Blog Hop Mystery!

The authors of the Ever After Mysteries are celebrating today’s release of my newest book! Enjoy a little mystery this week and be sure to get your copy of A TROLL FALLS on Amazon at this link!

“I just found it on the porch,” I told my daughter as we put up the groceries.

“Well, it’s a lovely rose.” My daughter collected the bags and put them in our storage bin.

“Not such a lovely message, though.” I tugged the ribbon that held the card in place and pulled it through the hole in the card, untangling it from the leaves of the flower. Leaving the flower on the counter, I squatted and dug through the lower cabinet to find the heart-shaped bud vase that had belonged to my mother. “And it was rather strange to just find it laying on the doorstep.”

“No one rang the bell,” my daughter said. “The dogs would have thrown a fit, and I never left my office. I would have heard it too.”

“Strange.” I shut the cabinet and paused. “You didn’t leave it there did you?”

She halted and tilted her head. “Really, Mom? If I’m going to spend the big bucks to get flowers for you, then I’m sure as heck gonna take credit for them.”

I chuckled. “True enough.” I filled the vase and picked up the bud. “Ouch.”

I dropped it immediately and stuck my finger in my mouth. One of the ugly thorns that covered the stem caught my finger just above the knuckle.

“You’re bleeding.” She trotted to the bathroom and came back with an antiseptic and a bandage. “Who leaves so many thorns on a flower, especially when it’s a gift?”

I stuck my finger under the faucet. “Someone who uses a rose to camouflage a threat.”

“You think it’s a threat?” She dabbed my finger with a kitchen towel and then sprayed it with an antiseptic.

“I do.” I flinched as the burn connected with my exposed nerve endings. “What else could it be?” I smoothed the bandage around my finger.

“Maybe we’re missing something.” She collected the trash and tossed it in the wastebasket. “Maybe one of the other authors like Chautana Having wanted to congratulate you about your coming release.”

“That could be.” I slipped an oven mitt on my injured hand and snipped several of the thorns and most of the leaves from the stem before dropping it into the vase. “I should give Chautona a call just to see. If she did send the flower, then I want to thank her.”

“Even with the thorns?” My daughter laughed, picked up her coffee, and went back to her office.

I reached for the card that had come with it. I should probably just toss it in the trash and not think about it again, but the message bugged me. How else could it be taken except as a threat? Surely, Chautona wouldn’t have been threatening me, though.

What type of wicked troll would send a note like this?

Your day has come.

I hope you enjoyed the first part of our little mystery. You’ll find the next part of the story at Chautona Havig’s blog at this link tomorrow: https://chautona.com/a-troll-falls-release

Don’t miss out on a special giveaway to celebrate the release of A TROLL FALLS! Sign up at the link below: https://promosimple.com/ps/24b03/a-troll-falls-marji

You can order A TROLL FALLS right now from Amazon at this link: https://amzn.to/3Kb9XbN

And when you order, send your receipt and US shipping address to ATROLLFALLS@gmail.com for a special gift with purchase while supplies last!

Fashion Sense

Now I’m no expert, and my blue jeans and tee shirt testify to that fact. (And it’s a toss-up whether I’m wearing the blue tee shirt that says, “Grandma, established 2022,” the red one that says, “I’m a mystery writer. I know 101 ways how to hide a body,” or the long-sleeved black one from “Canceling Christmas,” the musical that I was in last December.)

My characters in A TROLL FALLS, though, know a thing or two about the fashion of the late 1940s. After all, even though they were merely workers in the house, they were treated as part of the family by some very high-standing citizens of Dallas. I showed you the Dior dress that I chose for Ruby to wear on her date at the Adolphus hotel earlier. You can see that post HERE, and it is quite a dress!

Ruby has another date, though, on Elm Street that is shown in THIS POST. She attends a movie premiere of Red River, starring John Wayne, and the block party that the city of Dallas sponsored on that evening (August 26, 1948). At this date, she wore a beautiful sundress. Unfortunately, it wasn’t sunny.

Nope, not a bit. Just as the party was stirring up, a thunderstorm soaked everything and everyone from the haybales to the square dancers and the trick ropers.

And Ruby might have been soaked as well, except she wore one of those plastic raincoats – the kind that were translucent. At least, her dress was seen, right?

As I was researching for this book, I even picked out pajamas for my characters. They are rather prone to wander around and investigate in the middle of the night, so they had to have pajamas. I was surprised to find that the pajama top that I chose is actually a normal daytime top nowadays. Go figure. LOL!

