If my book were a Halloween movie…it would be Garfield’s Halloween Adventure! Wait, wait, I promise it makes sense!
This gem of children’s animation first came out in 1985. Back then, my grandmother taped it off of the television and for years I could pop in the VHS tape into the VCR whenever I wanted to watch it. Fun fact, as a kid one year I dressed up as Garfield for Halloween because I loved this movie so much. Sadly, this show hasn’t been broadcast on tv since 1999, but you can watch it on Youtube. Of course, that version won’t have the classic Campbell’s soup, McDonald’s Halloween McBoo Buckets, or Double Mint gum ads that I can also quote by heart… With music sung by Lou Rawls and the typical Garfield hijinks and humor, this movie was a fall staple in my household growing up. To this day, I sometimes find myself singing “This is the night!” or quoting random lines from it (“Garfield, you are a genius! I know that.”).
So, how is Garfield’s Halloween Adventure anything like Murder, She Rolled? Let’s break it down (without spoilers!):
First, the obvious similarity: both take place in fall with Halloween right around the corner. And while Garfield may be lazy, my protagonist, Wren Winters, is anything but. She and her friends are busily preparing for the Hollow’s Way Harvest Festival, planning out a hay maze and outdoor games for folks to play.
Garfield discovers that, unlike other holidays that might involve him getting pine needles in his paws, if he dresses up in costume on Halloween, he can get candy, candy, candy! In Murder, She Rolled, Wren and her friends are about to play a tabletop roleplaying game, the kind of collaborative storytelling game where you pretend you’re someone else – very Halloween appropriate.
After a montage of trying on different costumes (“What should I be? There’s so many sides to me.”) Garfield and Odie go out dressed up as pirates. It’s all fun and games, but danger lurks when they enter a run-down mansion that they thought was abandoned. Similarly, when Wren and her friends sit down to play a game, one of them collapses, sending the group spiraling and running headlong into danger at every turn.
Ultimately, Garfield and Odie survive because of their friendship and the sacrifices they make for one another. In Murder, She Rolled, Wren and her friends are put to the test, but ultimately they need to rely on one another in order to figure out whodunit and how to put things right before it’s too late…
About the author
Shelly Jones is a professor by trade and a nerd by design. Woefully introverted, their pockets are full of post-it notes and their head is full of (unsaid) witty come-backs and un-won arguments from years past. When they aren’t grading papers or writing new cozy mysteries, Shelly can often be found hiking in the woods or playing a board game while their cats look on. Connect with Shelly on her website: shellyjonesauthor.com.
Greetings, victims, I mean, friends, and welcome to my not-so-spooky Tule Halloween Festival post. If you’ve read any of my Elmo Simpson Mysteries, you know the town of Paradise Springs, Florida is filled with unusual characters. If you haven’t, there’s no better time to change that as all three are on sale this month for the bargain price of $1.99 for Kindle readers.
Among the denizens of the Springs is Abraham Longfellow, a dashing recluse who might be a vampire. Then there’s Idira Maradona, who’s known to many as The Black Widow due to the unusually large number of deceased former spouses. I’d be remiss if I failed to mention the Farrell Sisters, local entertainment magnates who may also be witches.
So, it was no surprise when I started working on a timeline for Dead in the Ditch, book 3 in the series, that Halloween had to play a key part.
The story opens on Halloween night and features trick-or-treating and one whale of a Halloween costume party. A dead body turns up, too. I mean, I write murder mysteries. How could there not be one?
I’ve always loved Halloween. When I was a kid, I spent the night of October 31 dashing from house to house with my friends knocking on doors and shouting, “trick or treat.” It was great fun, and I treasure those memories.
When my kids were young, I took them trick or treating and had as much fun enjoying the spookiness of the evening as they did. We also had a great time decorating the house with jack o’ lanterns, spider webs, and all kinds of other not scary decorations.
Over the years, there have been trips trough haunted houses, strolls through Halloween-themed zoos, and viewings of too many scary movies to count. Not to mention the annual viewing of “It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown!”
So, yeah, I love Halloween. To me, it’s a time of fun, friendship, and goodwill. I mean, children going house to house to receive treats from people they don’t know? That’s an act of trust and belief in community that can’t be beat.
That’s why, when the opportunity presented itself, I wasn’t going to pass on giving Dead in the Ditch a Halloween theme. And I can’t wait until the timing works to write another Halloween story.
Until next time, stay spooky, friends and keep reading Tule mysteries!
