MWW Day 1 - Alice Duncan's Daisy Gumm Majesty

First up today is Alice Duncan. She is my first victim, err guest, in the Mystery We Write Blog Tour. If you read yesterday’s blog announcing the tour, you know I wasn’t thrilled when W.S. approached me. I admit that I was a little less than enthusiastic and then she tempted me with the first author, Alice Duncan. Alice writes about Daisy Gumm Majesty who is my victim, err guest today. Daisy, so glad you could be with us. You live in a very unique time period filled with history. Tell us what is going on in the world.

Daisy: Yes, the world was a very different place after The Great War and the disastrous influenza pandemic that overlapped it. So many, many people lost loved ones that they’re happy to have me communicate with their dearly departed. So what if I have to pretend? My work honestly helps people, no matter what Billy and Sam think.

Now I understand you have a real honest to goodness babe who has hired you. Any chance you could fix her up with your new friend, Mitch Malone?

Daisy: Really, Mr. Malone! How terribly crude. Besides, Mrs. Pinkerton is much older than you. And she’s a married woman. I know *some* men wouldn’t find that a deterrent, but I must beg you not to bother Mrs. P. She’s my best and most faithful client. Even if she is a nitwit. Oh, dear. Please don’t tell her I said that.

Oh, maybe that wouldn’t work. You say your career is that of a spiritual advisor and you get paid to do that? What are the spirits advising in GENTEEL SPIRITS?

Daisy: Yes, I am a spiritualist medium. Mind you I’m *not* a fortune-teller, although according to my husband, Billy, and his best friend, Sam Rotondo, there’s not any difference. But there is. As for what the spirits are advising me in GENTEEL SPIRITS . . . if you promise not to tell anyone, I’ll admit to you that I’m a fraud. I can’t really communicate with dead people. However, there are lots and lots of people who would rather take advice from a phony spiritualist like me than from friends, neighbors, alienists or ministers, so I take their money and do my best. Unfortunately for me, my job in GENTEEL SPIRITS is that of personal spiritual advisor to a *very* temperamental and stupid silent-screen actress, Lola de la Monica, who claims to be from Spain. I’ve heard her when she wasn’t acting, though, and I can tell you she sounds awfully much like my Brooklyn-born party-line neighbor.

People pay you for that? Must be that World War I time period when people were different. I’m a man of sensitivity myself. Any chance you would want to advise me on some matters over a few drinks?

Daisy: Advise you over a few drinks? Really, Mr. Malone! Prohibition is the law of the land, and I don’t care how many people flaunt that law. I can’t afford to do anything so foolish. How many people do you think would hire me if they knew I drank? None. That’s how many. I have to protect my image, which is that of a pale-but-interesting, sober-clad spiritualist who’s an expert wafter. I tell you, I’m *good* at my job!


Oh, sorry, didn’t realize Prohibition was the law of your time and you're married. I don’t mess around with married women. I hear you have another story coming out in just a month or so called ANCIENT SPIRITS. What hare-brained, err adventure befalls you?

Daisy: Yes, indeed, I am married: to the love of my life, Billy Majesty. We had planned a long, happy and fruitful union, but the forever-damned Kaiser and his stinking mustard gas took care of that dream for us. Billy joined the army and went to France shortly after we were married. He wasn’t there for more than a month when he was gassed out of his foxhole and then shot when he tried to crawl to safety. He came back to me after months and months in various hospitals, a ruined man. Therefore, I have to earn a living for the both of us. Billy hates that he can’t work; worse, he hates that I have to. I’m afraid we live a rather fraught existence.
As for ANCIENT SPIRITS . . . well, you’ll just have to wait and find out, won’t you? Although I can tell you I get to ride a camel during the book. And a more evil-smelling, short-tempered beast I’ve never encountered.

