7 authors, 7 colleagues, 7 freebies, 7 things we love

The 7 authors, in alphabetical order by first name, are: Alison Bruce, Catherine Astolfo, Chris Redding, Kat Flannery, Luke Murphy, Melodie Campbell,  and Susan J. McLeod.

Ali, Cathy, Chris, Kat, Luke, Mel and Sue are all authors at Imajin Books. We are colleagues. At some point or another (e.g. yesterday for Chris), you've met them here on my blog. 7 of us: 6 female and 1 male. Since he has a wife and three daughters, Luke is used to being surrounded by women.

We all happen to have our books on sale right now: the ultimate sale - FREE.  7 freebies.

Since it's Valentine's Day, I thought you might like to read the 7 things we love about being authors.

1. We love our publisher, Imajin Books. Not only is it difficult to acquire a traditional publisher (i.e. one who pays you for your book), but it's also rare for a publisher to take chances on smart, different, rule-changing novels. CEO Cheryl Kaye Tardif is also an author, so she understands the nuances of clever writing, plots that challenge, characters that are unique.

2. We love our readers. They are discerning. They like to be entertained, but they're also looking for great characters whom they can like or dislike, plots that keep them guessing til the end, and settings that transport them.

3. We love our Imajineers. As a group, we are friendly, open, honest, and helpful. We don't compete, we complement. We network for and with one another. We share ideas and skills. We support each other, in good times and in bad.

4. We love marketing together. Selling your product is, for a creative soul, not easy. Banding together to share the work is so much better than going it alone.

5. We love the writing process. Those moments when the characters take over and veer the plot into exciting territory that we didn't know we'd envisioned. Those times when the words absolutely spill onto the page without effort. We soar! It's enough of a thrill to keep us going through the times when we are slogging through every single word.

6. We love our librarians and bookstore owners. They invite us to speak, organize readings, buy our books, and generally introduce us to new readers in the best way of all: face to face.

7. We love our families and friends. They are the foundation that keeps us on our feet. It's not easy loving a writer. Often we disappear for hours at a time. We're in other worlds a lot. We have other people in our thoughts (and they're pretty real to us). Without our families and friends, however, we'd never survive this business of writing, our obsession, our gift, and sometimes, our curse.

The easiest way to find our freebies is to go here and press SHOP NOW:
https://www.facebook.com/7freebooksimajinthat

Yesterday: Chris Redding
Tomorrow: Cathy, Ali and Mel
Monday: Kat and Luke
Tuesday: Sue

On Fire! Kristina Stanley on Researching Arson

Thank you, Catherine, for hosting me.

Are you kidding? Thank you for being here! I am always happy to host a hot writer.

Pardon?

I mean, a writer who's hot. You know, popular.

Oh. Okay.

Also, it was a little play on words...you know, your research on fire...hot...right?

Oh, I see. You're funny.

Is that funny ha ha or funny strange...?

Kristina actually only said that first sentence. The rest I made up. Surprise! Seriously, I am THRILLED to have Kristina Stanley do a return post on research for her second novel. The scenarios are so different, from snow and cold to fire and heat. Her first novel was terrific! I'm looking forward to reading the second.

She also gives a little teaser for her third novel and by the sounds of it, we'll all want to hear about THAT research too!

 Now, here's the real Kristina Stanley.

 

Every novel has a unique subject, giving an author an opportunity to research and learn about something new. I write the Stone Mountain Mystery series that takes place in the remote mountains of British Columbia.

For DESCENT (1^st in the series), the majority of my research focused on ski racing and ski tuning. For BLAZE (2^nd in the series), arson is the crime, so fire fighting was the research topic.

The idea for BLAZE came to me while I was the director of security at a ski resort. Late one night, my phone rang. A set of condos was on fire. My role for the night was to manage the scene surrounding the fire. This included calling for ambulance and RCMP backup, finding rooms for guests who had been displaced, arranging crowd control, and ensuring the firefighters had food and water during the night. The firefighters did all the hard work and saved many condos from burning to the ground.

By morning, I had an idea for a story and had just been given first hand research.

By being on the site of a major fire, my senses and thoughts were filled with:

-       Smell and sounds. Alarms, floors crashing, commands being shouted, burning debris…

-       Water, water everywhere. This is where I learned how much water damage occurs while trying to put out a fire.

-       Fear of people being hurt. I knew many of the firefighters personally, and watching them inside a burning building is stressful.

-       Worry about pets. Luckily no pets were hurt.

-       Desperation of a person whose home is burning.  Standing beside some who is losing their home fills one with a variety of emotions.

These senses and emotions were incorporated into BLAZE. The trick was to turn the experience into a story. With my imagination triggered, I decided arson was the crime, Kalin Thompson was the suspected victim, and I needed to add a forest fire to heighten the danger.

