Christy Mystery

A Cover, At Last! (Plus, Romance for Valentine's Day!)

2012-01-31T12:10:00.000-08:00

There it is, in all its glory! OK, bad pun. My heroine - the owner of the gift shop, and the parrot - is Gloryanna Martine, Glory to her friends.

Sorry it took so long. There were a couple changes, and tweaks along the way, but I am delighted to have a real, final, gorgeous cover to share with you.

The book is available for pre-order on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and bookstores everywhere. It's also available in ebook. And if you want a signed copy, I'll be at Malice Domestic the end of April, or you can order a copy from my local bookseller pal, Sheldon McArthur at North by Northwest Books.

Number-one Fan and husband Steve jumping in here...

The post above was supposed to go out Sunday, but got stuck in the pipes somehow, so Christy asked me to play tech support and knock it loose for y'all.

While I'm at it, I'm going to remind you good folks that Christy (writing under her real name of Christina F. York) has written three contemporary romance novels, Loaves and Kisses, Dream House, and Dory Cove. And given that it's Valentine's Day, it seemed like a good excuse to give them a quick plug. All are available in ebook form, from Amazon (links below) and all other major ebook vendors, including Nook, iBooks, Sony, Kobo, etc. There are also still a few copies of the Five Star print edition of "Dream House" out there too, if you're quick about it!

Enjoy!

Sunday Morning Musing

2012-01-29T11:53:00.000-08:00

Number One Fan, AKA husband J. Steven York, has been on my case to get back on here and talk to y'all. Being MIA is understandable and all, but at some point you have to pick yourself up, dust yourself off and get back to the business at hand.

To quote Morgan Freeman, "Get busy living, or get busy dying." I choose living.

So I'm going to try and be here more often.

For starters, I want to share some good books with you. One thing I have discovered is that I tend to read more nonfiction when I'm writing, and I just finished a really interesting book, THE WAVE, by Susan Casey.

I live close enough to the ocean to fall asleep to the sound of the surf. I love being near the beach. More than that, I need to be near the ocean. The flat Midwestern plains? They make me jumpy-there's no water nearby. My West Coast roots go deep, I grew up in Southern California is the surfer-60s, and I now live in a tsunami evacuation zone. (We watched - from a safe distance at the top of our hill - the surge from the Japanese earthquake last year.) Of course I read this book!

My husband read it first and recommended it to me, and I'm passing along that recommendation. Here's what he had to say about it:

"As it happens, I just recently finished reading an excellent book about big waves, dealing alternately with big-wave science, big-wave surfers, and the history of giant waves and their impact on people and ships. Amazingly little is known about the huge waves our planet is capable or producing. We don't even know how big they can get, and in fact, scientists are having trouble explaining the biggest waves that have already been reliably been observed. Waves seem simple, but it may actually require quantum physics to decode the mysterious behaviors and energies of giant waves."

And if you're a mystery fan (if you're here, you probably are!) and you haven't yet read any of Julie Hyzy's books, you should. Her latest White House chef book, AFFAIRS OF STEAK, recently hit the NY Times list. It's book 5 in the series, and she just keeps getting better! But start with #1-STATE OF THE ONION. You won't want to miss a single adventure in our nation's capital.

That's it for now. I still have some books to write, and some cooking to do, you know. I'll try to be back more often with bits and pieces from the life of a crazy writer!

Announcing New Ebooks from Christy!

2011-12-14T04:02:00.000-08:00

Number One Fan here: I'm pleased to announce two new ebooks from Christy (writing under her real name of Christina F. York), one short fiction, and a new romance novel! I'm sure Christy will be along presently to talk about these herself, but I wanted to get the covers and links up for you to enjoy ASAP! Be sure to download a free sample and try these great new books right away!

First up, Sharper Than a Serpent's Tooth, a new installment in her 99-cent short-fiction series!

Step-daughter Cynthia may sound like the perfect princess, but you've only heard her side of the story. Disobedient, ungrateful, tarted up in glass heels and out past curfew in a pumpkin coach, Cynthia has a lot to answer for, and now it's "Evil Step-mom's" turn to set the record straight!

Buy it on Amazon

Buy it on Smashwords

Nook coming in the next day or two, with other major ebook outlets on the way!

Next a new novel of romance, fun, friendship and adventure, for the young-adult reader and the merely young-at-heart: Rodeo Royalty.

Tyler Forrester plans to be a rodeo princess, and get the attention of Brad Young, the hottest junior cowboy around. But when Tyler’s friend Amee decides to help her find some scholarship money, the plan gets out of control faster than a seven-second bull ride.

Thanks to Amee’s meddling and a large pile of scholarship money, Tyler is headed for Valenta, a tiny European country, to spend the month of August as a temporary princess, and her rodeo plans are headed for the last round-up.

Tyler is a long way from her friends, her family, and her horse. Sure, there’s a hot prince, but he can’t make up for everything she’s missing. Or can he?

Buy It On Amazon

Buy It On Smashwords

Nook coming in the next day or two, with other major ebook outlets on the way!

The Fall of a Hero

2011-11-06T19:30:00.000-08:00

I've been missing from this blog for several months, and from much of the rest of my world. I apoligize to my fans for disappearing, and I feel as though I owe you an explanation. This may take more than one post, but I find myself wanting to talk about what happened over the last year.

You see, I lost my hero, the man I have looked up to and admired for more than 60 years. My dad. I want to talk about him, about who he was and what he meant to me.

Over the last couple years I have watched dementia slowly steal the man I knew. It was heart-breaking to watch this vital, larger-than-life man reduced to a confused and debilitated man battling with his private demons.

In the end he slipped away in his sleep on the 17th of August. It was both a tragedy and a blessing, and brought grief, relief, and guilt for feeling relieved, in equal measures. I will always miss him, but the man I grew up with would not have chosen those last months of dependency and loss of control.

Dad wasn't a conventional hero. He didn't fly planes, or charge into burning buildings, or chase bad guys. But he was my hero. There are many things I want to say about him, to tell you why he was important.

I thought I was ready. I had the words in my head to tell you what I want you to know. But I still can't. Sometime soon, I hope.

In the meantime, I hold onto one thing: Just a few days before he died, I got a revised cover image for the first book in the new series (it's getting a couple tweaks, and I hope to have it to post later in the week).

This is the first book under the Fifield name. My dad's name.

I was able to email a copy to my mother, and she took it to show Dad - the first time the name he passed down to me appeared on the cover of a book.

I like to think he approved.

Cover Coming!

2011-07-30T20:44:00.000-07:00

I've just seen a preview of the cover for MURDER BUYS A T-SHIRT, and I am very pleased with the results! The art is wonderful, the composition is lovely, and there's a great quote from a writer I like and respect - a lot.

Did I mention that I am pleased?

There's a parrot on the cover - as well there should be - along with the new (old) name of Christy Fifield. Technically that name is not exactly what my name was; I went by Christi Fifield when I was a child, but I didn't figure anyone would notice the difference. Heck, it's been long enough since I used that name, no one would even notice, except my family!

Anyway, as soon as I have the okay I will be posting the cover - and the nice quote - here for everyone to see. I also have a release date of March, 2012, so mark your calendars.

In the meantime, I do have a new short story available now on Kindle and coming soon to Nook, and through most of the other regular epublishing channels. Here's the description for "Cheer Witches":

Some people think all cheerleaders are witches, which isn't really true. Except at Salem Township Public High School #4 - known to the student body as Witch High.

Regionals are coming, and Cassie wants to win. But not enough to cheat. Magic is strictly forbidden in competition, and by the coach. Still, a little magic seems to be creeping into their routines, and Cassie is worried. She prides herself on using her powers for good, and cheating isn't right.

If she can't find the hidden source of the magic before their next competition, they could be disqualified.

Or worse, in Cassie's mind, they could not be disqualified.

Then even if they win, they lose!

Find it on Amazon at the above link, or in all major ebook forms on Smashwords. Only 99 cents. Coming soon to Nook, Apple, Kobo, and all other major ebook outlets. And while you're there, take a look at the other titles I have available. There are two short stories FREE at Smashwords - Food Fight (also free for Kindle and Nook) and Songs of Lesser Voices (available for free on Nook) - and several others at only 99 cents.

I hope to be back here soon to post more recipes and cooking photos, and to share the new cover. I'm excited to get your reactions to the cover - I'm already happy about it and I hope you'll like it, too!

One Book Down, Two To Go!

2011-06-16T00:53:00.000-07:00

Big sigh of relief from Christy Mystery - the first book in the Haunted Gift Shop series went off to the editor today! Which means we start the whole "Road To The Bookstore" process again, with MURDER BUYS A T-SHIRT. We've already been working on the cover copy - that is, the fabulous people at Berkley Prime Crime have been writing, and I've been commenting - and I hope to have it for you in the next few days.

In the meantime, the banana pudding post is written, but there's yet another delay. The Official Taster, who is also the Official Photographer, informs me that we took over 130 pictures the day I made pudding. And to post on the blog, we need to tidy them up a bit and make sure they are the right size.

Now I grant you, we'll likely use 5-10% of those pictures, so we don't have to fiddle with every one of them, but the problem is knowing which 5-10% to edit. Needless to say, this has led to much dithering and discussion, most of which I refused to participate in because I was busy with - oh, I don't know - finishing a book?

But as of today the book is in the hands of my editor, and before I plunge into the next book I will get a couple more posts - with pictures - up here to tempt your taste buds, and I'll get the cover copy to tempt your reading appetite.

What's In A Name?

2011-05-01T16:33:00.000-07:00

Just when you think you have everything set up, someone comes along and knocks something down. Sometimes that's a Bad Thing, sometimes it's a Good Thing. And sometimes it's just a Thing.

For instance, this week at the day job has been insane. I've been covering some vacation time in my department, which means I have spent several nights at work - but not in a row. Oh no, that would be too easy! Instead I've been mixing up night shifts and day shifts. And that is kind of a Bad Thing.

On the other hand, I've been able to get back on schedule with visiting the gym, which means I am getting at least 30 minutes a day of cardio workout. That is a Good Thing.

Then there's the change for Murder In a Shot Glass, which is just A Thing - though I think it actually deserves to be called a Good Thing. The change is the title - as of this week we have officially re-titled the book MURDER BUYS A T-SHIRT.

The change was suggested by the publisher, and this is where the story gets a tad strange. You see, when I first proposed the Haunted Gift Shop series, and gave the publisher a proposal for three books, I had a different story as the first book. The title of that story was Murder Buys A T-Shirt. After some discussion we decided that a different story was a better place to start, and we decided to start with the story I had titled Murder In A Shot Glass.

But when the book was presented at a meeting with some of the people who will make the magic happen - you know, give it a cover, and the cover copy, and the copy for the catalog, and all those things that will make droves of people actually buy the book - they weren't thrilled wtih the title.

No one has said exactly, but I can guess at least one of the reasons. This is a cozy mystery, with all the cozy sensibilities. Does Shot Glass say cozy? Or does it say noir? It sound more like noir to me, and while that's a genre I like, it isn't what I'm writing. But T-Shirt? That's a cozy title for sure.

So Murder Buys a T-Shirt is the new title of the first Christy Fifield mystery in the Haunted Gift Shop series. And I'm happy with it. In fact, the more I think about it, the more I prefer it to Murder in a Shot Glass.

There are other titles in the Haunted Gift Shop series - Murder In a Snow Globe, Murder Sends a Postcard, Murder Wants a Cracker - but I'm convinced that Murder in a Shot Glass isn't a cozy title.

But one of these days I will find the noir-ish story that goes with that title. And then there will be a book called Murder in a Shot Glass.

Cooking Up a New Series - Part Seven - Sweet Potato Casserole

2011-04-17T23:13:00.000-07:00

You can tell it's Southern cooking by the parrot!

All of my Southern cooking is an experiment, and some of the results are better than others. For instance, the problem with the hush puppies (see Part Two). I had to thicken the batter, and I didn't make notes of my changes so I haven't been able to post a recipe yet. On the other hand, the fried cornbread came out well and I was pleased with the results (in Part Six).

My first attempt at sweet potato casserole falls in the "less successful" category. It was tasty, but it wasn't what my expert taste-tester expected and it needs some work.

But I'm not proud - I'm happy to share the tasty failures, too!

Mis en place for sweet potato casserole
The bowl at left is cornmeal for fried cornbread

There are a few tricks I've stolen from cooking shows over the years, and one is the concept of mis en place. It's a French phrase that means (more or less) "everything in place."

You know how it is when you watch one of those shows, and they have little dishes of every ingredient already measured and ready in a tiny glass bowl? They never waste camera time measuring, and it's also a great way to determine that you have every ingredient.

In fact as I was setting up for this recipe I discovered that I didn't have miniature marshmallows. Fortunately the grocery store is only three blocks away. On a cooking show there would be an able assistant, ready to run do the chef's bidding at any moment. For me that was the amazing husband/photographer/Official Taster, who ran to the store for marshmallows as I started cooking.

Because the Official Taster prefers yams, that is what I actually used. Most any variety of sweet potato or yam will work, but that may be part of what went wrong with mine. I will need to experiment with either different tubers. But once they were peeled and chopped I put them on to boil until tender.

While the yams simmered, I took a few minutes to clean up the kitchen. I have discovered that this kind of cooking - with new recipes and sometimes unfamiliar ingredients - can create a lot of havoc in my kitchen, and lead to many piles of dirty dishes. Since I have an older house, built at the end of WWII, it doesn't have a dishwasher. Someday, I have promised myself, we will remodel the kitchen. Someday!

Bubble, bubble
Sweet potato trouble!

After a few minutes at a slow boil, the yams were fork-tender and ready to mash. The recipe called for three cups of mashed sweet potato, which seemed like a lot for two people, so I used two small yams and cut the rest of the ingredients in half. It was plenty, and we even had leftovers.

Once the yams were tender, I drained them in a colander and returned them to the pan to mash them. I have an ancient hand masher, which was all I needed to smash the yams without completely destroying the texture.

An old-fashioned hand masher works just fine!

However, I think I may have over cooked the yams. The consistency, as you will soon see, was thinner than I would have liked. The Official Taster also said it should have been more like dense mashed potatoes than the dish I produced. Thus the label of Tasty Failure.

But I digress...

Sugar

The yams were mashed, ready to be mixed, and here is where the mis en place shines!

Once the yams were mashed, I added the remaining ingredients,

Sugar ...

Butter

Butter ...

Milk ...

Eggs and vanilla,
and poured the resulting mash into a baking pan.

Tasty, but way too soupy!

This is when we realized the mixture wasn't as thick as we thought it should be. There wasn't a lot I could do at this point, so I forged ahead with the topping

A chef's trick, right in my own kitchen

A second mis en place was ready with flour, brown sugar, melted butter, and chopped nuts. In a concession to the Official Taster I omitted coconut. Not pictured are the miniature marshmallows my dedicated assistant fetched from the store while the yams were simmering and I was cleaning up the mess from peeling and chopping.

I mixed the nuts, brown sugar and flour into the melted butter, and then added the miniature marshmallows.

I spread the topping over the mashed yams in the baking dish, and it was ready for the oven.

After baking, the casserole was a beautiful, bubbly brown on top, with puffs of golden melted marshmallows. It smelled great, and tasted fine, but it wasn't exactly ready for its close-up. Here's hoping I can do a better job next time, and show you a finished product that will make your mouth water!

But for the record, here is a plate of the finished casserole. Too soft to hold its shape, it probably belongs in a small bowl rather than on a plate - it was more like a pudding than a casserole, and it's quite sweet, too.

Stay tuned for more Southern cooking adventures soon!! Maybe I'll get the pictures for that banana pudding ...

Sweet Potato Casserole

3 cups boiled and mashed sweet potatoes
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup milk
1/3 cup butter
1 tsp vanilla
2 eggs, lightly beaten

Add sugar, milk, butter, eggs, and vanilla to mashed sweet potatoes. Place in an oven-proof casserole and top with a mixture of

1/3 cup melted butter
1/3 cup all-purpose flour
1 cup brown sugar
1 cup chopped nuts, pecans preferred, but walnuts also work
1 cup coconut (optional, according to the Official Taster)
1 cup miniature marshmallows

Bake at 350 degrees until brown and bubbly, about 30 minutes

Cooking Up a New Series - Part Six - Fried Cornbread

2011-04-12T09:33:00.000-07:00

After my first Southern meal of catfish and hush puppies (detailed in parts One, Two, and Three), my next experiment was black-eyed peas with ham shanks (detailed in part Five) and fried cornbread.

This time I didn't need to use the deep fryer, just a frying pan and a much smaller amount of oil. Since I had carefully strained and stored the shortening from the catfish and hush puppies I was able to re-use some of that shortening to fry the cornbread.

Using that oil also allowed me to test my theory about using oil that had been used for fish. It did, indeed, impart some great flavor.

Making fried cornbread, I discovered, is really a simple process.

First you assemble the dry ingredients, then add boiling water, stir, shape and fry. It really is that easy!

While the process in quite simple, it also takes some patience, a word that keeps coming up again and again as I go through these recipes. Giving the dry ingredients a few minutes to absorb the boiling water and to cool seems to develop a more easily-handled dough.

As the dough became pliable and cooled, I took a ball about the size of a golf ball, shaped it with my hands, and flattened it with my fingertips. The result was a bunch of patties about the size of the palm of my hand, and a half-inch thick. In order to avoid letting the oil sit on the heat, I shaped all the cornbread first - before I started frying.

I heated the oil in the pan, letting it come up to temperature before I started cooking. I put a few pieces at a time into the oil. As they turned golden on the bottom and started to brown around the edges, I flipped them to fry the other side.

In a couple minutes they were cooked through and a beautiful golden brown.

And here's the finished plate of fried cornbread, ready to sop up the juices off the black-eyed peas!

Fried Cornbread

1 1/2 cup self-rising cornmeal

1/2 teaspoon salt

2 cups boiling water

Mix cornmeal and salt in a large bowl. Stir well and pour boiling water over dry ingredients. Stir to mix well. Dough will be slightly runny, but will thicken as it cools. When dough is cool enough to handle, shape into balls about the size of a golf ball. Wetting your hands will help to prevent sticking as you shape. Flatten the balls with your fingers to about 1/2 inch.

Place the shaped pieces on plastic wrap or waxed paper until all pieces are shaped.

Heat about a half-inch of oil or shortening in a large frying pan. When the oil is hot, place a few pieces of cornbread in the hot oil. Cook until the bottom is golden and the edges begin to brown. Turn and continue frying until the second side is also golden.

Drain on paper towels, and serve with your favorite Southern main dish!

Up next - Part Seven - Tasty Sweet Potato Failure

A New Logo!

