New audio-book! Download codes available:-D

Audio-book promo! My new book, Duck for Cover & Other Tales, is now an audio-book narrated by the wonderful Emily Wilson. If you'd like a download code and are willing to write a short review, please message me. :-D

Amazon Link:

https://www.amazon.com/Duck-Cover-Other-Tales-Collection/dp/B0BMKBVFR7/ref=sr_1_16?crid=1Y1ARZPTXSAKS&keywords=barbara+venkataraman&qid=1669041726&s=audible&sprefix=%2Caudible%2C198&sr=1-16 

 

Goodreads link: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/62003462-duck-for-cover-other-tales

Free Promo 12/27-12/31 :-)

Happy New Year! My first Jamie Quinn Cozy Mystery, Death by Didgeridoo, is free today through 12/31, spread the word! :-)

Description:

Attorney Jamie Quinn is on a six-month hiatus from practicing law to deal with her beloved mother's death. Rarely leaving the house, she shares most of her days with her late mother's cranky cat.

But soon, Jamie is forced into action by a frantic call from her Aunt Peg, whose autistic son Adam is in police custody and suspected of murdering his music teacher, a once-famous rock star named Spike.

It's up to Jamie to find the real killer. The problem is, Spike seems to have had more enemies than he had friends, and Adam had confessed to the murder already. Can Jamie piece together the evidence and bring the murderer to justice before it's too late?

A delightful, light mystery set in the small town of Hollywood, South Florida, Death By Didgeridoo is the first book in Barbara Venkataraman's Jamie Quinn Cozy Mysteries series. 

Here's the link: 

https://www.amazon.com/Death-Didgeridoo-Jamie-Quinn-Mystery-ebook/dp/B00GVJ4WOY/ref=pd_ybh_a_1/136-4513955-5902623?pd_rd_w=BqLZy&pf_rd_p=5b50fa67-c855-4853-bcaf-579230bfb9aa&pf_rd_r=12FJKR4NRTR9Q2K5AMVM&pd_rd_r=6346dc22-217b-43ce-ab5d-dc8643048616&pd_rd_wg=Zr9sj&pd_rd_i=B00GVJ4WOY&psc=1

 

New Audio-Book Is Out! Free download codes! :-D

Hey everybody! 

Who likes audio-books? My new one is out and it's a doozy! Three books in one, you can't beat that: Jamie Quinn Cozy Mysteries Books 4-6 all in one place.

If you would like to catch up with Jamie and the gang and listen to: Engaged in Danger, Jeopardy in July, and Malice in Miami, all narrated by the wonderful Fay Annette, then you're in luck! I have free audio-book download codes to give away. Just comment or message me and I'll send you one. Please be sure to leave a review when you finish. :-D

Link: 

https://www.audible.com/pd/Jamie-Quinn-Mystery-Collection-Box-Set-Books-4-6-Audiobook/B09BG6925R?qid=1628021567&sr=1-4&ref=a_search_c3_lProduct_1_4&pf_rd_p=83218cca-c308-412f-bfcf-90198b687a2f&pf_rd_r=NG18FC01D97G34PVTX77

Zoom, Boom, Ow!

Anyone who knows me can attest to my lack of grace, my tendency to dash around, and the many delicate things I've broken, including bones. I don't want to brag but my orthopedist welcomes me like I'm his favorite cousin at the family reunion.  

Once, when I was sweeping up the glass from a shattered peanut jar that had leaped out of my hands, my husband remarked: If I had done that I'd be so annoyed. I shrugged. If you did it as often as I do you'd be used to it. 

And, as you know, broken glass is the gift that keeps on giving. I can find slivers of glass for months, in the weirdest places. Just don't walk barefoot in my house. 

As for bones, I've broken my big toes, my pinky toes, my nose, and various fingers, but nothing that required a cast or surgery, or that garnered much sympathy. Klutzy people do klutzy things. That sliding glass door I walked into was ridiculously clean. I mean come on, would it kill you to put a sticker on it? If you can't do it for me, think of the poor birds... 

