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GG Collins Cozy Mystery Nominated for New Mexico Book Award
“Editor Kill Fee” Up For New Mexico Book Award
The New Mexico-Arizona Book Coop began accepting entries February 1, 2024. The Coop consists of more than 1,500 publishers and authors who partner in showcasing and selling books about New Mexico, Arizona, and the Southwest.
Editor Kill Fee is the third in the Taylor Browning Cozy Mystery series. Taylor Browning is the mystery editor at the fictional Piñon Publishing House in Santa Fe, New Mexico. But there is a problem; she refuses to stay in her office. Instead, she attempts to solve mysteries. She discovers real mysteries can’t be edited.
On the home front, her cat Oscar tends to exact revenge for late dinners and imagined slights. Paper towels are frequently the chosen target.
“My favorite character, hands down, has to be the cantankerous cat, Oscar.” — Marcelle Valentine, Reviewer
Finalists will be announced in late September 2024. Winners revealed in November 2024.
Your Writing Muse
With a Little Help From Our Friends
Do you have that person? You know the friend you trust implicitly; the one you share bits of your writing with. I have that person: MJ Trantham. She has appeared in these pages several times over the years. You can find her contributions in these pages: https://tinyurl.com/9j5m2kar
MJ is my crystal expert – as a practitioner, she should write her own book about the magic of crystals. She suggested I give my character Rachel Blackstone (the Rachel Blackstone Paranormal Mysteries) stones for protection in her excursions into the supernatural. Wow! It was so successful; I’ve introduced them in the Taylor Browning Cozy Mystery series too.
Photo by Sarah Brown on Unsplash
Crystals added a new dimension to my storytelling.
For years, MJ lived in the Centennial State. Regularly, I would receive stories from her about the Ute tribes in Colorado. They were so fascinating; I thought I should include more in my books about the Natives in New Mexico. They are after all intricately involved in the history of the state. What followed was more about the Hopi, Navajo and Pueblo Indians of the Land of Enchantment.
I asked her if she would read a sample chapter here and there. I’m careful not to send her portions that reveal villains and key elements of the book so she can enjoy it in its entirety later.
She was game, but expressed hesitation. She didn’t think she was an expert on writing despite the fact she is an excellent writer. What she is with certainty, however, is a good reader and she has an instinct for storytelling. Her feedback has become invaluable to me.
Photo by Yuri Efremov on Unsplash
Who do you trust enough to share your WIP?
MJ became that person to whom I give a sample here and there of my work in progress. In no time, MJ became my muse. Thank you MJ.
New Mexico’s Triangle
Who Knows What Lurks in the Pecos Triangle
by GG Collins (Copyright 2023)
In New Mexico near Pecos is a notorious road called county road 63A. It is known by another name to locals, El Camino del Diablo or the Devil’s Road. It begins easy, but if followed it becomes an axle-breaking journey to the end where there is an abandoned fire tower. But it’s not just damage to vehicles to worry about. There have been several disappearances from this location.
The Devil’s Road begins easy but if you continue to drive it becomes rutted, rock strewn and a bone-jarring experience.
Photo by Eddie Jones on Unsplash
There are Clusters of Missing Persons Throughout the World.
A cluster is comprised of 3 to 80 people. In the Santa Fe area there is a cluster of 15 people going back decades. In the Pecos Wilderness near 63A several people have disappeared. They have remained officially missing as no evidence of their death has been found.
Emma Tresp was on her way to the Pecos Benedictine Monastery on August 31, 1998. She had been there before so knew the way. At 71, she was a world traveler accustomed to finding her way in strange cities. When she didn’t arrive as planned at the monastery, a search was launched. Her white Honda Civic was found abandoned on 63A only two miles from the end of the road where the fire tower was located. Her belongings, including cell phone and purse were left in her car. Footprints were found a few feet from her car where they ended. She has not been found.
Why do people vanish off the face of the Earth in the Pecos Triangle? Is it serial killers, aliens, animals or portals leading to other dimensions?
Photo by Niilo Isotalo on Unsplash
On September 6, 2009 Mel Nadel went hunting with two friends. Nadel owned a gym and at 61 was fit and knew the area. His friends went off together to do some hunting, while Nadel remained at camp to build a blind. When his companions returned, Nadel was not there. While he was appropriately dressed for the weather and the wilderness — and armed — he was gone. Canines were able to follow his scent about 100 yards and then stopped. There was no evidence of animal attack. It was as if he’d simply vanished.
Common Points to These Disappearances:
- The point of separation. Either someone is alone or separates from their companions.
