The LadyKillers

News and Talkin' Travel

NEWS

Ann Parker is doin' the happy dance because WHAT GOLD BUYS is a finalist for the Sarton Women's Book Award (Historical Fiction category), which is sponsored by the Story Circle Network. Woot! Winners will be announced in mid-April. For a complete list of the finalists, check this out: http://www.storycircle.org/SartonLiteraryAward/pressrelease_shortlist_2017.shtml

Jean Rabe will be participating in Mystery-Thriller Week that kicks off Monday. She's doing a couple of Facebook chats offering writerly advice and some guest blogs. Here's the link: https://mysterythrillerweek.com/

Mar Preston has received a tempting offer to write for a TV series in development. Most of us who have been around for a while know how precarious pinning your hopes on an offer like this can be.  Still, it’s flattering.  She knows nothing about writing for TV.

Priscilla Royal stopped by the Poisoned Pen Press for a nostalgia visit of their old offices before they move to new digs above The Poisoned Pen Bookstore. A press above a bookstore? How appropriate is that? She also noted that the hotel where she stayed had the same toilet she now has after the Great Bathroom Demolition. Lest you think this is TMI, she is wondering if that is an omen she will open an inn....

Ellen Kirschman just finished reading Claudia Rowe’s memoir/true crime book. It was engaging and puzzling all at once. Her brief review is on Amazon and GoodReads.

On the Road: Travel Stories from the Trenches

Next week, the LadyKillers will don their travel shoes and share stories from their times on the road... Grab your rolling suitcase and come along with us!

Here's a little Willie Nelson (at The Grand Ole Opry!)  to help you get in the mood:

 

 

News and NEWS

NEWS

Priscilla Royal is finally reaching the end of the Great Bathroom Demolition Project. She thinks... She hopes....Meanwhile....

• On Saturday, Feb 11, from noon to one, she will be at the Poisoned Pen Bookstore in Scottsdale AZ for a signing. Her 13th medieval mystery, The Proud Sinner, will be "official" on the 7th as well as a special reissue of her first book, Wine of Violence, which features a new introduction by Sharon Kay Penman. 

Jean Rabe wrote a scenario and an essay about writing game adventures "that don't suck." It's part of a big Kickstarter project currently running by Goodman Games.Here's the link: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1409961192/how-to-write-adventure-modules-that-dont-suck?ref=project_link

Ellen Kirschman is heading to Oregon to co-lead a workshop for the International Council of Police Chaplains.

Michael Black busy teaching his Creative Writing Class at a local junior college and busy working on projects. He's also writing the program for the Public Safety Writers Association conference, which will be in Las Vegas, Nevada, on July 13-16 at the Orleans Hotel and Casino. It's open to anyone who likes to write, and offers a variety of panels on writing as well as lots of information on police, fire, and military subjects. It's a great place to research your next novel.

LadyKiller alumna Rita Lakin, awakening from a long snooze, is writing a new novel for the Gladdy Gold Getting Old is Murder series. Since she thought the last one was the very last, she entitled it, Getting Old Can Kill You. So now she has to work backward: Getting Old Can Hurt You.

NEXT WEEK, "Read All About It" and something special on Wednesday....

The topic next week is "Read All About It: Plots from the News." But then, on Wednesday, we've got something special planned....

On Wednesday, LadyKiller extraordinaire Camille Minichino will have a special blog post on "irritating reads," in other words, those things some authors do (! no names !) that just plain "tick her off." The LadyKillers as a whole will chime in in the Comments section with their own pet peeves, and we encourage you to drop on by and do the same!

NEWS and more "favorite books of 2016," coming up!

NEWS

Camille Minichino has been campaigning vigorously for the position of Secretary of the NorCal chapter of Mystery Writers of America.  The nail-biting period will be over soon when the results come in this month.

Jean Rabe has a guest post on the Mystery Tribune website https://www.mysterytribune.com/2017/01/04/jean-rabe-write-mystery-novel/

Mar Preston has been invited to the Public Safety Writers Association Conference in Las Vegas to speak on the subject of editing crime fiction in the pre-conference workshop as well as critique manuscripts. She will also give a presentation during the July Conference on editing. She is very flattered and a bit breathless.

Ellen Kirschman is under deadline to finish the second edition of I LOVE A COP. She has a new work plan for 2017. Write from 8 to noon. Set the timer to move 5 minutes every hour. No email, bubble spinner or FB until the afternoon. Can she do it?  Place your bets.

Priscilla Royal and Ann Parker have short stories appearing in an anthology of Poisoned Pen Press authors, Bound by Mystery, now available for preorder, with a March 2017 release: https://www.amazon.com/Bound-Mystery-Celebrating-Years-Poisoned/dp/1464208328

More favorite reads of 2016 ahead!

