Monday, December 18, 2017

New LeGarde Book: Cover Reveal, Pre-order, and Free Excerpt!


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Hello readers and friends.

I hope this finds you well and enjoying the holiday season!

Last time I told you I was dreaming of a huge, aromatic live tree. I did it! Eight feet tall, it barely fits with the tree-topper! As promised, I'm including some photos of my wife's mom's vintage ornament collection, which is being displayed on this big live tree for the first time in decades! We had a great time trimming the tree - although it was also sad and nostalgic, as you might expect. 

I also have had a blast painting with my two grandsons, Christopher and Joey! Here are a few pictures of us hard at work. 

I want to thank all of you who send ideas for Gus's new puppy's name! I am thanking you all in the back of my new book (first names and dog's names). Read down to see which name I chose!

I have finished the rough draft of the manuscript for Murder on the Brewster Flats, the new Gus LeGarde mystery (#12), and have revealed the cover to you below. Also, you can now pre-order the eBook, and read a sample, too. ;o) 

I've contacted my Beta Reader team and my Advanced Reviewer team today. If you are on those teams and didn't get the email, please give me a shout!

Happy reading, and don't forget to take pleasure in the little things.

Aaron Paul Lazar



Today's post:

  • Murder on the Brewster Flats - COVER REVEAL and PRE-ORDER
  • Gus LeGarde's NEW PUPPY's Name
  • Excerpt from Murder on the Brewster Flats
  • This Week's Sale - LeGarde Mysteries Boxed Set: $1.99


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Cover Reveal: Murder on the Brewster Flats, LeGarde Mystery, #12
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What Do You Think? I love it. I found the beach and man images online, but Kellie Dennis did the magic and turned it into this beautiful golden masterpiece!

Here's a bit about it:

Some family secrets shouldn’t stay buried…  

Music professor Gus LeGarde and his wife Camille are looking forward to a relaxing vacation at Paines Creek Beach on beautiful Cape Cod. But Gus barely has a chance to feel the sand between his toes before a near-miss car accident drags him right into the middle of a local family feud — and a centuries-old mystery that’s begging to be solved.

As Gus is drawn further into the conflict between the Cooks and the McNabbs — two families with a grudge going all the way back to Colonial times — he and Camille keep uncovering more questions than answers. Where is the long-lost Cook family treasure? What’s really wrong with Beckett, the McNabb-side member who’s the father of young Jane Cook’s son? And who’s telling the truth about Beckett and Jane’s clandestine relationship: Jane’s grandfather, surly patriarch Albert Cook; or Beckett’s slightly odd parents?

Before long, mounting tension gives way to true danger as people start vanishing. And in the middle of a fast-brewing hurricane, Gus discovers the real secret at the heart of the feud: someone who will stop at nothing to make sure their side wins. Including murder.

Packed with shocking twists, exciting action, and fascinating tales of family lore and pirate treasure, Murder on the Brewster Flats is the first LeGarde Mysteries crossover novel with award-winning author Aaron Paul Lazar’s popular Paines Creek Beach series. Don’t miss this installment! 



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Beauregard ("Beau") Gus's new puppy

Here are all the wonderful people who suggested names for Gus LeGarde's new puppy. (puppy names in parentheses!)

Murray (Beau), Elsie (Beau/Beauregard), Joan (Muffin), Linda (Beau), Sandy (Peeve), Robin (Roman), Linda (Roy), Bobbi (Natasha, Cleo, Kiki), Mort (Boo), Judy (Mozart, Bach), Heather (Remington, Boots, Pablo), Joan (Jasper), Marsha (Buc, Brad), Linda (Patches), Joan (Lucky), Danielle (Fluffers), Memaw (Remington), Janice (Balto), Nicky (Cooper, Ace, Scamp), Marta (Biscuit), T Whitmire (Lord Rambo, Jetson the First), Julia (Gunther), Ricardo (Seadog, Sea Biscuit, Harry), Michelle (Frost), Dalice (Fizzgig), Marge (Oreo, Sherlock, Holmes), Anna (Spooky), Dave (Wellington, Duke, Hudson, Jupiter, Torque, Spanner, Barkley, Dozer, Axel), Cynthia (Twinkles), Darlene (Nelson), Teresa (Gizmo), Ray (Grappa), Linda (Coda), Renee (Henry), unknown (Herman), Debbie (Magic, Romeo, Saber), Jane (River, Copper, Willow, Patch, Bramble, Theo, Mudlark, Jules, Peabody), KC (Bobbi, Bobby), Karen (Fritz, Schultz), Sheila (Balto), Steph (Fidelio, Fido), Brenda (River), Alice (Dolce),

