for books…and authors and storytellers. On the day of the year where our nation collectively gives thanks there are a few things that I’m truly grateful to have. One of those and maybe not the very first but near the top of the list is the ability to read. It’s so much in the fabric of my person I don’t realize it’s something not everyone has. I can read, read fast and comprehend quickly. Reading has taught me so much over the years and allowed me to visit worlds I’d never be able to travel, meet people I’d never know, be so happy with my own life and give me a business I love every day, even at 4:30am. Authors and books and publishers of books are wondrous devices that feed my obsession. This year, I’m truly thankful for all of them. Yes, and I’m also thankful for my family who supports me by knowing not to bother me when I have a book in hand and for my strange obsession in reading and meeting new readers and authors. For allowing our home to be opened to visitors each month to talk about books and authors without complaint and actually…
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With Thanksgiving right around the corner here in the US and the holiday season upon us, many people are thinking about the things they’re thankful for. Family. Friends. Health. Steady work. Finding a twenty-dollar bill in the pocket of last year’s winter coat. I’m thankful for all of those things. (Well, except for the twenty-dollar bill, which I didn’t find. I checked.) I’m also very thankful for romance novels. I’m not sure how I’d get through life without them. I’d survive, but my world would be a dreary place. Why am I so thankful for romance novels? That happily-ever-after. While I occasionally read horror or thrillers, I usually want to know ahead of time everything’s going to turn out okay and that the characters I’m about to grow attached to aren’t going to die gruesome deaths. Several years ago, when my husband was going through a health crisis and I needed to distract myself, I reached for a Nora Roberts trilogy I hadn’t read. I knew, no matter how tough life was for her characters or what hardships they faced, I could trust her with my emotions. The main characters would all be happy in the end. The variety! Dark,…
Cackleberry Club #2 December 2009 On Sale: December 1, 2009 336 pages ISBN: 0425231550 EAN: 9780425231555 Paperback $7.99 Add to Wish List Mystery Amateur Sleuth, Mystery Cozy Buy at Amazon.com Heads Up! The next installment of the Cackleberry Club, BEDEVILED EGGS hits the shelves December 7 Eggs Benedict Arnold by Laura Childs Recipes included! When Cackleberry Clubber Suzanne delivers a pie to funeral director Ozzie Driesden, she discovers him not working at the embalming table but lying on the embalming table. She barely has time to recognize his corpse before she’s drugged with chloroform. With more suspects than breakfast specials, the Cackleberry Club scrambles to crack the case before one of their own ends up six feet under. A great mystery that moves along at a brisk pace with wonderful characterization. Previous Picks
The back cover text for a book is meant to do just one things – sell you the book. I’m super excited about my second novella, HER KIND OF HERO, and the back cover text is… well, super exciting: Kissing him is better than nothing. Young widow Vanessa Bingham is ready to stop mourning. She misses the intimacy and tenderness of a man’s touch. It’s obvious her old friend Derek Lane wants her, so why does her first attempt at seduction cause him to flee? Kissing her is a dream come true. Derek has been in love with Vanessa forever. His feelings have kept him from having a serious relationship—or a casual one—with any other woman. So when she finally turns to him, he doesn’t want to settle for being friends with benefits. But Vanessa is a hard woman to resist for long… Someone doesn’t want them kissing at all. Just as things with Derek begin heating up, disturbing photos start to arrive at Vanessa’s door. Someone is watching her every move: someone she may know. Terrified by the stalker’s very real threats, Vanessa soon realizes that Derek may be just the hero she needs after all. That’s all true….
Donut Shop Mystery April 2010 On Sale: March 30, 2010 Featuring: Suzanne Hart 320 pages ISBN: 0312946104 EAN: 9780312946104 Mass Market Paperback $7.99 Add to Wish List Mystery Woman Sleuth, Mystery Culinary, Mystery Cozy Buy at Amazon.com Glazed Murder by Jessica Beck Meet Suzanne Hart, owner and operator of Donut Hearts coffee shop in April Springs, North Carolina. After her divorce from Max, an out-of-work actor she’s dubbed “The Great Impersonator,” Suzanne decided to pursue her one true passion in life: donuts. So she cashed in her settlement and opened up shop in the heart of her beloved hometown. But when a dead body is dumped on her doorstep like a sack of flour, Suzanne’s cozy little shop becomes an all-out crime scene. Now, everyone in town is dropping by for glazed donuts and gruesome details. The retired sheriff warns her to be careful—and they’re all suspects. Soon Suzanne—who finds snooping as irresistible as donuts—is poking holes in everyone’s alibis… A thoroughly entertaining and neatly plotted cozy mystery with a wonderful cast of characters. Previous Picks
