Today www.perpetualprose.com posted an interview with me and my sister Phyllice. We talked about how we came to write the Silver Sisters Mysteries, what our backgrounds are, and many other things. Check it out, and while you're there, read some of the other good interviews and articles. I write one article a week for them.

MORGAN ST. JAMES
www.silversistersmysteries.com
www.morganstjames-author.com
A CORPSE IN THE SOUP
SEVEN DEADLY SAMOVARS
and much more...visit me on the web

"A Corpse in the Soup" got a great new review on Amazon from Gayle Bartos Pool and the Las Vegas Review Journal did an article on me in the Sunday edition. It was in both print and on line in the Living Section. Here's the link: http://www.lvrj.com/living/sisters-bond-is-no-mystery-64690112.html

Here's the review:

A Recipe for Murder, October 11, 2009
By Gayle Bartos-Pool - See all my reviews

Morgan St. James and Phyllice Bradner's delightful novel, A Corpse in the Soup, is a delicious cook's tour through what can only be called a smorgasbord of murder and mayhem in the wacky world of professional chef's.

When Beverly Hills advice to the lovelorn columnist, Godiva Dubois, is nearly killed by poison mushrooms on the set of famous chef, Caesar Romano's TV show, her twin sister, Goldie, flies in from Alaska to see what's going on. What the aging hippie from the boonies finds is a world very different from her quiet life up north. Then her daughter, Chili, gets a job on the very show that produced the near-fatal fungus.

The heat is really turned up when rival chefs vie for the coveted Gourmet Gladiator award. Chef Romano is waging a war of words with handsome aerobic chef, Biff Wellington. But there are lots of axes to grind in this plot, so when one of the chef's turns up dead, Godiva and Goldie use their skills to help solve the crime.

To add to the sweet concoction, Godiva and Goldie's mother and uncle do their best to find out who dunnit. These cool cats are in their 80s, but they don't let that stop them.

This is a fun ride through TV land and even to the wine country of California. The two great gals are fun to be with and you're with them all the way to the nail-biting end.

Since our new Silver Sisters comical crime caper, SEVEN DEADLY SAMOVARS, begins in Juneau, Alaska, I thought I'd give you an idea of what Franklin Street looks like. This was obviously taken on a patriotic holiday, so I must qualify that the flags aren't there all the time, but you can get a sense of the area. Cruise ships dock in the bay on the other side of the street.

This is the street where Goldie's Silver Spoon Antiques Shoppe is located. Phyllice Bradner, my sister and co-author, actually designed the color schemes and some of the other details during the restoration of some of these historical buildings, as well as restoration of the legislature building and governor's mansion several years ago.

Our books are available on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, BooksaMillion and many other sites.

www.silversistersmysteries.com
A CORPSE IN THE SOUP
SEVEN DEADLY SAMOVARS

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.

At the beginning of the week, we received our author copies of the newly re-issued A CORPSE IN THE SOUP from our new publishers, L&L DREAMSPELL. It isn't up on Amazon yet, but can be purchased directly from the publisher. It will be on Amazon as soon as they load it.

http://www.lldreamspell.com/ACorpseintheSoup.htm


Then at the end of the week, our new SEVEN DEADLY SAMOVARS audio book was released by Books in Motion, Inc. A comical new Silver Sisters crime caper. Same thing as A CORPSE IN THE SOUP. It isn't up on Amazon yet, but can be purchased from the publisher directly. It will be on Amazon soon.

http://www.booksinmotion.com/SEVEN_DEADLY_SAMOVARS_By_ST_JAMES_AND_BRADNER_p/-978-1-60548-290-3.htm



Phyllice and I are still walking on air!

MORGAN ST. JAMES
www.silversistersmysteries.com

The cover of A CORPSE IN THE SOUP will be changing radically as of March 14, 2009. That's because we have a new publisher, and the new edition will be released on that date.

Silver Sisters Mysteries are funny, zany escapades and the cover from our previous publishers did not shout "funny". This edition will also have an excerpt of the new SILVER SISTERS COMICAL CRIME CAPER---SEVEN DEADLY SAMOVARS. Audio book release is expected by the end of March (Books in Motion) followed by the paperback, e-book and Kindle by the end of August.

