The Regency Period and Jane Austen

Here is an excerpt from The Forgotten Sister: A Sequel to Pride and Prejudice 

My family and I are visiting Brighton today.  My sisters’ husbands have stayed behind. Everyone thinks that the fresh sea air will be good for our constitutions.  I must admit that it’s nice to get out of Longbourn for a change.  It’s so provincial.  I am hoping to see what “the real world” is like.

Whilst there, my sisters got it into their heads that they wanted to rent a bathing machine.  I had never seen one of these contraptions and was eager to learn all about them.  They are basically large covered wagons attached to a horse who tows people out into several feet of water. Once there, the the swimmer undresses inside the machines, puts on her bathing costume, and is lowered into the water by a female attendant.  Once in the water, one may swim or hang on to a rope attached to the “machine” while the waves wash over you.

I had never swam in the ocean.  I have dipped my feet into the waves a few times, but this was a first. Once inside the wagon, I found it was small, badly lit, and poorly ventilated.  The only light that came in was from small openings placed high up to deter voyeurs.  We changed into our bathing costumes and an old hag of a bathing attendant who seemed to have imbibed in the sherry a bit too much assisted us as we boldly dropped into the sea.

Mama demanded to go first.  Once in the water, she screamed, “It’s too cold!  I’m going to die of hypothermia!  Quick! Somebody get me out of here!”

Lydia said, “For heaven’s sake, Mama!”

The attendant helped Mama back up into the covered wagon and wrapped her with a blanket.

To show everyone that she wasn’t afraid, Lydia jumped into the water with the confidence of Aphrodite riding ashore on an oyster shell.  “Come on,” she told us sisters.  “The water is fine!”

The rest of us followed suit.  I must admit, I did not care for it.  Mama was right: it was too cold! I didn’t stay in the water for very long and asked the attendant to help me up.  The old woman thought she’d regale us with her stories.  She said that women and men swam miles apart in Brighton.  She went on to say that men swam nude.

Once Lydia heard that, her ears perked up.  She asked the hag to lift her out and inquired, “Where exactly do the men swim nude?”

My sister Jane chastised her saying, “We mustn’t go there.  What would people say?!”

Elizabeth, my other sister, said, “Papa would be appalled.”

My sister Kitty started coughing and frantically asked to be pulled out of the sea.  I’ve been worrying about her.  She’s had this cough for a long time.  I hope she doesn’t have consumption!  I shall demand that Papa have a doctor give the poor girl a thorough checkup the minute we arrive home.

###

Would you like to read what happens next?

Please check out The Forgotten Sister: A Sequel to Pride and Prejudice 

by Louise Hathaway.

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New Mystery by K.M. Hodge

True Blue Son (The Syndicate-Born Trilogy Book 3)

by K.M.Hodge

Purchase at Amazon

The Son—born to save them all.

Dr. Zander Ride grew up a son of The Syndicate, his fate as a career criminal all but sealed. With the help of his mother, he escaped a life of crime… until the night he heard The Syndicate had shot his mother in cold blood.

Zander soon finds refuge in the hands of his mother’s hacktivist group, who want his help bringing down the notorious group once and for all. But it comes with a cost. Managed by a different leader and guided by a new deadly mission, the hacktivists force Zander to confront the truth about his parents and the sacrifices they made for the cause.

In the end, Zander must decide how far he’s willing to go and what he’s willing to sacrifice. Can a child born of The Syndicate bring it all down, or will he be another pointless sacrifice in their struggle for money and power?

[Crime Thriller, Suspense, Women's Fiction]

True Blue Son by K.M. Hodge

Evolved Publishing presents the third book in The Syndicate-Born Trilogy, an exploration of what happens when one well-placed group possesses too much power, and how it affects those who just get in its way. [DRM-Free]

What Others Are Saying about RED ON THE RUN by K.M. Hodge:

"Move over Baldacci. Prepare for competition from this new author! Spellbinding - hard to put down." ~ Patrisha Ehlert

"Ms. Hodge has crafted an interesting tale of suspense amid a beautiful love story. You don't know who to trust, so you are suspicious of everyone." ~ Melinda McIntosh, author of 'A Bit of Tickle for the Mind'

"Domestic abuse and addiction can be pretty tough topics but K.M. Hodge delivers in a debut novel that is fast-paced and very suspenseful." ~ Gail Olmsted, author of 'Guessing at Normal'

