A Visit with Mary Martinez

Mary Martinez loves to travel, especially to the Caribbean and Italy. She fills her books with colorful descriptions of cities she has visited, painting colorful backdrops for her characters. She's a member of MWA, RWA and several SinC chapters.

Mary, how did you find time to write when you had six children at home?

When I originally started writing, I was married to my first husband who gave me NO support at all. I had 3 kids and it was back in the days before computers. So it was a selectric typewriter. I would write whenever I could, research was hard because 3 children in a quiet library do not mix. I wrote 100 pages of the worst historical you’d ever want to read. I have no idea whatever happened to it. Then I decided that it was time to let the kids grow and then follow my dream. Before that happened I divorced and remarried and my husband had 3 children so we became an instant Brady Bunch. We were crammed and packed in our little house, but we had a great time. I waited until they were almost all out of school, then I’d write in the evenings or in the middle of the night. The next day at work was hard. But that’s how I wrote my first two books. And he’s the best support ever. He even reads and does edits…

Where do you like to travel for research?

There are two things everyone should know about me by now. I’m a concert and a travel HO. I pretty much want to see and do it all. I love New York City, and a lot of my stories are set there. Everywhere I go I bring home as many city maps and books of things to do as I can. My desk is jammed full of them.

Has your love of college football and tailgating crept into any of your plots?

Not yet. And I’m not sure it will. It depends on if an idea strikes me. I’ve found that if I force a subject of something I think I would like to write, I never finish it. It doesn’t flow. So, we’ll see if it every happens.

Tell us about your latest book?

The one I just completed is the first book of a series, it’s being submitted right now. It’s a contemporary women’s fiction. It has romance in it of course. It is about a bridal shop and dresses. I’m not going to say too much more, I want it to be a surprised.

What about Watching Jenny?

Known as Blade with wild pink hair, tattoos and piercings, Jenny McGregor works to keep her life private. But her self-constructed barriers are breached after she receives flowers and threatening notes signed by ‘Runner’.

Desperate to stop the threat before she goes on tour, Jenny hires hunky Detective Dan Janson for protection. Unable to catch the stalker before the tour bus leaves, Dan is forced to stifle his attraction to Jenny. They’re carried along on a dangerous game of cat and mouse from San Diego to Memphis the city of Elvis and the blues. Each day the two draw closer together. When ‘Runner’ lures Jenny away from the tour, Dan’s forced to acknowledge he’s fallen in love with the feisty singer.

Hot on Jenny’s trail, Dan soon learns ‘Runner’ is not one of the usual suspects.

Which of your characteristics have found their way into your protagonists?

I’d say in each book one or all of mine have gone into them. But what I find most is, my characters have characteristics I want to have. They do things I want to do, and they live in places I’d love to live in.

What’s your writing schedule like and do you outline your novels?

I write when I have time. I have a full time job and I’m very family involved. We have Papa and Nana night once a week. We have a lot of friends over, and so my writing? Well it gets done when I have quiet time which isn’t often. I never outline my novels, the one time I did—it is still in a drawer is all I can say. I have a general idea and a blurb. I add to my character family and friend tree as I go. When I introduce one into the story I write a blurb about their looks, characteristics and background and then move on.

Advice for aspiring novelists?

Don’t give up. Do your research. Join a writing group, whether it’s RWA or a local critique group, but you need the support.

Have blog book tours increased your book sales?

Unfortunately, it takes a few months to hit my royalty checks, so I won’t be able to answer that question until next quarter. LOL.

 Who most influenced your own work and why?

Stephen King, Nora Roberts, Sandra Brown and James Patterson. I love to read. And I think they’re all great and different.

Thans, Mary.
You can visit Mary at her website: www.marymartinez.com and her blog: http://marysbooksblogger.blogspot.com/
She's also on Twitter: http://twitter.com/#!/marylmartinez

A Visit with Jacqueline King

Jacqueline King loves books, words, and writing tall tales. She especially enjoys murdering the people she dislikes on paper. King is a full time writer who sometimes teaches writing at Tulsa Community College. Her latest novel, The Inconveninet Corpse is a traditional mystery. King has also written five novellas as co-author of the Foxy Hens Series. Warm Love on Cold Streets is her latest novella and is included in the anthology The Foxy Hens Meet an Adventurer. Her only nonfiction book is Devoted to Cooking. She's a member of Sisters in Crime, Mystery Writers of America, Romance Writers of America, Oklahoma Writers Federation, and Tulsa Night Writers.

