Easter Baskets, May Baskets and My Book Basket.

     I'm counting down the days until spring is officially here.   Eight days to go....woohoo!  I love spring, something new appears every day.  I can see the grass turning green outside my office window.  My ducks are starting their nests, the robins are fluttering around the lawn.  And the wind.....oh my.....March winds in Nebraska, forget even considering having a good hair day.  Speaking of good hair day.  Did you ever have one of those days when you've just had it?  I did a couple of weeks ago.  I grabbed the scissors and cut my long locks myself.  Stupid idea, I know, but I temporarily lost control.  The good thing is I didn't really do any damage and it actually looks better......whew!!  I was preparing for a trip to Denver and took a major chance.  I think sometimes I forget when my characters in my books do something stupid I can backspace over it and correct it, but short of purchasing a wig, my hair was not to be corrected.  

I guess I jumped off track, hey writers have that right.  Back to the baskets.  Each spring brings baskets to celebrate.  I want to celebrate my readers.  This has been an outstanding year for me.  I have loved all the positive feedback and the fun of meeting so many new readers during my brief tour this year.  

Not sure if many of you know or remember but my detective left Denver to move just 7 minutes down the road from our home.  Yay!!  We get to see him more often.  
     There I go again.....back to the baskets.....Each year I give away a free gift basket containing twelve titles, hot chocolate, coffee, chocolates, a coffee mug sometimes packaged cheesecake mix and sometimes a small sample bottle of bourbon,  (if you're reading my books, you'll understand about the cheesecake and bourbon) to one library from a list who enter the drawing.  

Well, this time I'm offering the gift basket valued at over $200.00 to the first reader who sends me the Elusive Clue hidden in my Elusive Clue mystery series of 8 titles.  

Pick any of the 8 books, you don't have to purchase one, you can borrow from a friend or your library.  If you choose to purchase they are on my website www.patriciabremmer.com, Amazon, Barnes and Noble, all the e-readers and most independent bookstores.  (if not they can order them in).  

Read the story, and find the Elusive Clue puzzle that tells you the name of the killer in the story.  Of course, by the end of the book you will know whodunnit, but then you can go back and scour the pages for the clue.  More details about finding the clues are on my website on the Elusive Clue page.  

Let's see how my readers can turn into sleuths.  Have fun, enjoy the read and good luck finding the clues....some are easier than others.  Think anagrams!!  

Knock, Knock are the readers in there?

     I was feeling pretty good about myself today.  So good that I rewarded myself with an entire bowl of fresh guacamole and chips.       
     Monday I dragged myself kicking and screaming...that had to be a sight in itself.  Anyway, there was no one there to stop me, or protect me from myself so I was forced to go along.  I dragged myself out to my studio to begin my new book HOKE.  
     I had planned to write it in October, but found myself too busy with absolutely nothing important, but still too busy to write.  Then I planned for November, but Thanksgiving is on Thursday, I always write on Thursdays.  I always write from Monday through Friday several weeks in a row so as not to break my stride.
    So that made November impossible.  I looked into December, but my agent booked me on a three-stop tour.  My sales were great, had my sleuth, Detective Karst along to help charm the crowds.  But, the break in my schedule didn't allow time for writing.
    Monday was it.  No excuses a full block of time for this entire month.  I started out with a bang, twenty pages the first day, then I tapered off to 15 or 16 pages per day.  Less than I wanted to write, but I had extra bits of research to handle when I'd run into a snag or had a new question that I hadn't thought through.
     So I finished the first week of writing, 18,000 words, almost 100 pages in 5 days.  Good enough. 
     I had outstanding holiday sales with my books, sold way beyond my expectations and two books made it to the kindle best seller list one at 78 and one at 33.  Woohoo!!! You go girl, as I pat myself on the back.
     I'm writing, I have fourteen books under my belt, book 15 is well underway.  I've increased my fan base by thousands.  That's why I was feeling pretty good about myself, feeling successful.  But it just took one small heading on a facebook post from another author to pull the rug out from under me.  One small post to make my guacamole churn in my stomach, I don't feel very well at the moment.  One author whom I had met at a conference where we were both speaking posted that he sold $100,000 worth of e-books in three weeks!
     So where are my readers?  My fan mail is so encouraging and my readers, once they discover my books, read their way through the entire series and then move on to find my standalones and kids' books.  
     I'm feeling sorry for myself, feeling defeated.  Maybe I shouldn't write for a few days and lick my wounds....but it's the weekend and I don't write on the weekends anyway.  
     My guess is when Monday arrives, I'll be kicking and screaming and dragging myself back out to my studio for another week of writing.  Another 18,000 words and either finish the manuscript or go back one more week until the first draft is finished.  
    Living in the middle of nowhere on the prairie doesn't give me the opportunity to pop into bookstores and badger people into buying my books.  I have to sit back and let them discover them all by themselves.....but you know what... the letters, the emails, the notes from the adults and from the kids make it all worthwhile.  I'm entertaining them, they're reading and so what if it started off at a snail's pace, then moved up to a fast turtle and now a quick bunny, someday they'll be discovered by even more readers, telling other readers and then those tell others and oh my....I need to get writing I have readers waiting!