2011-04-07T01:57:00.000-07:00

Since I have been doing the Southern cooking blog posts, we thought it might be cool to add a logo to the posts that will quickly identify them as a part of the MURDER IN A SHOT GLASS series. And now we have a shiny new logo to add to the posts!

Here it is, in all its glory.

Look for the SHOT GLASS logo on the Southern cooking blog series, and on other posts about the Haunted Gift Shop series. Sort of like the faucet logo for the Lady Plumber series. And I'll be putting it on guest blog posts, so you can revel in your special secret knowledge of what it means.

I'll be looking forward to putting up more cooking posts. These are experiments and they don't always work, but I will share the good, the bad, and the ugly for your entertainment and edification.

Coming soon (as soon as I get pictures) is a banana pudding discussion. And then there are black-eyed peas with a ham shank, fried cornbread, and a yummy failure of a sweet potato casserole.

Stay tuned for some tasty adventures!

Cooking Up a New Series - Part Five - Black-Eyed Peas

2011-04-06T23:55:00.000-07:00

I know, I know. I skipped Part Four. Actually Part Four is written, but I don't have pictures yet, so it will have to wait for another photo op. See, I made the pudding before I realized I wanted pictures for the blog, so (boo hoo!) I'll have to make another pudding and take lots of pictures.

In the meantime, we've added a logo for the Haunted Gift Shop mystery series. Since Bluebeard the foul-mouthed parrot is a major character in the new series we've put his picture on a shot glass, to celebrate the first title in the series: MURDER IN A SHOT GLASS

Now, on to our next cooking experiment!

Because we live in the Northwest, and don't have access to fresh peas, I bought a bag of dried peas at the local market. To prepare beans for cooking, I rinsed the peas and picked out a couple that looked questionable. Then I soaked the pound of dried peas in a bowl of water overnight.

There are shortcut methods of soaking, but I always feel like overnight is better. I also changed the water in the morning, and left them to soak for a few more hours, until it was time to start cooking.

While I didn't have access to ham hocks, I did find ham shanks at the local market. I could have just started the beans cooking with the ham shank, but I decided browning the ham shank would give me better flavor.

I started with a little olive oil so the ham wouldn't stick, though it quickly gave up lovely juices and started to brown nicely. Once I had a little golden brown on the ham, and deglazed the pan with a little water, I added the initial seasoning - finely chopped onion (in deference to Mr. Christy) and several cloves of fresh garlic.

I sauteed the onions and garlic for a few minutes in the ham juices and olive oil, until they also got to be lovely golden brown. By this time the house was starting to smell pretty good - a combination of aromatic vegetables and browning pork.

Now I was ready to add the beans. I drained the water in which they had been soaking, and double-checked for any flawed beans. After all, I wouldn't want to show you beans that were less than perfect!

I added water to the pan with the the ham shank and vegetables, then poured in the soaked and drained beans.

Once the ham and beans were in the pot, I added seasoning - celery seed, dried parsley (I would have used fresh if I had it - stay tuned for a discussion about herb gardens one of these days), black pepper, and salt.

Now it was time once again for patience. The beans needed to simmer for a couple hours, until they were tender and ready to eat. Along the way I tasted and adjusted seasoning as I went. The ham shank was pre-cooked, but as the broth developed, minglling the ham juices with the vegetables and seasonings, the ham got even more tender. As you can see in the second cooking picture the ham was practically falling off the bone.

When it reached that stage I took it out of the pot - carefully, because it was HOT - and removed the meat from the bone. Aside from the heat it was an easy process since the ham was very, very tender.

I cut the ham into small pieces and added it back to the pot.

At this point the peas were ready to serve, but Mr. Christy thought they were not as thick as he wanted. After some consideration I added a little flour to thicken the broth. The other choice, which I will try the next time, will be to start with less water, so the finished dish will be more like beans and less like soup.

But either way, it was mighty tasty!

And here you have the finished product, ready to go on a plate with fried cornbread - that's the next post! - and serve to your nearest and dearest!

Black-Eyed Peas and Ham Shank

1 cooked ham shank, about 1 pound

1 T. olive oil

1 pound dried black-eyed peas

8 cups water for soaking

3/4 cup chopped onion

4 cloves garlic

8 cups water for cooking

1/2 tsp celery seed

2 tsp dried parsley

1/2 tsp black pepper, or to taste

2 tsp salt, or to taste

Rinse beans and pick out any broken beans or stones. Soak in water in large bowl over night, at least 8 hours. Drain and discard soaking water.

Brown ham shank in olive oil. Add onion and garlic, saute until vegetables begin to brown. Carefully add water. Add beans to pot, along with the rest of the seasoning. Simmer for 1 1/2 hours, taste and adjust seasoning as desired. Take the ham shank out, remove the meant from the bone and cut into small pieces, then return to the pot.

Check beans for texture, and continue simmering, if necessary, until beans reach the desired level of doneness.

Serve with fried cornbread. (Stay tuned for our next post.)

Cooking Up a New Series - Part Three - Fried Catfish

2011-03-31T00:14:00.000-07:00

Research for MURDER IN A SHOT GLASS continued with fried catfish (see Part One for the beginning of this thread, and Part Two for my adventure with hush puppies). Now, I am a West Coast girl and my favorite fish are probably salmon, trout and tuna, but my husband's taste buds were formed in Alabama, and he remains a loyal catfish fan.

Fortunately, his mother gave me her catfish recipe. I had my fryer (already hot from cooking hush puppies) and I had the catfish, which had finally thawed completely, thanks to putting the zipper bag from the grocery store in a bowl of cold water. This is a small town, far from catfish country, so we had to settle for frozen fillets on short notice.

I cut up the fish, salted it, and left it to soak in buttermilk while I assembled the coating. The recipe said to soak it in a shallow pan, but since it came in a zipper bag I used that. It seemed to work fine. All I did was sprinkle the fish with salt, put it back in its bag, and pour the buttermilk in. I made sure the fish was covered by the buttermilk, squeezed out as much air as I could, and set it back in the bowl so it wouldn't accidentally get bumped, dropped, or otherwise disturbed.

The instructions I had said to fry the fish first, and I suspect some flavors would transfer to the hush puppies as they're cooking. But I had to wait for the fish to thaw, so I did hush puppies first. Next time I will allow thawing time - if I can't get fresh, or at least thawed, catfish - and do the fish first. And yes, there will undoubtedly be a next time, if only to make my husband happy!

Mixing the coating was easy, since I had already made self-rising cornmeal for the hush puppies, and I had been able to buy self-rising flour.

I put the dry ingredients in a large, shallow bowl to give me lots of room to work, and started dredging the soaked fish pieces.

One thing that surprised me was how much the buttermilk clung to the fish when I took it out of the soak. I guess I'm used to regular milk, which doesn't cling as much.
It did make it easy to coat the fish pieces, however, and they retained their layer of cornmeal nicely.

With the oil at the proper temperature, and the fish soaked and coated with cornmeal, it was time to start frying. While my recipe called for 370 degree oil, the fryer recommended 340 for fresh fish, and I followed the manufacturer's recommendations. It only took three or four minutes for the fish to develop a beautiful light gold crust, and float to the top of the pan. As with the hush puppies, I could only do a few pieces at a time. But with the timer running to enforce patience, and a stack of dishes to clean up as a distraction, I managed to wait as each piece turned golden and tempting.

Finally, we reached the rewarding end of the experiment: Tasting! OK, I admit it, we'd been sampling hush puppies as I worked, and had decided on the more-onion option as the preferred version. Steve, to his credit, had been patient and helpful, and took the pictures that accompany these posts. He had even managed not to eat all the hush puppies while he waited for the fish. (Though, in truth, there were so many hush puppies we actually had leftovers - which he ate the next day with the last couple pieces of fish. Imagine, it was good enough to eat as leftovers!!)

Here's the finished product, in all its glory. And the recipe for the fish is below the picture.

Next up, banana pudding. After all, you can't have a good Southern meal without a sweet finish!!

Fried catfish and hush puppies - can't get much more Southern than this!

Fried Catfish

2 1/2 - 3 pounds of catfish fillets
1 tsp salt
2 cups buttermilk
2 cups self-rising cornmeal
1 cup self-rising corn flour
lemon quarters (optional)

Place fish in a shallow pan and sprinkle with salt. Pour buttermilk over fish and refrigerate for 30 minutes. Combine cornmeal and flour. Remove fish from buttermilk. Dredge fish in cornmeal mixture. Carefully drop fish in deep fat heated to 370 degrees. Fry until fish float the the top and are golden brown. Drain well and serve with lemon quarters. 8 servings.

(Note: I only used 1 pound of fish, since I was feeding two people, and we had a little bit left over.)

Cooking Up A New Series - Part Two - Hush Puppies

2011-03-29T22:37:00.000-07:00

Actually cooking some of the recipes for MURDER IN A SHOT GLASS was one way of making sure I understood the action in the cooking scenes. Once I was set up with the proper ingredients - or reasonable substitutes - I was ready to start cooking.

The banana pudding was already made and we'd actually had some last night. It's even better the second day, when the vanilla wafers have softened and the flavors have blended from sitting in the refrigerator overnight.

I prepped the catfish, salted it, and set it to soak in a buttermilk bath while I worked on the hush puppies.

First I needed self-rising cornmeal, one of the ingredients I didn't actually find in my shopping expedition. Self-rising simply means the cornmeal already contains a leavening agent, in this case salt and baking powder. According to the information I found online, all I had to do for each cup of cornmeal was replace 1 tablespoon of cornmeal with a tablespoon of baking powder and add a half-teaspoon of salt. (Thank you, Food.com!)

I mixed the cornmeal and self-rising flour, sugar and garlic powder and added the onion. My husband was leery of too much onion, and I dialed back the amount the recipe called for. Then I added eggs and buttermilk, and I had hush puppy batter. It looked thin, and I had my doubts, but I dropped a spoonful in the hot oil.

Now THAT looks right!

I was right, it was way too thin. I had little crumbles of cornmeal batter, not a beautiful hush puppy. At that point I double-checked the recipe, verified I had used the proper amount of each ingredient, and decided I needed to fix the mixture. I added some more cornmeal and baking powder, until I got a batter that had the consistency I expected, and tried again.

This time things went much better. The dough formed little balls in the hot oil instead of falling apart like cardboard in a heavy rain. The fryer would only hold 4 or 5 at a time, but I waited patiently as each batch made its way from gooey dough balls to golden brown globes of corn-y goodness.

My husband taste-tested one of the first ones and pronounced it edible, much to my relief. In fact, after a couple tastes, he said it could stand a little more onion. Since I like onions I quickly added a couple heaping spoonfuls of minced onion and stirred it into the remaining dough.

Patience is not one of my strong points, but these were well worth the wait. As you can see, they tumbled out of the fry basket onto the paper-towel-lined plate all golden brown and crunchy.

It took quite a while to cook up all the dough I'd made, but in the end I was rewarded with a baking pan full of lovely hush puppies.

Since I had a problem with the consistency of the original recipe I am not going to post it here - at least not until I have a version that works properly. But in the meantime, here's a link to a Food.com recipe for hush puppies, similar to what I made. There's also a link to a Paul Prudhomme recipe that I want to try.

In the meantime, here's a photo of the final result. I think they came out looking good, and they tasted great in spite of the experimental nature of the recipe.

But that catfish was still soaking in buttermilk, and my work was far from over...

(To be continued...)

Cooking Up A New Series - Part One

2011-03-28T23:49:00.000-07:00

I'm working on the new series, and doing a lot of research to make sure I get the details right. Research can be challenging, it can be fun, and sometimes I need to ask for help. Right now it's all three.

One of the things that will run through the series is a weekly dinner for Glory and her friends Karen, Ernie, and Felipe. In MURDER IN A SHOT GLASS the foursome are focusing on traditional Southern cooking. For me this means learning some new ways of cooking (challenging), tasting the food (fun), and finding authentic recipes (help!).

Fortunately, my mother-in-law (a wonderful lady) was born and raised in southeastern Alabama, just north of the Florida panhandle. She was my first call when I started looking for recipes and she didn't disappoint me. I now have a list of things to try.

But before I could start cooking, there was the problem of rounding up typical Southern ingredients in a small West Coast town. Especially a small town on the beach, with limited shopping opportunities.

To the Internet for help!! I found instructions on how to make your own self-rising flour and cornmeal, and also discovered advice about using masa - readily available in a town with a large Latino population - as corn flour (when you look at the label, the words "corn flour" are right there). At this point I'm guessing that "corn flour" is probably the functional equivalent of "fine ground corn meal."

I hope.

Armed with this knowledge, I made a trip to the "big city" in search of supplies. I found self-rising flour, several varieties of cornmeal, and a bag of masa.

Back home I consulted with my husband - an escaped Southerner - about what to try first. We decided on a few of his all-time favorites: fried catfish, hush puppies, and banana pudding. I've made a lot of banana pudding over the years, and I even had all the ingredients on hand, so that was no problem.

Catfish was another matter. We managed to find some frozen fillets at the market, in portions large enough to feed a half the town. Fortunately the woman on duty at the meat counter was kind enough to break up the package and sell me just a pound of fish. (Which was still quite a lot for two people!)

Now that I had ingredients - or at least instructions on how to make substitutes - I needed the proper utensils.

The first problem was getting an appropriate fryer. We considered using a pot on the stove, but I had a couple concerns, first and foremost being temperature control. I have a lovely new stove, but keeping hot oil at a consistent temperature can be a pain, and requires a good thermometer and constant monitoring. I needed an electric deep fryer.

I hit the local Goodwill looking for a deep fryer, but struck out. I went in the Bi-Mart next door, hoping to find one of those miniature fryers that wouldn't set me back too much. For once luck was on my side, and I found a nice sized one on sale for $30. I have no idea where I am going to store this thing, but it was a great price, so we dragged it home.

Back home I now had ingredients and tools, all I had to do was cook...
(To be continued!)

Sometimes, A GREAT Day!

2011-03-07T23:25:00.000-08:00

We all have "those" days - the ones where you oversleep, your hair won't behave, the cat barfs on your shoes, you burn your mouth on that first (and oh, so necessary) cup of coffee. The days where you want to go back to bed and start over in the hopes things will get better.

My granddaughter's crazy hair day!

This Sunday, I am happy to say, was NOT one of those days. This Sunday was the kind of day where you wish you could go back to bed and start over only because you would like to repeat the fabulous-ness of the morning again and again.

Sundays are usually good days. I don't have to go to work, so I can sleep in - a treat for someone who is Not A Morning Person. I have a standing lunch date with my best writer friends, and there is time to read and write and hang out with my husband.

So this Sunday started with the sleeping-in part, followed by the reading-the-newspaper-on-my-Kindle segment. Eventually though, I had to haul my tail out of bed and face the day, starting with my e-mail.

Imagine my delight when I found a personal note from a complete stranger, telling me how much she was enjoying the Georgie books! She had purchased them at a local bookstore where the owner knew me, and Diana (the owner) had encouraged the reader to drop me a note. It took the kindness of two people - Diana of Bob's Beach Books and her customer - to make that little moment happen for me, and I deeply appreciate it. To a writer positive feedback from readers is worth its weight in gold.

Right behind the reader e-mail came one from the Fresh Fiction website. They wanted to let me know they had posted a review of DRIP DEAD, and they asked for permission to post an excerpt on their site. The review? Wonderful! They tagged it with "Watertight mystery is full of fun and suspense." Thank you, Sharon Galligar Chance, that line made my whole day!

So far it's been a pretty good day, right? Well, there was one more boost to come. A few minutes later my husband came into my office and asked if I had seen his tweet. I hadn't, so I went to look. He had posted a link to Whodunit? Mystery Bookstore in Winnipeg. Right there on their bestseller list for February (behind Martha Grimes, Tamar Myer, and Robert B. Parker) was DRIP DEAD! That's right, #4 on their mass market list for February!

All of this came on top of a notice a few days earlier that DRIP DEAD had reached #10 on the mass market list for Seattle Mystery Bookstore.

You know, if every Sunday was like this, I could almost become a Morning Person. Almost.

Schedule Updates, and More News!

2011-02-08T18:30:00.000-08:00

New books, fresh from the publisher! It's like Christmas!!

As you can see from the post below, RT loves the new book. It got a great review and 4 stars! Makes a writer happy to see readers enjoying their books.

Things around Christy-land have been a bit discombobulated lately, and this blog was one of the things that got set aside while we worked it out. But now I can bring you up-to-date a little on what's coming in the next few months - and tell you about TWO special no-longer-secret projects.

UPDATE: Christy Evans, and DRIP DEAD, are featured on the RT Book Review site! Read an excerpt, or the review. And, as a bonus, a letter from Christy should be live this week!

First, the schedule:

February 17, 2011 - (Man, where did 2010 go?) Dialogue, blog radio interview with Joshus Graham and Susan Wingate. 10 am. Also available as streaming audio following the live broadcast. And, by the way, I also did an episode with them in January, which is available at the blog radio archive.

February 26, 2011 - Signing at North by Northwest Books, Streetcar Village, Lincoln City, Oregon - I don't have a time yet, but they're usually scheduled for 12-2 pm. If you can't make it but you want a signed book, contact Sheldon McArthur at North by Northwest, 541-994-3087. He'll be glad to help you out!

June 30-July2, 2011 - North American Mensa Annual Gathering, Portland, Oregon. I don't have my specific schedule yet, but I have been asked to present, and plan to talk about "The Promiscuous Writer."

August 17-22. 2011 - World Science Fiction Convention - Renovations, Reno, Nevada. Worldcon is a large, eclectic gathering of fans, writers, editors, agents, and artists. It promises to be a good time, and we plan to be there for the festivities.

October 28-31, 2011 - Scribes At Sea, where I will be teaching aboard a cruise ship!

So, that's the schedule for now. There may be additions, and I'll post them as soon as I set them up.

Now, I promised you news about a secret project, right? OK. OK. I promised you news about TWO secret projects.

The first is a collaboration for Story Portals out of Green Bay, Wisconsin. I just finished my part of a new fantasy series about Bel Thorne, Hedge Witch. In a world where magic is an accepted part of life, there are those who fear and despise it, a few who abuse it, and those - like Bel - who strive to wield their Power in an ethical manner. The first book in the series will be completed later this year, and I'll be sure to let you know when the wonderful people at Story Portals release it.

And (drum roll, please) the OTHER big news - a new mystery series, from a new name!!

If you look at the logo at the top of this blog, you'll notice a slight change. It no longer says "Christy Evans Mystery." It says "Christy Mystery, the Mysteries of Christina F. York, Christy Evans, and Christy Fifield." Those are some of the names I write under, and the newest series will be written as Christy Fifield. I just got the contract for three books, again for Berkley Prime Crime, and I'm stoked!