Jackie, how did you conceive your novel, The Inconvenient Corpse?

Thanks Jean, for inviting me to chat with you and your readers about my mystery. Oddly enough, The Inconvenient Corpse was birthed in its setting, a charming Bed and Breakfast Inn. I plotted the book by playing every writer’s favorite game: ‘What if?’

What if I’d found a dead man in this bed? What if he were naked? What if his clothes were nowhere to be found? What if the police thought I was the killer and told me that I couldn’t leave town? And then, what if I then learned that I had no money, no available credit, and no resources at all? What if I’d been born with a silver spoon in my mouth and had previously spent my days as a Junior League member? Could I survive on just my own moxie? I felt impelled to answer these questions.

What in your background prepared you to write?

My mother was a natural born storyteller. One night (at the end of the great depression) there was nothing for supper. Mother never told us this grim fact. She smiled (bravely) and said, “Let’s have stories for supper!” My brother, sister and I clapped our hands with joy. Stories for supper? What could be more wonderful? I must have been close to three at the time. After that, I think stories (and later books) became a part of my DNA.

What’s your writing work space like?

Shabby, overflowing with papers and magazines and books, and writing supplies. Probably sounds awful, but for me it’s heaven on earth. I’m living my life’s dream and am happy beyond belief.

Do you have a regular writing schedule and do you outline your work?

I write every day that it’s humanly possible, but not on any particular schedule. I’d love to write first thing in the morning, but this goal seldom happens. I do outline my work, sort of. I start a spiral notebook for each novel and jot down anything I can think of that comes to mind about my new project. I play a lot of “what if?” as I described earlier. I’m envious of outliners who stick to their exact outline, but I seem to be totally incapable of such a plan. I’m a “panster.” (As in flying by the seat of your pants.) It requires a huge amount of rewriting, but luckily I love what I fondly call, word-smithing.

Who taught you the language of fiction?

Although I’ve had many excellent teachers of fiction (mainly Peggy Fielding) I think I absorbed the language of fiction by reading and reading and reading. Mentally inhaling other writers wonderful novels, also helps improve my own writing.

Have any of your children followed in your keystrokes?

My youngest daughter, Jennifer Sohl, coauthored my only nonfiction book, Devoted to Cooking. This is a collection of family stories and their very own special recipe. My two granddaughters Lauren Keithley and Morgan Sohl are also writers. (prepublished.)

How do you feel about the ebook revolution?

Guess I’m a book rebel, (I’m American, after all) because I love e-readers and e-books. I also love paper books. If you wrote good prose on the sidewalk in front of my house, I’d read that, too.

What’s the best way you’ve found to promote and market your work?

I love promoting my books in the CyberWorld! What a joy it is to become acquainted with readers who live all over the world. Readers are extremely smart, witty, and interesting folk and I can ‘talk’ to any of them who own a computer. Lucky me, I can promote worldwide, day and night (if I choose) in my jammies.

Advice for aspiring writers?

Don’t let anyone discourage you. I hate to go to a writer’s conference where a well-known writer tells how hard it is to get published at this time, thus intimating that those poor souls who have not yet found a publisher will probably be left out in the cold. THIS IS A LIE! You can do it if you follow the tried and true recipe of success: (1)Write every day. (2) Submit what you write. (3) Never give up.

Your social media links and bio.

I’d be thrilled to hear from readers about this post, or about what you’re thinking about today, or even your supper menu. Let’s all get acquainted so we can talk about books and writing. This has been fun, Jean. Thanks a million.

It's been great having you here, Jackie.

You can visit Jackie at her website: Website: www.jacqking.com
and her blog site: http://bnbmysteries.blogspot.com

She would like to have readers ‘friend’ on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1290204781#!/Jacqking
and her book is available at: http://amzn.to/gMv7CH and http://bit.ly/fovbLR

A Visit with Sharon Ervin

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Former news reporter Sharon Ervin has a degree in journalism from the University of Oklahoma. Her work has appeared in Newsweek, The Harvard Review, Whispers From Heaven, Pray!, True Love, The PEO Record and Arabella magazines. She has also written a number of mystery novels, including Candlesticks.

