Year: 2014

Let’s go to the (virtual) book fair!

On By Susan HolmesIn Home page1 Comment

mystery suspense hall header

If you’re following me on Facebook and Twitter, you know I’ve spent the last two weekends in full “Shop Local” mode at our local independent bookstore, Nightbird Books. It was great to meet new readers, visit with mystery fans, and answer questions about Deadly Ties and the forthcoming Dangerous Deeds.

This weekend, I’m celebrating readers and visiting with mystery fans attending the Virtual Ebook Fair hosted by bestselling author Tammie Clarke Gibbs and Reader’s Rock Lifestyle Magazine. (Find me on pp. 74-75 of the current issue.) I hope you’ll drop by the Fair, enter the drawings for cool gifts, and ask all the questions you like about the series, the setting, and the characters. And I promise–no spoilers!

Throughout this weekend, I’ll be adding new content to the website here, so please check back often.

Giving Thanks for our Pets

On By Susan HolmesIn Home page2 Comments
My beloved Alix
My beloved Alix
Buddy
Buddy Boy

 

 

 

 

 

Dogs and cats are a delightful addition to any family. And when families and friends gather to celebrate the holidays, there’s usually somebody who just can’t resist slipping a few tidbits from the dinner table to them.

Writer Susan Bird reminds us of reasons why we shouldn’t:

Every year, food-related pet illnesses spike during the long Thanksgiving weekend….That’s because holiday meals can present a minefield of problems for your animal friends. There’s a lot of things they need to avoid, and some of them aren’t obvious.

Keep your furry friends safely away from canned cranberries (they’re loaded with sugar). Ditto for green bean casseroles (mushroom soup and the fried onion topping can cause problems) and fruit salads with grapes or raisins. And store those delicious pumpkin pies out of reach, too. Why? Because even though raw pumpkin can be a great choice for pets’ digestive systems, a baked pie contains nutmeg and cinnamon which can cause serious health problems for your beloved pets.

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The American Kennel Club offers these great reminders to keep your dog safe during the holiday:

Always keep an eye on the dinner table during your Thanksgiving meal and secure all leftovers. You wouldn’t want your dog jumping up and making off with a turkey leg!

Do not give turkey bones to your dog. They pose a serious choking hazard for your dog and can lead to an emergency trip to the veterinarian.

Make sure that the garbage is secure so your dog doesn’t go through it looking for some Thanksgiving food, especially turkey fat that you have thrown out. Turkey fat can cause pancreatitis in dogs, which can be deadly.

As much as you may want to, don’t give your dog scraps from your holiday dinner. Stuffing, pies, cookies, and other fancy foods are inappropriate for dogs and will most likely make them sick.

If you’re hosting a big Thanksgiving dinner at your home, remember that some people may be afraid of your dog, and your dog may be uncomfortable around a large group of people. Moreover, guests that are coming and going may accidentally leave the door open, allowing your dog to run out of the house. To keep everyone – including your dog – comfortable and safe, you may want to keep your dog in his crate or confined to a room that won’t be used by your guests.

For more information and tips to keep your dog healthy, visit the AKC website. Have a safe and peaceful holiday!

If You Were a Private Investigator…

On By Susan HolmesIn Authors You Might Like, Books, Home page13 Comments

Earlier this year, I featured the talented writer Marja McGraw on this website. You might remember that Marja and I have both written novels that include the tangled web of family, friends, treasure, and (of course!) murder.

Read our work and you’ll see we’ve taken a different approach to our tales. My series is set in the Ozarks, for example, while Marja’s work is rooted in Arizona, California, and other points west. I have an amateur sleuth who runs a boarding kennel and dog training business, while Marja’s Sandi Webster mysteries features a private investigator.

Marja Author Photo New_edited-1That brings us to this week’s guest post, written by my colleague, Marja McGraw. To celebrate the recent release of the audio edition of  A Well-Kept Family Secret we’re giving away copies to two lucky winners! All you have to do is leave a comment for a chance to win.

