by jphilo | Jun 11, 2025 | See Jane Dig!, West River Mystery Series
The 2025 South Dakota Festival of Books will be seeing Jane and me this September in Spearfish. Word came in late May that my workshop proposal was accepted, and I couldn’t be more pleased. Here are a few reasons why:
- Our son was born at the Spearfish hospital in May of 1982, a day my husband and I will never forget.
- Before our baby was born we loved to camp at the Spearfish City Campground. After he was born, we didn’t. Now that he’s grown we stay there when we pass through because it is a beautiful place. We’ve already reserved our campsite for during the Festival.
- Spearfish is located on the northern edge of the Black Hills, which means the city is West River, as in The West River Mysteries. What could be finer than to be smack dab in the middle of the series’ target audience?
- The city is ninety miles from Camp Crook, where we lived from 1978-1985. After the Festival we’ll head up there to visit friends for a week. (Don’t tell anybody, but that’s the reason we love best.)
Here’s what I know so far about the Festival:
- It will be held September 26-28 at a variety of venues throughout the town.
- There will be well-known authors and lesser known ones (like me) doing workshops, but all of them have South Dakota, Midwestern, or Western roots.
- Most of the events are free, and there will be many, many books available for purchase.
- Henry’s Books, my favorite Spearfish bookstore, will be handling the See Jane book sales and my book signing. Wahoo!
- My confirmed workshop is called Building a Book from the Bones of Your Life. It uses See Jane Dig! to demonstrate how to use life events as a springboard for a story, as well as how to augment it through creative research.
- There’s a good chance I’ll present another workshop and participate in an author panel.
More details will be passed along at a later date. For now feast your eyes on this photo of the Spearfish City Campground. Yes, it really is this beautiful!
by jphilo | Oct 25, 2024 | Recipes, See Jane Dig!
The origin of See Jane Dig’s Early Bird Coffee Cake recipe came straight from the little box where my mom filed her favorite dishes for several decades. As you can see, she clipped this one from a newspaper or magazine and glued it to an index card. As you can also see, it is dog-eared, spotted, and well-used.
What you can’t see are the ingredients and instructions for making it.
Why? Because this post is designed to tantalize readers enough to move them to purchase the book on Amazon. For those who are not yet motivated to spend your hard-earned dollars on Jane, her adventure, and this recipe, please know that Early Bird Coffee Cake met all the Dorothea Stratton (that’s my mom) cooking criteria.
- It uses common ingredients.
- It’s easy to throw together. Bonus: no mixer required.
- The crumb topping negates the need for frosting or glaze.
- It doesn’t require turning out of the pan. Just slice and eat.
- It’s delicious.
Having made and eaten my fair share of more Early Bird Coffee Cakes than I can count, I can vouch for that her criteria are spot on. Especially the last one.
It’s flavor is different from most other coffee cakes. In my opinion, no other varieties measure up to it. My siblings, husband, my kids, and my grandkids love it. The grands like it best in muffin/cupcake form so they can pack it in their lunches and make their classmates jealous.
Now that you know the origin of See Jane Dig’s Early Bird Coffee Cake recipe, you must be curious to taste it. So go ahead and buy the book. Once you’ve made and sampled the coffee cake, leave a comment below about what you think of it. I’d love to hear from you!
by jphilo | Oct 10, 2024 | Mystery Update, See Jane Dig!, See Jane Ride!
An update about See Jane Dig! launch week is most certainly in order, so here’s a quick recap:
- The publisher reports that almost 5,000 books in the series (most of them for See Jane Dig!) were sold.
- At its height, its Amazon rank reached #2 in Cozy Mysteries, #2 in Amateur Sleuths, and #4 in Women Sleuths. Way to go, Jane!
- So far the book has received thirteen 5 star rankings and one 4 star ranking.
- Seven reviews have been written and posted so far. Special thanks to those who have posted reviews. They are so valuable as many potential buyers read them before making a purchase. You can post a review any time. After a book gathers 50 reviews, Amazon increases its promotional efforts.
