The second zany Silver Sisters comical crime caper is now available as a Kindle edition on Amazon. Seven Deadly Samovars finds Goldie receiving the wrong shipment of fancy Russian tea dispensers at her antique shop in Juneau, Alaska while her twin, Beverly Hills advice columnist Godiva Olivia DuBois, is in town visiting. She can't reach the exporters, so puts the samovars on display in her shop. They sell quickly but people begin to die. Why? A visit from the bumbling Russian thugs, the Dumkovsky brothers, might hold a clue. The Silver Sisters and their eighty-year-old mother and uncle, former vaudeville magicians, are hot on the trail, trying to prevent more murders! Check out our website for more information.

MORGAN ST. JAMES
www.silversistersmysteries.com
A CORPSE IN THE SOUP - Best Audio Mystery Book 2007-USA BOOK NEWS
SEVEN DEADLY SAMOVARS - Available in Kindle, CD and MP3. Coming soon in paperback.

I just finished listening to the audio book of Jeffrey Deavers' "Garden of Beasts." It is set in Nazi Germany and follows the path of an American button man (killer for hire) who has been sent to kill one of the top people in the party. In true Deaver manner, the story is filled with rich descriptions, twists and turns and definitely captures your interest. I'm usually not a fan of this type of novel, but do like Mr. Deaver's writing, so I decided to give it a try and was rewarded with a book that I would recommend.

Audio books can be highly affected by the quality of the narrator. This one was excellent. Combining the well drawn characters and the compelling narrative, I found myself sitting in the car after I arrived at my destination so I could listen to a little bit more.

MORGAN ST. JAMES
www.silversistersmysteries.com
A CORPSE IN THE SOUP
COMING IN SEPTEMBER: SEVEN DEADLY SAMOVARS

Phyllice and I were excited to see a review of our award-winning Silver Sisters mystery, A Corpse in the Soup, featured on The New Book Review. To read it, and reviews of other books featured on Carolyn Howard-Johnson’s informative new site, GO TO

www.TheNewBookReview.blogspot.com

Carolyn also previewed our new Silver Sisters adventure, Seven Deadly Samovars, currently in production by Books in Motion, Inc. and due out late this year. This is what she had to say:

“The Silver Sisters are at it again. This time they place their mystery in Alaska and they do it with verve and humor. When you finish reading Seven Deadly Samovars you'll not only have been entertained, you'll be more familiar with a part of the US seldom featured in fiction these days. ~ Carolyn Howard-Johnson, award-winning author of This Is the Place”

We are now working on the third Silver Sisters book, Vanishing Act in Vegas, where the twins and the eldersleuths will get into a heap of trouble in Sin City.

Please visit our website for more information and photos.

MORGAN ST. JAMES
www.silversistersmysteries.com
A Corpse in the Soup
Best Mystery Audio Book 2007 – USA Book News

As you probably know by now, when my sister Phyllice Bradner and I created the Silver Sisters, we based their personalities somewhat upon our own. Therefore, Goldie is sort of like Phyllice who really did move to Alaska back in the days of hippies. At one point in her career she did own an antique shop in Juneau. Whereas I am what she calls a “fashionista”, Phyllice often dressed in layers of vintage clothes.

Fast forward. Phyllice moved from Alaska to Yamhill County in Oregon’s wine country a few years ago. This year she moved into a house right off the main business street in McMinnville. I arrived in Oregon yesterday and we are working on finishing the manuscript for SEVEN DEADLY SAMOVARS, the second book in our Silver Sisters series. So why do I say she has become Goldie?

Well if you’ve read A CORPSE IN THE SOUP, you know all about Goldie’s personality and that she keeps handwritten ledgers for her antique shop. Her office is in the back of the store, behind a curtain.

Phyllice has now opened the Katz and Dawgs Boutique in McMinnville at 605 NE 1st Street. One thing I saw when I arrived at her new shop, was that her office in the back was complete with handwritten ledgers. As I watched her sitting at her desk I thought of two differences between Phyllice and Goldie: For one thing, Phyllice and I are blondes, not silver-haired like Goldie and Godiva. The other thing is that Phyllice’s shop is filled with wonderful animal artifacts and accessories of all kinds instead of antiques. However, as she pointed out, there are some antiques, too. Phyllice has exhibited her whimsical cat and dog etchings in two art galleries for several years. Now you can also see some of her pieces by visiting the boutique. Outside of that, I swear my sister has become Goldie.

By the way, if you are anywhere near McMinnville, stop in and browse. You will probably find something just wonderful for yourself, your pet or for a unique gift. She is open Wednesday-Saturday. And, of course, she carries our paperback and audio books. She is happy to autograph your copy.