This will be the new style for our Silver Sisters Mysteries covers. Just take one look at the chef on the left, and there's no question that something is afoot. The chef whose face is in the soup is not lapping it up--he's dead. But who killed him and why? Guess you'll have to read the book to find out.


Several libraries across the country already shelve the book with the ISBN number of our old publisher. The new edition, published by L&L DREAMSPELL will be available on Amazon soon or can be requested at bookstores or libraries by using the following ISBN number:

978-1-60318-120-4

Our audio books will continue to be published by BOOKS IN MOTION. If you want to request this award-winning comical crime caper on CDs,

the ISBN number is 1-59607-857-X -- it was named Best Mystery Audio Book by USA Book News !

When SEVEN DEADLY SAMOVARS is released as an audio book by Books in Motion you can bet I'll post the cover and an excerpt.

What is the secret of those fancy Russian teapots? This time the whole family really gets into the act--The Silver Sister twins Goldie and Godiva are aided and abetted by their 80-year-old mother and uncle, Flossie and Sterling, (former vaudeville magicians) as they set traps for the bumbling but dangerous Dumkovsky brothers. Goldie received the wrong shipment of samovars at her antique shop in Juneau, Alaska. But now the Dumkovskys are even killing people to get them--why?

WATCH FOR RELEASE DATES or check our website:
www.silversistersmysteries.com
MORGAN ST. JAMES
www.morganstjames-author.com

Okay, there's lots of hype about Alaska right now. Some of the references to small town and unusual attitudes is right on. My sister and co-author of the Silver Sisters Mysteries, Phyllice Bradner was a resident of Alaska (both Anchorage and Juneau) for over thirty years, married into a political family and was a political print specialist who worked on campaigns of governors, senators and state financial reports. She has received four Alaska Press Club awards. So she knows a little something about Alaska.

For those of you not familiar with the Silver Sisters Mysteries, they are a comedic crime series featuring identical Baby Boomer twins Goldie and Godiva. Goldie is an aging hippie who owns an antique shop in Juneau and Godiva is a spoiled Beverly Hills widow who writes a syndicated advice column. These wisecracking twins have help from feisty elder-sleuths Flossie and Sterling Silver, their eighty-year-old mother and uncle who are former vaudeville magicians.

Although A CORPSE IN THE SOUP touches on some scenes in Alaska, most of the action taking place in California. The twins and their sidekicks lead the reader on a zany chase from Hollywood to South Bay in search of the real killer. The audio book was named Best Mystery Audio Book 2007 by USA Book News.

The next book, SEVEN DEADLY SAMOVARS, currently in production, takes place largely in Juneau, Alaska, with lots of authentic-style local color provided by Phyllice. Characters like Taku Ted and Ollie Oliver are reminiscent of people Phyllice knew while she lived there. Look for colorful descriptions of local attractions and customs as well, when Goldie receives the wrong shipment of samovars from Vladivostok (yes, from Russia in close proximity to Alaska) and a spree of murder and mayhem finds the sisters tracking bumbling but vicious Russian thugs.

Visit our website www.silversistersmysteries.com to find out more and for links to purchase A Corpse in the Soup. Seven Deadly Samovars will be out late this year or early next year. Watch for it.

For any of you who remember when I bought a new laptop last year and had to switch from XP to Vista, I went through about two weeks of hair-pulling, head-banging, and @*%&Y# frustration. Everything was finally up and running, just the way I wanted it. I found I liked the enhancements in Vista and life would be good.

Until two weeks ago. Thirteen months old and the motherboard went bad. The darn thing wouldn't boot and I was told I might lose all of the programs and data. Can you say "traumatized?" Just think of Wylie Coyote when he knows he's going off the cliff. I wasn't much better. A real basket case.

While my "patient" was being diagnosed, I spent an hour a day at the library trying to pick up as many e-mails as I could, but I must say I was pretty out of contact. Then came the weekend, so the daily count went up to nine. I finally found out it was the motherboard, and that's when the real frustration started. I had a three year extended warranty, but the chain store I bought it from said it would take about four weeks to repair and there was no assurance that the $99 data transfer would work.

