Author Archives: Cathy

The Origin of Murder on Location

MURDER ON LOCATION - Copy 300 pixWriters are often asked, “Where do you get your ideas?” For the Charlotte Brody Mystery series, my answer has been, “Local history.” For each book, I gleaned some bit of Cordova’s past and worked it into the story, with literary and artistic license, of course.

I used a local’s tale about the death of a “sporting woman” in Murder on the Last Frontier. In Borrowing Death, the cover up of a local businessman’s murder with a purposely set fire was an actual news item I read while perusing old editions of the Cordova Times.

The influence for Murder on Location, and its film-within-a-book North to Fortune, was a 1924 silent movie called The Cheechakos. This was the first full-length movie filmed entirely in Alaska. The man responsible for it, Austin “Cap” Lathrop, had hoped his film company, Alaska Moving Pictures, would produce more, but The Cheechakos was its only distributed work.

My Kid and I had the pleasure of attending a local screening of The Cheechakos while I was contemplating a premise for Charlotte’s third story. Kid suggested I have someone die during the filming of a similar movie, and Murder on Location was born. The idea of a Hollywoodland, California, crew experiencing Alaska sounds like a fun way to stage a murder, don’t you think?

In the Alaska Territory, suffragette Charlotte Brody is a newspaper reporter in the frontier town of Cordova. She’s a woman ahead of her time living on the rugged edge of civilization—but right now the most dangerous element she faces may come from sunny California . . .
 
An expedition has arrived in the frigid wilderness to shoot North to Fortune—an epic motion picture featuring authentic footage of majestic peaks, vast glaciers, homesteaders, and Alaska Natives. But the film’s fortunes begin to go south as a local Native group grows angry at how they’re portrayed in the movie, fights break out, and cast and crew are beset by accidents and assaults. Finally, production is halted when the inebriated director falls into a crevasse—and dies of exposure.
 
Soon Michael Brody—the town coroner and Charlotte’s brother—starts to suspect that Mother Nature was not responsible for Stanley Welsh’s death. Charlotte, who’s been writing about all the Hollywood glamor, is suddenly covering a cold-blooded crime story—and as springtime storms keep the suspects snowed in, she has to make sure the truth doesn’t get buried . . .

Pick up Murder on Location just about anywhere!

At Kensington Books

Amazon US

B&N

Kobo

Amazon Canada

Amazon UK

Amazon Australia

And other fine retailers!

Posted in Alaska, book coming out, books out, Borrowing Death, Kensington, Murder on Location, Murder on the Last Frontier | Comments Off on The Origin of Murder on Location

So Here We Are

I haven’t had anything specific to blog about in a while. Oh, things have been happening on the home front, in my personal life, in the world. But wrangling the thoughts and feelings and putting them into words has eluded me. Probably not a good thing for a writer to admit, but there you go.

A lot of my author friends are finding it difficult to write this week. Hopefully we’ll be able to find the wherewithal to get back on track, to use our words to express ourselves or create a safe haven for readers. And ourselves.

Getting lost in a story can seem like an avoidance mechanism, but it’s not. We need to deal with reality, and we will, but the 24/7/365 of it can quickly wear you down. So we should take a step back when we can. And I realized there are folks being affected by events that can’t just step back. They need us more than ever now to step up. Like we should have long, long ago.

I don’t want to have a discussion here about who to blame or who did what or didn’t do what. I’m having those discussions and interactions elsewhere. This space is simply my chance to spit out a few things in a neutral manner (though believe me, I am NOT neutral).

Take care of yourselves, your family, your friends.

Make new friends with people who are looking lost or feeling scared or hopeless.

Do what you can to make someone’s world a better place.

Be kind to each other, friends.

Posted in on my mind | Comments Off on So Here We Are

On the Road: Kennecott and McCarthy

To promote my latest release, Borrowing Death, I had scheduled a couple of signings in the Anchorage/Palmer area (Thanks, Barnes & Noble-Anchorage and Fireside Books in Palmer! You all rock!). In a brilliant fit of inspiration, my husband suggested we take a side trip to the remote (yeah, I know, Alaska…What ISN’T remote? ; P ) historical Kennecott/McCarthy.

