FEATURED AUTHOR: AVERY DANIELS

 

ABOUT THE BOOK

It all began when a dying man with an arrow in his chest grabs her ankle.


During a heat wave at a Santa Fe resort, Julienne has the resort owner pressuring her to solve the murder.
The victim is a high profile business man who made enemies rather than friends, leaving Julienne with a roster of suspects. She was supposed to be training the staff and spending quality time with Mason rather than investigating a murder. The heat turns up when an old girlfriend of Mason's checks in and is determined to get back together.



Arrowed is the fourth book in Avery Daniel's Resort to Murder series and is an exciting contemporary cozy mystery. If you like Cleo Coyle, Maddy Hunter, Duffy Brown, Lynn Cahoon, and Annette Dashofy, then you'll love this series with a strong intelligent sleuth, lavish settings, and tantalizing mysteries.



Buy this spunky clean cozy mystery and start enjoying Julienne's adventures today!




Book Details:
Book title: Arrowed
Author’s name: Avery Daniels
Genre: cozy mystery
Publisher:  Blazing Sword Publishing, Ltd. (March 1, 2021)
Print length: 266 pages

INTERVIEW WITH AVERY DANIELS

What’s the story behind the title of your book?
I name all my books in the Resort to Murder series after the murder weapon, so a bow and arrow are used in this book.

Is this book a standalone, or do readers need to read the series in order? 

It is a progressive series, but each book can be read by itself. The series follows Julienne who is a manager-in-training at a five star luxury resort in Colorado Springs, Colorado. Some books are at her “home resort” and others are at resorts located elsewhere. The reader gets to live vicariously the luxury life as Julienne solves the mysteries.

Where did you grow up?
Colorado Springs is my home town.  It is the home of a five star resort that I grew up enjoying, so it was natural to write a mystery series based at that resort under a fictional name.

Where’s home for you?
Colorado Springs, Colorado at the base of Pikes Peak. Denver (60 miles north) is known as the Mile High City, but Colorado Springs is actually higher in elevation at 6050 feet high compared to Denver’s 5300.  Altitude sickness is real for visitors!


What do you love about where you live?
I love the relatively mild winters, not scorching hot in the summer, low bug population, and great outdoors.



Have you been in any natural disasters?
I have come close to a wildfire evacuation a couple of times (fire came within a few blocks) and saw a tornado swirling and forming directly over my head. Fortunately the funnel didn’t come close to the ground in my area. The fires destroyed many homes on the east side of town and a few people I knew lost everything.

If you had an extra $100 a week to spend on yourself, what would you buy?
Craft supplies from scrapbooking and card making to canvasses and paints. It is addicting and can be pricey. But then the practical side kicks in and says save it.

What is the most daring thing you've done?

I am an introvert. At the cat shelter where I volunteer, I dressed in a baggy cat costume for fundraising efforts. I had to be outgoing and sociable. For me, that was really putting myself out there.

What is your most embarrassing moment?

I hate even telling this. Here goes. When I was working at a large corporate 200-level company in their accounting department, the ladies were required to were a dress/skirt Monday-Thursday. One summer morning I’m walking in from the parking lot and didn’t realize in my groggy daze that getting dressed I had the back of my dress tucked into my pantyhose. As if that weren’t bad enough I walked in with my manager who opened the door for me, and I rode up in the elevator with other people. It wasn’t until I got to my desk that somebody told me. I’m still mortified just thinking about it.

If you could only save one thing from your house, what would it be?
My cats, Dani and Codi. I love them so much and will do everything to save them.

Would you rather be a lonely genius, or a sociable idiot?
A lonely genius. First, I’m an introvert anyway so the lonely part wouldn’t be that lonely. Second, we need more genius in the world. Geniuses don’t get the recognition they deserve.

Are you like any of your characters?
Julienne is a little like me in that she yearns to travel, plays clarinet (although she is much better than I), and is a bit self conscious. She is training people on the hotel software in this book, and I used to be an adult trainer.

With what five real people would you most like to be stuck in a bookstore?
JK Rowling, Suzanne Collins, Sherry Thomas, Gayle Lynds, and Victoria Thompson.

What’s the hardest thing you’ve ever had to write?
I write thrillers under a pen name (C.G. Abbot), and I had to write a violent scene. The villain is a seriously evil man, and I needed to show how brutal he was to emphasize the danger to the heroine. I had a very hard time writing that scene.

Where is your favorite library, and what do you love about it?
I love libraries. In my city we have a great new library built just a few years ago with a computer lab for classes to support the community and a maker space with classes for all kinds of crafts and shop activities.  
But I am starting to compile a list of historic libraries throughout the world that I would love to visit such as the Library National Assembly Paris. 

You can be any fictional character for one day. Who would you be?
It’s hard to narrow down to just one. Here are four: Phyrne Fisher from the Miss Fischer Mysteries, Lady Victoria Georgiana Charlotte Eugenie (34th in line for the throne of England) of the Her Royal Spyness mysteries, Charlotte Holmes of the Lady Sherlock series, or Maggie Hope of the Maggie Hope Mystery series.

What would your dream office look like?
There is an office building in town that I’ve always thought would be amazing to have an office there.  Here are a few of the things I love about it: a marble entryway with 20’ ceilings; large, private executive suites (office sizes average 19’X 19’); fireplaces with mahogany wood & marble surrounds in all executive suites; furnished with executive desk with glass top, custom bookcases and credenza; fireplace with Italian marble and mahogany wood surrounds; wall sconces above fireplace; elegant wall hangings including paintings, artwork & mirrors; offices are surrounded by lush woodland and breathtaking views of mountain scenery, and acres of Ponderosa pine trees surround the property.

You can see why I write about luxury resorts!  My mother always did say I had Champagne taste on a beer budget.

What are you working on now?
I am plotting a brand new cozy series. This will be a cozy paranormal mystery series with a self-help reading newbie vampire. First Bite is the title for the first in the Accidental Vampire PI mysteries. I’m also slowly laying the groundwork for the next Resort to Murder book, Stoned. Then there is the next Elizabeth Grant thriller I’m also compiling research for. I stay busy. 

