Little Luxuries by Krista Davis

Lucy Burdette: Most of you will have met my good friend Krista Davis in previous posts--she writes the delightful domestic diva mysteries, and she's also the brain behind a culinary mystery website, Mystery Lovers Kitchen, and she helps run Killer Characters. Don't even ask me where she found the time to write a brand new series, but it's coming in December and it sounds like so much fun! So I invited her here to talk about her inspiration. Welcome Krista!

Krista Davis: So pleased to be here! 

Have you seen the TV show Million Dollar Shoppers? Personal shoppers buy clothes for women who have more money than the national debt. Recently, one woman simply had to have a Birkin purse. More specifically, a purple crocodile Birkin purse.

Where have I been that I haven’t heard of these handbags? They’re nice looking rather proper ladies-who-lunch sort of bags made by Hermès. Very structured and elegant. Grace Kelly would have carried them. Definitely not for the slouchy shoulder bag or ginormous tote gang. Turns out there’s a waiting list for these babies. You can’t even look at them at Hermès online. Here’s the kicker. You can expect to pay $20,000 or more. Definitely more for purple crocodile, like around $82,000.

That started me thinking about luxuries. Would I even want an $82,000 purse? Are they like cars? Does the value go down as soon as you walk them out of the store?

In my new mystery series, the protagonist, Holly Miller, lives and works at the Sugar Maple Inn. There are drawbacks to living at your job, of course. Bed and breakfasts, inns, and hotels are the ultimate 24/7 businesses. If you live there, you’re on call all the time.

Years ago, I was an assistant manager at the largest convention hotel in Washington, DC. Fabulous hotel, and it was a wonderful job – the kind where you can’t believe they pay you to go to work every day. The general manager and regional manager lived on the premises, which meant they both showed up for crises, even in the middle of the night.

There were some nice perks to living there, though. Daily housekeeping of their apartments. On site dry cleaning. Bellmen to walk their dogs. If they felt like fresh strawberries and French pastries in the winter at nine o’clock at night they just popped into one of the kitchens and helped themselves. The Sugar Maple Inn isn’t quite that large but living there comes with some lovely perks. In the second book, I’ve added an aged English butler who delivers croissants and piping hot tea to Holly’s quarters in the morning while she’s still sleeping. Isn’t that heavenly? It’s like being a princess!

The fridge in the private kitchen is always well stocked with leftovers from breakfast, lunch, and teatime, so Holly rarely needs to cook. And her apartment is cleaned daily, even the litter box. Of course, she can’t afford a purple crocodile Birkin. But I don’t think she would even want one.

So what one luxury (only one, it may be imaginary but we don’t want to be greedy) would you truly love to have?

a) A purple crocodile Birkin
b) Croissants and hot coffee or tea delivered just before you wake.
c) Daily housekeeping.
d) A personal chef.
e) A personal driver.
f) Someone to do laundry and iron.
g) A personal assistant (no housework included)

And breaking news: To celebrate the launch of their mom's new series, Buttercup, Queenie, and Baron and their cat siblings, Mochie and Twinkletoes, are looking for dogs and cats to join their street crew. They're giving away Murder, She Barked bandanas to dogs and cats all month long! One lucky dog or cat who leaves a comment here today (it’s okay if their people leave comments for them) will win a bandana.

 Photos of winners (hopefully wearing their new Murder, She Barked bandanas) will be posted on Krista's website and on a Pinterest board so winning dogs and cats can share with their friends.

Krista Davis’s new series for animal lovers debuts on December 3rd, with MURDER, SHE BARKED. Like her characters, Krista has a soft spot for cats, dogs, and cupcakes. She lives in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia with three dogs, two cats, and no Birkins. The Diva Frosts a Cupcake is the seventh book in her Domestic Diva Mystery series. Three of those books have been nominated for Agatha awards and three have made the New York Times Bestseller list.  You can find her on Facebook, Pinterest, and Twitter.

 and PS from Lucy: Tonka has already joined the street team:)--he thinks it's a blast!

The Diva Does Diet by Krista Davis

LUCY BURDETTE: Since we tortured you with cake talk yesterday, it may be a relief for you to read this next post from Krista Davis. I had to giggle when I scanned it, as I'm just now finishing up Krista's brand new release THE DIVA DIGS UP THE DIRT. Her main character, Sophie, never meets a meal or a snack she doesn't like and she's a wonderful cook--which is part of the great fun in this series. And she's a regular person too--sometimes she has to resort to pants with an elastic waistline. Welcome Krista--and congrats on your New York Times bestselling author status!

KRISTA DAVIS: Warning: this post contains a four letter word that may be upsetting to some readers: diet.

I have been eating and overeating for years. So many that you’d think I would have it all figured out by now. As the author of the Domestic Diva Mysteries, I write about food, and I try out a lot of recipes. Well, I have to. It’s part of my job! But there came a time, not so coincidentally after Christmas, when my last guests left, and I had to face the truth. It was time.