What a list, huh? They were all so great, it was really hard to choose. ;o) Thank you all, and especially to Linda, Elsie, and Murray for suggesting Beau!

Free Excerpt from Murder on the Brewster Flats (Merry Christmas!)

Chapter 3


The next morning I woke at six, excited about the prospects of walking on the beach in the early hours before the rest of humanity rolled out of bed. I checked the tide chart on my phone and found out it would be low tide. The idea of padding through soft sand and tide pools propelled me out of sleep and into full awake-mode.
I sat up and smiled. I still couldn’t believe I was actually on a real vacation. The last time we’d tried to get away—for our honeymoon, to be exact—had ended with us captured in cells in a remote neo-Nazi compound in Austria. (Mazurka, book 3)
We found our way out of that mess, but I hadn’t wanted to chance leaving home for the last few years.
I shook off the bad memories and glanced at the sparrows chirping on pine branches outside the window. They sounded deliriously happy. The underlying sadness that persistently loomed due to the loss of my dog seemed to dissipate—just a little.
I leaned over and kissed Camille’s cheek. “Baby?”
She pulled the covers higher, snuggling into her pillow. “Go ‘way.”
I chuckled. “Too early for you?”
“Mmff.” She rolled away from me.
“Want me to go alone?”
“Mm hmm. See ya later.”
I shrugged. “Okay. I’ll be back in an hour or two.”
Her soft snoring made me smile. I got up, changed into clean denim shorts and a tee shirt, and padded down the stairs.
Coffee could wait. The shower could wait. I desperately wanted to feel the fresh sea breeze on my face.
The drive to Paines Creek Beach was quiet. No cars, no people, except a few older citizens who strode with serious expressions on their faces, baseball caps drawn down and hands pumping their fluorescent-colored weights.
The quaint houses along the way could have been featured in a travel magazine. Who knew? Maybe they had been. Cedar shake sidings, pink and white roses tumbling along fences in clouds of petals, bright blue hydrangeas waving in the breeze, and wherever they could manage to grow, thick clusters of orange daylilies lined the roads.
I pulled into the empty parking lot, making a mental note to head over to the Town Hall today to buy our beach sticker for the month. I also had to get the fridge stocked, and figured I’d try to do that early as well, before the crowds swelled into the aisles of Stop ‘n Shop.
Putting aside the thoughts of paper towels and strip steak, I opened the door and kicked off my sandals. I locked the car, snapped my keys onto a belt loop, and turned to face the azure ocean.
I breathed deeply, inhaling the tangy scent of the sea, and with it, a sense of letting go washed over me, mingled with a feeling of simple celebration of the earth.
A flock of seagulls whirled overhead, their bellies reflecting the amber blaze of the early morning sun. To my right, colorful ocean kayaks sat in their wooden berths, awaiting adventurous tourists. Cherry red, lime green, fluorescent orange, and sunny yellow crafts gleamed in the early light.
I started to walk toward the horizon, following the creek that meandered through the sand. It moved swiftly with the outgoing current, and was about calf-high now. On either side were flat, rippled expanses of damp sand and beautiful pools of water reflecting the scudding clouds overhead. In the distance, the aquamarine line of the ocean waves curled with lacy whitecaps.
I stooped to pick up a shell for Camille, admiring the pastel colors and mother-of-pearl-like sheen on it. She’d love this one.
I pocketed it, and then squinted in the distance, where I saw a figure ambling along the beach further out. I continued toward the end of the low tide area, and as I grew nearer, I recognized Albert.
He walked with his head down, holding a metal detector in his hands. When he heard me sloshing toward him, he glanced up and issued a brief wave. “Mornin’.”
“Morning, Albert.”
“Fine day for prospecting.”
“I’ll say. What’re you looking for?”
“Treasure,” he said solemnly.
“I see.” I wasn’t sure if he meant lost pocket change or pirate’s gold. “Any luck today?”
In one hand he carried an empty bucket. “Nope. Been looking for forty years. Can’t give up.”
“Are you searching for a particular treasure?”
He narrowed his eyes. “Guess I can tell you, since you’re an outta towner.” He stopped for a moment and sighed. “I’m looking for the treasure that was stole from my great, great, great granddaddy.”
“Wow. The one who built your house?”
“Yes sir. Mr. Zebediah Cook himself.” A far off look glazed his eyes.
“Cool.” I waited for a few seconds, but when he didn’t say more, I started to walk away. “Well, good luck today.”
He glanced at his watch. “Almost time to head in. You don’t wanna get caught when the tide comes in. Folks get stuck out here all the time. Have to swim in with their fancy iPhones held high in the air.”
I automatically patted my pocket where my iPhone six plus resided. “Er, thanks. I’ll turn back then.”
“See you tomorrow.” He continued to play the device back and forth over the sand.
I wandered back by a different route, alternately splashing through tide pools and padding across moist sand. Hermit crabs scuttled busily around my feet and razor clams squirted water in the air when I stepped near them.
Feeling serene and satisfied, I began to climb the bank toward the parking lot when the sound of squealing tires came from the road above.
Seconds later, a silver corvette sailed over my head, landing nose down in Paines Creek.

