MYSTERY AUTHOR AMBER FOXX TAKES US ON A TRIP TO A NEW MEXICO GHOST TOWN

Chloride, New Mexico

Amber Foxx, author of the award-winning Mae Martin Psychic Mystery Series, has worked professionally in theater, dance, fitness, yoga, and academia. She has lived in both the Southeast and the Southwest and calls New Mexico home. Learn more about her and her books at her website.

The Perfect Setting for a Mystery

My first trip to the ghost town of Chloride, New Mexico made me think: I have to set a book here. I had nothing in mind yet other than the setting, and what a setting! A late nineteenth century silver mining boom town, with nothing left but a few streets, some well-preserved buildings, and two graveyards. My books are psychic mysteries without murder, so there was a lot of potential in the place.

 

Chloride was founded because of Harry Pye, the first to discover silver in the canyon. The area went from wild open space, Apache land, to a town of three thousand in a few short years, with a bank, an armory, a Chinese laundry, saloons, and brothels—and no church. Pye didn’t live to enjoy it. While out prospecting a few months after staking his silver claim in 1879, he was killed by Apaches who fought against this encroachment on their land. Chloride thrived for only about twenty years, declining as rapidly as the price of silver did by the end of the nineteenth century.

 

The general store still stands, as do many of the old stone and adobe buildings on the main street. There’s an abandoned mine in the canyon at the far end of the town beyond one of the graveyards. The ghost town has a few residents, primarily artists and craftspeople.

How did I get my characters involved in this place? My psychic protagonist is asked to participate in a ghost hunt. I don’t write historical novels, but one of my secondary characters does. Another secondary character, a country singer, is a history buff. He buys an old house in Chloride as a refuge from celebrity and brings my protagonist’s boyfriend, a singer-songwriter, to Chloride for a creative retreat—a much needed fresh start for them both. 

 

An antagonist character I’d had lurking in the back of my mind for years fit well into the setting as another person seeking a creative retreat, and she was the perfect foil for my main characters. Inspired by some astounding art quilts in the gallery housed in a former saloon, I added a mysterious quilter as a Chloride resident. 

 

Places like Chloride in its heyday attracted men and women who wanted to disappear from their old lives and start anew, and that evolved as an important undercurrent in the story. 

 

My second trip to Chloride was a research trip. The gentleman who helped rescue Chloride and turn parts of it into a museum gave me an in-depth tour. Details he told me helped build the plot, including the lack of cell phone service in town and for ten miles outside of town. There’s nothing like getting in trouble in the middle of nowhere when you can’t call for help. 

 

Chloride Canyon

A Mae Martin Psychic Mystery, Book 8

 

Could a faked haunting in a ghost town stir up a real one? 

 

Mae Martin’s college summer session is off to a rough start. A classmate is out to make her life miserable. Her English professor is avoiding her. And the Paranormal Activities Club plans to investigate her psychic abilities. Her boyfriend, Jamie, is on a song-writing retreat in the ghost town of Chloride, New Mexico, population fourteen humans, twenty-three cats, and—supposedly—zero ghosts. He’s working with a famous friend who doesn’t want Mae, or anyone, to visit. But then Jamie’s neighbor claims her house is haunted, and Mae has to learn who’s behind the frightening events—the living, or the dead.

 

Buy Links

paperback 

ebook 

AUTHOR E. CHRIS AMBROSE ON RESEARCH--INCLUDING CHOCOLATE, GUATEMALA, CENOTES, MAYA PYRAMIDS, AND HUMAN SACRIFICE(!)

Maya Pyramid (photo by Chris Dionne)

E. Chris Ambrose is the author of the Bone Guard archaeological thrillers, as well as a dark historical fantasy series about medieval surgery, among other things. In the process of researching her books, E.C. learned how to hunt with a falcon, clear a building of possible assailants, and pull traction on a broken limb. To find out more about her and her books, visit her website.  

One of the most fun parts of writing archaeological thrillers is the chance to delve deeply into a particular place and time. For my forthcoming novel, The Maya Bust, that meant Guatemala. I wanted a region with a rich archaeological history, cenotes, and chocolate! (Yes, I got to split open a cacao pod and eat Guatemalan chocolate as part of my research for this one. I love my work!)

 

I started with a geological map showing where cenotes are present, since I knew I'd be using one in the book. Cenotes are underground caverns, accessible from the outside, that form as sinkholes in the limestone of the Yucatan and surrounding areas. They were sacred to the Maya people, who depended on them as a reliable source of water, and regarded them as the openings to Xibalba, the underworld, populated by dangerous gods, and often depicted as an open mouth gaping with teeth. Offerings and sacrifices were made within the caves, including human sacrifice. They held human life to be extremely important, and thus worthy of being offered to the gods to ensure the ongoing survival of the community at large. Blood forged a liquid connection to the rain and agricultural fertility they needed. Often, those sacrificed were warriors or nobles from competing regions—the worthiest of all. Nowadays, cenotes are popular as swimming and diving destinations, as well as rich archaeological sites.