There are two ways to leave a comment here. The easiest way is to click on the title of this post and then scroll all the way to the bottom of the page that opens. You’ll see the comments already posted, and below that you can add your own. The second way is to click on “Comments” in the line below the “Posted in” section at the very end of the post.  If you run into difficulty posting a comment here, please drop by my Facebook Author page or Marja’s Facebook Author page and leave a comment. We’ll keep track of all the entries–wherever they’re posted–and draw the winners on November 24th. Be sure to bookmark this page and check back!

If You Were a Private Investigator, Would You Take This Case?

For just a few minutes, let your imagination run away with you. What type of case might pique your interest if you were a private investigator? Imagine it involved a situation that occurred a very long time ago. I mean so long ago that there are no survivors from that era.

What if someone came to you and asked you to solve a mystery that took place over one hundred years ago? Let’s say it’s a crime that took place in the late 1800s and you have no idea how to solve it.

Now I want you to add a degree of difficulty. What if the person who wanted you to solve the crime was your menopausal mother? Let’s say your mother could be unrelenting because the incident involved an ancestor. Would you take the case? Don’t forget, you’ve got other clients to take care of no matter how much your mother pushes you.

I grew up hearing stories about a great-great-grandfather, who along with another man, ran the Red Light District in Old Los Angeles and who was notorious throughout the Southwest. These weren’t your typical Grandpa stories. He wasn’t a nice man.

Curiosity made me do a little research about him and Old Los Angeles. I found some interesting information which made me dig a little deeper. Then I read an article in the newspaper about the old District being dug up when a new parking lot was to be installed at Union Station in Los Angeles in the 1990s.

Aha! I contacted Adrian Praetzellis of Sonoma College, the lead archaeologist involved in the research of this area. He turned out to be a fountain of information and sent me a CD that included both information about the Red Light District and Old Los Angeles in general.

Things fell into place for me and I knew I had to write a mystery about the past and include a man with little conscience. A Well-Kept Family Secret found its way into my imagination.

A Well Kept Family Secret Audio

There were so many possibilities, and I was able to include little snippets of history. In 1903 the infamous Carrie Nation led a march of reformers into the Red Light District. She lectured women in the area, and several even seemed to listen to her. She’d been arrested a few days earlier during one of her marches for “parading without a license”, and left shortly after her visit to the Red Light District. Who knew? My image of her was one of her holding an axe and marching on saloons. The District was located in the old Chinatown area. Little things help set the scene.

Back to using your imagination, how could you possibly solve a murder that took place so many years ago? Could you positively prove your relative didn’t commit the murder? You never know where research might lead you.

Oh, and there’s the added element of hidden riches in the story, which was loosely based on a family legend. Word has it that my great-great-grandfather hid gold and silver coins worth a lot of money somewhere in Los Angeles. I found a newspaper article about people still searching for it as late as the 1940s.

Have I piqued your interest or imagination yet? Read about it in A Well-Kept Family Secret, or better yet, listen to the story in audio book format. With people’s busy lives today, an audio book can be a treasure.

Leave a comment for a chance to win an audio book!

Visit Marja’s Website: http://www.marjamcgraw.com/

Check out her blog: http://www.marjamcgraw.blogspot.com/

Buy books: http://tinyurl.com/m8s6uux

Set the scene for murder

On By Susan HolmesIn Books, Home pageLeave a comment

Have you discovered award-winning crime writer Judith Cranswick yet? If you love cozy mysteries and enjoy stories with eccentric characters, then the Fiona Mason mysteries are for you! I had the good fortune to read her latest, Blood and Chocolate, before its official release date and absolutely loved it.  A coach tour through beautiful locales, passengers who are not always what they seem, a senior sleuth you’ll love, and an intriguing mystery. (What else do you need?)

“The Fiona Mason Mysteries are cozy whodunits with plenty of edge.”

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Fiona Mason is a novice tour manager for a coach company and each mystery is set in a different European country. Her investigations frequently bring her into conflict with the enigmatic man from MI6, Peter Montgomery-Jones, but she can always rely on her West Indian driver, Winston for support. 

