My debut novel, Blaze Orange, came out in January through Level Best Books. Truly, a dream come true, and I couldn’t be more grateful. After years of writing and submitting multiple manuscripts to agents and publishers—I wrote about this saga in a previous blog on this site—I finally had a manuscript that became a reality.
 
As I reflect back on these past ten months as a newly minted author and realize how many aspects of my life have changed, I am struck by both the highs and the lows.
 
There are many more positive facets, with the drawbacks few and far between, and instead of saving the best for last, so to speak—you may not read that far, anyway—I want you to know the honor upfront.
 
Below are just a few of the experiences for which I’m amazed and grateful.
 

• Getting to know the Maine writing community. The support I’ve received has been remarkable—invitations to events, welcomed into the fold, tips on improving sales, sharing of contacts—one of my best advocates is a fellow Bestie, Matt Cost, but note, Matt was good to me BEFORE either of us were a Bestie. I met him six years ago at a writers’ conference. That’s how you know someone is genuine!
• Being able to finally wear the Author badge. I’ve been writing since I was seven. Having a published work is a validation I craved.
• Knowing that future ideas actually have a home. I find I’m now writing future books in the series with more purpose than simply writing “in the dark” and hoping someone will read them one day.
• Having confidence in additional projects. Besides having my first six novels still sitting “in a drawer,” unsold, waiting for possible rewrites, I also have outlines for completely new works too that I’m excited to start. Being published has only increased my ideas.
• Realizing I can juggle more than I thought. I do still have another “day” job along with writing Book Three and other works, and marketing Book One and the upcoming Book Two. It’s a good problem to have, and who needs sleep anyway?
• Seeing the excitement on friends’ and family’s faces and hearing their kind words. I’m especially awed by friends, both local and away, who have championed my book, securing speaking arrangements and book club invitations, and approaching libraries and bookstores on my behalf. One said to me, “I knew you when you were just ‘Allie.’”  I am still just Allie. I’m grateful they are as enthusiastic for me as I am.
• Having incredible experiences with readers. One person came to an event and whipped my book out of her bag. “I saw in the ad you’d be here. I read it, and loved it. Will you sign it for me?” I was touched. Others have come to speaking events to hear more about my writing process. Without readers, I would be nowhere. I know now more than ever people have to be extra careful on how they spend their money. To everyone who has purchased or read my book, a boatload of gratitude to you all.
• Being asked to be a subject matter expert. I’m now a contributor on a writers’ blog that I’ve admired for years as well as a participant in other events to give writing advice. Yes, I guess I’ve learned much along the way, and I’m happy to pass along what I can. Writing is a craft that can be taught. Patience, tenacity, and the joy of editing also have to be groomed.

 
Now to address the downside of this new author experience. It’s hard to believe there would be any lows, but sadly, some folks have vanished from my life since Blaze Orange came out. Yes, I considered some of these folks my friends. It’s hard to believe that some people actually didn’t want me to succeed. Perhaps they had me pegged to play a certain role in their own life, or they’re not seeing changes for themselves, and thus, they can’t witness someone else’s change. I need to point out that none of these people are fellow writers. All of the writers I know have been amazing.
 
The last note to add, although it’s not a deep low, does gnaw at me. Most people only see the end product. They may not know the struggle to write a novel, and submit it, and then to have it actually be accepted for publication, and then to appear on a bookshelf.  It may look to some like I’m an “overnight” success when it has taken decades of work to get to this place.
 
Overall, however, I am happy with this year beyond words. Thank you, Level Best Books, for being the home that you are for me and many other writers.  I look forward to next year “on the circuit” with two published books, more to juggle, and more ideas to bring to life.
 
 Allison Keeton lives in Maine with her muse, Tom, and their two dogs. 
She has twice been accepted into Rutger University’s invitation-only writers’ conference and is a member of Mystery Writers of America, Sisters in Crime, and the Maine Writers and Publishers Alliance. Additionally, she received an MFA in Creative Writing from Lesley University.
Besides writing mysteries, she has written numerous business articles and published a book on job hunting called Ace that Interview. She also writes a creative non-fiction blog, Largest Ball of Twine.    
 ​

All he world’s a stage, and all the men and women merely players; they have their exits and their entrances; and one man in his time plays many parts….
As You Like it by William Shakespeare
 
There is an old adage among writing teachers that says ‘write what you know” which is perhaps the most limiting thing a writer can listen to. Imagine only being able to write about your MFA program or limiting your story possibilities to your high school experiences? Or stories that take place only in your small town?

The truth of it is that a good writer uses the source material of their own life to inform the human reactions in their fiction and the worlds one builds in those stories but just as a start.

Obviously, someone who has had a limited life experience would seem to be at a disadvantage if you wanted to tell a story in another time and place. Say, if one wishes to write a World War Two tale and were born in the 1960s you sure can’t draw on your own life experience, but you can draw on other people’s lived experience by doing research! First person sources, like diaries, journals, news reports or even old movies that show actual locations become a big help.

But period research only gives you the ‘outside’ of a story, that is, what it looks like, maybe even what it sounded like. It is up to the author to get inside the characters, to imagine yourself in that scenario and to imbue the people with the human qualities you have observed in your own life. Even if the characters are not human.

 This is where the ‘write what you know’ applies—you know what mud feel like under your feet, how rain in your face feels, you can extrapolate fear and joy and terror that one might experience in a combat circumstance. The same applies to any location or experience outside your own personal life—research obsessively (at least I do)-- to give it verisimilitude-- and as if you were an actor imagine yourself in the shoes of your character and inhabit them in this new world you have created.

And less you think this applies to only historical or fantasy worlds, remember—in any story you write you have to create the entire reality for the reader. You have to give them not only the color and shape but the feel of the reality that your character is in. Not everyone knows what being in New York is like, or how walking across the Arizona desert feels.

So, a real world on the page--especially in a world where your writing might be read by a world-wide audience. You have to assume your readers are coming on this journey with you for the first time and give them all they need to know.
How is all this relevant to the whole life-mining process? Isn’t this just simple research, basic writing protocols?

Yes and no. I am one of the writers fortunate enough to have had a, shall we say, a colorful life, before turning my full attention to writing. I’ve been shot, stabbed, set on fire, hit by cars and thrown downstairs.

I worked as a book illustrator, a haunted house barker, a bodyguard, a fight choreographer, teacher, actor, jouster and professional stuntman. Most of that list was in professional capacities, and some of it was for real—I have the scars to prove it.

