Stan Jones's Blog: Stan Jones in his own words!
February 23, 2024
SAND GARDEN flashquote of the day!
Today’s selection is from chapter six of THE SAND GARDEN, book one in the Dana Forsythe series.
In it, Dana discovers that her new case, involving a gorgeous murdered mistress name Jennifer Williamson, is big news.
- - - - -
I start my day with a news cruise. The bomb has gone off.
The Herald web page has a big headline reading Gene Autry victim shot five times in torso. It’s over a crime scene photo of Jennifer’s body with the area between her legs blurred out. Somehow, that makes it look even more obscene. “Accused killer Johnny Bottemueller,” the copy reads, “has denied the charges.”
The reporter is my pal Liz Hernandez. We swapped information in my days as a deputy with the sheriff’s office, eventually became close friends, and she was my rock during those first weeks after Frank died.
Liz has dynamite looks and dynamite sources, and not by coincidence. All the best crime reporters I ever knew were attractive women, because no man is more male than a male cop. When she turns on her smile, cops start talking.
- - - -
Sound like fun? Here’s the Amazon quicklink: bit.ly/Sand-Garden
In it, Dana discovers that her new case, involving a gorgeous murdered mistress name Jennifer Williamson, is big news.
- - - - -
I start my day with a news cruise. The bomb has gone off.
The Herald web page has a big headline reading Gene Autry victim shot five times in torso. It’s over a crime scene photo of Jennifer’s body with the area between her legs blurred out. Somehow, that makes it look even more obscene. “Accused killer Johnny Bottemueller,” the copy reads, “has denied the charges.”
The reporter is my pal Liz Hernandez. We swapped information in my days as a deputy with the sheriff’s office, eventually became close friends, and she was my rock during those first weeks after Frank died.
Liz has dynamite looks and dynamite sources, and not by coincidence. All the best crime reporters I ever knew were attractive women, because no man is more male than a male cop. When she turns on her smile, cops start talking.
- - - -
Sound like fun? Here’s the Amazon quicklink: bit.ly/Sand-Garden
Nathan Active flashquote of the day!
Today’s selection is from chapter four of FROZEN SUN, the third book in the Nathan Active series.
In it we find Nathan’s girlfriend engaging in a bit of competition with his mother. Her secret weapon: tuna sandwiches!
- - - - -
At noon, right on time, Lucy Generous looked up from her console to see Nathan come out of the stairwell and walk toward her dispatch station, that smile on his lips.
“What’s for lunch?”
“Tuna sandwiches,” she said with a smile of her own. “I won’t tell Martha if you won’t.”
Nathan, she knew, was well aware of what they were having for lunch. She had been making the sandwiches that morning when he stopped to pick her up for work. He had watched as she sealed them in ziplocks and dropped them into a shopping bag with two Diet Pepsis and a big package of tortilla chips. It was a running joke between them, how Nathan’s birth mother was trying to lure him into traditional Chukchi ways by feeding him traditional village foods, while Nathan clung stubbornly to the habits he had learned from his adoptive parents in Anchorage. One of those habits was the tuna sandwiches—with mayonnaise and a touch of mustard—Lucy made them for lunch at least once a week.
As she pulled off her headset and lifted her coat from the back of her chair, she wondered if Nathan knew how serious this particular joke was. Every time she made him a tuna sandwich, she wasn’t just giving him food he liked—she was doing something for him that Martha wouldn’t do.
- - - - -
Frozen Sun
In it we find Nathan’s girlfriend engaging in a bit of competition with his mother. Her secret weapon: tuna sandwiches!
- - - - -
At noon, right on time, Lucy Generous looked up from her console to see Nathan come out of the stairwell and walk toward her dispatch station, that smile on his lips.
“What’s for lunch?”
“Tuna sandwiches,” she said with a smile of her own. “I won’t tell Martha if you won’t.”