But this time wasn't my fault. I wasn't running around, I wasn't careless, I was just sitting in a desk chair on a Zoom call. When I saw my phone on the bed where it might ring and disrupt the call, I leaned to my right, over the plastic chair arm, reaching, reaching, all my weight on the chair arm and boom! A piercing pain in my side. My astute reaction: this can't be good. I nursed my injury the rest of the day. Was it a ruptured gallbladder, a bruised kidney? Who can say. 

The pain subsided but came roaring back five days later. A trip to the bone doc who lit me up with x-rays again and said "you broke a rib". 

That's right, I broke my rib on a Zoom call. It turns out klutzy people do klutzy things. Even when they're sitting in a chair. All I can say is Ow! Ow! Ow! 

 

Florida Bar Journal! :-D

Check out the fantastic review in the Florida Bar Journal for our book, Accidental Activist: Justice for the Groveland Four. :-)

https://www.floridabar.org/the-florida-bar-journal/accidental-activist-justice-for-the-groveland-four/

 

Watering a Dead Plant

I've been watering a dead plant and I can't seem to throw it away. It's not because of apathy or laziness or an unwillingness to admit defeat, it's something else entirely. And while I consider myself a nurturing person, I'm not sure my plants would agree. Only the fighters survive my benign neglect and know to reward my occasional watering by perking up instantly. Anticipating flowers helps a lot. When I see a bud appear, I snap into watering mode, tending to the slender shoot like it's a baby bird incubating inside its shell. Orchids know how to deliver the goods, producing brilliant flowers six at a time, and Anthurium, with its waxy red heart-shaped leaves, makes me smile.

My miniature tea rose is another story. Most of the time, it seems moribund with barely a spot of green and not even a prayer of flowering. I water it anyway and then suddenly, like a Phoenix rising from the ashes, a tiny rose will appear, turning its crimson face toward the afternoon sun.

I bought the snake plant because it was advertised as no green thumb required. This turned out to be true. It keeps on going--if by going you mean not dying. But it's just kind of there, growing a little bit taller but otherwise unremarkable. Although I don't expect my plants to be trained circus animals I do need something from them to keep my attention. In short, if you don't do anything interesting there's a good chance I'll forget about you. Lucky for the snake plant his neighbors draw me in with their tricks.

And then there's the dead plant, a small bromeliad in a clay pot. It was the only plant I tried very hard to keep alive for the past five years. It was a gift and, while I don't know who brought it over, I do know when and I do know why. I had hosted many parties and gatherings over the years, but none like this one, so last-minute, with many strangers on the guest list. It was an impromptu memorial service for my friend Leslie who had died suddenly three days before. My funny, irreverent, smart-mouthed, cat-loving friend with her Boston accent and wonderful laugh, the one who ended every phone call with love you, my friend, was gone. All I could do was invite people over, make some food, and trade photos and stories of the woman we all missed so much.

It was a beautiful sun-lit day filled with flowers and laughter and love. Someone brought me a plant, a bromeliad. Leslie would have loved it.      

Indie Authors' Panel on June 25th :-)

Check it out! I'm speaking on an Indie Author's panel on June 25th through the Broward County Library. :-D Any one can sign up to listen and it's free. 

https://register.gotowebinar.com/register/3214091698128809486?source=authornewsletter

And if you are interested in learning more about Black history and social justice issues, check out my new book--Accidental Activist: Justice for the Groveland Four. This memoir was co-written with my son Josh and recounts his successful 4-year quest to obtain posthumous pardons for four Black men wrongfully convicted of a heinous crime in the Jim Crow South. It is a primer for activism and an uplifting story of the power of perseverance and love. It is also still extremely relevant today. I have free audio-book download codes to give away. Excellent narrator! 

