It's Not A Bird Or A Plane And You Shouldn't Be Looking At It Regardless!

In case you haven't heard, there's an eclipse today! But of course you’ve heard—how could you miss it in this day of the 24/7 news cycle? Every channel and every social media feed has been counting down to it breathlessly. Our clockwork universe has its cycles and seasons, and those who watch the skies have known this was coming (just like the know when the next one will be, and the next).

The science of it is very simple. A total solar eclipse occurs when the moon appears to completely cover the sun. Of course the sun is larger than the moon, but because the moon is much closer to Earth—around 239,000 miles as opposed to the sun’s 93,000,000 miles—it is just the right distance away to line up every eighteen months or so in a way that blocks the sun’s face, either completely or partially, and we are suddenly standing in its shadow.

The upcoming eclipse is getting an especially large media presence because here in the US, it is making itself know from coast to coast. The “path of totality” includes a 70-mile-wide swath of territory cutting across the United States from Oregon to South Carolina. An early twilight will descend. Temperatures will fall. Streaks of light called a corona will appear around the sun. People just outside of the totality zone will experience a partial eclipse, which should still be an awesome sight.

If you’re interested in checking out how close you’ll be to the path of totality, NASA has provided a handy map at its website: https://eclipse2017.nasa.gov 

The site also includes viewing information—like the fact that you should never look at a solar eclipse with the naked eye, not even for a second—and other interesting scientific and historical facts about the event.

Some other sites to help you out during this, the day of the Great American Eclipse:

Another prediction pretty much guaranteed to come true? There will be lots of traffic. Get the scoop of the state of your route with Google’s handy traffic density predictor covering the entire path of totality. 

 https://www.google.com/maps/d/u/0/viewer?mid=1lf1zQElZCKW8f0gTbY_b06wIfA4&hl=en_US&ll=39.232253141714914%2C-101.6015615&z=3

Can’t get outside to see it? NASA has you covered. They’ll be live streaming it from twelve locations, including some cameras on planes and hot air balloons, so you’re guaranteed to get a front row seat. https://eclipse2017.nasa.gov/eclipse-live-stream 

Not sure what the event will look like in your neck of the woods? TIME magazine has created a simulator that allows you to punch in your zip code and glimpse what the event will look like second by second from where you’re standing. http://time.com/4882923/total-solar-eclipse-map-places-view/ 

Forgot to get eclipse-viewing glasses? Don’t care to look directly at a flaming ball of gas that could blind you? NASA also explains how to make a simple viewing device that creates a pretty cool effect all on its own. https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/edu/learn/project/how-to-make-a-pinhole-camera/ 

And if you still manage to miss it somehow, take heart—there will be another one coming soon. Here’s a list: https://www.greatamericaneclipse.com/future/ 

Regardless of how the eclipse fits into your day, do take some time to appreciate the science and storytelling happening around this astrological event. Fingers crossed I’ll be seeing some of you in the shadow of the moon.

Trouble Has a New Cover!

“Trouble Like A Freight Train Coming” is a prequel to the Tai Randolph series. It's set in Savannah several years prior to the inheritance of her Atlanta gun shop and her first encounter with security agent Trey Seaver, who ultimately becomes her partner in both romance and crime solving. For readers familiar with the rest of Tai’s adventures, this story is a chance to watch her develop her sleuthing chops. For those meeting Tai for the first time...welcome to her slightly reckless, somewhat hungover, not-quite-respectable world.

Tai is accustomed to murder and mayhem . . . of the fictional variety. As a tour guide in Savannah, Georgia, she’s learned the tips are better when she seasons her stories with a little blood here, a little depravity there. She’s less experienced in real life criminality, however, preferring to spend her days sleeping late and her nights hitting the bars. But when she gets the news that her trouble-making cousin has keeled over while running a marathon, Tai finds herself in a hot mess of treachery and dirty dealings. Worst of all, the clues lead her straight into the moonshine-soaked territory of the most infamous smuggler in Chatham County—her Uncle Boone.
 
