Category: Books & Authors

By Wendy Roberts

I’m not great at setting New Year’s resolutions. Actually, it’s the keeping of the resolutions where I fail. I can always lose a few pounds (okay, more than a few) and exercise more (okay, start exercising), and be less of a control freak (okay, maybe I can’t be less controlling).

However, there is one resolution I’ve managed to keep year after year. I kill people. Sure, it’s only on paper but that anger has to start somewhere, right? So if you cut me off in traffic, annoy me in the check-out line, tackle my son during a football game, or give me a bad review…well, chances are good you’re going to die. I apologize. Really I do. But, in my world, that’s just the way it is.

Writing a series that involves crime scene cleanup means having to come up with dead people on a regular basis, and I have to admit that I enjoy this part of my job immensely. Even though the names have been changed to protect the guilty, I get real joy from releasing a little tension with a little murder.

Do you have any stress left over from the holidays? How do you work off the tension?

Thanks to Cindy for inviting me to blog. In addition to my latest release, DEAD AND KICKING, I’m pleased to offer the first in the series, REMAINS OF THE DEAD, to a winner who posts a comment.

Happy New Year!

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Leave a comment or question for Wendy to enter to win DEAD AND KICKING and REMAINS OF THE DEAD. If you’re reading Wendy’s post through a feed on Facebook, Goodreads, or another social network, please visit the comment trail at Muse Interrupted to be eligible for the draw.

To read Wendy’s bio and the back cover blurb for DEAD AND KICKING, please see yesterday’s post. To learn more about Wendy and her books, check out her website.

Mystery author Wendy Roberts visits the blog tomorrow with her own take on New Year’s resolutions…and it’s pretty murderous, let me tell you. Wendy is giving away a copy of DEAD AND KICKING, the third in her GhostDusters series. As a bonus, she’s also giving away the first in the series, REMAINS OF THE DEAD.

About DEAD AND KICKING:

Sadie Novak cleans up crime scenes for a living, and often finds herself face-to-face with the dead. Blessed – or cursed – with the gift of second sight, she can’t seem to finish a job without being visited by an earthbound spirit.

Sadie’s going through a tough time. When her dad passes away, she’s left to juggle her widowed mother, her lying boyfriend, Zack, her struggling business – and the fact that her father’s spirit is reluctant to move on. Now, on top of all that, Zack’s former flame hires Sadie to dig out the home of her hoarder mother … and that’s when things get messy.

Sadie finds some unexpected things in the cluttered house – including the mummified remains of an infant, along with a very angry ghost who seems determined to keep Sadie away. Then, aided by a team of her fellow psychics, she unearths something even more terrifying: a host of secrets that someone will kill to keep buried.

About Wendy:

Wendy Roberts is the author of Penguin’s Ghost Dusters series. She resides in the Pacific Northwest with her four children, a sluggish guinea pig and an adorable Yorkshire terrier. She happily writes about murder and is hard at work on her next novel.

You can visit Wendy’s website at www.wendyroberts.com.

IDEAS ARE ON EVERY STREET CORNER… (LIKE HOOKERS WAITING TO BE PICKED UP)

Thanks Cindy for inviting me here today! What fun! I’m thinking no one here knows how we met. Several years ago, I recall waiting anxiously to pitch story ideas at a conference. In the line up was a gorgeous woman with a great smile and beautiful eyes who looked as nervous as I felt. We discovered we were both pitching to an editor for Harlequin Temptation. We both loved the line and thought our stories would work there. (After all that was the hottest line we could find at the time.)

Guess what? Neither of us ever sold to Temptation. But over the years we kept in touch sporadically through email and in hallways at conference hotels. I sold elsewhere…then I heard she’d sold…and guess what? We both write erotic romance (Cindy under a pen name) and love it. I’ve decided the market finally caught up to us when longer, more erotic stories bloomed. And here we are today!

How cool is that?

Ever wonder where writers get their ideas? So do I. I get mine anywhere and everywhere. One time, I saw a young woman driving with tears streaming down her cheeks. Hm.

Had her parents just told her they hated the new man in her life? That he was a con artist? A nose-picker? A wanted fugitive?

Just the other day, I walked by a couple on a street corner in the middle of a no-holds-barred argument. I mean, it was cold, brutal, tell it like it is relationship-killing stuff. She was furious! Chin tilted, eyes defiant and wide to hold in angry tears. He was on the attack. (Verbally, of course…but my dh kept an eye on the guy just in case she needed help if things turned physical— my hero!)

The conversation revolved around her desire for him to spend huge bucks. Yes, it was that clear what they were arguing about.

Did I make a judgement on them with one flick down her well-dressed, perfectly coiffed and made up face and body? Yes, I did.

He liked trophies and she liked being one. What she didn’t like was being called on it. The body language from this pair was superb, though.

I wonder if they’re still together? I wonder if street arguments are part of the drama of their lives? I wonder if on some level they actually like them?

All fodder for the writer’s mind. The other night I celebrated with a dinner out at a real restaurant with linen placemats instead of paper. We watched a van pull over and park. No one got out. By the time dinner was over I’d decided the driver was tucking body parts into the rug he had rolled up in the back.

I’m sick and I know it.

Good thing I’m a writer or my family would be worried. Or afraid. Very afraid.

So, as readers, do you ever make up stories for things you see or conversations you overhear? Do you ever re-write the ends of novels to suit yourself?

I’m excited to offer BREATHLESS to one lucky person who comments…come on folks, spill your guts…you know you want to. (Just not on street corners please, it’s distracting to the other pedestrians.)

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Please leave a comment for Bonnie to enter to win BREATHLESS. If you’re reading Bonnie’s post on Facebook or another social network, please note that you need to leave your comment at http://www.museinterrupted.com in order to be eligible for the draw.

To read Bonnie’s bio and the back cover blurb for BREATHLESS, refer to yesterday’s post. To learn more about Bonnie and her books, visit her website.

To learn if Cindy bribed Bonnie for the nice compliments…well, let’s just get it over with and state that yes, Cindy did.