The Dangers that Lurk in the City by the Bay

by Erica Miner

‘San Francisco, a city that considers its Opera only slightly less sacred than the Holy Grail’

San Francisco. City by the Bay. Famous for stunning landmarks: the Golden Gate Bridge, Alcatraz, Pier 39, Fisherman’s Wharf. Legendary for its cable cars, iconic waterfront, steep rolling hills and Victorian architecture. A city of contrasts, from its natural beauty to its technology. Of fascinating history, from the gold rush to the present.

But the San Francisco of Overture to Murder, the latest novel in my Julia Kogan Opera Mystery series, is a city of mystery: Twin Peaks, stealthy fog…and the ghostly upper reaches of its opera house.

After her life-threatening entanglements in murder investigations at the Metropolitan Opera (Aria for Murder) and Santa Fe Opera (Prelude to Murder), intrepid young violinist Julia Kogan takes on new challenges as the concertmaster (first of the first violinists) of the San Francisco Opera, a position of immense responsibility. She is temporarily replacing the current concertmaster, who has been badly injured in a hit-and-run accident, which Julia thinks worthy of looking into as not accidental. It is a high-pressure situation for her, both musically and emotionally, but she’s up to the test—or is she?

In the historical War Memorial Opera House, Julia finds a theatre steeped in history: among other things, it’s adjacent to the Veterans Building where Harry Truman signed the UN Charter in 1945. But she also finds intrigue. There’s no time for sampling the sourdough, Dim Sum, Ghirardelli chocolates and other culinary delights of the city. Julia has her work cut out for her, trying to uncover the perpetrator in the latest grisly operatic killing.  

The city of San Francisco and its opera are in my blood. I have a personal connection with both of them. Over the last several decades I paid numerous visits to this amazing city to spend time with a close family member who worked with the company and with other family members and friends who lived in the Bay Area. Thus I experienced a doubly significant journey when I recently toured the War Memorial Opera House with the House Head, who had been working there for over 30 years and knew every corner and cranny. Little had I known that the place, which had served as the locale for the film Foul Play, is filled with creaky old equipment that’s positively scary to look at and listen to and is home to its own ghosts.

As I cringed from these discoveries, I put myself in Julia’s shoes. How does she cope with disturbingly creative modes of murder devised by a mentally unhinged killer? She investigates, of course, as is her wont. Her natural curiosity gets the better of her, as it has in previous opera houses. She will leave no sheet of music unturned until she discovers the perpetrator’s identity, with little regard for her own safety. The trouble is, she’s not the only one who’s in danger. The life of another person near and dear to her is in jeopardy as well. The tables have turned.

It was such a trip for me in so many ways to write this novel. Nostalgia about my past experiences with the company met with the fascination I experienced in my forays at the opera house of the present. Julia is my alter ego, based on myself when I, too, was an eager young violinist. But I could never summon up the level of courage that becomes essential for her as she navigates the perilous world of opera mystery in the dark stairways, back hallways, and hundred foot-high catwalks of the War Memorial Opera House. And again, the curtain comes down on murder.

About Erica:

Former Metropolitan Opera violinist Erica Miner is now an award-winning author, screenwriter, arts journalist, and lecturer based in the Pacific Northwest. Her debut novel, Travels with My Lovers, won the Fiction Prize in the Direct from the Author Book Awards. Her current Julia Kogan Opera Mystery series reveal the dark side of the fascinating world of opera: Aria for Murder (Level Best Books, 2022), was a finalist in the 2023 Eric Hoffer and Murder and Mayhem Awards; Prelude to Murder (2023) a Distinguished Favorite in the 2024 NYC Big Book Awards, glowingly reviewed by Kirkus Reviews; and the just-released Overture to Murder (2024). As a writer-lecturer, Erica has given workshops for Sisters in Crime; Los Angeles Creative Writing Conference; EPIC Group Writers; Write on the Sound; Fields End Writer’s Community; Savvy Authors; and numerous libraries on the west coast.

ISBN-10: 978-1-68512-781-7 (pb)

ISBN-13:978-1-68512-782-4 (eb)

Webpage: www.ericaminer.com

Social media:

https://www.facebook.com/erica.miner1

https://twitter.com/EmwrtrErica

https://www.instagram.com/emwriter3/

Buy Link: Amazon

Blurbs:

“Anyone who loves the romance of opera and opera houses will enjoy Overture to Murder. Miner gives us a unique tour of the War Memorial Opera House, letting us in on its secrets, legends and gossip, and one of its most important occupants, the San Francisco Opera. She shares many details only a true insider can know, bringing the building to life and making it an essential character in this exceptionally well-crafted mystery.” ~ John Boatwright, San Francisco Opera House Head

“Divas and deadly secrets share center stage in Erica Miner’s Overture to Murder, a classic mystery tale set at the San Francisco Opera House, a chilling backdrop for murder. Precise details, inside information about the glamorous world of classical music, and a cast of finely drawn characters propel the action from the opening curtain to the final bows. This suspenseful tale of mystery, music, and mayhem is a page-turner. Highly recommend.” ~ Lori Robbins, author of the On Pointe Mysteries

“Set against the elegant backdrop of the San Francisco Opera, this smart, suspenseful mystery weaves a tale as intricate and compelling as Wagner's Ring. With its masterful blend of suspense, music, and drama, OVERTURE TO MURDER is a must-read for mystery enthusiasts and opera lovers alike.  Mally Becker, Agatha Award-nominated author of The Revolutionary War mysteries.

Love, Die, Neighbor Review by E. B. Davis

 

A prequel to the [Kiki Lowenstein] Mystery Series that has won the hearts of fans all over the world! As the mother of an active toddler and the wife of an often absent husband, Kiki Lowenstein already has both hands full. But when the Lowensteins move into their new house on the same day the construction crew leaves, Kiki must learn to juggle boxes, baby, and big expectations. Her determination to be a good neighbor hits a serious roadblock when she angers the Nordstroms, the couple who live next door. Then Sven Nordstrom dies under mysterious circumstances, and Kiki is forced into the one role she never planned on playing: amateur sleuth.

