What movies have your interest?

Mostly for me I admit I have watched "Stir Of Echoes one and two,"  then I watched Private Number, Miss Marple Movies, Desk Set, Poirot Movies, I also caught up on other television and Netflix series. Crossing Lines, Ripper Street, River, Home Alone One, Beetle Juice and a few Noir films. One being Kansas City Confidential.

Then as the weekend went on and while I watched football, I colored some pictures.
Wrapped prezzies and of course napped.

Tonight I finished Christmas Shopping for a friend. Now more wrapping of presents. I did have a leftover chilidog so that helped.

I also did some reading and laundry tonight. Put away clean dishes. In the morning, more wrapping, a few dishes, sweeping and vacuum the living room.
My neighbor is in the hospital so I am feeding Miss Kitty, and of course I am thrilled the weather will be nice this week so that I can go over there not all bundled up.

I hope you are enjoying your celebrating season of love, gift giving and enjoying the special excitement this time of year brings to us.

We enjoy each and everyone of you! I can't wait to hear what books have your interest, what movies you are watching, what crafts and funny stories you have to share with us.

I love all the memories this season cast upon us.
Remember we love you all and we will check in as much as we can this week and next.
I know life is hectic but take a little time for yourselves and a good book, or a movies that tickles your funny bone.

Stay Healthy, safe, witty and wise until our next blog post. Enjoy our interviews and book reviews.
For the authors who have spent the years giving us wonderful interviews, blogs and advice thank you from the bottom of our hearts.
Without our authors, readers and bloggers we couldn't do this and like each snowflake is different so are our authors and readers.
We enjoy your unique perspective and your wonderful books.
Our Friday magical blogs are beautiful and we hope to bring you more of them.
Lastly we have openings for 2016 and if you want us to book you in for an interview, review or if you wish to post a blog or three let us know we will work with you.

Now I am off to take a book to bed!
Hugs,
Pamela

Review: BLACK CAT CROSSING By KAY FINCH

This is the first book in a new series.
BLACK CAT CROSSING By Kay Finch ( A Bad Luck Cat mystery) series.
Berkley Prime Crime Paperback Mystery
ISBN: 978-0-425-27524-5

Sabrina Tate has moved back to Lavender Texas, she is writing her first novel, helping her Aunt Rowe with her vacation resort business. She is staying one of the cabins. She loves animals an when people blame their bad luck on a black cat Sabrina has to wonder why everyone blames their misery on a poor defenseless cat.
She befriends the black cat but not before the cat leads Sabrina to a dead body. Actually the body when he was alive was one Bobby Joe Flowers and her Aunt Rowe's cousin. It was no secret that everyone who ever ran across Bobby Joe was left worse off than before they met him.
It was also no secret that Bobby Joe and Aunt Rowe had a very bad confrontation. Now he's dead and Sabrina has to make sure she saves the life of a black cat she has named Hitchcock, she needs to find out who killed Bobby Joe and to top it all off an agent is in town. This means that Tyanne Sabrina's best friend had arranged for Sabrina to meet the agent. This would happen very soon which meant that she had to complete the mystery.
A lot of bad luck befalls Aunt Rowe and Thomas the groundskeeper has vowed to catch the black cat.
Sabrina isn't going to let her Aunt Rowe be charged with murder, she isn't going to allow anyone to catch her pet and she isn't going to get a lot of sleep as she tries to figure out her fictional plot, the real life whodunit and stay on top of the resort.
Could life become any more complicated why yes it can and it does not to mention a very handsome man named Luke Griffith and few girlfriends Bobby Joe never mentioned, least of all strangers have come to town.
BLACK CAT CROSSING by Kay Finch is a can't put down first mystery. My rating is for this one is ten out of ten.
It's the feline of all mysteries.
Pamela James

Guest Blogger - Alice Duncan

Mayhem and Magic, For Real

November was not a month of unmixed blessings. In fact, something truly horrible happened during November, so I’ll get to that first.

No secret I rescue dachshunds. About four years ago I received a bonded pair from a puppy mill in Big Spring, Texas. Bella and Bam-Bam had spent their first couple of years in concrete crates and never learned how to interact with people or, really, be dogs. To this day Bam-Bam is terrified of men, and Bella was uber-shy around strangers. I realized after I’d fostered them for a while that they weren’t suitable candidates for adoption, so I kept them, and we loved each other. They both were fine with me, even though they were still unable to relate to strangers.

