All are available at Midnight Ink, Barnes & Noble, Amazon, Indiebound
and your local bookstore.
Showing posts with label 2017 Books. Show all posts
Showing posts with label 2017 Books. Show all posts
Wednesday, July 12, 2017
Friday, June 23, 2017
Guest Post: Ray Daniel - Hacked
I'm not going to lie, this is one of the most useful guest posts we've ever had. Stolen passwords haunt our lives on the daily. Thankfully, Ray Daniel gives us some tips on how to protect ourselves from those pesky hackers, in correlation with his latest release, Hacked. The fourth book in the Tucker Mysteries, which is available now!
Hackers love passwords. They love
to use them, sell them, and trade them with their friends. Once they have
passwords they can steal identities, publish secrets, and create a wide variety
of mischief and mayhem. So, how do they
get them? Most importantly, how could they
get yours.
It's perhaps comforting to know
that they don't get your password because they know your birthday, your dog's
name, or the names of your loved ones.
While not using any of that personal information to create a password is
good advice, we don't live in a creepy world where hackers are omniscient.
Hackers have two primary ways of
getting your password: they can guess it, or they can trick you into giving it
to them. Let's look at both of those
approaches and then see what we can do to protect ourselves.
When it comes to guessing
passwords, one imagines the hacker going to Amazon.com and trying passwords
until one hits. This, of course, does
not work. Amazon.com and other sites
place limits on the number of guesses.
Instead hackers need to steal
databases full of email addresses and their associated encrypted password. Encryption takes your password and turns it
into an unintelligible string of letters.
For example, the password 'password' becomes the following:
5E884898DA28047151D0E56F8DC6292773603D0D6AABBDD62A11EF721D1542D8
There's no way to figure out the
word 'password' from that. The very
similar password 'Password' looks like this:
E7CF3EF4F17C3999A94F2C6F612E8A888E5B1026878E4E19398B23BD38EC221A
As you can see there's no
discernable pattern between them even though they are similar passwords. However, if I told you that my password was password but I didn't tell you whether the
P was capitalized, you could figure out which password was mine by
guessing. You'd encrypt password and then encrypt Password and check to see which one
matched the encrypted string. That's
exactly how hackers guess your password except on a huge scale.
Hackers regularly break into insecure
servers and steal databases of email addresses and encrypted passwords. When you heard that hackers broke into Yahoo
and stole information for one billion (billion with a B!) accounts these
username-password pairs were some of the information stolen.
Once they have the encrypted
passwords, hackers use bastardized graphics engines to create hacking machines
that can guess a billion passwords in a second.
They take your password and compare it to lists of previously guessed
passwords, then they compare it to words in a dictionary, then they replace the
'e' with '3' and add numbers and letters to the end, they use advanced
prediction mechanisms to create guesses from a first letter such as 's'.
Using techniques such as these hackers
can guess between 60 and 80% of passwords in a typical stolen database. If you'd like to know whether your password
information is in the hands of hackers, follow this link to this New York Times
article:
Or to be more precise type your
email address into http://haveibeenpwned.com.
Both sites will tell you whether
your information may be out there. (But, come on, we almost all have a Yahoo
account.)
The other way hackers get your
password is by asking for it with a phishing attack. In this approach hackers send you an email
that looks to be from a coworker or, even better, a boss or the IRS. The message says something like, "You
had better read this right now or you're screwed!" The goal is to get you
to panic, click on a link, and log in to see the information. Once you do that, the hackers have your
password. This is how John Podesta of
the Hillary Clinton campaign lost his password to Russian hackers. To be fair to Podesta, he shared the email
with his IT department who told him it was legitimate
when the person had meant to type illegitimate.
(One cannot make this up.)
If you think you're immune to being
phished I suggest listening to the Reply All podcast from Gimlet Media named What Kind of Idiot Gets Phished?. https://gimletmedia.com/episode/97-what-kind-of-idiot-gets-phished/
There are three things you can do
to minimize password-related damage:
1. Use a different password on
every site. I'd worry if I had used my
Yahoo password to protect my bank account.
