CRAFTS WITH ANASTASIA--ROMANTIC MYSTERY AUTHOR BETHANY MAINES ON POPPIES AND ELEVATORS

Bethany Maines is the award-winning indie and traditionally published author of romantic action-adventure and fantasy novels that focus on women who know when to apply lipstick and when to apply a foot to someone’s hind-end. She can usually be found chasing after her daughter or glued to the computer working on her next novel or screenplay. Learn more about Bethany and her books and find links to her on social media at her website.

Poppies Inspired by an Elevator Ride

This craft was used in Elevator Ride—Book 1 of the Valkyrie Brothers Trilogy—an action-packed, age-gap romance mystery. The heroine, Vivian Kaye, is the chair of the event committee for a Veteran centered non-profit.  When the non-profit throws a fundraising gala, they use oversized paper poppies as part of the décor. 

 

Of course, poppies are also used to denote Memorial Day—a tradition since World War I, inspired by a poem written by Lieutenant Colonel John McCrae. So there was a nice nod to veteran tradition as well. Vivian’s father was a Marine Corps veteran who helped found the non-profit and Vivian has always been dedicated to it—something that the hero Rowan Valkyrie, an ex-Marine, doesn’t realize when he dismisses Vivian as a non-serious twenty-something. Of course, he ends up eating his words AND shooting at the bad guys who are trying to kill Vivian and her boss.

 

The Valkyrie Brothers Trilogy was inspired when I visited the Smith Tower in Seattle several years ago. The Smith Tower has a hand operated elevator and was once the tallest building west of the Mississippi. It’s distinct pyramid top and gorgeous art deco interior are an amazing setting for any story. However, while I quickly came up with the idea for the opening of what would become book three, when Ash and Harper meet in the elevator, it wasn’t until several years later that I finally figured out how to make all the brothers meet their love interests in their own elevators. Yes, that’s right. I really made them all meet in an elevator.

 

In Elevator Ride, Vivian ambushes Rowan in an elevator to serve him with papers. 

 

In Between Floors (Book 2, available June 23^rd), Rowan’s brother Forest is a single dad who thinks that perfection is the only answer to controlling the chaos of the universe. So, of course, fate delivers him a perfectly imperfect nanny. And then they get stuck in an elevator together and have to escape. 

 

And in Emergency Exit, the youngest Valkyrie brother Ash arrives at a party with Harper, the girl he just met in the elevator only to have everyone assume she’s his girlfriend. Except that a fake girlfriend might be just what Ash needs. The Valkyrie Brothers trilogy is a laugh-packed series of connected romantic mysteries starring the Valkyrie Brothers--Rowan, Forest, and Ash--as they struggle to find love AND stay alive in Seattle.

Elevator Ride

The Valkyrie Brothers, Book 1

 

Vivian Kaye has been tasked with serving a cease-and-desist letter to Rowan Valkyrie—the most hated tenant in Seattle’s Hoskins building—but when she ambushes the seasoned security professional in the elevator, she ignites a powder keg of tempers and attraction.

 

Buy Links

ebook (on sale for .99 cents)

paperback

 

Between Floors

The Valkyrie Brothers, Book 2

 

Wild-child Chloe Jordan returned to Seattle to face her past, but when she gets stuck in an elevator with grumpy Forest Valkyrie—the terminally stressed single dad who just rejected her as a nanny candidate—Chloe discovers that it's her future at stake.  

 

Pre-order (on sale June 23^rd)

 

Paper Poppies

Video link: https://youtube.com/shorts/zrR-ohmASOI

 

Materials:

Hard straws or sticks 

1” Styrofoam balls

Glue (Use a hot glue or low-temp glue gun or tacky glue.)

Red and black tissue paper or crepe paper

Florist tape

 

Directions:

1. Cut out approximately twelve red circles for the petals of each flower. The sample used a 3-1/2” circle template, but you can use slightly smaller or larger circles. If you don’t have a template, use a glass, round dish, or round cookie cutter. The circles don’t have to be perfect. Trace the outline over folded paper, then cut all the petals out at once.

 

2. For each flower, cut a black paper circle large enough to cover the Styrofoam ball. Cover the ball, securing with glue.

 

3. Fold/twist the petal shapes. Imperfect is best. Do a little zig-zag folding and crumpling.

 

4. Poke a straw into the bottom of the ball, glue to secure.

 

5. Glue petals to the ball and stem. Use as many as you think looks good.

 

6. Wrap florist tape around the base and straw stem, securing both ends with glue.

#BOOK CLUB FRIDAY – RINGING IN THE NEW YEAR WITH A NEW BOOK

Every so often author Lois Winston gives me a break and turns her attention to some other unsuspecting character. Back in 2015 Lois was invited to take part in Kindle Worlds. This was a new program that was basically fan fiction novellas that tied into existing series. Amazon invited various bestselling series authors to take part in the program. Anyone could write a Kindle Worlds novella for any of the chosen series. Authors could use as little or as much of the existing series as they wanted and even change the tone of the series.

To get the program started, Amazon contracted with a group of authors to write the initial set of novellas for each series. Lois was one of the authors asked to write a novella based on author CJ Lyons’ Shadow Ops Series. Mom Squad reimagined the domestic thriller series as a humorous caper.

 

When the program disbanded a few years later, the novella authors were allowed to republish their work with the series author’s permission as long as all references to the original series were removed or changed.

 

I tend to keep Lois busy. She finally got around to updating her novella a few months ago but held off publishing it so it wouldn’t compete with the release of A Sew Deadly Cruise, the latest book in the Anastasia Pollack Crafting Mystery Series. Mom Squad was expanded and rebranded as Moms in Black, a Mom Squad Caper. Lois calls it a caper, rather than a mystery, because she feels the book is more humorous romantic suspense than cozy mystery. 

 

I’m hoping the book does well because if it does, Lois plans to write two more Mom Squad Caper novellas for a 3-novella series. That would certainly give me a break. After all, if she’s busy writing two more novellas, she won’t have time to pick on me. I’m perfectly happy letting someone else deal with murder and mayhem for a while.

Click here to read an excerpt.

 

Moms in Black

A Mom Squad Caper

 

When Cassandra Davenport applies for a job at www.savingtheworld.us, she expects to find a ‘green’ charity. Instead, she becomes the newest member of a covert organization run by ex-government officials. Dubbed the Mom Squad, the organization is the brainchild of three former college roommates—attorney general Anthony Granville, ex-FBI agent Gavin Demarco, and tech billionaire Liam Hatch—all of whom have lost loved ones at the hands of terrorists. Financed by Hatch, they work in the shadows and without the constraints of congressional oversight, reporting directly to Granville.

 

Demarco heads up one of the six groups that comprise the new operation. He hires Cassandra as the newest member of his New Jersey based team. In the course of monitoring possible terrorist threats, the Mom Squad discovers a link to Cassandra’s ex-husband. Before she’s fully trained, Cassandra is thrust into a world where her ex may be involved with radicalized terrorists bent on killing as many Americans as possible.

And while they’re saving the world from an imminent attack, what in the world will Cassandra do about all that sexual tension simmering between her and her new boss?

 

Buy Links (pre-order now; available 2/8/21)

Kindle 

Kobo 

Nook 

Apple Books 

Paperback (coming soon)

Wishing all our readers a 2021 filled with health and joy and a return to life as we once knew it! Please continue to wear a mask and stay safe until this pandemic is behind us.