Sharon, how has journalism helped your novel writing career?

Maybe it’s because I am a voyeur. I love nosing into other people’s lives, not necessarily to get involved, just to check them out. I love to ride through neighborhoods at dusk, after people turn on their lights and before they close their curtains. I like to see into their homes and see what they are doing. Not for any evil reason, I’m just curious. As a newspaper reporter, one gets to ask questions people might not like from other strangers, but behave as if you have a right, even a duty, to ask, and they answer.

Why do you write mainly for and about women?

Because I am a woman with two sisters and two daughters. I lived in a women’s dorm as a college freshman, then in a sorority house the next three years. And I paid attention. I like women now more than I did then. Mature women are tougher and more resilient than men.

Tell us about the Chick Lit for Foxy Hens.

Author/teacher Peggy Fielding wanted to do an anthology of five novellas, one from each of five different authors. She invited me to participate. She wanted a “Bridgette Jones Diary,” kind of thing, a chik-lit collection showing opportunities for romance are available, not just for girls, but for mature women as well. Because some of us got a little risque, one of us dropped out, after she had written her material. She had valid reasons. We had a wonderful time working together, got a couple of contract offers, enjoyed the result, and promoting together. Chik-Lit For Foxy Hens was a delightful experience.

How did your latest novel, Candlesticks, come about?

Characters from The Ribbon Murders and Murder Abroad and The Choctaw Gambler wanted new crimes to solve. Because I was familiar with the Mullendore Murder in Oklahoma in 1969, I borrowed from that case to create Candlesticks. It was released as a hardcover from Five Star/Cengage in June, 2010.

To what do you attribute your engaging dialogue?
I eavesdrop constantly, and I have a good ear.

Which three inanimate objects would you save first in the case of a fire?

Family pictures and my zip drive disks. There are more than three of each.

Are ebooks going to force print publishers and bookstore out of business?

I hope not, although I never would have foreseen the changes electronics have wrought in the last dozen years. Newspapers and magazines are shrinking and disappearing at alarming rates these days. My grandchildren run around with plugs in their ears. Only yesterday when I interrupted to ask, a thirteen-year-old granddaughter said she was listening to the last of the Harry Potter books again, before the last movie came out. These children are well-read, but much of their reading is done auditorially, if that’s a word.

What career would you have chosen, if not a writer?

I am good with children. I like them. Except for a penchant for paddling, I probably would have made a good teacher. I was a den mother for two years with each of our sons. Although I worried about getting a complaint for child abuse. I loved those boys and they liked me, but I didn’t put up with any more guff from them than from my own four children. Grown men now, they are still respectful and eye me cautiously as if they expect I might swat their legs if they don’t mind me. Even now, not one of them would run across my sofa in muddy shoes. They know better.

Which writer most influenced your own work?

Probably Dorothy Sayers. I love her humor, jabs that always catch me by surprise, and her brilliance.

Advice for fledgling writers? 

Don’t expect to make money writing. Marry well. If you flipped burgers for as many hours as you spend at the keyboard writing a book, you could earn more money than most authors.

Thanks, Sharon.

You can visit Sharon at her web page: http://sharonervin.com and
her blog site: http://sharonervin.wordpress.com

A Visit with Pat Browning

A veteran traveler, Pat Browning's.globetrotting of the 1970s led to her work as a travel agent and correspondent for TravelAge West, a trade journal published in San Francisco. During the 1990s, she served as a newspaper reporter and columnist. Her mystery novel, Full Circle, first of her Penny McKenzie mystery series, was later republished as Absinthe of Malice. She's currently hard at work on the second novel in the series.

Pat, when did you realize you were a writer? And when did you publish your first work?

I can’t remember when I didn’t write. Scribble would be more accurate, but from an early age I exhibited something every writer needs—unabashed confidence that people want to read what I write.

In the 5th or 6th grade, I wrote one-page, illustrated haunted house stories (in pencil, on notebook paper) and passed them around the classroom. That summer, I wrote a "book" (written in pencil in a lined school notebook), a blatant knock-off of the Bobbsey Twins, and passed it around the neighborhood. When I was about 12, I sat under a pear tree in our front yard and wrote a story about fairies living in a tree stump. I mailed it to The Kansas City Star; they printed it, and sent me a check for something like 50 cents.

