Well, summer is well and truly upon us and what better way to pass these glorious, sun-filled days than with a lively and fun cozy mystery! June features a bumper-crop of our favorite genre, with more great titles due out in July and August. Fill up your beach bag or your suitcase with your favorite author and take their stories along with you on vacation this summer! Dive in with me to explore these new titles! Paddling around at the swallow end of the pool are three new series debuting this month. NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEED: A Haunted Guesthouse Mystery by E.J. Copperman features Alison Kerby and her smart, sassy 9-year old daughter Melissa. After moving into a huge old Victoria house in her hometown of Harbor Haven, New Jersey (on the Jersey Shore) that she plans to convert into a guesthouse, Alison discovers that she and her daughter aren’t the only residents of the house – two feisty ghosts, named Paul and Maxey, are in residence and they want Alison to find out who murdered them. This promises to be a delightful series! (Copperman also writes the Double Feature Mysteries and Aaron Tucker Mysteries as Jeffrey Cohen.) Another…

Scumble River #12 April 2010 On Sale: April 6, 2010 Featuring: Skye Denison; Wally 272 pages ISBN: 0451229614 EAN: 9780451229618 Paperback $6.99 Add to Wish List Mystery Amateur Sleuth, Mystery Woman Sleuth, Mystery Cozy Buy at Amazon.com Murder Of A Wedding Belle by Denise Swanson School psychologist Skye Denison is already in a tizzy of indecision contemplating her boyfriend Wally’s marriage proposal when she very reluctantly agrees to act as maid of honor in her California cousin’s over-the-top platinum-style wedding. What’s more, she’s expected to assist the control-freak wedding planner, which means being available to help 24-7. There goes Skye’s much-needed summer break…. Then Skye discovers the flawlessly chic wedding planner lying not so flawlessly dead less than a week before the big event. Suddenly Skye is working double duty on two fronts: making sure every elaborate nuptial detail is executed perfectly, from the butterfly release to the martini luge, and helping the police find out who hated the bossy bridal consultant enough to bash her on the head. Can Skye get her cousin to the church on time — and save herself from a killer who may actually be on the guest list? Who Killed the Wedding Planner?? Previous…

In June of 1988, I created the beginning of the Morgan’s Mercenaries/Morgan Trayhern saga series. Back then, no one had done three books in a row and I was the first to do this with  Harlequin/Silhouette. Now over 50+ strong, I have set my sights on creating a second one. This is the Jackson Hole, Wyoming saga-series. It is about Wild West, stories about cowboys and the hardy men of this region. I refer to the second saga in short hand as JHW. I often get questions from readers about “How do you create a saga?” It’s not easy. There’s a tremendous amount of thought and planning that goes into it.  The first prerequisite is to have a backdrop large enough to put a whole cast of characters on. Secondly, there has to be a focal point that readers want to read. In Morgan’s Mercenaries, these were about men and women who were on the edge of danger as they fought and loved. In JHW it involves a fascinating town set beneath the shadow of the mighty Teton Mountains of western Wyoming. And forty miles north of Jackson Hole is our most well known park, Yellowstone. I spent many years…