I decided to take it to a private laptop repair specialist chain, and found out that the repair would be $550, most of which was the cost of the hardware. Guess what I did?

I wound up having to get another laptop for $599, the private store was able to very carefully transfer all of my data on to the new one even though I lost all of the programs. They charged much less to transfer the data. Maybe the desperate look in my eyes made them take pity on me. Today, two weeks after it crashed, I took the culprit to the chain store and let them repair it. This way, I have all of my data, a backup laptop, I didn't lose four weeks of writing and promoting, and it cost me less than having the private store fix it.

It is still taking lots of time to round up all of the expensive software and reinstall it, but at least I can sleep at night. It really sucks that even though the most expensive part is covered by the extended warranty, that doesn't begin to cover all of the other costs and time. What ever happened to quality control? A laptop should last more than a year.

Oh yeah. I keep an external hard drive and program an automatic backup every night. The problem was that because of the bad motherboard, it kept giving me false positives and telling me that everything was backed up as programmed. NOT! It hadn't done a lick of work since mid May, so I was missing a good part of my new manuscript and other important things.

Here's the lesson learned. If you're using an external hard drive, periodically check to make sure that the files are actually on it. I started recording really important stuff on a DVD as well for a little insurance. It would have been devastating if I'd lost everything. Also, look at all the options before you make a decision when you have a problem like this. I figure I got a back up laptop and saved well over a hundred dollars over what it would have cost to have a private company repair it. I just couldn't risk losing everything. At least with the private company backing up my data it was more personal and I felt more optimistic.

On the good side, Seven Deadly Samovars, the second Silver Sisters Mystery, is moving along with Books in Motion currently recording the audio book and designing the cover. Still don't have any information about a print edition, but as soon as I know, you'll know! On my next blog entry, I'm going to post some of the advance blurbs from people who have read it.

With all of my data recovered, I'm also about 3/4 of the way through an edit of my other manuscript, a stand alone women's fiction book that has been keeping my editor and first reader asking for more chapters. Besides that, Phyllice and I are doing lots of research for the third Silver Sisters book, "Vanishing Act in Vegas."

Glad to be back on line. More later.

MORGAN ST. JAMES
www.morganstjames-author.com or
www.silversistersmysteries.com
A CORPSE IN THE SOUP
Best Mystery Audio Book 2007 - USA Book News

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

Attending Book Expo America and the Writers' Digest Conference at the Los Angeles Convention Center was a real experience. It was HUGE. I was fortunate to attend many very informative panel discussions and seminars, meet authors, agents and publishers one-on-one and get a peek at what's new in the industry.

Everything was capped off by a signing in the USA Book News Booth of our award-winning book one in the series I write with my sister Phyllice Bradner,"A Corpse in the Soup."

One of the most important things I learned was that it wasn't immediately obvious to many people that the Silver Sisters mysteries are funny, tongue-in-cheek mysteries with schemes that backfire, zany characters and twists and turns leading up to discovering whodunit.

It is a common thing. Think about all of the things you know and assume others know as well. Then think about all of the times that turned out to be wrong. As a result of this epihany, Phyllice and I asked the cover artist for our new book in the series, "Seven Deadly Samovars," to make sure something on the cover says: "Hey, I'm a funny mystery."

The audio book is due out from Books in Motion before the end of the year and I'm so glad that this became apparent in time to do something about it.

It isn't always easy to look at something through another's eyes, particularly when you are very close to the "something," which can be a situation, a thing or a person. Keep your eyes open and you might be surprised at what you see.

MORGAN ST. JAMES
www.silversistersmysteries.com
www.morganstjames-author.com

Today I appeared along with three other authors on a "What Makes a Chicken Soup Moment" panel in Las Vegas. All of us have at least one story in (or planned for) a book in the Chicken Soup for the Soul series. Along with three other authors, Darlien Breeze, Tena Thompson and Linda Lou, we talked about our stories and what the publishers call the "Chicken Soup Moment," happy to share our experiences with a wonderful audience.

If you read my post the other day, I said I was going to start telling stories about my mother's family. Maybe as I tell these stories, it will give you a sense of the type of family my sister Phyllice Bradner and I grew up in.

