AUTHOR J. WOOLLCOTT WEAVES LOCAL FOODS INTO HER NORTHERN IRELAND MYSTERIES

St. George's Market in Belfast

J. Woollcott is a Canadian author born in Belfast, N. Ireland. She is a graduate of the Humber School for Writers and BCAD, University of Ulster. Her first book, A Nice Place to Die won the RWA Daphne du Maurier Award, was short-listed in the Crime Writers of Canada Awards of Excellence in 2021 and a Silver Falchion Award finalist at Killer Nashville 2023. Learn more about her and her books at her website. 

When my Canadian husband and I were first married, we would take holidays to N. Ireland. For me it was a way to stay close to a country I had left behind, to see friends and family I’d missed. For hubby, it was a nice cheap holiday with lots of fun, laughs and pubs. Fantastic scenery too of course and rain. What we didn’t expect was fine dining. And we weren’t disappointed.

 

Food at home years ago was not fine. It was good, filling and basic and––dare I say it, a bit bland. Luckily, back then we weren’t looking for fancy. We stayed with friends and family mostly, except for times we went off on trips and stayed in B&Bs. This brings me to my first traditional N. Irish dish. The Ulster Fry. Usually made for breakfast, it can be adapted for all day dining. I describe it in my new book, Blood Relations. Ryan and his on-again, off-again girlfriend Bridget are having an Ulster Fry for dinner…

 

“…is it okay to have wine with an Ulster Fry?” Bridget got busy in the kitchen.

 

Ryan set the table, and they tucked into plates of bacon, eggs, fried tomatoes, fried bread, and mushrooms. Thankfully, no black pudding, which he wouldn’t allow in the house. Bridget was appalled, but let it go. They had a bottle of red wine with the meal. “This has to be breaking a few cosmic rules,” he said as they finished.

 

Fried bread, or a ‘dipped piece’ as we called it, was thick white bread, placed in the pan used to cook the bacon, then fried to a nice crisp brown colour on both sides in the bacon fat. So bad for you, yet so delicious.

 

Black pudding. Well, let’s not go there. People back home love it. I hate it, hence my hero DS Ryan McBride hates it too. Pig’s blood, that’s all I’m saying.

 

Nowadays, there has been a resurgence of sorts and N. Ireland’s restaurants, bars and hotels enjoy a fantastic reputation for fine dining. Lots of food shops, too, and markets to service the restaurants. St. George’s, in the middle of Belfast, is a fine example of that, and a great place to visit. Lots of farm-fresh vegetables and meats plus baked goods and cakes. Fresh cheeses and fish. All used by local bars and restaurants and everyday shoppers getting away from supermarket produce.

 

I didn’t want my policeman hero to have a major interest in cooking. He loves to eat but doesn’t have much time. He’s too busy solving murders. I decided his sister Erin would be the one to provide a little bit of culinary interest to the book.

 

I have Erin as a food blogger, a wonderful cook, and in Blood Relations she’s about to open a specialty food store. A few years ago that wouldn’t have done so well, now Belfast is bursting with them. Here are some photos of a terrific shop in the middle of Belfast, the kind of place I see Erin starting.

 

As an author and reader I’m always a tiny bit disappointed when I read a book and there’s no mention of food or eating, especially if it’s set abroad. What do you think, do you like reading about meals and visits to restaurants and pubs?

 

Blood Relations

A DS Ryan McBride Novel, Book 2

 

Belfast, Northern Ireland: early spring 2017. Retired Chief Inspector Patrick Mullan is found brutally murdered in his bed. Detective Sergeant Ryan McBride and his partner Detective Sergeant Billy Lamont are called to his desolate country home to investigate. In their inquiry, they discover a man whose career with the Police Service of Northern Ireland was overshadowed by violence and corruption. Is the killer someone from Mullan’s past, or his present? And who hated the man enough to kill him twice? Is it one of Patrick Mullan’s own family, all of them hiding a history of abuse and lies? Or a vengeful crime boss and his psychopathic new employee? Or could it be a recently released prisoner desperate to protect his family and flee the country? Ryan and Billy once again face a complex investigation with wit and intelligence, all set in Belfast and the richly atmospheric countryside around it.