The Charlotte Brody series has so far been set in Cordova in 1919/1920, but I have a proposal for the possible next three books in the works and #4 is mostly set in Kennecott/McCarthy. So far, I’d only had photographs and historical accounts I found on the internet, at the local museum, or gleaned from chatting with folks who had visited, to spark a story. I won’t deny the excited flutter I experienced at the idea of getting a real feel for the trek to the mine/town site. So, we made our ferry reservations and found a place to stay.

IMAG0112Getting There

We live in a town that is only accessible by boat or plane. The decision to take the ferry was logical, as (1) we had planned to do some quarterly grocery shopping while in Anchorage, and (2) flying meant renting a car which (2-a) is pricey in Alaska in summer, and (2-b) many rental places prohibit taking their vehicles on certain roads (more on that in a bit). Originally, we were looking at riding the ferry for 6 hours then possibly driving another 8+ to the site. Husband considered options and felt adding a 6 hour leg to a closer ferry stop and driving less might be shorter, or at least less exhausting. It wasn’t, we found out later.

We left Cordova at 5am and arrived in Valdez at 6:30pm. By the time weIMAG0117 stopped for food and gas and headed out of town, it was 7:30. No problem. Still pretty light, despite the clouds and spitty rain. And gorgeous? We were trying to move along so I didn’t get many pictures, but believe me when I say the Richardson Highway out of Valdez is incredible in a scenic sense.

We turned off the Richardson at Chitina and onto the Edgerton Highway at 9pm with 63 miles to go. Now, on a designated highway in most places, that would be an hour-ish. Not so, here. The Edgerton, while amazing as far as scenery, is a bit winding, only partially paved and mostly not. Recent rains had essentially reversed the last grating. To say it was bumpy is an understatement. By now, it was starting to get darkish and my husband was having a grand time (/sarcasm) avoiding the potholes. Suffice it to say, we rattled a lot, and the final 15-20 miles was slow and rough.

The Kennecott River Lodge at the very end of the road, before foot access across the Kennicott River, was a welcome sight at 11pm. We parked outside our appointed cabin. I walked behind our pickup and noted something odd.

“Honey, what happened to the window of the camper shell?”

Yep, we’d lost the rear window somewhere along the 63 miles of “highway” but there was no sense worrying about it at that point. Luckily, there was only light rain in the forecast, and covering the opening with plastic and duct tape (all good Alaskans travel with some sort of heavy duty tape) would do for the time being.

“We’ll look for it on our way out,” DH said, and we went to bed.

IMAG0121Kennecott/McCarthy

The next morning, we walked across the river foot bridge. The water was rushing beneath us, shaking the pilings. DH recalled having to use a hand-operated tram when he and his friends visited 30 years prior. I was very glad the National Park Service had opted to build the footbridge when they purchased the area in the 90’s. A shuttle van would take us to McCarthy a mile away or to Kennecott, 5 miles in. We opted to start at Kennecott, a self-contained town back in the day at the base of what was a huge copper mine.

As with the Edgerton, the road was pitted and rough, but we had a nice time chatting with fellow passengers. Something that surprised me was the number of private homes/lands within the boundaries of the Park. Apparently, when the NPS opted to buy the site, there were so many private holders that they arranged to let them stay. People who live there mark their property so visitors don’t trespass unwittingly. Part of me was envious of their “backyard” but then I’d recall the effort of getting to it. Not something to do on a regular basis.

The van pulled into the Kennecott town site and I was immediately in awe. Pictures don’t do it justice, and the combination of renovated, partially renovated, and “left as is” buildings is an amazing testament of what was and how time and nature ravage what man makes. The NPS have been restoring Kennecott, recreating a town site that was essentially abandoned in the late 1930s and hardly looked at for the next 60 years. People were more or less free to come and go. Somehow, over all that time and neglect, a good number of the buildings were still standing, or standing enough to be fixed. Some, however, were beyond help and had deteriorated on their own or were razed for safety’s sake.

There are a number of buildings the public has access to on their own,DSCN3630 but to get a better sense of the main mining operation (a goal for the research portion of the trip) we took the 2-hour long mill tour offered by St. Elias Alpine Guide Day Adventures. Our tour guide, Annie, gook the 14 of us through the town and into several closed buildings, including the huge mill where copper ore was processed. The mill, the town, everything is incredible in its engineering and self-sustainability (for the most part). The people who made it work, from the engineers to the manager to the miners to the supporting townsfolk, were made of sterner stuff than any of us 21st century dwellers could imagine.