Last week, our crew came up with their offerings of favorite books of 2016, and this coming week we continue with our second shift of LadyKiller bloggers. Drop on by and offer up your recommendations as well. We'd love to hear what books rose to the top of your personal Top 10 for the year!

 

NEWS, and our favorite reads of 2016, coming up!

NEWS

 Well, the only news to report right now is what we've been up to as the old year rolls out and the new year rolls in...

Carole Price's New Year's plans are a wash. Her stove has been pulled out and the new glass top is sitting in the middle of the kitchen. A mix-up on whether Home Depot or her husband will install it. Obviously, no one has, so it's lunch/dinner out.

Camille Minichino is trying to decide which of two new books to read first: The Women Who Made New York or Napoleon’s Buttons: How 17 Molecules Changed History.

On New Year's Eve Michael Black did what he always does on the holiday: tried to stay out of trouble.

Priscilla Royal welcomed the new year while sound asleep. The Great Bathroom Demolition Project has been stalled by subcontractors, but at least she will have all but shower, mirror, and countertop by the end of next week. It is lovely to have walls and a ceiling again! 

Ann Parker is making tons of resolutions (get organized! walk five times a week! clean off the desk! update the passwords! clean the closets! write a synopsis and then write 2500 words a week!)... We'll see how long they last.

 Margaret Lucke spent New Year's Eve on a plane from Washington DC to San Francisco after a great holiday visit with family and friends. She arrived home just in time to pop the cork on a bottle of bubbly, offer a toast for good things for all of us in 2017, and fall into bed.

 

Ellen Kirschman and her husband Steve met on New Year's Eve 1996 in the very same room of the very same house in which they now live. They throw a small dinner party most every year to celebrate. The menu for this year was cold cracked crab, salad, Steve's home-baked bread and duck confit tostadas for starters. With lots of bubbly stuff to wash it down. Our best to everyone in the New Year.

 

SHARING OUR FAVORITE READS

 

Over the next two weeks, each LadyKiller will have the chance to chime in with their favorite book(s) of 2016. So come on back and see what everyone has to say... and be prepared to add to your TBR (to be read) stacks!

We'd love to hear what YOU have to say as well... so if you read any books that knocked your socks off, be sure and let us know...

 

We all wish you the very best in the coming year!

 

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News and Holiday FOOD!

News

Ellen Kirschman and her husband exchange experiences, not presents, during the holidays. This year they are taking advantage of a "deal" to spend two days in San Francisco eating, museum hopping and window shopping among holiday lights in Union Square.

 

Ann Parker is getting ready for a quick visit from out-of-towners early in the week, before sinking into a (hopefully) quiet holiday weekend. She is looking forward to perhaps getting in a little writing time, once the hubbub dies down.

 

 

 Coming Up: A Mouth-Watering Week...

We'll be talking about our character's favorite holidays food!

And now, here's a "holiday bonus" for Sunday: The LadyKillers offer up their personal holiday favorites in the comestibles department...

 LadyKiller Food Faves for the Holiday, Past and Present

• Ann Parker - Almond Roca (my mom's favorite) and that old-fashioned ribbon hard-candy (anyone remember that stuff?). These days, my personal faves tilt toward See's chocolate and homemade fudge.
• Priscilla Royal - My mother, who hated any form of cooking or baking, made a killer egg nog. It was completely non-alcoholic, and only she and I drank it, but it was made from scratch with vanilla and cinnamon. 
• Mar Preston - I loved my mother’s meat pies, the Canadian version of Cornish pasties.  Christmas crackers were also part of our holiday table.  You never see them now, colorful paper tubes with twist ends that exploded with a snap. I still love Rice Krispies treats made with marshmallow. Sigh.
• Camille Minichino - A recipe for my favorite will be up on Monday, BUT I feel compelled to confess that I love fruitcake! And I always make enough cranberry chutney for sandwiches for a week or so.
• Carole Price - I bake Kolachi Bread every Christmas. It makes ten long logs, enough to share with family and neighbors. I also make scalloped corn, my mother's recipe. Another favorite of mine is Asparagus Canapes.
• Jean Rabe - My favorite holiday foods. That's easy: Cherry Jell-O fruit salad, Roast chicken and rice, Green beans with almonds, desert...cherry pie...warm cherry pie. When I was a kid, it was all about the cut-out sugar cookies.
  
