851 Kitchen and Cocktail Bar Event

On Saturday, June 13, 2026, I’ll be at the 1851 Kitchen and Cocktail Bar in Cromwell, CT from 12:00 t0 4:00 p.m. I hope to meet new friends and author colleagues. The menus look delicious. Come and try out this new place. This event is sponsored by Nutmeg Litfest. A note after the event - I heard from author colleagues who were there that the food was delicious. But that was pretty much the saving grace for them. The venue was in a separate room from the main restaurant, perfect for a private party. But not the best setup for authors. The 25+ authors were crammed into the space, with me and others having to share a round table. My table mate and I were placed at the very back of the room. If that wasn't bad enough, there were less than a handful of customers. No signage at the end of the sidewalk to tell people about the local authors. The other downside was a most beautiful very warm day when Route 9 was bumper to bumper for miles heading south to the beaches. It's the details that make or break an event, and some, like weather we have no control over.

Sometimes I Wish I Had Staff

Sometimes I think - if only I had staff like the big guys – Grisham, Baldacci, Penny, King—you get the idea—I could put out books a lot faster. But that’s just not going to happen. So, I was pleased, a few weeks ago, when I was at my son’s house, someone showed interest in my work. We are still negotiating a contract, haggling over how many Greenies a day I need to provide. In the meantime, I continue chipping away on the fifth Caitlyn Jamison mystery, Uncharted Drift. Chapters five and six will be critiqued on Monday evening during our Fiction Critique meeting, which is through the CRRL in Fredericksburg. An earlier post showed how I used the erasable whiteboard to work out the plot and how the characters were connected. That graphic was transferred to paper so I can use the whiteboard to try out various plot scenarios. Ideas often come when I am not at my computer, so this way, I have the whiteboard on my lap and can brainstorm away. When chapters are polished and ready for critique, I fill out Post-it® notes, color-coded for each character. It’s a way to manage the plot lines and track when the characters appear. Before I can start Chapter 7, I need to spend time on the whiteboard, figuring out what’s next. And so goes the life of a writer.

An Unexpected Death

This summer, I decided my first Caitlyn Jamison mystery book, An Unexpected Death, needed a new look. My graphic designer at Six Penny Graphics in Fredericksburg, Virginia, did a great job in capturing Caitlyn as she sets out on her first investigation. When Caitlyn arrived in Upstate New York for her cousin’s funeral, the last thing on her mind was investigating his death. But Caitlyn has a strong sense of justice, and she was determined to find out who caused the death of her cousin. Against the wishes of the local sheriff, Ethan Ewing, she persisted in being involved. At first, she was a thorn in Ethan’s side, so to keep her from going off on her own, he reluctantly accepted her help. He asked her to listen and read the body language of those he interviewed. The result—with her creative mind, Caitlyn became a valuable resource for Ethan. An Unexpected Death is where the adventure begins!

Deadly Secrets

I’m excited and relieved that my fourth Caitlyn Jamison mystery is published. I began writing this book in March 2020 when the Novel Coronavirus copied/stole the plot for a suspense I’d been working on since December 2019. When I realized that no one would read what I’d developed, or would think I just copied the headlines, I put that book aside and started Caitlyn’s next adventure. I wanted to do something different in this book. To that end I decided to have Caitlyn arriving in the Adirondacks. She is visiting the idyllic town of Pont-Aven, an artists’ enclave that welcomes all creative arts. A conference center is built to accommodate groups of all artistic endeavors. Caitlyn immediately falls in love with the town. But, on the day of her arrival, a young male librarian is attacked. And, against the warning of local law enforcement, Caitlyn decides to do her own investigation to find out who attacked the librarian. That young man is also an environmentalist and leading the protests against a commercial development planned for the town green that would ruin the town. Ethan is in Virginia working at his new position as the Law Enforcement Liaison Officer for the State of Virginia. That position is under the umbrella of the FBI. He learns about an item missing from the Library of Congress’s Packard Campus, and then has cases of cybercrime of valuable art and antiquities. Caitlyn’s investigation takes a turn when a murder is committed in the small town. She is challenged, but determined to solve these cases without Ethan’s help. This book has a lot going on between the plot lines and the characters—a great book discussion option.