DSCN3713We spent 8 hours or so in Kennecott, putting 10 miles on DH’s pedometer, then took the shuttle over to McCarthy, 4 miles away, so we could catch the museum there during open hours. McCarthy was the answer to Kennecott’s more upright/uptight rules, providing miners with drinking, gambling, and women that the company town forbade or frowned upon.IMAG0124

My head full of history and story bits, we returned to our cabin across the river and fell into deep sleep.

 Back Toward Civilization

The next morning, we woke relatively early and headed to the café down the road for some coffee before facing the Edgerton’s 63 miles of window-snatching surface. As we were not in a great rush, we stopped along the way for pictures. The scenery was more incredible in the full light of day, and I easily imagined Charlotte being awed by it as she passed through on the train. And I imagined it was a MUCH smoother ride. The railway was trestled in a number of places to avoid sharp turns and hills.

IMAG0163Along the way, we kept an eye out for our missing window. My fear was it had broken and I didn’t want anyone to get a flat tire on that highway. Lo and behold, 43 miles from Kennecott, I spotted the window leaning against a rock on the side of the road. Someone had seen it, set it on the out-going side, probably figuring, “They’ll be by sooner or later.” Yep! Thank you, anonymous person! And to our surprise, the window wasn’t broken nor the frame bent. DH was sure he could get it back in place with the right materials (he did).

The next couple of hours took us through more gorgeous country as we headed to Anchorage. It’s impossible to travel through Alaska without finding amazing scenery. There are times I don’t see the beauty of the place where I live, as there are often too many distractions of mundane life. But a trip like this, short as it was, is a great reminder.

DSCN3804

Posted in adventure, Alaska, Borrowing Death, Cathy Pegau | Comments Off on On the Road: Kennecott and McCarthy

BORROWING DEATH Release Day Giveaway!

Woo hoo! Borrowing Death, the second book of the Charlotte Brody Mystery Series hits the shelves, gets shipped from your favorite store, gets downloaded into your ereader of choice TODAY!

Borrowing Death coverSo very excited! I’ll be posting about the book, answering questions if y’all have them, that sort of thing over the next few days. But for today, I want to enjoy the fact Charlotte and company are out there again (still?).

What’s this second story about, you ask? Well, it’s November, 1919, and Charlotte’s been in Cordova for a few months. (ICYMI, in the first book, Murder on the Last Frontier, she’d just arrived in town that August/September.) Winter is setting in, but life is never dull in the Great Land.

Suffragette and journalist Charlotte Brody is bracing herself for her first winter in the frontier town of Cordova in the Alaska Territory. But the chilling murder of a local store owner is what really makes her blood run cold. . .

After three months in Cordova, Charlotte is getting accustomed to frontier life. She is filing articles for the local paper–including a provocative editorial against Prohibition–and enjoying a reunion with her brother Michael, the town doctor and coroner. Michael’s services are soon called upon when a fire claims the life of hardware store owner Lyle Fiske. A frontier firebug is suspected of arson, but when Michael determines Fiske was stabbed before his store was set ablaze, the town of Cordova has another murder to solve.

Her journalist’s curiosity whetted, Charlotte begins to sort through the smoldering ruins of Lyle Fiske’s life, only to discover any number of people who might have wanted him dead. As the days grow shorter, Charlotte’s investigation turns increasingly complex. She may be distant from the trappings of civilization, but untangling the motives for murder will require plumbing the very depths of Charlotte’s investigative acumen. . .

Here are some things that folks are saying about Borrowing Death.