Thank you Daisy. It’s been a blooming good time. Get it, Daisy, blooming? Oh, well maybe not so funny. Fine. We’ll just finish this up. For a strong read about a woman who is threatening me with a right hook, pick up GENTEEL SPIRITS or ANCIENT SPIRITS. Before I become ancient myself, check out http://www.aliceduncan.net for more information and where to find Daisy’s fascinating tale.

• GENTEEL SPIRITS (featuring Daisy Gumm Majesty, and set in Pasadena, CA, in 1922): http://tinyurl.com/3ndzcff
• PECOS VALLEY REVIVAL (featuring Annabelle Blue and set in Roswell, NM, in 1923): http://tinyurl.com/3uafvqg
• FALLEN ANGELS (featuring Mercedes Louise Allcutt and set in Los Angeles, CA, in 1926): http://tinyurl.com/3wh2a6t

Award-winning author Alice Duncan lives with a herd of wild dachshunds (enriched from time to time with fosterees from New Mexico Dachshund Rescue) in Roswell, New Mexico. She's not a UFO enthusiast; she's in Roswell because her mother's family settled there fifty years before the aliens crashed. Alice no longer longs to return to California, although she still misses the food, not to mention her children, one of whom is there and the other of whom is in Nevada. Alice would love to hear from you at alice@aliceduncan.net. And be sure to visit her Web site at http//www@aliceduncan.net

Murder We Write Blog Tour Starts Tomorrow

Mitch Malone here. W.S. Gager has me working double and triple time for the next two weeks for the Mysteries We Write Blog Tour. I have to be honest here. I bitched and moaned for more than an hour when W.S. proposed the idea. I’m an amazing newspaper reporter but she wants a stellar interview every day for two weeks. Even us superhero reporters can’t write Pulitzer Prize stories every day. They take work. You can’t just ask any old questions. You need research, good questions and something to catch them off guard to get an honest response.

I’ve been doing my research and I hate to admit that W.S. may have been right. These folks are top of the line writers with terrific books. With so many at one time I haven’t been able to read all their books yet but the ones I have, I have really enjoyed. These are great writers who know the business. However, I’m not interviewing the authors. I’m better than that. I’m interviewing a main character in their latest book. Some of them really air some big secrets…

Stop by every day for the next two weeks and see for yourself. I deftly get them to tell me things; things you want to know. If you need more incentive to stop by, W.S. is making it worth your time, if you are feeling lucky. Leave a comment and let me or my interviewee know you stopped or ask a question and see if you can rival my questions. W.S. is kicking in a few books on my latest big story called A CASE OF HOMETOWN BLUES to a random commenter.

Here’s the Murder We Write Blog Tour schedule:
Nov. 25 – Alice Duncan
Nov. 26 – John M. Daniel
Nov. 27 – Pat Browning
Nov. 28 – Ron Benrey
Nov. 29 – Beth Anderson
Nov. 30 – Anne K. Albert
Dec. 1 – Earl Staggs
Dec. 2 – Jinx Schwartz
Dec. 3 – Mike Orenduff
Dec. 4 – Marilyn Meredith
Dec. 5 – Jean Henry Mead
Dec. 6 – Jackie King
Dec. 7 – Timothy Hallinan
Dec. 8 – M.M. Gornell
Dec. 9 – Winners announced and maybe W.S. will actually post something to the blog. Miracles do happen! (Take that, W.S. I told you my services did not come cheap!)

I'm Taking Off on Mystery We Write Blog Tour

It may be a few days before Thanksgiving for many of you but for me it is five days before I participate in my first blog tour. That’s right starting on Friday, that is Black Friday, I will jump aboard the Mystery We Write Blog Tour. I will be promoting my latest book, A CASE OF HOMETOWN BLUES, in the Mitch Malone Mystery series. That being said, secrets will be revealed as I talk about the craft of writing and how the Mitch Malone series was started. Each day for the next two weeks I will be going from blog to blog. Here is my schedule and where to find the posts.