 

Love, Die, Neighbor is a prequel in the Kiki Lowenstein series, one of many series written by Joanna Campbell Slan, whose specialty is cozy mysteries. But by far, this series must be the most popular because there are now twenty books. Additionally, there are twenty-four short stories/novellas having Kiki Lowenstein as the main character.

 

The first book, Paper, Scissors, Death was published in 2008. Love Die, Neighbor was published in 2017, and I read it first. I’m glad I did. It gave such depth to Kiki, the main character, that I can’t imagine it not being the first book.

 

Writers try not to include too much backstory and historical data so as not to bog down the plot, especially in what must be a first impact book. But as the series progresses successfully, there comes a certain point in the series arc when writers understand their main character is what draws readers. Murders and sleuthing aside, readers want to know more about how the main character got to where she is in life. And thus, prequels are created. As I understand it, there is also a second prequel, Bad Memory Album, written in 2023. I’m not sure what aspect of the series spring boarded this book, but I will find out!

 

In Love, Die, Neighbor, Kiki reveals a sexual encounter at a college frat party resulted in her marriage to the honorable father and subsequent daughter. At first, I thought her daughter was a newborn, but she is nearly two when this book takes place. Trying to clear away construction debris in her new house and dealing with a mobile toddler are bad enough, but she also has to deal with a condescending mother-in-law. And then, she finds the neighbors to be strange and unfriendly. When one of them is murdered, she and her husband come under suspicion, ensuring that Kiki, who needs an intellectual pursuit, is on the case.

 

Kiki is an honorable character who bites her tongue perhaps more than she should. Readers start to champion her when she is belittled by her mother-in-law and ignored by her husband. Kiki doubts his fidelity, a question that remains unanswered at the end of the book. Still, she honors her marriage and takes the higher road with mommy dearest and her unfriendly neighbors.  

 

Who are your favorite main characters? Have you ever written a prequel?  

When the killer gets away with it

By S. Lee Manning

I discovered mysteries when I was at the University of Chicago, finishing an M.A. in English literature. Bored with literary novels and wondering why I thought I loved novels or thought I wanted to write one, I picked up an Agatha Christie mystery--and that was it. I loved reading novels again. I soon expanded to other mystery authors, then to suspense and thrillers, knowing that these weren't just what I wanted to read, but what I wanted to write.

I could even explain my fascination in literary terms to fellow students at UC. Mysteries and thrillers, like many great Shakespearean plays, portray a world that has descended into chaos that has to be returned to order. Example--Macbeth. He kills the kind old king, and Scotland is plunged into darkness, until Macbeth is killed and the proper world is restored. This is also the pattern I found reading mysteries.

Of course, what restoring order meant in Shakespeare's time and what it means in ours are two different things. Shakespeare believed in a natural, God-given order, where everyone had their place. In our world, restoring order means a reality where things are understandable, reasonably predictable, and where a certain level of fair play and respect for other people exists.

In our world, when a murder occurs, it indicates a loss of that reality. The detective, private or police or experienced knitter, arrives on the scene, to analyze the clues and find the murderer. The killer is uncovered and stopped. Justice prevails and order restored. There's a similar pattern in thrillers. The villain threatens to destroy the world, the hero or heroes prevent the evil, and the villain is stopped—killed or imprisoned.

Except when it doesn't happen. Because sometimes the killer gets away with it.

I'm not thinking of noir mysteries and thrillers, where the view of the world is bleak and pessimistic. In noir, chaos is the rule, not the exception. Killers often get away with it in noir, but then, it's not unexpected. The world of noir is depressing and dark, nothing is fair or just, and that bleak reality exists at the end of the story. Noir was never my cup of tea.

I've always liked thrillers, suspense novels, and mysteries when the good guys prevail and the bad guys don't. There is a satisfaction, a feeling of completion that I enjoy, and that I don't get from reading noir.

That doesn't mean that there isn't some darkness or some sadness at what has been lost.

It's what I usually have in my spy thrillers. The good guys win the day, and the bad guys are vanquished. But some of the good guys may have died. And even those who survive have suffered losses. But (hopefully) the reader still has that feeling of satisfaction and restoration; it's just bittersweet.

However, sometimes, even in those good-prevailing-over-evil-kind of books that I love, the killer doesn't wind up in jail or dead. Sometimes the killer gets away. And that upsets the world order. Or does it?

 Characters can kill with impunity and not disturb the world order—if they kill the right people for the right reason. Reacher in Lee Child's novels leaves a trail of bodies in every book, but the readers still finish with the feeling of all being right with the world. So whether the world remains in chaos or not when the book ends depends on who is doing the killing and why. And whether there actually is a world order to be restored before the killing takes place.

 In my last thriller, Bloody Soil, Lisette beheads a man in the beginning of the novel, poisons a man, tries to poison the protagonist, and shoots several people. Yet, at the end, she walks away. And, everyone is pleased that she gets away with it. She's a sympathetic character who witnessed her father's murder, and the people she kills are neo-Nazis who've killed others and plan to overthrow the German government. Moreover, the order of the world was already disrupted. Her killings, rather than creating disorder, restored the world that should exist.

 My latest thriller, Deadly Choice, also starts off with a murder. A doctor is held prisoner by Patricia in a chilling chapter where she describes her daughter and describes what she's going to do to the doctor. And then she kills him. The dead man is a good doctor with a wife and a son, and his murder leaves them bereft. Patricia has her sights on new targets, while being hunted by an investigator who hopes to catch her.

 The usual expectation would be that Patricia needs to be caught—for the restoration of order, even though she's a sympathetic character—her daughter died needlessly and she's acting out of grief. But as the story continues, the reader discovers that the good doctor sent Patricia's daughter home when she was bleeding from a miscarriage instead of providing the care that would have saved her life. And Patricia's other targets were complicit in her daughter's death.  

 So is the world of the novel in chaos because Patricia committed a murder, or was she acting against a reality where chaos existed? Would catching her restore order? Or further the disorder?   

 You'll have to read the book to find out.

