Carole Epstein, sister of Wendy, and author of two delightful mysteries set in her home city of Montreal, gave the Bedfordshire Book Group's July gathering a highly entertaining inside look at how she got started on her writing career. We could probably all identify with her original motivation -- boredom while sitting at a condo meeting. Fed up with hearing the same old speeches over and over again, Carole let her mind run wild, and came up with her heroine Barbara Simon, a condo dweller and amateur sleuth. By the time the meeting was over, she had written the first pages of her first book on the back of the handout papers.

Publication of Perilous Friends eventually came as a result of contacts made at a mystery writers conference. Unfortunately, her publisher, Walker, stopped publishing mysteries after the second book, Perilous Relations, came out. There is a third Barbara mystery, Perilous Consequences, ready and waiting, but it is increasingly difficult to get published unless an author is a big-name star, or has a book with resale value for movies or TV. Carole's agent is working on it, and hopes to have a new publisher lined up soon, who will bring out the latest book and also issue the first two in paperback.

Bedfordshire sends Carole a big THANKS for providing us with such a memorable book group experience.

-- July 14, 2003