Our featured writer today is our very own Jennifer Schiff. (Her nym is J.) Two books in one year! Let’s give her a warm welcome! (Running this one again because it was rudely interrupted a week ago by the golf course incident.)
If you would like your talent featured in Authors in Our Midst or Artists in Our Midst, send me an email message. Don’t be shy! I have no more Artists or Authors posts in the queue, so please don’t hesitate to get in touch if you would like to be featured.
A MOCKTAIL FOR MURDER post for Balloon Juice (September 2024)
Hello again, fellow Balloon Juicers!
First of all, a big THANK YOU to every one of you who has purchased one or more of my books – and my Sanibel calendars — over the last seven (!) years. My book sales and sanity took big hits from Covid and then Hurricane Ian. And it’s been the support of my readers—and communities like Balloon Juice, which I have been reading since 2007—that has kept me going. So, thank you. Now onto business!
As I wrote in my last post, I’ve had a busy year, writing and publishing TWO books, the second of which just came out. It’s called A Mocktail for Murder. And as the title suggests, it’s a murder mystery.
The book features the amateur sleuth from my Sanibel books, reporter Guin Jones. However, I wrote it as a standalone/sequel to those books, which you don’t have to have read to enjoy. You just need to like a good mystery or books that take place in New York City, where this one takes place.
In this book, Guin’s new husband is accused of killing his ex-wife, the founder of a new mocktail business (think Real Housewife Bethenny Frankel), but he swears he didn’t do it. Unfortunately, the police and a lot of other people don’t believe him. So investigative reporter Guin, who is now a business reporter for the FTFNYT, takes it upon herself to find the real killer and put him or her on ice.
With a cast of questionable characters (and some cute cats and dogs) and several twists and turns, A Mocktail for Murder will have you guessing whodunit until the end! (Or I hope it will!)
You can find Mocktail and my 13 other books on Amazon* (in paperback and for the Kindle), B&N Online, BAM, Bookshop, and in select bookstores. And if your bookstore or library doesn’t carry my books, they can order them for you via Ingram Distribution.
For more info about my books and me, visit Shovel & Pail Press and follow the Sanibel Island Mysteries page on Facebook.
*I know a lot of people hate Amazon, but they pay me the biggest royalty. (Ingram, the company that prints and distributes books to bookstores, is run by a bunch of TN Republicans who pay indie authors like me a pittance. But they are the only way I can get my books into bookstores and libraries.)
J.
Thanks so much for reposting, WaterGirl! ❤️ I’m happy to answer any questions from readers.
Baud
Jesus Christ. I struggle with short comments.
Congratulations, J.
WaterGirl
What is it like to be writing about other things after writing your Sanibel series for years?
J.
@Baud: It took me 25 years and a lot of failed tries until I hit upon a subject I could write a whole book about. Who knew it would be murder? But apparently I’m really good at coming up with ways to kill people. 😎
J.
@WaterGirl: I love it. I enjoyed writing about Sanibel and developing those characters, but I needed a break. And I love my non-Sanibel books, Tinder Fella, Something’s Cooking in Chianti, and Finding Gemma Lovegood.
Baud
@J.:
You’ll be my CIA director when I’m president.
JDNovus
Oooh, an opportunity to pick a brain!
I’m working on the second of two-book mystery contract and still don’t know how to write a mystery. Do you sort of reverse engineer the clues, so you start with what really happened, then you decide which red herrings and true clue to feather in earlier? And how the hell do you raise the stakes for an investigator for whom, at some level, this is just, y’know, the job?
J.
@JDNovus: First of all, congratulations on getting a two-book contract! And writing a book already. Re your questions about writing mysteries, for me, I come up with a concept or basic plot or outline and then work my way through it as I go, changing and tweaking things as necessary. (I’m somewhere between a “pantser” and a “plotter.”) Rarely do my books end the way I originally envisioned them ending. And sometimes I don’t know how they end. I just know who I want to kill. Though not always the killer. I don’t do a lot of reverse engineering or thinking about red herrings. I just sit in front of my computer and let my characters talk to me. That’s the good thing about a series, you get to know your characters so well that they often help you write.
KrackenJack
What do you think has changed most about your writing since you were first published? Was it a conscious change? The result of self-analysis, feedback or just practice?
J.
@KrackenJack: What they say about practice is true. I’m not perfect, but I believe my writing and plotting has improved with each book. That’s not to say that my last book is necessarily my best book or was easy, but I feel I am more comfortable taking risks. (Of course, many of my readers like my earlier books and want me just to write about that Sanibel, which doesn’t exist anymore, and those characters, but I can’t do it.)
MomDoc
Congratulations! I will have to check this out! I love mysteries.
Betty
Congratulations. Happy to see Guinn getting on with her life.
JDNovus
@J.: Yeah, I’m a plotzer, myself.
Thanks for the answers!
J.
@MomDoc: That would be awesome! Thank you. :-)
J.
@Betty: Thank you! Me too. :-)