I’m excited to
share my new release Dead Without Remorse, which is the 5th book in
my Gilda Wright Mystery series! It originally took place before book 3 but I
had to wait to get the rights back from a previous publisher.
Here's the blurb: An explosion leaves a gaping hole in the
streetscape where the Nine Lives Consignment Shop and the former martial arts
school once stood. When police find remains of a bomb inside, Gilda Wright needs to track a killer before
her suspects scatter like debris.
Why did I choose
to write a mystery series about martial arts? The Gilda Wright Mystery series was
inspired by the karate school I used to work and train at. Our school was in
the basement below a hair salon and by the end of the training day, humidity
from the sweat of all those people training literally hung a foot thick near
the ceiling! The atmosphere and camaraderie of the students was very inspiring
and I wondered what would happen if this was a tournament, not a seminar, and
the referee never showed up.
We had a similar
sign in our karate school to remind students to remain humble and leave
their egos at the door. None of us are perfect! In order to focus, we had that reminder to leave that part of
us and our problems outside the training hall.
My fictional town of Sandstone Cove is
based very loosely on a larger town along the shores of Lake
Erie called Dunkirk, New York. The shoreline and layout of the town was exactly
what I needed for my little town (although I certainly modified the basic map
to become Sandstone Cove!)
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| Dunkirk, New York |
I’ve had a lot of fun over the years watching
my main characters grow and adapt to changes in their lives. My four main
characters are:
Gilda Wright is the receptionist at Phoenix Martial Arts. She’s an
avid karate student, runner and not so sure about yoga. After a disastrous
relationship with Jason Thayer, she took a job at the karate school to build up
some confidence.
Marion Yearly is Gilda’s best friend and a 911 operator. She is has an
eye for the men at the karate school and, after a little coaxing, started
taking classes with Gilda. She’s enamored by Razi Mauli, one of the
instructors.
Mick Williams ran the original Yoshida Martial Arts, then built Phoenix
Martial Arts with Razi. He is a 3rd degree black belt goju-ryu karate; black
belt in jiu jitsu; 1st degree black belt tae kwon do; kickboxing; MMA trainer
and coach.
Kane Garrick is former MMA fighter and an expert swordsman. He is a 3rd
degree black belt goju-ryu karate; black belt jiu jitsu, trained for over 10
years in Japanese sword fighting and Japanese Jiu Jitsu; has a fake Australian
accent. Gilda first meets him while he practiced with a sword on the beach near
her house.
I was also inspired by a photo I cut from a
magazine years ago of a log on the beach that has become Gilda’s “thinking
place” and her usual meeting place with Fabio, her police officer friend.
Is there a real Café Beanz? Yes,
there is, but with a different spelling. I found it purely by accident in
Barrie, Ontario. I haven't been inside yet, but it's on my bucket list! My
version of Café Beanz is a little deli-style cafe that serves sandwiches and
soups for lunch and several kinds of coffees and teas. It's based on the old
50's style diners but modernized in colors and textures. Along with Happy
Harvey's, Beanz is one of the hubs of Sandstone Cove.
Gilda's favorite all time drink is a latte with
cinnamon and chocolate curls (and wine in the evenings when the mystery solving
gets her down!)
Mick loves a "double-double" as we
call them in Canada, coffee with two milk and two sugar.
Marion takes her coffee hot, strong and with a
little milk.
Razi and Kane are both tea drinkers. Green
preferably.
Thayer and Fabio, the police officers Gilda has
often had to deal with, love their coffee. Thayer takes his black. Fabio
prefers to mix it up a little bouncing between coffee to lattes.
Happy Harvey's Hangover Hut wasn't the place
to go if you had a hangover, more like if you were in desperate search of the
means of one. A glorified, tiki-infested liquor and convenience store, Happy
Harvey's was owned by Happy—no one had ever called him Harvey—a
seventy-year-old man who'd become disillusioned with retirement. He was also
one of Gilda's good friends.
Happy Harvey’s is my favorite setting in the series.
Sometimes ideas will just pop into my head and I have no idea where they came
from. Happy Harvey's was one of them. I combined my love of the tropics with a
local convenience store run by an older man who wasn't afraid to be a little
different. Happy is one of Gilda's main supporters and cheerleaders who lets
her know what's on his mind and will happily give her both advice and a bottle
of wine from time to time.
Writing a martial arts-based series was in the
making, ever since my family started karate and Brazilian jiu jitsu classes. I
was actually a Karate Mom for about 6 years before I started working at the
martial arts school and began my own training. Due to my health and life
getting in the way, I stopped training at blue belt in Goju-Ryu karate, but the
Gilda series lives on.
One part of training I enjoy, was helping our
instructors at self-defence courses we did at local schools. At one high
school, we were in lock down after a teenager from another school came in and
stabbed a student. It was very sad to see the kids so calm because this happens
at least once per semester. Most students were very grateful for us coming in
to give them an option to deal with the bullies. One day, that incident may
become a whole new Gilda mystery.
Aside from training and self-defence courses, I
helped to run the school and rewrote the school's karate manual and Black Belt
grading information packages.
One question that comes up from fans is “Who
will Gilda choose: Kane or Mick?”
Gilda started to work for Mick after breaking up
with her former boyfriend Jason Thayer in spectacular fashion - she threw him
into a large bag of coffee beans after catching him with his latest fling and
split his head open! Karate and learning how to defend herself in a more
empowered way seemed like a logical next step.
Just when she and Mick take the next step and
start to develop a romantic relationship, along comes Mick's long time friend
and colleague, Kane Garrick. Kane has eyes for Gilda, but is it because she's
Mick's new girlfriend or do his flirtations run much deeper?
Okay, readers, who would you choose and why?
You can find ALL of my books at BWL Publishing Inc!
Enjoy the rest of your summer!
