Category: mystery

1920s, Books, fantasy, fiction, goals, mystery, publishing, writing

Magic Most Deadly Redux

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Ten years ago this September, I published my first novel. It was a pretty good debut novel! But … it suffered from quite a lot of the issues that can plague first-time novelists. Such as trying to cram way too much story into one book. And not really being sure what genre it was and so veering wildly between a novel of manners, a cozy mystery, a thriller, a fantasy, and a coming-of-age novel. And trying to force the characters to conform to what the author thought should happen rather than letting them be themselves. And being about 30,000 words too long.

I’m still proud of that novel, my Magic Most Deadly. Even all of the above problems came from aiming too high rather than too low. I’m proud of the world I created, the characters and the way they came to life (despite the occasional attempt to force them into boxes they refused to fit inside), and the way that novel set the stage for the rest of the series.

But because I learned so much from that first novel and then applied it to the next one, and then learned from that and applied it to the next one, not to mention the short stories, novella, and the other books I wrote over the last ten years that also developed my abilities, I am faced with the reality that Book 1 of the Whitney and Davies series is not really a good match for Books 2 & 3 (and eventually 4), or even the supplemental stories.

So this summer I started tackling the job of rewriting Magic Most Deadly in order to tighten the story and bring it more in line with the rest of the series. The overall story will be the same, but the way in which it is written will be vastly different. It will also be getting a new cover, which will also fit better with the rest of the series (I’ll be honest, it was getting a new cover that pushed me from only thinking that one of these days I ought to rewrite MMD, to actually doing it). I’ll be sorry to say goodbye to the original cover, because I do love it, but I am also excited to see MMD look like it belongs with Glamours & Gunshots and Death by Disguise rather than being their awkward stepsister.

I am a couple thousand words into the rewrite and already pretty excited over the way subtle shadings in Maia and Len’s characters are starting to show through, and the way the story is being set up. There are a lot of challenges involved in being a self-published author, but having the ability to say, “that book I published ten years ago? Yeah, I can make that better,” and then DOING it without having to regain rights or persuade anyone that it’s worth doing is AMAZING.

I am so excited for when I can share the new-and-improved Magic Most Deadly with you all!

1920s, Books, fantasy, mystery

Praise for Death by Disguise

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I wanted to share some quotes from the jurors who read Death by Disguise for the Maine Literary Awards.

“Bates delivers an absolutely worthy read that blends its dual genres of fantasy and cozy mystery well while taking readers on an adventure that is simply good fun from start to finish.”

“I really enjoyed the setting of this cozy mystery with a dash of magic – a secret college of magic operating inside Cambridge University. The detective team was delightful, as they scoured the college to solve one mystery, uncovering others along the way. As a cozy mystery, it seemed especially subtle, yet this book clearly merits the win, based on its well-executed elements of story and craft.”

Now, doesn’t that make you want to go read it? Get your copy here so that you can join in the fun of Whitney & Davies’ world!

1920s, Books, fantasy, fiction, mystery, publishing, writing

Death by Disguise, MLA Winner

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I am honored and delighted to be able to share that Death by Disguise won the 2023 Maine Literary Award for Speculative Fiction. I was not expecting that at all! I was honored enough to be named as a finalist; actually winning the award was not on my radar at all.

The ceremony was held at Bates College (a very nice touch–I think I managed to work a joke about that into my acceptance speech, though I was so dazed I can’t really remember much that I said), and was absolutely lovely. I was pleased to be able to meet and cheer for so many wonderful Maine writers in every category. Our family settled in Maine just as the pandemic was starting to shut everything down in the state–not a good time to try to build or join a preexisting writing community! I joined the Maine Writers and Publishers Alliance anyway, and spent a lot of time hoping that eventually they’d move back to doing in-person events rather than Zoom (which gives me a migraine if I use it for long). Now that they have, I am looking forward to participating in more events and workshops, and hope to get better acquainted with my fellow Maine writers. This award has certainly helped me feel more like I belong here!