- Frequently the disappearance takes place near granite or a rock field.
- There may be water nearby or a weather event.
- Dogs can’t track 95% of the cases.
Other Theories:
Some Native American tribes have a history of avoiding the area due to the belief that a demon known as El Viveron my haunt these woods. Strange lights and UFO reports have existed since Europeans settled the Pecos region. Reports of colossal snakes and shadow people persist. Many theories exist from serial killers to portals leading to other dimensions.
Check out Editor Kill Fee: A Taylor Browning Cozy Mystery at: https://amzn.to/3LBOpFw
Fodder for Fiction:
In my latest book, Editor Kill Fee, I used these incidents as a back drop to the story of the disappearance of the Wine and Crime Book Club president Anita Juarez. Anita takes a wrong turn and finds herself on 63A. Not to worry, it is still a cozy mystery and Taylor Browning has plenty of time with her cats — and maybe one is psychic? She and coworker Jim Wells find themselves lost in the Pecos Triangle as Det. Victor Sanchez fights jurisdiction issues trying to find them.
Taylor Browning becomes lost in the Pecos Wilderness.
Photo by Jackson David on Unsplash
For more information about the Pecos Triangle and the Devil’s Road, read these sources.
Allan Pacheco https://www.santafeghostandhistorytours.com/NEW-MEXICO-MISSING.html
Brent Swancer https://mysteriousuniverse.org/read/author/brent-swancer
Davis Paulides 411 Missing Book Series https://www.hancockhouse.com/collections/missing-411-series He also has several movies out. Try Amazon Prime for viewing.
World Building for the Fiction Writer
Authors: Creators
of Worlds
by GG Collins Copyright 2023
If you write fiction, you must build a believable world for your reader to inhabit for the length of their stay. Make it authentic, personal and full of local color, wherever that might be.
Sometimes writers don’t realize it, but they’ve been building worlds all along. Mostly thought of as a skill for authors of sci-fi, fantasy and paranormal stories; we all do it. Every time you describe a room or what your heroine is wearing, you’re creating a reality in your reader’s head, subject to their interpretation.
Try this, next time you’re at a writing or reading group, read a paragraph that describes a room. Then, ask the participants where the sofa is? You’ll find that almost everyone has a different layout of the room and where all the furniture is located.
When writing my Rachel Blackstone Paranormal Mysteries I frequently have to construct other times and places. In Lemurian Medium, Rachel astral-traveled back to the doomed continent of Lemuria. I read the works of James Churchward and Frank Joseph to get the history. But when it came to clothing, I researched early Roman times.
With Atomic Medium, it was the 1940s Manhattan Project. I was lucky with it because I found photos of the Atomic City houses and buildings in the Science Photo Library at the Atomic Heritage Foundation in Los Alamos, New Mexico. These insights into time and place are invaluable to the writer needing background on historical events.
As I tackled Anasazi Medium, I researched the Fourth World of the Hopi. Both Frank Waters, who probably wrote the book (Book of the Hopi) on this American Southwest tribe, and Harold Courlanders book The Fourth World of the Hopis were a great help in establishing what might happen to my protagonist when she traveled to the Land of the Dead. I used the story of the young man from Oraibi that the Hopi have verbally gifted to each generation. It’s a beautiful account of a boy who risked death to see beyond the veils. Rachel experiences much the same journey as she visits that realm. There, Másaw, the Guardian of the Underworld, speaks with her regarding the end of the Fourth World.
Writing anything historical, for instance, Jacqueline Winspear’s wonderful Maisie Dobbs series, requires not just research, but immersing yourself in that moment in time. Your scenes need to look, maybe even smell and taste, authentic so your reader can’t put it down.
Next time you’re up to your ears in stacks of research and earmarked books, remember how much more interesting and fun your story will be to read because you took the time to hammer together a world beyond our own.
Free Book Friday / In Conversation With Author G.G. Collins
My thanks to Leon Stevens for the interview.
About the interviews:
When I published my first book, I looked for ways to reach new readers, and being a brand new author, participating in various book bloggers interviews was a good way to start. Some interviews were standard questions, while others had more individuality built into them.
