My astologer friend says Venus is in retrograde

Two week in a row - no guest. Last week it was a glitch. This week it was an illness. Lyn Hammond-Gray told me that Venus was in retrograde, and Venus rules technological stuff. Makes sense. Kathi Moon said I ought to pre-record every single show so this never happens again. My daughter emailed me half way through the show and asked what was going on.

I had so been looking forward to interviewing Jacqueline Winspear. She and I have emailed back and forth, and finally agreed that sometime this coming fall would be best. Sign up to receive my newsletter on my website, and you'll be [among] the first to know when she's scheduled. In the meantime, I'm going to see her healthy as can be.

Libby Fischer Hellmann - 03/06/09

One of the challenges of hosting Mystery Matters has been to read, read, read. I committed to myself, the station, and the people I interview that I would read at least three books by each author I interview. In some cases I've already read a lot more than that, but many of the people I've invited to be on Mystery Matters are known to me only by reputation or by personal recommendation.



Such was the case with Libby Fischer Hellmann. I found her in the "Books in Print" listing on the Sisters in Crime website http://www.sistersincrime.org/. Then I checked with my friendly Gwinnett County librarian, who waxed enthusiastic. Finally I browsed at one of my favorite book stores, The Book Nook in East Ellijay, GA.



I ask each author I interview to send me a copy of the book they want to discuss (usually it's their latest one), but I figure it's up to me to get the rest. I'm the kind who will take money out of my monthly food budget to buy a good book.



I write cozy mysteries - but I'm beginning to see how compelling a heartfelt thriller can be. Libby's characters - Ellie Foreman and private investigator Georgia Davis - mirror enough of me to pull me into the story. Have I ever shot at anyone? No. Have I ever wanted to? Well . . .



Libby's forthright discussion of her fears around her daughter's teenage years touched a deep chord within me, and I was so caught up in our discussion (including the one off-mike during the breaks) that I completely missed a cue. I need to go to the archive and listen to the show to be sure I didn't say anything embarrassing! It's live radio for sure.

Mark Schweizer - Feb 27, 2009

My gosh, I laughed through the whole interview on Mystery Matters this morning. In my work as an editor, I've found that really bad writing is never funny; it's usually pathetic. It takes a truly good writer, therefore, to be able to write bad prose that is hilarious. And Mark Schweizer is that kind of good writer, weaving the bad writing of a police-chief/organist wanna-be-writer with the hilarious doings of a small North Carolina town in his "liturgical mysteries."

One example,:Mark has Hayden Konig (his main character) write: "...her voice was as husky as last year's Iditarod."

Mark did pretty well in our conversation, considering that he spent 22 hours yesterday returning to Kentucky from a business trip in England. Maybe jet lag hadn't hit yet. I had hoped to ask him about his journey during the interview, but we spent so much time laughing, I never got around to that particular question.

Kathi Moon emailed in from Rochester NY to ask if he'd ever done stand-up comedy. "No," he said, "only in my regular job as a choir director."

Be sure you check out the Mystery Matters archives on http://www.tinyurl.com/a2f3s6 and hear Mark talk about Archimedes the owl, the helium balloons shaped like naked women, and his mid-life crisis Jeep story. It's an hour of fun. And look up his website www.sjmpbooks.com

Patricia Sprinkle - February 20, 2009

Finally! I'm caught up with my blog entries. From now on I'll post once a week to give you a bit of behind-the-scenes info about each of my shows on Mystery Matters. I hope you'll go to my host web page frequently to listen to the archived shows www.tinyurl.com/a2f3s6

Two days before the show was due to broadcast live, Patricia Sprinkle called me and tested my new-found determination not to worry about things that hadn't even happened yet (see my blog entry about Julia Spencer-Fleming's February 6th show). Patti said that she needed to leave early on Friday morning to attend a 100th birthday party for a relative who lived in another state.

Thank goodness for Atlanta rush-hour traffic - I never thought I'd make such a statement! Patti and her family decided that leaving after the rush hour would make more sense than leaving at 8 a.m. So, as soon as Ruben gave us the all-clear at the end of the show on Friday, Patti said a quick goodbye and headed out with her family.

Patti's a former national president of Sisters in Crime. That wonderful organization is open to anyone who's interested in mysteries - readers, librarians, writers, bookstore owners. Its purpose is to level the playing field so that women, who write more than 50% of published mysteries, can begin to get a proportionate number of reviews.

I'll be back next week with another post. Thanks for reading!

Jean Keating - Feb. 13, 2009

If you've ever read my books or looked at my website or met me at a book or networking event, you'll know that I'm a cat person. I like dogs, as long as they're well-behaved and they belong to somebody else and they don't drool on me. But I am a confirmed cat person.

Jean Keating, though, has just about convinced me that I need to make an effort to meet the tiny show dogs called Papillons. Jean's books have taught me so much about these little butterfly dogs of the show dog circuit.

I met Jean several years about when we were both presenting at the Cape Fear Crime Festival in Wilmington, North Carolina. One of her Papillons is now trained as a hearing-assist dog, so she takes the dog with her to booksignings and conferences. I can't wait to meet him at the next Book 'Em Foundation event!

Mark Kearney - Jan. 30, 2009

My friend and fellow mystery writer Trish Terrell, who writes as p.m. terrell, suggested months ago, when I first came up with the idea of Mystery Matters, that I call Mark Kearney, a police officer in Waynesboro VA. The two of them co-founded The Book 'Em Foundation, and Mark had recently written his first mystery.

Of all the people who ended up on the Mystery Matters schedule, I have to admit that I was the most nervous about interviewing Mark. One reason is that just the title of his book, Twisted Obsession, scared the you-know-what right out of me. I'd made a commitment to read what my guests had written, so I could ask intelligent questions, but I was not looking forward to being terrified. Instead, I found that the book presented the case of a cop gone bad in a way that, while it gave me pause to wonder, did not result in too many sleepless nights.

And the conversation with Mark was a delight. A listener emailed the question: "If your children said they wanted to follow your steps into police work, what would you tell them?" What a wonderful question followed by an amazingly wonderful answer. You simply have to listen to his thoughtful recommendations that started with finish school and read, read, read.

Jaclyn Weldon White - January 16, 2009

Show number three turned out to be the smoothest so far. I began to relax into the format somewhat and trust that a good conversation was more important than getting through a list of proposed questions.

I'm not interested in tripping anyone up. I do send a list of proposed questions to the author ahead of time, so they can correct any misconceptions I may have. Jackie White was most gracious about letting me know where she wanted the interview to go, but also to assure me that she was an old hand at interviews and wouldn't be thrown off-stride if I popped up with an unexpected question. Of course, most of the writers I'll be talking with are pros at this anyway, but it's comforting to know they won't hate me if I come up with something off-the-wall.

I do so appreciate the listeners who've emailed questions during the show or ahead of time.