• Staci McLaughlin - When I was a kid, my favorite holiday treat was my mom's fudge (after I picked out all the walnuts, of course).
• Ellen Kirchman's one traditional holiday recipe is for cranberry relish. (She hates the slimy stuff that comes in a can) -  Takes less than five minutes to make and stays fresh in the fridge for days. Best made a day ahead. Ingredients: One bag of cranberries, washed with the soft berries discarded; one unpeeled orange,  cut into quarters; a large handful of walnuts. Put all ingredients  in a food processor until coarsely chopped. Place in a bowl and add one half cup of granulated sugar. Taste again the next day to adjust to  the desired level of sweetness.
• Michael A. Black - I always enjoy a cup of hot chocolate with whipped cream on a cold Christmas morning. 
• Peggy Lucke - A regular item on my family's holiday table is my Uncle Hank's Sweet Potato Casserole. The secret ingredients are bourbon and orange liqueur. Could that be why it's a favorite? And then there's my mom's chocolate icebox cake. Rich and delicious. One year my aunt decided to eat nothing but stuffing and chocolate icebox cake for her holiday dinner, because those were her favorite dishes and why waste the calories on things she enjoyed less?

And that's the icing on the cake from us!

 

 

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News and Desire and Fear

NEWS (of this and that and the other) and New LadyKiller, incoming!

Ellen Kirschman’s interview with Laura Brennan of Destination Mystery is live. Here’s the link:  http://destinationmystery.com/episode-32-ellen-kirschman/.

Camille Minichino is setting up classes and appearances for spring, including a special lecture in March on 10 Great Women in Science. Catch up on Hypatia (5 AD) and Grace Hopper, 20th century computer scientist.

<Mar Preston's new book, The Most Dangerous Species, is inching its way toward publication. She adds, "It’s been so long birthing it hardly feels like news, but it’s a big deal to me."

Ann Parker is tossing caution to the wind and writing a savage short story of revenge. She notes that it will probably never see the light of day, but adds it feels really good to lay of path of death and destruction...just for fun, ya know.

Priscilla Royal is in the throes of nowhere land over the Great Bathroom Demolition Project which is great inspiration for coming up with the plot for next mystery....

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We have a new LadyKiller joining us: Jean Rabe! We'll do a proper introduction next Sunday, when we are less stupefied from an overabundance of turkey, but for now you can visit her website for more information about her and her books... and here is a bit of great news from Jean:

Jean Rabe's new mystery, The Dead of Winter, is short-listed for "The 50 Best Indie Books of 2016." Visit www.readfree.ly to vote for The Dead of Winter in the Mystery/Thriller category.

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Next up...

It's time for topic pairings! For this week, it is:

and 

 

 

 

 

 

Stayed tuned as we explore the two emotions, in fiction and elsewhere...

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The Best Thing I’ve Ever Written

This subject is like asking a parent to choose a favorite child. So I won’t do that, but there is an answer to the question that won’t spark a major fight among the resident and neatly aligned hardbacks.

The best thing I’ve ever written is the work I haven’t done yet.

The comment that writing is a craft is not news to most of us. We all start with the blank page, write the first line, morph into the days of gibberish, the slaughter of our darlings, and the final D at “the end” to get a final product upon which the editor will eventually cast a smile. And like most other crafts, writing is commonly prone to error, hiccups, quirky little authorial mannerisms, and the occasional brilliance. Even the acknowledged geniuses of literature fall victim to imperfections. If a certain soulless perfection is the goal, find a machine to do it.

Please don’t misunderstand me. I am not a “things were better back in my day” type nor am I a flat-earther. Some things are just better done in an assembly plant. Cars come to mind. But craft done by someone who really cares about the art owns a beauty, emits a joy, and offers a complexity that no machine can match. Craft thrives on imperfection, and it should. Assembly plants thrive on exact duplication, as they ought.

What craft offers writers is the excitement of striving toward the perfection we may never achieve but which we find joy in desiring. Editing is like ripping out half the sweater because of a bad stitch. Trying a new technique or point of view stretches our creative muscle. Even if our effort fails, we never fail to learn. Again, like a knitter, perhaps we need to use a different size needle or tweak something else. Then the technique may not only work, it may become our signature style.  

The other important aspect of craft is that our excitement transmits to the reader. How many times has a reader lost interest in a long series? That often happens if the writer is bored. But if you write each book with the enthusiasm of writing the first book, you have a fighting chance of avoiding that.

So I look at each new book with the hope that I can fix some failures in my craft, pick up an exciting plot idea or character or technique, and maybe, just maybe, write the best book of my life.

And if I ever do achieve that, I hope I don’t realize it so I can continue striving to learn and perfect my craft to the best of my ability.

NEWS and more on "bad" writing...

NEWS

Ellen Kirschman is heading south to be guest speaker at the Santa Monica Police Officers Association & Survivors Fund 2016 Law Enforcement Family Seminar.

Camille Minichino finished furnishing a dollhouse to be donated to a local school raffle. She’s cleared to buy more supplies!

Ann Parker signed up for Nanowrimo (you can find her listed as the mysterious HistMs). No word counts as yet... but the month is young!

Priscilla Royal is getting ready for a month of bathroom demolition and reconstruction. This promises to be great inspiration for the next murder....

