Health Update and eBook Deals

Great news! The pathologist’s report came back and it turns out that the mass I had removed was a benign thymus cyst, so all is good. My chest is still sore if I do too much bending over and reaching for things in awkward places, but otherwise recovery goes well. I have one more chest x-ray to do on Friday and a follow-up consultation with the surgeon on Monday, and then that’s it, I hope!

My daughter and granddaughter Ellie were sick on Mother’s Day so we postponed our family BBQ until this past Sunday. My son, who works in the tech field, also happens to be a wonderful cook. He grilled the most amazing steak sandwiches which is a family favorite. Honestly, if he ever tires of a tech career, he should operate a food truck.

Unfortunately, my sister had to reschedule her surgery as she came down with Covid late last week. Both of her cats passed away this year, so 2023 has been a tough year so far. We do what we can to help her, and hope that things turn around once her surgery and radiation treatments are over.

On the promo front, I’m taking part in a great one that’s offering free ebooks in four different genres: science-fiction, fantasy, mystery, and romance. To take advantage of this newsletter signup offer, click on the link HERE.

I’m also offering my 5^th Casey Holland mystery, Knock Knock, for $.99 until June 19^th. This book is definitely on the thriller side of things. I often incorporate real-life crime events from Vancouver, and this book about home invasions targeting seniors that occurred in Vancouver several years ago.

When a home invasion kills senior Elsie Englehart, security officer Casey Holland is devastated. She’s supposed to be watching over elderly bus riders in an area frequently targeted by thugs. Determined to keep others safe, Casey escorts a senior to his home, only to come under attack by an armed intruder. Hospitalized and angry, Casey struggles to regain control of her life, despite interference from family and colleagues, and the postponement of her wedding. Yet another home invasion compels Casey to take action, but at what cost to her health and her relationships?

To grab a copy, click HERE:

Blending What You Know with Research in Fiction

Author, Jacqui Murray, wrote a great blog recently called ‘How To Write What You Know’, which you can find HERE. Jacqui started writing stories based on things she knew, but her desire to write fiction set in prehistoric times made research essential, and even then some things had to be left to her imagination.

I’ve read many other articles about the value of research, as well as cautionary tales about overdoing it. Although I like research, I’ve never wanted to spend huge amounts of time embroiled in it. I chose, therefore, to set my mysteries where I live in Vancouver’s Lower Mainland, which made detailing specific locations easy. The few scenes set in Europe in my first Casey Holland mystery, were all places I’d visited.

Some of my plots are inspired by actual events that have been well documented in local newspapers, such as street racing which appears in #3 Beneath the Bleak New Moon and attacks on bus drivers, which appears in #6 The Blade Man. Casey Holland mystery #4, The Deep End, however, is the one that draws most heavily on my own experience.

Back in the day, while studying criminology, I spent a year volunteering inside a youth detention center. I met all kinds of residents, some serving a sentence, others awaiting trial. The youngest was twelve years old, the oldest seventeen, including a boy who’d stabbed his mother over 40 times. I learned a lot about the juvenile justice system then, and about teenaged girls who only wanted their mother’s love and attention, and got neither. I learned about lockdowns and suicide attempts, and the importance of boundaries between residents, staff, and volunteers. I kept journals from those days and used snippets of those entries to incorporate in this book. I also spoke with a man who’d just retired as director of a newer detention center, to discuss changes over the previous twenty-five years.

The Deep End is part of this month’s BookFunnel event and is now on sale for $.99. Other great suspense and thriller novels are available through that site, which can be found HERE.

Here’s a short blurb:

MPT transit officer Casey Holland’s first volunteer shift at Fraserview Youth Custody Center turns deadly when the center’s director dies from heart failure. But all is not as it seems, and there are rumors that his death was no accident. Life soon becomes perilous for residents, Casey, and her best friend, Kendal. — “Well-crafted book with lots of teasers”-Night Reader”

How about you? Do you also blend what you know with research in your fiction? I’m curious, how much time do you spend on research, and is it before, during, or after you’ve written a couple of drafts?