Nathan, she knew, was well aware of what they were having for lunch. She had been making the sandwiches that morning when he stopped to pick her up for work. He had watched as she sealed them in ziplocks and dropped them into a shopping bag with two Diet Pepsis and a big package of tortilla chips. It was a running joke between them, how Nathan’s birth mother was trying to lure him into traditional Chukchi ways by feeding him traditional village foods, while Nathan clung stubbornly to the habits he had learned from his adoptive parents in Anchorage. One of those habits was the tuna sandwiches—with mayonnaise and a touch of mustard—Lucy made them for lunch at least once a week.
As she pulled off her headset and lifted her coat from the back of her chair, she wondered if Nathan knew how serious this particular joke was. Every time she made him a tuna sandwich, she wasn’t just giving him food he liked—she was doing something for him that Martha wouldn’t do.
- - - - -
Frozen Sun
February 16, 2024
A flashquote from the Nathan Active series!
Today’s Nathan Active flashquote is from the first chapter of SHAMAN PASS, the second book in the series.
Like any good mystery, SHAMAN PASS opens with the discovery of a body killed under mysterious circumstances—in this case, at a fishing camp far out on the Arctic sea ice.
- - - - -
“Should I take it out?”
The paramedic from the Chukchi Public Safety Department dropped to her knees beside the mortal remains of Victor Solomon, then looked up at Alaska State Trooper Nathan Active and repeated the question with her eyes.
Active snapped the cap into place over the lens of his Nikon, tucked the camera inside his parka, closed the zipper, put his mittens on, and considered the paramedic’s question as he gazed around Victor Solomon’s sheefish camp on the ice of Chukchi Bay. Active hated moments like this even more than most moments at a death scene. Instinct told him the proceedings ought to be as solemn as the event itself, the questions as profound as the fact of a human soul moving on to the hereafter, if there was one.
Instead, it always came down to this kind of niggling decision: Should the shaft protruding approximately four feet from Victor Solomon’s chest be left in place? That way, the pathologist who would do the autopsy could remove it himself, noting whatever needed to be noted about its relationship to the wound and Victor’s death.
Or should it be removed to facilitate the body’s transportation by snowmachine and akhio from Victor’s sheefishing camp across eight miles of sea ice to the village of Chukchi? Active turned and looked. The town was just discernible through the milky air as a line of dark rectangles on the horizon.
Vera Jackson, the paramedic, pointed at the fiberglass akhio hitched to the back of her snowmachine, a blue-and-black Arctic Cat. “He’ll get a lot of bouncing around on that. It might make the wound bigger. Or the harpoon might fall out and get lost.”
- - - - -
#alaska #murdermystery
Shaman Pass
Like any good mystery, SHAMAN PASS opens with the discovery of a body killed under mysterious circumstances—in this case, at a fishing camp far out on the Arctic sea ice.
- - - - -
“Should I take it out?”
The paramedic from the Chukchi Public Safety Department dropped to her knees beside the mortal remains of Victor Solomon, then looked up at Alaska State Trooper Nathan Active and repeated the question with her eyes.
Active snapped the cap into place over the lens of his Nikon, tucked the camera inside his parka, closed the zipper, put his mittens on, and considered the paramedic’s question as he gazed around Victor Solomon’s sheefish camp on the ice of Chukchi Bay. Active hated moments like this even more than most moments at a death scene. Instinct told him the proceedings ought to be as solemn as the event itself, the questions as profound as the fact of a human soul moving on to the hereafter, if there was one.
Instead, it always came down to this kind of niggling decision: Should the shaft protruding approximately four feet from Victor Solomon’s chest be left in place? That way, the pathologist who would do the autopsy could remove it himself, noting whatever needed to be noted about its relationship to the wound and Victor’s death.
Or should it be removed to facilitate the body’s transportation by snowmachine and akhio from Victor’s sheefishing camp across eight miles of sea ice to the village of Chukchi? Active turned and looked. The town was just discernible through the milky air as a line of dark rectangles on the horizon.
