Tag: judging a book by its cover

May 16, 2015

Can an author of police procedurals write cozies? COFFEE IS MURDER by Carolyn Arnold

Of course she can.

FOR SARA, COFFEE WAS ONE of life’s
greatest—and simplest—pleasures. Every time
she took a draw of freshly brewed java, her
eyelids automatically lowered in appreciation of
the robust flavor. Somehow, when drinking it,
life seemed less complicated, or maybe it was
just how it coated the palate and calmed her
nerves despite what some scientific studies
might say.

She was in her home office, seated behind her
desk, staring at the blinking cursor on her
monitor, but it wasn’t because she had writer’s
block. Her wrists needed a break. Better yet, she
needed to indulge in this cup.

Leaning back in her chair, she swiveled from
side to side and closed her eyes, savoring the
aroma ofthe dark beans. While they were ground
at the time she pressed the button, the only way
to get it any fresher was picking the beans off the
plants in Brazil. With their money, she supposed
it was an option

Carolyn Arnold writes three different series, under the same author name. As she describes them,

THE MADISON KNIGHT SERIES falls neatly into the police procedural genre with murder investigations and forensics. Think Law & Order meets CSI. There is some foul language and limited graphic violence.

THE BRANDON FISHER FBI SERIES toys with the edge between the police procedural genre and thriller genre. Due to this, you will find foul language and graphic violence in this series.

THE MCKINLEY MYSTERY SERIES ventures outside of the typical crime genre, lending itself to the cozy variety with no foul language or graphic violence. The series combines romance, mystery, humor, and adventure for a lighthearted, easy read.

So with the same author name, how can you tell what kind of book you’re getting? Good question.

Cozy.	Not Cozy.

Coffee is Murder is #9 in Carolyn Arnold’s popular McKinley Mysteries. If you prefer to start with the first book in the series, try The Day Job is Murder.

Coffee is Murder
(McKinley Mysteries Book 9)
Cozy Mystery
File Size: 641 KB
Print Length: 155 pages
Sold by: Amazon Digital Services, Inc.
ASIN: B00U2HCG5S

You might want to rethink your morning routine.
A cup a day won’t kill you, but a few might.

Author Links:

Website: https://carolynarnold.net

Twitter: https://twitter.com/Carolyn_Arnold

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/AuthorCarolynArnold

Purchase Link:
Amazon

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THE MUSUBI MURDER August 2015 Amazon / B&N /Powell’s /Audible / iTunes

March 28, 2015

People prefer a healthy-looking leader to an intelligent-looking one.

“Health was an influential cue across all scenarios, while intelligence only had an effect in half of the presented scenarios. “

Well, at least intelligence wasn’t a negative predictor (The study was done in the Netherlands; I wonder how the same experiment might turn out in the US).

And yes, apparently there is a way to manipulate “intelligent-looking.”

“[H]igh and low apparent intelligence prototypes were created as described in Moore et al. (2011). Briefly, these prototypes were created by regressing ratings of attractiveness, masculinity, health, and perceived age against ratings of perceived intelligence. The faces with the largest positive and negative residuals (i.e., those who were rated as looking much more or less intelligent than predicted by their age, attractiveness, masculinity, and health) were “averaged” using Psychomorph software to create composite high and low perceived intelligence faces…”

Also, if you can figure out a way to make yourself look taller, that helps too.

Frontiers | A face for all seasons: Searching for context-specific leadership traits and discovering a general preference for perceived health | Frontiers in Human Neuroscience.

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January 3, 2015

Does this outfit make me look readable? Author photos and genre

What is the purpose of an author photo? It allows the reader to feel a connection with the author, of course, but the photo also communicates something about the genre of the book.

Janet Evanovich, Sue Grafton, Diane Mott Davidson and Shelley Costa write funny, PG-rated mysteries, where the violence and sex happen offstage.


Janet Evanovich	Sue Grafton	Diane Mott Davidson	Shelley Costa

All four author photos feature a smile and a slight head tilt; the authors look friendly and approachable.

This kind of pose is not necessarily the best fit for all genres. You probably wouldn’t mistake Mercedes M. Yardley for a writer of cozy mysteries.

Nor does Anna Taborska seem like someone who pens madcap adventures involving cookie recipes and precocious cats.

Anna Taborska, author of For Those Who Dream Monsters

For my author photo, I’ll be working with a talented Hawaii-based photographer. The Molly Barda mysteries are lighthearted and fairly clean, so we’ll go for something in the spirit of the first set of photos. I’m looking forward to seeing what we come up with. Stay tuned!

Frankie Bow’s first novel, THE MUSUBI MURDER , is available at Audible.com, Amazon.com, and iTunes.