Getting to know W.S. Gager

I’d like to welcome mystery author, W.S. Gager. Wendy’s most recent addition to her Mitch Malone Mystery Series, A Case of Volatile Deeds, will be released this month. 

Patricia: Wendy, I’ve read the first three novels in your series and I’m looking forward to reading the fourth. But, tell us, what are your favorite things to do when you’re not reading or writing?

Wendy: I love photography and scrap-booking.  I’ve always like to take photos and last Christmas I received a new camera and I’m still learning all the unique features of it. We are renting a home on a lake temporarily and I have been taking the same view in all different weather and am excited to put them together and see what they look like. I have summer, fall, rainy and winter. Now I just need to wait for spring’s new green. The home faces southeast and there are some awesome sunrises.

Patricia: What’s your favorite color? Why?

Wendy: Purple. I have always liked purple. When I was in the fifth grade I was able to shop for my own school clothes. I picked out a pair of purple jeans and a matching print shirt. They were my favorites and I couldn’t wait for the start of school. It was like ninety degrees that day but I wore my long purple pants because I couldn’t wait.  I roasted but I looked good!

Patricia: How would you describe yourself, personality wise?

Wendy: I am an eternal optimist and adventurous. There are always second chances and if things don’t work out right, it is because something better will be coming along. My dad still rolls his eyes when he remembers the people I brought home in high school. It was the late seventies and my friends were some pretty scruffy characters. He was sure I would end up dead in a ditch dead from one of my adventures.

Patricia: Do you like to travel? If so, what are some of your favorite places to go and/or what was your favorite vacation?

Wendy: I love to travel and have been able to go to some wonderful places. Two years after I received my bachelor’s degree I was in a job and going nowhere. I got a second job, moved in with a friend to save every dime and then quit. I went to Europe for the summer with my roommate from college. We went to England, Ireland, Netherlands, Switzerland, Germany, and France on the dollar a day plan. A dark, warm beer counted as a meal on so many of those days. I fell in love with Paris and the southwestern Irish coast. Paris was eclectic and romantic and years of history to peak my imagination. Ireland was so many shades of green and the friendliest of all people. Each was so beautiful. I’m saving my pennies to visit our exchange student from last year in Germany so she can show us the sights. We also traveled to Ecuador for a week to visit another exchange student and that trip was incredible. This wild part of the world is so very different from everything I was used to.

Patricia: How would you complete this sentence? If I won a million dollars, I would

Wendy: write mystery books every morning and then sightsee the rest of the day in different parts of the world. (I would pay people to clean and to promote my books.) I would be poor again very quickly but it would be a grand time for as long as it lasted.

Bio:  In the past three years I have moved three times and have one more coming up in the next couple of months. In between unpacking and repacking, I write the award winning Mitch Malone Mystery Series. During the last move this summer, I was a finalist in the 2012 Daphne Du Maurier Award for Excellence in Mystery/Suspense for A CASE OF HOMETOWN BLUES. I figure the next move will be during the launch of A CASE OF VOLATILE DEEDS in February. Prior to writing mystery books and teaching college English classes, I was a reporter for a newspaper for a dozen years. My crime beat reporter Mitch gets to really say some of the things I wish I could have. For more information, on me or Mitch, check out my revamped website or blog: http://wsgager.com, http://wsgager.blogspot.com

Buy Links: 

A Case of Infatuation: http://www.amazon.com/Case-Infatuation-W-S-Gager/dp/1892343584

 

A Case of Accidental Intersection: http://www.amazon.com/Case-Accidental-Intersection-W-Gager/dp/1892343703/ref=la_B003U5OADU_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1356107704&sr=1-2 

A Case of Hometown Blues:  http://www.amazon.com/Case-Hometown-Blues-W-Gager/dp/1610090179/ref=la_B003U5OADU_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1356107704&sr=1-3 

http://www.amazon.com/Volatile-Deeds-Mitch-Malone-Mysteries/dp/161009204X/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1361026445&sr=1-1&keywords=a+case+of+volatile+deeds

Blurb: A CASE OF VOLATILE DEEDS: Mitch finally got a date on a weekend instead of chasing crime, but an explosion in a high rise office building makes him stand up his date as he goes running for an exclusive.  When he investigates he learns his date is the only casualty in a botched attempt to steal from the real estate office where she works. The clues lead to city hall politics Mitch has always avoided. When city employees are killed, Mitch must unravel the local politics or a cute dog with a knack for finding dead bodies will be sniffing out his corpse--the next casualty of murder and governmental corruption.

