Author Spotlight: Carol Light Is Here with a New Mystery and a Great Giveaway!
We have two winners! Sue Farmer and Beth Reimer, you will each receive a gift card from Carol! She will be in touch. Thanks to everyone who stopped by! We love hearing from our readers!
My pal and fellow Tule Publishing author Carol Light is in the spotlight today with her newest book in the Cluttered Crime mystery series, and I couldn’t be more pleased to welcome her back! No Room to Hide releases today and I gotta tell you, I got a sneak peek, and it’s another winner!
Carol is an avid reader and writer of mysteries. She loves creating amateur sleuths and complicating their normal lives with a crime that they must use their talents and wits to solve. She’s traveled worldwide and lived in Australia for eight years, teaching high school English and learning to speak “Strine.” Florida is now her home. If she’s not at the beach or writing, you can find her tackling quilting in much the same way that she figures out her mysteries—piece by piece, clue by clue.
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She’s talking about friendship today–and I’m very pleased that she and I are friends! So glad to have you with me today, Carol!
Thanks, Nan! I’m so happy to talk to you today about No Room to Hide, the fourth book in my Cluttered Crime mystery series from Tule Publishing. Crystal “Crys” Ward, the protagonist of the series, is once again pulled into solving a crime—several, actually—despite trying to keep a low profile after being the subject of a sensational newspaper article about recent murders she’s helped solve. The unwanted publicity has resulted in a dramatic increase in potential customers, but too many people soliciting her services want a private detective, not a professional organizer. What a mess!
Anxious for a work distraction, Crys is thrilled when her old friend, Eva Rolfe, hires her to help organize a treasure trove of old letters and clippings she’s found in the Victorian house she’s planning to renovate. The papers, which document the life of a famous Chicago suffragette, may have historical value and help Eva and her partner to secure grant money to help with the renovation. The sorting task will also allow Crys to reconnect with Eva. Their friendship had started five years earlier when both of their husbands were fighting for their lives in intensive care. They haven’t seen each other since then, which Crys regrets. But she begins to wonder how well she really knows her friend when Eva admits there’s more she needs help with than boxes of old papers. When a murder occurs in Eva’s Victorian fixer-upper, Crys can’t abandon her friend again. Soon she discovers she has nowhere to hide from her own notoriety, the ambitious reporter hounding her about her newest case, and a killer intent on making sure his own past stays buried.
Friendship is a theme in this story. Shared experiences are certainly a way to get to know someone, although they’re normally not as dramatic as was the case for Crys and Eva. Usually we meet someone and discover we have common interests and personalities that click. I met my best friend in ninth-grade English class, and we’re still friends today, despite living states and even continents apart for years. After more years than we care to count, we still love to talk about books, writing, and everything else in life.
Friends also pass in and out of our lives, entering and exiting like supporting actors in a play. A friend I had in grade school in Milwaukee popped up again in my life when I started high school in Indianapolis. Unfortunately, we only briefly reunited before her family once again moved. I haven’t seen her since, but I wouldn’t be surprised if we bump into each other again one day.
The funniest experience I had meeting a new friend came years ago when I checked in at the Melbourne airport to leave Australia to return to the States. I was wearing a black floral-print dress I’d made and was surprised to see a young woman about my age across the busy airport wearing a skirt made of the same material. Obviously she had great taste! I didn’t think anything more about it until I boarded my plane. Out of more than three hundred passengers on the jumbo jet, guess who was seated next to me? And the coincidences didn’t stop there. It turned out we were both American teachers working in Australian schools and both of us were headed home to Indiana! We had a great time talking and joked with the flight attendant about being twins. When we landed in California, we organized seats together for our onward flight to Chicago, where we parted ways. Unfortunately, we didn’t stay in touch, but the long journey passed quickly with a friend to share it with.
Giveaway! For a chance to win a $10 Amazon gift card (and I’m giving away two), please tell me about how you met a special friend. Have you stayed in touch? Two winners will be chosen at random on Sunday, June 9.
No Room to Hide
Her business plan doesn’t call for sleuthing—but murder changes everything.
Professional organizer Crystal Ward has nothing against publicity—as long as it’s the truth. But a local reporter is putting Crys in the headlines for her role in solving crimes, not clearing out clutter. Now she’s receiving requests for services that aren’t on her website, and the spotlight is wearing on her family.
At least something good comes out of the unwelcome attention: Crys reconnects with an old friend, Eva, who hires her to sort through historical documents found in a Victorian house she wants to flip. Then a dead body turns up in the parlor, and Eva confesses she’s been receiving threatening notes.
Crys knows to draw the line on the services she’s willing to provide, but this is about friendship, not business. With the reporter hot on her trail, Crys tries to maintain a low profile as she sorts out the secrets. But good intentions aren’t enough. Will this client once again lure her into an appointment with a killer with no place to hide?
