The Mystery of the Flying Chocolate...guest post by Michele Lynn Seigfried

            First of all, thank you Lorne for having me here today. Lorne told me that he would allow me to do a guest blog on his site…so long as I was interesting. So, I have decided to tell you about something embarrassing that happened to me; in hopes that you will find it amusing. If you do, perhaps I will work it into the third book in the Jersey Shore Mystery Series.

 

           I once worked for the New Jersey Police Chiefs’ Association. I would tell you how long ago, but then I’d be showing you just how old I am! As part of my job function, I was required to attend the Annual Police Security Expo down in Atlantic City. (Here in New Jersey, you always go “down the shore;” whether it’s up or down is irrelevant).

            At the end of the expo, there was a banquet for police chiefs, attended by more than 300 chiefs and special guests. I was seated at a VIP table. Joining me were a colonel from the New Jersey State Police and a number of dignitaries from West Point, the F.B.I., and other law enforcement agencies. Being only in my early twenties at the time, this was somewhat intimidating for me. I tried my best to mind my manners, use the right fork, speak only when spoken to, etc. A very stressful dinner for me, to say the least.

            At the end of the meal, our server came along with a tray of chocolates for dessert. I selected one, as did everyone at the table, and placed it on my plate. I wondered how I would eat it. I feared I’d look like a barn-yard animal picking it up with my hands and taking a bite. It was too large to pop the entire thing in my mouth. Would I get chocolate on my teeth or on my face? I waited and contemplated my options.

            The speeches at the front of the room had begun. The outgoing president of the association was making his final remarks. The new president would soon be sworn in. The chocolate sat in front of me, tempting me. I’m a chocoholic by nature. I can’t have a piece of chocolate in front of me and not eat it. I finally made a decision to cut the chocolate piece in half with my fork and knife, making it small enough to eat with my utensils. I thought that would be more lady-like.

            I situated my fork atop the luscious-looking piece of heaven with my left hand, and dug into it with my knife in my right hand. The chocolate had other ideas for me. It shot out from under the knife, off my plate, across the table, between two of the VIPs at my table, and smacked into the back of the chair of a man the next table over. My face glowed in the dim dinner lighting with eight shades of red. I swiftly returned my fork and knife to their rightful positions alongside my plate, to hide the evidence. I breathed a sigh of relief when I glanced around quickly and realized that the man in the chair that was hit by the chocolate bullet did not notice. Everyone at my table was too busy watching the speeches in front to pay attention to me and my dessert malfunction as well. Embarrassment averted! That is, until I heard laughter beside me. To my right, that State Police Colonel was chuckling. I looked at him and was greeted by an, “I saw that.” Turning red once more, I giggled nervously, then replied, “Please don’t tell anyone.”

            He shook his head and laughed some more. “I won’t,” he told me. I believe he kept his promise.  I look back at the experience and laugh about it now—many, many years later.

            So, what do you think?  Is it funny enough to include a similar story in the next of my humorous mystery? Don’t forget to comment and tell me if my experience is book worthy!

 

About Author Michele Lynn Seigfried:

            

            Michele Lynn Seigfried is an award-winning novelist, a children's author and illustrator and a public speaker who was born and raised in New Jersey. Her background as a communication major and art minor, and her 15 years of experience working in government mix together to bring you creative and fun novels and books. Connect with her on her website www.michelelynnseigfried.com and check out her mystery novels, Red Tape, Book 1 and TaxCut, Book 2 in the in the Jersey Shore Mystery series, available on Amazon.com and Barnesandnoble.com

You’ll L.O.L. because Municipal Clerk Chelsey Alton is at it again! Working for a government riddled with crime, she and her sidekick Bonnie investigate to find out the answer to the pressing question: Who killed Vinny Buttiglieri? She finds herself entangled with dangerous mobsters and corrupt politicians. She thinks she’s doing the right thing, but can she save herself when she becomes entrenched too deep in this Jersey shore mystery?

 

No Ordinary Women - a guest post by Barbara Deese

Hi all, Lorne here.  I've been neglecting my blog for a while, so it's time to get it going.  I've been talking to some writer friends of mine and there are some great guest posts and interviews coming.

Today the author of the No Ordinary Women Mysteries, Barbara Deese, drops by...


FUN AHEAD
When it comes to mysteries, readers love series, and once they’ve gotten hooked on a good series, they don’t want to wait too long for sequels. Writing a series, I’m discovering, is a lot tougher than it looks. Call it on the job training.

Readers tell me they can hardly wait to spend a more time with my characters. The characters have become very real to them. That’s wonderful. Fantastic! Now that the first two books in the No Ordinary Women mystery series—Murder at Spirit Falls and Spirited Away—are out in print, I thought I’d be sailing along on the third book, Forgotten Spirits. After all, the characters have been jabbering inside my head for at least 13 years, and I’m very familiar with the settings. But I find I’m stumbling over minutiae from earlier books in an attempt to keep the details consistent—things like Robin’s college major, how old Cate’s dog is, or whether Foxy’s bedroom faces the street or the alley. If I get it wrong, the picky reader of my imagination will post a review declaring my writing amateurish.