“These new mysteries are a great mixture of history, mystery and a little bit of romance. The characters and setting are well-written and readers will be waiting impatiently for the next installment to come out.” ~Mary Lignor, Professional Librarian and Co-Owner of The Write Companion for Suspense Magazine (full review link coming)

An “entertaining follow-up…the reporter’s penchant for encouraging the aspirations of a local girl, hanging out with the town madam, snooping in neighbors’ houses, and employing hairpins as lock picks will satisfy.” ~Publishers Weekly (full review here)

In celebration of Borrowing Death officially being out in the world, I’m giving away a few items from Cordova or that represent Cordova and Alaska.giveaway loot

  1. Signed copies of Murder on the Last Frontier and Borrowing Death
  2. Copper River Fleece (local merchant) satchel with salmon and bear print trim
  3. Copper River Fleece forget-me-not headband
  4. 3 salmon-shaped chocolates (dark, milk, and white)
  5. 2 wooden bookmarks
  6. Alaska pin
  7. Wooden fish ornament

bag, headband, ornament

How do you win this lovely loot (over $100 in value)? I’m an old-fashioned sort of gal, so we’re doing this the old-fashioned way:

(1) Leave a comment below (Please play fair and leave just one comment/entry. Multiples will get tossed out) with a VALID email address. This is important! I need to be able to contact you.

(2) At the end of the giveaway, Tuesday, July 5, 2016 at midnight Alaska time, I’ll randomly choose a winner via a number generator, email that person and give them 48 hours to reply.

(3) If I don’t get a reply from that person in the allotted time, I will choose another winner. Sorry, but we can’t leave folks hanging, right?

(4) This is open to anyone, anywhere, but depending on your location the prize package could take some time to get to you. I’ll give you a heads up when it goes out and an estimated arrival date.

I promise not to spam you or do anything with your contact info except contact you personally as needed.

Anything else? If you have questions, shoot me an email at cathy@cathypegau.com with the subject line “BD giveaway question” or something like it so I know you aren’t spam,  or on Twitter @CathyPegau

And if you simply CANNOT wait…

Buy Borrowing Death at these fine locations, in brick and mortar stores, and elsewhere:

Kensington Books http://tinyurl.com/BDKens
Amazon USA http://tinyurl.com/BDusAmazon
BN http://tinyurl.com/BDbnusa
Amazon UK http://tinyurl.com/BDAmazonuk
Amazon Aus http://tinyurl.com/BDAmazonaus
Kobo http://tinyurl.com/BDKobo

Thanks so much!!! Good luck!

Posted in Alaska, books out, Borrowing Death, Cathy Pegau, contest, Kensington, Murder on the Last Frontier, win stuff | 12 Comments

Busy and Grateful

At the moment, while I’m (hopefully) between contracts, I can take a small breath, but there’s lots to do and lots to think about. In three months, the second installment of my historical mystery series will be released. As always, I’m excited and terrified. But at the same time, as I’m waiting on early reviews, I’m wondering how my editor likes the third book I recently turned in, how sales are going for the first book, whether I can sell another three books, and what promotional opportunities I have to take (or have missed).

Such is the life of a writer. Constant juggling of different aspects of the business. I’m grateful for the help I get on a daily basis. There are folks at Kensington looking out for me–my editor, publicist, cover artists, sales folks, SO MANY! My agent is there when I need her. I have author friends who offer cheers or a shoulder to cry on or an ear for my rants. I’d be nowhere without them or, of course, my amazing family.

I may write alone (preferably, as I get distracted when there’s activity in the house ; P ) but there’s no way my career would have happened without the rest of my team. I’m grateful for you every day.

But perhaps the biggest shout out needs to go to readers. I can’t tell you how amazing and touching it is to get notes or read bits of reviews that tell me the story I wrote, while not perfect, at least gave someone a chance to be entertained. That keeps me going when I look at a blank page or flashing cursor.

Thank you <3

 

Posted in Borrowing Death, on my mind | Comments Off on Busy and Grateful

DREAMWALKER by Jody Wallace–Giveaway! Sale!

Hey, all! My fabu author friend Jody Wallace has a couple of books out that are on sale PLUS a giveaway of books and goodies! And she asks me some questions about my worst nightmares!!!!

But first! The books!!!

Tangible72lg-200x300TANGIBLE and DISCIPLE are urban fantasies out with Samhain Publishing.

In the world of the Dreamwalkers, some dreams are so vivid they create monsters. The Somnium exists to destroy those monsters, keep them out of the public eye–and control the dreamers whose imaginations are nightmares manifest. But something has awakened in the dreamsphere. Something that’s beyond anyone’s worst nightmare.Disciple72lg-200x300

Blurbs!!!

TANGIBLE

Dreams don’t come true, but nightmares do.