"This adrenaline-fueled thriller captivates from the first chapter until it hurtles to the dramatic finale." ~ RandomBadger

Books by K.M. Hodge:

Red on the Run (The Syndicate-Born Trilogy - Book 1)

Black and White Truth (The Syndicate-Born Trilogy - Book 2)

True Blue Son (The Syndicate-Born Trilogy - Book 3)

Walker Texas Wife (The Book Cellar Mysteries - Book 1)

Texas and Tiaras (The Book Cellar Mysteries - Book 2)

More Great Thrillers from Evolved Publishing:

Broometime Serenade by Barry Metcalf

Forgive Me, Alex by Lane Diamond

Shatter Point by Jeff Altabef

Whispers of the Dead by C.L. Roberrts-Huth

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B06Y69XB8V

Spring in Savannah, Georgia

Happy first day of Spring!  One of my favorite things to do this time of year is to go on home and garden tours, especially the ones in the American South.

My husband and I have been lucky to do a lot of traveling in the United States and Europe through the years, but we both agree that our favorite city in the United States is Savannah, Georgia (with New Orleans coming in as a close second).  What is it about this Southern city that has captivated us so much that we've traveled from our home in California four times to visit it?  

What we love is its beauty; its people; and its history.  It is that quintessential southern town that reminds me of where Scarlett O'Hara might have gone to visit her elderly aunt. It's the old South, with its beautiful moss-draped trees, sweet smelling tea olive bushes, red azaleas, and creepy yet beautiful cemeteries.  It's so different from Atlanta, which was mostly burned to the ground in the Civil War.  When Sherman marched to the sea to plunder and burn everything in sight towards the end of the war, he was met at the gates in Savannah and told that the city would surrender, as long as Sherman's army left the city unspoiled.  Thank goodness it was spared.

Here is a list of some of my favorite things to see and do, starting with our favorite hotel there, The Ballastone Inn.  For fans of the wonderful book: "Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil," this is the hotel where Kevin Spacey stayed when he was starring in the film version. If you'd like to see "where the scene of the crime" took place, be sure to visit  the Mercer Williams House. There are guided tours of the interior.   For a tour of the places mentioned in the book, try "All About Savannah Tours".

If you'd like to see one of the most beautiful cemeteries in the world (outside of Pere Lachaise in Paris) be sure to visit Bonaventure Cemetery.  It's more like a park than a cemetery.  If you'd like to eat at someplace besides Paula Deen's, try Elizabeth's at 37th.  It's our favorite.  Definitely see a Home and Garden Tour during the Spring when the kind residents of Savannah open their doors and allow us to peek inside their homes and get a taste of what we're missing. 

If you'd like some reading material to bring along, please take a look at our mystery, "Honeymoon in Savannah: A Detective Santy Mystery."  It costs only $2.99 and is available at Amazon, iTunes, Barnes and Noble, Google Play, Kobo, and Smashwords.  Paperback versions are available at Amazon.

On December 1st and 2nd, 2018 this eBook is on sale at Amazon for 99 cents.

Here are the links to buy Honeymoon in Savannah:

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A Mystery Writer's Field Trip to the Coroner's Office

My husband and I have been writing mysteries together since 2011 and many of them feature a scene or two of our detectives going to the coroner's office to look at the crime victim. We've never been to one ourselves, so we figured that it was about time to go see one instead of relying on the way it's featured in crime shows or books. My husband called our county's office and asked if they give tours.  We was pleasantly surprised when they said that tours are given once a month.  

We went on a tour a few days ago and the following is what we discovered.  Contrary to what’s portrayed on the NCIS shows, the Coroner’s office is a pretty dull place.  There isn’t a wall full of vaults containing dead bodies that can be pulled out for viewing whenever the detective comes by.  Instead, the deceased are housed in a body cooler, which is a large, smelly, ice-cold room where they unceremoniously lie on gurneys wrapped in heavy white plastic.  Their toes peek out and their belongings rest in a plastic black bag placed on their stomachs.  It is a sobering sight; one that sticks in your memory.  I was surprised to hear that some of the deceased in the room were there because they died in a car accident.  Because insurance companies want to find out if the deceased died because of the crash or for an underlying health issues such as a heart attack, the coroner is responsible for keeping them until the victims are autopsied.  Bodies are stored there for 365 days and if nobody in the family claims them, they are sent to funeral homes to be cremated.  All at the tax payers expense.