This Week's Sale
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Today through : Jan 15th 2018

LeGarde Mysteries: a mystery/suspense boxed set


by Aaron Paul Lazar

Usual Price: 6.99 Sale: 1.99

The LeGarde Mysteries Boxed Set contains the first four books in Aaron Paul Lazar's award-winning Gus LeGarde mystery series.

Book 1. Double Forté - Gus LeGarde's life essentially ended four years ago, when his beloved wife leapt to her death. Today, Gus lavishes love on his family, trying to bury the pain. But trouble arrives when his arrogant son-in-law's business partner goes missing, and Gus's innocent friend is set up to take the fall.

Book 2. Upstaged - When Gus LeGarde agrees to play piano for the high school drama club's production of "Spirit Me Away," a sixties-style musical he wrote in college, he doesn't expect to face a barrage of menacing pranks played on his fiancée Camille and the drama club. Who's sabotaging the show? And what do they have against Camille? Gus must unravel the mystery before the backstage saboteur stakes his final, deadly claim.

Book 3. Mazurka - Join Gus LeGarde in this European rollercoaster ride where he unearths a scandalous family secret linked to a nineteenth century composer. When brother-in-law Siegfried is framed for a neo-Nazi’s murder, they’re plunged into a sizzling cat-and-mouse game where the stakes are lethal.

Book 4. FireSong - What would you do if your country church was hit by a rogue tornado during services? What if the shrieking winds unearthed the bones of a missing parishioner in a nearby wheat field? Now add the discovery of heroin in your elderly minister's bloodstream. When Gus LeGarde is thrown into the middle of the mess, he knows life has finally gone berserk in East Goodland, New York. Join Gus as he's lured into a bizarre network of underground tunnels to expose the most shocking discovery ever to rock the Genesee Valley.


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Merry Christmas!

Tuesday, November 28, 2017

Help Name Gus LeGarde's New Puppy!

Hi, folks!

Thanksgiving is over and now we're madly sailing toward the Christmas holidays. ;o)

For those of you in the US, I hope you enjoyed your turkey day. I cooked up a storm, featuring a 23 pound bird, and we had nine people at the table, including five grandkids! We're still eating lots of leftover turkey, mashed potatoes, stuffing, and pie. I must say, Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday of all, and boy-oh-boy do I love the leftovers!

Now I find myself dreaming of the big aromatic tree I want to buy this weekend to stand inside our great room double windows. If you remember, last year at Christmas Dale's mother had just recently passed away. I was in charge of sorting through all of her treasures, and fortunately, I saved all of her vintage ornament collections that filled an entire sea chest. So this year, I hope to use them. I will, however, place them at the top of the tree away from little toddlers' hands! I'll take a photo and send you one with the next newsletter.

