Senior Reviewer Debbie Wiley  School is back in session and it’s time to hit the textbooks! Navigating the politics of any school system can be tricky, but it’s even worse when things turn to murder. Several cozy mystery authors give us a taste of what happens when things turn deadly. Lee Hollis takes us into the ugly shenanigans at Portland High in MURDER AT THE PTA where someone has been posting nasty rumors and gossip on an anonymous blog. Private Investigator Maya Kendrick tracks down the owner of the blog, only to find her dead. Meanwhile, Sandra Wallage, PTA President and wife of a US Senator, is facing all sorts of hostility thanks to the last rumor posted on the blog. Maya doesn’t believe the death is a suicide, and Sandra wants to help. Lee Hollis’ first book in the Maya and Sandra Mystery takes some hilarious turns, even as we see Maya and Sandra dealing with some very weighty personal issues. I like that we see how Maya and Sandra team up together and I can’t wait to see what other murders they will solve! Susan Wittig Albert takes us away from high school to the college level in…

“I couldn’t put it down!”  Those words are some of the most satisfying comments an author can receive.  Nothing pleases me more than a note from someone grumbling about staying up late to finish one of my books. It’s music to my ears. There are lots of ways to earn those precious words.  Writing a fast-paced novel is one of them.  It is certainly my goal every time I start a new book. My latest, THE DECEPTION, was no different.  I knew I would be writing Hawk Maddox’s story.  Hawk had been on my mind since he first appeared in a previous novel, BEYOND DANGER.  I knew what he was like–strong, determined, tough as boot leather, and at six-foot-four, two-hundred-twenty pounds, a total beefcake hunk. He was also a bounty hunter, which made him an interesting character with an interesting job.  I always try to find the hero’s perfect match and Kate Gallagher was just right for Hawk.  Tall, blonde, and curvy, she loved country music and drinking tequila at the Sagebrush Saloon. But that was her secret side.  She also owned her own business consulting firm so she was smart and hard-working. I like to read books that draw…

Writers search for ways to add professionalism to their writing. They explore technique, study the how-to guides, and invest in quality software that helps them create dynamic fiction and nonfiction. The following 10 guidelines are proven methods to deepen the craft of writing. Develop three sentences describing the writing project. As difficult as this may sound, the clarity and conciseness not only help the writer focus on the writing project but also serve as a great pitch to share with others. Incorporate the five senses. Today’s readers yearn for an adventure. If the project is fiction, the reader must experience the story. If the project is nonfiction, the reader needs to be rooted in the material. Instill proper grammar. Nothing is more frustrating or throws a reader out of the experience more than poor grammar and punctuation. With textbooks and websites available to teach and correct our errors, there isn’t an excuse. My go-to editing tool is prowritingaid.com. I also value the word frequency counter at http://www.writewords.org.uk/word_count.asp. Paste a document into the site and it lists the number of times every word is used. Network with other writers. Most creative types see life with a bit of quirkiness. The truth…

by Teresa Cross I read that your novel, A GIRL NAMED ANNA (My Name is Anna in the UK), won the Daily Mail First Novel Competition in 2017. I can see why because I absolutely loved it! Can you share with us where your inspiration for this amazing novel came from? Thank you so much – that is such a pleasure to hear! The inspiration came from a number of different places. The idea of a child being taken from a theme park was an innate fear my mum had when I was growing up. We used to go to Disney World in Florida every year, and she had a superstition about me being snatched, based on an urban legend about children being taken from theme parks and having their shoes changed and hair cut off. Thankfully I managed to get through many a visit without this happening! I was also very interested in a rash of cases which seemed to come to light about young women who had been abducted when they were children and had been found, alive, kept captive for years. These women were all abducted when they were old enough to remember who they were – I wanted…

A PERFECT EYE pits Lily Sparks, a paintings conservator who was trained to believe her eye is perfect, against a forger-turned-murderer who is hiding in plain sight. When Lily zeroes in on the killer as a failed artist, she learns this: Some forgers aren’t in it for the money; they do it to prove a point. And the ones who are caught tend to meet very bad ends. Here are Lily’s top five forgers: 1 Eric Hebborn: A British painter who trained at the Royal Academy of the Arts and forged Old Master drawings. Hebborn sought revenge against the art world because critics called his works “derivative”, “labored” and “self-conscious”. In 1996, shortly before he published The Art Forger’s Handbook with tricks of the trade including modern recipes for period pigments and ink, he was attacked and killed on a street in Rome. Hebborn’s murder is still unsolved. 2 Mark Hofmann: A mild-mannered Utah Mormon (“a scholarly country bumpkin”) who forged historical documents about the Church of the Latter-Day Saints. To lull experts, Hofmann expressed doubts about the authenticity of his finds. “Do you really think it’s genuine?” he’d say. In 1985, to buy time before his forgeries were discovered,…

