Browse Author by Debra Sennefelder
Currently Reading, What I'm Reading Now

My June Reads

Whew! What a month June was! Between being buried by galleys, copy edits, a deadline, a WIP and a family member home unexpectedly thanks to an injury, it’s been a bit chaotic. But now everything is back to normal (well, as normal as you can get when there’s a writer in the house who plots murders) I can get back to reading for pleasure. And I totally missed my deadline for sharing my current reads (yes, I have plans of reviving this sad little blog 🙂 ) and with new projects started (like reviving this sad little blog for one) I don’t have the time reworking the graphic. So pretty much, it is what it is. But the books are good!

I didn’t realize how much I missed curling up on the sofa with Billy and losing myself in a good story just for fun. All of the reading I’ve been doing the past couple of weeks has been for work and believe me, there’s a BIG difference. For starters, while I’m reading either galleys or copy edits, I spend an enormous amount of time beating myself up. How did I ever think that was a good idea? WTF does that mean? OMG, seriously, I wrote that? There you have it, a glimpse into a writer’s mind when she’s reading her own work. Enough about my work.

Let’s talk for a few moments about my current reads. Yes, I typically will read two books at the same time. They’re usually different genres and in different formats. Beaches, Bungalows and Burglaries is a cozy mystery in ebook format with The House on Olive Street is women’s fiction in paperback.

Now, this isn’t going to be a review of either book, or for any books I read in the future. Here you won’t find any negative comments because if I start a book that I don’t connect with I just set it aside and since this is all about sharing my reads with you, I won’t share if I’m not reading and enjoying the book. Okay? Good, let’s continue.

Beaches, Bungalows, & Burglaries is the first book in the Campers and Criminal Mystery series by Tonya Kappes. Mae West has been thrown for a loop when her husband is sent to prison for a Ponzi scheme. She’s left with nothing but a camper and a campground that should have been condemned years ago. With no money, skills and barely skirting free of prison time for herself (the Ex forged her name on legal documents) she has no choice but to make the Happy Trails Campground, well, happy again so that it’s enticing to a buyer. But nothing is working the way she hopes especially when she learns her Ex has escaped from prison and then his body is found in the Happy Trails mucky green lake.

I’m into chapter five right now and loving this book! I see a book-reading binge in my near future. 🙂

The House On Olive Street by Robyn Carr is about the friendship of five women, one of whom is found dead in the first few pages of the book. Gabby has left a request for them and together throughout the summer they will sort through her personal papers and their own issues, some of which have been kept secret from the others in the group. I’ve just started the second part of the novel and I’ve been drawn in quickly to the world Robyn Carr has created. She’s created very four different women and is slowing peeling back the layers of their lives so we learn how they got to where they are now in their lives and it’s leaving me curious to find out what, if any, changes they will make and whether their friendships will remain intact. It’s been a long time since I’ve read one of her books and I’m certain I won’t wait so long to read another one.

I expect to be finish with these books very soon and I’ll be looking for two more to dive into next. What book have you recently finished that you loved? Share below in the comments.

Coffee & Chat

Saturday coffee & chat

Happy Saturday!

Another week behind us and we’re into a new month and we celebrated a national holiday! Wow! I also finished the 4th draft of Food Blogger #4. Many chapters are still with my critique partner and then the beast is headed to a freelance editor for an edit. I’ll be dealing with that later so I’m focusing on finishing draft 4. I do have the beast printed out and I’m going to read through it. I think a few of my chapters are way too long, so some reorganization needs to happen this coming week. Let’s see if I can keep the red pen away from those pages. LOL.

This week I mailed out the Advance Reader Copies for THREE WIDOWS AND A CORPSE (available for preorder now). I was blown away by the requests I received for ARCs when I shared on social media I had the books. If you’re a reviewer and didn’t get a print copy, digital ARCs will be available on NetGalley in late August/early September. I have to admit, I’m a little nervous in sending these babies out into the world. I felt the same way with my other books so I guess that feeling never goes away.

Three Widows and A Corpse book one in the Food Blogger Mystery Series

This week we started a new month and I have goals for July. But first, let’s take a moment and let the quote for this month sink in – nothing worth having was ever achieved without effort.