Well, back to the Chicken Soup panel. After the presentation, everyone had lunch, starting with chicken soup.

I got to thinking about my grandfather. (That's him in the picture at the top of this post along with my grandmother.) He died before I was born, but I am told that one of his greatest pleasures in life was a good bowl of soup. The problem was, the bowls weren't big enough for him. By the time my grandmother finished serving all of the ten children, his was gone and he was ready for a refill. "Oh," he used to say, "what I would give for a wonderful big soup bowl."

Back in the early twenties he loved to go shopping in an area of Chicago called Maxwell Street. It was almost the equivalent of some of our swap meets or flea markets. Pushcarts with every type of wares lined both sides of the street and items were always offered at great prices. He would grab a few of his children, hop on the streetcar and search out bargains.

Mom said one day when she was lucky enough to be one of the kids tagging along for the grand adventure, Grandpa spotted a bowl that he decided would be perfect for his soup. It was large enough to hold a double or triple portion, and thick enough to keep the heat in for a while. The entire inside of the bowl was decorated with beautiful handpainted flowers. He haggled the price, as people did on that street of bargains, and walked away with his prize.

"Matilda," he called out. I have the perfect bowl for my soup tonight. She filled it and he gobbled it down to the last drop. Mom said when he finished, he looked down at the bowl perplexed. He turned it and stared at it, set it down and called to my grandmother in Yiddish, "Matilda, where have the flowers gone?"

Truth of the matter was, they were just painted on the surface and the hot soup washed them away. He still loved his bowl, but now it was plain and boring. Beware of bargains!

MORGAN ST. JAMES
www.silversistersmysteries.com
A Corpse in the Soup
Best Mystery Audio Book 2007 - USA Book News
Coming Soon in audio: Seven Deadly Samovars

PHYLLICE AND I WILL BE ON DENNY GRIFFIN'S PODCAST ON TUESDAY, APRIL 29. IT IS LIVE AND THERE IS A CALL IN SEGMENT. HOPE TO SEE YOU THERE.

http://www.blogtalkradio.com/dennisngriffin



We will be discussing "From Novice to Novelist," which is the workshop we presented at the 2007 Las Vegas Writers Conference. We will answer lots of the challenges that a new writer faces as well as ones that seasoned, published writers deal with.

We made plenty of faux pas until we were published and we will share some of the things that backfired and also the ones that worked.

Denny writes about the mob in Las Vegas and is very entertaining and a good moderator.

See you there.

MORGAN ST. JAMES
www.silversistersmysteries.com
www.morganstjames-author.com

Well, I finally got around to updating the trailer for A Corpse in the Soup...here it is. I figured now that we are finished with the manuscript for the second book, Seven Deadly Samovars, we really should have a current trailer for Corpse.

Spent lots of time yesterday reserching antique Russian samovars to come up with photos of seven outstanding ones for the pre publication trailer I'll be doing for Seven Deadly Samovars.

That said, here is the new Corpse trailer. You might have to click the PLAY ARROW TWICE.


Find more videos like this on BOOK PLACE

I've been in my house in Las Vegas for the last week. That is where I write, go to meetings of Henderson Writer's Group and am able to work without interruption. Believe it or not, Las Vegas is a real city beyond the strip. I live in a very quite community in the southwest part of town about twenty minutes drive from the strip. It is a wonderfully creative place to be and best of all I don't have to deal with traffic if I choose not to. Very different from L.A.


I've been working on several things, but mostly moving forward on SEVEN DEADLY SAMOVARS, the second book in the Silver Sisters series. For those of you who haven't read about how Phyllice and I write together, being in two different states, this past week we had some marathon telephone creative/editing sessions and e-mails continued to fly back and forth. We are making good progress and this one promises to be just as much fun as A Corpse in the Soup. If you don't know what a samovar is, it's a Russian tea server. Just Google samovar on the web and you'll get more information about samovars than you ever wanted to know.


We are also finishing up the information for a new interview for A Voice in the Dark newsletter (on line). It will include one fun thing...an interview with former vaudeville magician, eighty-year-old Flossie Silver...the twins mother. It will most likely post in July. More updates later.