In my spare time this past weekend, I painted grandson Joey's bedroom after the fiasco of the plaster and lathe ceiling that had started to fall down! With a new ceiling, now it's all painted with historic house colors Salisbury Green walls and White Opulence trim. The furniture is back in and my daughter has started to decorate with toys and pictures. At least the poor boy is no longer sleeping in the upstairs landing in his crib! 

I also found some time to finish writing Murder on the Brewster Flats, the 12th LeGarde Mystery. It came out to 76,000 words. Next step is to take another pass through it, and then send it out to my Beta readers. So far 20 of my editing experts have agreed to take a look at it, so I'm psyched. 

In this book, Gus gets a new puppy. Would you like to help name him? (see below)

Also, Gus agrees to play in a concert with violinist Jack Remington from my love story The Seadog (Paines Creek Beach series). I am sharing a link to the music he's playing, below. ;o)

My hoped for release date will be in January, but I don't want to get the cart before the proverbial horse, so I won't make any promises right now.

Thanks for hanging in there with me, and especially for not unsubscribing ten seconds after you downloaded your free books. Believe it or not, that happens a lot, and therefore, I'm more than ever grateful for you.

Happy reading, and don't forget to take pleasure in the little things.

Aaron Paul Lazar



Today's post:

  • This Week's Sale - Upstaged: 99 cents
  • What I'm Reading - Marriage Before Death by Uvi Poznansky
  • The new Gus LeGarde Book - Help Name Gus's Puppy
  • Books from Fellow Authors

This Week's Sale
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Today through : 11-30-2017 -  99 cents!

Upstaged (LeGarde Mysteries, Book 2)

(can be easily read as a standalone)

by Aaron Paul Lazar

Usual Price: 3.99 Sale: .99

Who’s playing dangerous pranks on the drama club? And what do they have against Gus LeGarde’s fiancée, Camille? Is it sex-crazed Armand, the Latino teen infatuated with Camille? Or Superintendent Marshall, whose past holds horrific secrets? Gus must unravel the mystery before the backstage saboteur stakes his final, deadly claim.
What I'm Reading
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JUST RELEASED!

If you like romantic thrillers, please check out Uvi Poznanasky's new audiobook.

Marriage Before DeathA WWII Thriller
book 5 in the Still Life with Memories series
by Uvi Poznansky

Ms. Poznansky has done it again, but this time—and I don’t say this lightly—she has written my favorite book to date in her stable of literary gems.

Marriage Before Death continues in the Still Life With Memories series, which paints stories of the lives of Lenny and Natasha. (Book 1: My Own Voice, Book 2: The White Piano, Book 3: The Music of Us, Book 4: Dancing with Air)

In this story, Ms. Poznansky eloquently shifts from her previous genre of literary stories full of romance, to a wartime suspense story, still, however, continuing with the love story of our beloved couple.

I have always adored Ms. Poznansky's evocative writing, but this time she whisked me into the era of WWII French Resistance Fighters. And what an adventure it was! I trembled in my virtual boots beside Lenny when he was captured by Nazi soldiers, “this close” to being executed. He stood in a line of captured soldiers and resistance fighters, waiting to be sent to one group or the other. One group would be immediately hung in the gallows that loomed nearby, the other would be used in some fashion to help the Nazi cause. The tension was riveting.

I listened to the audiobook version of this fascinating story, told by the talented Mr. Don Warrick. His male character voices are outstanding, and his accents—whether it be British, French, German, Jewish, or American, the rendering is brilliant and on target. The female voices aren’t quite as effective, in my humble opinion, but honestly, one can’t fault a deep, stentorian narrator for not being able to completely sound like a woman. ;o)

Thank you, Ms. Poznansky, for allowing us to continue to believe that America still produces great writers who judiciously craft each sentence, and who can tell a great story at the same time.  

Highly recommended!