Glory Martine owns a gift shop in the Florida Panhandle, inherited from her great-uncle, Louis George. Along with the shop, she inherited Bluebeard, a foul-mouthed parrot. Bluebeard isn't the only one living in the shop, however. When things get moved, or displays fall off the walls, Glory finally has to admit the shop is haunted by the ghost of Uncle Louis.

MURDER IN A SHOT GLASS, the first book in the series, revolves around the drunk driving death of a high school football star. Things are never what they seem, and with Uncle Louis urging her on, Glory can't accept the single-car wreck was an accident. With the help of her best friend, radio personality Karen Freed, and the rest of her pals, Glory is determined to find the real culprit - even if it puts her own life in danger.

I have books 2 & 3 planned, and will be writing like crazy. I don't have release dates as yet, but look for the Hauntedd Gift Shop mysteries starting in the spring of 2012.

Well, I think that's enough for now. I'll try to be better about stopping by here and updating you on my books and stories, appearances, and maybe even a new name or two. I blame it on being a Gemini - one name just isn't enough!

4-Stars for "Drip Dead" from RT Book Reviews!

2011-02-08T16:32:00.000-08:00

Read the review HERE.

More Great Moments in Detective Plumbing History!

2011-02-05T01:40:00.000-08:00

Actor Mark Harmon on the popular CBS Series "NCIS"

Number 1 Fan Steve Here:

The other day I revealed the secret history of detectives wielding pipe wrenches. You might think that genre (other than Georgiana Neverall) had long ago faded away. And that's where you'd be wrong!

I bring you further pictorial evidence to the contrary. Here's actor Mark Harmon (in his role of Special Agent Gibbs) on the top-rated CBS crime series "NCIS" displaying our crime-busting tool of choice. Now, to be honest, I'm not sure if this was a current episode (I spotted this and snapped the picture back in October) or a re-run, but I'll bet if you look around Agent Gibb's house, you'll almost certainly find a pipe wrench among the boat-building tools, so we stand by our case!

Meanwhile, don't forget the new Georgia book, "Drip Dead," now in stores!

It may not be NCIS, but it's pretty popular too! Get your copy while the getting is good! (And drop by the hardware store and pick up a pipe-wrench too. You know -- just for household defense and stuff!)

Great Moments in Detective Plumbing History!

2011-02-02T15:18:00.000-08:00

Detective Comics #27, 1939, first appearance of Batman

#1 Fan (and husband) Steve here:

People seem to think that the conjunction of plumbing and detective work in Christy's Georgiana Neverall series is unusual, unprecedented, and occasionally even a little bizarre.

But Georgiana isn't the first amateur detective to wield a pipe wrench. In fact, she's part of a long and proud tradition, and we have some evidence here for you today!

The art at left is from Detective Comics #27, published in 1939, the first-ever appearance of Batman (then known as "the Bat-Man").

We'll admit that Batman has since traded his pipe-wrench in for a Bat-a-rang, but he still wears a ~~tool-belt~~ utility-belt.

So, Georgie is far from the first crime-solver to sling a wrench, and she may not be the last! We'll just have to wait and see...

(Batman art via Bleedingcool.com)

A NEW BOOK!!

2011-01-30T19:42:00.000-08:00

Wow!! The release date for the third Georgie mystery, DRIP DEAD, is almost here! Tuesday, February 1, is the official date for the new book, which is suddenly only a couple days away.

When plumber's apprentice Georgiana Neverall crawls under her mother's house to check the pipes, she's horrified to find her mother's flashy fiancé, real estate mogul Gregory Whitlock, dead in the dirt. Instead of a wedding ring, Georgiana's mother is soon wearing handcuffs, accused of killing the man she loved. To clear her mother's name, Georgiana's going to have to crawl into a few more dark spaces and uncover secrets Whitlock was hiding.

Available for pre-order at Amazon (print and Kindle editions), Barnes and Noble (including for Nook), and bookstores everywhere, DRIP DEAD already is garnering good reviews, including 4 stars from RT Book Reviews! Get your copy today!

The Only Thing Constant is Change

2010-07-30T20:36:00.000-07:00

Maggie's post on storytelling really resonated with me. For several months, I've been thinking about the amazing changes happening in the publishing industry.

If you had asked me - even as little as a year ago - about electronic publishing, I would have been skeptical. Make that very skeptical. Sure, a few people were breaking out in e-pubs, but to my mind they were the exception, not the rule.

However, over the last few months, I have been looking closer at electronic publishing, and the wide variety of new publishing paradigms available to writers. I began to consider, very cautiously, the opportunities opening up for me.

Then, a couple weeks ago, I came to a startling conclusion:

All those manuscripts that didn't fit the structure of New York publishing?
They fit just find in e-pubs!

The book that was too short for a print publisher?
An e-publisher would take it.

The subject matter that wasn't commercial enough for a large audience?
E-publishers can serve those niche markets.

The genre that is currently out of favor with the big guys?
The little guys don't have the same restrictions.

Let me say, right here and now, that this is not meant as a condemnation of New York publishing. Quite the contrary. In New York (and other major publishing centers) there are financial and corporate constraints that shape their publishing programs. It's simply a fact of business life.

Although large publishers operate under restrictions that small presses and e-publishers don't have, they also have resources which aren't available to the smaller publishers. Established relationships with major booksellers, an experienced national sales force, savvy marketers, and an army of professional
editors, art directors, copyeditors, accountants - all the people that keep a business running.

All this is to say that there are good reason to publish, or not publish, with each company across the broad spectrum of publishing options. And I was starting to look at my options.

Then I read Maggie's post and started thinking about what she said. We are storytellers. We want people to read our books, to hear our stories, to share the thoughts and images in our heads.

What we want most of all is an audience.

So, when I realized there were places I could take those stories that didn't "fit" the big markets, I got excited. I could get my stories out into the world, give them an audience, share them with readers.

And I made the leap.

DORY COVE (written as Christina F. York), a sweet romance set on the Oregon coast, just published from Tsunami Ridge Publishing (http://www.tsunamiridge.com/). It's available at http://www.smashwords.com/, and should be available soon at http://www.amazon.com/ in Kindle format. Other books and short stories will follow soon, according to the fine folks at Tsunami Ridge.

Does this mean I've abandoned traditional publishing? Heavens, no! I'm actively working with my editor at Berkley on new projects, and I'm excited to see what we'll do next. I'm also working with my agent on some cool secret projects.

Will I stop writing mystery in favor of romance? Once again, no! I have written across several genres from the beginning, and romance is only one of them. I love writing mystery, and I don't think I could stop.

All it means is that I have a whole bunch more options and outlets than I did a year ago. And I am excited at the possibility of trying all of them!

STORYTELLERS

2010-07-29T13:05:00.000-07:00

Maggie Sefton is a fabulous writer, and a thorough professional. Here she explores what makes us tick. Thank you so much, Maggie!!

Christy and I actually met this last spring at Malice Domestic mystery conference. We first met online when we joined a cozy mystery writers group. Since we both needed a roommate to make the conference more affordable, we joined forces and shared a hotel room.

What fun! As mystery authors, we were both already storytellers. But as we started talking—immediately, I might add—we found all sorts of other connections. One of them was a lifelong love of STAR TREK. Yep. We’re both Trekkies. The original was the one that hooked us, but most of us Trekkies went on to be faithful fans of all Star Trek productions---The Next Generation, Deep Space Nine, and the others as well as the myriad movies.

We also discovered that we’ve each written many other types of novels and stories under other names. Some published, some not. When you’re a born storyteller, you simply HAVE to tell the stories that come to you, capture those fascinating characters that show up in your mind and translate them onto the page. Sometimes the novels sell, sometimes they don’t. Whatever happens. . .you keep telling your stories. And, telling other people about them.

I’m in the midst of touring this month with the newest release in my New York Times bestselling Knitting Mysteries from Berkley Prime Crime. The 8th in the series, SKEIN OF THE CRIME, came out June 1st. Personally, I love to travel around and meet readers and other book people. But then, I’m a “people” person and am certainly not shy. You can ask Christy. I love talking about my sleuth, corporate refugee Kelly Flynn, and her friends who gather at that great yarn shop in Colorado. That’s where they kick back and knit and juggle their fast-paced 30-something lives. Of course, a murder always intrudes, and CPA Kelly cannot resist poking her nose into the investigations.

If you’d like to learn more about Kelly and the gang and the other mysteries, you can check out my website at http://www.maggiesefton.com/. I also blog with six other cozy mystery authors on http://www.cozychicksblog.com/. And---Christy and I are letting our characters blog on KILLER CHARACTERS with a bunch of other mystery authors. Please check it out. http://www.killercharacters.com/.

A Love Letter to Malice

2010-06-09T22:58:00.000-07:00

Malice Domestic is a cozy mystery conference held in the Baltimore/DC area at the end of April each year. From my perch overlooking the Pacific Ocean, it's on the other edge of the continent. It's a long trip for a three-day event, but I tried it this year and it was worth every mile.

I really tried to talk myself out of it. It was too far. The registration/hotel/airfare was expensive. I couldn't get time off work. All the usual arguments. I bargained with myself. I couldn't afford to go, but if SINK TRAP was nominated for Best First Novel (hey, a girl's gotta have her dreams!) I'd go anyway. When that didn't happen, I told myself I'd won (or lost) the argument about going. I was staying home.

The Internet, however, had other ideas. First, Travelocity taunted me with a ridiculously fare for the cross-country flight. Then my boss said he thought we could manage if I was gone a couple days. And I got on a list with other cozy writers and asked about a roommate - within minutes the fabulous Maggie Sefton (who'll be guest blogging here in a couple days) popped up and said she was looking for someone to share.

What could I do? I was outnumbered; Travelocity, my boss, AND Maggie were all aligned against me and my fading will power. Add to that the incredible Malice organizers who managed to get me in the program book and give me a signing, even though I decided at the last minute. I had to go!

Which is how I found myself on a flight leaving Portland at 11 pm on Wednesday, heading to Atlanta and connecting to Washington National. I landed in Atlanta with just enough time to race from one gate to the other, lugging my laptop and my Kindle - my two travel must-haves.

Even after working all day and flying all night, I was excited to arrive in DC. The Marriott had a shuttle, and my room was ready, even though I arrived about 10 in the morning! By the time I met up with Maggie a bit after noon, I'd settled in and was ready to explore Georgetown.

After our walking tour, we met a bunch of other writers for dinner and to assemble the goodie bags we gave out over the weekend. I can't believe how many wonderful people I met! When I finally fell into bed well past midnight, I could hardly wait for the next day.

Friday was a blur of activity, leading up to the dinner hosted by my publisher, Berkley. An incredible meal with my amazing editor, Michelle, and the other editors and writers. It was especially wonderful to share a dinner table with my editor-sisters, Diana Orgain and Lila Dare.

Saturday was more of the same, interrupted by a lovely lunch with my editor, a book signing, and winding up with the awards banquet on Saturday night. Parnell Hall was hysterical, Rhys Bowen was delightful, and Mary Higgins Clark was charming and gracious.

My biggest regret was that I had to leave before the finish of the Tea that closed the convention on Sunday afternoon. Next time I'll know I need to take a later flight.

And I can guarantee you, there WILL be a next time!!

Kindle!!!

2010-05-30T12:44:00.000-07:00

Last week Penguin and Amazon reached an agreement about eBook pricing for the Kindle. Now why, you ask, is that important to me? Well, I'll tell you.

During the negotiations, all of Penguin's new release were not available for Kindle. Anything that was already available remained available, but nothing new was added. This meant that LEAD PIPE CINCH, which released the first week of April, didn't have a Kindle edition.

So, when I heard about the settlement I breathed a sigh of relief. But it took a few days for the books to get through the posting process and show up on Amazon.

Last night LEAD PIPE finally appeared in Kindle form, making this writer very happy!! For those of you who were wanted a Kindle edition, you can now read Georgie's continuing adventures.

And follow Georgie on Twitter, where she will be reporting on her Road Trip to Reno. Take a peek at the tweets in the sidebar, then follow #Rd2Reno and @sinktrap for the latest news from Georgie!

ROAD TRIP!!!

2010-05-24T12:33:00.000-07:00

Georgie’s exams are past (or they will be when you get to read DRIP DEAD in February), and she’s ready to celebrate, so we’re taking her on a road trip to Reno!

There’s a trade show in June, which is her justification for the trip. But the Beetle isn’t a good choice for a road trip, and she can't drive the 'Vette. Her solution? Invite Sue along with her dog-friendly SUV.

But any trip with Georgie won’t be free of complications, and this is no exception. So get ready to follow her tweets from the road as she and Sue discover lost property, hidden agendas, shady characters, and maybe save the day for one of her new-found friends.

Just follow #Rd2Reno on Twitter, or Georgie’s new handle @sinktrap, for Georgie’s messages from the road to Reno. Feel free to join in the conversation, as Georgie and Sue try to track down the bad guys before their vacation time runs out!

And, as an added bonus, if you send me your address, Georgie will send you a postcard from Reno! Just email Christy@ChristyEvans.com with “Road to Reno” in your subject line, and include your name and complete mailing address. Around the middle of June, Georgie will send postcards from Reno to all her fans.

And who knows what other treats, tricks, and goodies will appear along the way!

Life Is Full of Mystery

2010-05-21T00:06:00.000-07:00

Guest blogger Paty Jager finds a little bit of mystery in everyday life. As an honest-to-god ranch wife in the modern West, she writes fascinating tales of the Old West, including a forthcoming paranormal series.

Wife, mother, grandmother, and the one who cleans pens and delivers the hay; award winning author Paty Jager has not only brought her husband of thirty years to maturity, but four children and over a hundred head of cattle and swine. She not only writes the western lifestyle, she lives it.

Every day of our lives has a bit of mystery or intrigue in it. The gas light is blinking in your car. Will you make it to the gas station or have to call someone to either pick you up or bring you gas? You're on your way home from work. What's for dinner? Did you put meat out that morning or will it be something leftover from the night before? Or You've been called to the boss' office. Are you getting a raise or are you getting the boot?

For a writer each unique person we see becomes a puzzle or mystery. We wonder about their occupation, their background, their family life. We invent lives for them and eventually use them in a story.

It is these mysteries and our inquiring minds that bring forth books.
My first published book was inspired by thoughts of—what if an accident prone woman pretending to be a young man was made Marshal of a small town? While the story is a historical western romance there is mystery woven throughout the book. Is the Mayor really what he seems; is the hero a hero or an outlaw? What happened in the hero's past? Will the heroine keep her identity a secret when it matters most?
The first contemporary western I wrote started after I heard on the radio about a youngster who ordered items over the internet with their parent's credit cards and the parents didn’t know until the items arrived at their home. A mystery. My book started with a nanny showing up to start a job and the ranch owner not having a clue why she was there because his preteen daughter and a neighbor ordered the nanny over the internet. Mystery- Does he let her stay or send her packing? Why did she pick a remote ranch to be a nanny? Why does he not want anything to do with a woman? Why does he need a nanny? All these mysteries are solved in the book.
I enjoy reading mysteries and I enjoy incorporating mystery into the stories I write. What was a book you read that wasn't categorized as a mystery but it had elements of mystery within the pages?

Paty has four historical western romance novels available through The Wild Rose Press and one contemporary western, which won the 2008 Best Contemporary Romance EPPIE. In June her fifth historical western, Doctor in Petticoats, will be released and her first book of a historical paranormal trilogy, Spirit of the Mountain, will be released in August. To learn more about Paty, her books, and to enter her website contest go to http://www.patyjager.net/ or visit her blog at http://www.patyjager.blogspot.com/

Christy, thank you for having me here today. I enjoy Georgiana Neverall and the interesting characters that keep her company.

Back From The Dead

2010-05-14T14:50:00.000-07:00

… or at least that’s how it feels! The last month has been a whirlwind in both good and bad ways, and I am just beginning to feel like I can draw breath again.

First, I found out that SINK TRAP is being released in Large Print format, and it has a new cover.

Is that just a fine cover? I love it - expecially the wrench, which looks exactly like the cool gift-wrench, courtesy of the incredible Cindie Geddes, that now hangs on my office wall!

Then there was the release of LEAD PIPE CINCH, which was wonderful. I got to sign at North by Northwest again – always fun – and then two weeks later at Murder by the Book in Portland.

MBTB is a great store, and I want to talk about them at length, but this post is just a catch-up with a tease or three of things to come.

Unfortunately, just before the signing at MBTB, I contracted an infection that slammed me into bed for three days with a fever of 103 and some exceedingly strange and vivid dreams. Massive doses of antibiotics got things under control, and I was at least able to make the signing. But the whole business left me very tired and weak. It has taken a month just for me to get back on my feet. Especially when I threw in a cross-country trip in the middle!

At the end of April I flew to Arlington, VA, for Malice Domestic, an awesome collection of readers and writers focused on cozy mysteries. I met other authors, readers, fans of Georgie (!), editors, and the amazing organizers of the conference. Which is another story I’d like to tell.

And throughout all the turmoil I’ve been working on three secret projects that I hope to be able to talk about soon. (See, I told you there was a tease!) All three are still in the “maybe” category, and I don’t want to jinx anything, so all I can say is that there is the potential for good news in the coming weeks.

Let’s all keep our fingers crossed! And if you haven’t read LEAD PIPE CINCH yet, go find a copy – readers are telling me they liked it even better than SINK TRAP!

LEAD PIPE CINCH sneak peek!

2010-04-09T23:33:00.000-07:00

Haven't got your copy of LEAD PIPE CINCH yet? It's out there, and I've been hearing from readers who love it! But just in case you need some tempting, here's the first chapter of Georgie's latest adventure:

LEAD PIPE CINCH

Chapter 1

“Let’s get a move on, Neverall,” Sean Jacobs, the crew foreman, said as he gestured toward the muddy bottom of the trench. “The inspector’s due in an hour.”

Mud sucked at my boots as I slipped down the steep side of the troublesome McComb moat project, a shovel banging clumsily against my leg.

With permit hearings, never-ending inspections, and construction snafus, this job was fast becoming a plumber’s nightmare.

The drainpipe we buried last week had to be uncovered this week. As the apprentice, I got all the bottom-of-the-barrel jobs. Or in this case, bottom of the moat.

We were supposed to be done before the rain started, but this year summer limited itself to a few weeks of clear skies and temperatures in the high nineties. Now it was only October, and the Great North-wet was already living up to its nickname.

I bit back a curse as the mud squished beneath my weathered steel-toed boots. No swearing on the job. It was one of the rules my boss, Barry Hickey, insisted upon. Barry had a lot of rules.

