Author Guest Post with W.F. Ranew

Welcome to the March 15th stop on the blog tour for Blood Mug by W.F. Ranew, organized by Goddess Fish Promotions. Be sure to follow the rest of the show for excerpts, reviews, author guest/interview posts, and a giveaway! More on that at the end of this post.

Please note that this post contains affiliate links, which means there is no additional cost to you if you shop using my links, but I will earn a small percentage in commission. A program-specific disclaimer is at the bottom of this post.

Author Guest Post

The creation of my favorite female character

Women play major roles in most of my fiction. The character Myra Feigenbaum appears in two of my novels, Blue Magnolia and the latest, Blood Mug.

Her character is based on women I’ve known over the years, mostly as clients or in my hometown and women in my family.

Myra is a strong woman and, for me, a strong character. She’s quite wealthy, having inherited millions from her family and from the death of her husband. She was twenty-four when his airplane crashed in Virginia woods.

Myra is known and respected for her generosity to arts organizations and helping people in need. She has a friendly and open manner, plays tennis, and lives in Atlanta’s Buckhead community. Myra  befriends Red Farlow in Blue Magnolia and hires him in Blood Mug to investigate murders at a pottery studio. Through her civic involvement over the years, Myra has an enviable network. Red believes she knows everybody living in the state of Georgia.

Woman characters for me are easy to write. In additional to the professional role models, I grew up in a family of strong, and strong-minded, women. Two of my aunts were the first family members to graduate from college. One paid her tuition in the early 1900s with gold coins she inherited from her grandmother.

My mother grew up on a farm during the Depression. She worked hard to become a bookkeeper.  As a mother, she raised two boys and kept my father happy with her coconut cream pies. She met him through the First Baptist Church in my hometown. My father saw a pretty newcomer singing in the choir and decided to meet her. He asked around. Turns out his mother was best friends with my mother’s older aunt, with whom she lived at the time. It didn’t take long for them to get together and fall in love, but World War II delayed their marriage a few years.

I’m also married to a beautiful woman who’s a psychotherapist. We have three daughters and four granddaughters, all of whom exhibit traits of intelligence, creativity, and strong wills.

All provide plenty of input for developing female characters.

About the Book

Blood Mug
Red Farlow Mysteries Book Four
by W.F. Ranew

Published 24 February 2021
Tirgearr Publishing

Genre: Mystery
Page Count: 253
Add it to your Goodreads TBR!

PI Red Farlow has a meeting with Wickham Art Center board chair in Atlanta, but when he arrives, he finds the chairman slumped over his potter’s wheel with a medieval battle dagger protruding from his back.

During the investigation, other victims are discovered in the pottery studio, each meeting the same gruesome end as the chairman. Is the dagger a dramatic flourish of a twisted mind, or a more profound message?

Clues soon reveal a real estate scheme—wealthy Venezuelan investors plan to plow Wickham under and build condos on the site.

Red gets his hands muddy as he throws himself into finding the answers.

Amazon US | Amazon CA | Amazon UK

Excerpt

I left the coffee shop and walked up the street to my truck. My phone was dying and needed a recharge on the portable battery. I heard a male voice from behind. It was someone who knew me.

“Hey, Red. You sorry old fox. What the hell are you doing in Athens?” the man said.

I turned and saw the familiar face of Ruddy Mercer, whom I’d known in South Georgia. Looked as if he was about to enter Jazzy Java but instead stepped my way…

Ruddy was my neighbor, fishing pal, hunting buddy, fellow Georgia Bulldog fan, and a single man, as I was at the time. Unfortunately for Ruddy, his wife of twenty- six years passed away from cancer three years after I moved into a bungalow two doors down. Rebecca was a sweet lady and kept Ruddy in regular attendance at the First Baptist Church.

He quit attending Sunday services after Rebecca died…

We chatted on the sidewalk for ten minutes. Nothing much new with Ruddy, at least from what he told me.

He never looked in a hurry, but I wanted to get back to wait for Karen.

I asked if he was getting coffee while handing him a card. “I’m in Atlanta on a case right now.”

“I’ll be there on some business in a few weeks. I’ll give you a jingle,” Ruddy said.

We walked into the shop where he ordered a coffee from Karen, paid, and left once she served him in a paper cup. I waved goodbye as Ruddy walked out the door.

About the Author

W.F. Ranew is the author of the Red Farlow Mysteries series of ebook s from Tirgearr Publishing. He’s launching Blood Mug (#4) on Feb. 24, 20210. Other Red Farlow stories are Rich and Gone (#1), Blue Magnolia (#2), and Eat Beach (#3).

Ranew is a former newspaper reporter, editor and communication executive. He started his journalism career covering sports, police, and city council meetings at his hometown newspaper, The Quitman Free Press. He also worked as a reporter and editor for The Augusta (Ga.) Chronicle, The Florida Times-Union and the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. In corporate communications, he has written speeches for President Jimmy Carter and leaders of public companies, including Bank of America, CitiGroup, Equifax, NCR, The Coca-Cola Company, and ING.

Early in his career, he worked as part-time radio dispatcher for a small-town police department.

Ranew has self-published two previous novels: Schoolhouse Man and Candyman’s Sorrow.

He lives in Atlanta and St. Simons Island, Ga.

Website | Blog | Facebook | Twitter | Tirgearr | Amazon

Giveaway Alert!

W.F. Ranew will be awarding a $15 Amazon or Barnes & Noble gift card to a randomly drawn winner via rafflecopter during the tour.

Disclaimer: As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.