Here's the link on Amazon:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07Z5TYNT7/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_bibl_vppi_i4

Free Audiobook Download Codes! :-)

I have a new audiobook of essays and wanted to offer some free download codes in exchange for an honest review.  

Here’s the link on Amazon to check it out, please let me know if you're interested: https://www.amazon.com/Smidge-Crazy-Quirky-Essays-People-ebook/dp/B07C7184KH/ref=sr_1_1?crid=J06DLGI883KM&keywords=a+smidge+of+crazy&qid=1563492233&s=gateway&sprefix=a+smidge%2Caps%2C157&sr=8-1   

Thanks!

The Book Decoder :-)

I found a fun blog and also made a new friend, all the way in India! Rekha lives in Bangalore where my husband used to live and she has bonded big time with Jamie Quinn. :-D  She and I would both love to hang out with Jamie and the gang because they lead such exciting lives.  

Rekha's blog is The Book Decoder and she has not only reviewed my Jamie Quinn series, but she was kind enough to interview me. 

Check it out here:

https://thebookdecoder.com/2019/07/14/an-interview-with-barbara-venkataraman/

Defying the Laws of Physics

Imagine you're speeding down the highway and a police car suddenly appears in your rear view mirror, lights flashing. You panic. With pounding heart and a mouth as dry as the Sahara you frantically try to pull over--right as the cop screeches past you into the night.

I felt sweaty just writing that! Look, I've gotten a ticket before and it's no big deal but the lizard part of my brain freaks out anyway. You'd think I had a body in the trunk or something. Which leads me to my point--how detective shows want us to believe a person would just go about their business after committing a heinous crime. When the worst thing a character ever did (before committing murder) was jaywalk, how did they suddenly turn into a sociopath? Where's the guilt, the remorse? Where's the Lady Macbeth trying to wash the blood off her hands, or the narrator who hears the tell-tale heart of his victim beneath the floorboards?

Every work of fiction asks the reader to suspend their disbelief to a degree. The author may condense time or sprinkle in some amazing coincidences, but the reader doesn't mind. The reader wants to believe. Otherwise, there would be no Harry Potter, no Game of Thrones. But there is a line that cannot be crossed, at least for me. Okay, two lines. The first is the Hannibal Lecter syndrome I just described. The other is when the writer defies the laws of physics. When a hundred pound woman kills her rival and moves her body down several flights of stairs and then hauls her away in a car to bury her in the woods I lose my mind. I can't even carry ten pounds of groceries that far. Yet it happens all the time, people effortlessly moving bodies hither and yon without anybody seeing them. Not only that, there's an episode of Castle where a woman supposedly hangs a body upside down from a catwalk. I need to know who her personal trainer is. Why isn't she entering body-building competitions instead of murdering people? She missed her calling.

One of my favorite scenes of tongue-in-cheek self-awareness is from the film, My Cousin Vinny, where Vinny questions a witness.

Vinny: How could it take you five minutes to cook your grits when it takes the entire grit-eating world 20 minutes?

Mr. Tipton: Um... I'm a fast cook, I guess.

Vinny: [across beside the jury] What? I'm sorry I was over there. Did you just say you were a fast cook? Are we to believe that boiling water soaks into a grit faster in your kitchen than any place on the face of the earth?

Mr. Tipton: I don't know.

Vinny: Perhaps the laws of physics cease to exist on your stove! Were these magic grits? Did you buy them from the same guy who sold Jack his beanstalk beans?

Yes, Vinny, the laws of physics do cease to exist on TV, but if you miss them you can always switch off the TV and pick up a book. No, that won't work either. Why don't you carry a heavy bag of groceries up and down the stairs and then bury it in the woods? I promise you the laws of physics won't disappoint.

WORD RIFF OF THE DAY

"So I'd like to know where, you got the notion…"

My brain likes to sing. I know that sounds like fun--except it's not. My brain gets stuck on one phrase, singing it over and over without any help from mouth or vocal cords. How does it do that? Is this what madness sounds like? When King Lear said that a person's notion weakens he meant they were losing their grip on reality. It shouldn't be surprising then that an antonym for notion is reality.

