Thursday, October 27, 2016

Black Cat and Dog Days

In the spirit of Halloween, let me introduce you to one of the more sly characters in my soon-to-be-released cozy, Deadly Dog Days. One who shows up where you'd least expect him at the most unexpected times.



Spook is his own man. Owned by no one and free to roam, he sneaks inside our heroine, Cameron's house whenever the desire strikes. Cam isn't sure how Spook gets in, but she has a hunch it's through the attic. 

Aloof and light-footed, he likes to pad across the top of the refrigerator and slink through the books and knickknacks on the bookshelf. 


Spook even has a knack for showing up at the scene of the crime!

My cat, Cupcake (named by her first owner, my niece) was the influence for Spook. While Cupcake isn't necessarily sneaky, she is a little devil. Devil's food cupcake is what I like to call her. 

This is Cupcake. She's a wild woman. She and Spook would be best friends! 


Wishing you a safe and happy Halloween with lots of treats and no tricks!

Best,

Jamie Blair
My debut cozy mystery, DEADLY DOG DAYS, comes out November 8th! So go vote and then stop by the bookstore and grab a copy! 


Monday, October 24, 2016

Writing and Research and Travel. Oh My!

By Tracy Weber

Most of my Downward Dog Mystery series is set in the Seattle area, but in my fifth book (tentatively titled PreMeditated Murder) Kate and crew  go on a road trip to Cannon Beach, Oregon, to solve...

Well, that's part of the mystery! 

My love for Cannon Beach, however, is no secret. So I was delighted to have the opportunity to visit this past weekend and refamiliarize myself with the settings of  the pivotal scenes in the novel. Please join me and my three-and-a-half-month-old German shepherd pup, Ana, on a virtual tour--complete with some teasers!

We stayed at the Hallmark resort (the building in the photo below).  Our room had a cozy fireplace and overlooked Haystack Rock.

 
This was the view from our room: the gorgeous Haystack Rock.  We didn't spend much time in the hotel, but when we did, Ana hung out on the deck, begging to go back outside.
 
 
Of course, we timed our activities so we could visit Haystack Rock at low tide and explore its famous marine gardens up close.
 
 
The city of Cannon Beach is colorful, quaint, and covered in flowers, even in late October.
 

 
Ana checked out the local dog stores, dreaming dreamy dreams of all of those treats.  Of course, a dog supply store will be in the novel.
 

But to be honest, she really wanted to visit the local salt water taffy store.   Can you blame her?



Eventually, we abandoned our touring to visit potential locations for a murder.  This one looked promising.
 

Then again, wouldn't this be a great place to hide a body?


Perhaps Bella could lead Kate to the body by finding the deceased person's shoe.


Of course, not everything in the book will be about finding dead bodies. This courtyard, which will be reimagined, will be a key location in the mystery.


As will Whale Park.


Of course, no trip to Cannon Beach would be complete without a photo op in front of my favorite sailor.  He may or may not make it into this book, but he was part of Murder Strikes a Pose.  Anyone remember how?


The trip was way too busy, and it happened to be on the rainiest Cannon Beach weekend in the past two years. Now hubby and I have the perfect excuse to go back this summer.  If you ever travel to the Pacific Northwest, I highly recommend a trip to this gem of a city.  If not, well, you can visit it in my next book!

Tracy Weber

books available
 
PS--all three books in my Downward Dog mystery series are now available!  Learn more at my author page.  Thanks for reading!









Friday, October 21, 2016

Setting Versus Sense of Place

By Lisa Alber

The other day I posed a question on Facebook:

Hive mind question--I'm curious: What do you mean when you use the terms "setting" versus "landscape" versus "sense of place"? To what extent are they interchangeable?

I had been invited to be the author of the evening for a monthly series called "Wordscrafters and Wine on Wednesdays." As the guest, I was expected to talk in a teacherly fashion, which is to say impart craft wisdom, tips, tricks, how-tos to other writers.