 A retired attorney, S. Lee Manning is the award-winning author of the Kolya Petrov espionage series: Trojan Horse, Nerve Attack, and Bloody Soil. Her latest release, Deadly Choice, is a stand-alone (or maybe the first in a new series). She and her writer husband J.B. Manning have started a YouTube channel that they're calling A Killing Couple where they investigate intriguing people and places that have connections to books and writing. She and J.B. live in Vermont with their two talky cats, Xiao and Dmitri.

Missing Market by Nancy L. Eady

Two-factor authentication and biometric identification on electronic devices are two of my particular bête noires. I hate fumbling with my phone, tablet or computer trying to remember one of my passwords to look up something simple, like how far it is from where I am to the nearest drug store, and having everything screech to a halt until I can insert a four or six digit code or scan my face or thumb. However, since both are here to stay, I think there is a huge untapped market for both devices in the areas of bathroom toiletries, refrigerators, and snack foods, especially for parents with children of all ages. 

Most mothers of girls can relate. I reached into my basket in my vanity this morning for a particular grooming implement, only to find it missing. I had to wake my daughter up to get it back. Let’s just say it wasn’t a gentle awakening, either. 

I have unknowingly donated tweezers, combs, nail clippers, hair blowers, hair straighteners, bobby pins, razors, shaving cream, shampoo, conditioner and hair ties to my daughter through the years. She has an expanded definition of family property – what’s hers is hers, and what’s ours is hers. Nor do I think she is the only child in her generation that thinks so. I have a friend who bought tweezers and nail scissors and put a set in every bathroom and bedroom she could get her hands on, and still ended up having to search for her own set periodically. 

Imagine a world where such implements come complete with two-factor authentication. My daughter reaches under my counter to retrieve my hairblower, and a polite ding informs her that before she can remove it, she needs to enter a six digit code provided by me. There’s a better than fifty percent chance she’d just give up. Even if she didn’t give up, I’d know she has it; she’d know I know she has it, and my odds of getting it back increase drastically. 

A timed pressure plate in the shower or cosmetics drawer might work well, also. If the item is removed from the pressure plate and not returned in a set period of time, the removed item begins beeping until it is returned to the pressure plate. My daughter’s room would sound like a forest of chirping crickets, but my chances of getting my stuff back improve. 

Biometrics, especially thumbprints or handprints, would work well for refrigerators and snacks. The purchaser’s biometrics could be imprinted on the packaging once the purchase is complete. Similarly, an owner could use a password and screen to record biometrics for the refrigerator door.  Once registered, the refrigerator, snack food or box can only be opened by the registrant(s). It’s not that I want to deny my child food when she’s hungry; I just would occasionally like to eat Cheetos or Olive Garden leftovers too. 

If I have to put up with biometrics and two factor authentication anyhow, they might as well be put to good use. What items do you think might be improved with either?

Writers Retreat Weekend by Annette Dashofy

 Last weekend was our Sisters in Crime chapter’s annual retreat. Over the decades, we’ve done a variety of retreats at a variety of locations. The first few I attended were held at a member’s family lodge at Deep Creek, Maryland. It was great until that member left the chapter. 

When we revived the retreat, we moved it to Paddler’s Lane in Confluence, Pennsylvania. We were there for one year: The Writers Retreat and Flood. Our spring event fell on a weekend following a heavy snow, a fast thaw, and lots of rain. You can read about it here. https://annettedashofy.blogspot.com/2010/03/2010-confluence-writers-retreat-and.html 

No one really wanted to push our luck by going back, so the next year, we moved to another rental house in Confluence—That Dam Yough House. And we moved it to October. While we didn’t have a flood, we did have excitement when we locked ourselves out. Yes, I blogged about that one, too.https://workingstiffs.blogspot.com/2011/10/how-many-crime-writers-does-it-take.html 

Despite the focus on our “adventures” in those blog posts, we really did accomplish a lot of writing. And cramming a bunch of crime writers into a single home created some wonderful bonds of friendship. 

In the years that followed, we held another couple of retreats at That Dam Yough House until the owners decided to stop renting their property and move into it themselves. We bounced around for a while, and then the retreat kind of fizzled. 

Two years ago, we decided to revive it. Our chapter treasurer at the time, Carole Jones, found the Mountain Ridge Retreat house and we fell in love with it. This year was our third visit there. 

View from the porch

Located in the middle of nowhere in Somerset County, Pennsylvania, this is the perfect property to capture some fall foliage and to soak in the serenity and quiet while pounding out the pages. 

My writing spot

Liz Milliron's "office" for the 
weekend

Michelle Belan picked
a comfy spot to write

We did have our annual “adventure.” Another flood! This was a small one though, produced not by snowmelt but by a dishwasher malfunction. Towels solved the problem. Hand washing our dishes from then on prevented a recurrence. 

I had “planned” to stream a couple of webinars on marketing for writers on Saturday. But when I say “middle of nowhere,” I mean it. We could get a good enough signal for email, but not for streaming. After much effort, we gave up and returned to writing. 

Other activities include eating, drinking champagne, a read and critique session on Friday evening, and on Saturday night, sitting around talking and laughing. And bonding. 

I love the amount of uninterrupted writing time we have and how productive I am while there. But getting to know my fellow Sisters in Crime so much better is really the high point for me. 

Fellow writers, have you ever attended a writing retreat? Feel free to share your experiences. And readers, have you done other kinds of retreats? Did you enjoy them?

 

Letting Go

By Kait Carson

 When I lost my day job during the Covid pandemic, I decided to follow my dream and become a full-time writer. I envisioned myself like Jo in Louisa May Alcott’s Little Women. I’d retire to my writing lair and pound out the words. Problem was, it had been a long time since I wrote any new words. Writing is like a muscle. It needs constant exercise. A little light lifting seemed in order. Rather than dive into a new story, I figured it was best to edit and re-release my previously published books. My rights to the Hayden Kent series had reverted and, to be frank, there wasn’t much revision needed to get them ready for prime time. They’d been through two rounds of professional edits before publication, and they were also technologically contemporary. Once they were in hand, I polished and independently published the third offering in the series, Death Dive.

