Elena Hartwell's Blog, page 59

Erin Ruddy Launches Debut Thriller Set in Rural Ontario

Thrilled to introduce debut author Erin Ruddy!

Erin Ruddy, Canadian author and journalist, launches her debut thriller, Tell Me My Name.

Love domestic suspense? Read my interview with Heather Chavez on her debut No Good Dead.

The Author: Erin Ruddy

Erin Ruddy

Erin Ruddy is a writer and journalist based in Toronto, Canada.

She is currently the executive editor at MediaEdge Communications, where she writes news features and custom content for Canada’s commercial real estate sector.

When she’s not working the keyboard, Erin and her family can be found skiing, hiking, swimming and occasionally unwinding at their weekend retreat in Thornbury, Ontario. Tell Me My Name is her debut novel.

To learn more about Erin, click on her name, photo, or any of the following links: Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook

 

Tell Me My Name by Erin Ruddy
“Ruddy plays effectively with issues of identity, regret, and forgiveness in this suspenseful thriller.”
—Publishers Weekly

Ellie and Neil’s romantic weekend at their new cottage takes a dark turn when they’re captured by a man claiming to be Ellie’s soulmate.

Giving her just three chances to remember his name, Ellie is thrust on a trip down memory lane to sift through all the dubious men of her past.

Each wrong guess results in grisly consequences for Neil . . . but is there more to their captor’s obsession than Ellie knows?

To buy the book, click on either of the following links: Amazon and IndieBound

“Writing the book seemed relatively easy—getting it published, not so much.” —Erin Ruddy

The Interview with Erin Ruddy
Describe your publishing journey:

Writing the book seemed relatively easy—getting it published, not so much. I wrote the first draft in three whirlwind months back in the fall of 2016. It was my second attempt at writing a full-length novel.

My first book, if you can call it that, is still sealed in the dark confines of my old laptop. It’s a slow-burn literary romantic suspense with more atmosphere than twists and turns. In other words, no one wanted it. I think I sent it out to about eight agents before I got that message loud and clear.

With this one, there was a lot of interest right out of the gates. I knew it was because the hook was much stronger, and women’s suspense novels were super hot at the time. Three weeks after receiving my first full request, an agent in New York offered me representation. Of course, I was ecstatic. But, sadly that relationship ended mighty quickly after he announced he was leaving the book business.

It took me a year and 75 rejections to find new representation. Fortunately, I ended up signing with the brilliant Bill Hanna (of Acacia House) who promptly led me to Toronto-based Dundurn Press.

About six months after that—well, the whole pandemic thing happened and my summer thriller was postponed to the fall. So I guess the short answer to your question is, my publishing journey has been long!

“I’m a journalist by day, but I’ve always been drawn to writing fiction.”—Erin Ruddy

What inspired you to write this novel?

Something about being in my forties and wanting to try something new. I’m a journalist by day, but I’ve always been drawn to writing fiction. The idea for this particular novel came to me shortly after we’d purchased our new cottage.

I’d noticed that the house next door was beautifully maintained but no one ever appeared to be at home. The only sign of life was an occasional light we’d see through the upper window.

Over time, I became curious to the point of distraction. Why had we met every other neighbour, but that one?

Was a recluse living inside?

Was he or she (or they) watching us?

Then one day I thought up the idea of putting a dark twist on the Rumpelstiltskin folktale and placing it in a remote cottage setting.

I can remember yelling this out to my husband as we rode our bikes into town. I was a few feet behind him, huffing and puffing as I rattled off my premise. I’m still not sure if he heard a single word I said.

Do you have many online events planned around your book launch?

At the moment, I have a few virtual events in my calendar. I’m also working on a book launch party, which may or may not include a small, live gathering of friends and family in mid-October.

The COVID situation isn’t making planning anything very easy. Admittedly, I have a lot of anxiety about speaking on video – least of which is that my computer mic will fail me in the middle of a reading.

I’ve done enough ZOOM meetings now to know that technology isn’t reliable 100 percent of the time! If I could stick to answering questions like this—in writing—I’d be a lot more comfortable. But hey, nobody said writing a novel was easy…

Tell us something about yourself that you love outside of writing:

Aside from loving to be out in nature, I’m a real homebody who’s also inherently lazy.

I’d say my favourite way to spend a Saturday night would be watching movies on Netflix with a glass of wine and take-out pizza.

That said, I am gutted that my book release party was cancelled back in June. It was something I’d been planning for months, and I was so excited that there was going to be a live band playing songs I’d referenced in the book.

Maybe one day I’ll be able to fill a bar again, but for now it’s all virtual readings and ZOOM parties, and me undoubtedly making myself cringe.

“It’s fast-paced and a little racy.” —Erin Ruddy

What are you working on now?

I’m working on another thriller, which is very different from Tell Me My Name.

It’s fast-paced and a little racy.

It involves a pair of brothers, a woman plagued by insecurity, and a scandal that threatens to tear her world apart.

It’s been a struggle to finish, I’ll admit. COVID-19 has not been particularly generous to me in terms of alone time. My day job has been busier than ever, and my kids and husband have been “ever-present”, shall we say.

This has been a very strange year to launch a book. I’m so sorry about the canceled release party!
But congratulations on your debut. I can’t wait to see what happens for you next.
Thanks for hanging out with us!

Elena Taylor is the author of All We Buried, available now in print, e-book, and audio book format at all your favorite on-line retailers. And don’t forget many independent bookstores can order books for you and have them shipped to your home or for curbside pickup.

For more information on All We Buried, click on the link here to visit the home page.

Cottage photo from Pixabay, click the link here for more information.

Wine photo from Pixabay, click the link here for more information.

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ME Browning Launches a New Police Procedural Series

M.E. Browning launches her latest novel.

Shadow Ridge by M.E. Browning is a taut, page-turner not to be missed! 
Read on for my Author Interview with M.E. Browning + Review

Shadow Ridge by M.E. Browning

Death is one click away when a string of murders rocks a small Colorado town in the first mesmerizing novel in M. E. Browning’s Jo Wyatt Mystery series.

Echo Valley, Colorado, is a place where the natural beauty of a stunning river valley meets a budding hipster urbanity. But when an internet stalker is revealed to be a cold-blooded killer in real life the peaceful community is rocked to its core.

It should have been an open-and-shut case: the suicide of Tye Horton, the designer of a cutting-edge video game. But Detective Jo Wyatt is immediately suspicious of Quinn Kirkwood, who reported the death. When Quinn reveals an internet stalker is terrorizing her, Jo is skeptical. Doubts aside, she delves into the claim and uncovers a link that ties Quinn to a small group of beta-testers who had worked with Horton.

When a second member of the group dies in a car accident, Jo’s investigation leads her to the father of a young man who had killed himself a year earlier. But there’s more to this case than a suicide, and as Jo unearths the layers, a more sinister pattern begins to emerge–one driven by desperation, shame, and a single-minded drive for revenge.

As Jo closes in, she edges ever closer to the shattering truth–and a deadly showdown that will put her to the ultimate test.

To buy the book, click on any of the following links: Amazon, Amazon Audio, Penguin Random House, Barnes & Noble, IndieBound, and Kobo




M.E. Browning: The Interview
Police detective Jo Wyatt is a tough, but deeply human protagonist. As a retired police officer yourself, how much of your own experiences are echoed in Jo’s?