I said "yes" to the event because a friend asked, because I support the nonprofit that hosts the event, and because I try to say "yes" to things. But ... I'm not a teacher, never have been, and I don't have natural teacher skillz -- and besides, what craft knowledge did I think I could impart anyhow? I'm the perpetual student of writing craft.

I decided to talk about an aspect of writing that I love, which is an aspect of the craft that also confounded me at the beginning of my writing journey: "sense of place."

What is that reeeealllly? Isn't it the same thing as saying "setting"? (And then there's the term "landscape" -- but I set that topic aside for my talk.)

As I learned when I posed the question on Facebook, people think of "setting" versus "sense of place" (versus "landscape") in slightly different ways, much of this being a question of semantics. Perhaps we writers think about these terms in ways that help us write the best stories we can. For me, this means that "setting" is not synonymous with "sense of place."

When I was starting out, I didn't understand what the fuss was about when it came to "sense of place." I was writing a novel set in western Ireland circa 2008, and -- duh -- the way to render this setting for readers is through specific detail that uses all five senses.

Ta-da -- "sense of place."

Yeah -- NOT. I was missing something in my understanding of the craft of sense of place, but, of course, being a beginner, I didn't know what I didn't know. This is where workshopping and feedback come in handy, where the revision process enhances our understanding of craft.

What I didn't realize was that beautiful, specific settings don't become "sense of place" until you infuse them with character. Without using your POV character as the filter through which you render the world, all you've got is description that's static. No emotional resonance. No soul. No heart.

You know when you hear readers say that they skip the descriptions? I would bet in most cases, those descriptions are static -- just the author describing the environment around the character rather than describing the environment through the character. I think of this as "pertinence." Is the description pertinent to the character at this moment in the story?

So, to me, "sense of place" is setting + characterization. Sense of place is the whole world the character inhabits, the outer world plus the POV character's interior landscape (there's that "L" word again--but I like using the word in this context), which includes her inner conflicts, agendas, goals, mood, aches, emotions, cultural context (say, for example, being a newcomer to the place versus a native), etcetera.

Imagine a kitchen window above a sink with sunlight coming through it, highlighting dew on a spider web. That's nice, but so what? Easy enough to be specific, but is this description also pertinent?

Adding character, let's pretend you have a grieving mother of a dead child: Perhaps the spider web dangles in tatters as the spider huddles off to the side, not even trying to repair it. The sunlight highlights the fragility of the spider's little world, so easily torn.

Or, a rebellious teenage daughter: Stuck like the frickin' spider, always the same web, and it maybe looks beautiful, all perfect and symmetrical and pleasing to the eye, but that spider is a prisoner--it just keeps doing the same thing day in and day out until it dies.

These are simplistic examples that touch on what I mean when I think of "sense of place." You may ask, What about so-called "literary" novels that are known for their long descriptive passages? I maintain that the ones that really work, the ones where you don't skip reading those passages, are infused with character. The character's voice and attitude coming through in how they perceive their world--and so those scenes still have forward momentum. Whereas, static description halts the story, or at least slows it way down, and sometimes reads like <gasp> authorial intrusion.

And if that pretty picture of the sun-glistening spider web isn't pertinent to the character in that moment? CUT IT. Find some other way to render the character's environment that provides emotional resonance. Sink full of moldy dishes to help show that character is terribly depressed? One chipped antique teacup to show the character's genteel but impoverished circumstances?

Specific and pertinent. (Also, remember the other four senses--not just visual.) I can't tell you how long it took me to get a grip on this. I was great with description/setting, but I sucked at sense of place.

There's so much you can do with sense of place. You can pan out to an omniscient POV to set a mood or tone (gothic novels are great at this) and then when you pan-in to the character POV you echo that mood or tone with the way the character filters her surroundings. Using sense of place is a great tool for foreshadowing, increasing suspense, and showing character in general.