Well, on Friday the 13^th, Jazzy and Cookie, who grew up on the streets and have absolutely no self-esteem issues, ganged up on Bella. I rushed her to the vet, where she was stitched up. When I picked her up on Saturday, she seemed to be doing well, but on Sunday evening Bella had a stroke or a seizure, and she died early Monday morning. My heart is still broken. My neighbor and fellow writer, Ann Wilmer-Lasky, wrote a Haiku for Bella, and here’s a picture of Bella taken by her husband Barry:

Treasured Friend: A Haiku

Innocence, truly,

Has no protection against

Pack mentality.

Okay, that’s the ugly stuff. My heart will probably never get over aching for Bella. I feel kind of like a murderer, in fact. Gah.

On to nicer things. Several people won copies of the audio edition of HUNGRY SPIRITS, narrated by Denice Stradling (who is now working away on GENTEEL SPIRITS, bless her). I’ll be getting in touch with each of the winners individually.

I also got the cover art for Daisy Gumm Majesty’s next adventure, BRUISED SPIRITS. I love it:

Also, Darlene Allen has finished narrating THANKSGIVING ANGELS for audio, so it will be available in December (I think). I’ll be giving away audio copies at the end of the month in my contest. If it’s somehow or other not available in December, I’ll give away copies in January.

And December is the month UNSETTLED SPIRITS, Daisy Gumm Majesty’s latest adventure, will be released! I’ll be giving away either e-copies or paper copies of UNSETTLED SPIRITS in my December contest.

Therefore, if you’d like to enter my December contest, for which Bam-Bam (who is coping much better with the loss of Bella than I am) will choose wieners at the end of the month, please send me your name and home address (if you want a paper copy of UNSETTLED SPIRITS) to alice@aliceduncan.net

Kindle Link

Nook Link

If you’d like to visit my woefully out-of-date web site, the URL is http://aliceduncan.net/ and if you’re interested in being Facebook friends, please visit https://www.facebook.com/alice.duncan.925

Thanks!

An Interview with Greg Herren

MM: Greg, I went to your website. I loved that you stated the real reason you became an author was because you kept getting fired from other jobs. I had to laugh and I applaud you for your honesty.

My question: Are there any books that you have written that didn't make the cut?

GREG: I've been very lucky in that every book I've ever tried to have published have been. There's a couple of unfinished ones I started, though, that are in the files that I got stuck on and hope to get back to someday. My first three young adult novels--Sorceress, Sleeping Angel,

Sara--were originally written in the early 1990's, and revised/edited and finally published from 2010-2012. I may stop writing something, but I will always go back to it.

MM: No day is probably typical but take us thru your typical writing day?

GREG: I try to get up every day around 6 (sometimes not till 7, as I keep hitting snooze...snooze buttons are evil) and write before I go to the office, and then I try to do some more every night when I get home. I generally shoot for 3000 words a day when I am working on a book. On the weekends, I usually will get up, answer emails, write my blog, and then edit what I've written during the week while I'm drinking coffee before getting started on new pages. Some days are easier than others, but there's nothing like the absolute terror of the looming deadline to get me to write.

MM: Happy Birthday as I saw on Facebook today is your birthday. Do you have a birthday wish that hasn't been granted?

GREG: I've been very blessed in my life to have all of my dreams come true. I live in a city I love with the man I love doing the work I love. Everything else is just gravy, really.

MM: Where is your favorite place to write?

GREG: I have a work space in my kitchen. I turned the breakfast nook into my workspace. My desk faces  three enormous windows. It's wonderful, and I do most of my work there. I do a lot of my thinking and writing in my head while I'm in the car, which is kind of scary, really--my mind really gets creative while I'm on the highway.

MM: Tell us about your latest book? Also tell us about all the genres you write?

GREG: The Orion Mask is an homage to the romantic suspense writers I grew up reading--Mary Stewart, Phyllis Whitney, Victoria Holt, etc. I've always wanted to write one of those book from a gay male point of view, and my publisher--I'm very blessed that my publisher will pretty much green light anything I want to write--said to go for it. I love those books where a young protagonist comes to the big spooky mansion full of secrets.