26 Comments
Kimberly Field
I have had some great friends that I have met online, because of a mutual taste in books and authors. My dearest best friend though has been my friend since the 2nd grade and best friends since 7th. We live on opposite coasts, but know that we can still count on each other.
Carol Light
Hi Kimberly! Old friends are golden–that’s for sure.
flchen1
How funny, Carol! I recently met a new friend on a flight also! We passed the entire flight chatting about our lives, and we have stayed in touch a bit since. She teaches fitness classes, and it’s been a good encouragement to work on that myself!
Carol Light
That’s wonderful! The right friend at the right time.
Latesha B.
I’ve met several good friends over the years. One I met freshman year of college as she was walking to a German club meeting with another friend of ours. We bonded over our love of romance novels and still keep in contact over 30 years later.
Carol Light
Hi Latesha, Are you still practicing German with her? We never know when or where we’ll meet our next friend. Glad you are still in contact!
Debra Pruss
I met my special friend, Larry, who I married while he was working at an area grocery store. We joke and say that I picked him up while shopping. He finally became brave enough to ask me out. We had our first date on St. Patrick’s Day. When I walked into the restaurant, he was dressed in a green suit, shirt and tie. He was about 5′ tall. He looked like a leprechaun. We have been together since. We have been married for 35 years. Thank you for sharing. God bless you.
Carol Light
Hi Debra, What a wonderful story! Gives new meaning to “walking down the aisle.” Sounds like you didn’t need any four-leaf clovers for luck with Larry. Bless you (and Larry) too!
Janine
I have met a lot of great people online through our love of the same books and authors.
Carol Light
That’s great, Janine! i enjoy my bookclubs and sharing my love of reading too.
Sue Farmer
I met one of my dearest friends in 2003 at the kindergarten orientation session to meet the teacher. There weren’t many people there and she and I started talking. Our sons hit it off too. We discovered that we have the same birthday. She and I would go to lunch and our families went to dinner. We text and meet up. Our sons aren’t really close friends anymore but she and I are. We celebrate our birthday together every year. We also have a Christmas shopper and dinner night each year too. We have stayed close while she went through a divorce and my husband and I have become good friends with her new husband . The 4 of us get together all the time.
Carol Light
Great friendship story, Sue! So glad you’ve stayed friends through thick and thin all these years.
Cherie J
One of my dearest friends started out as a pen pal during our high school years. We have gotten together in person a number of times and supported each other through some difficult times. She was also a bridesmaid in my wedding.
Carol Light
Wow! That’s great, Cherie! I don’t know if kids today still have pen pals, but I hope they do. Sometimes it’s easier to confide feelings to people through letters.
Beth Reimer
I met my very first best friend in Kindergarten, I am now almost 60. We stayed in touch throughout the years she moved to Montana and I am in Maryland. Sadly Angie passed away last year. I still really miss her.
Carol Light
So sorry for your loss, Beth. Sounds like you have many wonderful memories of your friend over the years.
Laurie Gommermann
I met my special friend Marybeth when we were Freshman in college. We both were in the Nursing program. As our last names started with W and Z we always registered together. Our classes and clinicals were usually the same. We were also roommates, played on the same softball team, got together to hit the bars etc. We attended each other’s weddings. We will celebrate our 48th college graduation this year. We still keep in touch. I will always treasure MB’s friendship and support.
Carol Light
You two definitely had common interests! So glad you’re still in touch.
Doris H Lankford
I met a special friend when we were working together in the same retail store. We worked together for 5 years before the store was closed in 2010. We have stayed close and we get try to get together once a month. The best part is, she is 18 years older than me. We have the best time together and she makes me laugh all the time.
Carol Light
Doris, love your story because I think having friends of different ages is so much fun. One of my neighborhood friends is 94. She’s so excited about my books that she hosted a book signing at her house and interviewed me that night like Barbara Walters. I keep telling her I’m thinking of hiring her as my publicist!
Liz Flaherty
Hi, Carol! I’m anxious to read Crys’s next adventure. Women’s friendships are one of my favorite things–both to have and to read. Nan’s and mine came about as a surprise, and we have so much fun! Another special one is that the woman I met the first day I worked at the post office in 1981 is still one of my very best friends. I feel lucky.
Good luck with the new release!
Carol Light
Thanks so much, Liz! You are lucky—friends are truly a blessing! I met Nan through a mutual friend who had a pool party. That day Nan helped me to set up my new Kindle and showed me how to buy her book on Amazon. It was my first but not last lesson from her on promoting books! Love you, Nan!
Nan
I remember that day! It was such fun! You are a rock star, roomie! Your mysteries are great! So proud of you!
Carol Light
Aww—thanks, Nan! Still enjoying my Kindle, and I’ve added many more of your wonderful books.
bn100
at school, yes
Carol Light
A great place to meet people your own age when you’re a student.