 

As I dug deeper into the history of the area, including the more contemporary drug smuggling that forms the plot of the book, I zeroed in on the Alta Verapaz region in the Guatemalan highlands. This area was renamed by the Spanish explorers in their quest to subdue and convert the indigenous peoples. "Verapaz" means "truth peace," appellations that weren't applicable when the Spanish first arrived, and not for very long afterward. The region includes not only sacred cenotes and Maya architectural sites, but also Spanish colonial architecture, including beautiful Baroque-style churches and monasteries. Because of the jungle cover and difficulty of travel, much of the archaeology of the region remains unknown, concealed by centuries of growth. 

 

Since mountains were also considered sacred as closer to the sky gods, Maya step-pyramids are designed to be artificial mountains. They usually had a temple on top, often with an altar for sacrifice, and sometimes an interior staircase leading down to a concealed entrance to Xibalba. Pyramids frequently contain royal burials, with painted murals, sculptures and offering plates to honor the dead. However, the Maya also had a sophisticated understanding of astronomy, and used some structures as viewing platforms and observational markers for events like the rise and set of Venus, which suggested the best times for planting and harvest. Pyramids often have astronomical alinements, usually with the summer solstice. Here's a time-lapse video of the shadows cast on the Spring Equinox to look like the sacred serpent Kukulkan creeping down the stairs at Chichen Itza. 

 

The link between mountains and pyramids makes the pyramids even harder to distinguish. New technology such as LIDAR allows archaeologists to perform non-invasive scans of the jungle that reveal artificial structures and patterns beneath the trees and accumulated debris, stripping back the new to find the extensive human intervention that allowed this region to sustain a population of hundreds of thousands at the height of the Maya empire around 900-1000 CE. 

 

Even setting aside the chocolate, I really enjoyed researching this destination, and I hope I've managed to do it some justice in the book!

 

The Maya Bust

A Bone Guard Archaeological Thriller, Book 4

 

A secret stash, a hidden tomb, a father's love—sworn in blood

 

When his commander's estranged daughter vanishes in Guatemala, Grant Casey treks a deadly jungle and dives a sacred cenote to free her from a drug smuggler looking for a stash in an ancient pyramid.

 

Before his death in a rain of gunfire at her Quinceañeria, Raxha's druglord father encoded a map on a cacao cup, a map that might lead her to millions in drugs in the tomb of Maya royalty. A decade later, his old mistress gave the cup to some Americans to prevent Raxha from completing the delivery and re-establishing the influence of the deadly Zetas cartel. Determined to claim her father's legacy, kidnapping is only the beginning of a quest that may end with Raxha tearing out the heart of her enemy.

 

Awakened by a call from his old commander's ex, and sworn to secrecy about his rescue mission, Grant's integrity is torn. Does he betray his client's trust, or the man who hated him for so long, the man who risked his life to save Grant's own? He sets up for his CO to follow the clues while he tracks down Lexi's friends to find the cup—and only then finds out Lexi's boyfriend is missing, too. How complicated could this get? Oh, yeah, Lexi is deaf, the police are complicit, and their adversary keeps a pet jaguar. When the ransom exchange goes south, Grant embeds with the bad guys in a desperate attempt to rescue the victims before they become the latest blood sacrifice.

 

Releasing September 7^th. Pre-order now.

AUTHOR M. ELLE KELSO HELPS YOU KEEP YOUR FACTS STRAIGHT WHEN IT COMES TO RANCH SETTINGS

M. Elle Kelso is a Canadian writer who crosses genres from western/action, paranormal and suspense. But they all have one thing in common—a little hint of romance. Learn more about her and her books at her website. 

Home, Home on the Range…

...where how many deer and antelope can live together in harmony, finding enough to feed themselves without running out of food for twelve months at a time?

 

That’s the question and I’ve found over the years that there are writers who seem to forget about those details when they write about life on a ranch. I understand that, to many, the idea of land mass is something outside the boundaries of their normal world, since most live in a house, set in a yard, in a block of like yards and never stop to think about how much space they actually occupy. 

