We have winners for the chapter contest! Yahoo, ladies. Lynda Palmer won first prize and Rosemarie Shamieh won second prize. We’ll check with each to see if we can publish their chapters. Hopefully each person will go on and use the first chapters for their own cozy mystery books. Go for it ladies!
We have Sheryl Ickes coming to our January 22nd meeting. She’ll be discussing her two series, A Slice of Cake and Becky and Rufus Cross Country Mystery Series. Members are encouraged to read a book from one or the other series. We’ll be interested to know what motivated Sherry to start writing cozy mysteries, whether she intends to add to her series, and other questions.
Last month we played a game around P.D. James Mistletoe Murder. Donna, Georgianna, and Sharon won the game. It required close attention to some of the details of the short stories. Each month we have either a game centered around the book of the month, or a visiting speaker, or a presentation by several members. It’s an active club meeting and you should be a part of it.
We have just under 400 people in our club. Not that many attempt to attend our meetings. In looking over the membership, we see that some people have not visited the site for a year or more. We’ll be sending out letters asking if that person is still interested in membership. We know that some people enjoy following along and reading the book that we’re discussing that month but can’t attend due to work obligations or family obligations. Those people will simply reply to the note and ask that their membership be retained. In this way we’ll have more accurate information about who wants to receive our newsletters and other notes.
Some of our members mentioned that they saw the Madam Blanc Christmas Special on Acorn. It was very cute – I saw it – and I can’t wait for the second series to start. Likewise, Midsomer Murders series 23 was on Acorn. I love Midsomer Murders and turn it on at night the same way I used to turn on Murder She Wrote. As soon as I hear the introductory music, I begin to feel calm and fall asleep. This makes for watching the same episode over and over. Eventually I see the end! Let me know if any of you do the same.
Meanwhile, on Brit Box, I am anxiously waiting for the new Father Brown to start. I checked to see if Nancy Carroll would be part of the new series, but I think not. She’s been a busy actress working on Murder in Provence. Father Brown is definitely a cozy mystery detective and so fun.
We’re putting a list together of the books that we’ve already read for the club so we’ll have a history of them as well as which authors we’ve visited. Based on your input, we’ll know if we want to read an author again. I have to admit that when I looked at the list, I was proud of what we’ve done. We’ve read some amazing books from a wide variety of decades and books that have many different characters and environments. If any of you have a suggestion of a cozy that takes place in a South American country, please share it.
Club members asked that we update our calendar. We’ve listened and updated it. Please look for information about when there are publications, titles of books that we’re reading, and any other events that we think you’d like to know about in terms of cozy mysteries.
Books we’ll be reading:
February 25: Consigned to Death by Jane K. Cleland
March 25: Vinyl Resting Place by Olivia Blacke
April 23: Misty Simon is visiting and writes as Gabby Allen
May 28: A Cotswold Killing by Rebecca Tope
June 25: Death by Dumpling by Vivien Chien
Send me your email for special mailings from our Blog site. Send it to ksdiskin@yahoo.com.
Much love,
Karin Diskin