HOTEL CALIFORNIA (aka Mission Inn) in Riverside, CA How many of you know the cover of the Eagle’s album Hotel California? That’s actually a picture of the Mission Inn located in Riverside, California. It’s a fabulous hotel with lots of interesting nooks and crannies. I went there for the Historical Romance Retreat and joined in the scavenger hunt. The organizer (Renee Bernard) did a great job, and the hotel staff members were wonderful as they directed us around the hotel, former abbey, and former mission. I don’t have room here for all the pictures I took, but I’ll give you an idea. First off, here’s the scavenger hunt list. Here’s items 2 and 3—the oldest bell and the biggest bell. You can’t read the plaque, but it says this bell of Spanish origin dates from 1247 AD and is considered the oldest bell in Christendom. Item 4 – Napoleon and Josephine were the two birds. We searched a long time for Item 8 – the smallest door still in use. The tiniest one pictured isn’t still in use, but the other two were. Item 11 the Glockenspiel was huge. It’s hard to see here, but there are two figures inside,…

10. The world. The planet Dion is absolutely breathtaking! Although my characters are confined to a small piece of land protected by energy shields (the result of a terraforming experiment gone wrong), the outside planet is characterized by brilliantly colored streams of water. As Vela says, “If a nebula broke off and fell into the water, this is what it would look like.” In addition, when the rain falls on the energy shields, the water explodes into different colors depending on the weight of the drop. 9. The food. Land is scarce, so there’s not enough food to feed the colony. Enter the Aegis, who have accepted a genetic modification so that they may convert food into energy more efficiently. The nutrition is then extracted from them via a pill and distributed to the rest of the people. However, when eating becomes your duty, and you must imbibe food all day long, it is no longer pleasurable. Thus, the food preppers’ task is to produce the must luscious, mouth-watering spreads possible, in order to entice the Aegis into taking one more bite.  8. The sacrifice. An Aegis may get to experience the taste of real food, and they have the…

When I was about 15, I remember sneaking into a bookstore with my best friend and peeking around aisles to make sure no one was watching us. We would wind up in the baby book section to take a peek at naming books. We knew that we were only there for research, after all, both of us loved to write, but we worried what others would think. Finally, she got up the courage and the cash to buy one those naming books. We spent hours on her bedroom floor, huddled over this book learning about which names were recommended for boys and girls. It even had a nifty little section at the bottom that gave suggested sibling names that were cute with the one you selected. Naming characters and places has always been one of the most important parts of my process. A name informs what a character is going to be like. I usually start out with a personality sketch, who I want this character to be, what they are to the story and from there, I try to select a name. Since I write a lot of fantasy that is informed by history, I try to select names…

TUNES Excerpt Copyright © 2018 KC Enders Gavin Gracyn’s gone. She fucking left me in the middle of the night, buck-ass naked and in her bed. I waited more than an hour for her to come back from wherever she’d scampered off to, almost certain that she’d just gone out to grab us some breakfast. Took a shower and threw on my clothes from last night. Well, my board shorts because my favorite fucking shirt was gone, too. No Gracyn. No note. No shirt. Nothing. The sun blazes down on my bare shoulders as I walk back to my shitty motel. It’s petty and stupid, but I’m too pissed off to put on a different T-shirt. It’s the principle. My fist connects with Ian’s door with three solid thumps. The last thing I want to do is walk in on him getting ass when my chick had taken her fill and bailed on me. No fucking way I feel like dealing with his shit over this. I don’t want to hear it. “Dude, you good?” I call as I hit the door again. “S’open,” Nate yells. “Hey, didn’t think we’d see you today. She leaves tomorrow, right? That chick you’ve…

My debut contemporary romance, WILD ON MY MIND, combines three gifts that my grandparents gave me growing up:  their love and support, long family road trips, and an annual pass to Pittsburgh Zoo and PPG Aquarium.   Before their deaths this past year, my maternal grandparents were two of my biggest supporters.  My grandfather and I even worked at the same company where he could be found at his desk, three days a week until his death at age 94. I hope that their caring spirit and work ethic lives on in characters of mine.  In WILD ON MY MIND, Lou is partially based off of my grandfather.  The eighty-year-old veterinarian helps the hero, Bowie, run a local zoo.  But Lou is more than a coworker…he’s family. He’s the father that Bowie never had.  The elderly man gave Bowie a home when the formerly troubled boy was kicked out of foster care on his eighteenth birthday.  Together, the two of them are raising Bowie’s eleven-year-old daughter. Lou also serves as Bowie’s confidant through all of the ups-and-downs of his relationship with the heroine, Katie.  He has faith in his adopted son even after Bowie confesses that he’d engineered mean tricks back…

I’ve lived most of my life in a small town on the south shore of Eastern Long Island, along with four generations of my family. My grandfather owned a deli in town, where I started working stocking shelves and sweeping floors when I was twelve years old. When I was a little older, I started working the breakfast shift, the inspiration for the All-Day Breakfast Café Mystery series. I’ve always loved the small-town feel, the way everyone knows everyone, especially the families who have lived here for generation after generation as mine has. When I married a man from the neighboring town, it seemed natural to settle down where we’d grown up and start our family. Then my husband got a job offer in Florida, and he accepted. We moved down right after my daughter finished kindergarten. I had only ever been to Florida once, when my daughter was three and we spent three days in Disney World, so I had no clue what to expect. Just like Gia Morelli in SCONE COLD KILLER, I was in for a few surprises. I was used to deer crossing signs, since Long Island is home to a large deer population, but the…

I hope you’ve enjoyed our wonderful summer of guest bloggers at the Cozy Corner! I can’t thank my fellow mystery authors enough for stopping by and sharing their great posts! Hugs to all of them for the time, tidbits, and talents they’ve shared with our readers! If you’ve been following the Cozy Corner for long, you know I’m prone to step away from the cozy world from time to time and delve into a thriller. But not just any chilling intrigue will do. My escape from the safe, loving small town communities must take me into the intrigue and darkness of a city like Gotham with real-life multi-faceted characters. (Not men in dark masks with capes, scratchy voices and gadget belts; although they are nice on the big screen:) That’s quite a tall order. Especially if I want to read an action-packed mystery layered with clues and hidden agendas all written in graphic, but clean language—a rarity in the genre. What I really liked about the book I chose this week, was that it’s actually a prequel to a series that’s new to me. (Who doesn’t love discovering a backlist just waiting to be devoured?!) I found exactly what I…