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Avery Daniels was born and raised in Colorado, graduated from college with a degree in business administration, and has worked in fortune 500 companies and Department of Defense her entire life. Her most eventful job was apartment management for 352 units. She still resides in Colorado with two brother black cats as her spirited companions. She volunteers for a cat shelter, enjoys scrapbooking and card making, photography, and painting in watercolor and acrylic. She inherited a love for reading from her mother and grandmother and grew up talking about books at the dinner table.

Connect with Avery:
Website  |  Blog  |   Facebook  |  Goodreads
 

Buy the book:

Amazon  |   Barnes & Noble 

FEATURED AUTHOR: KEVIN DOYLE

ABOUT THE BOOK

Released from prison for one murder, only to be arrested for a second, Sheila Hampton has no one to turn to save Sam Quinton, local private eye, who sets out to prove her innocence and uncover the knot of corruption that entangled its victim for over two decades.



Book Details:

Title: Heel Turn

Author: Kevin R. Doyle

Genre: mystery (private eye)

Series: Sam Quinton, book 2
Publisher: Camel Press (March 9, 2021)

Print length: 202 pages

TWENTY QUESTIONS/ONE WORD INTERVIEW WITH KEVIN DOYLE

1.    Where is your cell phone?  Nowhere.

2.    Your hair? Vanished.

3.    Your workplace? Home.

4.    Your other half? Non-existent.

5.    What makes you happy? Music.

6.    What makes you crazy? Students.

7.    Your favorite food? Pizza.

8.    Your favorite beverage? Dr Pepper (does that count as one word).

9.    Fear? Poverty.

10.    Favorite shoes? Rockports.

11.    Favorite way to relax? Swimming.

12.    Your mood? Sporadic.

13.    Your home away from home? Beach.

14.    Where were you last night? Home.

15.    Something that you aren't? Organized.

16.    Something from your bucket list? Scuba.

17.    Wish list item? Retirement.

18.    Where did you grow up? Kansas.

19.    Last thing you did? Grade.

20.    What are wearing now? Shorts.



OTHER BOOKS BY KEVIN DOYLE

Squatter's Rights

The Group

When You Have to Go There

And the Devil Walks Away

The Litter

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

A high-school teacher, former college instructor and fiction writer, Kevin R. Doyle is the author of three crime thrillers, The Group, When You Have to Go There, And the Devil Walks Away, published by MuseItUp Publications, and one horror novel, The Litter, published by Night to Dawn Magazine and Books. Last year saw the release of the first book in his Sam Quinton mystery series, Squatter’s Rights, by Camel Press. Doyle teaches English and speech at a high school in central Missouri.

Connect with Kevin:
Website  |  Facebook  |  Goodreads  

Buy the book:
Amazon  |  Barnes & Noble

 

FEATURED AUTHORS: CENDRINE MARROUAT & DAVID ELLIS

 

ABOUT THE BOOK

The medium of limitless possibilities that is photography has been with us for almost 200 years.

Despite its great advancements, its early days still influence and dazzle a majority of professional photographers and artists. Such is the case of Cendrine Marrouat, Hadiya Ali, and David Ellis, three members of the PoArtMo Collective.

The result? Seizing the Bygone Light: A Tribute to Early Photography. This unique collection of artistic styles brings together different innovative concepts of both gripping writing and stunning visual imagery.

In the first part of the book, photographer and painter Ali introduces us to two of her favorite photographers by reimagining and recreating images in the nature of her photographic idols — Irving Penn and Karl Blossfeldt.

In the second part, photographer, poet, and author Marrouat shares a selection of her reminigrams, a digital style that she personally created to honor and pay homage to the early days of photography.

Author and poet Ellis rounds things off with a series of pareiku poems (the poetry form he co-created with Marrouat), offering fresh outlooks for his sincere, heartfelt adoration of photography of the past.

A fascinating and compelling book, Seizing the Bygone Light: A Tribute to Early Photography will leave you with a deep sense of appreciation and a greater understanding of photography.

PoArtMo Collective is a gathering of inspirational artists, writers, and photographers that combine their talents to produce positive, mixed media projects that stimulate the minds of the people who delve into them.

INTERVIEW WITH CENDRINE MARROUAT AND DAVID ELLIS



1. What is your book, Seizing the Bygone Light: A Tribute to Early Photography, about, and why did you decide to publish it?

Cendrine Marrouat: Seizing the Bygone Light: A Tribute to Early Photography is PoArtMo Collective’s new book. As the title indicates, this co-authored project (authors: Hadiya Ali, David Ellis and Cendrine Marrouat) pays homage to old photography, which has greatly influenced us as artists.

The book is divided into three parts. In part 1, Hadiya has “recreated” the timeless photographic styles of Irving Penn and Karl Blossfeldt. Part 2 features some of my reminigrams, a type of digital image that I created years ago. Finally, in part 3, David shares a series of pareiku poems, our own visual poetry form. Each piece is inspired by archival images.

The beginnings of photography were mostly marked with the documentation of the minutiae of everyday life. Seizing the Bygone Light: A Tribute to Early Photography looks at that triviality with a refreshed and positive outlook. That’s what makes our project unique and why we wanted to share it with the world.


2. What type of reader do you hope to appeal to with Seizing the Bygone Light: A Tribute to Early Photography?

David Ellis: We hope to capture the attention of a wide variety of readers. The ultimate goal for us when we created this project was to have an amalgamation of artistic influences, along with a blending of visual and written material. You get to appreciate the skills of the photographers of the past and we try to frame that with homage, inspiration and poetic nuance that celebrates the uniqueness of all that is around us.

These frozen-in-time capsules are magnificent in their stature, I sincerely hope that any reader will take the time to have a detailed look and find themselves bathed in magical nostalgia. Perhaps they will be motivated to take pictures in a similar fashion or write poetry themselves and that would be a really wonderful outcome for the book!


3. Tell us about PoArtMo Collective.

Cendrine Marrouat: I co-founded PoArtMo Collective in 2019 with photographer Isabel Nolasco, who left last year.

PoArtMo Collective currently has four members: Hadiya Ali (photography and paintings), David Ellis (poetry), Azelle Elric (drawings), and myself (photography, poetry and digital art).

Despite our diverse backgrounds, we believe that good art is all about memorable storytelling. Our goal is to create and release inspirational, positive and uplifting art and artistic projects, including ebooks.


