The Month of May

The title of this post means different things to different people. To normal people, it's nothing special. A description, nothing more. To racing fans--IndyCar fans in particular--it means the buildup and the excitement of "the greatest spectacle in racing." The Indy 500.

Me? I mean both. My month starts and ends with book events, and lucky for me, it also ends with the Indy 500. So for this month, I'll be talking about a variety of opportunities I'm going to get to talk about my book, but I'm also going to be talking a lot about a very special car that's going to be on the track for the great race.

For the third year, Pippa Mann (above with me) will be driving the pink #63 car for the Susan G. Komen foundation in the race and racing money for the foundation throughout the month. Her goal? $100,000. All month, she's going to be offering special opportunities and merchandise to fans and supporters to help meet that goal...such as putting a loved-one's name in the cockpit with Pippa as she runs the race.

That means, all month, in addition to talking about my new book, I'm also going to be urging everyone I know to get involved and support Pippa's efforts. I hope you'll join me, and I hope you'll find me somewhere along my journeys!

May 7, Phoenix, AZ, 1 p.m. to 5 p.m.: CozyCon at The Poisoned Pen bookstore

May 11, Berkeley, CA, 7 p.m.: Literary Salon (book talk and signing) (RSVP for directions)

May 15, South Pasadena, CA, 2 p.m.: Sisters in Crime, Los Angeles meeting, reading from Red Flags

May 22, Irvine, CA, 3 p.m.: Sisters in Crime, Orange County, speaking about writing, racing, and research

May 25, Indianapolis, IN, 6 p.m.: Irvington Branch, Indianapolis Public Library

May 28, Indianapolis, IN, 3 p.m.: IndyReads Bookstore

May 29, Indianapolis, IN: The Indy 500, where I'll be cheering for the pink car, driven by Pippa Mann

Taking a Break

With my blog tour and two great bookstore events, I've been talking about myself and Avoidable Contact for two weeks straight, so I'm going to shut up for a few days!

But before I go quiet, just a little bit of recap...

Saturday, I was down in San Diego at the fantastic Mysterious Galaxy Bookstore, sharing an event with my fellow Poisoned Pen Press author, Ken Kuhlken. We had a great turnout, thanks to my San Diego friends and family who turned out to tailgate (yes, really) before the event and then stayed to hear me and Ken talking about writing.

Thanks also to surprise guests Barb and Mary, all the way from Scottsdale, AZ! (Call it the "San Diego 350"?!)


In other news, my "two weeks of promotion" wrapped up on Saturday with a couple last posts:

• A post from Kate herself, about her visit to the Indy 500--and her plans to get there in the future.
• A thorough and thoughtful review from my favorite racing blogger, Pressdog.

I still have a couple guest-blog spots coming in the next few weeks, as well as at least one more bookstore event (a big Poisoned Pen Press party in Scottsdale next month). Thanks for reading along!

Book Launch Party!

It was a lovely party yesterday at Mystery Ink to celebrate the launch of Avoidable Contact! Thanks to all of you who attended and listened to me babble on about racing and writing. Thanks to Debbie Mitsch for hosting and providing the book cake! Finally, thanks to Pam Beard (PB Shoots) for capturing the day.

Reminder: I'll be at Mysterious Galaxy next Saturday, August 16, 2 p.m. with Ken Kuhlken. Hope to see you there!

Here I am, talking (action shot!).

Posing with bookstore owner Debbie Mitsch and fellow author (and critique partner extraordinaire) Rochelle Staab.

We even passed the helmet around for everyone to try on.

The cake!

And the books.

Release Day: Avoidable Contact

IT'S HERE! IT'S HERE! (Feel free to imagine me walking around all day with a copy of the new book in my hands ... I guarantee that's what I'm doing.)

As I mentioned in the newsletter that went out yesterday (sign up to receive the next one, though I'll warn you, I'm a very infrequent mailer), someday, I might get over being thrilled and humbled at the sight of a new book with my name on it. I'm so grateful that I get to create Kate Reilly and populate her world with fun people—and that so many of you enjoy reading about her. I can't thank you all enough for your support! (Get all the details on the story.)

If you want to know more about the story behind the book—or if you want to get your hands on a signed copy—you have a couple options:

1. Stay tuned to my social media streams (Facebook and Twitter), because tomorrow I set off on a blog tour, where I'll be posting, being interviewed, and being reviewed—and I'll be giving away a few copies of the first in the series, Dead Man's Switch! 
2. Come see me at a local bookstore! I have two events in the next two weeks, and a longer-term schedule on my Events page (plus more activities to come).
   
   Saturday, August 9, 4 p.m. 
   LAUNCH PARTY!
   Mystery Ink, Huntington Beach, CA
   I've been promised wine, cheese, and cake—join us for the official launch!
   
   Saturday, August 16, 2 p.m.Mysterious Galaxy, San Diego, CA
   Signing with fellow Poisoned Pen Press author Ken Kuhlken

I hope to see you in-person or online—and I'd love to answer any questions you might have about Kate, her posse, and Avoidable Contact. Just send them my way!