Whew! So, come to find out that I did have a lot to say about this topic, and, in the end, the participants of the event (which was held in a winery--so, yes, wine!) engaged in a rousing discussion that went beyond my take on "sense of place."

Do you skip reading the descriptions? What do you mean when you use the terms "setting" versus "sense of place"?

Monday, October 17, 2016

Big Fat Yawns

I'm trying to come up with something I've done in the last month that anyone would find interesting and I'm coming up with a big blank. I fell and skinned my knee. I saw an old college friend I haven't seen in close to thirty years. I finally remembered to buy a stash of emery boards to keep at my mother's place so I can do her nails whenever I feel like it.

Not exactly blog worthy material.

The truth is, my life is often very boring on the outside. I sit on my couch and read student papers and write my books. Since it's often close to a year between book releases, there often doesn't seem to be much happening at all.

Inside, however? Inside I'm like a riot at an all night rave! There's so much going on inside my head I don't know how to express it all. People are getting murdered. People are falling in love. People are reaching for the stars. Unfortunately, all those people are imaginary and even good friends look at you funny when they ask what's going on and you give me them a long discourse on the events in the lives of your imaginary friends.

I've had jobs where it looked like I was doing stuff all the time. Frankly, a lot of them left me bored. So If I have to choose, I'll choose my exciting interior life hunkered down here on my couch with my imaginary friends.

Friday, October 14, 2016

Guest Post: Kathleen Ernst - A Memory of Muskets

Two Mysteries, Two Timelines
by Kathleen Ernst

Introducing mystery author Kathleen Ernst, and her newest title A Memory of Muskets. Kathleen has taken the time to tell us about the two timelines skillfully woven throughout her book, and why she was inspired to write Rosina's story.


The Chloe Ellefson mysteries are set in the early 1980s.  But in the latest book, A Memory of Muskets, one of the main characters died decades earlier.

Chloe works as a curator at a large historic site.


The Schulz Farm, restored to its 1860 appearance at Old World Wisconsin.

Her romantic interest is local cop Roelke McKenna.  Chloe is a reluctant sleuth who gets pulled into murder investigations when  past events impact modern crimes.

Most of the Chloe mysteries have contained a historical plotline braided with the main plot.  I love giving readers a front-row seat to events that Chloe, for all her research skills, may never uncover.  When I structure a book this way, readers often know more by the end of the mystery than Chloe and Roelke do.

Two of the early books revealed stories relevant to Chloe’s Norwegian heritage.  For A Memory of Muskets, 7th in the series, I decided it was time to learn something about Roelke McKenna’s German heritage.


 This photograph was taken in the area I used as setting in A Memory of Muskets.

Chloe and Roelke’s overt challenge comes when an unidentified Civil War reenactor is found dead at Old World Wisconisin’s Schulz Farm.  While investigating the death, Chloe simultaneously plunges into research about Roelke’s great-great grandmother Rosina, hoping to solve an inexplicable mystery at his family farm.

Rosina immigrates to Wisconsin at sixteen, already promised in marriage to a man she’s never met.  The Civil War begins, and threatens to tear the German-American community apart.  Rosina does not have an easy time in her new home, and I hope she emerges as a strong, compelling character.

I’ve written lots of historical fiction, and love picking specific sensory details to help bring the period setting to life.  Rosina was particularly satisfying to write because her time and place were comfortable for me.  I once worked at the historic site where Chloe now fictitiously works.


That’s me at the Schulz Farm, 1982.

Three 1860s farms have been restored at the site, including the one that belonged to a newly-arrived German-American family.  Working as an interpreter at the Schulz Farm gave me hands-on practice with cooking, baking, processing flax into linen cloth, and other domestic chores. 

While working there I studied many immigrant diaries, letters, and reminiscences.  I was an active reenactor, portraying everyday women during the Civil War.  As Rosina’s story emerged I spent hours squinting at period newspapers preserved on microfilm, getting a feel for her specific locale.

