Passion

February 14, 2014

Valentine’s Day. You may be wondering why a cozy mystery writer was assigned the task of writing a blog on the most romantic day of the year. I am asking myself the same question. Among the classic and cozy authors are many talented romance writers, why am I writing the blog?

I don’t think about pressed lips, eyes dilating with desire, or damsels in distress. I don’t visualize cupids, floral tributes, or heart shaped boxes of chocolates. I don’t dream in red, pink and white. Lace and hearts aren’t my thing. My mind doesn’t work that way.

At the check out counter I’m likely to contemplate ways to murder the woman with the fist full of coupons. If I glance toward the man behind me, it isn’t to imagine whether his embrace will send shivers up and down my spine. I’m wondering if he would be better cast as the hero or the bit part villain in my next novel.

The one aspect of Valentine’s Day that intrigues me is passion. (Again, not the man-woman passion.) My definition focuses on the inner feeling of doing something you are so devoted to that you leap out of bed at four in the morning to begin. I’m talking about the thrill of doing that one thing with fervor, to shout to the world about your commitment.

Unfortunately not everyone finds their passion at the age of twenty one. Sometimes life interferes with the path to your heart’s destiny. A career that pays the bills or family needs can waylay the journey. For that reason, many people find their passion in their later years. No matter what the age, the important thing is to find it.

Living a stagnant life is an impediment to the destination. Get out and explore the opportunities available. Make opportunities. It isn’t necessary to join the Peace Corp or volunteer at a hospice, although those acts can be rewarding time fillers until your passion comes along or they may become your destiny. You must keep an open heart and mind to the opportunities.

Your passion may not be the neighbor’s idea of a good time. Be true to yourself. A close friend was heavily into making jewelry. Another friend filled her spare bedroom with everything needed to create scrapbooks. While I wanted to spend time with those people, I wasn’t willing to wile away the hours pasting doodads on paper or stringing beads on a wire. They likewise can not understand my need to tell a story.

I am fortunate. I have found my passion. It came after my children were raised and my career was on autopilot. It fills my soul with excitement each morning. It is the first thing I tell people. I am a writer.

This Valentine’s Day enjoy the romance, but seek your passion.

Lois Lamanna

Matrimony and Murder

Murder on a Park Bench

A Seminar on Murder (March, 2014)

Facets of Murder

Clarity of Murder

Cut of Murder (October, 2014)

 

Books, Movies, and Rock&Roll - It's All About Love

The one thing on this planet that everyone wants, is to be loved. Books have been written, movies filmed, and songs sung.

Hard as I try, it's impossible to name just one book that stands out. Although, I read all genres, romances with  Happily Ever Afters are my favorite. My love for HEA started at a very young age with the Little Golden Book copy of Cinderella. The story had everything a romance should have. There were evil people determined to keep the lovers apart and friends and magical mentors to balance out the villains. Most important was the HEA. There were many versions, but this is the one still on my bookshelf.

There are two movies which I can easily say are my favorite love stories. Unlike my passion for HEA in books, movies can have a bittersweet ending. Casablanca and The Way We Were are two movies I can watch over and over. In the Way We Were, there are so many touching scenes, but nothing is as heart wrenching as the final scene. As Katie backs away from Hubbell at the Plaza Hotel, I can't control  the tears. As I write this, I can hear the music playing in my head and feel the pain in my chest.

Music has a completely different effect. I'll listen to songs about past loves, tormented love, and lighthearted love songs. My favorites by far are all those simple love songs that stick in my head after I've heard them. No artist does that better than Paul McCartney. After the Beatles broke up, John Lennon claimed Paul only wrote Silly Love Songs for the Beatles. Paul responded by writing the #1 hit for Wings. It stayed on the charts as #1 for weeks. 

Are you humming the tune? I am. "You'd think that people would have had enough of silly love songs. But I look around me and I see..."


Put these all together and that's a lot of love. 
But nothing says love better than the universal symbol - A heart shaped box of chocolate

Pair your Valentine's favorite book or song with a decadent box of candy and sit down together to enjoy your favorite romantic movie.

Wishing you and your Valentine - Love, Chocolate, and many Happily Ever Afters.

