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Worry less, laugh more. By Pastor George Lehman Laughter is a tranquilizer with no side effects. Worry is the ultimate knock-down tool. The devil uses worry as an effective tool to discourage us. Someone said:  Laughter is the cheapest luxury that man has.  It stirs up the blood, expands the chest, electrifies the nerves, clears away the cobwebs from the brain and gives the whole system a cleansing rehabilitation. Why would we not want to laugh more? Here's God's view on worry… Philippians 4:6-7 (LB) – Don't worry about anything; instead, pray about everything (the things effecting your life); tell God your needs and don't forget to thank him for his answers.  If you do this you will experience God's peace, which is far more wonderful than the human mind can understand. We live in an age that's increasingly fast-paced and uncertain. When a crisis is added to our plate, it's natural for our worry and anxiety levels to shoot off the charts. They say worry and anxiety is on the rise. More and more people are more anxious more often then 5 years ago. …unfortunately, this makes it twice as difficult for us to respond well to the new challenges. Anxiety can cause heart palpitations, shortness of breath, nausea, loss of appetite, lack of sleep, loneliness, depression and …plenty more symptoms we'd just want to avoid. “Anxiety and worry do not empty tomorrow of its sorrows, but only empties today of its strength.”  - Spurgeon   Worry, meanwhile, is like negative meditation. Worry is a continual over thinking of potential disastrous outcomes.  (The what if's, should haves, & would have's) Worry robs us of energy and the ability to focus on the actual problem. They say, “Worry is like a ‘rocking chair'.”  It gives you something to do but never gets you anywhere. That's why we need to be mind made up, making faith-filled decisions not to worry or be anxious. We need to fix our minds on God's promises. One great line of defence is a sense of humour.  Lighten up a bit. Proverbs 17:22 (NIV) – A cheerful heart is good medicine, but a crushed spirit dries up the bones.   WORRY BUSTERS! Jesus made it plain where He stood on the subject of worry… Matthew 6:25 (NIV) – “Therefore, I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes? Matthew 6:27 (LB) – Will all your worries add a single moment to your life? [it will shorten your life] Matthew 6:34 (LB) - So don't be anxious about tomorrow.  God will take care of your tomorrow too.  Live one day at a time. The amazing thing is even with this promise, we still struggle with fears about the future. We know this; but we still choose to be anxious and worry.  Somehow, we think it helps us cope! THE HARDEST HABIT TO BREAK IS WORRY. “If you can't help worrying, remember that worrying can't help you either.” Next time you find yourself dwelling on your concerns, try a few of the following ideas… Worry buster #1  Try to calm down. Catch yourself if you're starting down the worry path - change directions. Maybe take a brief walk - movement will help you release tension. Replace your negative thinking by meditating on a positive idea or a verse of scripture. Philippians 4:8 (Msg) – Summing it all up friends, I'd say you'll do best by filling your minds and meditating on things true, noble, reputable, authentic, compelling, gracious – the best, not the worst;  the beautiful, not the ugly;  things to praise, not things to curse. Play some uplifting spiritual worship music – I find it hard to worry about ME when I'm thinking about HIM. Worry buster #2 Sort out your concerns. How do you make a mountain?  You just keep adding a little dirt on top of each other. The A.A. (Alcoholics Anonymous) have a ‘serenity' prayer begins with these words: God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change; courage to change the things I can; and wisdom to know the difference. If you're weary from worry, write them down and talk them over with someone you trust. A problem shared is a problem halved... Galatians 6:2 (Amp) – Bear (endure, carry) one another's burdens and  troublesome moral faults, and in this way fulfill and observe perfectly the law of Christ (the Messiah) and complete what is lacking [in your obedience to it]. Separate what you can influence and change from what you have no control over. Make a choice to let go of things you aren't able to fix. To worry about things, we can't change is useless and stupid. Most of the things we worry about never happen in any case!!!   Worry buster #3  Turn over your worries to the Lord. Ultimately, trusting God is the only effective response to our tendency to worry. If you do, the apostle Paul says… Philippians 4:7 (NLT) – Then you will experience God's peace, which exceeds anything we can understand. His peace will guard your hearts and minds as you live in Christ Jesus. Peter was of the same conviction… 1 Peter 5:7 (Amp) – Casting the whole of your care [all your anxieties, all your worries, all your concerns, once and for all] on Him, for He cares for you affectionately and cares about you watchfully. If you're drowning in worry, can I suggest you spend extra time in prayer and meditation on the Word. Worry and anxiety are like heavy weights that trail along behind you wherever you go. It will drag you down! It's time to release your worry weights hand them over to God and trust His promises to take care of your PROBLEMS. Worry less, laugh more! Proverbs 15:13, 15 (LB) – 13A happy face means a glad heart; a sad face means a breaking heart.  15When a man is gloomy, everything seems to go wrong; when he is cheerful, everything seems right! Studies have shown that laughter does indeed prompt a host of positive influences. It stimulates the release of endorphins and serotonin hormones that create feelings of well-being and confidence. Laughter reduces tension and stress, strengthens the immune system and protects the heart. Think about it, who are you mostly attracted to…? Sad, morbid, negative, always complaining, fault-finding type people or... Joyful, fun, jolly, positive people. Milton Berle once said, “Laughter is an instant vacation”. Learn to laugh at yourself. When we can see humor in a problem, then life's problems don't seem quite so serious. A sense of humor can help you overlook the unattractive; tolerate the unpleasant, cope with the unexpected and smile through the unbearable.  Rabbi Moshe Waldoks NB!!!  Worry doesn't prevent ‘DISASTER' it prevents JOY. Don't ever forget… “He who laughs – lasts”

Black History in the USA comes to a close. In this the third and final part of her interview with ‘Facing Purpose Radio Show' host Lakia Barnett, Tracy is invited to share her final thoughts on the subject of the importance of building your own confidence with the writing process. If you enjoy these podcasts then visit the website https://storiestobetolled.com for more information and join us on our mailing list and receive a free sample of each of the current story titles. At times, small parts of the recording are omitted and so the full transcript is provided below: LB: So with you being an author and again you're touching on education, you're really trying to educate people on the different things that you believe in. But not only that, what needs to be brought attention to. What advice can you give to any up-coming authors that may be listening to you tonight and saying ‘you know what, I just wanna go ahead and write. Make a leap and jump out there and do something I've never done. I know that I'm supposed to be writing but don't know how to start. So what advice would you give to an up-coming author tonight? TW: I would say, I think this is the most important thing. Write about something that you're passionate about. It doesn't necessarily have to be something that is expected of you. I never thought that I would be writing about a topic such as this. Many of us feel that we have to write about certain things that are characteristic of or stereotypical of who people might think we are. I think as a writer the best advice that I can give to somebody is to… if there's something that you are truly passionate about, write about that. Be brave enough step out of your comfort zone and really put the time and the research in. Just put pen to paper and start the process and something will begin to appear. It's almost like training, when you're training and your muscles become more efficient, they become more elasticated, they become supple they, become (more) stronger. Writing is that type of skill it's like exercising a muscle and if you do it little and often on a regular basis you will and you can create something that is truly special (and) truly unique and truly worthy of being read and being appreciated by other people. So that would be the one piece of advice: step out of the boat if you want to write something that is untraditional to your background or to your culture, then do not be afraid to do so. LB: Absolutely, I totally agree. I love that you sat down on even writing something that people wouldn't have expected for you to write. I love that. I love when people step out of the box and when they go a little further and not just with the familiar of what they think people are gonna be looking for them to do. I love that you mention that that is a key sign of bravery to me. I think that is a huge leap in trying to step away from the familiar, in trying something else that is not expected and so I love that. So, Ms Tracy why don't you go ahead and tell everybody how they can connect with you. Let everyone know about any upcoming events and projects that you have going on for 2022. TDW: Well they can contact me. I'm on most social media platforms. Check me out on Facebook, Instagram at ‘Stories to be tolled'. Now tolled is spelt  ‘t-o-l-l-e-d' it is not spelt ‘told' in the usual sense. That is something that I did on purpose to try and stand out from the normal ‘stories to be told' sentence. You can find me on Facebook, you can find me on Instagram. I'm on Twitter at dw_tracy and of course there's the website https://storiestobetolled.com  where all my social media links can be found (there). So just go to the website and that will be the easiest way to connect with me and if you want to send me an email info@storiestobetolled.com Great and do you have any upcoming events that you want to share? TDW: At the moment, I'm doing self-publishing with a freelance publisher to get the next four books out. The next four books will be out in 2022. I am hoping to get them out by Easter and I am also appearing as a feature author in a magazine called ‘Aspiring Authors.' A US publication looking to feature some aspiring authors for their black history month and so I will be featured in that and I will also be on the cover. I will continue to grow my audience through my podcast and also to promote my books for home learning. So (I'm) really targeting parents who want to engage with the subject area through home learning together with their children. So, those are the key areas that I'm going to be looking at this year. LB: Ok well I love it Tracy. I do appreciate you taking (time) out of your busy schedule to come and bless Facing Purpose Radio with your voice, with your expertise with what you believe in and what your heart really stands for and we can't wait to continue to look out for the major things that you're going to be doing in the near future. I speak blessing upon you and all your endeavours and everyone make sure that you follow up with all her social media, get in contact with her, learn something. I pray that something was said tonight that will help you guys to help you go into your 2022 just a little bit more reassured that you can do this, if you're an author. Even if you're not an author, you may be an educator, just like Ms Tracy and she decided to step out of the box and go a little further with what she's doing. Take a little note from her book and go and make the leap. So I have enjoyed this conversation. I have enjoyed just listening to you talk about what you love and what you put your hand to and involved in. So Tracy, thank you so much for connecting with me and coming on to the show. TDW: Lakia, it's been a pleasure and a privilege to be on your show, just talking and sharing with you. Thank you so much for having me on and wishing you a happy 2022. LB: Yes Ma'am! You too Ms Tracy Williams. So, you guys, that's it for tonight. This was an awesome Saturday night. Again, I am so glad to back. I'm feeling much, much better I'm praying for your healing tonight and you guys make sure that you come back and join me every Saturday at 7pm EST. This is the ‘Facing Purpose Radio Show' and I'm your host Lakia Barnett and you guys have a good night.    

February is the month for celebrating Black History in the USA. In this podcast episode Tracy continues with her virtual visit across 'the Pond' with her very first interview. The interview was recorded on New Year's Day on the 'Facing Purpose Radio Show' in the US hosted by Elder Lakia Barnett. In this the second part of this interview, Tracy shares what inspired her to create the multi-media platform that is ‘Stories to be tolled' reveals the one thing that the stories couldn't do without and what is the ‘ultimate' learning journey for all her users. If you enjoy these podcasts then visit the website https://storiestobetolled.com for more information and join us on our mailing list and receive a free sample of each of the current story titles. At times, small parts of the recording are omitted and so the full transcript is provided below: LB: Hello, hello, hello! We are back from our commercial break with the lovely Ms Tracy Williams all the way from the UK. So Ms Tracy, I was reading in your bio that you have multi-media platforms explain to me about how that works how you kinda started to expand from just being an author to doing other things that you do. TDW: Well, I think the multi-media learning platform is really the educationalist side of me. The stories are the author element of who I am. You know, I spent about 18 months writing the stories, so I was just in a creative writing flow for about 18 months and you know, to be really honest once I had finished the stories Lakia, I had both a sense of elation and achievement but I also had a sense of deflation as well. Because the British Empire has such a lot of moving parts to it, I didn't want the stories to sit in a vacuum. Because once I'd published them it would be ‘Well, who are the stories for?' Who are your target audience? Why have you written them? Ok, I've written them because I've been inspired to write them but there's got to be a proof of concept about it.  When I was writing the stories which must have been back in 2017, 2018 there wasn't really that much of a heightened awareness to learn more about the subject of the British Empire, it was very much a taboo subject (to be really honest, if I'm really honest about it). It was an ‘uncomfortable truth' so to speak that nobody really wanted to talk about or look really deeply at. I knew that it was important enough to have a platform and that it should be taught in our schools. It should be read to children at story time or at bed time at home. I just felt that, the stories themselves, although they were good, it couldn't be left in a vacuum there needed to be some context to it so that any learner from 9-14 years and upwards would be able to read and understand but within a context and so that's why I decided to create a learning journey to go with the stories. So, at the back of the stories there are various questions that the learner can then go upon, they can start carrying out their own learning journey, their own research after they've read the story. There's a chronology, so a list of key dates that come up in the actual story and then there's an activity that I call ‘build your vocabulary' because vocabulary is such a difficult thing to learn and to teach. I decided to pick out phrases and words within the stories that children and young people would be able to go off and find out more about and understand how to build their vocabulary and be able to apply that new vocabulary to new learning. I then decided to go a step further and create the learning platform which is initially where everything lives relating to ‘Stories to be tolled' The stories can be purchased there (I'm actually on the website now) and we've got other things like mini-documentaries, which are just like mini films that I've created and learning journeys that continue, are an expansion or a continuation of each of the stories. If you went on the website now and clicked on the ‘learning journey' menu you will see the titles of each of the four books that are out now as well as four new titles that I'm going to be planning to launch this year. If you clicked on to ‘Caribbean Wind' there would come up an alternative chronology, suggestions for biographies, historical sources, You tube videos and I'm developing an art gallery of alternative history. So, there's something for all types of learner and it just feeds into my overall vision for ‘Stories to be tolled' that we can take something that in a lot of ways is a difficult and emotive subject to explore and to learn about and we can deliver it, we can approach it in a way that is both thoughtful, engaging, imaginative, interesting and just to break down some of the taboos about the subject area because I feel when you're ignorant about a subject area, the more you are ignorant the more fearful you are. The more prejudiced you are and the more ignorance there is around the topic and so that is what the multi-media platform is there to do, to help the ordinary person, help the ordinary learner engage and hopefully something on it will spark their interest to continue or develop their own learning journey about whatever aspect of the topic they want to find out about so that was the rationale behind the learning journey and it's growing all the time. It's something that I'm really proud of, its' quite unique. LB: So yes that is really, really interesting you have your background as an educator, a teacher and you're really incorporating these things into everything that you do and it leaves no room for confusion when people see you and they hear about you, they know what you stand for. So when people are getting these books Tracy what do you want the readers to take from this? When they're reading your books what do you want then to learn and take from reading this collection of books? TDW: I think the one thing that I want them to learn about is to understand that the world is multi-faceted, the world is interconnected and it's not interconnected because we have all this technology and we have all these social media platforms. The world is interconnected because this one phenomenon that took place over a period of 400 years is really the key to understanding how the world is today. It's the one thing that can provide that link to a lot of international relationships between countries, the way that countries define their foreign policies with each other. The way that various Diasporas have developed and emerged out of displacement of indigenous people from their home lands. I know that these are difficult subjects to look at but I feel that these are some of the main things that readers need to understand and to learn about as they're reading the stories. I get so many readers saying to me' Tracy I never knew about this or I never knew about that.' ‘I never knew that the Empire Windrush used to be a German Nazi warship that was used in WW2. I never knew anything about the early period of European discovery and how Britain came about its first encounter of the Caribbean.' ‘I didn't know it was a failed colonial exercise carried out by Scotland that caused the unification of Scotland and England.'  Many of us seem to think that it was when Elizabeth 1st died and James 6th of Scotland became James 1st of England and united the two countries but stories really do dispel a lot of assertions, a lot of assumptions that ordinary people like myself and like you make about history we are taught at school and then you realise that a lot of it is not necessarily fact, it's just coming from a certain perspective and I thought ‘right, that's my strapline.' That is actually how I got the strapline ‘history is a matter of fact…or perspective?' because there are so many perspectives in history. We only hear about the perspective of the conqueror, of the victor, you never hear of the perspective of those who have gone past and those who have died and are not here to tell their tale.  So the stories is that balance of perspective and just lets the reader know ‘look, regardless of what you've been taught in school, regardless of your formal education, quite often it's what we go out and learn for ourselves that helps us have a much more balanced view of the world we live in and a greater tolerance and a greater understanding of why things are the way they are today.' Why there are issues and seemingly unsolved problems in certain parts of the world and more of an empathy for indigenous populations that are going through a tumultuous time because we can then use these stories to really un-pick and understand what the roots of these issues are. So that's what I want readers to take away. (Copyright Tracy D Williams 2022)

Discipleship series #8 A disciple lives actively and effectively in the moment. By Pastor George Lehman   Yesterday is history. Tomorrow is a mystery. And today? Today is a gift – that’s why it’s called the present. Paul said: Philippians 3:1 (Amp) – For the rest, my brethren, delight yourselves in the Lord and continue to rejoice that you are in Him. To keep writing to you [over and over] of the same things is not irksome to me, and it is [a precaution] for your safety. Psalm 118:24 (NIV) - This IS the day the Lord has made, I will rejoice and be glad in it. Note: It does NOT say this WAS or WILL be the day, when? In this day. Not future tense or past tense but present tense. How we frequently miss out on the blessing in the NOW!  How can we actually be content in this moment when we are actually somewhere else? Let’s be honest, most times our lives are so absorbed in our worries, fears, hopes and expectations that we miss out on the only life we really have, the one happening right here, right now! These are not some idle words from Jesus Matthew 6:27 (LB) - Will all your worries add a single moment to your life? (It will possibly shorten your life.) Isn’t this true - that we often so consumed with trying to make our futures better that we don’t appreciate what God is trying to do in our “NOW”.   We need to stop waiting for perfect conditions to be fully engaged in our lives. Philippians 3:16 (LB) - Only let us live up to what we have already attained. Live in the ‘now’ you and I have more than what you need to live successfully, victoriously, courageously and confidently “Today”. Jesus said it: Matthew 6:34 (LB) - So don’t be anxious about tomorrow, God will take care of your tomorrow too. Live one day at a time. Just observe what happens when you’re totally engrossed or consumed by anything – a hobby or watching a gripping movie. For that time and space for 2 hours, all your problems disappear? Time flies, worries, regrets, and anger vanishes.  The tension of the day melts away. How does this happen? It’s not magic. It’s because you’re focused on something other than your problems. The moment you leave the movies or whatever consumed your ‘now time’ – you think or say… “Now I’m back in the REAL world”. The so called ‘real world’ is actually waiting for you to carry that peace right into it. God actually meant us to live this way. The word describes God as ‘omnipresent’.  Not omni-past or omni-future. He is present HERE and NOW! For so many people their relationship with God is consumed with – - what they don’t have, - what they haven’t ‘done right’ - how they failed or messed up. 4 Simple steps if applied will help you live a blessed life in the now – in the moment:   As an unsaved, non-Christian you just lived like you wanted to. But now that you are a disciple of Jesus, God’s intention for you is an abundant life. A strong, enduring, victorious life for TODAY!   #1  Live on purpose You have to stop drifting in life.   James 4:17 (LB) - Knowing what’s right to do and not doing it is sin.   2 John 1:8 (NIV) - Watch out that you do not lose what we have worked for, but that you may be rewarded fully. When you’re not focused and living ‘on purpose’. - James 1:8 (Amp) - [For being as he is] a man of two minds (hesitating, dubious {doubtful}, irresolute{not determined / shrinking back}), (He is) unstable and unreliable and uncertain about everything (he thinks, feels, decides).   Do everything it takes to live your spiritual life out “on purpose”. If you’re not living ‘on purpose’ you won’t experience the breakthrough promises. You’ll keep focusing on yesterday and hoping for a better tomorrow you’ll MISS OUT on the peace, joy and victory of TODAY!   #2  Maximise today.   It’s God’s job to make the day but it’s OUR job to make the most of it. You see, joy is a decision. You make the choice to rejoice. Philippians 4:4 (NIV) – “Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice!” Tomorrow is ashes, yesterday is wood. Only today does the fire burn brightly. Eskimo proverb “Joy is like fuel.” You don’t wait to refuel only when you feel like it.   #3  Trust. Trust that God will provide and that you have the power, ability and resources within to find contentment and peace – not tomorrow but each moment of TODAY! You can’t trust someone who doesn’t keep their word. To trust someone, they must have a track record of integrity.   Psalm 62:8 (Msg) - So trust Him absolutely, people; lay your lives on the line for Him. God is a safe place to be.   Consider this track record: There are more than 1000 predictions or prophecies in the bible. Promises that God made before they happened. The chances of 17 of them coming to pass is 1 out of 450 billion x 1 billion x 1 trillion. Yet, not one of these 1000 promises have failed. In fact to this day 668 have already been fulfilled. You can relax and trust God. He won’t let you down!   #4  Be grateful and celebrate.   1 Corinthians 8:3 (Amp) - But if one loves God truly (with affectionate reverence, prompt obedience and GRATEFUL recognition of His blessing), he is known by God (recognized as worthy of His intimacy and love and he is owned by Him). When we live with an attitude of gratitude we live in the moment and find we will experience contentment. A thankless attitude traps you in the past or the future. It causes you to ignore the gifts and blessings that are present in your lives now! Many times it’s when we lose something or things go wrong – like our health, lose a job, then we appreciate and are grateful for our abundant past we had. Hebrews 3:15 (NIV) – “Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as you did in the rebellion.” Disciple of God learn to thank and praise God: - Live on purpose - Maximise everyday - Trust God - Be grateful and celebrate. What has God already done in your life? Everything you are blessed with – a family, a home, a job, food and health. Doing this, before you know it, midnight will pass and morning will come. Living in the moment you can flow through life rather than struggle through it. Jesus died to make it possible! Poem with “TODAY”: Today is the most important day of my life. Yesterday with its successes and victories, struggles and failures is gone forever. The past is past. Done. Finished. I cannot relive it. I cannot go back and change it. But I will learn from it and improve my today. Today. This moment. NOW. It is God’s gift to me and it is all that I have. Tomorrow with all its joys and sorrows, triumphs and troubles isn’t here yet. Indeed, tomorrow may never come. Therefore, I will not worry about tomorrow. Today is what God has entrusted to me. It is all that I have. I will do my best in it. I will demonstrate the best of me in it - my character, giftedness and abilities. To my family and friends, clients and associates - I will identify those things that are most important to do today. And those things I will do until they are done. And when this day is done, I will look back with satisfaction at that which I have accomplished. Then, and only then, Will I plan my tomorrow. Looking to improve upon today, with God’s help. Then I shall go to sleep in peace… content.