Never truer words ever spoken.

Everything I’ve achieved to date with my writing has been because of hard work, effort and commitment. Showing up everyday isn’t easy but if you have a dream you need to commit to it, work at it and celebrate it when you’ve achieved it. Then going forward you’ll practice – Rinse. Repeat. Because you can’t rely on your laurels.

So what are goals for the July? I’m so glad you asked. 🙂

First let me say, I’ve been looking forward to July for the past few weeks because I’ll be diving into my secret project (soon to be announced as the contract has just been received) and I’ll be starting Resale Boutique Mystery #3! The outline for the book was accepted by my editor. In book 3 we find Kelly’s former boss, the dragonista of Seventh Avenue, standing over the dead body of her ex-Husband’s new wife (wearing a fabulous faux leopard fur coat of course). There are so many things about this story I love and I can’t wait to start writing the manuscript. Darn secret project. Just kidding. I love my secret project. There you have pretty much what I have planned for the month – a lot of writing. So I’ll be cocooned in my air condition office with Billy until further notice.

There are times when a gal needs a chocolate cupcake. I needed one Tuesday. Just so you know, not everyday is perfect here in Deb’s writing world all the time. There are sucky days and luckily when I had one this week I also had a fresh batch of chocolate cupcakes to help ease the pain. 🙂 And also luckily for me, I didn’t go into a cupcake coma, I managed to stop myself from eating every single cupcake.

For the rest of the week, I stepped away from social media and I am taking long weekend off from writing. It was a quiet, long-stretch of time that was needed. I worked outside a bit, ate a really good burger and took numerous walks with Billy, well he actually was in the stroller for most of the time outside.

I’d love to hear what your highlight of the week was or what you have planned for this weekend? Did you watch any fireworks?

 

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Friday Faves

Friday Faves

Happy Friday!

We made it to the end of the week and here in the states, we’re into day 2 of a 4 day weekend! How are you doing so far? This week has been busy with finishing up draft 4 of my current Food Blogger mystery work-in-progress. My goal was to have it done by July 4th  and I met the goal on July 2nd. Not too shabby. But I did find some fun things I loved this week and my faves include a new cozy, adorable cookies and a podcast interview!

woman on cell phone

It’s day two of a four day weekend which means more reading time! Can I get a Amen? My new read is Manor of Dying (book 4 in the Hamptons Home & Garden Mystery series) by Kathleen Bridge. I’m in chapter seven right now and it’s nice to be visiting with Meg Barrett and the rest of the characters from the charming series set out on Montauk, Long Island.

ManorOfDying cozy mystery

This week I found the cutest cookies EVAH! These adorable chocolate stack cookies would be the perfect centerpiece at any party – birthday, showers, holiday. I’m absolutely in love with the pink bows topping the cookies. Hope Early would love these cookies, too. Check out the recipe for Chocolate Sandwich Cookie Stacks (yes, it’s a mouthful, a delicious looking moutful!) over at Cooking with Carlee.

This week one of my favorite podcasts I listened to was Author Stories with Hank Garner. The episode I listened to was an interview with Katherine Hall Page. It was a delight to listen to the interview. After all, she’s the author who got me interested in culinary cozy mysteries to begin with.

And I’ll end this post with a photo of my little dude, Billy (he’s always a fave of mine), snoozing in his stroller while we went out for a walk. Talk about living the life. Am I right?

Do you have a fave this week you’d like to share? Leave it in the comments section.

Writing, Writing Updates

One Step Closer to Publication

The page proofs of THREE WIDOWS AND A CORPSE have been returned to my production editor. This means the manuscript is one step closer to publication. In a few weeks I’ll receive the advance reader copies (ARCs) and I’m dying to see the idea I set out to write turned into a real-life book!

Proof pages. All 344 pages. All done!

 

While I dislike this part of the publishing process the most, I do have to admit I love seeing this page. All of my published books listed. 🙂

 

 

Coffee & Chat

May Coffee & Chat

Happy New Week!