I reached the muck at the bottom of the six-foot-deep trench and checked the marker stakes. Buried beneath fourteen inches of dirt—now mud—was the pipe in question. It had to be uncovered and inspected—again—before the concrete lining could be poured.

This close to the recently erected bridge piers, the power equipment was useless. With the piers in place there was no room for a power shovel to maneuver. All this job required was a strong back and a lot of stubborn.

Sean and I had reached a truce of sorts. Although he still didn’t believe a girl belonged on any kind of construction crew, after working together all summer I felt as though I was slowly earning his respect.

It was a familiar scenario. Several years in the boy’s club of Silicon Valley high tech had taught me how to adapt. When I left behind the Union Square wardrobe and the hundred-hour workweeks, I had come away with some hard-earned lessons.

Not to mention a ﬂattened bank account, a bruised ego, and a broken heart—all courtesy of some of the slimier boys in the club.

By comparison, the thick mud at the bottom of the moat felt clean.

I shifted another shovelful of ooze, depositing it behind me. Water, dark with the rich soil, ran back down into the hole I’d created, obscuring the bottom.

I moved along the width of the moat, carefully uncovering a narrow trench. We would have to pump it dry for the inspector, but at least the rain had stopped. With luck, we could get the approval we needed and re-bury the pipe before the skies opened up again. The concrete, fortunately, would be someone else’s problem.

Building a moat sounds simple. It’s nothing more than a ditch, dug in a circle instead of a straight line. It was the stuff that went inside that circle that was the problem.

Power lines, cables, water lines, drainpipes—all the modern conveniences had to be fed to the McComb’s castle—and had to run under the moat. It was one of the requirements of the permit. A local ordinance said underground utilities. That meant at least a foot of dirt over every pipe and cable, and we were sticking to the letter of the agreement.

It was a complex puzzle, feeding the latest technology to a state-of-the-art castle at the farthest reach of the grid. Three years ago, I would have been on the design team. As owner of Samurai Security, it was precisely the type of challenge I had looked for.

Instead I was up to my ankles in mud, dressed in stained coveralls and work boots. I was shoveling the muck, my hands protected by heavy leather gloves. I wore no jewelry, except a battered plastic wristwatch.

I was happier than I’d been in years.

Above me I heard a vehicle crunch to a stop on the gravel apron next to the bridge supports. I glanced at my watch with a sinking feeling. The inspector was half an hour early, and we were nowhere near ready.

“Hello, Mr. McComb,” I heard Sean say, and I breathed a silent sigh of relief.

Chad McComb, the eccentric millionaire who wanted a castle and was willing to pay for it, was a welcome visitor at the job site. A retired Microsoft engineer who’d been hired so early in Microsoft’s history that his employee number was rumored to be only two digits long, McComb treated the contractors and their crews well.

“Chad please, Sean.” I could hear the smile in McComb’s voice. “How’s the work going?”

Sean sighed. “Another blasted inspection. We’re getting ready to pump out the rainwater. Inspector should be here in a few minutes.”

“Won’t keep you, then. Let me know if you need anything.”

“Thanks, Mr.—Chad. I’ll do that.”

Footsteps rattled the boards over my head as McComb and a second person crossed the temporary bridge to the building site.

“Watch your step there, Blake,” McComb said.

My heart did a little ﬂip at the mention of his name, and I shook my head, disgusted with myself. There must be thousands of Blakes in the world, and Blake Weston was ancient history. So why, after three years, did I still react to the mention of his name? Just because I was thinking of the boy’s club didn’t mean a member of it was going to magically appear, like some evil sorcerer conjured out of my thoughts.

But before I could lift another shovelful of mud, I heard a voice that took my breath away as though I had been punched in the solar plexus.

Blake Weston’s smooth voice, a rich baritone that used to give me goose bumps, answered McComb. “Certainly.”

My veins were suddenly full of ice water. How could I be so sure, with only a single word? Maybe I just thought it sounded like my Blake. It had been three years, after all—just a coincidence.

Blake and McComb were looking at the building site in front of them, not at the muddy moat below, when I stepped away from the supports to look up.

I just had to look.

And I wished I hadn’t.

The proﬁle, the slick dark hair, the conﬁdent bearing, were all instantly familiar. It wasn’t the power of suggestion, or a sound-alike, or some evil magic. It was Blake Weston.

I ducked back under the temporary bridge, forcing my attention back to the job at hand. With luck, I could stay in the moat, hidden from sight, until Blake and McComb left.

I strained to listen to their conversation, but they had moved away from the bridge.

“Ready for the pump?” Sean called down.

I froze, waiting for him to call me “Neverall,” and reveal my presence to the last person on earth I wanted to see. But for once he didn’t.

“Yep,” I called back, pitching my voice low, and hoping it wouldn’t carry.

On the other hand, would Blake even recognize my voice? If he didn’t, I wasn’t sure whether I would be relieved or insulted. But the two men gave no indication they had heard our exchange.

A few minutes later, their footsteps mufﬂed by the rhythmic thumping of the pump, Blake and McComb passed back across the temporary bridge and walked through the gravel.

Unable to resist, I clambered a few feet up the side of the moat, peeking over the rim of the trench. I had to conﬁrm what I already knew.

One glance was all it took.

The ﬁrst thing I saw from that vantage point was a pair of hand-stitched Italian loafers, now speckled with mud from their owner’s trek through the construction site.

How appropriate. Blake Weston would never wear sneakers or work boots, even on a muddy construction site.

I hoped it was the last I would see of those despised loafers.

No such luck.

Local Love for SINK TRAP!

2010-04-01T00:03:00.000-07:00

This week I had my first experience with a book club. I've never belonged to a book club, never attended a meeting. To tell the truth, I was a little intimidated by the whole idea of a book club - especially one that had read my book!

Let me give you a little background: I got a call a few months back from a local lady named Marcy Taylor. Marcy, I have found, is a huge fan of books and writers, and something of a force of nautre. She told me she likes to support local writers, and buys books by every local writer, even if it isn't something she will read.

Marcy has a system for what she reads. "If you're under 50," she explained, "you have to give a book 50 pages. Over 50, you subtract your age from 100, and that's how many pages you have to give it. I'm 85," she said with a little chuckle, "so I only have to give a book 15 pages."

Apparently, she gave SINK TRAP 15 pages and then more, until she had finished the book. She liked it well enough to give several copies as gifts, and to suggest it to her book club as a monthly pick.

Then she invited me to join them for their monthly meeting.

I have to tell you, it was a strange feeling to walk into a group of strangers, and have every one of them carrying a copy of my book!

Some of the women I recognized. After all, in a town of 7,000 you see everybody at the grocery store or the coffee shop, or somewhere. But none of them were people I would say I knew, yet they all knew me, through my words and my characters and my stories.

Colleen, the esteemed first reader, went long as wingwoman (hey, if a guy has a wingman, can't a gal have a wingwoman?) and support system - for which I will be eternally grateful. (I really own you lunch for this one, C!) It made facing that room of strangers easier with a friend there to help me out.

Not that they weren't friendly. They were. They came armed with questions about how the books got written, how they got sold, why did I write mystery, what was my writing schedule like -- and they listened to the answers, laughed at my lame jokes, and generally made me feel like a real celebrity.

But that wasn't all. There was a SINK TRAP theme for the entire event, and our hostesses - Marcy, Pattee and Patty (I think, there were a lot of new people to sort out) - went above and beyond in the creative department. Everything, including our lunch, was an inside joke for fans of Georgie and her friends.

The morning started with cookies and coffee, but not just cookies - broach cookies! Cut in fanciful shapes, some with "windows" of melted hard candy, the cookies were decorated wtih miniature jelly beans to resemble tiny jewels. There were name tags, carefully printed with a little piece of art from the book cover (mine had the picture of Buddha - has to Buddha, Daisy wouldn't sit still long enough for a picture), and a font made up of pieces of pipe.

We settled down a bit after ten, and the morning flew by as a lively discussion ranged over many topics, mostly related to books and reading and writing. Then lunch arrived, in the form of the "unpaid help."

The "unpaid help" is actually Patty T., Marcy's daughter-in-law, and a very creative hostess! She showed up in a flannel shirt and overalls, wearing a tool belt and hard hat - perfect for a lady plumber!

But that wasn't all. Lunch came in tidy Tupperware-like boxes, which had been neatly stacked in the refrigerator, though they swear Sandra hadn't been anywhere near the kitchen. Inside each box was a lovely combination of chips, fruit, vegetables, sandwiches - including egg salad! - and cookies. The napkin had been carefully rolled and slipped inside a napkin ring made of a short piece of PVC pipe.

The best part, though, was the toolbox.

Patty, hostess extrodinaire, had cast chocolate toolboxes for each of us, and filled them with tiny chocolate tools. I cannot begin to tell you how touched I was by the thought and effort that went into that toolbox. It was just incredible!

We talked through lunch, and an hour past the normal end of the meeting - and I think some of us could have gone on all day. Eventually, though, I did have to leave. My boss had generously allowed me to take a half-day off on a Monday morning (very generously), and I had to leave the glamour and accolades of my fans and head back to the office.

I left with a bag of lovely gifts, courtesy of the delightful hostesses. When I got home I discovered a small package in the bottom of the bag. Someone (I suspect Patty T.) had made wrapping paper by creating a photocopy collage of the SINK TRAP cover. Inside was a group of blank notecards - perfect for thank-you notes. The front of the cards had been carefully printed with a reproduction of the SINK TRAP cover, in full color. And if you look very carefully, that pencil is imprinted "SINK TRAP BY CHRISTY EVANS." I'm telling you, these women were amazing!

I have no idea if this is what a book club gathering is like for other writers, but for me this was an entirely postive, incredibly enjoyable day. My hostesses and all the members of the group were delightful, charming and oh, so warm and welcoming. I really didn't feel like a stranger for long.

And, bless their hearts, they all said they would read the next book.

A writer can't ask for better than that!!

A Winning Proposal!

2010-03-23T20:30:00.000-07:00

Jenn Mc Kinlay is today's guest blogger. Jenn's new series, The Cupcake Bakery Mysteries, just launched with SPRINKLE WITH MURDER, and she graciously shares the query that landed her a three-book deal with Berkley Prime Crime. In its starred review, Publishers Weekly says, "Readers will look forward to more of McKinlay’s tasty concoctions. "

I don't know about the rest of you, but after reading this proposal, I have to read this book!!

Thanks, Chris for inviting me to blog! I'm normally found blogging Wednesdays on Mystery Lover's Kitchen http://www.mysteryloverskitchen.com/, but it's always nice to branch out to another location!

When I was trying to get published, I listened to what everyone said.

They all said, "Write what you want to read and you'll get published".

Well, I did and I didn't.

Then everyone said. "Write what you know and you'll get published."

Well I did and I didn't..

Honestly, I was beginning to believe that there was some secret handshake and if I just knew where to work n the high five and the back hand slap, I'd get in the published club. Yeah, well, there isn't. (Believe me, I checked).

What there is, however, is luck, timing and presentation. For once in my day late, dollar short life, I think I got lucky and my timing was spot on, but it really helped that I presented well. After not selling a bazillion
ideas, I wrote a simple proposal with no chapters, sent it in, expecting nada, and sold it in a three book deal in five days.

I can't help you with luck and timing, but I can share with you the proposal that launched my cupcake bakery mystery series, which debuted on March 2 with the first title: SPRINKLE WITH MURDER.

SPRINKLE WITH MURDER: A Fairy Tale Cupcake Mystery

by Jenn McKinlay

Melanie Cooper: 34, born and raised in Scottsdale , AZ. Chubby as a kid because of her sweet tooth, Mel attends college in Los Angeles , loses all the weight, gets a degree in marketing, gives up sweets and is miserable.

Finding solace from her unhappiness in a nearby bakery makes her realize she wants to pursue her interest in cooking. She moves back to Arizona , finishes studying at the Scottsdale Culinary Institute and goes to study in Paris for one year where she learns how to have her cake and keep the weight off.

When she moves back to AZ, she decides to open up her own business, Fairy Tale Cupcakes, with seed money from her two childhood friends, Angela DeLaura and Tate Harper. The shop specializes in catering weddings and parties, but it also has several flavors of the day for drop ins, and Mel teaches cupcake baking and decorating classes.

Unfortunately a rival bakery owner, Olivia Puckett, would like nothing better than to see Mel fail.
Mel lives in a studio apartment situated above her cupcake shop in Old Town Scottsdale, a big tourist venue with a small town flair. She loves her view of the town green and her proximity to the art museums, but she is less thrilled that her mother has a key to her place and likes to use it.

Joyce Cooper has never given up hope that Melanie will marry her childhood sweetheart, Tate Harper, even though Melanie keeps telling her that they’re just friends.

Angela DeLaura: 33, Mel’s best friend since the 6th grade, when Angie moved to Scottsdale from Queens , NY . Angie is the youngest of eight children, all seven older siblings are brothers who would prefer she lived in a convent and have ruined every relationship she’s ever had with their overprotective ways.

Angie leaves teaching at the school where her oldest brother is principal to go and work at Fairy Tale Cupcakes with Melanie. None of the brothers are happy about this decision and frequently show up at the shop to check on her. Several of the brothers are married with children and their wives think Angie is doing the right thing and her nieces and nephews love the cupcake store.

Angie is determined to gain her independence. Mostly, because she’s been in love with Tate Harper since they were kids and she knows this is her last chance to get him to notice her. No one knows about Angie’s feelings for Tate and it comes as a shock to Mel when she figures it out, especially since Tate is about to marry someone else.

Tate Harper, 35, a childhood friend of Mel and Angie’s. He’s always been their protector and confidant. A complete nerd in school, Tate befriended Mel and Angie because of their shared love of sweets and old movies and the three of them spent much of their teen years gorging on junk food and watching classic movies in Tate’s childhood home, which was a mansion. Even now, they quote classic movie lines to one another and get together for popcorn and movies.

An economics major, Tate has a true gift for numbers and makes oodles of money for his father’s investment company, but he has no sense of people and is frequently taken in by con artists and scammers. Aside from being very wealthy, he’s also become very handsome. Women have been chasing him for years, but he has always been oblivious. That is, until Christie Stevens comes along. In a few short weeks, she steamrolls him into an engagement.

Since Mel is just starting up her business, Tate thinks his wedding would make a fine showcase for her shop and asks her to make a three hundred cupcake tier for the wedding. Mel doesn’t like Christie but Tate is her friend and investor, so she agrees. Angie balks, but Mel thinks she’s just sore because Tate is getting married first.

Other Characters:

Olivia Puckett: Owner of a rival bakery, Confections, is very unhappy with Mel’s arrival and would like nothing better than to se her fail and slink out of town. Olivia is not above a little sabotage to make it happen. In fact, she frequently does drive-bys in her delivery truck to see how Mel’s business is doing.

Joyce Cooper: Mel’s mother. A widow of ten years , who refuses to date, she really wants to see Mel settled down with a husband and children, preferably with Tate and she tries to throw them together at any opportunity.

The DeLaura Brothers: All seven of Angie’s interfering brothers, including Joe (whom Mel has had a crush on since they were kids), like to keep an eye on their baby sister and frequently arrive at the shop unannounced, unhappy with their sister’s life choices, and not afraid to say so.

Joe DeLaura: A lawyer, working for the district attorney, Joe is handsome, smart, funny and politically ambitious. He has his eye on the mayor’s seat and is working very hard to get himself in the running. Although, he’s always been fond of his kid sister’s friend, Mel, he never really noticed her until she feeds him one of her cupcakes. Now he finds he can’t stop popping into Fairy Tale Cupcakes, even when Mel is suspected of murder and it is political suicide to be anywhere near her.

Christie Stevens: Tate’s fiancé. Christie is the spoiled daughter of a dog food magnate. She is big, blonde and brash and has a pathological need to be noticed. Currently, she has her own clothing design business but rumor has it she’s about to be sued for stealing other people’s designs and calling them her own. She is not well-liked in the community, but her father’s money has bought her a lot of friends.

Old Town Scottsdale : A hive of old western kitsch stores, exclusive art galleries, exotic eateries and more, Old Town is the place to see and be seen. Events like the Parada Del Sol, the only exclusive horse drawn parade in the country, keep the town’s cowboy roots alive and well. The park, in the heart of Old Town , hosts concerts, art shows and cooking events. There is always something happening in Old Town , and yet, most of the residents of this small urban community have lived here all their lives. It retains its small town feel. Everyone knows everyone else and no one minds their own business. Having grown up here, and lived temporarily in Los Angeles and Paris , Melanie can’t imagine any other place she’d rather be.

BOOK 1: SPRINKLE WITH MURDER

Melanie Cooper is happily back in Scottsdale in her brand new business venture Fairy Tale Cupcakes. Business is good, but if she’s going to show a return on her investor’s money, she needs to bring in the bucks. Her investors are her two best friends Tate Harper and Angie DeLaura and while she knows they’ll happily wait for their profits, she feels an obligation to them to succeed as swiftly as possible.

When Tate asks her to make a tier of 300 cupcakes for his wedding, she can’t refuse, even though she is not overly fond of his bride to be, fashion designer Christie Stevens. Because it is an excellent showcase for the business and because he’s her chief investor, she agrees.

Christie is in full bridezilla mode when they meet up to discuss the flavors of the wedding cupcakes. She wants signature cupcakes in her wedding colors in flavors that have never been created before and she wants Mel to sign a contract stating that she will never replicate the cupcakes again. Mel feels torn between wanting to do whatever it takes to make Tate’s bride happy and pushing her face into a bowl full of icing.

Angie talks Mel into taking Christie’s contract to her brother Joe. Mel needs legal counsel and he comes at the best price – free. Joe reads the contract and is disturbed that Christie is demanding to have ownership of the cupcakes. He thinks it’s a little over the top and they wonder if she is doing this to all of her wedding vendors. He advises Mel not to sign it and to talk to Tate about it, but she is reluctant, not wanting to ruin his wedding. She brings Joe some cupcakes as a thank you, and she manages to talk to him for the first time in her life without stammering or turning red. Joe sees his little sister’s friend in a whole new way.

When Christie is found dead in her design studio with a half eaten Fairy Tale Cupcake still in her hand, everyone (including Mel’s own mother) assumes Mel poisoned Christie because she loves Tate. This is very bad for business.

Neither Tate nor Angie believes it, both knowing that she loves Tate as a friend. But as the police seem reluctant to let go of her as suspect number one, Mel realizes she is going to have to solve the murder to save her business and her life.

Mel’s uncle, Stan Cooper, is one of the investigating officers and he seems to think that Tate is the likeliest suspect. He thinks Tate got cold feet and murdered Christie instead of just canceling. Mel wonders if it could be Olivia Puckett, in an effort to have her carted off to jail and squash her competition.