Zelda Benjamin

visit my website  www.zeldabenjamin.com

How I Met My Valentine

by Jean C. Gordon

Say February and what comes to mind? Why, Valentine's Day and love. So for my inaugural Classic and Cozy blog, I thought I'd tell you how I met my Valentine. After all, first meets are an important scene in any romance.

We were college freshman at Genessee Community College taking a beginning painting class. He was the artist. I thought it would be a fun class. Little did I know how fun. Since the supplies needed for the art class were expensive, the art instructor suggested we split the costs by teaming up and sharing supplies. After the first class, some of us were talking about where we were from, lived, whatever. He came over and asked if I wanted to split the supplies with him. He said he could pick them up after classes that day and drop them off at my parents' house where I lived on his way home. I could pay my half then. I figured he'd heard me say where I lived and that he lived nearby.

Leaving for on honeymoon

He stopped by that evening with the supplies. Turned out, he lived several towns away. Our house wasn't on his way home from the college by any stretch of the imagination. But that's the kind of guy he is, willing to go out of his way to help someone. We married a year and a half later.


 And here we are now.



How did you meet your Valentine?



Jean C. Gordon’s writing is a natural extension of her love of reading. From that day in first grade when she realized t-h-e was the word “the,” she’s been reading everything she can put her hands on. A professional financial planner and editor for a financial publisher, Jean is as at home writing retirement- and investment-planning advice as she is writing romance novels, but finds novels a lot more fun.

She and her college-sweetheart husband tried the city life in Los Angeles, but quickly returned home to their native Upstate New York. They share a 170-year-old farmhouse just south of Albany, NY, with their daughter and son-in-law, two grandchildren, and a menagerie of pets. Their son lives nearby. While Jean creates stories, her family grows organic fruits and vegetables and tends the livestock de jour.

Although her day job, writing and family don’t leave her a lot of spare time, Jean likes to give back when she can. She and her husband team-taught a seventh-and-eighth-grade Sunday school class for several years and currently serve on her church’s Evangelism Committee. She also shares her love of books with others by volunteering at the church’s Book Nook.

You can keep in touch with her at www.Facebook.com/JeanCGordon.Author, www.JeanCGordon.com,  @JeanCGordon or  PO Box 113, Selkirk, NY 12158. 

Determination and Gemstones

By

Sandra Wilkins

          Recently, a friend complimented me on having three published books.  I tried to blow it off—after all I’m only a home schooling mom without a college degree to my name—but she stopped me.  She was fascinated and even slightly daunted by the fact that I had actually begun a story and completed it.  That made me wonder what makes a published author different from a wanna-be author.  The only thing I could come up with is that I wasn’t afraid to try.  I wasn’t scared to write it.  And, I wasn’t put off by the rejections that came my way when I first tried to find a publisher. 

          The empty, white, first page of a book isn’t unnerving for me.  Instead, it’s a blank canvas on which I can create a new world.  I’m not one who has the entire story plotted out when I begin, but I know my characters and I have thought of scenes here and there.  As I try to connect the dots, more and more ideas surface.  I won’t say that every day these beautiful scenes unfold effortlessly.  There are times when I have to take a break from the story to regroup and get more ideas.  It does take determination and dedication to keep plugging along.  

          I want to encourage anyone who wants to be an author, to just get started.  It doesn’t have to be perfect.  It won’t be.  Get your ideas written down.  Edit later.  Add content and take away what doesn’t work.  You might be able to use it another time.  All you have to do is begin…and polish your little gem until it shines.

Sandra Wilkins is busy writing another series while home educating her two daughters.  Ada’s Heart, Rose’s Hope and Gwen’s Honor are her first three published wholesome historical romances.  Go to www.sandrawilkins.com to find out more about her and her books.  

Hollywood vs the Old West

by Loretta C. Rogers/aka L. W. Rogers

As an author of westerns and western romance novels, and a lover of the old west, I am part of a western movie discussion group. Members are historians of the old West, authors of western novels, retired Hollywood stuntmen, and a few former cowboy actors, now retired.

 The recent chat centered around why doesn't Hollywood make western movies anymore. I'm talking about classic cowboy movies circa John Wayne, Jimmy Stewart, Gregory Peck, Clint Eastwood, and even the more up to date actors such as Tom Selleck and Kevin Costner.