I know, I’ve been MIA here for what seems like forever. Oh, what Drew would say, forEVAH, girl. But believe me when I tell you that not a day hasn’t gone by that I haven’t thought about writing an update here. Well, today I’m sitting down and actually doing it. What a concept, right?

Since it’s been awhile, I thought today I’d do a little catch-up on the past few weeks. Book signing, magazine ad, best-seller list, a couple of Shih-Tzus. Hmm…where to begin?

Let’s start with a book discussion and book signing. Not going to lie. I loved seeing my book in the shop’s window.

For the release of THE HIDDEN CORPSE, I had the opportunity to visit Byrd’s Books in Bethel, CT for a discussion and signing. It was the perfect night to talk murder! We had a thunderstorm complete with streaks of lightning. Talk about a perfect backdrop. It reminded me of a scene in a Murder, She Wrote episode where a visiting author to Cabot Cove was reading from her novel and it was stormy outside and someone burst into the room. Very dramatic! No one burst into the middle of my book discussion. Yeah, not so dramatic. 🙂

It was a lovely evening despite the bad weather. I love talking about Hope and her sleuthing adventures and I felt very honored to sign copies of my books for those who came out and also some stock copies for the bookstore. That was awesome. Byrd’s Books did a wonderful job in pulling the event together and I’m looking forward to doing some more work with them.

Next up is this gorgeous back cover ad my publisher did for their recently released cozies that featured recipes. THE HIDDEN CORPSE was included!

One recipe from each of the books was highlighted. For THE HIDDEN CORPSE Hope’s Cinnamon Apple Bread was selected. I love this recipe. There is nothing more heavenly than apple and cinnamon baking. The house smells so good. And I’m thrilled that fellow Cozy Mystery Crew authors Libby Klein and Tina Kashian were included in the ad. Go team CMC!

I’m so grateful my publisher included THE HIDDEN CORPSE in the ad because I think it had a lot to do with the book making the Barnes and Noble Mass Market Paperback Bestseller list for THREE weeks! WooHoo!!! I have to admit, I love being on a best seller list.

The magazine is still available and you should be able to find it at your local grocery store and if not click here and you’ll be directed to Amazon we can purchase a copy. There are a lot of great recipes in this book in this magazine I flagged a few that I’m looking forward to trying over the next couple months.

Last month I shared the cover of the next Food Blogger book, THREE WIDOWS AND A CORPSE.

I absolutely love the cover. I’m often asked if I have any input to the cover design and the answer is “yes”. I”m fortunate that my editor asks me for ideas and I provide him with a bunch of inspirational photos and a detailed summary of the crime scene. And then Kensington works its magic to create beautiful covers like the one above. Now I’m waiting to see the cover for SILENCED IN SEQUINS.

Since we’re on the topic of writing, I’m currently working on the second draft of Food Blogger book #4. It has a working title but I’m not sure it will carry over to publication. I’m also editing the outline for Resale Boutique book #3 to send to my editor in June. And even though there’s a lot going on, I have an idea for another book that won’t go away! We’ll see what happens with that project. You know what? We’ll see just how badly this idea wants to be turned into a book. How hard will it fight for some attention from me? I’ll keep you posted. 🙂

Billy has been keeping me busy. This is a quick picture I snapped while on a walk. I put him  in the stroller and Susie walks. Depending upon how sleepy he is he might be curled up in the stroller (like the photo above) and doesn’t have a clue that we’re outside in the fresh air or  he could be sitting up and and enjoying the ride. He’s recovering from an infection and has a follow-up appointment this week.

And here is the picture of the little diva. Or as I call her frequently lady of leisure. Actually I snapped this photo of her when I was on FaceTime with fellow cozy mystery author Jenny Kales. Susie had come out to spend part of chat with us and then she wandered away and took a nap. She’s doing well considering her diagnosis of kidney disease. Twice a week I administer subcutaneous fluids and they’ve definitely helped her with her problem so fingers crossed that it’ll keep working.

Well that’s all my updates for now. I hope you’ll say “hi” in the comments.  And if you haven’t, consider signing up for my monthly newsletter. The form is below.

Debra

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