Somewhere in the middle of a tough stunt years ago I decided that while I could always fall down, eventually I would not be able to get up—so I started writing. Part time at first and over a twenty-year period I had work published in magazines, anthologies and then novels, all in a number of genres. Fantasy, mystery, adventure… and then I decided to combine them all in a new series; The Weird Casefiles of Jack Silence!

In Jack Silence is a former stuntman and actor with a penchant for quoting Shakespeare and lives in a realistically drawn New York where The Convergence has happened—the world of the Fey overlays on ours.

The laws of physics and science no longer apply, and the old magicks have begun to creep back in. Not all at once, mind you, but gradually and with seemingly arbitrary rules. It’s a slow-motion apocalypse where internal combustion engines no longer work but magick carpets do; climate change has nothing on this set of circumstances.

Gargoyles, Pixies, Gnomes, Dragons and all sorts of creatures we’ve taken for granted were fantasy now walk or fly the streets of the Manhattan Island.

Not all smooth sailing as sometimes when the Fey come through the barrier they go mad and become violent—when that happens you have to call a Parafey eliminator and Jack Silence sets himself up in business using his life skills as the Ghostmaker.

In a mix of detective, adventure and fantasy elements Jack gathers a loyal staff—a zombie receptionist, a living stone Gnome office manager and a psychic banisher named Madam Vixen to help with spirit problems.

I can say without lying every character and many of the action scenes in the world of Jack Silence have an analog in my real life (something those in my writing group have noted ‘did you really do that? Or is he based on me?)—I’ll never tell!

So. if you like grounded fantasy adventures then look for Guns, Goons and Goblins, the first Jack Silence book coming out next October from Level Best Books!

To quote the bard—To be a well-favored man is the gift of fortune; but to write and read comes by nature.”

 
Teel James Glenn has killed hundreds and been killed more times—on stage and screen, as forty-plus years as a stuntman, then he decided to do something risky: become an author.

He has dozens of published books in multiple genres, and his poetry and stories have been printed in over two hundred magazines, including Weird Tales, Mystery, Pulp Adventures, Mad, Black Cat Weekly, Cirsova, and Sherlock Holmes Mystery.
He is a Shamus, Silver Falchion and Derringer finalist and won Best Novel 2021 in the Pulp Factory Award and winner of the 2012 Pulp Ark Award for Best Author.
His website is: TheUrbanSwashbuckler.com Facebook: Teel James Glenn  Bsky: @Teelglenn

Think Led Zeppelin’s “Whole Lotta Love.”

Can you hear the opening guitar riff?

The bass sneaks in.

Think you might leave? Not your kind of song? Hah! Robert Plant’s vocals invade your auditory canal.

It’s already a big, full song when BAM! Drums. The music explodes.

Music crept into my fiction like that.

As a child, I took piano lessons. In my tweener years, I learned clarinet and participated in band. But I was a retired adult before I discovered the way playing music actually fit into my life. Walking at the Santa Cruz harbor, I encountered a huge ukulele group—with a hundred participants—strumming and joyously singing. And, I had a realization. I didn’t want to play piano alone in my house. I wanted to make music WITH people. And at the beach! What could be finer? Not everyone there played ukulele. They had a bass and drummer. An occasional guitar or flute. Why not a piano?

To reach this goal, I bought a portable keyboard and learned how to operate it, only to realize the group played from fake charts. Where were the notes? I had to learn piano all over again with an emphasis on chords.

Then I worked up the nerve to join the group only to realize after some time that no one could hear me (probably a good thing). The sound from the small built-in keyboard speakers emanated upwards. I needed an amp . . ..

It’s been fifteen years since I started this musical journey. I spent several of them in an honest-to-goodness performing group called All in Good Time Orchestra. I continue to play at the beach on Saturdays. And because I’m an incurable learner, last year I started to teach myself ukulele.

As writers know, everything is grist for the mill. When editor Susie Bright invited authors to submit to Santa Cruz Noir (2018), part of the Akashic Books’ series, she asked each of us to propose a spot and sub-culture of our colorful town about which to write. Without hesitation, I said, “The harbor and the ukulele community.” From that commitment, came “Miscalculation,” my first short story in which music plays an important role.

About this same time, short story collections with music themes snuck into my writing. My story “I Wanna Be Your Boyfriend,” was published in Gabba Gabba Hey: An Anthology of Fiction Inspired by the Music of the Ramones (2021). Although inspired by the song, the story itself doesn’t contain music references, only a bad boy on a motorcycle and a teenaged girl.

When I contributed to the anthology Friend of the Devil: Crime Fiction Inspired by the Songs of the Grateful Dead (2024), editor Josh Pachter wanted one story associated with one song from each of the Dead’s albums. I chose “Dire Wolf.” The story evolved from there, with Josh wanting specific allusions to the song and Easter eggs for Deadhead readers.
​
So, BAM! No surprise I found myself developing Zoey Kozinski, the protagonist of my new suspense novel, Crime Writer, by giving her a side hustle of playing keyboards in the band She Cats. I even created a YouTube playlist for the book, which you can find here. Play it before beginning Crime Writer to set the mood or enjoy the songs as they occur in the plot. Rock on!

A Claymore and Silver Falchion finalist, Vinnie Hansen is the author of the Carol Sabala mystery series, the novels LOSTART STREET, ONE GUN, and CRIME WRITER, as well as over seventy published short works. She is a member of Mystery Writers of America, Sisters in Crime, and the Short Mystery Fiction Society. A retired high-school English teacher, she lives with her husband and the requisite cat in Santa Cruz, CA.
Learn more at www.vinniehansen.com

I started out writing literary short stories and that’s all I did for the first five or six years of my writing life and I was lucky enough to have many of them published.
 
Then, I entered a novella competition called The Great Novella Search. I won that and part of the prize was publication and the book was called Drifting, a kind of love story road novel and that was in 2017 and it’s still out there on Amazon and other digital stores.
 
After that, if I wrote a short story and it was published I’d ask myself if the idea was bigger and that’s how I wrote my first crime novel Going All the Way. It’s about a footballer who got kicked out of the big time after fucking up and now works as a Night Manager in a seedy three star motel in Kings Cross. A sex worker is killed in the motel while he’s on shift and he makes a decision to find the killer. And he never gives up no matter what.
 
I kept on writing short stories and published three collections all available through Next Chapter Publishers. I also wrote a crime trilogy that started with a book called City of Sin and includes City of Fear and City of Vice.
 