I am fascinated by the heroines of this new series, A League of Extraordinary Women, who are suffragists! It was also particularly intriguing in the scenes where Queen Victoria shows up, to find that she was against this movement, and wanted to get rid of feminists. What was the most surprising thing you learned while researching this novel?  I spent some time in the archives of Oxford’s first women’s college, Lady Margaret Hall, to research my story. The first surprise was how pleased the archivist was about my interest in the first women at Oxford because they were so “under-explored”. I wondered why–these women were extraordinary, pioneers if you will, considering how unusual and controversial it was for a woman to go for higher education in 1879. I want to add that LMH shone a spotlight on the first women students this summer, when they marked the 140th anniversary of the college, and I was delighted when they asked me to share my research for the occasion. The other big surprise was how frequently objections to women’s rights in the Victorian era were couched in terms of concern for women’s health and happiness. Women were not allowed to fully matriculate…

Anyone But Rich is the first book of my new, three-book series. Every book is a true romantic comedy and is full of moments that I hope will have you laughing out loud, if not at least breathing out a little puff of air from your nose. In their high school days, the King brothers managed to nearly destroy the lives of three best friends, Kira, Iris, and Miranda. When the dust had settled, the friends all vowed that no matter what, even if the King brothers became mega-famous billionaires and came back begging forgiveness on their knees, they’d never date them again. Unfortunately, seven years later, the mega-famous, smoking hot King brothers are planting a new company headquarters in their old hometown. Richard King is also hell-bent on earning Kira’s forgiveness. Rich isn’t entirely honest with himself about his motivations, as this conversation on his plane ride back to town illustrates: “So this girl is going to be what ruins everything, isn’t she?” “What? Why would you say that?” “Because I can already see it in your eyes. You’re going to do something stupid because of her. More likely, several stupid somethings.” I crossed my arms. “She’s just a…

Oops, did I say “tips?” I think I meant “trips.” Not the sort of trips that cause you to fall down (though I’m an expert at those.) I mean the kind of trips when you get into a car and go somewhere. It might be where you planned to go. Or it might not. Here are some of the research trips I’ve taken while researching my Deputy Donut Mysteries: Find Donuts. You have to learn more about donuts, and for that, I went to the experts, Cops & Doughnuts. When the Clare City Bakery in Clare, Michigan, which had been in constant operation since 1896, was going out of business, the local cops, all nine of them, bought it. They make the best donuts! I expected to feel safe there. I did escape, eventually. With donuts. 1 Learn from the pros. The Writers’ Police Academy was held in Wisconsin. Obviously, I had to attend that, and drive a real cop car. Can’t I pretend that we were supposed to knock down every single orange pylon and drive through all of the invisible pedestrians??? I mean, it wasn’t like I could see those pretend pedestrians, and although I could definitely see…

As one of five sisters (yes, you read that right, five) it’s very important to me to have strong female friendships in all my books, whether they are biological sister or sisters of the heart. I can’t count all the times my sisters have had my back. I also can’t count all the times they “borrowed” my stuff and never returned it, but that’s another post for another time. Female friendship is so important, especially when the media tries to convince women we should all be competing against each other. As if there’s only one ‘top woman’ prize and we have to “catfight” to get it. Well, these claws will come out, but only if someone messes with my ladies because the great Beyoncé is right, girls run the world and it’s about time we started seeing healthy, positive female friendships represented in media. So on that note, let me gush about my favorite female buddy movies. The Spy Who Dumped Me: I have informed my husband that Kate McKinnon is on my Hollywood Freebie list, because that woman is beautiful, smart, and funny. My true love trifecta. So many moments in this movie made me laugh including Audrey’s secret…

by Senior Reviewer Miranda Owen Haven’t we met? Some kind of beautiful stranger You could be good for me I’ve had the taste for danger If I’m smart then I’ll run away But I’m not so I guess I’ll stay Haven’t you heard? I fell in love with a beautiful stranger –Beautiful Stranger, Madonna Two of my favorite romance authors are Mary Balogh and Jennifer Ashley. Both authors write well-crafted character-driven stories that capture the imagination. Both authors also write about extremely close yet also extremely complicated families. Two of my all-time favorite books are both by these authors and are both about characters who meet under unusual circumstances, but who find something compelling and experience an unexplainable initial attraction. I’ve always maintained that AT LAST COMES LOVE by Mary Balogh has one of the best introduction scenes and “getting to know you” dialogue I’ve ever read. The scandalous Duncan Pennethorne, the Earl of Sheringford and beautiful yet very respectable Margaret Huxtable collide at a time when they each have something the other desires. Duncan is looking for a well-connected wealthy wife to satisfy his grandfather and secure his inheritance and, and that particular moment, Margaret needs a fake beau…