Then came the hard part. I had a sparse catalogue of published novels– two prior self-published books, and an ambitious ‘works in waiting’ catalogue. What are those? Stories I’d completed, edited, and then, oh look, something shiny appeared and I shelved them. The Southernmost Secrets stories are traditional mysteries with a cozy edge set in the Florida Keys. They need updating. Not for plot or style, but for setting. That’s a problem with writing stories set in the Keys. Hurricanes come through and the landscape changes. Sometimes significantly.

Rather than tackle the Florida Keys re-writes, I returned to my roots, the first novel I’d self-published in the early 2010s. I was proud of the Catherine Swope stories. At the time I wrote them, I was working an insane number of hours at a full-time job. I knew my marketing time would be limited. I felt lucky to have time to write. For those reasons, I opted to indie publish and not solicit an agent or submit the work to a small press. The thought of deadlines gave me hives.

When I returned to the Swope books, I expected extensive revisions to the text and updating to modernize the dated technology. I’d grown since those days, and learned a lot as a writer. I was prepared to apply that knowledge to the revisions. Turned out, I wasn’t prepared for what I discovered as I reread the first of novel.

While the book held up in terms of story and plot, it contained references to a real-life incident of a Me Too nature that I had witnessed, reported, and was essentially told, “boys will be boys”. The event galled me enough to include it as an inciting incident in the victim’s death. Me Too hadn’t existed in 2010. To bring the plot into the 2020s required a new storyline, one I’m not ready to write, and maybe never will be. Rather than attempt a rewrite, I decided to shelve it. As a result, I’ve removed the Catherine Swope mysteries from my catalogue. The decision wasn’t easy, but it was the right one, for now.

I’m deep in edits for No Return, the first of a new series set in Maine, and I’ve outlined the next book of the Hayden Kent series. Perhaps when I finish those, I’ll return to the Swope series. Ya never can tell.

Writers, have you ever abandoned a work and removed it from your catalogue? Readers, have you ever read a novel and thought the author should remove it?

 Kait Carson writes the Hayden Kent Mysteries set in the Fabulous Florida Keys and is at work on a new mystery set in her adopted state of Maine. Her short fiction has been nationally published in True Romance, True Confessions, True Story, True Experience, and Woman’s World magazines, and in the Falchion Finalist Seventh Guppy Anthology Hook, Line, and Sinker. She is a former President of the Guppy Chapter of Sisters in Crime, a member of Sisters in Crime, Guppies, and of Sisters in Crime New England. Visit her website at www.kaitcarson.com. While you’re there, sign up for her newsletter and receive a yummy, authentic, key lime pie recipe.

You Might Be A Mystery Writer by Nancy L. Eady

 With apologies to Jeff Foxworthy: 

1)  If your first thought on passing a nook or a cranny (there is a difference!) is what a great place it would be to stash a body, weapon or assailant , you might be a mystery writer. 

2)  If your browser history would make you the top suspect in the event of your spouse's death, you might be a mystery writer. 

3)  If your Facebook or blog posts ask for or share enough lethal information to make the NSA computers hiccup and focus on you, you might be a mystery writer. 

4) If, when watching Law & Order re-runs, you see ways to twist the Law & Order twist, you might be a mystery writer. 

5) If you use a notebook or memo app to record different types of crimes, victims and motives you discover in the real world, you might be a mystery writer. 

6)  If you regularly solve the mysteries on television shows based upon the fact that person A serves no other reason on the episode other than to be the killer, you are either my husband or a mystery writer. 

7) If you start to spin a tale around a chance sighting of a man dressed in a Burger King uniform, wearing a backpack and hiking along the side of the road, you might be a mystery writer. 

8)  If you can think of at least five sinister reasons why the same man stopped and turned back towards a running car sitting on the shoulder of the road, you might be a mystery writer. 

9)  If you read the labels of household products for inspiration on creative ways to poison someone, you might be a serial killer, in a very unhappy marriage, or a mystery writer. 

10)  If the terms “police procedural”, “amateur sleuth”, “protagonist”, and “legal thriller” mean something to you, you might be a mystery writer. 

11)  If your personal heroes include at least two of the following:  Sherlock Holmes,  Sir Conan Doyle, Dame Agatha Christie, Dashell Hammett, P.D. James, Rex Stout, Archie Goodwin, Nancy Drew, the Hardy Boys, Encyclopedia Brown, Ellery Queen, Susan Grafton, Sara Peretsky, Dorothy Cannell, Elizabeth Peters or Edgar Allen Poe for Murder in the Rue Morgue, you might be a mystery writer.  

12)  If you ever killed the same person twice under two different pseudonyms in two different manuscripts, you might be a mystery writer. 

If you ever wrote a mystery, you ARE a mystery writer.

Travel As Research by Connie Berry

 

Having just returned from two weeks in England, I thought I’d share three of my writerly experiences in researching my WIP, the as-yet-untitled Book 6 in the Kate Hamilton Mystery series. 

FINDING THE PERFECT LOCATIONS

Some writers have the ability to create whole worlds out of their own imaginations. I like to see things that exist and then alter them to suit the needs of my story. My problem is remembering the details, which is why I take loads of photographs on vacation. Now that I'm home, I’ll go through my photos, mining them for locations. For my current book, I need a fourteenth-century farm. I found it at Cogges Manor Farm, tucked away in a quiet corner of Oxfordshire. First mentioned in the Domesday Book (AD 1086), the farm itself has survived for an astonishing eleven centuries. The main house was built in the fourteenth century. I want to remember the gray stone walls, the red-painted doors, and the thatched roofs. Perfect! Here are some photos:

REMINDING MYSELF OF THE WAY PEOPLE ACTUALLY SPEAK

In spite of the fact that I watch British TV almost exclusively and read novels set in the UK, I don’t actually live there. That means my writing is subtly influenced by American syntax and word choices. My protagonist, Kate Hamilton, is an American antiques dealer, but she lives full-time now in the UK, so naturally, her speech is increasingly British rather than American. She’s beginning to call her cell phone her mobile, for example, and she might call a cookie a biscuit. All my other characters are native-born Brits, which is why I need to refresh my memory from time to time by actively listening to the way people in the part of England I write about (Suffolk) actually speak. One of my favorite examples is the past participle of the verb get, which in the US is have gotten, as in “Things have gotten out of hand.” People in the UK say have got as in “Things have got out of hand.”