The Mystery of Love

Lawrence, one of the characters in my Malone mystery series, is a true romantic. He’s sixty-two years old and, so far, he’s been unlucky in love. But, despite some misguided attempts, he’s determined to find the woman of his dreams. Will Lawrence find love?

From Mixed Messages:

Then Ann saw it: a white envelope with her name and address typed on it. As usual, it had no stamp and no return address. She opened the flap of the envelope and pulled out the sheet of white paper. She sighed. Another love poem from Lawrence, she thought. She quickly unfolded the paper and read the short poem.

“I see in your face

such beauty, such grace.

My heart wants you so.

I need you to know.”

From Unfinished Business:

Lawrence untied the ribbon and read a couple of the letters. The ink was so faint that he had to strain to read them. In the letters, his great-grandmother wrote about her daily life and what was going on in the lives of their children and the people they knew but, as he read the last paragraph of the second letter, a tear formed in the corner of his eye. 

“It will not be Christmas this year without you, my love. As I prepare dinner for our children and try to achieve some festivity for their sakes, in my heart, I see you on the battlefield, serving our great cause. You are so brave! I pray for your safe return and that we will spend our next Christmas together. I miss you and love you with every fiber of my being. With all my love, Frieda.”

His eyes were getting heavy; it was time to go to bed. He gently placed the uniform, saber and stack of letters back in the trunk and closed the lid. Oh, what I wouldn’t give, he thought, to have a woman who loved me “with every fiber of my being.” Maybe I will; maybe Angie and I will get together and fall in love.

Happy Valentine’s Day!

Mystery Author of the Month, Chris Redding

I’d like to welcome mystery author, Chris Redding.

Patricia: Chris, where did you grow up? Did your childhood contribute to your desire to be a writer? 
Chris: I grew up in an affluent suburb of Philadelphia. We weren’t affluent, but lots of others were. My mother was mentally ill, so yes I think most artists have dysfunction in their past. Yes, my childhood indeed let me to be a writer.

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

Chris: I live in New Jersey and I use the area I live in in most of my novels. I make them fictional places so I can rearrange things how I like them.

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

Chris: Incendiary was the most recently published.  Someone once had the idea for a story where the arsonist is a police photographer.  If there is a series of arsons, the cops take pictures of the crowds to see if there is anyone they can spot in all the pictures. If the police photographer is the arsonist, he wouldn’t be in the picture. Incendiary is my take on it.

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

Chris: In fifth grade, we had to write a short story. I wrote about an old lady with cats. I received an “A” and was allowed to read it in front of the class. When I was done the whole class looked at me in a different light. Suddenly I wasn’t the bespectacled, buck toothed socially awkward.  I had moved them. That was powerful.

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

Chris: Lisa Gardner because she just writes great stuff. And she’s a lovely person.

Stephanie Bond because she writes with humor. I once heard her speak and she has a lot of wisdom to give new writers.

Anyone who writes funny cozy mysteries. I love them. 

Chris Redding lives in New Jersey with her husband, two sons, one dog and three rabbits. She graduated from Penn State with a degree in journalism. When she isn’t writing, she works for her local hospital. You can find her at: http://chrisredddingauthor.blogspot.com and www.chrisreddingauthor.com. Her books are filled with romance, suspense and thrills.

 A View to a Kilt

Omnilit: http://tinyurl.com/cr-vtak-omni

Smashwords: http://tinyurl.com/cr-vtak-Smash

Amazon:  http://tinyurl.com/44sbydm

Nook Store: http://tinyurl.com/3tlk2nh

Blonde Demolition

Amazon: http://tinyurl.com/7olwvhs

Amazon in print: http://tinyurl.com/87qdaam

Incendiary

Paperback http://tinyurl.com/9k62wze

e-book http://tinyurl.com/9ty32j6