The huckleberry fun continues!

Posted on July 6, 2014 by Leslie Budewitz

Thanks to you all for a most wonderful book launch!

Offers: A reminder: My publisher, Berkley Prime Crime, is giving away TWENTY-FIVE COPIES of Crime Rib at Goodreads. The contest continues through July 15. You must join Goodreads to enter, but it’s easy and fun.

A chance to meet! Next week, Mr. Right and I are heading to Seattle for a short vacation—researching sights and sounds for my Seattle Spice Shop Mysteries. Oh, okay, we’re mostly going to eat. But I’ll also be signing Crime Rib at the Seattle Mystery Book Shop at noon on Friday, July 11. I’d love to see you!

Or we can talk online! Delighted to share this email chat, in the July issue of The Big Thrill, the online magazine of the International Thriller Writers. John Clement, author of the Dixie Hemingway mysteries, and I talked about writing process, discovering Erin, her past, and her future, and of course, food. Enjoy!

I also talked with cozy writer Gayle Trent, aka Amanda Lee, about Crime Rib, and our conversation is now a free download podcast on her website, as part of her “Writing Up a Storm” series.

Next week, I’ll be part of the Writerspace chat on Tuesday, July 8, at 7 pm, with a host of other authors with new cozy mysteries. I hope you can join us!

On Friday, July 11, I’ll be toasting my friend Deborah Lacy at The Mystery Playground for her feature, Friday Reads with Drinks. IMO, Crime Rib is the perfect accompaniment to a huckleberry martini!

I get lots of questions about Erin’s love life—hmm, wonder why? I’ll be chatting about that on Friday, July 11, at Marie’s Cozy Corner. And Berkley Prime Crime is providing a copy of Crime Rib for a giveaway that day!

And on Saturday, July 12, I’ll be at Lori’s Reading Corner, talking about Cozy Montana. (Another free copy offer — thanks, Berkley!)

Gallery: A few pictures from my visit to Fact & Fiction Books in Missoula on July 2. How cool is it that James Lee Burke and I have new books out at the same time, and our posters hang together? (And huge thanks and hugs to those of you who pre-ordered signed books, even though you couldn’t make the event!)

The Saturday Writing Quote — creativity and anxiety

Posted on July 5, 2014 by Leslie Budewitz

“Creative acts begin with anxiety. Scared or uneasy? Build a fire, write a ghost story like The Shining, compose a song like Coltrane’s “Alabama,” cook a nine-course meal to show love. One difference between the artist or performer and a person who suffers from anxiety and is disabled by it is that the creative individual managers more routinely to use the worrying to inspire action.”
– Scott Haas, Back of the House: The Secret Life of a Restaurant (2013) A food writer and clinical psychologist looks inside the mind and kitchen of a top chef — Tony Maws of “Craigie on Main” in Boston.

‘Tis the day!

Posted on July 1, 2014 by Leslie Budewitz

My third book launches today. And you know, I still feel as excited as with the very first, Books, Crooks & Counselors —maybe more, because now this writing career feels real, thanks to all of you who have bought the books or read them from the library, given them to your friends, and talked about them on line and face-to-face.