Sunday, July 12, 2015

The Three Rs



Everyone occasionally needs some R&R but we writers sometimes need the three Rs: rest, relaxation and research. I love to travel so, for me, a change of scenery is the ticket. It gets my imagination going full speed, sparks my creativity and it helps me to recharge my batteries so that I’m ready to take on my next writing project.

Bridge linking Mt. Pleasant and Charleston, SC

View of Charleston Harbor from the pier in Mt. Pleasant

The pool where I spent every afternoon

As you may have figured out by now, I just got back from a vacation to Mt. Pleasant, South Carolina and, although I love my hometown, Cincinnati, it felt good to get a break from my everyday life. Freedom from responsibilities and routine. I had so much fun and I enjoyed seeing new sights, going to the beach to gaze out at the ocean and I met some very nice people on my trip. It was restful and relaxing.

Sullivan's Island lighthouse

Folly Beach

The Morris Island lighthouse

But, a writer is always writing in one form or another so, while I was there, I took a lot of pictures, bought more than my share of postcards and picked up literature about the area wherever I could find it. Not to mention initiating conversations with the locals whenever the opportunity presented itself. Why? Because my fifth Malone Mystery will take place there and it was the perfect opportunity for the third “R,” research. 

A view from a horse drawn carriage ride in Charleston

Bubba Gump's restaurant in Charleston

I especially love this stage of writing, when the ideas swirl around in my head and I scurry to find paper and a pen to jot them down. Plotting a novel reminds me of putting together a jig saw puzzle. So many pieces, many of them colorful and interesting but, until each one is put in its proper place, we don’t see the whole picture. So, over the next several months, I’ll be fitting together the pieces from my research and my imagination until they all come together to form my next book.



Sunday, July 5, 2015

Mystery of the Month: A Sporting Murder


It's smooth sailing for Eve Appel and her friend Madeleine, owners of Second to None Consignment Shop in rural Florida's Sabal Bay, land of swamps, cowboys, and lots and lots of 'gators. Eve and her detective boyfriend Alex have joined Madeleine and her new beau David Wilson for a pleasure cruise on his boat. But cloudy, dangerous waters lie ahead. A near fatal encounter with Blake Reed, David's supremely nasty neighbor, is soon followed by a shooting death on the dividing line between David and Blake's land. Both men run sport-hunting reserves, but Blake imports "exotics" from Africa and promotes gator killing, while David stays within the law, pointing clients toward the abundant quail and turkey as well as the wild pigs that ravage the landscape. Nevertheless, when a mutual client is killed, it is David who is arrested and charged with murder.
Blake's nastiness is only exceeded by that of his wife, Elvira, who forces Eve and Madeleine out of their shop, intending to replace it with a consignment shop of her own. It seems that bad luck looms over them all, even Eve's brawny and hard-to-resist Miccosukee Indian friend Sammy, whose nephew has disappeared. As the case against David grows stronger and his friends' misfortunes multiply, Eve and her strange and diverse group of friends, including her ex, a mobster, her grandma, and Sammy's extended family, band together to take on the bad guys. But the waters are getting muddier and more troubled, and Eve and Madeleine may end up inundated in every sense of the word.
 A Sporting Murder  from Camel Press, release date July 15th
Buy links: 
http://www.amazon.com/Sporting-Murder-Eve-Appel-Mystery/dp/1603819398/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1431474250&sr=8-2&keywords=A+Sporting+Murder

http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/a-sporting-murder-lesley-a-diehl/1121863863?ean=9781603819398


Lesley retired from her life as a professor of psychology and reclaimed her country roots by moving to a small cottage in the Butternut River Valley in upstate New York. In the winter she migrates to old Florida—cowboys, scrub palmetto, and open fields of grazing cattle, a place where spurs still jingle in the post office, and gators make golf a contact sport. Back north, the shy ghost inhabiting the cottage serves as her literary muse. When not writing, she gardens, cooks and renovates the 1874 cottage with the help of her husband, two cats and, of course, Fred the ghost, who gives artistic direction to their work.

She is the author of a number of mystery series and mysteries as well as short stories. A Sporting Murder follows the first two books in the Eve Appel mystery series, A Secondhand Murder and Dead in the Water      
 
Visit her on her website: www.lesleyadiehl.com