Spring into spring with a Malone mystery!

As Ann Kern starts her new business as an interior decorator, the temperatures have risen, tulips and daffodils are in bloom and there’s a feeling of endless possibilities in the air. She has no idea that her world is about to be turned upside down.

When Janis Riley, a woman for whom money is no object, contacts Ann to redecorate her house, she is elated. But the initial visit with her first client leaves her with mixed emotions. Why did Janis react so strangely to seeing a photo of Davey, Ann’s six-year-old son?

But Ann has bigger problems. Her husband, David, a recovering alcoholic, has lost both his mother and his job and Ann worries that he’ll start drinking again. To add to her concerns, their next-door-neighbor, Dorothy Baker, is severely depressed but Ann’s efforts to help her are rebuffed.

Ann is terrified when she wakes up the day before Easter to find Davey gone. Another child, Kelly Kramer, has been missing since December. Where are the children? And what, if anything, can Ann do to get her son back?

Wearin' the Green

Ann Malone Kern, the main character in the first four Malone mysteries, and her sister, Marnie, the protagonist in the fifth (and last) book are of Irish descent but, as far as I know, I don’t have a drop of Irish blood in my veins. (I’m Romanian, Greek and German.)

So why did I choose to write a series about an Irish family? To be honest, I’m not really sure. Maybe because the culture has always fascinated me and/or because the Irish played an important role in the history of Cincinnati, my hometown. Next to the Germans, they were the largest group of immigrants between 1840 and 1910.

Cincinnati was a major destination for immigrants from Ireland who left their homeland because, due to the potato blight and resulting famine in their country, they couldn’t pay their mortgages and they were starving. Many were poor, spoke English with a brogue and were Roman Catholic with large families. Some came with nothing more than a few pieces of clothing.

The city offered many opportunities for work on the riverfront, digging for the Miami and Erie Canal and on railroad construction. Although most had hoped to become farmers, with no money and desperate to feed their families, when they arrived in the Queen City, many Irish took jobs that were dangerous and unskilled with low pay. 

Through the years, the Irish have contributed greatly to our city’s growth and culture. During the Civil War, the Irish formed several militia units, which became the core of the Ohio 10^th Regiment. Later, many became policemen and firemen, some were prosperous in industry and others were active in politics.

Today, we have The Irish Heritage Center of Greater Cincinnati. The IHC was founded to promote the Irish Culture through the study of customs, dance, education, film, genealogy, history, language, lectures, literature, music, mythology, poetry, social interaction, song, sport, theater and the visual arts. And, of course, we have our annual St. Patrick's Day parade downtown.

So, whether you're Irish or not, be sure you're "wearin' the green" today and, if you're in the mood for a mystery, I hope you'll check out my series. (For a limited time, my publisher has reduced the price of all five eBooks to 99 cents each.)

Happy St. Patrick’s Day!

Dealing with Stress

We all have a lot of stress these days and, according to the experts, it can be damaging. Remarkably, studies show that positive events in our lives can be almost as harmful to us as disasters. The Social Readjustment Rating Scale (SRRS), created by Dr. Thomas Holmes and Dr. Richard Rahe, assigns points (referred to as life change units or LCUs) to each type of stress we incur. For example: Marriage = 50 points, Divorce = 73 points; Voluntary change to a different line of work = 36 points while being fired from work = 47 points.
According to the SRRS, if we accrue too many LCUs within a short time, our natural defenses are lowered and we are more susceptible to accidents and illnesses. If we accumulate over 300 points in a year, there is an 80% chance of illness or accident in the near future. Obviously, it would be impossible to totally eliminate stress from our lives so, in order to preserve our health and our sanity, we need to find ways to cope with and manage our stress.

In my current work in progress, Secrets in Storyville, the main character, Kate Morgan, is at a crossroads in her life. She's under a lot of stress so, to escape for awhile, she goes to her secret place. 

 

"The woods! Ever since I was a little girl, I’d gone for a walk in the woods behind my parents’ house whenever I wanted to be alone. I sat on a log under the huge, old tree I’d climbed until I reached puberty. Long ago, I’d named it “the elephant tree” because the trunk and a huge branch combined to form what looked exactly like an elephant’s face and trunk.

Sometimes, when I went to my secret place, I took a book to read and, other times, I watched the squirrels, rabbits and birds - and daydreamed of the day I would become a published novelist. I pictured myself signing stacks of books at our local bookstore, a long line of people eagerly waiting to get their copy.

No matter what the weather, I’d always found peace and a sense of well-being there. I’d solved many of my childhood problems in my favorite spot and, when I was a teenager and was grounded for missing curfew or some other violation of my parents’ rules, I would sneak out of the house to go there. I’d even carved mine and Bobby’s initials in the trunk of the elephant tree all those years ago. But time and weather were gradually stripping KM & BB away. A hint that it was time for me to move on? But I shrugged the thought away; I had enough on my plate right now."

What are some of the ways you (or your characters) deal with stress?