About the author
J.C. Kenney is the bestselling author of The Allie Cobb Mysteries, The Darcy Gaughan Mysteries, and The Elmo Simpson Mysteries. He’s also the co-host of The Bookish Hour webcast. When he’s not writing, you can find him following IndyCar racing or listening to music. He has two grown children and lives in Indianapolis with his wife and a cat.
Mistletoe, mochas, and murder. When a Christmastime killer strikes, can one amateur sleuth save the festivities from chocolate-covered ruin?
Ava Decker craves clarity. Stuck in limbo while her maybe-boyfriend takes flight overseas, the sarcastic pastry chef buries her insecurities inside her cupcakes. But as her town immerses itself in yuletide cheer, she pushes herself to re-enter the world and celebrate… only to discover a fellow confectioner’s body floating in a lake of fudge.
Grieving and prepping for the magical winter festival, the witty entrepreneur is dumbfounded by the news that she’s inherited the cocoa master’s decadent empire. And as a disgruntled relative contests the will and traces of embezzlement surface, Ava mixes a batch of relentless sleuthing with a pinch of help from her forensic accounting background.
Will refusing to walk away get her yule cake crumbled or put a grinch behind bars? Candy Canes and Crimes is the quirky sixth book in the Frosted Misfortunes Mysteries culinary cozy series. If you like strong female leads with self-deprecating humor, loveable animal sidekicks, and small-town holiday charm, then you’ll adore Lisa Siefert’s entertaining adventure.
Lisa Siefert is a USA Today Bestselling Mystery Author who writes humorous cozy mysteries. She dedicates all of her free time to testing out different latte flavors at every coffee shop she comes across and has never once skimped on dessert because life is too short not to. She lives in San Diego with Lucky, her own devious but adorable Abyssinian kitten. She excels at recounting every Hallmark Movie plot ever conceived and can also whip up a mean batch of mint chocolate chip ice cream.
Her books feature amateur women sleuths that always believe in silver linings despite all of the murderous clouds surrounding them.
When I’m not writing murder mysteries, I’m teaching (or grading…) mostly first generation college students. To keep my classes engaged and interactive, I incorporate a lot of different games into my lessons. Anything from Jenga to Clue to some more obscure games like MicroMacro (think: Richard Scarry books or Where’s Waldo meets a whodunit) or Sign, which is a cooperative roleplaying game or storytelling game about creating a shared language. I like bringing in these alternative activities to make my classes more dynamic, to meet my students where they’re at, and to get them to apply the ideas we’re talking about onto different texts.
This past week was a double whammy for games. In my lower level literature class, I brought in different versions of Clue and we examined the box art and settings in order for them to consider how they will complete their Clue(re)do assignment in which they modernize the game for their world. We talked about closed circle mysteries (in which there is a limited number of suspects, each with a motive, means, and opportunity to commit the crime: think a class Agatha Christie like Murder on the Orient Express or And Then There Were None). Then my students came up with alternative isolated locations that could serve as backdrops for their own Clue boards. Some suggestions were a summer camp, a movie theater, and a fraternity/sorority house – all excellent possibilities for a whodunit.
In my upper level communication class, we’ve been playing a roleplaying game that requires students to collaboratively tell a story based on prompts they pick. They then need to write letters to each other’s characters, expressing what has happened based on the prompt cards and how their characters feel. After they write their letters, they then create a keepsake, remediating their story into their crafted object. Some draw pictures, some use pipe cleaners, feathers, and felt, some use modeling clay. (My office has become a mini-Michaels chockful of art supplies…) Today, as they were sharing their stories, one student was surprised how quickly she had adopted talking about her character in the first person (e.g. “I did this” instead of “my character did this”). This is pretty common when playing a roleplaying game, but it also got me thinking about how we do this in writing too.
With all of my characters, there has to be some point of empathy, some point of identification where I can understand who they are and what their motivations are. Writing and roleplaying often go hand in hand as we try to understand who our characters are and what makes them tick. Sometimes I get asked how much of myself x,y,z character is. None of them are photocopies of me on the page. They’re more like a kaleidoscope of different characteristics I’ve plucked from people (some who I know, some who I’ve merely people-watched and jotted down a memorable quirk or a phrase…). For example, Wren and I are both pretty loyal to our friends, possibly to a fault. But then again, I’m also very much like Charlie: to the point and a bit more introverted (okay, a lot more introverted). Like Jo, I can be very logical (though I may rush to conclusions faster than her…). And while Esther and I are the most different, I can be pretty blunt just like her (though far less charismatic! And far less extroverted). But each of the characters have shiny shards of this and that, refracting together to form their unique identity.