 

ZOMBIE DOG TOYS AND ALEX KAVA

     I've always wanted to travel.  I've been across the United States from coast to coast, but never in another country.  My books now have readers in over 54 countries as does this website.  I wish there was a way to slip in between the pages and pop out to go sightseeing while my readers are engrossed with the plots. 
     I owe a great deal of my foreign success to my good friend Alex Kava.  We joined our two sleuths together to solve a crime in the short story, A BREATH OF HOT AIR.  This story appeared in her foreign books as a supplemental story at the end.  It was fun when she handed me a Polish copy of the book, DAMAGED, and told me to read aloud our story at the end.  The only thing I recognized was my sleuth's name, Detective Glen Karst.  
     This Christmas we'll be celebrating with Alex Kava.  How can I repay her for making my books so successful?  E-book sales have skyrocketed this holiday season.  
     Did I ever tell the story of exchanging gifts with Alex?  Let's go back in time two years ago this week.  We received a package from her and the deal was no gift exchange.  I scolded her before I opened the package.  Inside, remember we're mystery and suspense writers, there was a carefully wrapped butcher knife with blood stains and an evidence tag hanging from the handle.  This now has a prominent spot, mounted on the wall in my kitchen.  My walls are red so it matches the decor'.  
     Next some hot and spicy salsa for my husband.  That seemed normal.  Then a nice warm scarf to keep the chill from Nebraska winters away.  But this was not just any scarf, it is bright yellow with black letters that says, "crime scene, do not cross".  I wear it every time I go out in the winter and believe me it causes giggles and comments.  
    But wait it gets better.  I raise westies and she has westies including one that I raised.  He loves to tear apart his doggie toys and for some twisted writer's reasons she gives him toys shaped like humans---the mailman, a coach, a veterinarian....you get the picture.  So at the bottom of the box of wonderful and unusual Christmas gifts we found body parts.  Yep, from one twisted writer to another---body parts from those toys.  A rather large assortment of arms, legs, heads and torsos.  
     What Alex didn't know about me she later found out when we returned a box to them.  We filled tins with freshly made caramel corn.  My husband the whiz he is with Photo-shop managed to locate photos of all of her dogs from our Thanksgiving get-to-together in her Florida home.  He created a wanted poster with her dogs photos and descriptions and alias' names.  After-all they did mercilessly rip those human toys to shreds. But wait it still gets better, the best part is yet to come.
     As they reached the bottom of the box, where we found body parts they found the same toys, with bullet holes, worms crawling out of their bodies, zombie eyes and green hues to their skin.  Yep, the return of the living dead dog toys.  
     Alex had no idea I could sew and I repaired, almost to perfection, the toys.  My husband, the artist, magically turned them into zombies and we shipped them back. 
     When she opened the box immediately she wondered where we found the same toys, but they were zombies and upon closer examination  exclaimed, "I've met my match."  
    


     

DETECTIVE KARST SAVES THE DAY!