Nov. 25 –  M.M Gornell Blog

Nov. 26 – Timothy Hallinan

Nov. 27 – Jackie King

Nov. 28 – Jean Henry Mead 

Nov. 29 – Marilyn Meredith

Nov. 30 – Mike Orenduff

Dec. 1 – Jinx Schwartz

Dec. 2 – Earl Staggs

Dec. 3 – Anne K. Albert

Dec. 4 – Beth Anderson

Dec. 5 – Ron Benrey

Dec. 6 – Pat Browning

Dec. 7 – John M. Daniel

Dec. 8 – Alice Duncan

I was very humbled to be asked to participate with some fine authors who are much more successful and well-known than I. Did I mention it is the Mystery We Write Blog Tour? My job was to write the posts for each day for the blog I will visit. I turned the other job over to Mitch Malone, ace investigative reporter. He interviewed characters in each author’s book with a couple of exceptions. So stayed glued to W.S. Gager on Writing blog to learn more about these great authors. Leave comments on my blog and the blogs I visit for a chance to win more than 60 books being given away during the 14 days. All that is needed to enter is a comment. Winners will be announced on Dec. 9 in most cases.

Mitch Malone Mondays Are Back With Chris Redding's Trey McCrane

Mitch Malone here. It’s been a while since I’ve been in print. It’s not my fault that W.S. Gager has been running around interviewing 13 friends for a blog tour that starts later this month. I’m just getting feeling back in my fingers from taking so many notes. Not to mention that I’m currently in the midst of another new story, err book, but W.S. will have to tell you about that later. I’m on a deadline. Let’s get to my victim for today. Trey McCrane is the hero in BLONDE DEMOLITION, a new novel by Chris Redding. Let’s get to it. Trey you are an agent for Homeland Security. Can you tell my readers what that entails?.

It can entail a lot of things including naturally disaster relief and border patrol. My job is to investigate any kind of bomb threats to the United States.

I have several cop friends that feed me information for stories and from them I know some of the best cops either were or could have been great criminals. Any skeletons in your closet?

Well, I can't disagree with your friends. I guess I was a little rambunctious as a child. Maybe blew up a few things that I shouldn't have. We'll leave it at that as those records are sealed.

Now it doesn’t take much investigation to figure out that some hot blond is involved, the book is called BLONDE DEMOLTION. She isn’t happy about seeing you again. What happened?

As usual, I'm not really sure what is going on in Mallory's head. We seemed to have a good thing. One of our cases went south, but that happens. Next thing I knew she was gone and there were skidmarks by my front door.

As I mentioned, I work mostly with cops but sometimes homeland security gets involved and might in my next book. Would you give a reporter like me a scoop? You ever worked with any reporters?

I try my best not to work with reporters. Besides, my job isn't about talking to the public. That's what we have PIO's for.

Tell me about this Stanley guy? Why isn’t he locked up somewhere?

Stanley is a pretty slick character. I think he has many DHS people in his pocket.

Thank you Trey for stopping by Mitch Malone Mondays. Where can my loyal readers go to find out the rest of the story?

BLONDE DEMOLITION will be out Nov. 15 in electronic form on Amazon, Smashwords, and Barnes and Noble. Check out www.chrisreddingauthor.com for more information.
Thanks for having me Mitch. Here is more information about the book.

You just can't hide from the past...

Mallory Sage lives in a small, idyllic town where nothing ever happens. Just the kind of life she has always wanted. No one, not even her fellow volunteer firefighters, knows about her past life as an agent for Homeland Security.

Former partner and lover, Trey McCrane, comes back into Mallory's life. He believes they made a great team once, and that they can do so again. Besides, they don't have much choice. Paul Stanley, a twisted killer and their old nemesis, is back.

Framed for a bombing and drawn together by necessity, Mallory and Trey go on the run and must learn to trust each other again―if they hope to survive. But Mallory has been hiding another secret, one that could destroy their relationship. And time is running out.

