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Writer in the Garret

~ A writer living one word at a time

Writer in the Garret

Category Archives: Mysteries

Ereader News Today features…

11 Wednesday Mar 2015

Posted by Yvonne Montgomery in e-books, Mysteries, Wisdom Court

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shadows

Edge of the Shadow at 99 cents. Whoot! One of the biggie ebook promoters has EOS in the spotlight, thanks to the wonderful people at ePublishing Works!

Here’s your chance to buy my brilliant ghost story for not much and to read it in anticipation of the second installment, A Signal Shown. The books are categorized as horror, but they’re more paranormal mystery, and who doesn’t enjoy that?

I’m working away on the third Wisdom Court book,  All In Bad Time and scaring myself as I write. As I sit in my garret, the sounds in our old house are more noticeable when I’m describing a spirit desperate to communicate with one of the characters. A creak of the stair or a rattle from one of the lower floors incites an extra shiver, and I glance over my shoulder, wondering if that shadow behind me has moved since the last time I looked.

Do yourself a favor and sign up for Ereader News Today.   ereadernewstoday.com

You’ll be introduced to new books in all kinds of categories, delivered to your email address each day. Happy reading!9781614176459

 

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You know those words I was talking about…?

06 Thursday Nov 2014

Posted by Yvonne Montgomery in Ghosts, Gothic, Hauntings, Mysteries, Wisdom Court, Writing

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plot elements, Writing

Gentle readers, today I’ve been in a swirl of words, not all of them having to do with NaNoWriMo. Not only am I writing Wisdom Court Book 3, All In Bad Time, but I’m also marketing and publicizing the first two Wisdom Court Books: Edge of the Shadow, and A Signal Shown. (This while falling short in the promotion of my two mysteries, Scavenger Hunt, and Obstacle Course. My bad.)

This is the day Edge of the Shadow has been featured on EReader News Today, and I’ve been sharing that fact through Twitter, Facebook, Linkedin. Once again I’ve noted that my Wisdom Court books carry a lot of labels. There are a lot of different elements in my books and they come from different genres.

All of the books I’ve written have been categorized as cross-genre. That means several things, some complimentary, some not. Historically books have been sold by genre, meaning bookshelf space given to them is ideally in a specific bookstore location. Mysteries with mysteries, romances with romances, paranormal with paranormal, etc. It gets murkier with mainstream novels, which get away with including various aspects under the umbrella of mainstream. Whatever that means.

The stories I like to tell myself involve more than one template. In the case of the Wisdom Court books the two things that intrigued me in the initial phases were first, the idea of a woman getting what she’d always wanted most, the chance to be totally supported for a year while she worked to make her biggest dream come true. Second, to observe the relationship among the five or six women living at Wisdom Court while they all got to be stars. The protagonist meets a lovely man. So, women’s fiction with an element of romance.

But then I began to wonder about paranormal events getting in the way of such an idyllic set-up. A problem that must be solved. Mystery, right? My belief that our memories and regrets are like ghosts haunting us as we age had me wanting those women forced to deal with scary supernatural stuff while they were supposed to be setting the world on fire during their year at Wisdom Court. Paranormal, supernatural, Gothic, horror, ghost story.

Thanks to the rise of independent publishing, I’ve been able to get the Wisdom Court books into print (POD) and on-line as ebooks. But as for promoting them, the old rules apply, because readers want to read what they like. So here’s my challenge to those of you who’ve read Edge of the Shadow and/or A Signal Shown. How would you describe them? How many genres would you have to mention to let readers know what they’re getting? I’d really be interested in having you weigh in. Thanks.

 

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Guilty Pleasures

15 Friday Aug 2014

Posted by Yvonne Montgomery in Books I like, Mysteries, Writing

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detective fiction, Writing

Here’s a reblog of a lovely tribute to one of my favorite authors, Lawrence Block and his greatest character, Matthew Scudder.

 

Guilty Pleasures.

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Why I love haunted houses, and, really, aren’t they all?

05 Monday Aug 2013

Posted by Yvonne Montgomery in Ghosts, Hauntings, Mysteries

≈ 2 Comments

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Childhood, corners, shadows, Spaces

552050_340069802746868_1757767987_nMy dad was a bricklayer, and during my childhood our family lived in a total of three houses he built at the edge of Boulder. Early on I became aware of how houses were made, how the inner wooden skeleton was covered inside by plaster and the outside with brick, how the plywood floors had surfaces of tongue-in-groove oak or asphalt tile or linoleum. Windows were finished with frames and sills, the doors lintels. Wires and pipes and vents and  switches were set into the spaces left for them. Eventually a brand new structure was the result, and soon the smells of wood and concrete, of paint and newly-laid carpet melded into the scent of home.

Just because I’d seen those corners created didn’t mean I was okay with what I feared might live in them. My acute peripheral vision and sharp hearing had me starting at the least motion and softest noise. And while I knew about the wood and brick and wires, I wasn’t as clear about the sounds those materials made when the lights went out. Boards creaked and windows vibrated.  Even new pipes could whine. The sound of tiny feet clicking across the floor was, I later realized, the ticking of the furnace vents as they heated. But, huddling under my blankets, I imagined small, vicious creatures beneath my bed and knew if I let even a finger extend past the edge of the mattress, they would grab me and haul me far away.