All great sleuths come out of nowhere to save the day, isn't that the way books are written?  As those of you who read my books already know, Detective Glen Karst is a real live person.  He walks, he talks, he catches bad guys, and rescues damsels in distress.

You also know that I live on an old family farm passed down for generations on my husband's side.  He's fourth generation on this farm homesteaded in the late 1800's.  I love the solitude, I love the wildlife (not the mice), and for the most part I love the weather.

Okay what I didn't love was no air-conditioning--fixed that.  No decent way to heat the old two story house--fixed that. An outdated kitchen--fixed that.  A dirt cellar basement that opened to the outside world.  The kind where you knew someone  slipped into your home through that old cellar door every night.  Well, okay maybe it was mice and spiders but you just knew they were there--fixed that.  Several years ago we raised the house from the foundation and put in a brand new lower level.  

So now with the new lower level, the new kitchen, the new heating and air-conditioning, and a huge bathroom that replaced the small closet type room that was supposed to be a bathroom, my life is good.  

Then it happened.  One night while soaking in our double bathtub, a nightly event, my husband heard a strange cracking sound.  He rushed to the basement to watch a steady, drip, drip, drip.  Our tub, our beautiful two-person soaking tub, the one we used every night, sprung a leak!!!  I rushed to the computer and searched for a tub that would be the same size.  Beads of sweat formed on my head as I failed at my search.  "No!" I cried out breaking the peaceful silence of our surrounding acres.  

Finally, persistence paid off.  I found one the same color and dimensions to replace the faulty tub.  I ordered it immediately.  Three weeks for delivery....three weeks without a tub...three weeks with only a shower.  I HATE showers, I'm a soaker.  I knew I could be strong.  I knew I could handle it.  The tub arrived one week early....hooray!!!

But wait, we didn't have all the necessary plumbing parts.  Living in the middle of nowhere means ordering parts in.  Slowly they arrived.  But wait...we had book deadlines, we had other business to attend to.  My husband, the hypnotherapist, had a rush of clients.  Each new day presented another obstacle that prevented him from installing my tub. Mind you it has now been 2 months without my tub.

Six weeks ago, my detective decided to retire from his position, and he actually bought an old, old home just a few minutes from our farm.  It needs a lot of work, but if you read my books you'll know he's a master carpenter.  We walked through the house with him and agreed it needed a ton of work, but there, in the rundown bathroom with the walls cracked and falling down, stood a white claw footed bathtub!  It was still connected and he was going to turn the water on to this old house that hadn't been lived in for some time.  

I planned to make daily trips to his home while he was back in Denver packing, tying up loose ends and preparing for his move.  I was going to steal his water and use his tub.  I knew it would take him weeks to make his home ready to live in.  We went over to check on his progress and to my dispair the first thing he did was remove the bathtub to work on his bathroom!  

"No!" I mumbled to myself, when I really wanted to scream out.  He moved in with us for the past 6 weeks while he worked on his home.  He took daily showers here, as did I regretfully.  

Then last night he called from his house after spending his first night there.  He wanted to repay our hospitality.  He invited us to dinner tonight....and he told me to bring comfortable clothes to slip into after I take a long, hot, bubble bath in his newly installed tub!!!!  Yay!!  My detective came through for me.  

All of the parts have arrived for "my" tub.  So with fingers crossed I'm hoping to be able to soak in my own tub, in my own bathroom within the week!!  

I have so much to be thankful for on this Thanksgiving week.   

I CAN'T BELIEVE IT!!! A DETECTIVE KARST IMPOSTOR!!!

"I can't believe it," I mumbled to myself as I called Detective Karst.
"Hi there," he says.
"Glen you just won't believe it, I still can't believe it."
"Believe what?"
"I just heard from a reader and guess what he's going to be for Halloween?"
"I have no idea.  What?"
"It's not what, it's who."
"Okay, who?"
"He's going as you!  Detective Glen Karst."
Laughter...more laughter...louder laughter.
"You're kidding, right?"
"Nope.  Now you know you've made it big when someone chooses to dress as you for Halloween."
More laughter.
"Are you sure?"
"Yes, he's sending a photo."
More laughter.
As the days progressed I had forgotten about the contact from a reader until last night when the photo arrived.  A man dressed in a black duster, and black hat, complete with badge on his hip posed in the same position as Detective Karst on the backcover of MURDER'S A CINCH.  


