Auntiemwrites Crime-Mystery Author M K Graff

Author Nina Romano is a prolific and wonderful storyteller.  She has traveled extensively and lived in Italy for twenty years.  She also happens to be a loving, sweet lady and a fantastic cook!

Nina has brought her observations from the coffee shops she visits, along with deeper poems of the heart, to her new collection Coffeehouse Meditations, now available from Kitsune Books.  Author John Dufresne (Florida Power and Light) says: “Reading Coffeehouse Meditations is a joy and an exhilaration. This is work that matters.”

Nina is a member of the Screw Iowa Writers Group, of which Auntie M is also a proud member, and I can attest to the high quality of these poems.  There is something for everyone, from her intense imagery to her exotic use of language. Nina’s poems make you think, bring you places, tell their truths, and leave you wanting more. This is Nina’s second book of poetry and she’s already working on the third.  Her first book ,Cooking Lessons (www.Rock-Press.com), where Nina’s love of food will take you on a whirlwind of Italian life, food and language. As Campbell McGrath said about Cooking Lessons: “…read this book right now, experience it all, and thank Nina Romano for creating a poetic banquet rich enough to feed a tonof hungry readers.”

Auntie M is going to give away a free copy of Coffeehouse Meditations to one lucky random winner between now and next Friday, so leave a comment and tell me why you want to be in the drawing!

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Hello to all of you out there who decided Auntie M had fallen off the face of the earth.

You may remember the Incident of the Dog, wherein a huge chocolate lab destroyed Doc’s knee.  Three surgeries, 14 months of Physical Therapy, and one artificial knee, and Doc is back limping around without benefit of canes or walkers.

My role as Nancy Nurse is pretty much over; the cap goes back up on the shelf, and the hospital bed may leave our bedroom shortly, although the over-bed trapeze gets to stay for the rest of the year.

I would like to say that it was just taking care of Doc that explains away my months of absentia, but I have to cough up the truth: I’ve been working with an incredible book designer, doing rewrites on my novel, choosing and refining a cover, reading and editing and re-reading for typo’s, all so that the files can be sent to the printer THIS COMING WEEK.

I am assured that before the end of the month, I’ll be able to hold my novel in my hot little hand.

THE BLUE VIRGIN will be published through Bridle Path Press by April 1st.  It’s the first of a series I’m writing with protagonist Nora Tierney, an American writer who lives in Oxford and is getting ready to move to the Lake District to live with her children’s book illustrator and his sister until her unplanned baby is born.  Because the baby’s father was dead before Nora knew she was pregnant, she is grateful for the support. Before she can move out, though, her best friend Val Rogan calls for Nora’s urgent help.  Val’s partner, Bryn Wallace, has been found murdered, and Val is the prime suspect.  Nora will swing into action, determined to clear her friend, while illustrator Simon Ramsey tries to keep her safe.

Auntie M is psyched, to say the least, to finally have a book-length project in print.  I’ll keep you posted as time goes by on how the process is going. I’ve learned a ton about publishing, working with a copyeditor, what a cyanotype is and why spine width is essential to get correct, getting an ISBN number and a ton of other things that are new to me.

So hang in there and take this ride with me!

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Auntie M has been on hiatus for the past few weeks due to a multitude of things you don’t even want to begin to know!

BUT I’m blogging over on ECO WOMEN: PROTECTORS OF THE PLANET today, so come on over and check me out!

Hope to back to several times a week shortly!

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Meg Gardiner caught Auntie M’s eye with her novel The Dirty Secrets Club, where she introduced Jo Beckett, a forensic psychiatrist with an unusual specialty: she conducts psychological autopsies, an investigation into a person’s life to determine whether their death was natural, accidental, suicide or homicide.

It’s an interesting premise for a protagonist, and Gardiner makes the most of Beckett, her expertise, and her background. This time Beckett is called to help deal with an aircraft passenger whose erratic behavior she finally determines is due to anteretrograde amnesia, an unusual amnesia where the patient has total recall of his past life, but is unable to hold onto new thoughts for more than five minutes.

I’d never heard of this kind of amnesia, but Gardiner does a good job of explaining it and its devastating effects on her patient, security expert Ian Kanan.  Imagine living your life by scrawling yourself messages in pen or your arm, surrounded by post- it notes to keep refreshing what you were doing five minutes previously.

It’s an exhaustive and horrifying illness, and when it starts to affect people Kanan has had contact with, Beckett knows  she is up against some kind of deadly biological agent, and the race to prevent a catastrophic exposure to this agent becomes the focus of the action.

Gardiner also has five novels in the Evan Delaney series, including the Edgar Award finalist China Lake.

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That’s the word everyone is using lately, so Auntie M is getting in on  it, too.

Readers, you MUST go to Eco Women: Protectors of the Planet and check out the newest ideas going on. (EcoWomen.wordpress.com)

This is a group of six ecologically-minded women who blog about everything from recycling and organic baby foods to healthy pets and saving our planet.

There are Quick Links and Easy Eco Actions as regular features, too.

The big news is that EcoWomen now have their avatars on tees and bags you can purchase through Cafe’ Press.  And when you do, the monies made will find their way to a really cool charity.  So you’ll be spreading the word AND doing something good for Mankind, Animalkind and The World.

Check out today’s blog for the FIRST BIG GIVEAWAY and you, too, can be a part of this growing movement.

Squee!

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