2. Use a password manager to
generate unguessable random strings to all sites and save them. That way you only need to remember one
password. (Here is a comparison of password managers: http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2407168,00.asp)
3. Set up two-factor authentication
on all sites that allow it. John Podesta
would have survived losing his password if he had turned this on. Two-factor authentication requires the
hackers to have both your password and your cell phone to get into your
account. They probably don't have your cell phone. (Two-factor authentication
saves Tucker in Hacked.)
The modern world of hacking and
password can seem like a scary place, but it's not difficult to stay safe. If you use a password manager to generate
different random passwords for all your sites and turn on two-factor
authentication you won't wind up like John Podesta.
***
Aloysius Tucker vows vengeance when a hacker terrorizes his ten-year-old cousin online. But the situation goes sideways fast, threatening to take Tucker off-line for good. #TuckerGate
Promising his cousin that he’ll get an apology from an Internet bully, Tucker finds himself in a flame war that goes nuclear after a hacker is murdered. Now more hackers, the whole Twitterverse, and a relentless bounty hunter agree on one thing—Tucker is the killer and he must be stopped.
With death threats filling his inbox, Tucker battles Anonymous, Chinese spies, and his own self-destructive rage while chasing a murderer the online community has named the HackMaster. Can Tucker clear his name and build a case against the killer before the death threats come true?
Ray Daniel (Framingham, MA) writes first-person, wisecracking, Boston-based crime fiction. His story Driving Miss Rachel (published in Blood Moon by Level Best Books) was chosen as a 2013 distinguished short story by Otto Penzler, editor of The Best American Mystery Stories 2013. Daniel's work has been published in the Level Best Books anthologies Thin Ice, Blood Moon, and Stone Cold. Terminated is Ray Daniel's first novel. For more information, visit him online at raydanielmystery.com/.Friday, June 9, 2017
Guest Post: R. Jean Reid - Perdition
We welcome R. Jean Reid (Jean Redmann) to Midnight Ink's blog today! Jean delves into setting and why she wrote a series set in Mississippi. The second in her gripping Nell McGraw Investigation series, Perdition, was just released yesterday.
I grew up in a small town on the
Mississippi Gulf coast, Ocean Springs. It’s been decades since I lived there,
but the past, our memories, the slant of the light, seeing a world new through
a growing child’s eyes; keep it tightly in memory. This town and my growing up
there had stories to tell. These stories became the Nell McGraw series.
There is no real Pelican Bay and
I’ve stretched the Mississippi coast from 3 counties to 4 to add my fictional
one. The city is loosely—very loosely—based on Ocean Springs, but mainly
because it’s easier to pull something from memory (and a map) than to create it
out of whole cloth. There is no town square, so please don’t ask where it is.
(Ocean Springs is a lovely, sleepy town, miles of natural beaches and worth a
trip if you’re in the area. But missing an expanse of green at its heart.)
The first story I wanted to tell,
in Roots of Murder, was to dig back into the hidden—or forgotten—struggles of
the civil rights era. When I was a child, those lovely beaches were segregated.
As difficult as it is, I wanted to take a hard look at that past, at least as
much as a mystery, a fictional world, could do. How do those long ago sins
still resonate? The mystery genre, at its heart, is a search for justice. Too
often in real life we can’t find it; truth hidden and smudged under everyone’s
version of it. But the mystery novel can give it to us.
For this kind of story, the only
possible setting seemed to be one based on my childhood home, a small town with
secrets.
In my research for the book, I
stumbled over a memoir titled Blood, Ballots and Beaches, by Dr. Gilbert Mason,
Sr., an African-American doctor. It was the story of the desegregation of the
beaches in Biloxi, Mississippi, a struggle overshadowed by the more bloody
violence going on in other parts of the state.
My parents are long gone. I can’t
ask them what it was like, even if I dared (would I find answers I didn’t want
to find?) I only had small clues, some only later revealing themselves. In 8th
grade, I was given an assignment to ask my parents to name someone they
admired, a historical figure. My mother chose Eleanor Roosevelt. Only later,
did I realize what a major statement that was for Mississippi in the late
sixties. (The state was still fighting Brown v. Education, finally losing at
the Supreme Court in 1969.) Eleanor Roosevelt, who resigned from the Daughters
of the American Revolution, when it refused to let the African-American singer
Marianne Anderson perform in its hall. Who climbed into a bi-plane with one of
the Tuskegee Airmen to show her utter confidence that they could fly as well as
any white pilot.
