Carol Potenza
New Mexico Mysteries
Hearts of the Missing has been added to a number of Listopias on Goodreads. If you are anticipating the book’s release as much as I am, I would appreciate the votes! https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/37638309-hearts-of-the-missing If you go to this link and scroll down, the lists will pop up. Choose one or come back the HOTM homepage and choose all. And check out some of the other books and authors–Rudolfo Anaya. John Nichols, Tony and Anne Hillerman, Willa Cather(!)
It finally can be revealed! CriminalElement.com has posted the beautiful and ominous cover of my debut novel, ‘Hearts of the Missing’ on their site. It has the Tony Hillerman Prize Medallion and a wonderful quote from the amazing David Morrell. HERE IT IS! It is up million places and I promise to put the links up as soon as I can. So excited that this is starting. The book (both hard cover and Kindle AND audiobook) will release on December 4, 2018. Now I REALLY have to do something about my website!
Happy New Year! On January 2nd, 2018, Minotaur Books closed its Tony Hillerman Prize for the Best First Mystery set in the Southwest Competition for the year. The prize is sponsored by St. Martin’s Press and Western Writers of America. Dozens of authors submit books, but that doesn’t mean a submission will be chosen. Since the inception of the contest in 2006, no prize was given in three of the years, but it has been awarded to some very talented debut authors. https://www.hillermanprize.com/page2 St. Martin’s Press/Minotaur books run two other writing competitions: First Crime Novel Competition sponsored by Minotaur Books …
A few years ago, my son set up a Fantasy Football league and invited his dad and cousin and a bunch of his friends to participate. I’ve never really looked at the rules, but the members of this league hold a draft and choose NFL players–quarterbacks, running-backs, wide receivers, kickers–and earn points in head to head games with other members of the league as the games are played in real time. For example, for every ten yards passing, a quarterback receives a point. If the quarterback throws a pass for a touchdown, he get four points. At the end of …
Let’s talk about rattlesnakes. Fall is here and the temperatures have dropped in New Mexico. It’s even froze and snowed in the northern part of the state. Evenings, nights and mornings are much cooler, but the daytime temperatures can still reach into the eighties and nineties. This is the time of year to find snakes in neighborhoods. Why? Because asphalt, blacktop and rock walls soak in the warmth of the sun all day long and are magnets for cold blooded reptiles as the air cools off at night. We found a rattlesnake—the first one we’ve seen all year—on top of …
For my husband’s birthday, I decided to get us both DNA ancestry kit. When it ar rived, we spit in a tube and sent it off to the company. Within weeks, we had our genetic ancestry laid out in a pie chart. My results weren’t a surprise. My father’s family was easily traced to southern Italy, around the Naples area. In fact, there is a city in the arch of the boot called Potenza. Forty percent of my DNA was ‘Italian of Greek’. My mother’s family had been in the United States, probably even before the Revolutionary War, for generations, …
