Hello everyone:
I’m guest blogging onPatricia Prestion’s blog today.
http://www.patricia-preston.blogspot.com
Blogging about where I found the characters, the sights, sounds and smells of New York that led to my eBook Scene Stealer
Please drop by and say hello.
Now Scene Stealer is available on audio. Produced by audible.com
My cozy mystery is now available not only as an eBook but in android an iPod. Exciting for me. My amateur detective Augusta Weidenmaier would be pleased. The young kidnapped boy, Kevin Corcoran would take it for granted. He’s grown up with all the marvels of the internet, Facebook and Twitter, iPhones and iPads and the wonders of tomorrow. To learn more about me, please log on to http://www.elisewarner.com, twitter.com/elisewarner and facebook.com/elisewarnerb Te eBook version of Scene Stealer is available at http://www.barnesandnoble.com, http://www.amazon.com, http://www.borders.com and http://www.carinapress.com
Today is a red letter day for me. October 15-the day that Scene Stealer is released in an audio version by http://www.audible.com I look forward to hearing the book read. I’m sure my characters are looking forward to it too. Scene Stealer is available (eBook version) is available at carinapress.com
barnesandnoble.com, amazon.com, borders.com and wherever eBooks are sold
I’m sitting at my computer writing away. A new novel with characters I’m beginning to get to know rather well when all of a sudden I feel a poke. A poke that has connected with a soft spot in the part of my brain that says a character is here that wants you to tell her story.
I lifted my fingers from the keyboard, closed my eyes and there she was-actually here she is-the lady is persistent. The character is Augusta Weidenmaier and she wants another mystery featuring her. “After all”, she says, “The cover of Scene Stealer says An Augusta Weidenmaier Mystery, and I should be the first person you think about. You were in the theatre, you should respect top billing”
Trying to reason with a strong personality like Miss Weidenmaier is difficult but I did try. I explained about the new book and how I was fourteen chapters into the first draft. I told her she had to know the people in that book would take exception to my putting them aside in favor of writing about her. I asked her if she could, would wait ‘til I finished and then I would be all hers and we could work on the new Augusta Weidenmaier Mystery together. Teamwork?
Lord, she is one stubborn woman who usually gets what she wants. I finally managed to get her to agree to a compromise. I would work on the novel I started in the morning and Miss Weidenmaier’s mystery in the afternoon and we’ll both cross our fingers and hope it works. I’ll let you know how we progress.
For more info about me-please log on to http://www.elisewarner.com Scene Stealer (an Augusta Weidenmaier Mystery) is available at http://www.barnesandnoble.com, http://www.amazon.com, http://www.borders.com, www. Carinapress.com
and wherever eBooks are sold. An audio version will be released by audible.com on Oct. 15
“The World is Beautiful Today…” Received a 4/5 rating for Scene Stealer at http://www.bookloverbookreviews.com Book Lover is a reviewer-Joanne P. who is an Australia. Jo also did an interview with me and I couldn’t be more pleased. Please take a trip Down Underand leave a comment.
I’ve been to that marvelous, magical country three times and have fallen in love with it from the tropical rain forest to Alice. From kangeroos and koalas to the smallest penguins in the world.
If you’d like to know more about me, please log on to http://www.elisewarner.com My cozy mystery is available at http://www.barnesandnoble.com, http://www.amazon.com, http://www.borders.com, http://www.carinapress.com
and wherever eBooks are sold. An audio version will be released by http://www.audible.com on Oct. 15
Platea is two gas stations and a general store somewhere in the area of Erie, Pennsylvania. Not even a dot on the map. Hard to find-I know-I could never find the place again.
When I was in my middle teens, I was offered a job for the summer as ingénue with a traveling tent show whose owners lived in a small ramshackle house in Platea. Ready, willing and eager, I joined the troupe of seven that included a leading lady and leading man, a juvenile, two character actors and a utility man. We rehearsed for a week in a second and larger house that hadn’t seen tenants for a long while; we cooked on a kerosene stove and our personnel needs were taken care of in an outhouse in back where seven rats resided, or so our leading man claimed. He gave each rat a name; the names were originally ours alone.