First, thanks so much for hosting me on your blog, Elena!

I have to admit there is a little bit of me in every character I write, but Jo’s adventures are her own. That said, my experience definitely comes in handy when writing my stories. I know what situations require a warrant and how to process a crime scene. I’ve felt the buck of a handgun, and the adrenaline rush of a code-three response.

I’ve also held the hand of a person who just lost a loved one, and as a hostage negotiator, I’ve literally talked someone off the ledge. Those stories are not mine to tell, but they do allow me to drill down to the emotional truth of Jo’s actions.

A police investigation in the real world can be a slow, methodical process, which often takes much longer than fiction readers want to wait for a resolution. As a novelist and an expert, how do you balance the fast pace required for a good page turner and the realities of a murder investigation? Do you take liberties in service of a good story?

I strive for authenticity, but I’ve learned not to be bound by facts in my stories. It was a difficult lesson and my first crack at writing a procedural had so much procedure in it that it read more like a textbook.

Once I realized that my experience had to inform but not overwhelm the story, I was able to dribble it in when appropriate. But when it comes to writing fiction, facts should never get in the way of a good story.

What inspired you to look at the gaming world, and the role gender plays there, as a backdrop for your story?

I’d read an article that delved into the very real issues women faced in the gaming industry and I began playing the what-if game.

Women have always been subject to misogynistic abuse online. But coordinated hate mobs took it to a new level by trolling, doxxing, and SWATting the subjects of their ire. Cybercrime investigations require specialized training and many smaller agencies simply don’t have the officers or the resources—which means local reports are often referred to other agencies.

Harassers may not share the same zip code with their targets and are often hidden behind fake accounts or firewalls.

I created a character who, from the moment she could hold a gaming console, loved gaming. Her goal as an adult is to become a game designer and she runs afoul of online abuse—a parallel with the issues Jo finds herself facing within the department.

That character, Quinn Kirkwood, was a joy to write. She strutted into the story in all her prickly glory. Her moral compass doesn’t always point north and she has few filters. Even when I thought I knew how her scenes were going to unfold, she frequently had other ideas. And I’m really glad I listened.

Tell us about Echo Valley, Colorado.

Echo Valley is in the southwest corner of Colorado, which if you’ve ever visited the area, you already know is a little slice of heaven.

After spending fourteen years working for a California agency, I finished the last several years of my law enforcement career working for the Durango Police Department in Colorado.

Both jurisdictions are tourist destinations and have higher education institutions, but Durango is far more rural. At the southern end of the Rocky Mountains each season brings fresh beauty, but it also has a dangerous side.

Abandoned mines dot the landscape, hikers get lost, river rafters sometimes end up in the whitewater, and weather often changes quickly.

For the record, Jo definitely knows how to drive in the snow better than I did when I first arrived in Colorado. And yes, it’s embarrassing getting your patrol car stuck in a drift….

What was the most difficult aspect of writing this book?

From the start, I knew the basic story I wanted to tell. But I quickly became mired down and the words refused to flow.

Turns out despite knowing the story, I didn’t know how to tell it.

I ended up putting it aside for a bit to mull. In that mini hiatus, I read Alafair Burke’s The Wife, a story with multiple points of view (and a great read!). That’s when I realized my story didn’t belong solely to Jo. Instead, the story unfolds from three perspectives—all women, all with important observations to make.

Once I hit upon that, the story flowed.

“Honoring the Mull” is one of Elena’s favorite sayings. Writers often take time to work on stories in their minds, not just on the page.

What are you working on now?

I’m hard at work on the next Jo Wyatt Mystery, which picks up a few months after Shadow Ridge ends and involves a missing child.

As Jo mines the girl’s fractured family life, she unearths a trove of secrets and half-lies that paints a different picture of the girl’s parents—two people Jo has known since high school.

Final word of wisdom:

Never give up—but realize you may need a new plan.

I still have the first rejection letter I ever received. I even framed it for a while, because the agent had said some nice things about my query and it gave me hope. Sure, I could have taken it at face value. It was a rejection, after all. It’s hard to put yourself out there, and dealing with setbacks sucks. I’ve been known to wallow, but then I shake it off and see if there is something I can learn from the setback.

That first rejection? The agent loved my characters but found the writing episodic. When several other rejections cited the same problem, it was time to do something about it. I focused on honing my structure. I enrolled in a class where the instructor suggested plotting from the perspective of the antagonist and writing from the point of view of the protagonist (a concept attributed to Erle Stanley Gardner of Perry Mason fame).

That simple sentence changed everything for me. I kept studying craft. I wrote a new book. That book, Adrift, was nominated for an Agatha Award for Best First Novel. Rejection is a part of an author’s life.

How you react to it is up to you.

Wonderful words to live by! Thank you for hanging out with us today. I can’t WAIT to read the next Jo Wyatt Mystery

My Thoughts on Shadow Ridge by M.E. Browning

“Detective Jo Wyatt stood at the edge of the doorway of the converted garage and scanned the scene for threats.”

M.E. Browning starts her latest novel Shadow Ridge at a crime scene. A place where both Browning and her protagonist are well-versed. Browning’s law enforcement background shines through this engaging police procedural.

Readers know they are in the hands of an expert, as Jo Wyatt catches the clues others miss. Putting her reputation on the line to investigate an event determined to be a suicide, Jo Wyatt’s strong sense of honor won’t let her stop chasing a killer, even at the expense of her own career.

Set in Echo Valley, Colorado, the environment often works against Detective Wyatt. Snow and ice make the challenges Jo Wyatt faces even greater. I love when a writer gives the physical world an active role in events, and Browning does a fantastic job of painting pictures of the harsh climate.

Along with dynamic action and fascinating police procedures, Browning also provides Jo Wyatt with personal challenges.

One of my favorite aspects of her personality is that she is both a no-nonsense cop who can stomach a crime scene and takes no crap from anyone, while simultaneously showing empathy and compassion for the people she has promised to serve and protect.

The first of a series, Shadow Ridge adds another great protagonist to the crime fiction scene. I can’t wait to get my hands on the next one.

M.E. Browning: About the Author

M.E. BROWNING served twenty-two years in law enforcement and retired as a captain before turning to a life of crime fiction. Writing as Micki Browning, she penned the Agatha-nominated and award-winning Mer Cavallo mysteries, and her short stories and nonfiction have appeared in anthologies, mystery and diving magazines, and textbooks.

As M.E. Browning, she recently began a new series of Jo Wyatt mysteries with Shadow Ridge (October 2020). 

Micki is a member of Mystery Writers of America, International Thriller Writers, and Sisters in Crime—where she served as a former president of the Guppy Chapter.

A professional divemaster, she resides in Florida with her partner in crime and a vast array of scuba equipment she uses for “research.”

To learn more about M.E. click on her name, photo, or any of the following links: Amazon, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Goodreads, BookBub, Newsletter (with a free shortstory!

Want to read more about ME Browning? Click the link here for my interview with her about the launch of her debut novel Adrift.

Elena Taylor is the author of All We Buried, available now in print, e-book, and audio book format at all your favorite on-line retailers. And don’t forget many independent bookstores can order books for you and have them shipped to your home or for curbside pickup.

For more information on All We Buried, click on the link here to visit the home page.

Header photo by skeeze on Pixabay.

Digital image by Matrix on Pixabay.

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Fran Lewis: Spotlight on Her Latest Release, What If?