 

I remember reading my first romantic suspense novel about thirty years ago, while living on my hobby farm (anything under 10 acres in my locale) and raising horses. I knew I could safely feed and look after two horses on the first four acres and one on each of the other 6 acres (based on how much they eat and how much I’d have to feed them hay and grain.) Then I read the book—I don’t remember its name or who wrote it, and when I read out loud how much fit on the hero’s ten acre ‘ranch’, my husband and I burst into hysterical laughter and loud guffaws. Why? Because the writer had a herd of 100+ cattle on a ten-acre ranch. Kid you not! Those cows would have been standing on top of each other.

 

On four acres of pasture, you can feed two horses, for one year, and you will have to supplement.

 

On ten acres, you can have a smallish herd of 6-8, absolutely no more than 10, with no buildings, trees, barns or riding rings/arenas. On eighty acres, you could care for—well here it gets tricky, so you sign into sites like this one, answer the questions, and their algorithm supply the answer. Or you ask someone like me who can answer the question for you. I’d tell you about one horse per acre, IF: there are no trees, creeks running through the land, houses, barns, riding rings, garage for your car, sheds for your farm equipment or any other building you can think to put on this fictional ranch. And if there’s a road running through it, take more land from the horses and remember that it does not take more than a few minutes to drive from one end to the other. 

 

I remember one book where it took someone about ten minutes from the gate to the house, on 50 acres. NO! Maybe thirty seconds at 20 mph. 

 

One of the ways I explain acreage to others is that one square mile is 640 acres. If your speed is 30 miles an hour on a straight, flat road, you could drive from one side to the other in two minutes.  

 

Never go too small. Readers will catch you out, and if they understand land mass, there’s nothing that throws them out of a story faster than ridiculous numbers of animals and dwellings on too few acres. 

 

 My new release, Eagle Down, is the third book in my Cyber Cowboys series, and while most of the action in the first two books centers around dog kennels and ranches (not farms—there is a complete difference,) the third book takes place on a ranch with a side trip to a hospital. These books came from my overstimulated imagination but are factually based on what I know—breeding and showing horses and Labrador Retrievers, farming and veterinary care of said animals. 

 

Even the flying: I took the ground school part of my pilot’s license but had a major problem with cloud formations. But again, it is something I know a little about. Many of the incidents in my books are based on actual experience. As far as locations, I use Google, Google maps, and my map books to keep me informed. I use the satellite view a lot to tell me about the topography. And if I’m quoting cattle prices, I use the market information in the area for my prices. And to do that you have to know ranch language—like the definition of a boner steer.

 

The internet is a huge source of this information if you ask the question correctly. Someone with knowledge and experience can be even better. I set most of my books just outside Portland in the Pacific Northwest (a fictional town) or the state of Wyoming. I’ve been to Portland twice. Thank goodness for Google! And if you need help, contact me at mellekelso@gmail.com—I’m happy to assist if I can.

 

Mercy Rule

Cyber Cowboy Series, Book 4

 

Meet the Cyber Cowboys—a tough bunch of private eyes who know computers and the law inside out and backward. Every time they step out of their computer-P.I. boots—answer a call that doesn’t include black-hat hackers, online hustlers and fraudulent con artists—they meet nothing but trouble. Attempted murder, arson, rustling, and abduction they can handle. Falling in love sends them looking for the ‘help’ button. Computers? Artificial intelligence has nothing to do with it! In every case, these laid back investigators have to get down and dirty to save the women they love. They help multi-national companies and governments fix their problems...but when trouble hits and love gets involved? They’re the ones who need rescuing

.

The Corbin, Taylor & Wynn Investigative Agency is three men (Blake Corbin, Jared Wynn and David Taylor) who’ve been in business together for years. The agency is headquartered in Cheyenne, Wyoming when the series begins but soon moves to the foothills of the Big Horn Mountains. Business is so good they hire additional investigators and even the new guys aren’t immune to the trouble love can cause.

 

The Cyber Cowboys series is four stories of romantic suspense and skullduggery set in Wyoming and Oregon. Additional stories may augment the series based on the characters who work for the agency. 

 

In Mercy Rule we meet Will Carter, the first non-computer-literate member of the Agency. Will is a lawyer/legal investigator with the Seattle DA’s office when Blake offers him a job. His first case takes him back to Seattle and nearly costs him his life when defense attorney Mercy Brittain’s brother Todd is abducted. 

 

Buy Link 

IS IT COLLECTING OR HOARDING? AUTHOR MICHELE DRIER HAS SOME THOUGHTS

Michele's File System

Michele Drier spent more than twenty years as a reporter and editor at California daily newspapers. She writes two traditional mysteries a paranormal romance series, and a stand-alone medical thriller. Learn more about her and her books at her website.  

A Collector…Or A Hoarder?

My daughter keeps threatening to call the show Hoarders about me.

 

I keep telling her it’s not hoarding if they’re books.