I looked over at the white cat, who had finally opened his eyes, and mulled over possible names. His coat was so poofy, it made him shapeless, like a giant marshmallow. Hmm, that wasn’t too bad of a name. I cocked my head at Marshmallow, and he stared back at me with piercing sapphire eyes. We maintained eye contact for so long, it felt like a staring contest. I would show him who was boss. Okay, I blinked first. In the midst of the surreal times we're going through, it was beyond wonderful to sit down and chat with Jennifer J. Chow. I was already a fan of her Winston Wong cozy mysteries and I'd had the pleasure of meeting her at the California Crime Writers Conference last year. Her latest book, Mimi Lee Gets A Clue, is the first in a new cozy series and is out this month -- just in time for the comfort read we all need. A deserving victim. An adorable heroine. A talking cat. What more could you ask for? Whatever it is, Jennifer hits it with the Sassy Cat Mysteries. Mimi Lee is a terrific heroine with strong family ties and a growing relationship with her telepathic cat -- as well as with the cute attorney she met doing laundry. For warmth and humor, this new series hits it out of the park. Jennifer is also the author of the Winston Wong cozy series, starting with Seniors Sleuth, and featuring a male detective steeped in video games, as well as award-winning books for Young Adults and a host of short stories. I particularly want to mention her short story "Moon Girl," which is in the anthology, Brave New Girls: Tales of Heroines Who Hack. Proceeds from this book are donated to a scholarship fund through the Society of Women Engineers, so definitely worth checking out. Jennifer gives a shout out to a thriller she's currently loving, Darling Rose Gold by Stephanie Wrobel, as well as to mystery writers Dale Furutani and Naomi Hirahara. And to learn more about Jennifer herself, check out her website. And if you have already devoured Mimi Lee Gets A Clue, you can pre-order Book Two in the Sassy Cat mysteries, Mimi Lee Reads Between the Lines, right here. Enjoy our conversation. As always, there is a transcript below if you prefer to read rather than listen. I also want to wish you all well. During these crazy times, I hope you and yours are staying safe and finding comfort in each other and a good book. Take care! Laura Transcript of Interview with Jennifer J. Chow Laura Brennan: Jennifer J. Chow writes multicultural mysteries and fantastical YA. Her Asian American novels include Dragonfly Dreams (a Teen Vogue pick), The 228 Legacy, the Winston Wong cozy mystery series, and a brand-new series called The Sassy Cat Mysteries. The brand-new first book in that series, Mimi Lee Gets A Clue, is just out now. Jennifer, thank you for joining me. Jennifer J. Chow: Thanks for having me, Laura. LB: So how did you get started writing? JC: I think I always liked writing, even as a kid I would make up stories in my head. When I got older and started reading a lot of books, I also thought it was really cool that anyone could be a writer. I remember borrowing my dad's typewriter and typing out my actual first story and then he took it to work with him and showed all his colleagues. So, that's really sweet. LB: Was it a mystery? JC: It wasn't a mystery, but it was one of those "twins switching identities," right? So I guess sort of a mystery in the way that they tried to pretend to be one another. But it was kind of one of those fun romps of mistaken identity. LB: So then when did you decide to turn your eye to mysteries? JC: I guess there are two points. One actually was when I was in elementary school. We had a teacher, I think it was in sixth grade, and she was really into all sorts of creative writing, poetry and short stories. And I do remember that she assigned us a short story. In that short story, I decided to make it a mystery and she really had some positive comments about it.

Sunday morning, the quiet kind that I don’t get enough of. Until a minute ago I’d been on my second cup of coffee, reading Dreamland and starting to think about breakfast. Hopalong, dozing at my feet, stirred briefly as my phone went off. I saw from caller ID it was Burke Cunningham. I almost didn’t answer, and not just because I liked listening to my new ringtone. A call from Cunningham on a Sunday morning was like the cluck of a dentist as she works on your teeth. The news can’t be good. On the other hand, because he’s one of the most sought-after defense attorneys in Columbus, Ohio, the news would probably involve a job, which I could use right at the moment. But it also meant an end to a quiet Sunday morning of the kind I don’t get enough of. I answered anyway. Unlike my conscience, my bank balance always gets the better of me.      “What’d the cops say?”      “They said it was a good thing I didn’t get my ass shot.”      “They did not.”      “Perhaps I’m paraphrasing.”      “Any leads?”      “Not at the moment. They took the info. Put out a news release.”      “I saw the coverage. You’re a hero, again.”      “Slow news day. A zoo baby would have bumped me off the lineup in a heartbeat.” -- Andrew Welsh-Huggins, The Third Brother Andrew Welsh-Huggins is a crime reporter and author of the Andy Hayes private eye mystery series. You can sign up for his newsletter on his website and keep up with him on Twitter and Facebook. And you can follow his recommendations for some of his own favorite PI reads, including Sue Grafton's Kinsey Millhone series (and whenever the wonderful Sue Grafton is mentioned, I like to give a plug for the work of her father, C.W. Grafton, The Rat Began to Gnaw the Rope and The Rope Began to Hang the Butcher, two of my all-time favorite mysteries). Andrew also gives a shout out to Robert B. Parker's Spenser and Rex Stout's Nero Wolfe series, and authors Dashiell Hammett, Ross Macdonald, and John D. MacDonald as masters of the PI genre. Here are Andrew's own Andy Hayes books, in order: 1 - Fourth Down and Out 2 - Slow Burn 3 - Capitol Punishment 4 - The Hunt 5 - The Third Brother We talk about his nonfiction book on the death penalty, but neglect to mention the title. Let me correct that oversight: it is No Winners Here Tonight, and you can learn more through this link to the write up on Andrew's website. As always, if you'd rather read than listen, the transcript is below.  Enjoy! -- Laura ************************************************** Transcript of interview with Andrew Welsh-Huggins Laura Brennan: Andrew Welsh-Huggins is a reporter for the Associated Press whose beat includes crime, the death penalty, and politics -- an explosive combination. He has translated that experience into two non-fiction books and five crime novels featuring Andy Hayes, an ex-Ohio State and Cleveland Browns quarterback and current private eye. Andy has a wisecracking attitude and an affinity for trouble. Andrew, thank you for joining me. Andrew Welsh-Huggins: Thank you for having me. Great to be with you. LB: So you are a career reporter. What was the draw of journalism? AWH: Well, I'd always wanted to be a writer. Early in my career after college, I think it was a natural transition to get into writing professionally. I'd worked for both my high school newspaper and my college paper, and grew up reading -- there was actually a time and we got two newspapers a day in my house growing up and the New York Times every Sunday. It just sort of made sense for me to follow journalism. And I also saw that as a path into fiction writing as well. It just took me a while to get there. LB: Were you always writing fiction on the side? AWH: Yes. I'm one of those kids who was writing stories at a very young age, usually mystery short stories as a young man. But just was always trying my hand at fiction, and particularly I was always attracted to the private eye ge...

I repeated my thirty seconds of speeding up and thirty seconds of rest method, sprinting around the park's track. I was panting hard when I rounded the bend coming back to where I'd started. I veered off the track, my sneakers crunching on the gravel, and I slowed to a walk heading towards the playground area to hit the drinking fountain over by the swings. The swings were moving from the tiniest breeze, but otherwise all was quiet. The water in the fountain was warm, and I let it cascade over the side of the bowl for a minute. I tested it with my hand, then leaned down and slurped some of the metallic-tasting, still-warm water. I closed my eyes and let the water splash into my face, shaking it off like a dog and wiping my eyes with my shirt. "Over here, please help me!" A woman's voice yelped through sobs. -- Elizabeth McCourt, Sin in the Big Easy I am delighted to chat with debut mystery author, Elizabeth McCourt. An executive coach and former trial attorney, she brings a realism to the story, and not just the courtroom scenes. Elizabeth brings nuance to all her characters, but especially her protagonist, Abby Callahan, in the first of a projected series, Sin in the Big Easy. Check out Elizabeth's website here (she's also on Twitter and Instagram), but also don't miss her TEDx talk, which appropriately enough is on the burden of carrying secrets. She also gives a shout-out to one of my favorite reads, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. Woot!  Sin in the Big Easy also deals with human trafficking, which is a terrifying and important issue. I can't help but mention Peg Brantley's book, Trafficked. Since I interviewed Peg, it has won several awards and continues to add to the national discussion. Also, if you have teenagers in the house, a good way to open up the discussion would be to check out author Pamela Samuels Young's YA version of her own novel, #Anybody's Daughter, which deals with domestic trafficking and teen safety. If you want to learn more or if you know someone who might need help, CNN recently published a list of organizations around the world who are fighting human trafficking. The nonprofit Elizabeth mentions in New Orleans that helps women who have survived trafficking is Eden House. Their mission is "Heal, Empower, Dream," and they offer prevention education as well as resources and recovery services. As always, if you'd rather read than listen, a transcript is below. Enjoy! -- Laura ********************************************************************* Transcript of Interview with Elizabeth McCourt Laura Brennan: Elizabeth McCourt is a certified executive coach, top-ranked financial recruiter, professional speaker -- and now, mystery author. Her debut thriller, Sin in the Big Easy, introduces attorney Abby Callahan, a woman whose personal life is even more complicated than her most recent case. Elizabeth, thank you for joining me. Elizabeth McCourt: Hey, Laura. Thank you so much for having me on your podcast. LB: So you have a fascinating background. EM: Oh, thank you. Thank you. Yes, everyone said to me, really? Mystery writer? Where did that come from? LB: Well, now, how did you start out? Did you start out in the financial market? EM: I started out right after college at Morgan Stanley, as an analyst. But then I went to law school. I didn't like that so much, and so I went to law school in New Orleans and fell in love with the city. Although I didn't stay there; moved out west and then, sort of full-circle, became a headhunter and then a coach. But this love of New Orleans and writing was with me throughout my life I would say. And so it just seemed, as this book evolved, to have it in New Orleans and use my legal background in some way just made sense and worked for the book. LB: Yes, one of those lesser-known uses of law school is getting to write legal thrillers. EM: Exactly! Yes, I feel like I have to use my legal background somewhere and writing i...

When Rory bent down to inspect the flowerbed, she caught sight of something twinkling in the dirt. She knelt down on the grass and plunged her hand into the cool earth, clearing away the soil from around the sparkling object.  An involuntary cry of alarm sprang from her lips. Her tennis shoes slid on the damp grass as Rory leapt to her feet and gaped at the finger sticking out of the dirt. She closed her eyes and said to herself over and over again: It's not real. It's all in your mind. Once she'd convinced herself the finger was a vision caused by too many hours at the computer, she opened her eyes and stared down at the ground again. The finger was still there.   -- Sybil Johnson, Fatal Brushstroke   Such fun to chat with Sybil Johnson about her cozy series, the Aurora Anderson mysteries. Her heroine combines the logic of a computer programmer with the ability to see -- and notice details -- with an artist's eye. The warmth of her circle of family and friends -- not to mention a good-looking detective and a steady supply of mysteries to solve -- makes this series a great find for cozy fans. Sybil gives a shout-out to one of my favorite cozy authors, Gigi Pandian, whom I interview here, and also Leigh Perry's Family Skeleton mysteries. Also, if you -- like me -- happen to be a sucker for holiday mysteries, let me send you over to Janet Rudolph's website, Mystery Fanfare, where she routinely publishes lists of mysteries involving holidays both major and obscure.  There are three books in the Aurora Anderson Mystery series so far, and three more to come. Book Four, Designed for Haunting, will be out for Halloween, but you can preorder it now.  Aurora Anderson books in order: 1 - Fatal Brushstroke 2 - Paint the Town Dead 3 - A Palette for Murder 4 - Designed for Haunting You can find Sybil online at her website (her questions for book groups are here), on Twitter, and on Facebook. And you can find her blogging at the fun group site, Type M for Murder. The group includes Vicki Delany and Frankie Y. Bailey, both of whom I've had the pleasure of interviewing. As always, if you'd rather read than listen, the transcript is below. Enjoy! -- Laura ********************************* Transcript of Interview with Sybil Johnson Laura Brennan: Author Sybil Johnson began her love affair with reading in kindergarten, with The Three Little Pigs. She then discovered Encyclopedia Brown, and the die was cast. Her Aurora Anderson mysteries are perfect cozies, combining art, friendship, a good-looking cop, and a hefty dose of murder. Sybil, thank you for joining me. Sybil Johnson: Thank you for having me. LB: So, like most of the mystery writers I chat with, you had another career in another field before you started writing novels. SJ: That's right. I was in software development, I was a computer programmer, I also managed computer programmers, which is a little bit like herding cats. And I did that kind of thing for 20 years. LB: What I found with mystery writers -- and I'm sure it's true of all writers, but I like mysteries, so with mystery writers -- writers write themselves and their world into their books. Which is fantastic, I think it's one of the reasons why every series is unique. So you were in computers and your heroine Rory is a computer programmer. How did you develop her character? SJ: Well, first off, I decided to do that, I decided to make her a freelance one. Anytime you have an amateur sleuth, you always have to have them have time during the day to go out and detect. And if she's a freelance computer programmer, she can work whenever she wants. She can work at 2 AM if she wants, and she can do her stuff during the day. So that was one of the reasons. And also, I thought it would be nice character because she's very analytical, which most computer programmers are, which I am. But she also has an artsy side, which is where the Tole painting comes in.

Mirabelle Bevan swept into the office of McGuigan & McGuigan Debt Recovery at nine on the dot. She removed her jacket and popped the gold aviator sunglasses she'd been wearing into her handbag, which she closed with a decisive click. The musky scent of expensive perfume spiced the air -- the kind that only a sleek, middle-aged woman could hope to carry off. Bill Turpin arrived in her wake. Like Mirabelle, Bill was always punctual. He was a sandy-haired, reliable kind of fellow. At his heel was the black spaniel the office had acquired the year before. Panther nuzzled Mirabelle's knees, his tail wagging.  "Nasty business on Oxford Street," Bill commented, picking up a list of the day's calls from his in-tray and casting an eye down the addresses. "That new barber's." "Tea, Bill?" Mirabelle offered without looking up. "Nah. Always puts me off, does a murder..." -- England Expects, Sara Sheridan What a delight to chat with author Sara Sheridan! I can't possibly keep up with all of her accomplishments, but I'll do my best. Here are a few ways you might connect with her work: -- Like historical mysteries? Her Mirabelle Bevan series features a woman who has suffered tremendous loss -- as has her country. Together, she and England are coming out of the despair of the Second World War. Oh, and Mirabelle is solving murders along the way. -- Prefer contemporary fiction? From Hong Kong call girls to a mysterious inheritance, road trips and revenge, Sara writes it all. -- Historical epics? From China to Antarctica, Brazil, England, and the Arabian desert, Sara sweeps you across the world. -- Nonfiction your thing? She wrote the companion guide to the ITV series, Victoria, and is currently writing about Scottish women in history. As she herself has been inducted into the Saltire Society's community of Outstanding Women, I think that's highly appropriate.  -- Let's not forget blog posts. Here is one of my favorite of hers, on the anniversary of UK women getting the right to vote. It's on the site of Sara's own Reek Perfume, a company she runs with her daughter, so if you have a weakness for fabulous scent, well, you can thank me later.  Sara is so busy writing, she mentions that she needs to deliberately carve out specific times to read. Go-to favorites are Scottish novelist and screenwriter, Lorna Moon, TC Boyle, Jeremy Levin, Susan Ferrier, and of course Agatha Christie. We also talk about the Windrush generation and the problems they're currently facing; anyone interested in learning more can check out this BBC overview.  Sara and I chat about her most recent novel, The Ice Maiden, and if you're in the UK, you're in luck! Today is the launch date! Yay! Go read. Alas, American listeners will have to be a little more patient; we don't get The Ice Maiden until November, 2018, but you can preorder here.  As always, if you'd prefer to read our chat rather than listen, the transcript is below. Enjoy! -- Laura     ********************************************************************** Laura Brennan: Author Sara Sheridan brings history to life in novels such as On Starlit Seas and her upcoming historical epic set in Antarctica, The Ice Maiden, which will be out in the US this July. It’s a romance and an adventure -- but where there’s life there’s also murder… Her Mirabelle Bevan mysteries, set in post-WWII Brighton, feature a woman whose skills were honed during the war and who finds herself at loose ends now that there's peace. Lucky for us, evil lurks everywhere -- even in Brighton. Sara, thank you for joining me. Sara Sheridan: It's nice to chat to you. LB: So you write the wonderful Mirabelle Bevan historical mystery series, which we're going to talk about, but you also write prolifically in other genres. SS: Yes, I do. I find it really stimulating, actually, to write in other genres. I know some writers find it really confusing, but for me,

If Max Montgomery ever had to commit to monogamy to save his wife's life, she would just have to come back and haunt him from the afterlife. Max rested his forearm on the registration desk as his eyes anxiously crisscrossed the lobby of the Beverly Hills Ritz-Carlton. He watched as people milled about, dressed in tuxedos and evening gowns. He made eye-contact with a short, brown-skinned cutie who sashayed by in dress so tight he could see the faint outline of her thong. Max smiled. She smiled back. Too bad he was already about to get laid. Otherwise, he definitely would have taken the time to follow up on that. -- Every Reasonable Doubt, Pamela Samuels Young My conversation with Pamela Samuels Young spanned so many important issues and so many good books, I wasn't sure which one to give you a taste of. But I went with her first published novel, Every Reasonable Doubt, a legal thriller which opens with Max, as he goes to keep a date he'll never forget.  His last. Pamela writes powerful legal thrillers and protagonists who have complicated, messy relationships. She's been called John Grisham with a female twist -- and, I would argue, a gift for creating characters you want to follow in case after case.  She also delves into difficult and important safety issues, especially if you have a teenager in your life. And she makes it easy (well, easier) for you to address these issues with your children, having adapted two of her own novels for middle school and up: #Abuse of Discretion on the very real legal dangers of sexting, and #Anybody's Daughter on the terrifying world of sex trafficking right here in the United States. Regarding the epidemic of teenagers being prosecuted for sexting (and facing sentences that include both prison and registering as sex offenders), Pamela talks about a recent case in Minnesota. If you want further info, I have the ACLU statement here and the judicial outcome here. Newsweek offers a bleak, and sadly increasingly common story of a teenage boy whose life was devastated because of some ill-considered photos exchanged with his girlfriend.  Pamela has all her legal series in order on her website. Not listed there, but findable on Amazon, is her legal erotic novella, Unlawful Desires. If, you know, you need a change of pace. As always, the transcript is below if you'd rather read than listen. Enjoy! -- Laura ********************************************************************************************* Laura Brennan: Pamela Samuels Young is an attorney, author, and anti-trafficking advocate. Her award-winning thrillers shine a light on important issues like sex trafficking, online safety, and the juvenile justice system and include young adult mysteries, legal thrillers, and even an erotic suspense novella under her pen name, Sassy Sinclair. Pamela, thank you for joining me. Pamela Samuels Young: Thank you for having me. LB: So you don't just write about justice, you work for justice in real life. PSY: I previously did, sort of. I'm now full-time author, I've been retired from the practice of law for two years. I was actually an employment lawyer, employment defense. Discrimination, sexual harassment, cases of those matters. My last job was in house with Toyota. LB: I certainly think discrimination is one of the key aspects of working for justice. PSY: I completely agree. LB: How did you get into that field? Why did you decide to go into law? PSY: I was a journalism major in college, I went to USC. And I was convinced I was going to be the next Woodward and Bernstein. Then I spent a summer while at USC working in DC at a local television station, and that became my passion. So then I went to grad school directly afterwards and got a Master's in broadcasting and began working in TV news. And after about five or six years of TV news, most recently at KCBS in LA, I was completely burned out and decided to go to law school.