4. In 2019 you founded Auroras & Blossoms. What is its purpose?

David Ellis: The purpose of Auroras & Blossoms is to provide a platform for positive, inspirational art across a variety of mediums. We are encouraged to share the wonderful gifts that people have submitted to us with people who are keen to be uplifted constantly by the art that they read, write and create. It is through our magazines, anthologies, guides, journals, poetry forms, marketing books, artistic movements, and support of the artistic community that we genuinely hope to bring joy and happiness to people when they need it the most.

Auroras & Blossoms is about everyone, about giving people a chance to express themselves and ultimately about making the world a better place through our art and our utmost respect for it.  

5. How did Auroras & Blossoms come about?

Cendrine Marrouat: In early 2019, David and I were discussing the frustrating process of submitting to magazines and journals. We were getting tired of the way many publications heavily factored an artist's credentials and publishing credits into their selective processes. Further, positivity in the arts was not encouraged enough.

We wanted to change the status quo, so we decided to create a platform that would promote positive, uplifting and inspirational written and visual art; and give artists (ages 13 and over) of all levels a place where they could showcase their work and build their publishing credits.

Auroras & Blossoms officially launched in October 2019 and has grown by leaps and bounds since then. We run a magazine, regular submission calls for anthologies, a monthly show, an artistic movement (PoArtMo), PoArtMo Collective, and a series of guides for authors and artists. We have also created several poetry forms. Also, we pay ongoing royalties to artists whose work has been selected to appear in our magazine and anthologies.


6. What is Auroras & Blossoms looking for in submissions?

David Ellis: We are looking for any material that is positive, uplifting in nature and leaves the reader in a better place than when they first started admiring the art.

Our submission guidelines are extremely detailed and specific, so you will be able to find all of the different art types that we accept in our general submission FAQ.
 
Our anthologies sometimes have specific themes when it comes to submissions, but we will accept any regular submissions that take us on a journey (it can be sad or nostalgic) that winds up giving us a positive overall message.

Finally, I can definitely tell you what we don’t want! We are a family-friendly platform, and do not want any swear words or dirty words. We also do not want any erotica or anything to do with politics.


7. What is included in your Auroras & Blossoms Creative Literary Journal?

David Ellis: In our Auroras & Blossoms Creative Literary Journal, we accept poetry all the time, but we are giving priority to six-word stories, short stories, flash fiction, essays, drawings, paintings, and photography, which we would like to see more of in the future.


8. What is included in your guides and workbooks?

David Ellis: In our guides and workbooks, you can find a myriad of ways to market yourself as an artist, plenty of writing/art prompts to stimulate your creative juices, social media tips and how to improve your own efforts in your given craft too!


9. How did the two of you meet?

Cendrine Marrouat: We met online in the mid-2010s. At the time, I was looking for blogs to promote one of my books. David’s warm and (very) professional response impressed me.

After he had interviewed me for his blog, we stayed in touch and developed a friendship. David has great business ethics and acumen. He is also the best business partner I have ever worked with.

 
10. What’s next for you as a team?

David Ellis: So many things! We would love to recruit more members into our PoArtMo Collective and create artistic projects with them where they can earn royalties and be proud to be associated with fellow artists.

Cendrine & I are constantly looking at new genres for us to be able to release books into. We are both still extremely passionate about our writing and poetry but we want to continue putting our positive, inspirational philosophy out into the art/writing communities in as many different ways that we possibly can!


11. Is there anything else you’d like readers to know about you, your site, or your book?

Cendrine Marrouat: David and I have more than three decades of combined experience as authors, writers, artists, and marketers. Our goal has always been to educate and inspire people, as well as encourage artists to create meaningful work.

We believe that Auroras & Blossoms and PoArtMo Collective offer much needed alternatives to many of the online platforms focusing on the “15-minute fame” motto. And we are confident that you will agree.

ABOUT THE AUTHORS

Cendrine Marrouat is a French-born Canadian photographer, poet, and the multi-genre author of more than 30 books. In 2019, she co-founded the PoArtMo Collective with Isabel Nolasco, and Auroras & Blossoms with David Ellis. A year later, Ellis and she launched PoArtMo (Positive Art Month and Positive Art Moves) and created the Kindku / Pareiku, two forms of poetry. Cendrine is also the creator of another poetry form (the Sixku) and a type of digital image (the Reminigram).

Cendrine writes both in French and English and has worked in many different fields in her 17-year career, including translation, language instruction, journalism, art reviews, and social media.

David Ellis lives in Tunbridge Wells, Kent in the UK. He is an award-winning poet, author of poetry, marketing
workbooks/journals, humourous fiction and music lyrics. He is also a co-author and co-founder of Auroras & Blossoms, and the co-creator of PoArtMo (Positive Art Month and Positive Art Moves) and the Kindku / Pareiku.
David’s debut poetry collection (Life, Sex & Death) won an International Award in the Readers’ Favorite Book Awards 2016 for Inspirational Poetry Books.

David is extremely fond of tea, classic and contemporary poetry, cats, and dogs but not snakes. Indiana Jones is his spirit animal.

Hadiya Ali is a 19-year-old Pakistan-born artist who now lives in Oman. A keen observer of people, she noticed at a very young age how talented market workers were at what they did – but that they seemed unaware of their own talent. So she decided to capture their stories with her camera. Before she knew it, her project had attracted attention and she had been booked for her first professional photoshoots, suddenly realizing that she, too, had been unaware of her own talent all this time.

Hadiya works on projects that capture unique stories and themes. Some of her photography is featured in The Auroras & Blossoms PoArtMo Anthology: 2020 Edition.


Connect with the authors:
Website   |  Blog  |   Facebook  |  Twitter  |  Instagram  |  YouTube   |  Goodreads

*Buy the book:
Books2Read

*Book to be released mid-March

TRAILER

FEATURED AUTHOR: EDWARD STANTON

ABOUT THE BOOK

A wayward descendant of Mexico’s national hero, a femme fatale who recites poems in cantinas, a Tunisian prostitute in Barcelona, a Spanish psychiatrist who fights brave bulls, the wise owner of the world’s oldest restaurant. They are just a handful of the characters portrayed in VIDAS: Deep in Mexico and Spain, the first memoir to capture Mexico and Spain from the perspective of an American and the knowledge of an insider. VIDAS explores subjects as diverse as the art of blasphemy, the cult of the Virgin Mary, superstition and witchcraft, the bordellos of Mexico, Spain’s paradise of drink and food, the bullfight and the running of bulls in Pamplona, the pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela. Every chapter of this vibrant travel memoir depicts a different person or place, which combined create a cross-section of the most populous Spanish-speaking countries in the New and Old World. VIDAS is a passage from childhood to adolescence and maturity, a tribute to nature and the open road, an exaltation of love, food and wine, a journey from the tender, mortal flesh to the luminous world of the spirit.