About this time I also started taking a lot of photographs and entered a few competitions and got shortlisted and commended and I found I loved doing it. I went to Vietnam and Hong Kong a few times and I swear to God my camera was out constantly. I like point and shoot photography. I don’t do much editing at all, maybe a little sometimes but just with the Apple photo app or the Google App, and that’s very rare.
 
There was a story in one of those short story collections called Tokyo Jazz and it was the starting point for my novel The Bangkok Girl, which is the first novel of mine due to be published by Level Best Books in July 2025. The book features Bangkok-based, Australian PI Lee Jenson and there will be a three book series.
 
I’ve started writing another series that features a female PI, the first time a main character of mine has been a woman. I like the Andy Warhol quote, and I’m paraphrasing, where he says while other people decide if your art is good or bad just keep making art. For me, I’ll just keep writing and taking photos and let other people decide if it’s good or bad.
 
Thanks for the opportunity to blog here.

Where do memories go when we, to quote Hamlet, “shuffle off this mortal coil”? I’ve been fascinated by this question for as long as I can remember. One way to preserve the past is to write a memoir while you’re still alive, but most of us lack the time or inclination to do so. Coming from a family of storytellers, my ancestral recollections have been passed down verbally from one generation to the next. Expanding on that tradition, I thought it would be fun to honor some of my stories by incorporating them into a mystery novel.
 
A Dark September Night is the first book in a new series set for release on August 12, 2025. It features Emmaline McCoy, named after my great-grandmother. Emma is the marketing director for a cruise company based in Los Angeles. I also worked for a major cruise company in the past. The story begins when a hit-and-run driver kills Emma’s beloved aunt Lydie, who is named after my grandmother Lydia. Emma travels to Justice Bay, a remote coastal town in Northern California, to settle her aunt’s estate. Don’t look for Justice Bay on a map; you won’t find it. The essence of the town is rooted in my memories of one of my favorite places—Camden, Maine.
 
In preparation for putting her aunt’s house on the market, Emma opens a pop-up store in town to sell the curios, antiques, and souvenirs her aunt collected during her travels around the world. She names the shop after Lydie’s Siberian Forest cat, who bears an uncanny resemblance to my cats, Princess Scootie and Riley. The cat’s official name is Cassandra, but everyone calls her Boo because she’s mysterious, some say scary.
 
As part of Cassandra’s Collectibles’ marketing strategy, Emma writes story cards that explain how and where each item was acquired. She has heard many of these tales from her aunt, but if not, she invents them. One example is the backstory of a weathered wooden decoy she found in her aunt’s house:
 
A merchant found the duck battered and bruised in the Marrakesh souk beside a pile of Berber carpets. There were rumors, but no one could confirm how he got from a Minnesota slough to a vendor’s stall in a Moroccan back alley. If you look deep into his glassy yellow eyes, perhaps he’ll reveal his secrets. But proceed with caution. Outside the well-lit tourist areas of this medieval red city where spies and wanderers dwell, they only whisper his name—Decoy.
 
All items for sale in Cassandra’s Collectibles are located in my home in Los Angeles. Most were either part of my “inheritance” or collected during my travels around the world, including the brown gourd mate cup with the metal straw from a trip to Argentina and the yellow and orange Tahitian pareo I wore to dance the Tamouré on the French Polynesian island of Moorea. The decoy has been passed down through my husband’s family in Minnesota for at least three generations.
 
As I mentioned earlier, while all the items for sale in Emma’s shop exist, not all the stories on her cards are true. I’ll let the reader decide which ones are accurate and which are figments of my imagination. After all, what’s the fun in revealing everything?

Patricia Smiley is the author of eight mystery novels. Her short fiction appeared in Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine and Two of the Deadliest, an anthology edited by Elizabeth George. Patty taught writing at various writers’ conferences in the U.S. and Canada. She is the former vice president of the Southern California chapter of Mystery Writers of America and served as president of Sisters in Crime Los Angeles. 
Smiley earned a BA from the University of Washington in Seattle and an MBA from Pepperdine University in Malibu, California. She lives in Los Angeles with her two loyal and opinionated Siberian Forest cats, and a backyard after-hours feeding station for possums, raccoons, marauding felines, and other critters in search of a snack and a cool sip of water. Despite the distractions, work continues on her next Justice Bay novel.

I started out writing literary short stories and that’s all I did for the first five or six years of my writing life and I was lucky enough to have many of them published.
 
Then, I entered a novella competition called The Great Novella Search. I won that and part of the prize was publication and the book was called Drifting, a kind of love story road novel and that was in 2017 and it’s still out there on Amazon and other digital stores.
 
After that, if I wrote a short story and it was published I’d ask myself if the idea was bigger and that’s how I wrote my first crime novel Going All the Way. It’s about a footballer who got kicked out of the big time after fucking up and now works as a Night Manager in a seedy three star motel in Kings Cross. A sex worker is killed in the motel while he’s on shift and he makes a decision to find the killer. And he never gives up no matter what.
 
I kept on writing short stories and published three collections all available through Next Chapter Publishers. I also wrote a crime trilogy that started with a book called City of Sin and includes City of Fear and City of Vice.
 
About this time I also started taking a lot of photographs and entered a few competitions and got shortlisted and commended and I found I loved doing it. I went to Vietnam and Hong Kong a few times and I swear to God my camera was out constantly. I like point and shoot photography. I don’t do much editing at all, maybe a little sometimes but just with the Apple photo app or the Google App, and that’s very rare.
 
There was a story in one of those short story collections called Tokyo Jazz and it was the starting point for my novel TRAFFIC, which is the first novel of mine due to be published by Level Best Books in March 25. The book features Bangkok-based, Australian PI Lee Jenson and there will be a three book series.
 
I’ve started writing another series that features a female PI, the first time a main character of mine has been a woman. I like the Andy Warhol quote, and I’m paraphrasing, where he says while other people decide if your art is good or bad just keep making art. For me, I’ll just keep writing and taking photos and let other people decide if it’s good or bad.
 
Thanks for the opportunity to blog here.


Sean O’Leary is a writer of crime and literary fiction from Melbourne, Australia. He has published five short story collections, four crime novels and two novellas as well as over fifty short stories in journals. He likes to walk everywhere, take photos like crazy, loves travel, writes like a demon, and thinks test cricket is the greatest game of all. 