The next step in the research process was to interview firefighters.

-       This was more valuable than reading about events. A firefighter can tell you what they would wear for different fires. I learned about gear for a forest fire versus a structural fire, what a man-down alarm sounds like, and what a firefighter would think and feel while working in a burning building.

After the interviews, I expanded my knowledge with online research.

-       I read news about fires.

-       I watched videos – there is always a video. A little aside about researching for my novel AVALANCHE, if you want to scare yourself google “what does it feel like to be caught in an avalanche," watch one of the go pro videos of a person being buried. I did this and had to go for a walk just to calm down. Now that’s exciting research.

The final step in my research process was to have a firefighter read the fire scenes for accuracy and believability. My thought was if a firefighter believed the scene, then others would too.

Research can be an exciting part of the novel-writing adventure. Just be sure you don’t get so involved in the research that you forget to write.

My Facebook launch party for BLAZE (https://www.facebook.com/events/1630121803934943/) is this coming Sunday, October 25th from 4 to 6 PM EST. I would love to see you there.

For added Facebook excitement, Catherine will be giving away a copy of LEGACY at the BLAZE Facebook launch party. If you’re not familiar with a launch party, drop on by and chat with authors, maybe win a book, and socialize online. I’ve met some fun online friends this way.

Kristina’s Bio

Kristina Stanley is the author of the Stone Mountain Mystery Series. Her books have garnered the attention of prestigious crime writing organizations in Canada and England. Crime Writers of Canada nominated DESCENT for the Unhanged Arthur award. The Crime Writers’ Association nominated BLAZE for the Debut Dagger. She is published in the Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine.

Before writing her series, Kristina was the director of security, human resources and guest services at a resort in the depths of the British Columbian mountains. The job and lifestyle captured her heart, and she decided to write mysteries about life in an isolated resort. While writing the first four novels, she spent five years living aboard a sailboat in the US and the Bahamas.

Instead of exchanging vows, Kalin Thompson spends her wedding day running from a forest fire near Stone Mountain Resort, and the pregnant friend trapped with her has just gone into labor. Meanwhile, Kalin’s fiancé, Ben Timlin, hangs from the rafters of a burning building, fighting for his life. Can the situation get any hotter?

When the fire is declared as arson, finding the firebug responsible becomes Kalin’s personal mission. In the course of her investigation as Director of Security, she discovers that some people will go to extreme measures to keep her from exposing their secrets.

I love to connect with people online. I can be found at: www.KristinaStanley.com

Follow me on twitter, let me know you read this blog and I’ll follow you back. @StanleyKMS

Or comment on my Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/KristinaStanley.Author

If you're looking for something to read and you haven’t read DESCENT yet, now is your chance before BLAZE comes out. Find it at:  http://mybook.to/Descent

And if you have read DESCENT, I’d be very excited if you pre-ordered BLAZE http://myBook.to/BLAZEbyKristinaStanley

Guest Post from Debra Purdy Kong: RESEARCH, WITH A PERSONAL TOUCH

I met Debra Purdy Kong through Crime Writers of Canada.
Staying in touch through Facebook and other crime-related
events (no jail time involved) has allowed me to get to know her 
and appreciate not only her talent but her determination. She's
one of those people who supports her colleagues and gives
thoughtful, intelligent feedback and inspiration. Here's her
insightful look at research.

For crime fiction writers, finding ideas is easy. All we have to do is turn to news sources. Research, however, is another matter, but these five strategies really help:

leg work
firsthand experience
networking
expert interviews and consultants
internet research

For me, leg work is important. When I incorporate foreign settings, I choose places I’ve been to and find something specific about them to weave into a story. In my first Casey Holland mystery, The Opposite of Dark, one of the chapters is set in Amsterdam. I mention the pricey McDonald's hamburgers and the ubiquitous dirt particles that swirled over Casey’s hair and face whenever the wind blew. These memories have stayed with me over the years.

Firsthand experience is the most time-consuming type of research, yet it's become invaluable. Employment in security added authenticity for the Holland series and my recently released Evan Dunstan novella, Dead Man Floating. I didn't set out to incorporate day jobs into short stories and novels. It just worked out that way. The security field had interested me, so I answered an ad in the paper and wound up training as a campus guard, dispatcher, and later a supervisor.

Networking in person and online is another great resource. Discussions about my work have put me in touch with IT and forensics experts, for instance. Twitter helped me connect with a bus driver who is now my consultant on a current Casey Holland mystery.

Many times, you don’t even need a referral to find an expert. Universities, organizations, and libraries have links to databases listing all sorts of people willing to answer questions. One question often leads to another and soon you're gathering knowledge to about things you hadn't known to ask. Once you’ve identified an expert, a short, polite email query often gets the ball rolling.