The man's name is Bill and he's from Malcolm, NE.  I immediately sent the photo of the impostor on to Detective Karst. 


This morning it hit me.  What if we have a Detective Karst Halloween costume contest????  Good idea?  Great for some laughs.  (I'm so grateful no one chose to dress like me!). Details at end of post...

Serves him right you know.  He's supposed to be a character in my books, but he's taken over the reading audience.  They love him.  When we tour together it's Karst who has his picture taken with the readers, it's Karst who gets asked all the fun questions, it's Karst who draws the crowds, and he's not even the one who has to create and write the stories.  He has the easy job, he has to look strong, handsome, and tough and yet be kind and gentle.  As I've learned over the years all the men want to be him and all the women want to date him. 
I created him.  Well, not the real Karst, but the character Karst even if he is modeled after the real Karst.  So did I really create him or discover him?  Will my books still sell as well if I killed him off in my Elusive Clue Series.  I've contemplated that one before.  I think he'd come back to haunt me and the books as a ghost.

I've created a monster, a character I can't get rid of.  So monsters, Halloween, it all fits.
  
Contest Rules:  Send a photo of yourself or someone you know dressed as Detective Karst to my publisher windcall@chase3000.com   We'll post the photos on my website (www.patriciabremmer.com)  on the Halloween Contest page and I will let the "real" Detective Karst choose the winners.  First place will receive a copy of MURDER'S A CINCH and may choose two other titles from my collection.  Second place will receive a copy of MURDER'S A CINCH and one other title of their choice.  Third place will receive a copy of MURDER'S A CINCH.  
All books will be autographed by Detective Karst and me....you know...the author, the one who writes about him.  Sheesh....

Oh no! What have I done?

What was I thinking?  I should have given some thought to where I live before I let my mind get carried away.  Can I continue to live here or will I have to move.  Where can I hide?  Maybe I shouldn't take the complete blame for my fear and the fear I have incited in all my neighbors.  The fear that is spreading like a prairie fire to all rural communities first and then to the cities and finally around the world.  

I'm not entirely to blame you know.  I think my good friend and suspense writer, Alex Kava, should share the blame.  After all it all stemmed from her idea.  Yeah, Alex, it's all your fault....well, you didn't exactly put those words in my mind that came out on paper that started this terror, but you did make the initial suggestion that started it all.

Almost two years ago while spending Thanksgiving at Alex Kava's Florida home, she suggested we write a short story together for an anthology.  We casually discussed it.  I suggested that her sleuth Agent Maggie O'Dell meet my sleuth, the living, breathing Detective Glen Karst from my Elusive Clue Series.  

When I returned home, I realized I had never written a short story before, I had only written full length mystery/suspense novels.  How could I condense my writing to 5,000 words or fifteen pages.  I told her I would work on the project with her.  How could I tell her I didn't really think I could do it?

So, one day I sat down at my computer after tossing around a story line in my mind.  My fingers typed faster and faster as my heart rate increased.  After a couple of hours I sat back and looked at my first short story, CORNSTALKED.  

I did it.  I wrote a short story.  Not bad, I thought.  I gave it to my husband to read.  "Whoa, good stuff," he said.  "That's a keeper, it really makes you think."


I sent it to other family members and friends and the consensus was the same.  It totally freaked them out.  

Alex and I went on to write A BREATH OF HOT AIR, for the anthology and later it was released as a stand alone short story on kindle.


CORNSTALKED couldn't leave my mind.  I couldn't let it rest.  My husband suggested I expand it into a full length novel.  

"But it's a thriller," I said.  "I can't write a thriller."
"You just did," he replied.