 

Buy Links

paperback

ebook

BOOK CLUB FRIDAY - AN INTERVIEW WITH MYSTERY AUTHOR KATHLEEN KASKA'S SLEUTH SIDNEY LOCKHART

Today we sit down for a chat with Sydney Lockhart from author Kathleen Kaska’s Sidney Lockhart Mysteries.

What was your life like before your author started pulling your strings?

Good question. Before she started doing her thing, I’d never encountered a dead body; I’d never been wanted for arrest over the murder of said body; I’d never found myself under the Luther Hotel with a tribe of baby rats crawling up my blouse and pant leg; I’d never been hit over the head and thrown into the San Antonio River; I’d never been tied up and locked in a cellar. Get the picture? But then again, I’d still be stuck with my insipid life, and I never would have met Ralph Dixon.

 

What's the one trait you like most about yourself?

I am willing to stand up for myself and those who have been victims of killers, kidnappers, and other idiots. My grandfather was murdered when he tried to do the right thing. As a result, I hate when people do bad things to others.

 

What do you like least about yourself?

Just between you and me, sometimes I’m not as confident of my abilities as I put on, and I’m forced to stuff my fears and plow ahead. My author told me that condition is called Imposter Syndrome. I call it survival.

 

What is the strangest thing your author has had you do or had happen to you?

Besides pulling baby rats from under my blouse, I once danced with a dead man. I attended a New Year’s Eve ball, and this gorgeous guy and I were swaying on the dance floor. The place was so jammed packed that we could hardly move. That’s why he didn’t immediately fall over when the deadly knife was shoved into his back.

 

Do you argue with your author? If so, what do you argue about?

She comes up with these insane exploits for me to tackle. My first response is, “Really? You want me to do what?”  But I’ve learned to trust her, and, in turn, she trusts me—most of the time. 

 

What is your greatest fear? 

Becoming romantically involved.

 

What makes you happy?

Becoming romantically involved.

 

If you could rewrite a part of your story, what would it be? Why?

My mother. I would have my author rewrite Mary Lou Lockhart’s bio. My mom’s high maintenance, high strung, and highly annoying. The consummate drama queen. Picture a meddlesome Joan Crawford, except Mary Lou isn’t an alcoholic. But she is one of the most controlling, wacky women I’ve ever known. I would rather my mother be like Auntie Em, but then I’d have to live in Kansas, and I can’t be that far from saltwater.

 

Of the other characters in your book, which one bugs you the most? Why?

It’s a toss-up between mom and Cousin Ruth. If I had to choose, I would say the cousin because I spend more time with her. Ruth exudes annoyance. She’s a wealthy, spoiled fashionista; a true blonde, bossy bubbleheaded socialite. She has a knack for showing up uninvited and at the worse times, to assist me with a case. At least that’s her excuse. Her idea of assistance is slugging down a few martinis before heading for Neiman’s to spend the afternoon shopping. She throws a conniption when she breaks a nail or snaps off the heel of her Ferragamos. But I must say that when confronting killers, she does so with the air of elegant aplomb. Put her in a room with a killer, and within five minutes, he’d beg to be turned over to the cops just to get away from her. 

 

Of the other characters in your book, which one would you love to trade places with? Why?

Twelve-year-old, going-on-thirty Lydia LaBeau because she is smarter than me. Lydia walked into my life during the case at the Driskill Hotel in Austin. Dixon and I had just opened our new detective agency. We were hired to find out why Leland Montgomery, a future Texas gubernatorial candidate, was going to extremes NOT to get elected. Before the investigation started, Leland was murdered. The cops suspected Lydia’s father, Serge LaBeau. Serge is the owner of the Next to Nothing Live Theatre in Austin. He has no head for business, so Lydia took over at a young age. She indeed runs the show; writes, directs, and produces most of what ends up on stage. Lydia has a costume wardrobe at her disposal and often dresses in disguise when I’m on a case. She has no trouble going anywhere and doing almost anything. While investigating a murder in New Orleans, Lydia dressed up as a fortune teller. Within two days, she was a regular at Pat O'Brien's. Yes, I know she’s twelve, but that didn’t stop her.

