A CELEBRATION OF LIFE: BETTE GOLDEN LAMB

BETTE LAMB TRIBUTE

THE CLIFFORD LAMB TRIO IN TRIBUTE TO BETTE GOLDEN LAMB

Sunday, November 24, 2019

4:30 p.m.

There will be a special tribute concert to Bette Golden Lamb, writer/sculptor/artist 

(Feb 1935-Oct 2019).

Clifford Lamb’s most recent jazz albums, Blues and Hues, Brothers and Sisters, and Bridges, were produced by Jeffrey Weber and are consistently in the top 50 albums played on national jazz radio. Blues and Hues was also in the top ten recordings picked by Cadence Magazine’s Critics’ Poll 2019.

Tickets are $25 general admission. Children 12 and under are free. Advance tickets are available at the link below, or you may purchase your tickets at the door the night of the show. Doors open one half hour before show time. We accept cash only at the door (ATMs are nearby).
The Back Room is an all-ages, BYOB (for those 21+) space, dedicated to (mostly) acoustic music of all kinds. You are welcome to bring your own adult beverage with no additional corkage fee.

To purchase tickets, go Here. 

BETTE GOLDEN LAMB: R.I.P.

Very sad news. Bette Golden Lamb, talented writer, artist (both potter and painter), and warrior woman, passed away last night just after midnight. She leaves behind her husband JJ (Jim) Lamb, her family, and her many friends. I knew Bette for over 40 years. She was so special. My heart goes out to JJ and the family.

Bette was a friend and mentor. She was a nurse, a writer, and an artist. She was so creative in so many ways. Her art work has appeared in numerous show and is held in many private collections. Her books, of course, are everywhere.

Bette was from the Bronx, and she said that growing up in New York City coupled with being an RN was a clue as to why she loved to write dark and gritty medical thrillers. A Marin county writer and artist, she and JJ spent some time in the wilds of Virginia City, Nevada, an isolated throwback to the old West, where she was a trauma nurse while her husband was the editor of the The Territorial Enterprise, a newspaper Mark Twain once ran. And, at that time, she also ended up running a funky bar, The Silver Stope. Never a dull moment.

Bette and J. J. Lamb have written novels that include a female serial killer who thinks she’s on a noble mission to save barren women from a life of despair (Sisters in Silence) and the Gina Mazzio RN medical thriller “Bone” series (Bone Dry,  Sin & Bone,  Bone Pit, Bone of Contention, Bone Dust, Bone Crack, Bone Slice, Bone Point). She said that writing about Gina Mazzio and her boyfriend, Harry, also an RN, was a fun experience, as well as a privilege to write about people who dedicate their lives to helping others.

Bette's most recent novel The Russian Girl was based on a true story of a woman who escapes from a high security nursing home during the hottest day of the year. Her delirium reveals a harrowing story of a young immigrant Russian girl forced to come to America in the early 1900s. Her turbulent life is filled with upheaval, lost love, and activism in a crushing, brutal 20^th century journey.

Bette was so encouraging to and supportive of new writers and artists.

I'll miss Bette -- at meetings, at parties, at shows, conventions. She was a special light in the mystery community. Rest in Peace, Bette. May your memory be a blessing.

As I receive information, I will update this post with information on a memorial and where to send donations in her honor.

Literary Salon June 2: Janet Dawson, J.J. and Bette Golden Lamb, Wendy Hornsby

Join Mystery Readers NorCal for a Literary Salon on Thursday, June 2, at 7 p.m. in Berkeley, CA. To RSVP and for address, please comment below with your email address.

Janet Dawson has written two novels featuring Zephyrette Jill McLeod and eleven novels with Oakland private investigator Jeri Howard. Her first Jeri Howard book, Kindred Crimes, won the St. Martin’s Press/Private Eye Writers of America contest for best first private eye novel. It was nominated in the best first category for three mystery awards, the Shamus, the Macavity and the Anthony. The California Zephyr series, a historical mystery series with Zephyrette Jill McLeod, includes Death Rides the Zephyr and the latest, Death Deals a Hand. The twelfth book in the Jeri Howard series, Water Signs, will be published by Perseverance Press in spring 2017. She has written twelve short stories, including Macavity winner “Voice Mail.” Janet has also written a stand-alone suspense novel, What You Wish For.

Bette Golden Lamb and J.J. Lamb are co-authors of eight crime novels, including The Killing Vote, a taut political thriller, and Bone Crack, sixth book in the Gina Mazzio RN medical thriller series. The LAMBS have also collaborated on Sisters in Silence, a medical thriller about a fertility counselor who goes on a mercy-killing spree of barren women; and Heir Today …, a fast-paced suspense/adventure novel. Bette is a professional ceramicist, artist  and devoted gardener. J.J. is a journalist and skilled jack-of-all-trades.