It might seem strange, but Google research is the resource I've used least so far. It’s probably because I've had the benefit of working in the same field as my protagonists and set most of my stories locally. But I hope to expand my horizons. I’m mulling over new work in a different genre and research needs will definitely expand. I can't wait to see where the search will take me.

Link to Dead Man Floating: http://www.amazon.com/Dead-Floating-Evan-Dunstan-Mystery-ebook/dp/B014K0UY1A

EXCERPT FROM DEAD MAN FLOATING:

Propping the kickstand, Evan removed the small flashlight attached to his belt then stepped nearer the water. Oh shit! It was a hand! A freakin’ hand! And legs! He moved the flashlight up the body until he spotted the grey fringe circling a bald head that glowed like a moon. Evan shivered. Was the guy alive? He wouldn’t have to perform CPR, would he? That first-aid course last year didn’t go so well after he broke that manikin.





 DEBRA’S BIO:

Author of six full-length mysteries and over fifty short stories, Debra has won numerous awards for her work. She conducts workshops, is an administrative assistant at Simon Fraser University, and also works as a substitute facilitator for the creative writing program with Port Moody Parks & Recreation.

More information about Debra’s books and her blog can be found at www.debrapurdykong.com
Also visit her FB Author Page https://www.facebook.com/pages/Mystery-Author-Debra-Purdy-Kong/139005706175139
Or find her on Twitter @DebraPurdyKong

Research: Guest Author Jill Downie on The Joys of Research

I am absolutely delighted to host author Jill Downie as she talks about the joys of research. Her Moretti and Falla detective series are enormously popular and have received a great deal of critical acclaim. You should check her out at http://www.jilldownie.com (I know you'll do that anyway once you read this post). On top of everything, Jill is a wonderful person.

The Joys of Research

Is there a writer anywhere who doesn’t like research?  Maybe, but I have yet to meet one.  Writers are like the elephant’s child in Kipling’s Just-So stories, curious by nature, and that can get them into some interesting, scary, unforgettable places in the real world and in that other real world: their imagination.

                  I have written both fiction and non-fiction in my life as a published writer, and there are more similarities than differences between researching the two.  Both are about when, what, where, why and how – and, being there.   

Except, if you are writing historical fiction, as I once did, being there only happens in the imagination.  But you still have to get it right, or you’ll get a letter or an email to point out the error of your ways.

                  Apart from my mysteries, the only contemporary fiction I have written is the short story, the first form of writing I ever had published.  The setting was the first community I lived in when I came to Canada, and I discovered afterwards there had been a mad rush to identify actual people in my characters.  Hey, everyone, it wasn’t a short-story-à-clef, I protested.  But no one believed me.

So, when I choose a name for the murderer, I tread carefully.  Which brings me back to research.

Get this book in one click.

I made a really smart move when I chose the Channel Island of Guernsey, where I once lived, as the setting for my Moretti and Falla mysteries, because it took me back to a beautiful and unique part of the world.  The first visit was after a number of years, much had changed, and I spent the time reacquainting myself with the place.  In spite of those changes, which incIuded the island’s transformation into a wealthy offshore tax haven, the scenery was still dazzling, the old island families with their unique names – Falla, Bisson, Le Cocq, de Sausmarez and so on – were still very much part of the landscape.  So, no wicked islanders – well, not identifiable ones, anyway. 

Order here!

 John Nettles, former star of Midsomer Murders, who lived on Jersey while making the detective series, Bergerac, has found himself persona non grata after writing a well—researched account of the wartime occupation of the Channel IsIands.  Some secrets are best left secret, some bodies best left buried.  Or, at least, unrecognizable.

I always go on research trips with a game plan, so it doesn’t just turn into a vacation, but I remind myself to keep an open mind, and to be prepared for the unexpected to turn up.  It so often does.  Plots and plot twists, characters walking around corners into your life, unplanned encounters that take you into a whole new perspective are among the joys of research.  I got the basic idea for the fourth Moretti and Falla while researching Blood Will Out, the third in the series.

Order right here.

I used to love spending time in libraries and archives when on the hunt for a book.  With the internet, my research life has been simplified, and maybe I regret that.  But only a little. 

I have been to the Yukon in search of a nineteenth-century journalist, served coffee and port by a white-gloved valet while interviewing a duke, and these were unexpected bonuses in my writing life.  Best to be open to the unexpected, I have found. 

So when my daughter asked, “Mom, have you ever thought of a story set in Las Vegas?  I’m going on a business trip, why don’t you come?” 

“Yes,” I said.

Being there.  Nothing like it.     

Everything Jill Downie can be found right here: https://www.dundurn.com/authors/jill-downie

 

                 

Fast, Fun, Feisty, Frugal

My new book, UP CHIT CREEK, is a shorty. A novella. A fast read for busy people without sacrificing character and plot. There might be a few delicious caloric descriptive passages removed, but who needs the extra weight?