When Zeke Garrett is reactivated to mentor the next dreamer that pops up on the Somnium’s radar, he’s sure it’s a mistake. The covert organization is still struggling to conceal the fallout from his last assignment, a fatal catastrophe.

From the first blast of her pepper spray, he realizes this neonati, whose nightmares manifest vampires straight from the pages of pop-culture, is more than he bargained for—a potential dreamwalker. But before her training can begin, he has to convince the stubborn, mouthy woman she’s not dreaming.

Maggie Mackey hasn’t slept well in a month, but that doesn’t explain how the monsters from her nightmares suddenly seem so real. Or why, when a team of intimidating, sword-wielding toughs rescue her, their leader captures her mouth in a swift, knee-weakening kiss.

Once he tears himself away, Zeke’s mental forehead smacking begins. Their embrace has confirmed they have a rare tangible bond, a phenomenon which fooled him once before. Somehow he must tutor the woman of his dreams without getting attached. Otherwise her nightmares could become his own.

Warning: Title contains lots of cussing, pop culture references and monsters with nasty, big, pointy teeth.

DISCIPLE

Conquer your inner demons…before they break free.

When student dreamwalker Maggie Mackey was first discovered by Zeke Garrett, now her mentor, their sexual attraction blazed off the charts, as did their tangible dreamspace bond.

Three months later, their relationship is as stalled out as Maggie’s training. Zeke isn’t sure what’s to blame. His clumsy mentoring, Maggie’s stubbornness, or something more sinister.

When the pair is summoned to a restricted outpost for troubled and sick dreamwalkers to investigate the deaths of several patients, a nightmare from Zeke’s past resurfaces to further complicate Maggie’s training. In fact, there’s a better-than-good chance she’ll be yanked away from him and reassigned to a curator. Disciples sent to curators are rarely heard from again.

To survive the secretive inner workings of their organization and the deadly new force emerging inside the sphere, Maggie and Zeke must confront their inner demons as well as their feelings for each other. Because in the world of the dreamwalkers, inner demons never remain politely inside one’s tortured soul. They prefer to manifest…and eat people.

Warning: Book contains sex, cursing, more cursing, T-Rexes, dire peril and explosives.

They sound amazing, don’t they??? So go get yours!

Digital versions of TANGIBLE (normally $3.49, on sale for $0.99)and DISCIPLE (normally $5.99, on sale for $1.99) will be on sale from January 18 – February 5  at online retailers. Jody will be giving away 3 trade paperbacks of DISCIPLE (#2) via Goodreads from January  22 – February 5.

Jody will also be giving away some crocheted earrings and some of her other books to newsletter subscribers. Signup for the newsletter here.

Just for Funnsies (did I spell that right?):

So. Jody is a BIG fan of interviewing people. She posed some question regarding dreams and things. Here are my answers.

Jody: The premise of the Dreamwalkers series is that certain human brains are so vivid that their nightmares can come to life and eat people. The heroes and heroines (so far) are the folks who fight these monsters and hide their existence from the rest of the world. Oftentimes these nightmares take the shape of popular culture creations, but sometimes there are classics.

What are the scariest movies, TV and books you can think of?

Cathy: I used to watch movies like “Halloween” and ones based on Stephen King novels, as long as they weren’t bloodbaths. The implied horror of “Silence of the Lambs” got to me, particularly the scene where Clarice is looking at the picture of what Hanibal did to the nurse. The utter shock on her face sets the imagination reeling better than any view of the picture by the audience could ever achieve. My kid enjoys those “Haunting” shows. I’m fine if there’s a ghost just messing around, but if the entity is a demon or something, I get a little wigged out. Also, anything with an evil doll is a no-go for me.

Jody: What monsters do you think your brain would create or has created in your books? (Caveat: real world human monsters don’t tend to get created, just things like vampires and mega spiders, and the size of the monster tends to be between 3-12 feet. If your nightmare is more of an “event”, like falling or appearing in public naked, I bet there’s a monster that represents that kind of horror!)

Cathy: Most of my nightmares involve being chased by…something. I never really see it, but if I managed to have it manifest I’d say it would be very spider-like. Probably a zombie spider. With an evil clown (is that redundant?) sidekick.

Jody: What kind of dreamwalker hero or heroine do you think would be required to dispatch your nightmares? (Romance optional!)

Cathy: Someone with a flamethrower. I never seem to have one handy in my dreams.