 

There is one aspect of my “collecting” though that I have to ‘fess up to as hoarding—the collecting and squirreling away of small, interesting, possibly offbeat facts and pieces of information. 

 

Most of these are on pieces of paper that get stored somewhere in my “office,” a third bedroom. I go through sticky notes, push pins, staples and manila folders to keep my collections somewhat sorted. Until I get rushed and just stick the piece of paper into a cubbyhole.

 

It usually takes me a bit to locate the note I want, but I was able to find the short article about a discovery of 60,000 pieces of medieval stained glass in the attics of Westminster Cathedral. This was the springboard for the plot of my latest book, Tapestry of Tears. 

 

The fires at Notre Dame and Nantes cathedrals are the catalysts for the third Stained Glass Mystery, Resurrection of the Roses. I only have about 5,000 words, and I’ve bookmarked stories on these.

 

But it’s not just things I’ve read that get stuck away. One of my doctors told me about some anti-Russian literature being dropped over Estonia. I came home and jotted maybe five key words on a sticky note, added it to a short Reuters story I saw about a South Korean sending notes over the border to North Korea by balloon and now it’s a subplot in the eleventh book of the Kandesky Vampire Chronicles, SNAP: Pandemic Games. 

 

Probably because I spent years in the newspaper business, I tend to weave current events into my stories. My books have had pedophile priests, Nazi art thieves, the Russian incursion into Crimea, medical research gone awry and international sex trafficking as background. 

 

I learned my filing system while a reporter with the San Jose Mercury News. Those were the days when everything was on paper and I had a big “spike”, a long, sharp metal rod where I stored stuff that I needed to refer to. Everything else was on the “waterfall” filing system—pile up a stack of paper until it fell over on the floor. Things that fell on the floor got tossed.

 

2020 has been such an odd, out-of-sorts year that even my rudimentary echolocation filing system got out of hand. I was the co-chair for Bouchercon 2020, the oldest and largest convention of mystery fans and authors in the world. I spend five years planning for this to take place in October, then in March the world fell apart. Piles of paper with room layouts cross-referenced with panel descriptions, moderators and panelists were useless. Seating charts for the gala Anthony awards dinner didn’t matter. I regrouped and we ended up with more than 800 attendees at a Virtual Bouchercon, two days of interviews and panels that debuted to rave reviews and included a short article in Publisher’s Weekly.

 

But come November 1, I had more piles of paper.

 

It will soon be a new year and a goal I’ve set myself is to coax my granddaughter into helping me sift through the stacks in my office so that I have a chance to get to the closet. Which is stuffed full of Christmas wrapping paper and posters from travels.

 

Somewhere in all of that, I have a poster of a Wayne Thiebaud print made in celebration of the California Arts Council’s Tenth Anniversary…back in the mid-1980s.

 

I’d like to find that.

 

Tapestry of Tears

A Stained Glass Mystery, Book 2

 

History had always been a strong magnet for Rosalind Duke.

 

She took up the medieval craft of making stained glass and was building a solid international reputation, taking on larger and larger commissions. Her idyllic life with her husband, Winston Duke, an art historian at UCLA, was cut short when he was gunned down in a drive-by shooting.

 

After moving to a small town on the Oregon coast, she’s offered a commission to translate the medieval embroidery, The Bayeux Tapestry, into stained glass for a museum at a small Wisconsin university. Roz jumps at the chance. Not only to try to transfer the Tapestry into a new medium, but to spend time in Southern England and Northern France, tracing the path taken by the invading Normans under William the Conqueror.

 

But the 21st century drags her back when she finds a body crumpled against a wall in an ancient stone church in the small town of Lympne, on the southern coast of England. Has she walked into a contemporary murder?

 

Buy Links

paperback 

ebook 

#CRAFTS WITH ANASTASIA--MYSTERY AUTHOR JUDY PENZ SHELUK WEAVES A TALE AROUND OLD DAGUERREOTYPES

 

A former journalist and magazine editor, Judy Penz Sheluk is the author of The Glass Dolphin Mysteries and the Marketville Mysteries. Her short crime fiction appears in several collections, including The Best Laid Plansand Heartbreaks & Half-truths, which she also edited. Learn more about Judy and her books at her website.

Facts in Fiction: Daguerreotypes

 

“There is, at least, no flattery in my humble line of art. Now, here is a likeness which I have taken over and over again, and still with no better result. Yet the original wears, to common eyes, a very different expression.” Nathaniel Hawthorne, The House of the Seven Gables (1851).