     “Carmen’s working on a series about children and the courts,” Francine said. “Kids falling into poverty are a very big problem.”      “I’m aware of the problem, Francine. I’ll skip over the question of what has made Carmen give a good hoot in hell about children all of a sudden. What does any of this have to do with that coke-head Mark?”      “It’s just… she knew Mark fairly well and doesn’t think his death was accidental. She says Mark did drugs too much to do something that stupid.”      “So she thinks he did it on purpose? Is that it? He committed suicide over the predicament of his client and child?”      “Not exactly,” Francine said.      In hindsight I can see clearly how nonchalant she wanted to seem, playing with the gold locket and dropping it inside her sweater, glancing in the direction of the window as if a pretty bird had alighted there. “Carmen thinks Mark was murdered.” -- Weave a Murderous Web, Anne Rothman-Hicks and Ken Hicks They say a writing partnership is like a marriage. In the case of Anne Rothman-Hicks and Ken Hicks, it *is* a marriage. They starting writing together while dating in college and they never looked back. Ken and Anne have written something for everyone. Their books include an international thriller, Theft of the Shroud; books for children and tweens, such as Things Are Not What They Seem (and the sequel they mentioned has been released! It's Remembering Thomas, set during the Revolutionary War); a mainstream adult novel, Kate and the Kid; and their Jane Larson mystery series, which takes place in the legal world they both know well. In chronological order, the Jane Larson books are: Weave a Murderous Web Mind Me, Milady Praise Her, Praise Diana If you'd like to keep track of their many projects, you can go to their website or find their author page on Facebook. Also, I want to give props to their publishers: the Jane Larson series is published by Melange Books, and you can find children and tween books at Muse It Up Publishing. As always, if you'd rather read than listen, a transcript is below. Enjoy! -- Laura *********************************************************************************************** Transcript of Interview with Ken Hicks and Anne Rothman-Hicks Laura Brennan: It is my great pleasure today to have not one, but two guests: the writing team of Ken Hicks and Anne Rothman-Hicks. Ken and Anne have to date written over 20 books, from children's books to mysteries. Ken and Anne, thank you so much for joining me. Ken Hicks: Thank you for having us. Anne Rothman-Hicks: Thank you very much. LB: So let's talk a little bit about you. You are not just a writing partnership, you're an everything partnership. KH: We do a lot of different projects, including photography and jewelry and stone sculpture and that kind of thing. LB: And you're married. ARH: That's a project! KH: And were married. That's an ongoing project. LB: So how did you meet? ARH: We met at a college dance. KH: Anne was at Bryn Mawr College, and I was at Haverford College in Pennsylvania. They're very close and I think were even closer at the time. And we met, and the next year we had a writing project together. LB: That's fantastic. Now did one of you start writing first and draw the other one in, or was this from the beginning something you wanted to do together? ARH: We were both writing individually but joined up together. LB: So were you writing the same type of things or were you each writing in a different genre? ARH: I was writing poetry for a while. LB: Oh, how lovely! KH: Yes, she wrote very nice poetry. But I think what happened was, when we first met, we were both interested in children's books. I was reading a lot of children's books of the time and Anne had her own knowledge of them. In fact, she was doing a Latin translation of Winnie the Pooh. We decided we'd like to try to do a student project together and ...

Lyle Deming braked his Mustang hard and aimed for the sandy shoulder of the desert road. Luckily, his daughter Sam had been looking down and didn’t see the body. He passed a thicket of creosote and manzanita and pulled onto the dirt as soon as he could. “Stay in the car,” he told Sam in a tone that precluded discussion. He trotted 200 feet back on the road, around the brush, to reach the parked vehicle—and the unmoving, bullet-riddled body he’d seen next to it. -- Mark S. Bacon, Desert Kill Switch Mark S. Bacon is a prolific writer, first as a reporter -- and yes, that included a stint as a police reporter, be still my heart! -- then as a nonfiction writer, and finally in the realm of fiction. You can keep tabs on him (and read sample chapters and even some of his flash fiction stories) on his website, right here. Speaking of flash fiction, Mark gives a shout-out to some practitioners of the genre, including Margaret Atwood and Ernest Hemingway -- that's some pedigree! In fact, if you yourself want to give the genre a try, there is an annual competition in Hemingway's honor presented by Fiction Southeast. Be warned: it's addictive to write as well as to read. If you're looking for more, Mark has an entire book filled with only flash fiction, and in our preferred genre as well: Cops, Crooks & Other Stories in 100 Words.  As always, below you'll find a transcript if you'd rather read than listen. Enjoy! -- Laura ******************************************************************************************************************* Transcript of Interview with Mark S. Bacon Laura Brennan: Mark S. Bacon is no stranger to crime. In addition to writing his Nostalgia City mystery series, Mark worked as a police reporter and is a master of the ultra-short story: his collection Cops, Crooks and Other Stories is full of murder and mayhem, all in 100 words each. Mark, thank you for joining me. Mark S. Bacon: Thanks for having me, Laura. LB: So you have been a writer for a long time. Not necessarily of mysteries, but you have made your whole career as a writer. MB: That's true. I went to journalism school and started working for newspapers, and then I moved into advertising. And I became a copywriter, writing TV commercials, radio ads, that sort of thing. Then I went into marketing and at the same time I started writing nonfiction books and did that for quite a while. I've always been a fan of mysteries, I've always read mysteries from the time I could learn to read virtually. Finally the chance came to start writing mysteries, which is the kind of thing I read all the time and really enjoy that. Some writers say they write to entertain themselves, and I think that's partially true with me. I enjoy getting my characters into tight situations and figuring out how they're going to make it out. LB: You have a journalism background, but the journalists in your novels are not necessarily the easiest people to get along with. MB: Ha! That's an interesting observation. Yes, newspaper and broadcast news people tend to be kind of nosy and they want to find out everything they can. And I was that way when I was a reporter. So, when you're trying to solve a mystery, solve a murder, and in the case of Nostalgia City where there's a lot of issues involved with the public image of this theme park, my characters are kind of at odds with the news media even though one of them was actually a reporter for a short time. Yes, I make my reporters pretty nosy. LB: Yes, you do. Well, when you were a reporter, was that fodder for you? Was that grist for the mill for being a mystery writer? MB: Oh, of course it is. And the biggest part I think was doing police reporting. I showed up at the police department every morning and read reports and talked to cops and went out at crime scenes and learned the lingo of police. I learned what the procedures are and that kind of gave me the background so th...

A thick mist had crept in from the river. It skirled around the man's legs as he picked his way through the foul-smelling mud, drifting up to cloud the twisting turns of the narrow alleyways. He paused for a moment to watch the vapor ghosting through the gloom. A shiver of gooseflesh snaked down his spine. Shifting, he peered into the darkness, trying to spot the wrought-iron arches of Half Moon Gate. But only a shroud of black-on-black shadows lay ahead. -- Andrea Penrose, Murder at Half Moon Gate Author Andrea Penrose writes everything Regency: romances (as Andrea Pickens), steamy romances (as Cara Elliott), and not one but two fabulous Regency mystery series, which you can check out on her website right here. Her first mystery series, the Lady Arianna mysteries, is lighter, with a dash of chocolate, while her Wrexford and Sloane mysteries -- Murder on Black Swan Lane, and the latest, Murder at Half Moon Gate -- are a darker take on the Regency era. Both are brimming with mystery, friendship, and fabulous Regency details. Who knew Napoleon liked chocolate? Well, we all do now. Andrea is herself a fan of Georgette Heyer -- and really, who isn't? We talk about the fabulously evocative language of the Regency, and lo and behold, Ms. Heyer herself, on her website, offers up a dictionary of Regency slang. So if you find yourself becoming befogged, the remedy is within ames-ace.  ;) Here are all of Andrea's mysteries in order: Wrexford & Sloane Mystery Series 1 - Murder on Black Swan Lane 2 - Murder at Half Moon Gate Lady Arianna Regency Mysteries 1 - Sweet Revenge 2 - The Cocoa Conspiracy 3 - Recipe for Treason 4 - Smoke and Lies Novella: The Stolen Letters As always, if you'd rather read than listen, the transcript is below. Enjoy! -- Laura ****************************************************************************************************** Transcript of Interview with Andrea Penrose Laura Brennan: Andrea Penrose is a woman of mystery -- my favorite kind! Her bestselling mysteries are set in Regency England: The Lady Arianna Series, which melds danger, deception, and a dash of chocolate; and her newest series, The Wrexford and Sloane mysteries, in which an artist and a scientist find answers -- and unexpected chemistry -- when they solve cases together. Andrea, thank you for joining me. Andrea Penrose: Well, thank you very much for having me. LB: So you have been writing professionally for a long time now and under many pen names. AP: I have, and don't get me started on why. But it tends to be publishing, if you write for one house, you can't write under that same name for another house. LB: And it also allows people to not pick up a book that is, for example, a mystery when what they're looking for is your steamy Regency romances. AP: That's absolutely correct, too. Andrea Penrose is my mystery nom de plume. LB: So, Regency has been the thread running through a lot of your work, right? Because you went from Regency romances to slightly steamier Regency romances, to Regency mystery. So why Regency? AP: Well, you know, I love the era. I just find it a fabulously interesting time and place. It's a world that's aswirl in the silk and seduction of the Napoleonic wars, but it's also a time when radically new ideas are clashing with the conventional thinking of the past. People were questioning the fundamentals of society, and as a result everything was changing. Politics, art, music, science, social rules. The world was turning upside down. You had -- the romantic movement was really individual expression. You had Beethoven writing these amazingly emotional symphonies, and Byron pending wildly romantic poetry. And you had Mary Wollstonecraft writing the first feminist manifestos. Then the Industrial Revolution, technology is disrupting everyday life. So in many ways, it's the birth of the modern world. And for me,

The deputies were excited but quiet about it, out of respect for Peach. Unexplained death was uncommon, even with the aging residents that made up much of the population of the town. Violent death was even rarer in the scattered villages that lined the one road in and out of the mountain towns, and news about it would spread quickly. Meth, heroin, domestic abuse, identity theft, yes. At this point, though, murder seemed unlikely. Holly got Peach settled with a cup of chamomile tea and a plate of Fig Newtons along with a promise to stay put. It was hard to ignore the blood that stained her black-and-white cotton top. "I know this is tough, Peach. Try to be patient." Peach hugged herself, rocking back and forth in one of the chairs in a corner of the big kitchen... -- Mar Preston, The Most Dangerous Species It's my birthday! Well, not mine per se, but that of Destination Mystery. I launched the podcast two years ago, and in honor of that momentous event, I give you a bonus interview this month. My dear friend and wonderful mystery writer, Mar Preston, chats with me about her terrific police series, one set in Santa Monica, the other in a mountain village -- proving that crime is everywhere. Mar puts her all into researching, and she talks about several of the programs she's gone through for writers looking to get it right. She gives shout-outs to Lee Lofland's Writers Police Academy -- which a number of writers I know have taken and loved -- and the Public Safety Writers Association, which hosts an annual conference in Las Vegas. She also recommends the first mystery writer to delve into the mean streets of her home turf of Santa Monica: Raymond Chandler. Since The Long Goodbye is one of my all-time favorite mystery novels, I am happy that Santa Monica has inspired so many crime stories.  ;-)  Mar also writes books for beginning mystery writers, and you can get the first one for free, just by visiting her website and scrolling down.  Here are Mar's mysteries, in order: Detective Dave Mason: 1 - No Dice 2 - Rip-Off 3 - On Behalf of the Family 4 - A Very Private High School Detective Dex Stafford: 1 - Payback 2 - The Most Dangerous Species And her How-To Books: 1 - Writing Your First Mystery 2 - Plotting Your First Mystery 3 - Creating Killer Characters 4 - Finishing Your First Mystery 5 - Writing Backstory in Your Mystery Writing Your First Mystery Boxed Set (Books 1-4) As always, if you'd rather read than listen, there's a transcript below. Enjoy!  And happy birthday to all of us!  -- Laura ************************************************************************************ Transcript of Interview with Mar Preston Laura Brennan: My guest today writes police procedurals set in idyllic towns -- proving that even in paradise, murder is not unknown. Her Dave Mason mysteries take place in Santa Monica, where sun and sand are no match for greed and ambition, while her Dex Stafford series is set in a mountain resort community suspiciously like the one she currently calls home. Mar, thank you for joining me. Mar Preston: It's a pleasure. I enjoy talking to you when I see you at mystery conferences. This is a treat! LB: It is! It is. I've known you for years I've loved your writing all that time. MP: Aw, thanks Laura. LB: So let's talk a little bit about how you got into writing. When you started, you weren't writing mysteries, you are writing something else, right? MP: Well, I've always been a wordsmith. And I thought because it came easily to me that anybody could write if they just put their mind to it. It wasn't a skill that I thought had much value. And because I worked in academic research, and numbers and charts and graphs -- that was what was important. And then, after a long illness, as they say, my husband died and I'd been involved in taking care of him for a long while. When he died, there was this great gap of time.

After five years waiting for this moment, watching you for the first time still catches me off guard. I recognize you from your book jacket, but the reality of you — a three-dimensional object moving through space, flesh and blood and golden hair— makes my pulse race. You don’t know me — not yet — but nothing spikes my pulse. I am ice. -- Jody Gehrman, Watch Me Looking for a chilling read? Look no further than Jody Gehrman's latest novel, Watch Me. It's Jody's first foray into psychological suspense, and she kills it. So to speak. I talk to Jody about how this book plays in a deep way with many of the themes she's explored in her other work. She has written women's fiction and paranormal YA, but in every genre she's fascinated by our complexity as humans and in particular our relationships. Jody gives a shout out to some of her favorite authors: Megan Abbott, Ruth Ware, Tana French, Donna Tartt and Caroline Kepnes. We also talk about daring to be seen for who you really are, and the courage involved in that, so I can't help but give a shout out to Brené Brown. Rather than recommending a book, however, I offer you instead one of her awesome TEDx talks.  I myself have to put in a plug for anyone with a teen (or who is a teen-at-heart) to check out her Audrey's Guide... young adult series. They have everything I like in a book -- magic, depth, a touch of romance, and a kick-ass heroine.  You can keep track of Jody and her current and upcoming novels at JodyGehrman.com, as well as on Facebook and Twitter. As always, if you'd rather read than listen, the transcript is below. Enjoy! -- Laura ********************************************************************************************** Laura Brennan: An award-winning playwright, my guest Jody Gehrman is the author of nearly a dozen novels from the paranormal to young adult to romance. Her first psychological thriller, Watch Me, has just been released by St. Martin’s Press. Jody, thank you for joining me. Jody Gehrman: Thank you for having me. LB: So, before we start talking about your novels, let's talk a little bit about you. Watch Me is not your first rodeo. JG: Right. It's definitely my first foray into suspense, though, and thrillers. It's a whole new genre for me, which is exciting. LB: When did you start writing professionally? JG: Well, I went to school for a long time, for way too long, like most writers I suppose. I did a Masters in English and then a Masters in Professional Writing. And so of course I was writing and developing a writing practice during those years, and my first novel was published in 2004. Before that, I had written a lot of plays and experienced the collaboration of working in theater, which I feel like is still my home. I still go home to playwriting pretty frequently. LB: Playwriting, I think, is one of the best ways to learn how to write because you get immediate feedback, first from the actors and then from the audience. It works or it doesn't. JG: It's so true! It's one of the things that is absolutely thrilling about writing for the theater, and it is also so demoralizing. Because one night -- like, Friday night, the audience loves it and you feel like you've written the most amazing play ever. And Saturday night, you go home thinking that you should just throw it all in and you're a terrible writer and never make anyone experience your work ever again. Right? So it's definitely a roller coaster ride, but it is, like you said, immediate feedback. LB: So do you feel that that helped you when you then turn to writing novels? JG: I think it helps to counteract the inherent loneliness of writing novels. I mean, I've worked with some amazing editors and agents and publicists, and I love having them on my team, but when I'm actually writing, I'm alone. And so working in the theater, there's something very immediate about the collaboration, where you're meeting with the director every night and ...

Layla faced the mirror and took a deep breath. When she went out there, she had to be effortlessly confident. She certainly looked the part, in a rose-colored Givenchy dress that complemented her olive skin and tasteful diamond earrings. She'd swept her dark hair off her neck into a smooth chignon and her makeup was perfect. She'd been prepping for this night for weeks. I can do this... -- False Idols, written by Lisa Klink, Patrick Lohier, and Diana Renn Coming from a TV writing background myself, I am so excited to see the Writers' Room technique used to create a book -- in this case, False Idols, published by Serial Box.  The idea of serializing stories has been used by such masters as Dickens and Conan Doyle. But this one has a twist: the installments, or "episodes," are written by three different writers: Lisa Klink, Patrick Lohier, and Diana Renn.  False Idols is a thriller set in Cairo, in the world of high-end art theft. Thieves stealing priceless artifacts to sell on the black market and using the money to fund terrorism -- that's the network undercover FBI agent Layla el-Deeb needs to ferret out and bring to justice. It's a thrill ride with depth, as Layla struggles to keep her own sense of self while going deep undercover.  It's also not their first rodeo. Lisa Klink was kind enough to be my very first interview on Destination Mystery, when her wonderful, high-octane caper, All In, written with Joel Goldman, came out. In addition to writing for one of my favorite TV shows (Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, so much love for that show!), she has written novels in The Dead Man series, and so much more (BATMAN!!). Follow her, @LKKlink, on Twitter. Patrick has written short stories, criticism, and a novel, Radiant Night, which will be published later this year by Adaptive. You can find his website here, and he hangs out on Twitter as @PatrickLohier. And let's not forget Diana! She has several novels for young adults, with globe-trotting teens and international intrigue. Her most recent, Blue Voyage, gets praise and nominations from around the world, including kudos from one of my favorite YA thriller writers, Lamar Giles.  Here's Diana's website, here is her author Facebook page, and, since we're doling out Twitter handles, you can find her as @dianarenn. All three writers share credit for bringing into the piece the lovely concept of Kintsukuroi, or fixing broken things with gold.  They also give credit where it's due to consultant and former FBI agent Robert Wittman, and give a shout-out to his book, Priceless: How I went Undercover to Rescue the World's Stolen Treasures, which I, too, have read and highly recommend.  Finally, did I mention that False Idols Episode 01: Operation Cairo is free on Kindle? Well, I've taken care of that now.  As always, if you'd rather read than listen, the transcript is below. Enjoy! -- Laura *************************************************************************************** Transcript of interview with Lisa Klink, Patrick Lohier, and Diana Renn Laura Brennan: I am so excited to have not one, not two, but three killer guests on my show today. The wonderfully talented Lisa Klink has teamed up with Patrick Lohier and Diana Renn to create a new kind of book -- one that comes out in episodes. False Idols launched with Episode 1 on January 16th. Lisa, Patrick, and Diana, thank you for joining me. Lisa Klink: Happy to be here. LB: So let me start by asking each of you just to let me know a little bit about yourselves and your writing. Lisa, I'm going to start with you because I know you started out television. LK: Yes, I did. I started out in the world of Star Trek with Deep Space Nine and Voyager. And had a great time while I was on Voyager for three seasons, and then I went on to other shows like Hercules and Roswell and Martial Law. And was in TV for a while and then switched over to, I guess, prose or novels.

