It’s that time of year! That’s right, you have to come up with an idea for all those people you don’t really know—at all! What do you give a teacher who has every apple under the sun, or your nosy neighbor you’d like to keep out of your business for at least one day during the holidays? Your cubicle mate whom you have nothing in common with beyond the daily gripping about the commute in to the office? What about your mother-in-law, or father-in-law? Or your personal assistant who carries you through the entire year and you’ve been so busy you haven’t even asked her/his favorite color (s/he deserves a cash bonus to be sure), but what if you want to add a personal touch to that bonus that says I did think about you beyond your monetary value? There’s nothing better than a mystery that has their interests at heart and in the cozy genre you are sure to find the perfect match. For instance, for that retired firefighter in your life, whether it be your neighbor or your mother-in-law, J.J. Cook has the perfect Sweet Pepper Fire Brigade Mystery release, SWEET PEPPER HERO. About SWEET PEPPER HERO Old…

It was a blustery March weekend at the end of a long, cold winter, and my husband and I were itching to get out of the house. Late March, however, is an awkward time in northwest lower Michigan, and our options seemed limited to poor skiing or a walk in the woods through a foot of slushy snow. Since neither of those two things felt very attractive, I picked up the local newspaper and started paging through the list of weekend activities. “Here’s something,” I said. “They’re having a maple syrup demonstration at Hartwick Pines State Park.” “Sounds okay,” my husband said, and went to fetch the car keys. An hour later, we were standing outside near a roaring fire, chatting with park rangers about how maple syrup is made. “Bring in the sap,” ranger number one said, “cook it, then can it. Pretty simple, really.” My husband eyed the contraption they were using to cook down the sap. “That looks expensive.” “Ah, you don’t have to use one of these,” ranger number two said. “Lots of folks start with a big open pan. Just make sure it can take the heat, is all you really need.” The day had…

Much has been said about the writing process. Some expostulate at length upon the importance of interaction (listening to other people talk about themselves), of immersion (a euphemism for travel) or, most infrequently, literary education (engaging with the writings of others, AKA “reading”). Some camps trumpet the importance of learning the writing game in groups; others quietly declare the crucial requirement of solitude to find one’s inner voice. Having written fiction and nonfiction, novels and journalism, analyses and treatments for most of my 44 years, I would throw up the notion that the process of writing is in fact most akin to vomiting, of restoring one’s equanimity through purgative means. It is only through the energy of this ejective process that we show ourselves—our most deep-seated conflicts, our innermost creative juices, our true colors—for all the world to see. In fiction, this begins as a vague disturbance at one’s core, a disquietude along the blurred fault line between the fully-conscious cogito and the less-accessible molten realm of the subconscious, wherein such disturbances frequently bubble to the surface. This wellspring of creative expulsion can often take a great deal of time to raise the gorge of one’s articulative faculties. But once…

In Delos Series, Book 3, FORGED IN FIRE, you will meet Delta Force Army Sergeant Matt Culver. He’s been in the Army since eighteen and is a kidnapping and ransom (KNR) specialist out of Bagram, Afghanistan. Matt’s enlistment is up in four months. During a holiday program over Thanksgiving at the base, he meets Dr. Dara McKinley, a pediatrician who volunteers her time at a charity in Kabul. They are on a collision course with one another. Matt will later be director of KNR at Artemis. Character interview with Sergeant Matt Culver, US Army/Delta Force/CAG You asked me if I expected to meet the woman of my dreams in Afghanistan where me and my team operate out of? You’ve got to be joking! No one in the black ops community has time to fall in love. Especially in this war torn country. With ISIS now infiltrating it and joining up with the Taliban and Al-Queda, we’re busier than ever. I’ve been over here for five years straight, and every time I’m deployed back to this place, it’s worse than before. Look, I’m in my late twenties, and no, I’ve had no such dreams or a vision of finding the ‘right’…