I've also been working on DEADLY DANCE, the first novel I ever tried to write about nine years ago. As I transitioned from only writing magazine articles to short stories and novels, this manuscript sat on the shelf, unpublished. Last year I realized what had to be done and started a major edit. Some of the opening chapters have been posted on urbis.com.


I get very emotionally attached to it now because one of the changes was to take it from third person to first person real time from the point of view of the main characters. As I write, in my mind I become each of the characters so I know what they are thinking and how they feel.


The story is about Sandra Barton, and starts when she is only seventeen. Sandra was destined to be a prima ballerina, but destiny gets derailed and her world comes crashing down around her. Sandra nearly loses her life and her struggle back is a series of triumphs and tragedies. While it is a work of fiction, it was inspired by true incidents that happened in the mid 1950's. I call it a woman-in-jeopardy/ romance/murder novel and I'm a little more than half way through it.


I've also written some new short stories that I've submitted to Amazon Shorts. My story, "Miracles Happen on Horseback" was released as an Amazon Short on April 13, 2007.


Well back to the computer keys on this Memorial Day. May our wishes bring the brave members of the military back to us.


MORGAN

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!

Well, I'm visiting my sister and co-author Phyllice Bradner in Oregon. We are supposed to be working on our next book, SEVEN DEADLY SAMOVARS, and the workshop we are presenting at the Las Vegas Writer's Conference, April 19-22 "From Novice to Novelist...Good Critiques Can Be Valuable".

Thumbs up on the workshop. We just finished the outline and it is going to be a very helpful workshop. Next we have to translate the outline into the actual presentation. No time to work on SAMOVARS yet because Phyllice moved into a great 100 year old house and you guessed it...she put big Sis to work. I have helped to move more artwork than I care to count and there is still more to go! Besides being an author, she is an artist and had a whole separate house devoted just to being her art studio at the old house, so you can just imagine. It is like moving sand off a mountain. And this is after she spent three days with movers and over a week moving other stuff before I got here. Anyway, I'm so glad we have been able to move forward on designing the workshop and hope to be able to work on SAMOVARS before I go back to Las Vegas.

Our audio book publisher contacted us, and the audio book for A CORPSE IN THE SOUP should be finished sometime in April. Whoop de doo. That's exciting. Can't wait to see it. When it comes out, we will be offering it at a super discount from the retail price on our website for a limited time, so watch for it.

I will be on a Sisters in Crime panel at a library in Thousand Oaks, CA on March 24. The link with the information is on our website. The title of the panel is Murder on the Menu and two other authors will join me in discussing this subject. It should be lively and interesting.

Visit our website for updates, links to buy A CORPSE IN THE SOUP and to view our trailer for CORPSE. Would you like to see a real wacky advice column like the one our Silver Sister Godiva Olivia DuBois (Ask G.O.D.) writes? If so, click on the link on the website and let us know what you think.

As that isn't enough, I have really been moving along on the book I'm writing by myself...DEADLY DANCE. I'm up to Chapter 17 which means I'm over 100 manuscript pages into it.

More later.

MORGAN ST. JAMES www.silversistersmysteries.com

Silver Sisters Mysteries A CORPSE IN THE SOUP ISBN#1-59705-805-X

How did an aging hippie from Alaska and an advice columnist from Beverly Hills get into this mess?

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!

As usual, here I am at midnight going through e-mails, blogs, etc. I keep a Google Alert for cozy mysteries and Silver Sisters Mysteries. As I was scrolling through the alert fo cozy mysteries, I came upon a post for the following blogspot:

http://orangedepot.blogspot.com/

One of the books mentioned was Mitch Albom's ONE MORE DAY. I read that about two weeks ago and I loved it. Then I looked at the profile for Avid Reader and lo and behold she/he (don't know which) was from the town of Cotati, California. Well, once I saw that I had to post a comment to her post on ONE MORE DAY. It was the only way I could figure out to reach her/him.

You see Cotati is not a town you would easily include in a book. It's not high profile like Los Angeles or New York, for instance. It is a town in Northern California next to Rohnert Park that is known for its accordian festivals.