In Dr. Mason’s book, he only named
those who helped support him in his struggle. I saw the name of my pediatrician,
my mother’s cancer doctor, others that were part of my parent’s social circle.
A small kindness, to find that
perhaps in that flawed time with its all too flawed men, my parents, had at
least been part of those who were willing to hope for a better world. They
weren’t fighters for civil rights, not on the front lines. Even in my sealed
childhood world, I would have remembered that. I can’t claim any great heroism
from my family—only that perhaps they weren’t as flawed—shading into evil—as many
in that time and place.
And I had to write a story that
helps, in a very, very small way, to atone for the sunny days at the beach that
were denied to others. To remind us that, as Faulkner says, ‘The past is never
gone; it’s isn’t even past.”
That was the genesis of Nell McGraw
and Pelican Bay. (Please note, it’s a large small town and part of the well
populated Gulf Coast area, keeping the murder rate well below that of Cabot
Cove.)
In Perdition, the second Nell
McGraw, I also wanted to draw on secrets, the assumptions we make about others,
especially when we think we know them.
Mississippi, and my memories, still
have stories to tell.
***
What happens when a killer who can’t be caught threatens to kill your children next?
A town and a mother are forced to confront their worst fears in this hair-raising suspense novel from the author of Roots of Murder.
Newly widowed mother Nell McGraw struggles with her outsider status as she runs the newspaper founded by her husband’s grandfather. But a paper can’t turn away from the stories that others ignore, like the body of a child found in the Gulf. At first it seems tragic, a child lost because of carelessness.
Then another child goes missing.
Disgusted by the turf war between the sheriff and the police chief, Nell barely manages to keep her journalistic distance . . . until the killer contacts her, telling her that her children could be next. Now Nell must match wits with a psychopath who taunts her, daring her and the police to catch him before he can kill again.
R. Jean Reid lives and works in New Orleans. She grew up on the Mississippi Gulf coast. As J.M. Redmann, she is the author of multi-Lambda Award-winning Micky Knight Mystery series, including The Intersection of Law and Desire, Death of a Dying Man and Ill Will. Her day job is in public health as the director of prevention at NO/AIDS Task Force. You can visit her at www.RJeanReid.com.
Thursday, June 8, 2017
Friday, May 19, 2017
Guest Post: Amanda Flower - The Final Vow
Join Amanda Flower as she shares a peek into the life of Laura Fellow, a character in Amanda's latest Living History Museum Mystery, The Final Vow. There's also a recipe included!
Most
of the year, I'm a high school history teacher, but during the summer, I dress
up in long skirts and shirtwaists as a historical interpreter at Barton Farm.
In this getup, I pretend to be living in 1863 and spout off mostly accurate
Ohio and America Civil War history. My best friend, Kelsey Cambridge, is the
director of Barton Farm, and she always tells me not to share bad historical
facts. My philosophy is different. If I can make a student or visitor think by
feeding them questionable facts, that’s when really learning can occur. The
ability to question something lead to true critical thinking. Unfortunately,
Kelsey doesn’t see it that way and thinks the Farm will be sued some day for my
misrepresentation of history. She worries too much.
Another aspect of my job at Barton Farm is to
cook meals in a hearth, so that tourists can taste test the delicacies of years
gone by. To be honest, it's hot and steamy work. There are no air conditioning
in any of the historical buildings on Barton Farm where I cook. The recipes are
usually labor intensive and need my constant attention, which means many long
hours over the fire. However, when I see a child taste of my recipes and smile,
it is all worth it because now that child has a taste for history. As a history
teacher and historical interpreter, I can’t think of anything better.