I then did a twist on the author interview by interviewing myself (Leon Interviews Himself). I then thought it would be fun to get to know some of the authors I was cross-promoting with, and the Friday Conversations were born. Guess what? They are a lot of work. I look up the authors information, visit the website so I can craft a unique set of questions (OK, there are a few standard ones) to let my readership get to know these new authors. Worth the work? You bet. Here is today’s conversation:
G.G. Collins loves the southwestern US where many…
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New Mexico’s Supervolcano
The Valles Caldera is Only Dormant
By G G Collins (Copyright 2021)
Excerpt from Anasazi Medium, Chapter 8
Yellowstone isn’t the only supervolcano in the United States. The Valles Caldera is located in northern New Mexico in close proximity to the Los Alamos National Labs (LANL) and the Rio Grande. An eruption from the dormant, but not extinct, volcano could cause significant interruptions to life or extinguish life depending on the force of the eruption. Some of you will recognize the Valles Caldera as the location of the Longmire sheriff’s ranch.
Images, except the above, are from the New Mexico Museum of Natural History & Science.
We pick up with an interview which journalist Rachel Blackstone is having with character Professor Axel Saxon at the University of New Mexico, Earth and Planetary Science. We join them with the interview already in progress.
“How dangerous is the Valles Caldera?” Rachel asked.
“It is considered a young supervolcano in that it erupted 1.25 million years ago. It’s geothermal and responsible for the hot springs that populate the area. We also know it is dormant, not extinct. The caldera is about 20 kilometres or 13 miles wide. A supervolcano isn’t one eruption, but multiple eruptions occurring at once. When the volcanic pressure cooker just can’t take anymore and it releases pent up energy in many places.”
He showed Rachel another map showing the resurgent lava dome, called Redondo Peak, and the smaller domes around it.
“If it were to erupt again,” Rachel asked. “What force are we talking about?”
“Supervolcanoes have an eruption of magnitude eight,” Saxon paused. “That’s the largest on the VEI or Volcanic Explosivity Index.”
“So this type of eruption really isn’t within our experience in the near past?” Rachel asked.
“No. You’ve heard of Pinatubo, Krakatau and a U.S. volcano called Mount St. Helens?”
Rachel nodded.
“These are inconsequential by comparison to the Valles Caldera. Even Crater Lake and Tambora are smaller. Only the Yellowstone supervolcano is larger.”
“Are you aware that the last time the Yellowstone erupted that ash and dead animal bones were found as far away as Nebraska? The three Yellowstone eruptions we know about produced enough ash to fill the Grand Canyon and were 2500 times larger than the 1980 eruption of Mount St. Helens. Today, if Yellowstone went off it would immediately kill 90,000 people. Those not dead would be standing calf-deep in ash. The nuclear winter to follow could cause famine as the great breadbasket of the world, the States, would likely not be able to grow much.”
“What would the results be of a Valles Caldera eruption?” Rachel asked.
“First there would be the ash fallout to consider. Not only would any planes in the area be at risk of losing engine performance and therefore crash, but water contamination could result and rooftop collapse. That is especially a problem for flat roofs that can be found all over our area, but especially prominent in Santa Fe due to the Pueblo architecture.
Tent Rocks (Kasha-Katuwe) was created with volcanic ash fallout, perhaps 1/4 mile thick. Enough to have cooked a moderate-sized city.
“Agriculture would be adversely affected, maybe not even possible. Livestock would become ill and die from breathing the ash and gases.
“People would also experience health issues and some, maybe many, would die. It would depend on the size of the eruption.
Notice the proximity of Los Alamos (LANL) to the Valles Caldera.
“We don’t even know how it would affect power-producing plants. And yes, we don’t know if the damage to the LANL would be sufficient to release plutonium and other nuclear materials into the air. If so, that could be cataclysmic in terms of loss of life.
“As to the influence on the country and the world; again, depending on the size of eruption, it could bring about the nuclear winter where ash would block the sun and make agriculture impossible. And this brings me to the most lasting product of supervolcanoes: worldwide famine, millions—maybe billions—of refugees, satellite disruption and the crash of world financial markets.”
“Good god,” Rachel said. “All because a New Mexico volcano wakes up.”
Buy Anasazi Medium at: https://amzn.to/3cHlUEA
Thanks for reading.
2020 Pandemic Living in America
The Year of Living Dangerously
By G G Collins Copyright 2021
What Went Wrong?
Wikimedia Public Domain US Capitol 1-6-21
As I watched the events unfolding yesterday at the US Capitol, I am reminded that the past year has been one of tumult, chaos and fear.
The year began fairly normally, although there were already reports in late 2019 of a pneumonia in China that wasn’t responding to protocol treatments. By February, it was apparent that we would need to find ways to cope with an impending pandemic. We could see it coming from the horrible losses in China, Italy and other European countries.
In the beginning it was met with uplifting song, improvised music and appreciative applause for healthcare workers. But in the US, it has been reported that desperately sick people are cursing hospital staff as they try to treat them, yelling “It’s only the flu!”
