New Miniatures Story: Michele's Amazing Tropical Drinks

Look good, don't they?

These amazing miniature drinks by Michele Kelly are featured in my new story, "Delectable Drinks" in the Nov. '09 Issue, #185 of DollsHouse and Miniature Scene.

The issue also includes a how to by Michele to make your own miniature drink, definitely worth a try!

The drinks are in 1"scale-1/12th scale (1 inch=1 foot). The drink glasses are about 3/4" and under.

Excerpt:

Massachusetts miniaturist Michele Kelly has had some success since she began selling her own homemade miniature food and cakes more than 10 years ago. But it’s her latest offerings that have everyone who sees them almost wishing they could take a sip.

That Michele’s tropical drinks are gaining fans is not surprising, given their realism. Of course, it helps when you are a licensed bartender, too!

Michele admits that making the drinks began as kind of a lark. “I started the drinks less than a year now,” she says. “Every now and then I get an idea and try something different.”

* See DollsHouse and Miniature Scene

Halloween Read: The Witch Tree

With October just around the corner, thoughts, well at least mine, I confess, turn to Halloween.

For as long as I can remember, I’ve enjoyed getting scared. No, I don’t enjoy being scared – big difference in real life. But in fiction, a good scare, a few goosebumps, a Stephen King back-of-the-neck feeling is a good thing.

In hard economic times, especially, what beats opening a book or reading a story that’ll have you double-checking to make sure the door is locked and have you jumping at every little sound?

When I wrote my short, THE WITCH TREE, it started with the huge flocks of blackbirds that gathered in the trees at the wetlands in front of my Wisconsin home. By early summer and late fall, usually one tree became a kind of avian gathering spot with tens, twenties, hundreds of birds gathering together in this crazy, screeching mass.

You couldn’t help but wonder… what were they telling each other? What were they planning?

That’s what my character, Jimmy Grayson, wonders in The Witch Tree. He was looking for utopia. Instead he found….them. Jimmy soon is tormented by his own obsession to destroy those that torture him.

It’s him vs. them…. Who will win?

Excerpt from THE WITCH TREE by C.A. Verstraete:

What he noticed first was the sound.

Jimmy Grayson lifted his head from the grimy pillow, stared at the open window, and cringed. The onslaught seemed to come from every direction. He placed a hand over his ear to try to block it out. No such luck. High-pitched screeches, nonstop chattering, the endless wall of freaking sound was making him crazy.

In one swift motion, he threw off the dingy, worn quilt, catapulted from the bed, and rushed to the window. "Shut up!" he screamed, not caring how unhinged he sounded. "Shut the hell up!"

It stopped.

Ahhh. A deep sigh escaped him; an appreciation for the quiet filled him. He exhaled in a soft whoosh of air. The muscles in his neck relaxed as the tension left. His eyes closed almost of themselves-then popped open as the cacophony started up again.
The endless, unendurable shrieks, chirps, and chatters surrounded him from all sides like a blanket. With each passing second, the sound from hundreds of blackbirds increased in volume.

** I dare you to read on! Turn the lights low, get out your
Kindle or Sony ereader, or fire up the laptop and read THE WITCH TREE. Oh, don’t forget to lock the door!

* Buy THE WITCH TREE at Fictionwise

First Graphs: Shades of Grey by Clea Simon

What better spooky read than a book with a ghost cat?

Following in the "paw prints" of her popular Theda Krakow mystery series, this time, author Clea Simon is showing that cats do have more than nine lives in her new "cat-centric" mystery series, beginning with SHADES OF GREY (Severn House, Sept. '09)

In the first of the brand-new Dulcie Schwartz feline-filled mystery series, Dulcie's beloved cat Mr. Grey's been put to sleep, and her new roommate, Tim, is a jerk. Walking home, she sees a cat the spitting image of Mr. Grey, and hears a voice say, I wouldn't go in just now. She enters to find Tim dead, stabbed with her own knife. Dulcie's in the frame for murder and she hasn't seen the last of Mr. Grey, either . . .