People often ask me, “Did you decide to write a cozy mystery series about a wedding planner because you got an idea for it from your wedding planning business? The answer is… sort of.
 
Hello, I’m Mary Karnes, and I write ‘The Wedding Planning Mystery Series’ – a cozy mystery series published by Level Best Books. I always wanted to be an author. My mother helped me obtain the first of many rejection letters when she submitted a series of my poems to “Redbook Magazine” when I was six. I did not, however, always want to be a wedding planner. That was born more out of necessity than desire.
 
I have four daughters. When daughter number two got engaged twelve years ago, my husband said, “Let’s get a wedding planner!” I said flat out, “NO! We are not wasting good money for that!” I won’t bore you with the details, but it was a grave mistake. After daughter number one’s wedding the following year, I thought, I can be a wedding planner. I did just that. I built a website, with the help of Godaddy.com, advertised on the knot.com and my business has been in the black since day one. All I needed to start was advertising, a computer, a clipboard, paper, and some pens – no overhead.
 
Has it always been easy? Heck no! I was dealing with young women planning the biggest day of their lives. But I have been lucky. In ten years of professional planning, I have had only one ‘bridezilla.’ I now have a team of three ladies, and in the 2024 season, we did thirty-nine weddings. I planned them all but wasn’t always the ‘Day of Coordinator.’

I had written three books before I started the wedding planning business, in fact, I had written one wedding planner book before I had even started my business. ‘Why not write a wedding planning series now that I’m in the biz?’ I asked myself. So, I did.

Friends say, “It must be so easy to write your series! You must get so much fodder from your brides!” Actually, the opposite is true. I have to work really hard to make my stories not resemble my couples, as I guard their privacy very closely.
 
My first book, WEDDING BRIDE AND DOOM, was published in September 2023. Here’s a brief synopsis:

WEDDING BRIDE AND DOOM
 
KATE LUDLOW has moved back home to New England with her daughter, ELLIS, and her little dachshund, Hannah. Her husband, the cheating louse, left her for their next-door neighbor back in California. Finding herself in need of full-time employment, Kate turns her part-time wedding planning business into full-time event coordination.

Home a little over a year, Kate lands a big society wedding, (it could be her big break!), and she’s ready to do anything to make the wedding a success, including finding a missing family heirloom ring. Kate is unsure why the family thinks she can find it when no one has been able to locate it for decades, but she’ll give it a shot.

As she begins to get all the society wedding vendors in place, Kate stumbles upon the body of her best florist, LORI-SUE JOHNSON. Lori-Sue and Kate weren’t friends back in high school, and they aren’t friends now. And just like that, Kate is the police’s number one suspect.

Even though Kate is the police’s only suspect, Kate sees potential murders all around her, including her best friend from high school, JEN COOPER. Back in the day, Jen was worried Lori-Sue might steal her boyfriend, and she never got over it. Was there another layer about their relationship that Kate is not aware of?
To compound matters, BRIAN MCALLISTER, Kate’s high school boyfriend, and breaker of her heart, is the lead detective heading up the murder investigation. Are there still strong feelings between them?

After the police search her home, Kate realizes no one is going to help her except for herself. She starts her own investigation, beginning with searching the deceased florist’s shop and finding a wrapper to a peanut snack, (Lori-Sue had a deadly peanut allergy), and Brian finds her. Brian tells her, “Kate you are your own worst enemy.” But still Kate carries on with her investigation. She doesn’t know who killed Lori-Sue, just that she didn’t.

It could be any of a number of people from old friend, Addalee Baker, who provides Kate with an earful on why she’s not sorry Lori-Sue’s dead, to Brian’s former high school girlfriend and Kate’s archenemy, Sarah-Grace Deloro, the town’s top real estate agent. Why were pending  ‘Board of Realtors’ charges dropped as soon as Lori-Sue was murdered? Even society Mother of the Bride, JOYCE SIMPSON, looks guilty.

 As if Kate doesn’t have enough on her plate, her daughter, Ellis, confides that she has been receiving nasty anonymous texts. Ellis guesses it is the relative of the deceased Lori-Sue, and daughter of Kate’s business rival, KENDRA JACKMAN. Kate goes to Kendra’s house and confronts her, telling her she’d better stop her daughter from harassing Ellis. But Kendra goes to the door to accept a delivery and Kate snoops on Kendra’s phone. It was Kendra who was sending the anonymous texts! Through further digging, Kate finds out Lori-Sue was blackmailing her own cousin, Kendra. Another murder suspect?

Kate’s clients begin canceling her planning services, afraid she will be arrested for Lori-Sue’s murder. Kate is panicked. What will she and Ellis do if her business crashes or worse, she’s arrested for murder? Kate’s sleuthing has produced little, so she decides she might as well try to find the socialite’s missing family ring. The search takes Kate from a local jewelry store to a farm to the town’s historic landmarks. She has an unlikely ally, her old high school beau, and police detective Brian. Sparks fly, and it’s obvious there are still lingering feelings between the two. The strongest lead sends Kate to a local wedding cake baker who has purchased the antique ring at a farm tag sale. Where has the ring been all these years and how did it end up at a tag sale?

After visiting the farm, Kate goes to a local retirement home to question a resident about the ring’s origin. As Kate investigates, she discovers a long-buried mystery that involves JOYCE SIMPSON, mother of the bride. Kate finds, at the risk to her own life, that Joyce has a deep secret she would do anything to keep, including killing Lori-Sue (and Lori-Sue did die by peanut allergy). This all comes to a head when Joyce realizes Kate is too close to the truth and kidnaps Kate to ultimately silence her. Kate’s unlikely savior is arch-rival Sarah-Grace.
Kate discovers her other suspects’ secrets and why they had motives to kill Lori-Sue. The dead florist had been quite the blackmailer and used her friends and family’s secrets against them.

The arrival of Kate’s ex lends another layer to her already chaotic life when he makes it plain, he’d like her back. Will Kate reunite her family, or seek what will make her happy, Brian?
 
SAVE THE FATE was published in October 2024. Here is a brief synopsis:

SAVE THE FATE
 
Wedding Planner Kate Ludlow is back with her fun circle of small-town New England friends. Life is clipping along well for Kate. Her wedding season is off to a great start; she has reconnected with her former high school boyfriend, and her teen daughter is happy and looking forward to a fun summer.  At the town’s traditional kick-off to summer party, “Strawberry Moon,” Jack Malone, the town’s parodical son, surprises the population with his appearance. He’s the best baseball player the whole of New England has ever produced, and he now plays professional baseball in Los Angeles. He hasn’t been home in years but has returned home to marry a local girl. He taps Kate to be his wedding planner, and she couldn’t be happier; what a boon this will be for her business!