Wendy Hornsby is the Edgar Award-winning creator of the Maggie MacGowen series. Her first novel, No Harm, was published in 1987, but it wasn’t until 1992 that Hornsby introduced her most famous character: Maggie MacGowen, documentarian and amateur sleuth. She has written ten MacGowen novels, most recently Disturbing the Dark. Besides her ten MacGowen novels, Hornsby has written dozens of short stories, and two novels in the earlier Kate Teague series.

Partners in Crime: J.J. Lamb and Bette Golden Lamb

Today I welcome Partners in Crime: J.J. Lamb and Bette Golden Lamb. Bette Golden Lamb, a feisty ex-Bronxite, writes crime novels and plays with clay. Her sculptures and other artistic creations appear in exhibitions, galleries, and stores. She also hangs out with her 50+ rose bushes, or sneaks out to movies when she should be writing. Being an RN is a huge clue as to why she writes medical thrillers. J. J. Lamb intended to become an aeronautical engineer/pilot, but was seduced by journalism. An AP career was interrupted by the Army, which gave him a Top Secret clearance; a locked room with table, chair, and typewriter; and the time to write short stories. A paperback PI series followed, then collaboration with Bette. The Lambs, who live in Northern California, have co-authored four medical thrillers - Bone Dry, Sisters in Silence, Sin & Bone, and Bone Pit - and a suspense-adventure-romance novel, Heir Today. They are members of Mystery Writers of America, Sisters in Crime, and International Thriller Writers. Website: www.twoblacksheep.us

J.J. LAMB and BETTE GOLDEN LAMB:

There’s a story behind the story about the publication last month of Bone Pit, our third co-authored RN Gina Mazzio medical thriller.

You see, when we wrote the first Gina book, Bone Dry, we were determined that it would be a standalone. It was our first published collaborative novel, and our plan was to keep writing standalones. The idea of getting involved in a series just didn’t appeal to either of us. Much too restrictive.

What we envisioned was to alternate between a Bette idea and a J.J. idea. That way we would know automatically whose name would come first on the front cover of each novel, and elsewhere. No hassles.

It was a good idea … that lasted through the first two books.

Our second book, Heir Today…, a combination suspense-adventure-romance novel, was based on an actual experience we’d had with an heir tracer.

We decided our protagonists would be a husband-wife team, both journalists, and that the plot would be built around a rogue maritime sea captain and a treasure hunt that turns into an international adventure of intrigue, courage, death, and revenge.

J. J. took the lead on this one because of his background as a journalist, and his several years of writing about the maritime industry.

There we were: two books on the shelf with each of us having a lead byline.

Bette, an RN, was now hot to do another medical thriller. But while she was busy looking for a theme, J.J. talked her into building a thriller around the thriving fertility industry. Bette then created an off-the-wall fertility counselor with a deadly mission to carry the book. For some reason, though, J.J.’s name ended up first on the cover.

The byline thing wasn’t a big deal by now. But early on, it might have been.

The collaboration thing was a new experience for J.J., who’d always flown solo for both fiction and non-fiction. And for the feisty ex-Bronxite, fiction writing was new to her despite a huge creative streak that produced numerous professional paintings and sculptures.

To get into the swing of writing collaboration, we tried a number of approaches, including writing alternate chapters, adopting certain characters, specializing in specific situations, and various combinations of these. The best approach worked out to be one where the “concept” person writes the first draft, with close consultation on plot development and characterizations coming from the other partner. Then we swap places for the second draft.

The final version comes from sitting down side by side at the key board and going through the entire ms., from the first word to the final period.

Despite our satisfaction with the three standalones, we missed Gina Mazzio, our very first protagonist … and so did many of our readers. A sequel to Bone Dry? Well why not. But a series? No way.

In that first book, Gina’s nemesis was a despicable couple who were stealing, and holding for ransom, autologous bone marrow used as a treatment for near-death cancer patients.

In our “sequel,” Sin & Bone, Gina starts delving into the mysterious disappearance of hospital nurses. Before anyone can yell “stat,” she’s caught up in the dangerous, and often deadly, trade in human body parts.

And we were hooked.

Now, in the recently released Bone Pit, Gina decides that after two attempts on her life, it’s time to take a much-needed break from hospital nursing. So off she goes on a travel nurse assignment with her travel nurse fiancé, Harry.

But there’s no vacation for her in the wilds of northern Nevada’s gold country. They uncover a plot by the administrator of the Alzheimer’s rehab facility to falsify clinical test results for an experimental drug scheduled for FDA approval.

Suddenly it’s medicine, mines, madness, and murder.

And there it was: the third Gina Mazzio medical thriller. A series?

Never say never!

We’re now collaborating on the fourth book.