Blood and Chocolate is the third in the Fiona Mason mystery series. In this one, Fiona’s hopes of leading a pleasant culture tour of Belgium visiting the great centers of Flemish Art go badly awry. One of Fiona’s passengers is found dead soon after the assassination of a British MP at a rally outside the European Parliament Building in Brussels.

Could there be a link between the two deaths? Once again, Fiona finds herself at odds with MI6 chief, Peter Montgomery-Jones who always appears to have his own agenda.

To whet your appetite for this terrific cozy mystery, here’s Judith to tell us how she came to write the story:

Judith Cranswick Author

Writing Blood and Chocolate proved to be quite an adventure. I am one of those novelists who writes to find out what happens. I’m no plotter. I enjoy the journey.

With my standalone novels, I begin with an incident. this creates my characters and from their reactions the story evolves. After a chapter or two, I may have an idea of my final destination, but the route map is never worked out in detail.

It’s true that writing the Fiona Mason Mysteries is not the same process. Writing a series creates constraints. I know my main character, my tour manager Fiona Mason and her driver Winston plus Peter Montgomery-Jones. Peter is an MI6 chief and he causes me no end of problems. I introduced him in the first in the series Blood on the Bulb Fields. Not only did he insist on a much bigger part than the minor role I had intended, he demanded to come back in the rest – characters DO take over!  This means that there has to be an element of terrorism in every novel. Not quite the cozy setting I envisaged for the series when I set out! As each story involves a coach trip to a different country, I also need the plot to be related to that country so that it could not possibly take place anywhere else.

Blood and Chocolate proved to be the most complicated novel to write so far. It took me into territories I know nothing about from the workings of the Secret Services, or of politics (both mainstream and fringe groups), government departments, UN, unions, Belgian police forces … and the list goes on! The research has been interesting and far from straightforward but I hope the final result is credible. All my pre-release readers seem to think so. Let me know what you think!

Blood and Chocolate is available now on Amazon (US) and Amazon (UK) at a great price. And if you’re one of those readers who likes to start at the beginning, you can find the first two online as well. Meet this intrepid senior sleuth in Blood on the Bulb Fields, and follow her adventures in the Rhine Valley in Blood in the Wine, the second in the series. Get all the details and links at Judith’s website and also via her Amazon US and Amazon UK author pages.

It’s Giveaway Time!

On By Susan HolmesIn Home page2 Comments

Enter to Win iconI had so much fun with the first giveaway that I’ve decided to run another one! Here’s your chance to win a copy of the audio edition of Deadly Ties, narrated by the exceptionally talented Robin Rowan. You can keep it for yourself or give it as a gift to somebody who enjoys mysteries as much as you do. The rules are simple–all you have to do is post a comment and complete this sentence: “I love mysteries because …” Just click on the title of this post and scroll down to leave your comment. How easy is that?

To increase your chances to win, share this post through Twitter, Facebook, or your own blog; each verified “share” is worth another entry in the giveaway. Include your own links in the comments section of this post. The contest runs through Sunday, November 2nd, and one winner will be drawn at random on Monday, November 3rd.

Follow me on Twitter     *     Follow me on Facebook

Prefer reading your books in print? Get your copy at Indiebound, Amazon, or Barnes & Noble. If you’d like an autographed copy, send me an email and I’ll get one out to you right away.

If you’re an ebook fan, there’s an edition for you, too! Read Deadly Ties today on your favorite device. And if you’re a fan of both ebooks and audiobooks, be sure to check out Amazon’s special “Whispersync for Voice” offer.

If you’re in the UK, follow this link to find current prices and ordering options. Canadian? There’s a link for you, too!

Now, let the giveaway begin! Remember, to be eligible to win the audiobook you MUST post a comment and tell us why you’re a fan of mystery fiction. Finish this sentence: “I love mysteries because …”

Thank you, readers!

On By Susan HolmesIn Books, Home pageLeave a comment

I love meeting new fans and hearing from readers!

Last week, I had the privilege to be included in the Fayetteville True Lit Festival. In addition to participating in a panel about genre writing, I spent the day autographing books and visiting with readers of all ages. The crowd included both established and aspiring writers as well as editors, artists, students, and families–and all of them wanted to talk about books. For a writer, it doesn’t get much better than that!