Vera Jackson, the paramedic, pointed at the fiberglass akhio hitched to the back of her snowmachine, a blue-and-black Arctic Cat. “He’ll get a lot of bouncing around on that. It might make the wound bigger. Or the harpoon might fall out and get lost.”
- - - - -
#alaska #murdermystery
Shaman Pass
November 16, 2023
THE SAND GARDEN is here!
Yep, my new Palm Springs mystery series starring female sleuth Dana Forsythe is officially launched with installment No. 1, THE SAND GARDEN, now available for purchase.
Dana's Forsythe is a tough-minded Palm Springs-based private investigator and former cop whose cases take her the full length of California's Coachella Valley--from the grace and wealth of Palm Springs in the north, to the despair and poverty of the Slab City squatter camp in the south, and to and the dying Salton Sea in between.
About THE SAND GARDEN:
PALM SPRINGS is an anomaly. A watering hole for the rich in the middle of a desert where real life has trouble just surviving. The Dana Forsythe Mysteries plants a foot in both worlds.
The dying Salton Sea is only an hour from the azure swimming pools and emerald golf courses of Palm Springs. The dystopian squatter camp known as Slab City is just down the road from the Salton. Cops and criminals manage to navigate the divide that private detective Dana Forsythe confronts when she takes on a murder investigation in this scorching landscape. Life gets even more complicated when the victim turns out to be her dead husbands mistress--and the mother of his illegitimate twins.
What's more, Dana'THE SAND GARDENs late husband was a cop, and also murdered.
The story begins when an outlaw biker drops the orphaned toddlers off on Danas patio in the middle of the night. She has no choice but to dig into a twisted truth shed rather avoid. When she finds herself entangled with a prominent Palm Springs plastic surgeon and his real-estate-queen wife, she learns that strange flowers flourish in a sand garden.
THE SAND GARDEN is a saga of redemption, retribution, and what happens when you embark on a relentless pursuit of truth.
But its not a saga of the young and glamorous, nor of a stone-faced Harry Bosch detecting in a dramatic vacuum--and its definitely not Miss Marple. Dana Forsythe is a woman of a certain age going to work every day to pay the mortgage. Her work happens to be digging into other peoples trouble--but this time the trouble turns out to be her own.
My friend and co-author Mary is a former Alaska resident--she now lives in Minnesota--who has penned several novels, including a couple of mysteries.
Enjoy the ride!
Quick link to THE SAND GARDEN on Amazon:
https://bit.ly/Sand-Garden
Dana's Forsythe is a tough-minded Palm Springs-based private investigator and former cop whose cases take her the full length of California's Coachella Valley--from the grace and wealth of Palm Springs in the north, to the despair and poverty of the Slab City squatter camp in the south, and to and the dying Salton Sea in between.
About THE SAND GARDEN:
PALM SPRINGS is an anomaly. A watering hole for the rich in the middle of a desert where real life has trouble just surviving. The Dana Forsythe Mysteries plants a foot in both worlds.
The dying Salton Sea is only an hour from the azure swimming pools and emerald golf courses of Palm Springs. The dystopian squatter camp known as Slab City is just down the road from the Salton. Cops and criminals manage to navigate the divide that private detective Dana Forsythe confronts when she takes on a murder investigation in this scorching landscape. Life gets even more complicated when the victim turns out to be her dead husbands mistress--and the mother of his illegitimate twins.
What's more, Dana'THE SAND GARDENs late husband was a cop, and also murdered.
The story begins when an outlaw biker drops the orphaned toddlers off on Danas patio in the middle of the night. She has no choice but to dig into a twisted truth shed rather avoid. When she finds herself entangled with a prominent Palm Springs plastic surgeon and his real-estate-queen wife, she learns that strange flowers flourish in a sand garden.
THE SAND GARDEN is a saga of redemption, retribution, and what happens when you embark on a relentless pursuit of truth.