However this year, a typically peaceful summer
of stories and recipes at Barton Farm has been interrupted with the upcoming
wedding of Eddie Cambridge and Krissie Pumpernickel. Yes, you read that last
name right. It’s the same as Kelsey. She is hosting her ex-husband’s wedding at
Barton Farm. She doesn’t have any choice in the matter. The Cherry Foundation,
which sponsors the Farm, agreed to it. To make matters worse, Krissie got it
into her head that she wants a Civil War-themed wedding. I’m helping her anyway that I can, so she
asked me to help her with the Civil War era menu since that’s my expertise at
the Farm. I agreed it do it for Kelsey. I certainly have no interest in helping
Eddie or Krissie. I even have gone so far as to share my rice pudding recipe. I
sure hope Krissie appreciates it. Knowing that bridezilla she won’t.
***
Summer weddings at Barton Farm’s picturesque church were standard procedure for museum director Kelsey Cambridge—until the Cherry Foundation, which supports the museum, ordered Kelsey to host her ex-husband’s wedding on Farm grounds.
Ambitious wedding planner Vianna Pine is determined to make the bride’s Civil War-themed wedding perfect. But each time Vianna’s vision threatens the integrity and safety of the Farm, Kelsey has to intervene. And when she finds Vianna’s dead body at the foot of the church steps, everyone’s plans fall apart. With both the wedding and Barton Farm at risk of being permanently shut down, Kelsey has to work hard to save her own happily ever after.
Amanda Flower (Tallmadge, OH) is an academic librarian and the Agatha Award-nominated author of Maid of Murder, the Appleseed Creek Mysteries, and the India Hayes Mysteries. She also writes the Amish Quilt Shop Mysteries under the name Isabella Alan. You can visit Amanda at www.AmandaFlower.com.
Friday, May 12, 2017
Guest Post: Nadine Nettmann - Uncorking a Lie
Recent Agatha Award Finalist Nadine Nettmann shares 15 fun facts!
Take a moment to learn more about Nadine
and her latest title Uncorking a Lie, available now!
1. I’m addicted to Jeopardy and pub trivia.
2. It took five books, ten years, and 421 queries to get
published. My advice is to never give up.
3. I decided to pursue my sommelier certification after I
was pulled onto a wine panel at a food and wine festival.
4. I was in an excellent blind tasting group for a few years
where we met weekly and tested each other on wines. However, the characters in
my books are not based on the members of the tasting group.
5. In the photo of Decanting a Murder with the two glasses
of wine, my mom poured both bottles at the same time while I took the photo. We
did about four takes (and I mean, putting the wine back into the bottle and
starting over) and had a lot of laughs.
6. The corks in the photo of Uncorking a Lie are all special
corks I’ve saved over the years from anniversaries, special moments, or truly
amazing bottles. I keep them in a vase on the shelf by my desk.
7. I can do a few magic tricks and sometimes carry a deck of
cards in my purse.
8. I often eat dinner food for breakfast and breakfast food
for dinner.
9. I drink massive amounts of tea (milk, no sugar) daily in
an extra large mug I bought while I was in London.
10. I prefer baking to cooking and love making cakes and
pastries.
11. I was once in a book club where I made a themed cake for
each book. The photo is a carrot cake for the meeting where we discussed The
Girl with the Dragon Tattoo.
12. My husband and I moved to Hawaii on a whim with only two
suitcases each … and ended up staying there for five years.
13. I learned how to drive stick shift on the road to Hana,
Maui.
14. My first passion is writing but my second is music and
I’ve played the guitar since I was sixteen.
15. My favorite movie is Psycho because I saw it without
knowing (spoiler alert!) that Norman Bates was his mother so I received the
full effect Hitchcock was trying to achieve. It stunned me and sparked a love
of twist endings.
***
It was the kind of invitation sommelier Katie Stillwell had only dreamed about: a dinner party at the Sonoma mansion of famed wine collector Paul Rafferty to celebrate a rare bottle. Everyone enjoys drinking the $19,000 wine, but Katie realizes it’s not the vintage listed on the label.
When she confides in Mr. Rafferty, he asks her to investigate, and she soon discovers the deception goes beyond money—it includes an accidental death that might just be murder. As Katie falls deeper into the world of counterfeit wine, she learns everything is at stake . . . even her life.
