Duffy Brown's Blog: New Cozy Series - Posts Tagged "sleuth"

In Geared for the Grave Evie Bloomfield wants to boost her chances for a promotion so she agrees to leave Chicago and head off to Mackinac Island to help her boss’ dad with his cycle shop.

Mackinac is a real island, an eight-mile chunk of land where Lake Michigan meets Lake Huron. It’s truly beautiful, no cars with horses and bikes a twenty-minute ferry ride from the mainland. When the lakes freeze...or as the islanders call it “the ice makes...there is no ferry, very limited plane service and if the ice is think enough snowmobiles are the way off the place.

So want do you think, could you live there year-round?

Without cars it’s so quiet and the whole island is a throwback to the 1800s with vintage baseball, parades for every occasion, the town gazebo, dressing for dinner at the Grand Hotel, high tea, horse drawn carriages with men in top hats and formal attire and did I mention no cars.

It’s waking up to the clip clop of horses’ hooves on cobblestone and often the whole island cocooned in dense fog with the foghorns moaning out in the harbor. You’ll be in the best shape of you life with having to walk everywhere and the sunset over the Mackinaw Bridge will always take your breath away.

This sound amazing to many of us like a and death sentence to others. There is no mall! There is no Walmart, big box store of any sort, no free wifi except at Horn’s bar and the library. Often your cell phone won’t work and you’ll be hanging over the end of the pier to get reception for the so important phone call. There are only 500 permanent residents so things get a bit confining in the winter when the way to get around is your snowmobile. Your kids go to a school with sixty other kids, there is no Dollar Store and it’s reeeeeally cold.

So what do you think? Are you a island person or a big city? Personally I think I’d fit in perfectly on Mackinc Island. It’s a writer’s heaven and I’ve always wanted my own snowmobile.

Hugs,
Duffy Brown

Geared for the Grave
First book in Cycle Path Mysteries
Berkley Prime Crime
December 2, 2014

PS If you’d like to be part of my Street Team just email DuffyBrown@DuffyBrown.com for info or here’s the link for the info.

http://www.duffybrown.com/my-street-team.

The next mailing of promo for Geared for the Grave and Thank You tote and a special bicycle keyfob that I’ve made goes out Nov 25th.

It’s a new year and everyone is making resolutions. I suck at resolutions. I mean well but things just never seem to work out. So, I was looking on Pinterest and they have this board called New Thing to Try in 2015.
Somehow that made more sense or maybe it’s the wording. It just sounds more adventuresome and a lot more fun than You’re fat, Duffy, resolve to lose weight!

The first thing I’m going to try that’s new in 2015 is learning Italian! I’m off to Italy to discover my Italian Roots as grandpa Angelo was from Bisaccia, a tiny town just southeast of Naples. To try and not offend my relatives I thought it would be nice to try and speak the language. (though with my ability to learn foreign languages it might not work out that way) But at least I’ll try.

I’m also going to start doing Zumba more before this poor old body of mine completely falls apart. And the new thing for me is to start lifting weights! Picture me as Hercules by December. See, an adventure!
I’m going to try the fish oil routine as my eyes are failing and I guess fish have much better eyes. And I’m going to write three pages a day come hell or high-water. I need to get organized. Trust me, this is indeed a new and adventuresome path for Duffy Brown.

So there you have it, my new things to try in 2015. Do you have any adventures you’re taking on? Hopefully something fun and exciting and that will not make you look like Hercules.

Hugs and Happy 2015!
Duffy Brown

I do declare…

I live in Cincy but sort of moved to the South when I started to write the Consignment Shop Mysteries. I had to suddenly start thinking and living like my characters. I guess I’m a bit of a method writer like there are method actors where they live the part to get into the part.

I had to acquire the taste for sweet tea, I do love fried okra so that was already in place but I no longer carry Chapstick in the back pocket of my jeans but have instead learned to wear lipstick every-single-day-of-my-life-no-matter-what-and-no-matter-where-I'm-going.

My thick wool sweaters have been relegated to the back of my closet and I’ve made room for light cottony cardigans. I have a front porch so I put a rocking chair on it and as far as my speech goes my family thinks I’m crazy as a June bug.

Some of the Southern sayings I’ve tired out with limited success here in Ohio are…

Oh! Bless your heart..." My kids think this is sort of adorable but actually this expression is commonly used when Southerners need an excuse for speaking ill of someone. Example- "She's as ugly as a mud fence, bless her heart." Even though the line was an insult it is made better by showing that you, in a way, feel sorry for the person.

And of course there’s Well Butter my butt and call me a biscuit. The fam thought I’d hit the vodka when I tried this one.

She looked like she’d been ridden hard and put away wet. I’ve used this one a lot all my life. That’s what I get from living so close to the Kentucky border.

He could sell a Popsicle to a lady wearing white gloves. Meaning the individual is so good at persuasion that he or she could talk his or her way into anything. The sales lady at Macy’s ran when I tried this one.

You can't get blood from a turnip. Meaning you can't get something from someone who doesn't have it. My accountant got this one right off the bat.

Madder than a wet hen and He's like a bull in a china shop and Cute as a bug’s ear. I’ve used these for years too so the fam didn’t blink an eye when I started working them into the conversation.

We were just sittin' around chewin' the fat. The kids told me I needed more veggies and fruit and forget the fat

Don't count your chickens before they hatch. I used this one on my next door neighbor and she was tickled pink she’d be getting fresh eggs

She was all over him like white on rice. I used this one on my other next door neighbor and she smacked her husband upside the head. Guess it hit a little too close to home.

You can't see the forest for the trees. Is another one I’ve used tons but my new favorite is Easy as sliding off a greasy log backwards.

So, next time you find yourself sittin' around chewin' the fat and sippin' on some sweet tea think about your favorite sayings Southern or otherwise and let me know here what it is and I’ll work it into Demise in Denim, book four of the Consignment Shop mysteries.
Go whole hog today and have yourself a mighty fine time.
Hugs, Duffy