I was always a writer. If you don’t count my 50 cents from The Kansas City Star, I really knew I was on to something when The Fresno Bee hired me as a stringer and began publishing my feature articles back in the ‘60s. They hired me to do routine society news, weddings and such, but I started doing features like they were going out of style and never looked back.

Tell us about the writing awards you've won.

"Got Those Ol' Call Me Fat, Diet Time Blues," a feature I wrote for the Bee in 1964, won third place in California Press Women's annual Writers Contest. I gave that up for the travel business and wrote for TravelAge West, a trade journal published in San Francisco. No awards, just some fantastic travel assignments.

I the 1990s, I signed on full time as a newspaper reporter and columnist, at the Selma (Calif.) Enterprise and the Hanford Sentinel. While at the Enterprise, my lifestyle coverage placed first two years in a row in the California Newspaper Publishers Association Better Newspapers Contest. As co-writer of a feature on AIDS, I was a finalist for the 1993 George F. Gruner Award for Meritorious Public Service in Journalism. At the Sentinel, my feature story about a Hanford man who was one of the Japanese-American "Yankee Samurais" of World War II, placed second in the CNPA contest.

In 2000, the first chapter of Full Circle won Futures Magazine’s second annual Karen Besecker Memorial Award. The award was named for the late Karen Besecker of Fresno, California, who founded the San Joaquin Chapter of Sisters in Crime.

When did you decide to write your first novel, Full Circle, later reissued as Absinthe of Malice, and how did the story evolve?

While I was working for the Hanford Sentinel, the editor decided the lifestyle pages needed a book review column. I went to the library and pulled books off the shelves. They turned out to be mysteries, and I thought, how hard can it be to write one? Ten years later I can say, it’s not as easy as it looks.

It became Absinthe of Malice almost overnight when an online friend decided to start his own publishing company, read Full Circle, and made me an offer I couldn’t refuse. Three months later the new book was revised and reissued. It was a mad, mad, mad, mad merry-go-round and I loved every sweaty minute of it.

How did your various jobs influenced your writing?

Everything I’ve done has turned up in my writing in one form or another, especially the newspaper columns and features. My Penny Mackenzie mystery series reflects the small newspaper offices and law office where I worked, as well as the small California town where I lived for almost 50 years.

How do you feel about the current publishing downturn and do you think it will force major publishers to streamline their methods of marketing? Do you have any suggestions for them?

Major publishers seem to be turning into foreign-owned conglomerates interested in the bottom line, and it's difficult to know who's publishing what any more.

Pearson (UK) owns Penguin Putnam Inc. and its imprints. Bloomsbury (UK) owns Walker and its imprints. Holtzbrink (Germany) owns Macmillan and its imprints, and also St. Martin’s. Hachette Livre (France) owns Warner Books/Little, Brown and their Imprints. One fairly large US publisher who I think is still independent is Kensington/Zebra.

The smart ones are getting on the e-book bandwagon. HarperCollins, with numerous imprints, has a Browse Inside section on its web site (www.harpercollins.com).The blurb reads “HarperCollins Browse Inside lets you start reading books before they go on sale with Sneak Peak and offers Full Access on selected titles, where you can read the entire book for free online.”

I clicked on the cover of The Gradner Shift by Ulrich Boser, which went on sale Feb. 24 in hardcover and e-book formats. The true story of the world’s largest unsolved art theft, several chapters of the book are there to read. It certainly piqued my interest.

What's the most difficult aspect of writing for you and what do you enjoy most about the creative process?

The most difficult aspect is sitting down to do it. Once I’m into it, I lose all track of time. The creative process is like breathing to me. Couldn’t live without it.

Has blogging at Morning's at Noon helped sell your books, or do you feel that blogging only gets a writer's name before the public?

I don’t usually blog about my book(s). My blog is just a personal thing, not a marketing tool. As for other blogs I show up on, who knows? It does keep your name before the public but I can’t even guess how it relates to sales.

I understand you have a memoir, “White Petunias,” in the Red Dirt Festival Anthology. It's an intriguing title. Briefly tell us briefly about it.


Briefly? That piece is almost as old as I am. It’s basically about a summer night when a boy walked me home from church, but in a larger sense about a small rural community in Oklahoma that was changed forever by World War II. I first wrote the church scene in the 1960s, planning to turn it into a novel. Didn’t happen.