As they begin to investigate, it quickly becomes apparent that Tate didn’t know his bride-to-be very well, and in fact is unclear how they even became engaged. He woke up one morning and she had a ring on her finger, so he just assumed he must have proposed. Angie seems awfully happy about this news, and Mel realizes that Angie has feelings for Tate. She worries what will happen to her if her two friends hook up, or worse if one of them gets heartbroken, but she says nothing.

Mel wonders if it is one of the other wedding vendors, who signed a contract they didn’t want to uphold. She starts to investigate the local wedding businesses. While there are several who are not sorry that Christie is no longer their client, none of them seem to be murderers.

Thinking it must be one of her clothing designers, Mel starts to investigate the design house by using Angie as would be buyer for a clothing manufacturer. It goes well until Angie’s brothers catch on to the plan and botch the whole operation. One of the designers does stand out, however, a young woman by the name of Phoebe. Mel is certain that she knows her but she can’t think where or how.

Christie’s father blames Tate and Mel. He is convinced by the salacious reports in the newspaper that they planned this together. He is applying pressure on the DA’s office to make and arrest, and Angie’s brother Joe has been stalling as long as he can but time is running out. Mel realizes that they have to catch the killer. She and Angie, Tate and Joe stay up watching old murder mystery movies, trying to figure it out. They fail.

*****Paragraph removed to keep from spoiling the mystery ;-)******

Mel, Tate and Angie celebrate the good news. Joe joins them. He is very relieved that Mel is no longer a suspect but admits that he would have asked her out anyway. Tate and Angie seem happy and Mel notices that neither of them is acting any differently than they did before, but every now and then she catches Angie looking at Tate and she knows that her friend is smitten.

The only problem Mel has now is keeping Joe away from her mother. Joyce has given up on foisting her off on Tate, but Mel thinks a lawyer would really make her mother happy. Too happy.

Recipes for cupcakes and tips on decorating to be included.

Future Titles:

Butter Cream Bump Off: Olivia Puckett is once again trying to steal Mel’s customers. This time by dressing up as a giant cupcake and giving away free cupcakes to the first fifty customers in her store every day. Mel knows the challenge can not be ignored and she and Angie cook up their own crazy marketing scheme for Fairy Tale Cupcakes. They offer themselves up in a raffle as the winner’s own Fairy Godmothers for twenty-four hours. Now while Mel is trying to appease their cantankerous contest winner, a crotchety old man who wants real magic, she is once again drawn into intrigue when her widowed mother Joyce is found unconscious at the scene of a murder. Joyce’s first attempt at online dating does not go well when the real estate mogul she is dating is found dead in one of his palatial estates and Joyce is found there with him, unconscious and clutching the murder weapon. While Mel and Joe’s relationship gets stronger, he’s trying to help her mother as much as he can, Angie is beginning to give up on Tate ever noticing her. When she accepts a date with the slain mogul’s son, who is also a suspect, Tate finally realizes that his feelings for Angie are more than friendship. But if the murderer has his way neither Mel nor Angie will be dating anyone ever again.

Death by the Dozen: Fairy Tale Cupcakes is gearing up for its first year of participation in the Scottsdale Culinary Festival. Melanie has entered the Challenge to the Chefs, pastry division, and her main competition is her rival Olivia Puckett. Participants receive a basket of mystery ingredients and have one hour to prepare a scintillating dessert. But when one of the judges is found dead in his car from an apparent suicide, the competition is postponed until the end of the week. The judge, Vic Mazotta, was a cooking school professor of Mel's and she can't accept the verdict of suicide when she knows his estranged son has been trying to get his hands on Vic's estate for years. But her investigation turns risky when Vic's murderer appears to be coming after her. Joe is unhappy with the risks Mel is taking and it strains their relationship. Meanwhile Tate finally screws up the courage to make a play for Angie, but is it too late?

I hope this helps future authors to get published.

The best advice I can give is don't give up -- ever.

For anyone interested in being written into the sequel BUTTERCREAM BUMP OFF as a character, check out my pre-order contest: http://www.jennmckinlay.com/bio.htm

Thanks again for the invite!
Jenn

LEAD PIPE CINCH - what the cover says

2010-03-13T13:03:00.000-08:00

And here it is, my friends, straight from the editor!

The back cover copy for LEAD PIPE CINCH!!

Drowning in a moat is so Dark Ages…

When Georgiana Neverall left behind her fast-paced, corporate lifestyle to become a plumber’s apprentice in Pine Ridge, Oregon, she thought she knew what she was getting into. But she hadn’t pictured herself knee-deep in a muddy trench building a moat—part of a state-of-the-art castle that would soon house a retired Microsoft engineer.

She also hadn’t planned on running across the man who stole her former company and dumped her—Blake Weston, who’s on site to provide security for the castle. When it turns out Blake’s in a little over his head—in the moat, that is—Georgiana finds herself the number one suspect in his murder. To clear her name, Georgiana will have to pursue the remote possibility that someone out there despised Blake Weston more than she did…

Includes fun plumbing tricks and tips!

Praise for Sink Trap:

“We thoroughly enjoyed reading Sink Trap, a clever mystery with fresh, fast-paced writing.” —Jim and Joyce Lavene, authors of A Corpse for Yew

“[A] cute cozy mystery debut…with plumbing tips and moments of wry humor.”

—Publishers Weekly

“Fun…Christy Evans has a hit on her hands.”

—Genre Go Round Reviews

Coming Events

2010-03-10T01:35:00.000-08:00

With the release of LEAD PIPE CINCH in less than a month, I've got a trio of appearances lined up. I'd love to see all Georgie's fans at one (or all) of them!

On April 3, we'll be doing a Sneak Preview event at North by Northwest Books her in Lincoln City. Our last event - for the release of SINK TRAP - was a great success, and we're looking forward to a fun afternoon with local bookseller and mystery guru Sheldon McArthur as our host. Watch this space for the details!

Then on April 17, there's a "meet and greet" event at Murder By The Book in Portland, Oregon, from 1 to 3 pm. They promise books and snacks, and a relaxed, friendly atmosphere. What more can an author (or a reader) ask?

Finally, April 29-May 2 I'll be at Malice Domestic in Arlington, VA. This is the mack daddy convention for cozy mysteries, and I am delighted to be able to attend this year. Especially with LEAD PIPE CINCH out just three weeks before the convention! I'm really looking forward to meeting the fans and the writers, and having a whole weekend devoted just to mysteries.

So there you have it, three coming events that should be lots of fun.

Hope I see you there!

Secrets from Georgie's Past?

2010-03-07T23:59:00.000-08:00

Well, not exactly. But guest blogger Carolyn Nicita has provided us with an incredible wealth of tips and tricks for keeping our data secure - exactly what Georgie used to do.

Carolyn Nicita writes fiction, screenplays, and occasionally does articles on data security for authors. Her passwords are longer than most men's. She says they hold up longer, too, and I'm just going to take her word for that!

In honor of Georgiana Neverall and Samurai Security, may I present top-secret intel on data security.

It may be useful.

Some of you might be authors yourselves, and you just got the news that in this market you have to have something called a Web Presence.

Or, you might be one of these people:

Lately one of my friends has gotten hacked, another has gotten credit card numbers stolen, and a third had her house broken into and her writing computer stolen. This along with all of her jewelry, but since she's an author, of course the computer was most important.

Seeing my friends' discomfiture, I called a member of my family who works as a data security expert for a government contractor--a satellite company. I asked her for advice.

She gave me toys.

These toys are Spy Decoder Rings on crack. They are tools to ensure government-level security.

I'm not even going into the elementary things you should already know, like "don't open email attachments" and "make sure they've set up the firewall on your router".

Instead, I'm going to introduce you to four of these toys.

TrueCrypt

How would you like to be able to put your files into a secret, invisible place on your hard drive or thumb drive? How would you like it so secret and invisible that professionals can't detect the hidden data, yet easy enough to access that it doesn't impede your work?

Most importantly, when someone steals your computer or you lose your thumb drive, nobody gets your data.

With TrueCrypt, you create a special file called a partition, and use it like a file folder. You can use the files in this folder all you want, add, change, right on the fly, and as soon as you close the folder your files are instantly protected.

So now, download this free program. Make a TrueCrypt container and, for practice, copy in all the files you're supposed to be backing up. You do back up, don't you?

Stegdetect

If you tell the owner of a blog "Never let guests post random pictures onto your site" he'll probably answer "It's just a picture. What's the big deal?"

But...

If you inspect some of those innocent pictures using Stegdetect, the answer will become shockingly obvious.

Download this free set of programs and use xsteg to inspect some of the web pages and pictures you've randomly downloaded.

The program will tell you that some of these innocent-looking pictures include something called jphide.

This threat doesn't even include the fakepicture.php.jpg type files, programs masquerading as pictures. This is about actual jpeg files where people have put code inside them. They can put the graphic up on your website as their forum picture or an illustration, or a picture that you "just got off the Web somewhere" and used without permission of the owner (but you'd never do that, would you?).

I found this bit of code in a jpeg file from a respectable web site -- here's a snippet --

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>

<!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple Computer//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" "http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd">

<plist version="1.0">

<dict>

I have no idea what they're trying to do with it. It's probably all very innocent. However, finding this did prove to me that you can indeed put code into a jpeg.

How do they execute that code? Sometimes a senile browser will do it for them. Sometimes you turn off javascript and then the code which asks "Hey this file isn't really a picture, is it?" doesn't execute.

Or they use outside code of their own.

How?

Read stegbreak.pdf, also enclosed in the stegdetect download.

It tells how to hack somebody's web site using those innocent-looking jpeg files -- by using the code in stegbreak to launch what's called a brute-force dictionary attack against your site or account.

A hacker successfully used this dictionary attack on one of my author friend's web sites.

If my friend ever finds said hacker, I will lend my friend the 1024-page 1990 edition of the Webster's New Dictionary and Thesaurus, which sits on my desk.

He could use it to launch a brute-force dictionary counterattack.

But I digress.

To help prevent dictionary attacks, at least of the digital variety, you can make long, gobbledygook passwords that the brute-force dictionary attack can't break. And you don't even have to memorize them.

You use....

KeePass

Despite its name, this program actually works to help you make and keep secure passwords.

It's like a briefcase for passwords. You use one password to open the briefcase program, open your browser, then quickly copy and paste the long, incomprehensible, randomly-generated password from the briefcase into the site. It will even let you generate passwords with non-alphanumeric characters. And KeePass makes it easy for you to change your password frequently, another safety tip you've heard often.

Your main password never goes online. It can be a password you type in, or the fact that you're using the program on your own computer.

I'm recommending this program although I know somebody's going to blame me when they get it set up and then forget their main password. Use some common sense. Back up the KeePass file. It's a bit inconvenient, but a lot less so than having to write to all three credit reporting agencies, finding the federal agencies necessary to report identity theft crime, and waking up at night wondering what they're going to be doing with your personal information in the future.

Or waking up some morning and finding that your blog has been magically turned into a Neo-Nazi Jihaad billboard.

Fedora on a Stick
One of my friends decided to do some online banking from a public hotel computer. Silly him. Of course, someone had put a keylogger on this oh-so-public computer and of course, every keystroke my friend entered got sent to the criminal.

Don't do that.

But what if, for some reason, you're on the Kona coast in the middle of executing a wedding and you have to do some last-minute online transactions with the photographer?

-Or-

What if you want to try to get files off a computer whose operating system has just crashed, without incurring a $150 tech support bill?

-Or-

What if you don't want to write any data to a strange computer? You've learned that even if you delete the data, it can still be read off the hard drive.

-Or-

What if you just want to use your own little computer to take notes on a project...and amaze your friends...mooch off their hardware....

True, you may not find the need for this very often, but dang it's a fun toy, so I'm including it.

I call it "Make Your Own Parasite." The techies call it Fedora on a Stick.

Use Fedora Live USB Creator to install a small operating system, complete with word processing, web browsing, and persistent file storage, onto a thumb drive.

Then plug your new baby parasite into a host computer.

Now you can surf the web, write some manuscript pages, and save the results. Afterward, pull your computer-on-a-stick out and take it home with you. Their disease-infested PC can't access the thumb drive because their operating system isn't running the hardware. And you've written nothing to their computer.

Oh, and by the way, this type of thing is why antivirus programs will ask you to unplug thumb drives before turning off your computer.

Lastly--

To figure out how to use these toys, read their instructions. It really isn't hard, and most important, it will train you in data security.

None of these toys will fry your PC. Much. They are real spy toys, though.

This blog will self-destruct...

COMING ATTRACTION!!

2010-02-22T00:49:00.000-08:00

OK, much celebrating here in Christy-Evans-land. I am loving the cover for LEAD PIPE CINCH, and wanted to share. I don't have final cover copy, but that should come in the next couple days.

In the meantime, here's the blurb from the preliminary Amazon listing:

Georgiana Neverall never pictured herself knee-deep in a muddy trench building a moat-part of a state-of-the-art castle that would soon house a retired Microsoft engineer.

She also never imagined being a murder suspect, but that's exactly what happens when a floater in the moat turns out to be her ex-boyfriend.

Yep, we start digging into Georgie's past as she continues digging the moat for Chad McComb's castle, and dealing with her mother, her current sort-of boyfriend, and her two adorable Airedales.

Stay tuned here for more guest bloggers, upcoming appearances, and some fun surprises as we get ready for the release of LEAD PIPE CINCH on April 6th.

And thank you all for your support of Georgie, and of me.

Adventures in Plumbing

2010-02-16T01:33:00.000-08:00

As promised, I am getting back on track. Here's the first of February's guest blogs, the fabulous Krista Davis!!

I love houses. It’s silly, I know. I adore looking at houses and
checking out their nooks and crannies and architectural features. So
it probably comes as no great surprise that I was very involved with
the building of my house.

There are some things that anyone can do. Running phone wire, for
instance. You don’t need special training for that. But I recognize
my limitations. I left the electric matters to the pros.

So then there came a long weekend. I was alone in the house (probably
running more phone lines) and getting pretty tired of leaving the
house to, well, to pee. Shiny brand new toilets waited to be
installed. They called to me over and over. I found myself circling
them, daring to run a hand over that cold porcelain. I examined the
holes in the floor where they would be positioned.

I wouldn’t be electrocuted. I couldn’t set the house on fire. The
worst that could happen would be a flood and that seemed unlikely.
Most of all, though, I was tired of running down the hill just to use
the facilities.

Instructions, there must be instructions. Apparently, toilet
installation is such a no-brainer to everyone except me that toilets
don’t come with instructions. The only hint was on the wax ring the
plumber had told me to buy. “Install wax ring.” Oh good! That
helped a lot. The wax ring was about the size of the hole in the
floor, and it was obvious that something had to join the toilet to
that hole. In went the wax ring. Surely there was more to it than
that?

There was. Do you know how much a toilet weighs? Honest to goodness,
the hardest part was hauling the toilet over to the hole on which it
would sit. But I struggled, determined that I would not run down the
hill one more time to use a bathroom. I planted the toilet on the wax
ring and tightened the nuts on the sides. It rocked. That couldn’t
be right. I sat on it and wiggled to set it. I tightened the nuts
more and the rocking stopped. A quick attachment to the water supply
in the back, (it screwed on, even I could do that!) and I was ready
for the flood. I opened the water supply, ready to shut it off again
-- fast!

I didn’t need to. I flushed. It worked. I was brilliant! What a
handy dandy skill -- I could install a toilet! Now, if the bathroom
only had a door . . .

About the Author:
Krista Davis is the nationally bestselling author of the Domestic Diva
Mystery series. Her first book, THE DIVA RUNS OUT OF THYME, was
nominated for an Agatha Award. Her second book, THE DIVA TAKES THE
CAKE is a fun romp for anyone who loves weddings.

In her just released third book, THE DIVA PAINTS THE TOWN, Sophie
Winston could hardly turn down her deceased neighbor’s last request
for a bequest party, but she had no idea that the crafty old man
brought the guests together for a reason . . .

Krista blogs at http://mysteryloverskitchen.com, where mystery writers
cook up crime ... and recipes! Learn more about Krista's books at http://kristadavis.com
.

The Passing of a Hero

2010-02-15T12:40:00.000-08:00

I was all set to spend some time today catching up on things that got backed up while I was traveling (Note to self: Better preparation next trip!), but instead I have to take time out to mourn the passing of one of my favorite writers, Dick Francis.

A three-time Edgar Best Novel winner, and an MWA Grand Master, Mr. Francis started puiblishing mysteries in 1962, and has one book yet to be published - a career that spanned an incredible 48 years. I started reading Mr. Francis's racing mysteries in the mid-60s, and loved them from the beginning. I fell in love with Sid Haley, and was overjoyed when he came to the small screen in the short-run ITV series, The Racing Game.

Mr. Francis provided me with many, many hours of reading enjoyment over the years, and he will be missed. Tomorrow I'll work on that whole "catching up" thing, but for today I am going to go to the bookshelf and find my old paperbacks of "Odds Against" and "Whip Hand" and fall in love again, just for a little while.

Farewell, Dick Francis, and thank you for sharing your stories with the world. And with me.

No Plot? No problem, or, what I learned about plot from writing mysteries

2010-02-01T21:07:00.000-08:00

Melissa Yuan-Innes is an amzingly talented writer, mother of an active preschooler, and an emergency-room physician. Don't ask me how she does it all, I'm in awe of her energy and ability to keep a balance in her life. She's our guest blogger, and I'm pleased to present her thoughts on the things she's learned from trying her hand at mysteries.

1. Conflict

"The cat sat on the mat" is not a story. "The cat sat on the dog's mat" is a story. --John Le Carré

Dean Smith and Kris Rusch define a mystery story like this: a crime occurs and must be solved in a satisfying way.

It doesn't have to be a murder, although that's classic. But you need to have that crime. You probably already knew that, but it's cool to think of that cat sneaking over to the dog's mat.

Also, I like when people think outside the box for crime or conflict. My friend and talented writer Steve Mohan wrote a thriller novel, Paper Eagle, that opens with a man trying to get a trainload of food into North Korea. I love this. So many thriller novels make up some overdramatic "world hanging in the balance" Hollywood garbage, but this is a real crisis in real time. So have fun with your conflict, whether it's a stolen ribbon or nuclear Armageddon.

2. You should have an idea of two stories: the story of the crime and the story you are unfolding for the reader

A police officer friend pointed this out to me. I'd had so much fun with my detective's love life, I hadn't properly plotted out the crime and sprinkled red herrings or thought out the timeline.

In my defense, I write 1000 words a day and I don't have much time. And I get bored easily. So just plunge in and write, write, write, even if it's awful. When I go back, I find a lot of it is pretty good, but the plot might not hang together. If you prefer to plot it out first, more power to you.

Either way, you've got two stories to work out.

