Dead Wreckoning

If you haven’t met Sylvia Dickey Smith or read the latest book in her Sidra Smart mystery series, Dead Wreckoning, then you’re in for a treat this Thursday when she stops in at Straight From Hel.

Sylvia says her writing “focuses on the strengths and weaknesses of middle-aged and older women finding their way and developing a strong identity of their own.” I say Sylvia writes characters that you can identify with and characters you’ll want to read about.

The first in the series, Dance on His Grave, introduced us to Sidra Smart, a woman, recently divorced, who takes over her brother’s detective agency. It’s no coincidence that the name of her new agency is the Third Eye, as each of Sylvia’s books, as she says, “embraces the possibility of help from spirits beyond this world without hitting the skeptical reader over the head with it.” If you like strong female characters, tense action scenes, and a dose of humor, you’ll like the Sidra Smart series.

Sylvia is a friend, so when she agreed to drop by, she suggested we do something different from an interview or the usual Q&A. So I invite you all to come back this Thursday for an unusual Q&A. Sylvia and I will be talking about the editing process. She has a few questions for me … and I have some for her … and, hopefully, you’ll have some for both of us.

Check out her beautiful website, as well as her books. And she’s also having a contest -- you can submit a recipe for her cookbook. I told you she doesn’t go for the “usual,” not even in her give-aways.