Happy reading!

Avoidable Contact: My Sleep Research

**8 Days Until Avoidable Contact Launches!**
**Read an excerpt of the book, and read posts about the research backstory and first 10 hours**

In the end, I couldn't stay awake all night at the 24 Hours of Daytona. But I thought I could manage if I slept three hours—which was a compromise between as little as I could get away with and as much as I thought would allow me to be functional. And it worked! Therefore, that's how much Kate sleeps in the book.

As a sidenote, when I conceived my brilliant idea of starting the book with the green flag and ending with the checkers, I didn't consider one basic fact that would really mess up my schedule: writing in first person means lost time when Kate can't think about solving the mystery. Driving time and sleeping time weren't sleuthing time! That's when I got a little creative with the book's timeline and my fictional race's yellow flags.

On a different note, one of the wonderful aspects of research—whether it's history, modern technology, physical locations, or races—is when the writer stumbles across a great story or activity that they can include in their books. For me the best moment of my trip to the Daytona 24 was standing on the spotter's platform, high above the track, at 2 a.m. The view was incredible. I had other opportunities to talk with one of the spotters (Dr. Chris Murray, a chiropractor in his real life) before the race, after the race, and again at the 2014 race, and thanks to his information, I gave Kate's spotters a great story to tell in the depths of the night. (So thanks, Dr. Chris! That's him on the right in the photo above. On the left is Bob Dickinson, TRG's COO.)

The morning of a 24-hour race is an incredible time. The teams are past the halfway point, but they're exhausted. The dawn and daylight bring a sense of renewed energy, and there's a sense that if we've made it this far, we'll make it all the way. The worst is over. Two blog posts took me through the night and the next morning:

• Spotting, Sleeping, and Fog.
• Silver Linings.

I'll finish out the race with the last posts....

Avoidable Contact: Racing Into The Night

**12 Days Until Avoidable Contact Launches!**
**Read an excerpt of the book, and read the first post about the research behind it**

Something I knew I had to do, if I was going to write about a 24-hour race, was to convey just how long the race goes on. I mean, 24 hours is a long time to do anything continuously, and I expected that, to the teams, it could feel like an eternity. I wanted readers to feel something of that experience, and so I wanted the race to span the entire book I was writing. In the end, I cheated a little, and the total elapsed time in Avoidable Contact is in the 25-26 hour range. But I think readers will still get the idea!

One of the research experiences I wanted was to sit in the pits for hours on end, just as the crew does. Drivers come and go, and I knew that's what Kate would be doing. But I also wanted to understand what went on to keep the car running the whole time. And so, at the 2013 race, I sat in the pits for hours, listening to the radio transmissions between driver, spotter, and crew chiefs.

At five and then nine hours in, it already felt like we'd been doing this forever! See the posts:

• Five hours down.
• Midnight snacks.

I had one other important research task to accomplish in the depths of night during the Daytona 24: see how little sleep I could get away with! Many people don't sleep at all, or grab catnaps all day and night. I didn't think I'd be able to manage that ... and sure enough, I couldn't! I snuck away in the wee hours of the morning for some shut eye (but not a lot). That's the next post. 

I'll leave you with the panorama from the top of the spotter's stand at 2 a.m. An incredible sight!

The next posts take us into morning of the second day....

Avoidable Contact: The Backstory

Avoidable Contact, the third Kate Reilly Racing Mystery, launches in two short weeks! Have you read the first-chapter excerpt I've posted?!

As a lead-up to that day, I thought I'd revisit the experiences I had doing research for the book—namely, what I learned while I embedded with a race team for the 24 Hours of Daytona 2013.

At the end of 2012, I'd started writing Avoidable Contact, only it didn't have that title yet. It was a story I'd plotted out and set at the 24-hour race, but I wasn't yet comfortable with the idea of writing it ... because I knew I needed an insider's look at the event. That's when I contacted my good friends at The Racer's Group, who I know from my first year involved in racing, and asked for a favor.

Kevin Buckler, the team owner, and Bob Dickinson, my former marketing/communications contact at the ALMS and current TRG COO, came through for me. "Sure," they said. "Happy to have you embed with the team. Come on out!" They hooked me up with a credential, and I prepared to take a lot of notes (and plug their team whenever possible!).

I wrote eight blog posts that weekend, and took dozens and dozens of pages of notes. I'll spare you the notes, but I'm reprising the blog entries (they're all short) to give you a flavor of the research experience that went into my new book. Here are the first two:

• The race start.
• The first hours.

And here are two panoramas, one looking back at the pits from the front straight and the other looking at the front straight and the stands, all during pre-race ceremonies ... my experience there was peaceful and sunny, unlike Kate's!

More posts and tidbits to come soon....

Release Week Blogging

It's release week! In addition to visiting a few blogs this week, I've also been mentioned in a few lovely reviews. All the links below!

BLOGS

At Jungle Red Writers (today!) I'm Confessing MyReality TV Addiction.

Over on the Nice Girls Don't Read Naughty Books blog, I'm talking about how Kate and I are similar and different in Kate Reilly and Me.

