Denise Grover Swank's Blog, page 2

Finding Tomorrow Chapter One

Coming soon! Read the first chapter of my new women’s fiction I cowrote with Christine Gael, the pen name for my friend Christine Bell.  Celia Burrows thought she had it all—a handsome husband, two successful children, and a gorgeous beach house on the Northern coast of Maine. But her perfect life cracks apart when her […]

OF ASH AND SPIRIT Chapter One

OF ASH AND SPIRIT: A CURSE KEEPERS NOVEL OF ASH AND SPIRIT TRILOGY BOOK ONE FEBRUARY 27, 2018 iBooks Nook Kobo  Google Play Amazon US Amazon UK:  Amazon AU Amazon CA Goodreads   Chapter One   “I sense a spirit here. An older man.” “I knew it,” Miss Louisa Carlisle said under her breath. I […]

OF ASH AND SPIRIT: A Curse Keepers Novel

OF ASH AND SPIRIT: A CURSE KEEPERS NOVEL OF ASH AND SPIRIT TRILOGY BOOK ONE FEBRUARY 27, 2018 iBooks Nook Kobo  Google Play Amazon US Amazon UK:  Amazon AU Amazon CA Goodreads Who’s afraid of ghosts? Not Piper Lancaster, because even though she’s a ghost whisperer, she’s a skeptic. Piper helps her clients settle their […]

Deleted scene from Deadly Summer

I’ve never posted a deleted scene from a book before. For me, scenes are usually deleted because the book took a different direction.  But this scene is an exception to that rule. This deleted scene could have stayed, but was cut for other reasons. One, the book was already really long, and two, while I […]

Get a Sneak Peek at Chapter One of DEADLY SUMMER

DEADLY SUMMER Darling Investigations #1 January 8, 2018 Available on Amazon Only Amazon US Amazon UK Amazon AU Amazon CA Chapter One This felt a lot like rock bottom. I was sitting at the bar in Magnum, an upscale Vietnamese and Portuguese fusion restaurant, sipping a glass of white wine while I tried not to […]

IN HIGH COTTON Release Date Move

Some of you may have gotten an email telling you that the release date of IN HIGH COTTON has been moved to July 31.  First, let me tell you that HELL IN A HANDBASKET, Rose Gardner Investigations #3, will now be releasing April 17 instead of late May as I’d originally planned. This move means […]

ALWAYS YOU Chapter One

  ALWAYS YOU (The Bachelor Brotherhood #3) November 28, 2018 Amazon Amazon UK Amazon AU Amazon CA Nook iBooks Kobo Google Play Goodreads             Read Chapter One Now! Standing at the edge of a grass soccer field, Matt stared into the sea of parents’ faces and resisted the urge to […]

CURTAIN CALL Chapters One and Two

Only nine more days until the conclusion of the Magnolia Steele Mystery series so I thought I’d give you a sneak peek!   But first…  New to the Magnolia Steele series?    Start at the beginning with CENTER STAGE and get the eBook for FREE! Center Stage Amazon US Center Stage Amazon UK Center Stage […]

Trailer Trash: Neely Kate (Rose Gardner Exposed Novella)

Readers of my Rose Gardner Mystery series know that I often release novellas between the novels. When I released novellas before, I let my newsletter subscribers read the novellas in three parts before they officially released. They would get links and passwords in the newsletter and could gain access to read the parts on my website. It wasn’t a free download, but it was a free read. It was a way to tell my readers thank you for their loyalty and support.

Unfortunately, for now, SINS OF THE FATHER is the last Rose Gardner free read novella.

With the release of each novella, I got angry emails. Readers had trouble with the passwords and gaining access. (My assistant or I  would happily help them get to the page.)  Some readers missed the deadlines and were upset that I wouldn’t 1) give them access to the pages after the deadline (the pages were deleted the day after the deadline) or 2) wouldn’t send them a free copy. (That wouldn’t be fair to the other readers who didn’t get free copies and read it on the website.) Honestly, it became exhausting and disheartening.

So for now, I will be releasing novellas with the new Rose Gardner Investigations series, but they will be only available for purchase. I’m giving the novellas a series name–Rose Gardner Exposed–because I plan to make each novella focus on a character and their past. The first novella will be centered around Neely Kate, and after you read FAMILY JEWELS, you’ll know that Kate Simmons has been sending Neely Kate upsetting letters that Neely Kate refuses to share with Rose. A lot of readers are curious about Neely Kate’s past and her backstory will play a part in future books.