Nadine Nettmann, a Certified Sommelier through the Court of Master Sommeliers, is always on the lookout for great wines and the stories behind them. She has visited wine regions around the world including Chile, South Africa, Spain, Germany and every region in France. Nadine is a member of Mystery Writers of America, Sisters in Crime, Romance Writers of America and International Thriller Writers. She lives in California with her husband. You can visit Nadine at www.NadineNettmann.com.
Tuesday, May 9, 2017
Friday, April 21, 2017
Guest Post: Brian Klingborg - Kill Devil Falls
Midnight Ink would like to welcome debut author Brian Klingborg to our blog!
Brian takes a moment to explain why he is extremely into writing those terrifying, scary, creepy, dark mysteries. His first thriller/horror/suspense novel Kill Devil Falls is available now.
I like my
mysteries and thrillers the same way I like my coffee – pitch black.
I’ve always
been drawn to flawed protagonists, sympathetic villains, gallows humor,
frequent violence, and moral ambiguity.
Don’t get me
wrong -- I coo over babies and puppies, offer up my subway seat to those in
need and never fail to mist up when watching the “You had me at hello” scene in
Jerry McGuire. In other words, I’m a big softie.
But I’m attracted
to dark-hearted tales like a sailor to a siren.
I’ve pondered the reasons why, and I think I finally have an
answer. It’s my parents fault.
Let me
explain.
When I was about
five, my mother decided it was time to provide me with some exposure to
religion. Not that she was particularly devout,
but she was raised in a family that went to church most Sundays, and derived
some sense of community from doing so, and anyway, why the hell not?
So off I
went to a preschool church group. I
don’t remember what the program consisted of, but I assume it involved a few
games, a couple of Bible stories, milk and cookies, and then the grand finale –
an invitation to establish a personal relationship with Jesus.
What the
church group didn’t know was that my father was a veterinarian. One who was justifiably proud of his skills,
and not above a bit of grand-standing.
Docking puppy tails in our garage, performing emergency suturing on our
dining table, that sort of thing. As a
result, even at that tender age I was no stranger to actual blood and guts in
all their technicolor glory. So, when
the unsuspecting church group leader asked if I was ready to “accept Jesus into
your heart,” I took his meaning literally and freaked out. Big time. He had to call my
mother to come pick me up. And I was not
invited back.
During those
formative years, my parents worked hard to make ends meet, and there wasn’t a
lot of money for extras. When they
wanted to splurge, they went to the movies.
And because they couldn’t afford a babysitter, they took my older brother
and me along. That’s how I ended up as a
toddler watching The Godfather on the big screen, complete with its severed
horse’s head and toll-booth machine gun rub-out of Sonny Corleone. (Side note:
The Godfather remains one of my favorite movies today.) I also recall seeing MASH, The Poseidon
Adventure, and a few other 70’s classics with rather high body counts.
I’m not saying
my fondness for scary stories, noir and gore are entirely a result of this
early introduction to gross anatomy and celluloid shocks – some folks naturally
like kittens, while others prefer extraterrestrial creatures with acidic
blood. But certainly, in my own writing,
I reach back to those childhood influences for inspiration.
For example,
has there ever been a scene more fraught with the anticipation of impending
violence than the one in The Godfather
where Michael Corleone sits down for dinner with Virgil “the Turk” Sollozzo and
Captain McCluskey? Watch as the tension
slowly, excruciatingly ratchets up to eleven, punctuated by Michael’s nervous
eye-shifting and the jarring crescendo of an approaching subway train. Quentin Tarantino has based his entire film
career on emulating that kind of cinematic brilliance. As a writer, I’d love nothing more than to
put my audience on the edge of their seats the way that scene does to me.
Likewise, having
a front row seat at live births, operations and autopsies (animal, not human)
has given me an eye for detail when it comes to things such as medical
procedures and the odor of various kinds of bodily fluids. What many people might find disgusting, or at
least off-putting, was a common topic of conversation around our dinner table.
Fast forward
many years and I have two children myself.
