DONIS CASEY: Write Errant

As I told a friend the other day, considering that my latest book came out six months ago, February is a surprisingly booky month for me. It started out on the third when my friends and fellow authors Vicki Delany and Kate Carlisle came through town on a brief promotional tour. I had a great time with them, even though I didn’t get to spend as much time in their company as I might have wished. I did get to see them speak at Poisoned Pen Bookstore in Scottsdale and at Tempe Public Library, though. And I’ll get to see Vicki again on February 18 when I join her and Linda Wikins (touring as Eva Gates and Erika Chase) in Raleigh, North Carolina, for another week of book promotion.

Kate & Vicki at Tempe Public Library

The inimitable Molly Weston, editor of inSinC, the Sisters in Crime journal, often hosts mystery authors on what she calls the “Triangle Tour,”  booking them into stores, libraries, and other venues in the Raleigh-Durham-Chapel Hill area. I’ve heard such wonderful things from the many authors who have taken advantage of this opportunity that I can hardly wait. One thing that will add to the adventure is that Vicki/Eva and Linda/Erika are both Canadians and I am the sole Southwesterner in this group. An interesting mix of accents will ensue.

I’ve only been to the Raleigh area once, and that was many years ago during my academic library phase. I had a job interview at the College of William and Mary in Williamsburg, VA, and had to fly into Raleigh, which was the nearest airport. The library director picked me up and drove me the long way to Williamsburg. I didn’t see much of Raleigh, but I do remember being quite impressed by the sheer number of huge trees.  I hope that any of you Dear Readers who live in the southern part of NC will drop by and say hi to us on one of our stops. You can see the whole schedule by clicking on the Events page, above, or by checking out Molly’s website here.

Jenn, Donis, Rhys. I love this. I look like the cat who ate the canary.

After I get home on the 24th, I’ll be doing another event with Rhys Bowen and Jenn McKinlay up in Surprise, Arizona, at the Surprise Public Library, on the 28th. Rhys, Jenn, and I did an event together last month down in Sun Lakes, AZ. I enjoyed myself a lot and expect we’ll all have just as much fun in Surprise when we meet again. On our last outing together, Jenn gave a piece of writing advice that everyone who aspires to put pen to paper should heed. I passed that wisdom on at the Type M 4 Murder blog a week or so ago.

In other news,  if you have read my books, Dear Reader, you know that I include some of Alafair’s recipes at the back of each novel. The new novel coming up in November, All Men Fear Me, takes place at the beginning of World War I in America, so some of the recipes I’m testing are austerity recipes from  U.S. Food Administration cookbooks of 1917 and 1918. I made one a couple of weeks ago called War Cake–no wheat, no sugar, no eggs. Made with molasses, raisins, and rye flour. It was delicious. If you are interested in giving it a pre-publication try, the recipe is posted here, on the Poisoned Pen Press authors’ blog.

War Cake

And last but not least, Kay Stewart wrote a lovely review of The Wrong Hill To Die On for her blog Kay’s Reading Life.  Have a look, here. Kay’s review blog will give you lots of candidates for your TBR pile. So many books, so little time.

And that is February. See you next month for the Tucson Festival of Books!

This entry was posted on Sunday, February 8th, 2015 at 1:13 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.