By coincidence, after much research, Cotati is the town that we chose to use when our twin sleuths in A CORPSE IN THE SOUP, Goldie Silver and Godiva Olivia DuBois, are checking out the background of a TV chef. We loved the idea that we could use the accordian festival as a neat sidebar and also that it is in an area rich in antiques. That way Goldie, the twin who owns an antique shop in Juneau, can justify taking the time to take the trip to Northern California to check out Biff Wellington because she can also look for antiques for her shop. Godiva, on the other hand, can turn up her nose at a small town since she is quite spoiled and would probably preferred it if there was a Ritz Carleton in town!

Here is a small excerpt from the Cotati scenes:

Goldie took an immediate liking to the chatty old
woman who was vaguely reminiscent of her mother-inlaw,
Belle. “Oh, yes, I look forward to meeting him.” She
filled out the registration card. “You have such a lovely
old home, I’m sure we’ll enjoy our stay here.”

“Ya, it sure was a jewel in its day. So, what brings you
girls to Cotati? We don’t get many guests these days. Now
they all stay at that Doubletree Hotel in Rohnert Park.”

“I’m on an antique buying trip.” Goldie’s smile
sparkled as she thought about the good deals she
negotiated with Andy. “I have a shop in Alaska.”

“Mein gott! People buy antiques for their igloos? It
must be all ice and snow up there. How do you get the
antiques home? By dog sled?” Hilda chuckled at her own
joke.

Goldie’s gave Hilda a feeble smile. She had heard it all
before. “Oh no, you’ve got it all wrong. Where I live, in
Juneau, it rains more often than it snows. The whole city’s
in the middle of a Northern rainforest.”

“Rain?”

“Yup, and believe it or not, we have regular houses,
schools, shopping centers, movies—even two
McDonald’s—you name it, we’ve got it.”

“No igloos?”

“Not even one.”

“Humph! Alaska? I thought you were from Los
Angeles.” Hilda was clearly confused.

“Oh, my sister lives in Beverly Hills. She’s a... uh...
journalist. She’s writing a story... uh... about the history of
the Accordion Festival for the L.A. Times.”

“But you two look exactly alike. I’m surprised you live
in such different places.”

Of course this assumption made no logical sense at all,
but Goldie nodded politely.

Well, today I had two nice surprises. First, I was surfing the web checking out listings for Silver Sisters, Silver Sisters Mysteries, A Corpse in the Soup and Morgan St. James. I’ve discovered that I have to put quotes around “Morgan St. James” to get all of my listings to come up. I guess it is because there are so many Morgans and St. James that I get lost in the shuffle sometimes.

Anyway, I usually don’t go past the first 4 or 5 pages on any of them, but I decided to run through all of the listings under “Morgan St. James” and I found that the Southwest View (part of the Las Vegas Review Journal) Las Vegas ran a nice little piece for us under Las Vegas Literary on January 2. I drove from L.A. to Las Vegas today and when I got to Las Vegas the paper was in my mailbox and it was better than on the web because the excerpt wasn’t included on the web. Here it is:


Manicotti’s face turned beet red. “He’s what? He’s where? But that can’t be…he’s a Gourmet Gladiator. He’s due on stage at the Kitchen Coliseum in ten minutes. We can’t hold up the show for him.”
You don’t understand, Mr. Manicotti,” he squeaked. “The man is dead as a mackerel. D-E-A-D. He can’t come to the Kitchen Coliseum, he can’t cook on your show, and he’s not goin’ anywhere except the morgue.”
Large patches of sweat appeared on the producer’s shirt. His eyes bulged and his mouth opened and closed like a carp out of water. “You’re sure?” You touched him? He’s dead?”
“Yes sir. I’m still on his set. I’m about the call the police, the medics, the swat team, the FBI, I don’t know what all. I’ve never seen a corpse in a soup bowl, ya know.”


As if that wasn’t enough, my sister and co-author Phyllice called me to say that there was a nice article about her art (she does whimsical cats and doge) and how we wrote our cozy mystery, A Corpse in the Soup, in the local Oregon paper. She wasn’t able to scan it so I’ll have to wait until she sends me a copy. Wow. Ink in two locations. How good can it get?

MORGAN ST. JAMES
Silver Sisters Mysteries
www.silversistersmysteries.com