 Especially when you are sitting on a subway train or a bus or a plane. If you're a fast reader, you can devour my shorty in no time.

Wikipedia says novellas can go from 17,500 to 40,000 words, with the most common being 30,000. My publisher, Imajin Books, picked 30,000 words max for her Qwickie line. As a comparison, novels are most commonly 80-90,000 words.
 




But - it will be FUN. Yes, this author of the dark suspense (Emily Taylor Mysteries and Sweet Karoline, not to mention all those short stories), has written a funny story. Well, I hope you find it funny anyhow. The plot of killing old people at a retirement residence doesn't sound funny, but my character is a spitfire. She's witty and smart and speaks her mind outrageously. A member of The Flower Pots, she's an "old hippy" who still likes to kick back with a spliff or two. Someone you might have met at Woodstock (the original).
 


It's frugal, too, since the novella will cost you about $3.00. Trust me, selling at this price doesn't make or my publisher rich, but it's just so damn satisfying. Of course, if we end up with a million buyers, we'd be just fine, but that's not something I expect. (Luckily, neither does my publisher.)

Pretty good price for something that will make you LOL and with characters you will remember.

Written on the little laptop pictured to the left!

The launch of UP CHIT CREEK happens Saturday, May 2, 2015.
 

May 2  Be Up  Chit Creek?

You are personally invited to dive right in. How can you do that?  Let me count the ways!

 1.     In person. Come to a panel discussion and the book launch at The Brantford Public Library, Main Branch, 173 Colborne St., Brantford, at 2 p.m. on May 2. Open House at our place afterward.

2.     Online! Download a copy of the e-novella through any of these links. You can do this right now. You’ll get the book on May 2. You can order on May 2 or after May 2. The Tooth will set you free.

3.     If you don’t have an ereader, download it onto your computer and wait until you do. Tell me you downloaded it and in goes your name for a free paperback when (if) I get one.

4.     You want an autographed copy? You can have your ebooks authorgraphed right here: https://www.authorgraph.com

UP CHIT CREEK

No one is surprised that “nosy Rosie” is the one who finds poor Mr. Hummel in the garden. The surprise is the knife in his back. Nothing like this has ever happened in Chittendom Creek, let alone at the ReVisions Retirement Residence. When the oldies start dropping like flies, it’s Kira Callahan to the rescue.

To solve the murder, Kira enlists the assistance of her friends, The Flower Pots—so named due to their past and present semi-legal activity. But Kira is up Chit Creek when a final ingenious plan to capture the killer almost ends with a victim close to her heart.

Amazon/Kindle:

http://www.amazon.com/Up-Chit-Creek-Catherine-Astolfo-ebook/dp/B00VEYO0PW

Kobo:

https://store.kobobooks.com/en-CA/ebook/up-chit-creek

Google Play:

https://play.google.com/store/books/details/Catherine_Astolfo_Up_Chit_Creek?id=ryC5BwAAQBAJ&hl=en 

     

Smashwords doesn’t have pre-orders, so on or after May 2:

https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/531663

Other Dates for In Person Visits can be found right here: http://www.amazon.com/Catherine-Astolfo/e/B005PWZ6D4

Shiver Me Timbers...Look who's in the house!

 

Jesse is a member of our Imajin Books family and I loved his book, Pelican Bay. I think you should snap it up, now.

 Here's part of my Amazon review: "Pelican Bay is written in a rich, descriptive voice that is a love letter to the Carolina coast and the people who reside there.   I think of this book as ethereal: the poetic imagination, the power to make the reader leave the often mundane roots of reality and travel with the author on a flight of fancy. A ghost, a small ocean-kissed town, a collection of endearing but exotic characters, the search for a truth that may be damaging to unearth...written in beautiful prose."

And now I'm honoured to have Jesse as my guest blogger today!