Filled with photographs, this engaging and unique memoir provides a sensory travel experience many of us are craving today. VIDAS: Deep in Mexico and Spain offers the opportunity to learn about faraway lands and striking events while never leaving home. This timely "armchair travel" memoir is for anyone searching for an escape during our troubled time.

Book Details:
Title: VIDAS: Deep in Mexico and Spain
Author: Edward Stanton
Genre: nonfiction, travel, memoir, culture
Publisher: Waterside Publications (March 1st, 2021)
Print length: 178 pages

LOVE IT OR LEAVE IT INTERVIEW WITH EDWARD STANTON

A few of your favorite things: books and bonsai trees. These may seem like very different things, but of course paper is made from wood. Not the wood from my bonsais, however.
Things you need to throw out: books I’ll never read again.

Things you need in order to write: I’m a graphomaniac, so I need things to stop me from writing.
Things that hamper your writing: watering, fertilizing, pinching, pruning, and repotting bonsai trees.

Things you love about writing: the solitude.
Things you hate about writing: the loneliness.
 
Easiest thing about being a writer: is there anything easy?
Hardest thing about being a writer: knowing when to stop.

Things you love about where you live: clean air and old trees.
Things that make you want to move: Republicans.

Things you never want to run out of: books, wine, and trees.
Things you wish you’d never bought: anything that runs on gasoline.
 
Favorite foods: Chiles en nogada and the dozens of moles from Puebla, Mexico.
Things that make you want to throw up: all fast food.
 
Favorite music: Corridos and rancheras from Mexico, cante jondo from Spain.
Music that makes your ears bleed: Garth Brooks spoiling an otherwise musically perfect Inauguration.
 
Favorite beverage: the wines of La Rioja and Ribera del Duero, Spain.
Something that gives you a pickle face: all fast food.
 
Favorite smell: Hawthorn blossoms in May, with memories of Marcel Proust.
Something that makes you hold your nose: Trumpty-Dumpty and the suckers who actually believe him.
 
Something you’re really good at: editing someone else’s work.
Something you’re really bad at: editing my own work.

Something you wish you could do: surf the giant waves at Nazaré, Portugal.
Something you wish you’d never learned to do: nothing.
 
Something you like to do: spend time with Melissa Ann.
Something you wish you’d never done: trying and failing to install apps on my computer.

Last best thing you ate: a perfect dal with a garlic nan.
Last thing you regret eating: fast food (about 30 years ago).

Things you’d walk a mile for: to see an ancient tree.
Things that make you want to run screaming from the room: people who actually believe Trumpty-Dumpty.
 
Things you always put in your books: tricksters.
Things you never put in your books: Republicans.

Things to say to an author: I read your last book twice.
Things to say to an author if you want to be fictionally killed off in their next book: Cherchez la femme.

Favorite places you’ve been: Nayarit, Mexico; Moutrás, Galicia, Spain.
Places you never want to go to again: I’d go anywhere again in the right company.

Favorite things to do: write, care for bonsai, spend time with Melissa Ann.
Things you’d run through a fire wearing gasoline pants to get out of doing: creating a new password.

Things that make you happy: ancient trees, good wine & company.
Things that drive you crazy: I’ve already mentioned those.

Proudest moment: my parents seeing me receive an award at their alma mater.
Most embarrassing moment: after a certain age nothing should embarrass you.

Biggest lie you’ve ever told: I’ve never told a lie.
A lie you wish you’d told: “I’m a conscientious objector” before being sworn into the U.S. Army during the Vietnam War.

Best thing you’ve ever done: marry Melissa Ann.
Biggest mistake: an earlier marriage.

Most daring thing you’ve ever done: surf waves that were too big.
Something you chickened out from doing: surfed even bigger waves.




OTHER BOOKS BY EDWARD STANTON

Wide as the Wind

Culture and Customs of Spain (Cultures and Customs of the World) 

Hemingway and Spain: A Pursuit 

The Tragic Myth: Lorca and Cante Jondo (Studies in Romance Languages)

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Born in Colorado and raised in California, Edward Stanton has lived in Mexico, Argentina, Uruguay, and Spain. He’s the author of twelve books, some of them translated and published in Spanish, Arabic, and Chinese. Road of Stars to Santiago, the story of his 500-mile walk on the ancient pilgrimage route to Compostela, was called one of the best books on the subject by the New York Times; Stanton’s environmental novel Wide as the Wind, the first to treat the tragic history of Easter Island, won the Next Generation Indie Book Award for Young Adult Fiction and three other international prizes. While teaching at colleges and universities in the Americas and Europe, he’s also published short stories, poems, translations and essays. The Fulbright Commission, the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Spanish Ministry of Culture have supported his work with grants and fellowships. Recently his students and colleagues published This Spanish Thing: Essays in Honor of Edward F. Stanton.

Connect with Edward:
Website  |  Blog  |  Facebook  |  Twitter  |  Goodreads  

Buy the book:
Amazon

 

FEATURED AUTHOR: INDY PERRO

 

ABOUT THE BOOK

Kane Kulpa learned which laws could be bent and which broken after a short stint in prison courtesy of Detective Vincent Bayonne. Bound by time, integrity, and the reality of life in Central City, Bayonne and Kane made peace with the past. Now, gang tension spirals from corrupt to deadly, and a series of murders stresses Kane and Bayonne’s uneasy alliance. Kane balances on a razor’s edge to protect his bar, power, life, and family, and Bayonne hustles to keep another lonely man from being strangled.

Central City is a city struggling for identity. The cops protect the rackets, and the criminals shelter the injured. Innocence is only an appearance, and rage finds a voice.