This question generated an abundance of comments which ranged from: it costs too much to hire horse and cattle wranglers, plus the expense of feeding the animals, to dealing with PETA. Another suggestion was the cost of shooting a western on location vs box office intake. 

While these are all legitimate thoughts, there were several comments about the demographics of today's movie-goers; specifically the age of average people who enjoy sitting inside a theatre with a bag of popcorn and soft drink. The general consensus was that Hollywood caters to teens, tweens, and ages up to 49. Thus, the explaining the popularity of movies with explosions, car chases, androids, vampires, werewolves, and other sci-fi, paranormal elements.

Obviously, several movie producers have a different opinion as to what constitutes a western. For example: Cowboys and Aliens, Hex, Django Unchained, and a movie slated for release May 2014, "Bone Tomahawk," starring Kurt Russell. Here's the synopsis: "Bone Tomahawk follows an outlaw who unknowingly leads a band of cannibalistic Troglodytes into the peaceful western town of Bright Hope. When the monsters kidnap several settlers, including a rancher’s wife, a small rescue party consisting of the injured rancher, the sheriff, his aging deputy and a strong-willed gunslinger, journey into hell to try and rescue them. They soon find themselves in dark unknown territories where savage inbreeds armed with the ultimate weapon leave no hope of survival."

Umm, cannibalistic Troglodytes, and savage inbreeds in the 1800's old west? This leaves me scratching my head as to the thinking of Hollywood movie producers. Perhaps there are viewers out there who are champing at the bit (pun intended) for the premier of this movie and its cloned relatives.

This brings me to the age demographics of movie-goers. Studios seem to forget that the 26 and under crowd is not the only audience. What about the over 50 crowd? In my humble opinion, it's silly when films are geared toward "niche" groups. People crave good films, so when there is one, people go to see it. The majority of the over 50's were raised on Western films. Heck, a lot of actors still want to do a Western, and for some, it was the reason they got into the business. There's plenty of room for all types of films, but there is no reason why the Western needs to be micro budgeted into unearthly realms which destroys the code of the old west, and suppresses an important historical period of our great country.

So readers, if Glen Ford, Audie Murphy, Ben Johnson, John Wayne, or any of the other great cowboy stars were alive, how do you think they would answer if asked: With all the wonderful Western novels enjoyed by today's readers, why isn't Hollywood interested in making authentic movies about the old West?

Georgette Heyer and the Cozy Mystery

I’ve been trying to clear out some of my overstuffed attic, which means going through bags and boxes of books. I’ve had hundreds of books pushed back in there, stowed when I had to move out bunches of them for a renovation of our home.

A set of books I found while going through all those books was a group of Georgette Heyer’s mysteries. I’ve only re-read two of them so far, Behold, Here’s Poison and Penhallow. And already I’ve been staggered by how incredible Heyer’s writing is.

 

Neither book is a traditional detective story, but both are bang-up mysteries. In Penhallow, the murder doesn’t occur until two-thirds of the way into the story, and we know who did it. We don’t know why or what the repercussions will be. In Behold, Here’s Poison, the book opens with the discovery of the corpse and proceeds like a detective story, until we realize that a character who appears to be the chief suspect may be something more than he seems and the police detective in charge of the case (who has appeared in other stories by her) may in fact be outclassed.

The plotting is interesting, though complex puzzles aren’t really Heyer’s style.  Both stories are centered around the murder of a family patriarch who also happens to be a nasty, reprehensible character, unloved and unmourned by the extended family he tyrannized. And each story pulls out its share of twists and surprises.

But what really sets her stories apart are the characters. Oh, my goodness, the characters. Both of the books I’ve read feature large casts, and in the first chapter or two it can be confusing to keep up with them. By several chapters in, though, she’s delineated those characters so well that you know exactly who each is.

Although it’s a given in detective stories that at least one of the players in the story secretly has murderous depths, Heyer masterfully shows that nearly all of her characters are more than they seem while maintaining an aura of mystery about them. 