My general familiarity with Rosina’s world allowed me to focus on her character, her experiences, her emotions.  And that’s where readers can connect with her—on an emotional level. 

My first obligation as a mystery writer is to tell a good story. In this case, I hope readers enjoy two.

***

Curator Chloe Ellefson is happily planning to spotlight home-front challenges and German immigrants at Old World Wisconsin’s first Civil War reenactment, but her overbearing boss scorns her ideas and proposes staging a mock battle instead. And when a reenactor is found dead at one of the historic site’s German farms, Chloe’s boyfriend, cop Roelke McKenna, suspects murder.


The more Roelke learns about reenacting, the more he fears that a killer will join the ranks. Then Chloe discovers a disturbing secret about Roelke’s Civil War–era ancestors. Together they struggle to solve crimes past and present . . . before Chloe loses her job and another reenactor loses his life.



Kathleen Ernst is an award-winning and bestselling author, educator, and social historian. She has published over thirty novels and two nonfiction books.  Her books for young readers include the Caroline Abbott series for American Girl.  Honors for her children's mysteries include Edgar and Agatha Award nominations.  Kathleen worked as an Interpreter and Curator of Interpretation and Collections at Old World Wisconsin, and her time at the historic site served as inspiration for the Chloe Ellefson mysteries.  The Heirloom Murders won the Anne Powers Fiction Book Award from the Council for Wisconsin Writers, and The Light Keeper's Legacy  won the Lovey Award for Best Traditional Mystery from Love Is Murder.  Ernst served as project director/scriptwriter for several instructional television series, one of which earned her an Emmy Award.  She lives in Middleton, Wisconsin.  For more information, visit her online at www.KathleenErnst.com.

Visit all of Kathleen's Chloe Ellefson Mysteries at www.MidnightInkBooks.com.



Thursday, October 13, 2016

A Reading on Steroids

Edith Maxwell here. Well, I'm not not on steroids, but last month an event honored my mystery, Delivering the Truth, in a way that went way above and far beyond your average five-minute author reading. PLUS - I'm giving away a large-print edition of the book to one commenter here before midnight eastern time today! Details at the end of the post.



I might have mentioned it here, but last spring the Whittier Home Association asked if I would "mind" if they featured my book in their annual Celebrating Whittier event, and also suggested they would propose it for an All-Community Read. "MIND?" I replied, astonished. Why, no, I wouldn't mind.

The staged reading took place on September 10 at the historic Amesbury Friends Meetinghouse - where Whittier worshipped.



Local actors Chuck Kennedy and Kate Bernardoni portrayed Whittier and my midwife, Rose Carroll. I narrated, tying the scenes together using a script our town's Poet Laureate Lainie Senechal wrote based on the book.


Lainie Senechal, Chuck Kennedy, Kate Bernardoni, and author yours truly
It was a huge success. A hundred people turned out. The costumes were perfect. All our rehearsals over the summer paid off. 

A hot August rehearsal

The local cable TV station filmed it. And now you can watch it! Truly, not your average reading.
Chuck in front of Whittier's portrait in the John Greenleaf Whittier Home Museum in Amesbury, MA

Readers: What has been your favorite reading to listen to? Do you like it when authors read, or would you rather they didn't? Writers: Has your work ever been staged?

Remember - one lucky commenter will win a large-print edition of the book! Leave a comment or question for me here before midnight eastern time today. 

A Reading on Steroids

Edith Maxwell here. Well, I'm not not on steroids, but last month an event honored my mystery, Delivering the Truth, in a way that went way above and far beyond your average five-minute author reading.



I might have mentioned it here, but last spring the Whittier Home Association asked if I would "mind" if they featured my book in their annual Celebrating Whittier event, and also suggested they would propose it for an All-Community Read. "MIND?" I replied, astonished. Why, no, I wouldn't mind.

