Patricia Stoltey

Author

A to Z Challenge: B is for Be (and Mike Befeler and Broken Trust, by Shannon Baker)

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I’ll try to be shorter and pithier today. I can’t take the time to read really long posts this month, and you can’t either (at least not if you’re participating in the A to Z Challenge.

Featured Author:  Mike Befeler

Mike writes the Paul Jacobson geezer lit mystery series that began with Retirement Homes are Murder, released in 2009. Book six of the series, Nursing Homes are Murder, will be out in May 2014.

The story I like to tell about Mike is that he began his series while he was still working at a full-time professional job. He used the “morning page” concept from Julia Cameron’s The Artist’s Way to hand write three pages before going to work. In the evening after work, he typed those pages into his computer, editing a bit as he went. I don’t know this for a fact, but I’ll bet he has a couple more manuscripts ready to go for future releases. Mike also has a blog which he posts to when he’s not out hiking the trails around Boulder, Colorado.

Featured Book:  Broken Trust by Shannon Baker

Broken Trust is the second book in Shannon’s Nora Abbott mystery series. If you like good, well-researched tales about the modern west, native tribes, and especially the Colorado Rocky Mountains, you’ll want to start with book one, Tainted Mountain.

About Broken Trust from Shannon’s website:  “Nora moves to Boulder and lands a job as at an environmental non-profit. But the trust is rife with deceit and corruption. Nearly half a million dollars is missing and one person has already been killed for knowing too much. Complicating matters are Nora’s uninvited visitors: her mother, Cole Huntsman, and a Hopi kachina that technically doesn’t exist. As the body count climbs, Nora races to stop a deadly plot to decimate one of the planet’s greatest natural resources.”

Word of the Day:  Be

When you were a kid, what did you want to be when you grew up?

I wanted to be a ballerina, but I was too short, too clumsy, and had bad knees.

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Comments

  1. Elle, we definitely have to go with the flow when the kids are little….and later when we have husbands and cats that compete for our attention. 😀

    Julie, it’s fun, but some letters have turned into a real search effort.

    Welcome home, Shannon! This A to Z Challenge is a great way to showcase a lot of writers and books in a short amount of time.

  4. I’ve wanted to be an author since I was about eight years old. Before that, my choice was actor. Can’t imagine myself doing that now… but author is definitely in the pipeline 😉

    Incidentally, I also used to write in the morning before going to work, but, at that point, on my computer on my WIP. Later, when I left my job, I switched to writing 1-3 pages longhand in the morning, writing articles. I then typed them into the computer and edited it… but actually found my mind was quite coherent first thing in the morning.

    Now I’m almost at the stage where I can probably start doing that again without two kidlets grabbing my pen and tearing my notebook, but they would still interrupt me wanting to know what I’m writing and wanting me to read it to them.

    Such is life 😉

    Elle

  7. Yolanda, I don’t think I would have had the patience either to be a teacher either. I barely made it as a parent. 😀

    Hi Dean. If only I could persuade you to do a guest spot on my blog. Sigh. — I’m trying to see you as a stand-up comedian…still trying.

    Margot, I can definitely see you as a concert pianist. I love hearing the piano, and most music really. Even so, after nine years of lessons, I can’t play worth a darn.

  8. Pat – Oh, I like Mike Befeler’s books! So glad you mentioned him. And what did I want to be? Lots of things, really, including a concert pianist.

  9. I haven’t read Mike’s series, but love the concept!

    Nor have I gotten my hands onto Ms. Baker’s “Broken Trust”

    *hangs head in shame”

    But I do remember there visits here to your blog! (Yay…maybe?)

    Be: I think the only thing I ever gave much thought about for an adult career (I am avoiding the adult part, BTW) was to be a comedian. I did a summer’s worth of open mike stand up, had some interest from the club manager, but chose to marry my wonderful wife and the rest, as they say, is history!

  11. LOL, Rich. I guess it’s not too hard for folks to figure out you live in Colorado. Your idea is not so far-fetched, however, when you consider the possible disruptions to the “industry” that might be caused by illegal drug and organized crime elements. Maybe that should be your next novel.

  12. Alex and Rachna, Mike’s story line is entertaining, and even though they are murder mysteries, there is a lot of humor in the books.

    Trisha, for native American themes, you could also try mystery authors Sandi Ault and Margaret Coel.

    Donna, I had a cousin who wanted to grow up to be a nun or a movie star. She ended up a first grade teacher.

    Hi Susan, wanting to be a jet pilot is an awesome goal. You had way bigger dreams than I did.

    Madeline, knowing what you want to do at a young age and following through is how champions are made. It’s all about the focus, something my scattered interests make it hard for me to do.

  13. Good morning, everyone. I’ll be back a little later to respond to comments and do my blog-hopping. For now, I’m off to see the wizard (translate that as knee surgeon) to get this old creaky knee X-rayed again.

  17. Fun post, Pat.

    You got me thinking about what I wanted to be when I grew up.

    True confession time: I wanted to be a nun, but then I knew I couldn’t keep a vow of obedience.

  18. Mike’s books sound like fun! 🙂

    I haven’t read much Native American-themed stuff, so that might be interesting as well.