What is Mutual Admiration from the Asylum Department? Good question. Jaki and Lynne met in a writers critique group and discovered a mutual taste for homicidal humor. We're happy to share our MAADness in the form of newsletters to anyone who sends their snail mail address to murraymade@aol.com.

ISSUE #10 - WINTER 1999-2000

Millennium Mishaps, Conspiracies and Murder Methods (A side dish for the holidays and a few new ideas for the millenium.) HAPPY HOLIDAYS (...uh, we think) from Jaki and Lynne.

You just get used to a century or a millennium and then they go and change the darn thing. It's worse than Daylight Savings Time. While others look on holidays as an opportunity to celebrate, being mystery writers, we welcome the opportunity to consider new crimes, would-be crimes and once-in-a millennium opportunities for murder. Isn't it refreshing to know that even as the millennium changes, some traditions are not forsaken. For those who like a little holiday anxiety and paranoia with a side helping of homicide, here are the top four opportunities for mishaps that might well be murder. BE ALERT TO THESE POSSIBLE CONSPIRACIES!

Millennial survivalists holed up against catastrophe die from poisoned stored disaster rations.

Celebrants dancing around Stonehenge are felled by (formerly) standing stones -- stone chips can't be, or weren't, adjusted to the new millennial settings. Y2K glitch or murder?

Secret Identity or secret plot? Y2K-aliens and Y2K-angels, you notice how you never see them together... Enough said.

For non-traditional celebrants of the Millennium, we have Death by Y2-Cake -- 2,000 candles cause the smoke alarms and sprinklers to go off. The murderer has locked all the doors, and the victims ring in the New Year and the New Millennium drowned in more than confetti.

A GLIMPSE INTO THE MYSTERIES OF THE NEXT MILLENNIUM

Coming in March of 2000!!!!!

Marauding deer nibbling your roses, chomping your baby tomatoes, stomping your feeble attempts at deer fencing, aieeeee!!!... No, wait, that's my life. But it was my inspiration for Murder, My Deer, which will really and truly be on your bookstore shelves in mid-March. This eleventh novel in the Kate Jasper series is set at a support group for the deerly-abused in Marin County, California. (A support group? Honestly, this is how we deal with reality in Marin.) Unfortunately, deer discouragement is a controversial topic. From the doctor who uses Claymore land mines (he gets it, kersplat!) to the high school administrator who uses buckets of water and apples as a sort of deer salad bar to divert them (he doesn't get it), everyone has their own view. You wouldn't believe how angry people can get over deer... murderously angry. And, oh yes, there is Wayne and Kate's marital status. For those of you who've been wondering... well, 'nuff said.

Also Murder on the Astral Plane, the tenth in the series, set at a psychic soiree, goes into paperback in March. The few remaining hardback first editions make very nice holiday gifts!

PREVIEWS OF COMING PREDATORY ACTIONS

Why is this plus-sized author smiling? In April 2000, St. Martin's Press will publish Large Target, in hardback. Cat carrier and mixed emotions in hand, Josephine Fuller arrives in San Diego to help her employer solve the mystery of a slain defense contractor, a kidnapped admiral and a safe with Top Secret documents missing. Jo could lose the job she loves and maybe her life if she doesn't find the answer. Is it espionage or the admiral's world-class dysfunctional family?

April 2000 will also see the paperback edition of Larger Than Death, introducing Josephine Fuller, a woman of size who doesn't apologize, who works as a troubleshooter for a philanthropist. On a visit to her best friend and role model, Nina West, Jo discovers her friend's murdered body. Seattle police believe Nina may have been slain by a serial killer who targets large women. But Jo wonders about some of Nina's associates -- can she find the killer before she becomes the next victim?

THE FAN CLUB RETORTS (uh, reports)

The Girdner/Murray (or Murray/Girdner) fan club was established to rectify the gross injustice that two such quirky, charismatic characters would remain clueless... uh, clubless. Sue Corbett, who had always dreamed of being President, but lacked the high moral fiber associated with this office, proposed the establishment of this fan club, seeing in it a murderous opportunity to utilize her talents to the fullest. Geri Havilcek saw in this club an opportunity to break the mold of her Catholic upbringing by becoming the Honorable Embezzler (uh. Treasurer), Keeper and Dissembler (mostly Keeper) of the infamous MAADmoney. Together, this diabolical duo hopes to raise murder, mayhem, and larceny to new heights of depravity.

In upcoming issues of this newsletter, these as-yet undiscovered, but dynamic writers will bring to Jaki and Lynne's fans up close and personal glimpses into their depraved... uh, private... lives. For example, is it true that Jaki's hot tub is full of soy milk? Is it true that Lynne writes all her stories by the light of the full moon, and that is why we're having to wait so damn long for her next book? Stay tuned!

Previous Newsletter - Home - Next Newsletter