Reading, pets, events and a Daring book deal 

Hi everyone,
 
I hope you’re having a great weekend. I’ll start by adding many thanks to those of you who voted in my newsletter content poll, which is still available here. Most of the results centered on work in progress updates, life updates and random stuff. I had a very sweet question about pets, but unfortunately my husband and I don’t have any pets at the moment. Although we love all animals, the policy is pretty strict in our building and we were…discouraged to get any pets. The only pet I have right now is my little Buddha Cat. 

That’s tough for us, because we would love to have a real cat – we’ve had quite a few over the years. I dug up this pic of one particularly intellectual cat we had over a decade ago. He was a temperamental old stray we added to our considerable collection, and since we’d run out of names, we called him Cat. He didn’t mind a single bit and after his initial reluctance, he was happy to adopt us and have a warm place called home.

It’s a cold and rainy weekend for us, which doesn’t leave much room for outdoor activities – a shame because our city is booming with events, shows, art exhibits. This year, Timisoara has been appointed the European Capital of Culture and we are even more of a tourist attraction than before. Check out this video I posted on Facebook featuring some amazing street singers we saw last weekend!

Writing is going slowly at the moment because crime fiction requires a lot of research. Next month I hope that hubby and I will go to the shooting range for a refresher session. My dad was a target shooting coach and I’ve been a professional target shooter for a decade, but I had to quit the sport because of issues with my spine. Hard to believe another decade has passed without me touching a gun. I’m curious if I can still hit a paper target, not to mention make a neat, tight row of holes in it. Until I get some news pics, here’s one of me in my old glory days. I think in this one I was training for one of the National Championships my team and I won that year.

The photo credit goes to my father, who was honored many times for his coaching achievements. For decades, his pupils have been the best in their categories, and are now exceptional coaches as part of my father’s legacy.

Although it’s a useful skill to have, writing crime fiction doesn’t resume on handling guns. In my Irish Garda series there is no shooting, yet the reviews claim the mysteries are “gripping” and “compelling.” If you haven’t read Dare Game yet, you can get it at your favorite online store for only $0.99 this week. Find the buy links on my publisher’s website by clicking the image below:

If you’ve already read Dare Game and liked it, I have a few other recommendations for you, which I posted on my blog: https://melindacolt.com/2023/02/25/what-im-reading-in-crime-fiction-and-a-deal-on-the-1-bestseller-dare-game/
 
If you have any friends who might like Dare Game, make sure you let them know about the limited price deal by sending them the link to this post or sharing it on social media.
Before I make myself a cup of hot chocolate and get ready to watch the latest episode of CB Strike, I have a question for you sparked by this show that will help with my work in progress: how do you feel about romantic relationships between the main characters in mystery, thriller and suspense books?
I would love to know your opinion!
In the meantime, have a wonderful weekend and stay safe.

Fondly,