Surprisingly, I discovered a few interesting things about food. I have to admit that I subscribe to the theory that you are what you eat. It’s pretty amazing how our bodies react to the fuel we put in them.

For instance, I found that when I ate a protein lunch with no breads or pasta, I didn’t get the three o’clock snooze crisis. Complex carbs were okay, like lentils or quinoa, but those pesky and wonderful breads and pastas put me right to sleep.

And speaking of sleeping, I scoffed at recommendations that sleep is important in losing weight. Whoops, so wrong. Days when I hadn’t slept enough were the worst. I compensate for lack of sleep by eating. When I’m tired, I try to perk up and find energy through food so I wind up consuming more. Who knew?

I was skeptical about the British study that recommended eating two eggs every day for breakfast. Seems women who did that lost more weight than those who ate something else. Those who ate eggs claimed they weren’t hungry mid-morning. They were right!

Thanks to research by the folks at Reader’s Digest, I learned that there are also fat-releasing foods. How cool is that? About an hour after exercising, we’re supposed to drink nonfat milk. It builds up our bones and sheds fat! Even better, small amounts of chocolate (yes, chocolate!) and walnuts also help us lose fat. Nonfat dairy, lean meats, and complex carbs help in that regard, too.

Remember, the no-fat-not-even-a-gram will pass my lips craze? How many bags of those fat-free cookies did we snarf? Hah! Turns out it’s still about calories and exercise.

But wait! There’s even news about exercise. The cool people (you know them, the ones who say things like awesome sauce when something good happens) call it cross-training. Turns out that if you exercise the same way every day your body gets used to it and figures out how to use fewer calories to accomplish it. So we don’t have to knock ourselves out on a treadmill every day (okay, I’m not fooling anyone, that’s something I never did, but I walk twice a day, uphill all the way both times). It’s better to lift weights one day and walk or run the next day. And that weight-lifting? Even the little bitty ones help. If you work out with them, they charge your metabolism and (I love this so much!) you burn calories while you sleep that night!

Now if I could only figure out a way for a computer mouse to charge up my metabolism. Thanks for inviting me to be here today. Now where did I leave that cupcake?

Krista Davis writes the Domestic Diva Mysteries. Her latest release, The Diva Digs up the Dirt, hit #31 on the extended New York Times Bestseller list. Visit Krista at www.divamysteries.com and http://www.mysteryloverskitchen.com

LUCY: And now we'd love to hear from you--tips about eating what you love but staying healthy too? 

Twitter 101

ROBERTA: As promised, our two good pals Krista Davis and Julie Hennrikus are here today to help us master Twitter. Let's start with basics, ladies. What should we be saying in our tweets?

Krista: Tweeting is a terrific way to brand yourself. For me, it's often about food, which suits my domestic diva brand. I share recipes and tips that I see. Here's the great thing, especially for those of us who are lazy -- you can tweet other people's information, and, even better, they'll love you for it. If Roberta posts a recipe on a blog, I can tweet to share the blog site and her recipe. I'm helping my own domestic diva brand, and Roberta is getting more traffic on the blog. It's a win-win situation.

Julie: I agree that Twitter is a great way to brand yourself with a broad brush. Though I started to tweet to build a "following" in the hopes of publishing a book (or series) some day, I now tweet about much more than mysteries, or writing. Twitter is a great way to build your community around your brand, and around your interests.

You should tweet about all of your interests, and follow people with like interests. Are you a sports fan? Tweet about it. Did you see a play you liked? Send out a tweet and call out the company. Are you passionate about a subject? Use twitter as a platform.

A couple of rules of thumb I use--be positive in your tweets about other people. Don't say anything that you wouldn't say over a loud speaker. Also, pay it forward. Use 80% of your tweets to talk about other people, or their work. Don't just be a one note marketing tweeter--that is a sure way to get unfollowed very quickly.


Krista: Julie, your examples demonstrate so well that Twitter is for everyone. No matter what you write, or what your passions are, you'll find it on Twitter. I often recommend that beginners tweet about their favorite sports teams or their alma maters. It's a great way to get the hang of Twitter.

I agree about being positive, too. Unless you tweet a private direct message to someone, everything you tweet is 100% public. Be careful what you say!

It's okay to spread the word about your blog, or a new book, or a wonderful review, but tweeting about yourself all the time is a guaranteed way to bore people. Forget the hard sale because it's an instant turnoff. Give people something in your tweets like a link to a great blog or article.

ROBERTA: How about your best tips for getting people to follow?

Krista: I guess it's obvious that tweeting useful information is one way. There's good news, though, the more you tweet, the more you'll be followed. There's software that tracks this kind of thing and is used to recommend followers to other people.

Julie: RT (or retweet) often. Try to add a comment when you can. Send "congrats" tweets. Make sure to use people or company's handles in your tweet, because that increases the chances of your tweet getting read and the other person following you. Follow hashtags that interest you (one example from my day job is #2amT, which is a twitter hashtag for people discussing the ideas about theater that wake them up at 2am. Wonderful conversations.) Chime into conversations and use hashtags. Participate. You will get followers, and they do grow incrementally.

