Spunky Author Duffy Brown Does Mystery Parties

All my life I thought launch was what those really smart rocket science people do to get something into space and never in all those years did I expect to be involved. Yet here I am dong a launch of my very own. Not that I’m putting a rocket in space...though right now that seems like a snap...but I’m launching a book.

What do you mean launch, I asked. The book comes out on a specific day, booksellers, B&N and Amazon put it up for sale, end of story. Done.

To launch my first cozy mystery, Iced Chiffon, I though it would be fun to do something different. I’ll have a mystery party at my house, I decided! I have the house, I like parties. A match made in heaven.

Sixty is a nice number and I can just buy one of those inter-active mystery party things online. Piece of cake.

You can see where this is going, can’t you. Murphy’s Law on steroids.

First off there are no mystery parties online for sixty that has everyone involved all the time. That means I have to write the mystery. And if people are coming to my house I have to feed them and drink them.

Thirty years ago I decided I wanted kids and my husband went along with it. That gave me four waiters and barkeeps for my party. It took me a week to write the party with characters and clues.

A few things I discovered along the way. The most important is the more alcohol, the better the party and my ability to write the mystery. The second is that your friends are there for fun more than finding out who-done-it. And did I mention the alcohol?

The theme was Roaring 20’s and Duffy’s Speakeasy. Lots of decorations online to buy and an easy theme

to dress in costume for and did I mention the alcohol? I divided the guests into families...Manicotti family, Ravioli family...you get the picture. I think I did this at night when hungry. Working in families made everyone pull their info and come up with the killer.

I’ve had three parties now and each time it gets better. If you’re a mystery author it’s a great gig...do it. If you’re a mystery reader get invited to one. If I do party four I’ll let you know. I’d love to have one at the Cincinnati conservatory with a Clue theme. You know, Miss Scarlett in the conservatory with the candlestick. That’s my dream. I’ll let you know when the invites go out.

So…what is the best party you’ve been to? What makes a party special? Got any suggestions if we go to the Conservatory? 

 I'll give away two Killer in Crinoline totes from the answers.

When Reagan Summerside is asked to make an emergency bowtie delivery to Magnolia Plantation for a wedding, she finds the groom face-down in five-tiers of icing and fondant, a cake knife in his back and her good friend and local UPS driver accused of the murder. Can Reagan find the real killer without winding up in the local swamp as alligator meat? Will Walker Boone, pain-in-the ass attorney and once-upon-a-time gang member, help her out or feed her to the alligators himself?

**Facedown in five-tiers of icing and fondant a dead groom leads to wedding chaos for the bride, the bff and the hotshot attorney. 

Duffy Brown

Berkley Prime Crime

Consignment: Murder series

-Iced Chiffon  Oct, '12

-Killer in Crinolines May '13

www.DuffyBrown.com

Spunky Author D.B. (Donna) McNicol - Motorcycler, Traveler, and Dog Owner

Donna McNicol

ABOUT DONNA

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Donna B. McNicol retired after 30+ years working in the IT industry. She spent many of those years writing technical documents and user instructions. In 1996 she tried moonlighting in freelance writing; she spent the next ten years writing for such online sites as The Mining Company, Suite101, BellaOnline and About.com as well as RV Companion magazine.

At age 55 she learned to ride a motorcycle, prompted by her husband who was battling head-neck cancer at the time. Motorcycling turned out to be the high point of the next few years. Widowed at 57, she spent the winter planning a once in a lifetime motorcycle trip. 

She decided to ride the 48 contiguous US states on her Harley-Davidson motorcycle, solo. Over five months and several separate trips she managed to ride through 42 states, covering over 27,000 miles. She also spent three weeks volunteering on the Blackfeet Nation Reservation in Browning, MT.

In 2007 she sold her home and belongings, bought a used Class C motorhome and became a full-time RVer. While traveling in Wyoming she met her current husband, Stu, who was recently widowed himself. 

Stu, Sadie and Donna McNicol

He was a full-time RVer and Harley rider. They currently live and travel full-time with their pup, Sadie, along with their two Harley-Davidson motorcycles in a 41' fifth wheel toy hauler trailer pulled by their medium duty Freightliner.

She started dabbling with fiction writing in 2012, found and fell in love with flash fiction. She has published several compilations of her flash fiction stories, two short stories and two novels. Her first book was a romance, Home Again, which continued the story she told in her short story, "Lost and Found". Her second novel, Not a Whisper, is the first in her cozy mystery series, The Klondike Mysteries, set in Pennsylvania. She plans to continue the Klondike Mystery stories this year as well as the first romance in a new trilogy.

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DONNA SPEAKS

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Retirement isn't for sissies, I have no idea how I got everything done when I worked and had children at home. Of course it may have to do with my motorcycle that begs to be ridden at any available opportunity. Or it may have to do with living and traveling in a 41' toy hauler fifth wheel so we can travel the country. Or maybe it's the annual cruise or trips to Disney with the grand kids. Quite possibly my starting to write fiction stories this past year could have tipped the scale.

Sixty-five outside but twenty-five inside, who is that gray haired lady in the mirror and did she get here? As I people watch, a common hobby of writers, I enjoy watching the older folks and their antics. See that old couple of there, walking hand in hand. Aren't they cute? Oh, look at those two dancing towards each other. Aren't they cute?

Well guess what. My husband and I have both been labeled as "cute", walking hand in hand during his rehab stint for double knee replacement. And we were labeled "cute" by the restaurant hostess as we came dancing out of the restrooms across from each other.

It seems I have become one of those little old ladies I love to observe. When did that happen? But I'm not too old to enjoy travel, riding my Harley-Davidson, playing with my silly Pit-Boxer, Sadie or just enjoying life.

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MY WRITING

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Home Again, a contemporary romance

When Chicago's city life takes its toll on single mom Sarah Davidson, she jumps at the chance to move back home, all the way to the boondocks of Kansas. Little did she know, the local Sheriff, handsome Carl Pierce, was making the same move from Tulsa. A tornado of events conspire against them, tamping the rising fire of passion. Can they beat the odds or will Sarah regret moving home again?

READER REVIEW:

"Well, you just got me in a whole lot of trouble. The dishes are still in the sink from last night 'cause I was reading your new book. You Go Girl!!! It is great. Your descriptions of the people made me think I was back in the Midwest in my "growing up" days. That might have been a made up town - but it sure sounded like my home town - right down to the diner on Main Street. Can't wait for your next one."

WHERE TO BUY:

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B00AMQ1IO4/iridemyown-20

http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/264663

http://www.allromanceebooks.com/product-homeagain-1036154-149.html

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COMING SOON

Not a Whisper [First book in the cozy mystery series, A Klondike Mystery]

http://www.facebook.com/KlondikeMysteries

Nestled away close to the New York border is an area of Pennsylvania that many miss and the residents are glad of that. But even in this idyllic setting in the middle of the Allegheny National Forest, mysteries abound. Murder, arson, kidnapping and more. Join our troop of quirky residents as they help solve each mystery.

See all of Donna McNicol's books at Amazon: http://amazon.com/author/donnabmcnicol

Blogs:

Writing [blog/website] -  http://donnamcnicol.com/author/

Personal/Travel - http://2takinga5th.com/

Route 66 Trip - http://route66in2011.blogspot.com/

Sadie Pup- http://sadiechats.blogspot.com

Future Cabin -  http://firelily.us