Mystery Novels
My September reads.
All four were new-to-me authors and all four have deep cultural elements.
Two (Peters & Hirahara) were book club picks and the other two were recommended by my sister (Penny) and the other (Sepetys) by a friend, both of whom are librarians.
All were brilliant! I tried to rate them 1-4 but it’s impossible.
The Penny is first in a long series that I will continue enjoying one by one.
Highly recommend each of these! ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
My friend Carolyn lent me ‘I Must Betray You’ by Ruta Sepetys. A gripping tale based on surviving the brutal Ceausescu regime in Romania. A young man, Cristian, is an aspiring writer and poet. Life is a torment due to extreme state-sponsored poverty, excessive control, and fostered distrust of everyone one encounters. At his peril, Cristian chooses to listen to his conscience. Two-thirds in and already highly recommend it.
As an Indie author, reviews can be few and far between, so when one rolls in we celebrate! Glad you enjoyed it & thanks so much to my awesome readers!!
#amazon #swansong #indieauthor #thriller
Hello fellow readers & happy Sept 1st. In August, I finished writing the prequel rough draft (finally!) and managed to mark four books off the old tbr list.
I’ve read Jonathan Kellerman’s books over four decades and adore his MC. Alex Delaware, a child psychologist, helps his best friend, Lieutenant Milo Sturgis, solve murders. As a former psychologist, Kellerman knows his character. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Mad Honey is my first by Jodi Picoult (with a writing partner) and I happened to find it at the RR library. A single mom who makes her living as a beekeeper sees her life fall apart when her teenaged son is accused of a crime. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
When I want something light and funny I gravitate to the Stephanie Plum series by Janet Evanovich. Stephanie, the reluctant bail bondsman from New Jersey, always makes me laugh aloud along with her cohorts Lula, Morelli, Ranger and Grandma. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
The Frozen River by Ariel Lawhon is the Sept choice for book club so I needed to get on it. Picked it right up at the Eloy Library — Thanks, Jane! Yeah! Intense historical fiction set in late 18th century Maine about a midwife, her family, and her community as she uses her medical expertise to solve a crime. Very well written. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Now on to September!
A writer friend says the way to emerge from a bout of writer’s block is to write about it. I’m not sure about this theory, but I’m willing to give the remedy a try — so here goes.
We call it a case, a bout, a spell — as though the writer suffers from some ailment. I even used the word remedy. All I know is that a lack of motivation, almost an aversion, has for months plagued my desire to write. Oh my, another illness term.
I asked myself questions: Had I pushed too hard and for too long? Had health and emotional challenges caught up with me? Was the heat of an AZ summer becoming too much even though I’ve dealt with the seasonal inferno in the past? Who knows?!
I gave myself a hard time about this. What the hell is your problem anyway? I asked. Get over it! I could hear Matt, my editor, expressing his view that “you just gotta put your butt in the chair and do it!!” Ugh! My problem is not that my expectations are too high. I don’t have a problem with producing a crappy first draft. I no longer give in to early process pickiness. Clean up happens where it should, in subsequent drafts. A brilliant novelist — Hemingway or Steinbeck — someone, anyway — said all first drafts are shit and I believe it.
Last March I finished a “rough” draft of a memoir, my first venture into writing non-fiction. It took a lot out of me to write it and I was glad to finally ask a few trusted readers for feedback. Around the same time I started writing a prequel to my City Streets trilogy. The prequel is written in Leah’s voice. Leah is the troubled teen referred to in the title of the first book, Runaway.
Having written two sequels I can say that a prequel is a whole different thing. It’s like crawling under an existing foundation instead of adding on or building up or out. It’s a challenge. Were the themes of the two projects too much? Possibly. Was working on them at the same time too taxing? Maybe.
Okay. Enough. I’ll leave my effort in therapy for writer’s block right here. Thank you for hanging in there with me. I have put my butt in the chair a bit lately and seen glimpses of recovery. I’ll keep you posted.
I received this special gift twenty-five years ago this month. Judy, a teaching partner of mine, made it for me as we completed our first year in the classroom together. I remember the year well because I was a fish out of water for nine months.
I hadn’t planned on serving preschool children directly. My training and my passion had been in family services, but I signed on for my agency’s reorganization. After two years of ECE training, I earned a CDA (Child Development Associate) certificate to complement my degree in Social Sciences. Into the classroom I went.
Along with my young friends I learned a lot: That young children do best academically when they trust you and are engaged, that patience and humor are helpful graces, especially when you grant them to yourself. I discovered that every child learns in their own fashion and at their individual rate and that’s why children don’t fail programs; programs fail children.
Most important, I learned that if we want to assist families, the best plan is to provide services for their children because they will be most appreciated by struggling parents.
After three years I accepted a position outside the classroom and I know I was better prepared because of the time I spent as a teacher. Maybe I was lucky, but my little friends were great instructors.
Hello to you & I have a request: If you’ve read one (or more) of my books, please take a few moments to post a review on Amazon. It’s a simple process and makes all the difference in marketing for an indie author like me. Reviews can be just a sentence or two plus your honest rating.
*Search “books by Susanne Perry” on Amazon
*Choose the book you want to review & click on the rating stars
*Scroll down to “Write a Review”
*Add your review & a rating
It’s that simple & much appreciated!
If you are a Goodreads user (Amazon’s reader platform) you can post reviews there as well.
Thank you SO much!
If Freud met the Easter Bunny
Marketing is not my favorite activity but as an independent (self-employed) author, it’s a necessary activity. No laughing at my feeble attempt at a selfie. On second thought, go ahead and chuckle.
Big thanks to my step-daughter, Lacey — a marketing pro with mega experience — for this logo tee shirt and the display banner. I wanted the logo from my business cards on both and Lacey made it work. Talent! I head to WA next month to visit family and have a book event scheduled. Will be so fun to sport my logo shirt and use the banner. Thanks, Lacey!
Huge thanks to all who visited me at Market Daze in Tucson last Saturday. Was great to meet new readers and enjoy some great conversations.
The highlight of the day — by far — happened after a couple stopped by my table. We talked about my books. Nice people. He asked for a business card. She went to check out other vendors while he stayed outside with their dog, Scooter, a sweet little pup.
There were a few people at my table, but when the crowd cleared, he stepped forward. “I read your book,” he told me. “Really?!” I asked, knowing that many books are titled ‘Swan Song’. “Oh, yeah. That’s the one,” he says. “About the gal, Mara, that’s dying of cancer.”
“Yep that’s the one!” I said. Is this really happening? I thought.
“I gotta tell you,” he says. “I did some stupid stuff, really stupid, ended up in jail in California for 16 months. Someone donated your book to the prison library. I read it. It took me out of that awful place where I was. I can’t thank you enough.”
I was so touched. As an author, we can never doubt that our work will impact someone and often when they need it most.
Susanne Perry Publishing 