Jack reconnects with old friends, and apparently old enemies too, as his body is found in the Connecticut River on his third day home. Jack’s high school girlfriend, and Kate’s best friend, Jen, is the prime suspect. She can’t or won’t give an alibi for the time of Jack’s death. But she’s not the only person who looks guilty. A new business partner has come to Eastbury looking for Jack, claiming Jack cheated him in a business deal gone wrong. Then there’s the high school rival who lost everything in a decade’s old confrontation with Jack. The state police leading the investigation into Jack’s death feel certain Jen is their killer, so Kate has to act. If Jen won’t help herself, Kate will have to step in to save her; but this won’t help her fledgling relationship with her old/new love, Brian, who is Eastbury’s lead detective.
 
The third in the series, UNVEILED SECRETS, will be published in October 2025. All books in the series are available wherever online books are so, in print, eBook, or audio formats.

​Mary Karnes is a mother of four who raised her family through six corporate moves, but always dreamed of being an author. Once the kids were grown, she started a wedding planning company and decided to simultaneously chase her dream of being a published author. The ‘Wedding Planner Mystery Series’ was born, with her business
providing much subject matter for her books. Mary resides in New England with her husband, Ken, her mini-dachshund Lucky. Her door is a revolving one with her kids and grandkids visiting frequently.

Winston Churchill is credited with saying “Never, never, never give up.”  Even though attempting to be a published author isn’t the same as surviving the Nazis’ bombings, Churchill’s mantra has echoed in my head for decades and has helped me keep my spirits afloat through pages and years of rejection letters, or worse, the echo of silence.

While I often say that I’ve wanted to be a writer since I was seven, it wasn’t until I received my MFA in my 40’s that I felt worthy enough to officially try. Did I need the MFA to write? No, but I did need it for courage, community, and a push—I had to write to justify the graduate school expense. Also, craft, as we know, can be taught, and I did have a lot to learn. I still do.

But, two, three, four years out of graduate school, and I still hadn’t published my original novel. No agent had an interest in me, and I grew tired of rewriting it over and over and over to make it better. (Was I actually making it better, anyway?) 
Then, by chance, I took a seminar given by Steve Berry, successful thriller writer. He shared that his first seven novels were still in a drawer. “Keep writing,” he said to the class.

His comment gave me permission to start a new story. That novel didn’t sell either. 
I wrote a third one. It also didn’t sell.

So, I wrote a fourth. Then a fifth. 
With the sixth, I thought I had a winner. Who isn’t intrigued by the Lizzie Borden saga? Nope. Struck out again.

All six novels are still in a “drawer,” so to speak.

Another turning point came when I gave up my search for a literary agent. I’m not anti-agent, at all, but coming up with a different mindset was freeing. The first glimmer of this idea came from a zoom conference that had representation from the three main avenues to publication: self-published, traditionally published with an agent, and traditionally published without an agent.  The latter had had an agent, for years, who never sold his book. He finally struck out on his own and landed a contract with a small press.

I also attended a conference where multiple writers spoke of agents who had found editors who were interested in publishing their work, but the editorial board of the publishing houses voted the works down. 
I thought of my years of struggling to find an agent to only have another round of disappointment heaped on if the agent never sold my work. “Why let two hundred and fifty people dictate my writing career?” I said to myself.  I know there are more than two hundred and fifty agents, but it seemed for my genre, I kept running into the same ones online and at conferences. Going beyond the agent process mentally opened me up to new possibilities. 
My friend and fellow writer, Cheryl, always says that until we actually land a book contract, we write in the dark. Even though we have feedback in our writers’ groups, we never know if what we’re really doing just needs a tweak here or there, because, commercially, agents and editors dismiss us. We have no true validation of our work.

One day, I also asked Cheryl for creative advice. “Should I rewrite my fifth or sixth novel, or start the Midcoast Maine Mystery series?” I had pages of notes for the 3M series, as I call it.

“Start fresh,” she said. “Start that series.” 
As she said the words, a raven sat on a branch outside of my window. 
“Ok,” I said, “and my protagonist’s name is Raven.”

Raven Oueltte was born in my seventh novel, Blaze Orange. The book was set up to fit into a series mold, not to compromise myself or to write to the market, but to recognize that if I wanted to be a true mystery writer, I could follow a character-driven plot formula with all the ideas that I had been gathering. Yes, Maine is a character too. There’s a reason so many mystery writers live here. 
Finally, my story worked! Level Best Books will publish Blaze Orange, the first in a series, in January.  I couldn’t be more elated.  Fourteen years and seven novels later. While I always say to never give up, and I hadn’t, it still all feels like a dream.

If you have a dream, whatever it is, keep at it—keep learning, and listening to feedback, and trying again, and again, and again. Unless it’s becoming a ski jumper in the next Olympics, chances are it’s never too late for you either.

​Allison Keeton lives in Maine with her muse, Tom, and their two dogs. 

She has twice been accepted into Rutger University’s invitation-only writers’ conference and is a member of Mystery Writers of America, Sisters in Crime, and the Maine Writers and Publishers Alliance. Additionally, she received an MFA in Creative Writing from Lesley University.

Besides writing mysteries, she has written numerous business articles and published a book on job hunting called Ace that Interview. She also writes a creative non-fiction blog, Largest Ball of Twine.

I’ve always loved animals and have been owned by cats most of my life. At age four, I acquired my first kitten. My mother warned me not to grab her, to approach gently. I didn’t listen and got scratched. Nevertheless, I was not deterred from loving cats, but I learned right away to respect them.

About twenty years ago, I found my tribe at the Fayette Humane Society (FHS), a local all-volunteer, foster-run animal rescue group supported solely by donations and fundraisers. I fostered cats in my home, worked at adoption events, and later, was asked to become the organization’s grant writer. In 2011, they invited me to join the Board of Directors. I learned that, although we rescue and rehome cats and dogs, it’s not enough to make a difference. Sadly, three to four million healthy, adoptable cats and dogs are put to death in animal shelters around the country every year, simply because they don’t have homes. We can’t adopt our way out of this problem. Spay and neuter became our mission.

Not only do we ensure that all pets we adopt are fixed before they go to their new homes, we reach out to pet owners in the community and offer assistance with spay/neuter surgery. I’ve obtained numerous grants to fund this effort.

