#WriterWednesday Interview with Joyce Woollcott

I’d like to welcome Joyce Woollcott to the blog for #WriterWednesday.

A few of your favorite traditions: I usually like to make a Christmas Eve supper with special treats. Smoked salmon, nice cheeses and tasty hors d'oeuvres, and champagne of course!

Something holiday-related that you’ll never do again: Shop at Ikea on Christmas Eve.

Favorite holiday song: I love Silent Night, sung by King’s College Chapel choir.

Holiday song that always gets stuck in your head for the wrong reason: Feliz Navidad.

Favorite holiday treat: (Not traditional) but Banoffee Pie and Sticky Toffee Pudding.

A holiday treat that makes you gag: Royal icing and Christmas cake in general, always too sweet and dense for me.…

Favorite holiday show or movie: A Christmas Story.

A holiday show or movie that you’ve seen too much: Wizard of Oz.

Favorite holiday beverage: Wine 

A drink that gives you a sour face: I don’t like sweet colas, Dr. Pepper, and pop like that. And sherry is too sweet for me.

Favorite holiday smell: Oh, roast beef! And Turkey of course. Although I find turkey can be dry sometimes.

Something that makes you hold your nose: The smell of burning just before Christmas dinner––and we won’t go into that!

Favorite holiday candy: Always chocolate, I know it’s sweet…

A holiday candy that gives you a pickle face: Those holiday tray bakes with cherries and icing and marshmallows and cool whip.

Best holiday memory: Waking up to a winter wonderland of snow on Christmas morning. It had snowed late on Christmas Eve.

Something you’d rather forget: Going to a friend’s house for Christmas long ago. When we arrived, there was no smell of cooking. We sat and chatted and finally her mum disappeared to the kitchen. Half an hour later she served dinner. She had cooked the turkey the night before to save time and all the veggies too. And had reheated everything… Oh dear.

Best holiday gift ever: When I was a young girl in the N. Ireland my parents always bought me lots of books for Christmas, I loved Enid Blyton. The Famous Five and the Secret Seven. When I was very young, I used to get the Rupert The Bear Annual, and the Judy and the Bunty! Girl’s annuals. I loved them.

Something you wished for but never received: A dog!

Best holiday gift you gave to someone: A lovely, dove grey linen dressing gown.

A gift that needs regifting: A wine cork remover the size of an engine block.

A tradition you share with others: On Christmas Eve, the whole family listen to Dylan Thomas read a Child’s Christmas in Wales.

A tradition that can be retired: Cooking Christmas dinner for the whole family by myself.

Best thing you ever cooked/baked for the holidays: A big prime rib with all the trimmings, gravy, Yorkshires, roast potatoes, gravy–– and a breast of turkey, with everything, cranberry sauce, gravy, sprouts and stuffing.

Your worst holiday kitchen disaster: The kitchen after that meal…

Favorite place you spent the holidays: At home.

The worst place to spend the holidays: On holiday.

About Joyce:

J. WOOLLCOTT

J. Woollcott is a Canadian writer born in Northern Ireland. She is a graduate of the Humber School for Writers in Toronto. A Nice Place to Die won the RWA Unpublished Mystery/Suspense Daphne du Maurier Award in 2019 in New York, was long-listed in 2019 and 2020 in the Crime Writers of Canada Awards of Excellence and was short-listed in 2021. A Nice Place To Die is published by Level Best Books.

She is a member of Crime Writers of Canada, Sisters in Crime, International Thriller Writers, and the Suncoast Writer’s Guild.

Let’s Be Social:

Website

Twitter: @JoyceWoollcott

A NICE PLACE TO DIE

The body of a young woman is found by a river outside Belfast and Detective Sergeant Ryan McBride makes a heart-wrenching discovery at the scene, a discovery he chooses to hide even though it could cost him the investigation – and his career.

The victim was a loner but well-liked. Why would someone want to harm her? And is her murder connected to a rapist who’s stalking the local pubs? As Ryan untangles a web of deception and lies, his suspects die one by one, leading him to a dangerous family secret and a murderer who will stop at nothing to keep it.

