Shaded Light nominated for CLAO “One Book/One Conference”

Shaded Light has been nominated for the Church Library Association of Ontario’s "One Book/ One Conference" discussion, which will be held at their Fall Conference on October 3rd at Tyndale University and Seminary in Toronto. 

There will be a discussion time focused on one book, by a Canadian author, that all participants are to have read prior to the conference.

See the complete list of books.

More details about the conference.

I’m honoured to have two of my books included. And delighted that CLAO has chosen to promote Canadian authors in this way. We’re all winners!

Why I give out parasols to promote Shaded Light

They all said I needed an advertising gimmick of some sort to give out at mystery conventions. Some people give out poker chips, wedding rings, rubber bands, tea bags, peanut butter cups, lollipops – you name it, it’s been used.

So – what could I use for Shaded Light ? I thought of a light bulb – nope, too easy to break! I thought of sunglasses – way too expensive. I thought of – a lot of different things. But none of them worked. And then it occurred to me – tiny parasols (or if you prefer, umbrellas)!

My top 10 reasons for using parasols to promote Shaded Light

10. Parasols are used to shade you from the light. Get it? Shaded Light. Duh.

9. The murder takes place in a Japanese garden – and the parasols are clearly oriental-looking.

8. There are umbrellas on the patio tables in the book.

7. A lot of drinks are served in the book. Some of them might have had parasols.

6. Since small children love the parasols, you can take them home for your kids so you have something when they ask, "What did you bring me?"

5. You can make yourself a drink, stick the parasol in it, and immediately feel great.

4. I found a really fabulous parasol/umbrella that made me think of mysteries and Shaded Light in particular, and I needed an excuse to use it.

3. If it’s really hot, you might use the parasol as a miniature fan to get some breeze going.

2. You can put your heels together and hold the parasol over your head while pretending to be Mary Poppins.

1. You can hold the parasol with one hand and tap dance while warbling "Singing in the Rain."

From my son #3:

"Mom thought we had nothing better to do than to snip the pointy ends off those little sticks!" 

Tags: advertising a book, book promotion, mystery book promotion, Shaded Light

How I came to write Shaded Light

I suppose every writer likes to talk about how he or she wrote the "first one."

Shaded Light wasn’t my first published book, but it was my first mystery. And it took a lot of sweat, and a lot of time.

I believe I’ve loved mysteries for as long as I can remember. When I was young, one of my very favorite games was, "How many marbles are in my hand?" On Sunday afternoons when my parents and I visited with my Grandmother and my Aunt Margaret and Uncle Albert. Uncle Albert and I played Chinese Checkers. After he got tired of letting me win, he would take a bunch of marbles, arrange some of them in his hands, and shake his hands. I would have to guess how many marbles he had. Of course he would try to trick me by keeping all the marbles from hitting the others or going fast so a few sounded like more. I loved trying to guess the right number.

And I went right on loving anything that involved having to follow clues and discover the "truth." Of course, I read a ton of mysteries! That’s the background.   The day after Christmas, 1982, I was reading a mystery I had picked up at the library. It was a dud. I threw it to the (carpeted) floor, and began complaining. In the course of my complaints, I said, "I could do better than this."

My helpful husband said, "So, why don’t you then?"

I took the challenge and spent the Christmas holidays writing (in longhand). Dreaming up a plot wasn’t difficult. Everywhere I go, I am always thinking, "This would be a good spot to find a body." I brainstormed and made a list. Then I remembered the garden. Some years earlier, we’d been walking in a beautiful Japanese garden in Vancouver, and as we came around a corner, I saw a beautifully shaped bush and the thought that jumped into my mind was, "That would be a great place to see two feet sticking out." (No, it wouldn’t really – trust me – but writers tend to have weird thoughts.) So now I remembered the garden and decided to use it for the setting.

But then I needed a reason for people to go to the garden, and a victim, and detectives. So, I decided first on a bystander character. In this case, it turned out to be Lorry. Then I needed a guy or two (to get a little romance in) and chose Nick and Kendall (their names were different to start with). We needed a location, so I gave Kendall a family and made his dad a lawyer, and gave them a new estate with a Japanese garden – and then it just started to flow.

So I wrote a first draft from Lorry’s point of view. But I realized there was a problem. Having a bystander’s point of view was too limiting. So I decided I should try writing it from the point of view of the detective.

I decided to go with police people because I likely know more about them than I do PIs. Which isn’t a whole lot. But I found all kinds of books on homicides and forensics, and so on.. And later I talked to some real police people.

Now I had to choose my own personal police people. I decided I wanted to have two people because that allows for more discussion and arguing and all that good stuff. Enter Manziuk and Ryan. I had them both the moment I started to put something on paper. They just seemed to flow, as thought they were real people. I’ve known several very "big" men, and always felt a little intimidated when they looked "down" on me. And I have a friend who is a little like Jacquie – prone to jump in where angels wouldn’t go. I could see Paul and Jacquie arguing with each other, her making up in energy what she lacked in size, him feeling if she would just take it slower and listen, it would all work out. So, I wrote another draft using the police point of view.

Then Christmas holidays ended and I was back to homeschooling.

For almost 10 years, I left my work, even then called Shaded Light, in a filing cabinet. In 1991, I pulled it out and read it. Not bad. I began to work on it, this time combining the two viewpoints and adding others.

When I had the first third of the book written, I took it with me to a writer’s conference and found an editor who liked it. But he couldn’t’ convince his publishing company to go with it. He did, however, give me some good suggestions to make the book stronger.

I continued to work on it.

Then, in 1998, a writer friend suggested I try St Kitts. They read it and made some suggestions. I followed most of their suggestions. And they decided to publish the book, even keeping my title.

So, 18 years after I first started the book, it was finally in print! Then the question was, "How long will it take me to write the sequel?"

Tags: how long to write a book, Shaded Light, writing a mystery, writing a novel, your first book

Glitter of Diamonds review

It’s always nice to have Google tell you there’s a new link with your name on it, and to discover that there’s a new review posted for one of your books.

This one is about Glitter of Diamonds.

You can read it here in the Seattle Examiner.

Actually, Glitter of Diamonds was probably the most fun to write of any of my books thus far. I do like baseball.