But its not a saga of the young and glamorous, nor of a stone-faced Harry Bosch detecting in a dramatic vacuum--and its definitely not Miss Marple. Dana Forsythe is a woman of a certain age going to work every day to pay the mortgage. Her work happens to be digging into other peoples trouble--but this time the trouble turns out to be her own.
My friend and co-author Mary is a former Alaska resident--she now lives in Minnesota--who has penned several novels, including a couple of mysteries.
Enjoy the ride!
Quick link to THE SAND GARDEN on Amazon:
https://bit.ly/Sand-Garden
February 21, 2022
Recommended reading
If you remember the Papa Pilgrim saga in Alaska from a decade or so back, I recommend you check out the new book by his daughter, Elishaba Doerksen.
It's called "Out of the Wilderness" and tells the harrowing story--the horror story, really--of her life with a demented religious fanatic of a father and her years of sexual abuse at his hands.
She finally broke free and and set out on a path of recovery and has now told her own story in her own words.
I'm about halfway through. It's gripping and appalling in equal parts, and tough to put down.
https://www.outofthewildernessbook.co...
It's called "Out of the Wilderness" and tells the harrowing story--the horror story, really--of her life with a demented religious fanatic of a father and her years of sexual abuse at his hands.
She finally broke free and and set out on a path of recovery and has now told her own story in her own words.
I'm about halfway through. It's gripping and appalling in equal parts, and tough to put down.
https://www.outofthewildernessbook.co...
September 17, 2021
Love your local bookstore!
If you decide to get yourself a copy of Ghost Light, the new Nathan Active mystery, please try to get it from your local bookstore. If they don't have it in stock, they will probably be able to order it for you.
Who doesn't love the smell, look, feel and experience of a brick-and-mortar bookstore, right?
Let's face it, Amazon's great. But you can't get coffee and a muffin and hold an author talk or a launch party on Amazon. For that you need a real bookstore!
And just for kicks, here's the website of the organization that represents bookstores, bless their little hearts:
www.bookweb.org
Who doesn't love the smell, look, feel and experience of a brick-and-mortar bookstore, right?
Let's face it, Amazon's great. But you can't get coffee and a muffin and hold an author talk or a launch party on Amazon. For that you need a real bookstore!
And just for kicks, here's the website of the organization that represents bookstores, bless their little hearts:
www.bookweb.org
It's he-e-e-e-re!
It's he-e-e-e-e-re!
I'm happy to report that the newest Nathan Active book, is now officially published in ebook, hardcover, and paperback form!
You can check it out on my website at the link below.
(P.S. I have no idea why it says "Tundra Kill" below the image from my website. Please ignore!)
http://sjbooks.com
I'm happy to report that the newest Nathan Active book, is now officially published in ebook, hardcover, and paperback form!
You can check it out on my website at the link below.
(P.S. I have no idea why it says "Tundra Kill" below the image from my website. Please ignore!)
http://sjbooks.com
August 20, 2021
Tommy and Tommie
In Ghost Light, the new Nathan Active mystery, Nathan solves a murder case with help from an Alaska Native grandmother suffering from dementia. Her name is Tommie Leokuk, and there’s a reason for that.
The reason is Tommy Leonhard, to whom Ghost Light is dedicated.
Tommy Leonhard was an old family friend whom I met twenty or so years ago when she was on a bowling team with my parents in rural Tennessee. Somehow, we fell into a pen-pal relationship and exchanged letters by snail mail.
Along the way, she became a fervent fan of the Nathan Active books.
Because of her age, I’d send her a printed manuscript the minute each new first draft was finished.
After reading The Big Empty, the predecessor of Ghost Light, Tommy suggested I do a story about an old woman who finds a body walled up in a house.
I decided that was a pretty good idea, and adapted it to the far north by having an expertly dismembered woman’s body turn up in the ice cellar of an abandoned Inupiat Eskimo fish camp.