Fran Lewis launches What If? a series of  time travel/sci fi stories for our times . . .

Spotlight: Book info + Author bio + Excerpt
Visit all the stops along her Partners In Crime Virtual Book Tour!

What If? by Fran Lewis

These are dark stories that will make you wonder, think, and hopefully appreciate life if it ever gets back to normal again. Welcome to unusual worlds, thought provoking stories, and one poem that will make you wonder about life and relationships in general.

What if the world was in a different place? What if your life was not your own? Think about this as you read each story, and decide how you would react to living in some of these different worlds.

What If?…My sister Marcia always said to be original and try new things and new ventures. She is the reason I write and created my YA series, my non-fiction books, and why I heard her voice in my head saying, “Give it a shot.”

Purchase Links: Amazon | Goodreads




Book Details:

Genre: Time Travel/ Sci Fi

Published by: Fidelli

Publication Date: July 8, 2020

Number of Pages: 78

ISBN: B08CNKX3DT

 

Fran Lewis

Fran Lewis is a reviewer, talk show host, mj network, reading and writing staff developer.

She was the administrative assistant to the Principal and created original programs for students after school.

She was the music director and created musical festivals along with other staff members. She’s a member of Marquis Who’s Who, Continental Who’s who and who’s who of America’s professionals and educators.

Catch Up With Fran Lewis On:

Website, Goodreads, BookBub, Instagram, Twitter, & Facebook!

Excerpt—What If  by Fran Lewis

One Race: One World: The Year 2050

It was now 2050 and the world had really changed.  There were no more planes or trains.  All you needed to do was think about being somewhere and you were there.  The government, in order to save money on gas and fuel, had banned cars, buses, and any means of transportation, and implanted chips in everyone’s arms that helped transport them to wherever they wanted to go, including the past.

A huge explosion had occurred, and all that was left in the world were twenty countries,  with only twelve hundred people in each country. Most people had not survived the explosion, which had caused most of the countries to just disappear into space forever.  No one really knew if anyone was out there or if these people survived somewhere, and no one really cared enough to find out.

One man called The Ruler headed all the countries, and assigned one person as the Chief of Law and Enforcement in each country.  Under this person, five people helped to enforce the rules and the laws.  

Then, one miserable day, someone decided there were too many wars, too many hate crimes, too many people being killed on the streets, and too much traffic and congestion on the highways.  The government hired several scientists to find a solution to the problem, and that was how everyone in the entire world wound up multicolored.

Because of all the wars and fighting and hate that took place in the past, the government created a way to eliminate the many different races in the world and opted for only one. Everyone looked the same.  Our faces might have looked a little different, but our skin colors were the same—multicolored.  They did this so that no one would insult, mock, or hurt anyone because of their skin color.  They eliminated houses of worship so that everyone was nonsectarian, and no one would be discriminated against.  However, what they could not eliminate were our thoughts and desires to make changes in our lives, even though they tried.

Everyone that lived here had a job that paid the same amount.  No one, no matter what they did or what career they chose, was paid more than anyone else.  We never had to worry about being laid off.  Unless we decided to move somewhere else our job stayed the same, and there was no room for advancement—ever.  Everyone did the same thing every day.  Nothing changed.  Life was supposed to be anger free, insult free, and most of all, calm and tranquil.  HOW DULL AND BORING!  (OH!  I am not supposed to say that.  Opinions are not allowed here.)

One morning I got up and got dressed to go to my boring job as an accountant with the only accounting firm in this city.  I went over the books daily,  entered my accounts in their daily ledgers, and did taxes for some of the companies in this city.  It was grunt work, and nothing exciting ever happened at work or anywhere else.

Walking to work as usual, I began remembering how it was only twenty years ago when there were cars, trains, and people running and yelling for cabs and trains to wait for them at the station.  I missed the newspaper people on the street and the vendors selling hot coffee and bagels from their pushcarts.  Those were the days.  I loved the way people had looked and the different races and nationalities that lived here.  Learning from other people was what made life exciting.  

Then the unexpected happened.  A new family with two children moved in down the street from me.  These two kids were not going to conform to our way of thinking, and decided it was time to shake things up—and they did.  One morning when going to school they each wore something other than the school’s drab gray uniform.  The girl wore a pink and green dress with flowers, and the boy wore something blue, and a shirt that said, “I hate being the same.  Different Rules.” 

This did not go over well, and they were taken into custody by the guards in their school and promptly suspended.  This did not stop them.  They started screaming and yelling all sorts of words we had not heard before.  “One race is not what we are supposed to be.  I hate this planet.  I hate all of you.” 

I could not believe my ears. This was grounds for banishment into the Devoid Zone.  These two children had painted stars all over their faces.  Their younger sister decided to paint her face one color.  Who in today’s world had a face that was one color?  Everyone here looked and dressed the same.  It prevented jealousy, arguments, and fashion wars.  How dare they go against the laws of this state?

Visit these other terrific blogs for author interviews, reviews, guest posts, and more!

10/01 Showcase @ Tome Tender

10/06 Guest post @ Quiet Fury Books

10/08 Showcase @ Im All About Books

10/08 Showcase @ Nesies Place

10/10 Review @ Bound 4 Escape

10/12 Showcase @ Celticladys Reviews

10/14 Showcase @ The bookworm lodge

10/15 Interview @ A Blue Million Books

10/19 Review @ Reading Authors Network

10/22 Interview @ BooksChatter

10/25 Review @ Book Reviews From an Avid Reader

10/28 Review/showcase @ CMash Reads

10/29 Review @ Niks Nook

10/30 Review @ A Room Without Books is Empty

10-05 Guest post @ The Book Divas Reads

Elena Taylor is the author of All We Buried, available now in print, e-book, and audio book format at all your favorite on-line retailers. And don’t forget many independent bookstores can order books for you and have them shipped to your home or for curbside pickup.

For more information on All We Buried, click on the link here to visit the home page.

The post Fran Lewis: Spotlight on Her Latest Release, What If? appeared first on Elena Taylor.

Kim Davis Launches Her Latest Cozy

Kim Davis launches Cake Popped Off, her latest in the Cupcake Catering Mystery Series.

Welcome to my spotlight for the Great Escapes Virtual Book Tour!

To visit all the stops along the tour, click the link here.

To enter the Rafflecopter Giveaway, click the link here.

Wondering about other Great Escapes Virtual Book Tour posts? Click here to scroll through all my latest posts.

The Book by Kim Davis

Cake Popped Off (Cupcake Catering Mystery Series)

Cozy Mystery

2nd in the Series

Publisher: Cinnamon & Sugar Press (September 22, 2020)

Print Length: 295 pages

Digital ASIN: B08DZ7Z96H

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Cupcake caterer Emory Martinez is hosting a Halloween bash alongside her octogenarian employer, Tillie. With guests dressed in elaborate costumes, the band is rocking, the cocktails are flowing, and tempers are flaring when the hired Bavarian Barmaid tries to hook a rich, hapless husband.

Except one of her targets happens to be Emory’s brother-in-law, which bodes ill for his pregnant wife. When Emory tracks down the distraught barmaid, instead of finding the young woman in tears, she finds her dead. Can she explain to the new detective on the scene why the Bavarian Barmaid was murdered in Emory’s bathtub with Emory’s Poison Apple Cake Pops stuffed into her mouth?