I smile now at some of the kid books I read back then, but a few of them had real power when it was dark and the images they’d evoked in my mind came out to play.  Television became an influence, and some of the fears of childhood were enriched by depictions of the evil people commit against each other, fictional and real.  It didn’t help that my parents let me watch the Alfred Hitchcock Hour. Or that my mom dropped my cousin and me off at the movies when we were twelve.  The feature was Psycho. Yes, I am twisted.

I live in a house built in 1909. It has three stories and plenty of odd corners and strange sounds. Over the years we’ve lived here, I’ve grown accustomed to the nooks and crannies–cleaning once in a while will eventually calm the jitters. When I dream, it is of the house my father built for us the year I turned eleven. A modest brick ranch house on an acre of land beside a stream, it was the place he and my mother loved best. It is where they lived until their end, and if it haunts me it’s more because of their deaths than their lives.  Old age and illness are far more frightening than those little creatures under my bed.

I continue to connect with the frightened child when I see a haunted house movie. (Next time I’ll write about the latest, The Conjuring.) The house, the home, the enclosed spaces where we spend our lives are haunted with our memories, our fears and triumphs, our most primitive beginnings. I’ve never made friends with the shadows, those vital shadows that feed my writing.

(Image from Spooky Places.)

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Here they are–and by that I mean at Amazon.com–at last

07 Friday Jun 2013

Posted by Yvonne Montgomery in e-books, Finny Aletter, Murder, Mysteries, Yvonne Montgomery mysteries

≈ 6 Comments

Tags

amateur detective, Denver mysteries, ebooks

Book One

Greetings, gentle readers.  As promised, my two mysteries, Scavenger Hunt and Obstacle Course, are now available at the Kindle Books section of Amazon.com.  And if i can figure out how to do it, I’ll show you the covers … Look!  I figured out how to do it!

These are the first books I published, set in the Capitol Hill section of Denver, starring Finny Aletter, a stockbroker who’s decided to take the carpentry skills she’s acquired while restoring her own century-old house and use them to build a new career for herself.  Before she can exit gracefully, her boss and former lover is murdered, and Finny finds herself at the top of the suspects list.  If she can’t convince Denver Police Detective Chris Barelli she’s innocent, she’ll never get to find out if it’s fear or attraction making her heart beat faster whenever he shows up.  And if she can’t discover if a rumored manuscript actually exists, she’ll never escape the world of scavengers.

Obstacle Course finds Finny launching her her house restoration career at a chi-chi party among Denver’s upper-crust but the celebration turns grim when a controversial judge is murdered.  Finny puts carpentry aside for detection when her patron and friend, Twee Garrett, becomes the prime suspect.  Finny’s introduction to the Denver social whirl becomes a fight for survival as she navigates the roadblocks of secrets and lies between her and the truth.

I had fun going through the books again, and I hope you will, too.  If you’d be kind enough to review them, I’ll love you forever.  The books will be coming out at BN, iBooks, and Kobo, as well as Sony, Ingram, and Overdrive over the next couple of months.

Book TwoClick the pictures and see what happens!

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Okay, so we’ll skip right over November…

30 Friday Nov 2012

Posted by Yvonne Montgomery in e-books, Finny Aletter, Mysteries, Technology and Writing, Yvonne Montgomery mysteries

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Avoiding writing, writing process

Although it made me very happy.

I’ve been busy-busy reviewing the e-formatted manuscript of my first mystery, Scavengers.  Thanks to the wonderful work of Nina Paules of eBook Prep, thiswas not an ordeal.  Since I always have to be dragged kicking and screaming into the next new thing, at least technologically speaking, I did whimper a bit and had to be sweet-talked into opening the files, but it all worked out.  And soon, gentle readers, my first foray into mysteries will be available at various venues.  My second mystery, Obstacle Course, will be next.  More about this later.

I’m also very near the point of sending off queries again for my current work, Edge of the Shadow, the first of the Wisdom Court paranormal novels.  Several good souls have read the manuscript, made corrections & suggestions, which I’ve noted and included.  I’ve almost finished the final nit-picky part and am printing it out, so it won’t be long.  It’s my goal to then get back to the second Wisdom Court novel, A Signal Shown, and finish it.  That won’t happen before the end of the year, but that’s okay.

I told you I’ve been busy-busy.  And now it’s time to hunt for a recipe for gluten-free fruit cake.  I am one of the few hardy souls who love fruit cake.  And now I can’t eat the real McCoy.  So, since last year’s recipe was a disappointment, I’ll try again.  Soon, so I’ll have time to soak it with brandy.  Or maybe I’ll just drink the brandy, and then try the fruit cake.  It’ll work.

Cheers!

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Moving at the speed of tectonic plates

15 Monday Oct 2012

Posted by Yvonne Montgomery in e-books, Mysteries, Writing, Yvonne Montgomery mysteries

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

Character, RMFW, Spock, writers conference

It’s been too long since I’ve posted, but that’s because things have been moving along.  I’ve actually begun the process toward digitizing my mysteries, Scavengers and Obstacle Course.  I’ve sent money and everything.  It should take about three weeks and a little longer for the second, and then I’ll start through the learning curve of getting them both up on sites, such as Amazon and Barnes & Noble.

