Will facebook replace the need for class reunions? I weigh in on the subject. http://ping.fm/N4gly

A day late but see how I almost died the weekend I met my husband. http://ping.fm/P3tUF

My article is published on My Life. My title was "A Shrug is Not a Conversation," but it didn't really explain that the article was about my son and I living together. However, if you have a teenager, you would get it right off. To see the whole article, follow the link: http://ping.fm/fMNrm

Can you relate? What title do you like?

Mitch Malone interviews an advice columnist. See if he exposes the writer's cover in the Coffee Break Mysteries. http://ping.fm/oTPlC

Mitch Malone Mondays: William S. Shepard

Finally someone who understands an interview. Today’s guest is “Ask Martha” the columnist featured in the Coffee Break Mysteries by William S. Shepard. These are short stories that keep your attention and guessing who the culprit is and short enough to get you back to work before you’re fired. “Ask Martha” has a unique perspective on life and I hope to break the news on her real identity but I’m a little scared of Crusher Davis, a 6 foot 6 former football player who had a journalism major. Let’s see was Ask Martha has to say. How to I refer to you? Do you answer to Martha even though you don’t wear a skirt?
Pleased to be with you. I notice you are not wearing a skirt, either. Slacks are so much more comfortable, don't you think? Ask Martha is my advice column on The Chronicle, so Martha will do. I don't know how these rumors got started about my identity. I'm a football fan and an admirer or what Crusher Davis used to do for our high school and then college teams. And as you know he writes the business column here at the Chronicle, so we see each other a lot.

How did you get the gig of being “Ask Martha"
I applied for it, to the Editor of the Chronicle. They were shorthanded, and as the Editor, James Carstairs, explained to me, a man doing that job just wouldn't be credible. The column had to be written by a woman.

Do you have any life experiences to give people expertise when you respond to their questions? You don’t have any psychology background do you?
People have always trusted me to keep their secrets. That seems to come across in my column too. They write in and tell me the darndest things! Sometimes I think it is like a police confessional. Anyway, one thing and another, I am able through my column and contacts to solve local crimes - that recent arson spree, for example, or the stolen identity case.

How do you keep your identity a secret? Someone has to see you and wonder who you are?Most of my interviews are through the column, and when I get too busy and he has time, Crusher Davis does some interviewing, in his Business Editor reporting function. He did that in The Embezzler case, for example, over at Nolting Furniture.

Crusher, I can call you Crusher? Oh, I can’t. Okay, give me a little space here will you. I won’t break your story on the Ask Martha gig. I know how newspapers work. What’s next for you? Will you always be the advice columnist? As long as Mr. Carstairs is pleased with my work, I'll keep at it. And who knows? Bob Woodward was a reporter for the Montgomery County, Maryland Gazette before lucking into a job at the Washington Post.

How do you get along with the police?
Inspector Samuels of the Centerville Police is my contact for these investigations. He says my help is quite valuable, and he wants to continue that relationship. Now of course, he is always perceptive and can solve cases on his own, but what with budget cutbacks, his police department is shorthanded. As far as work is concerned, I'm lucky to have this job, and there is no such thing as "extra money." I didn't start off detecting crimes, but it just sort of worked out that way. Everyone confides through the mail with my Ask Martha column, so it works out well all around, for The Chronicle and for Inspector Samuels and, I hope, for my writing career.

Thanks for the interesting interview. I promise to keep your identity a secret. Us newspapermen have to keep our sources a secret! For more information about Ask Martha and the Coffee Break Mysteries, check out William’s website: www.diplomaticmysteries.com. Also watch for the newest Ebook, "The Great Detectives." A bit of insider information is that it will be a special for 99 cents for the summer. Get it quick!

Mitch Malone Mondays - Lauren Carr

Today I’m taking a whack at interviewing a former editor and former is the only way I agreed to do this. Editors and I don’t always get along but I’m intrigued enough about the Mac Faraday mysteries to give Lauren Carr a chance. Maybe editors can reform. Let’s see. Lauren, tell me about your life as an editor. Did you ever give newspaper reporters a hard time about misplaced commas?

I was pretty nice as an editor. In fact, my bosses would complain that I was light with the red pen. It wasn’t that I didn’t know that a comma belonged there. But now, looking back, I was young and sensitive and didn’t want to hurt the writer’s feelings. Maybe, Mitch, now that I have more of a backbone, if I was back at the editor’s desk, I would be one of those editors you hate.

In the federal government I dealt with writers, not reporters who were out beating the sidewalks like you and trying to get the scoop over the next guy. They were overworked and stressed-out bureaucratic types who simply wanted to get their projects done and move on to the next report. You never get stressed-out, do you?

