Blog Hop!

I’m taking part in a blog hop.  I was picked by Linda Wiken (aka Erika Chase) who can be found at http://www.erikachase.com and http://mysterymavencdn.blogspot.ca/ 

To find out who I’m tagging, read on.

And now for the questions I have been given.

Eva Gates

1)    What am I working on?  

I am now going through the editor’s edits for By Book or By Crook, the first in the Lighthouse Library Mystery Series.  This is something very new for me.  A new cozy series!  And I just love it.  The books are for Penguin Obsidian, and they will be published under my pen name, Eva Gates.  The series is set in a library in a lighthouse on the Outer Banks of North Carolina. After writing 16 books with more serious tones, all about human tragedy, broken families, injured war vets, and other not-fun things, to write a book just for fun is a real joy.

Once I finish the edits, then it’s on to the second book in the series.  I have a three book contract.

By Book or By Crook will be released on February 3^rd, 2014, and the second book (as yet unnamed), in August.

2)    How does my work differ from others of its genre?  

This is a very cozy series, and it is written specifically for those readers who love cozies. About the only way it differs from some others, is that I am trying to keep it funny.  If you are looking for a good laugh, along with an interesting location, fun characters, and an intelligent puzzle, please give it a try.  Oh, and the Outer Banks location. And the lighthouse!

3)    Why do I write what I do?  

I was ready for a change, and I was seriously considering giving up writing.  This new project has given me a renewed love of writing. I love the Constable Molly Smith books from Poisoned Pen, and they are doing reasonably well.  I really loved writing standalone gothic thrillers, but the latest, More than Sorrow, pretty much sunk without a trace.  The offer from Penguin (via my wonderful agent Kim Lionetti of Bookends) came at the perfect time.

4)    How does my writing process work?     

I am a total creature of routine.

I get up every morning, seven days a week.  I go to my main computer in my office, and read e-mails, read the papers online, spend a bit of time on Facebook or Twitter. 

Then it’s time to start to write.  I walk into the dining room and stand at my Netbook computer which is on the half-wall between the kitchen and the dining room and boot it up.  (In the summer I might sit outside on the deck) As I pass through the kitchen, I put one egg on to boil.

I always write, standing up, on the Netbook.  I read over everything I did the previous day, doing a light edit as I go.  I then take my egg into the study and eat it while checking email. 

Then back to the small computer for several writing hours, usually finishing around one.

And that’s pretty much it.  I can’t write in small chunks. I can’t write as the spirit moves me.

I have a new web site for the Eva Gates books: www.lighthouselibrarymysteries.com.  It’s still in development, but please have a peek. You can also find Eva on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/evagatesauthor

 Plus, of course, the main web page at www.vickidelany.com

I have tagged three of my favourite writers. They'll be answering the questions on their web pages next week. 

            1) Violette Malan lives in southeastern Ontario with her husband. People tend to ask her about the choreography of stripping – and she'll answer – but most of the time she's the author of the Dhulyn and Parno novels, and  the Mirror Lands novels, fantasies available from DAW.

You'll find her on Facebook, on Twitter, and check her website: www.violettemalan.com

2)   2)   Prince Edward County's Janet Kellough is the author of The Thaddeus Lewis Mysteries (Dundurn), history/mystery set in pre-Confederation Upper Canada, featuring a steely-eyed and stout-hearted "saddlebag preacher" as the hero.
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Thaddeus-Lewis-Mysteries-Janet-Kellough/190597476409?ref_type=bookmark

3)    3) Rick Blechta can be found at http://rickblechta.com/

A Visit to Trafalgar

As most readers of the Constable Molly Smith series know, the town of Trafaglar, B.C. is closely based on Nelson, B.C.  I love Nelson. It's a small, quirky, friendly town, smack dab in the centre of the BC wilderness. It's located in a valley, alongside a river, surrounded by mountains on all sides.  There is a certain Brigadoon quality to Nelson.  It is literally on the way to no where.  You have to be wanting to go there, to go there.

Outside Big Eddies

Street scene, with Fleures Des Menthe Restaurant patio on the right

A perfect setting, I thought, for a series of crime novels. And thus, Trafalgar was born.  Others seem to agree with me, as there are now several mystery novels set in some fictional version of Nelson.

I visited Nelson recently, and decided it would be fun to take pictures of the real places that feature in my fictional town.  I posted some last week, and here are a few more.

The French Bakery introduced in IN THE SHADOW OF THE GLACIER, and featured in all the other books when Molly Smith moves into the apartment above. 

Bar of the Hudson House Hotel.  Where Smith meets her childhood friend Nicky in AMONG THE DEPARTED 

The " Big Black Bridge "

Big Eddie's Coffee Emporium, site of many meetings.

The police station (of course)

A street scene. Picture taken from inside "George's Restaurant" (hard to see, but what makes this "Nelson" is the kids band playing across the street)

Yup, Castlegar really is known as Cancel-gar, as Smith tells Winters taking him to meet a flight in WINTER OF SECRETS

Testing, testing

I am testing an app to use Blogger on my iPad.  My flight from Castlegar to Vancouver was cancelled when the plane broke.  Good thing it broke on the ground.  Anyway, they were able to reschedule me via Calgary, but now have a lot of time to kill in Calgary. 

I had a great time in Nelson.  Let's see if we can post some pictures of the places in Nelson, that inspired the books. 

Lucky Smith's Garden:

Road to John and Eliza Winters' House

Adam Tocek's place is ready for winter

It's here! A COLD WHTE SUN

Even after thirteen published books, more than that if you include the different editions, there is little more exciting than receiving the author's copies of a new book.

A COLD WHITE SUN is here.  I think Poisoned Pen Press really outdid themselves with the cover of this one.  In the picture, of course all you can see is the image, but the feel and texture of it is also very appealing.

I also love the quote that Julia Spencer-Fleming was nice enough to provide. "Marvelous storytelling... I love this series!"

A Cold White Sun is the sixth Smith and Winters book.  In order, they are:
IN THE SHADOW OF THE GLACIER
VALLEY OF THE LOST
WINTER OF SECRETS
NEGATIVE IMAGE
AMONG THE DEPARTED
A COLD WHITE SUN

Release date is August 6th.  A Cold White Sun is now available for pre-order from your favourite bookstore as well as the usual online sources. E-books can not be pre-ordered ( I don't know why) but they will be ready on August 6.

Want to read the first chapter?  Click here.

Cutest Picture Ever?

I'm starting the sixth Smith and Winters book, still untitled. A woman is out walking her dog on Christmas morning. A shot rings out...

Norman, the police dog is called in and gets the scent. The chase is on.

To refresh my memory, I went to the RCMP police dog web page just to click on some pictures and read a bit about raising and training of these dogs.

And I found this:

Win a signed copy of Among the Departed

Haven't read Among the Departed, the fifth in the Constable Molly Smith series? Well, hasten over to Dru's fabulous blog and read all about a Day in the Life of Constable Molly Smith, and you can enter your name to win a signed hardcover book. http://notesfromme.wordpress.com/2011/08/24/a-day-in-the-life-of-molly-smith-by-vicki-delany/