More difficult is keeping the tone consistent, while shifting points of view and allowing the characters to develop and change over the course of several books. Five book club women form the backbone of each story, but their roles shift a bit from one book to the next. It’s hard to give them equal time—in fact, it would sound contrived if I did, and so they’ll have to be content with having quality time.

The hardest part, and one I should have anticipated, is not only managing my time so I can promote and market two books while writing the third, but having fun in the process. I believe that last part might be the most essential, because if I’m not having fun writing the story, why would I expect anyone to have fun reading it?

 

Barbara Deese's No Ordinary Women Myseries

Look below for links to her books and websie

A No Ordinary Women Mystery. Robin Bentley's cabin, perched above Spirit Falls in the lush Wisconsin woodland, is remote enough for her and her book club friends to shed the restraints of city living, hike in the woods, take moonlight walks and go skinny dipping under the waterfall. But when they discover a battered body below the falls, the No Ordinary Women find themselves up to their bifocals in a real mystery, and one of them could be the next victim.










Robin Bentley and Cate Running Wolf have been through a lot together. Not that long ago, they risked their lives to solve a murder. You’d think they’d learn. But when ninety-six-year-old Era Dudley, a spry, compact woman with mauve hair, charges toward Robin, points a bony finger in her chest and demands she help locate her missing son, Robin can’t resist drawing Cate and the No Ordinary Women book club into yet another mystery. They’re not without help, however. Era and the other lovable and quirky residents of Meadowpoint Manor are not about to be sidelined, despite their advanced years.


Murder at Spirit Falls on Amazon
Spirited Away on Amazon
http://www.noordinarywomenmysteries.com/

Some Good Things are Free

On January 9^th and 10^th my second crime thriller novel in the Sgt. Reid Series, RED SERGE, is going to be free to download from Amazon.  I would love a review on Amazon, Goodreads, some other site, your own site, a community bulletin board, the side of a bus, anywhere and everywhere.  If you don’t have the time, I completely understand and would still love for you to pick up your copy of Red Serge.

Below is a quick synopsis of the novel with a link to the amazon pages below that.  I hope 2014 is going to be a great year for you.

Please note:  this is a stand-alone within a series so you don’t have to have read Red Island to enjoy Red Serge.

RED SERGE

The body of a young girl is found.  She was raped and tortured before being strangled.  Sgt. Reid of the RCMP has had too much violent death in his career.  He knows he shouldn’t get involved in this one.  His marriage is falling apart, his daughter is getting involved in the wrong things, but something draws him in.  The discovery of other young girl’s bodies his daughter’s age, some long dead, begs the question, how long has the Devil been coming to Prince Edward Island?

It was almost his end game.  He had one last target in mind, one last conquest.  His whole life had been under the thumb of someone else.  This was his.  It wasn’t going to be a secret any more.  The daughter of a cop known for catching serial killers…how did she taste?

The Royal Canadian Mounted Police were known for their Red Serge uniform.  It was what they wore in ceremony, to honour others, and in death.

Amazon links:  (remember to wait until January 9^th and 10^th)

United States

Canada

United Kingdom

Sometimes you have to get Frisky - a review

There's this great writer who lives in Toronto.  She writes murder mysteries about a sassy, sexy, drum playing private investigator who lives with her gambling father and chef brother.  Jill Edmondson found me by seeing my picture and asking if I was a chef, she works at a culinary school, and I'm glad she did because I was able to find the world of Sasha Jackson.

Frisky Business is the second novel I've read in this series (it's the 4th in the whole thing) and I really want to read more.  Here's my review.....

Jill Edmondson pulls you into her latest Sasha Jackson Mystery and doesn’t let you go.  Frisky Business, the 4^th novel in the series, takes the best of old school PI detective novels and blends it with the life of a woman trying to figure out her own life.  Right from the jump you walk in with the client as she, Raven, hires Sasha to investigate the murder of her friend, and fellow porn star Kitty Vixen.  The questions and possible suspects quickly pile up.

What I really like about the Sasha Jackson Mysteries is that the hero is a flawed, normal person.  You get to see her life change from book to book.  Her man troubles, best friend troubles, living arrangement troubles, learning how to drive troubles, and everything else in her life troubles never get in the way of the mystery, but add to it.  By the time you get to the end you are as excited to know what is happening in her life as you are to finding out who the killer is.

A Canadian hero is sometimes hard to find.  A Female Canadian hero is even harder.  I can’t wait to hear more about what happens in Sasha Jackson’s life.

5 big stars

Frisky Business on Amazon.ca

Frisky Business on Amazon.com

Jill Edmondson's web site