With an angry pregnant sister to contend with, she promises to clear her brother-in-law’s name. As Emory starts asking questions and tracking down the identity of the costumed guests, she finds reasons to suspect her brother-in-law has been hiding a guilty secret. Her search leads her to a web of blackmail and betrayal amongst the posh setting of the local country club crowd. Can Emory sift through the lies she’s being told and find the killer? She’ll need to step up her investigation before another victim is sent to the great pumpkin patch in the sky.

Includes spooky Halloween recipes!

To buy the book, click on the following link: Amazon

Kim Davis: The Author

Kim Davis lives in Southern California with her husband.

When she’s not spending time with her granddaughters she can be found either writing stories or working on her blog, Cinnamon, Sugar, and a Little Bit of Murder or in the kitchen baking up yummy treats.

She has published the suspense novel, A Game of Deceit, and cozy mystery, Sprinkles of Suspicion.

She also has had several children’s articles published in Cricket, Nature Friend, Skipping Stones, and the Seed of Truth magazines.

Kim Davis is a member of Mystery Writers of America and Sisters in Crime.

To learn more about Kim, click on her name, photo, or any of the following links: Facebook, Twitter, Goodreads, and Pinterest.

Elena Taylor is the author of All We Buried, available now in print, e-book, and audio book format at all your favorite on-line retailers. And don’t forget many independent bookstores can order books for you and have them shipped to your home or for curbside pickup.

For more information on All We Buried, click on the link here to visit the home page.

The post Kim Davis Launches Her Latest Cozy appeared first on Elena Taylor.

Melissa Bourbon Launches a New Cozy Series

Melissa Bourbon launches Murder in Devil’s Cove—Great Escapes Virtual Book Tour

Welcome to the Great Escapes Virtual Book Tour for Melissa Bourbon’s Murder in Devil’s Cove

Visit all the stops along the way by clicking the link here.

Author Interview & Review
Click the link here to enter the Rafflecopter Giveaway!

The Book: Murder in Devil’s Cove by Melissa Bourbon

Murder in Devil’s Cove: (A Book Magic Mystery)

Cozy Mystery

1st in Series

Publisher: Lake House Press (September 22, 2020)

Number of Pages: Approx 300

Digital ASIN: B088J48JY8

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Two best-selling authors, one magical universe.

In the Book Magic Mystery Series, best-selling authors Melissa Bourbon and Wendy Lyn Watson bring you the story of cousins Pippin Lane Hawthorne and Cora Lane.

The cousins live on opposite coasts (Pippin in Devil’s Cove, North Carolina, and Cora in Laurel Point, Oregon), but they share the family gift of bibliomancy: the ability to foresee the future and unravel the past with the help of the books we love.

Join Pippin and Cora as they use their otherworldly power to solve mysteries in their respective worlds.

Every book tells two stories—one written on the pages with pen and ink, and one woven into the paper, a story of the soul. The Lane women have the gift of bibliomancy. They can read both.

But Cassie Lane doesn’t see this as a gift. For her, it is a curse because the book magic comes with a price–the Lane women die young and the men are lost to the sea. As soon as she’s able, she leaves Laurel Point, Oregon, running from her past and her fate, ending up in the Outer Banks of North Carolina.

There she meets Leo Hawthorne and lives a perfect life with him in an old Sea Captain’s house.

Perfect, that is, until an old book foretells the future, and the curse that has plagued the Lane women comes true for Cassie.

Twenty years later, Cassie and Leo’s children, twins Pippin and Grey, are back in Devil’s Cove. Long forgotten secrets surface and an old crime comes to light. Now Pippin must learn how to be a bibliomancer if she is to discover the truth about her father and continue his effort to stop the curse.

To buy the book, click the link: Amazon

Author Interview: Melissa Bourbon
How did you come to write the Book Magic Mysteries along with Wendy Lyn Watson and how does the collaborative process work?

Neither Wendy or I have done any sort of collaboration, so this is all new to us. She and I are close friends. We met after I first moved from California to North Texas and have been friends ever since. I’ve since moved to North Carolina, but for me, Wendy is one of those people that, no matter how much time has passed and no matter where life takes us, when we talk or see each other, we fall right back into the rhythm we had.

In North Texas, she and I lived one street over from one another. We walked, talked, and plotted our respective books together. One day—this was years ago—while we were out walking, Wendy shared with me an idea she had about a bibliomancy mystery series. I instantly loved the idea and couldn’t wait for her to write it. In fact, if I am remembering things accurately, I pestered her about it quite a bit!But life got in the way.

“A few years passed and we revisited the concept of the series.” —Melissa Bourbon

Wendy is a professor, so her day job and her other book contracts came first. The Book Magic Mysteries remained just a brilliant idea, but it was still on both of our minds and we couldn’t let go of it. A few years passed and we revisited the concept of the series. Except instead of it being written only by Wendy, we came up with the idea of doing it together. Basically that means that we created the entire series arc/plot together.

We determined how each bit of key information will be revealed. We created an entire world around the Lane family. The series features Cora and Pippin, who live on opposite coasts. The Death books, written by Wendy, star Cora who lives in Laurel Point, Oregon. The Murder books, written by me, are set in Devil’s Cove, North Carolina on the Outer Banks. Cora and Pippin are cousins and bibliomancers. There is a family curse and mysteries on each coast.

We are taking turns writing the books, so readers can expect to have 2 books a year in the series. The first, Murder in Devil’s Cove, written by me, just released. Death at Cape Misery, book 2 written by Wendy, will come out on December 1st. From there, we alternate. Book 3, Murder at Sea Captain’s Inn, will be out in early summer 2021. Each book stands on its own, but also reveals a bit about the bigger series story.

Wendy and I are both so excited about this series! I love, love, love it more than I can convey.

You also write as Winnie Archer. Do your personas have different writing styles? How do your series differ?

My Bread Shop Mysteries are written as Winnie Archer. These books are cozy mysteries, just like my Magical Dressmaking Mysteries. The Book Magic series has strong cozy elements. And my Lola Cruz series is a PI caper series. I write as Winnie Archer because that series is with a different publisher and they requested that new identity.

The style of my writing, even with my suspense mysteries, is very much the same. I love strong women, female friendships, and familial relationships. I adore small town settings. My style is easy to read and very accessible. That is true no matter what I’m writing!

Supporting the Latinx community is important to you, tell us about how your background impacted the Latinx characters in your books.

My husband is a first generation Mexican-American. We have 5 children who share his culture. From the moment I met him—and became part of his family—I’ve been immersed in the Mexican culture. As a couple, we’ve worked hard to bring that to our children through food, language, music, family, faith, and books.

When I first started writing, I wanted to create a character that would speak to my daughter (I have 4 boys and 1 girl). She’s 20 now and finally interested in reading the Lola Cruz books! Like my husband and his siblings, Lola is a first generation Mexican-American. She’s fully assimilated and lives an American life, yet her entire being is rooted in her family and culture, as well.

Creating a character (and all the supporting characters) that is authentic and real, and not stereotyped, was so important to me. My first editor for that book is Latina and she told me how much she loved Lola because she was a real person—not a cultural stereotype. That remains my favorite bit of praise!

The Lola series is (probably) finished, but I continue to bring a diverse cast of characters to all my book series. For me, that represents America and who we all are.

In addition to writing and raising five children, you are a dog lover. Tell us about your canine pals. Do they ever show up in your novels?