Hello and a huge thank you to Fresh Fiction for inviting me here to introduce myself and tell you a little about DATING MR. DECEMBER, my US debut for Sourcebooks. One of the best things I’ve found about my first blog tour is that I’ve asked myself as many questions as the bloggers and readers have asked me! The tour has made me think deeply about why I choose the stories and characters that feature in my books. What makes one story or character worth spending so much of my life with? In other words, what really inspires me? I guess I have three main sources of inspiration People I absolutely love watching and listening to them, in cafes, on the train, at the gym, in the queue at the supermarket. Being a writer is the perfect excuse to be nosy and listen to characters from all walks of life. For DATING MR. DECEMBER I visited a mountain rescue team base. Listening to the rescue squad gave me a clue to motivations of Will, the hero of DATING MR. DECEMBER. The team’s jokiness hid a powerful sense of duty and camaraderie. Those guys see some terrible things and are often…
What comes to your mind when you hear the word spies? James Bond, gadgets, an eccentric Civil War-era spinster known as Crazy Bet. Yes, that’s right…a spinster known as Crazy Bet – Elizabeth Van Lew, a Richmond spinster known as Crazy Bet, used her eccentric behavior as a cover for her ingenious schemes, disarming the people she’s deceiving without ever using a weapon. The daughter of a prominent Richmond businessman, she spent her inheritance buying and freeing slaves before the war. During the war, she spied for the Union, supplying information to Union generals; during her frequent visits to the Confederate prison in Richmond, Crazy Bet brought food and books for the imprisoned Federal soldiers and much desired treats for the guards while she gleaned information she could funnel to Union officers. Using her reputation as an eccentric to her best advantage, she adopted the touched persona of “Crazy Bet” to further avoid suspicion of her activities. Elizabeth Van Lew’s story inspired the character of canny spymaster, “Crazy Betsy” Kincaid, in Angel in My Arms, the story of Amanda Emerson, a beautiful Union spy and Captain Steve Dunham, the Union officer she recruits for a suicide mission. Steve Dunham’s facing…
Knitting Mystery #8 June 2010 On Sale: June 1, 2010 Featuring: Kelly Flynn 304 pages ISBN: 042523438X EAN: 9780425234389 Hardcover $24.95 Add to Wish List Mystery Hobbies, Mystery Amateur Sleuth Buy at Amazon.com Skein Of The Crime by Maggie Sefton The newest installment in the series, with knitting patterns and recipes included! Fall has come to Fort Connor, Colorado, and the cool air has inspired the knitters at the House of Lambspun to start on their hats and mittens. It’s also brought an influx of students to the university town-and into the shop for knitting classes. Kelly Flynn is happy to teach them the tricks of the trade-until one of them is found dead on the river trail near Kelly’s house. Compelled to investigate, Kelly finds herself following a path that twists more easily than the yarn with which she knits. Knowing the killer could be close, Kelly must work fast to unravel the skein of this crime. The wool is flying as a mystery comes unraveled! Excerpt “How did your counselor friends find this guy?” Kelly whispered to Jayleen as they entered a corridor. “My friend, Jerry, is director of the program that helps bring in the vagrants who’re…
Cedar Key #2 November 2010 On Sale: October 26, 2010 Featuring: Monica Brooks; Adam 352 pages ISBN: 0758232055 EAN: 9780758232052 Trade Size $15.00 Add to Wish List Women’s Fiction Contemporary Buy at Amazon.com Casting About by Terri DuLong In this beautifully crafted and uplifting novel, the author of the acclaimed Spinning Forward welcomes readers back to the lush Florida island of Cedar Key, where the vibrant shades of hibiscus and azaleas are the perfect backdrop to a colorful, quirky community. . . In the four years since Monica Brooks moved to Cedar Key, she’s found a home, a husband, and now a business to love. Taking over her mother’s bustling knitting shop is a welcome challenge, but Monica’s exciting plans are waylaid by unexpected news. Her husband’s ex-wife has been deemed an unfit mother, and custody of their eight-year-old daughter, Clarissa, is to be transferred to Adam. Going straight from honeymoon to motherhood—especially when she’s unsure she wants children—leaves the normally even-keeled Monica doubting herself at every turn. Yet in a place like Cedar Key, nobody goes it alone. With help from friends and relatives, Monica, Clarissa, and Adam begin to forge a close-knit family of their own—one that will…
Blossom Street May 2010 On Sale: May 1, 2010 Featuring: Lydia Hoffman 384 pages ISBN: 0778328805 EAN: 9780778328803 Mass Market Paperback (reprint) $7.99 Add to Wish List Romance Contemporary Buy at Amazon.com A Good Yarn by Debbie Macomber Lydia Hoffman owns the shop on Blossom Street. In the year since it opened, A Good Yarn has thrived—and so has Lydia. A lot of that is due to Brad Goetz. But when Brad’s ex-wife reappears, Lydia is suddenly afraid to trust her newfound happiness. Three women join Lydia’s newest class. Elise Beaumont, retired and bitterly divorced, learns that her onetime husband is reentering her life. Bethanne Hamlin is facing the fallout from a much more recent divorce. And Courtney Pulanski is a depressed and overweight teenager, whose grandmother’s idea of helping her is to drag her to seniors’ swim sessions—and to the knitting class at A Good Yarn. Excerpt “Making a sock by hand creates a connection to history; we are offered a glimpse into the lives of knitters who made socks using the same skills and techniques we continue to use today.” —Nancy Bush, author of Folk Socks (1994), Folk Knitting in Estonia (1999) and Knitting on the Road, Socks…