China Bayles Series

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Susan Witting Albert's

China Bayles mystery series

Susan’s stories have appeal to urban environmentalist with a twist of gentle mystery. This mystery series features herbalist China Bayles, who abandoned her career as a hot-shot Houston criminal attorney to buy an herb shop in a small Texas town. China wants the things that many women seek: a quieter life, rewarding work, a close relationship, friends, and community. Each of her mysteries has a signature herb that is connected to a major theme, and each is liberally laced with information on growing and using herbs. The China Bayles’ novels have been praised for their intelligent plots, quirky and appealing characters. She describes her stories as “cozy mysteries” because they contain little graphic violence and no gratuitous behavior. Susan claims that she has never featured a plant she hasn’t grown.

The small town Texas setting gives Susan Albert the opportunity to write about issues effecting all of us including: Farming and water issues, food quality, urban gardening, animal and crime victims right. The following web links on her web page can help her readers stay informed on more local issues.

Food and Farming : Eating Local & Urban Gardens

Chicago area sources for locally grown foods

http://www.americantowns.com/il/chicago-local-food

\Local Harvest

http://www.localharvest.org/buylocal.jsp

Lists of local farmers market including winter markets

http://www.illinoisfarmdirect.org/results.cfm

Urban Agriculture News from the City Farmer:

http://www.cityfarmer.info/

Victory Garden Revival

http://www.squidoo.com/victorygardenrevival

University of Illinois Extension

Http://web.extension.uiuc.edu/state

Pick your own – farm fresh food

www.pickyourownorg/ILchicago

National Family Farm Coalition

www.nffc.net

Kitchen Gardeners

http://www.kitchengardeners.org/

Path to Freedom

http://www.pathtofreedom.com/

Crime victim advocacy

http://www.illinoisattorneygeneral.gov/victims/index.html

Animal Protection Advocacy

http://muttcats.com/index.htm

A word about her bibliographies:

One of the best features of a China Bayles mystery is the side bar and bibliographies. This is great way to get background information on the varied activities that her characters enjoy. Susan personal reading choices can be found in Library Thing a website for book lovers to share favorite books. http://www.librarything.com/catalog/susanalbert.

You can find details about up coming books, recipes from her tea room restaurant, book study guides, decorating ideas and sign up for their e-newsletter Susan and Bill Albert’s web page http://mysterypartners.com/

If you want to learn more about what it might be like to live the life of a professional writer see her blog. http://susanalbert.typepad.com/lifescapes/

About The Author – the Illinois Connection

Susan Albert was born Susan Witting in Chicago, grew up in downstate Illinois, attending Danville High School. By the time she was 21 she was the mother of three and a freshman in college. She earned a bachelors degree from the University of Illinois. Her academic success led to a PhD from the University of California in Berkeley. She achieved tenure teaching English at the University of Texas going on to become a college administrator and vice president at SWT.

Her second love (after being a mother and now great grandmother) is her writing. In the 1980s she started following a childhood dream and became a ghost writer. There is a long list of children book series that she contributed to - the most famous is the Nancy Drew mystery series under the penname Carolyn Keene. She also started writing for Country Living Gardener magazine.

By the 1990’s she and her husband,Bill, decided to leave their respective careers to write full time. They have co-written the Robin Paige Victorian Mysteries, set in the Late Victorian era. Susan Albert is also the author of The Cottage Tales of Beatrix Potter, a series of mysteries featuring author Beatrix Potter.

Susan Albert is a strong advocate of woman rights and creative work life style choices. She wrote the nonfiction Work of Her Own, and Writing from Life: A Journal of Self-Discovery for Women. The second nonfiction work led to on-line writing workshops designed to encourage female authors called Story Circle. http://www.storycircleonlineclasses.org/

A word about the awards.

The first book in the China Bayles series, Thyme of Death was both an Agatha Award and an Anthony Award nominee. The Agatha Awards has been presented annually since 1989 at a "fun fan" convention sponsored by Malice Domestic® a professional organization saluting the traditional mystery--books best typified by the works of Agatha Christie.

The genre is defined as mysteries which contain no explicit sex or excessive gore; and usually featuring an amateur detective, in a confined setting, and characters who know one another. You can learn more http://www.malicedomestic.org/agathaawards.