My pups!! Until about 8 years ago, we always had big dogs. Boxers. I loved them to pieces. When we lost one of our precious girls, we adopted a pug from a rescue. Bean was the last dog surrendered from a backyard breeder. He’s a bit damaged, although he’s come a long, long way. He’s my little sidekick. He’s a couch potato and the sweetest dog ever.

We lost our other boxer close to 2 years ago. I joined another pug rescue and a short while later, I, along with about 60 other people, got a message and picture about a little tan chug (chihuahua and pug mix). I was instantly in love.

We all had to fill out an application and write why we would be a good home for this pup. My writing experience served me well! I told about how we’d lost our sweet Jazzy and how Bean was lonely. I told about Bean’s background, and ended by saying that Bean needed a friend.

We were the family chosen to adopt Dobby!   I was so nervous driving the 1 1/2 hours to pick him up. My husband was skeptical. “A little dog?!” He was less than thrilled. And we’d never had a tiny dog—Dobby is 11 pounds.

“…let me say, it was love at first sight for my husband!” —Melissa Bourbon

Well, let me say, it was love at first sight for my husband! Dobby and Bean are besties, and Dobby is such a character. We adore him!

They both keep me company while I write. As I’m writing this, they are curled up next to me. I love my pups.

Agatha, the brindle pug in the Bread Shop mysteries, is based off of Bean—although a little more spritely than he is.

In the Book Magic mysteries, I have a Vizsla that is modeled after a friend’s dog. Hers is Finn (https://www.facebook.com/FinnChronicles), but I’ve made my book dog a female. He/she is a beauty!

With more than twenty novels under your belt, what do you know now, you wish you had known when you started out? And how has your writing process changed?

I am not really one to second-guess how things played out. I had offers from two agents with the Lola Cruz series. I sometimes wonder if I should have gone with the one I didn’t sign with, but then my path would have been different and I wouldn’t be where I am now.

Who knows what that other path would have looked like? I am so happy to be able to do what I love, to share my stories with my readers, and to live in the worlds of my book friends.

The biggest change in my actual writing process is that I no longer have to juggle writing with being a mom of young kids, and with teaching (former middle school English teacher). Now I get to write everyday. In some ways I actually work better under pressure, so it was an adjustment to not fritter my time away!

What are you working on now?

I’m just digging into the 7th Bread Shop book, tentatively titled The Ginger-Dead House. It’s a holiday mystery! I’m loving it so far. After that, I’ll be jumping right into Murder at Sea Captain’s Inn, the next Book Magic Mystery.

Final words of wisdom from Melissa Bourbon:

Never give up! I wanted to quit so many times in the early years when I was discouraged, but I persevered, continued to learn and hone my craft (which I will always do), and here I am.

 

My Thoughts on Murder in Devil’s Cove by Melissa Bourbon

Murder in Devil’s Cove is a fun, paranormal cozy with a great location and interesting characters.

Twins Pippin and Grey Hawthorne return to their family home after twenty years. The beautiful—but decrepit—house that “sported a combination of Cape Cod and old Southern Coastal architecture,” calls to Pippin. She can imagine it returned to its former glory and turned into a successful Bed and Breakfast.

Located on the island of Devil’s Cove, between the mainland of North Carolina and the barrier islands, the home is surrounded by water. Water that plays a pivotal role in their lives. Their mother, terrified of losing their father to the sea, died at a young age herself. Then their sea-faring father vanished, leaving the brother and sister with a tragic family story hanging over their heads.

It’s that story that comes back to haunt them when they return to the island as adults. It’s also a story that has not yet come to an end, as people connected to the long ago events begin to die in the present.

Pippin inherits her mother’s curse (or is it a blessing?) of bibliomancy, the ability to foretell the future through a randomly chosen passage from a book. As she embraces her ability, she discovers why her mother didn’t encourage reading, and what truly happened to their father twenty years ago.

Filled with quirky characters and atmospheric descriptions of the quaint town of Devil’s Cove, Bourbon hits all the right notes for a cozy: amateur sleuthing, several possible suspects, bookstores, and a touch of romance.

Plus there’s a dog. You can’t go wrong with a dog.

The Author: Melissa Bourbon

Melissa Bourbon is the national bestselling author of nineteen mystery books, including the brand new collaborative Book Magic mysteries, the Lola Cruz Mysteries, A Magical Dressmaking Mystery series, and the Bread Shop Mysteries, written as Winnie Archer.

She is a former middle school English teacher who gave up the classroom in order to live in her imagination full time. Melissa, a California native who has lived in Texas and Colorado, now calls the southeast home. She hikes, practices yoga, cooks, and is slowly but surely discovering all the great restaurants in the Carolinas.

Since four of her five amazing kids are living their lives, scattered throughout the country, her dogs, Bean, the pug, Dobby, the chug, and Jasper, a cattle dog/lab keep her company while she writes.

Melissa lives in North Carolina with her educator husband, Carlos, and their youngest son. She is beyond fortunate to be living the life of her dreams.

To learn more about Melissa, click on her name, photo, or any of the following links: Instagram, Facebook, and Book Warriors Facebook Group.

Elena Taylor is the author of All We Buried, available now in print, e-book, and audio book format at all your favorite on-line retailers. And don’t forget many independent bookstores can order books for you and have them shipped to your home or for curbside pickup.

For more information on All We Buried, click on the link here to visit the home page.

The post Melissa Bourbon Launches a New Cozy Series appeared first on Elena Taylor.

Autumnal Equinox: Fall is My Favorite Season

As with many things during this time, I’m a little late to the party. I usually like to comment on important events like the autumnal equinox on the date itself, but time got away from me, so here we are. A day late and a dollar short, as my granny used to say.

The sun crosses the celestial equator

The actual autumnal equinox occurred on Tuesday, September 22 at 6:30am PDT. This is the moment in time when the sun crosses the celestial equator and day and night is roughly the same in duration.

Today, Wednesday, September 23, the length of day was twelve hours and two minutes, so that’s still pretty close to 50/50. Still something to celebrate. The sun came up, the sun went down, the world itself went round and round.

I’m taking that for the win.

The Autumnal Equinox is followed by the Winter Solstice, the shortest day and longest night. The Winter Solstice this year falls on December 21, 2020

There’s a lot of fear and anxiety in the world today. It feels like the world might stop spinning. We joke about the Zombie Apocalypse. The appearance of aliens. The wait for another shoe to fall.

I actually like wasps, hornets, and bees. They keep the ecology in balance.

To date, here in the Pacific Northwest, we’ve had pandemic, fire, smoke, murder hornets, riots, a certain level of chaos, and yet . . . we manage. We survive. For that is what people do. As a group. We endure.

Fall is my favorite season. I love cold clear days, colder nights. At the end of summer, I search for the first signs that the leaves in the trees are starting to change.

Here in Snoqualmie Valley, it was hard to see the trees for the smoke for what felt like an eternity, but when the smoke did clear, lo and behold, the yellows and oranges burst from the trees. Colors of remembrance, of memory. A time to give thanks for blessings. For they are there, if we look for them. We persevere.

Fall symbolizes a start to looking in, as we do during the colder months here in the Northern Hemisphere. Reflection on the year past, plans for the year next. For it will come, the next year. Time will move inexorably forward. The earth will tilt again.

Fall is a time set apart.

It’s fine to be a homebody in the fall. No one expects you to travel or go to parties, fall is for gathering the crops and building the stores to get us through the dark days.