And still he harbors his secret ...

Book and Ebook available on Amazon and to order from most major booksellers and sites.

See my website for quick links.

BLOOD RELATIONS

Due for release August 2023

Retired Chief Inspector Patrick Mullan is found brutally murdered in his bed. Detective Sergeant Ryan McBride and his partner DS Billy Lamont are called to his desolate country home to investigate. In their inquiry, they discover a man whose career 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?

Things to do before You Query

Writing and publishing are a business, and you need to do some research before you send out queries to agents and publishers. Here are some things you may want to consider.

Agents

• Is this agent accepting queries at this time? If not, it will be a quick “no.”

• Does the agent represent your genre?

• What has the agent sold recently in your genre?

• If there is more than one agent at the firm accepting queries, did you look to see who closely matches your project?

• Did you follow all the submission requirements and instructions? Don’t get eliminated on a technicality.

Publishers

• Does this firm accept unagented queries?

• Did you follow all the submission instructions?

• Does this firm publish your genre?

• Does this firm already have a book that is similar to yours? They may not want another one.

• How many books do they publish a year?

• Does your manuscript meet the word count and other genre standards?

• Have you talked to anyone published here for a recommendation?

Sometimes, you only get one shot with an agent or publisher. Make sure you’ve done all you can to make your query and your manuscript the best it can be.

#ThisorThatThursday Author Interview with Emmie Caldwell (Mary Ellen Hughes)

I’d like to welcome Emmie Caldwell (Mary Ellen Hughes) to the blog for #ThisorThatThursday!

A few of your favorite things: I like gardening, chocolate ice cream, and amazing sunsets.

Things you need to throw out: Clothes that looked frumpy ten years ago but are still usable.

Things you need for your writing sessions: A window, a bottle of water, oh, and a laptop.

Things that hamper your writing: Phone calls, Amazon deliveries, hunger.

Things you love about writing: I love creating a new character – good or evil.

Things you hate about writing: I hate discovering plot holes that require major rewriting.

Hardest thing about being a writer: The hardest thing is reading other books and not mentally editing them as I do my own writing.

Easiest thing about being a writer: The easiest thing about being a writer is writing a scene when I know exactly how I want it to go. The words just flow!

Favorite music or song: I lean toward classical music after studying piano for some years.

Music that drives you crazy: The kind that is all drums and shouting and no melody.

Things you always put in your books: An animal, well, almost always.

Things you never put in your books: Violence to an animal

Favorite places you’ve been: I love northern climes and particularly enjoyed trips to Alaska, Montana, and Norway.

Places you never want to go to again: Airports, only because of too many miserable delays and cancellations. I may change my mind, but for now I’d rather drive.

Favorite things to do: A game of doubles tennis; planting a flower garden

Things you’d run through a fire or eat bugs to get out of doing: Cleaning out a file cabinet

Things that make you happy: Being with family or friends.

Things that drive you crazy: Movies based on a book that don’t follow the book.

Most daring thing you’ve ever done: Landed on a glacier via a helicopter.

Something you chickened out from doing: Riding Space Mountain at Disney World

The nicest thing a reader said to you: One reader told me that the problem one of my characters dealt with helped her with her similar problem.

The craziest thing a reader said to you: “I thought you wrote children’s books!”

About Emmie:

Emmie Caldwell, author of the Craft Fair Knitters Mystery Series, is the pseudonym for Mary Ellen Hughes, the national bestselling author of the Keepsake Cove Mysteries, the Pickled and Preserved Mysteries, the Craft Corner Mysteries, and the Maggie Olenski Mysteries. A native of Wisconsin, Mary Ellen has lived most of her adult life in Maryland, which has inspired many of her stories.

Let’s Be Social:

http://www.emmiecaldwell.com

http://www.maryellenhughes.com

http://www.facebook.com/MaryEllenHughesauthor

Mary Ellen Hughes/Emmie Caldwell (@mehughesauthor) / Twitter

#WriterWednesday Interview with Freddy Cruz

I’d like to welcome Freddy Cruz to the blog for #WriterWednesday!