One of the programs I write grants for is TNR (Trap, Neuter, Return). Or more accurately, TNVR (Trap, Neuter, Vaccinate, Return). Before I became a rescue volunteer, I assumed all cats were potential house pets, like most of the cats who appear in cozy mysteries. I didn’t realize there are millions of unowned, unsocialized cats who call the outdoors their home.

My town, like most communities all over the world, supports multiple colonies of free-roaming cats. They populate wooded areas, trailer parks, and shopping centers, especially properties that house restaurants. Free-roaming cats might be lost pets, strays, or truly feral felines, born outdoors and never socialized to humans. Unfortunately, they reproduce exponentially. A kitten can have a litter before she’s six months old, sometimes as early as four months. And most of her surviving kittens will have litters of their own before she’s a year old. In a state like Georgia, where the winters are mild, cats breed all year; a couple of abandoned, unaltered pets can quickly grow into a huge colony.

Fortunately, volunteers from rescue groups like FHS are passionate about TNVR. They set humane traps to catch these free-roaming cats, transport them to a low-cost clinic to be spayed or neutered and vaccinated, then return the unsocialized ones to their outdoor homes, where they can live out their natural lives but not reproduce. While the cat is under anesthesia, the veterinarian clips a corner from the left ear; if the cat gets trapped again, the ear tip saves everyone another trip to the clinic.

Since feral cats are mostly nocturnal, our trapper volunteers must work at night, usually in deserted locations. A perfect set-up for danger… or finding a dead body.
Hence the premise for my new mystery, Trap, Neuter, Die.

I figured most readers would be as clueless about TNVR as I was before I joined FHS. So, how could I educate them on the program without a big info-dump?

Our organization has a revolving door for volunteers: high school students who need hours for Beta Club, empty-nesters or new retirees biting off more than they can chew, and of course, court-ordered community service. I decided to make my protagonist, thirty-year-old divorcee DeeLo Myer, a new community service volunteer. Thus, the reader learns about TNVR along with the heroine.

The story opens with DeeLo’s first night on duty. A newcomer to the fictitious Georgia town of Pecan Point, she’s paired with seasoned trapper Catherine Foster, who’s not ashamed to admit she likes feral cats a whole lot better than human beings. And she’s particularly intolerant of DeeLo when she finds out the reason for her court-ordered community service. Needless to say, their working relationship gets off to a rough start.

The night gets even worse when they discover a dead body. And Catherine won’t let DeeLo call 9-1-1.

From my involvement in procuring grant funds, I learned that many communities, including the county where I live, have animal ordinances that do not support TNVR, so volunteers operate in the shadows. These ordinances treat free-roaming cats the same as pets, with leash laws as well as ownership and abandonment restrictions designed for pet owners, not feral cat caretakers or rescue volunteers. A few years ago, a group of FHS volunteers attempted to work with the Fayette County Board of Commissioners to get the animal ordinance updated—let’s just say there was a lot of drama and hidden political agendas. Maybe fodder for a novel…
These draconian ordinances are rarely enforced; in fact, most people don’t know what’s on the books. But in my story, a cop with a grudge against Catherine Foster has read the county’s ordinance and found the loophole giving him the authority to arrest her for practicing TNVR.
When DeeLo sees Catherine arrested (and subsequently held under suspicion of murder), she’s amazed at the law’s stupidity and vows to change it. How hard could that be? She enlists the help of her boyfriend, owner of the law firm where she works.

DeeLo’s job at the law firm gives her intimate knowledge of the business affairs of key Pecan Point residents. And in her efforts to enlist support for her ordinance reforms, she comes in contact with some of the town’s most prominent citizens—including those who have motives for murder.

Even though I’ve been a rescue volunteer for years, I was never a trapper. As part of my research for this book, I went out trapping with FHS volunteer and TNVR guru Marcia Hendershot, who is nothing like Catherine Foster (apart from her TNVR expertise). Marcia was kind enough to be one of my beta readers and help me correct my mistakes.
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What do I hope to accomplish with this book? I want to create awareness about the tragedy of pet overpopulation and show how some people are working to help solve it. And of course, give readers an entertaining mystery.

Sharon Marchisello is a long-time volunteer and cat foster for the Fayette Humane Society (FHS). Because she earned a Master’s in Professional Writing from the University of Southern California, her fellow volunteers tasked her with writing grants for FHS, including procuring funds to support Trap, Neuter, Vaccinate, Return. She’s the author of two mysteries published by Sunbury Press--Going Home (2014) and Secrets of the Galapagos (2019). Sharon has written short stories, a nonfiction book about personal finance, training manuals, screenplays, a blog, and book reviews. She is an active member of Sisters in Crime, the Atlanta Writers Club, and the Hometown Novel Writers Association. Retired from a 27-year career with Delta Air Lines, she now lives in Peachtree City, Georgia, and serves on the board of directors for the Friends of the Peachtree City Library.

The mystery genre has gone through various metamorphoses from the traditional “who done it,” to far-out fantasy. The rise in travel and increasing globalization has led to an even greater expansion of the genre, which now includes the popular International Mysteries.  These are stories from far-off places that allow you to sightsee while you solve a murder.  Like the travels of Gulliver in the past, these stories allow you to learn about new cultures and to develop a greater love for humanity.

It’s the genre I got into, the one I most enjoy.

So, where did I develop this attraction for these types of mysteries you might ask?  It was a combination of travel and falling in love with International Mysteries in their original language on MHZ, a local Washington DC television Network, especially Andrea Camilleri’s "Montalbano," Donna Leon’s, "Inspector Brunetti," and Georges Simenon’s, "Magret." There are also those dark Swedish Mysteries like Martin Beck and Wallander.  (I urge you to read the books and find the shows on www. MHZ.com online). These wonderful mysteries intrigued me.

I also traveled, quite by accident the first time, to Southern Spain.  The problem is that, as soon as the plane landed in sunny Malaga airport, I knew that was where I belonged.  There began a lifetime love affair.

I don’t believe in Karma or that kind of thing, but if I did, I’m certain I had an ancient relative, perhaps from that time when the Moors ruled Spain before the La Reconquista. The romantic era of the final conquest of Grenada (home of the Al Alhambra, which you definitely need to see), by Queen Isabel and King Ferdinand in 1492 the same year Christopher Columbus opened America to the Europeans.