A New Reality
The early months of the pandemic dissolved into physical scraps in grocery stores over toilet paper and hand sanitizer. Empty shelves mocked hopeful shoppers. It was nearly impossible to buy or steal a mask. Fortunately Etsy and other indie platforms stepped up. Restaurants, bars, churches, offices closed. Instead of “working from home offices” it became “remote working.”
Although we’ve have always considered firefighters, police, EMTs and hospital staff to be frontline workers, the designation took on new meaning. Grocery store, pharmacy and meat packing plant employees were drafted into duty as frontline workers.
Suddenly, going to the grocer or picking up a prescription became a red line to step over; a threat to be weighed. Do I really need that loaf of bread? Do I risk my life for a carton of milk? Should I keep my yearly physical or dental appointment? Is it safe?
Is Anything Right With the World?
PublicDomainPictures.net
I’m lucky. I can work remotely; have for years. But that doesn’t make me immune from stress and COVID-19. Unable to do anything about the pandemic, but report on it, I began looking for small things to uplift my spirit and remind me that some things were still going along as expected.
My neighbor has the old-fashioned idea that laundry should be hung outside to dry. She enjoys the crunchy feel of a sunshine-drenched sheet. I began looking for her hanging laundry, because it was a normal occurrence BP (Before Pandemic). Having a garden has been a lifesaver. Not only can I get outside, but watching things grow is therapeutic.
It’s not over, in fact, the worst of the pandemic may still await us, even as the vaccine parade forms. We have to get through it; there isn’t a way around it. We can’t beg or bribe our way out of a pandemic; but must abide.
There is no choice but to continue the year of living dangerously.
November is National Alzheimer’s Disease Month
The Power of Photos
by G G Collins Copyright 2020 
For regular readers of my blog, you know a friend was diagnosed with early onset dementia. She wanted to cope with this as best she could on her own terms, and that’s how it should always be. Even if you can’t see your family member or friend, you can still keep in touch through letters, however one-sided the communication is.
Public Domain Image
It’s one of those things where simple is better. Use a larger font to facilitate reading and tell straightforward stories. As dementia progresses, a patient’s interest in reading lags and eventually letters have to be read aloud by a family member or nursing staff. Photos are extremely useful. It’s best if you move in close and concentrate on one object or person.
Laurence Aëgerter, a French visual artist in Amsterdam developed the “Photographic Treatment.” She discovered that images could evoke memories that may go back as far as the teenage years. Earlier memories seem to be easier to recall. She made the photos available without charge so that everyone could use them. Here is an example.
These vertical black and white photos with similar images can lead to memories and invite conversation.
In one encounter, Aëgerter showed a patient a photo of a cat and kitten. Up until this time, he had been silent, but something about this picture elicited a response. For five minutes it was as if he didn’t have dementia. For more reading on this:
A photographic treatment for people with dementia
https://www.cnn.com/2018/08/20/health/photographic-treatment-dementia-photos/index.html
With this in mind, choose photos of your loved one, places you’ve been together. As time goes on the photos need to grow larger and more focused on the subject as having other objects in the picture can be confusing. An album of the patient’s life can also provide for stimulation of memories.
Perhaps the most important observation Aëgerter discovered in her research and interaction with patients: “I realized we should never underestimate people who are sick.” That’s important. We should resist infantilization. While someone may not be able to speak, they may understand more than we realize.
For other ways to use photos:
10 Ways to Use the Power of Photos for Dementia Care
http://www.alzheimersweekly.com/2015/08/10-ways-to-use-power-of-photos-for.html
NATIONAL ALZHEIMER’S DISEASE MONTH – November 2020
The Pain of Learning Your Friend Has Early Onset Dementia
by G G Collins Copyright 2020
When my incredibly smart and talented friend told me she had early onset dementia, I didn’t know what to think except I was suddenly very afraid for her and wanted to protect her. In her gentle way, she tried to tell me it would be okay. Okay?! How could anything this devastating be okay?
She methodically told me what was going to happen in a detached way as though she were talking about someone else. The disease would first take her memory and then turn her into a combative, maybe violent sick person. She had already lost interest in using her computer and cell phone. And worse, she had been fired for messing up a work project.
This was the last time I would see her because she had to give up driving, having gotten lost several times already, and she wanted me to remember her as she is now. But she told me she would love me for eternity even if she didn’t remember me. I’m sitting there listening in horror and wondering how this could happen to my vibrant, loving friend of 20-some years who could do anything.