When my kids were young, I carefully curated what they read and viewed. Nothing too violent or disturbing. They are in their teens now, so I let them
make their own choices, but I still issue a verbal warning if they are about to
enter the room when I’m watching zombies or a bloody shoot-out on TV. Thus far, neither of them have demonstrated
the same love for the grotesque that I possess, but time will tell whether
these preferences are a matter of nature or nurture.
In the
meantime, my youthful experiences continue to inform my work. As a parent, I probably wouldn’t have
considered taking my kids to see The
Godfather. But as a storyteller, I
appreciate having a deep well of visceral memories from which to draw. Without it, I’d probably be writing about
stuff like dragons and iron thrones. And
who needs more of that nonsense? (Kidding
– I love you George R. R. Martin!)
Anyway, what
I guess what I’m really trying to say is -- thanks mom and dad!
***
When U.S. Marshal Helen Morrissey is tasked with collecting a fugitive bank robber from a remote town in the Sierra Nevadas, she braces for a rough trip. After all, with a name like Kill Devil Falls, her destination must be a real hellhole.
Turns out that it’s worse than she imagined. Much worse. After barely surviving a white-knuckle drive in what she suspects is a sabotaged car, she’s stuck in a virtual ghost town populated by a handful of oddballs and outcasts. But it’s not until her prisoner turns up dead that Helen realizes she’s in real trouble. There are secrets buried below the surface of Kill Devil Falls. Secrets worth killing for.
Brian Klingborg works in the educational publishing field. He’s written books on Kung Fu, and he wrote for the Winx Club television series. Kill Devil Falls is his first novel. He lives in New York City. You can follow Brian on Twitter: @OjiiKlingborg.
Friday, April 14, 2017
Guest Post: Steve Hockensmith - Give the Devil His Due
Give the Devil His Due, the third entry in the Tarot
Mystery series by Steve Hockensmith with Lisa Falco, came out this month, and
to celebrate we asked Steve to stop by the blog and share some thoughts on the
book. As you’ll see, he had a lot to share about not having a lot to share.
Point Blank
I have nothing to say.
Which is really saying something. Aren’t writers supposed to write because
they’re burning with a feverish desire to share their most passionate feelings
and important ideas?
Nope. That’s internet
trolls. Oh, and some writers, too. But not me.
I do have passionate
feelings. “Love Actually” is terrible! “The Big Lebowski” is wonderful! Wheat
beer is an abomination! Stout is the stuff of life! See? But did I make the
world a better place by sharing all that? Did I change your mind about
anything? Did I get you to buy my latest book? I doubt it.
I have ideas, too, but I
don’t presume that they have any importance. A lot of them are about books and
stories I (or someone) should write, and that ain’t gonna change the world. My
ideas about life and people and politics are important, I suppose, but they’re
not original. Other people are saying the same thing — and getting shouted at
by people who have different ideas about life and people and politics.
I don’t like being
shouted at. If I were the renegade cop in a ‘70s movie — the one called in to
see the precinct captain, who barks something like “You’ve really screwed the
pooch this time, McCloskey! That was the mayor’s son you just shot!” — I’d
whimper and turn in my badge and gun immediately. (Even before the later scene
where the captain tells me to turn in my badge and gun because I just threw the
mayor off a bridge.)
Yet we can’t help but
say something sometimes, even when we don’t think we’re opening up our big
yaps. Cozy mysteries get knocked because they’re supposedly disposable escapist
fluff. Well, allow me to actually say something: Hurrah for supposedly
disposable escapist fluff! And supposedly disposable escapist fluff can make a
statement — even when it doesn’t have a point per se beyond entertainment —
because it’s a reflection of its creator.
Or creators in the case
of the tarot mystery books I do with Lisa Falco. Lisa, a knowledgeable and
sincere tarot expert, came up with the general idea for the series: a tarot
reader uses her skills with the cards to help her clients. Then I, a cynical
writer, added my own spin: Why not make the protagonist a reformed con artist
so we can show how the tarot can be abused? A lot of the people peddling
prognostication are charlatans. Shouldn’t the books reflect that?