The World Mystery Convention confers the Anthony Awards at Bouchercon, a convention for mystery fans held every year in October. The names of the award and the conference honor Anthony Boucher, pen name of William Anthony Parker White. http://www.bouchercon2009.com/

Check out our Databases:

Look under On Line Resources on our web page to connect to data bases. Novelist includes links to many award winning books in different genres including the Agatha and Anthony Awards. http://search.ebscohost.com/Community.aspx?custid=s9058645&authtype=ip&ugt=723731963C0635573786356632453E5227E368D36213689361E321E336133503&return=y

Country Living Gardener Magazine.

Is not part of our collection but her articles are easy to find in Magazine Index - Gale OneFile.

Gardening and decorating periodicals.

Remember that you can check out periodicals.

If you enjoy Susan Albert writing on environmental and gardening issues you can find similar information in:

Chicago Wilderness Midwest Living

Martha Stewart Living Chicago Garden

Organic Gardening Fine Gardening

Country Living

If you like Susan Albert try:

McCall Smith, Alexander

Eglin, Anthony

Davidson, Diane Mott

Levene, Joyce

Farmer, Jerrilyn

Herbal Sampling

A Sampling of Herbal Authors on Susan Witting Albert’s Bookshelves that you will find in her bibliographies:

The Study of Witchcraft. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Lipp, Deborah 133.43

Green Magic: Flowers, Plants & Herbs in Lore & Legend. . . . . Gordon, Lesley 398.368

Folklore and Symbolism of Flowers Plants and Trees . . . . . . . . . Lehner, Ernst 398.368

Folklore and Odysseys of Food and Medicinal Plants . . . . . . . . . ..Lehner, Ernst 581.508

Rodale’s Illustrated Encyclopedia of Herbs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 581.630

Doctors’ Book of Home Remedies. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .610.000

Heinerman’s Encyclopedia of Fruits, Vegetables and Herbs Heinerman, John 615.32103

The Herbal Drugstore: the Best Natural Alternatives to Over the Counter and Prescription Medicine. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .White, Linda 615.321

For Women Only Chinese Herbal Formulas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Xu, Hongyuan 615.321

A Different Kind of Healing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Janiger, Oscar 615.5

Herbal Medicine Expanded Commission E Monographs. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .615.5

Australian Tea Tree Oil Guide. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Olsen, Cynthia 615.32376

Ginkgo, a Practical Guide . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Helpern, Georges 615.327

Home Remedies What Works . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Malesky, Gail 615.88

Sleeping with a Sunflower: a Treasury of Old-time Garden Lore . . .Riotte, Louise 635.00

Pleasure of Herbs: A Month to Month Guide . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . Shaudys, Phyllis 635.7

Herbs: Gardens, Decorations, and Recipes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Tolley Emelie 635.7

The Fragrant Garden: Growing and Using Scented Plants . . . . . . . Lawless, Julia 635.968

The Fragrant Path: a Book About Sweet Scented Flowers & Leaves . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Wilder, Louise Beebe 635.968

Recipes from a French Herb Garden. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Holt, Geraldino 641.657

Scented Treasures: Aromatic Gifts from your Kitchen . . . . Donaldson, Stephanie 745. 5

Making & Selling Herbal Crafts. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Nadeau, Alyce 745.5

Holidays at Home Crafts to Celebrate the Season . . . . . . . . . . Anderson Dawn 745.59412

A Contemplation Upon Flowers in Myths & Literature. . . . . . . . Ward, Bobby 809.9364

American Indian Food . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Berzok, Linda Murray 970.1

Mystery writers with similar themes

Recipe for Murder

Body in the Gallery: Faith Fairchild Mystery. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Hall, Katherine Page

Vineyard Chill, a Martha Vineyard Mystery . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Craig, Phillip

As the World Churns a Pennsylvania Dutch Mystery . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Myers Tamar

The Silver Needle Murder . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Childs, Laura

Carrot Cake Murder. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Fluke, Joanne

Catered Halloween. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . … . . Crawford, Isis

Espresso Shot . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Coyle, Cleo

Texas Murder

Paint the Town Dead . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Bell, Nancy Crystal Skull Murder . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Conwell, Kent Holy Moly. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . …. . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . Rehder, Ben Leather Maiden . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Lansdale, Joe Murder Among the OWLS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . Crider, Bill

Drunk Driving Victims

Waiting for Morning. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. Kingsbury, Karen

The Faces of Tragedy: Drunk Driving The Ripple Effect /Illinois Transportation division of Traffic Safety . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . 363.1254 FAC