B.L. Blair's Blog, page 12

Happy June 2018

According to Days of the Year, June is Iced Tea month. I'm from Texas so, as it is with most southern states, iced tea is a staple. I like mine sweet but without lemon. How about you?

Snippet from Dead in a Pickup

For some reason, this book doesn't want to be written. The idea is there, but I just can't get into a flow. It is going very slow, but Leah is up to her usual amateur detecting.

Annabella ushered me into the kitchen and quickly sat a cup of coffee and a plate of cookies in front of me. Both were delicious. She sat down opposite me and looked me over.I had only met Annabella at Marcus’s restaurant with Marcus and other people around. She had been polite but distant the first time. She had watched me interact with Marcus. Once she realized we weren’t romantically involved, she quickly warmed up. I found her charming, but direct. This was a woman who pulled no punches.“So how are you going to save my son?”I choked on the cookie and had to cough several times before I could answer. Annabella rose, filled a glass with water, and handed it to me. She patiently waited until I stopped coughing before prompting me again.“Well?”“Well, what?” I demanded. “What do you mean how am I going to save your son?”“Pssh,” she replied with a wave of her hand as she sat back down. “You look into things like this.”“Things like what?”“Murder.”It’s true that I had helped catch two murderers recently but both had been by pure chance. I’m nosey and know a lot of people who will talk to me. I’m also somewhat stubborn.“Annabella, I’m not…”“Don’t!” she interjected. “Don’t tell me you will not help him. I know you care for Marcus. That woman will not bring him down! I won’t allow it.”“Okay, okay. Calm down.” Annabella looked ready to explode. I took a deep breath. “Did Marcus know Brandy?’“Yes. They went to high school together. All of them. Damian, Marcus, Lucy, and Brandy. Damian is the oldest. He was a senior when the others started high school, but they all knew each other. My husband died that year. It was hard on the boys. Damian dropped out of school, but Marcus was determined to finish.”This had all happened long before I moved to Reed Hill. What Annabella wasn’t saying was that Damian dropped out of high school to support the family. From what I knew that meant picking up where his father had left off by selling drugs to the local teens. Marcus had probably stayed in school as the contact. At least, that was how it had worked when I found their stash of heroin all these years later. Damian and Ricky were running the operation, and Mike had been in high school pushing the stuff, but Marcus was long gone.He had left town with his wife and three-month old son when he was nineteen. Marcus had moved to California, worked full-time while attending college at night, and finally opened his own restaurants. He only returned to Reed Hill because Annabella had a health scare. She had been diagnosed with coronary artery disease. It wasn’t serious enough to require surgery but serious enough to make Marcus return home to help his mother.The first thing he did was make sure the family drug dealing business was shut down. He then moved his mother into a new home and tried to find legal employment for the family members not in jail. With Damian’s recent release, all the family was back in Reed Hill and under Marcus’s control. At least as much as anyone could control the Cantonos.Marcus’s background wasn’t clean. I was sure he had broken the law more than once to get where he was today, but he seemed to be making an effort to put his family on the right track now.“Do you know if Marcus has had any contact with Brandy recently?” I asked.Annabella nodded. “That vixen came by the restaurant last month. She told him she was looking for more work. She wanted to clean the place. She has some type of cleaning service.”“I saw that online. It seems to have been well-received.”“Oh, she was a hard worker,” Annabella said. “There’s no denying that. She wasn’t looking for a free ride, but she was trying to get her claws into Marcus again.”“What do you mean again?”“Back in high school, Marcus and Lucy were a couple, but they had their ups and downs. Their senior year, they had a fight and broke up for a couple of months. Brandy swopped in. She wanted Marcus. She would invite him to picnics by the lake, and well, Marcus was a boy…he took what she offered. It was a sore spot between him and Lucy when they got back together.”It is generous to call the small body of water near Reed Hill a lake. Technically, its name is Reed Hill Lake, but it’s small. I’ve only been there a couple of times, but it seemed like the ideal place for teenagers to congregate. There’s a wooded area near by, and a few small docks. You can’t ski on it, but it is deep enough for fishing.“Do you think he is seeing Brandy now?”Annabella twisted her hands in her lap. She looked worried. “I don’t know. I don’t think so, but he has been acting mysteriously. He disappears sometimes, won’t answer his phone. When I asked him about it, he just says he forgot he had it turned off. Once he did answer and I thought I heard a woman’s voice. He said it was just the TV.”I needed to talk to Marcus. I needed to find out more about Brandy. And I needed to do both before Griggs tried to stop me.