 

Tell us a little something about your author. Where can readers find her website/blog?

Kathleen does many weird things, like running marathons and watching birds. Sometimes she does both at the same time, which has led to a few minor mishaps. Lately, she's been hooked on Zumba classes. There’s one thing she does that makes me envious—she hangs out with her three sisters. She could have given me three sisters, but instead she landed me with a brother I don’t like, and Ruth, the crazy cousin.

The best place to locate her is at her website. www.kathleenkaska  Oh, and read her blog, “Growing Up Catholic in a Small Texas Town.” It explains a lot. 

 

What's next for you?

Actually, I can't tell you that. All I can say is that there'll be another dead body, another hotel, and another murder I'll have to solve, of which I will be a suspect. But I can tell you that the story is in the final stages of editing and should be available to the public very, very soon. And I'll give you a hint. The hotel where the murder was committed was frequented by Tennessee Williams. Rumor has it that he wrote Streetcar Named Desire while staying there.

 

Murder at the Menger

A Sydney Lockhart Mystery, Book 5

 

It’s 1953, and detective Sydney Lockhart finds herself solving another murder. The victim is a slick bookie named Johnny Pine, who had his dirty fingers in pies from Texas to Florida. Sydney tracks Pine to the Menger Hotel in San Antonio, where she discovers he’s been murdered in the room next to hers. And as usual, Sydney is a suspect. With her partner, Ralph Dixon, handling the case from Austin; or so she believes, Sydney is working alone in unfamiliar territory. 

 

To make matters worse, Sydney’s car is stolen, and she elicits the help of an Irish cab driver named Taco and a bouncer named Rip. Soon she’s on the trail of Nora Jasper, a harlot jazz singer, and Pine’s girlfriend. 

 

Corpses start to pile up, a string of illicit deeds surface, and Sydney’s home life goes south. But the investigation takes a bizarre turn when Sydney is whacked over the head and thrown into the river. She surfaces with a faulty memory, uncertain of whom she can trust. Her only choice is to find the killer before the killer finds her or before she gets arrested. 

 

Buy Links

hardcover 

paperback 

ebook 

BOOK CLUB FRIDAY--AN INTERVIEW WITH MYSTERY AUTHOR CAROL PREFLATISH

Today we sit down for an interview with mystery author Carol Preflatish. Learn more about Carol and her books at her website where you can also find links to her social media.

When did you realize you wanted to write novels? 

I started writing in 2000 as a challenge to myself to write a novel for the millennium. I finished it, and enjoyed it enough that I wanted to continue.

 

How long did it take you to realize your dream of publication? 

I was first published in 2010, but it wasn’t the first, or even the second book I wrote that was published.  

 

Are you traditionally published, indie published, or a hybrid author?

I’m a hybrid author. The first two publishing houses I was with closed. I obtained the rights to those books, and then self-published them. However, now I’m traditionally published with Seventh Star Press.

 

Where do you write? 

I write at home, usually at my desk, but I do like to take paper and pencil and sit on my couch to write also. Once spring and summer weather get here, I hope to get out to some parks to do some writing.

 

Is silence golden, or do you need music to write by? What kind?

I do need sound to write. It’s usually the television on in the background.

 

How much of your plots and characters are drawn from real life? From your life in particular?

Nothing is drawn from my own life, but if I see a news story that interests me, I usually tuck it away for reference. 

 

Describe your process for naming your character?

I like to use uncommon names. I actually keep a list of names in a notebook. When I hear one I like, I’ll jot it down to use in a book. If I get really stuck, I’ll use an online name generator.

 

Real settings or fictional towns?

