Fresh FIction Box Not To Miss
Victoria Hamilton | The Music of Merry Muffin Mysteries
Author Guest / August 8, 2016

I love music, from the sounds of Motown and funk of the seventies, eighties girl groups like The GoGos and Bangles, through country and bluegrass to modern music like Bruno Mars, Rumer and light jazz artists like Stacey Kent and Karen Souza. I love classical music, too… Rachmaninoff, Mendelssohn, Copland and lots of others. But I would never have imagined getting hooked on… opera. OPERA?? Well, yeah, opera. I started researching some opera just to reference pieces for Pish Lincoln to listen to for my Merry Muffin Mysteries. And I listened on YouTube, to some of the greats. And a funny thing happened; I was listening and watching Pavarotti signing Nessun Dorma, and realized… tears were streaming down my face. It was like my very own Pretty Woman moment (except I do NOT look like Julia Roberts); remember when Julia’s character is watching the opera with tears in her eyes? I got it… I finally got it. Opera done right is an extremely emotional experience, a revelation, really. I went from doing research to get Pish’s picks correct, to becoming more interested, and watching opera videos for entertainment. But it is important to watch quality singers. I’ve found that opera…

Monica Ferris | An Author’s Least-Favorite Question
Author Guest / August 8, 2016

You hear it at every Q and A: Where do you get your ideas? The question makes most authors cringe because the answer is silly and obvious: Everywhere. But it’s especially hard on mystery authors, because of a guilty secret. A Saint Paul police investigator and I were having a lively conversation about some of his cases when he said, mildly surprised, “You have a criminal mind.” He expanded on that. “A professional criminal is always looking for an opportunity to commit a crime. He goes into a grocery story and automatically looks for the location of the office and whether the door stands open and if it does whether the safe is also open. He goes to a bar and notices if there’s a drunk with a fat wallet. He sees a car in a driveway outside an upscale house being loaded with suitcases by a family going away on vacation and stores the address away in his head. You do the same thing, except you turn all those things into stories rather than actually committing the crime.” Yes, and so the proceeds of the crime come to my pocketbook legally. But he’s right. Actually, it’s worse than that….

Diane Vallere | Charlie’s Story
Author Guest / August 8, 2016

When I wrote the first book in the Material Witness Mystery Series a few years ago, I had the luxury of establishing some murky backgrounds for the series characters—dropping in just enough to let you know who they were, but leaving myself some room to dig in to their pasts in the next two books. So when it came time to write book 3, SILK STALKINGS, I had to ask myself: what questions do I need to answer in order to give closure to the three books as a series? There was the question of what would happen between Vaughn and Poly (can they get past their differences?), and the question of whether or not Poly’s fabric store would succeed (there’s that loan that she has to pay back—yikes!). There were questions about Duke (what was the accident that left him paralyzed?) and the Lopez family (is their cat still blue?) But the overwhelming question had to do with the background of Charlie Brooks, auto mechanic, Van Halen fan, and new friend of Poly, so I knew book three would delve into that. Charlie has been one of my favorite characters to write. She’s a tough girl to the point…

Scott Hildreth | Becoming The Character
Author Guest / August 8, 2016

Point of view and perspective. There’s a difference between the two. Point of view is the manner in which the story is told by the protagonist. I generally write romance novels in first person point of view from the female and male character’s perspective, alternating chapters between the hero and the heroine. Perspective is how the character views the scene being described. The male and female perspective differs greatly in life; therefore, it should differ greatly in writing. Men tend to focus much more on what they see and less on how they feel, while women are quite the opposite. The differences between the two certainly don’t stop there. Statistically speaking, on average, women speak almost three times as much as men. Men, when describing an intimate scene will focus on what they’re touching, while a woman’s description of the same scene will be driven by emotion. Women view conversation as an opportunity, while men see it as a means of solving a problem. In short, the variances between a man’s and women’s perspective are vast. Knowing the many differences between men and women, and describing the scenes from an accurate perspective are crucial in allowing the reader to see…

M.L. Buchman | An Ideal Weekend
Author Guest / August 8, 2016

I sometimes think that it would be healthier if my characters and I had slightly different ideas about what made up an ideal weekend. Now my characters are somewhat younger than I am, so maybe I’ll try winding back the clock and seeing what happens with the heroes and heroines of my first two Delta Force novels. Perhaps I should preface this: I’ve never served in Delta Force. The team that kicks ass in my latest Delta Force novel, HEART STRIKE… well, that’s their gig. Team Leader Kyle “Mister Kyle” Reeves He’s the steady hand at the very core of the team. But his idea of an ideal weekend is to curl up with his wife, preferably somewhere that no one is trying to kill them. Maybe go for a ride in the country. A sleeping bag beneath the stars by a quiet campfire is right in the sweet spot for him. My wife and I have lived most of our lives rural (often in communities well under a thousand people). The woods is something that draws us both. Almost twenty years together and I still think that a weekend curled up with my lady is one well spent. Carla…