My name is Miller Brinkman and I am—or rather, I was—a private investigator. That message was recovered in March of 1948, from a former top-secret area known as Location 2208-C. Two years have since passed, but part of me is forever stuck in that case, analyzing my actions and second-guessing myself. Could I have done anything differently to change the outcome? Jane Emmett’s story began in Ashley Falls and ended some four thousand miles away. -- David Hulegaard, Icarus For those who like their noir with a dash of sci-fi, you are in luck: David Hulegaard has published his Noble Trilogy. Think Sam Spade meets the Men in Black. High-octane with a lot of heart, this genre-blending series delivers on both mystery and thrills, and it all starts with Icarus. Comparisons include Philip K. Dick and Stranger Things. Be still my heart.  Check out David's website here, because The Noble Trilogy is not his only rodeo. He has not one, but two podcasts, one where he interviews authors (hey, just like me!) and the newly launched Nerdz of a Feather, where he and his wife discuss all things pop culture. He has also written a book with Tony Healey, a YA space opera, Planet of Ice, in the Broken Stars series.  Can't keep up with him? Whew, join the club! But we can try: here's David's Facebook page, Twitter handle, and Instagram. And if you're interested in the Oregon Ghost Conference he mentioned, next one up is in March 2018. As always, if you'd rather read than listen, the transcript is below. Enjoy! -- Laura ************************************************************************************************* Transcript of Interview with David Hulegaard Laura Brennan: My guest today is an genre-bending author who blends classic noir with science fiction and a healthy dose of the paranormal. In his Noble Trilogy, David Hulegaard pits a small town private eye against a powerful and corrupt former mentor -- and an even more powerful mastermind, with humanity’s future in the balance. David, thank you for joining me. David Hulegaard: Thank you so much for having me. LB: So, The Noble Trilogy is your first foray into fiction writing? DH: Yes. I began the project about six years ago. It took me many, many years to finally get it completed. But this was my year. I determined it had waited long enough, I was going to get it done one way or another. LB: It's not just the year for your first novel, you've actually published the entire trilogy this year. DH: Yes. I've been working on them in kind of bits and pieces, here and there, wherever I could find time and it really had been my goal for a long time to dedicate more time exclusively to writing. And after some changes last year, I made some much-needed changes to my schedule so that I could free up that time to write, and I got very serious about publishing it, I want to say it was August of last year. And I really was just working on this trilogy nonstop for months and months. And then I would get one of them out the door and immediately pick up where I left off on the next one. Until finally I had all three completed. LB: Did you work them out together? DH: Yes. When I first started, I didn't know it was going to be a trilogy. I really thought maybe I had one story, and then I already had my next book idea lined up. It wasn't until a friend of mine who was doing some beta reading for me on the first book, Icarus, he came back to me with a bunch of questions. And they weren't the kind of questions I expected to get. You know, sometimes you figure people will have questions about what happened in the story, or maybe just something didn't quite work the way I had planned, but it was questions about what happened next. That surprised me, and when he started asking me these questions, then I started thinking about what happens next. And from there it opened up this whole treasure trove of ideas of things that I hadn't really considered to where it ...

I peeked over the stairs and saw my sister Jenna's reflection in the glass. I considered ignoring it and sneaking back into my office until my cell phone started vibrating in my pocket. My family and the Borg from Star Trek had a lot in common. Both demanded complete assimilation and resistance was definitely futile.  -- V.M. Burns, The Plot is Murder I am so excited to interview debut author V.M. Burns. Her new cozy series begins with The Plot is Murder, as her protagonist, Samantha, starts a new chapter in her own life and opens a mystery bookstore. Valerie herself is starting a new chapter as a published author with this book, and she's taking the publishing world by storm. Four books in this series are slated for publication over the next two years. In addition to that, she's launching a second series about murders in the dog club arena through Kensington's e-book imprint. In the Dog House, the first in the series, comes out in August of 2018. And if you, like me, did not know what Conformation is, the American Kennel Club is happy to tell you. Not content with two series, Valerie has a third one coming from Camel Press in July of 2018. Travellin’ Shoes is the first in a series of cozy mysteries where all the titles are from Negro Spirituals. Each book includes unique and original soul food recipes that provide a taste of the African American culture depicted in each book. Oh, be still my heart -- and tummy! You don't have to wait to find recipes from Valerie: her website already features several recipes, and more are to come. The Plot is Murder also has an eccentric community and Valerie talks about developing the characters, especially Nana Jo, a vibrant woman of a certain age with a circle of equally-intrepid older women friends. Finally, Valerie gives a shout out (in both The Plot is Murder and in the interview) to her favorite writers: Rex Stout, Agatha Christie, and Dorothy Gilman. There's just so much to love here. We also both give a big squee of love to Kellye Garrett's debut, Hollywood Homicide. You can check out my interview with Kellye here. As I write this, Hollywood Homicide has just been named one of BOLO Books Top Reads of 2017. Woot! As always, if you'd rather read than listen, the transcript is below. Enjoy! -- Laura *********************************************************************************************** Transcript of interview with V.M. Burns Laura Brennan: My guest today is author V.M. Burns, whose debut cozy, The Plot is Murder, launches a wonderful new series about starting over, chasing dreams, and -- of course -- murder. Valerie, thank you for joining me. V.M. Burns: Thank you so much for having me. I'm excited to be here. LB: How did you get started writing? VMB: I think it just came naturally from my love of cozy mysteries. I think for anybody who reads cozy mysteries as much as I do, you probably start thinking, boy, it would be really great if there was a series about -- blah, blah, blah. Or, boy, I wish that series had ended differently and it had gone in this other direction. And then you just start going there. And eventually, you just sit down and say, well, you know what? Maybe I could write that. And then you do. LB: So, The Plot is Murder is the first in your Mystery Bookshop Series. VMB: Yes. LB: For someone who hasn't yet had the pleasure of picking it up, what would we need to know about it in order to follow our conversation? VMB: This first book,The Plot is Murder, introduces the reader to the protagonist, Samantha Washington. Samantha is in her mid-30s and she has been a hard-working individual her whole life, her and her husband, Leon. He was a cook and she was a high school English teacher. But they always had this dream of opening a mystery bookstore. One day, Leon dies. He's diagnosed with a terminal illness and he dies. And they realize that life is short, and it's too short not to follow your dreams.

Spider John Rush resigned himself to the hard truth--he was returning to a world of cut and thrust, hide and pounce, blood and smoke, pitch and tar.  He had been foolish to think of leaving that world; Spider John belonged in no other. -- Steve Goble, The Bloody Black Flag Debut author Steve Goble takes on murder, mayhem -- and pirates! The Bloody Black Flag is a swashbuckling adventure with mystery at its heart. Criminal Element gives it a crackerjack review right here, and you can keep tabs on Steve as he writes the second -- and third! -- Spider John adventures by checking out his blog. You can also follow him on Facebook.  Steve and I chat about mysteries, but also about pirates and the great books out there for those of us who love nautical adventures. The gold standard is, of course, Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson, with Patrick O'Brian's work a close second. In nonfiction, Steve also gives a shout-out to David Cordingly and his book, Under the Black Flag; Nathaniel Philbrick's In the Heart of the Sea; and Captain Bligh's Portable Nightmare by John Toohey. And the term "Pirate Noir"? He credits that to mystery writer Craig McDonald, who used it in a review of The Bloody Black Flag. Well said, matey! As always, if you'd rather read than listen, a transcript is below. Enjoy! -- Laura ************************************************************************ Transcript of interview with Steve Goble Laura Brennan: Steve Goble may be a journalist and a mystery writer, but at heart, I suspect he may be a pirate. His debut novel, The Bloody Black Flag, has been dubbed “pirate noir,” and the swashbuckling is only matched by the multiple mysteries that surround the pirates and our hero. Steve, thank you for joining me. Steve Goble: Thank you for having me. I really appreciate this. LB: Okay, "pirate noir." I have to ask, did that come to you in a dream? How did you come up with pirate noir? SG: Honestly, the phrase belongs to Craig McDonald, one of the authors who blurbed my book. I generally described it as Robert Louis Stevenson meets Arthur Conan Doyle. But he came up with pirate noir and, you know what? I kind of like it. I guess the inspiration for the book came from my own love of seafaring fiction, pirate stories, Patrick O'Brian, Robert Louis Stevenson, all that kind of stuff. But I also grew up reading Sherlock Holmes and Nero Wolfe, Travis McGee and tons of mystery fiction, too. I don't know exactly where the idea hit me to combine these two loves into one great mashup book, but once the idea hit me, I couldn't stop myself. I had to write it. LB: Fantastic. Well, let's talk a little bit about you. So you always did want to write fiction? SG: Oh, yes. I fell in love with books at a very young age and always had that in the back of my mind. I was a kid in school who wrote his own comic books -- I couldn't draw them, but I could write them. I just always had that in the back of my mind. LB: So how did you then end up as a journalist? SG: You know, I think part of that is the same thing that draws me to mystery fiction. One of the things I like about mystery fiction in crime fiction is that I think there's a sense of justice in those books that doesn't always play out in the real world. You know what I mean? The bad guy tends to get caught, people tend to get what they deserve. And I see journalism as my way of helping to make those things happen in the real world more often. Expose corruption, tell the truth, get the news out there. So I think those are intertwined a little bit. LB: And you were writing short stories all the while? SG: Yes, I wrote short stories for a number of small-market magazines that the majority of which no longer exist. And I wrote a lot of different kinds of things. I tried to write some science fiction, and I wrote some what you would call sword and sorcery stuff. Action-oriented things along the lines of, say,

“Papà.” I looked into my father’s eyes, deep blue and set off by leathery skin and rows of wrinkles—the result of age, but also a lifetime of long hours in fishing boats out in the sun. “Oh, Papà,” I said again and then started to cry. I hadn’t meant to; I’d convinced myself I could do this, that I could hold it together and be strong for my dad. But now, standing there in front of him, it hit me: I was about to tell him that his sister had been viciously murdered. -- Leslie Karst, Dying for a Taste Cozy mystery lovers are in for a treat! Leslie Karst's Sally Solari series is set in not one, but two restaurants on the California coast. Sun, sand, recipes, and murder. What more could one ask for? Leslie and I chat about her multiple careers -- waitress, passionate chef, attorney, writer -- and how they all come together in her wonderful cozy mysteries. You can check out her website here and her Facebook Author page over here. The first book in the series is Dying for a Taste, and gives an insider's view of running a restaurant. The second, A Measure of Murder, blends music with the mystery, as Sally joins a local chorus to be able to sing Mozart's Requiem. An appropriate piece of music, as it turns out... Meanwhile, we also bond over a shared love of Dorothy Sayers, Sue Grafton, Sarah Caudwell, and Ellen Byron. Ellen and I had a chat a few months ago, and you can check her out, along with her hilarious Louisiana cozies, right here. And if you are a Dorothy Sayers fan (and who isn't?), I recently found a terrific group on Facebook, The Lord Peter Wimsey Appreciation Society, should you be looking for like-minded people with whom to chat about all things DLS.  Finally, Leslie gives a big shout-out to her fellow Guppies at Sisters in Crime. Woot! As always, if you'd rather read than listen, the transcript is below. Enjoy! -- Laura Transcript of Interview with Leslie Karst Laura Brennan: Author Leslie Karst combines her background as an attorney with her English Lit degree and culinary passion to create a cozy series as delightful and unique as she is. In a starred review, Publishers Weekly calls her a "dab hand with the red herrings" while her fans call the Sally Solari Mysteries "smart, thoughtfully plotted, and laugh-out-loud." Leslie, thank you for joining me. Leslie Karst: Thank you so much, Laura, for inviting me. This is very exciting. LB: So you came to writing after a career in the law. LK: Yes, I did. LB: But you started out as a Lit major. Was writing always in the back of your mind? LK: Well, when you're a literature major, all you do -- you do a lot of reading, but you mostly do a lot of writing. So that's probably when I would date my earliest decent writing, anyway, back to that time in college, yes. LB: But then, when you left college, you bounced around for a bit, let's say. LK: I absolutely did. I was one of those people, you know, with an English lit major, there's not a whole lot of jobs you can get. You can be an English literature teacher, but those are pretty much impossible to get. And by the time I had finished my four years doing that, I realized that literary criticism was not my passion. Even though I love to read. So I spent about seven years having all sorts of strange jobs. I washed baby diapers for a while, which is sort of embarrassing to admit. [Laughter.] I wanted to stay in Santa Cruz and so I did all different jobs. One of the jobs I did was waitressing, which I liked a lot. But I eventually decided I needed to grow up and get a real job. My father was a law professor, and I'd always been told that I was argumentative. "You'd be such a great lawyer!" So I ended up going to law school. Which my writing really helped with that, too, because most lawyers cannot write to save their lives. They're very good at maybe standing on their feet and arguing in court or whatever, but I actually ended up being pretty good about putting together a l...

Leine checked her watch as she waited for the target to emerge from the concrete block building. Practical as only Soviet-style architecture could be, nevertheless the crumbling façade gave the impression of faded power, like a once-famous tenor now down on his luck and sucking on throat lozenges in order to save his voice... Ah, the glamorous life of a jet-setting assassin... -- DV Berkom, A Killing Truth Looking for breathless, non-stop action with a smart, powerful woman kicking down the doors? Are you in for a treat! DV Berkom's thrillers have it all. DV and I chat about her two series, the Kate Jones Thrillers and the grittier Leine Basso Crime Thrillers. You can find out more about both series and DV herself on her website, right here. You can also find her on Twitter, Facebook, and Pinterest.  DV and I talked about her adventures, her writing, and the development of both series. We also discussed some of the injustices that, in her novels at least, are righted by a powerful woman. Chief among those is Human Trafficking -- a horrific problem, but one we are not powerless to fight -- as was recently illustrated by the Alaska Airline attendant who recognized that a teenage girl was being transported against her will.  If you need it, or ever encounter someone who does, the National Human Trafficking Hotline is (888) 373-7888. You can also text "BeFree" (233733) to reach the Polaris Project. Also, the State Department has "15 Ways You Can Help Fight Human Trafficking" including a guide for parents and educators on how Human Traffickers Target Children. There are many organizations doing wonderful work; you can find local groups or check out some national groups like Polaris and GEMS. I also have to give a shout out to the wonderful Peg Brantley, whom I interview here, and whose latest book, Trafficked, also works to increase awareness of the problem. Mysteries and thrillers are wonderful escapism and DV's books are wildly entertaining. How awesome, too, that the information they bring out may save some lives. As always, if you'd rather read than listen, here is the transcript. Enjoy! -- Laura *********************************************************************************** Transcript of Interview with DV Berkom Laura Brennan: DV Berkom is the USA Today bestselling author of not one, but two action-packed thriller series, each featuring a kick-ass woman: Leine Basso and Kate Jones. DV’s writing is high-octane, powerful, and direct -- much like her two heroines. DV, thank you for joining me. DV Berkom: Thank you for having me here. LB: So, you started out as a political science major. What was the plan at that point? DVB: Well, I was going to become a lawyer. LB: Really? DVB: Yes. And I started running around with that crowd, I guess you'd call it, and realized that wasn't really where my heart lay. So I decided that the best thing I could do was take off and move to Mexico and live on a sailboat for a while. LB: That's an interesting leap to make. DVB: [Laughter] Yes! Yes, kind of. It was one of the only things I could think of to do to really get my head back on straight. Because I didn't want to really move into that -- it was more like a game, like you're playing a game, when you're an attorney and I didn't feel like, that that would be something I would be really good at. I think it was a better thing for me to take off and have some time alone to think. And doing it in Mexico on a sailboat is a really good place to do. LB: That's an adventure. DVB: Mmm-hmm. Yeah. And that started several years of moving, oh, probably every six months to a year. Different places, different jobs. It was really great training for becoming a writer. LB: It's interesting that you mention that being a lawyer felt like it would be a game. Because reading your novels, it's so high-octane and it feels like it's a game in that everybody has a counter-move.