So I set out on the task to expand it from 5,000 words to over 50,000 words.  Typically, when I write I have a general plot idea and the story unfolds before my eyes and I type what I see.  But this was different, this story had a beginning, middle, and end.  I needed to expand.  I struggled like I've never struggled before to find the right words to increase page count without jeopardizing the story or making it read like it had filler.  

I designed my book cover,  I actually took the photograph used for the front cover.  My cover designer made my vision come to life.  CORNSTALKED  was released in July, 2011.

I did it.  Along the way I expanded on the character named Bruce.  He was an abusive husband, a banker with an ego so huge it's a wonder his head didn't explode holding it in.  


The story takes three hunters into a Nebraska cornfield where they are stalked for five hours in freezing temperatures.  I write about the cold, the pain, the fear, the stalker.  He gets closer and closer and they slip away, only to find him still trailing them.  I can't give away too much of the plot here, but for years I found pleasure in the sight and sound of a cornfield in the fall.  The rustling of the leaves, the color, the uniformity of the rows.  

This year, the neighboring farmer planted a cornfield 100 feet from my home.  I need only look out my office window and there it stands.  Only now my eyes are constantly searching, my ears are keyed for the sound of gunshot.  I look into the cornfield and feel the fear my characters felt.  

As readers have purchased and read this book, they agree it might just be the best thing I've written, but will they ever go into a corn maze again?  Several readers say they can never eat beef again....or chili.  Guess you'll have to read it to find out why?

I'm making a donation to domestic abuse programs for every copy sold from my website www.patriciabremmer.com

 

INVASION OF THE VAMPIRE MOTHS

In this day and age of vampires and werewolves I'll bet none of you have heard of vampire moths.  Well, actually around here they're called millers and they don't draw blood but they poop orange toxic poop that can't be washed off of most things, causing nice staining--hair dye should be so long lasting.  

So what are they?  Along about May in my area, when the days begin to warm, you'll notice a moth fluttering around a light.  The next day, there are four, then the next day ten and so it goes for about two weeks.  Then the invasion is in full force.

They can slip into every crack and crevice, even those that appear impossible to pass through.  They hide during the day and come out by night, not to draw your blood but to make your life miserable.  

Open your refrigerator and you'll see one staggering across the shelf, too cold to fly.  Try stirring your scrambled eggs in the morning and have one who hasn't yet found his daytime hiding place land smack dab in the middle of your bubbling eggs.  You know that glass of water you put on your nightstand next to your bed before you go to sleep?  Forget it.  One of my neighbors swallowed one that was swimming laps in his glass.

Our housecat used to catch and eat them, but you know what happens when you've had too much of a good thing.  She won't even look at them now.   

One May, we had family visiting from the city.  They didn't know to walk through the house in total darkness during the end of May.  They didn't know what happens when you turn on the lights and leave the room.  But they found out.  We were all in the family room when we heard the scream.  We found one of the children plastered to the wall with hundreds....yes, I said hundreds of these vampire moths fluttering around the light, bouncing off the ceiling dropping to the floor and crawling up the walls.  

"Grab the vacuum," I yelled.  "Turn off every light in the house except this room."  My son and husband started herding those who had made their escape to the other parts of the house, back toward the light where we listened to the ca-thud, ca-thud sound as they were sucked into the vaccum.  


Last year when my granddaughter, Lexi, came for her month of staying with Nana and Gramps, she called out for us each time she was in the same room with one.  At first she was too frightened to even suck them up with the vacuum.  Then she grew brave enough to seek them out with a fly swatter in hand.  By the end of the two week invasion, she would grab them with her bare hands and toss them outdoors or flush them.  She became known as the Lexinator.  

 Two weeks ago they were crawling on our television screen while we watched the actors with large moths crawling over their faces, last week as the numbers were diminishing I felt one in bed with us.  This week you might see one or two still hanging around.  


But it's over, we won again this year....or did we?  How many months will it take me to find and remove all the little orange spots or have to repaint a room because they stained the paint beyond the ability to clean?  So if anyone can tell me the purpose of those vile little vampire millers please let me know.   I'm sure there has to be some way I can write them into one of my mysteries or thrillers in a deadly sort of way......hmmmm....maybe they do have a purpose.