Adventures with Appliance Service

When you have a problem with an appliance such as an air conditioning unit, do you ever groan at what you’re about to go through? For me, I’ve learned to accept that it will take a good portion of my time, numerous phone calls and the hope that things will end up better.

One example. Our A/C  has gone out twice in the last two weeks. Of course both times it was on a Sunday afternoon when the answering service took the call. Come Monday morning I had to call again and get in the queue for service. The first time parts had to be ordered (3 to 5 day delivery time). Fortunately, the company loaned us a portable unit for our bedroom so we had some relief. After the same symptoms appeared, a crew showed up and hopefully the problem has been solved.

Second example. We have an internet, phone and TV bundle. When our two year contract ran out, I called to make changes. I asked the person to email me a confirmation. Never received. A month later I called again and left a message. No response. When the contract period ended with no change other than our rate going up, I called again. No record of the changes agreed to. This service person put the changes in place and gave me a confirmation number. One thing never mentioned by the person I talked to earlier: a service person needed to make changes in our house. Now we get to wait two weeks for that. Oh well. Maybe it will actually get changed.

The Anticipation of a New Novel Being Published

Each time one of my new books comes out, I eagerly await the release date. This is equally true for Death of a Scam Artist, which will be published August 15, as with my previous thirteen books.

In Death of a Scam Artist, a financial hatchet man who dislikes old people, accepts the job of turning around a failing retirement home and undergoes a life-transforming experience in the world of geezers and geezerettes. He must deal with a suspicious death, a scam, a hit man, an unexpected romance and retired magician Jerry Rhine and his five whacky sidekicks known as the Jerry-atrics. He faces the most important decision of his life when he uncovers the secret behind an unusual murder.

Death of a Scam Artist (ISBN 978-1-893035-38-7), is available for pre-order from Amazon  http://amzn.to/2tbRf9x  Kindle http://amzn.to/2tJBPMi  and Nook http://bit.ly/2vesE5f   

 

Older Characters in Mystery Novels

As a mystery writer, I enjoy writing about older characters. They can appear innocuous, but by being observant. they can solve a mystery and surprise the bad guys. In my six book Paul Jacobson Geezaer-lit Mystery Series the protagonist is in his mid-eighties and suffers from short-term memory loss, yet he becomes an amateur sleuth.

My next mystery novel, which will be published in August, features a whole new cast of characters. The protagonist is in his early forties, but he has a life-transforming experience with a group of older characters who live in a retirement home. For more information about this book, Death of a Scam Artist, check my website http://www.mikebefeler.com. The e-book edition is available for preorder at http://amzn.to/2tJBPMi

Geezer-lit Mysteries

Many of my published books are geezer-lit mysteries. For those of you unfamiliar with the sub-genre, these are mystery novels that feature older characters. For many years at mystery conferences such as The Left Coast Crime Conference, Bouchercon and Malice Domestic, I wore my geezer-lit mysteries straw hat. In the last two years, I’ve set it aside because I have published paranormal, historical, theater and sports mysteries as well as a thriller and a non-fiction biography of a World War II veteran.

But I need to dust off my geezer-lit mystery straw hat because my next book coming out in August is a geezer-lit mystery with a whole new cast of characters. The protagonist is in his forties, but the novel takes place in a retirement home, and many quirky older characters play key roles. More to come. Stay tuned.