 

What Hawthorne is referring to is the daguerreotype, an early photographic process using silver-plated copper and mercury fumes (doesn’t that sound safe?), which results in a mirror-like image, similar to a hologram. While the use of negatives in photography would eventually become the norm, in 1840s and 50s America, the daguerreotype had little competition, especially in the area of private portraiture. Until the daguerreotype, portraits and miniatures were considered luxuries for the rich. 

 

Nevertheless, the heyday of the daguerreotype was short-lived. The beginning of the end came in 1854, with the patenting of the ambrotype, a less expensive photographic process, followed by the tintype in 1856. Although the images produced were clearly inferior to the daguerreotype, soldiers in the Civil War embraced the lightweight tintype; almost as quickly as the daguerreotype had risen to fame, it became obsolete.

 

The shift towards renewed public recognition began in October 1995, when Sotheby’s sold a half-plate of the United States Capitol, circa 1846, for a [then] world record price of $189,500. Other auction sales followed. One of the most significant was The David Feigenbaum Collection, which included 240 daguerreotypes from the renowned Boston partnership of Southworth & Hawes. The sale totaled $3.3 million.

 

I first became familiar with daguerreotypes in my early days as a freelance writer specializing in antiques, and my fascination with them increased with every article written. Later, as the Senior Editor of New England Antiques Journal, I would interview Keith F. Davis, a renowned expert in the field, as well as members of the Daguerreian Society. One of those members was kind enough to send me a copy of The Daguerreian Annual 1998: The Official Yearbook of the Daguerreian Society. Inside, there’s an article on Reading Daguerreotypes written by Keith F. Davis, and while it took a few years, it eventually inspired one of the plot points in my latest Glass Dolphin antiques shop mystery, Where There’s A Will. 

 

In the book, the beneficiary of the old Hadley house estate, Faye Everett, asks Arabella Carpenter, owner of the Glass Dolphin, to appraise a reading daguerreotype found hidden inside the house. Of course, the daguerreotype is not the only thing hidden inside the old Hadley house, as Arabella soon finds out. 

 

Where There’s a Will

A Glass Dolphin Mystery, Book 3

Emily Garland is getting married and looking for the perfect forever home. When the old, and some say haunted, Hadley house comes up for sale, she’s convinced it’s “the one.” The house is also perfect for reality TV star Miles Pemberton and his new series, House Haunters. Emily will fight for her dream home, but Pemberton’s pockets are deeper than Emily’s, and he’ll stretch the rules to get what he wants.

 

While Pemberton racks up enemies all around Lount’s Landing, Arabella Carpenter, Emily’s partner at the Glass Dolphin antiques shop, has been hired to appraise the contents of the estate, along with her ex-husband, Levon. Could the feuding beneficiaries decide there’s a conflict of interest? Could Pemberton?

 

Things get even more complicated when Arabella and Levon discover another will hidden inside the house, and with it, a decades-old secret. Can the property stay on the market? And if so, who will make the winning offer: Emily or Miles Pemberton?

Buy Links

paperback 

ebook 

Photo credit: An example of a reading daguerreotype. Mary H. Lee, half-length portrait, seated, holding a book; McClees & Germon, photographer, 1850-55. Library of Congress #2008680501. Used with permission.

BOOK CLUB FRIDAY--CIVIL WAR ROMANCE WITH AUTHOR GINA DANNA

After years of writing historical academic papers, USA Today bestselling author Gina Danna has found the time to write her own historical romance novels. Under the supervision of her dogs, she writes amid a library of research books, with her only true break spending time with her other lifelong dream, her Arabian horse. With him, her muse can play. Learn more about Gina and her books at her website. 

The Better Angels & The Civil War

The American Civil War – not quite the normal setting for an historical romance. But for a historian and Civil War reenactor/living historian, it has a huge array of possibilities for a book. So the result for me is my series Hearts Touched by Fire. My 4^th book in the series has just been released this summer and I’m thrilled to be able to tell you about it. It is titled, The Better Angels, the phrase pulled from Abraham Lincoln’s first inaugural address in March, 1861, when he says directly to the seceding South:

“…We are not enemies, but friends. We must not be enemies. Though passion may have strained it must not break our bonds of affection. The mystic chords of memory, stretching from every battlefield and patriot grave to every living heart and hearthstone all over this broad land, will yet swell the chorus of the Union, when again touched, as surely they will be, by the better angels of our nature.”

This book is the story of Francois Fontaine of Louisiana and Ada Lorrance of Pennsylvania. Francois was introduced in book 1, The Wicked North, as Jack’s older brother. Francois is a bit of a scoundrel, and his character definitely needed to be saved so this book is his redemption story.