Energized by Magna Cum Murder

I just returned home from Magna Cum Murder and I’m so excited to get started on my fifth Mitch Malone novel. November is National Novel Writing Month and I enjoy trying to pound out the very rough draft in a month. It works for me. But back to Magna, it was a great group of other writers and readers who love mysteries. It was heaven to talk about writing and mysteries nonstop Friday through Sunday. I met and talked with so many great people! Best of all some even brought my books. I’m eternally grateful to them!

Friday night I competed in a game show with Parnell Hall, Ruth Dudley Edwards, Les Edgerton, Con Lehane. The World’s Best Detective show is the brainchild of Austin Lugar who serves as MC. Two detectives are pitted against each other to solve a murder suggested by the audience. Parnell is a very funny guy and I was worried about being able to keep up with his quick wit. I didn’t know the other contestants. The show was funny and we all played off each other well. As for Parnell and I…we didn’t agree on most of the pairings and bantered back and forth. Harry Bosch (created by Michael Connelly) defeated Agatha Christie’s Hercule Poirot, whose name I could never pronounce correctly.

Saturday I could relax and enjoy the sessions and then moderated a panel on Sunday morning on “It’s not a vacation, it’s research.” Not sure why I was tapped to do this because I live in Michigan and my books are set in Michigan put the panelists had books set in Washington D.C., England, Thailand, and Vancouver. They had great stories about their research trips.

Kudos to Kathryn Kennison, Magna Director, her crew and Ball State University for sponsoring this great weekend of Mystery.

My Email was HACKED!

I got hacked! I’m not sure why it had to happen today but it did. Funny thing is that I realized it right away. First I got an email address back and was already changing my password, then my husband called and said he got a message from me too. The first message went out at 10:00 a.m. EST. Within ten minutes, sixty messages had been sent.

I caught the error within 30 minutes and reset my password. Then I started sending out apology emails to every email that was sent. The ironic thing is that now I can’t send any more emails because of the suspicious activity on my account. Yes, me sending apologies for the emails of the hacker flagged my account! I still have a half dozen to send. Yahoo hopes my account will be able to work soon and if now within 24 hours to contact them. Where were they when I was hacked?

My second question is how did they do it? All those email were sent in 10 minutes or less. It took me 15 minutes to reply before they cut me off. If I were the suspicious type and I am a mystery writer, then there has to be murder involved. There might just have to be a bit of hacking in my next novel just because I want to understand how this can happen. Anyone know an answer or better yet an expert? Is this some computer somewhere programmed to try every combination for an email without monitoring? This curious mind wants to know and then perform some maiming and murder, fictitiously of course!

P.S.: So sorry if you got one of the emails that had some website on it. Anyone know how to fry a website? I’m still looking for vengeance.

Hay Sculptures Decorate Fremont

I wish I could get people to talk about my book as much as Fremont pulls together for the annual Harvest Festival this weekend. The festival features all kinds of events and even a beer tent (a relatively new thing for the community).

While we will not be visiting for the festivities, we did enjoy all the decorations this past weekend when visiting for Homecoming. I can’t count the number of businesses who created a hay sculptures—Fremont’s answer to Art Prize in Grand Rapids.

They dotted the town from end to end and many of them incorporated the business’s theme from the duck at the car wash to the house at the ReMax office. They were so adorable that we kept driving through town to look at them and as the weekend went on more and more appeared.

Fremont is all about enjoying nature whether it is working on the farm or in the apple orchard or swimming in a lake or kayaking down a river. This weekend is about celebrating what it has to offer.

I miss those things, now we leave in a larger city. I miss knowing folks at the grocery store and being able to spend all afternoon in the Koffee Kuppe with good friends! I need to start making local connections and meeting people. Maybe I will build a hay sculpture of a book to tell them a local mystery author has moved in. It works for Fremont!

For more information on the Harvest Festival, check out the Fremont Chamber of Commerce's website at http://fremontcommerce.com/harvest/index.php