For writing words down and finding the next story to tell.

For some, all the days feel dark. But as fall colors paint the trees in glory and the skies clear from the fires and the earth tilts away from the sun, as it has done for millennia, I encourage everyone to keep the faith. For the world is a beautiful place.

We’re all in this together.

Wondering how I think about winter? Read my post from last winter by clicking the link here.

Elena Taylor is the author of All We Buried, available now in print, e-book, and audio book format at all your favorite on-line retailers. And don’t forget many independent bookstores can order books for you and have them shipped to your home or for curbside pickup.

For more information on All We Buried, click on the link here to visit the home page.

Header Photo by claude05alleva on Pixabay.

Sun Photo by Alexas_Fotos on Pixabay.

Hornet Photo by Carola68 on Pixabay.

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Writing a First Draft is Like Tuning a Banjo

Writing a first draft is like tuning a banjo. It’s a lot harder than it looks.

Writing a first draft is like tuning a banjo. It’s a lot harder than it looks.

A frog plays better than I do

As some of you may have read in another article, I’ve picked up the banjo. Literally—picked it up. There’s no playing happening yet, just some banjo holding, tuning, and restringing.

Let me explain.

First, tuning was a challenge. I struggled to get it right. I’m not sure why I found it so difficult. I’ve tuned a variety of instruments over the years, but for whatever reason, I struggled with this most basic of benchmarks in learning how to play this instrument.

Finally! Success! Tuned – then a string broke.

Sigh.

Get online. Order a couple new sets. Wait, wait, wait.

Strings arrive! Yay!

Try to remember how to string a banjo. Thank god for the internet and how-to videos. Not so bad. Easier time than I’d had tuning the damn thing.

Crack.

Tuning peg breaks.

Sigh.

Get online. Multiple replacement pegs available, what to do, what to do, what to do.

Wait until tomorrow and talk to a living, breathing person on the phone and ask for advice.

Wait for it!

For a lot of us, everything feels challenging right now. Simple things take much longer than they used to. We can’t casually drive to a store. Or call on a friend. Or go on a date. (Hubby and I ordered a pizza for our 8th wedding anniversary. It was as close to a “date” as we had energy for this year.)

We can’t easily hop on a plane or stay in a hotel or eat in a restaurant.

First world problems, but that doesn’t mean they don’t have an impact on our psyches.

Writing a first draft is hard when life is chaotic.

In many ways, the smoke has been psychologically harder on me than the pandemic. For those of us living on the west coast, the air has been at best unhealthy and at worse downright hazardous for what feels like forever. The smoke is full of toxins. Our lungs struggle and gasp for breath.

I have a theory that the reptilian parts of our brains are in a constant state of run, run, run. Fire is dangerous and it’s over the next rise. Get. Out. Now.

But there’s nowhere to go and no easy way to get there.

I’m lucky, my house and the stables where I keep my horses are a long way from the fires raging in eastern Washington and down south in Oregon and California, but the reptilian part of the brain doesn’t care. It just assesses: fight, flight, freeze. And fire demands flight, the body on constant alert.

But how is all this like writing a first draft? I’m glad you asked . . .

Writing a first draft can start slow.

The writing process can be slow to get started. The simple fundamentals of Point of View (the character who tells the story) Genre (Mystery, Romance, Historical, Literary), Conflict for the protagonist (what does the main character face?), can take a very long time to identify. Rewrite after rewrite, first person, no third person, no first person, no . . . third person multiple. It’s a mystery, no it’s romance, no it’s historical . . . no it’s . . . sci-fi?

It’s about a woman facing great odds, no it’s about a woman facing her greatest fear, not it’s about two women facing each other, no . . . it’s a story about a boy and his dog.

Components that feel effortless when reading the published novel are issues writers struggle with through draft after draft after draft.

Then, once we have that figured out (the banjo is tuned) a string breaks. The POV we thought was right, isn’t. The genre is off. The conflict is misplaced. We start over with a new string.

Then the tuning peg breaks and we’re back to square one.

Writing a first draft can feel endless

Throughout it all, I know that once I get a first draft finished, it’s just like having that banjo tuned. Now I have to learn how to pick. How to move my fingers on the frets. How to make something coherent out of the D-B-G-D-G, something . . . polished.

Writing a first draft can feel overwhelming.

Writing a first draft can also feel like . . . victory

I’m finishing up a first draft on a new project. It’s different than my previous novels, and that’s a little bit scary. But it’s exciting too.

Now I just have to tune it up.

Want to find out what else I’m doing to get through the pandemic? Besides getting this banjo tuned, restrung, and repaired, I’m teaching writing workshops every Wednesday morning. Click the link here for more information.

Elena Taylor is the author of All We Buried, available now in print, e-book, and audio book format at all your favorite on-line retailers. And don’t forget many independent bookstores can order books for you and have them shipped to your home or for curbside pickup.

For more information on All We Buried, click on the link here to visit the home page.

Images:

Kermit and Banjo/header by Erika Wittlieb on Pixabay.

Fire by Ylvers on Pixabay.

 

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Jokers Wild: A New Mah Jongg Mystery

Jokers Wild – Great Escapes Virtual Book Tour

Welcome to the Great Escapes Virtual Book Tour for Jokers Wild by Barbara Barrett

Visit all the stops on the tour by clicking the link here.

Author Interview: Jokers Wild

The Book: Jokers Wild

Jokers Wild (Mah Jongg Mystery Series) [image error]

Cozy Mystery

6th in Series

Publisher: Bowker (July 5, 2020)

Paperback: 232 pages

ISBN-10: 1948532220

ISBN-13: 978-1948532228

Digital ASIN: B0856RP32V

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“The show must go on.” That applies even to playwright Marianne Putnam, when the director of her one-act play, “Jokers Wild,” fails to show for curtains up on opening night at the community theater in Serendipity Springs, Florida. When the director’s wife begs Marianne to accompany her to their home to check on him, they find the man floating in his pool. Dead.

Though not known for his pleasant disposition—her relationship with him had been tense since nearly ramming into his car in a parking lot, but after all, he was the director—who would have wanted to murder him? Surely no one in the production crew, cast or the staff of the community center where the play was to be staged. Maybe it was the wife, who Marianne had overheard arguing with him. Or perhaps someone from his theater connections back in the Big Apple.

Since she was there when the body was discovered, Marianne is considered a suspect. That doesn’t mean she can’t help her three Mah Jongg friends—Syd, Micki and Kat—assist the sheriff with the investigation. But who’s there to help her when her path crosses the murderer’s.

The Interview with Barbara Barrett
Jokers Wild is book six in your series. Can readers jump in here? Or should they go back and read the first five?

I consider all the books in the Mah Jongg Mystery series to be stand-alone, readers can jump in at any point, so yes, readers can jump right into Book 6 without having read the first books in the series. However, I’m aware from talking to cozy mystery fans that many prefer to start at Book 1 when they discover a new author.

To offset this tendency, new readers of this series can obtain a free digital copy of the introduction, The Mistresses of Mah Jongg, by subscribing to my newsletter at https://subscribepage.com/BBCozies.

What drew you to mah jongg players as a vehicle for your amateur sleuths?

Prior to COVID, I played mah jongg twice a week with friends. It was my way to relax my brain and keep it fresh for writing. (For the last three months, I’ve been playing online with three friends, one who is vacationing in New York State, one who lives in Florida and one who is in California).

