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Braylee Parkinson

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A Sylvia Wilcox Christmas

Writing Update

November 20, 2020 by brayleep

*(Posts on this website contain affiliate links. Affiliate links do not cost you anything to use, and I receive a small commission if you use them. This helps pay for the website and editing of the serial story.)

I’m writing Road to Nowhere, the fifth novel in the Sylvia Wilcox mystery series, this month. November is National Novel Writing Month, and the goal is to write at least 50,000 words. Today  I have a little over 46,000 words. I expect to reach 50,000 words by Sunday. Now that a lot of the first draft is done, time has been freed up time for me to do some research. This is excellent because Sylvia and Martin will be traveling to several U.S. states this time around.

I was born and raised in Detroit, but I’ve always had a fixation with the Old West. There’s just something enchanting about deserts, Old West towns, and mountains. I’ll never forget my first train ride through the Rocky Mountains. I’d purchased a one-way train ticket because I didn’t know where I’d end up. Initially, I thought New Mexico or Colorado would be my final destination, but I ended up staying in Utah. Once I was settled in, I started taking road trips to the national parks and surrounding states. Before I married, most of my traveling was done alone, and while some roads were interesting, dangerous, or full of sites to see, many of them were just roads through scrub brush or foothills. I made up stories to pass the time, and now that I’m mostly at home, those stories have come back to dance around in my head.

Road to Nowhere was inspired by a trip we took in 2019. We took our time meandering around Wyoming, looking for cool sites to see. We spent a night in Laramie and explored the town the next morning, but all the other exploring we did took place on empty, isolated roads. This idea thatWriting this story is a great reminder of how much fun road trips are! This is the first year in over a decade that I haven’t taken a road trip anywhere. Spending time recalling memories of previous journeys has helped keep me upbeat and happy this year.

​A Sylvia Wilcox Christmas was released today. I am very excited to have a holiday-themed book in the series! The story will tie up a few loose ends from the previous books, so if you haven’t read Who She Was or Displacement, A Sylvia Wilcox Christmas will be SO much more fun if you read those two books first. Remember, Who She Was is free, so if you haven’t given it a read, now is the perfect time time to pick it up.

The Sylvia Wilcox series deals with mysteries but there are other themes that can be found in all of the stories. One major theme is identity. Who we are, the labels we wear, and the way that we live are inspired by our experiences and who we’ve been told to be. This theme has always fascinated me and it keeps popping up in my stories. Why are you the person you are right now? Have you changed over time? Or do you view yourself as the same person you were a year ago? Ten years ago?

 

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: A Sylvia Wilcox Christmas, author braylee parkinson, Braylee Parkinson, Displacement, Sylvia Wilcox Mysteries, Who She Was

A Sylvia Wilcox Christmas: A Mystery With A Twist!

October 15, 2020 by brayleep

Sylvia Wilcox takes a much-needed vacation for the holidays. While she’s relaxing and enjoy time away from the office, a mysterious note shows up accusing her of fraud. Disturbed by this accusation, Sylvia begins to investigate. Save 50% on this page-turner by preordering now! https://books2read.com/u/31qL0l

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: A Sylvia Wilcox Christmas, Braylee Parkinson, Christmas ebooks, Christmas mystery, mystery suspense holiday books

Fall Colors and “Research” For The Next Book

September 23, 2020 by brayleep

Hello Readers,

Autumn is upon us! This is my favorite season and since Utah has such an abbreviated version of it, we headed to thee mountains yesterday to check out the beautiful trees. This year has been incredibly dry, so there’s more red than usual. We drove up to Snowbasin Ski Resort to get a good look. We were not disappointed.

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The next book in the series is actually a holiday novella, A Sylvia Wilcox Christmas that brings Sylvia back to the Ogden River Valley for vacation. I’m having so much fun writing this book! It’s going to be a short, action packed, fun read. I wanted to head to the area where part of the story takes place. This was also a great way to see the autumn colors.

Ogden Canyon The picture was taken near Snowbasin Ski Resort in Ogden Canyon. It’s so beautiful at this time of the year!

Pineview Reservoir has especially vibrant colors this year. As I mentioned earlier, it’s be very dry this summer. There was some haze in the air from the fires in Oregon and California, but it was clearer the closer we got to the valley floor.

So, I had to close my eyes to imagine that there was snow everywhere, but it wasn’t too hard to do. I guess you could call this a bit of research for the book. It really helped me envision some of the scenes from the book, and get a nuanced view of the places I describe in the book. Snow is still a ways off, but you could feel an undercurrent of cool air, masked by the warm temperatures and brilliant sunshine.

A Sylvia Wilcox Christmas will answer the number one question readers email me about. Don’t know what that is? All the better! The book will be even more of a mystery for you!

Okay, okay. I have to give you something, right? Here’s the description and cover. Let your imagination run wild with speculation!

Sylvia Wilcox closes her private detective agency for the holidays and heads to Utah for a long, relaxing vacation in the Ogden River Valley’s snow-covered mountains. After enjoying a few days on the slopes her assistant, Martin, calls and tells her about a mysterious note delivered to the office that accuses Sylvia of fraud. Disturbed and curious about this note, Sylvia finds it hard to concentrate on vacation and ends up chasing down leads that take her on a painful trip down memory lane. Will Sylvia’s determination to always seek the truth backfire? Or will she end up having a surprisingly pleasant holiday season?

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*(Posts on this website contain affiliate links. Affiliate links do not cost you anything to use, and I receive a small commission if you use them. This helps pay for the website and editing of the serial story.)

 

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: A Sylvia Wilcox Christmas, Braylee Parkinson, Sylvia Wilcox Mysteries

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