I’m working on the sequel to Brown, a mystery novel. Have 59 pages finished, or mostly finished. It’s going slowly this time, although frankly, I don’t remember how long it took me to write Brown, though I could look it up. Critique group today really liked Chapter 6.

And I had a reader really like (with some very specific and helpful exceptions) the audio version of The Goodall Mutiny. The narration of those three books (on Audible) by Alexandra Haag is remarkable. Sometimes she sent chills down my spine, especially with the last book The Goodall Marauders.

May do a omnibus version of this space opera. I’m giving it a lot of thought.

I’ve been reading science fiction short stories, and reading science fiction short stories, etc, for it seems like forever. Most of them are excellent. But I prefer novels. I am, however, bound and determined to write some excellent sf stories myself this year. Mystery shorts too.

Here’s a photo of one of my cats. 

Merry Christmas!

WHAT I’VE READ SINCE LAST TIME: Peach Clobbered by Anna Gerard.  

Don’t know ILL MET BY MOONLIGHT? Here’s a link to a fantastic review. https://audiobookempire.com/ill-met-by-moonlight-by-gretchen-rix/

Writers. Do you ever wonder what happens to the bookmarks we distribute to other writers, and readers? Sure, some of them make it home with them and are used as bookmarks. But probably not in your book. Most probably end up in the trash.

I made a promise to myself at Bouchercon 2019 to do something for you. I looked up every author who gave me a bookmark or other swag, and made a list. I have the original list saved for later. On it I’ve made comments based on the first paragraph of every book. I’ve already bought three of the books on this list. Bet I buy a few more over the next few years.

My private list contains notes about whether I might like the book or not. Don’t want to influence anyone away from a book they might enjoy, so I edited my comments out.

So here we go:

Hank Phillippi Ryan, Trust Me. Tori Eldridge, The Ninja Daughter. Lauri Broadbent, Images. Barbara Schlichting, The Broken Circle. Patricia Shanae Smith, Remember. Carl Vonderau, Murderabilia. Grace Topping, Staging Is Murder. Kaye George, Choke.

Kathy Waller, Stabbed. Anna Gerard, Peach Clobbered. Catherine Bruns, Penne Dreadful. Tina Kashian, On The Lamb. Paula Munier, Blind Search. Sherry Knowlton, Dead of Spring. Mark Bergin, Apprension.Connie Berry, A Dream of Death.

Christin Brecher, Murder’s No Votive Confidence. Johnathan Brown, The Big Crescendo. Kelsey Rae Dimberg, Girl in the Rearview Mirror. Heather Harper Ellett, Ain’t Nobody Nobody. James O’Keefe, Unto Madness. Layne Fargo, Temper. Shaun Hamill, A Cosmology of Monsters.

John A. Hoda, Odessa on the Delaware. R.J. Jacobs, And Then You Were Gone.Sara E. Johnson, Molten Mud Murder. Angel Kim, Miracle Creek.Vanessa Lillie, Little Voices. Dolores Marone, Status Missing. John McMahon, The Good Detective.

Rachel Neuburger Reynolds, Drowning Lessons. August Norman, Come and Get Me. Stephanie Perkins, Murder Once Removed. Tracey S. Phillips, Best Kept Secrets. Dea Poirier, Next Girl to Die. Joseph Schneider, One Day You’ll Burn. Rick Treon, Deep Background. Scott Von Duviak, Charlesgate Confidential. John Vercher, Three-Fifths.

Margaret Mizushima, The Timber Creek K-9 Mysteries. Lexann Beornet, Three Second Escape. Connie Berry, A Legacy of Murder. Leigh Perry, The Skeleton Makes a Friend.Susan D. Peters, The Iron Collar. Debra Goldstein, One Taste Too Many. Mary Lawrence, The Alchemist of Lost Souls.

Travis Richardson, Bloodshot and Bruised. Matt Coyle, Wrong Light. Margaret Dumas, Murder in the Balcony. Debbie Herbert, Unmasking the Shadow Man. Michael Stanley, A Carrion Death. Pricilla Paton, Where Privacy Dies.Jane Suen, Murder Creek.

James L’Etoile, Bury the Past. Frank Zafiro, Waist Deep. Kathleen Barber, Truth Be Told. Triss Stein, Brooklyn Legacies. Wendall Thomas, Drowned Under. Tosca Lee, The Line Between. Vivian Barz, Forgotten Bones. Jo Perry, Dead Is Better. D.R. Ransdell, Mariachi Meddler.