To begin, let me clear up a few things. J. Dyanne does not communicate with little moon aliens or Martians. She does not have a crystal ball, nor was she responsible for the outcome of the last presidential election. And she certainly does not command the dead. She may speak with them from time to time, but command them? Who can do that? What could you possible use to exert pressure to obey? I mean, they're already dead. Perhaps threaten them with life? -- Valerie C. Woods, Katrin's Chronicles: The Canon of Jacquelene Dyanne Vol. 1 I am thrilled to welcome Valerie C. Woods and her charming middle-grade novel, Katrin's Chronicles: The Canon of Jacquelene Dyanne Vol. 1. Take a love of Sherlock Holmes, add in coming of age during the Civil Rights Era, and sprinkle it over with sisterly devotion and a touch of magic, and you have Valerie's warm and satisfying debut mystery. We talk about her work in theater (including Something For Everyone, the book of monologues she wrote after being unable to find material for herself outside of Lorraine Hansberry's A Raisin in the Sun) and how it led to her first screenplay, a Disney Fellowship, and a television career that included Any Day Now and Touched by an Angel. You can check out all her credits here on her website; she can also be found here on Twitter. And do not miss the books she publishes.  In addition to Sherlock Holmes, Valerie was influenced by the Harry Potter series and my own favorite middle grade novel, A Wrinkle in Time. She also gave a shout-out to Harriet the Spy, Nancy Drew, and Mary Stewart's Arthurian saga that begins with The Crystal Cave. I want to mention the title of one of the books Valerie published and is editing the sequel to, Chet Baker: The Missing Years by Artt Frank. Finally, do not miss Valerie's take on the trope of "the chosen one," about 17 minutes into our conversation.  Enjoy! -- Laura Transcript of Interview with Valerie C. Woods Laura Brennan: Valerie C. Woods is a writer/producer in television and film, and is also a publisher, editor and author. Among her TV writing credits, she has worked on Soul Food, Any Day Now, and Touched by an Angel. She founded the independent press, BooksEndependent, and her middle-grade novel, Katrin’s Chronicles: The Canon of Jacquelene Dyanne, Vol. 1 combines mystery with history, and just a touch of magic. Valerie, thank you for joining me. Valerie C. Woods: Thank you for having me. It's great to be here. LB: So you have written for television and film, and you've written fiction and poetry and a book of monologues. Has it just always been writing for you? VCW: Well, it all started because I thought I wanted to be an actress. And I moved to New York from Chicago to be the starving artist/actor, and we were preparing for an actors' showcase and the only material I could find for black women that represented me was something from A Raisin In The Sun. And I realize there wasn't a lot of material that was written for black women, so I started writing my own material for auditions and showcases. And then everybody in my acting class wanted me to write something for them, and I did. Turned out I had about 25 acting monologues for men and women and decided to publish them. I got rejected from all the play publishers, Samuel French and all of them. And then I published it myself, sold out 1100 books, and then Samuel French said, okay, we'll publish it. Add 25 more. And so that began my life as a writer. LB: So you were actually an independent author long before it was cool. VCW: Yes! In fact, when I started my press, I remembered, oh, wait, this isn't new. Now it is so much more easy than it was back when I did it. The new platforms for Amazon and all the different self-publishing things, and digital and e-books. It's a breeze to produce, physically produce, but the same skills and creativity and editing is needed for the content. LB: Yes. Yes,

Alone, Pontchartrain inspected the black case. It was secured with not one but two sets of wax seals imprinted with La Reynie's official insignia. Pontchartrain cracked open the brittle seals with a small knife and inserted the key into the lock... Removing one large stack of pages, he placed the papers on the table and turned each gingerly. He saw names of France's highest nobility. Alongside them were scrawled the words "death," "poison," "murdered." -- Holly Tucker, City of Light, City of Poison I am so pleased to welcome my first true-crime writer -- all the more so because Holly Tucker brings her true crime tales to life from the pages of history. The central character of her latest book, City of Light, City of Poison is Nicolas de La Reynie, the first police chief of Paris, and the man who quite literally created the City of Light.  City of Light, City of Poison gives us an insider's look into The Affair of the Poisons, the scandal which rocked the Sun King's court. Holly's book opens with King Louis XIV himself destroying what he thought were the only records of the investigation. Lucky for us, Louis was mistaken -- and Holly was tenacious.  Holly is Editor-in-Chief of the marvelous website, Wonders & Marvels: A Community for Curious Minds Who Love History, Its Odd Stories, and Good Reads. My word, who doesn't? You can also keep tabs on her through her own author website, Holly-Tucker.com.  In our interview, she gives a shout-out to authors Laura Hillenbrand and Erik Larson, and I would be failing in my duty to you not to recommend Holly's other foray into historical true crime, Blood Work, the research for which led her to Nicolas de La Reynie. As this goes live, it is Holly's launch day for City of Light, City of Poison. You can run over and like her on Facebook right here.  While you're at it, go like Destination Mystery on Facebook as well. Meanwhile, though, you can enjoy this interview. If you'd rather read than listen, the transcript is below. Au revoir! -- Laura Transcript of Interview with Holly Tucker Laura Brennan: A professor of French History at Vanderbilt University, Holly Tucker writes extensively on true crime in early Europe. She has tackled murder and mayhem during the Scientific Revolution in her award-winning book, Blood Work, as well as childbirth and fairy tales in Pregnant Fictions. Her most recent book, City of Light, City of Poison, follows the first police chief of Paris as he works to root out organized crime and foil a cabal of poisoners, witches and unholy priests. Holly, thank you for joining me. Holly Tucker: Thanks for having me. LB: So, normally, in my interviews, I start by chatting about you and how you got into this, but I cannot wait to delve into this book with you. So let us start with City of Light, City of Poison. For someone who hasn't picked it up yet, what's the one thing they need to know in order to understand our conversation? HT: That it's a true crime mystery. It might read like fiction, but it's absolutely true. LB: When you say it might read like fiction, it does. It reads like a fast-paced novel where you're never sure who you should be rooting for. HT: There are so many different characters in this story as I researched it, it was really hard for me to try to figure out who exactly was up to no good and who is innocent. And I think that the biggest challenge in writing this book, and then also I hope to convey to readers, the pleasure of trying to solve the mystery and the puzzle themselves. LB: Your central character, although he was a real person, that first police chief of Paris, Nicolas de La Reynie. Because Paris up to that point didn't really have what we think of today as a police force. HT: No, it didn't. In fact I think it's safe to say it was considered to be the crime capital of the world. And the streets were foul and dirty, dangerous and most of the policing was done, if you could call it policing,

For ten years, my father's furniture and books lurked in the study he abandoned. I don't remember a time when we thought he might come back, but his belongings were like a bookmark, holding a place in our lives... -- Virginia Zimmerman, The Rosemary Spell I don't know about you, but I'm still enthralled by a wonderful children's book -- especially when there's a mystery or puzzle at the heart of the adventure. The Rosemary Spell is a perfect book for middle-grade readers who want a little magic, a little mystery, and a lot of friendship. This is a book about the power of books, and Virginia Zimmerman is an expert on that. You can learn more about her on her website, including links to an article she wrote on the importance of letting -- or even encouraging -- children to re-read. Teachers, do not miss out on the fantastic teacher's guide that was created for The Rosemary Spell by Pamela Brunskill. In particular, if you teach poetry or want to introduce your cherubs to Shakespeare, The Rosemary Spell is the book to check out. We talked about some favorites for children: A Wrinkle in Time, A Ring of Endless Light (both by Madeleine L'Engle), the Harry Potter series, and one that is new to me, When You Reach Me, by Rebecca Stead. For adults, Virginia gave a shout-out to Middlemarch by George Eliot and Pride and Prejudice, my favorite Jane Austen novel (and I know I'm not alone!). Keep tabs on Virginia and her upcoming books via her website, on Twitter, on Instagram, and on Facebook. As always, if you'd rather read than listen, the transcript is below. Enjoy! -- Laura Transcript of Interview with Virginia Zimmerman Laura Brennan: Virginia Zimmerman writes novels for young readers and teaches English at Bucknell University for somewhat older readers. Her beautiful middle-grade novel, The Rosemary Spell, has at its heart a book, and with it all the magic and mystery that books bring into our lives. Plus, in this case, there’s a smidge more magic and mystery than usual. Virginia, thank you for joining me. Virginia Zimmerman: Thank you for having me, it's great to be here. LB: So, you're both an author and an English professor. Tell me a little bit about that career path. Was it always going to be books? VZ: It was definitely always going to be books, from kindergarten when I would read to the rest of my class, it was always going to be books. But exactly what that meant was less certain. I decided pretty early in college that I was going to major in English, but I didn't have the intention of going on to be an English professor until pretty late in college. And then even when I became an English professor, I did that because someone said to me, you should think about what you like to do and then you should choose the career that allows you to do that. Which of course is easier said than done. But in my case, what I liked to do was read and write and talk about books. So being an English professor was the obvious way to continue to do those things. I didn't even really think seriously at all about writing books until well into my career. I had been at Bucknell as a professor for several years before I started writing. So yes, it was always going to be books, but it wasn't always going to be the case that I was writing those books. That was a relatively late development. LB: The Rosemary Spell is a book about the power of books. VZ: Yes. LB: So, for someone who hasn't read that yet, what do they need to know to be able to follow our conversation? VZ: Well, The Rosemary Spell follows Rosemary and her best friend, Adam, as they find an ancient book locked in a cupboard in Rosemary's room. They're immediately intrigued by the book because they are both book lovers themselves. They quickly discover a poem in the book which has the power to make people disappear, not just physically but also from memory. They accidentally disappear somebody very important to them and have to work h...

Not every city has a river running through it. And not many women plan a rendezvous at a San Antonio River Walk hotel during Fiesta Week after years of self-imposed celibacy. I was about to make history. -- Nancy G. West, River City Dead   Nancy G. West's heroine, Aggie Mundeen, burst onto the scene as a secondary character in Nancy's first novel, Nine Days to Evil, and demanded that Nancy write Aggie her own story. Lucky for us, Nancy obliged with not one, but four Aggie Mundeen mysteries, and counting. Check out her website, NancyGWest.com.  Her latest mystery, River City Dead, takes place during Fiesta Week in San Antonio, which Nancy calls a "fabulous, distinctive place and time." What more could one ask for? Well, perhaps a dead body in the penthouse suite... We also talked about Dorothy Sayers (I gave a shout-out to her translation of Dante's Inferno, which is a personal favorite) and Nancy's essay, which taught me things I never even suspected about the wonderful Ms. Sayers -- including the inspiration for Strong Poison. I would be remiss not to link to the Dorothy L. Sayers Facebook Page, and you can read Nancy's essay here.  Here are the Aggie Mundeen books in order: Fit to be Dead Dang Near Dead Smart, But Dead River City Dead And Nancy's first novel, Nine Days to Evil. Below is the transcript, if you'd rather read than listen. Enjoy! -- Laura Transcript of Interview with Nancy G. West Laura Brennan: My guest today is Nancy G. West, author of Nine Days To Evil and the Aggie Mundeen mystery series. Her first Aggie Mundeen mystery received a Lefty Award nomination for best humorous mystery, and she has won numerous awards, including the Chanticleer competition in the Mystery and Mayhem category -- an appropriate win for her heroine, Aggie, whose itchy feet presage dead bodies and danger. Nancy, thank you for joining me. Nancy G. West: Oh, I'm delighted to be here, Laura. Thank you. LB: Now, before you started writing professionally, you had a career in business. NGW: I did. Well, I majored in general business administration, and I took a lot of marketing courses and management and accounting courses. And I found out that that wasn’t really to my liking. So, after we married and I had two daughters, I decided that what I really wanted to do was write fiction. So I went back to school, to graduate school, to study English Lit. And I loved it, but they didn’t teach me how to write fiction either. So I read a bazillion books on the craft of writing fiction. And that’s really what got me started. LB: Did you look at your life and go, there’s got to be a mystery in here somewhere? NGW: Not so much a mystery in there somewhere but that writing was my passion and I really wanted to write fiction. I had written nonfiction articles, it was fun and satisfying; I’d even written a biography of a Texas artist who is actually a Spaniard who had immigrated here through Venezuela, up to Texas. But I really wanted to tell stories. And so I knew that, as a business major, I hadn’t had the opportunity to take very many courses in writing or creative writing or literature, so I thought it was time for me to learn something about it. LB: So, why mysteries then? Why did you gravitate towards mysteries? NGW: Well, I knew the hardest thing I thought, for me, would be to plot. And when you write mysteries, you have to have a good plot. I loved writing characters, I loved writing scenes, I love writing the dialogue where Aggie and Sam or the other characters talk to one another. So I didn’t think that would be a problem. But the plotting, I thought would be the most difficult – and it is. And so I thought, okay, if you’re going to write mysteries, you must learn how to plot. So that was where I did a lot of studying. LB: So you really just threw yourself into the hardest thing you could think of. NGW: Basically! I have a tendency to do that.

When Will Rees finally arrived home, much later than he'd expected, he found his sister Caroline in the front parlor. Again. Since Rees and his wife Lydia had returned from Salem several weeks ago, Caroline visited often and always with the same demand... -- Eleanor Kuhns, The Devil's Cold Dish It was such a delight talking to Eleanor Kuhns about her wonderful historical mystery series, set in Maine in the 1790s. History buff? You can -- and should -- check out her website, Eleanor-Kuhns.com, and her blog, here. She is a terrific source of information about daily life during that time. She also, I discovered during our interview, spins and weaves cloth! A Renaissance woman... or perhaps a Federalist one.  ;-)  One of the central communities, and the setting for her first novel, A Simple Murder, is the Shaker community in Maine. Sabbathday Lake Shaker Village was the inspiration. We also talked about the religious leader, Mother Ann Lee, who led a fascinating life at the heart of the Shaker movement. Here are Eleanor's books, in order: 1 - A Simple Murder 2 - Death of a Dyer 3 - Cradle to Grave  4 - Death in Salem 5 - The Devil's Cold Dish As always, if you'd rather read than listen, the transcript is below. Enjoy! -- Laura Transcript of Interview with Eleanor Kuhns Laura Brennan: I’m delighted to welcome Eleanor Kuhns today, author of the Will Rees mystery series. Her debut mystery, A Simple Murder, won the Minotaur Books/Mystery Writers of America First Crime Novel competition. Set in the 1790s, Eleanor’s novels recapture a bygone era -- and show how motives for murder never change. Eleanor, thank you for joining me. Eleanor Kuhns: I'm happy to be here. LB: Before we talk about your wonderful series, tell me a little bit about yourself. You’re the assistant director of a public library. EK: Yes. LB: So it’s always been books? EK: Absolutely. I started as a page in the Yonkers public library when I was 16, became a librarian, pretty much never stopped working in the library. LB: When did you decide to add to the books in the world? When did you decide to write your own? EK: Well, I always wanted to be a writer. I wrote my first story when I was 10 years old. It was science fiction/fantasy, which was my first love. And every paragraph started with the word "suddenly." Suddenly the aliens came over the hill. It's always been all about writing and books. LB: I find that really interesting, that science fiction and fantasy is your first love because that takes place in another world, by definition. And you've created really another world for us to go into in your Will Rees mysteries. EK: Well, I think that science fiction and fantasy and historical fiction have a lot of similarities. It is a different world. A lot of times the culture is different, technology is certainly different, but people, I think, remain the same. Historical fiction is, in some ways, easier and harder because the world your writing about is already there, which means you have to have some accuracy as your facts. What did they wear? What was happening in the world? That kind of thing. In science fiction/fantasy, you can pretty much make up what you want to do. So in historical fiction, it's easier because there's a structure already to hang your story on, and harder because you have to do a lot of research to make sure that structure is right. LB: Why Maine in the 1790s? EK: Well, at the time that I wrote this book, I was living in Maine. My mother is from Maine, she retired to Maine, and she and a disabled brother were ill. So my husband and I left our jobs and went to Maine. Before we made that huge step, we were traveling from New York to Maine pretty much every weekend to care for them. That's a nine-hour trip, each way. And the only existant Shaker community is on that route. Sabbathday Lake, right off the Falmouth exit. We stopped there one day,

Saturday, January 18, 2020 5:47 A.M. After the storm passed, in the chilly hour before dawn, the last of the "space zombies" found their way back to their nest in the derelict house.  From his command post, the squad leader gave the signal: "Go!" A black van pulled up in front of the house. Albany PD vice cops wearing protective gear jumped out and stormed up the walk. They used a battering ram to smash open the wooden door. "Police! Albany PD!" "Police!" Their high-powered torches illuminated the grotesque horror movie creatures in the 3-D posters on the walls... -- Frankie Y. Bailey, What the Fly Saw. I am so thrilled to be chatting with the multi-talented Frankie Y. Bailey. I had the pleasure of meeting her at my first ever mystery writers conference, Killer Nashville, several years ago, and also of reviewing What the Fly Saw for Mystery Playground's Drinks with Reads feature. Frankie blurs genre and writes in every possible tense: her series are set in the past, the almost-present, and the near-future. You can keep up with all she's doing on her website, FrankieYBailey.com, and also over on the blog she shares with several other mystery writers -- including the delightful Vicki Delany -- at Type M For Murder. Find her on Twitter @FrankieYBailey. Frankie gives a shout-out to Walter Mosley and two spectacular but often overlooked mystery writers: Pauline Hopkins and Rudolph Fisher. And of course to Eleanor Taylor Bland, the first African-American woman to write police procedurals. Sisters in Crime has a fellowship in her honor for emerging mystery writers of color, so if that's you or a friend of yours, check it out here. Meanwhile, here is Frankie's fiction (in series order): Hannah McCabe series 1 - The Red Queen Dies 2 - What the Fly Saw Lizzie Stuart series 1 - Death's Favorite Child 2 - A Dead Man's Honor 3 - Old Murders 4 - You Should Have Died on Monday 5 - Forty Acres and a Soggy Grave And her nonfiction: Wicked Danville: Liquor and Lawlessness in a Southside Virginia City Wicked Albany: Lawlessness and Liquor in the Prohibition Era African American Mystery Writers: A Historical and Thematic Study Crimes and Trials of the Century Famous American Crimes and Trials Blood on Her Hands Media Representations of September 11 Law Never Here: A Social History of African American Responses to Crime and Justice Popular Culture, Crime and Justice Out of the Woodpile: Black Characters in Crime and Detective Fiction As always, if you'd rather read than listen, the transcript is below. Enjoy! -- Laura Transcript of Interview with Frankie Y. Bailey Laura Brennan: My guest today is the multitalented and multifaceted author, Frankie Y. Bailey. Frankie isn’t just a student of crime, she is a PhD -- and a professor in the School of Criminal Justice, University at Albany (SUNY). She has won the George N. Dove Award for outstanding contributions to the study of mystery, detective and crime fiction, as well as a Macavity Award for her nonfiction book, African American Mystery Writers. She has not one, but two fiction series: one featuring crime historian Lizzie Stuart, the other a police procedural set in the near-future featuring detective Hannah McCabe. She's also working on an historical thriller set in 1939. Frankie, thank you for joining me. Frankie Y. Bailey: Thank you so much for having me on, Laura. LB: So my understanding is that you always planned to be Doctor Bailey, but when you first went to college, you were looking at becoming a veterinarian rather than a PhD? FB: Yes. I love animals, and I grew up -- I was kind of a shy child, so I grew up playing with my dogs and a hamster and the birds and all of that. And everyone in my family teased me about growing up to become a vet, and it seemed like a great idea. And then I went off to Virginia Tech, and I realized I preferred playing with animals and trying t...

When I was lying in the hospital three months or so ago, after the boys and their children had gone home, Alan came back and kissed my forehead and said, "It's time you wrote it down..." I didn't have to ask what he meant... -- Sally Wright, Behind the Bonehouse Sally Wright's mysteries are beautifully written tales that wrestle with moral issue and the complex motivations of everyday people. You can learn more -- and see photos! -- on her website, SallyWright.net, where she also lists both of her series, in order. Two of the books we talk about in depth are her latest, Behind the Bonehouse, the second in her Jo Grant series, set in horse country, Kentucky; and Code of Silence, the prequel to her Ben Reese series, and featuring as a key plot element the Venona Code. Sally gives a shout-out to different authors who have influenced her writing, including P.D. James, Ngaio Marsh, Dorothy Sayers, and Josephine Tey, but also Tolstoy and Jane Austen. As always, if you'd rather read than listen, the transcript is below. Enjoy! -- Laura Transcript of Interview with Sally Wright Laura Brennan: My guest today is Edgar Award Finalist Sally Wright. In addition to elegant writing and plotting, Sally does intense research for her novels. She has studied rare books, falconry, painting restoration, the Venona Code, and much more to write about her hero, Ben Reese, an ex-WWII Ranger and university archivist. Her latest series, the Jo Grant mysteries, focus on Kentucky’s horse culture and the families who live and die there. Sally, thank you for joining me. Sally Wright: Thank you. LB: Let's start with your Ben Reese series. Publish and Perish is the first book, and Ben is a rather unusual protagonist. He's not a cop, he's not a PI, he's an archivist. SW: Right. LB: And it's set in 1960. How in the world did you come up with the idea for the series? SW: Well, because I met a man who was an archivist at a university -- and this would've been probably about 1973, when I had my first conversation with him. And I knew him as an archivist and he seemed to be World War II age to me, and I asked him what he did in the war. And he gave me a jive response, and I kept just kind of pushing him. And he said, well, I was a behind the lines scout in Europe. I worked for Army intelligence. And I looked at him and I went, if I ever write a mystery novel, you're the character for me. Because I was so interested in a man of action who could do the really dangerous things that he had done in the war, who would come out of that war and do something highly intellectual and very different than what he had done previously. So that really appealed to me. So if I was can write that character, I had to do it at a time when his age -- I wanted to do it when he would have been in his late thirties or something. When he would have been in his prime. LB: So, when you started, you started with him in academia. Then you said that you wanted him to have a little bit more scope. SW: First of all, in knowing this gentleman, he traveled all over the world, he had worked studying archival matters and artifacts in several countries and that's what he would do in the summer when he had time off. And I went, I could put him anywhere. The plot could be based on an artifact or person he meets who owns the artifact or is looking for one. It really gave me tremendous scope. And then I got to go to very interesting places and meet very interesting people that I never would've met if I hadn't been working on the books. LB: You have a wonderful website that we're going to link to in the show notes -- SW: Oh, good. LB: SallyWright.net, correct? SallyWright.net SW: Yes. LB: And you talk a lot about how you come up with your ideas. There always seems to be a connection almost from one book to the next of where you get the idea for the next book -- and even for your next series, you got it traveling for the Ben Reese series.