Jody: Bonus question: What pop culture monsters do you think the dreamwalkers have the most trouble killing?

Cathy: I’m leaving this last question up for any commentors. What do you say, folks? Which pop culture monster would give the dreamwalkers a run for their money?

While you consider, go buy Jody’s books and sign up for her newsletter and giveaways!

Jodypic13-200x300About Jody:

Jody Wallace grew up in the South in a very rural area. She went to school a long time and ended up with a Master’s Degree in Creative Writing. Her resume includes college English instructor, technical documents editor, market analyst, web designer, and general, all around pain in the butt. She resides in Tennessee with one husband, two children, one grandma, six cats, and a lot of junk.

Get more of Jody’s greatness on her website, Twitter, her FB author page, her Amazon author page, or GoodReads.

Jody also runs MeanKitty.

Posted in books out, fun, helping out, UF, win stuff | 2 Comments

The Real Story Behind MURDER ON THE LAST FRONTIER

Writers are often asked, “Where do you get your ideas?” Much of the time, in my case, something small sets off my brain. A commercial showing a bride flinging her veil out onto the road while she zoomed off in a convertible gave me the opening scene to one story (unpublished…for now). Watching a show about scam artists and thieves kicked off Rulebreaker, which led to Caught in Amber, which led to Deep Deception 🙂

MotLF Cover.jpgThe idea for Murder on the Last Frontier emerged after a conversation with a long-time resident of our town when my husband, daughter, and I went to investigate a local, little-known cemetery.

My husband serves on the city’s Planning and Zoning committee. At a meeting a few years ago, they were going over city land that could be sold or leased or what have you. A nice-sized plot in a residential neighborhood near the high school was marked “Not for Sale.” There were homes on either side of it, and it was large enough for a small house.

DH: Why is this plot not for sale?

Committee Guy: It’s a cemetery.

DH: Really?

Committee Guy Who Had Been a Resident for 20 yrs: Really?

Like many people, I had been by that lot hundreds of times, either while trundling kids to/from school or our critters to/from the veterinarian whose practice is nearby. The lot is either overgrown with weeds or covered in snow most of the time, and there’s no sign of it being anything other than an empty lot. Little did we know it was far from empty.

One sunny spring Saturday not long after hearing about the cemetery, we were headed to the high school for some event and decided to check it out. Sure enough, among the weeds and saplings, a few graves. They had low headstones that were barely legible. One or two had those low iron fences around them. It was easy to see why if you were just driving or walking past you’d never know it was a cemetery.

As we made our way across the lot, we saw Marv, the man who owns one of the neighboring houses, puttering about his yard. He asked us what we were up to (in a nice way, as Marv is a nice guy, and it was obvious we were looking about, not out to cause trouble). We told him my husband’s P&Z committee story.

Marv smiled and nodded, saying not many folks were aware of it and that was fine by him. He gave us a neat little history lesson about the cemetery, including the unfortunate incident of some group coming in and “cleaning up” the old bits of wood which happened to be markers.

Then he told us another story.

Back in the 1930s or 1940s, a prostitute (yes, Cordova had a “red light” district for years, like a lot of towns) and her child were found murdered. One of them was buried in that little-known cemetery, the other in a different one (we have three, all fairly small). I don’t know if the woman had been pregnant or the child had been recently born or what the circumstances were, but it was quite sad.

We said our good-byes to Marv and went over to the school. We were kept busy at the event we attended, but I couldn’t shake the idea of the dead prostitute. My writerly brain locked onto its own scenario as to how and why this woman was killed.

And who would earnestly look into the murder of a “sporting” woman? I’m sure real-life local authorities investigated, but as a writer, I saw someone else–an outsider with her own secrets to keep–acting on behalf of the dead. She would need to stand up to convention and represent justice for all.

I had always been interested in the women of the suffrage movement and decided my protagonist would be a suffragette. Though they had their faults, I appreciated their bravery and efforts. The person mostly likely to really care about the death of a prostitute would be one who wanted all women treated fairly. She’d be an outsider, having come to Alaska Territory for her own reasons. She’d poke her nose into places it didn’t belong and stir up a few folks. That’s how suffragette and journalist Charlotte Brody was born.

