GUEST POST BY PAT DENNIS

Friend and writer Pat Dennis is visiting my blog today to talk about her 

new cozy just out from  Forty Press.  This is a really fun read, and I wrote the cover blurb!  

From Pat:

The words slipped out of my mouth yesterday morning before I could stop them. They landed directly in earshot of a mother and daughter team selling Thin Mints at my front door. I began, “It’s kind of funny you’re doing this. because I’m a novelist, and in my novel . . .”

I realized what I was about to admit and forced myself to stop talking. In Murder by Chance, a pivotal moment in the narrator’s life happens when a ten-year old appears on her step. When Betty Chance opens the door, the young girl’s eyes travel up and down Betty’s ample body and she states, “I bet you’ll buy a dozen boxes,” or something like that. Until that very moment, Betty had no idea either how heavy she was, or that she’d be capable of slamming a door on a Girl Scout.

I immediately realized I couldn’t tell the rest of the story to the beaming face on my doorstep. Instead I bought two boxes of cookies and sent the two females on their way, each of them probably wondering why I said I was a novelist and then stopped in mid-sentence. To be honest, I was a bit shocked at what I said as well.

It was the first time that I used the phrase, ”I am a novelist.” It almost felt like a lie.

I’ve always referred to myself as a writer, even when I didn’t write, most of us who are scribblers do. The sense of my being a writer was engraved in my DNA. I cannot remember a time when I didn’t define myself that way. I spent my high-school years collecting rejections slips. My first poem was published at seventeen years of age in the Hartford Courant Journal, and my first novel Murder by Chance (other than one I self-published) was published this month, forty-eight years later.

The reviews of Murder by Chance, so far, have been wonderful. The fact that it’s been called“ highly entertaining” and “an engaging romp” tickles my aging fancy. I’ve had nice reviews before for many of my published short stories, but this is the first novel. This is the book that family can display on their shelves. This is the book that I will mention when people ask skeptically, “Have you been published?”

“Why yes, I have a novel out. It’s called. . . . ”

I have been waiting to say for five decades. Know what? Even though it took a long, long time, it still feels pretty damn good to utter the words, “I’m a novelist.”

I might even have a Thin Mint or two to celebrate.

About Pat: 

Pat Dennis is the author of a collection of short stories titled Hotdish To Die For. She is the contributing editor for Who Died in Here? and Hotdish Haiku. She is the author of her self-published e-book, Stand Up and Die. Her short stories are included in Anne Frasier’s Deadly Treats, The Silence of! the Loons, Resort to Murder, Once Upon A Crime anthology, Writes of Spring, Minnesota Monthly, Woman’s World, and more. Her latest novel Murder by Chance is published by Forty Press. She is also working with Adventure Publications to discover new authors for their debut line of mystery fiction, set in the wilderness or aimed toward the outdoor sports enthusiast. 

Pat will be signing copies of Murder by Chance this Wednesday, March 20, 7:00 at Once Upon a Crime in Minneapolis.

She'll also be signing at Excelsior Bay Books in Excelsior, Minnesota, on April 13, 1:00.

Murder by Chance can also be purchased in ebook or print from most online stores or any indie bookseller.

MAN WALKS INTO A BAR...

Saturday evening, March 9, I attended a lovely launch event for Forty Press. The party was held at a just as lovely bookstore in Wayzata, Minnesota, called the Bookcase.  The place was packed, and at one point I decided to use the restroom, which is located in the back of the store. When I stepped inside, I immediately noticed that the handle for the toilet was lying on the back of the tank, and the toilet itself had suffered from many non-flushes in a row. Now this is absolutely no reflection on the bookstore. These things happen, and I imagine the handle experienced a lot of use that evening. It just gave out. So I rolled up my sleeves, removed the lid from the tank, reached in, and manually flushed.

I regret being unable to repair the toilet, but I think it will require a whole new handle.  But anyhow…

Now I can't quit thinking about something that used to happen at my uncle's bar in Illinois.

 A guy walks into a bar… Goes straight to the men's room. Comes out. Orders a beer. Drinks it fairly quickly. Leaves. No tip. Very little conversation. Next person to go into the men's room comes out and says: "The toilet seat is broken."

That's not the end of the story.

Over a period of a year, the guy returned several times.  And every time he returned, he broke the toilet seat. My uncle began relating this story to other bar owners in the area. They knew the guy, and he did the same thing at their bars.  Toilet Seat (as we began calling him) wasn't a big guy, so the consensus was that the breaking of the seat was some kind of deliberate and weird fetish.   I'd completely forgotten about Toilet Seat until the other night.

Forty Press and Once Upon a Crime Classics

The newest print edition (trade paperback) of Before I Wake, published by Forty Press, has the honor of being the first book to be released as a Once Upon a Crime Classic.  The Penguin/NAL edition came out in 2005. Up until that point, my Frasier titles had been set in cities and were fairly traditional police procedurals. This time around, editors asked for a rural setting. Once you move a story from a city, and once you add isolation, the tone changes and the book begins to feel a little like horror.  Before I Wake is a mixture of psychological suspense, thriller, and a little bit of horror.