The staged reading took place on September 10 at the historic Friends Meetinghouse.



Local actors Chuck Kennedy and Kate Bernardoni portrayed Whittier and my midwife, Rose Carroll. I narrated, tying the scenes together using a script our town's Poet Laureate Lainie Senechal wrote based on the book.


Lainie Senechal, Chuck Kennedy, Kate Bernardoni, and author yours truly
It was a huge success. A hundred people turned out. The costumes were perfect. All our rehearsals over the summer paid off. 

A hot August rehearsal

The local cable TV station filmed it. And now you can watch it! Truly, not your average reading.

Readers: What has been your favorite reading to listen to? Do you like it when authors read, or would you rather they didn't? Writers: Has your work ever been staged?

A Reading on Steroids

Edith Maxwell here. Well, I'm not not on steroids, but last month an event honored my mystery, Delivering the Truth, in a way that went way above and far beyond your average five-minute author reading.



I might have mentioned it here, but last spring the Whittier Home Association asked if I would "mind" if they featured my book in their annual Celebrating Whittier event, and also suggested they would propose it for an All-Community Read. "MIND?" I replied, astonished. Why, no, I wouldn't mind.

The staged reading took place on September 10 at the historic Amesbury Friends Meetinghouse - where Whittier worshipped.



Local actors Chuck Kennedy and Kate Bernardoni portrayed Whittier and my midwife, Rose Carroll. I narrated, tying the scenes together using a script our town's Poet Laureate Lainie Senechal wrote based on the book.


Lainie Senechal, Chuck Kennedy, Kate Bernardoni, and author yours truly
It was a huge success. A hundred people turned out. The costumes were perfect. All our rehearsals over the summer paid off. 

A hot August rehearsal

The local cable TV station filmed it. And now you can watch it! Truly, not your average reading.
Chuck in front of Whittier's portrait

Readers: What has been your favorite reading to listen to? Do you like it when authors read, or would you rather they didn't? Writers: Has your work ever been staged?

Monday, October 10, 2016

New Releases - October 2016

Don't miss Midnight Ink's October Releases!

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Now available from Midnight InkBarnes & NobleAmazonIndiebound and your local bookseller!

GUEST AUTHOR: Julia Thomas Returns to Talk Research

Webmistress Lisa here. Julia Thomas' debut novel, THE ENGLISH BOYS, came out during the summer to great reviews. I'm happy that she wanted to visit us again to talk about her research process--including for her second novel (yay!). Welcome, Julia! ~Lisa

The Importance of Research


Hi, Inkspot readers! Today, I want to talk about how I do research.  It helps that I happen to be married to a mystery writer.  His name is Will Thomas, and he’s written eight books in an award-winning mystery series involving two Victorian detectives named Cyrus Barker and Thomas Llewelyn. For years, he’s said that research was his favorite part of writing, and because we love England and reading classic mysteries by authors like Conan Doyle and Agatha Christie, I could see why. What’s easier than picking up a favorite book and soaking up the ambience and mystery that the writer has created entirely for us?

For years, I was happily in the background of my husband’s writing career, typing for him, editing here and there, and working as a research assistant to help in any way I could. And then one day I realized that all of the behind-the-scenes work I had done was not only for his benefit; I was accruing a great deal of information that could be used for a novel of my own.

Set aside the fact that I had told myself I wouldn’t write a book set in England, or that I wouldn’t write a mystery. It turned out that those years of research and life experiences made it an easy choice for my debut novel, The English Boys, when inspiration finally hit. So, I’d like to share some of the tips of doing great research when you’re writing a novel.