​

This attraction drew me back several times a year for a while, to the point that my friend Lourdes’s then husband said I was 45% American and 65% Spanish. I haven’t been to my other home in a while, though I intend to return. In the meantime, I invite you to travel with me across the Mediterranean, to look over at the Rock of Gibraltar into the continent of Africa.  I invite you to immerse yourself in colorful Flamenco, share tapas, stop for a churro in rich deep dark chocolate, and finish the night with a fine glass of Cava or Rijoa. While we’re there, we’ll find out who done it.

I recently read that the Japanese term Honkaku- which means orthodox, refers to the old-fashioned detective stories. The entertainment from them derives from the logical reasoning of solving the crime, like everyone’s favorite, Agatha Christie novels. A Brief Introduction to Honkaku Detective Fiction - killerthrillers.net
Now, we’ve entered what the Japanese call, Shin Honkaku- the New Orthodox. These started with Island mysteries in the 1980’s. 4 Different Styles of Mystery Novels from Around the World (bookriot.com).   The new orthodox involves solving a mystery on an island, something like the popular television show, Death in Paradise, if you’ve seen it (also love those British mysteries on Britbox).  Today, we don’t stop just at the islands. We can go anywhere from Spain to Italy to France to Sweden, to Greece, to Morocco, or to Istanbul. This new orthodoxy expands our imaginations even further than Gulliver traveled.

I invite you to join me and fall in love with a land not your own. You may want to see a part of the world you never knew existed; you may want to write your own mystery. Whatever you decide, you can’t go wrong with a good trip and a good murder to solve.

Paula B. Mays is a Native of Washington, D.C. She is the Current President of Sisters in Crime (SINC) Chesapeake Chapter, a Trademark attorney, a former USPTO (US Patent and Trademark Office) attorney, and has a Master of Public Health (MPH) degree from George Washington University. MURDER IN LA PLAZA DE TOROS is the first in a new series of mysteries set in a fictional town in Southern Spain. Paula has also published articles in the Huffington Post and has written other trademark-related articles. She lives in Arlington, Virginia.

Cha-cha-cha-changes. The one constant in life. In this decade-birthday year, I feel this acutely. A voice whispers in my ear, “You are the oldest you’ve ever been, and the youngest you’ll ever be.” If there’s stuff I still want to do, I better get to it.

The urgency has already resulted in two trips, one of them to check off bucket-list items: the Teddy Roosevelt National Park and The Enchanted Highway. But I also realize my years as a writer could be numbered. In September, I’ll be on a MWA panel at the MLK Library in San Jose with Laurie King, Leslie Karst, and Heather Haven. We’ll be discussing how we work, how we got started, and what a person needs to do “to make it.”

Like I know that?

However, on more reflection, I do know something about it. My first response—to laugh—is due to constantly moving my goal posts. At one time, I would have thought I’d made it to write a book. Well, I’ve done that a dozen time over if you count the two manuscripts in my file cabinet. Get an agent? I’ve had one. Have a book published. Done. Nine to date.

But even now with seventy traditionally published short stories and a two-book contract with Level Best Books, it’s hard for me to acknowledge the messages that tell me I have reached a certain level of success—the very invitation to be on the aforementioned panel, for example.
Other authors ask me for blurbs.

I was recruited by the NorCal MWA chapter to do a Facebook Live presentation on short story. I moderated a panel on short story at Left Coast Crime. The Coastal Cruisers chapter of Sisters in Crime asked me to do a Zoom presentation on short story.

My local bookstore reached out to see if I’d like to be “in conversation” with a NY Times Bestselling YA thriller writer. Are you kidding me?

The Capitol Crimes chapter of Sisters in Crime asked if I would be a judge for their anthology.

A well-known editor invited me to submit to an anthology he’s put together.

Barb Goffman chose one of my stories to be a reprint in Black Cat Weekly.

Some of these things have required a lot of work on my part but I’ve learned to say yes to opportunities, to step up to difficult jobs like moderating a panel or judging an anthology. They are my way to give back to a community that has supported me, but they are also benchmarks of “making it.”

And it has been my experience that seizing these opportunities and putting in the work generates more opportunities.
​
I’ve always wanted to have a contract with a significant publishing company rather than indie publishing my long works via the small, collaborative press to which I belong. Now I’ve achieved that. Of course, reaching one metric does not prevent me from wishing I made more money from writing, would win a prestigious award, or break through to a best sellers list. There’s nothing wrong with wanting to level up, but it’s important to acknowledge our accomplishments and to understand we are not in competition with other authors, but only with our own expectations.

Vinnie Hansen fled the howling winds of the South Dakota prairie and headed for the California coast the day after high school graduation. 

She graduated from the University of California, Irvine (BA) and San Francisco State University (MA) writing programs. She’s gone on to pen numerous short stories; Lostart Street, a novel of mystery, murder and moonbeams; and the Carol Sabala mystery series. The seventh installment in the series, Black Beans & Venom, made the finalist list for the Claymore Award as did the opening of One Gun. 

Still sane after 27 years of teaching high school English, Vinnie has retired and lives in Santa Cruz, California, with her husband and the requisite cat. 

Along with over 150 million other citizens of the United Kingdom and her Commonwealth, without thinking much about it, I went about living my life as a ‘New Elizabethan.’  Despite the connotations of the word ‘Elizabethan’ and obvious links to Shakespeare, I have never worn a lacey ruff or tights, sported a moustache or pointy beard, or uttered ‘hath’, ‘doth’ or ‘gadzooks!’  Nor have I skipped about singing ‘hey nonny, nonny,’ or ‘Lorks a Lordy!’  I was a New Elizabethan.  Then it happened.

At 3.10pm on Thursday 8th September 2022, my Queen, Elizabeth the Second, took her last breath at her beloved Balmoral Castle.  A hidden fairy tale retreat set beside the shallow, burbling River Dee, which snakes through the purple heather swathed hills and valleys of a remote corner of Aberdeenshire, in North East Scotland.  A place I know well.

Although that day is over a year past, like so many of my fellows, it still seems strange to me to no longer have our Queen.  For the vast majority of us Brits, after reigning for seventy years, without giving it much logical thought, we assumed she’d always be there, as she always had been.  Of course we were wrong.  We shouldn’t have been shocked and surprised, there had been signs but we were.  So it was, as Her Majesty’s heart, in her surprisingly little body, finally rested, without realising it, I ceased being a New Elizabethan and became a Carolean.  (from Carolus, the Latin for Charles.)