I love listening to people talk. Yes, it’s eavesdropping, but for a writer, it’s pure gold. Like Americans, British people rarely speak in complete sentences, but they do use words, phrases, and syntax unique to that part of the world. If my dialogue is authentic, I need my top-up.

EXPECTING THE UNEXPECTED

The most memorable parts of any vacation are those serendipitous moments we haven’t anticipated. In my experience, memories are made of the things that don’t go according to plan. On our last evening in England, my husband and I stopped at a pub along the Thames. Sitting at the table next to us was a couple with a very friendly black lab. That got us talking. Before the night was over, we’d solved the world’s problems. Well, maybe not, but we did find areas of agreement and disagreement. Only later, realizing I’d seen the woman’s face on TV, did we discover we’d been talking to two of England’s best-known actors—whose names I won’t, for the sake of privacy, disclose This reminds me that my plot needs to have some unexpected twists and turns as well. That’s where the fun is.

Where do you get your best plot ideas?

Finding My Protagonist

by Cathi Stoler

 

“I Grew Up In A Bar” was the title of my seven-year-old daughter Lauren’s second-grade essay. The bar was Who’s On First, a restaurant, comedy club, and bar where my husband Paul worked for many years.

It was also three blocks from our home, so we were frequent visitors for dinner. I became friends with the staff and many of the regular customers, and I learned how the restaurant and bar business worked.

 

I thought of Who’s as a home-away-from-home filled with great people and interesting stories—people who sit at a bar often love to confide in the bartender, who’s often a captive audience.

My husband quipped that someday he would write a book about his experiences at Who’s, including the stories he’d heard. When he didn’t, I decided I would. With such a wealth of memories to draw on, how could I not?

The decision inspired me to shake things up and give my bar mystery a twist. So, I created Jude Dillane, the female protagonist bartender and co-owner of The Corner Lounge on Tenth Street and Avenue B on the Lower East Side of Manhattan.

 I wanted Jude to be unique among the bartenders I’d known—after all, none of them had solved a mystery.  And I wanted the atmosphere at her place to have a neighborhood vibe that made people feel welcome and comfortable, like I had at Who’s. Jude would be in charge and call the shots from how she set up the bar to the drinks she served and how she interacted with her customers. 

 

I gave her a backstory I hoped would resonate with my readers, showing both her strength and vulnerability. She had some tough times growing up in the Bronx and worked hard to find a career she loved. Her mother and brother had died in a tragic accident, and her father, overcome with grief, committed suicide. She was alone. It took grit and courage, but she finally found her way and opened The Lounge with her chef and partner, Pete Angel. Her landlord, Thomas ‘Sully’ Sullivan, an older, retired Marine, and the owner of the building where The Lounge was located, treated her like part of his family. 

As I was writing Bar None, the first book in the Murder On The Rocks Mysteries, Jude became real to me, and I gave her the qualities I hoped would help her succeed. She was smart, tenacious, and never gave up. These qualities would allow her to take on the problems you might expect at a restaurant such as rowdy customers or running low on supplies. And some you might not expect, like helping Sully catch a murderer at the food bank where he volunteered, or finding a dead body in the dumpster out back. These were not events that a bartender usually encountered. Well, thankfully not at Who’s On First.

As I wrote the other three books in the series, Last Call, Straight Up, and With a Twist, the mysteries Jude would solve became even more serious and deadly. But she never faltered and was always up to the job.

 

Now, I like to think that somehow, creating the character of Jude Dillane has inspired me to find new stories and new characters to captivate both my readers and me. 

 

Where have you found inspiration?

 

 

Bio:

 

Cathi Stoler is an Amazon Best Selling author and Derringer winner. Her newest series is The Nick Donahue Adventureswith Nick of Time, Out Of Time, and No Good Time. She has also written four novels in her Murder On the Rocks Series:Bar None, Last Call, Straight Up and With A Twist, all of which have been nominated for several awards, as well as TheLaurel and Helen NY Mysteries, including Telling Lies, Keeping Secrets, and The Hard Way, and has published multiple short stories. She is a board member of NYSinC, and a member of MWA, and ITW. You can find her at www.cathistoler.com or email her at cathi@cathistoler.com.

 

 

 

 

Killer Workout by Cindy Martin

Fitness is in my DNA. I’ve been a runner since I was fourteen, so my feet have been pounding the pavement for forty-six years. (You do the math because I’m a journalism major who can’t balance her checkbook). 

I’m also a writer, starting out at my high school and college newspapers, then moving over to broadcast radio, until landing in television. For twenty years, I was a TV Producer for “America’s Most Wanted.” I wrote script after script, hundreds of them, and traveled the globe to interview victims’ families, law enforcement, and criminals.

Now that I’m retired, I am fortunate enough to do both of the things I love.

About six years ago, I worked hard to get my first certification in Spin. I was offered a job at a local gym, and the group exercise manager encouraged me to pursue other formats. It became an addiction. Now, I hold several certifications: Spin, Barre, BodyPump, Pilates, Silver Sneakers, and HIIT. Being an outgoing person, I enjoy being in front of forty gym members teaching tough classes. My motto at the gym is: “You didn’t come for easy.”

Try going on vacation with me. You’re not going to get much rest. My husband asked me where I wanted to go for my sixtieth birthday. I chose the Grand Canyon. Last month, he endured a twenty-one-mile bike ride on the Canyon’s rim (extreme hills for two Floridians), a six-mile hike into the Grand Canyon, and ten miles of kayaking on the Colorado River. The fourth day we rewarded ourselves by sitting in a wine bar in Sedona.

I like a challenge. At this moment, I am definitely on a hilly ride tackling my debut 80,000-word novel, Relentless.

As I polish my first draft, I realize how similar my two passions are. Fitness and writing require:

• Commitment: You have to want it. A healthy heart and a toned body. A finished novel.
  
  
• Practice: Hours of practicing workout routines goes into teaching a one-hour class so that form is accurate and the program flows. In writing, you have to get your butt in the chair and tap those fingers on the keyboard. (The mantra of my mentor, Martha Reed).
  