It’s a little of both. For the fictional town of Mystic, Massachusetts, I use the real town of Salem, Mass. as a model. 

 

What’s the quirkiest quirk one of your characters has?

I’m not sure any of my characters have any quirks. There is one character I have that was a rich kid that went to high school with Nathan and now fancies himself as a private investigator in town. He’s always trying to insert himself into Nathan’s investigations and sometimes shows up at the worst times.

 

What’s your quirkiest quirk?

For my writing, I like to make sure I have a glass of iced tea and M&M’s when I’m at my desk writing. I know, that’s not too quirky. 

 

If you could have written any book (one that someone else has already written,) which one would it be? Why?

That would be the nonfiction book, Wild by Cheryl Strayed. It’s my favorite book to read. I love the outdoors and her adventure on the Pacific Crest Trail is amazing, and so motivational. As for fiction, any book by Lisa Gardner. She’s my favorite author, and her books are so good.

 

Everyone at some point wishes for a do-over. What’s yours?

I wish I had started writing when I was younger. I was in my forties when I started. I wish I had started ten years earlier.

 

What’s your biggest pet peeve?

I hate it when people at the supermarket leave their carts in the middle of aisle. 

 

You’re stranded on a deserted island. What are your three must-haves?

Not including food and water, I’d have to have a notebook, pencils, and a few books.

 

What was the worst job you’ve ever held?

You know, I’ve been very lucky to have really enjoyed every job I’ve had. I started working in social services not long after college, held various jobs in that field, and retired from it several years ago.

 

What’s the best book you’ve ever read?

As I mentioned earlier, I love Wild by Cheryl Strayed. It’s the one book that I’ve read several times.

 

Ocean or mountains?

I’ve always said mountains because that’s where my late husband and I always went, but now I think I’m ready for a vacation at the ocean.

 

City girl/guy or country girl/guy?

I grew up in the country but moved to the city a few years ago. I love the convenience of things in the city but miss the peacefulness of the country.

 

What’s on the horizon for you?

I’m working on my next book in the Nathan Perry Mystery Series. It will sort of be a modern-day retelling of the Legend of Sleepy Hollow.

 

Witch Hunt

A Nathan Perry Mystery, Book 3

 

Is it 1692 all over again? When a millionaire's daughter is found hanging from a tree in the Mystic, Massachusetts cemetery, witchcraft is suspected. Police detective Nathan Perry is assigned the case and works closely with an attractive female private investigator hired by the father to find who murdered his daughter.

 

Mystic is known for its history of witchcraft in the area. It's what brings tourists to town, and when another murder occurs, there is rising pressure on Nathan to solve the case quickly.

 

Nathan's investigation pulls him into an unfamiliar world rife with covens, magic, and lore to find the killer. A small town gripped in fear is depending on him to prevail.

 

Witch Hunt is a stand-alone novel that is part of the Nathan Perry Mystery Series

 

Buy Links

paperback 

ebook 

#CRAFTS WITH ANASTASIA--AUTHOR RADINE TREES NEHRING CRAFTS MYSTERIES AND MINIATURES

Radine Trees Nehring’s broadcast and writing career began when she fell in love with the Arkansas Ozarks and beginning in the 1980’s, wanted to tell people why. Her many magazine and newspaper articles, radio broadcasts, and now, her multi award-winning Carrie and Henry amateur detective series, environmental writing, and short stories bring readers the gift of exciting adventures featuring right, wrong, human kindness, and redemption. Learn more about Radine and her books at her website and blog. 

How Many Ways Can You Tell a Story? 

I wanted a doll house. There was no money for one, so, using pick-up-sticks, I outlined rooms on my bedroom rug. I furnished my house with small, discarded containers, lids, and scraps of fabric. There is only one piece of my imaginary furniture left—a discolored and bent matchbox bed with my baby brother’s worn cotton diaper scraps for sheets. Various imaginary occupants lived within the house walls as I made up the stories of their lives.