Memorial Day 2018

Thank you to all who served.

Dead in a Dumpster Promo

Dead in a Dumpster is being featured on Friday May 4th 2018 at www.ebooksoda.com. Check out the site. They list free and bargain ebook deals!

Lost and Found Pets Paperback

The Lost and Found Pets series is now available in paperback. I really like the way the book looks.




https://www.amazon.com/Lost-Found-Pets-1-4-Blair/dp/1944639179/

Lost and Found Pets

My Lost and Found Pets series is now available in a box set. All 4 novellas for $2.99.

Amazon: https://amzn.to/2EbXMpn B&N: http://bit.ly/2J6WkIt iBooks: https://apple.co/2J83fkCKobo: http://bit.ly/2Ile41B Smashwords: http://bit.ly/2pUXKxE

Happy Easter

Q & A with Kimberley O'Malley

Today, I’m happy to have Kimberly O’Malley visiting. Kimberly is the author of the Windsor Falls series which includes Coming Home, Taking Chances, and Second Chances. The fourth book in the series is on its way. She was gracious enough to answer a few questions for us.

What is your favorite genre to read? I ask readers this all the time, and I love the ones who yell ‘I read everything.’ I’d love to say I’m the same, but that would be a lie. I read mostly contemporary. My second love is Romantic Suspense, which I’d love to write sometime.
Do you have any favorite quotes?From the late, great Bob Marley, “Don’t worry about a thing. ‘Cause every little thing gonna be all right.” I am surrounded by anxious people in my life, and I am just not hard-wired that way. Life is way too short to waste it worrying about things that will probably never happen.
Do you listen to music when you're writing? Sadly, I’m too old to listen to music and write. I have to write in silence, although I write in my dining room, with a husband who works from home. You can imagine how that works. Right now, I can hear the washer and dryer, my dog Molly is staring at me because she is convinced I still have some banana left, and my husband is on a conference call. Neither of us have doors to our office. The silence thing is a bit of a stretch.
Do you have any phobias? Doesn’t everyone? When I say I hate snakes, I don’t just mean a little. I. Hate. Snakes. I am terrified of them. I cannot look at pictures of them without nightmares. And now I live in the South, where apparently, they are everywhere. Snakes and I avoid each other at all costs. It works for both of us.
What traits make a good character for a romance novel? My favorite romance novels mirror real life, just with a guaranteed HEA. Same for characters. I like flawed characters: commitment phobic, carrying a few extra pounds, a bit battered from their upbringing, etc. Perfect characters who prance through novels without a singe issue and seem like they have a wind machine that follows them blowing out their hair frankly bore me. Give me a character who grows, evolves throughout the book anytime.
What is the hardest thing about being an author?Only one? My top would have to be time management.  I work full time night shifts in an ER. I’m married with two teenagers. I am a soccer Mom. Then, I get to be a writer. Finding the time to have uninterrupted writing is the bane of my existence. Plus, I can’t be sleep-deprived. Did I mention I work nights?
What are you reading right now?One of my favorite things in the whole world is to find a new-to-me author. My latest is Noelle Adams. In the past two days, I have read the first two of her three Brother’s Best Friend novels. They are fast-paced and sassy with great sex scenes and a secondary cast that leaves you wanting more.

Kimberley O’Malley is a recent transplant to Charlotte, North Carolina from the frozen North. She is learning to say y’all but draws the line at sweet tea. Sarcasm is an art form in her world. When not writing, she is a full-time nurse and part-time soccer Mom, but not necessarily in that order. She shares her life with an amazing husband of more than twenty years, two teenagers, and one very sweet Shetland Sheepdog, Molly.
- Website- TwitterHere’s a little about her books. Check them out!  Available on Amazon
Coming HomeDr. Elizabeth Abbott Fitzgerald has spent the last ten years of her life running; from tragedy, from family, from love. But now her mother’s failing health calls her home to Windsor Falls, North Carolina; to the place where her past awaits. Sam Bishop can’t believe his eyes when the love of his life returns after ten long years. All he wants is to clear his conscience and get back the family he lost when Connor, his best friend and Elizabeth’s husband died tragically. Could it really be true that time heals all wounds?



