GUEST POST and GIVEAWAY
Murder Under the Covered Bridge
by Elizabeth Perona
Murder Under the Covered Bridge is the second book in the Bucket List Mystery series by Elizabeth Perona. Also available: Murder on the Bucket List.
Murder Under the Covered Bridge is currently on tour with Great Escapes Book Tours. The tour stops here today for a guest post by the author and a giveaway. Please be sure to visit the other tour stops as well.
Description
Working on a television taping to promote the Parke County Covered Bridge Festival, the ladies decide to use their access to the Roseville Bridge to cross an item off Charlotte’s bucket list: #39) Be a Sexy Calendar Girl. But the photo shoot is interrupted by gunshots and Francine’s cousin William stumbling down the riverbank followed by a man with a gun. William sustains life-threatening injuries, but is it homicide?
Francine and Charlotte go into detective mode to uncover the secret William knew about the shooter. Their success, however, depends on surviving two arson events, a séance, a shortage of Mary Ruth’s wildly popular corn fritter donuts, memory-challenged nursing home residents, and a killer who refuses to go up in flames.
Excerpt
Click below to read an excerpt.
Praise for the Book
"WAHOO! Those bucket-list conquering grannies are back with new adventures, new intrigue(s) and new ways to cause embarrassment to their membership!" ~ Back Porchervations
"Keep this one close by for the next time you want a fun read!" ~ Dennis A
"A relaxing cozy mystery with a strong paranormal twist." ~ Bettylouise
"This cozy mystery is lots of fun! [...] lots of humor, a little romance, and a touch of myth, and you have a great Bucket List Mystery!" ~ Amazon Customer
"The story captures the feeling of fairly small town Indiana and its inhabitants while livening things up somewhat with the circumstances surrounding murder as well as a large regional festival and its news coverage. I do also love that there’s a bit of a twist at the end to make things interesting. I can’t wait to read what comes next on the bucket lists of these ladies!" ~ Jill S.
Guest Post by the Author
Writing as a Duo: Different Avenues to Success
Recently we participated in a panel on writing in pairs at the Mystery Writers of America booth at the Printers Row Literary Festival in Chicago. (Note: Both of us were scheduled to do it, but Liz had to back out at the last minute do to an issue with one-year-old son Isaac.) There were two other sets of writers on the panel: Stan Trollip and Michael Sears, who write as Michael Stanley, and Mary Lee Salisbury Woods and Anita Carter, who write as Sparkle Abbey. One of the really interesting things about the panel was learning how each of us writes as a duo. It only goes to show there is no one right way of doing this successfully.
Stan and Michael write each book as a unit. They go chapter by chapter, writing and revising as they go. Since Michael lives in Johannesburg and Stan lives either in Minneapolis or in Cape Town, South Africa, they communicate daily during the writing process by emailing each other documents. Stan says they may have as many as 20 revisions to a chapter before they move on. By the end, he’s says, he often can’t remember who originally wrote the chapter. It’s a laborious process, but it works for them. Mary Lee and Anita write every other book, so as one author is serving as the primary author on the current book in a series, the other is working on the next book. They collaborate on the plot and serve as a sounding board for each other as they write, but they essentially author every other book in the series. They live a couple of blocks from each other, so face-to-face consulting is easy. (Apparently, a good deal of the time it involves margaritas. J) Fortunately for them, they write so similarly that it’s difficult for readers - even their editor - to tell who has been the primary writer on the project.
That’s so different from the way we work. First of all, our collaboration is still a work in progress. It was suggested by our editor, Terri Bischoff, after she’d read Tony’s manuscript which eventually became our first book together, Murder on the Bucket List. As a result of Tony having written the original manuscript, Liz came in at the tail end of it and served as an editor and consultant as well as helping out on marketing efforts. With the second book, Tony had it half written as we started the collaborative process, so we tackled the things we each felt more comfortable doing - and had the time to do. Liz had one child under two (Lucy) and another on the way (Isaac, who was born a month before the second manuscript was due), so she didn’t have a lot of time during the writing of Murder Under the Covered Bridge. Her job became crafting details, which is one of those things Tony hates to do. Tony is the straight-ahead-let’s-get-this-manuscript-done writer. They only details he really cares about are those which may help lead Francine and Charlotte to the killer. Liz also continued in the role of editor, advice giver, and marketer helper. As we have been working on the third book, those roles have continued to develop. Liz is starting to breathe again as Isaac is getting older, and she now has a couple of books under her belt. She is becoming more comfortable as a contributor. As we finish up the third novel, we are looking forward to seeing how our collaboration continues to grow and evolve.
About the Author
Elizabeth Perona is the father/daughter writing team of Tony Perona and Liz Dombrosky. Tony is the author of the Nick Bertetto mystery series, the standalone thriller The Final Mayan Prophecy (with Paul Skorich), and co-editor and contributor to the anthologies Racing Can Be Murder and Hoosier Hoops & Hijinks. Tony is a member of Mystery Writers of America and has served the organization as a member of the Board of Directors and as Treasurer. He is also a member of Sisters in Crime.
Liz Dombrosky graduated from Ball State University in the Honors College with a degree in teaching. She is currently a stay-at-home mom. Murder on the Bucket List was her first novel.
Giveaway
Enter the tour-wide giveaway for a chance to win one of two print copies of Murder Under the Covered Bridge by Elizabeth Perona (US only).
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