With the advancement of technology, there are infinite ways and opportunities to work remotely, no matter where you are. In this week’s episode of The Secret Sauce, we share some strategies for making remote work - well, work. TRANSCRIPT Allison Manley [AM]: Hello and welcome to The Secret Sauce, a short podcast by Palantir.net, that offers a little bit of advice to help your business run better. I’m Allison Manley, Sales and Marketing Manager here, and today’s advice comes from Scott DiPerna and Lauren Byrwa. In this global economy, there are infinite ways and opportunities to work remotely, no matter where you are. Scott and Lauren are going to share some strategies on how to collaborate successfully across great distances and time zones. Scott DiPerna [SD]: Hi, I’m Scott DiPerna. Lauren Byrwa [LB]: Hi, I’m Lauren Byrwa. SD: Recently we worked with a client in California who had hired a content strategy team in New York City. Lauren, with our development team, was in Chicago, and I, as the Project Manager, was in South Africa. We had lots of interesting new challenges in this project, and like we do in most projects, we learned a lot about working well with our clients, our collaborators, and with each other. LB: So, Scott, what was it like trying to work from South Africa, being seven to nine hours ahead of everyone else? SD: Well, it wasn’t that different from working remotely in Richmond, Virginia. I do shift my working hours to the evening to overlap with the team in the States. But just as I did in Virginia, we do all of our meetings on a video chat regardless of where we are. It’s part of our process especially with our clients being all over the country, so that part wasn’t really different. But we did do a few things differently in this project — not so much because we were all in different places, but because we had multiple vendors and teams collaborating together. Do you want to talk about some of the adjustments that we made in terms of meetings? LB: Yeah, so we met with the content strategy team weekly. We met with our product owner three times a week. We met with our full team, our full team of stakeholders, weekly. And in addition to that we still had all our usual agile ceremonies like scrum, demos, retrospectives, that we always do on projects. These meetings especially were productive because we had all of the strategic functionality up front, and we could ask specific implementation-level questions early on, and we could vet them both with the product owner specifically, with the strategists specifically, and with the entire group. But I think there are a few other ways that the thorough strategy helped. Do you want to talk about those? SD: Sure. I think there were two parts specifically that were really helpful. Doing a lot of the strategic planning up front meant that the client was a lot more conversant in the details of the product that we were planning to build for them. We just had a lot more conversations with them up-front and could talk in detail. The other piece was having much of the functionality visually documented in wireframes that the strategy team kept current with changes in the functionality meant that the client always had a “picture” in their minds of what it was that we were talking about. When everyone is working remotely from one another, these kinds of visuals help conversations over video chat be infinitely more productive, which I think is something we see in all of our projects. So all of this planning had a really helpful impact on your ability to estimate the work up front, too. Do you want to talk a bit about that? LB: Because we had the complete and canonical wireframes from the strategists we were able to fairly precisely estimate all of the functionality that they had scoped out in those wireframes. This meant that even before we started development, we were able to work with our product owner to go over in detail the scope of work we anticipated to be able to complete within their budget. We had many conversations with him about what features would be most important for their users, and were able to prioritize accordingly. It meant that we could talk about the specifics of our implementation in really granular detail internally, both with the strategists, both with the product owner. We collaboratively evaluated if there were options to streamline our implementation, and we were able to address specific questions that usually would not come up until user acceptance testing.   All of these conversations resulted in updates to both the canonical wireframes that the strategists were maintaining, as well as the implementation documentation that we were maintaining on our end. And it meant that the picture that the strategists had, that they kept, that the clients had in their head, stayed the same. And it was all reflected in what they could expect to be spending on the implementation for development. SD: Right. And since we were documenting those functional changes in the wireframes, we could capture that quickly and review it with the client in the middle of a sprint. And speaking of that sort of adjustment in the middle of a sprint, you started doing mini-demos of work in progress, demoing that to the product owner. Can you talk a little bit about why you shifted in that direction? LB: Yeah, so because we already had all of these meetings set up, and because we already had those canonical wireframes that showed all of the functionality in the picture, we wanted to make sure that they could see the picture of their website, the implementation, as quickly as possible too. So when we had specific implementation questions about things that were spec-ed out in the wireframes, we would demo it for the client. And they could vet it, both for the client and the strategists, and come back to that . . . is this the best choice for the user. It meant that all of those questions of, is this the best route to go down, does this work the way that I anticipated it to, were answered not even before user acceptance testing — they were answered even before the demo. So we could pivot our strategy accordingly, and we did on a lot of issues. SD: So given all of these constraints that we faced on the project, where we had a client in one part of the States, a content strategy team in another part of the States, even our own internal strategy team split up across continents, and a pretty sizeable project with some interesting technical projects to solve — what were some of the biggest take-aways that you had from that project? LB: I think the number one thing that I took away from that project was that we can solve every problem together, and that we can come to a better conclusion when we come to it together. The collaborative effort with the strategy team to focus conversations through the lens of the primary audience really helped us anchor our strategy and our implementation in that primary user, and not in some of the other things that often derail projects. We had complete and thorough documentation both on the strategy level and on the implementation, and both of those were transparent to everyone accessing the project. And I think that really helped us to streamline the entire project. SD: I think for me one of the other things is that we were able to form really good relationships both with the client and with the third-party team we were collaborating with. And that made all of our conversations run more smoothly. We were able to have fun even in the difficult phases of the project, and even going through tough negotiations around scope or functionality or budgets or stuff like that — having those good relationships and having that good level of communication with them just made the whole process go more smoothly. AM: That’s the end of this week’s Secret Sauce. For more great tips, please check out our website at Palantir.net. You can also follow us on twitter at @palantir. Have a great day!

"I find it puzzling, don't you? The rabbit, I mean. Very puzzling." As a magician, I am accustomed to people asking me about rabbits... As a writer, John Gaspard is accustomed to people asking him about magic. His wonderful Eli Marks Mystery Series features magician and reluctant amateur sleuth, Eli Marks, and his cranky Uncle Harry, also a magician and a debunker of magic scams.  Soft-boiled, humorous, and taking place in the -- dare I say? -- enchanting world of professional magicians, this series is a treat.  Let's do the important stuff first. Poof! -- John has pulled a free short story for you out of his hat! You can download it here, or listen to the incomparable Jim Cunningham read it here. John also makes movies! Check out his film blog, Fast, Cheap Movie Thoughts, which riffs off the name of one of his own books on movie making, Fast, Cheap and Under Control. In the interview, he recommends a book by William Bayer, Breaking Through, Selling Out, Dropping Dead and other notes on Film Making. You can keep abreast of Johns' many activities on Facebook. John gives a shout-out to fellow Minnesota writer Judith Guest (of Ordinary People fame, but also the writer of suspense novel, The Tarnished Eye) as well as mystery writer Lawrence Block, a long-time favorite of mine as well. He also talks about the great work The Amazing Randi has done in debunking frauds. Other magicians mentioned in this conversation: Dai Vernon, Lance Burton and Eugene Burger, and of course Harry Houdini. And I want to give a shout-out myself to Henery Press, which is doing a great job of publishing soft-boiled and cozy series, especially ones that are a little outside the lines, at a time when other publishers are ending many long-time series. They also publish Gigi Pandian's Jaya Jones series, another favorite of mine. If you missed my conversation with her, you can check it out here. This was such a fun conversation. Enjoy! -- Laura Transcript of Interview with John Gaspard Laura Brennan: My guest today may not be a professional magician, but he certainly creates magic on the page. John Gaspard’s novels are clever, funny and satisfying mysteries, with a flourish of stage magic. John, thank you for joining me. John Gaspard: Happy to be here. LB: Before we start talking about your novels, I'd like to talk a little bit about you. You also have a career in film and television, is that right? JG: Well, career might be a strong word. I have sold things to television and I have produced a number of low-budget feature films on my own. I started out as a teenager making films and I was directing them, so I was just always the director. LB: Well, I love that. I love that you take what you have and instead of letting it languish in a drawer somewhere, you actually went out and made it. And you started doing this when you were a teenager? JG: I did! I am one of the first people in the country or maybe even the world to make a feature-length Super 8 single sound system film. Which meant that the sound was right there on the film when you recorded it, as opposed to double system, where it is recorded separately. I did a couple of 16mm films in the '90s, they were all features, and then three digital features since around 2001. LB: So you have always wanted to write? JG: I always wanted to make movies, and since no one was handing me scripts I sort of fell into the writing part. LB: I like that because when you're writing a novel, you are both a writer and the director. JG: Yes. Yes, there's a lot more control going on in writing a novel. LB: So let's move into novels. How did you get started then, moving away from writing and directing features and into novels? JG: Well, I'd always figured that as I got a little bit older, I'd be doing less schlepping of film equipment and low-budget filmmaking. And I had read a book in my teens by William Bayer called, Breaking Through, Selling Out,

The Nikki Latrelle Mystery Novels are set in the high-stakes world of horse racing -- a world Sasscer Hill knows well and captures in vivid detail. It's impossible to talk about horse racing mysteries without giving a nod to the master, Dick Francis. But Sasscer was also influenced by Walter Farley's Black Stallion series, which she devoured as a child. She also gives a shout out to Tami Hoag and Margaret Maron, and to Dick's son, Felix, whose new series is set in the same realm as Sasscer's soon-to-be-released Fia McKee series. The first book in Sasscer's new series, Flamingo Road, comes out in early 2017.  Check out Sasscer's blog for ongoing updates as well as more info on Irish Travelers, Fia McKee, and horses.  ;-)  As always, if you'd rather read than listen, a transcript is below. Enjoy! Transcript of Interview with Sasscer Hill Laura Brennan: My guest today is thriller author, amateur jockey and racehorse breeder, Sasscer Hill. Her Nikki Latrelle mysteries are set in a world she knows well: behind the scenes at -- and on -- the racetrack. Sasscer, thank you for joining me. Sasscer Hill: I'm delighted to be here. LB: I absolutely want to talk about writing and your books, but first, I want to talk about horses. You grew up around horses? SH: I did. I took a lot of riding lessons as a child, but it wasn't until my father died when I was 16 and a gentleman who had a lot of champion steeplechase horses took me under his wing -- he was a family friend that my family had known. And I learned almost everything I know about horses from him. And then of course I ended up buying a broodmare and had my own race horses for 30 years. So, yeah, I know a little bit race horses and horses in general. LB: It's just an, it's an entirely different world than anything I've experienced. How did you start riding competitively? SH: The gentleman who took me under his wing, as I said, was a big-time steeplechase person, and so of course he was involved in the sport. And I loved it from the get-go. I just thought it was the coolest thing in the world, racing over fences. But scary, you know? And I ended up entering some amateur, little steeplechase races and it was scary as heck, but it was a real adrenaline rush. And a lot of fun. So I stuck with that and won a big race up in Potomac one year when I was 36, and that was my big day. But it is, you connect with horses. When you're really connecting with the horse, it's like you steer him with your mind. It's incredible. LB: Well, you give your horses, and the books, they have so much personality. SH: Oh, they do in real life, not just in books. They have tremendous personality. LB: So you turned to writing, with a T, and why mysteries? What linked racing with murder for you? SH: Oh, Dick Francis, for sure. And I started out of course with Walter Farley's Black Stallion books, and they were always filled with intrigue. And of course like all of us mystery lovers, who didn't love Nancy Drew? And all those kinds books as we grew up, and as we got older we were reading all those wonderful English writers like Dorothy Sayers and Agatha Christie and I mean I just loved all of those. And of course I graduated to Dick Francis and that was it for me. I thought, boy, I'm gonna write like Dick Francis -- or at least in the tradition of. Nobody can write like Dick Francis, and to try, I thought, would be very foolish. Just in the tradition of. LB: I think there's a commonality though, between you and Dick Francis, in that racing comes first for your main character. SH: It does, for Nikki Latrelle. In the new books that are coming out with St. Martin's, it still at the racetrack, but now instead of a jockey, I'm dealing with a female agent who works for the Thoroughbred Racing Protective Bureau. And that's kind of a different story line, but still it's all about the horses. Because the stories wouldn't exist if it wasn't for the horses at ...

Today's guest is the multi-talented Ellen Byron. Her Cajun Country Mysteries are charming, funny and lightly romantic -- the perfect cozy capers to keep you turning the pages. The series is set in Louisiana, a state Ellen loves. As this interview goes live, Louisiana faces a massive natural disaster with deadly flooding. For people who want to help, Ellen suggests the Red Cross. Here are pictures from the first week of the flood, and Charity Navigator's view of top charities working the crisis.  Ellen's passion for Louisiana comes through in her writing and the world she creates for her heroine, Maggie. She named one of her characters after her friend Gaynell Bourgeois Moore (here she is on YouTube singing The Nascar Blues and here's her very own CD!) Ellen also talks about a Facebook page she loves, New Orleans Plantation Country, and mentions two real plantations, Houmas House Plantation and Ashland-Belle Helene. I give a shout-out to one of the TV series she worked on, Maybe It's Me, which (criminally!) is not available on DVD. Yet. I continue to hold out hope. You can check out her plays, Graceland and Asleep on the Wind, and if, like me, you are a fan of her Cajun Country Mysteries, you can pre-order Body on the Bayou, which comes out on September 13th. The delightful first book in the series, Plantation Shudders, was nominated for an Agatha, a Daphne, and a Lefty (for best humorous mystery).  As always, if you'd rather read than listen, here is the transcript. Enjoy! Transcript of Interview with Ellen Byron. Laura Brennan: My guest today is multitalented writer Ellen Byron. Ellen has written over 200 magazine articles, her published plays include the award-winning Graceland, and her many television series include "Just Shoot Me," "Wings," and “Maybe It’s Me,” one of my all-time favorite sitcoms. Most of all, she is the author of the Cajun Country Mysteries, set in Louisiana.   Ellen, thank you for joining me. Ellen Byron: Thank you for having me. LB: You are such a prolific writer! Articles and books and plays and television -- which came first? Where did you start? EB: I started writing plays. I actually started as an actress, quote unquote. Because it feels so silly to say that now. Got my union card doing a commercial while I was in college. I ended up writing a play that was inspired by my friends and I, I cast my friends in their roles and none of them did a really good job of playing themselves. And after that I took a class at Ensemble Studio Theater in playwriting because I'd never studied it. I wrote one play there and then I wrote Graceland. And then I kept writing plays, but I couldn't support myself that way so I started writing freelance magazine articles. And the playwriting path was so torturous in terms of readings and readings and readings until you got productions, that I remember I was on the phone with the man who ran the workshop at Circle Rep Theater, which was a great theater in New York that is no longer in existence, sadly. I was taking notes from him, and I remember the exact moment when I thought, you know, if I'm going to take this many notes, do this many rewrites, someone should be paying me for it. And that's when I decided to switch over to TV. LB: So were you in New York at the time? EB: Yes. I'm from New York, I went to school in Louisiana, Tulane. But I didn't really want to leave New York because I love New York, it's really where my soul is. But unfortunately there are way more TV options in California than in New York so in 1990 I made the move to Los Angeles. Kicking and screaming. LB: I totally understand. Especially, there is such a culture difference between New York and Los Angeles. EB: Yes. LB: If someone hasn't yet picked up your series, could you give me just a brief overview of what launched the series? EB: Maggie Crozat, she is an artist and she went to school in New York. And she had a boyfriend,

It is such a delight this week to welcome cozy author Duffy Brown. I have been reading (and loving) Duffy since her first mystery, Iced Chiffon, number one in her Consignment Shop mystery series. Endearing characters, victims who richly deserve to be killed, and Southern charm, what more could I ask for? Oh, and funny! And a heroine to root for! And romance! OMG, they're catnip. You can learn more about Duffy at her website. She has two ongoing series, The Consignment Shop Mysteries (set in Savannah) and the Cycle Path Mysteries (set on Mackinac Island) and you can click on these links to find the books in order. She also gives a shout-out to two of her favorite writers, Janet Evanovich and Arthur Conan Doyle. Duffy also gives away a spoiler for her most recent book, Demise in Denim, but it is *not* a spoiler about the mystery. It has to do with heroine Reagan and the hunky lawyer, Walker Boone. Did I mention there was a little thread of romance? I will be giving away Iced Chiffon as part of the August book giveaway, so if you're not on my mailing list, join now to be entered. Every month, I give away three books and a $10 Amazon gift card. Everyone on the mailing list on the last day of the month is automatically entered to win, so you only have to join up once. As always, if you'd rather read than listen, here is a transcript. Enjoy! Transcript of interview with Duffy Brown Laura Brennan: My guest today is best-selling author Duffy Brown. I have been a fan of Duffy’s writing since her first cozy, Iced Chiffon. Both her Consignment Shop and Cycle Path mysteries are filled with humor, friendship, light romance, and victims who richly deserve what they got. Duffy, thank you for joining me today. Duffy Brown: It’s great being here. Thank you for asking me. LB: So, how did you get started writing? DB: I’ve been doing this for about twenty-five years now. I started in romance. And I think how I got started it, I was reading the romances, and I got to the point like, “This is the worst ending ever!” and I would mentally start rewriting the endings. And then eventually, I was rewriting the whole book, and I thought, maybe I should try and write my own book instead of correcting somebody else’s book. So I was kind of a closet writer to begin with, but I wrote for, actually, I wrote for nine years before getting published with Harlequin. Then I wrote for Harlequin for six years, then I transferred over to Kensington because I wanted to write the bigger books. And then from Kensington, which is kind of a hotter read, it was a Brava line -- you  know, when Fifty Shades of Grey came on the scene, it started to kick all the romance stories up a notch. And I didn’t want to go that extra steam part. So I switched over to mystery, and now I write what I absolutely love. I probably should have been here all the time, but you kind of go where your heart takes you first of all. But I do love writing the mysteries. LB: Iced Chiffon is the first book in your first mystery series. DB: Correct. LB: And it hit all the notes. I was just pitch-perfect from the get-go. DB: Everything I watch is always mystery, I’ve read a lot of mysteries. And then I had some friends who were writing cozies, and they said, you know, you really should write the cozies. Because I’m used to that Happy Ever After ending, and in cozy mysteries, there’s always the Happy Ever After ending, meaning the bad guy gets caught. That part I kind of had nailed down. And then, in the cozy mysteries, as in a lot of mysteries, there’s always a little bit of romance thrown in just for the fun of it. But of course the thrust is on the mystery part of it. LB: How did you come up with the idea for the Consignment Shop mysteries? DB: Aw, that’s interesting. I work in a consignment shop! I have worked in a consignment shop for 25 years. I just work very part time, and you know how they say, write what you know.