 

Fast forward more than a half century. Though employed full time, I was now also an author writing a series about an amateur detective couple, Carrie McCrite and Henry King. Two Indy bookstores in my area, now closed, were among those that carried all my books. The owner of one store became a good friend, and I did at least four bookish events for her every year. One Christmas her window display featured toys along with children’s books. There was a wooden doll house in the display. I was seated at a signing table across the store entrance from the doll house window. The store owner noticed my reaction to that house. Pure love. She said after Christmas, I could have the house so she wouldn’t have to store it. She had paid $3.99 for it at a thrift shop.

 

In January I carried home my vintage, autographed Melissa and Doug solid wood Fold and Go doll house. It had been badly damaged. My husband, a master carpenter, repaired much of the damage, and where bits of wood veneer had broken off, I “planted” miniature flowers and vines to cover damage. We had yet to learn about Hobby Builders Supply, miniatures.com, or even the small doll house display at the local Hobby Lobby. So John and I created furnishings for our doll house. Four small wooden letter “I’s” intended for signs were bed posts. My husband cut shapes and glued. I made wall art out of costume jewelry and small pictures from magazines. Books were cardboard covered in colored shelf paper. Furniture was all wood, and unupholstered. You get the idea.

 

I still made up stories for miniature settings even as I wrote other stories on my computer. I was hooked by both ways of using creative ability and imagination.

The next problem was finding places for the Nehrings to display their miniature art. Some books had to go from living room shelves, and, in my office, my husband built and I decorated and furnished a two story log home that now sits on top of my filing cabinets. (I shingled the roof and am proud of that.) These days, interior furnishings often come from retail outlets serving thousands of hobby miniature builders around the world. As a miniaturist, as well as an author, I am far from alone.

 

Did you know that, in every box of plain Cheerios, there are a few small, round, brownish Cheerios? My doll house breakfast tables serve these “donuts!”

 

And, since my husband is gone now, there will be no more miniature settings. But I am still writing mystery fiction. The latest? Solving Peculiar Crimes is available December 1^st, but you can pre-order the Kindle version now.

 

Solving Peculiar Crimes

This short story collection stars Carrie McCrite, her retired police detective husband, Henry King, and their Ozarks friends, (including, in two stories, pre-school twins). Included are thirteen unusual crimes ranging from “The Hanging” to an adventure with a tracking dog, to “Planning a Crime—and a Wedding.” The crimes range widely--from misdemeanor to murder--but each gives the reader an opportunity to enjoy spending time with characters who, one reader states, “you would like to have as your neighbors.” All stories lead to surprising resolutions! 

 

Buy Links

paperback 

ebook 

#TRAVEL TO PORTLAND, MAINE WITH MYSTERY AUTHOR DALE T. PHILLIPS

Dale T. Phillips has published novels, story collections, nonfiction, and over 70 short stories. Stephen King was Dale's college writing teacher, and since that time, Dale has found time to appear on stage, television, in an independent feature film, a short political satire film, and compete on Jeopardy (losing in a spectacular fashion). Learn more about Dale and his books at his website.

The setting for my Zack Taylor mystery series is the great little city of Portland, Maine, a jewel by the sea. The people are terrific, there are a number of vibrant cultures, it’s a four-season vacationland alive with music, art, and literature, and it’s a foodie and craft-beer-lover paradise. I spent a lot of time there in years past, and wanted to set a mystery there. Why let the big cities of New York, L.A., and Chicago have all the sleuths and fun?

So when I wrote my first mystery, A Memory of Grief, I created a protagonist who comes to Portland in the 1990’s as an outsider, a complete fish-out-of-water. Zack Taylor has a troubled past and arrives on a mission to find the truth. He finds so much more and decides to stay in Portland for further adventures.

Although I use many real settings that those familiar with the area will readily recognize, I freely change things around. It sounds so attractive that some have asked if I work for the Maine tourism bureau. I always tell people that if they haven’t yet been to Portland, my series will make them want to go there. Still, I frequently show the dark side of Maine as well: the poverty, the widespread and chronic unemployment, the backwoods close-minded mentality, the small-town bigotry.