A few of your favorite things: Good running shoes, books, and soap that smells like eucalyptus.

Things you need to throw out: Junk mail, mismatched socks, the nearly empty milk carton in the back of the fridge.

Things you need for your writing sessions: Me, a pen, and a notebook.

Things that hamper your writing: Imposter syndrome, the doorbell, and my dog’s incessant barking at whoever rings the doorbell.

Things you love about writing: Playing with imaginary friends and enemies.

Things you hate about writing: Imposter syndrome.

Favorite foods: Cranberry-orange scones, Power Crunch bars, stinky cheese.

Things that make you want to gag: Halitosis, tofu, complaining.

Favorite music or song: Anything by Lana del Rey (aka Lana del SLAY, aka The QUEEN)

Music that drives you crazy: Good crazy? Lana del Rey. Bad crazy? Death metal.

Favorite beverage: Coffee.

Something that gives you a sour face: Pickles, but I love them.

Something you wish you could do: Write 10,000 words a day.

Something you wish you’d never learned to do: Deep fry chicken.

Things you always put in your books: Complicated people, unsavory people who think they’re doing the right thing.

Things you never put in your books: Invincible protagonists who do nothing wrong.

Favorite places you’ve been: Santa Rosa Beach, Florida, San Diego, California, DC, NYC.

Places you never want to go to again: New Orleans. But I’d go again if you were to give me a large sum of money and armed security (yes, I had a bad experience).

Favorite books (or genre): Fight Club by Chuck Palahniuk, The Alchemist by Paulo Coehlo, The Gulag Archipelago by Alexandr Solzhenitsyn, The Laws of Human Nature by Robert Greene.

Books you wouldn’t buy: Anything romance.

Favorite things to do: Talking to people, running, reading.

Things you’d run through a fire or eat bugs to get out of doing: Laundry, kettle bell swings.

The coolest person you’ve ever met: Former Navy SEAL/author Jack Carr.

The celebrity who didn’t look like he/she did in pictures/video: JLo (pics don’t do her justice). And yes, she was nice.

The nicest thing a reader said to you: A reader said one of my books was “like 1984 on steroids.”

The craziest thing a reader said to you: Quite a few seem to think my second book is an autobiography. It’s not. But it IS based on actual events.

About Freddy:

The Greater Houston area has heard Freddy Cruz’s voice for more than seventeen thousand hours across three decades.

In 2022, he launched his own media company, Freddy Cruz Creative Works, and is the host of Freddy’s Huge ASK Podcast.

When he's not in the lab writing or creating auditory satisfaction, you can find him nose deep in a book or snuggling with his dog Sparrow.

Let’s Be Social:

Website

Twitter

Instagram

8 Online Tools Writers Need to Know About

Here are some online tools that writers need to know about. Some are free and others have paid subscription plans. Check them out and let me know what you would add to the list.

• Social Security Baby Name List - This site shows you the most popular baby names. If you scroll down further, there is a search feature to see popular baby names from past years.

• Google Maps - This is a great way to find locations for your stories. Put on the terrain or street views to see the surrounding areas of a place.

• WorldAnvil - You can create a free account to build your fictitious world and design interactive maps.

• Canva - This is a great tool for creating graphics for almost any type of promotion. There is a free and a paid version.

• Bitly - This is one of the free sites that will let you shorten a long URL for your social media posts. If you want to customize your URL, there is a paid version of the software.\

• Fake Name Generator - This site helps you come up with interesting character names.

• BrownieLocks - This site has a calendar of holidays (real and silly) for each day and month. You can use these to help with your book marketing tie-ins.

• BookBrush - They have free and paid subscriptions. This tool helps you create book graphics for all kinds of advertising and book trailers. Their training sessions and customer support are awesome.

#ThisorThatThursday Author Interview with Erica Miner

I’d like to welcome Erica Miner to the blog for #ThisorThatThursday!

A few of your favorite things: Roses. BBQs. Summer in San Diego. The ocean. Writing. Lecturing.

Things you need to throw out: Those size 2 jeans that I never again will be able to wear. Sigh.

