This is a new series for me.
I am thrilled to have Deborah here today!!
Thanks to Lori for the chance to be here today. I’m thrilled to meet everyone!
Like all writers, I’m often asked a question by an earnest aspiring author that goes something like this:
“How do I write a book that will make high-minded literary critics swoon and college professors assign serious essays?”
Beats me, I always answer. I’m not that kind of writer.
Don’t get me wrong. I work hard, and I’m proud of my Mace Bauer Mysteries. But so far, Sweden has not phoned to notify me I’ve been awarded the Nobel Prize in literature. It’s impossible to take yourself too seriously when one reviewer describes your main character as “a redneck Stephanie Plum,” and another calls your series “a humorous bit of fluff, perfect for the beach.”
I’m okay with that. When I left newspaper reporting to write funny, Southern-flavored fiction, fluff was exactly what I was seeking.
I’m not sure what the authors of serious literature are doing the month before their books come out. But this was the scene with my husband, Kerry, in our South Florida yard on a sweltering day a couple of weeks before the publication date of my newest book, Mama Gets Trashed:
“It looks better if you’re smooshed deeper into the garbage can.” Hands on my shoulders, Kerry pressed down like he was trying to squeeze ten tubes of toothpaste back into one tube.
The toothpaste was getting a bit cranky.
”It won’t matter how it looks if my legs are broken in half at the knees.”
Gingerly, I edged a Hefty trash bag off my shoulder and onto the ground for a smidge more room.
It was photo day. We were getting creative with title-related props to go with the theme of TRASHED. I wondered if William Faulkner (Nobel Laureate, 1949) ever considered posing with a tombstone to promote “As I Lay Dying.”
Probably not.
My husband has been a reporter on TV for 30 years. He has strong opinions about what makes a visually interesting picture. I was also in journalism for many years, and have my own ideas about how pictures can tell a story. We don’t always agree, but I did refrain from whomping him with the rubber lid of the can.
After 25 years of marriage, I’m used to Kerry encouraging me to leap out of my comfort zone. The author photo on the back of my books is pretty standard, even staid. Kind of like me. But when it comes to playing off the theme of the books for photos on social media or to go along with personality profiles, he’s encouraged me to cut a little looser. So, it was a feather boa and Hollywood bling for the movie-set theme of Mama Sees Stars. For Mama Gets Hitched, which detailed Mama’s fifth try at tying the sacred knot, I donned hideously tacky wedding wear. And, to promote Mama Rides Shotgun and its trail ride setting, I showed up in the saddle on TV, sporting a cowboy hat. At least this latest session did not involve horse manure.
With my knees jutting into the side of a 40-gallon can, I tugged at my trash collector’s neon safety vest and smiled for the camera.
Click.
How about you? Are you already wild and crazy, or do you have to be pushed to find that side of yourself? Would you ever climb into a trash can for art?
~Deborah
I don’t know how I missed this series! I am so glad Deborah and I connected on Facebook because I am started at the beginning with Mama Does Time (A Mace Bauer Mystery) as soon as possible!!
Mama Gets Trashed (A Mace Bauer Mystery)
5yh in Series
MIDNIGHT INK (September 8, 2013)
Cozy Mystery
Paperback: 360 pages
ISBN-13: 978-0738736150
E-Book File Size: 825 KB
ASIN: B00EA117KM
After a tipsy Mama tosses out her wedding ring with the trash, she drags daughter Mace to the city dump to search. When they stumble upon the body of librarian Camilla Law, the straitlaced town is scandalized: Not only is a killer on the loose, but prudish Camilla is all done up in sexy black leather. Foul play and fetish wear in little Himmarshee, Florida? Mama’s blushing fifty shades of pink!
About Deborah Sharp
A former USA Today reporter, Deborah Sharp traded sad news stories for funny fiction with her Mace Bauer Mysteries, featuring Mace’s wacky Mama. Deborah rode a horse across Florida for one book. For another, she was interviewed by Al Roker on the Today show. She was a lot less nervous about the horse. Married to TV reporter Kerry Sanders, she lives in South Florida, where she spends her spare time chasing iguanas out of her hibiscus. Mama Gets Trashed, out Sept. 8 from Midnight Ink, is the series’ fifth book. Visit her online at www.DeborahSharp.com or on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/deborah.sharp1.
Mama’s on Facebook, too: https://www.facebook.com/groups/32030252049/
You can read an excerpt from TRASHED, here: http://www.mamagetstrashed.com/
Thanks to the wonderful Deborah Sharp I have 1 copy of
Mama Gets Trashed to give away!
Contest is open to anyone over 18 years old
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How about you? Are you already wild and crazy, or do you have to be pushed to find that side of yourself? Would you ever climb into a trash can for art?
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