Ada is a doctor with the Union Army, though she serves as a nurse, because U.S. Army regulations refused any female physicians. In the 19^th century, few universities had medical schools with a slim number allowing women. Any woman doctor of the period was mostly refrained to treating women and children and that attitude applied to the Federal Army, despite their need for help. Wanting to aid the North as best she could, Ada signs on as a nurse, of Dorothea Dix’s nursing corps, and is assigned to help the field hospitals of General Meade in Virginia. There, at times, she finds a way to utilize her medical training in helping the wounded, though that brings many conflicts with the commanding surgeon. Ada is a very strong-minded lady, and her determination to help is her driving factor. 

She is also an abolitionist, hoping the Union wins to free the slaves. But Francois comes from a wealthy plantation in Louisiana, where they raise sugar, using slaves as their laborers. His family has done this for generations, and he saw no issues about it. But when he ends up wounded and under her care, the war takes on a new meaning, because to her, he stands for everything she hates….what will she do when he steals her heart?

  

Writing this series has been fabulous and involved. As a trained historian (I have my BA, MA and work towards my PhD in History), I want to craft a tale that is accurate and takes my reader back to that time. To get a glimpse into these people who went to war during the most pivotal time in U.S. history. These people are real – you meet the generals and politicians who went to war, both the North and South. Their lifestyles, thoughts are pulled from research books and time actually portraying them as a Living Historian. As an historian, it is the most fascinating time in defining this country, and in so many ways, has yet to be resolved.

So come back with me, to the time of Antebellum US and the War Between the States (the US Government’s official name of the rebellion), and explore how these people lived, their fears, their excitement and loss. And see if Francois can be redeemed!

The Living Historian's Creed

By Bruce Catton, Civil War Historian

• We are the people to whom the past is forever speaking.
• We listen to it because we cannot help ourselves, for the past speaks to us with many voices.
• Far out of that dark nowhere which is the time before we were born, men who were flesh of our flesh and bone of our bone went through fire and storm to break a path to the future. 
• We are part of that future they died for.
• They are part of the past that brought the future.
• What they did--the lives they lived, the sacrifices they made, the stories they told and the songs they sang and, finally, the deaths they died--make up a part of our own experience.
• We cannot cut ourselves off from it.
• It is as real as something that happened last week.
• It is a basic part of our heritage as Americans.

The Better Angels

Hearts Touched by Fire Series, Book 4

In 1864, Francois Fontaine has a life of leisure as part of the planter class in Louisiana.

Everything changes when the woman he loves marries another man. Heartbroken, he flees east to joining the army in an attempt to forget. But in Virginia, wounded and captured, he quickly discovers that an injured Confederate soldier faces a bleak future.

Dr. Ada Lorrance wants to help in the cause against Southern slavery, but the army medical department will not take a women doctor, yet they need nurses so she bites her lip and joins as one, soon to discover that when the surgeons are overwhelmed, she is left to doctor the prisoners. She finds herself attracted to a rebel, a man who stands for everything she despises, making her hope he rots, but her heart falls for him.

Thrown together by war, Francois and Ada find themselves battling over their beliefs and fighting against the growing affections that is fragile enough to pull them apart.

Buy Links

paperback 

ebook 

#CRAFTS WITH ANASTASIA--MYSTERY AUTHOR PATY JAGER ON A HAWAIIAN VACATION, CRAFTS, AND MURDER

Paty Jager is an award-winning author of forty-three novels, eight novellas, and numerous anthologies of murder mystery and western romance. All her work has Western or Native American elements in them along with hints of humor and engaging characters. Paty and her husband raise alfalfa hay in rural eastern Oregon. Riding horses and battling rattlesnakes, she not only writes the western lifestyle, she lives it. Learn more about Paty and her books at her website. 

Sunscreen, Bug Spray, and Camera

When my hubby of forty years finally caved and agreed to a trip to Hawaii, I couldn’t start packing fast enough! We discussed which island to visit with our daughters, who had been to several between them and their husbands. We settled on Kaua‘i. 

After I made the plane reservations and reserved a place to stay, it started to hit me that we were really going! In October. We were told the weather stayed a nice even mid to high 70s with some rain. That was fine. We’d just had a mild summer and would be accustom to the temperatures. 

We arrived late at night, drove to the place we were staying, and collapsed. The next day we surveyed the area, bought some groceries, and figured out what we wanted to do. My goal was to discover all I could about the art community on the island. After all, I needed a logical reason for my character, potter Shandra Higheagle, to travel to the island.

The “condo village” where we were staying had a farmer’s market day, where locals brought in produce they grew. I tried the interesting looking lychee fruit. It was like eating a peeled grape with a large seed in the middle. Very sweet, and a wonderful addition to my breakfast. There was also a day when local artisans brought their wares. Here I visited with a photographer and a woman who sold painted sarongs.