Things you need for your writing sessions: Peace and quiet. My backless desk chair.

Things that hamper your writing: Noise. Interruptions (my husband is usually the guilty one).

Things you love about writing: Telling stories!

Things you hate about writing: Starting from scratch with a blank screen in front of me.

Hardest thing about being a writer: Putting aside all distractions and committing to the process.

Easiest thing about being a writer: Expressing my desire to tell stories. When the creative juices are flowing, this is the easiest thing ever.

Favorite foods: Mangoes are #1, but pretty much every fruit on the planet, especially tropical.

Things that make you want to gag: Beets and lima beans

Favorite music or song: As a writer of Opera Mysteries, of course I’m a classical music geek. Favorite opera is by Puccini, composer of the famous La Bohème and Madame Butterfly: his first big hit, Manon Lescaut, is filled with youthful passion and endlessly beautiful melodies.

Music that drives you crazy: Heavy Metal, Rap, Country Music.

Favorite smell: Croissants baking

Something that makes you hold your nose: diesel fumes

Last best thing you ate: A fresh, perfectly ripe mango, so ripe you could almost drink it from a straw.

Last thing you regret eating: Chocolate that was almost all lecithin and lacking in true chocolate flavor.

Favorite places you’ve been: Italy, France, Switzerland, San Francisco, San Diego, New York

Favorite books (or genre): The classics: Dickens, Austen, the Brontës.

Books you wouldn’t buy: Anything gratuitous violence and/or mistreatment of kids or animals

Most daring thing you’ve ever done: Waterskiing.

Something you chickened out from doing: Diving off a high board.

The nicest thing a reader said to you: ‘Death by Opera is better than Death by Chocolate!’

The craziest thing a reader said to you: ‘You can’t see the stage from the Met Opera orchestra pit.’ That is patently false. Anyone who’s ever sat in that pit knows better.

About Erica:

Formerly a Metropolitan Opera Orchestra violinist for 21 years, ERICA MINER now enjoys a multi-faceted career as an award-winning author, lecturer, screenwriter, and arts journalist.

Known for “Bringing Murder and Music together” Erica’s 3-part Julia Kogan “Opera Mystery” novel series is due for re-publication by Level Best Books starting in September 2022. The first novel draws on Erica’s real-life experiences working at the Met. The series continues with novels that take place at Santa Fe and San Francisco Opera.

Erica’s debut novel, Travels with my Lovers, won the Fiction Prize in the Direct from the Author Book Awards. Her screenplays have won awards in the Santa Fe, WinFemme and Writer’s Digest competitions. She writes for such arts websites as BroadwayWorld.com, USBachtrack.com and LAOpus.com.

A resident of the Pacific Northwest, Erica is a top speaker and lecturer on opera and writing. Her presentation venues include the Seattle Symphony the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute at University of California San Diego and University of Washington; the Creative Retirement Institute at Edmonds College (Seattle); and Wagner Societies on both coasts and Sydney, Australia.

Let’s Be Social:

https://www.ericaminer.com

https://www.facebook.com/erica.miner1

https://twitter.com/EmwrtrErica

https://www.instagram.com/emwriter3/

#WriterWednesday Interview with Liz Boeger

I’d like to welcome the fabulous Liz Boeger to the blog for #WriterWednesday.

A few of your favorite fall traditions: Wearing long sleeves for a day or two when a Florida cold front swings through. We don’t put on the closed-toed shoes until winter.

Something autumn-related that you’ll never do again: Make sand angels on the beach. Not because its not fun, but the shells can be a little sharp.

Favorite fall treat: Humongous chocolate and peanut covered caramel apples-no sharing.

A fall treat that makes you gag: Circus Peanuts candy—those orange marshmallow things.

Favorite autumn beverage: Mulled wine by the fake fire on the big screen television.

A drink that gives you a sour face: Pour quality orange juice with pits.

Favorite fall smell: Cinnamon, ginger, allspice, and all related baking spices

Something that makes you hold your nose: That sweaty odor from wearing a plastic face mask on Halloween when you were a kid.