Book Details

Title: Central City

Author: Indy Perro

Genre: mystery: hard-nboiled/noir

Series: Central City, book 1

Publisher: Dog’s Name Press (March 28, 2020)

Print length: 243 pages

LOVE IT OR LEAVE IT INTERVIEW WITH INDY PERRO

Things you need in order to write: either a computer or a notebook. Now that I think about it, however, I get a fair amount of work done when I’m not at my desk and ideas get a chance to bubble to the surface of my subconscious. That’s definitely a part of writing.
Things that hamper your writing: distraction. 


Things you love about writing: the opportunity to smooth ideas out, to connect them, develop them, and turn them into imagery.
Things you hate about writing: the business of doing business. To paraphrase Allen Toussaint, it’s a sad thing and a bad thing, but oh so necessary, that this cold world holds your values to become monetary.

Easiest thing about being a writer: putting words on a page.

Hardest thing about being a writer: developing the skill to write well enough that you won’t be ignored.


Things you never want to run out of: words and combinations of words.
Things you wish you’d never bought: I wish I’d never bought into the idea of prestige. Nothing, in my opinion, poisons art more quickly or with greater ruthlessness than prestige.


Words that describe you: indescribable.
Words that describe you but you wish they didn’t: ambiguous.

Favorite foods: anything Mexican or Central American.
Things that make you want to throw up: coconut; it’s a hell of a thing to do to chocolate.

Favorite beverage: limeade.

Something that gives you a pickle face: an excess of dill.

Favorite smell: puppy breath.

Something that makes you hold your nose: my dog’s breath now that she’s no longer a puppy.

Something you wish you could do: dunk a basketball.
Something you wish you’d never learned to do: criticize.

Last best thing you ate: a lime popsicle.

Last thing you regret eating: I’m not sure what you call it, and perhaps it shouldn’t have been that color or texture or consistency.

Things to say to an author: The same things you’d say to anyone.

Things to say to an author if you want to be fictionally killed off in their next book: If you’re a writer, what do you do for a living? Also, any statement that conveys a belief that being a writer is comparable to being a samurai or some other historical profession or mythological being. I assure you, being a writer has more in common with being a carpenter than being a Viking.

Favorite places you’ve been: Clifton, Arizona, which lives up to its name.

Places you never want to go to again: in North Platte, Nebraska, there’s a diner that serves omelets made with canned mushrooms.

Things that make you happy: art museums, concerts, great movies, and Led Zeppelin.

Things that drive you crazy: people who don’t like Led Zeppelin.

Biggest lie you’ve ever told: “It’s not a lie, if you believe it.”

A lie you wish you’d told: “No, those pants don’t make you look fat. Why do you ask?”

Best thing you’ve ever done: Marriage.

Biggest mistake: I was counting my chickens when, all of a sudden, I tripped and dropped my eggs.

Most daring thing you’ve ever done: I once summited a volcano during a thunderstorm.

Something you chickened out from doing: nobody said the high dive would be so . . . high.

The last thing you did for the first time: I recently discovered the importance of Willie Nelson, and I must admit that’s a bigger deal than it sounds.

Something you’ll never do again: summit a volcano during a thunderstorm. That’s just stupid.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR 


Indy Perro is a novelist, an independent thinker, and a recovering academic. Indy has a degree in history, graduate degrees in religious studies, comparative literature, and education, and has spent more than a decade teaching philosophy, religious studies, writing, and literature. He lives in northern Colorado, and when he’s not at his desk, he loves to hike, run, read, and study languages. Central City is Indy’s first novel.



Connect with Indy:

Website  |  Facebook  |  Twitter  |  Goodreads 

Buy the book:
Amazon  |  Barnes & Noble

FEATURED AUTHOR: ML ERDAHL

 

ABOUT THE BOOK

Wilderness guide Crystal Rainey leads a group of college students to a private campground amidst the awe-inspiring Olympic Rain Forest. The excursion is ruined when the charming hostess Roxie is discovered standing over the land owner's body, murder weapon in hand.

Enlisted to investigate the crime to absolve her friend, Crystal descends on the quiet city of Forks to find loggers, developers, and eco-protesters circling the property, intent on either exploiting or protecting the bastion of old-growth forest. The list of suspects is intimidating. Can Crystal find answers in a community determined to keep her in the dark?

Book Details:

Title: Spring Upon a Crime    

Author: ML Erdahl

Genre: cozy mystery

Series: A Seattle Wilderness Mystery

Publisher: The Wild Rose Press (January 13, 2021)

Print length: 294 pages

   


LOVE IT OR LEAVE IT WITH ML ERDAHL

A few of your favorite things: my loving and supportive wife, my cuddly little dogs, and my purry gigantic cat.

Things you need to throw out: since I live in a cozy little home, I work hard to keep my house free of clutter, so if I find something to throw out, it goes!

Things you need in order to write: time and a quiet place.

Things that hamper your writing: noise distracts me but so does stress. If I’m worried about something, the words come painfully slowly.  2020 was not an easy year to tap the creative faucet.

Things you love about writing: I love the actual crafting of a book. Dreaming up a story, putting it to paper, and polishing it to a novel that people look forward to reading.
Things you hate about writing: I’m a perfectionist, so I re-read the nearly final version at least four times to root out the last typos. Far and away, this repetitive task is my least favorite part about writing.

Easiest thing about being a writer: the easiest thing about being a writer is having an outlet for my imagination.

Hardest thing about being a writer: the hardest thing about being a writer is putting your work out there for others to read and judge. 



Things you love about where you live: the evergreen forests and ample outdoor activities. There’s always something to do if you are willing to go for it.

Things that make you want to move: the dark and wet winters in the Pacific Northwest put me in a grumpy mood throughout January and February, when I’ve finally had enough.


Things you never want to run out of: coffee. It’ll be a dark day at my house when I don’t get my morning cup of Joe.

Things you wish you’d never bought: plane tickets right before the Covid19 pandemic. I still have a credit with Delta.

Favorite foods: mozzarella sticks, pizza, and Croque Monsieur (a fancy French grilled cheese sandwich). Cheese is the reoccurring theme here.

Things that make you want to throw up: cauliflower and broccoli. Most cruciferous vegetable make my toes curl.

Favorite music: I’m a rock and roll guy when I work out, but classical music helps me write.

Music that make your ears bleed: anything that is an ear worm. I love Billy Joel’s “We didn’t Start the Fire”, but it loops in my brain for days after I listen to it.