After publishing eleven contemporary romance novels and two novellas, I decided it was time to pursue my other writing interest, cozy mysteries. From researching the field and from my own reading experience, I knew most cozies these days focused on a particular niche, one that was both captivating and compelling to readers as well as something about which I felt knowledgeable to write.

I love the culinary mysteries, but I didn’t feel that was my area of strength to write about. Also, there were few cozy mysteries using mah jongg as the niche, so the field was wide open.

You rotate which of your characters takes the lead in an investigation. How did that choice come about?

Since typically four people play the game of mah jongg together, I thought it would be an interesting approach to this series to make each of those players around the table a major protagonist. But I discovered in the first book that it was less confusing to me as well as my readers to stay mainly in one point of view in a book. I wanted to emphasize friendship and community in this series, and the approach of alternating who was the lead would do that.

I also wanted to write about women my age, i.e., eligible for retirement but not show them as “over the hill.”

Each of my four lead characters represents a slightly different approach to retirement; two have been happily married for years, one is a divorcee and the other has never been married. I didn’t entirely give up my interest in contemporary romance. There are two developing romances in the series, and I’m having fun with those.

Jokers Wild takes place during the production of a one-act play. Do you have a background in theater? Or did it just feel like a great set-up for murder?

I had major roles in two high school plays, which qualified me to be a member of the Thespian Society. But that was years ago. More recently, like Marianne in this story, I discovered one-act plays when I took a short-term class in our local Lifelong Learning program.

My one-act was the first time I wrote about these four characters, a sort of test for myself whether I could develop four unique characters. I really enjoyed that experience with one-acts, but I decided I wanted to devote my writing energies to novels instead.

So I left one-acts behind.

But several in that same class have gone on to see their plays produced and place in various playwriting contests. I feature those in this book. In the Acknowledgements, I thank both a former classmate as well as my instructor, whose prior experience on Broadway and in other venues was a great incentive to taking the class and an invaluable source of information when writing this book.

You also write romance, what do you find the most satisfying about cozy mysteries and romance novels? Does it get confusing writing in two genres? Or is it fun to go from one to the other?

What I find the most satisfying is developing complex characters and relationships. I’m able to do that both with the friendships in my cozies and in my romances. I already mentioned above how romance has crept into this cozy mystery series, so I haven’t put them behind me entirely.

My writing energies are currently devoted to writing cozies. I started my first indie romance series, UnderWright Productions, a few years ago and have published the first three books. They also are stand-alone, so I could end there. But I planted the seeds for two more, which one of these days I hope to return to.

I am also in the process of regaining the rights to my two romance trilogies with a small press. These are being re-edited with new covers. I hope to release them sometime in 2022. However, a lot has changed and is still changing in the world of romance, so their re-editing will be important.

What are you working on now?

I am getting ready to publish the seventh book in the Mah Jongg Mystery series, The Charleston Challenge, which will come out in late September 2020. I am also writing the eighth book in the Mah Jongg Mystery series, The Dragon Lady Gets Her Due, which I hope to have out before Christmas 2020.

Although there will probably be at least a ninth book in this series, I am beginning to develop the concept for the next series. I don’t want to say much more about it at this time except to hint that it will have some tie-in to one of my favorite TV networks, HGTV.

Final words of wisdom:

“No one can defeat your dreams except you.”

Aspiring writers have probably heard this many times, but that’s because it’s so true: Be true to yourself, follow your own drummer although at times it may seem to be off the beaten path, and persist. No one can defeat your dreams except you.

About the Author

Photo by Chris Kridler, ChrisKridler.com

 

Barbara Barrett started reading mysteries when she was pregnant with her first child to keep her mind off things like her changing body and food cravings. When she’d devoured as many Agatha Christies as she could find, she branched out to English village cozies and Ellery Queen.

Later, to avoid a midlife crisis, she began writing fiction at night when she wasn’t at her day job in human resources for Iowa State Government. After releasing eleven full-length romance novels and two novellas, she returned to the cozy mystery genre, using one of her retirement pastimes, the game of mah jongg, as her inspiration. Not only has it been a great social outlet, it has also helped keep her mind active when not writing.

Jokers Wild, the sixth book in her “Mah Jongg Mystery” series, features four friends who play mah jongg together and share otherwise in each other’s lives. None of the four is based on an actual person. Each is an amalgamation of several mah jongg friends with a lot of Barbara’s imagination thrown in for good measure. The four will continue to appear in future books in the series.

Barbara is a member of Sisters in Crime, Sinc-Iowa, Romance Writers of America and the SpacecoasT chapter of Romance Writers of America.

She is married to the man she met her senior year of college. They have two grown children and eight grandchildren.

Now retired, she is a resident of Florida, although she spends her summers in Iowa, her home state. She earned her B.A. degree in History from the University of Iowa and her Master’s Degree in History from Drake University.

When not in front of her laptop creating her next story, she plays mah jongg, travels and enjoys lunches with friends.

To learn more about Barbara, click on her name, photo, or any of the following links: Facebook, Goodreads, Twitter, Newsletter Sign up.

Great to have you visit with us today! Looking forward to seeing where your work takes you next.

Elena Taylor is the author of All We Buried, available now in print, e-book, and audio book format at all your favorite on-line retailers. And don’t forget many independent bookstores can order books for you and have them shipped to your home or for curbside pickup.

For more information on All We Buried, click on the link here to visit the home page.

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Ellen Byron Launches Her Latest Cajun Country Mystery

Ellen Byron launches her latest Cajun Country Mystery: Murder in the Bayou Boneyard

Welcome to the Great Escapes Virtual Book Tour for Ellen Byron’s Murder in the Bayou Boneyard

Visit all the stops along the tour to learn more about Ellen Byron and her latest release.

REVIEW + Rafflecopter Giveaway
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The Book

Murder in the Bayou Boneyard: A Cajun Country Mystery

Cozy Mystery

6th in Series

Publisher: Crooked Lane Books (September 8, 2020)

Hardcover: 304 pages

ISBN-10: 1643854607

ISBN-13: 978-1643854601

Digital ASIN: B082H3BT6F

Maggie Crozat has the Halloween heebie-jeebies in USA Today bestselling and Agatha Award-winning author Ellen Byron’s howlingly funny sixth Cajun Country mystery.

Maggie Crozat, proprietor of a historic Cajun Country B&B, prefers to let the good times roll. But hard times rock her hostelry when a new cell phone app makes it easy for locals to rent their spare rooms to tourists. With October–and Halloween–approaching, she conjures up a witch-crafty marketing scheme to draw visitors to Pelican, Louisiana.

Five local plantation B&Bs host “Pelican’s Spooky Past” packages, featuring regional crafts, unique menus, and a pet costume parade. Topping it off, the derelict Dupois cemetery is the suitably sepulchral setting for the spine-chilling play Resurrection of a Spirit. But all the witchcraft has inevitably conjured something: her B&B guests are being terrified out of town by sightings of the legendary rougarou, a cross between a werewolf and vampire.

When, in the Dupois cemetery, someone costumed as a rougarou stumbles onstage during the play–and promptly gives up the ghost, the rougarou mask having been poisoned with strychnine, Maggie is on the case. But as more murders stack up, Maggie fears that Pelican’s spooky past has nothing on its bloodcurdling present.