Aside from playing a roleplaying game, the way Wren and the gang are doing in Murder, She Rolled, another great way to express ourselves or to have some fun trying out a new identity is to dress up in costume or cosplay. With Halloween just around the corner (eeks!), I need to start planning my outfit. Last year I was a sheet of notebook paper (because what could be scarier for a writer than the blank page?). This year I might cut out some felt letters and pin them to my costume so I can go as a work in progress…
What might you dress up as (or roleplay) for Halloween? Are you a more traditional ghost or witch? A Marvel superhero? A classic literary figure ala Sherlock Holmes or Miss Marple? Or do you have a favorite costume from your childhood (Snoopy for me) or one that your children or grandchildren wore?
About the author
Shelly Jones is a professor by trade and a nerd by design. Woefully introverted, their pockets are full of post-it notes and their head is full of (unsaid) witty come-backs and un-won arguments from years past. When they aren’t grading papers or writing new cozy mysteries, Shelly can often be found hiking in the woods or playing a board game while their cats look on.
We will pick ONE winner to receive a digital book of their choice from the September mystery releases.
Comment down below saying which book you’re looking most forward to reading! Giveaway is open INTERNATIONALLY. The winner will be randomly selected and announced at the end of the month.
Wren Winters is thrilled when her gaming group is invited to join the town’s new superstar streamer Noelle Williams for a live demo—after all, a little publicity could put Wren’s board game shop, the Cardboard Sheep, on the map. But moments before they go live, Noelle collapses on camera, and by the time Wren arrives at her house, Noelle is dead and the police are swarming.
Detective Greene, who still remembers last summer’s murder at Wren’s shop, is back with questions—and suspicions. As Wren and her friends reel from the shock, secrets about Noelle’s life emerge: relentless online harassment, jealous exes, and a sister desperate to pull her offline. Then another member of the group falls ill with similar symptoms.
With danger closing in and a game board full of suspects, Wren refuses to sit on the sidelines. She’s determined to solve the puzzle before her friend’s game is over for good.
Can Savanna Shepherd discover who’s behind a deadly art heist before her New Year’s Eve wedding?
Savanna Shepherd is wishing for snow. Her Lake Michigan town needs a good cold snap to showcase the winter festival and the sparkling ice-sculpture exhibit she’s curated. Once the weather starts cooperating, she can relax and enjoy the festive season with her loved ones.
But all is not merry and bright in small-town Carson, as chaos puts her holiday cheer on ice. Her ex-boyfriend’s mother is attacked in a robbery at their prestigious art museum, and then the black-tie event at Savanna’s local art museum goes horribly wrong. Thieves have stolen priceless paintings, and many more have been defaced with menacing graffiti. Friends and colleagues become suspects, and the bodies are piling up. Who can she trust?
Now, instead of enjoying the glow of Christmas and preparing to marry the single-dad doctor who holds her heart, Savanna turns amateur sleuth. Can she crack the case before her happily ever after melts away?
Perfect for twisty mystery fans craving snowy suspense and heartwarming moments!
Her cupcakes were the hit of the holiday season, but finding her baking mentor dead puts Ava on the naughty list.
Ava Decker was looking forward to Clover Creek’s magical Christmas festival. But when she discovers beloved chocolate factory owner Vera Holloway floating face-down in a vat of chocolate, Ava realizes someone wanted to permanently cancel Christmas for her favorite chocolatier. Things go from bad to worse when Ava’s usual crime-solving techniques result in one of the suspects filing a restraining order against her.
Her amateur sleuthing careens through Clover Creek’s holiday festivities like a runaway sleigh. From the festive Peppermint Parade to the elegant Snowflake Soiree to the enchanting Candy Cane Carnival, Ava manages to leave a trail of chaos, formal wear disasters, and a missing fortune in chocolate money. Can Ava unwrap this candy-coated conspiracy without getting herself arrested, or will her Christmas end with handcuffs instead of presents?
Candy Canes & Crimes delivers holiday hijinks with a deadly twist in this delightfully disastrous addition to the Frosted Misfortunes cozy mystery series. If you love Christmas chaos mixed with murder, you’ll adore Lisa Siefert’s most festive disaster yet.