Some of the readers had already finished Deadly Ties and came to ask about the next one in the Waterside Kennels mystery series. (That would be Dangerous Deeds, by the way, and it’s still on track for publication in a few months.) Others were just discovering the series and were excited to add Deadly Ties to their collection. My favorite moment of the day came when a family came by and stopped to watch the slideshow of readers’ dogs.  The oldest boy was a fifth-grader named Kalen who picked up my book, read the back cover, and turned to his mother. “This one, Mom.” How cool is that?

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It’s always fun to meet readers in person and online. In person, events like the True Lit Festival or Books in Bloom  and book clubs offer a wonderful opportunity to hear from fans. I love asking them about their favorite books and authors and listening to what they like (and don’t like) in fiction. And I get an added bonus: people share their own stories about dogs, the Ozarks, and local folk legends.

Sometimes, my interaction with a fan comes in the form of an email, Goodreads discussion, Facebook post, or Amazon review. Here’s a sampling of some of the recent comments I’ve received:

“If you want a great story, wonderful characters, twists and turns to keep you guessing and an all around great read, you’ll love this book. Can’t wait for more.”

“What originally started out as a nice, homey mystery quickly turned into a breathtaking thriller with such vivid detail that I felt smoke in my lungs.”

“This book was hard to put down. I read 4-5 books at the same time and once I started reading this one I didn’t stop until the end. Great mystery and dogs too. That’s a great book to me.”

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And from the other side of the Atlantic Ocean, award-winning crime writer Judith Cranswick has this to say:

Just finished listening to Deadly Ties. I LOVED it. I am very impressed and, believe me, I take a lot of impressing.  Up there with my favourite authors. … What I admired particularly was the build of tension. Many master plot & characterization but getting the pace just right is what singles out the best writers.

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Thanks to everyone for sharing their excitement about Deadly Ties! For those new to the series (or looking for a reasonably priced gift) here are the purchase links:

Audible: http://tinyurl.com/kzvzn75

Amazon: http://tinyurl.com/nnww9r8

Audible.co.uk: www.audible.co.uk/pd/B00NAFN5W2

Amazon.co.uk: http://tinyurl.com/p9z9x6n

And the winners are…

On By Susan HolmesIn Books, Home pageLeave a comment

congratulations

Here are the three winners of the audiobook giveaway:

  1. Janet
  2. Barbara Tobey
  3. Carolsue

Congratulations! Winners, please email me at dogmysteries [at] gmail.com with your name and verify the email address to receive your gift. I’ll need to hear from you by Wednesday, October 8th. (After that date, I’ll draw another winner.)

I hope you enjoy your new audiobook!

Deadly Ties Audiobook Giveaway!

On By Susan HolmesIn Books, Home page28 Comments

[To leave a comment, click on the title above & scroll down the page to comment box]
Enter to Win iconTo celebrate the launch this month of the audio edition of Deadly Ties, I’m running a giveaway! Post a comment here for a chance to win one of three complimentary copies of my audiobook, narrated by the oh-so-wonderful Robin Rowan.

The contest runs through Saturday, October 4th, and the winner will be drawn at random on Sunday, October 5th. The rules are about as simple as you can get: just leave a comment. That’s all there is to it, and you’re entered to win!

I’m a newcomer to the world of audiobooks and I’m already hooked on the joy of listening to a great story. The creative process takes on a whole new dimension when a novel is transformed into an audiobook. Professional narrators do far more than just read the work–they bring the story to life. The collaboration of creative talents moves us beyond the printed text and into the world of performance art. And Robin is a true artist! (Click here to see a list of the many books she’s narrated.)

Some narrators prefer to read the entire book before they begin. Robin, though, takes a different approach. As she explained it to me, she wants to experience the story just as the reader does. So you can imagine my delight when she sent me this note:

My heart was pounding—POUNDING—at the end of Chapter 41!!!

Wow! I’m riveted!!!

And now, here’s your chance to get your own heart racing! Listen to a sample of Deadly Ties. Then leave a comment (remember to ask a question!) for a chance to win a free audio edition of Deadly Ties.