First Graphs from SHADES OF GREY:

The carving knife was the last straw.

Stomping along the steaming sidewalk, her mood matching the thunder clouds overhead, Dulcie knew that the sentence made no logical sense. How could a knife be a straw? She could hear herself asking her students that, her usual wry smile softening the criticism as she urged them back on the metaphorical track.

But as she trudged toward the apartment she shared, for the summer and increasingly unwillingly, with Tim, she couldn't stop the grammatical train wreck of her thoughts.

She sighed and paused for a moment, looking around at the other drones on the street. How did they do it, day after day? A man in a suit passed by. At least he'd been able to shed his jacket, which now hung over his shoulder. No such relief for Dulcie. Pantyhose in July ought to be illegal. Had last summer been so muggy and dense?

Thirty minutes before, she'd been shivering, trapped in the recycled cold of the over-air conditioned Priority Insurance office, like a bug in some global version of contrast and compare. She shouldn't be temping. Shouldn't have been in that soulless place at all. Insurance. Bah! It was all numbers juggling. All about profits and odds; nothing that actually affected people. She should have been in the pleasingly cool depths of Widener Library, lost in the fogs of the northern moors. Or, perhaps, on a night voyage across the Carpathians in a horse-drawn carriage. At the very least, she should have her thesis topic by now.

According to the terms of her biggest grant, she should be writing already. But right before the holiday break, she'd heard that summer school enrollment was down. Which meant that her teaching section was canceled. No "Nightmare Imagery in the Early British Novel," and by then it was too late to even grab a section of the basic required survey course, English 10, the bane of freshmen and the salvation of starving grad students. It was too late to back out of the summer sublet that had let Tim into her home. And although she hadn't known it at the time, it was too late for Mr. Grey.

Buy:

*Amazon.com

* Severn House/UK

If You Were a Character, Who Would You Be?

When writing a book or even a short story, you often find that your character takes on a life of their own. You can picture them; you can hear their voice; you see them. They become real.

I noticed a question on an email list that sounded intriguing and goes with the above notion. If you could be a character for a day, who would you be - and why?

I keep thinking it would be fun to be Alice in Wonderland. Being short already, you wouldn't think I'd want to shrink even smaller. But being a dollhouse and miniatures collector, I often see or create a room or house that I almost wish I could live in.

I know with the intriguing new Johnny Depp/Tim Burton Alice in Wonderland movie coming out next year, I've thought how neat it would be to make one of those scenes in miniature. That garden with the giant flowers, or that amazing scene with everyone at the dinner table. I know I won't be the only one thinking that, either. (Wow, check out the interior of the castle in the trailer!)

* So, who do you see yourself as? What character would you want to be for a day and why?

* Watch the movie trailer.

Bo the White House Dog - Real or Miniature?

Miniaturist Alice Zinn has a way with animals. She creates incredible creatures that you almost expect to jump, bark, chirp or meow.

I'll be featuring her and her work in an upcoming post, but for now, I wanted to share her latest creation - a miniature version of Bo, the Obamas' Portuguese Water Dog. The miniature version (2.5" high) is made of polymer clay and synthetic hair. He's a limited edition of four and sells for $150.

The original miniature Bo was commissioned by the Zweifel family, who created the Miniature White House 40 years ago. The 55-foot long White House replica is updated with each new president and continues to be displayed around the country.

Almost hard to tell the real from the miniature, isn't it?! (White House photo - C. Kennedy)

Stay tuned for a special feature on Alice and her miniature dogs coming in October - and a special offer to readers of this blog!

First Graphs: The Lighthouse Keeper by Luisa Buehler

Today's feature is perfect for fall, a mystery with a touch of spookiness.

THE LIGHTHOUSE KEEPER: A Beckoning Death is the fifth book in the popular Grace Marsden Mystery Series by Luisa Buehler (Echelon Press).