This award has also helped push me into a project I’d been contemplating for some time but hadn’t gotten around to yet: rebranding Magic Most Deadly so that its cover matches the style and feel of the others in the series. When I wrote and published MMD (ten years ago this September!) I didn’t really know much about branding or how to choose a cover design. While I loved, and still love, the cover that my designer and I eventually came up with, it doesn’t really give off quite the right vibe for the “cozy fantasy-mystery” genre this series has, nor does it carry the Whitney & Davies logo that we developed by the time Glamours and Gunshots was published, and which has been on every subsequent book in the series.

My goal is to have the new edition available by the end of September, to celebrate the ten-year anniversary of MMD’s publication. We’ll see if I make it! I am also making some substantial edits to the story, as that was my first published book and honestly, it shows. I won’t be changing anything about the heart of the story or the characters, but I will be tightening it up, eliminating some unnecessary bits, bringing the characters into better focus, all that sort of thing. Using the skills I’ve learned through writing 3 more novels, many short stories, and four novellas in the ten years since publishing MMD to make it the story it was always meant to be!

I’m also going to be switching over print distribution for the Whitney & Davies novels from Amazon to IngramSpark over the course of the summer, so if you are a bookseller and have been wanting to carry these books but have been unable to due to the difficulties of buying wholesale through Amazon–good news! It will soon be much easier for you.

And hey, if you haven’t read the award-winning Death by Disguise yet, you can click here to buy. (You can buy the other books, too, but I might recommend waiting for Magic Most Deadly until the new edition comes out–unless you’d like to own both and compare them, in which case, have at it!)

Books, fiction, mystery, publishing, writing

Announcing Pauline Gray Investigates

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Death Comes to the North Country


Welcome to Canton, NY, a small farming town nestled in the northern foothills of the Adirondack mountains. It’s the 1930s, and to an outsider’s eye, this looks like an idyllic village mostly untouched by the Great Depression that is ravaging so much of the nation. But even the most idyllic towns and villages have their dark sides. When trouble comes to Canton, the folk there rely on each other to help out. And that includes one young woman in particular …


Meet Pauline Gray. A graduate of the prestigious St. Lawrence University in Canton, she fell in love with the town while in college and has never left. A journalist by day and a secret novelist by night, Pauline’s compassion and drive for justice pull her into mysteries that are too small or too peculiar for the police. She would really prefer a quieter life, but when people need her help, she can’t turn them away, no matter what the danger to herself might be.

Announcing … Pauline Gray Investigates, a collection of the three Pauline Gray novellas into one beautiful book! This omnibus contains Candles in the Dark, Diamonds to Dust, and Secrets of the Past, previously published separately and now conveniently gathered into one edition.

This book is available to purchase in ebook or paperback here, but even better than buying it online would be asking your local bookstore to order it for you. The heart and soul of the Pauline Gray stories is the importance of communities, and in that spirit I would love to see this book in as many local bookstores as possible, celebrating the importance of place.

If you do purchase this at your local bookstore, send me an email at stardancepress@gmail.com and include a photo so that I can see just how many bookstores Pauline has made it into! I’d love to feature your photos and your local bookstores in my next newsletter. (Which, by the way, you can sign up for here):

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Enjoy this beautiful omnibus, my friends! I certainly am.

Books, fiction, heroines, mystery, writing

All the News That’s Fit to … Type

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This blog has been pretty silent for a while, but that’s mostly been because there hasn’t been much to say. (Admittedly, it’s also been because the little there has been to say has gone in the newsletter rather than on here. Have you signed up for the newsletter yet? It goes out once a month generally, more frequently if there’s exciting book news or sales to announce.)

(Also, would you mind letting me know if the signup form is showing up properly for you? It’s either not showing up at all on one browser or telling me the link has expired on the other browser, and I’m not sure if that’s just me of if it’s misbehaving for all you readers as well. Sigh … technology is great, until it isn’t.)

Anyway, the news. It’s exciting! But I can’t tell you what it is yet. Argh. I know, I know! Suffice to say, I thought I was finished with Pauline Gray, but something new may—just may—be in the works after all.

If you are new here, Pauline Gray is my non-fantasy mystery series consisting of three novellas (I suppose that’s more of a trilogy than a series, but each book stands alone, so it feels more like a series to me … sigh. Classifying things is hard. Thus says the librarian-in-training.)