   I've had several people ask me what inspired my novel, PELICAN BAY. I wish I could tell you that there is some ingenious idea behind the book.
     The truth is that about three years ago, sleeping restlessly during those delicate hours when dawn is just beginning to shoo away the night with her long white fingers, I dreamed I was standing on a South Carolina beach with a faceless woman by my side. But hardly faceless in my heart. To my right were grass-bearded dunes, orange-black humps in the predawn light. To my left was the groaning shadow of a dock reaching out to sea.
     When we stared out in front of us, only dozens of feet beyond the surf, dark stones littered the sea's floor. I remember asking the faceless woman in the dream if she saw the bizarre stones as well. She was voiceless as well as faceless.
     I wanted to walk closer to the sea to investigate, but awoke in a cold sweat to the reality of my old house instead. That peaceful useless house that sits in the foyer of Alabama, its hoarsely whispering backyard pines throwing stars at Birmingham. That house that no longer belongs to me. No longer speaks to me. In the night.
     As I sat up in bed, all that I could think about was the Carolina Sea, the dunes, and most of all, the dark rocks under the ocean. They haunted me all day long, until I finally flipped open my notebook computer and gently pounded away, my fingers seeming to think for themselves.
     From here is where it all began. The faceless woman became someone very real from my past, someone you may hate and love and hate. And everything else, including Captain Shelby, came from that dream. That eerie dream that started a fictional avalanche that eventually got me published.
     So sorry if the impetus behind PELICAN BAY isn't sexy enough for you. But I have come to believe that the lines between dreams and reality are not as bold as we would like them to be. I feel that one of my missions as an author is to blur those lines in my work, for in my mind, heart, and soul, I believe that the truth lies, not in just one.
     But in both.
     Happy dreaming. 
     Yours in literature,
             J.G.C.

Watch the trailer here:  http://ow.ly/n8EWn

Order the book here: PELICAN BAY

Connect with Jesse! 

Web Site: www.jessegileschristiansen.com

Blog: www.jgchristiansen.wordpress.com

Twitter:  https://www.twitter.com/JesseGilesChris

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/jesse.gileschristiansen.7

Goodreads: http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/5261095.Jesse_Giles_Christiansen 

 

Vermont Visit: Serendipity Comes Along

      As we pull into the little town, a wall of heat and sun falls like a weighty blanket on our heads. We’re in Middlebury, Vermont, in the middle of the day, in the middle of the town green. Vince and I sit in a band shell and wait, gulping the breeze gratefully, though it’s pretty capricious. 

     We’ve just spent a lovely, interesting evening at our friends’ country home, along with a scrumptious meal, and now we’re on a research adventure together. Usually it’s only Vince and I, but we’re thrilled to add the other four. Our conversations are always challenging, invigorating and original. Thus having them on a research jaunt is a real bonus.

     At lunch, Frances and Marty mention that they’ve seen a few covered bridges in Vermont and want to go back to a couple they found especially interesting. I’d never thought of covered bridges as part of my research, but I begin to realize that they are part of the landscape. They might not be part of the story, but any good description of Vermont will likely have to mention them, so we decide to join the hunt.

When we arrive in Brandon, only a few miles south of Middlebury, I am thrilled. I knew it would be the right size (thanks, Google Earth), but I’d only hoped it would have the look and feel that I wanted.

To qualify: the new novel doesn’t take place in Brandon, but in a little community to the west of it, closer to Lake Champlain. However, this village doesn’t really exist. It’s called Salmon Creek. As the days of research march ahead, SC takes shape. The Lilac Inn gets enlarged and moved. Parts of Orwell stand in for my village, as does an empty field overlooking the lake. 

     Brandon can be herself. She’s the closest (and largest) town to Salmon Creek.

     As for the Lilac Inn, it turns out that this place was once a private retirement residence. I am shocked by the serendipity of it all! With its arched porch, gardens, banquet rooms, grand staircase, old-fashioned lift, and bar, it’s utterly perfect.

     We hunt through the Brandon Cemetery, stroll through two covered bridges. One is a railroad bridge. The train tracks are now ripped up and replaced with gravel and wood, but the covered bridge still looks magnificently ineffectual. 

     Nearby, I find my sunflower garden, a critical part of the novel’s opening. Just as I’d hoped, the sunflowers are enormous, with fat green leaves and huge brown faces and yellow bonnets.  We spend an afternoon under the arches while rain pours onto the fat leaves and clatters on the roof. Thunder echoes in the distance. This is exactly what I came here to do: experience life in Salmon Creek. Later, as I synthesize everything, I begin to hear Rosie’s voice. To understand her better. To be able to write her story. 

      They really do have salmon in Vermont, along with moose and maple syrup. We traverse the rolling hills in sunshine, gaze into small town life, spend hours talking on the Lilac porch. I have only enough time to make short notes, but I am content and happy.

     Both evenings, we have sumptuous meals at the Café Provence, somehow appropriate that Mary Jo and Ken, who went to the south of France with us years ago, are here too. We listen and talk to the locals, with their very indistinct accent – almost Southern Ontarian, we joke.
I drink in the scents, ask Vince to photograph plants, trees, flowers and rooms.

And then I find the book on a shelf in the common room. The Mystery at Lilac Inn by Carolyn Keene. A Nancy Drew Mystery. Serendipity flies again!

Great Openings

What do you think makes a great opening for a book? For instance, was that a great blog beginning, a question for you to contemplate? Does that compel you to read on, or annoy you and make you stop?

When I searched “best opening lines in literature”, a string of traditional novels leapt out. “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.” An amazing opening that goes on forever —a full paragraph, in fact—breaking all the rules of repetition and succinct attention grabbing. 