MORGAN ST. JAMES
www.silversistersmysteries.com
A CORPSE IN THE SOUP
Best Mystery Audio Book 2007 – USA BOOK NEWS

This might duplicate something you read on another site, but I'm so
excited, I'm posting it everywhere.

This is really blatant self promotion, but I just finished listening
to an advance copy of the audio version of our cozy mystery, A CORPSE IN THE SOUP, read by Stephanie Brush for Books in Motion.

WOW. Stephanie did such a good job, I found myself laughing through
my own novel. The release date is April 15.

Identical twins Goldie and Godiva get involved in a crazy chase
through the world of TV chefs in search of a killer. These
wisecracking Mae West look-alikes are helped by their goofy eighty
year old mother and uncle, former vaudeville magicians who love to
dress in costume disguises so they can "go undercover" to help their
girls.

It all starts when Godiva, a syndicated advice columnist who lives on
an estate in Beverly Hills is accidentally poisoned on "Flirting With
Food" featuring romantic chef Caesar Romano. Her twin, Goldie, an
aging hippie who owns an antique store in Juneau AK rushes to her
side. Godiva starts dating Romano, and things heat up. Four chefs
are competing for the Greatest Gourmet Gladiator medal, the academy
award of cooking, and one of them will die.

If you love funny mysteries with lots of twists and turns and a
surprise ending, you shouldn't miss A CORPSE IN THE SOUP, either in
paperback, e-book or the new audio CD or cassette.

The audio publisher, Books in Motion, has given us a limited number
of CD's that we can sell on our own site at a great introductory
price...$17. 95 instead of the retail $23.99. This is good only with
the special Pay Pal button on our site for as long as these copies
last. You can also read the first three chapters there.

www.silversistersmy steries.com
A CORPSE IN THE SOUP
How did an aging hippie from Alaska and an advice columnist from
Beverly Hills get into this mess? Find out at
www.silversistersmy steries.com

AUDIO BOOK IS NOW RELEASED.

Yesterday I received a shipment of advance promotional copies of the audio book version of A CORPSE IN THE SOUP from the publisher, Books in Motion. What a rush! It was exciting when we received the first shipment of paperbacks in September, but getting copies of the new audio book was wonderful.

I know its hard to see this but you can see a larger version on our website, www.silversistersmysteries.com.

I have not figured out why it always takes longer for shipments from our publishers to arrive in Las Vegas than in the small town of McMinnville Oregon where my sister and co-author Phyllice Bradner lives, but it has happened every time! She got hers on Friday and called me with more excitement in her voice than I have heard since her husband died unexpectedly in November. She even tried to play disc one for me over the phone, but it was impossible to hear it.

So yesterday when the big box of audio books arrived, I couldn't wait to pop the first disc into the CD player in my car. I'm thrilled at the great job the reader, Stephanie Brush, did. Everyone has now come to life in the best way. Even Waldo the Wonder Dog who helps the Silver Sisters eighty year old mother and uncle, former vaudeville magicians, when they perform their magic act at the Home for Hollywood Has Beens.

You see, Waldo was based upon Puck, a great dog who owned Phyllice for many of the years she lived in Alaska. I know it sounds goofy, but Puck did talk and we have a Christmas video tape as proof. You can clearly understand it when he whines, "Helllooo", "Wheere weeree youuuu?" and "I loooove youuu." So we decided to have Waldo talk...sort of. Stephanie has done a wonderful job with Waldo and all of our other zany characters. Even though I co-authored this madcap mystery, I found myself laughing along.

I'm an A-type fast track person so I don't have the same patience Phyllice does with tiny details. Phyllice is the consumate editor and that is why we make a great writing team. I frame out each of the chapters as we write, and e-mail them to Phyllice. The minute she gets one, she feels compelled to edit and put those small flourishes in that make it so special. The stories and books I write by myself are a little different style than the Silver Sisters Mysteries. I am told I have a wonderful sense of humor and it comes through in my writing, but Phyllice tops me by a mile.

We grew up in a very fun loving family, so zany humor is a requirement in our lives. Many of our characters are based on family members or people we have known through the years. Through writing the Silver Sisters Mystery Series together we have transitioned from being sisters to being best friends. Our mother and aunt were best friends all of their lives. We were late bloomers in that department, but now say we are in the process of becoming Rosetta and Edna. And believe me, that is a very good thing.

MORGAN ST. JAMES

www.silversistersmysteries.com

By the way, those introductory promotional copies Books in Motion sent us are available on our website at a special price of $17.95 instead of the normal $23.99 for as long as they last. Look for the Pay Pal button for audio book on our home page.