Murder on the Brewster Flats LeGarde #12

I'm almost done with the last chapter in the new Gus LeGarde novel! I won't give away any of the plot yet, but in this book Gus gets a new puppy. He's white with brown patches, has big chocolate brown eyes, and soft floppy ears. His fur is curly and soft like a stuffed animal. Okay, so yes, he looks like my dog Balto did as a puppy. ;o) But I need a really cool name for him. Would you like to comment on this piece with your suggestions, below? If you remember, the other three dogs in the series are Max, Sheba, and Boris. 

Also, as I've mentioned before, Gus and Camille are on vacation on Cape Cod in this book, where they run into characters from my Paines Creek Beach series. Jack and Scout Remington, from The Seadog, make an appearance (Among others! Remember Fritzi?!) and Gus agrees to play a piano/violin duet with Jack at an upcoming concert. You can listen to this beautiful piece here: 


Meanwhile, thank you all for the help you gave me when I was pretty depressed this year and thought I'd never write another book. I am so grateful to all of you, especially those who tossed me all their fun story ideas. ;o) Bless you all!

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Balto - the model for Gus's new dog
Books By Fellow Authors
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On Sale: 99 cents  Start Date: 11-21-2017 End Date: 12-15-2017

Murder in San Francisco: A Liz Lucas Cozy Mystery (Liz Lucas Cozy Mystery Series Book 8

Michelle D'Amato's pregnant with San Francisco millionaire octogenarian Bernie Snow's baby, but he's dead, and a lot of people would like to see her dead as well, so her baby can't lay claim to his vast estate. Was that why he was murdered?

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Child's Play (Michael Sykora Novels Book 4)

By Darcia Helle

Price: 3.99

The search for a missing child leads Michael Sykora and his team to a place where children are a commodity for the wealthy and depraved. Following leads from daycare centers to the Darknet, this search is about to become personal.

(Note: I missed this book's sale period, but it looked so interesting I thought I'd include it anyway. What the heck, it's only $3.99!)
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Start Date: 09-28-2017 End Date: 12-31-2017

Misdirection

By Ruth Gowan
Usual Price: 1.99 Sale: FREE

A high octane action,Romance, set to a backdrop of deceit, lies and rivalry. the fast-paced, adrenaline fuelled, challenging world of International Rallying. Twists, turns, secrets and lies, this racy story has it all: fast, furious and passionate.
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Start Date: 11-27-2017 End Date: 12-24-2017

Cupcakes and Conspiracies (Sweet Baked Mystery Book 1)

By Katherine Hayton
Usual Price: New Release Sale: .99

When police accuse her sister Crystal of attempted murder, Holly Waterston must don an apron and roll up her sleeves. Things are going to get gooey if she’s to catch the real culprit AND keep the cupcake bakery going.

Tuesday, October 10, 2017

Happy October!

Yesterday morning dawned wet, dark, and windy. But by the time I started my walk--after writing chapter 28 in the new LeGarde Mystery--the sun was shining and a cool, stiff breeze blew across the fields. I walked 3.5 miles and just as I got home, it clouded up again and threatened rain. Boy, was I lucky. Not that a little rain would have melted me, or anything.  ;o)

We picked the last of our tomatoes and made a fresh tomato soup the other day -- boy is it good. So easy to make, just cook down the fresh tomatoes, strain out the skin and seeds, add a little ketchup for tang, a bit of S&P, and you've got your own better-than-Campbells tomato soup!

It's been crazy warm here this month up in the Finger Lakes region. Have you seen that in your area? We usually are in the 60s or maybe 70s in October, but we've had many days in the 80s. I'm sure we'll see some more normal temps soon--the one thing we can count on up here as far as the weather is concerned is the variability!

For the Birds, the award-winning book 1 in Tall Pines Mysteries, is on sale for 99 cents through this month. (see below) I hope you can also find some nice deals below - I'm offering some specials from other authors as a gift to you. Let me know if you like any of them!

Happy reading,

Aaron Paul Lazar
www.lazarbooks.com
 

I thought I'd share some fun stuff with you today.
  • Author Appearances - Stop by if you're in the area!
  • What I'm Reading - Vegas Lies by Andrew Cunningham
  • Book Sale - For the Birds
  • How's the New Gus LeGarde Mystery Coming?
 