With a troubled marriage, and the haunting memories of ghosts, bones, and dead bodies, Grace Marsden needs solace. The invitation from her childhood friend presents Grace with an opportunity for respite on Christian Island.

An ancient Indian tragedy, island ghost sightings, and modern day treachery twist lives until more deaths and more danger make Grace unsure of whom she can trust.

When the spirit of the lighthouse keeper beckons, is it to warn her-- or harm her?


Excerpt from THE LIGHTHOUSE KEEPER:

"It's behind that wall."

My brother's whisper brought Joan and me to his side. We'd climbed up to the lantern room in the old lighthouse over an hour ago, ostensibly to take notes and measurements.

"I don't hear anything."

"There can't be anything 'behind' these walls, Marty–they're made of three-foot-thick stone. 'Behind' is out there." Joan motioned toward the windows.

"There it is again. Hear it?"

I heard a faint scratching.

Joan shook her head. "I didn't hear it. If it's anything, it has to be coming from downstairs. Sound displaces in lighthouses…something about the cylindrical shape."

Marty started down the stairs. Joan shook her head and smiled. "It's probably an island rat," she whispered.

"Yuck. The brochure said nothing about rats, island or otherwise." I referred to my childhood friend's letter inviting me to Christian Island for a visit. "And while we're on that page, couldn't you and Dave have waited to sell at the end of the season? Who visits the island in January?"

Buy:
* Amazon.com
* Echelon Press

When the Story Stops - Asking Authors How They Fill in Their Book

You're an author and writer. You outline, or have the latest book underway. Things are going well, the story is moving along, the outline is figured out and suddenly... gasp! The story runs out!

You thought you had the story worked out and enough situations and scenes to fill the required amount of chapters. Now it seems you may be several chapters short.

So, I'm asking authors: anyone been in this situation? How do you address it?

How did you fill in the gap? What did you add to expand the story without it just being "filler?"

What is needed to fix this kind of situation? What is missing in a book, I'm mostly interested in mystery, that this would occur?

Love to hear your thoughts as I work on my ongoing mystery!

Cooking with a Cookbook in a New Way

Today I'm talking about the kind of cooking I do using a cookbook at an appropriate site, the Vintage Cookbooks blog, so be sure to check it out!

First Graphs: Stolen Birthright by Margaret Tanner

Today's except is from Margaret Tanner, author of several Australian-set stories including STOLEN BIRTHRIGHT (Whiskey Creek Press, May 2008).

In STOLEN BIRTHRIGHT, the sequel to SAVAGE UTOPIA, Georgina, a wild colonial girl, meets and falls in love with a dashing young English aristocrat, Marcus Lindquist.

When Johnny Dawson is ambushed and killed, Marcus finally learns the secret of what has bound him to Georgina. Johnny is her brother, not her lover as he had jealously supposed, but even darker secrets from the past overshadow their love.

How can an English nobleman marry the daughter of convicts?





Excerpt from STOLEN BIRTHRIGHT


The Honourable Marcus Lindquist cursed inwardly as another bump almost unseated him.

What did this idiot of a driver think he was doing? Bloody half-witted colonial.

He had been forced to leave England to save the Lindquist name from being dragged further into disrepute, now he was exiled in this Godforsaken penal colony. Australia was only fit for convicts and destitute immigrants.

September Reader's Contest: Win a Special Bookmark!

I've decided to have a contest!

One lucky winner will receive this beautiful silver-plated carved bookmark from England in the shape of Sherlock Holmes! A perfect way to accent your favorite mystery!

To enter:

* Comment on any of the posts on my blog. Suggest a new blog topic, share something from your own collection, or tell me about a favorite book or story you're reading or just read.

Be sure to include an email to contact you. NOTE: I manually approve messages so it will not show up on blog immediately. Don't forget to check out my book links while you're here!

* Contest ends 9/30/09. Entrants limited to US and western Europe only.

Thanks for stopping by and entering! Chris