3. The antagonist should be three-dimensional

It's nice to blame things on the Big Bad. Very convenient to have some sociopath mincing people for fun. And in truth, I'm sure there are some people like that. But it's cool if you can add some sort of twist to it. In From the Corner of His Eye, Dean Koontz wrote about a murderer who thoroughly enjoyed his work, but vomited violently after each killing.

You can take it a step further. In my latest novel, High School Hit List, I spent a great deal of time and words trying to figure out why my antagonist, Sickle, made up a hit list of five people at his school.
I wrote my way out of it. I let Sickle talk (lots of macho bragging), I let his girlfriend talk (more interesting, but it didn't end up in the book), I let people talk about him. Finally, someone mentioned that his sister had Down's Syndrome. I ran with that until I finally figured out how Sickle went rogue.
In the end, two of my first readers said that was what pulled them through High School Hit List: trying to figure out how Sickle went from normal to psycho.

To sum up, you need a conflict, preferably using a 3D antagonist, and you need to figure out how to tell that story.Thanks, mystery genre, for teaching me.

Melissa Yi's story, "Indian Time," will debut in Indian Country Noir this year. She tackles real-life mysteries as an emergency doctor and creates imaginary insanity as a writer outside of Montreal, Canada. Her short fiction has appeared in everything from Nature to Weird Tales. Say hi on Facebook, Twitter, or www.melissayuaninnes.net.

It Happened in Las Vegas: Off-Topic, But I HAD to Share

2010-01-28T19:09:00.000-08:00

Things have been a little quiet here the last few days, because the DH and I got a chance to sneak off for a cheap vacation in Las Vegas - cheap because it was off-season, there were good deals to be had, I had some time off work, and we are really cheap gamblers. You know, the kind that bypass the nickel slots as "too expensive"? Yeah, like that.

In addition to the Vegas trip, we drove over to Southern California for the weekend (when things were more expensive) and visited my son and daughter-in-law, and The World's Most Beautiful Granddaughter. We stayed over Sunday night and watched a taping of The Late Late Show on Monday, then drove back to Vegas.

There were a lot of fun times this week, but there was one "Awwwww!" moment that made me sniffle. If you have the least bit of romance in your soul, it'll get you, too.

Last night (out last night in Vegas) we went out wandering on the Strip, just seeing the sights and people-watching. We ended the evening at the Bellagio to watch the fountain show. They run every fifteen minutes, and it was a wonderful, cool evening.

The 9 p.m. show was the ultimate "old Vegas" tribute - dancing waters set to Frank Sinatra singing "Fly Me To The Moon," an unabashedly romantic ballad from the '60s. It was the whole package, and we turned away at the end of the show full of warm fuzzies. As we walked toward the hotel entrance, I spotted a young couple a few feet away. The attractive girl in a strapless black cocktail dress was trembling slightly and whispering "Oh my god!" over and over. A second glance confirmed the situation. Her boyfriend, all decked out in a nice suit, was slipping a ring on her finger.

We walked on, the warm fuzzies reinforced by the wonderfully romantic gesture of the young man. He had managed one of those incredible moments, one they will remember for the rest of their lives. As we glanced back, we saw them embrace, their surroundings forgotten.

I have no idea who that couple was, but I wish them all the luck in the world. If this young man's proposal - and her response - are any indication, they're already winners!

Keeping It Real, or Why People Believe My Lies

2010-01-22T21:58:00.000-08:00

Guest blogger Steven Savile has a new book out this week. SILVER mixes elements of fact, fantasy, myth, and thriller into a blend that's garnering raves from advance readers.

We're a little late this week, due to a spur-of-the-moment trip, so without any further ado, let me introduce you to the fabulous Steven Savile.

Telling Lies For a Living

Steven Savile

That’s what we do, after all, us writers, isn’t it? We tell lies for a living. Some of us tell great whopping ones... I mean my current work in progress, London Macabre, is Fabulist Victoriana (I say fabulist rather than fantastic as the latter term seems to be have co-opted by steampunk and infernal machines and my tale is nothing like that, it’s about elementals and daemons and gentlemen with extraordinary gifts) and I am basically selling you a London that never was. For that matter my latest novel, Silver, posits at least six impossible things before breakfast, to abuse Alice’s words.

I first heard the phrase ‘The willing suspension of disbelief’ back in high school, when my teacher, PJ Knock (we called him Peanut for reasons not too difficult to guess when you saw him) started trying to explain why it was a bad idea to ‘animate the inanimate’ and why our heroes shouldn’t leap out of hospital windows to escape the bad guys when they were four flights up. Obvious stuff but fundamental just the same. A few years later I read a review of a book - no idea what the book was, but elements of the review stuck with me for... twenty years... egads! - in which the reviewer expressed his disappointment in terms that rang the memory bell and had me thinking about old Peanut’s lesson. You see, in this review the main objection seemed to be that the book was ruined because this basic covenant of reader and writer was broken by the writer’s stupidity or lack of research, and because of some elementary mistake (in this case the writer made reference to MI5 working a case in Australia, and any thriller writer worth his salt knows that MI5 only operates on sovereign soil, ie back in dear old Blighty. Once things go overseas it is always MI6) he couldn’t trust anything the writer told him. This one mistake led the reviewer to moan about a dumb joke the author made about someone hiding out in ‘the bush’ ‘What the Australian Bush?’ ‘Nah, the other one...’ obviously meaning to make us chuckle and think of the villain hiding out in the shrubbery but it had the reviewer up in arms. Didn’t this moron of a writer know there was only one Bush?

God, or the Devil, you see, is in the details. We have five senses. As writers we need to use them to sell our stories. It’s so so important we use all of them to ground the story and make it feel real. The world is about more than just we see. I guess what I am saying is a good writer lets us experience their little lies with every faculty available to us. And get the little stuff right, make us trust and believe in what you are telling us, and we’ll be more willing to believe you and continue suspending our disbelief.

Silver offered some pretty unique disbelief challenges - I mean everyone is familiar with the thirty pieces of silver, and Judas, and, well, let’s face it, the story of the garden, the Judas Kiss, all of it. So, setting out to tell Silver I knew it was really important I got the small lies right if I wanted the reader to swallow the big ones, and that’s what it is all about. Not only did I need my Bible stuff right, even though I was spinning a story grounded in the gnostic gospels, I couldn’t just ignore what people knew - I couldn’t say Jesus was hanged in the Garden and expect readers to swallow it.

Likewise, I needed to make sure the settings were authentic. When we meet Noah for the first time in a sleazy bedsit-hotel in London I needed it to feel like a sleazy bedsitland hotel room. It helps of course that I’ve slummed it more than once and have plenty of experience when it comes to grubby curtains so thick with used smoke they could stand up by themselves, and bedsprings that poke through threadbare mattresses like something from the princess and the pea. It’s easy to get those details right. And by getting them right your reader will automatically be inclined to trust you’ve got other stuff right. It’s just the way our minds are programmed to receive.

One set of details is research, another experience, the last one though is outright lie.

I’m selling you lies from quite early on. By themselves they are just little things, for instance while Nonesuch, Sir Charles’ house and the operational hq of the Ogmios team, isn’t on any map that I know... the roads are all right, the landmarks they pass on the way there, they are all real landmarks, in the right places... it’s just Nonesuch that’s a figment of my imagination. It’s believable though, because everything around it is dead on. In other words I sell the lie by surrounding it by truth. Someone might think it’s a homage to a great record label, given my habit of making musical references hither and thither, others might think it’s a tip of the hat to the Nonesuch Dickens - not unreasonable to have another writer linked to Wyndham, given Sir Charles’ own borrowed name... or perhaps I just misspelled Nonsuch and based it upon the Palace of Henry VIII built for his wife - the same palace and grounds I did cross country running through the grounds of for 4 years when I was at school? It could be any, all or none of these. Sometimes I just like to play.

Of course, being writer now is so much easier than it was even as recently as a decade ago. We have the world literally at our fingertips. That’s right, the big bad interwebby...

Take the scene quite near the beginning when Ronan is driving his bike up to Newcastle, it’s a simple job to check the street maps and trace a route, but technology has come on in leaps and bounds to the extent that you can go into Google Street View and block by block drive the same streets without leaving the comfort of your arm chair. I was able to look at the front of the house he breaks into live on the web. Okay, I’ll admit that’s a little creepy when you think about it, but the technology is there so use it. That kind of attention to detail means everything from being able to capture an authentic feel of the place you want your readers to visit even if you haven’t been there. Of course, I grew up in Newcastle, so I know those streets well - but I know them from 1997. I remember how the smelled, how the cold bit in the more exposed areas, all of that physical detail, but technology allowed me to give my memory a quick refresher course.

That’s not saying that the internet can replace actual honest to god experience, but it sure as hell can supplement it. God is in the details, after all. By doing something, going out there and absorbing it, we find these little details that sell the lies.

Research, in any way shape or form, is our friend.

And down on this basic level, a meticulous eye for detail - not simply listing this then this then this, but actually finding beautiful tactile vocabulary that revels in the authenticity of the bad bed in the crummy bedsit - is where we lay the foundations for the whopping great lies.

For instance, quite early in the research for Silver (after I had decided to use the Sicarii zealots as the historical core of the story) I came across this little tidbit of information: there had been an earthquake in the Masada region a few years before. With that simple truth I knew not only how I would lose the silver dagger (there’s no secret there, it’s on the cover of the book so I am not spoiling anything for you) for two thousand years, but more importantly how I would recover it. I brought it back with a truth that was verifiable. Of course there never was a dagger, not one forged from the thirty shekels Judas earned in return for his kiss, that’s the big lie I want to sell the reader... If I keep my MI5s and MI6s straight, have the right sort of trees on the right street corners (no ironwood trees in Newcastle for instance, little things like that), give you a feel for the seasons, having it rain or snow or shine, having leaves mulch beneath your feet or cars splashing water as they don’t slow down for corners where the drains have flooded, then you’ll believe me when I say ‘Come, closer, I want to tell you a story about a dagger, and about these men, these modern day terrorists, who call themselves the Disciples of Judas...’

Do I pull it off? Do you believe my glorious whopping great lies? Well, you’ll need to read Silver to find out, won’t you? Available, as the adverts say, at all good bookstores today... Ahem. Sorry about that. Normal service is resumed.

Guest Colleen Kuehne: My Life as a First Reader

2010-01-14T15:14:00.000-08:00

Being a “first reader” is a new and thrilling experience for me – and, as I’d expected, the positives far outweigh the negatives.

So let’s just get those negatives out of the way: it is really hard for me to spend days, or weeks, or even months, without knowing the end of the story. I read rather quickly and usually finish a book in two or three sittings - so you know that I’m literally chomping at the bit, wanting the next installment. Just ask Chris / Christy; I can really be a pain about it.

And now that I think about it, that really is the only negative I can think of, although I suppose it would be difficult spending a lot of time with a story that really didn’t appeal to me. I’m lucky, though, and don’t have to deal with that; the Georgie books are “right up my alley.”

As far as the positives, they are legion. Getting to work with, and for, a wonderful writer - who also happens to be a friend - is reward in itself. Seeing behind the finished product and learning about the nuts and bolts of writing is educational as well as entertaining. Having actual input to the author is, well, priceless!

As for how I, personally, go about it… Well, I usually try to read each segment at least three times.

Every pass, I try to be conscious of continuity. By that, of course, I mean being sure that names and places are consistent, keeping the timeline in mind so that the right number of days pass, stuff like that.

Mainly, though, the first pass is just for the story. I make notes if I don’t understand something, or if I have suspicions about the villain, or feel the story drags or is erratic, but mostly I’m reading for pleasure. My writer seems to appreciate getting my initial reaction, so I let her know where I LOL, where I shake my fist at the villain, and where I get confused because this person’s name is just hard to remember or is too close to that character’s name. (To this day, I have a hard time remembering that Gregory isn’t, in fact, Geoffrey. I can’t explain it, but there it is.)

The second pass, I’m looking for nits. I grew up in a family of teachers; my Grandmother actually returned my letters to her with red-inked corrections, so I’ve become pretty fussy about grammar, spelling, sentence structure and word choice. Of course, after noticing something, I have to decide whether or not to flag it, especially if it’s dialog. After all, people just don’t speak in perfect English. And a writer’s style is just that – her style. If in doubt, I’ll make a note and draw it to the attention of my writer, just in case it isn’t what she intended.

I have a couple of favorite websites I check; I don’t want to flag something as incorrect when I’m the one who’s wrong!

http://www.grammarbook.com/english_rules.asp
http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/561/01/

I try to wait a while before the third pass. I want it to be fresh again when I read it for the last time. This time, I’m reading to see if my notes and questions make sense and are worthwhile, and if my corrections help or hinder the telling of the story.

I’ve said I’m lucky, and I can prove it: I have a good friend who is a talented writer. She lets me share in the experience, she listens to my input, and she signs my copies of her books. Life is good!

What Is a First Reader?

2010-01-11T08:00:00.000-08:00

Finding a good first reader can be a real tightrope act. You want someone who is an avid reader, who reads the kind of books you write, who can be honest with you when something doesn't work, who doesn't try to rewrite the book their way, and who is willing to read in fits and starts when necessary. And those are just the general qualities!

Each writer has specific issues and idiosyncrasies that they bring to the mix. For me, I cannot listen to any comment or discussion while I am writing. So if I have already given part of the manuscript to the first reader they cannot speak of it (sort of like Fight Club) until I finish the manuscript. The obvious solution is to wait until I'm done and hand over a full manuscript, but when I have a tight deadline I need to allow my first reader the opportunity to get started while I finish up.

On several projects I worked without a first reader, or I acted as my own first reader, because there wasn't anyone to ask. My writer friends were busy with their own projects, or they were far away, or they didn't read the kind of work I was writing.

Many writing couples act as readers for each other, but Steve and I quickly found that was not a good idea for us. That whole rewriting-the-book-his-way problem? Yep! I love him to death, but he can't turn off the creative brain enough to be a good first reader for me.

Then, a few years back, Colleen started working as a contractor at the hotel where I work. She was clearly a voracious reader, always carrying a book at lunchtime, and we struck up several conversations about what we were reading. She found out I was a writer, and we talked some about the kind of things I wrote. We compared favorite authors, and genres we loved, finding similar tastes

One day I suggested she read one of my favorite cozy mystery authors, Anne George. Her response was, "I love Anne George!" Sadly, Ms. George has passed away, but we both pull her books off the shelf and re-read them from time to time. (If you haven't read them, may I suggest you do so at once? Charming, laugh out loud funny, and characters you will fall in love with. I promise!)

So, when I got the offer to write the Georgie books, I excitedly shared the news with Colleen. When she confessed she had always wanted to "have my name in the front of a book," I decided to take a chance, and offered to let her read my manuscript.

We talked for a long time about how we would work, what I expected, what she felt qualified to do, and the mechanics of passing a manuscript back and forth. Then I gave her the manuscript for the first book and crossed my fingers.

The results were truly amazing! She completely understood what I needed, and gave me good feedback on the places where I slipped up - including one character who changed names partway through. But besides that, she had a good grasp of spelling and grammar, and was able to do a thorough copy-edit as well.

Over the course of three books, I have come to really appreciate her support. First readers don't get paid - except for the occasional lunch. They get an acknowledgement (sometimes) and they get to read the book months before it ever goes on sale. But that's about it. Mostly, it's a labor of love, and I'm very fortunate to have found a first reader who loves Georgie.

Thanks, Colleen!!

On Thursday, first reader Colleen Kuehne has a guest blog about her process and why she likes her volunteer job.

Guest Blogger Irene Radford:Blurring the Lines Between Mystery and Magic

2010-01-06T08:00:00.000-08:00

Irene Radford has been writing stories ever since she figured out what a pencil was for. A member of an endangered species, a native Oregonian who lives in Oregon, she and her husband make their home in Welches, Oregon where deer, bears, coyotes, hawks, owls, and woodpeckers feed regularly on their back deck.

A museum trained historian, Irene has spent many hours prowling pioneer cemeteries deepening her connections to the past. Raised in a military family she grew up all over the US and learned early on that books are friends that don’t get left behind with a move. Her interests and reading range from ancient history, to spiritual meditations, to space stations, and a whole lot in between.

Her signal corps brother has launched several communications satellites on the shuttle. Watching those launches got her hooked on the ideal of humans reaching out into the universe.

Reading Science Fiction or fantasy is work – part of my day job as a novelist who deals with dragons¸ magicians, demons, space ships, and ray guns. For fun I read cozy mysteries.

A mystery lies at the core of almost every story. What secret does the romantic hero hide that keeps him from committing to the heroine? Which magician has the power to use the elusive talisman hidden deep in the dragon’s hoard? Who murdered the very wealthy diamond merchant on the 4th floor of a flea bag hotel?
Through the course of writing 22 fantasy and science fiction novels I delved into many mysteries. But I always wanted to write a straightforward cozy, the kind of story I love to read.

Instead of a straight, mundane, mystery, I plotted a murder into the 2nd book of my urban fantasy series: “Moon In The Mirror, a Tess Noncoiré Adventure” by P.R. Frost. (one of my 3 pen names) Magic and paranormal beings abound in this series. Tess and her cohorts discover the truth by use of magic. But this is an urban fantasy set in our modern world. Magic is not evidence in our courts. So other means must be used to prove guilt.

I had other problems in organizing this book as well. One of my first readers informed me that he knew who had done the dirty deed as soon as they found the body. There was only one disposable character in the entire cast. A cast that grew with every draft. In fantasy this wouldn’t be a problem. The protagonist can kill a bad guy in order to save the planet. Or one of the regulars can do prison time for manslaughter and show up in the next book emotionally scarred. Not so much in cozies.

How to divert attention away from the culprit while dropping clues at the same time?

I’d entered an entirely new world of writing and had to add a new layer of thinking. Time to read more cozies. Research. Honestly. I read 7 books in 2 weeks for research. Research. Honestly.

Among those I read were several paranormal mysteries where magic, witchcraft, and ghosts featured heavily, including “Hex Marks The Spot” by Madelyn Alt, “The Remains Of The Dead” by Wendy Roberts, and “Ghost of a Chance” by Kate Marsh (Katie Macalister). In every one, the paranormal aspects had to remain hidden, and if the evidence gained by paranormal means could not be presented in a way mundane courts could accept, then a different justice had to be sought. That justice had to look like an accident. Always the mundane explanation had to rule. But we, the readers know a different truth.

Oh, yeah I could deal with that.

I’m not going to go into specifics, because I don’t want to spoil the stories for you if you haven’t read them yet. But I learned a lot about how to write a mystery.