"Trouble" is available as a part of Lowcountry Crime: Four Novellas in both print and e-book, but it is also available as a standalone in Kindle, Nook, iBooks, Google Play, and Kobo. So check it out!

You can read more about the story's Bonaventure Cemetery setting—and sneak at peek at the opening scene—at Writers Who Kill.

LOWCOUNTRY CRIME Now Available in Nook, Kobo, Google Play, and iBooks!

The entire LOWCOUNTRY CRIME: FOUR NOVELLAS anthology is now available not just on Amazon, but also on Nook, iBooks, Google Play and Kobo.

LOWCOUNTRY: That portion of the Southeastern United States characterized by low country, generally flat—whether barrier island, tidal marsh, tidal river valleys, swamps, piney forests, or great cities like Charleston and Savannah.

CRIME: An act, forbidden by a public law, that makes the offender liable to punishment by that law.

These four novellas capture the unique aspects of the Lowcountry with stories incorporating Charleston high life and Savannah low life, island vacations and life on a boat. You’ll be treated to thieves doing good and rapscallions doing bad, loves won and loves lost, family relations providing wonderful support and life after divorce.

Each novella can be read in a single hour to hour-and-a-half sitting or enjoyed at a more leisurely pace, stopping at white space along the way. Within the broad range of the crime genre, these tales fit “north of cozy” and “south of noir.”

“Trouble Like A Freight Train Coming” by Tina Whittle is a prequel to her Tai Randolph Mysteries. Tai is accustomed to murder and mayhem . . . of the fictional variety. As a tour guide in Savannah, Georgia, she’s learned the tips are better when she seasons her stories with a little blood here, a little depravity there. She’s less experienced in real life criminality, however, preferring to spend her days sleeping late and her nights hitting the bars. But when she gets the news that her trouble-making cousin has keeled over while running a marathon, Tai finds herself in a hot mess of treachery and dirty dealings. Worst of all, the clues lead her straight into the moonshine-soaked territory of the most infamous smuggler in Chatham County—her Uncle Boone.

The novella is set in Savannah several years prior to the inheritance of her Atlanta gun shop and her first encounter with security agent Trey Seaver, who ultimately becomes her partner in both romance and crime solving. For readers familiar with the rest of Tai’s adventures, this story is a chance to watch her develop her sleuthing chops. For those meeting Tai for the first time...welcome to her slightly reckless, somewhat hungover, not-quite-respectable world.

In “Last Heist” by Polly Iyer, Paul Swan travels the world buying exotic automobiles for wealthy clients, but underneath his believable cover is a first-class, never-been-caught diamond thief.

When he sees a picture in the Charleston newspaper of a magnificent diamond necklace on the wife of a visiting South American strongman, he can’t resist the temptation to steal it. Paul doesn’t anticipate what he finds in the hotel room’s safe besides the jewels. Now he has to figure out how to stop a political catastrophe without exposing himself as the thief who stole the diamonds, and he has three people complicating his effort: a sexy TV reporter angling for a story, a suspicious cop eager for an arrest, and a rogue mercenary bent on ending his life.

“Blue Nude,” by Jonathan M. Bryant introduces us to Brad Sharpe, who has problems. Not just the problems you would expect resulting from traumatic injury and a destructive divorce. His ex-wife has gone missing and a priceless Picasso has been stolen. The cops have pegged Brad as a person of interest in both cases. Worse, a violent sociopath might want Brad dead. Only with the help of friends and his knowledge of the Georgia Lowcountry can Brad fight to clear his name and resolve the case of the Blue Nude.

In “Low Tide at Tybee,” James M. Jackson brings three of his Seamus McCree series characters (Seamus, his darts-throwing mother, and his now six-year-old granddaughter, Megan) to Tybee Island, Georgia to vacation and escape winter up north. Megan spots a thief going through their beach bags, after which their vacation unravels with a series of twists and turns that will leave you guessing until the end, trying to figure out who done what.