir, a tawdry affair, a bitter family feud and a reputation destroyed surface as motives to kill. But if the professor was murdered that October night seven years ago, how do they prove it? And if they can't prove it, how can they accuse? When a second body is found, the gang knows that if they fail, a killer will go free. 

Set in the tiny hamlet of St. Ives in Southern Ontario, a murder mystery book club discovers they have a taste and talent for solving unsolved crimes. Led by the brilliant and eccentric Elliot Marks, five active retirees and two young reporters unearth secrets certain residents of the cosy village would prefer remained buried.

Available on Amazon in ebook and print. Click on the title to be taken to the product page. 

Death Knocks Twice

Kim's Convenience is Cancelled!

Why can't we have nice things? Why take away our joy? 

Kim's Convenience made me laugh out loud every Tuesday night on CBC. There was plenty of story left in that tank. 

I signed the petition, though I doubt it'll change anything, but I wanted the cast and crew to know they had a fan and she will miss them very much. Damn! Damn! Damn!

How I'm feeling right now.

Photo by Andrea Piacquadio from Pexels

CBC News Entertainment - Kim's Convenience

Save Kim's Convenience Petition

Happy International Women's Day!

Will I be celebrating female accomplishment in the middle of a pandemic, while locked in my house with nothing but lashings of red wine to sustain me?

Have we met?

I snagged a ticket for Tricky Women Animation Festival, an online international festival of short works by women filmmakers. One credit gives you access to one program and the one I'm going to see is Exploring Realities: Animated Documentaries on Friday, March 12 (must-not-be-missed: Catcalls).

There is a whole slate of programs available. Buy a little or buy a lot. I paid a little over six bucks Canadian for nine shorts and a discussion after. And if I can't make the Friday date, I can watch up to 48 hours later.

For a borderline recluse who wishes she enjoyed going out more, this pandemic is delivering the goods. The silver linings. The introvert's happy place. The comfort of my own home whilst engaging in world wide culture and discussion.

And wine. There will be wine. 

Whatever we do to celebrate this day, I hope we do it with cheer, remembering where we were, where we are, and looking forward to where we are going.