I haven’t been able to get to a signing at Murder By The Book for a while. I’m two books behind in my friend Dean James (writing as Miranda James)’s cozy Cat in the Stacks Mystery series AND his Southern Ladies Mystery series. I was able to pick up the second Southern Ladies book on Saturday when I went to a signing for Dean’s friend Julie Herman. Julie took a hiatus from publishing (I have her Three Dirty Women series in hard cover, and she’s hoping she’ll have e-versions of those available soon). She’s back with Burned, a middle school equestrian mystery which I read in one sitting yesterday. I have been contemplating writing in the voice of a fifteen-year-old girl for quite a while now, and Julie’s narrator is TWELVE. It was interesting to hear her talk about the number of drafts it took her before she felt that voice was authentic. I tip my hat to her, because she succeeds with Sophie Allen. (Also, I love the book’s cover.)
Signing with Julie was a new-to-me author, Kay Finch. Kay is in a critique group with Julie, and writes A Bad Luck Cat Mystery series. Now you know I’m a dog person, but when a writer names a cat Hitchcock, I’m in!
Looking forward to reading the rest of these books.