We would present plays like Uncle Tom’s Cabin-I doubled playing Little Eve and Eliza. I would cross the ice with a doll-representing a baby-in my arms as I tried to escape the bloodhounds chasing us, race down the stairs, discard my bandana and the smock, that covered Little Eva’s white dress, place the doll on a table, pull on a blonde wig and return to the stage where I rested my dying body on a pallet.
One memorable performance the stairs weren’t in place and I stepped from the stage into space. I ignored the pain, quickly made the fast change and clambered back on stage. The lights came up. Uncle Tom began singing a hymn, looked at me and then began to stifle giggles. Blood seeped through the dress adding a bit of authenticity to my role and distressing the owners.
During intermissions, we would sell an orange drink concoction and bags of popcorn; twice a week, after the show-for an additional half-dollar-we would put on an afterpiece that included comedy sketches, songs and dances. The theme of one afterpiece was the roaring twenties; we’d dress ourselves in flapper costumes, dance the Charleston and sing a number that went
We’re working our way through college,
To get a lot of knowledge,
That we’ll probably never, ever use again.
There were six different plays-one for each night of the show week. Among them, The Cohens and The Kellys similar to a Broadway play titled Abie’s Irish Rose that defied critics and ran for years and Your Country Cousin about a bumpkin that outsmarts everyone. Saturday nights, we tore down the set after the performance-I was in charge of making sandwiches for the crew-then we drove to the next town. I sat next to the popcorn machine. The next morning, it was my job to walk through the streets, find strong teen-age boys and offer them free tickets to the show in exchange for help in putting up the tent and the benches. I thought of myself as the Pied Piper of Pennsylvania.
Just like Broadway, our motto was “The Show Must Go On” and go on it did no matter how sick we were. I came down with the flu in one town and spent several days in bed. Out leading lady was kind enough to iron my costumes but at night I trod the boards. One afternoon as I lay on the bed sleeping, a noise woke me up and I saw several children sneaking a quick look at me from the doorway. The enterprising young son of our boarding house owner had sold a few tickets at twenty-five cents apiece–for a chance to peep at the ingénue-to his friends.
On a road trip to Erie one year, my husband and I tried to find Platea; I wanted to show him the old house where we rehearsed, the general store where we bought chips, bologna and sodas, the outhouse I avoided as much as humanly possible. But Platea was changed or gone and-except in my memory-I couldn’t go back.
For more information about me, please log on to http://www.elisewarner.com My mystery titled SCENE STEALER is availbel at http://www.barnesandnoble.com, http://www.amazon.com, http://www.borders.com, http://www.carinapress.com
and wherever eBooks are sold An audio version will be released by http://www.audible.com on Oct. 15.
.
“Shy, I confess it, I’m shy…” that song from Once Upon a Mattress seemed to have been written about me. But that was before I began writing and a play I wrote was chosen by Theatre Guinevere, in New York City, as an entrant in a play contest. We, the authors, would all read our plays in a rehearsal room to a critic who would choose the top three plays. The prize-a staged reading.
I sat in front of an audience consisting of friends, family, budding playwrights and the other competitors. I read the lines; hoping my nerves wouldn’t show. Stage directions were read by a friend and I learned never to have stage directions read at a reading. Find another way. Then miracle of miracles, I was one of the winners.
The next step was finding professional actors-who were willing to work without pay. An ad was place in Backstage, a theatrical newspaper; the evening we held auditions we arrived to find actors had filled the room and lined the staircase.
I was used to auditioning as a singer and an actress; after I became a stage manager, I knew how to call other performers to read for directors, conductors and choreographers. I knew how to cheer for performers and how to console but nothing prepared me for making the hard decisions myself.
We chose the actors we wanted to stay and read for the parts in our plays-typecasting-choosing by age, height, weight, appearance and instinct. I chose three young girls to stay and read for my ingénue. The first was terrible, just plain terrible.
“Thank you,” I said.
She pretended not to hear.
“Thank you,” a bit louder. Would nothing stop this…this creature who was creating havoc with my lines? The lines I had spent hour after hour writing and revising?
I rose from my chair, walked up front and shouted in her ear. “Thank you!” I no longer felt shy. The third actress to read, made me smile, made me laugh and was perfect. Absolutely perfect.
On to the men and here I made a dreadful mistake. The actor I chose looked the part, he read the lines fairly well and he told me he could sing. I hadn’t written a musical but the actor needed to look as if he could dance, have a mediocre voice and hold a tune for a chorus or two. I made the mistake of taking the actor at his word-I should have known better-and after the first rehearsal, despite his plea, had to let him go.