But I have to admit, I wish that the housecoats of 1948 were still popular. These are not mere robes. These are thick and quilted dresses that ushered in the 1950s poofy skirts. I love the ones that I chose for my characters. I would guess the shoulder pads and hemline came straight out of the 1980s, right?

Which do you like best? Which would you wear?

There is something to be said for vintage clothing. I don’t have the figure or the guts to wear clothes from the 1940s, but it sure is pretty!

A TROLL FALLS is now available in paperback HERE.

It will release as an e-book tomorrow (Tuesday).

And in celebration of the release tomorrow, I’m doing a Facebook Takeover at THIS LINK. I’ll be there all day, giving away prizes and sharing more about my story and the Dallas history that sparked my imagination. I hope you will join me!

Oh, and when you purchase your book, don’t forget to send your receipt to ATROLLFALLS@gmail.com along with your US shipping address, and I’ll send you a special gift with your purchase!

Setting is the Thing

Sometimes authors are inspired by actual events. Sometimes people inspire characters for them. For me, it’s always been places.

My daughters can testify of my habit, while we traveled or walked around, of finding great places to hide a body. I even have a tee shirt to that effect. I particularly remember scaring a grocery clerk with a discussion of how dumping the body in a ditch would be too obvious. My daughter spotted her nervous expression. “My mom’s an author.”

“Oh, I hoped it was something like that.” That discussion will be forever impaled on my memory.

As will the time when I spotted the soles of cowboy boots sticking out of a clothing donation box. Seriously? That barely even took any imagination at all. The body dump practically wrote itself. And I expect to use it someday. But no, it wasn’t a body. Yes, I checked. Well, one of my girls checked. Hey, I was driving!

So settings inspire me. The postcard that I found of Broadway of the Southwest inspired my first book A GIANT MURDER. And images of the Adolphus Hotel bridged both that book, set in 1926 and my newest book A TROLL FALLS, set in 1948.

This story’s mystery just fell together when I learned some tidbits about the house that inspired the Halling Estate in A TROLL FALLS. The inspiration for the estate is the DeGolyer House at the Dallas Arboretum that looks out onto White Rock Lake. I was there with a group of recent high school graduates. My twins and their friends had honored me by letting me come and bring my camera. While they wandered all over the gardens, I engaged a worker there at the house and learned a lot more than I expected.

First, I learned about the tragic story of Mr. DeGolyer who committed suicide when he learned of a terminal health issue. He died in his library and that room was one of a kind. Mr. DeGolyer had collected rare books all his life. Most of them are now part of the collection at Southern Methodist University.

The second thing I learned, I can’t really share because it reveals too much about my story. In this case, there is a little curiosity about that building that I played up and developed into the mystery. Yeah, it made for a super-simple story, but a nice juicy little mystery.

I hope you get a kick out of it!

By the way, today is the last day to enter my Goodreads giveaway. You can get a free copy of A TROLL FALLS. Use THIS LINK to enter the sweepstakes. If you do decide to purchase a copy, send your Amazon receipt to ATROLLFALLS@gmail.com along with your shipping address. You get a FREE GIFT WITH PURCHASE in your mailbox!

Fairy Tales and Murder?

This isn’t your typical benign musical. But then again, most of the original fairy tales are a little on the gruesome side. And even the Disney versions involve murder, intrigue, and good vs. evil. So my little murder mystery actually fits in perfectly!

My new book that releases next week is A TROLL FALLS. It’s based on a little-known fairy tale called “Snow White and Rose Red.” Now, this Snow White is NOT the original Disney Queen. Snow and Rose are sisters who live with their widowed mother.

In my story, their names are DEFINITELY changed. Rose isn’t an oddity, but Snow? I’m sure there are several named Snow nowadays, but it is a little on the rare side. So my characters are named Opal and Ruby. I’ve known women with those names. In fact, my great aunt (Mawmaw Bobbie’s closest sibling) was named Opal.

Besides the family connection, though, the fact that my characters are named after gemstones is no coincidence. See, at the end of the original fairy tale, a mean troll spreads his treasure of gold and jewels in the sunshine to dry them after he cleaned them. My troll in this story doesn’t actually have gold and jewels, so Ruby and Opal serve a dual purpose by being the jewels in the story as well as the main characters.

Another main character in the fairy tale is a ferocious bear. He shows up in my book as Eric Bjorn, because Bjorn is Swedish for bear. Yep, that wasn’t a coincidence either. In the fairy tale, the bear is a poor victim. Not so much in A TROLL FALLS. In fact . . . wait. I don’t want to give too much away!