The novellas will be bonus material, but like the previous Rose Gardner Mystery novellas, they will provide insight that Rose isn’t privy to. I plan for the “Exposed” novellas to only have one character’s point of view.

I’ll be writing more novellas, although I’m not sure if the second one will follow FOR THE BIRDS (Rose Gardner Investigations #2) which releases July 11, 2017, or will come later. I’m still working on my schedule. But I am curious:

Which character would you like to be featured in a novella? I’d love to hear in the comments below.

You can see the cover and the description for TRAILER TRASH: NEELY KATE below.

 

TRAILER TRASH: NEELY KATE

(A Rose Gardner Exposed Novella)

April 18, 2017

iBooks

Amazon

Nook

Kobo

Google Play

Goodreads

Neely Kate Coulson’s life is a carefully built house of cards—and now her newly discovered half-sister is threatening to collapse it. While everyone thinks Kate Simmons was neutralized when she was incarcerated in a psych ward, Neely Kate knows better. Her sister has been sending her letters threatening to expose her past, only Neely Kate has stuffed so many secrets into every available crack and cranny, she has no idea which ones could be dragged into the light.

Growing up with an abusive, drug addicted mother taught Neely Kate to play the game—to be whoever she needs to be in whatever situation she finds herself in. But thanks to her best friend, Rose, she’s discovered she mostly prefers being herself. For the first time in her life, she has a lot to lose—a job, a plan for the future, and an adoring half-brother who happens to be the Chief Deputy Sheriff of Fenton County. But topple one card down, and all of them will fall. Everything she’s built could be lost in an instant.

Neely Kate knows she needs help, but when she reluctantly turns to Rose’s bodyguard, Jed Carlisle, she faces a far more dangerous threat—only this time her heart is on the line.

FAMILY JEWELS (Rose Gardner Investigations #1)

****FAMILY JEWELS****

Rose Gardner Investigations #1

November 29, 2016

With only three more weeks until the release of FAMILY JEWELS, I thought I’d clear up some confusion about the new Rose Gardner series.

While Rose Gardner Investigations is a new series, readers of the previous series will see a seamless transition from the novella SINS OF THE FATHER or THIRTY-SIX AND A HALF MOTIVES.
Readers who have never read a Rose Gardner Mystery book will be able to start with FAMILY JEWELS without a problem.
The books in the new series will no longer have the >Number and a Half< in the titles.
Almost every character from the Rose Gardner Mystery series will make an appearance in the new series at some point.
Each book of the Rose Gardner Investigation series will be a self-contained mystery, but there will be overlap of Rose and her friends’ personal lives over the course of the series.
FAMILY JEWELS has a preorder price of $2.99 but will raise to $3.99 on December 5.
There will be novellas with the new series, but for now, they will focus on secondary characters and their backstories. The novellas will be part of their own **Rose Gardner Exposed Series**. The first novella will release April 18, 2017 and will feature Neely Kate’s backstory in TRAILER TRASH. It is currently available for preorder on iBooks.
The novellas in the new series will NOT be available on my website to be read for free. (I will write a blog post later to explain this.)

iBooks: http://apple.co/1WAZJ66

Amazon: http://amzn.to/2bTtsH0

Amazon US: http://amzn.to/2c2sDL7

Nook: http://bit.ly/2bWV9wj

Kobo: http://bit.ly/2cE6a3d

Google Play: http://bit.ly/2cE5ZVF

Goodreads: http://bit.ly/2aeNMjx

 

Trouble always comes to those who court it. Rose Gardner’s ability to see glimpses of the future has gotten her into hot water time and again, but so have her curiosity and her sense of daring. Those very qualities helped her defeat the most powerful man in Arkansas—a man so adept at hiding his crimes there was no way to defeat him inside of the law—but her success came at a steep personal price. Now she’s throwing herself into her landscaping business, trying to live a life that’s as orderly as one of her gardens.

Rose’s best friend, Neely Kate, is struggling with her own losses, so when she suggests they help a local man find a missing necklace, Rose agrees. It’ll give both of them a welcome distraction, and besides, it’s a simple investigation. What harm could befall them? But things that should be simple rarely are. In seeking out the necklace, Rose and Neely Kate find themselves in the thick of a power struggle in the Fenton County underworld, one that could dethrone Rose’s friend James Malcolm, the surprisingly moral king.

The last thing Rose should do is court more trouble, but she’s not the type to step away from a friend in need—and she’s also not so sure she wants an orderly life.