As someone who works with words for a living, I tried to come up with words to reassure her, reassure me, stop this from happening. But there are no words for anything so horrible. And how do you change the subject from this to how pretty the fall foliage is? She tried and I tried, but I couldn’t think of anything else but I was losing my friend forever. She had absorbed some of the implications already while I was staggering around thinking of the unfairness and the loss that was coming, was already here. And then we hugged for the last time and said, “See you later,” knowing it wasn’t true.
She went home to ride out the gathering storm and I drove home fighting tears, already grieving her impending loss.
For more information: https://www.alz.org/alzheimers-dementia/what-is-alzheimers/younger-early-onset
These books are helpful:
G G Collins
GG Collins Mysteries 
Birth of the Atomic Bomb
Jul 27
Posted by G G Collins
I Am Become Death, the Destroyer of Worlds – Bhagavad Gita
By GG Collins Copyright 2023
“The beginning of the atomic age began with a pinprick of light so bright it lit up the desert with the power of several midday suns … ” – Atomic Medium
https://tinyurl.com/5n74s59r
When I began writing Atomic Medium I thought the world had forgotten this era. But thanks to a movie called Oppenheimer a new generation is learning about the men and women who developed the bomb. Not with computers and smart phones but with a little thing called a slide rule and human calculators.
By Jack W. Aeby, July 16, 1945, Civilian worker at Los Alamos laboratory, working under the aegis of the Manhattan Project. – This image comes from the Google-hosted LIFE Photo Archive where it is available under the filename 96ad5a9a5c94664e.This tag does not indicate the copyright status of the attached work. A normal copyright tag is still required. See the copyright section in the template documentation for more information., Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=140895
I was lucky to have access to photos from the Atomic City of Los Alamos including pictures of the houses where the scientists lived and the mess hall where they ate. I poured over maps of the compound and read books describing the times. Many of my sources are listed below and a full list can be obtained in the bibliography at the end of Atomic Medium.
My characters, reporter Rachel Blackstone and her friend Chloe Valdez, went back in time to 1945 New Mexico. It was here they experienced the first treacherous step into a future of unimaginable weapons.
“They dropped to the ground and held each other. They trembled with terror. Rachel wondered if their hair would burn off or if they were on the verge of incineration.” – Atomic Medium
“Calling it a weapon of mass destruction sounded like an understatement; a news bite, trivial. This was obliteration; one second you were there and the next you were vapor being inhaled by hell’s meteor.” – Atomic Medium
By Trinity_crater.jpg: Federal government of the United Statesderivative work: Bomazi (talk) – Trinity_crater.jpg, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=12817993
We talk about nuclear weapons today like they have always been here. Each year scientists move the Doomsday Clock a bit closer to midnight. In January 2023 it was moved to 90 seconds before midnight. That’s how close we are to apocalypse.
* * *
Atomic Medium will be priced at .99 cents on July 30, 2023. https://tinyurl.com/5n74s59r
For additional blog posts on this subject: Atomic Bomb Test Successful but Deadly https://tinyurl.com/mu6mdz3v and The Building That Changed the World https://tinyurl.com/22bpr67t
For more reading: Bibliography of Atomic Medium
109 East Palace by Jennet Conant, Simon & Schuster Paperbacks, 2005.
The Manhattan Project, edited by Cynthia C. Kelly, Black Dog & Leventhal Publishers, Inc., 2007.
The Making of the Atomic Bomb by Richard Rhodes, Simon & Schuster Paperbacks, 1986 by Rhodes & Rhodes.
A Few Good Women by Evelyn M. Monahan & Rosemary Neidel-Greenlee, Alfred A Knopf, 2010.
The Streets of Santa Fe by Josh Gonze, 2012.
A Spy’s Guide to Santa Fe and Albuquerque by E. B. Held, University of New Mexico Press, 2011.
Manhattan Project Suitcase, Manhattan Days Script, Los Alamos Historical Society, http://www.losalamoshistory.org
Los Alamos National Laboratory/Science Photo Library at www.sciencephoto.com/media
Atomic Heritage Foundation, Profiles at www.atomicheritage.org/bios
Los Alamos National Laboratory, LANL History in Images at www.lanl.gov
Manhattan Project Heritage Preservation Association, Inc., The Otowi Bridge at http://www.mphpa.org
“Manhattan Project spies who met in Santa Fe changed the balance of the world” by Tom Sharpe, The Santa Fe New Mexican, September 27, 2000.
“The Difficulties of Nuclear Containment” by Sam Roberts, The New York Times, September 29, 2014.
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