The reports I edited were actually full-fledged books that would be bound and printed in the government printing plant. Our books would go to the highest level of our federal government. Copies would actually go to the President of the United States, the Vice President, and each member of Congress and the Senate, plus others throughout the government. So, if a word was misspelled or a comma was misplaced, and the President of the United States was to see it – it was a big deal. I guess I did an okay job because I never heard of him complaining about my sloppy editing.

I knew you couldn’t be that bad as an editor and now you write about Mac Faraday, a man who we all want to be—that’s $270 million richer after an inheritance. How did the idea for Mac and his millions start?

As with any plotline comes about, it was with a germ of an idea. A friend of mine had a baby when she was in high school, which she put up for adoption. Thirty years later, that baby found her. It was all a happy reunion and things turned out great.

When this happened, I started thinking, as I always do, What if? Of course, that “What if” involved murder in some way, shape, or form.
What if that unwed mother had gone on to be rich and famous — world famous — like the American version of Agatha Christie? And what if the child that had been put up for adoption had grown up to become a great detective — like the fictional detective in his unknown mother’s mysteries?

Those what if’s became the premise for It’s Murder, My Son. The irony is that Mac Faraday is a bankrupt homicide detective when he comes into his inheritance from Robin Spencer. His wife had left him for another man and had taken everything. On the day his divorce becomes final, his late mother’s lawyer chases him three city blocks (Mac hates lawyers as much as you hate editors, Mitch) before Mac believes that he really is a millionaire.

You seem to have a good handle on small town life. I couldn’t stand the small town I grew up in. I like the action in the big city. Have you always lived in a small town? What makes it preferable to the big city?

When I was growing up in the small town of Chester, West Virginia, I was dying to get to the big city. Small town life was so boring. When I lived in Washington, I loved a lot of things about it. I loved the theater and the night clubs and the museums and the excitement, too.

But I missed the small town values and wholesomeness. I missed how neighbors cared about their neighbors. Also, when it comes to mysteries set in small towns, everyone knows everyone’s business. Everyone has a secret and there is always someone who knows that secret, which makes mysteries in small towns so interesting.

Is Mac a good detective? Does he need a reporter to be at his beck and call and help him with crime? I may be available soon.

Sorry, Mitch, the reporter at Mac’s beck and call is Archie Monday and I don’t think Mac will be letting her go soon. She’s not exactly a reporter, but she is just as good. Archie was the late Robin Spencer’s editor and research assistant. I think you would like Archie as your editor, Mitch. She’s heavy with the red pen, but she’s very easy on the eyes.

Since Mac is retired from police work and new to Spencer, he lacks the connections he was used to having in Washington. But, if that information is anywhere out there in cyberspace, Archie Monday can get it. Archie sort of came with Mac’s inheritance. She lives in the guest cottage on the estate at Spencer Manor. Mac’s mother had left her the cottage to live in as long as she wants and Mac has no desire for her to leave anytime in the near future, if you know what I mean.

What’s next for Mac?

What does any homicide detective do with all his spare time when he comes into a multi-million dollar inheritance and a luxurious estate on Deep Creek Lake? If you’re Mac Faraday, you pursue the lifestyle of a millionaire playboy between solving mysteries.

His next mystery is personal. IN OLD LOVES DIE HARD, Mac is settling nicely into his new life at Spencer Manor when his ex-wife Christine shows up—and she wants him back! Before Mac can send her packing, Christine and her estranged lover are murdered in Mac’s private penthouse suite at the Spencer Inn, the five-star resort built by his ancestors.

The investigation leads to the discovery of cases files for some of Mac’s murder cases in the room of the man responsible for destroying his marriage. Why would his ex-wife’s lover come to Spencer to dig into Mac’s old cases?
With the help of his new friends on Deep Creek Lake, Mac must use all of his detective skills to clear his name and the Spencer Inn’s reputation, before its five-stars—and more bodies—start dropping!

Thank you Lauren for giving us the scoop on Mac Faraday. I wish you could give us the secret to inheriting millions but that will have to wait for another day. To see Mac in action, check out Lauren’s website at: http://laurencarr.webs.com/

Stop By Art Hop

I'm crazy. My son is graduating from high school and the open house is Saturday. Instead of getting ready, I'm trying to sell books at the ‎1st annual Art Hop tonight in downtown Fremont MI (6/3/11) from 4-7 pm. Lots of artists will be showcased including fellow writing buds Joselyn Vaughn and JQ Rose. We will be at the White Agency, at 52 W. Main St., kittycorner from Veterans Park. Come say hello! Buy a book. Hear all about the new one due out in a month! I've just goten the cover. It's really cool!!!!