  
• Schedule: Fitness requires repetition and planning with a goal of working out three to five times a week at a minimum of forty-five minutes each time. To be successful in writing, one needs to stick to a word count target such as a thousand words each session. In both, you might consider logging your workout and your word count in an app or notebook.
  
  
• Research: Staying on top of fitness trends for an instructor and keeping certifications active takes time. When writing, going down rabbit holes to get the information you need is a necessary evil and often educational.
  
  
• Community: I enjoy networking with physical fitness gurus and learning something new. With my author’s hat on, I am grateful to the writer friends I have made through my memberships to Sisters in Crime, Mystery Writers of America, and the International Thriller Writers. Webinars, workshops, critique groups, and conferences offer craft tips and constructive feedback.
  
  
• Sweat: No doubt if you work out with me, you’ll sweat, feel great, and see results. In writing, I sweat especially if I’m outside on a steamy South Florida day. As a rookie in the novelist world, I sweat the plot, the characters, the structure, and wonder, “Does anyone really want to read this?” The little voice continues to answer, “Yes.”

I’m honored to be among accomplished writers as I exercise my fingers daily, getting closer each day to a finished manuscript. I see the arc of the balloons at the marathon finish line. My fitness advice to you is to keep on running, walking, swimming, lunging, squatting, and pumping your healthy heart.

 What advice do you have to debut authors trying to write their first novel?

______________________________________________

Cindy Martin

For 20 years, as a producer for the America’s Most Wanted TV show, Cindy Martin traveled the world chasing down fugitives and interviewing law enforcement and victims’ families. Her short stories include “Malice Challenge” [Paradise is Deadly (2023)], “Grave News” [Notorious in North Texas Anthology (2024)], “Key to the Past” [Crimes in the Old Dominion Anthology (2024)], and “Salt, Sand, Slay [Guppies: Gone Fishing (2025)]. Cindy is a member of Sisters in Crime, Mystery Writers of America, and the International Thriller Writers. When Cindy isn’t writing her debut thriller, she’s teaching killer fitness classes. She lives in South Florida with her husband, three daughters, two cats and two dogs.

 

 

 

 

The Power of Words to Make Me Laugh

 The Power of Words to Make Me Laugh by Debra H. Goldstein

Writers often talk about the power of words to evoke emotions, engage readers, and share ideas. Recently, I’ve taken note of signs that make me chuckle. What could be more emotion evoking, engaging, and idea sharing than words that make one laugh?

On one of the roads I travel, there is a storage unit facility in the middle of nowhere. I don’t know its name, but I am aware of its existence because it puts up a new sign each week that always catches my eye. This week’s sign reads:

Beef Steak is not a good Password

It isn’t Stroganoff 

Did you laugh once you figured it out?

Sometimes signs that started out as one thing become iconic in their own right. For example, on Interstate 65, near Prattville, Alabama, there is one that has a metallic red devil holding a pitchfork. The devil originally was meant to remind people about the Red Devil gasoline chain (bet you’ve never heard of that!), but in the 1980’s, the devil was incorporated into a billboard, which sat on private land, where the devil took up the entire left side of the sign, with its pitchfork pointing at the words that say:

GO TO 

CHURCH

Or the DEVIL will get you. 

For years, people took comfort when they passed that sign, but it was blown down in 2016. Subsequently, people tended to mention it as an Alabama icon. In response, the owner put it back up in 2016, because he enjoyed providing a message for motorists to contemplate.

In prepping this blog, I Googled for other funny signs. Three were particularly funny. In one, a man stands outside Target holding a self-made cardboard sign that reads: “Not Homeless. Wife in Target 2+ hours. Please Help!”  In another, a man with a homemade sign also is featured. His message is simple: “It’s Not Self Checkout If I Need Help Every Time.” Perhaps the funniest, to me, is a high mountain of snow that looks like it was pushed together by a street plow. A small sign hung on it says: “FREE SNOWMAN  some assembly required.”

Are there any signs that you can remember seeing that tickled your funny bone?

“Off the Page” with Hayden Kent by The Wren (Sarah E. Burr)

A Note from Sarah Burr: I’m handing the blogging reins to Winnie Lark, the main character in my Book Blogger Mysteries. Winnie runs a popular bookish website called What Spine is Yours (think Metacritic for the literary world). However, she manages it anonymously, and the online community only knows her as “The Wren.” She often interviews guest authors through their characters, and that’s the focus of today’s feature. Enjoy!

 

Greetings, bookish friends! The Wren, here. On this month’s “Off the Page” feature, I’m sitting down with the title character from the Hayden Kent Mysteries. I can’t wait for you to learn more about Hayden Kent, her incredible work, and her latest mystery, Death Dive.

Hi Wren, thank you for inviting me. I’m looking forward to this. Of course, I’d love to discover why you operate under a cover name. Has anyone peeked behind the scenes? Your interviewees are all sleuths. It’s an enticing conundrum.

Many have tried, Hayden. But we’re not here to talk about me—we’re here to talk about you! You’re a newly minted claims investigator and a paralegal. How did you end up pursuing this career?

I’d been a probate paralegal for ten years. My original plan was to become a lawyer, but when my parents were killed in a horrific car accident my senior year, I shelved that plan. In fact, it was all I could do to finish out my last year at the University of Miami. I’d taken a lot of pre-law courses, and when I returned to the Keys, my best friend Mallory turned me on to a job with Grant Huffman. The rest was history. I loved working for him and moonlighting as a scuba diving instructor, but things kind of fell apart and the firm closed. I recorded those events in Death by Sunken Treasure. I’d dish the deets, but it’s still painful. Anyway, the Florida Keys are really a giant small town and I’d heard Worldwide Insurance was on the hunt for a paralegal. Wouldn’t you know, my first case was scuba diving related. They offered to train me as an investigator if I’d cover the diving. In Belize. In the Blue Hole. Talk about a dream job.

I’m sorry to hear about your parents. I’m sure they would be proud of you and what you’ve been able to overcome. Given your career path, it’s easy to see how you might become tangled in murder or fraud investigations. Are you a reluctant sleuth, or is solving mysteries very much your passion?

