My name is Evangeline Fontenot but everyone calls me Evie except my papá, he calls me ’tit ange. Little angel. I have people in my life who love me, but what I really want is a mother. I’m in the second grade and our class just got a new teacher. Her name is Miz Honeycutt and I decided she’d make a great mom. She’s real pretty, loves kids and she has a big orange cat named Henry. I know because she has a picture of Henry on her desk. I haven’t met Henry yet, but I’m sure he’s real nice too. I’ve been telling Papá about Henry and Miz Honeycutt every night at supper, but he still hasn’t gone to meet her. Bobby, a boy in my class, says he got a bad grade on his spelling test and his mom had to come to talk to Miz Honeycutt. It worked for him so I decided it might work for me. It did, but now I have to make sure Miz Honeycutt doesn’t decide she likes my uncle or anyone else better than my papá. Who knew getting a mom with a cat was this hard! Excerpt from The Sheriff’s…

All year long I search for new and interesting stories.  Each year, they seem more elusive. November 1st, WAIT UNTIL DARK, a digital novella was released.  It’s a prequel, and introduction to my Maximum Security series that starts with THE CONSPIRACY, out January 22nd.   As I worked to come up with a plot, the only thing I knew was that Jonah Wolfe and April Vale would be thrown together in a tale of greed and murder.  I had no idea how the story would play out. Or who, exactly, would wind up being the villain. I knew the setting.  Maximum Security is the Dallas security company where Cassidy Jones, the heroine of Beyond Danger, worked as a private detective.  I wanted to introduce some of the other men and women who worked at The Max, and WAIT UNTIL DARK gave me the perfect opportunity.   I wasn’t sure how I was going to put Jonah and April together, but little by little, a plot began to unfold in my head.  Since the book is a novella, I thought I’d start right off with the action. A bloody murder? Humm…why not? Halfway through, I was still finding my way, trying…

In this excerpt from Burning Ridge, Deputy Mattie Cobb and her K-9 partner Robo search for the body of an unknown victim. Prior to this excerpt, veterinarian Cole Walker’s Doberman pinscher, Bruno, had found a charred boot containing partial human remains. Mattie has used the boot as a scent article to see if Robo can find the missing corpse while her colleague, Chief Deputy Ken Brody, provides backup… *** Robo entered the forest with her not far behind. She could still see him as he slipped through the sparse pine, but lost sight of him where the evergreens grew dense. When the footing became less soggy, she pushed herself into a sprint. Sunlight dimmed as the forest closed around her. Mattie pressed forward, searching for Robo as her eyes adjusted to less light. She spotted him about thirty yards ahead following a faint trail, his nose in the air. She raced after him, using the firmer footing to catch up. A Steller’s jay, its blue feathers iridescent in the filtered sunlight, flashed ahead and then landed high in a pine to scold her, its chirrup echoing in the stillness. Too still? When they’d reached the meadow, they’d ridden out of…