Whenever possible, visit the location you plan to write about. I was lucky enough to have a husband who had set his books in London and wanted to do research there. Most of the on-site experiences occurred before I ever began to write my book. I had stood on the grounds of Westminster Abbey, without knowing that the opening page of my future novel would be set in that very spot. Several scenes from the novel were written from direct experience, too: the pub where Daniel and Marc discuss the murder of Tamsyn Burke, as well as the courtyard of St. Mary Abbots Church in London near Daniel’s flat. Having spent time in that courtyard added to my ability to describe it to the reader.  It helped to know the hustle and bustle of the city and its rhythm before I began to write.

But, of course, we are not always able to travel to the town or country where our novel has been set.  In that case, material gained from independent research can help give you the sense of realism you want in your book. Here are some tips to help.

Read, read, read, and hit the library hard. The library is an excellent resource for anything you want to know. You can’t assume that everything you read online is accurate. Make sure you back up your suppositions with facts that you can pin down in actual books. Although many libraries are making the move to provide more digital than print information, interlibrary loans allow you an opportunity to access information your own library might not have. These are usually available for a very small fee and give you a wider field of information for your writing.

Go online to look for videos. In my second novel, I wanted to have my characters walk a particular path close to an actual river, in a place I had not been to before. Believe it or not, when I Googled it, I found a video of someone who had walked the path, filmed it on their camera, and uploaded it to YouTube, which provided the very experience I needed to bring a chapter alive. I could “walk” that path and see precisely what my character would see when I wrote the scene.

Know your facts. Because I write crime novels, I always do research into the laws and statutes specific to the location about which I am writing. I also make it a habit to read newspaper articles from that area, which helps give my writing a finer sense of definition and purpose. It’s important to be as authentic as possible so that your readers are satisfied.

Keep a journal. I record all kinds of facts and trivia that appeal to me, some of which will later appear in a book. The things we ourselves learn as we go along in life add touches of realism to your story.

Know your characters long before they appear on paper.  I once had the opportunity to hear an interview with the late author Henning Mankell, who wrote the Wallander series, and I will never forget his advice: know everything that will happen in the story before you write a single word.  While most of us won’t know the whole story before we begin - novels are often organic and morph into something interesting along the way - I’ve tried to get to know my characters in a deeper way than I once thought I would. I write practice scenes and character sketches to see how they speak and behave. I get to know their feelings and habits to understand the conflicts they’re dealing with long before they are faced with whatever situation I am going to put them in. 

Interview sources, whether in person, by email, or by phone. For my second novel, I emailed Harrod’s department store in London to ask them a particular question to help with a scene. They were most helpful, and with that information I was able to add a detail to my book that will matter later. Over the last two or three years, I’ve spoken to many direct sources who were able to provide information that I couldn’t have gotten any other way.

A well-written novel is one in which the research shines. And it happens to be one of the most interesting parts of writing.

Happy reading!

Julia

Thanks, Julia! I've never thought about looking online for videos before--I'm going to try that today! Do you do most of your research before writing the first draft or just enough to get started? (Is there such a thing as being a pantster when it comes to research?)


Julia Thomas is the author of The English Boys, published by Midnight Ink, which earned a starred review and was named Debut of the Month in the July 2016 issue of Library Journal. She is married to author Will Thomas, who writes a crime series set in Victorian London. In addition to writing, she loves reading, photography, and playing with her three adorable Pekes.

Friday, October 7, 2016

Guest Post: Linda O. Johnston - Unlucky Charms



Guest Post: Why Cozies?
by Linda O. Johnston


I'd like to introduce author Linda O. Johnston to Midnight Ink's blog! Her forthcoming release, Unlucky Charms, will be hitting bookshelves, and she would like to take a moment to share why she loves writing her wonderfully entertaining cozies so much. 



Why Cozies?  Lots of Reasons!

            I'm a writer.  A novelist.  I make things up and love it!  Currently, I write two cozy mystery series and two subgenres of romance.  I enjoy them all--and I especially love writing cozies.

            Why?  For many reasons. 