But it was near and dear to my heart, so I filed it away and got it out again about every 20 years, wondering what to do with it, rewrote it, and filed it away. A couple of years ago I rewrote it again, and it won second place in the Memoir category of the 2007 Writers Competition, Frontiers in Writing, sponsored by Panhandle Professional Writers, Amarillo, Texas. A year ago I rewrote it once more, and it was accepted for inclusion in the Red Dirt Book Festival Anthology. The anthology and festival are sponsored by the Oklahoma Humanities Council and the Pioneer Library System.

Advice for fledgling writers?

We’d need another blog for that!

Thanks, Pat.

Pat's blog site is: Morning’s At Noon: http://pbrowning.blogspot.com

She's also on Facebook and Twitter,"but mainly to keep up with friends and relatives. A lot of Central Valley people I know and/or used to work with are there and it is fun to hear what they are doing. I'm on Twitter but never go near it and will cancel it as soon as I get time.

For writing and promotion networking I prefer listservs such as DorothyL, Senior Sleuths and Sisters in Crime-Internet Chapter. I just rejoined SouthWest Writers in Albuquerque. They have a great newsletter, among other things, and I'm getting ready to rejoin Panhandle Professional Writers in Amarillo. They also have great online programs for writers."

A Visit with Beth Anderson

Beth Anderson is the author of seven crime novels. Two of her books have been nominated for the International Frankfurt Award and two were EPPIE finalists in their e-book editions. Her bestselling release, Second Generation, won the AllAboutMurder Bloody Dagger Award, the Rendezvous Review Magazine Rosebud Award, and the FMAM (Futures Magazine) Fire to Fly Award.

Beth, why do you write?

I write because I’m a writer and I can’t stop for any length of time under normal circumstances. I’ve been writing stories nearly all my life and a lot of them are still only in my head.

Things come to me at odd times. People pop into my head who have something to say. I watch people in airports to see how they react to different things, and I believe everyone has a story to tell. Sometimes they don’t or can’t, and if it’s interesting enough, then I tell it for them—but my way.

A news report, a newspaper clipping from an old newspaper, a child’s cry, you hear a sound like a gunshot in the night, someone’s home is destroyed, someone disappears. Anything can trigger my imagination, and I often dream whole scenes that become a turning point or climax in a book some time later.

You’ve won a number of writing awards. Which one means the most to you?

The Bloody Dagger Award a few years back, because it was voted on by a lot of reviewers, all of whom had read my book, so I knew it was a genuine award that I had earned with my writing.

Why did you switch genres from romance to crime novels?

I didn’t. I was always a crime writer because that’s where my interest lies. My first book sold, a Harlequin Superromance, contained a corporate crime, which was the main thread of the book. The romance was a big part of it, but not all of it.

At the time, the only conferences around were Romance Writers of America yearly conferences. Since it was always my contention that good writing is good writing no matter which genre it is, I attended several of those conferences on my way to publication.

It took me a good many years to sell that first book. I had to rewrite it at Harlequin’s request before they’d go to contract because they wanted me to add a third point of view, which happened to be that of the heroine’s uncle who was accused of the crime. So from the very beginning I was a crime writer, although I probably took a slightly different path than most crime writers. I’m so grateful to Harlequin that I did, though, because I received some wonderful training on writing real human emotions in the process.

When did you actually begin writing?

My first foray into writing was when I was eight years old and was listening to my radio in my room late one night when I was supposed to be sleeping. They were having a contest to find new scripts for that program. I was absolutely sure I could do it. Typically, there was not a doubt in my mind until I actually took out my notebook and pencil and tried. I remember how angry I was with myself when I realized I didn’t have a clue how to begin. The seeds were planted in my mind, though. I knew I could do it, I just didn’t know how for a long, long time.

Tell us the story of your latest novel, Raven Talks Back.

I was offered an opportunity to go to Valdez, Alaska to do some contract work for an oil company located there almost immediately after I took an early retirement. On my first morning there I saw a brand new sight to me—fog rolling down a mountainside, not lifting, so haunting and magical. At the same time I was watching the fog, I heard a soft voice inside my head saying, “The spirits of my ancestors live in that fog. I know they are there.” My own inner voice, of course, but who was I thinking of, who would say those words? That came to me later.

I spent a lot of time after I came home just re-working that sentence. The whole first page, in fact, because I knew I was breaking a cardinal writing rule, that you should always start your book with action and just skip the weather and geography at that crucial point.

