For Immediate Release

Publicity Goes Awry for Local Author!

Southern N.H. - November 6, 2006 - With less than one week left until the New England Crime Bake, I was relaxing and reading the Sunday paper when I happened to come across an article titled "N.H. authors featured at mystery conference" in the Nashua Telegraph. More specifically, it was about local authors appearing at Crime Bake and I was one of them. As I read on, my foot propped up after some recent foot surgery, I laughed so hard I nearly fell off the couch. The paragraph or two about me was information I had provided to a publicist for Crime Bake. I never expected it to go out to the general public. Mystery writers typically have had experiences in their lives that they draw on when they write. For some reason, I thought I was giving the publicist my background so my fellow crime writers would know where exactly I fit in. I can only chuckle about what the neighbors must think reading the article.

The truth is, I have been a witness, and yes, even a suspect in far more than my share of criminal cases, in and out of the news. And the joke is, of course, I'm never anything more than a bystander. Not that staring into a serial killer's eyes as he snatches someone is in any way funny. Or that being grilled by a police detective or being threatened while appearing before a grand jury by an assistant district attorney that your son will be born in jail is pleasant at the time. But the truth has always managed to come out. Sometimes it takes longer than others and, as everyone who read the article in the Telegraph now knows, sometimes it can be expedited by taking a polygraph. And eventually, it's even possible to laugh at some of the more absurd stuff like being accused of dealing drugs when it's clear you have nothing at all to do with illegal drugs or, more recently, the suggestion you had something to do with the great pillow case heist of New Smyrna Beach, Florida.

So, to sum up, my life does read like one of my stories. Whether or not it qualifies me to write crime fiction, who knows. All I can say for sure is I love to write and get published. I guess if the Crime Bake and I get a little publicity out of the article and it sells a couple extra copies of Seasmoke, I don't mind. If it give me the opportunity to sell one of my novels, even better! And if someday I find myself on Oprah's, Ellen's, or Rachel Ray's talk show, telling my bizarre stories, well I guess I will have finally made it.

Sharon (S.A.Daynard)