            First, in a cozy mystery series, I create a protagonist I enjoy working with and hope to work with for a long time to come.  They often have similarities to me.  What!  Am I writing about myself?  Not really.  But I'm a superstition agnostic like Rory Chasen, who's featured in my Superstition Mysteries.  Do I think all superstitions work?  No, at least not necessarily.  And some have opposite interpretations--black cats, for example.  They're supposedly bad luck here in the U.S. but good luck in other parts of the world.  And there are many people here who love them despite their bad reputations and even find them to be lucky.

            But... well, I do cross my fingers a lot, and knock on wood, and try to keep track of other superstitions, even if I don't necessarily believe they'll come true.

            On the other hand, my protagonists aren't always like me at all.  I also write the Barkery & Biscuits Mysteries, where Carrie Kennersly is a veterinary technician who owns both a bakery for people treats, and a barkery where she sells some of the healthy dog treats she's developed.  Now, once upon a time I wanted to be a veterinarian but decided against it when I realized that I would have to cut animals open, even to save their lives.  And these days I'm not much of a cook, although I used to do a lot more.  But I love what Carrie does, even though I don't aspire to it.  Although why someone in her position winds up having to solve murders... well, that's the nature of cozies!
           
            My first cozy series was the Kendra Ballantyne, Pet-Sitter Mysteries.  Kendra was a lawyer who lived in the Hollywood Hills with her tricolor Cavalier King Charles Spaniel, Lexie.  At the time, I was a lawyer, and I still live in the Hollywood Hills, plus my older Cavalier is a tricolor named Lexie... But fortunately I was never accused of an ethics violation while practicing law, nor do I stumble over dead bodies.

            More things I like about writing cozies?  I get to kill people off--figuratively, of course.  But if someone harms me in some way, someone resembling them can wind up dead in my novels.  That happened recently...  

            Then there are the love interests.  Unlike in the romances I also write, a relationship in a cozy series can take some time to develop and even change.  No sex on the page in cozies, but readers can use their imaginations about what happens in the bedroom.

            I can figure out interesting ways to kill people, too--such as incorporating superstitions.  Then there are the friends and sidekicks I enjoy creating, such as Martha Jallopia, who owns the Lucky Dog Boutique in the Superstition Mysteries.  Rory winds up running her shop after Pluckie, her lucky black and white dog--another superstition-- saves Martha's life.

            Perhaps most important of all to me are the pets I incorporate, mostly dogs, like Pluckie in the Superstition Mysteries, and Biscuit in the Barkery & Biscuits Mysteries.   The love interests also have to have dogs, or they wouldn't be love interests.  And of course my romances often include dogs, too.

            Not all cozies include pets, though those that do seem popular.  There are other themes, and that's another fun thing about cozies: they usually have themes, like superstitions or the barkery, or restaurants or particular types of food, or special locations, or other things the protagonists like or do for a living... or dogs or cats.

            So, yes, I enjoy cozying up with cozies, both to read--and, most especially, to write.  Hope you like them, too!


***


Unlucky Charms is Available Now!


Rory Chasen, manager of the Lucky Dog Boutique in Destiny, California, hopes her new line of good-luck doggy toys will be a hit, especially the stuffed rabbits with extra-large feet. The timing of the line’s debut proves ill-fated, though, as several local shops—including Rory’s—are ransacked and vandalized with spilled salt and other unlucky charms.


The most likely culprit is disgruntled real estate agent Flora Curtival, whose issues with the town give her a motive. But after Flora is murdered and one of Rory’s toy rabbits is found with the body, Rory needs all the luck she can get while trying to determine just who killed the superstitious vandal.






Linda O. Johnston (Los Angeles, CA) has published over forty romance and mystery novels, including the Pet Rescue Mystery series and the Pet-Sitter Mystery series for Berkley Prime Crime. She also writes the Barkery & Biscuits Mystery series for Midnight Ink. You can visit Linda at www.LindaOJohnston.com.






***