Favorite beverage: the Aztec Mocha at Cafe Fonte next to Pike Place Market. Coffee, chocolate, cayenne, cinnamon, and black pepper.  It will change your world.

Something that gives you a pickle face: tomato juice. I could never gag that stuff down.

Favorite smell: grapefruit, jasmine, and coffee.

Something that makes you hold your nose: steamed broccoli. It makes the whole house smell like farts.

Something you wish you could do: I wish I had an ounce of musical aptitude, but trust me when I say, it just isn’t there. 

Something you wish you’d never learned to do: this will sound weird, but learning to write. It has made me hyper-aware of typos, plot holes, and poor writing. I can’t read books or watch TV shows without evaluating the storytelling.

People you consider as heroes: enlightened and philanthropic souls. The Dalai Lama, Dolly Parton, and Bill Gates are three that come to mind.

People with a big L on their foreheads: narrow-minded and intolerant souls are difficult for me to cope with.



Last best thing you ate: a maple bar from Chuck’s Doughnuts, the best doughnuts in my hometown.

Last thing you regret eating: salmon. I know the irony of a Pacific Northwesterner not liking salmon, but I don’t like any seafood. However,  my wife and I try to eat healthy, so we occasionally forget how much we dislike fish, cook it, and regret it.

Things you’d walk a mile for: a cup of coffee in the morning. I am a Seattlite after all.

Things that make you want to run screaming from the room: seafood. Do you sense a repeating theme?

Things you always put in your books: pets and humor. Two things that make me happy.

Things you never put in your books: I’ll kill off people in every book, but I’ll never write about hurting an animal. There’s probably something to discuss with a psychologist in that statement, but it’s the truth.

Things to say to an author: I loved the passage in your book where . . . 

Things to say to an author if you want to be fictionally killed off in their next book: I liked your book, but I found a small typo on page 222.

Favorite places you’ve been: the outdoors and history are two of my passions so several of my favorites include St. George Island wildlife sanctuary, British Museum, and Moran State Park on Orcas Island.

Places you never want to go to again: Florida in August. Being from a northern state, I instinctively want to travel during the summer, but I thought I was going to pass out in Key West when it hit 106 degrees.

Favorite books: cozy mysteries, naturally, but I also enjoy historical fiction and fantasy novels.

Books you would ban: I don’t like horror or serial killer novels. They’re too dark and keep me up at night, staring at the ceiling, waiting for the monsters to get me.

Things that make you happy: having my pets snuggle in my lap after a long day.

Things that drive you crazy: plumbing. I’ve become pretty handy over the years, but plumbing never fails to drive me up the wall.

Proudest moment: winning awards for my first book. The validation of someone acknowledging my writing felt amazing.

Most embarrassing moment: throwing up in the garbage can in Kindergarten. I can probably let that go at this point, but my brain refuses to cooperate on that front.



Best thing you’ve ever done: marrying my wife. I know it’s cliche, but I’d do it a thousand times over if I could.

Biggest mistake: buying a brand new Saturn. Wow, that thing was a hunk of junk. I did learn a whole lot about maintaining a car, though.

The last thing you did for the first time: I went on a horse drawn sleigh ride for my 18th anniversary.

Something you’ll never do again: buy tickets to see the famous medium John Edward. He was extraordinarily rude when I told him my dead grandfather’s first name didn’t begin with the letter G.



ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Award-winning author ML Erdahl lives amidst the trees of the Pacific Northwest, where he pens humorous cozy mystery novels set in the wilderness he has spent his lifetime exploring. The only thing slowing him down is when his adorable rescue dogs, Skip and Daisy, demand to be pet and cuddled on his lap while he types. When he’s not wandering the mountains, you can find him gardening, reading, or searching for the best coffee in Seattle with his wife, Emily.





Connect with the author:
Website  |  Blog  |  Facebook  |  Twitter  |  Goodreads  


Buy the book:
Amazon  |  Barnes & Noble

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FEATURED AUTHOR: MALLY BECKER

 

ABOUT THE BOOK

Recently widowed, Rebecca Parcell is too busy struggling to maintain her farm in Morristown to give a fig who wins the War for Independence. But rumors are spreading in the winter of 1780 that she’s a Loyalist sympathizer who betrayed her husband to the British—quite a tidy way to end her disastrous marriage, the village gossips whisper.



Everyone knows that her husband was a Patriot, a hero who died aboard a British prison ship moored in New York Harbor. But “everyone” is wrong. Parcell was a British spy, and General Washington—who spent that winter in Morristown—can prove it. He swears he’ll safeguard Becca’s farm if she unravels her husband’s secrets. With a mob ready to exile her or worse, it’s an offer she can’t refuse.



Escaped British prisoner of war Daniel Alloway was the last person to see Becca’s husband alive, and Washington throws this unlikely couple together on an espionage mission to British-occupied New York City. Moving from glittering balls to an underworld of brothels and prisons, Becca and Daniel uncover a plot that threatens the new country’s future. But will they move quickly enough to warn General Washington? And can Becca, who’s lost almost everyone she loves, fight her growing attraction to Daniel, a man who always moves on?

 Book Details:           

Title:  The Turncoat’s Widow

Author’s name: Mally Becker

Genre: Historical mystery/suspense with elements of romance

Series: Revolutionary War mystery, book 1        

Publisher: Historia/Level Best Books (February 16, 2021)

Print length: 300 pages

LOVE IT OR LEAVE IT WITH MALLY BECKER

A few of your favorite things: the first Valentine’s Day gift my husband gave me. A drawing my son made for me in pre-school. My mom’s wooden recipe box.
Things you need to throw out: ouch. All the unfinished craft projects that have been banished to the guest room closet. Turns out, I’m not as craftsy as I thought!

Things you need in order to write: coffee, sunlight, and more coffee.
Things that hamper your writing: perfectionism. The day’s creativity dries up if I stop to search for the perfect phrase or sentence, especially while writing a first draft.

Things you love about writing: I love when the characters take over and the story heads in a direction I didn’t foresee. Yes, that happens occasionally.
Things you hate about writing: there’s almost nothing I hate about writing, nothing except proofreading. By that stage of the game, I’ve read what I’ve written so often that I skip right over missing punctuation and words.