DEADLY DANCE is a book that I started so many years ago we didn't even have e-mail. I think it's been at least nine years since it was first conceived as Dance with the Devil. The biggest problem with the first, second and third version was that at that time I didn't know how to write fiction. Wow, have I learned a lot.

I was a magazine article writer who thought that in order to have a good novel it had to be long. I also thought that a writer is a writer is a writer... That first manuscript was 750 manuscript pages. My goal now is to cut it to about 400 or 450 pages maximum. 350 would be even better, but I'm not sure I can do that without sacrificing anything relative to the story. My sister Phyllice Bradner and I learned so much writing the Silver Sisters Mysteries, that we are giving a workshop called "From Novice to Novelist" at the Las Vegas Writer's Conference in April.

For the Silver Sisters, we created Goldie Olivia DuBois, an advice columnist from Beverly Hills and Goldie Silver, an antique dealer from Juneau Alaska, identical twins with a nose for sleuthing. They are helped by their 80 year old mother and uncle, former vaudeville magicians, who love to dress in costumes and go undercover. After four rewrites, we had A CORPSE IN THE SOUP, now available in paperback and e-book, and it will be released as an audio book in April by Books in Motion.

I realized that I was ready to rewrite Deadly Dance yet another time because now I know all about things like point-of-view, tightening my writing and adding tension. Back then I didn't have a clue.

I feel myself sucked into working with "Dance" instead of other projects. I really want to finish it this time. I changed from using a third person narrative and telling the story in "what happened before" to first person telling it in real time. It really makes a difference and the story has gotten very powerful. There are still various characters who tell bits of the story from their point of view, but as I'm writing, I am each of those people. I guess that's why I'm so hooked. While writing one scene featuring the main character, Sandra Barton, a young ballerina who is kidnapped, raped, beaten and left for dead, I actually found myself crying as I wrote. I have been having chapters critiqued as I write and so far I have gotten lots of good suggestions, no negative comments yet and lots of praise from other writers. People say they want to keep reading more to find out what happens to her and that the scenes are very believable.

This book was inspired by some real incidents that happened back in the late 1950's. Parts of it may not have been 100% accurate because I learned about these incidents from letters to my mother written by the mother of the girl these things happened to, and she did tend to get facts mixed up sometimes. But I know for sure enough of it happened. I wanted to write this story for years and finally started it in the 90's. Her horrible experiences made a great starting point to create a story of mystery and romance.

This IS NOT A TRUE STORY. It is definitely fiction with some incidents based on what really did happen but the rest is pure fiction. I have posted parts of it on www.urbis.com, but I'm not taking reviews through urbis at this time. If you do read any of it and want to comment, please e-mail me at silversistersmysteries@yahoo.com.

MORGAN ST. JAMES
www.silversistersmysteries.com
A CORPSE IN THE SOUP
A zany romp through the glitzy world of TV Chefs
in search of a killer. Some of them will do anything
to win the Greatest Gourmet Gladiator medal...maybe even MURDER!

This has been a day for learning. Here is the link for our new trailer. I'm proud of it because I produced it myself, never having used Movie Magic before. You CAN teach an old dog new tricks!

Not only that but we are signing the deal for our audio book this week with Books in Motion and it should be available in a few months in addition to the paperback and e-book.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lI2zkO-2auo

MORGAN ST. JAMES
www.silversistersmysteries.com
A CORPSE IN THE SOUP
Some TV chefs will do anything for the
Greatest Gourmet Gladiator's medal..
Maybe even MURDER!

i just finished The Husband by Dean Koontz, which was book #6 for the year. I do "cheat" because some of the books are audio books since I'm in the car quite a bit. I have to say this was a bit of a weird book, not at all what I would expect from him. I did listen to it in audio, and the narrator had a very annoying voice which didn't help.

In parts the writing was so flowery that it could have been part of a gothic romance novel. The villain was totally creepy in a way that I didn't like and there were lots of circumstances set up that were completely off the meter.

I generally like Dean Koontz, but if I had to read it again, I would pass. The interesting thing is that the basic premise of the book was pretty provocative and I did want to find out what happened so I suffered it through to the end.

On to the next one.

Our Silver Sisters Mystery book, A CORPSE IN THE SOUP, looks like it will be going audio quite soon. We are currently listening to readers and particularly after this experience with listening to The Husband, I want to make sure that our reader has a good voice and phrasing. More later on the progress of A CORPSE IN THE SOUP as an audio book.

Next month I'm off to Oregon to work with my sister Phyllice on the next book in the series, SEVEN DEADLY SAMOVARS.

MORGAN ST. JAMES
www.silversistersmysteries.com
A CORPSE IN THE SOUP
How did an advice columnist from Beverly Hills and an aging hippie from Alaska get into this mess?