Please help me welcome today’s guest, Susie Black with her Hobby, Career, Passion Post: The Philatelist: How Stamp Collecting Made Me a Better Writer…
I have been an avid philatelist since I was twelve years old. What is a philatelist? It’s a fancy word for a stamp collector. My introduction to stamp collecting was with a birthday gift of an album filled with stamps from one of my mother’s cousins. While the stamps fascinated me, other than attaching them to an envelope, I didn’t know much more about them. I took the album to a neighborhood coin and stamp store to see if the proprietor could teach me about stamp collecting. The first time I walked into that store, a magical world opened up for me that impacted my life in more ways than I could ever have imagined.
I credit my lifelong love affair with stamps and their influence on my writing to the generous, knowledgeable store proprietor. Every Friday after school, I went home to collect my weekly allowance and stamp album and then rode my bicycle to the stamp store.
Always wearing a jeweler’s loupe and a magnifying glass on a lanyard around his neck, Mr. Albin was so willing to answer all your questions, teach you everything you wanted to learn, and exuded so much enthusiasm about his chosen field, that even the most skeptical customer couldn’t help but become a fan. He was a wonderful teacher who taught me the proper way to handle and evaluate the quality of stamps.
After making my selections, I’d bring them to the proprietor to ring up, and that’s when the magic began. He had a story for every stamp, and his vivid descriptions made the stamps come alive. With one commemorating the casualties of our Civil War, his eyes filled as he whispered, as though praying in a Chapel. With another celebrating the end of slavery, he spoke with the fervor of a preacher. No matter what the story, he told it like a novel with a beginning, a middle, an ending, and a point of view. He told each story his special way; taking his time, slowly building up to the cliffhanger, and dramatically pausing right before the climax. Talk about pacing and how to build tension up to the finale. Mr. Albin had it down pat. He was my tour director on weekly adventures with stamps serving as the tickets for the ride.
I incorporated my hobby into a key scene in Death by Jelly Beans, my latest mystery. The stamp collector protagonist encountered a murder suspect’s spouse at a stamp store, which set another murder in motion. My view of the world and people play a major role in the writing style I learned from a marvelous man every Friday afternoon who led me by the hand on the continuing adventure of a lifetime through stamps.
Very interesting how you became involved in stamp collecting. Thank you for sharing. Now, please tell us about your book…
“Brings a whole new meaning to the rabbit died.”
Blurb:
Mermaid Swimwear President Holly Schlivnik discovers the Bainbridge Department Store Easter Bunny slumped over dead and obnoxious swimwear buyer Sue Ellen Magee is arrested for the crime. Despite her differences with the nasty buyer, Holly is convinced the Queen of Mean didn’t do it. The wise-cracking, irreverent amateur sleuth jumps into action to nail the real killer. But the trail has more twists than a pretzel and more turns than a rollercoaster. And nothing turns out how Holly thinks it will as she tangles with a clever killer hellbent on revenge.
Excerpt:
The door to Sue Ellen’s office flew open and a six-foot tall rabbit I’d later learn named Pedro Conejo, President of Rent a Rabbit Characters, stalked out and bowled me over as I tried vainly to get out of his way.
The messenger bag containing samples and the presentation information fell off my shoulder and bounced across the room. The flap of the unzipped messenger bag flipped open, scattering everything inside it from one end of the room to the other.
The rabbit gripped the two ears atop the head with his paws. He ripped the headpiece straight up and off with a furious jerk and shoved it under his right armpit. He turned, faced Sue Ellen’s open door, and screamed loud enough for anyone at the mart three blocks away to hear. “You can’t prove a damned thing. Think you’ll get away with this? We have a contract. I’ll get you fired for this; you bitch!”
Then the rabbit removed the left paw of his costume with his teeth and gave Sue Ellen the middle finger salute. He hurdled over my prone body splayed out on the floor and stomped out of the office without so much as an apology for knocking me over, let alone an offer to help me up.
I sat up and poked my extremities to make sure nothing more than my pride had been injured. Satisfied my body, if not my self-respect, remained in one piece, I shook myself to get out the kinks the way my standard poodle Siggie does after a bath. I stretched as far as possible and grabbed the messenger bag. I spent the next five minutes crawling on all fours around the room, stuffing everything back inside the case. Note to self: Next time, zip the damned bag closed.
As I shoved the last sample back in the messenger bag, Sue Ellen’s assistant came out of the buyer’s office and observed me sprawled across the floor. I bit the inside of my cheek not to laugh as Abby deadpanned. “Sue Ellen will see you now.”
Buy link(s):
https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/death-by-jelly-beans-susie-black/1145804565?ean=2940186124580
https://www.bookbub.com/books/death-by-jelly-beans-holly-swimsuit-mystery-book-5-by-susie-black
Amazon.com : Death by Jelly Beans
About the Author:
Named Best US Author of the Year by N. N. Lights Book Heaven, award-winning cozy mystery author Susie Black was born in the Big Apple but now calls sunny Southern California home. Like the protagonist in her Holly Swimsuit Mystery Series Susie is a successful apparel sales executive. Susie began telling stories as soon as she learned to talk. Now she’s telling all the stories from her garment industry experiences in humorous mysteries. She reads, writes, and speaks Spanish, albeit with an accent that sounds like Mildred from Michigan went on a Mexican vacation and is trying to fit in with the locals. Since life without pizza and ice cream as her core food groups wouldn’t be worth living, she’s a dedicated walker to keep her girlish figure. A voracious reader, she’s also an avid stamp collector. Susie lives with a highly intelligent man and has one incredibly brainy but smart-aleck adult son who inexplicably blames his sarcasm on an inherited genetic defect.
Contact Links:
Book Bub: www.bookbub.com/authors/susie-black
Facebook: https://facebook.com/TheHollySwimsuitMysterySeries
Good Reads: Search results for “Susie Black” (showing 1-9 of 82 books) | Goodreads
Instagram: Susie Black (@hollyswimsuit) • Instagram photos and videos
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/authorsusieblack-61941011
Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/hollysusie1_saved/
Twitter: http://twitter.com/@hollyswimsuit
Looking for more? Contact Susie at:
Website: www.authorsusieblack.com
E-mail: mysteries_@authorsusieblack.com
Author Alicia Dean 