A Teaser

I don’t watch a lot of TV but one thing I’ve noticed is that, when a station promotes an upcoming show or movie, they always choose a teaser, a short clip from the show to attract viewers. For sitcoms, they pick a really funny scene. For more intense viewing, they bait us with a question like: “Will the team discover who the murderer is in time to save. . . .” Each station spends a lot of time and money promoting what they have to offer because they’re competing with all the other stations. An excellent technique! I’ve been “hooked” lots of times. 

It’s no different in the world of publishing. So many books for readers to choose from. So, in an attempt to mimic the marketing masters (how’s that for alliteration?), throughout the year, I will occasionally post an excerpt from one of my Malone mysteries, hoping to entice you to buy my books.

Prologue from Unfinished Business

I pace the floor, my mind going a mile a minute, while the rest of the world sleeps. There is no rest for me because I am not like the others. I have a responsibility. So much to do. So little time. It is all up to me.

I light a candle and the flames make dancing shadows on the walls, in sync with Mozart’s Requiem. Pure, beautiful music: the way life should be. Not like the mindless trash I hear thumping from car stereos these days, screaming words of profanity. Quality has virtually disappeared and in its place? Quantity.

People want more and they want it now. They insist on instant gratification. Fast food. Faster everything. They drive their cars like lunatics, virtually riding the bumper of the car in front of them, urging the driver to go faster or get out of their way. They risk other people’s lives so they can get home two minutes earlier. And for what? To sit in front of the television set staring mindlessly at nothing, nothing of any value. It is sinful!

The world is a terrible place. God should be first! No one puts God first anymore. If they would turn their lives over to Him, they would be saved. But some refuse to be saved. Instead,they go about their pathetic lives, thinking only of themselves. What do I want and what do I have to do to get it? They use sex to manipulate others. Women haunt bars and flaunt their scantily clad bodies to get what they want. They have no family values, no morals. Adultery, abortion: atrocities against God.

Some people don’t deserve to live. They do not even care that their immoral acts, their lack of common decency, their selfishness, harms everyone around them. That has to stop. I have to stop it. It is all up to me. God has spoken to me. He has chosen me to carry out His work and He has shown me The Way. I know what needs to be done and, to honor Him, I will do His will. People have to pay for their sins. I will make them pay.

Actually, the deed itself is almost always so easy. People are creatures of habit. They leave their doors unlocked when they walk out to get the morning paper or take out the garbage, never thinking that someone might be watching them, waiting for an opportunity. They assume that “it” will never happen to them. But, for some, it will. I will see to it.

I must be the strong one. In the time I have left here, I must do my part to save at least this little corner of the world. And I must be careful. I must plan everything in advance, down to the smallest detail. Timing is of the utmost importance. I must be patient. It all comes down to control: self-control. I must suppress the rage inside me.

I need to play my role perfectly. I must continue to do all the things that are expected of me. Never show anyone the way I feel. I must say all the right words. Do all the right things. It is all up to me. No one must suspect me. No one must ever know. I cannot afford to make any mistakes. That would ruin everything. They would never understand and they would try to stop me. Then, there would be no one to carry out God’s work. It is sad enough that, when I’m gone, there will be no one left to rid this neighborhood of the human garbage.

I blow out the candle, extinguishing its life and pray for a few hours of sleep before dawn. I will not have to wait much longer. I can feel it.

It is almost time again.

If I've tempted you to order a copy of Unfinished Business (in paper or Kindle format), just click on the book cover on the right side of the page. Happy Reading!

Mystery Author of the Month, Stephen L. Brayton

I'd like to welcome Stephen L. Brayton. Stephen has a delightful sense of humor which comes through in his responses to my questions.

Patricia: Stephen, where did you grow up? Did your childhood contribute to your desire to be a writer?

Stephen: I grew up in the vast wasteland of northwest Canada, hunting caribou, reindeer, and seals and living in igloos. I knew as a youth I was destined for something better and a place a whole lot warmer...

Actually, I grew up in both the Quad Cities and then southeast Iowa. I don't know as my childhood contributed to my wanting to be a writer, I just thought writing was interesting. I have always been an avid reader and after reading countless mysteries, thought I could write something that people would want to read and enjoy. I wrote skits and plays and short stories up until high school.

Patricia: Where do you live now? Do you use that locale for settings in your novels?

Stephen: Right now I'm traveling across the miles of the Sahara with a bunch of Bedouins (bevy of Bedouins? Flock? What do you call a group of Bedouins?). Did you know camels are not nice animals?

 Seriously, I live in south central Iowa in Oskaloosa, which is Indian for 'Last of the Beautiful'. I used Oskaloosa for one scene in my first Mallory Petersen mystery, Beta. Mallory also visited the Quad Cities. (Which is where she spent her early childhood. Coincidence?)

Patricia: What inspired you to write your most recent novel? 

Stephen: When the writing bug hit me back in the middle 90s, I was involved with taekwondo. I thought a protagonist who was both a martial artist and a private investigator sounded pretty cool. I had learned so much from all of the women in my organization I had to make the character female but with a lot of my personality and sense of humor.. Thus, Mallory Petersen, Fourth Degree Black Belt and PI who lives in Des Moines was created. The first plot of her investigation into her boyfriend's murder came soon afterward.

Patricia: When did you “know” that you wanted to be a writer?

Stephen: This is a difficult question and I don't think I have an answer. I mean, there wasn't a particular moment where I stopped and said, “Hey, I want to write.” I just did. I will give credit to my parents for my continuing to seek writing success. I recall after I'd completed a bunch of short stories, maybe a few children's stories, my dad encouraged me to really try to make something of my writing. He's still after me to revisit the children's stories for publication.