I agree. You should, most of the time. But I couldn’t let that first sentence go. It had to be there, but it had to be right. I’m sure I re-wrote that first page at least a hundred times and I’m glad I did, because although it’s unorthodox, it shoots you straight into the mind and the heart and soul of Raven, my lead character.

But Raven couldn’t tell her story, so I told it for her.

You’ve lectured at some impressive sites such as Purdue University and appeared on ABC evening news and other media outlets. What do you usually talk about?

Whatever they ask for. You should always talk ahead of time to whomever is in charge of any of those kinds of venues and find out what you can talk about that will most benefit them.

At Purdue, and Moraine Valley College in Illinois, I’ve mainly talked about writing fiction, what sort of steps it takes, and very little about my own books because I’m there to instruct, not sell books. Those students are after information, not a book purchase. I have sold books at Purdue, but that was a on special night set up by one of their faculty sororities.

On radio and television appearances, those have almost always coincided with a book release, so I’ll talk about the book and anything else the person in charge wants me to talk about. It’s always about what they need to put on a fascinating radio or TV show that will keep their listeners tuned in. If the book sells because of the show, that’s fine, but it’s important to remember that keeping the show interesting is their primary concern.

Sometimes I’ll be asked to read an excerpt, which is always my downfall, but fortunately I have, so far, been able to come up with some quotable phrases that saved my neck more than once. Being audacious helps. There’s almost nothing I won’t say, except things that would be censored. You have to be able to think fast if you don’t want any Katie Couric moments. ;-)

Are your novels always based on actual Chicago crimes?

Three of my books were based on actual Chicago crimes where I had read a short article in a newspaper and nothing more, but I got interested in the crimes and began to work out in my head how they could have happened. So while they were real crimes at one time, my interpretations in the books I wrote were strictly my own imagination run rampant.

Which of your characters is your favorite, and why?

I have my favorite in every book I’ve written, but my current favorite is Kimberley Clarke, the old woman in Raven Talks Back, who happens to be Raven’s next door neighbor. She tried very hard to take over the whole book. I had a heck of a time keeping her from doing exactly that because she’s totally uninhibited, funny, devious, rambunctious, very, very smart, AND a terrific actress. My kinda woman! I could have written a whole book about her, but alas, she’s only a secondary character, albeit one who played a big part in this book.

Do you have a regular writing schedule and are you a pantser or do you outline your novels?

I normally do have a regular writing schedule when I’m actively writing a book. I’m a morning person, so I start very early in the day, around seven or so, and I’ll write till about one or two in the afternoon, or until my eyes give out. Early on, when I was just learning how to write a publishable novel, I had a full time job, so I would start at seven in the evening, work until ten o’clock, no later, and pretty much all the time on weekends. I would tell my husband, at seven, to come get me at ten, and then I’d get mad at him when he’d come in and tell me it was ten o’clock because it always seemed to me that I’d only been working maybe a half hour or so.

I’m a combination plotter and pantser. I’ll start out with an idea, do most of my preliminary research on things I need to know more about, then I’ll pick out my characters and do full write-ups on each lead character and shorter write-ups on my secondaries. Then the hard part begins. Plotting the story.

I always know the beginning and the ending of my books before I start, but not how the lead or leads are going to get from A to Z. This, for me, is the fun part. I’ll start writing for a few chapters, maybe four or five, and then spend some time thinking about how I want them to get from A to Z. The getting there may change as I go along, in fact it always does, which provides all kinds of great entertainment for me, but A and Z never change.

My goal is to make my leads as miserable as possible and build on their misery until I get them to the end of their story. I know that without a lot of conflict and angst, you don’t have a very interesting story, so even though I love them and underneath it all want them to be happy, if I gave in to that, my books would be about one page long. Therefore, I do everything I can think of to keep them off-balance and increae their problems throughout the entire book until the final wrap-up.

Fortunately for my family, I only impose my latent mean streak on my characters. It’s a great outlet, if I do say so myself, and I just did. ;-)

Thanks, Beth.

You can visit Beth at her website: http://www.bethanderson-hotclue.com/  and .
Her blog site: http://www.bethanderson-hotclue.com/blog/.
She's also on Facebook:  http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1290204781#!/profile.php?id=745430010