I must declare a personal interest at this point, I am now retired but for thirty years I was an officer of London’s Metropolitan Police and for the final ten of those years I was a member of the Royalty Protection Department of that Service.  I met and interacted with most of the senior Royals, the late Queen in particular, when posted to Buckingham Palace, Windsor Castle and Balmoral in Scotland, where she passed away.  With a couple of exceptions I really liked The Royals I met, so I hereby declare myself a Royalist.

Queen Elizabeth’s funeral was code named ‘London Bridge’ and had been planned and periodically updated since the 1960’s, ‘just in case’.  (Each Royal’s funeral is code named after a bridge, her Mother was Tay Bridge, her husband, Prince Philip, was Forth Bridge.  His funeral had long been prepared for too, even the long wheel base Landrover, which on his orders would carry his coffin, was kept ready for decades, stored in the Mews at Windsor Castle, started and driven once a week and kept immaculately clean). 

The State Funeral of Her Majesty took place on Monday 19th September 2022 after ten days of National Mourning.  An image seared into every viewers memory is of her coffin, draped with the Royal Standard upon which sat, apparently precariously, the Crown, The Sceptre and the Golden Orb.  As the red-coated and red faced Guardsmen skilfully manoeuvred the weighty, lead-lined coffin, the nation held its breath, fearful the ancient, priceless objects should perhaps slip and fall.  They were of course, securely fastened.

For me, it was the small, almost unnoticeable vignettes which adhere to the memory and move me deeply.  The Queens daughter, Anne, The Princess Royal, her face riven with sadness, curtseyed slowly and reverentially as the coffin passed her by, honouring her Mother for the very last time.  The New King, Charles III, his eyes glistening with tears which he fought and failed to keep from falling as his ‘Dear Ma’ma’ began the descent into the Vault of Windsor Castle’s St George’s Chapel, to rest beside her Father, King George VI, her Mother Elizabeth and her Husband, Philip.  Most moving of all was the single piper, playing the lament, ‘Sleep, Dearie, Sleep.’  The drone of the pipes and the soulfulness of the tune echoed through the five hundred year old Chapel walls, and as the piper slow stepped away the sound diminished until it could be heard no more. 

It made me recall each morning at Balmoral Castle, The Queens Piper, my friend Pipe Major Jim Stout, played for exactly fifteen minutes, pacing the terrace beneath the dining room window as Her Majesty enjoyed her breakfast.  He could be heard each evening, in his quarters at the Castle, practising for the next morning, to get the timing precisely right.  His tune would begin as Balmoral’s clock struck the hour and finish fifteen minutes later.  The clock would strike the quarter hour the briefest moment after his tune ended.  Jim’s accuracy was fearsome.  The Queen loved the sound of the pipes and it was his honour and joy to please her.

At the end of The Summer Court at Balmoral the Queen would hold the famed Ghillies Ball.  An evening of Highland dancing (called a ceilidh, pronounced kay-lee) attended by whichever Royals were in residence and invited members of the Royal Household Staff.  Initiated by Queen Victoria in 1852 and held every year since, it is named for the estate Ghillies (Highland Gamekeepers).  By my time among the one hundred guests were servants, cleaners, soldiers, cooks and hairdressers, and a few very lucky police officers, such as myself. 

A total novice, I needed Highland dancing lessons for eight weeks in preparation for the event.  Queen’s Piper Jim Stout, who would provide music for the dance, oversaw my feeble efforts, oft declaring (with an amused twinkle in his eye) that I was a “flat-footed, uncoordinated English oaf.”  (Thanks Jim, love you too).  Somehow I eventually passed muster and on the great night was permitted to cavort enthusiastically around the ballroom demonstrating ‘Strip the Willow’, ‘The Dashing White Sergeant’, ‘The Eightsome Reel’, and my particularly flamboyant interpretation of ‘The Gay Gordon’, which I imagine is recalled by traumatised witnesses with incredulity.  The climax of course was dancing with Her Majesty, whose hands were soft, whose stature was petite, whose feet were tiny and whose radiant smile was so, so warm.
​
She rests in peace now, for evermore.  Surrounded by her family and noble ancestors, encompassed and protected by the thousand year old walls of Windsor Castle. 
Like millions of others, I can’t quite believe it.  Like millions of others, I miss her.
God save The Queen. 


Steven Packwood was born in the economically declining industrial Midlands of England in 1960 to parents who worked in factories.  In 1984 he moved south to London to become an officer of the Metropolitan Police.

He served in many departments and in many capacities until specialising as one of the British Police’s, very few, firearms officers.  He was employed for several years on armed response vehicles and motorcycles until selected to undergo further training, to qualify as a Protection Officer.  There followed several exciting years safeguarding Prime Ministers, including Margaret Thatcher and Tony Blair, as well as other senior Government Ministers and visiting Heads of State.

Steve was invited to join the Royalty Protection Group, initially on Prince Charles’s team (now King Charles III) and ultimately with H.M. Queen Elizabeth II at Buckingham Palace, Windsor Castle and in Scotland at Balmoral Castle.  In 2014 Steve retired from the police relatively sane and reasonably intact after providing “Thirty years of exemplary service.”.

Steve has been very happily married to Sue for ten years and has two daughters from a previous marriage.  Amy is twenty seven, a nurse in a central London hospital, whilst Emma is twenty four and has recently followed in her father’s footsteps to join the ranks of the Metropolitan Police.

Steve’s wife encouraged him to start writing when he retired, mainly as a creative outlet after so many years of living a disciplined and regimented life but also, he suspects, to keep him from getting under her feet.  He finds the process of writing both enjoyable and cathartic and admits to savouring being told that his stories are “not bad,” or sometimes even “quite good.”  Words of high praise in a country steeped in a tradition of understatement.​

Steve and Sue are passionate about the theatre and love to travel, having so far ticked off the Far East and the Indian sub-continent as well as most of Europe but take special joy in crossing the pond to visit the USA which they adore.  The couple have relatives in Florida and good friends in New York, so these are the most frequent destinations but they plan to explore the rest of the country soon, pandemics permitting.

Steve has an adventurous spirit, as a qualified scuba diver he has a passion for swimming with sharks, misunderstood creatures he adores, he has also sky-dived, para-glided, abseiled and bungee jumped.  Sue keeps a substantial life insurance policy in her back pocket.  Steve considers himself amongst the luckiest of people and loves his life, often exclaiming with a satisfied sigh to anyone who will listen, “where did it all go so…right!”.