And they do…while
simultaneously offering readers a “How to –” guide for using the tarot. So what
is it that says? Maybe “The tarot is a cool tool for finding personal insights,
but don’t forget it can be used to manipulate you, too.”
The books don’t hit you
over the head with that message, though. Because at the end of the day, here’s
the main thing I’m trying to say to our readers — the real point of all the
writing I do:
Enjoy!
***
Alanis McLachlan, reformed con artist turned tarot reader, gets paid for predicting the future—too bad she didn’t see all the trouble in hers. First a figure from her past tries to drag her back into the life of crime she thought she’d le behind. Then a new suitor tries to sweep Alanis off her feet, threatening her on-again, off-again romance with hunky teacher Victor Castellanos. And there’s the little matter of the ominous reading she gives to a new client, which could have deadly consequences. Danger is in the cards for Alanis, and she’ll need all her skills at reading both people and tarot if she’s going to survive.
Steve Hockensmith is the
author of between fourteen and nineteen books (he’s lost count), including the
first two entries in the Tarot Mystery series (The White Magic Five and Dime and
Fool Me Once) and the Edgar
finalists Holmes on the Range
and Nick and Tesla’s Secret Agent
Gadget Battle.
He can be found on
Facebook here: https://www.facebook.com/steve.hockensmith.7
And on Twitter here: https://twitter.com/MrHockensmith
And his website is here:
http://www.stevehockensmith.com
And this is a cat eating
a banana:
Monday, April 10, 2017
Friday, April 7, 2017
Guest Post: Isabella Maldonado - Blood's Echo
We'd like to welcome debut author
Isabella Maldonado!
MY BIG FAT LATINO NOVEL
by Isabella Maldonado
When I retired from crime fighting and took up crime
writing, I decided to create a story with a different vibe. After over two
decades in law enforcement, a police procedural was a natural choice. I loved
reading about grizzled homicide detectives working the mean streets of New York
or L.A., but wanted to offer something different to readers.
Different…like Mexican-American characters and culture and a
strong Latina heroine with a complex back story and a huge heart. I’d seen
movies and novels featuring Latino villains, but I wanted to reflect cultural
diversity on both sides of the law. I also chose to set my story in a
major city that wasn’t New York,
L.A., Chicago, D.C., or Miami.
Not exactly what you see populating the shelves of most
bookstores.
For a while, I hesitated, wondering if such a book would be
published. Would crime fiction fans enjoy reading an edgy thriller with a large
dollop of salsa picante on top? Then,
as I watched my husband dab Vicks VapoRub on a cut one afternoon, I had an
epiphany.
The movie didn’t succeed because people of Greek ancestry
went to see it, but because it struck a chord with millions of families who
make their way to our beautiful nation of immigrants. There was also the
coming-of-age story of a young lady who is trying to break free from the
smothering (if loving) influence of her relatives to discover who she is and
make her place in the world. Many people, regardless of their own ethnic
background, can relate. Stories, after all, are about the human condition. And
good stories transcend specifics.
Energized, I wrote BLOOD’S ECHO, a police procedural set in
Phoenix, featuring a Latina detective who pits herself against a Mexican drug
cartel. Definitely not a romantic comedy, the story is fast-paced, brutal at
times, with twists, long-buried secrets, and only a few humorous moments. Her
relatives are both an asset and a liability for her, as is her police team and
the arson investigator who stokes her fire.
The third group is law enforcement. I can tell you from
personal experience that police departments are a kind of extended family that
can be the tightest, or the most dysfunctional, of them all. When you depend on
each other for survival, knowing there are people who would kill you if given
the chance, a unique bond forms with your fellow officers. Detective Cruz is forced
out of her position and into a different part of the department, where she must
quickly determine who her allies and adversaries are.
Real families come in all sizes, configurations, and
ethnicities. I’m hoping readers will enjoy a different culture and a fresh
setting as they take a wild ride. After all, everyone has a family, and there’s
more to bring us together than set us apart.
I am forever grateful to Terri Bischoff, who saw the book’s
potential, and to Midnight Ink, which gave BLOOD’S ECHO the chance to find its
audience.