A tradition you share with others: I always bring my fall crafts to show with my students and to decorate the classroom. They love the tabletop quilts (Halloween and Thanksgiving), fabric pumpkins and decorated basket. I used them this year in science to teach the concept of “transformation" when we studied energy.

A tradition that can be retired: Cooking the BIG Thanksgiving dinner. Too much work and too many calories. We can still get together and enjoy family and friends without the sweat and mound of dirty dishes.

Best thing you ever cooked/baked in autumn: I hacked store bought sugar cookies into Ginger Snaps by adding fall spices and minced up crystallized ginger. Yum! They are a quick stand in for my sister’s famous Ginger Snap cookies, which is a rare treat.

Your worst kitchen disaster: Probably the chocolate chip cookies with too many chips that turned into brick-like discs.

Favorite place you spent a fall day: Outside with clear blue skies a slight breeze and coolish 60-70 degrees at a pumpkin patch and farm when my sone was a toddler.

The worst place to spend a fall day: Stuck inside grading papers, which I really need to do today.

Your best Halloween costume: An octopus I made for a young friend. She was the star of her school show.

A Halloween costume that wasn’t quite what you imagined: The Star Wars inspired alien get up I wore to my high school job at a local department store. I looked more like a space janitor with a unibrow.

Favorite pumpkin spice item: Hands down--old school Pumpkin Pie

Something that should never be pumpkin-spiced flavored: Key Lime Pie

Elementary principal Ana Callahan knows a thing or two about flipping failing schools, but she’s discovered the learning curve on solving murders is steep.

Now in the second year of her school rescue, in Moccasin Cove on Florida’s Gulf coast, Ana is on the verge of winning a pivotal grant award. But her grand plan hits a snag after a teacher is murdered and the crime is pinned on a runaway teenager Ana mentored. The story goes viral. Ana’s campus is besieged by the media, angry parents, and complex questions about the dead teacher’s past. Worse, the myopic rookie detective assigned to the case has her sights set on all the wrong suspects.

While grieving the teacher’s death, Ana starts her own investigation, but her discovery of a body on the beach pins a bullseye on Ana’s back. In her quest to solve two murders, locate the missing teen, and salvage the grant win, Ana unwittingly unleashes a riptide of childhood secrets that force her to learn a hard lesson...

It takes a village to raise a child, but it may also take your life.

2021 Finalist: Daphne Du Maurier Award for Excellence in Mystery/Suspense

2015 Finalist: Royal Palm Literary Award, Florida Writers Association

About Liz:

Tampa native, Liz Boeger, writes the award-winning Moccasin Cove Mystery Series about an elementary school principal who has a lot to learn about murder. If you like your traditional mysteries with a cozy edge, a hint of Southern snark, a beachy vibe, and always a happy ending, this series is for you. Don’t worry, she promises the suspicious search history on her laptop, the crime scene tape on her bookshelf, and her real-life run-in with the US Secret Service all have perfectly reasonable explanations.

Let’s Be Social:

Moccasin Cove Mysteries

Facebook    

Twitter 

 Amazon

B&N and other Booksellers

Misterio Press

How Authors Can Help Independent Bookstores

November 26 is Small Business Saturday. Here’s one way authors can help independent bookstores.

Bookshop.org is a website that connects readers with small bookstores nationwide. For more information on the site, check out their mission.

Here’s What You Can Do:

• As a reader, create an account and select a bookstore that will receive a portion of your purchase. When you purchase books on this site, you help your designated store.

• As a writer, create your own online shop and share the link on your website and socials when you promote your books.

How to Create a Shop:

• Create an account on Bookshop.,org. Create a profile with your biography, photo, and links.

• Then create a book list for all of the books in each of your series. You’ll need to create a title (usually the series name) and then add each book. You’ll need the ISBN-13. When you paste the number in the field, make sure to remove the hyphen, or it won’t work. Add each book in the series.

• Then you can add as many book lists as you want to your shop.

• Share the link to your shop on your website and socials.

• Don’t forget to update it when you publish new books.

• This is my shop link.

Many thanks to Kelly Justice as Fountain Bookstore for introducing me to Bookshop.org.