When finishing my first novel Ebola Island, I decided to write myself to New Zealand by having my two protagonists plan to marry and live there. I could then travel to and explore New Zealand and expense part of my trip as legitimate research for my second novel. Well, that was my plan.
Tory Benning is thirty-five years old, a widow these past two years, loves K-pop music, and roommates with Iris, a cream sable Pomeranian rescue dog, and Otis, a black cat. There’s her BFF/lawyer Ashley Payne, Ashley’s beau and a long-time friend Lieutenant Detective Adrian Ramirez, an aunt and uncle, and a passel of friends and colleagues. She had started to date Jake Logan, a private investigator from Santa Barbara, but the seemingly endless lockdown precipitated by the Covid pandemic, turned that into a long distance relationship.
I had a recent conversation with LaDonna Snow from Clovis’ Snowflake Designs. It reinforced a business conviction I have long held: If you're going to do business today in this climate, you're going to have to be flexible.
Over and over I read comments from readers saying they didn’t want to read a book with the pandemic in it. When it was time to write the next Rocky Bluff P.D. mystery, I wasn’t sure what to do.
The pandemic changed things for people around the world in large and small ways. For me the change was small, and yet meaningful. It broke me of my Starbucks habit.
Covid 19 has changed all of our lives in many different ways. Some have kept to their homes, leaving only for essentials or not at all, only ordering what was needed by phone or the Internet. So many of the events we all looked forward to have been cancelled. And the list goes on.
I began the lockdown last spring with delight. More time to read! More time (perhaps even more importantly) to challenge myself a little. Find some authors I didn’t know about before. Read something a little difficult, a little unfamiliar, a little out of my ordinary.
The pandemic has changed a lot of things, including how we celebrate the holidays. Many places are finding creative ways of still being able to enjoy the things we love and be safe. The Reedley Chamber of Commerce got creative with this year’s Fiesta Parade by doing what they called a reverse parade, and now they are doing it with the Electric Light Parade as well. We chatted with Chamber Director Erik Valencia to learn more.
2020 has been a rough year for everyone and the arts community have definitely been struggling to find ways to still share their gifts with the community and to keep going financially. We recently chatted with Michelle Goans, the Gallery Director at Arts Visalia, to find out how they have been doing.
Here is the latest installment of our new column, Top 5 Mysteries I Have Read During the Pandemic, this one from mystery author Vicki Vass. As we continue to spend most of our time at home, we are all looking for book suggestions so we asked mystery authors and reviewers to share the top 5 mysteries they have read during this pandemic.