One of the more important suspects in the murder in Behold, Here’s Poison is the widowed Mrs. Matthews, sister-in-law to the victim. In speaking about his will, she says:
“It is not that one wants anything,” she told them, “but one misses the thought for others. Consideration for people’s feelings means so much in this dark world, as I hope both of you remember always. I had no claim on Gregory, though since I was his brother’s wife I daresay a lot of people would disagree with me on that point. As far as actual money goes I expected nothing, but it would have been such a comfort if there had been some little sign to show that I was not quite forgotten.”

Mrs. Matthews is a spiritual person who attends church regularly, gives the appearance of being kind to everyone, and tries to be a peacemaker with her quarrelsome relatives.  She mostly says the right things, but occasionally lets slip some deeper feelings of resentment, even anger.  But is she a clear hypocrite or someone who struggles with her conscience in an effort to be a better person?  Or possibly even something deeper.  The character who is undoubtedly the sharpest knife in this cast (in more ways than one) calls her “clever Aunt Zoe” and maybe he’s right. We don't know and Heyer doesn't give a definitive answer.

It's part of what makes Heyer so riveting. She shows readers the surface of the characters and offers glimpses into what’s going on below the surface, but she doesn't offer any overt judgments on those characters.  In fact, even the murderers are themselves rather sympathetic, since she shows what drove those seemingly normal people to that extreme.

The most fascinating character in Behold, Here's Poison is at once the chief suspect and arguably the hero of the story. He's a haughty, arrogant, sharp-tongued man with a nasty tendency to disparage everyone. The person who likes him the best calls him an "amiable snake" and it's undoubtedly accurate. And yet, he's also intelligent, alluring and utterly fascinating.

We may not like all of her characters.  In fact in Penhallow, they’re pretty much all unlikeable. Yet we’re fascinated by them and even come to care for them as we learn what drives them. It's a heck of a trick to pull off!

Karen McCullough is a web designer by profession, and the author of a dozen published novels and novellas in the mystery, romantic suspense, and fantasy genres as well. She has won numerous awards, including an Eppie Award for fantasy, and has also been a four-time Eppie finalist, and a finalist in the Prism, Dream Realm, Rising Star, Lories, Scarlett Letter, and Vixen Awards contests. Her short fiction has appeared in several anthologies and numerous small press publications in the mystery, fantasy, science fiction, and romance genres. She has three children, four grandchildren and lives in Greensboro, NC, with her husband of many years. Her most recent release is the ebook version of A Gift for Murder, originally published in hardcover by Five Star/Cengage and mass market paperback by Harlequin Worldwide Mysteries.

Website: http://www.kmccullough.com

Blog: http://www.kmccullough/kblog
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/KarenMcCulloughAuthor
Twitter: https://twitter.com/kgmccullough

 

 

 

Mark This Spot!

A "First Fridays" Artistic Interlude with Sofie Couch

It’s First Fridays, it’s February, and it’s my first official First Friday's post at Classic and Cozy!

So I thought I would lead you all in something pretty radical for a writer. Yes, today we dice and slice books. I mean, literally, we’re gonna dice-and-slice books. So get out your scissors, get out a couple of raggedy-taggedy books, and let’s get chopping and make some book marks.

First, remove the spines from a couple of old books. I promise, no books were harmed… well, actually, they were harmed. They were annihilated. But I didn’t pull anything off of the shelves of a rare books collection. In my hometown, we have an amazing recycle center and there is a special walk-in bin filled with books that local folks no longer want. They’re sad books. Books that are looking for a good home. Unfortunately, I got to them first.

Okay, so rip off those spines. If you’re a craft geek, like some of us, you have a laminator just laying around the crafting bench. Actually, book spines are a little thick for my baby laminator. They needed a little persuasion to squeeze through, so I took out the ol’ flat-iron – it doesn’t get out very often – and with a towel between laminate paper and iron, it works just fine! Don’t have laminate paper? No problem. Pull out a roll of packing tape (no heat).

With your trusty hole punch, put a little punch in the top of your book spine/ book mark.

Next, just add ribbon and voila! Now, you have only to grab a cup of tea and a good book, (might I suggest, KEEPING UP WITH MR. JONES?) and your trusty new book mark. Enjoy!

Sofie Couch (that's Sofie - with an "F"), has made a return to romantic comedy. If you were one of those readers who were looking for more books by that illusive writer, Annette Couch-Jareb, (CYBER BRIDE, 1999), she’s back… with a new writing name.