Since the idea came to me from Tommy Leonhard, I named the old lady in the book Tommie Leokuk. Tommy Leonhard was so tickled by this that she started signing her letters to me “Tommy Leokuk.”
Tommy—the real one—passed away last year at the age of 98, I’m sorry to report, but not before I got a chance to send her the manuscript of Ghost Light. She got to see for herself that it was dedicated to her.
My good friend Tommy Leonhard is gone now and I miss her every day. But her spirit lives on in Ghost Light. I feel like I can sense her presence there and see that merry smile of hers every time I open it.
If you're interested in the book that came from her suggestion, here's the Amazon link:
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B09...
And if you'd like to see a picture of Tommy Leonhard, here's a link to my Facebook post about her:
https://www.facebook.com/StansBooks/p...
The reason is Tommy Leonhard, to whom Ghost Light is dedicated.
Tommy Leonhard was an old family friend whom I met twenty or so years ago when she was on a bowling team with my parents in rural Tennessee. Somehow, we fell into a pen-pal relationship and exchanged letters by snail mail.
Along the way, she became a fervent fan of the Nathan Active books.
Because of her age, I’d send her a printed manuscript the minute each new first draft was finished.
After reading The Big Empty, the predecessor of Ghost Light, Tommy suggested I do a story about an old woman who finds a body walled up in a house.
I decided that was a pretty good idea, and adapted it to the far north by having an expertly dismembered woman’s body turn up in the ice cellar of an abandoned Inupiat Eskimo fish camp.
Since the idea came to me from Tommy Leonhard, I named the old lady in the book Tommie Leokuk. Tommy Leonhard was so tickled by this that she started signing her letters to me “Tommy Leokuk.”
Tommy—the real one—passed away last year at the age of 98, I’m sorry to report, but not before I got a chance to send her the manuscript of Ghost Light. She got to see for herself that it was dedicated to her.
My good friend Tommy Leonhard is gone now and I miss her every day. But her spirit lives on in Ghost Light. I feel like I can sense her presence there and see that merry smile of hers every time I open it.
If you're interested in the book that came from her suggestion, here's the Amazon link:
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B09...
And if you'd like to see a picture of Tommy Leonhard, here's a link to my Facebook post about her:
https://www.facebook.com/StansBooks/p...
August 18, 2021
Announcing volume 7 in the Nathan Active series!
Happy to report "Ghost Light," the next book in my critically acclaimed Nathan Active mysteries series, is ready for prime time!
The ebook and hardcover are already up for pre-order know on Amazon and virtually every other book site in the known universe.
And they'll be joined soon by paperback and audiobook versions.
What's "Ghost Light" about?
Here's the logline:
"With the help of an Alaska Native grandmother suffering from dementia, Chukchi police chief Nathan Active hunts down the killer who hid a woman’s expertly dismembered body in the ice cellar of an abandoned Inupiat Eskimo fish camp. The investigation pulls Active into a dark tangle of love and jealousy, even as he struggles with the PTSD that has haunted him since being wounded in a shootout in an earlier case."
If you're interested, you can check it out on my Amazon author page, here:
https://www.amazon.com/Stan-Jones/e/B...
The ebook and hardcover are already up for pre-order know on Amazon and virtually every other book site in the known universe.
And they'll be joined soon by paperback and audiobook versions.
What's "Ghost Light" about?
Here's the logline:
"With the help of an Alaska Native grandmother suffering from dementia, Chukchi police chief Nathan Active hunts down the killer who hid a woman’s expertly dismembered body in the ice cellar of an abandoned Inupiat Eskimo fish camp. The investigation pulls Active into a dark tangle of love and jealousy, even as he struggles with the PTSD that has haunted him since being wounded in a shootout in an earlier case."
If you're interested, you can check it out on my Amazon author page, here:
https://www.amazon.com/Stan-Jones/e/B...
Stan Jones in his own words!
An ongoing chronicle of my adventures in writing the Nathan Active mystery series, the Dana Forsythe series, and other projects, past, present and future!
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