In the town of Kōalo, I wandered into an art gallery and asked the woman questions about the local artists. She didn’t seem to know very much other than she had a brochure about a juried art exhibition at a mall in Līhu‘e.

The next day I asked my hubby if we could go to the mall. After eating lunch in the mall plaza, I went to the area where the exhibition was set up and had a wonderful visit with an artist who was keeping an eye on things. She told me about the show, and how they get a judge from the islands or the mainland. Right then lights went off in my head. I could have Shandra come to Kaua‘i to be the juror for their show. The time of the year was good, she would have to be on the island at least a week and a half, and she could bring her husband Ryan. 

Once I’d learned all the ins and outs of how to get Shandra to the island, I could just take in the island, learn bits and pieces of the culture, and relax. Well, hike and sweat! This was where the sunscreen, bug spray, and camera came in. Hubby isn’t a sit at the beach kind of guy. We hiked trails to get higher to see better. We hiked rocky, up and down, trails to get to pretty beaches and see wet caves and enjoy the tropical ambiance. 

And that 70 degree weather…Nope! It was in the 90s all week. Talk about two melting bodies! The place we stayed didn’t have air conditioning because it is rarely needed. The small studio we were in didn’t have a way to get any kind of cross breeze. We spent the nights, taking cold showers and trying to sleep. Needless to say, I won’t get my hubby back there again. 

I mixed photos of the art I perused while at the exhibition into this post. They had everything from painting, mixed media, and ceramics. There were some beautiful pieces. Some depicted the island and some were just interesting. 

Abstract Casualty

A Shandra Higheagle Mystery, Book 14 

Hawaiian adventure, Deceit, Murder

Shandra Higheagle is asked to juror an art exhibition on the island of Kauai, Hawaii. 

After an altercation at the exhibition, the chairwoman of the event, Shandra’s friend, arrives home with torn clothes, scratches, and stating she tried to save an angry artist who fell over a cliff. Shandra and Ryan begin piecing together information to figure out if the friend did try to save the artist or helped him over the edge. 

During the investigation, Shandra comes across a person who reminds her of an unhealthy time in her past. Knowing this man and the one from her past, she is determined to find his connection to the dead artist. When her grandmother doesn’t come to her in dreams, Shandra wonders if her past is blinding her from the truth.

 Buy Link 

BOOK CLUB FRIDAY--AUTHOR KAY KENDALL'S PREQUEL TO HER AUSTIN STARR MYSTERY SERIES

Today we welcome back historical amateur sleuth author Kay Kendall who lives in Texas with her Canadian husband, three house rabbits, and a spaniel. Learn more about Kay and her books at her website. 

By writing historical mysteries about female amateur sleuths, I’ve combined my passions for history and for women’s empowerment. I set my first two mysteries in the late 1960s with Austin Starr as a young woman trying to exonerate relatives and friends accused as murderers, all set against the backdrop of the anti-war movement and women’s liberation. The books are Desolation Row and Rainy Day Women, and both derive their names from Bob Dylan songs that evoke the era. 

Then I decided to go further back into American history—back to the Roaring Twenties and the excitement of the Jazz Age and Prohibition, when gangsters ran amuck and women had just won the right to vote. I would trace my protagonist Austin Starr’s lineage back to her Texas grandmother, Wallie MacGregor.  Now, clearly I couldn’t use another Dylan tune for inspiration. Luckily my research uncovered the perfect song and title, “After You’ve Gone.” Written in 1918, it was hot during the 1920s and stayed popular throughout many decades. Even in the last thirty years singers covered it, including Frank Sinatra, Ella Fitzgerald, and Fiona Apple. In truth, the song is fantastic and still holds up.

Read my newest mystery, After You’ve Gone, and you’ll see many characters struggle through their lives after someone has gone—people near and dear to them. Survivors are left bereft and must learn to carry on alone. The biggest loss of all kicks off the mystery, of course. 

The story opens in 1923 and unfolds as a town’s secrets are uncovered by a sheltered, yet enterprising, young woman. Puzzling disappearances, deaths, and lethal grudges—twenty-three-year-old Wallie finds it all.

Walter MacGregor (aka Wallie) lives in Gunmetal, Texas, during Prohibition. Her calm existence shatters when her father's rum-running brother returns after a long absence. Rory is fleeing from enraged bootleggers. His tales of adventure and his natural charisma fascinate Wallie. Yet, these same traits appall her father, a respected judge. 

Wallie’s mother died when she was young, and her father (after whom she was named) raised her, helped by her strict maternal aunt and the family housekeeper, Athalia. Allowed to hunt, fish, and ride "like a boy," Wallie still feels her life lacks adventure. 