"Don't rock the boat, don't rock the boat, baby"

Notion comes from the Latin word notio (idea) and from notus (known) and is remarkably similar when translated into a number of languages, all of which use a variation of the word notion or idea. Seems like everyone has notions, wherever they live. Only in North America does notion also mean a sewing item, like buttons, pins, zippers, and hooks.

"Our love is like a ship on the ocean
We've been sailing with a cargo full of love and devotion."

A cargo full of love and devotion. Ah! Who wouldn't want that? We have The Hues Corporation to thank for this catchy song and lovely rhyme. What other words could they have picked to rhyme with ocean? Not as many you would think: Emotion or potion could have worked, but I don't see any possibilities when it comes to commotion, promotion, demotion, or lotion. Personally, I would have loved to see them try to use Laotian.

A notion can simply be an idea or it can be so much more. A notion can be an idea that springs to life because of your beliefs, your impressions, your opinions, and most importantly, your perception of the world. There's a Spanish phrase, cada cabeza es un mundo, which translates to each head is its own world. In other words, your perception of reality is your reality.

A notion can also be an impulse or desire, especially the whimsical kind. Oh, whimsical, you're one of my favorite words but, Shh…don't tell the others.

According to vocabulary.com, a notion is lighter than a theory and embraces a whimsy that a simple idea never could. If you share a far-fetched idea with others, someone might respond with where did you get that notion?

You just tell them, "Be quiet, I'm singing."

HOBBIES FOR EVERYONE!

Everyone has a hobby, no matter how strange

It may seem to others who think you're deranged.

Collectors especially are looked at askew,

What's normal for them seems crazy to you.

An oologist collects eggs, which makes them quite reckless

Especially when they're eyeing your breakfast.

A dipterist collects flies, much like a spider.

If they spin their own webs, does that make them a writer? (Some pig!)

My hobby is harmless, I collect funny words.

And I'm gobsmacked by the ones I find most absurd.

English is chockablock with odd words, I'm chuffed to say.

I feel panurgic, like I could do this all day.

I'm not knackered or peckish, though it seems dodgy to you

I could lollygag all night on a word like jejeune.

The world is on fire and it may seem Quixotic

To spend my time on words so exotic.

If you prefer someone who seems like they care  

Find an arctophile, they collect teddy bears.

But I'm a logophile and I won't apologize.

Just be grateful I don't collect flies,

Free Audio-Book Download Codes! :-)

Good news for audio-book lovers, Audiofile Magazine has all the reviews and recommendations you need to find your next great audio-book. They also feature interviews with authors and narrators--it's a treasure trove of audio-book information!

Check out their wonderful review of my 4th Jamie Quinn Mystery, Engaged in Danger, narrated by the talented Fay Annette:

https://www.audiofilemagazine.com/reviews/read/138287/engaged-in-danger-by-barbara-venkataraman/

Finally, I'm thrilled to announce that my new audio-book, Jeopardy in July (Jamie Quinn Mystery #5) has just been released and is available on Amazon, Audible, and iTunes. 

I have 24 audiobook download codes for Jeopardy in July to give away to reviewers, so comment on this post if you would like a download code. :-D

The Cuddlywumps Cat Chronicles :-)

Miss Cuddlywumps (a.k.a. Miss C) is a completely fictional cat who has the great benefit of being both classically educated and familiar with mysteries. This rather large and fluffy calico is inordinately proud of two things: her piercing intellect and her white-tipped tail.

She also pens the blog The Cuddlywumps Chronicles, in which she explores cat history, cats in mythology and folklore, cats in mysteries, and cats in general. Occasionally she strays into a non-cat topic, if she feels that topic is worthy of her time and attention.

She was also kind enough to write a lovely review of Jamie Quinn Mystery #4, Engaged in Danger", which features Jamie's cat Mr. Paws, a/k/a Mr. Pain in the Ass.