But most of all I learned that if a mystery writer is going to introduce paranormal elements, they have to figure in the problem, the solution, or both. Otherwise, they are just a gimmick. One of the first lessons I learned when I decided to take my writing seriously was that a gimmick had to earn its keep. The rescued Great Dane with retinopathy who wears goofy sunglasses has to be instrumental in bringing the hero and heroine together in the romance (I honestly read this story 20+ years ago). He can’t just prove the heroine is kind to animals. The same goes for the ghosts and telepathy I tried putting into some of my earliest novel efforts that never saw print.

So I dove back into “Mirror” with new enthusiasm and insight to the structure of a cozy mystery. I hope I succeeded.

Chris has arranged a free autographed copy in a contest.

In between other projects I worked on a cozy mystery of my own. I developed a setting and a cast that I could love: a spooky old hotel with as much character as any of the people that try to run it, a spunky heroine with a passion for the creaky building, a love interest who has secrets, and wacky friends with off-kilter views of the world. I fell in love with Whistling River Lodge and wish I could prowl the back hallways, secret rooms, and hints of ghostly guests in this fictional place. Yeah, I had to get something paranormal in there somehow. But it’s only hints and questions, nothing overt.

“Lacing Up For Murder” by Irene Radford is currently serialized for free on the Book View Café, http://www.bookviewcafe.com. A new chapter every Thursday¸ or if you don’t want to wait 32 weeks to find out who done it, you can download the full novel for $4.99 in a variety of e-book formats.
Paranormal romances and mysteries are plentiful on bookshelves these days, as are urban fantasies and paranormal historicals, but the structure of the story, the rules if you want, remains the same. The extra elements have to be woven into the story and become an integral part of it. You cannot separate one from the other or you lose the essence of the story.

That’s what we read the book for, the story; the story of the characters, the story of the spooky old hotel, the story of the mystery, the magic of well crafted fiction.

Phyllis Irene Radford
aka Irene Radford
aka P.R. Frost
aka C.F. Bentley

Don't forget, Irene has promised a signed copy of "Moon In the Mirror," so leave a comment and get in the drawing for your very own copy!

Which genre are you?

2010-01-04T21:57:00.000-08:00

Last year at this time, Steve and I were preparing to attend the Space Coast Writers Conference. Besides the fact it was in Cocoa Beach, Florida – which meant a short drive to Kennedy Space Center and Cape Canaveral – it was a great conference, and I’d highly recommend it.

We did two presentations while we were there. One was our “Sketch a Novel In An Hour” workshop (available at http://www.yorkwriters.com/2009/02/sketch-novel-in-hour-exercise.html), and the other was an overview of genres.

What do I mean by “genre”? A genre is not what you write, it is what you sell. A genre is just the marketing category that tells the bookstore where to shelve the book, and the reader where to look for a book that will meet their expectations. That’s really what it’s all about: reader expectations. What do you, as a reader, want? How can you find it? Who can you trust to meet your expectations?

Of course not all books fit neatly into categories, and my friend Phyllis Irene Radford will be guest blogging on Thursday to talk about crossing the lines between genres. But before we start mixing and matching willy-nilly, let me try to condense that hour-long talk into a few paragraphs. It can’t be done, of course, but that won’t stop me from trying. I hope it will at least give some background for her Thursday post. Oh , and after Phyl’s visit on Thursday keep checking back – I have some great guests lined up over the next three months, one every Thursday, with a Monday post to set up each guest.

Now, on to a whirlwind tour of the genres!

For our presentation, we focused on the primary commercial genres: science fiction, fantasy, mystery, romance, women’s fiction, literary, young adult/juvenile/children’s, western, thriller, and horror. We didn’t have time for in-depth examinations, this is just an introduction. Each genre has some specific characteristics, and each one has certain reader expectations, and we tried to touch on both.

Science Fiction – Some extraordinary subject (time travel, sentient computers, faster-than-light drives) is treated as scientifically plausible. Alternate history is also considered science fiction. There is no “set” ending in a science fiction story.

Fantasy – Some form of magic is present. The resolution is positive; fantasy readers expect some kind of positive ending.

Mystery – There is a crime, the story focuses on the crime, and the crime is resolved. The story always addresses issues of right and wrong. There’s a wide range of mystery sub-genres, but in all of them the reader expects the crime to be resolved.

Romance – The story focuses of the relationship between two characters, and the hero and heroine live happily ever after. There are a lot of sub-genres of romance as well, but the defining element is “Happily ever after.”

Women’s Fiction – Female protagonists, in stories that address the issues in women’s lives. Women’s fiction may have romance stories, but the reader does not automatically expect “Happily ever after.” In women’s fiction, “Happily until next Saturday” is an acceptable substitute.

Literary – Defined by style and voice. Beautifully written. There are no other absolutes – literary fiction is primarily about the writing.

Young Adult/Juvenile/Children’s – An umbrella genre that contains all others. The protagonist is young – only a few years older than the target audience – and the audience looks for character and voice. The actual level is determined by the age of the reader, but kids read all up and down the spectrum once they get started.

Western – Defined by the setting in time and place: the American West prior to about 1900. The western reader expects a positive resolution. After all, Marshall Dillon always got his man, didn’t he?

Thriller – Big in scope, with multiple viewpoints and high stakes. Thriller readers expect action and suspense ratcheting up with every chapter.

Horror – Is horrific. Like pornography, you’ll know it when you see it.

Okay, a one-hour talk based on years of reading and writing, condensed into a few hundred words. It doesn’t begin to cover the subject, but at least it’s a place to start.

But don’t try to write a genre. Write the book you want to write, then find a genre in which to market it. Don’t try to follow a trend. As someone said recently “By the time you can see the bandwagon, it’s too late to get on.” And look outside your comfort zone, keeping an open mind. Maybe that book you thought was a romance is really women’s fiction, or mystery, or maybe even fantasy.

Or maybe, like Phyl, you’re crossing genres. Stick around, she’ll be here Thursday to offer some advice to those of us who can’t seem to color within the lines.

What Happened to October?!?

2009-11-08T18:23:00.000-08:00

All right, troops. Would someone please explain to me where the entire freakin' month of October disappeared to? I mean, didn't I just do the book launch and signing thing at North by Northwest? How did an entire month go by so fast?

Seriously, this past month was a whirlwind. It started with a pro-level writing workshop here in town, where I helped teach every night after work. In the middle of the two-week workshop we had a very successful book launch, and at the end of the week a senior editor from my publisher came in as a guest instructor.

After which I collapsed - until my husband got sick, and then, well, see that last post about the glamour of the writing life!

One very cool thing happened just before the launch. I got a book release gift from a wonderful friend. Here's the explanation I emailed to our writers loop:

I just got the coolest, funnest "book release gift" ever! Last night Steve
showed up with a special gift from Cindie Geddes to celebrate the release of
SINK TRAP. She had arranged with him to pick up something she had ordered locally for me - and I was simply blown away.

Cindie, I have to say, this gift was unique and it made me laugh!!

What Steve presented me with on Cindie's behalf was a LARGE pipe wrench, which was pretty cool all by itself. But that wasn't all - she had managed to talk the local hardware store guys into engraving the release date for the book on the handle, and the name of my main character on the jaws!

Now, when I say a big wrench, I really mean it. Just look:

Is that totally cool, or what? The victim, er, student in the picture is Michael Bellomo. He wanted his picture taken with me and the wrench, and I really couldn't disappoint him, now could I? Somehow, I see another Georgie plot shaping up... Rest assured, Michael survived, and is now resting comfortably at home in California. He may even come back to Oregon. Someday.

And those books on the table? They have sticky notes on them because they were pre-ordered, which was a good thing, since Sheldon (McArthur, bookseller extraordinare) actually ran out of books and had to take backorders! Doesn't get much better than that.

Steve recovered from his flu, after sharing it with me, and I've recovered, too. There is news about LEAD PIPE CINCH (coming in April), and more maybe-news on the horizon. And maybe the next month won't disappear quite so fast.

Who am I kidding??

Christy

Celebrity!

2009-10-07T17:55:00.000-07:00

The glamorous life of an author...

I ran into Sheldon Mcarthur, the local indie bookseller who is hosting my signing on Saturday, at the grocery store this morning. He told me the books had arrived and he was getting the display set up and arranging stuff for the signing. Then I picked up a copy of the local paper (News Guard, Lincoln City, Oregon) and checked out the profile piece on me, along with the very nice review of SINK TRAP that's quoted above.

But the really glamorous part? I was wearing a baggy T-shirt and blue jeans, and drooling because I had just left the dentist's office.

I tell you, the glory never ends!!

The Road to the Bookstore - Arrival!!

2009-10-05T17:07:00.000-07:00

According to the publisher, today is the official release day for SINK TRAP. I will be reading and signing at North by Northwest Books & Antiques here in Lincoln City on Saturday, October 10, at noon. If you can’t make the signing but you’d like to get an autographed book, contact Sheldon McArthur at North by Northwest (mcarthurca@earthlink.net), or call the store (541) 994-6809.

The release of a book is a milestone – the culmination of that whole Road to the Bookstore that I’ve been talking about. It means that the manuscript you sweated bullets over, the careful cover design, the hard work of artists, designers, typesetters, editors, and copyeditors has finally produced the beautiful volume that’s on the shelf with your name on the cover. It’s a cause for celebration, and an opportunity to stand in the aisle and admire your finished product – and maybe squeal just a little.

But in a larger sense the release itself is anti-climactic for a working writer. The book that appears on the shelf today is a book I wrote last year. I did the revision many months ago. I’ve already seen the cover art, and the finished cover. I checked the copyedits and the galley pages, and distributed advance copies. I’ve even seen a few reviews – the source of the quotes at the top of this page.

For me, the book is history. I’ve moved on to the next book, or beyond. In the case of the Lady Plumber books, I have already written the second and third books in the series. At the moment I am working on the copyedited manuscript for the second book, and squealing with glee over the preliminary cover design. But as far as SINK TRAP is concerned, most of my work is done.

I’ll still promote the book, and I’m immensely proud of what I’ve done. I’m pleased with the story, and happy that the early reviews are favorable. It’s what I call the Sally Fields moment – “You like me! You really, really like me!” – and it’s a wonderful feeling. But writing is my job, and just like everyone else, my job doesn’t end just because one project is complete.

So I’ll be at the bookstore at the end of this particular road on Saturday, and I’ll enjoy the feeling of accomplishment that comes with the completion of the project. I’ve earned that moment.

But come the next day it will be time to go back to work, and start another journey on the Road to the Bookstore.

Who knows where the next one will end?

Reminder: Signing this weekend!

2009-10-05T11:38:00.000-07:00

Chris will be signing and reading from "Sink Trap" this Saturday, Noon, at North by Northwest books in Lincoln City, Oregon. The address is 6334 S Hwy 101. Phone is 541-994-3087. If you can't make the signing, the store will be glad to take your orders for signed books.

The store is located on the far south end of Lincoln City in the Streetcar Village antique center. Find a map HERE. (Yes, it may seem like you've left town before you get there, but don't worry, unless you pass the Salashan Resort, you haven't driven too far.)

A Problem in the Pipes - "Sink Trap," Chapter 1 (continued)

2009-09-22T13:12:00.000-07:00

The first part of Chapter 1 was posted last week, here. (Go ahead, go read that post, we'll wait.)

Here's the rest of the chapter. I hope you'll enjoy it enough to want to pre-order the whole book, which you can do HERE. And, yes, there will be a Kindle version for you early adopters. Just follow the "other editions" link from the page that link takes you to on Amazon.

Chapter 1 (continued)

The inspection of the Tepper warehouse hadn’t gone well. So far, we’d discovered one restroom with some serious leaks, and a stopped-up utility sink.

Fortunately for me, clogged pipes are easier to diagnose than leaks, so Barry took the bathroom and I got the sink.

But on this job, nothing turned out to be simple. I’d struggled with a plumber’s snake for twenty minutes before I gave up, grabbed my tools, and crawled under the sink where my mother had found me.

Plumbers, in my limited experience, spent an inordinate amount of time under sinks. Or under houses. I’d take the sink any day.

From my cramped quarters back under the sink, I heard familiar footsteps echo through the empty warehouse. Over my shoulder I saw the worn steel-toe boots of my boss, Barry Hickey.

Lately, I identified everyone by their shoes.

“Hand me that work light, would you, Bear? I can hardly see what I’m doing under here.” The nickname fit his stocky frame and brown hair, though I didn’t use it often. It seemed a little too familiar.

But sometimes Barry felt more like the older brother I never had than my boss. And it didn’t hurt our budding friendship that I made the office computers do tricks he didn’t think possible.

Barry thrust the small round light under the counter, into my outstretched palm. “Getting late,” he said. “I’m done with that bathroom for now. We could knock off for the night, come back in the morning when you can see what you’re doing.”

I wiggled further under the sink and grabbed the wrench handle with my leather-gloved hands. I tightened the jaws around the connecting ring of the drain pipe, digging into seventy year’s accumulation of unidentifiable corrosion.

“I can see,” I protested. “Besides, another five minutes, I swear, and I’ll be done under here.” I grunted as I pushed against the wrench, my reward a scant inch of movement.

“And we can’t come back tomorrow,” I continued, as I braced myself for another push. “We have to do the walk-through on the Tepper house.”

The two properties were both owned by Martha Tepper, a retired librarian who’d left town a couple weeks back. I’d heard she was tired of Oregon winters and wanted someplace with sunshine.

I think she went to Arizona, though I wasn’t sure. I hadn’t seen much of her since I left for college, but I remembered her from summer vacations when I camped out in the mystery section of the library.

Now my mother and Gregory were working with Rick and Rachel Gladstone, Martha’s attorneys, on a deal for both properties.

“You promised Sandra it’d be done, and she wants to get back to the Gladstones before the end of the week.”

The wrench moved again. The pipes in the warehouse were old, but I had the right tools and a whole lot of stubborn.

“Sandra?” A disapproving tone crept into my boss’s voice. “Georgiana, she’s your mother.”

It bugged Barry when I called my mom by her first name, but it was one way I kept my personal and private lives separate. And as long as Hickey & Hickey worked for Whitlock Estates Realty, I needed that separation.

I’d already messed that up once today, talking to Sandra herself. I wasn’t going to do it again.

“She is. When I’m at her house for Sunday dinner or we’re visiting her sister in Sweet Home. Not when she’s paying for a job, Barry. Then she’s Sandra. Or would you rather I called her Mrs. Neverall?”

Barry’s feet moved away, out of my line of sight. He paced across the dirty concrete floor of the warehouse.

Barry wasn’t good at waiting.

I herked on the wrench one more time and the connector ring broke free. A couple good turns and I was able to put the wrench down and turn the coupling by hand.

The stubborn joint came free, releasing the end of the outlet pipe. A gush of stagnant water ran into the waiting plastic bucket. Judging by the stench, that water had been sitting in the pipe for a long time.

I dropped the rusty coupling in the bucket and wormed my way back out from under the sink.

“You know, Barry, you didn’t put ‘contortionist’ on the job description.” I reached back in for the work light and played the illumination over the end of the pipe to be sure the flow of stinky water stopped before I moved the bucket.

Barry chuckled. “You’re the girl who wanted to be a plumber,” he said.

“Woman, Barry. Woman. Your daughter is a girl. Maybe. But I am not a ‘girl.’ Haven’t been for years.” I reached under the sink to retrieve the bucket.

“Megan’s twelve. Of course she’s a girl.”

I glanced up, shaking my head. “Not so much anymore, Barry. She might tolerate you calling her that right now, but not for much longer.”

Through the high windows of the warehouse, the sky was nearly dark. I let go of the bucket and pulled back the cuff of my leather glove to glance at the scratched plastic bezel of my dime-store watch. I had learned the hard way never to wear a good watch when messing with pipes.

Nearly seven. How did it get so late? I was late for dinner with Wade.

I bit back a curse. Barry tolerated a lot from me, but one of his rules was no cursing in front of customers, which had morphed into no cursing on the job. Never mind that there wasn’t anyone in the building but the two of us, or that he was probably the only construction-trade guy in the country who didn’t swear a blue streak. It was still a rule.

The bucket stuck and I put my head back under the sink to see what the problem was, shining the light on the exposed pipe ends.

Something bright caught my eye. Given the condition of those pipes, there shouldn’t be anything bright under that sink.

Dirty, yes. Rusty, yes. Smelly, definitely.

But not bright and shiny.

I poked one gloved finger into the pipe, but the thick leather didn’t fit in the tight opening. I pulled the glove off, reached for the pipe, then reconsidered.

I had no idea what I was reaching for.

I grabbed a close-fitting latex glove from my pocket, stretched it over my hand, and reached back under the sink.

It was a lump of metal and stone, large enough to block most of the pipe. It should have been too large to have fallen down the drain, except the drain guard had rusted through, probably years ago.

The piece was lodged crosswise, and I pried it loose with my finger. It popped out of the pipe and landed in the bucket with a plop.

Curious, I fished it out.

It was a brooch. A very distinctive brooch, and one I thought I recognized. Martha Tepper, the retired librarian who was supposed to be in Arizona, had worn it every day, the same way a happily-married woman always wears her wedding band. If it was the brooch I remembered, she never went anywhere without it. So why was the librarian’s favorite accessory sitting in a glop of plumbing goo in my hand?

After being lodged in the drain pipe of an empty warehouse in Pine Ridge, Oregon?

And what was I going to do about it?

(To be continued...)

Order "Sink Trap" now:

Meet Georgiana Neverall!! (Read the opening to "Sink Trap!")

2009-09-16T22:14:00.000-07:00

A Dirty Business

Always keep a Tyvek jumpsuit and a dust
mask on hand. Both can be purchased at
most hardware and home supply stores. You’ll
be glad to have them when you have to crawl
underneath the house, or through the attic.
When dirt and worse are flying everywhere, it’s
handy to have a tough outer layer to repel it.
—A Plumber’s Tip from Georgiana Neverall

“Georgiana? Georgiana Neverall , is that you under there?”

My mother, Sandra Neverall, the doyenne of Whitlock Estates Realty and one of the more demanding customers of Hickey & Hickey Plumbing, stood in the doorway. Her stylish stiletto heels, the only part of her visible from my position under the utility sink, looked impossibly out of place on the dirty concrete of the warehouse floor.

My mother could turn a simple hello into a referendum
on my entire life. “Yes, Mother. Who else would it be but
your only daughter?”

I regretted it the instant the words left my mouth. She
knew how to push my buttons, and I knew she knew, but it
didn’t stop me from rising to her bait.

“We-l-l-l-l . . .” She dragged the word out, and I could
picture her arching one perfectly penciled eyebrow. “I’m
really not sure. My daughter spent a fortune on a degree
from Cal Tech. I’d hardly expect to find her in ragged
coveralls under the utility sink of a filthy warehouse, now
would I?”

