PLUS For everyone, her cookbook Starke Deadly Delicious Recipes is FREE today and tomorrow. It's a delicious taste of some of her favorite recipes along with a taste of the characters and world of Starke! Clck on the link for Starke Deadly Delicious Recipes at Amazon to get your copy! Thank you so much, Conda!
Conda Douglas grew up in the ski resort of Sun Valley, Idaho. Her childhood was filled with authors and artists and other creative types. She grew up with goats in the kitchen, buffalo bones in the living room, and rocks in the bathtub. Now her life is filled with her cat and dog, permanent boyfriend, and writing.
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| Conda and pal, Puck |
She’s traveled the world from Singapore to Russia and her own tiny office, writing all the while. She delights in writing her cozy Starke Dead creative woman mystery series with amateur detective jeweler Dora Starke. The more Dora discovers cursed jewelry, her aunt digging graves, and a rampant poisoner, the more fun Conda has—although sometimes Dora complains about her plight! Next up, Starke Raving Dead, in which Dora’s mad Aunt Maddie proves the aptness of her name.
When she’s not writing Dora into her quirky and quixotic mysteries, Conda writes the popular tween fantasy Mall Fairies series. The fairy inspiration for her Mall Fairies came from the sparrows that live in the Boise Towne Square Mall in Boise, Idaho. When not rescuing fairies from humans, cats, and themselves, Conda works on the last title in the Mall Fairy trilogy, The Mall Fairies: Destiny.
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Places you can find Conda:
Twitter: https://twitter.com/Conda_V
My Wonderful Fifth Grade Teacher, Mrs. Loringer
by Conda V. Douglas
by Conda V. Douglas
JQ's question about
what inspired me to become a writer brought back a stupendous memory of my true
writing inspiration. Thank you, JQ!
I grew up in the
tiny odd town of Ketchum, Idaho. Odd because it's a mile away from the Sun
Valley ski resort, filled with luminaries, including one famed writer, Papa
Hemingway. In contrast, Ketchum at that time was the place where all the middle
class people who worked in Sun Valley lived.
Ketchum's one and
only school, the grade school, was understaffed and underfunded. For my fifth
grade year, the new young teacher hire taught the advanced students of third and fifth grades. All 24 of us happened to be girls. All day scrunched in
the same classroom with equipment so old that our desks had inkwells.
Mrs. Loringer's
response to this bizarre configuration was life changing for her students. She
must have figured that since she was teaching two grades two years apart, why
not often let the students go at their own pace, spend time working on their
own? It worked great.
One thing we
could do was write poems, short stories and essays for extra credit. I did that
so much Mrs. Loringer finally told me that I had an A+ in English. I didn't
need any more extra credit. I burst into tears. I'd lost my audience. An
audience of one, but at age 10, I believed that "real" authors were
gods, like Papa, not a little girl living in Ketchum, Idaho. Mrs. Loringer
gently teased out the problem, in between my sobs, and then she said,
"You're a good writer. Good enough to become an author, if you want."
My tears vanished.
That my beloved teacher had validated me as an author made my writing career
possible. My first acceptance! I've been writing ever since. In honor of the
first in my cozy mystery series, Starke
Naked Dead, being released from my publisher, Muse It Up, I'm offering a
copy of it free! Please note that currently it is only available in various
eBook formats and PDF. Starke Naked Dead
is set in a tiny mountain town that is about to be Idaho's newest ski resort,
hmmm...
Back Cover
The gossiping women of the Widows Brigade in the new ski resort of Starke, Idaho love a good scandal—this time it’s a murder mystery, and a stark naked corpse!
Jeweler Dora Starke believes creating her own jewelry line with no money and no time is her biggest problem. She’s mistaken. When her recluse dad shows up and thrusts a stolen, cursed jewelry piece worth millions at her and demands she sell it or he’s dead, she knows this must be her biggest problem. She’s wrong. When she pursues her father to his Idaho mountain cabin and instead of dear old dad, discovers a stark naked corpse, she’s certain she’s found her biggest problem--whodunit. Nope. Dora’s problems are just beginning…Follow Dora as she becomes an amateur sleuth to solve the mysteries of cursed jewelry and murder, in this, the first of the Starke Dead women sleuth cozy mystery series.
Jeweler Dora Starke believes creating her own jewelry line with no money and no time is her biggest problem. She’s mistaken. When her recluse dad shows up and thrusts a stolen, cursed jewelry piece worth millions at her and demands she sell it or he’s dead, she knows this must be her biggest problem. She’s wrong. When she pursues her father to his Idaho mountain cabin and instead of dear old dad, discovers a stark naked corpse, she’s certain she’s found her biggest problem--whodunit. Nope. Dora’s problems are just beginning…Follow Dora as she becomes an amateur sleuth to solve the mysteries of cursed jewelry and murder, in this, the first of the Starke Dead women sleuth cozy mystery series.
BUY LINK
Finally, a huge
thank you to Mrs. Loringer and all those other teachers out there who make such a
great difference.