But is that rambling opening wonderful only because we know what comes after it? We are familiar now with the rich, complicated, character-driven, historical masterpiece behind that run-on sentence (either from the book or the movie). When A Tale of Two Cities was first released, I wonder if the opening served to pique the readers’ interest. Perhaps people thought the rambling was a bit much. Is the beautiful language in the opening responsible for the novel’s subsequent popularity? Or maybe we’ve paid attention to the beginning after the study of the incredible book.

Or, after looking at Charlie's picture, I'm wondering if the hair did it. Maybe I should get a different hair style?

Maybe this is a chicken and egg kind of debate. Maybe it doesn’t really matter.

For me, though, it’s interesting because of how my fifth novel developed. I got the opening sentence first. Although it went through a few permutations, it was a great line and I knew it. 

“I met Ethan on the day that I killed Karoline.” 

Such an admission, such a taunt, deserves follow-up, I think. It might not be filled with wisdom or historical significance, but it’s certainly a huge statement about what’s happening in the narrator’s life. My next challenge was to make Anne, the main protagonist, likeable. Once she admitted to being a murderer, where could I go from there? Is she a Dexter? Or is she suffering from guilt because of her best friend’s suicide and therefore feels responsible? 

Those are all the questions I hoped that first sentence would imply, lead to, or open up. Tell me if you think I nailed it - or not.

 Oh, and don't forget, we've got a party going on at my publisher's place, with tons of giveaways. Come on over and set a spell.

 Buy Sweet Karoline HERE.

Join the Summer Sizzle Party here.

Book Touring

Having a new release is such a roller coaster ride! So many things going on. My google alert is pinging constantly. I am tweeting until I've turned into Big Bird. Sweet Karoline leapt onto the top 100 Bestsellers (Kindle Paid) on Amazon.ca and I turned into a mush ball. For sure, some of that is residue from my Mom's recent passing, especially since I dedicated this book to her. Some of it is simply the down slope of the roller coaster: an old broad like me gets a little overtired.

I am all over the place this week. From Guelph, ON, to Seattle, Washington and so on. No wonder I'm overtired LOL.

Some of my amazing followers, friends and fans have asked what they can do. Pick one of these blogs or interviews, read, and comment. That's all. Oh, and tell your friends to order Sweet Karoline (the ebook) while it's still at the introductory price of 99¢ US.

Don't forget the rafflecopter contest, too. I really would like to give away those books and that Amazon gift certificate.

First up, today, with Alison Bruce and Nighthawk in Guelph.
I was honored to be called a "Master Story Teller" at the Kindle Review
I was interviewed at Blog Critics.
And in the Seattle Post Intelligencer.
You can read a chapter of Sweet Karoline on As the Pages Turn
I have a guest post on Guest post on The Writer's Life
There's another interview on The Examiner
You can even enjoy an interview with Anne Williams, the main character of Sweet Karoline! on Beyond the Books

A whole bunch of thanks and hugs from me to you.
Cathy

Judge a Book by Its Cover! And - off to Guelp today.

Come over to see me at Alison Bruce's blog, Summer Shorts, since I am in Guelph with her today!

Also thinking about Sweet Karoline's cover. If Mel Bradshaw is right about the explosive nature of this book - maybe there should be a bomb on the cover?? What do you think??

Here's a trivia question for you: what singer do I see every time he comes to Toronto and what does he have to do with Sweet Karoline?

Where Am I?

This past March, I went to Los Angeles to refresh my memory (hadn't been here in a couple of years) and to scout out a certain location for book five. Quite a lot of the action of Sweet Karoline takes place in L.A., but the first scene rolls out in a certain apartment complex.

I'm not going to tell you where the building is located - but LA County is a HUGE hint. If you can guess where I am, you could win a free ebook copy of one of my books - your choice of 5!!

Anyway, a friend of ours chose an Italian restaurant in which to meet in the very town in which I'd placed my main protagonists.

I hadn't much time in between tours, meetings and dressing for dinner, so I was a little flustered. This had nothing to do with the wine consumed at lunch, I am sure, but I forgot the address of the location in my suitcase at the hotel.

Luckily, one of the waiters lived in town. He immediately recognized said spot from my description. As serendipity would have it, the place was about two minutes down the same street as the restaurant! Now that's when you believe there's a guiding hand above.


As soon as I saw the park that spreads out next to the building, I recognized it. Why? Because my hubby and I had been there on Google Earth!

However, there was nothing like actually standing in front of the place that I'd imagined, manipulated and dreamed about for months. My characters had lived here. Despite the fact that I'd changed a few things to suit my purposes, the apartment complex was alive and spooky and perfect in the California dusk.

 Surrounded by wrought iron, gothic, its lights mesmerizing in the darkness, it looked just right for filming a psychological suspense.

