Tuesday, December 29, 2015

When You Wish Upon A Star

It's that time to reflect on the year past and look forward with hope to what the new year might bring.

I was telling a friend just the other day, "Life is good." I'm happy, have friends, and my health is good. Nearly anything on top of that is gravy. I keep busy with my writing. I'm convinced it keeps my mind alert, since keeping complicated plots straight in my brain takes a lot of effort.

Life is a mystery, since we never quite know what might be around the bend for us. It's probably best that way... but it adds excitement and trepidation at the same time.

As 2015 began, I was facing major surgery to correct a hernia I'd had since emergency appendix surgery in 2010. All went well, and I've recovered nicely. I visited with my mother (in the Pittsburgh area) a few times, got up to Minnesota to see my sister and her family, had several visits with my brother and his family, visited with my father-in-law as well as sister- and brother-in-law. I had a few visitors to my Florida condo, including my best friend who came for a whirlwind couple of days at Disney World. I made a couple of improvements to my place, including adding new carpet. It feels like home. I also had the chance to visit NYC and take in a couple of Broadway shows.

In my writing life, I published two more Brad Frame mysteries this year - FINAL JUROR and EMBALMED. I wrote a new Christmas short story. I attended a conference sponsored by the Florida Writers Association where my novel LADY ON THE EDGE was a finalist for a Royal Palm Literary Award. I've also become active with a group of Central Florida Mystery Writers who meet monthly for discussions about the craft of writing, as well as the business of writing. Several of us formed a critique group, which I appreciate as well as my local critique group in Celebration, Florida.

What will 2016 hold for me? A good question. I'm working on a new standalone suspense novel. It's called COLD OATH. I'm excited about it, but it's not even half done, so stay tuned.

In July, I will be performing my one-man Ben Franklin play at PACA in Erie, PA. I'm excited about that and am pursuing other performance possibilities for the play.

For more specifics, keep reading this blog. :-)

Best wishes to each of you for what I hope will be an exciting 2016.

Tuesday, December 15, 2015

What Do Readers Want - Part 2

A few weeks ago the topic of my blog was "What do readers want?"

Several people were kind enough to comment and I'm using this blog post as an opportunity to share those comments.

I bought books as a Christmas present this year, and I reached out to the person I was buying for to see what they liked to read. Much better to get them what they wanted than have a book languish on their coffee table.

A reminder that I now have TWO holiday themed stories:

The Spirit of Christmas

A Visit from Saint Dominick

If you missed my earlier post on what readers want, please feel free to add YOUR comments below:

Here's what others have said:

What I look for as a reader is an escape from reality. Sometimes this means another time period, as in historical romance and historical mystery. Or it might mean an escape to other worlds with scifi/fantasy. For mysteries, I prefer light, funny cozies because I know the crook isn't always caught in real life and bad things happen. Cozies provide justice in a manner where the crime scene is offstage and the focus is on interpersonal relationships. So I look for an escape into a book with a happy ending.

I'm another cozy fan and look to media, in general, for relaxation and escape. I want to like the characters I'm reading about. Okay, you have to have some characters be pains in the tush, be mean and/or evil. But I hate it when a main character is whiny and constantly complaining.

Someone else (I forget who) said it well: We want a book to take us to places we want to go with people we want to be with. Those places and people will be different for everyone but with enough overlap to make some books very popular. As a cozy writer, I populate a small town with pretty likeable people (I hope.) But as a reader I'll spread my wings a little and choose cozies, thrillers and plenty in between. Cerebral detectives work very well for me :-)

I like a fast moving book with good dialogue and minimal prose and description. If I'm reading a mystery I want a good puzzler. In historical fiction I like to learn a lot about the era.

I like stories with a dark atmosphere, quirky humor and some supernatural/sci-fi elements. I like stories with fast-paced dialogue that moves the story along and are also satirical.

I love a "feel-good" story.When I am smiling and happy at the end of a book, my whole day or evening just feels better. Those are the books that I remember, and those are the types of books I gift to others. With all the hate, violence, and corruption in our real life world today, just reading something that is warm and sweet makes my heart smile.


Tuesday, December 1, 2015

The Most Wonderful Time of the Year

December has arrived, which means that Christmas is only a few weeks away.

This year, as a gift for all of my readers (or prospective readers), I'm sharing this new story. It's called "The Spirit of Christmas."

It imagines the challenges of a man going through his own midlife crisis as he contemplates telling his nine year old son the truth about Santa Claus.

Here is a link to the FREE story: THE SPIRIT OF CHRISTMAS

Please feel free to share it with your friends.

Best wishes for a Merry Christmas and a joyous New Year!