To buy the book, click on any of the following links: Penguin Random House – Amazon – B&N – Kobo – IndieBound

My Thoughts on Murder in the Bayou Boneyard by Ellen Byron
Murder in the Bayou Boneyard has everything a reader wants in a cozy.

A sassy amateur sleuth, a scattering of animals (including a hilarious talking parrot), enough murder and mayhem to keep things interesting, and a touch of romance. Finished off with food descriptions to make your mouth water and the recipes at the back of the book and this is a feast for the imagination.

Can be Read as a Standalone

For those who have read the previous books, Murder in the Bayou Boneyard continues to develop the characters and the larger arcs for the series. For those who are starting the series with this book, there are enough references to catch the reader up on past events, without making the reader feel left out.

Terrific Location

Louisiana is a marvelous place to set a mystery. Between the supernatural creatures, complicated history, and local superstitions, there’s plenty of material for Byron to work with. Add in spooky old plantations and longstanding family histories and the backdrop for Maggie’s investigation sizzles.

Readers will Root for the Protagonist

Maggie Crozat is not a fan of Halloween, and this year gives her plenty of reasons to feed her dislike, but the intrepid protagonist proves herself a worthy adversary and her experiences might just change her mind about the holiday . . . or maybe not!

A great escape from the challenges of 2020, Murder in the Bayou Boneyard will cement Byron’s place in your reading repertoire. Whether she’s an old friend that you get to visit again or a brand new reading experience, her latest release will keep you up at night . . . in a good way.

 

Ellen Byron

Ellen Byron

Ellen’s Cajun Country Mysteries have won the Agatha award for Best Contemporary Novel and multiple Lefty awards for Best Humorous Mystery.

Her Catering Hall Mystery series, written as Maria DiRico, launched with Here Comes the Body and was inspired by her real life.

She’s an award-winning playwright and non-award-winning TV writer of comedies like WINGS, JUST SHOOT ME, and FAIRLY ODD PARENTS, but she considers her most impressive credit working as a cater-waiter for Martha Stewart.

A native New Yorker who attended New Orleans’ Tulane University, she lives in Los Angeles with her husband, daughter, and rescue furbaby. Sign up for her newsletter by clicking the link here.

To learn more about Ellen, click on her name, photo, or any of the following links: Facebook, Instagram, BookBub (Ellen Byron), BookBub (Maria DiRico), Goodreads (Ellen Byron), Goodreads (Maria DiRico), and Amazon (Ellen Byron) and Amazon (Maria DiRico)

Want to learn more about Ellen? Click the link here to read an author interview!

Elena Taylor is the author of All We Buried, available now in print, e-book, and audio book format at all your favorite on-line retailers. And don’t forget many independent bookstores can order books for you and have them shipped to your home or for curbside pickup.

For more information on All We Buried, click on the link here to visit the home page.

The post Ellen Byron Launches Her Latest Cajun Country Mystery appeared first on Elena Taylor.

Smoke, Heat, and One Writer Getting By

Smoke in the air at the stables

Smoke and hot weather can make for a challenging combination . . .

The air is full of smoke. The temps are in the 90s—which in the wet and green Pacific Northwest is HOT—and there isn’t any rain in the short term. We don’t have air conditioning and movie theaters are out as a means of escape.

Let’s face it, 2020 has been a bit of a disappointment as years go. There have been a lot of complicating issues for everyone and nothing is either easy to solve or going away soon. And neither is this damn smoke.

So what’s a body to do?

I find myself doing a lot of baking, plus I picked up my banjo again for the first time in a very long time. I’m not going to admit how long it took me to tune the darn thing, but I’m happy to say I have mastered that part. Now to work on those forward and backward rolls.

From my office, I can see the smoke drifting across the sky. But I keep the window cracked. I feel sorry for my neighbors listening to me tune, but why are they outside in these conditions anyway?

As many of us move through our six month of lockdown, a few trends have appeared through the smoke.

I baked these!

I’m not alone in my baking craze, people are canning, sewing, and doing other domestic chores that folks mostly left behind in the early 1900s.

Others have increased their recreational drinking and there’s likely to be both a population explosion in about four months as well as a sharp rise in divorce. We are either settling into our domestic partnerships or discovering the underlying cracks as we spend 24/7 with our significant other.

And writers are faced with the dilemma of whether or not to write about the pandemic.

And writers are faced with the dilemma of whether or not to write about the pandemic.

I might not write about the pandemic, but smoke may rear its head in my next project!

For me, I see where I might use the pandemic as a part of a project on my horizon, but I’m finishing up projects where that aspect of our reality doesn’t exist. The two manuscripts I’m currently working on exist in the TIME BEFORE, as I often think in my head, complete with the capital letters. But I have an idea for a story that will be set IN THE TIME OF COVID.

I understand both those realities. The one where we casually went into a store and breathed on each other. Where we sat in bars and rubbed our fingers across the bar top without thought for germs or the possibility that touching our face next might result in our deaths. And also the one we’re in now. Where few things feel casual and we are constantly bombarded by reminders that nothing can be taken for granted.

I stopped at our local Bartell’s drug store today. Since I rarely go anywhere except the stables, just walking through the doors felt dangerous. Picking up my items as quick as possible, I still managed to joke with the pharmacist whom I’ve known for years and like very much. It was nice to see people out in the world, even if we all wore masks and there was plexiglass between us.

It felt . . . normal.

But I left as quickly as I could. I went down the aisles where no one else stood and headed for the front door.

But I left as quickly as I could. I went down the aisles where no one else stood and headed for the front door.

Back outside into the smoky air . . .

An elderly woman came in as I was almost to the front. She didn’t have a mask on. My first thought was what the f*&k? What is she thinking? She’s in a vulnerable population. Then I thought . . . I’m getting ten feet from her.

She looked at me with some surprise, as I moved away, then said “Oh, sh*t, I forgot my mask.”

That could be the slogan for 2020. “Oh, sh*t, I forgot my mask.”

Whether it’s the literal, I-have-to-have-a-mask-on-to-go-into-a-public-place-in-Washington-State kind of mask or the I-should-hide-how-I’m-struggling kind of mask or the I-never-leave-the-house-so-I-forgot-this-is-a-thing kind of mask, or any other mask we’re all trying our best to keep in place, sometimes we forget.

I got to my car and as I was putting my stuff away, I saw her returning to the store, mask in place. And I thought, good for you. Make a mistake, curse out loud, fix it, move forward.

Make a mistake, curse out loud, fix it, move forward.

Another excellent reminder.

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again. We’re all doing the best we can.

Here’s what I’m doing to get through: Writing, reading, binge-watching TV late at night, spending time with my horses, baking, banjo tuning (soon to be playing), and muttering at people under my breath as I drive.

What kind of mask are you doing your best to remember? I’d love to hear from you in the comments.

We’re all in this together.

Elena-

From smoky Snoqualmie Valley, Washington.

Looking for something to do to while away the time? Check out the stops on my current Blog Tour with Partners In Crime! Click the link here to see all the stops.

Elena Taylor is the author of All We Buried, available now in print, e-book, and audio book format at all your favorite on-line retailers. And don’t forget many independent bookstores can order books for you and have them shipped to your home or for curbside pickup.

For more information on All We Buried, click on the link here to visit the home page.

Photos: By author except:

Mask, by Anncapictures on Pixabay

And Header Photo by HG-Photographie on Pixabay.

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