Author Appearances:
 
  • Deer Run Winery, Geneseo, NY: Reading Between the Wines, Sunday Oct. 15th, 2-5.   
  • Dansville Public Library, Dansville, NY: An Author's Evening. Tuesday, October 17th, 6:30 PM.
What I'm Reading
 
https://www.amazon.com/Vegas-Lies-Mystery-Thriller-Book-ebook/dp/B075VBCBX6/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1507588251&sr=1-1&keywords=vegas+lies
JUST RELEASED!

If you like mystery/thrillers, please check out Andrew Cunningham's new eBook or paperback.

Vegas Lies
a "Lies" novel, book 3
by Andrew Cunningham

 

Five teenage girls from a small town in Oregon disappear without a trace. Were they kidnapped, or have the five friends perpetrated a massive hoax?


Nine hundred miles away in Las Vegas, a woman with a dark secret vanishes on her way to meet friends for dinner.


Those friends are Del Honeycutt and bestselling mystery author Sabrina Spencer, in Las Vegas for a book convention. As Del and Sabrina investigate their friend’s disappearance, they are convinced that she has been abducted, and they begin to uncover the secrets that might have triggered her abduction, secrets that now put Del and Sabrina’s lives in jeopardy.


When clues indicate that the five missing girls might also be in Las Vegas, the situation takes a new turn, directly into the unthinkable.


Once again, Del and Sabrina find themselves head over heels in trouble and marked for death, and they only have a few hours to solve the case or their friend and the five young girls will be gone forever.

***
 
Be sure to check out my review on Amazon. I LOVED this book!
 
ON SALE THIS MONTH!
https://www.amazon.com/Birds-Tall-Pines-Mysteries-Book-ebook/dp/B016WENW5W/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1507632185&sr=1-1&keywords=for+the+birds%2C+lazar
Send Date: 10-31-2017

For the Birds (Tall Pines Mysteries Book 1)

By Aaron Paul Lazar

Usual Price: 3.99 Sale: .99

Treasure. Secrets. A 50-year-old unsolved bank heist. See Marcella run for her life in For the Birds, a sensual, mystical, rollercoaster ride through the Adirondack Mountains. "...a lively story of deceit, obsession, and redemption" G. Scholter
  



 
 
So, how's the new LeGarde Mystery Coming?
 
The twelfth LeGarde Mystery is at 43,000 words now and still rolling forward. It's my first "series crossover" mystery that brings two series together. Gus runs into Jack and Scout from The Seadog, a Paines Creek Beach love story, as well as Libby and Finn from The Seacrest. You probably know how much I love Paines Creek Beach in Brewster, Mass. So you'll understand why I took Gus and Camille there to "vacation." So far, this has been the worst and most challenging vacation ever!

In spite of having many new family problems over the past few weeks, plus also having my gums operated on (Ack! I have stitches in my MOUTH!), I'm still writing in spite of it. Yay!

Happy reading, and don't forget to take pleasure in the little things.

Aaron Paul Lazar

Saturday, September 16, 2017

The Lord Keeps Me Humble: Surviving Writer's Block, by Aaron Paul Lazar


I have to admit, I was always a little smug about not having to deal with writer’s block. For the past sixteen years, I had a multiple story lines swimming around in my head. I couldn’t imagine not knowing what to write next, and my biggest problem as an author was “which” book to write next, or which subset of fans to satisfy first. 

I started writing during a family crisis in 1997. My father had just passed away, and he was the 8th person in my circle of family and friends to die in a five-year period. It completely crushed me.

But soon I discovered the amazing therapy of writing. It helped that my first book (Double Forte’: a Gus LeGarde Mystery) was loosely based on my father, a music professor, consummate gardener, family man, passionate soup maker, and lover of the arts, with whom I ached to reconnect.

I had a bit of a slowdown halfway through the book. Raising three teenage girls with a disabled wife was a bit of a challenge. But I managed to make my way through it – whether it was prom dress shopping, music lessons, drama club stage crew.. you name it. Where do you think I got the silver in my hair?