Krista: Don't be afraid to follow people. If you follow a few people each day, you'll be surprised how fast they add up.

ROBERTA: how do we keep track of all this?

Krista: Oh, I was so glad when I discovered TweetDeck. Up until then, I just didn't understand how anyone could read all the messages flashing by faster than a speeding bullet. With TweetDeck (and no, they don't pay me), I can choose what I want to see. I can follow discussions and people I like. It's also a dynamite way to find out if a certain word works well as a hashtag (#). If you type in a word and boring posts come up, you know it's a dud.


Julie: Krista is a TweetDeck fan. I love Hootsuite. It is the same thing in many ways, but I find that it works on all of my computers and my smartphone, which makes things very easy.

Once you decide to use either one of these programs you can set up a stream to follow lists (that you have set up in Twitter), #hashtags, key words or specific people. Also make sure you set up a search for yourself. That way you can respond when someone mentions you or retweets.

This is a really helpful way to make sure you have a continuous presence without spending hours on Twitter. Because I (as @JulieHennrikus) am fairly active people assume I spend hours a day. Instead I spend fifteen minutes twice a day.

Another great thing about these programs is that you can schedule tweets.

ROBERTA: What about these lists?

Krista: Lists are a terrific way to meet a lot of other people who are interested in the things that interest you. For instance, I have a list of writers. If you want to be friends with writers, have a look at the people on my list. I bet you know some of them already! (It's super easy to follow people from a list. All you have to do is click on FOLLOW.) You can also get more followers by having a great list. I've had people ask to be included on my food list. And, believe it or not, there are even people who track lists and rate them.

Julie: First of all, anyone new to Twitter should go to Krista's lists and subscribe to them. They are great for writers. I also have lists for my different areas of interest, though I will admit I am behind in keeping up with them. Lists are another great way to clear out some of the Twitter noise and focus. That said, just read your stream once in a while. You will always find something new.

ROBERTA: Any final thoughts on Twitter?

Julie: First, Twitter is an incredibly useful, FREE tool. Use it.
Second, Twitter is more than marketing, it is community building. Some of the conversations I have followed, or blogs I have been linked to, have been inspiring, informational or moving. So don't just use it to sell your book. Use it to engage with people.
Third, chose your Twitter handle carefully. After much thought a recent job change had me change my handle from @cozytwitt to @JulieHennrikus. I thought that the ED of a service organization should have a more serious name in case of retweeting.
Fourth, tweets last, so be careful about how you use those 140 (or 120 so that you can be retweeted) characters.
Fifth: Twitter can be fun. Follow a few pithy people (@SteveMartinToGo and @BadBanana both make me laugh) and see how it is done. Or use TweetChat during an event (#projectrunway was always a good time) and meet like minded folks.

Krista: 1. Twitter is probably the easiest, least time-consuming marketing tool available. All the more reason to use it.

2. Twitter will prevent you from adding more followers if your follower/followee ratio is skewed. (Don't worry, it doesn't start happening until you follow about 1,000 people.) It's good Twitter etiquette to follow people who follow you. If you don't follow other people, they will dump you. It's not an insult. It's how it works. Use Twitter Karma to get rid of people who don't follow you, so you can even out your ratio. http://dossy.org/twitter/karma/

3. If you use Twitter for marketing, or even to interact with agents, your Twitter name should be short (you don't want to waste characters!) and recognizable. You're tweeting to be seen.

4. The shorter your tweets are, the more likely they will be retweeted.

5. Some people consider it poor form to link your tweets to your Facebook page because you're likely to bombard some people by sending the message to them at both locations. Besides, you can say so much more at Facebook. Keep them separate.

ROBERTA: Thanks a million Julie and Krista! Now these mavens of tweetology are standing by for your questions...

J.A. (Julie) Hennrikus is the Executive Director of StageSource, an arts service organization for theater artists and organizations in the Boston area. Her short story "Tag, You're Dead" was published in Level Best Books anthology THIN ICE last fall. She tweets under @JulieHennrikus

Krista Davis is the National Bestselling Author of The Domestic Diva Mysteries published by Berkley Prime Crime. Her first mystery, THE DIVA RUNS OUT OF THYME, was nominated for an Agatha award. The fifth book in the series, THE DIVA HAUNTS THE HOUSE, will be in stores on September 6th and is now available for pre-order. Krista is proud to have a short story, DEAD EYE GRAVY, in the Guppy Anthology FISH TALES. Visit Krista at her website and her blog where mystery writers cook up crime . . . and recipes! If you follow Krista (@KristaDavis), she promises to follow you back.

and please follow your Jungle Reds on twitter too: @lucyburdette, @hank_phillippi, @jspencerfleming, @rhysbowen, @deborahcrombie, @janbrogan, @rosemaryharris1, and someday, maybe, Hallie....