I've been a fan of Jessie Chandler's capers since I picked up Pickle in the Middle Murder on a whim. C'mon, murder in the privies at a Renaissance Faire? This wench was all over that! Her latest retains the fun and furious pace of her earlier novels, but her storytelling continues to mature. She has a new publisher and a new editor as well, and gives a shout-out to both Bella Books and writer/editor Katherine V. Forrest. She started writing after devouring the Mickey Knight series by J.M. Redmann. She took classes from Lori Lake and Ellen Hart, both of whom she cites as major champions and influences on her work. National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) gets a nod as well. Jessie ended her four-book run with publisher Midnight Ink, but remains on good terms with them and in fact gives them credit for coming up with the term 'caper' to describe the series. (Heads up to cozy fans: although these books are very funny, Jessie is quick to point out that they are *not* cozies. Give the interview a listen or a read to see if they're right for you.) Jessie also discusses the inspiration for the character Rocky. If you want to learn more about Prader-Willi Syndrome, Jessie provided this link. Here are the books in the Shay O'Hanlon Caper series in order: Bingo Barge Murder Hide and Snake Murder Pickle in the Middle Murder Chip Off the Ice Block Murder Blood Money Murder As always, if you'd rather read than listen, a transcript is below. Enjoy! Transcript for the Interview with Jessie Chandler Laura Brennan: Jessie Chandler is the award-winning author of the Shay O'Hanlon Caper series, with her first four books racking up nominations and wins for Golden Crown Goldie and Ann Bannon Popular Choice awards, IPPY awards, USA Book Awards and Rainbow Book Awards. The fifth book in the series, Blood Money Murder, has just been released. Jessie, thank you so much for joining me. Jessie Chandler: I am so happy to be here, Laura. Thank you so much. LB: For someone who didn't plan to become a writer, you've kind of taken the world by storm here. JC: Kinda. I'm still not sure what happened. LB: Well, before we get to your books, let's talk a little bit about you. You've had a lot of interesting jobs. JC: I have, yes. LB: Am I right that one of them was as a police officer? JC: That is correct. I initially, I dispatched for the state patrol for three years. And I got very bored doing that, mostly because you're sitting on your butt and nothing happens and then suddenly everything blows up and the world is crazy. So, I thought, well, I'd like to be a trooper. At the time, there were not a lot of law enforcement jobs available. The budgets had been cut for a lot of agencies and there were no rookie schools coming up for the state patrol. And when I finished the secondary - third-ary - type schooling that I had to do, I don't know how many interviews I wound up out of that, but it was a lot, and then suddenly I wound up with job offers from three agencies. And I chose a smaller one, kind of near an inner-ring suburb. And when I began, there were some younger folks on the police force, and some older folks. There was a little bit of consternation among the older folks about women cops. And it just turned into a big mess. And I wound up quitting a few months into it. I'm actually glad I did, I'm glad I had the experience. I'm very happy where I am now, working on writing books, doing all kinds of other creative things. Ultimately, I'm in the right place at the right time and I don't regret a single thing that I had experienced. But, I'm just really glad, where I am right now. LB: Well, you bring in the cop camaraderie and all of that with JT JC: Yes. LB: So it's being used there, but you didn't have any desire to write a procedural? JC: Not really. I wanted to -- it's kind of weird -- ever since 9/11, you know when 9/11 happened, things got really dark.

Today's guest became an international best-selling author with her debut thriller, The Faithful. S.M. Freedman's smart, haunting thriller was inspired by the idea of a massive meteorite striking the earth and causing mass destruction -- a scary possibility that Shoshona took in unexpected (and deliciously creepy!) directions. The White Sands Missile Range is a real place where real people are working to keep us safe from just such a possibility, and I found an article on one of the ideas they're testing for nudging space stuff out of our path. Just, you know, so folks can sleep at night... On another note, Shoshona's author page on Facebook linked to an AMAZING article on teaching your kids about "tricky people" -- ie: the kind of adult who is not safe. Parents, read this. It's an easy, not-scary read because the kids did everything right, and it introduces a potentially life-saving concept to parents and kids alike. Back to books! Impact Winter, the sequel to The Faithful, comes out on July 1st. Shoshona is running a Goodreads Giveaway, so go check that out before July 1st. Or you can preorder! One last thing: we talk about Shoshona's career as a private investigator and how no one suspected a woman in her twenties of being a PI. It reminded me of Steph Cha's Juniper Song series, where the same is true for her PI. Truth mirrors fiction! As always, if you'd rather read than listen, here's the transcript. Enjoy! Transcript for interview with S.M. Freedman Laura Brennan: My guest today is international best-selling writer S. M. Freedman. Her debut novel, The Faithful, is a complex, haunting thriller, and it’s soon to be followed up by the sequel, Impact Winter, which launches July 1st. Shoshona, thank you for joining me. S.M. Freedman: Thank you so much. LB: So before we talk about your books and your writing, I have a few questions about your background. You actually worked as a private investigator? SF: Yes! Yes I did. I worked in the private investigator. I started out -- actually, I went to a theater school in New York, and I came home with the knowledge that I really didn't want to pursue that as a career. So the only thing I could think of that I was interested in becoming was a private investigator, and I thankfully had a little bit of a hook up in that industry. So I was able to get in and be trained by them. And I spent a little under a decade doing that job. LB: Oh, my gosh! That's the dream. SF: It was definitely the dream for my twenties. I loved it. It's not necessarily the best choice of career, at least for me as a mother. But, uh -- LB: I can see that. SF: As a young girl, I loved it. Nobody ever suspected me of anything, I looked completely innocent. LB: Steph Cha, who I also interviewed, she has a PI series and her PI is a young, in her 20s, Korean American woman. SF: Oh, fascinating. LB: And that's one of her things, no one ever suspects the young Korean American woman of being a detective. SF: It's true. It's true. It's funny, I'm actually writing a detective novel myself right now with a private eye who lives in Palm Springs. And I'm kind of bringing together a few of my different little elements of my background into one person. And he's Jewish, raised as a fairly traditional Jew, but has kind of fallen by the wayside on that. And he's a private investigator because he's a failed cop. And he's also an Elvis impersonator on the side. LB: And you, of course, were an Elvis impersonator? SF: No, that's the only thing I can say I really didn't do. Although when I was a teenager I absolutely loved and adored Elvis and everything that had to do with him, his music, everything. So I, I went through an Elvis phase as a teen. So that kind of, I brought that in as well. LB: So how did you get started writing? SF: I began writing, I think, when I was about 12 years old. I really decided that I loved it. I had this -- I was a terrible,

New York Times Bestselling author Kat Martin writes romantic suspense like no one else. Her series include the BOSS, Inc. series, The Against Series/Raines of Wind Canyon, The Brodies of Alaska, and The Sinclair Sisters Trilogy. She has two series of paranormal romantic suspense, as well as Historical Romances, Contemporaries, and stand-alone novels. I can't possibly list them all, much less in order, but luckily I don't have to because Kat has a printable checklist on her site. We talk about her latest novel, Into the Whirlwind, the second book in the BOSS, Inc. series, and about creating the deep relationships and characters that make her novels so satisfying to read. We also talk about her own adventures with her husband (including a mystery/romance/western that they wrote together!) and a new writing adventure: her first thriller comes out early next year. As always, if you'd rather read than listen, the transcript is below. Enjoy! Transcript of Interview with Kat Martin Laura Brennan: Kat Martin is a New York Times Bestselling author of over 60 novels, ranging from romantic suspense to historical romance, with some paranormal, contemporary, and western tales thrown in just to keep things interesting. She has over fifteen million copies of her books in print and has been published around the world. Her most recent novel, Into the Whirlwind, continues the BOSS, Inc series with Dirk and Meg’s explosive story. Kat, thank you so much for joining me. Kat Martin: My pleasure. Thank you for having me. LB: Well, first of all, congratulations. Because as we record this, Into the Whirlwind has just launched. KM: Just hit the shelves this morning. I was on Facebook and it's always exciting because everyone really gets excited and they all Facebook and it's kind of a fun day. LB: So let's jump back just a bit. You actually didn't start out as a writer. You began in a different profession. KM: You know, I didn't know what I wanted to be when I went to college. I just took general courses at the University and then I got out and I still didn't know what I wanted to do. So I ended up, I wanted to say in Santa Barbara where I went to the University of Santa Barbara, UCSB, wanted to stay in that gorgeous town. So I pretty much just went knocking doors to find a job and I thought, well, I'll just take anything I can get till I can figure this out a little better. And it was really hard, it took me 30 days to find a job knocking on doors five days a week, you know. But I finally found a job, and it happened to be in the title business, which is real estate related. So after I was in the business for about five or six years, I realized that if I wanted to make any money I had to get out of this and get into something that was -- you know, you can work on commissions in real estate. So that's what I did, I got out and I got into the actual business of selling houses. And that's what I did for 13 years. Then I started writing after that. LB: How did you decide you wanted to write? KM: Because my husband had written a novel. I was actually just dating him at the time, and he wrote this book just on a whim. And it was a really neat book and I thought, well I love to read, so I read his book, but he couldn't sell it. He kept trying to sell it and it never sold. And I thought, why is this book not selling? Because it's such a great story, I love this book. And I thought -- so anyway, I started working on it. I said, well let me look at. And so I read it and loved it, but then I thought, well I'm going to read it now like an editor. And I realized, there wasn't spellcheck in those days, it was all full of spelling errors, it had tons of grammatical errors because he really didn't know how to -- he was a very good at that. I was really good at it so I thought, well I'll just work on his book, fix it up and he can sell it. Well it took me weeks, it wasn't as easy as I thought it was going to be.

First of all, congratulations to Amanda Flower: earlier this month, she won her first Agatha Award at Malice Domestic for her middle-grade mystery, Andi Unstoppable. With six series underway and a seventh one starting next year, there doesn't seem to be much that Amanda Flower can't do. You can find out more about her at AmandaFlower.com and also here on Facebook, where she loves to chat with her fans. When we talked about her most recent series, the Magical Bookshop Mysteries, we talked about Emily Dickinson, and I wanted to give a shout-out to the poem we discussed, one of my very favorites. Here's the full text of Because I could not stop for Death and here's a link to a charming site, The Emily Dickinson Museum, for those wanting to know more about the poet. The next book features Edgar Allan Poe, and he, too, has a museum. If you'd rather read than listen to the interview, simply scroll down for the transcript. Meanwhile, here are her series, in order: Amish Quilt Shop Mysteries (written as Isabella Alan) Prequel e-Novella!: Plainly Murder 1 - Murder, Plain and Simple 2 - Murder, Simply Stitched 3 - Murder, Served Simply 4 - Murder, Plainly Read 5 - Murder, Handcrafted Andi Boggs Mysteries (middle-grade) 1 - Andi Unexpected 2 - Andi Under Pressure 3 - Andi Unstoppable Appleseed Creek Mysteries (complete) 1 - A Plain Death 2 - A Plain Scandal 3 - A Plain Disappearance 4 - A Plain Malice India Hayes Mysteries 1 - Maid of Murder 2 - Murder in a Basket Living History Museum Mysteries 1 - The Final Reveille 2 - The Final Tap Magical Bookshop Mysteries 1 - Crime and Poetry 2 - Prose and Cons Transcript for Amanda Flower Interview Laura Brennan: My guest is USA Today Bestselling author Amanda Flower. Over the past five years, she has published seventeen novels, including the Amish Quilt Shop mystery series, as Isabella Alan. Her most recent book, Crime and Poetry, launches a new series with a magical touch. She has been nominated for three Agatha Awards, including best first mystery, and this year she won the Agatha for best children’s/young adult novel, Andi Unstoppable. By day, Amanda is a superhero -- I mean, a librarian, my favorite people in the world. Amanda, thank you for joining me. Amanda Flower: Thank you so much for having me. I’m so excited. LB: So first of all, congratulations on your Agatha win! AF: Thank you. It was incredible, a truly surreal moment. And I cried and I shook, and it was everything you’d imagine winning an award like that would be. LB: Did you always want to be a writer? AF: Yes. My first book was Maid of Murder. LB: So then how did you decide to write about, to write Amish mysteries? AF: I was pitching ideas to my agent and she didn’t like any of my ideas, some of which I thought are still great. So I said, well, I used to live in Amish country in my early twenties. And her eyes got all big, and she sold the Appleseed Creek series and the Amish Quilt series within a couple months after that. So it was just timing. LB: One of the things I really like about them is that your heroine in both is not, she’s not Amish. She’s an outsider, but she has deep ties to the community. And there’s a great affection for them, for that community. And I love that you bring a diverse perspective. AF: Something I learned from living out there is that most people think, Amish -- an Amish person’s an Amish person. There wasn’t that much variety. But that’s not true. The Amish are very different between orders and between districts. It’s just what their bishop says that they’re allowed to do, how they interpret their rules. The Amish have a lot of variety. LB: You have a new one coming out -- I cannot believe how prolific you are. You’ve had three books come out this year so far already. AF: I have! Crime and Poetry came out in April. The Final Tap,

I'm thrilled to have my first historical mystery writer! Susanna Calkins' evocative mysteries feature Lucy Campion, a chambermaid who, amid the social chaos of the Plague and the Great Fire of London, manages to rise to the ranks of printer's apprentice -- an unusual job for a woman at the time. But whether she's a servant or an apprentice, her quick mind and sense of justice are always at the fore. And they often end up embroiling her in murders. We talk about Susanna's extensive research, which include a mention that the 350th anniversary of the Great Fire of London is this September. We also talked about murder ballads, the inspiration for the first book in the series, A Murder at Rosamund's Gate, which I am giving away as part of the May Bundle Of Books, along with Tammy Kaehler's (signed) Dead Man's Switch and Amanda Flower's latest cozy, Crime and Poetry, and a $10 Amazon gift certificate. I hunted around the Internet to find a good post to share on murder ballads, and the best one I could find was written by Susanna herself! She also gives a shout out historical mystery writers whose work she loves: Anne Perry and Rhys Bowen. But most notably, she introduced me to the work of Sam Thomas, whose Midwife Mysteries are set 20 years before Susanna's books. His next book will involve the backstory of one of Susanna's characters -- a literary crossover not to be missed! (And much more to my taste than crossing Jane Austen with zombies. Not that anyone would do that...) There are four books in Susanna's series, earning her a slew of nominations for Best Historical Mystery (Agatha, Lefty, Mary Higgins Clark, and the Macavity's Sue Feder Historical Mystery Award). For those wanting to know what order they should read in, here you go: 1 - A Murder at Rosamund's Gate 2 - From the Charred Remains 3 - The Masque of a Murderer 4 - A Death Along the River Fleet Rather read than listen? Here's the transcript. Enjoy! Transcript of Interview with Susanna Calkins Welcome to Destination Mystery, a podcast for readers who love a good mystery. I'm Laura Brennan. Laura Brennan: Today I have the pleasure of talking to Susanna Calkins. Her historical mysteries feature Lucy Campion, a young woman who rises from chambermaid to printer’s apprentice in the turmoil of 17th century England, surviving both the Plague and the Great Fire of London -- and using her observational skills and quick wits to find the answers to more than one suspicious death. Susanna’s books have been nominated for Macavity, Lefty, Mary Higgins Clark and Agatha awards, and her fourth novel, A Death Along the River Fleet, has just been released. Susanna, thank you for joining me. Susanna Calkins: Thanks for having me. LB: So tell me, how did you get started writing fiction? SC: Well, I started writing, I mean these books, these are my first ones, I started writing them when I was working on my research for my dissertation. And I started getting the ideas for these books while I was doing research for other things, for my academic work. And those ideas just kind of kept staying in my head and I thought, you know, I think I could write this. But further back, I mean, I did write stories all the time when I was pretty little and I was always writing. So I definitely was always interested in writing fiction, but I didn’t really put it, I didn’t make it work until much later in life. LB: So I have two related questions. One is, why mysteries? So, why mysteries? SC: I just really like mysteries. I really was one of those kids that did grow up on Nancy Drew and then really more Agatha Christie. I remember when I was 12, I would go home, you know, I would go to the library and I would read another Agatha Christie book. Because they were the kind you could read really fast. And I just really liked them. And then later on I discovered other mystery writers, but I was always, that was a kind story I like.

