Longer than I thought

Whew!  This time I really think I'm done with In Santa Fe, Salacious.  One reader wanted me to add a couple more parts -- to explain what the characters did and said.  That took a while.  I seem to have to leave my writing aside for a couple of weeks and then come back to it to find out what needs to be done

Yikes!  But it's fun.  I'm trying a few new publicity ideas this time around, so I'm anxious to upload the story. 

I made book marks to give away, too.

And, I visited Roswell...my next story features two alien abductions and a connection to Dulce, subject of my first story... and the location of a suspected underground UFO research center. 

I am excited to start the cozy crime called, In Roswell, Re-Abducted...

New Mexico Cozy Mysteries

Wow -- time to start working on the latest story, In Roswell, Revisited.  I'm reading abduction stories from as far back as the 1950's.  It seems if there's a mystery in Roswell, it has to involve an abduction.  I want Momma or Dr. Stuart to be abducted -- or seem to be abducted.  And, of course, I want Burro to be abducted or, more likely visualize a abduction.

More soon...keep watching, if you are watching...

Tower Lowe

In Santa Fe, Salacious Nears Completion

"I don't know how it happens, but every visit to my accountant, Lola, is about sex."

Go to
www.amazon.com
 Search Tower Lowe....In Santa Fe, Salacious arrives in two weeks.


That's how it starts, and, already, one reader thinks the story is TOO salacious...another reader says it's no big deal.

I'm really hoping for more readers for this story, so I can figure out if there's too much salacious content, not enough, or just the right amount.  The characters are quirky, but they represent the people I've known over the years here in Santa Fe, not how they really are, but how they might be if they were in a cozy mystery story!

My favorite character is the above mentioned Lola, who has no compunction about telling the story of her love life at length to Cinnamon.  Next is the haunted Leek, who has a dark and disturbing past.  Everybody is trying to find out who punched and killed the hair stylist Marco while he was praying in the Saint Francis Cathedral.  In real life there are too many tourists for that crime...

The story is due on Kindle in about two weeks and is going through final revisions now.  I hope lots of your out there want to read it.

Left Coast Crime Visit at La Fonda in Santa Fe

I am new at this electronic publishing stuff, and unsure how to get my blog and my book "out there," I visited  Left Coast Crime 2011 at La Fonda Hotel in Santa Fe on Sunday morning.  I left my little flyer in the obvious locations -- too late, clearly -- and marveled at all the mystery fans.

My short stories fit the category "cozy mysteries," since there's no violence or graphic sex -- just eccentric characters in a uniquely New Mexico setting.  It was good to see how many cozy mystery writers there are.  I spoke to participants who like all kinds of mystery stories, but I was too scared to promote myself.

Why are writers so often shy when we need to be bold and nervy to promote our work?!

Still, I continue on...releasing my press release on line today...finishing the next story...hoping somewhere out there are a few buyers to read and like or dislike....

For now, I'm finishing up In Santa Fe, Salacious.  The structure is difficult, because I have the suspects talking about sexuality and how the victim died, and this is what moves the plot forward.  So the clues to the crime and the clues to "Momma" have to be inserted into the monologues.  But, what is life without a challenge?

More soon.

Tower

New Mexico Mysteries by Tower Lowe Available on Kindle

Santa Fe.  29 March 2011.  Santa Fe writer Tower Lowe recently released two New Mexico short mysteries to the Kindle Store at amazon.com.  In Dulce, Disturbed and In Zuni, Zymotic and, soon, In Santa Fe, Salacious recount the travels of Investigator Cinnamon and her schizophrenic sidekick Burro, whose hallucinations provide vital clues as they fight for civil rights and solve mysteries in the Land of Enchantment.  Meanwhile, in every New Mexico mystery, Cinnamon, a southern Virginia transplant, pulls closer to discovering the secret of "Momma," who abandoned Cinnamon twenty years before.   Download each story for 99 cents at the amazon.com Kindle Store.

"Set in Hillerman country, In Dulce,  Disturbed adds modern pizazz and cultural realism to an age old topic.  Tower Lowe is brilliant with this fresh, new approach to mystery."  -- Kindle Reader Review

Each story takes place in a New Mexico location where Cinnamon and Burro are called to investigate a civil rights violation and encounter a mysterious death.  Cinnamon and Burro follow the trail to solve the crime, while, at the same time, Cinnamon searches for clues about Momma.  Burro  interprets hallucinations imprinted on the recesses of his schizophrenic mind, and the visions prove vital to solving the mystery.  the first story takes place in Dulce on the Jicarilla Apache Reservation, the second in Zuni Pueblo.  The third story, soon to be released, follows the monologues of local Santa Fe residents and their sexual proclivities to discover how a father was beaten to death in the St. Francis Cathedral.  And all the while, in each story, Cinnamon draws closer to solving the mystery of Momma.

More stories unfold every few months.  Keep track of the crimes here, at towerlowe.blogspot.com

Contact me at towerlowe@yahoo.com

 

Who is Burro?

Burro has schizophrenia, but he is able to hold a job as assistant civil rights investigator to Cinnamon. He functions well in the world as long as he takes his anti-psychotic medication.  Burro helps solve the crime because he has "visions" of what is really happening.  Cinnamon doubts Burros "visions" are real and thinks he is having psychotic hallucinations.  Yet, he is often right, so she worries and wonders at the same time.

Burro is about 30, with blond hair braided down his back and "milky" blue eyes.  He is Hispanic, descended from blond conquistadors who settled in New Mexico 400 years ago.

Burro is comfortable with the visions, and he is comfortable with the schizophrenia.  In fact,  he plays the roll of protector to Cinnamon, who is more disabled by her search throughout New Mexico for Momma.

Burro is based on a few friends with psychiatric disorders.  I was fascinated by how the illness worked against them and for them at the same time.  My friends did not like their hallucinations at all, except for one, who was descended from a tribal community.  His grandfather and mother were "shamans" he said.  I don't even know if that was true, it might have been a delusion, but it got me to thinking. If  the shamans of old were actually suffering from a disorder, maybe they really could direct their visions in a way that revealed information about peoples lives and situations that wasn't obvious...information hidden in the circumstances and details, a forest hidden in the trees.

So that's the idea behind Burro as he exists int he two stories:  In Dulce, Disturbed and In Zuni, Zymotic.  The next story, In Santa Fe, Salacious will explore the sexuality of Burro, Cinnamon and the salacious characters involved in a murder at the St. Francis Cathedral.

Two New Mexcio Mystery Short Stories

In Zuni, Zymotic just joined In Dulce, Disturbed in the Amazon Kindle Store.

Both books by Tower Lowe track the exploits of Cinnamon and Burro who stumble on New Mexico crimes while investigating civil rights and looking for "Momma".

Cinnamon suffers from abandonment with no treatment and Burro from schizophrenia, with treatment.  Burro's visions guide the two misfits through a menagerie of oddball New Mexico characters that help solve the mystery.


Coming soon....

In Santa Fe, Salacious

Here's an excerpt:


     "Who killed Marco?"  I asked Lola.
     She popped ripe cherries in her mouth with pitiless pleasure, but said nothing.
     "He cut my hair a dozen times, Lola, and every single visit he told me he loved your body and your spirit -- in that order...."

She burned herself up, and if that isn't true, it's to the point.  Tower Lowe