Patricia: Name three of your favorite authors in the mystery/suspense genre. What makes them your favorites?

Stephen: I can pick only three? How unfair. I suppose since you're holding a gun to my head, threatening to force feed me coffee, and have cued up the first of several hours of opera if I don't answer, I'll have to go with:

Ellery Queen. I have all but four or five of his books. I like the puzzles. I was not logical enough to figure out any of the solutions before Queen did, but I still enjoyed the challenge.

Erle Stanley Gardner: Again, I have all of his Perry Mason novels as well as most of the others. He had such wonderful characters and I would love to meet a real life Della Street someday.

A tie for third between Rex Stout and F. W. Dixon (and those who took over after Dixon stopped writing). Nero Wolfe is such a wonderful character. Stout put so much detail and stayed consistent with his creation throughout the years. And of course, I can't forget the creator of the Hardy Boys. I'm 46 and I still read their mysteries. 
To read about Stephen's novels and/or to order a copy, go to:
http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss_1?url=search-alias%3Dstripbooks&field-keywords=stephen+brayton&sprefix=Stephen+Brayton%2Cstripbooks%2C282

We All Wear Many Hats

I love hats! In one of my favorite movies, "Sleeping with the Enemy," starring Julia Roberts as Laura, there's a scene where she  is back stage trying on all kinds of hats. It's a great scene accompanied by the song, "Green-eyed Girl." With each new hat, Laura becomes a different person or, at least, she gets to alter her personality to suit  the persona of the hat she's wearing. So much fun!

Throughout our lives, we all wear many hats. We are wives, daughters, sisters, mothers, aunts, employees and friends. Each of our roles in life brings out different aspects of our personality and we use different skills in each relationship.  

Writers need to wear many hats too. Writing is a solitary profession, at least for most of us, but marketing requires us to put on a different hat and, in doing that, to alter our personalities accordingly. For example, when I write I need absolute silence and solitude. No phone, no radio or TV. It's just me and my computer. I think, I plan, I dream, I write - alone.

Then comes that glorious day. Your book has been accepted! Once the book is published, everything changes. Now, a writer needs to change hats. To go from recluse to social butterfly in the blink of an eye. I feel like a chameleon changing colors each time I don a different hat.

No more sitting alone and creating. It's time to socialize. To schedule book signings, advertise on a blog and on several Internet sites and tell everyone about the book. We need to become "shameless self-promotors" if we want to sell our books. Even when we're at the grocery store, waiting in line, we're promoting. I always carry business cards and I'm sure to have copies of my books in the  trunk of my car at all times because you never know when someone you meet  - old friend or new acquaintance - will want to buy your book.

I'm not sure which hat I prefer to wear because, each is a different side of me. I love my time alone but I also love being around people. You could say I'm an introvert/extrovert. Which one (or both) are you?
 

 

The Blank Page

2012 has been quite a year for me both personally and professionally. On a personal note, my mother fell and broke her hip twice, once in September and again in October. Thankfully, she’s doing well and I’m praying for a full recovery. It’s been a difficult time, especially for her, of course, but also for me because I’m her primary caregiver. It hasn’t been easy for either of us but I’ve learned a lot through it all – about her and about myself – and since I believe that everything happens for a reason, I trust things will work out for the best.

Book signing in April for "Mixed Messages"

Professionally, this year has been incredible! Post Mortem Press published the first two novels in my Malone mystery series, Mixed Messages and Unfinished Business. A dream come true! Some days, when I wake up in the morning, I have to pick up copies of my two books and hold them in my hands to convince myself that it really happened.

But 2013 is fast approaching and, although I don’t make New Year’s resolutions, I do set goals for the coming year, especially when it comes to my writing. A blank page is like a new year. It’s a fresh start, a chance to write the beginning of a whole new story. It’s exciting but it’s also scary. Where to start? What will happen? What part will each character play in the story? So many unanswered questions as I begin to plot and write the third book for my series.

My “plan” is to finish the book by the end of summer. Plan is in quotation marks because, if there’s one thing I’ve learned this year, it’s that the saying, “Man plans; God laughs,” is really true. None of us knows what the new year (or the new book) will bring but I choose to believe that it will be everything I hope for and more. I hope it is for you too!

Happy New Year!

Christmas Memories

        We all have lots of Christmas memories, some happy, some sad. Some we remember more than others.

There’s a scene in my mystery novel, Unfinished Business, where Ann and her older sister, Marnie, are remembering a Christmas from their childhoods: the year they decided to search their parents’ house, looking for their presents. More than anything, Ann wanted a Cabbage Patch doll for Christmas that year and, in a hidden compartment in the closet of the master bedroom, she found it. At first, she was thrilled but, as you can imagine, finding the doll put quite a damper on her Christmas. She ruined her own surprise.

That scene was a fictionalized version of what happened to me when I was a child. I wanted a Patty Play Pal doll so badly and, like Ann, I searched our house and found the doll hidden in my parents’ closet. On Christmas Day, I had to pretend to be surprised when I unwrapped the doll but I’m pretty sure my mom and dad knew the truth. Needless to say, that was the first and last time I ever went looking to see what Santa or my parents had gotten me for Christmas. (By the way, since my name is Patricia, I named the doll Cathy.) 

 My Dad, Mom, brother, me (with Cathy) and my maternal grandfather

 

I hope each of you has a very Merry Christmas and that you make some wonderful Christmas memories this year!