Definitely a passion project. I’m all about justice and finding closure for people who are suffering. Yes, it’s my job, but it’s more. When I’m investigating a death, I’m seeing families on their worst day, and I’m working hard to make sure that honest claims get paid. I’m no soft touch though. If there’s the slightest question of fraud, I’m all over it.

Tell us about your home in the Florida Keys. What brought you there?

Ah, I’m a member of a dying breed. I’m a saltwater Conch (pronounced Konk). That means my family has been in the Keys for multiple generations. There are freshwater Conchs, too. They’ve made themselves a part of Keys life, but aren’t native.

I live in a hurricane house. They used to be fairly common, but not so much anymore. It’s two stories with a widow’s walk and made of polite, the limestone rock native to the Keys. Here’s the cool part. An anchor chain runs through the center of the house from the roof to an anchor deep in the bedrock. It’s meant to hold the roof in a hurricane. And so far, it has. It’s surrounded by a safe space. Kind of like a panic room where families gather during storms. The walls are stone and steps run around the circumference. There’s a platform at the very top, just below the widows' walk. The hope is the platform is above the flood height. There’s a trapdoor to the widows walk in the event a high escape is necessary. My great, great, grandfather built the place. If you come see it, I’ll show you where the waterline marks are for all the hurricanes from 1933 right up to Irma in 2017. I inherited the house from my parents. Marking Irma was my obligation.

What an incredible piece of history! You also have such an amazing skill set: you’re a scuba diver. What about scuba diving has prepared you for solving mysteries?

Be attentive to details, double-check everything and don’t take anything for granted. It will save your life. It’s the same with solving mysteries. Always sweat the small stuff. It usually holds the answers.

Those are valuable tips—not that I would know anything about solving mysteries. When you’re on a case, are you a solo investigator, or do you have a team to help you?

I’m so lucky to have a team. Mallory Corbett, my bff, is a fellow paralegal, runner, and outstanding diver. She’s a freshwater Conch. I’ve known her since we were in grade school together. There’s been some tension recently, because her boss is on the opposite side of the case in Death Dive, but we’re working it out. Two of my recent best friends are cops. Janice Kirby works with the Florida Wildlife Commission, they’re also known as Grouper Troupers, but don’t let on I told you that. Then there’s Daphne Barton. She’s a Monroe County Deputy. The three of us met on a case. Okay, it was a little more than that. We met when I was a murder suspect. It’s all in Death by Blue Water. I must say, without them, I might be behind bars today. Then there’s Kurt Milian. We just met in Belize. He’s been super helpful on my case. He’s a professional diver who makes scuba documentaries. Talk about someone who pays attention to detail.

It sounds like you’ve got a powerful team of crime-fighting companions. I hope you all have time for fun and relaxation, too. What’s the most beautiful place you’ve explored while scuba diving?

Wow, tough question. My favorite dive is the Humbolt. That’s a deep wreck located just past the reef line in Marathon, Florida. The most beautiful. Again, I’m going to call a Marathon dive. The Pillar Patch. It’s filled with pillar corals, sea fans, brain corals, and tons of tropical fish. The color is explosive. It’s like swimming in an aquarium.

I can’t even imagine how awe-inspiring it must have been to see the wonders of Mother Nature up close. Tell us, are there more adventures in store for you and your author, Kait Carson?

Oh, yes. We’re involved in one now. Someone murdered Mallory’s boyfriend, Pete Delaney. Mal and I found his boat drifting when we were diving for Florida lobster. Janice discovered Pete’s body on Barbara’s Reef. The strange thing? The man has no past. So far every clue is a dead end. Mallory is devastated.

Holy bookmarks! Poor Mallory. But with you on the case, I’m sure the culprit will be caught in no time. Hayden, thanks so much for taking the time to come “Off the Page” with me.

This has been so much fun. I hope I didn’t rattle on too much. You are so easy to talk with. Now, about the pseudonym….won’t you dish?

It’s been great having you here. And if you’re really curious about my origin story, you can always “dive” into Over My Dead Blog. Happy Sleuthing! ~ The Wren

 

The Hayden Kent Mysteries are available on Amazon and Kindle Unlimited. Death Dive can be purchased here: https://mybook.to/aAUL.

Learn more about The Wren, Winnie, and the Book Blogger Mysteries at www.saraheburr.com.

Conducting a Book Talk on a Cruise by Judy L. Murray

“If opportunity doesn’t knock, build a door.” Milton Berle, comedian

If you follow my website news or have read any of my books in the Chesapeake Bay Mystery Series, you know my protagonist Helen is a sailor. Not a stretch since I am too. Yet, as much as my husband and I enjoy sailing, we had never taken a cruise. In 2024, we decided to travel the coast of Italy for ten days to celebrate our 50th anniversary. Yes, 50th.

Social media marketing is an important avenue to reach new readers, and I try to put some of these ideas to use. However, my favorite is to get out and meet readers face to face. These events are time consuming to set up and time consuming to run.

I decided to approach the cruise line we chose and pitch the idea of providing a book talk to their onboard guests. Remarkably, the line responded within days with a definite yes. They liked the idea of an author speaking and were attracted to a book series centered around the water. Now, don’t get excited. This wasn’t an opportunity for a big speaker fee. They compensated me $300 which easily covered my costs to bring my books and swag materials. They claimed 20% of the purchase price and handled the guests’ payments for me.

I was focused on expanding my readership base. This small cruise ship held approximately three hundred guests, a hundred and fifty cabins. They advertised my name in their Daily Events flyer placed in every guest room the evening before and made announcements by loudspeaker the day of the event. I was scheduled to present on their main stage for approximately an hour including time for questions and answers.

For a first-time cruiser, I knew nothing about the mechanics of a cruise ship’s events or expectations.. Would the water be warm? Or would all the guests opt for sunning on the deck with Prosecco in their hands? As it turned out, forty guests (twenty couples) plus a few singles attended. My topic centered on following a dream, the process of writing, and obtaining an agent and publisher. In talks I find listeners like to hear the good and the bad of publishing challenges. I often give examples of where I get my ideas, what I’ve learned and what I regret. The designated hour program flowed into an hour and a half.