As for genres, I started out writing private eye novels--I've written two different series with gay private eyes in New Orleans. The Chanse MacLeod series--Murder in the Arts District was the most recent--was more hardboiled and darker. The Scotty Bradley series--Baton Rouge Bingo the most recent title--is more light and funny. I've

also written a lot of gay erotica under my pseudonym Todd Gregory, and have also written some mainstream horror/suspense under pseudonyms. I also write y/a suspense novels--some of them have supernatural elements--which I really enjoy doing. Horror is a genre I love, but I'm not very confident about writing it as I am writing crime novels. I read a lot, and in pretty much every genre. I would love to write a cozy series, a couple of noir stand-alones....I'd even like to try writing some chick lit, to be honest! Personally, I think the hardest genre, at least for me, to write is romance. I can only make it work in the context of a suspense novel.

MM: What has life taught you about writing?

GREG: Life is material. Everything is material, and everything is fair game when you're a writer. Your experiences affect who you are, and they also affect your writing. Writing can also help you deal with the worst experiences....writing about the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina and the subsequent flooding of New Orleans was incredibly cathartic for me, as one example. They go hand in hand, I think--my experiences have affected my writing, and my writing has helped me to deal with things that have happened in my life.

MM: If you could sit down with five authors and discuss your adventures. What would be a couple of your favorite adventures?

What author would you invite? What would you want to know from the group of authors?

I used to work for an airline, and I love telling stories about those days. I also have stories from when I was more of a party boy....hmmm, who would i like to invite? I am very lucky in that I have lots of friends who are also writers, and I frequently get to have meals with them...I guess if I had to choose writers I didn't know I would go with Stephen King, Mary Higgins Clark, Michael Connelly, Charlaine Harris, and Jennifer Weiner. I've met them all, but don't really know them. If I had to choose writers I do know, I'd pick Laura Lippman, Megan Abbott, Alison Gaylin, Alex Marwood, and Rebecca Chance. I love listening to writers I admire talk about writing or books in general. You can always learn by listening...and as I said, I am very blessed to be friends with a lot of writers whose work I admire. Donna Andrews, Elaine Viets, PJ Parrish, Ace Atkins, Alafair Burke, Wendy Corsi Staub,  Clare O'Donohue...the list goes on and on.

MM: What advice do you have for beginning authors?

GREG: Read everything you can get your hands on, especially in the genre you want to write in. Go to writers' conferences, fan conferences--anywhere you get to hear writers talk about writing and books. I find writers' conferences to be especially inspiring. I always come away from them ready to get back to work and with a million ideas for stories and books. If the Mystery Writers of America-University comes to your area, by all means, GO. It's an incredibly rich experience.

MM: Tell us your favorite quote?

Would it be incredibly narcissistic to quote one of my own characters? Scotty Bradley's motto is "Life never gives you anything you can't handle. It's how you handle it that matters." I try to live my life by that.

MM: How do you spend your spare time? Tell us some of your favorite things about New Orleans, be our tour guide?

GREG: Now that I'm getting older, I'm more of a homebody. I like to stay home and watch great television series, or read. As for New Orleans, I love everything about New Orleans, even the things that are frustrating. There's so much to do here, so much culture, so much history...my absolute favorite thing is going to the Carnival parades. I live about a half-block from the St. Charles Parade Route, so all I have to do is walk to the corner. It's a wonderful time, it's a wonderful experience to just hang out with your neighbors and watch the marching bands and catch throws from the floats.

MM: Okay for some fun questions. What is your favorite meal? Your favorite dessert, song, movies and places to travel?

GREG: My favorite meal isn't all that interesting--I love to barbecue hamburgers and could eat that every day! I'm not a big dessert person, but I can always have a slice of cheesecake. Lately I've been addicted to cheese puffs, I don't know why, but I crave them every day. I don't have a favorite song, but I can always listen to Stevie Nicks and Fleetwood Mac without getting tired of them. I love the old black-and-white noir movies, like Mildred Pierce, Double Indemnity, In a Lonely Place, etc. My absolute favorite place to travel is Italy. My partner and I went there last year for eight days, and fell absolutely in love with it. We went to Pisa, Tuscany, Florence and Venice. My dream now is to live there someday.

MM: What would you like to say to your readers?