A Busy But Productive Summer

It appears I’ve maintained blog silence this summer, though I did keep up the blog on my website. There are only so many hours in the day.

I received the beta readers’ comments early in the summer and diligently worked for weeks addressing their concerns/corrections/additions to the manuscript. When that was done, I went through and edited more. When I couldn’t look at it again, I gave it to my second beta reader. She went through with a fine-tooth comb and found a few more issues, and she also gave me areas that I could flesh out more. After working in her suggestions, I went through the manuscript again. It was at that point that I gave the book to my husband to read. He spent all day Sunday reading, marking little things. A couple of typos, a couple of missing words, and suggested I explain why the government and utility companies were pointing fingers at each other. Excellent suggestion.

I was pretty stressed out that day. I am so close to publishing, but thought what if he finds a major problem that will take weeks to work out?

The stress released when he put it down and said, “Well, you’ve done it again. It’s a page turner.”

On Monday I finished my Author’s note, the front matter is ready, and I sent the cover text files and photo off to a graphic artist. (She loves the photo).

The Death of Cassie White is almost ready to launch. It will be a bittersweet moment. I’ll be glad to have the book done, but sad to not spend more time with Caitlyn, Ethan and the rest of the gang—at least not until next time.

Fatal Dose is almost there

The last few months have been a blur as I put the finishing touches on the second Caitlyn Jamison Mystery series, Fatal Dose.

As an author, whether you are published or self-published, it is your responsibility to put out the best product possible. To accomplish that I paid close attention to what each of my seven beta readers said. I took their comments seriously, and made adjustments to the story in order to address their concerns.

When I was sure the manuscript was as clean as I could get it, I loaded it and the cover into CreateSpace, and ordered three proof copies. I read one, my husband read one, and a colleague who is a grammarian, read the third. We each found things to address, which proves that editing is never done.

Having said that, there comes a time when the author has to decide the book is done. We have to let it go.

I reloaded the corrected manuscript and the tweaked cover into Createspace at eight o’clock Tuesday morning. The book was approved by five o’clock Tuesday afternoon and I ordered one more proof copy. I am a firm believer in “Murphy’s Law.” As soon as this last proof copy arrives, I will not read it again, but instead will check the cover, and make sure no formatting issues have popped up.

Fingers crossed that my second book will be available by mid-next week. Whew!

Fatal Dose – The Next Caitlyn Jamison Mystery

I announced during the Island Branch Library presentation in February the title of my second Caitlyn Jamison mystery is Fatal Dose. I had a different working title, but as the story progressed and the characters did their usual thing and changed the story, Fatal Dose was more appropriate.

There is a lot going on in this book and my challenge is to see if I can manage several plot lines, one of which has a genealogy twist. It’s fun to watch how the new secondary characters took over the story line, vying for prime time against the main characters. I remain humbled by the fact that I am only the author; the characters are in control.

Having said that, I think they have done a good job with the story. I applaud my new characters, Steven Sullivan and Verna Adams, who took the story into areas I hoped to avoid. Pushed beyond my comfort level, my writing has grown.

Thank you, Steven and Verna!

“… it’s always what you do with it.”

The latest issue of Writers Digest features an article, “Write Your Novel in 2016,” and that is exactly what I plan to do. One of the quotes within that issue by Neil Gaiman, “But the truth is, it’s not the idea, it’s never the idea, it’s always what you do with it,” caught my attention.

I have been searching for a unique plot line that I can sink my teeth into and feel passionate about. But maybe I don’t need to work so hard on those plot lines, but instead work at giving them a different twist.