Poppa's tales of courthouse shenanigans and her own avid reading of Sherlock Holmes tales only whet her appetite. After getting to know her Uncle Rory, Wallie tells her ever-present beagle puppy Holler that she's eager to learn about her uncle's daring life. She’s never known brothers so dissimilar.

When a freak accident rocks the town, Wallie sees a crime scene showing foul play, but the local sheriff says she’s being a silly female. Annoyed, she sets out to prove her theory. Snooping into her family's past, she finds clues pointing to the sinful port city of Galveston on the Gulf Coast. When dour Aunt Ida insists she accompany her to visit relatives in Houston, Wallie convinces her aunt to turn her Model T toward Galveston. They soon tangle with dangerous and immoral people—gangsters who rule the town, thugs sent down from Chicago to muscle in on shady businesses, and two flamboyant flappers. "These women are floozies," sniffs Aunt Ida, but they’re also useful, divulging secrets from Gunmetal that are decades old.

Wallie's curiosity pushes her into sinister situations in Galveston, while even worse danger awaits back home again in Gunmetal—more death, her warring suitors, a missing puppy, plus an advancing "blue norther," extreme autumn weather famous in Texas. Wallie wonders if she’s really not meant to be Sherleen Holmes, Texas style. Then again, she knows she must persist.

Words from the chorus of “After You’ve Gone” fit the storyline of my new mystery. Because the lyrics are no longer under copyright, they can open my book. You may also listen to Fiona Apple sing “After You’ve Gone” here.

After you’ve gone and left me crying

After you’ve gone there’s no denying,

You’ll feel blue, you’ll feel sad,

You’ll miss the bestest pal you’ve ever had.

There’ll come a time, now don’t forget it,

There’ll come a time, when you’ll regret it.

Oh! Babe, think what you’re doing.

You know my love for you will drive me to ruin,

After you’ve gone,

After you’ve gone away, away.

Music by Turner Layton and lyrics by Henry Creamer (1918)

After You’ve Gone

An Austin Starr Mystery Prequel

It’s hard to imagine anything could go wrong in a quiet Texas town in the 1920s. However, when a fatal accident looks more like murder to Wallie MacGregor, she begins to investigate. Aided by her dog and her prim aunt, she soon discovers long-buried secrets in her search for the truth.

Buy Links

paperback 

ebook 

BOOK CLUB FRIDAY--FROM ESCAPE ROOM TO HISTORICAL ROMANCE WITH GUEST AUTHOR LESLIE HACHTEL

Bestselling historical, historical paranormal, and romantic suspense author Leslie Hachtel has been a gypsy most of her adult life. Her various jobs, including licensed veterinary technician, caterer, horseback riding instructor for the disabled, and advertising media buyer have given her a wealth of experiences. However, it has been writing that has consistently been her passion. Today she joins us to tell how an escape room experience spawned an historical romance series. Learn more about Leslie and her books at her website and blog.

People always ask me where I get my ideas. The answer when asked about this series is an easy one. I originally got the idea in the strangest way. I went to an ‘escape room’. If you’ve never heard of one, it’s a place where you go and they “lock” you in a room with a theme. You have an hour to put together all the clues and find your way out. (Note: You’re not really locked in and they will let you out at the end of the hour-win or lose).

Here was our theme: Our room was an old ship and the story was we had been shanghaied. If we could not solve the puzzles and free ourselves, we would be taken to wherever the captain decided we should go. And we would have to serve him forever. Sadly, we did not win but they did let us out anyway. And the idea for the books was born. 

Then came the research. I loved the feeling of going back in time in that escape room. So, I wanted my books to be historical and with an exotic locale. After much reading, I discovered Sultan Moulay of Morocco. He was known as ‘the bloodthirsty’ and is said to have been not only ruthless, but managed to father over 900 children. It is true that in the 1700’s (and even earlier), women disappeared from various countries all the time and were never heard from again. It was believed they were captured and taken to a harem far away. Now, if that wasn’t an intriguing beginning, I have no idea what would be. 

One story led to another and now there are three. I definitely enjoyed the research and this was an eye opening time in history. I also learned some words in Arabic and the customs were fascinating.

I love it if you’d go with me on my journeys through time and locations. And, I’d love to hear from you.

Freed From Morocco

Morocco Series, Book 3

Snatched from her home and hijacked to Morocco, Lady Olivia prays for someone to come and save her. Help appears in the form of Tristan, the man she loves. He disguises himself as an English ambassador in order to rescue her, but he is betrayed. Now, she must find a way to help him. Can they escape? And will they ever be free from the clutches of the sultan?

Buy Links

paperback 

ebook