***
Whenever the lust for drugs, money, and power lays claim to a city, brutality is never far behind. Phoenix detective Veranda Cruz is dead set on taking down the Villalobos Cartel, but the ruthlessness of her quarry demands a ruthless edge of her own.
Detective Veranda Cruz leads an elite task force on the Phoenix Police Drug Enforcement Bureau. Bartolo Villalobos is the heir apparent to the most powerful cartel in the world. No one in the department suspects the secret motive behind Veranda’s obsession with the cartel . . . until an operation goes horribly wrong.
Targeted by an increasingly unstable drug lord, Veranda must protect her family and stay clear of adversaries within the force while she sets a trap for Bartolo. As the desert action heats up, Veranda and her new Homicide team—along with an arson investigator who kindles a flame for her—are all drawn into a deadly gambit. Taking down Bartolo is the ultimate goal, but is Veranda ready to trade life for justice?
Isabella Maldonado retired from law enforcement as a Commander of Special Investigations and Forensics. During her long career, she was recognized with a Meritorious Service Award and a Lifesaving Award, and she was selected to attend executive management training at the FBI’s National Academy. Isabella is the immediate past president of the Phoenix chapter of Sisters In Crime. She lives in Mesa, Arizona. You can visit her at www.IsabellaMaldonado.com.
Friday, March 10, 2017
New Releases - March 2017
Let's welcome Spring, or whatever this weather is, with Midnight Ink's March titles!
All available at Midnight Ink, Barnes & Noble, Amazon, Indiebound and your local bookstore.
Monday, March 6, 2017
Guest Post: Gwen Florio - Reservations
Gwen Florio's fourth mystery in the Lola Wicks series will be released this week, and we've invited her to share a few fun facts about herself. Enjoy!
1.
I grew up on a wildlife refuge in Delaware. Think thousands of acres of
woods and marsh populated by deer, geese, ducks and muskrat.
2.
I have trapped, skinned, cooked and eaten muskrat. I don’t care if I
never do any of those things again.
3.
My parents gave in to my begging for a pony when I was nine, but told me
I had to learn to stay on bareback before I could have a saddle. I learned.
4.
I still have a bump on my head where said pony kicked me. My kids rub it
for luck.
5.
My kids once wrote an illustrated story called “Gwen and the Three
Bears” that ends with a drawing of a gravestone reading “Here lies Gwen,
killed by bears.”
6.
I love those kids.
7.
But I am deathly afraid of grizzlies.
8.
I have a grizzly tattooed on my ankle.
9.
A bear could easily catch me. I have come in near-last in a marathon and
last in a half-marathon, and have a Last Best Finisher medal to prove it.
10. There’s
a bear – more than one – in the WIP. I’m obsessed.
11. I take
pictures of my books when I spot them in stores or libraries and send them to
my mom, ostensibly so she’ll think I’m making money at this.
12. I will
never get over the thrill of seeing my books there.
13. I’ll
forever be grateful to my parents for banning TV but never a book, no matter
how seemingly inappropriate.
14. As a
journalist for nearly forty years, I fiercely believe in the right of reporters
to pursue the truth, and the necessity of revealing it, no matter how
uncomfortable.
15. As a
novelist, I believe fiction is frequently the best way to get at truth. Looking
forward to lots of great fiction in the next four years.
***
Journalist Lola Wicks would much rather pursue a story than spend time with people she barely knows. So when an eco-terrorist bombing escalates the controversy surrounding a new coal mine on Arizona’s Navajo Reservation, she’s almost relieved to have a distraction from meeting her in-laws.
But as the violence gets worse and Lola digs deeper, she can’t escape the feeling that her husband’s family is somehow involved—a suspicion that jeopardizes not only her marriage, but also her life.Gwen Florio (Missoula, MT) has won several journalism awards and been nominated three times for the Pulitzer Prize. Her fiction has won the inaugural Pinckley Prize and the High Plains Book Award and was nominated for the Pushcart Prize for her Short Fiction. She is a member of International Thriller Writers, Mystery Writers of America, Sisters in Crime, Rocky Mountain Fiction Writers, and Women Writing the West. Visit Gwen at www.GwenFlorio.net.
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