Did you know with fiction, the author has to keep a certain camera lens while telling the story? In most fiction, a character tells the story. You, as the reader, slip into the skin of the character and experience everything from that point of view. In A TROLL FALLS, Opal serves as the main character, so most of the scenes have a focus from her. Not only what she sees and hears, but her thoughts (internal monologue) tell a lot of the story. And her thoughts are influenced by her values and background.

I know that’s sort of technical, but in A TROLL FALLS, both Opal and her sister Ruby tell the story. And you’ll notice a difference between their perspectives. Opal is very shy and a rule follower. Ruby is a little more on the spunky side and willing to push the envelope. In truth, Ruby has a way of finding herself in all sorts of uncomfortable situations, but Opal is the one who . . . oh, wait. I’m doing it again.

Suffice it to say, this is Opal’s story, despite Ruby’s outgoing personality. But don’t worry. With Ruby’s outgoing personality, she can’t stay in the back seat for long. She has her own story coming next year. A WOLF’S EXTERMINATION is a play on “Little Red Riding Hood.” The perfect story for Ruby!

Get your own copy of A TROLL FALLS from Amazon by clicking the book cover here!

Oh, and send your Amazon receipt to ATROLLFALLS@gmail.com along with your shipping address and get a free gift with your purchase sent to you!

The Dallas Connection

Tombstone: Judge JH STEVENSON; Born 1803, Died 1886.

I barely missed being a 5th generation native Texan. I know that sounds small, but it really is a big thing. At least to me. My third-great-grandfather, Judge James Hall Stevens moved from North Carolina to Coryell County, Texas after doing a judgeship stint in Arkansas. His son, John Allen Stevenson was born in Coryell county as was his grandson, my great-grandfather, Robert Lysander Stevenson.

Mawmaw Bobbie, reportedly at age 23 (1939) on the streets of downtown Dallas.

Robert Lysander’s final child, my grandmother Bobbie Zefflah Stevenson (yes, Zefflah. I think Great-Grandmother chose a Z name for this, her eighth child in eighteen years! LOL!) was born just south of Dallas and she moved in with her next older sister and brother-in-law during the early 1930s. My mom was born downtown as were all four of my kids.

So the fact that my mom and dad went over the border (into Louisiana) just before my brother was born and left just after I was born is downright devastating.

Okay, that’s probably a stronger word than is necessary. But I remember my mom had a bumper sticker on my car that said, “Native Texan.” Isn’t that a silly thing to want?

Papa Loyd as a station captain – my aunt thinks this was in the mid-1940s. He was in his early thirties.

I do love doing research into the early days of Dallas, though. My new book, A TROLL FALLS, is set in Dallas in 1948. About that time, my grandfather, “Red” Morin, was a fire captain at one of the Dallas stations. Declared 4F during the war due to hearing loss (just like George Bailey in “It’s a Wonderful Life), Papa Loyd was an air raid warden when he wasn’t at the firehouse. He and my grandmother lived in Oak Cliff, just southwest of downtown Dallas. So as I worked through this book, it was really personal to me.

I’ll share a little more with you soon, but you can preorder your own copy of A TROLL FALLS at THIS LINK. See what makes this book so special and enjoy a special free gift with purchase! Just email your name and shipping address to ATROLLFALLS@gmail.com.

Dior and Ice Skating?

They must have gone together at some point! See in the 1940s, when my book A TROLL FALLS is set, Dallas had the most amazing downtown. Elm Street was still considered the Broadway of the Southwest. And then there was the Century Ballroom at the Adolphus Hotel.

The Ice Skating shows began in 1943 and ran until 1965. This article actually has a film clip from many of the shows at the Adolphus itself.

See the film itself at THIS LINK.

When the ice show ended, a dance floor skimmed into place over the ice and Herman Waldman and his Orchestra continued to play long into the night. This was the date that my character, Ruby Stedman, had with her new beau. Ruby, with her perfect complexion and elegantly coifed brunette hair must have looked amazing in the Dior creation that Mrs. Halling let her borrow. Even if it was a couple of seasons old.

Ruby might have been a looker in the 1940s, but the young woman, an orphan by all accounts, merely served as a companion for an elderly woman in return for her room and board. How amazing it would have felt for her to wear such a dress and join the society of Dallas with a handsome, debonair man at her side.

Well . . . now that I think about it, amazing wasn’t all it was cracked up to be. In fact . . . let’s just say that Ruby has a habit of finding herself in trouble. She gives her older sister Opal all sorts of reasons to worry and pray!

Find out more about Ruby and her date in A TROLL FALLS!