On the Poisoned Pen Press authors' blog, I'm talking about the wonders of social media and Tweeting My Way to Readers.

On Two For The Road, the blog I share with my friend Simon Wood, I'm sharing the videos of racing laps I studied over and over (and over and over and over...) while writing Braking Points: Racing in Braking Points.

And on Shelf Pleasures, I'm sharing what's on my nightstand, photo included (scroll down, I'm the third author there), in Nightstand: the Second Book'd in Burbank Edition.

REVIEWS

The Corvette Blogger shared my book with his readers, saying, "At Road Atlanta, Kate once again proves she belongs in the driver’s seat, with Kaehler expertly taking the reader into the mind of a race car driver doing 140 mph on the backstretch of the Braselton, GA race track." (I just love that quote!)
Book Review: Tammy Kaehler's Braking Points

My new best friend (poor guy), Pressdog, wrote an amazing review of both books for his well-loved site, saying "Kaehler’s work is smooth and sleek at the sentence level. As a fan of both well written mystery and car racing, I found her books an excellent combination of the two that held my attention throughout."  
Kaehler Strikes the Right Balance in Entertaining Reilly Mysteries

Pressdog also did me the honor of naming me his 25th Woman of Pressdog®, and he wrote the most wonderful profile of me I've ever read. I couldn't write it half so well.  
Tammy Kaehler Gives Readers Racing's Ultimate Backstage Pass

Finally, Braking Points was reviewed on CriminalElement.com, and included this gem: "Reilly is a likeable character. She’s not perfect, but her flaws humanize her, which contrasts nicely with the public image put forth by the drivers and their publicity teams throughout the book. It’s a terrific balance of the media image versus the private people behind them – a balance that seems to be bleeding into more professions than ever these days." 
Fresh Meat: Braking Points by Tammy Kaehler

Lime Rock Live Action!

A really great, short video that captures the excitement of the race weekend at Lime Rock Park and the fun of launching Dead Man's Switch.

Special thanks to Chet Johnston, Alexander Blanco, Jack Diamond, and Sovory.

Launching DEAD MAN’S SWITCH at the Lime Rock Park ALMS Race

You’ve all been waiting patiently for the full report with photos, and after processing an awful lot of data—photos, video, and mental impressions—here it is.

I didn’t know what to expect when my husband and I traveled 3,000 miles to launch my new mystery novel at the actual race weekend it was written about (the American Le Mans Series race at Lime Rock Park in Connecticut). I had 100 trade paperbacks with me, and I had no idea if I’d be shipping them all back home or if I’d sell out and wish I had more. I know many authors talk about not selling many books at mystery conventions or even bookstore signing events, for instance, but this was a different situation. I had no bookselling competition for one thing. But would racegoers want to think about fiction? They’re at a real race, would a mystery novel, however related, be too different?

We knew going into it that there was no way book sales could outweigh the cost of getting and being there. That wasn’t the point. The point was publicity, photos, and being able to say I’d launched the book there. So our goals really had to do with selling some books, making good contacts for future promotion, and collecting useful photos and video. As we pulled into the track on race morning, I thought to myself, “Don’t expect to sell them all. Be glad if you don’t have to ship every single book home.”

Bottom line? The trip was a screaming success. Between me, the Series merchandise center, and the track merchandise store … out of my 100 paperbacks, I carried two home. TWO. (And really, only one made it to my house, because I gave one away to Top Gear host and SPEED Channel commentator Rutledge Wood in LAX baggage claim.)

In addition to my adventure at the track itself, the owner of a wonderful local bookstore—Darren Winston, Bookseller (with me and Corvette Racing program Manager Doug Fehan at right)—threw a launch party for me one night, and had 100 hardcover books to sell. This was another situation for which I had no expectations, especially with the old saying, “What if you throw a party and no one comes?” running through my head. His results? In two hours, he sold about three dozen books—and he’s continued to sell them at a good rate in the ensuing weeks.

Even more than sales, Darren Winston and I got—and are still working on—some great publicity about his business and my book. More, the people who did attend the launch party were a really interesting mix: mystery readers, fans, and insiders; local readers, artists, and friends; Corvette owners and fans; track management and racing insiders, including Skip Barber himself (that’s him at the top of the page); and even the Corvette Racing team (with me at right).

The verdict on my first foray into promoting a racing mystery at a live race and to race fans? It could hardly have gone better. Even more fun, since the race weekend I’ve heard from two fans (one Corvette owner and one track volunteer) who have already read the book and enjoyed it. What more could I ask for?!

Book Launch Report Preview

There is a big video project going on in my house this week, as we try to capture the excitement of being at Lime Rock Park to officially launch Dead Man's Switch, and I am culling the best photos and putting the story down. I promise, that will come soon!

In the meantime, as a preview, here I am with all four Corvette Racing drivers, who joined us for my launch party at Darren Winston, Bookseller.

From left: Oliver Gavin, Tommy Milner, me, Olivier Beretta, Jan Magnussen

Official Book Launch, July 9!