But I show Portland as a healing place, an environment so completely different from what Zack has known in glittery cityscapes like Las Vegas and Miami, that he turns his life around. He finds a love that has heretofore eluded him, although it is a difficult and complicated relationship, due to the violence that surrounds him. He finds a friend and mentor in Joshua Chamberlain (J.C.) Reed, a long-time reporter for The Maine Times. He also finds a host of enemies and has to deal with violent people, despite the fact that he doesn’t like or use guns, which puts him at a decided disadvantage.

Setting is vital to the events of the mysteries. In the first book, A Memory of Grief, Zack takes on a cadre of killers out at Fort Williams, the park that contains the iconic, oft-painted/photographed Portland Head Lighthouse. A Fall From Grace details Zack taking on a small Maine burg, which has turned against a single mother after the murder of the Town Manager. Later in the series we see Zack involved in the movie business, the coastal art scene, and a world where politics and crooked outside-money interests collide.

People know Stephen King writes about Maine, but Portland is also a rich ground for great mystery and crime writers, including: Kate Flora, Bruce Robert Coffin, Gerry Boyle, James Hayman, and Chris Holm. You can meet many of them at the Maine Crime Wave, an annual mini-con gathering of writers, fans, and special guests. Between this handful of writers, we’ve upped the annual murder body count of Maine by hundreds. They often paint Portland as a dark place of intrigue, although I like to show off the good points in my protagonists’ desire to set things right.

So when you’re in the mood for a trip to Maine, or a touch of murder and personal struggle, you can pick up the Zack Taylor series in many places, including, of course, the many Portland area bookshops: Letterpress Books, Sherman’s, Longfellow Books, or Nonesuch Books.

A Memory of Grief

Troubled ex-con Zack Taylor is haunted by the accidental death of his brother years before. Zack's guilt and anger have pushed him into a shadowy, wandering life, with little purpose and few attachments. When he hears of the death of his close friend Ben Sterling, a supposed gunshot suicide, Zack finds he now has a purpose—to find out what happened. Then his purpose becomes an obsession.

Buy Links

paperback 

ebook

audiobook 

AN INTERVIEW WITH AUTHOR N.M. CEDENO

N. M. Cedeño writes mystery, science fiction, paranormal mystery, and children’s poetry. Learn more about her and her books at her website. 

When did you realize you wanted to write novels?

I took a while to work my way up to novels. First, I wrote kids’ poetry and stories. Then, I branched out to short stories for adults a few years later. Finally, around age 30, I realized one of my stories needed to be a novel, but it took me a few years to figure out how to write it.  

How long did it take you to realize your dream of publication?

I submitted children’s fiction to publishers for years without success. Then, around 2008, I started submitting 250 word stories to Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine’s monthly photo contest. A couple of my stories were selected as runners-up in 2009 and 2010, so I decided to try writing full-length short stories. My first short story to be published was in Analog: Science Fiction and Fact magazine in 2012. By that time, I’d been writing for at least nine years.

Are you traditionally published, indie published, or a hybrid author?

My novels are all indie published, but I still submit short stories to magazines. Hybrid.

Where do you write?

I write at home, mostly in the office or at the kitchen table.

Is silence golden, or do you need music to write by? What kind?

For years, I wrote to the sound of squabbling children. Now I write to the sound of squabbling children and a dog barking out frequent proximity alerts: Truck! Squirrel! Person! Dog! Cat! Silence might be nice.

How much of your plots and characters are drawn from real life? From your life in particular?

Details in my stories are drawn from real life. For instance, I like to put favorite restaurants in stories. I included a rollover car wreck in a book, and I’ve been in one. I once gave a character a variation on a job I had held. My science fiction stories frequently involve current social issues that I tweak to fit my needs. However, most of my stories involve murder, and none of the murder plots are taken from my life.

Describe your process for naming your characters?

Naming characters is a complicated process!  I use a baby name book to choose names that fit the personality of the character. I also Google names to make sure they are either really common or completely unique.