Read the review here and check out this fun blog!

https://cuddlywumps.blogspot.com/2018/04/book-review-engaged-in-danger.html 

At a Loss For Words :-D

Can you guess how many words there are in the English language? I bet you can’t. 

According to the Global Language Monitor, the number of words in the English Language is 1,025,109. Even more surprising, a new word is created every 98 minutes for an average of 14.7 words per day. The average English-speaking adult has a vocabulary of about 20,000-30,000 words. For myself, as an attorney, writer, English major and geeky logophile, I like to think I'm above average but, too often, I find I'm at a loss for words. Not technical terms or high-brow concepts, but plain old words. I could blame my age (I just turned 55) or I could blame my iPhone (where Siri is at my beck and call to answer any silly question, day or night), or I could blame myself for not trying hard enough. A myriad of concepts, movies, books, and people have decided my brain was too darn crowded, so they hit the road leaving me with my only two vague and useless phrases: That…thing, you know what I mean and that…guy, you remember him…

 I believe the true culprit is convenience. For example, I remember every important phone number from my childhood, including my grandparents' number--and they have been gone twenty-five years. Today, the only phone number I am confident I know is my own; every other number is stored on my phone. Here is another example, say I want to know the definition of a word I've typed, I can simply right-click on it. What's more, I can translate it into dozens of languages including Hindi, Swahili and Mandarin. Just now, I right-clicked on the word number and learned that its synonyms are: amount, quantity, sum, figure, numeral, digit, and integer. Sure, I could have come up with those words without a lot of effort, but why would I bother? I have better things to do, even if I can't think of any at the moment…

There is a second culprit I blame for my diminishing vocabulary, for rewriting my life story into a mystery I call "The Case of the Purloined People, Places and Things". Rats, I meant nouns, of course. That culprit is the pictograph, a pictorial symbol for a word or phrase. You know them as emojis. The endless supply of clever emojis has led me to forgo words and replace them with pictures: hearts, fireworks, sad face, mad face, caterpillars--you name it, I've used it. If you think about it, the oldest cave painting in the world is 40,000 years old (pre-dating the oldest known alphabet by 36,000 years) and we have been perfecting spoken and written language ever since. Or so we thought. Given my reliance on emojis to communicate, I realize we have come full circle. Maybe there was nothing to perfect, we had it right from the beginning and all this time we have been chasing our tails. I don't know about you, but I feel so much better knowing that I don't need to scrounge around for the perfect word anymore. A symbol works just fine :-D 

Spotlight and Jamie Quinn giveaway :-)

Spotlight and giveaway! Check out the beautiful Tometender Blog and enter to win. :-) Thanks, Dianne!


https://tometender.blogspot.com/2016/08/barbara-venkataramans-jamie-quinn.html?showComment=1470226723044#c3758128498088143074

Engaged in Danger--fabulous review! :-)

Check out this fabulous new review of "Engaged in Danger", the 4th in my Jamie Quinn cozy mystery series. Thanks, Tam!

https://mystereity.wordpress.com/

My latest author interview at Debra's Book Cafe. :-)

Visit Debra's Book Cafe Blog and check out my author interview. Thanks, Debra!

http://debrasbookcafe.blogspot.com/2016/06/auithor-interview-barbara-venkataraman.html?m=1

A wonderful review for Jamie Quinn & a giveaway!

Thanks to Ramona at "Create with Joy" for a wonderful review, spotlight and giveaway!

http://www.create-with-joy.com/2016/07/jamie-quinn-mystery-collection-books-1-3-audible-book-review-giveaway.html

Check out my guest post & giveaway! :-)

Check out my guest post and enter the giveaway for my Jamie Quinn collection on the wonderful blog "My Reading Corner"! Thanks, Karen. :-)

http://www.myreadingcorner.co.uk/2016/07/jamie-quinn-mystery-collection-books-1-3-barbara-venkataraman.html