Things you love about where you live: New Jersey gets such a bad rap, but I love it here. My husband and I are an hour from the ocean, an hour from New York City and even closer to rivers, lakes and hiking trails. Most important, though, is that our son, my siblings, my dad and friends all live close by.
Things that make you want to move: New Jersey’s weather is pretty grim in February.  In fact, all of us here in New Jersey are pretty grim in February.


Things you never want to run out of: I never want to run out of laughter, love, or reruns of old Mel Brooks movies.
Things you wish you’d never bought: beautiful notebooks. Although they make me melt, I buy too many. I’ll never get around to using them all.

Favorite foods: chocolate anything and everything, except for . . .
Things that make you want to throw up:  . . . chocolate wine. Yes, there is such a thing.

Favorite smell: I love the scent of pine and spruce trees. It’s a wonderful Christmas smell, but you’ll also catch that scent if you breathe deeply while hiking in the Adirondacks on a sunny summer day.
Something that makes you hold your nose: burned popcorn, because the scent lasts all day.

Something you’re really good at: appearing calm in an emergency.

Something you’re really bad at: being calm in an emergency.


Things to say to an author: “I thought about your story today.” A librarian was kind enough to read a draft of The Turncoat’s Widow a few months ago. She told me that she thought about my main character when she drove by a place I’d described in my book. The fact that my story stayed with her as she was going about her day was tremendously flattering.

Things to say to an author if you want to be fictionally killed off in their next book: “Would you like a few constructive suggestions about your last book?” Someone actually said that to one of my author friends.

Favorite places you’ve been: I’ve been visiting Lake Placid, New York, since I was a kid. That part of the world is my happy place. I also love Paris, and I’m hoping that the third book in my American Revolution series will take place there.
Places you never want to go to again: I am relieved that I will never again have to visit my son’s extremely large regional high school. He loved that school. But I have a terrible sense of direction. After four years, I still got lost on “back to school” night.  

People you’d like to invite to dinner (living): oh, good. A dinner party! Ask Louise Penny and Lyndsay Faye, Barack and Michelle Obama, Stephen Colbert, and film producer Sam Pollard (“MLK/FBI”) if they’re free next Sunday at 7 pm. No need to dress up.

People you’d cancel dinner on: anyone who talks only about themselves and interrupts others as they speak.

Favorite things to do: COVID’s made me even more appreciative of my family. Spending time with any of them is my favorite thing. 

Things you’d run through a fire wearing gasoline pants to get out of doing: taking my car to have its oil changed. I dread hearing, “Well, little lady. Your car also needs an ….” expensive widget I’ve never heard of.

The last thing you did for the first time: sign a publishing contract for my debut novel, The Turncoat’s Widow.

Something you’ll never do again: ride down the Grand Canyon on the back of a mule. I needed to do that once, but once was enough.


EXCERPT FROM THE TURNCOAT'S WIDOW

Chapter One

Morristown – January 1780

There was a nervous rustling in the white-washed meeting house, a disturbance of air like the sound of sparrows taking wing.

Becca Parcell peered over the balcony’s rough, wood railing, blinking away the fog of half-sleep. She had been dreaming of the figures in her account book and wondering whether there would be enough money for seed this spring.

“I didn’t hear what ….” she whispered to Philip’s mother.

Lady Augusta Georgiana Stokes Parcell, known simply as Lady Augusta, covered Becca’s hand with her own. “Philip. They’re speaking of Philip.”

Becca couldn’t tell whether it was her hand or Augusta’s that trembled.

“The Bible says, if thine eye offend thee, pluck it out and cast it from thee, does it not?” The preacher’s voice was soft, yet it carried to every corner of the congregation. “They’re here. Amongst us. Neighbors who toast the King behind closed doors. Neighbors with no love of liberty.”

Philip was a Patriot. He had died a hero. Everyone knew. Minister Townsend couldn’t be talking about him.

The minister raised his eyes to hers. With his long thin arms and legs and round belly, he reminded her of a spider. She twisted her lips into the semblance of a smile as if to say “you don’t scare me.” But he did.

“Which of your neighbors celebrates each time a Patriot dies?” Townsend’s voice rose like smoke to the rafters, took on strength and caught fire. “Their presence here is an abomination.” He rapped the podium with a flat palm, the sound bruising in the quiet church. “Then cast them out. Now.”

Men pounded the floor with their feet.

Becca flinched. It wouldn’t take much to tip the congregation into violence. Everyone had lost someone or something to this endless war. It had been going on for almost five years.

Townsend’s thin arm rose, pointing to her.

Becca’s breath caught.

“And what of widows like Mrs. Parcell? Left alone, no longer guided by the wise direction of their husbands.”

Guided? Becca pulled her hand from Augusta’s. She rubbed her thumb along the palm of her hand, feeling the rough calluses stamped there. She had learned the rhythm of the scythe at the end of the summer, how to twist and swing low until her hands were so stiff that she’d struggle to free them from the handle. She’d fallen into a dreamless sleep each night during the harvest too exhausted even to dream of Philip. She, Augusta and their servant Annie were doing just fine.

“He hardly slept at home, as I hear it,” a woman behind her sniffed to a neighbor.

Becca’s spine straightened.

“No wonder there were no babes,” the second woman murmured.

Becca twisted and nodded a smile to Mrs. Huber and Mrs. Harrington. Their mouths pursed into surprised tight circles. She’d heard them murmur, their mouths hidden by fluttering fans: About her lack of social graces; her friendship with servants; her awkward silence in company. “What else could you expect from her?” they would say, snapping shut their fans.

Relief washed through Becca, nonetheless. This was merely the old gossip, not the new rumors.

“Some of you thought Mr. Parcell was just another smuggler.” The pastor’s voice boomed.

A few in the congregation chuckled. It was illegal to sell food to the British in New York – the “London Trade” some called it — but most turned a blind eye. Even Patriots need hard currency to live, Becca recalled Philip saying.

“He only married her for the dowry,” Mrs. Huber hissed.

Becca’s hand curved into a fist.

Augusta cleared her throat, and Becca forced herself to relax.

“Perhaps some of you thought Mr. Parcell was still a Tory,” the minister said.

The chuckling died.

“He came to his senses, though. He was, after all, one of us,” Minister Townsend continued.

One of us. Invitations from the finer families had trickled away after Philip’s death.