The series description on my book page goes thus:

Welcome to Canton, NY, a small farming town nestled in the northern foothills of the Adirondack mountains. It’s the 1930s, and to an outsider’s eye, this looks like an idyllic village mostly untouched by the Great Depression that is ravaging so much of the nation. But even the most idyllic towns and villages have their dark sides. When trouble comes to Canton, the folk there rely on each other to help out. And that includes one young woman in particular …

Meet Pauline Gray. A graduate of the prestigious St. Lawrence University, she fell in love with the town while in college and has never left. A journalist by day and a secret novelist by night, Pauline’s compassion and drive for justice pull her into mysteries that are too small or too peculiar for the police. She would really prefer a quieter life, but when people need her help, she can’t turn them away.

I grew to be very fond of Pauline, and the community of friends and neighbors that grew around her as her stories progressed, but by the time I came to the third novella, the strain of trying to keep up three series (Whitney & Davies, Pauline Gray, and From the Shadows—yes, that book is getting a sequel if I ever manage to finish writing the first draft), got to be too much for me. The third novella was a good stopping place, and so I bid farewell to Pauline and her friends.

Or did I?

Well, as I said, I can’t share anything specific yet, but stay tuned—news should be coming very soon!

Books, characters, fiction, mystery, publishing, stories, writing

Secrets of the Past, Published

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It’s been one week since Secrets of the Past published!

Old Secrets Cast Long Shadows …
 
When newspaper columnist Pauline Gray agrees to help a retired schoolteacher write her memoirs, she has no idea it will lead to murder. Someone doesn’t want old memories stirred up … and they are willing to kill to keep the past a secret. Now it’s a race to uncover the truth that the murderer is so desperate to keep buried. It will take all Pauline’s ingenuity to solve this case before the killer strikes again—and this time Pauline herself might be the victim … 

I confess: I forgot to post about it on the blog on the actual publication day. I was so busy updating all my other social media sites that writing a post for here slipped my mind. So I decided I would wait and do a “one week” post instead (and then nearly forgot about that as well).

I am so happy to have this book out in the world. It’s a bit surreal to think that I have completed this series. Originally I had intended for there to be 7-8 Pauline Gray books, but as I went along I started to realize that this was better suited for a shorter series, and when I started working on Secrets, it became very clear that this was the final story. The final chapter was a little emotional to write! But I am satisfied with the three stories, satisfied with Pauline’s character arc throughout the series, and pleased to see the project completed.

The ebook of Secrets of the Past is available at pretty much all the usual retailers, via this link. So far the paperback is only available through Amazon, but it will eventually be distributed through other retailers as well. The process takes a bit longer with print than with ebooks.

I hope you have all enjoyed going back in time to 1930s Canton, NY with me, and getting to know all the characters I chose to people this town with, and I hope you enjoy this final book in the series. Happy reading!

Books, fiction, mystery, publishing, writing

Secrets of the Past, Print Release Date

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The second proof copy of the print edition of Secrets of the Past arrived in the mail yesterday, and … it’s gorgeous. I’m so pleased with how it turned out.

The first proof copy had some problems with the margins, which I was able to finally sort out, and I wasn’t happy with a couple of details on the cover, things that looked fine on a computer screen but just didn’t work well on a physical book. That’s why we have physical proof copies, to work out all those little details in order to have the final product be as close to perfect as a human can get!

The really good news, so far as my readers are concerned, is that with the success of this proof, I will be able to release the paperback edition of Secrets of the Past on March 1st, right along with the ebook edition. Hurrah!

So mark your calendars for March 1st, 2022, whichever edition you prefer to buy, because you will be able to take your pick.

Less than a week to go!

Books, characters, fiction, mystery, publishing, reading list, writing

Secrets of the Past Release Date

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Old Secrets Cast Long Shadows …
 
When newspaper columnist Pauline Gray agrees to help a retired schoolteacher write her memoirs, she has no idea it will lead to murder. Someone doesn’t want old memories stirred up … and they are willing to kill to keep the past a secret. Now it’s a race to uncover the truth that the murderer is so desperate to keep buried. It will take all Pauline’s ingenuity to solve this case before the killer strikes again—and this time Pauline herself might be the victim … 

I am very happy to be able to announce a release date for Secrets of the Past, the third and final Pauline Gray novella. It will be available in ebook form on March 1, 2022. You can preorder it now using this link: Secrets of the Past

I am hoping that the paperback will be available on March 1 as well, but I can’t make any promises with that.