Here's how I describe it in the book:
 

"Our apartment is part of a Moorish-Spanish designed collection of buildings that boast a beautiful stone façade, light brown stucco walls and rounded bay windows. Every balcony is bounded by gorgeous wrought iron, except for ours, which has rather high stone walls instead. The only drawback is that we have to stand up to see any view.

 "I used to shiver with delight and pride every time I entered the stone archway that graces the front entrance. Now I shiver for a wholly different reason."

That night, I was beside myself with excitement. Turns out this building has been the site of films before; most recently, an episode of True Blood, Season 5. I couldn't believe I had randomly picked this building to be Karoline and Anne's apartment! Again, there was serendipity at work.

Once my amazing producer/casting director Rep gets a certain Hollywood actress to read the book, we can start filming right away.

Where Am I?

 This is what they say on the location's website:  
"It has been used as a site for many motion pictures, music videos, reality shows, TV shows, and commercials for the past 40-odd years."

Holy coincidence, Bat Girl!

Have you figured out where I am? What town I'm standing in? What the building's called?

Leave me a message at cathy@catherinastolfo.com with your guess and you just might be chosen to receive a free book.

But you only have until July 14 to guess.

That's when Sweet Karoline comes to a book site near you!

Who is Detective Madison Knight?

Welcome to my guest Carolyn Arnold. She's one of my virtual friends and has kindly featured me on her blog, too. Carolyn's the author of the Madison Knight series, and the Brandon Fisher FBI series.   Today, she’s going to tell us about the Madison Knight series.

Me: Carolyn, can you tell my readers about the Madison Knight series?

Carolyn: First of all, it is designed as a stand-alone mystery series, which means you can read these books out of order and still pick up on the series' characters and story line.

Me: Exactly who is Detective Madison Knight?


Carolyn: Major Crimes Detective Madison Knight, fueled by determination to find justice for victims, is a strong, independent female amidst a career dominated by men.  If you love a strong protagonist lead, I invite you to meet Madison for yourself.


To find out more about Madison Knight and the series, you can visit my website here.

Me: How many are books are currently available in the series?

Carolyn:Three novels are currently available, but two more are slated for release 2013.  FOUND INNOCENT will be the fourth in the series slated to release in fall 2013, and LIFE SENTENCE, the prequel to the series releases August 14, 2013.

TIES THAT BIND
Meet Madison Knight as she and partner must pull together to stop a potential serial killer.

JUSTIFIED
See the softer side of Madison Knight in Justified as she's assigned to a case on Christmas Eve.

SACRIFICE
Madison must risk all, including her career, to bring a killer to justice.

Me: Would you like to share some more information on the first in the series, TIES THAT BIND, and an excerpt?

Carolyn: Absolutely. 

This is the book overview:

Detective Madison Knight concluded the case of a strangled woman an isolated incident. But when another woman's body is found in a park killed with the same line of neckties, she realizes they're dealing with something more serious.

Despite mounting pressure from the Sergeant and Chief to close the case even if it means putting an innocent man behind bars, and a partner who is more interested in saving his marriage than stopping a potential serial killer, Madison may have to go it alone if there's not going to be another victim.


Excerpt of TIES THAT BIND: 

