Maggie Pill Mysteries

  The final book of the Sleuth Sisters series didn't start out to be final, though I was aware that I was tiring of the adventures of Barb, Faye, and Retta. The appeal of a series is that readers eagerly await the next book, and I still have bookstore owners tell me that readers ask when there will be another one. The downside for a writer is that series have the tendency to become formulaic. Everyone knows the characters. We know the basic setting. All that's required is to invent a murder and solve it in the next installment. That can come to a point where it's no longer fun, and that's where I was.  What clinched the end of the series for me was that one of my sisters died. It seems wrong now to write happy tales of the sisters sniping at each other. I chose to move on, though I did finish this one, #7. I moved the setting to Green Bay, Wisconsin, which was fun. I let Retta's undisciplined dog Styx be part of the rescue. And I tied up the loose ends as best I cou...

  Setting a book in your home area is common for authors. It's easy, because we know a lot about it already. In addition, we can showcase what we love about the place. I live in northern Lower Michigan, so for the Sleuth Sisters, I invented and inserted a county along the Lake Huron shoreline, between Alpena and Presque Isle Counties. In this book, the sisters go west to visit the Leelanau Peninsula, noted for charm, vineyards, and tourists. Michigan has two very different coastlines in the top half of the "mitten," the Lower Peninsula. On the east side (where I live), the land is flat and the coastline fairly regular. On the west, Lake Michigan side, one finds dramatic rises, inlets, and other interesting geographic features like steep sand dunes and long, narrow peninsulas. Over the last few decades, growers have begun vineyards along the western shores, and that combined with the visual beauty brings in visitors with lots of money to spend. One of the things I notice l...

The second book in the Sleuth Sisters series delves deeper into the characters of Barb, Faye, and Retta. It seemed likely to me that Retta would have a dog. She lives in the country, she's alone, and she just seemed like a "dog person." Faye is the type who is compelled to help anyone in need, so when she finds a dog hurt on the road, she naturally takes it in. So we have 3 sleuths and 2 dogs. All I had to do was write in a murder for them to solve. The fun part of writing this series is the response from readers, who want to tell me which sister they are. "I'm Barb," someone will say. "I'm always correcting people." Or, "I'm Retta. I'm the baby, and I always get my way." People often ask who I am, but that's complicated. Characters in a story become who we writers need them to be, so while one might figure an ex-English teacher would write herself as Barb, correcting grammatical errors on public signs in secret, I agree, ...

 I'm working on Book #2 of the Cats & Crimes series, and I'd like your suggestions. Lorilee will adopt a new cat, one that went through Hurricane Ian and came out a mess. She's long-haired, white, and skinny as a rail. What should Lorilee name her newest pet-friend? She's white but with green eyes, and she was rescued after Hurricane Ian last fall. I'll give a free e-book to the person who comes up with a name that makes me say, "That's it!" Here's what we've got so far: Tempest Hurricane Snowball Zephyr Eureka Bungle Esmeralda (Esme for short) Ptarmigan Little One Princess

 Cats and Crimes is a labor of love in that the cats in the book are animals I remember from a lifetime of being a cat lover. While I never had a one-eyed cat, I had friends who did, so I shamelessly borrowed him for the book. The protagonist, Lorilee Riley, adopts cats that others won't take, since she doesn't mind adapting to their disabilities. In the story, Mayson is a kitten (his mother is May, get it?) who's deaf and has only one eye. He makes life interesting by making up his own rules, as kittens tend to do. Mayson wants to be outside, but like many youngsters, he doesn't think very far ahead, so if and when he gets his way, he find reality more difficult than expected. Like Tigger in the Winnie-the-Pooh stories, he's lovable but sometimes exasperating. In case I haven't mentioned it often enough, here's the link to pre-order Cats and Crimes, which releases in print and e-book Tuesday, November 15, 2022. https://books2read.com/u/3LVEz7

   People often ask when the next book is coming out, and the answer at this moment is April 4th. This one is THIRD CRIME'S THE CHARM, and it's the 3rd installment of the Trailer Park Tales series. Some readers become confused about which books they've read and which they haven't. I have the same issue, and several times I've bought the same book twice. It seems to happen to me most often when I read it as an e-book. That doesn't sink in for me the way a print book does, so I realize about halfway through that I know exactly what's going to happen next and what this character or that one is going to say. Drat! Here's a helpful guide for my books. A la Seinfeld, I've made a list in which your memory is prodded by a statement beginning with "The One Where..." TRAILER PARK TALES (I was smarter with this series, using "once," "twice," and "third" as clues to the order.) Once Upon a Trailer Park: The one w...

 I have some theories about why I've stressed over the cover for CUTEST LITTLE KILLER so much. First, it's the start of what I hope will be at least three books, so a cover that establishes a theme is good. I had to ask myself, what thematic items will work for a BUNCH of books? Second, the character in the title is unique, which at first made me want to picture her on the cover. I started by choosing a photo of a little girl who looks slightly dangerous. But several fans said they'd rather create their own image in their minds, and once I thought about it, I had to agree. Who hasn't been disappointed with a movie that turned a favorite character into someone you didn't recognize? I love Matthew McConaughey, but he didn't fit my image of Dirk Pitt at all. And of course there's Tom Cruise as Jack Reacher... So here's the pic I thought would work. It didn't. Cover artists say it's a mistake authors often make, and authors can't blame them if th...