This book was one of my most challenging to write, and one of the most rewarding. I can’t wait to share it with readers! This is a bittersweet release for me–I am pleased to have brought Pauline’s journey to completion, and a little sad to say goodbye to her. I hope all of my readers find satisfaction in how this final mystery works out.

You can also add Secrets of the Past to your Goodreads list here, if you like.

I will update once I have a set release date for the paperback as well!

1920s, Books, fantasy, fiction, goals, mystery, publishing, Sci-fi, stories, writing

Publishing Plans for 2022

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I often hesitate to post about upcoming books and publications, because so often life ends up turning my plans upside down–or the book refuses to be written–or the prior book takes longer to be written than planned and so this book has to be pushed off yet again–and so on and so forth. However, I also do like to keep my readers informed as to what they can expect, and so with the qualifier that these plans are very, very loosely held, here is what to look out for in 2022, and possibly beyond.

Secrets of the Past. The third and final (at least for now) Pauline Gray novella will be coming soon–possibly even this month, though a March publication date is more likely.

Death by Disguise. The third novel in the Whitney & Davies series, following after Glamours & Gunshots. (The current chronological order of the series, for those who are curious, is: Magic Most Deadly, The Third Thief*, Masks & the Magician*, While Shepherds Watch, Glamours & Gunshots, Death by Disguise.) My original plan for 2022 was to have this published by April. Substantial rewrites are making that look less and less likely, but I am still intending to publish it this year, just most likely later than the original goal.

Another collection of short stories in the Whitney & Davies collection, these to feature some of the smaller cases the team solves between Glamours & Gunshots and Death by Disguise. This collection is tentatively titled Sorcery and Suspicion, but we’ll see if the title lasts throughout the actual writing and organizing of the stories!

Those three books make up my publishing plans for this year. I have not forgotten about the Caledonia sequel I hinted at however many months ago (either here or on one of my social media sites, I can’t remember now where I talked about it). That story is still proving recalcitrant, and since it is more important to me to get it right rather than publish it fast, I’ve stopped trying to set a publication date for it. It is still happening, just … not very fast.

I also have two more Whitney & Davies novels planned, and my hope is to publish one if not both in 2023. After that … who knows? We shall see where the muse strikes!

Feel free to leave a comment if you have any questions about the upcoming books, or an urgent request for a story that you are hoping to read, or a character you’d like to see featured in an upcoming story, or if you just want to talk about the books! I always enjoy chatting with my readers.

*found in the short story collection Magic & Mayhem

Books, fiction, mystery, publishing, writing

Cover Reveal, Pauline Gray #3

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At long last, it is time to reveal the cover for the third (and most likely final) Pauline Gray novella. Are you excited? I am excited to show it to you!

This is the fifth book cover I’ve designed (I’ve done all the covers for the PG mysteries, as well as the cover for Magic & Mayhem and While Shepherds Watch), and while I’m not planning on taking up graphic design as a career any time soon, I’ve thoroughly enjoyed developing my skills in this area. I’m also indebted to my husband Carl and my editor A.M. Offenwanger, both of whom have a far better artistic eye than I do and who both always offer valuable input on the cover before I declare it ready.

So now, without further ado, here is the cover for Secrets of the Past.

Old Secrets Cast Long Shadows …
 
When newspaper columnist Pauline Gray agrees to help a retired schoolteacher write her memoirs, she has no idea it will lead to murder. Someone doesn’t want old memories stirred up … and they are willing to kill to keep the past a secret. Now it’s a race to uncover the truth that the murderer is so desperate to keep buried. It will take all Pauline’s ingenuity to solve this case before the killer strikes again—and this time Pauline herself might be the victim …  

This has been one of my most challenging stories to write, and I am looking forward to at last being able to share it with you all–soon! I don’t have a specific release date yet, but it should be sometime in February or, at the very latest, early March.

One more adventure for Pauline, and this one the most difficult yet! We can only hope she survives it …