I’ve also decided to make one more attempt to get my first Wisdom Court book, Edge of the Shadow, in front of a publisher.  I’d just about decided to self-publish, but after the excellent panels at the Rocky Mountain Fiction Writers Colorado Gold Conference, I thought that, before I start my own business, which is what self-publishing would be, I’ll give it another shot.  Writing time is at a premium anyway without adding more stuff I’d rather someone else do.  Like publish my book(s).   So, into the breach, my hearties, more polishing, queries, synopses–the activities that build my character (no, not characters, character.)  Have I mentioned how many additions I have on the structure that is my character?  I’ll write a tone poem about it some day.

As for now, since I’m getting sleepy, I will send my best hopes to all you writers out there.  May your manuscripts glow with the care you’ve given them, may agents and publishers wonder where you’ve been all their lives.  As a great writer once said, “Live long and prosper.” Surely Spock wrote as well as he did everything else.  (Ack, I’m trying to get my fingers to separate properly.  Oh, the hell with it.)

Good night.

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Once upon a time…

02 Thursday Aug 2012

Posted by Yvonne Montgomery in e-books, Finny Aletter, Life, Murder, Mysteries, Writing

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I wrote two books about Finny Aletter.  A Denver stockbroker, she decided to give up an exciting life of money and trading and living on the edge to rehab old houses.  Yeah, it was the eighties, and she was burned out.  Time for a hands-on job, time for simplicity she could get her mind around.  But something happened, and the more basic life she craved was complicated by murder.

I’ve begun the process of formatting my two Finny Aletter mysteries for publication on-line, which will take a bit of time, so I thought I’d introduce her to you, my charming audience.  I still walk by her house a couple of times a week, and I’m waiting to hear what she’s up to these days.  (Her house was modeled on a gingerbread-trimmed three-story beauty I toured with a friend back in the day.)

Finny was a parallel image–of sorts–to my own life.  After earning my B.A. in English Lit. (Go, Buffs!) I worked with several Law Enforcement Assistance Administration anti-crime programs, including one of Denver’s youth services bureaus, designed to divert juvenile offenders from the justice system.  (I swear to God, you can do anything with an English Lit. degree.)  After a couple of years, my husband & I wanted to reproduce our glorious genes & I left juvenile crime to raise my own little potential criminals.  I went from fighting crime–so I wrote grants and reports, it counts–to voluntarily becoming a domestic.

We lived–and continue to live–in a century-plus-old house, Victoria Turtleshell, and over the years we’ve repaired, renovated, and sobbed quietly in corners over never-ending maintenance.  I’d done my research on rehabbing.  And, having chosen to be a stay-at-home mom, I’d discovered that I had no standing in our society.  At parties, when asked what I did for a living, a truthful answer produced glazed eyes and fellow guests wandered away.  In spite of my sparkling personality!  I began to lie.  “I’m a brain surgeon,” I’d say, then sneer at the lawyer-therapist-designer who’d asked and made MY eyes glaze, whereupon I’d stagger away, since it’s hard as hell to see where you’re going when your eyes are glazed.

Soon I grew weary of such games.  I’d already experienced the epiphany every would-be writer goes through, that fatal moment when one sets down an unsatisfactory book and proclaims, “I can do better than THAT.”  Clearly, it was time to prove it.  And, my character could leave a somewhat glamorous life in order to join the eighties return to the Arts and Crafts movement, or whatever they were calling it.  She, too, would go through the angst of trading one world for another.  More importantly, when people asked me my profession, I could say, “I’m a writer.”  No glazed eyes after a statement like that.  No, eyes sparkled as eighty-five percent of those who asked wanted to tell me about the books they would write someday when they had time.  The other fifteen percent wanted to know where I got my ideas.  Alas, it took a long time to invent an answer: The Idea Store.

I will draw a curtain over the years that followed, at least for now.  (Writers will use anything as grist for the mill, but I’m too short on time today to rake up what can only be called an eccentric adventure in getting published.  And in a decent mood, which wouldn’t last.)

Finny came into being and eventually starred in her own books.  Only two, but two is a plural.

And that, dear readers, is where we stop for today.

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Wisdom Court Series

ghost, ghosts, ghost story, thriller, metaphysics, supernatural, women, dreams, accomplishments, opportunities, romance, friendship, dachshund, Boulder, Colorado, Victorian, shadows, creepy, shivers, book, good read,
ghost, ghosts, ghost story, thriller, metaphysics, supernatural, women, dreams, accomplishments, opportunities, romance, friendship, dachshund, Boulder, Colorado, Victorian, shadows, creepy, shivers,

Finny Mysteries

Mystery, women, murder, detective, amateur detective, romance, sexy cop, Denver, capitol hill, thrills, strong women, clues,
Mystery, women, murder, detective, amateur detective, romance, sexy cop, Denver, capitol hill, thrills, strong women, clues,

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