Real settings or fictional towns?

Real cities and towns, but with fictional buildings added. I’ve set stories in Houston, Dallas, and around Austin. Most of my fiction is set in Texas.

What’s the quirkiest quirk one of your characters has?

In my Bad Vibes Removal Services stories, the character of Lea is a graduate student who studies the daily lives of ancient people. Her quirk is that she replicates the clothes, hairstyles, makeup styles, or even perfumes common to the ancient civilization she is studying, and sometimes wears them to work. Lea is also extremely sensitive to emotional atmosphere in buildings, and she sees ghosts!

What’s your quirkiest quirk?

I refuse to buy desserts I can easily bake myself: no grocery cakes or bakery cookies, cupcakes, or brownies unless they’re something truly extraordinary.

If you could have written any book (one that someone else has already written,) which one would it be? Why?

Busman’s Honeymoon by Dorothy Sayers. I’d love to be able to write witty dialogue and intelligent characters while displaying a knack for comedy and creating humorous situations the way Sayers did in that book. Sayers broke a main rule of mystery writing by ending not with the capture of the murderer, but with the execution of the murderer after the trial. She showed the psychological ramifications of the execution on her detective. She could only do that because she was a brilliant writer who could create characters that readers were invested in knowing, characters whose lives and emotions mattered to the reader.

Everyone at some point wishes for a do-over. What’s yours?

To have taken a marketing class in college.  I didn’t foresee how much I would need to know that kind of stuff.

What’s your biggest pet peeve?

Places that advertise kolaches, and don’t sell any actual kolaches, but instead sell sausage rolls are my pet peeve. Kolaches don’t have meat in them, people! Some kolache shops sell sausage rolls (klobasniky), but that doesn’t make the sausage roll a kolache any more than selling a cinnamon roll in a donut shop makes it a donut. How would you like it if you wanted a donut, and the sign said the place sold donuts, but it really only sold cinnamon rolls? This is a Texas Czech thing.

You’re stranded on a deserted island. What are your three must-haves?

If I already have basic necessities (food, water, and shelter) as a given, then books, pencil and paper (or tablet or laptop) for writing, and chocolate.

What was the worst job you’ve ever held?

When I was in college, I had a summer job as a customer service representative (CSR) answering phones to schedule air conditioner repairs. Think of summer in Texas and cranky people with no A/C. The dispatchers used to bet on which of the CSRs would cry after being screamed at and cursed at by customers.

What’s the best book you’ve ever read?

I don’t have a “best book” of all books. I’d have to give you a list with “best” books by category, such as Best Classic Novel--Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice. I have other “bests” for traditional mystery, romance, suspense, fantasy, and other categories.

Ocean or mountains?

Ocean! The beach is my happy place.

City girl/guy or country girl/guy?

Neither. Suburban Texas girl. Access to museums, live music, and plays when wanted, but space for hiking and walking your dog through fields and trees, preferably with lazy cows and deer watching you as you go.

What’s on the horizon for you?

Until recently, I’ve only written stand-alone novels and short stories in different genres and subgenres. However, I now have a series in the works based on my Bad Vibes Removal Services short stories. I wrote three short stories, and then the novel, The Walls Can Talk. I have three more short stories in the series completed, which will be published in a few months, and am starting the next novel.

Anything else you’d like to tell us about yourself and/or your books?

I write more short stories than novels, which allows me to write in different genres from day to day or week to week. I can’t stick to one genre! However, nothing I write contains graphic violence or graphic sex.

The Walls Can Talk, A Bad Vibes Removal Services Novel

The Hanovers inherited an ancient Irish castle that’s been moved to central Texas. But once they move in, they find not all is well in a home that seems straight out of a fairy tale. When things are moved in the middle of the night, is the explanation treasure-hunting teenagers or someone more malicious?

With a terrifying ghostly presence haunting their days and break-ins threatening their nights, the Hanovers reach out to a private detective, the famed Montgomery of Montgomery Investigations, and his employees at Bad Vibes Removal Services to resolve matters using the equipment he invented that detects and deciphers emotional residue and sound patterns long embedded in walls.

