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Carol Potenza

Carol Potenza

New Mexico Mysteries

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The Endlessly Fascinating Process of Writing Fiction

March 21, 2024 by Carol Potenza

Okay. Endlessly fascinating for me. Authors and writers can talk about their writing process interminably. And we think other authors and readers and our husbands, wives, children, girlfriends, boyfriends, the poor guy sitting next to us on an airplane …. We think that the stream of words about what we write and how we write are like precious jewels falling from our lips. And if you ever eavesdrop on an author to author conversation, (Don’t get too close! It’s a trap.) you’ll probably hear what I call “parallel play”. Like when toddlers don’t yet know how to play with each …

Read moreThe Endlessly Fascinating Process of Writing Fiction
Book cover for The Replacement Child by Christine Barber winner of the Tony Hillerman Prize 2007

So Long, Tony Hillerman Prize (2007-2024) Rest in Peace

March 9, 2024 by Carol Potenza

Tony Hillerman Prize for Best First Mystery Set in the Southwest After many great years, the Tony Hillerman Prize competition has come to an end. Minotaur Books is grateful to all who worked on this wonderful prize throughout the years. A special thanks to Anne Hillerman for her support of aspiring authors of the American Southwest, and as always, grateful acknowledgement to the legacy of her father, Tony Hillerman. (from the MacMillan Website) Excuse my ego, but I have gmail account set to search for Tony Hillerman/Prize alerts, so I’d know when a new prize winner was announced.. But the …

Read moreSo Long, Tony Hillerman Prize (2007-2024) Rest in Peace
The image advertisement of the movie Julie and Julia with Meryl Streep as Julia Child and Amy Adams as Julie who cooked Julia Child's cookbook of recipes in a year.

Original Thought? Probably not. Especially in fiction.

January 30, 2024 by Carol Potenza

Human thought—well, probably >99.9% percent of it—is derivative. Derivative? What does that mean? That most thoughts are not new but are developed from other ideas or copied or extremely similar to something else. Most human thought is not original but is built on the ideas, theories, works, even the life, of others. Example? The movie Julie and Julia (2009). Julie was a woman who received fame and a movie because she cooked all the recipes in Julia Child’s cookbook in a year and blogged about it. She even felt like Julia Child should meet with her because of this secondhand fame built …

Read moreOriginal Thought? Probably not. Especially in fiction.
Oxygen's Periodic table of Death and Mystery image

Oxygen, Giant Bugs, and the Periodic Table of DEATH & Mystery

January 25, 2024 by Carol Potenza

I’d like to relate a story from the relatively recent past (the 1960s). A little girl with her curly golden-brown hair caught up in two adorable doggie ears high on her head, spots a thumbnail-sized shiny brown disk at her feet. She drops to her haunches, peering with concentration at the ground. Lifting her head, a triumphant smile wreathing her face, she tells her father in her very first sentence ever, “I see bug,” at which time her older sister comes over and stomps it. We’ll come back to that true story later because the point was to get bugs into the conversation without …

Read moreOxygen, Giant Bugs, and the Periodic Table of DEATH & Mystery
Periodic Table of Death chart with the planetary location of podcast listeners--100% earth

Any ideas for tapping into the Martian podcast audience?

January 14, 2024 by Carol Potenza

100% of our Periodic Table of Death and Mystery and Mystery podcast listeners live on Earth. If you don’t believe me, check out this audience information gleaned by my Periodic Table of Death and Mystery partner in crime, Laura Haas, about the geographic location of our fans. Only Earthings are listening! Therefor, I appeal to all Mercurials, Venetians(?), Martians, Jovians, Saturians, Uranians, Neptunians, AND (I don’t care what some so-called solar system “experts” say) Plutonians – click, like and follow our podcast. I bet the deadliness of these elements is Universal 🤣.

Read moreAny ideas for tapping into the Martian podcast audience?
Periodic table of Death -Thorium element square with a dark background and a gold lantern

Thorium, African Elephants, and the Periodic Table of DEATH and Mystery

December 20, 2023 by Carol Potenza

Imagine it’s (Th)ORsday (1)… You are a Swedish chemist in the early 1800s credited with the discovery of the periodic table elements cerium and selenium, are the first to isolate silicon and zirconium, and students from your laboratory are the first to isolate lithium, lanthanum, and vanadium. You are also the originator of the scientific terms catalyst, polymer, protein, and isomer. You are a (Th)ORoughly bad-a** scientist, a true (Th)ORnament in the scientific heavens. Your name is Jöns Jacob Berzelius (1779-1848), you have been proclaimed the “Father of Swedish Chemistry,” and Sweden even celebrates you with a holiday (2). But …

Read moreThorium, African Elephants, and the Periodic Table of DEATH and Mystery
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Other Books by Carol Potenza

Nicky Matthews Mysteries

Hearts of the Missing: A Mystery

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The Third Warrior

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Spirit Daughters

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Spirit Daughters
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