Andy Hayes, Fourth Down and Out. Dian S. S. Stuckhart, Fool’s Moon. Amy Gentry, Good As Gone. Amy Stewart, Girl Waits With Gun. Kathleen Barber, Follow Me. John Copenhaver, Dodging and Burning. Suzanne Trauth, Show Time.

Kelly Brakenhoff, Death by Dissertation. Jennifer Lewis Williams, A Murder Among Friends. Roberta Rogow, Lorr and Disorder. David M. Salkin, The Team. Maggie Foster, The Arms of Death. Carole Nelson Douglas, Cat in an Alphabet Soup. 

My book is Brown, a mystery novel by G. L. Rix.

WHAT I’VE READ SINCE LAST POST:  The Art of Theft by Sherry Thomas.

WHAT I READ SINCE LAST TIME: Nemesis Game by James S.A. Corey. Timeline by Michael Crichton.

Thank you, Karalina!

Hope you and your family enjoyed the Galveston Book Festival this Saturday. And hope you like my books.

Best wishes,

Gretchen Lee Rix 

AQUASAURUS came first, and it was a doozy of a Michael Crichton-like monster movie of a novel. Now we have SEARCH FOR AQUASAURUS, which (spoiler alert) means the prehistoric crocodilian menace from the first book got away somehow.

I’m glad, because now we have a second rip-roaring action adventure about some Texans going all out to kill the thing (or capture it for study, as one group aims to do).

These two books by author Ernie Lee are great fun to read. He is also author of HIM (about the servant girl murders in Austin that pre-dated Jack the Ripper), and a book of poetry WHERE THE WILD RICE GROWS. You can find him at book festivals around the state, and comic coms in central Texas.

You can find his books at Amazon.com and other outlets.

WHAT I’VE READ SINCE LAST POST: Albatross by R. A. MacAvoy and Nancy Palmer. Search for Aquasaurus by Ernie Lee. The Island Thief by Patrick Kelly. Cibola Burn by James S.A. Corey. Ask Him Why by Catherine Ryan Hyde.

Meet Rebecca Ballard. One of the many good writers making Lockhart, Texas their home. I asked her a few questions.

Tell us a little about your novel TINY ALICE:

Tiny Alice is a multi-generational story of women struggling to meet the challenges of today—whether or not to become a parent, how to be the kind of parent you hope to be, miscommunication, disappointed expectations, and trying to keep a sense of humor in the face of it all. Alice says that an expectation is a disappointment waiting to happen. The characters are intense, colorful, funny and determined. In a way it’s a family saga that spans the time of the Great Depression to today, and examines the machinations of families to find each other and to stay together in spite of innate differences.

How do you write and what do you like and dislike about the process?

I write in the early mornings, probably two to three hours a day. When writing the first draft I try to get the story on paper. It’s a very thin, stream of consciousness process. Then I address each chapter to flesh out the story, develop the characters, and delineate and add detail to the  plot, create backstory and subplot. The third time I go through the book I look at language and the quality of my writing style. Then…I EDIT—my least favorite phase of writing a book. Then it’s off to my professional editor for final tweaks.

Tell us a little about yourself.

I enjoyed a double career for thirty plus years as an administrator in the financial industry and as an actress. Health concerns made it necessary of me to “retire” several years ago. I’d always been a writer as well—poetry, short stories, periodical articles, stage plays. Missing the theater terribly, I needed to find a creative outlet that would nurture me through the coming years. I began to write books. My psychological thriller, Wild Game, was published in 2012. Tiny Alice is my second novel, and I’m at work on a third, Saint Sal.  

You can get Tiny Alice at https://amzn.com/B07TRTNK7D

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https://amzn.com/B07PLV725T

I’ve just put THE CIMARRON BRIDE https://amzn.com/B07GTSD421 and THE SAFARI BRIDE http://amzn.com/B00PUVCBGK on sale for a week. Amazon ebook only.

These are moderately sexy action/adventure romance novels for women that feature strong-willed female characters. THE CIMARRON BRIDE is set against the Oklahoma Land Races, and THE SAFARI BRIDE takes place on a late 19th century safari in Africa.

One day these two books will be joined by a third in my BRIDE series.

Please take advantage of the 99 cent sale.

WHAT I READ THIS WEEK:  The Son by Philipp Meyer.