DrupalCon is just a few weeks away in New Orleans, so this time around our Account Manager Allison Manley is joined by our CEO and Founder George DeMet, Drupal veteran and PHP guru Larry "Crell" Garfield, and Senior Front-End Developer Lauren Byrwa. They share thoughts about the conference generally, what they're excited about specifically, and what they're expected from the Driesnote, among other topics. TRANSCRIPT Allison Manley [AM]: Hi, and welcome to On the Air with Palantir, a podcast by Palantir.net where we go in-depth on topics related to the business of web design and development. It’s April 2016, and this is episode #4. I’m Allison Manley, an Account Manager at Palantir, and today we are going to give a preview of what to expect from the upcoming DrupalCon in New Orleans which is taking place May 9th through the 13th. The website is drupalcon.org if you want to see more. I’m a newbie to DrupalCon — this will be my very first one — so I gathered a bunch of my seasoned colleagues here at Palantir who have attended in the past to get their thoughts on the upcoming conference. I am here with three of my fabulous colleagues that are going to be attending DrupalCon with me. So I have Lauren Byrwa, who’s one of our senior front-end developers. Lauren Byrwa [LB]: Hi! AM: George DeMet, founder and CEO. George DeMet [GD]: Hello. AM: And Larry Garfield, Senior Architect and Community Lead. How are you? Larry Garfield [LG]: Hello, world. AM: So what we’re doing here is basically a preview of DrupalCon. DrupalCon is coming up in a couple of weeks, in New Orleans, which is very exciting. How many DrupalCons is this for each of you? LG: I think this will be #21. AM: Out of how many? How many have there been? LG: Maybe 25? I’m a staple at this point [laughs]. GD: It’s a good question. Not as many as you, Larry, but probably, if I had to guess, between 15 and 20. LB: I’m actually only at #2 for Cons. So not a whole lot compared to these guys. AM: I’m a complete newbie, so we’ll get to that later — what I can expect — but before we get to what most people or new people can expect from DrupalCon, or what DrupalCon is about — we know that Drupal was started by Dries Buytaert. Did I pronounce that right? LG: Close enough for an American [laughs].  AM: What is the correct pronunciation, please? LG: Well, I’m an American too. ‘Drees Boy-thart’ I think is closer, but don’t quote me on that. Dries, feel free to correct us. AM: I’m sure he will later [laughs]. So what is DrupalCon about? LG: DrupalCon is the summit of the community. It is the largest Drupal in-person event in the world by a very wide margin. It’s a place for the whole community of whatever stripe to gather and discuss, learn, teach, plan, work, play, drink, and several other things along the same lines. A lot of conferences are very developer-centric or very business-centric, or very whatever. DrupalCon is — these days, DrupalCon is a Web conference with a Drupal angle to it. There’s sessions for back-end developers, there’s sessions for front-end developers, there’s sessions for project managers, there’s sessions for content strategists, there’s sessions for business owners — whatever you do, if it involves Drupal or the Web in some way, there’s at least a couple of sessions that are worth going to for you. GD: I would agree, and I would say that even if you don’t do Drupal or you’re not someone who’s really immersed in the technology or the community, it’s still a conference with really great value. You can get a lot out of it, and I think particularly for folks who are new to DrupalCon, it’s a really great way to get immediately connected with the community. And it’s often a very overwhelming way. We’re a very friendly and welcoming community, sometimes overly so. LB: I would like to think of DrupalCon as our family reunion, for all Drupalers. We’re there to learn, we’re there to share, but mostly we’re there to collaborate. And that can happen in sessions, that can happen at happy hour,that can happen anywhere. But it’s a great way to get plugged into the community.  AM: So I am a newbie, as I said — this will be my first. So what should I expect from DrupalCon? Am I just going to walk in and be completely overwhelmed at first? GD: Yes. AM: [laughs]. LB: I think at my first DrupalCon — overwhelmed? Yes, definitely expect to be overwhelmed no matter what. But feel comfortable, feel welcomed. Everybody is excited for newcomers. Everyone is excited to get to know you, to hear your ideas. So stand up and talk, and listen, and ask questions. And go up to people that intimidate you, and tell them that you’re a huge fan and that you work with their tools every day and that you like what you saw in this blog post. And they’ll be flattered and want to know what you think and why or why not you agree or disagree. But talk to everybody. Talk to them on Twitter, talk to them in person, talk to them at bars — everything you can do to soak up as much information as possible. That’s always my number one.  LG: The main thing you should expect at DrupalCon is 3000 introverts playing extroverts, who really want to talk to you and teach you things because that’s what they do. And if you’re up for talking to people you’ve only heard of, or never heard of, and just learning from every person you run across, you’ll do just fine. GD: And I think — so when we’re at our booth, every year without fail I’ll be standing there and someone will just kind of come up to me, and they’ll have The Look in their eyes. It’s very clear that this is their first time, they’re feeling very overwhelmed. And it’s really funny, this happens every time, they’ll make eye contact, come over to the booth, pull out their program guide, and be like, where do I go? And there’s so many different things you can do and places you can go and sessions you can experience, and it really is about — I think for folks who are going, it’s really taking a look at the sessions, figuring out ‘what do I want to get out of this event’, and focusing on that. And if you are getting overwhelmed, just find a friendly face, and they’ll more than likely be able to help you out and point you in the right direction – ‘oh yeah, I know the person doing that session, they’re awesome, go to that session if you want to learn about this, so-and-so is like the world’s expert on that’. All kinds of opportunities to just soak everything in, and learn what you can. It’s a really fun, really intense time. AM: Great, I’m really looking forward to it. So every year Dries gives a keynote. And it’s fairly spectacular, I’ve seen a bunch of them on YouTube. They’re very involved. So what are you anticipating this year from the Driesnote, as he calls it? LG: I have no idea what Dries is planning. I think the best keynote he’s given in recent years was in Amsterdam, where he was talking about actual practical changes to our process. That’s where he introduced the plan for putting credits on the site, which got implemented later. And I think that’s been a great thing to encourage contributions from companies and clients and commercial organizations, which we absolutely need.  I’d like to see something inward-looking. By that point Drupal 8.1 will have just come out, and that’ll be the first time we’ve done that type of release in, I think, ever in Drupal. So I suspect he’ll be talking about that and the implications of being able to evolve the system more smoothly than in the past. That’s my prediction, such as it is. [this was cut from the original recording due to audio issues, but is left intact for the transcript] GD: I’m hoping that Dries will take this opportunity to talk a little bit more about what the vision and future direction of Drupal is going to be, not just from a technical standpoint but really from an — answering the question, why does Drupal exist? What we’ve seen over the last few years, particularly as we’ve been through the Drupal 8 cycle, is that Drupal has changed and evolved tremendously. And at the same time the kinds of people that use Drupal, and the ways that they are using it, have changed tremendously. And I think that a lot of folks in the community have moved along with those shifts, but others might be feeling a little left behind, like they’re not really sure. Maybe if you’re somebody that’s joined Drupal at a point in the past, and you’ve had a particular motivation for doing so, the project and the community may be very different now. I think as we go through that change and that evolution, having a shared understanding and grounding in what our shared values are as a Drupal community and a project would be really cool to hear from Dries. LB: I would say we’re actually at a place right now where we don’t entirely know what’s next for Drupal. We’re not waiting on D8 any more — there’s a whole slew of things out there. And so I agree that the future of Drupal is going to be a big topic. I think in addition to that, this is our good chance and this is Dries’ good chance to really press on contribution, and to recruit people.  A lot of our hardcore developers that helped build D8 are feeling a little burnt out. They too are celebrating the release, but in addition to that, they’re feeling a little burnt out after years and years of press to get it there. So I think contribution is going to be a really big topic this year — trying to figure out how to get people involved and how to get new blood in the system and new  ideas. To really push us towards that future, that’s going to be important. AM: That’s a lot to cover in one keynote [laughs].  GD: The expectations are always incredibly high for these things. And it’s really often almost too much to ask, that one person will be able to cover this much in an hour or an hour and 15 minutes. One thing I’ve seen is that sometimes, when Dries delivers, he really delivers in a really great way. But I also know that it’s really hard to do that. So hopefully everything will click in place. I’m looking forward to it. AM: Me too. So what are the big talking points in Drupal right now? Obviously I can assume Drupal 8. What else do you think will be the big things? LB: A big focus of this year’s DrupalCon is actually a lot of the front-end frameworks and performance. Like we said earlier, it’s really kind of a dev conference with Drupal in the background. So we’re really trying to branch out as a community and accept some of the other new things going on in tech right now, and I know that’s going to be a big press this year. LG: There’s a whole lot of sessions on the front-end frameworks, like Lauren was saying, and around the discussions around, should Drupal have a front-end framework baked into it, like Angular or Ember? Or should we do something along those lines with our own components? Or should we ignore all of that? Or should we, whatever? So there’s actually a new track for this con called Horizons that has — pie-in-the-sky ideas. That’s kind of the point of that track. So we actually have the project lead of Angular talking. We have the project lead of Ember talking.  And there’s a number of other sessions along similar lines. We’ve got a core conversation that was originally supposed to be a moderated fight between people who wanted a front-end framework and people who didn’t. I think it’s turned into — those people have already fought and have a plan now, and what’s that plan, but we’ll see. Definitely, the front end and JavaScript are big talking points.  Another core conversation, as Lauren was talking about, is burnout. We have two, maybe three, sessions on time management and burning yourself out and managing volunteers, and what happens when people leave Drupal and how can we learn from the people who have. People will always come and go from any project, but how do we do that in the most graceful fashion, so that it’s good for those people and good for the project. That’s another talk we have there. And then of course, continuing the ‘get off the island’ angle, we have a Symfony track, as we’ve had the last couple of years. We have a dedicated PHP track — that’s non-Drupal-specific PHP that we actually collaborated with Php[architect] on. I was one of the track chairs for that. It’s the first time we’ve had it in North America — we’ve had it in Europe. And then the Horizons track includes a lot of big ideas outside of Drupal, so there’s a lot of, what new stuff outside of the Drupal experience should we be looking at and taking stuff from. LB: In addition to what Larry was saying, there’s a new spotlight on mental health in the tech industry, and this is going to be a big issue. You’re starting to see real sessions on mental health and taking care of yourself as a developer. But I also think it’s going to be a hot-button issue for BOFs, and you’re going to see a lot of talking about it outside of sessions as well, and how to cope with this environment. AM: OK, wait a minute. Can we define “BOF”? LB: My apologies, it’s an acronym for “birds of a feather”. It’s a group talk where people of like-minded ideas or having the same interests get together and have a conversation about it, as opposed to somebody getting up and presenting about a topic. It’s a more casual and close way to discuss some of the issues that are popular. GD: And so one of the other hats I wear in the Drupal community is serving on the Community Working Group. And I know that we’ve been talking internally about a lot of the challenges we’ve seen, experiencing burnout, and trying to improve — trying to provide more communication tools and resources, particularly for folks in the core development community. So I’m really happy to see an increased focus on that, not just at this DrupalCon but at the last couple of DrupalCons. I think we’re going to have more and more, hopefully more structured, programs and resources, so that people can contribute in a way that is sustainable in the long run. The other kind of big topic or trend that I’m seeing is — I think there’s a little bit of a question or tension, that ties into a lot of the technical questions, about the extent to which Drupal is a product and Drupal is a software platform. If you think about it in terms of Legos, is it a big box of a whole bunch of Legos that you can put together in any kind of different shape or form to create whatever you want, or is it more kind of a Lego construction kit that’s got all the tools you need to build a truck or a boat or whatever. And the extent to which we move in one direction and make Drupal more of a polished product — does that undermine our ability to be incredibly flexible? And so there’s questions like, do we have a decoupled front end? How do we approach questions like content workflow and management and all that stuff, and how much is that prescribed by the system? These are all really important questions that we’re going to have to, as a community, come to some sort of agreement or consensus on as we move forward. LG: As a side note, on the mental health front, our third keynote for Thursday is from Michael Schmid, a long-time Drupaler. He’s talking on brain health and mental health and so forth. It’s definitely an area worth the time it’s being given, which is considerable and as it should be.  AM: Great — I definitely want to get to some of the sessions that you’re excited about. So there are 13 tracks total in DrupalCon this year. Some of them are new, as you mentioned earlier, and they cover quite a range of topics. So there is something for everybody. I am not an engineer myself, but there is plenty for me to absorb at this conference [laughs], because the tracks are so varied. And I haven’t counted how many sessions there are in total, spread across those 13 tracks. LG: I think it’s 131 or something like that. AM: Wow. So there’s a lot of information being shared. So outside of the Palantir-led sessions, because we are leading three — which we’ll cover in a bit — which sessions are you most excited about, aside from the ones you’ve already mentioned? LG: I’d say I’m most looking forward to the core conversations on burnout and on community management, and on how do we keep this process sustainable? Because the way we went about Drupal 8 is not sustainable. That level of work was necessary for the project, but that kind of surge mentality of, throw warm bodies at it and work extra hard to make sure it gets done, is not a good way of developing software, open source or not. I’m looking forward to the discussions that are already slated around, how do we not do that? How do we make Drupal successful, or more successful, and how do we make our people more successful while respecting the fact that people still have lives and limits, and people have families? We don’t want to inadvertently pressure people to sacrifice those. No one consciously likes to do that, but there’s unconscious pressure at a lot of times. So how do we counteract that in a healthy fashion? Topic-wise, that’s probably what I’m most looking forward to, probably followed by some of the front-end framework discussions. LB: As a front-end developer, I’m interested in some of the config management in D8, some of the front-end frameworks, I’ll definitely be at those. But outside of that I’m also really looking  forward to the content strategy and UX things — D8 accessibility, content strategy and popular culture, some of these look really interesting. I know there’s also one on lessons from WordPress that I think is going to be really great as well. I think there’s a lot of great sessions regardless of what you’re specifically interested in.  GD: Unfortunately, one of the things about being someone in my position is that I don’t really get to go to sessions very much [laughs]. I actually have not looked too much at the program schedule yet. AM: But you will, of course [laughs]. GD: I will, certainly. And I will pick out a few sessions and put them on my calendar and will intend to go to them, and then inevitably something else will pull me away and I’ll end up watching the recording after the fact. AM: But luckily they are all recorded. GD: They are all recorded. And they’ve gotten really good at making sure that the session recordings are up usually within a day or two of when they’re recorded, which is a very impressive logistical feat. So I’m really happy with that. And in addition to Michael Schmid, or Schnitzels — that’s his nickname — and his keynote, I’m very much looking forward to, and I hope I don’t destroy her name here or we can correct it in post-production, Sara Wachter-Boettcher, who’s doing a keynote on content and design. I’ve read a lot of her stuff and I’m really excited to hear what she’s going to have to say for the Drupal community. One of the great things over the past few years is that we’ve really started thinking more about design as a project, which is really important and really challenging for an open source project – to really come together and prioritize not just what the software does but how people interact with it. LG: That’s something that we’ve been seeing not just in the visual design aspect. We have a session in the PHP track that I’m really looking forward to, called “Your API is a UI”. The idea is that code should be designed with the same kind of thought you put into user experience for someone pushing buttons — it also needs to go into how someone is writing code. And that’s something that the community is starting to get their head around in the last couple of years. So I’m really excited for that session and others like it, that push that concept. AM: Well, let’s talk about the ones that Palantir is leading. We have three. One is “PHP 7: The New New PHP”. LG: I talk about new stuff [laughs]. This is a talk that I’ve given at a few PHP conferences – it’s not Drupal-specific at all, it’s in the PHP track. PHP 7 was released last fall, right after Drupal 8 was – its release date was actually pushed back because of Drupal, we kept finding bugs. But for the developers and sysadmins in the room, if you have not tried out PHP 7, you really need to. It’s got a ton of really nice new features which I talk about in the session, and it’s twice as fast. And I’m not just showing marketing numbers – there are companies that have said they’ve shut down half their servers by switching to PHP 7. It is dramatically faster. Drupal 8 requires PHP 5 or later, and I would say, within six months if you’re not running Drupal 8 on PHP 7 – you’re doing it wrong. You’re leaving money on the table, you’re hindering your own developers. So come to the session. I’ll tell you all the reasons why as a developer you really, really want to be using PHP 7 right now. AM: Really, really! LG: Really, really, really [laughs]! AM: So your second session is “D8 Module Acceleration Program”.  LG: And this isn’t a normal track session, this is actually in the Business Showcase. It’s a panel that Acquia is putting together. Acquia, as some of our listeners know, has been funding a program called MAP — Module Acceleration Program — which is basically, hey, Drupal 8 is out, what about contrib, let’s put some actual money behind getting the major contrib modules up and running on Drupal 8. And Palantir has been partnered with them, as have a number of other companies. Acquia has provided some funding, and Palantir is working at a reduced rate because we’re doing community work, essentially. My main work for the last few months has been the Workbench moderation module for Drupal 8, as well as the multi-version Workspace deploy suite which I’m collaborating on with some other developers at Pfizer. So the idea is there’s a panel of people who have been working as part of this program, saying, okay, what is it, why is it, what are the benefits of it, what does it mean for contributing to open source. Teaser: contributing to open source is a viable and important part of any business that’s using it, and it is a worthwhile investment. Now you can come to the session to hear the details of that. AM: Cool. So the last session is George’s session, “Finding Your Purpose as a Drupal Agency”. GD: Yes, so I’m going to be doing a session in the Business track. It’s a little bit, for those who might have seen the session I did for DrupalCon Barcelona last fall, it’s a little bit of a sequel to that session. Essentially what I’m going to be talking about are some of the challenges. Last year was a fairly challenging time for a lot of companies in the Drupal ecosystem. Everyone was kind of waiting for Drupal 8 to come out — a lot of folks were holding off on starting new projects because of that, and so I’m going to talk a little about that. I’m reaching out to some other folks, some other companies in the Drupal ecosystem, hoping to get them to share some of their perspectives as well.  But then I’ll be talking about how, particularly during challenging times but during any time in general, the value of defining your purpose as an agency — your vision, your values, and how those things really come together and enable you to really have kind of a focus for where you’re taking your company. And not just how you run your agency, but also why — which I think is a question that doesn’t get asked often enough. So I’m really looking forward to that. For people that might be interested, it’s not just for folks that run Drupal companies. If you are involved in or interested in any way about how companies are run, and even — I’m not going to be talking that much about Drupal in particular, so I think it will be really valuable for folks, obviously even non-technical. And one of the things I do with my talks is a lot of analogies, so I’ll probably have some pretty entertaining analogies for folks. AM: Great. Well, as Lauren touched on, beyond the sessions DrupalCon is also about the social life, and the socializing, and the community around it. So what am I to expect as a newbie, going to my very first one, after the daily sessions are over? LB: Expect to be overwhelmed. Expect to be bombarded. And expect a little debauchery. I think you’ll be entertained, to say the least, but everybody is very friendly, everybody wants to buy you a drink and hear your thoughts. And everybody wants to argue. So be willing to defend your ideas, because it will come. And you might change your mind and you might change somebody else’s, but that’s the glory in all of it. And I’ve found a lot more meaning comes from the conversations outside of the sessions than sometimes during them. So I always encourage especially first-time Drupalers or first-time Con-goers, don’t stop after the sessions. Go to the after-stuff, even if you don’t drink, even if you just want to sit there and have water and talk to people, or have a Coke. It doesn’t have to be about the drinking, and it’s a really great place to socialize and share ideas. AM: I understand that in the past there’s been things like trivia night, or karaoke, or just meeting at ping-pong [laughs]. GD: Well, in fact there is a trivia night on Thursday, and we are sponsoring it, as we have for the last couple of DrupalCons. And for me at least, it’s one of the highlights of the whole event. The key is, try to find a table with people who have been around the community a little while. But the questions can be all over the place, and sometimes they even give credit for having someone who’s at their first DrupalCon at your table. AM: So what, you get something like frequent flier miles for your very first one? [laughs].  LG: It varies by year, but I think your team gets a bonus point for every person at your table who’s at their first DrupalCon. If it’s your first time at a DrupalCon, that makes you a valuable commodity, so show up anyway [laughs]. AM: I should wear a sign. LG: And I think there’s actually a penalty if someone on your team is a core committer. So don’t always go for the table with all of the lead developers because you get a penalty for having them on your team. I’m not a core committer so I have no penalty one way or another. GD: The trivia night is on Thursday night, and I think a lot of folks may be tempted to leave early because Thursday is the last day of sessions, but definitely stick around for trivia night on Thursday. And stick around for the sprints on Friday as well. Folks are generally fairly tired by that point, but sometimes being tired at that place really lets you focus [laughs] on getting cool stuff done. And it’s not just code, it’s all sorts of things. There’s documentation sprints, we’ll often do some community work as well — all sorts of things going on even after the sessions are over. LB: Definitely, it’s an exhausting week and it’s a long one. But those sprints at the end, those make the difference, and that’s how you really get involved and how you really learn stuff. So don’t ever think that, oh, I’m not an engineer, or, I don’t know how to do this. Because if you show up, we will find a job for you. LG: There’s a number of people at sprints every year whose job is, it’s just part of sprints, to mentor people in getting started. Get your dev environment set up, figure out where to find issues to work on, figure out if you want to do code or documentation or usability testing or whatever else you’re going to do — whatever you’re interested in doing, there’s a use for it, and someone who can hold your hand along the way to get involved in it. So, yeah DrupalCon doesn’t end on Thursday, DrupalCon ends on Saturday. AM: That’s a long conference. It is. Sunday to Saturday, pretty much. LG: It is, but for all of that, it’s one of the cheapest conferences around for that length of time. It’s definitely worth the value of going. AM: So then let’s delve into the exhibition space and the vendor space. What can attendees expect from going into the vendor room, besides being thrown a whole lot of swag? Pencils, buttons, tattoos, all sorts of things [laughs]. LB: So there’s the swag, which is always wonderful. And you will find some very cool and unique swag, depending on what booths you’re at. But what I think is funny, having worked a booth before, is you’ll see vendors kind of use it as bait. They’ll watch you walk by and they’ll watch you want it but not want to talk to people, because, like Larry said earlier, we’re all introverts. We’re just pretending for the week. And so they’ll kind of bait you with it, and they’ll get you to talk. And they’ll start with something small and introductory, and you might find yourself connecting with people you didn’t expect. LG: People are generally not too pushy about it, most of the time. But yeah, tech conferences are where introverts go to cosplay extroverts. GD: So as somebody who’s been to a lot of different conferences, and seen a lot of different exhibition spaces and exhibit halls and vendor booths and all that stuff — I really love the DrupalCon exhibit hall because it’s a lot more down-to-earth. It’s a lot less sales-y than most other conferences out there. You definitely have folks who will put a little flair on their booth or have some wacky promotion or something like that, but it doesn’t feel forced as it does at many other kinds of conferences. You really can, as Lauren said, just go up to people and have a conversation. And most of the time they’ll be happy to talk to you and not just to convert the sale. AM: So of course I would be remiss if I didn’t mention that we’re going to have a booth and we’re going to be luring people in with our swag as well [laughs]. LG: Come to our booth! Say hi! We’ve got swag! AM: That’s right [laughs]. Come to our booth, there’s going to be about seven or eight of us this year, and we’re going to be booth number 222. Come visit! And the website for DrupalCon is… LG: http://www.drupalcon.org . That will redirect you to what the actual URL is.  AM: Perfect. LG: One final note. On Tuesday, you go to the pre-note. That’s not even a question. You go to the pre-note. Everyone goes to the pre-note. GD: The pre-note is kind of a tradition that’s sprung up over the last five or six years or so. It’s the presentation that occurs before the keynote on Tuesday. And it’s generally put together by the same group of people. It’s intended for people who have never been to DrupalCon before, but it’s enjoyable by everyone, and they go to great lengths to make it incredibly enjoyable. So in the past, there was one that was all themed around Disney musicals — they’re very often tied into the culture of the location where DrupalCon is being held. Occasionally in the past we have even seen Larry up on stage [laughs] singing and dancing… AM: And wearing inappropriate things [laughs]. LG: Those things were very appropriate given the character I was playing. AM: Fair enough, fair enough [laughs]. LG: Without giving too much away — this year is more musical numbers, and I’m sure there will be shenanigans [laughs]. We’re still working on it as we speak, but expect shenanigans. You want to be at the pre-note. It’s worth waking up early for. AM: Early? How early is it? LG: It’s before the keynote on Tuesday, so it’s at 8 am. And it’s worth being up and at the conference center for. AM: Good, I look forward to it. Thank you all for joining me. I’m looking forward to my first DrupalCon, thanks so much. LB: Thanks for joining us, and you can find us at DrupalCon. GD: Thank you. See you in New Orleans. LG: See you in New Orleans. Let’s have some fun! And learn stuff [laughs]. AM: Thank you so much for listening. If you want to hear more episodes of On the Air with Palantir, make sure to subscribe on our website at palantir.net. There you can also read our blog and see our work! Each of these episodes is also available on iTunes. And of course you can also follow us on Twitter at @palantir. See you at DrupalCon New Orleans!