GREG: Thank you from the bottom of my heart for making it possible for me to do what I dreamed of my entire life, and what I really and truly love.

MM: What would some of your characters tell us about you?

GREG: Hopefully good things! Probably that I leave a lot of who they are out? It always seems like I am cutting things out to make the story move faster and more smoothly.

MM: Last question in 2016 what are you looking forward to writing, to reading and is there some new adventure you might delve into or put in one of your books?

I have an idea for a y/a noir about a teenaged gay male figure skater that I am really excited about writing, and I am thinking about starting a new series, which is always exciting.  I am currently writing a y/a, and after that I am scheduled to write another Scotty Bradley mystery, Garden District Gothic, and then I'm contracted to write another Todd Gregory novel. I also have a great idea for two gay noir novels--not for the young adult market--that I am itching to get to. I also have an idea for a suspense thriller that I think has a lot of potential.

This year I am judging a book award, so most of my reading time is spent reading for that--but I've had some time to read for pleasure. I am currently reading Donna Andrews' incredible Meg Langslow mystery series; I can't recommend it highly enough. My TBR pile is enormous, and continues to grow exponentially every day, but I am really looking forward to Stephen King's new collection of short stories, the new Alex Marwood novel, I have an advance reader's copy of the new Michael Koryta, who is one of my favorite writers, and there's going to be new books from Alison Gaylin, Laura Lippman, and Megan Abbott in the new year, which is very exciting. Rebecca Chance named a character after me in her new book, Mile High, and I absolutely love her books! Alafair Burke never disappoints, either.

I really want to go back to Italy, and spend some more time there doing some research. I have an idea for a novel set there, and I also have an idea for a short story set in Venice. It's a remarkable, wonderful place...I cannot wait to get back there.

Review: The London Ritz Book of Afternoon Tea by Helen SImpson

A nice little book celebrating tea and its history.  The Palm Court Tearoom at the Ritz is one of the most famous places to do so.  It features a history of tea and calls it "The Democratic Herb" as it is enjoyed by all classes and most cultures.  It features differences between Winter Teas, High Tea, Afternoon Tea, Pre-Theatre Tea, Nursery Teas and Summer Teas.  It offers many recipes in both metric and Cup measures.  Recipes include traditional savories and sweets and show how they have been updated over time.They include, Crumpets, English Muffins, Shortbread, Scones, Seed Cakes, Madeleines, Eccles Cakes (which I had no idea were illegal in 1650 - imagine going to jail for eating a cake???)Egg  or Cucumber Sandwiches, Scotch Woodcock, English Rabbit and Welsh Rarebit as well.

The book is filled with literary quotes involving tea and lovely illustrations. 

If you love tea, (which I CERTAINLY do!) it is definitely worth checking out!

Terri

Review: Deadly Places by Terry Odell

Ed is currently Acting Police Chief in small town Mapleton.  so now he has to juggle a lot of extra duties that he would rather not like a roaming bear and a tabloid style reporter.

The case he is investigating involves the suspicious deaths (likely murders) of Dead Beat Dads and the connection to what seems like an innocuous blog.  As the investigation ramps up, Ed sets himself up as a target and with the help of a crack team of cops, the bait is taken.

I really enjoyed this story.  The cop work was solid and the demands of his position were interesting.  I liked that he was not a lone gun cop - he worked with his team to get deeper into the web.  He was smart and anticipated.  I like smart police stories and this one really worked.

Terri

Review: The Asylum by John Harwood

Georgina wakes in an asylum with no memory of the past few weeks having registered under an assumed name with no idea how she got there.  The Doctor tells her she had suffered a seizure the day before and that he has confidence she will regain her memories.  She has him send a telegram to her uncle and is shocked when the response says that Georgina Ferrars is there with him and she is an imposter they had taken in as a guest.

After this revelation, the mystery deepens as she tries to understand what has happened, regain her memories and recover her life.

This was a very eerie, gothic tale.  As a reader, I, like Georgina, wondered what was happening and if, it was a delusion as the doctor insisted.  Her aloneness and fright were palpable at times.

The story unfolds slowly, with the roots of the mystery in the past.  Parts of the story are told in epistolary style with letters from the past helping her fill in the gaps and piece together what had happened. Very engaging.

Terri