I think the Forty Press cover is a HUGE improvement over the original cover, which looked like romance. In fact, I love the new cover:

Partial screen shot of title page with intro by publisher Joe Riley:

Forward by Gary Shulze of Once Upon a Crime:

Once Upon a Crime Series Editor Note
Looking through reviews and blurbs of Theresa Weir’s books (aka Anne Frasier) in preparation for writing an introduction to this edition of Before I Wake, I was struck by the consistent use of the best in adjectives: Gripping, Chilling, Clever, Engrossing, Brilliant, Heart- thumping...you get the idea. These and more apply to her entire body of work. Many of them I used myself back when I reviewed books for Crimespree Magazine. (I jokingly say that I had to quit reviewing because I ran out of adjectives.) One of my favorite review

5

assignments back then was to review Before I Wake in May, 2005. In that review I wrote “...Anne Frasier...once again demonstrates her mastery of atmospheric suspense.”
I wasn’t the first, and surely I won’t be the last, to describe The- resa as a master. She is fluent in a whole range of genres: Romance, Romantic Suspense, Crime Thriller, Psychological Suspense, and Horror (sometimes combining a bunch of them in the same book) while winning a batch of awards along the way. Plus, she wrote a knock-out memoir, The Orchard (2011)—a book that puts the “heart” into “heart-wrenching.” In a word, she is a “master” of the craft, and an author to watch, and of course, to read.
So just what does a master of atmospheric suspense do? With apparently no effort, she manages for you not to just visualize a scene, but invites you in as a participant—often with long-lingering effect. In Garden of Darkness (2007), there is a simple scene of dried leaves blowing across a road. Something you see any given day, but forever- more something I’ll be seeing with fresh eyes and ears.
In Before I Wake, as Arden walks us down the halls of the Mad- eline State Lunatic Asylum—now a psychiatric research unit-cum- nursing home—you can hear the floors creak. And during the book’s incredible finale, which takes place at the Arden family farm during a pounding blizzard, you just may want to bundle up.
We at Once Upon a Crime have been honored to have hosted publication launch parties for all of Anne/Theresa’s books. She is thoroughly delightful and we love her to death. She also makes our skin crawl, and scares the crap out of us.
– Gary Shulze Once Upon a Crime Minneapolis, MN January 22, 2013 

~~~~

The release date is March 9, but copies are already available through Once Upon a Crime.  They love phone orders, so don't hesitate to call: 612 870- 3785

 I will be attending the CrimeSpree 50th Issue Party at Once Upon a Crime this Saturday, February 22, so if you'd like a signed copy just give Gary and Pat a call.

Print versions of Before I Wake can also be purchased from any bookseller.

ADVENTURE PUBLICATIONS OPEN FOR SUBMISSIONS

I wanted to let writers know that my friend Pat Dennis has taken a position as acquisitions editor for Adventure Publications. They will be publishing four wilderness/outdoor mysteries per year, and they are now officially open for submissions.

 Here's a bit from Pat and Adventure Publications:

"My new job is the fiction acquisition editor for Adventure Publications! Please feel free to share the following. “Adventure Publications, an award-winning publisher of outdoor guides  is accepting fiction manuscripts for its new series of outdoor/wilderness mysteries. We are looking for mystery fiction that will appeal to both the mystery reader and the outdoor enthusiast. The books will be produced in both print and e-book format. Example of authors we love are: Nevada Barr, Victoria Houston, C.J. Box, William Kent Krueger and Beth Groundwater. Currently, we are seeking novels set in the Midwest, Southwest, Northwest, Northeast and Rocky Mountains. Email your submission to: fiction@adventurepublications.net. Email queries sent to any other address will not be read. We do not open email attachments, unless we request them. Your entire submission must appear in the body of the email and not as an attachment. The subject line should be “QUERY” along with the title of your manuscript. Please email the first chapter and a synopsis along with a cover letter. Also, in your email, please include the number of words in your completed manuscript, as well as a bio, and pertinent writing and/or outdoor wilderness experience. If you prefer, you may snail-mail your query, along with your first chapter and bio to Fiction, Adventure Publications, 820 Cleveland St S, Cambridge, MN 55008.”

ADVENTURE PUBLICATIONS

Personal note:

I must confess that I flaked out on Nanowrimo due to some unforeseen circumstances, but I'm back working on the sequel to Play Dead and am about 1/3 of the way done with the first draft. ( 

You can see by my little tracking thingy up on the right that I'm just over 20,000. Will probably hit 25,000 by the end of the Nano. Half of my goal.) I should have the whole first draft completed by the end of February.  I'm enjoying the process so much that I've decided to write a sequel to Hush once Play Dead is finished. Hush is still my bestselling title, and I keep getting requests for a sequel, so it only makes sense since there's a demand. Plus I do love writing sequels because the characters are already developed. There is no question about what a character would say or do or think.  Both books will feature the same characters and settings. 

Wait, that's not all!

A new indie press called Forty Press is going to be reissuing Before I Wake.  The trade paperback will come out this March. More on Forty Press and the reissue later.