“We all know his story,” Townsend continued. “He smuggled whiskey into New York City. And what a perfect disguise his aristocratic roots provided.” The minister lifted his nose in the air as if mimicking a dandy.
“The British thought he was one of them, at least until the end.” The minister’s voice swooped as if telling a story around a campfire. “He brought home information about the British troops in the City.”

Becca shifted on the bench. She hadn’t known about her husband’s bravery until after his death. It had baffled her. Philip never spoke of politics.

Townsend lifted one finger to his chin as if he had a new thought. “But who told the British where Mr. Parcell would be on the day he was captured? Who told the Redcoats that Mr. Parcell was a spy for independence?”

Becca forgot to breathe. He wouldn’t dare.

“It must have been someone who knew him well.” The minister’s gaze moved slowly through the congregation and came to rest on Becca. His eyes were the color of creosote, dark and burning. “Very, very well.”
Mrs. Coddington, who sat to Becca’s left, pulled the hem of her black silk gown close to avoid contact. Men in the front pews swiveled and stared.

“I would never. I didn’t.” Becca’s corset gouged her ribcage.

“Speak up, Mrs. Parcell. We can’t hear you,” the minister said in a singsong voice.

Townsend might as well strip her naked before the entire town. Respectable women didn’t speak in public. He means to humiliate me.

“Stand up, Mrs. Parcell.” His voice boomed. “We all want to hear.”

She didn’t remember standing. But there she was, the fingers of her right hand curled as it held the hunting bow she’d used since she was a child. Becca turned back to the minister. “Hogwash.” If they didn’t think she was a lady, she need not act like one. “Your independence is a wickedly unfair thing if it lets you accuse me without proof.”

Gasps cascaded throughout the darkening church.

From the balcony, where slaves and servants sat, she heard two coughs, explosive as gun fire. She twisted. Carl scowled down at her in warning. His white halo of hair, fine as duckling feathers, seemed to stand on end. He had worked for her father and helped to raise her. He had taught her numbers and mathematics. She couldn’t remember life without him.

“Accuse? Accuse you of what, Mrs. Parcell?” The minister opened his arms to the congregation. “What have we accused you of?”

Becca didn’t feel the chill now. “Of killing my husband. If this is what your new nation stands for – neighbors accusing neighbors, dividing us with lies – I'll have none of it. “Five years into this endless war, is anyone better off for Congress’ Declaration of Independence? Independence won’t pay for food. It won’t bring my husband home.”

It was as if she’d burst into flames. “What has the war brought any of us? Heartache, is all. Curse your independence. Curse you for ….”

Augusta yanked on Becca’s gown with such force that she teetered, then rocked back onto the bench.

The church erupted in shouts, a crashing wave of sound meant to crush her.

Becca’s breath came in short puffs. What had she done?

“Now that’s just grief speaking, gentlemen. Mrs. Parcell is still mourning her husband. No need to get worked up.” The voice rose from the front row. She recognized Thomas Lockwood’s slow, confident drawl.
She craned her neck to watch Thomas, with his wheat-colored hair and wide shoulders. His broad stance reminded her of a captain at the wheel. He was a gentleman, a friend of General Washington. They’ll listen to him, she thought.

“Our minister doesn’t mean to accuse Mrs. Parcell of anything, now do you, sir?”

The two men stared at each other. A minister depended on the good will of gentlemen like Thomas Lockwood.
The pastor blinked first. He shook his head.

Becca’s breathing slowed.

“There now. As I said.” Lockwood’s voice calmed the room.

Then Mr. Baldwin stood slowly. Wrinkles crisscrossed his cheeks. He’d sent his three boys to fight with the Continental Army in ’75. Only one body came home to be buried. The other two were never found. He pointed at Becca with fingers twisted by arthritis. “Mrs. Parcell didn’t help when the women raised money for the soldiers last month.”

A woman at the end of Becca’s pew sobbed quietly. It was Mrs. Baldwin.

“You didn’t invite me.” Becca searched the closed faces for proof that someone believed her.

“Is she on our side or theirs?” another woman called.

The congregation quieted again. But it was the charged silence between two claps of thunder, and the Assembly waited for a fresh explosion in the dim light of the tired winter afternoon.

With that, Augusta’s imperious voice sliced through the silence: “Someone help my daughter-in-law. She’s not well. I believe she’s about to faint.”

Becca might be rash, but she wasn’t stupid, and she knew a command when she heard one. She shut her eyes and fell gracelessly into the aisle. Her head and shoulder thumped against the rough pine floorboards.

Mrs. Coddington gasped. So did Becca, from the sharp pain in her cheek and shoulder.

Women in the surrounding rows scooted back in surprise, their boots shuffling with a shh-shh sound.

“Lady Augusta,” Mrs. Coddington huffed.

Independence be damned. All of Morristown seemed to enjoy using Augusta’s family title, her former title, as often as possible.

“Lady Augusta,” she repeated. “I’ve had my suspicions about that girl since the day she married your son. I don’t know why you haven’t sent her back to her people.”

“She has no ‘people,’ Mrs. Coddington. She has me,” Augusta’s voice was as frosty as the air in the church. “And if I had doubts about Rebecca, do you think I’d live with her?”

Becca imagined Augusta’s raised eyebrows, her delicate lifted chin. She couldn’t have borne it if her mother-in-law believed the minister’s lies.

Augusta’s featherlight touch stroked her forehead. “Well done,” she murmured. “Now rise slowly. And don’t lean on me. I might just topple over.”

“We are eager to hear the rest of the service on this Sabbath day, Minister Townsend. Do continue,” Thomas Lockwood called.

Becca stood, her petite mother-in-law’s arm around her waist. The parishioners at the edges of the aisles averted their eyes as the two women passed.

As they stepped into the stark, brittle daylight, one last question shred the silence they left behind: “Do you think she turned her husband over to the British?”

Someone else answered. “It must be true. Everyone says so.

***

Excerpt from The Turncoat's Widow by Mally Becker.  Copyright 2021 by Mally Becker. Reproduced with permission from Mally Becker. All rights reserved.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR  

Mally Becker became fascinated with the American Revolution when she peeked into the past as a volunteer at the Morristown National Historical Park, where George Washington and the Continental army spent two winters. A former attorney, volunteer advocate for foster children, and freelance writer, Becker and her husband raised their wonderful son in New Jersey where they still live. The Turncoat’s Widow, featuring Becca Parcell, is her first novel.


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