Now on to See Jane Dig! fun on the docket for this fall:
- Chocolaterie Stam in Ames (230 Main St, Ames, IA) is once again hosting Jane’s book launch party. It will be held on Saturday, November 2 from 10:30 AM until noon. There will be a book signing, a reading of the first chapter, free chocolate, door prizes, a gift basket silent auction, live music, and The Stam may be hosting a wine tasting that morning. How fun is that? It would be great to see you there.
- Twin Cities friends, mark your calendars for November 16. I’ll be one of four mystery authors participating in a book signing at the Once Upon a Crime Bookstore (604 W. 26th Street Minneapolis, MN 55405) from noon until 2 PM. My sister lives in the area and will be attending, so you can meet her too!
One more thing that’s not really an update about See Jane Dig! launch week, though it did happen during launch week.
Drum roll please,,,,
The first draft of the next book in the series, See Jane Ride! is done. Can you hear me shouting wahoo? That’s because finishing a first draft means this author has her life back.
But wait! There’s more…
The cover for See Jane Ride! is finalized, and I’m in love with it. That’s all the excitement I can stand in one blog post, but stay tuned as the cover will be revealed in an upcoming post very soon!
by jphilo | Oct 8, 2024 | See Jane Dig!
by jphilo | Jun 5, 2024 | See Jane Dig!
It feels like See Jane Dig! already made the news this summer. That can’t be, of course, since its release date with Midwestern Books is October 1, 2024.
However, when I saw a link on Facebook about 3 boys who discovered a T-Rex fossil, Yogi Berra’s famous line, “it’s deja vu all over again,” immediately came to mind. Here’s why:
- The person who posted the link is one of my former country school students…and See Jane Dig! is all about country school. Thank you Shelly!
- Also, my former student is a shirt-tail relative to one of the boys in the story.
- The fossil was found near Marmarth, North Dakota, as in the Marmarth Road that goes north out of fictional Little Missouri to guess where? Marmarth, North Dakota.
- While researching See Jane Dig! in 2022, Hiram and I went on a paleo site tour with the geologist from Pioneer Trails Regional Museum located in Bowman, North Dakota. Guess where the geologist took us for our mini dig? Just outside Marmarth, North Dakota. You can read more about our paleo tour here.
- The Denver Post article about the boys’ find features several photographs of the area where the T-Rex was found. Those pictures aren’t all that different from the one above, which I took during our paleo tour.
- See Jane Dig! has several scenes in pastures where dinosaur bones are sticking out of the ground, just like in the news story.
First of all, the geologist, Hiram, and I might have walked right past that bone sticking out of the ground.
Second of all, it’s a good thing See Jane Dig! hasn’t been released yet or I might think those little boys plagiarized my book!
Third of all, do you see what I mean about deja vu? No wonder it feels like See Jane Dig! already made the news this summer.
by jphilo | Apr 5, 2024 | See Jane Dance!, See Jane Dig!, See Jane Run!, See Jane Sing!
“I’d like to see Jane fix this,” I muttered after opening the first of the 20 book merch mugs* I ordered in advance of summer speaking events and spotted my proofreading error.
Do you see it too?
As a former teacher who corrected enough papers to kill dozens of trees and drained oodles of red pens, I deserve no mercy…at least not from past students.**
In my own defense, I have only two things to say:
- I ordered them while in the grips of a raging sinus infection that the second round of antibiotics I’m currently on will hopefully work.
- I actually caught and corrected the error, but neglected to click “save” before placing the order.***
After staring at the mugs in dismay for a couple minutes, visions of red pens danced in my sinus-fogged head. “Hiram,” I asked my husband, “is the pack of multicolored Sharpies you bought still around somewhere?”
As a matter of fact, they were in his desk.
I plucked out the red Sharpie, picked up a mug, and did this:
Do you think they can be sold at book events if I inscribe each mug with whatever red pen message the buyer requests…within reason of course? Or use them as door prizes? I’d love to hear your suggestions, too, so leave them in the comment box.
*The mugs in the picture are all identical. They are arranged at different angles to show the 4 different covers that circle each mug.
**Those students, now adults with their own kids and grandkids, are very forgiving people. After I posted a picture of the errant mugs on Facebook, several of them wanted to know how to order them.
***The error has been corrected for a second time, and the save button clicked for the first time. Sigh!