I had never-is the right word fired-anyone before? And it was a part in a staged reading that didn’t pay a cent. I felt guilty. I felt tough. I knew my first duty was to my play. And I knew I would never be shy again.
P.S. I got up the nerve to ask a marvelous actor I had worked with on the road if he would do the reading and he agreed. We won the prize – a small statue called, “The Guinny” the play received several staged readings with other companies but as yet hasn’t been produced.
FOR MORE INFO ABOUT ME, PLEASE LOG ON TO http://www.elisewarner.com MY MYSTERY TITLED SCENE STEALER MAY BE PURCHSED AT www,barnesandnoble.com, wwwamazon.com, http://www.borders.com, http://www.carinapress.com
and wherever eBooks are sold an audio versiion will be released by http://www.audible.com on October 15
Scene Stealer – Elise Warner Posted in Cozy, New York on August 4, 2010 Before Elise Warner started her writing career you could find her on Broadway, working with National Companies and in clubs as an actress, singer and stage manager. She has even written a play which won Theatre Guinevere’s “Guinny Award”. After that she started writing for various magazines but this is her first novel.
Scene Stealer features Miss Augusta Weidenmaier, a retired school teacher who is caught up on the case of a kidnapped child, an actor in fact, and feels that she must help the police solve this crime. She does this putting her self in harms way a time or two, and as expected of a school teacher, a rap or two on the knuckles of some not some helpful characters.
When I first started reading this book I wasn’t sure what to expect, in fact, I wasn’t even aware that this was the author’s first novel. The story started off with Augusta noticing a child on the bus and as a former schoolteacher knew that something wasn’t quite right. The child looked scared and the man he was with was a bit scary himself. She departs the bus to try and follow the pair to see if she can help the child. In the back of her mind she recognizes the child but does not realize he is an actor for a local fast food chain until his disappearance is publicized in the media. Then she realizes what she saw could help find Kevin and bring him back to his mother. She doesn’t realize the danger that she ends up putting herself in to until it is too late.
I was beginning to wonder why someone would want to read this book if the kidnapper was going to be revealed so early in the book. But imagine mysurprise when the obvious wasn’t as obvious as you might think. It was a nice twist that I wasn’t expecting and pulled me back in to the story wondering how it was going to end.
I give this book 3 1/2 stars and if the author decides to make this a series, I will definitely check out the second installment.
Scene Stealer may be purchased at http://www.barnesandnoble.com, http://www.amazon.com, http://www.carinapress.com, http://www.borders.com and wherever eBooks are sold
Monday-July 12. Blogged about Scene Stealer today on Teresa D’Anario’s blog site. Of course, Miss Weidenmaier , he friends and adversaries joined in. Kevin asked me to include an excerpt from the mystery so you can read a bit about the night he was locked in the basement of the Saint Genesis Theatre by Lawrence Dunn. Dunn is America’s answer to Lawrence Olivier-only America doesn’t know that yet.
I’ve had a great time reading the comments and I will give one complimentary copy of Scene Stealer to the person who writes the most interesting comment. Come on over and take a look and don’t forget to write.
http://teresadanario.com/blog/?p=333
Title: Scene Stealer
Author: Elise Warner
Publisher: Carina Press
ISBN:978-14268-9032-1
Genre: Mystery
Retired teacher Augusta Weidenmaier notices an ill matched pair on a bus, aneatly dressed boy and a scruffy man. The boy, star of commercials, is said to have beenkidnapped.
Augusta decides she must act and attempts to tell the detective in charge of the case, Lieutenant Brown who makes it plain he does not want her help. He tells her to stay out of his case.
And that is just what August does not want to hear. So she begins her own investigation and winds up in a situation that could turn out badly when she meets the villain in the case.
Written in clear, easy to read language, this is a tale I’m pleased to recommend to any fan of the cozy mystery. Talented Elise Warner has crafted a tale that blends Agatha Christie with hints of radio’s Mr. and Mrs. North, a pleasing combination for any reader who enjoys a fun read and meeting new amateur sleuths. You’ll be glad you read it.
Review by Anne K. Edwards 07/03/10
Elise Warner's Blog 