But in 2001 my mother, who’d been reading along when I started Double Forté, said, “I’d really like to know what happens to Gus, honey. Why don’t you get back to that?”

I did, and it was then that the writing bug really took hold.

I churned out book after book, until I had five LeGarde Mysteries under my belt in just a few years.

It was in 2003 that I finally realized I really “should” look into getting them published.

Years passed. Books came out. Awards were won, spurring me onward. Last year I finished writing my 26th book (23rd novel), Devil’s Spring, and was raring to go with the next one.
Again, my only problem was which series to indulge in, or which set of characters did I feel more like visiting at the time?

Then my wife’s mom died unexpectedly. She’d lived with us for eighteen years, so it was a real blow to the entire family. My wife and daughters fell apart, and I have to admit it really knocked me for a loop, too. We weren’t prepared. We thought we’d have at least another three or four years with her. But the Lord had other plans, and she went to be with Him on November 5th, 2016, about a year and a half after I lost my own dear mother in June of 2015.

The weight of the world was on me. At least that’s the way I felt. Because of Dale’s brothers living out of state, dealing with my mother-in-law’s house (attached to ours, but a full-sized dwelling), was my job.

As sad as it was, my wife and I decided we’d move into her mother’s side of the house, which we’d helped her design and which is a truly beautiful living space. We offered for my daughter and her two little boys to stay in our “old” side of the house, where we’d been squished together for the past year. And when I say old, I mean old! It was built in 1811, just like Gus LeGarde’s home.

What happened then was an endless blur of weekends of me going through closets, boxes, eight fully packed wooden trunks, an overflowing packed cellar, and dealing with over fifty cartons of family “treasures” that had been brought from my mother-in-law’s home town and represented over three generations of family. Imagine 4 sets of antique china, hundreds of linen tablecloths, dozens of 1950s aprons, so many pairs of fancy dancy ladies gloves that I couldn’t count them… and so on. Unfortunately, there was very little actual value other than family nostalgia with these items. The market on antiques had dropped significantly. So, we saved a few things, and other than a few nice pieces that went to auction, the rest went to an estate sale which took so much work and planning that it just now finished up in August.
During this whole adventure, my day job boss and his wife (two of the four people in our company) left suddenly with no warning on January 31st this year, forcing me and my remaining colleague into insanely long hours and taking away my time to enjoy a daily walk as well as any writing time.

But that wasn’t all. In hindsight now, I realize I, like the rest of the family, I was actually going through a massive depression. Even when I squeezed out an hour or two per week to write, I had no urge to do so. I was bored with all my series, all my characters, and couldn’t imagine another book that would take my interest.

Finally, when I grew disgusted with my lack of creative productivity, I reached out to my fans.

I set the opening scene for a new LeGarde Mystery (book #12) and asked them for ideas. In my very strange state of mind, I honestly thought I’d covered every single possible type of villain, disaster, or evil that could descend on Gus.

My readers came through for me, and I was deluged with emails full of fun ideas that did, indeed, inspire me to a new mystery. Once unleashed, I twisted and turned the themes and came up with something—hopefully—entirely new and fun.

I’m halfway through the book now – and loving every minute of the time I get to squeeze out for writing in my insanely busy day.

So, for a guy who never had writer’s block, I guess I endured about six months of it. As I said, The Lord keeps me humble. ;o) I’ll never again wonder how this could happen to someone, and always be grateful for my loyal fans.

Remember to take pleasure in the little things, and if you love to write, write like the wind!
Aaron Paul Lazar
www.lazarbooks.com
https://www.amazon.com/Paines-Creek-Beach-3-Book/dp/B01BGHQK8G/ref=sr_1_4?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1505477786&sr=1-4&keywords=paines+creek+beach+series

 
Aaron Paul Lazar is obsessed with writing. He's completed twenty-six books to date, and has earned twenty literary book awards. He writes mysteries, suspense, love stories, and more. You'll usually find him writing his heart out in the early hours of the day - preferably in the dark, quiet hours when no one else is awake in his bustling household. Visit his website at www.lazarbooks.com to sign up for a free book and to learn about future deals.

“Addictive, award-winning fiction.”