I bit back the impulse to answer in kind. We’d read that
script too many times already. I’d recently discovered I
liked wearing coveralls and crawling under sinks, and she
thought I should wear aprons and serve meatloaf to an
adoring husband. Or at least make some use of that pricy
college degree.

“And yet, you have.” I abandoned the stubborn pipe
joint and wiggled out from under the sink, standing up to
face my mother, work boots to stilettos. “So, what was so
important that you dragged yourself all the way out here
to find me?”

She widened her eyes in an attempt at innocence. She
held the expression for a few seconds, but then realized I
wasn’t buying her act and gave it up.

I love my mother, and I truly believed she loves me.
But that didn’t mean we dropped in on each other, or
palled around together.

Or understood each other.

To tell the truth, I was surprised she even knew where
to find me.

“I went by that charity house first. I assumed you were
there.” She refused to call the project by its proper name,
Portland Homes for Help.

“I finished there before I came to work.” For a moment
I remembered the rich odor of fresh-cut pine and the scent
of new carpet. The house was nearly done, smelling like
hope and the promise of help for one deserving family.

“It’s charity, Georgiana,” she said, as though reading
my thoughts. She says that’s a mom talent that never goes
away. She’d been really good at it when I was a teenager,
but you’d think it would lose its potency when I passed
thirty.

Apparently not.

But it explained how she found me. The Homes for
Help crew ratted me out.

I nodded, bit my tongue, and waited for her to go on.

“I’m on my way out to the Clackamas Commons Development,”
she finally continued. “Gregory and I.” She
always referred to her boss as Gregory, not Mr. Whitlock,
and I wondered for a moment about the apparent level of
familiarity before I focused back on her words. “—so
we’re going to take over sales for all three hundred units.”

“Great, Mom. Really. If anyone can sell those places,
it’s you. I can picture the commissions stacking up.” I
grinned at her, to let her know I really was pleased. “But
you didn’t need to come all the way out here to tell me
that. You could have called.”

“It was on my way,” she lied, waving a freshly manicured
hand in dismissal.

Plum Crazy. The color registered without thought. I
hadn’t had a manicure in over two years—not since I left
the high-wire act of corporate competition—but it used to
be my favorite color. And it described perfectly the way
my mother made me feel.

I turned away and crouched back under the edge of the
sink. “That’s great news, Mom. Thanks for telling me. But
I need to get back to this job.”

I really didn’t expect it to work, and it didn’t. But it did
make her get to the point. Finally.

Her tone became all-business, as though someone had
thrown a switch. I found her ability to change so abruptly
a tad creepy. Then again, it was a useful talent.

“I just talked to Barry,” she said.

So she’d come to see my boss, Barry the Plumber, not
me. “He promised me the two of you would get this inspection
done by tomorrow.” She glanced around the warehouse,
her nose wrinkled in distaste. “And he said he’d
start on the house as soon as you finish here.”

She paused and I hoped we were finished, but she had
one more zinger before she left. “I asked for you on this
one, Georgiana, because I know you need the work. I just
hope you don’t waste too much time on that charity house
when you have a paying job waiting.”

She walked away, her heels clicking loudly in the
empty space, and I wiggled back under the sink. Charity, I
reflected, was not one of Sandra Neverall’s strong suits.

Be fair, I reminded myself, as I went back to work on
the corroded pipes. Charity was what forced her to go to
work after my dad died. The beloved Dr. Neverall of Pine
Ridge, Oregon, had treated his patients for free, and left
his widow with a stack of unpaid bills, and a load of resentment.

I promised myself I’d cut her some slack.

Or at least I’d try.

(Click to continue...)

Order "Sink Trap" now:

We Have A Winner Times Two - and A Bonus Giveaway!

2009-09-15T22:15:00.000-07:00

I want to offer my congratulations to the winner of the Advance Readers Copy of SINK TRAP

(Drum roll, please!!!)

Louisa of Portola, California!!!

This is the part where I thank you all for playing, and offer some consolation. Whatever. But since I really appreciate the support from all of you, well

(Would another drum roll be too much?)

We're giving away another book!

Same as before, except I'll keep all the current names (except you, Louisa. Sorry!) in the drawing and add any new ones. You've got about a week to be sure your name is on the list, but I want to be sure I get the book to you before it hits the stores, so you can get a head start on the rest of the world.

And while I'm giving stuff away, there's one more thing to give away tonight. At the suggestion of my dear husband, I've made some knitted Kozy Kovers for the Kindle e-reader. Over at http://www.yorkwriters.com/2009/08/free-kozy-kover-for-your-kindle.html I collected names to give away a Kozy, and the winner of the first Kozy is:

(Hey, drummer, you should know the drill by now.)

Robin Page!!!

Now, before you all go away and plot how to make me draw your name next week, I am going to offer a consolation prize. On Thursday - really, it's on my calendar for Thursday - I'm going to post the first chapter of SINK TRAP right here on the blog! (And there might even be a few more pages between now and the release date...)

Once again, thank you all for stopping by, for your kind words and your support. This Road to the Bookstore is always made better by the company of friends and fans!

Congratulations to our winners, and WATCH THIS SPACE.

Chris/Christy - Georgie - Daisy - Buddha - and all the residents of Pine Ridge

A Great Bookstore - and a FREE BOOK!!

2009-09-09T21:21:00.000-07:00

Last Saturday I gathered all my courage in both hands, and made a cold call on The Mystery Bookstore in Los Angeles. I was only in town for three days, and had the World's Most Beautiful Granddaughter in tow, but I wanted to see the store.
I am SO glad I did!! The store itself is exceedingly dangerous - books packed into every square inch of the store, and something for every mystery reader. They also had children's books, which the WMB Granddaughter immediately started checking out. Fortunately for me, Grandpa was on hand to help her while I talked with the store personnel.
I was nervous, and didn't write down names, which was a stupid mistake. But the guy I talked to was so welcoming and helpful and not only willing but actually interested in taking the ARC I had brought in.
I can't say enough about the gracious welcome and the sincere appreciation of all things mystery exhibited in the store. It was well worth taking the time out of our short visit to the Southland!!

I still have a couple ARCs of SINK TRAP left from the stash the publisher sent me, so I am going to offer them to my followers here. Leave a comment, anything you want, and on Saturday, September 12, I'll draw a name for a copy of SINK TRAP. I'll even pay the postage so you can read SINK TRAP before it hits the stores!!

Yes, there are more posts on the Road to the Bookstore coming, but I think they will have to wait. SINK TRAP will be out in just a few weeks, and there are some things I want to do before it goes on sale - including posting the first chapter right here!! That's right, in just a week you'll be able to get a little taste of Georgie, her mom, and the town of Pine Ridge. It will leave you wanting more, I promise!

Kozy Giveaway

2009-08-10T01:43:00.000-07:00

Take a look at for details on http://www.yorkwriters.com/ the Kindle Kozy Giveaway. A Kozy cover for your Kindle, to read cozy mysteries!!

And did I mention that it's FREE?

The Road to the Bookstore, Part 5 - Cover Design

2009-07-09T01:10:00.001-07:00

The timing for this post is excellent. Just yesterday there was a knock on my door early in the morning, as I was getting dressed for work. I threw on a robe and scurried to the door as a truck pulled away, a clue that there was probably a package delivery left on the porch.

Sure enough, there was a small padded envelope next to the door. Too small to be an actual book (and a little early in production, too) but it was from my publisher.

I wrestled with the plastic for a couple minutes, then gave up and went in the kitchen for a pair of scissors. I very carefully slit open the envelope and found two cover flats. Now that’s something worth answering the door in your bathrobe for!!

A cover flat – for those of you who don’t know – is a book cover before it’s folded around the printed pages. (Thus the name “flat.”) For promotional purposes, there is an extension on one end which contains additional information about the author, marketing bullet points, and a description of any special marketing plans from the publisher, among other things. In addition, it has sales and ordering information – ISBN, pack size (how many books in a case), number of pages, cover price, release date, etc. This is one of the tools the sales force uses when presenting the book to book store buyers.

The cover flat is usually the first time you see the actual cover design come together in one piece. It is the work of a cover designer, a person who takes the various elements and combines them into the eye-catching package that entices the buyer to pick up your book, carry it to the counter, and lay down their hard-earned dollars. In my case that job was done by Rita Frangie (as I mentioned earlier), and I am delighted with her work.

As you can see from the picture, she’s taken the cover art, the review quote (Thank you, Joyce & Jim Lavene!), the cover copy, and the Prime Crime logo, selected a typeface, arranged them with the title and author name, and other required elements (like the bar code), to create my cover. Which, in my not-so-humble-opinion, is really cool! Look closely, and you will see that she mirrored the front cover art on the back cover, underneath the box with the cover copy, and she took a little slice of the cover art and used it to decorate the spine – with one of the Airedales (I think it’s Buddha – Daisy would never sit that still!) displayed below the title.

(sigh - This post has been sitting for a week while I wrestled with my scanner, in order to post a scan of the full cover flat. Alas, the scanner has taken 2 falls out of three, and I am posting without the scan, so as not to delay any longer. Don't you just love technology? Scan will follow if I can ever figure this out!)

All in all, I am way happy with everything that has gone into this process. SINK TRAP is getting closer to the bookstore every day. There are several more steps along the way, and fun stuff to come.

Stay tuned, there's more to come. And a couple surprises in the next week, I promise!!

The Road to the Bookstore, Part 4 - Acknowledgements

2009-07-09T01:09:00.001-07:00

So we have a book, with wonderful cover art, great cover copy, and a dedication. Each step brings us closer to finding our book on the bookstore shelf. But there are still several steps to go. In my last installment I gave you the story behind my dedication, now I want to talk about the other piece that goes in front of the story: the acknowledgements.

As I said, some writers have pages worth of acknowledgements, especially in non-fiction where the writer may have talked to dozens - or hundreds - of people in the course of their research. Often they have had help from professionals, specialists, and experts who have provided assistance. But fiction can require research and assistance, too.

In my ALIAS books, the story covered several continents - often in places I had never been. I spent many hours scouring the Internet for photographs, maps, and first-hand accounts of the places my characters visited.

For SINK TRAP I needed to learn more plumbing tips than my rudimentary homeowner skills could provide. Fortunately, I had a friend who had recently been a lady plumber's apprentice. You can bet her name is in my acknowledgements.

I also found an amazing first reader who not only shared my love of mystery, but turned out to have excellent copy editing skills. A good first reader is a treasure - but one who can fix your commas? Priceless!! She told she always wanted to be one of those people whose name was in the front of a book. I was very happy to be able to make that wish come true.

I made sure to thank my editors. They worked with me and provided me with incredible support and assistance and I want to ensure that they get lots of public accolades. They deserve every bit of thanks.

Most writers have a circle of friends and family who have been helpful on the road to publication. This is your chance to let everyone know how much you appreciate them. In my case, that includes my local peeps - the people I meet with every week, who have been mentors and cheerleaders, and my closest friends. They also include the network of writers I've developed over the course of several years, the people who are only an email away when I need a shoulder, a sympathetic ear, or a place to crow about accomplishments.

In addition, there's a local innkeeper who hosts writer workshops, which provides a place to meet, share information, and learn from each other. I get something new out of every gathering at his place, and Kip deserves a shoutout for his support.

Of course, there's someone who shows up in all my acknowledgements: fellow writer J. Steven York. Of course, it just happens we're been married for twenty-five years, so he's more than earned any accolades that come his way. Having another writer for a spouse means there's always someone around who "gets it" when you talk about writing, and who understands when you tell him to get his own dinner because you're on deadline.

There are more steps to come, and I'll try not to let another research trip sidetrack me this time.

And keep checking back - there are a couple cool surprises coming over the next few weeks as we lead up to the release of SINK TRAP.

The Road to the Bookstore, Part 3 - Dedication

2009-07-09T00:16:00.001-07:00

The production of a book takes a long time, and yet many things happen at the same time. Cover art and copy - and cover design - are done early in the process. It all has to do with how the publisher actually produces the physical book. The cover and the blurb are used in the publisher's catalog, and it has to be ready months ahead of the book itself.

While the art department and the designers are creating the cover, the editor and the author are going through the process of polishing the writing and the story, making it the best it can be. It can be a complex and daunting process, and I want to say right here and now that my editors - Denise Little at Tekno Books and Michelle Vega at Berkley - made the process manageable. Oh, and they also made the book better. My thanks to both of them.

Somewhere in the process of edits and rewrites, it comes time for the writer to add the dedication and acknowledgements - if they want to. There are writers who don't put these in their books, and writers who include multiple pages. Often non-fiction writers will have acknowledgements that run for several pages, thanking the many, many people who were instrumental in their research.

My dedication came about because I realized where my love for mystery originated: my great-uncle Hubert Darrell Rader. This the story behind that dedication.

Uncle Darrell was born in 1900, so he was nearly fifty when I was born. He never married, living with his widowed father until his father's death.

I was fortunate to grow up with my family nearby - grandparents, aunts and uncles, cousins of all sorts, all living within a few miles. I attended church with my grandmother just a few blocks from Grandpa and Darrell's, and after church she would take us to visit her father and brother.

I was a bright kid, and Uncle Darrell had a soft spot for bright kids. When I was really little he would dig in his pocket and let me keep as many pennies as I could count. I outgrew that game far too soon, but the adults would take the vocabulary quiz in each month's Reader's Digest, and they would let me try it with them. As I got older he taught me to play chess, and then one magical day he lent me one of his books: a Perry Mason mystery. My very first adult mystery. Sure, I'd read every Nancy Drew book I could find, and had tried the Hardy Boys, but I'd run out of "kid's" mysteries and I wanted more.

Perry Mason was absolutely what I wanted. Uncle Darrell read a lot, so there were many books to borrow. I'd borrow a book on Sunday and devour it - often within a day or two - then take it back to Uncle Darrell the next Sunday and exchange it for another one. There wasn't a new book every week, but there were a lot of them.

I remember those years with affection. Uncle Darrell gave me a passion for mystery novels that eventually led to the three books that are now on the road to the bookstore. Fot that reason, and so much more, my first mystery novel is dedicated to the memory of Uncle Darrell.

Darrell and Grandpa were a couple bachelors, they had their own life style and their own food choices. Every Sunday we could count on what we would find at Granpa's house for lunch: Smokie Links, rye bread, yellow mustard, Fritos, and Spanish peanuts. OK, not the most balanced meal, but it's loaded with nostalgia for me. So if I have a launch party for SINK TRAP the menu may be a little, um, different.

I hope I'll see you all there.

The Road to the Bookstore, Part 2 - Cover Copy

2009-07-01T09:30:00.000-07:00

One of the things that happens early on is cover copy. That's the blurb on the back of the book that is meant to intrigue and entice a shopper into picking up the book and carrying it to the checkout counter. It's like a movie trailer. Good cover copy will give the reader a taste of what's in store, without giving away all the "good stuff."

The cover copy is part of the overall cover design, which includes the artwork, typeface, colors, etc. For someone as artistically tone-deaf as I am, it's amazing to see what someone can do with these elements. According to the rights page of SINK TRAP, the cover design was done by someone named Rita Frangie, and I owe her a big shout-out for a great cover! I find myself strangely amused by the little Prime Crime logo handprint in the corner of the cover. Don't ask me why, it jus tickles me. I know the logo is on the cover of other Prime Crime books, but the color and placement on SINK TRAP feels like it's part of the artwork somehow, rather than an add-on logo.

I don't know who actually wrote the cover copy, but here it is, a taste of SINK TRAP.

An amateur sleuth with a great set of pipes…

When Georgiana Neverall’s fast-paced, corporate lifestyle goes down the drain, she moves back home to Pine Ridge, Oregon, and makes an unconventional choice—to apprentice herself to Barry the Plumber. Her uptight, super-successful realtor mother, Sandra, is plumb disgusted. She never dreamed she’d see a Neverall in coveralls toiling under someone’s sink.

Georgiana loves her new occupation, but is a bit surprised when she finds the favorite brooch of Martha Tepper, the town’s former librarian, clogging a sink. Martha supposedly retired to Arizona, but everyone who knew her says she never would have left without that brooch. Georgiana has a sinking feeling that Martha may have been retired permanently—and suddenly it’s up to a plumber’s apprentice to flush out a killer.

That's today's installment of the Road to the Bookstore. Stop back soon for more on the progress of SINK TRAP, LEAD PIPE CINCH, and CRAWL SPACE.

The Road to the Bookstore, Part 1 - Cover Art

2009-06-24T15:55:00.000-07:00

One of the joys of getting a book published is watching each of the zillion steps along the way. There are so many milestones, and each one is a reminder that in the near future (for flexible values of "near") a book with your name - or your pseudonym - will appear of the shelves of a bookstore near you.

{Note: Because we live in a very small town that same flexible definition of "near" applies.}

Cover art is one of the first steps. Because the artist needs time to produce the artwork, which musts then go through the approval process at the publishing house, there is a long lead time on cover art. You'll notice that I had was able to post the cover in April, even though the book won't be out until October.

A couple weeks ago I got the name of the cover artist. And recently, on a whim, I looked him up online. Wow!! I mean, I love my cover, but his other work is incredible. If you don't know Brandon Dorman, take a look here:
http://www.brandondorman.com/

Is this guy great, or what?

So now you can all join me in geeking out over the fantastic artist who painted the cover for my book. Go admire his work, tell him how fabulous he is, and maybe buy one of his books. They're beautiful!

And keep your fingers crossed for me that I get the same artist on book #2, LEAD PIPE CINCH.

"Sink Trap" cover

2009-04-24T14:09:00.000-07:00

Helper Steve here: While Chris is putting the final touches on book three, here's the cover for book one, "Sink Trap." Doesn't it look great? Click on the image to see it even bigger.

Sink Trap is scheduled for release in early October. You can pre-order by clicking on the smaller image in the sidebar.

The author herself will be along to comment presently.

Welcome to Pine Ridge!

2009-02-26T23:17:00.000-08:00

Hi, I'm Christy Evans!

Well, sometimes I'm Christy Evans. Most of the time, out in the so-called real world, I'm Christina York; but in the mystery world I'm Christy Evans.

Last year I signed on to write a three-book mystery series for Berkley Prime Crime: the Georgiana Neverall Lady Plumber series. The first two books are finished and turned in, and I'm working on the third book.

So Christy Evans Mystery is here to host discussions of mystery reading and writing, and maybe to give a few sneak peaks at Georgie, her friends, her family, and her home town of Pine Ridge, Oregon.

Come visit with us!

Purchase Christy Evans Books

1999-01-01T23:11:00.000-08:00

Books by Christy Evans (writing as Christina F. York)

Anthologies with short fiction by Christina F. York