Camille and Ann also both read at the Northern California Sisters in Crime "Fall Showcase" at Books, Inc., in San Francisco, on Saturday. Here are a couple of quick pics for proof....

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Oh no! (Oh yes!) MORE bad writing ...

We continue our gripping disclosures of "The Worst Thing I've Ever Written" this coming week.

What gems will come to light? We can't wait to see!

Meanwhile, Mark Twain had this to say about stories that maybe should never have seen the light of day:

"The test of any good fiction is that you should care something for the characters; the good to succeed, the bad to fail. The trouble with most fiction is that you want them all to land in hell, together, as quickly as possible." ~Mark Twain

 

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NEWS and Pets in Fiction

NEWS

Camille Minichino and Ann Parker hit the road south this coming week with two events in the LA area:

Friday, October 21, 11:30 a.m.
Author Luncheon
Friends of the Huntington Beach Public Library
Huntington Beach, CA
For more information visit http://www.fotlhb.com/

Saturday, October 22, 2:00 p.m.
Appearance and signing
Book Carnival
Orange, CA
For more information visit http://www.annesbookcarnival.com/

Ann Parker's latest Silver Rush mystery, WHAT GOLD BUYS, has a slew of enthusiastic reviews up and around:

• From B&N Reads (Ann Parker’s Silver Lies Series Is The Best Historical Fiction You Haven’t Read Yet): "If you haven’t heard of Ms. Parker or her work, now’s the time to ante up and go all in."
• From BookLoons (review by Mary Ann Smyth): "The boomtown of Leadville is described so well, it is possible to envision slogging through the mud and ice and snow of the streets oneself."
• From DorothyL/It is purely my opinion (review by L.J. Roberts): "Stories that are more than one note are so much more interesting, and Parker has given us a full symphony."

In other news, Ellen Kirschman notes she is going to the dentist and watching the presidential debate.

Given that this coming week's theme is all about pets, Priscilla Royal reports that the Dynamic Duo passed their "wellness visits" with flying colors and are dressing up as themselves for Hallowe'en. 

Pets in Fiction

Yes, it's time for us to turn our weekly attention to "pets in fiction," whether four- (or two- or no-) legged.

If you like animal companions in your mystery reading, one place to check out is the "Pet Mysteries" page on the Stop! You're Killing Me! mystery readers site.

Anyone for a cockatoo?

By Tobias - originally posted to Flickr as Bird Park ("Vogelpark Walsrode") Germany, CC BY-SA 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=8358825

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NEWS and Courage vs Common Sense

NEWS

---The Ann Parker / Camille Minichino special report----

Camille Minichino and Ann Parker are doing a happy dance around the LadyKillers virtual living room, with the announcement of multiple BOOK LAUNCHES this coming week. (Oh yeah! Oh yeah! ... See video below for a little "happy dancing" in one of their favorite cities.)

SEPTEMBER 6: release day for...

• CANCELLED BY MURDER by Jean Flowers (aka Camille Minichino)
• WHAT GOLD BUYS by Ann Parker

.... Watch for their special newsletters to hit your virtual mailbox on September 6... if you signed up for them, that is. And if you didn't, there's still time. Click here for Camille. Click here for Ann. Check your email inbox for a confirmation link. Easy-peasy!)

 

SEPTEMBER 9: release day for...

• MATRIMONY IN MINIATURE by Margaret Grace (aka Camille Minichino)

Also, on Dru's Book Musings this week...

• Inez Stannert from the Silver Rush series muses about the strange turns her life is taking in WHAT GOLD BUYS on September 8
• Maddie, age 11, from MATRIMONY IN MINIATURE, chats about life from a pre-teen point of view on September 10

Ann Parker also reports that she has Chapter One of WHAT GOLD BUYS now up on her website. You can read it here.

-----------End of the Parker/Minichino special report-----------

 Mysti Berry is proud to be speaking at the Bakersfield chapter of Sisters in Crime on Saturday, September 9 http://www.sistersincrime-bakersfield.com. Join her at Lorene's at 1:30 PM!

 Michael A. Black is happy (VERY happy) to report that he turned in the manuscript for his next Executioner novel by the deadline (August 31) this past Wednesday... Join Camille and Ann in doing the happy dance in the virtual living room, Mike!

Ellen Kirschman and Peggy Lucke were at the SinC fascinating, fact-filled workshop on firearms familiarization on September 3. (Say that fast).

Priscilla Royal reports she has nothing exciting planned for the weekend. Still trying to catch up with all those things she ignored while writing. But the larder is filled with deli things so no cooking, and she is reading a fun bio of Arthur Conon Doyle.

Staci McLaughlin says she is shopping for new furniture for the house she and her family just moved into... yes, life rolls on!!

 

Courage (and/or?) common sense

Courage and common sense—do they reinforce or conflict? Can you have both... in life and in fiction?

 And now... for some happy feet!