The Bad Vibes crew — Lea, Kamika, and Montgomery — are used to solving cases involving death. But usually Lea is the only one who sees the spirits. Not this time! This ancient Irish ghost seems bent on breaking all the rules, forcing the team to find new ways for removing old souls. Now the team finds themselves dragged into a convoluted drama of betrayal, murder, and hidden treasure. With their clients’ lives on the line, Lea, Kamika, and Montgomery work to identify the criminal behind the break-ins and free the castle from its haunted past.

Buy Links

paperback 

ebook 

#TRAVEL TO #NANTUCKET WITH GUEST AUTHOR MARTHA REED

Nantucket Harbor

Martha Reed is an award-winning, independently published crime and mystery fiction author who loves travel, big jewelry, and simply great coffee. She delights in the never-ending antics of her family, fans, and friends, whom she lovingly calls The Mutinous Crew. Learn more about Martha and her books at her website. 

Nantucket Daydreams

I fell in love with Nantucket the minute I laid eyes on it. I’d heard of the island, of course, 30 miles off the Massachusetts coast when I was a student at Boston University, but it took me seeing Nantucket rise up from the bottle green ocean like a distant purple horizon, and then watch it resolve into a harbor town of trim shingled homes and classic church steeples to completely capture my heart. As the ferry rounded Brant Point I heard a soft voice in my head sigh, and say: ‘home.’

I live in Pittsburgh now, but I do try to go back for a visit every couple of years. Nantucket is such a wondrous destination that I never have any trouble finding a friend or two to travel with me. The last time I visited, I took three girlfriends from work, and it took some convincing, because instead of flying directly to Nantucket, I insisted that we fly from Pittsburgh to Boston, rent a car, drive down Cape Cod to Hyannis, and then catch the ferry, adding hours to our trip.

There was a bit of muttering and a whiff of mutiny over this decision from the Mutinous Crew, but in the end, I believed I carried the point.

Nantucket needs to be seen from the water for first-timers. Nowadays, high-speed hydrofoil ferries and short-hop airline options are available, but I’m still convinced that taking a slow ferry over is the only way to go. There is something essentially liberating about leaving your worries behind on the dock that helps you relax, and you need to experience the watery 30-mile distance from the mainland shore to Nantucket’s harbor side to truly appreciate how special - and how isolated - the island really is.

Herman Melville wrote this in Moby Dick:

Nantucket! Take out your map and look at it. See what a real corner of the world it occupies; how it stands there, away off-shore … a mere hillock, an elbow of sand … made an utter island of by the ocean, that to their very chairs and tables small clams will be found adhering, as to the back of sea turtles …”

Nantucket is many things: it’s a county, an island, and a town. It’s a walker’s paradise filled with cobblestone streets and brick sidewalks lined with gracious 18th century homes. The town offers a plethora of terrific restaurants and specialty shops, charming and comfortable B&Bs, and multiple bookstores and museums. There are beaches everywhere, and the center of the island is crisscrossed with miles of sandy trails, scenic vistas, and easy rental bike paths.

If you need a break from modern life (and who doesn’t?), you won’t find a better escape than by planning a long 3-day weekend visit to the Far-Away Isle. My advice? Go off-season in May or October, when the weather is fine, the rolling moors are filled with color, and the rates are more reasonable. Be sure to buy a ticket on a slow ferry going over. Life is short. Sit back, relax, and enjoy the ride.

No Rest for the Wicked, Book Three in the Nantucket Mystery series

When state archaeologists uncover a suspicious steamer trunk in Nantucket’s landfill, the contents reactive intense interest in the Baby Alice Spenser kidnapping of 1921. As Detective John Jarad pursues the Baby Alice investigation, myriad family scandals emerge from the Spenser’s privileged and Gatsby-esque past. Modern day events flare white-hot when a copycat criminal snatches a second child.

Buy Links

paperback

ebook