My protagonist, Caitlyn Jamison, is about to get involved in another mystery. This was not in her game plan. She has been quite happy working in DC, though continues to be unsettled about her love life. Her fall trip to the winery for a photo shoot is interrupted by Ethan when he asks her to help solve another murder. And then there’s the cold case. What will she do?

An Unexpected Death; A Caitlyn Jamison Mystery – Published!

This is the photo used for the cover

This day didn’t seem attainable a year ago when I began this novel. The key to success was plot lines I felt passionate about and a writing partner who encouraged me every step of the way. She even provided me with the virtual head slap when I was having second thoughts about publishing at all.

It took two proofs before I felt comfortable to publish. The first one was marked up with all sorts of edits. In the second, I found a couple misspellings, missing end quotes, missing words. Nothing major, but every detail counts when you face careful readers.

Am I a nervous wreck? Absolutely, and I wonder if every first time author feels this way.

It is now up to my protagonist Caitlyn Jamison and Sheriff Ethan Ewing to strut their stuff, solve the crimes and bring justice to Upstate New York. They run into a number of obstacles along the way, but I have every confidence that they will be successful.

My only wish is that readers enjoy the story.

Finding my Voice

As I begin the second Caitlyn Jamison mystery I started to think more about voice. What is it exactly? What should it be? Is it something I have to learn, practice, develop? In a September 2013 Writer’s Digest article, Cris Freese states:

“To set your voice free, set your words free. Set your characters free. Most important, set your heart free. It is from the unknowable shadows of your subconscious that your stories will find their drive and from which they will draw their meaning. No one can loan that or teach you that. Your voice is your self in the story.”

The article confirmed what I believed, which is that my writing voice is mine alone, my personality coming through, and in that sense unique. It only alters when I get so “in the groove” that the characters take over, and that’s okay.

So where does writing style come in? Style is your particular use of sentence structure - long, short, complex, simple, imagery, conversational, etc. And that is what I need to work on in this next book. Developing a style that fits my voice, my personality, and is in a way uniquely me.

Timelines for Writers

As a genealogist I’m familiar with how helpful timelines are to keep track of each individual ancestor. By developing a timeline for each person, the researcher can quickly see where the holes are in that person’s life.

For example, you find your ancestor on the 1850 census, but then don’t find him again until the 1870 census. Where was he during those twenty years? Did the family relocate, travel abroad, did the census taker miss them or misspell their name so much it became unrecognizable? That is an important hole to fill in your ancestor’s life.

As I work through what I hope to be one of the last final edits in my first Caitlyn Jamison mystery, I realized writers need to utilize timelines as well.

I have read through this manuscript so many times, one would think I could recite it by heart. Not so. Thanks to my first readers, I have incorporated a lot more information, deleted chapters, combined chapters, added description, etc.  As I read through the hard copy, I am reading slowly, inserting myself into the story in order to catch typos and inconsistencies.

I got to a part where I mention a senator and his supporters. I couldn’t remember whether the senator had died yet or not, and it was at that point I thought – aha – if I had developed a chapter timeline reference tool as the story developed, I could quickly answer that question.

When I first started this book several years ago, I did write up a short synopsis of each chapter as it was done. That’s a lot of work, and so I didn’t follow through when I redeveloped the characters and story line. I now know a timeline/chapter synopsis is worth the extra time it takes.

The Seed Was Planted

Sometime in the late 1990s, my sister had a neighbor who was overly possessive of her young daughter. The neighboring family seemed nice enough, but then something went very wrong. One day my sister called telling me the couple had broken up and the daughter was always "sick." The father tried to get help from the pediatrician's office and the school, to no avail. It was a sad situation. 

My sister called me a while later and described what she had learned. She said, "You need to write about this!"

The seed planted that day didn't take root until ten years later. It then took another seven years to grow to fruition. 

An Unexpected Death, a Caitlyn Jamison Mystery is the result. I hope readers will enjoy Caitlyn's adventures as she solves . . . an unexpected death.