Chapter 1


Someone died every day.  Madison was left to make sense of it.  She ducked under the yellow tape and surveyed the scene.  The two-story, white-sided house would be deemed average any other day, but today the dead body inside made it of interest to the Stiles PD and a few curious onlookers who gathered in small clusters on the sidewalk.
She’d never seen the officer securing the perimeter before but she knew his type.  The way he stood there with his back straight, one hand resting on his holster, the other gripping a clipboard, identified him as an eager recruit.
He held up a hand as she approached.  “This is a closed crime scene.”
She unclipped the badge from the waist of her pants and held it front of him.  He studied it as if it was counterfeit.  She respected those who took their jobs seriously—on a regular day—but not when she functioned on limited sleep and the humidity level topped ninety-five percent at ten-thirty in the morning.  “Detective K-N-I-”  Her name died on her lips when the front door opened and Sergeant Winston stepped out.  She would have groaned audibly if he wasn’t closing the distance between them so quickly.  She preferred her boss behind a desk.
Winston gestured for the young officer to let her in.  He glared at her before leaving his post.  She envied the fact he could leave.
 “It’s about time you got here.”  Winston fished a handkerchief out of a pocket and wiped at his receding hairline.  The extra few inches exposed a large forehead that could have served as a solar panel.  “I was just about to assign the lead to Grant.”
Terry Grant was her partner of five years and her junior by three.  Damn if he’d give the lead to Terry.
“Where have you been anyway?”
She disregarded his inquiry, jacked a thumb in the rookie’s direction.  “Who’s the new guy?”
“Don’t change the subject, Knight.”
She’d have to offer some sort of an explanation for being late.  “Well, boss, you know me.  Up all night slinging back shooters.”
“Don’t get smart with me.”
She flashed him a cocky smile and pulled a Hershey bar from a front pant pocket.  The chocolate had already softened from the heat.  It didn’t really matter.  She took a bite.  Heaven.  She spoke with a partial mouthful.  “What are you doing here anyway?”
“Call came in.  I was nearby.  Thought someone should respond.”  He went to step over the tape to the sidewalk, but it wasn’t a smooth maneuver.  His foot got caught up in the band.  He hopped on the other leg to adjust his balance and straightened out.  He continued speaking as if he hadn’t noticed.  “The body’s upstairs, main bedroom.  She was strangled.”  He pointed the tip of a key toward her.  “Keep me updated.”  He depressed a button on his key fob.  The department-issued SUV’s lights flashed.  “I’ll be waiting for your call.”
As if he needed to say that.  Sometimes she wondered if he valued talk more than action.
 With the Sergeant gone, she could feel the eyes of the young officer on her.  He stood there judging her from a distance.  What was his problem anyway?  She took another bite as she turned her attention to the house.
Terry came out.  “Too bad you had to show.  I think I was just about to get the lead.”
“I’d have to be the one dead for that to happen.”  She allowed a small smile to show as she brushed past him.
“You look like crap.”
The smile faded.  She stopped walking and turned around.  Every one of his blond hairs was in place, making her self-conscious of her short cut, wake-up-and-wear-it style.  And his cheeks held a healthy glow, no doubt from his morning two-mile run.  She hated people who could do mornings.
“What did you get?  Two hours sleep?”
“Three, but who’s counting?”  She took another large bite.
“You were up reviewing evidence from the last case, weren’t you?”
She didn’t feel inclined to answer.
“You can’t change the past.”
She didn’t feel hungry anymore and wrapped up what was left.  “Let’s just focus on this case.”
“Fine, if that’s how it’s going be.  Victim’s name is Laura Saunders.  She’s thirty-two.  Single.  Officer Higgins was the first on scene.  Call came in from the vic’s employer, Southwest Welding Products, where she worked as the receptionist.”
“What would make the employer call?”
“She didn’t show for her shift at eight.  They tried reaching her first, but when they didn’t get an answer, they sent a security officer over.  He found the door ajar, called downtown.  Higgins was here by eight forty-five.”
“Who—”
“The security officer?  Terrence Owens.  And don’t worry we took a formal statement, let him go.  Background showed notta, not even a speeding ticket.  We can function when you’re not around.”
She cocked her head to the side.
“He also testifies to the fact he never stepped one foot into the place.”  Terry paused and laughed lightly.  “Said he’s watched enough cop shows to know it would contaminate the crime scene.  You get all those people watching those stupid TV shows, and they all think they can solve murder.”
“Is Owens the one who made the call downtown?”
“Actually, procedure for them is to route everything through administration.  A Sandra Butler made the call.  She’s the office manager.”
“So an employee doesn’t show for work, they send someone to your house?”
“She said it’s part of their safety policy.”
“At least they’re a group of people inclined to think positively.”  Madison felt sweat droplets run down her back.  Disgusting.  She moved toward the house.
“You can’t take that in there.”  The young officer came hurrying over.  He shoved the clipboard under his arm, tucked a pen behind an ear.  He jabbed a pointed finger toward the chocolate bar.
She glanced down at it.  Chocolate oozed out of a corner.  He had a point so she handed it to him.  His jaw tightened.  She forced a smile and patted his shoulder.  “Good job.”  He walked away with the bar dangling from the wrapper he held pinched between two fingers mumbling something indiscernible.
Terry said, “You can be so wicked sometimes.”
“Why thank you.”
“It wasn’t a compliment.  And since when do you eat chocolate for breakfast?”
“Oh shut up.”  She punched him in the shoulder.  He smirked and rubbed his arm, same old sideshow.  She headed into the house with him following behind her.
“Stairs are to the right.”
“Holy crap, it’s freezing in here.”  The sweat on her skin chilled, and she found it a refreshing welcome.
“Yep, a hundred and one outside, sixty inside.”  Two steps from the top, Terry spoke over a shoulder.  “And just a forewarning.  It’s not your typical strangulation.”
“Come on Terry, you’ve seen one, you’ve—”  She stopped talking, stood in the bedroom doorway.  Terry was right.

Want to read more?  You’ll have to purchase Carolyn Arnold’s book.  Speaking of which, where can we find TIES THAT BIND?

Amazon Kindle US
Amazon Kindle UK
Barnes & Noble
Kobo
Apple
Sony

You may also find out more about Carolyn Arnold and her books at:  http://carolynarnold.net