When an investigating detective wants to see a body, the coroner doesn’t pull aside a white sheet to reveal the face, as if he’s a magician saying, “Ta Da”.  In fact, the investigating detective isn’t in the same room. He watches from above in a special room where he can look down and watch as the coroner weighs various organs and catalogs them.  For a close up view, the detective can watch a TV monitor focused on the autopsy table which he can zoom in and out.  If he has any questions, he can speak into a microphone lodged in the middle of a low shelf.

My favorite part of the tour were the scenario rooms.  The coroner's office uses mock ups of crime scenes where students come in and try to figure out how the victim died.   We saw three rooms made out to look like a front room and two bedrooms.  One I particularly liked had a very realistically looking naked fat man lying on a sofa, whose his eyes bugged out and whose scrotum have ballooned up to be the size of a cantaloupe.   The room was littered with a pizza box, a bottle of whiskey, empty bottles of medication made out to different people.  The tour guide told us, "You all watch crime shows on television.  What do you think happened here?"  We all agreed that something was fishy about his death and an autopsy and further investigation was required.

Free Murder Mystery

Good news! I'm now offering for FREE the first book in the popular, four-volume Detective Santy Mysteries. These murder mysteries are about the life and career of Clarissa Santy, a female homicide detective from Orange County, California. The series begins with the murder of her father. When she turns 18, she looks into the court records of the murder trial, and realizes that the wrong man had been arrested. When she contacts him, she finds out more about her family and learns the hard way that there are some questions best left unanswered. This series has earned many 4 and 5 Star ratings. All of the books in the series can be enjoyed as standalone stories.

To get your free copy, go to this link:

Smashwords Link to The Tustin Chronicles  

On the right hand side where it says "Buy" click on it and you will be taken to a page where you can enter coupon code "QL97E" This deal expires on Jan. 2nd, 2017.

(If you don't have an account, you will be prompted to create one. It's perfectly free.)

These books are also available at Amazon, iTunes, Barnes and Noble,

 Google Play, and Kobo  at the regular price of $1.99.

Is There A Ghost at Oak Alley Plantation?

Some say that no antebellum plantation house is without at least one ghost.  All sorts of strange sightings have been reported by the docents who work at Oak Alley Plantation. They have reported hearing the clip-clopping of a horse-drawn carriage driving on the plantation’s gravel roads leading up to the house and when they looked out the upstairs window, they saw neither hide nor hair of any carriage.  They've seen chairs rock in unison and candlesticks fly across the room.

One tour guide said, "There’s a lot of voodoo in these here parts. Go to St. Louis Cemetery No. 1 and visit the grave of Marie Laveau.  She had special powers and still does today. There are many things in this world that can’t be explained by logic.”

"The Ghost in the Plantation: A Nancy Keene Mystery" is a fictional cozy mystery about a teenage sleuth, modeled after Nancy Drew, who goes to New Orleans on vacation and becomes part of the investigation when a docent at Oak Alley Plantation is found dead inside the antebellum mansion.  Be an armchair traveler and take a trip to Louisiana to explore favorite tourist spots in New Orleans with Nancy and her "chums".

The eBook is available for $2.99 at Amazon, iTunes, Barnes and Noble, Kobo, Google Play and Smashwords.  The paperback is available at Amazon and Createspace.

October is Indie Writers' Month on Amazon

Our Book Is in the Library!

Throughout October, Amazon is celebrating indie writers published via Kindle Direct Publishing and CreateSpace; and that includes our  books.  They've asked authors to share their paths as independent writers and here's the story behind how we got our books published on Amazon.

For years, I'd been trying to get published on my own. I have a M.A. in English and spent my twenties at the post office mailing my short stories to various publishers with no success.  It was always my dream to make money off my writing.   About five years ago, I read an article about how indie writers could get published on Amazon for free!  I couldn't believe it.   I began writing a murder/mystery about a group of librarians and what would happen if someone accidentally got crushed when the electronic compact shelving mechanism malfunctioned. How would my imaginary librarians react if they found the body? Would they accuse each other? I wrote about six pages and showed it to my husband. He liked it and I asked, "How would you like to write the rest of this book with me?" He kindly agreed and that's how we started writing books together.  Since then, I've gone on to write thirty-four books and have sold around 1600 copies. It really has been a dream come true for this English Major. Thank you Amazon: we couldn't have done it without you.

Check out Amazon's #PoweredbyIndie Page at the Following Link:

Amazon's Powered by Indie Page