I sold at least one copy to almost every couple or single. Was it a ton of copies? No. But another eight or ten people approached me afterwards to ask how to purchase online. They wanted to avoid carrying books in their luggage or were Kindle users. The Ship Events Coordinator asked if I wanted to conduct a second talk time. They were pleased. I declined. This was our vacation time and preparing my thoughts and setting up easily took four to five hours the day of the talk. I did have a second signing before we left the ship.

Throughout the ten days of our trip, I had at least another fifteen or so people approach me who missed the event. I met readers from Chicago, Seattle, Long Island, Florida, Pennsylvania, Virginia, New England, Arizona, and more, along with Canadians, New Zealanders and Aussies. It was fun to hear that reading preferences from around the world had much in common. Hopefully, I’ve touched people in person far beyond my usual East Coast parameters.

What marketing efforts do you find rewarding? I’d love to swap ideas on opportunities you’ve tried.

The Good, the Bad, the Ugly and the Insane by Nancy L. Eady

This past weekend, my husband, daughter and I took a quick trip to the Great Smoky Mountain National Park (Tennessee side).  When we go at this time of year, we are hoping to see the leaves fully turned, but alas, this year, we were either too early or the leaves decided not to put on their annual show.  Still, I took some pictures. 

 First, the good: 

This picture was taken at Newfound Gap, which is in the park where the Tennessee and North Carolina state lines meet.

 Second, the bad:

Besides the fact that trees are involved, I have no idea where, at what angle or why I took this picture. 

The ugly is not a picture, but the reason for a change to our routine.  We normally follow the road through the park over Newfound Gap into Cherokee, North Carolina, but not this trip.  Why?  We heard Cherokee had been hard hit by Hurricane Helene, and we didn’t think a trio of tourists trekking around a disaster zone would help anyone. 

 And last the insane: 

Meet Penny and Max on their way home from the kennel on Monday.

And here are Daisy, Penny in the back and part of Max’s body on the same ride.

Have a great third Friday of the month everyone!

Our Stories Have Wings by Marilyn Levinson

The other day I received an email from an English teacher in Brazil who loves cozy mysteries. She'd read some of the books in my Haunted Library series and asked if she could read a chapter of one of my books aloud on her podcast to encourage readers to read stories in English. I was thrilled with the idea, and after running it past my publisher for legal reasons, wrote back to tell her to go ahead. 

I was at a library event for authors the other evening and stopped in the main reading area. They were featuring mystery series that take place in libraries. How nice it was to see one of my books was part of the display.

Hearing from a reader in South America, seeing my book as part of a library display have made me realize how far and wide our stories travel. Once a novel or a short story we've written is published it takes on a life of its own. We have no idea who is reading our work. I'm always delighted when readers let me how much they enjoy my books. Usually, readers contact me via email, my website, or social media. Once I was on the phone getting help with a problem I had with an appliance and happened to mention that I write novels. The woman told me she'd read one of my books years ago.

We write stories and send them out into the world. Though we get figures of how many copies are sold, this cannot tell the tale of how many hearts we have touched. 

What interchange with a reader has made you realize that you've made a special human connection?

Killer Questions - Murder Weapons or Methods We Won't Use

Killer Questions – Murder Weapons or Methods We Won’t Use

Let’s face it, we write mysteries in which people die. To keep readers happy, we try to vary the weapons and methods we use, but even for us, there are limits.

Paula G. Benson - A razor blade box cutter. The instrument creeps me out. Besides being dangerous, it would be so messy if the cut was not precise. In the alternative, I think it would be horrible to be buried alive. I remember being anxious for a victim in a Mary Higgins Clark novel where that occurred. 

Teresa Inge - I use anything available in the room where the victim is confronted by the killer. I’ve used a wine bottle, makeup jar, fabric bolt, ball point pen, bottled water, gun, and more. 

Korina Moss - I won’t use any kind of torturous or drawn-out method or any kind of mass shooting. 

E.B. Davis - I don’t write thrillers because often the protagonists are psychotic sickos. I don’t write about mentally deranged killers—much too close to reality—real scary.

K.M. Rockwood - Torture. I like my victims to go as painlessly as possible.

Debra H. Goldstein – I’m an equal opportunity killer of characters, but I avoid mass murder shootings and anything that results in the death of a child or animal.

Shari Randall - I hesitate to use guns. I finally did in my last book because I began to think that I was being unrealistic. 

Nancy Eady - I don't think I could handle describing or researching a murder weapon or method that is equivalent to torture.  Just the thought gives me the heebie-jeebies.   Not to mention the nightmares it would spawn. 

Kait Carson - Torture. No, way. Nor would I kill a child or pet.

Lisa Malice - I’m not fond of violence, so my murders are off-the-page, leaving me open to using any type of weapon or method to kill in my stories.

Martha Reed - I hate torture porn. Using it seems fashionable, but to me it seems like a cheat. I hate how it desensitizes people to the very real pain in violence. 

Mary Dutta - I won't stage something to look like a suicide.

Marilyn Levinson - Machete and garrote. Neither belong in a cozy mystery.

Margaret S. Hamilton - I have a horror of fire and venomous snakes. I will never use either one as a method of murder.

Heather Weidner - I don’t write any scenes that involve torture. I write cozy mysteries, so the murder has already happened by the time the amateur sleuth stumbles upon it. (My go-to methods are stabbing, choking, shooting, and poisoning.)

Annette Dashofy - I’m not a fan of physical torture. 

Grace Topping - Hanging, especially as a form of suicide. 

Sarah Burr - I don’t think I’ll ever have a victim who is killed by a gun. I dislike guns, so I don’t like involving them too much in my mysteries.

Molly MacRae - I can think of quite a few that are so horrible I don’t even want to mention them. It would be like calling the devil’s name.

Lori Roberts Herbst - Hmm...not that I can think of, though torture is not something I could stomach writing. Also, I would be hard pressed to injure or kill a child or a pet in my writing. Guess that's why I'm drawn to penning cozies.

Connie Berry - Not so far, but I would never kill a child and I would never write about torture.

James M. Jackson - Nope -- I am an equal opportunity Writer Who Kills.