The events and characters in Murder on the Last Frontier are, of course, fictional. I still haven’t hunted down the actual murder that set things off for the series. But I did go through a number of old editions of the local paper and came up with another murder for Charlotte. Borrowing Death (Kensington, July 2016) was also inspired by real events. And the third book Murder on Location employs the real-life occurrence of a movie crew coming to town.

So where do I get my ideas? Pretty much right outside my door.

 

 

Posted in Alaska, books out, Cathy Pegau, Kensington, Murder on the Last Frontier, writing | 2 Comments

MURDER ON THE LAST FRONTIER Release Day is HERE!!!!

Woo hoo! Today’s the day!!!!! Murder on the Last Frontier is officially out in the wide world!!!

MotLF Cover.jpg

Am I excited? Just a wee bit 🙂

MotLF has been getting some mixed reviews (You can find them at GoodReads and Amazon, mostly) but overall people seem to enjoy the series. The setting, Alaska in 1919, and Charlotte’s identity as a suffragette are often noted as the draw. That’s cool. I like being a little different ; )

Let’s start this grand day with a giveaway of some ARCs (Advanced Reader Copies). They aren’t the “out in the store” prints, having the disclaimer of some minor, uncorrected boo-boos, but those who have read them haven’t pointed out issues.

If you’d like an ARC, leave a comment saying so. Make sure there’s viable email address so I can contact you for your mailing address (DO NOT put that in the comment. We don’t want you to have issue.) I am willing to send wherever. Yes, internationally. I’ll give away 5 or 10. We’ll see 😉

Thanks for sharing this with me!

Buy Murder on the Last Frontier on Amazon B&N Kobo and other fine retailers : )

Posted in Alaska, books out, Cathy Pegau, contest, Kensington, Murder on the Last Frontier, Woo hoo | 2 Comments

November?!? How Did THAT Happen???

Crikey Mikey! It’s November! Wasn’t it August just a week ago? Okay, three months ago, but who’s counting?

Live is good here in the Semi-Frozen North. In fact, it truly is semi-frozen now–We got our first snowfall! It’s very pretty and the roads aren’t hellish, so that helps. I prefer easing into winter than getting slammed by it.

So what’s been happening? We got DD1 off to school back east. She’s loving it. It’s odd to have your kid talk about all the adulting they’re doing when you have a tough time getting up the enthusiasm to wear pants on a daily basis. Kid2 is finding life as the only child in the house both rewarding and burdensome. Lots of great attention, but more chores. Hey, someone has to help me find my pants. DH got his moose, so we have meat in the freezer! Always a good thing. Berry picking went well this year too. Looking forward to local cranberries for cranberry sauce on Thanksgiving.

On the authorly front…OMG!!!! Murder on the Last Frontier comes out it two weeks!!!!!

MotLF Cover.jpgWhy yes, I’m a little excited : ) There have been some very lovely reviews at Amazon and GoodReads and such, which I will share soon. I’m grateful to all who have reviewed and will review MotLF, and to those who have pre-ordered and will (hopefully!) pick up a copy.

Please, let me know what you think of the book! Ask me questions about it or Alaska or whatever. Chatting with readers is my favorite part of being an author : )

Posted in Alaska, book coming out, Cathy Pegau, Kensington, Murder on the Last Frontier, writing | Comments Off on November?!? How Did THAT Happen???

Not Dead, Just Lazy

Four months since the last post? Wow. I am pathetic! But in my defense, it’s been busy. Ish. Had a kid graduate from high school, books to write and edit, committee commitments to fulfill. Yes, those are my excuses.

On the writing front, Murder on the Last Frontier, book one of the Charlotte Brody mysteries, is in its final edits. I’m going through pages now marking minor glitches. Luckily, there aren’t many. I have to remind myself to look for mechanical things, not read the story.

The first round of edits on the second book, Borrowing Death, have been turned in, and the start of book three has made it to the computer. More about them later.

In between writerly things, parenting and home life have claimed time and brain matter. DD1 heads to school in a month, so there’s that. It’s a strange  and exciting time for all of us. We spend our lives preparing our kids to go out into the world, and when it’s finally time we simultaneously rejoice and panic.

As with most things in life, with a little help, we’ll figure it out as it goes along.

Posted in Cathy Pegau, on my mind | Comments Off on Not Dead, Just Lazy