Taking ChancesKatie Fitzgerald learned the hard way about love. She vowed to never get involved with a doctor at work, and when she did, he broke her heart. Older and wiser, Katie is serious about not getting hurt again. Dr. Flynn Reynolds, staff cardiologist at Windsor Falls Memorial, just might be the man to change her mind. Attraction explodes between the two from their very first meeting. But Katie is determined to protect her heart. Will Flynn convince her to take another chance?



Second ChancesDr. Charlotte Avery is the newest resident of Windsor Falls, North Carolina. Just back from the war-ravaged plains of Africa, Charlie only wants to settle into her new life and reconnect with Elizabeth Fitzgerald, her best friend from residency. What she doesn't expect, or need, is the instant attraction she feels for Elizabeth's brother-in-law, Brendan Fitzgerald. A single Dad, Brendan isn't interested in anything that will complicate his life. Will either be open to a second chance?

Excerpt from Dead in a Pickup

I have been working on the next Leah Norwood mystery. I really got behind in February. I’m only a little over 15,000 words. I was hoping to be close to 30,000 by now. March has to be more productive!
Here’s a little excerpt:Normally, I don’t mind staying late. I love my store, my employees, and my customers. Scents and Sensibilities belongs to my two best friends and me. Gabe Weston, Olivia Graham, and I meet in collage. Gabe and Olivia married and moved back to Gabe’s home town. With no other prospects, I followed. I fell in love with Reed Hill but was working a dead-end job. Olivia was bored at hers, and Gabe had just been handed the reigns to his family’s manufacturing business. One night of a little too much wine and our dream store was born. Olivia is a chemist. She mixes and designs our fragrances, Gabe’s company produces them, and I sell them. For the last couple of years, we have turned a nice profit, and we were all happy.But tonight I was anxious to leave. I hadn’t seen Griggs for almost two weeks. During the shutdown of the Cantono’s drug operation in December, the involvement of one of the local police captains had come to light. Raymond Hunter was still in prison, but his arrest had left a hole in the police department. Griggs had quickly replaced him with an officer by the name of Megan Ross. She was smart, competent, and willing but lacked any real experience as a detective. Griggs had to spend a lot of time training her. She had been thrown into the deep in end on her first case which had been the murder of a distant cousin of mine. That was the case that had brought Griggs back into my life.Hunter had been the mastermind behind the drug operation, but he wasn’t the only police officer involved. It had taken Griggs several months to weed out the rest which had left his department short-staffed.If that had been the only thing in our way, Griggs and I would have found time to get together, but at the end of March, the flu arrived in town. It was late for a flu epidemic so everyone was surprised and unprepared. It started in the schools but quickly spread. Emma, who has three young children, had to take off the whole first week of April. Normally, that wouldn’t have been a problem as one of my other employees could have stepped in, but Myra, who is a retired teacher, had been helping out at the high school because so many were out sick. Our other option for help was Oliva, but two of her boys had caught the flu as well. Kara and I were the only two left standing. Working a lot of hours didn’t really leave me much time for dating.Just about the time, my employees returned to work. The flu made its way to the police and fire departments. Having emergency services short-staff was not anything anyone wanted. Griggs stepped in when Megan went down, and several other officers clocked a lot of overtime.My phone rang as I walked into the backroom of the store. My heart sank when I saw it was Griggs. He wouldn’t be calling unless he had to cancel. With a quiet sigh, I answered.“I’m sorry,” he said immediately. His deep, smoky voice sent a shiver down my spine – the good kind of shiver.“It’s okay,” I replied as I sat in the chair behind my desk.“No. It’s not,” he said sharply, “but I can’t do anything about it. I just found David in the bathroom throwing up.”David Reddish is the other captain on the Reed Hill force. He’s in his late fifties, attractive, and has a crush on Myra. He is also one of the most competent officers I have ever met as well as being a really good guy.“Flu?”“Yep. He wasn’t even going to tell me.”“He knows you need the time off.”“Yeah, but…”“It’s okay. I understand.”“I’m really sorry, Leah.”“I know.”“Listen, Megan is supposed to be back tomorrow. I’ll brief her in the morning, and then we can grab some lunch. Do you think you could get the afternoon off? We can make a day of it.”I leaned back in the chair with a silly grin on my face. “I think I can arrange that.”“Great.” I could hear the smile in his voice. “I’ll call you in the morning.”

Oscar Fun

I don't see very many movies so I couldn't complete this trivia quiz without help. How will you do?