I love the beginning of the year. I’m not one to set resolutions necessarily because I set goals monthly and quarterly, but I do love the idea of a fresh start. I am someone who loves a paper planner, and I use more than one, so there’s something renewing about closing my planners and opening up brand new ones with blank pages. All the possibilities of things to come is exciting. And one thing I love to prepare for is a great year of reading. I’m a writer and have to be pretty intentional about my reading because it’s a main source of writing inspiration and is a way for me to practice self-care. When I stop reading, things go south quickly. However, it’s easy to let reading slide when I’m under writing deadlines and there’s so much work to do running a business. So each year, I’m very deliberate about having a robust reading life. Here are five things I do to make sure that my reading year is going to be fantastic… 1. Choose or create a reading challenge. I love tracking things and checking off boxes. So what better way to do that than with a reading…

It’s my favorite time of year…I get to choose my favorite cozies released in the past twelve months!  And yet, it’s the hardest thing to do, almost like looking at all of the ornaments on my tree and trying to decide which ones I like the most. Since they all belong to my kids and were gifts from my parents who have been gone for too many years, it’s a monumental task, emotional and heart-warming. Like our ornaments, each mystery I’ve featured, along with the books featured on the Cozy Corner by guest authors, has a special place on my bookshelf. Whether it be the hardback, paperback or the ebook, I tend to keep more than I should so that I can go back and reminisce about the wonderful experience. Maybe I should start a tree with book ornaments—my very own Charli Rae and Scarlet would love that in the Book Barn, don’t you think? Princess the armadillo, however, would probably root through the ornaments and knock over the tree. Goodness, but I do see a holiday novella scurrying through my brain for next year! Without further ado, I give you my favorite mysteries and blogs of 2018! Teen Drama…

Many gods and goddesses from the many mythologies around the world populate the pages of my newest release, Analiese Rising. I had a lot of fun researching and learning about them. Some I’ve heard of before, others I didn’t even know existed. The challenge was taking from their stories and creating a modern version of each—giving them unique personalities based on their legends. Today, I thought I’d introduce you to many of them from my book. I’ll start with Sid, aka Sidapa, and Bulan. Sidapa and Bulan are gods from Philippine mythology. Theirs is a love story between two male gods. Sidapa admired the seven moons’ beauty that he tried to romance them until one, Bulan, answered Sidapa’s attempts to romance the moons. He came down to Earth, and they lived together as lovers on Mt. Madjaas. This story intrigued me so much that I had to add the gods to Analiese Rising. In my story, Sid loves to wear makeup and seems like a player, but when the moon calls, he’s off to spend time with Bulan who only comes to earth on a full moon. Lugh, a Celtic sun god of many skills. He’s a trickster god and…

Hope. It’s a concept that can feel out of reach during tumultuous times. When our eyes and ears are flooded with the reality of national disunity and violence, a difficult family situation, broken finances, career disappointment, or frustration with ourselves for a multitude of reasons, hope can feel…flimsy. Like it belongs to some other person in some other time. But hope is something that we can have and hold on to in any time and circumstance. And here are a few ways to help you do just that: Develop perspective. No matter what is happening in our own lives, it is likely that there are others going through even more difficult circumstances. This doesn’t mean that our pain doesn’t matter. It means that we are not alone. There are people out there who understand what we’re going through because they’ve been through it—and worse. The struggles others have experienced in the past and in other parts of the world—war, genocide, displacement, religious persecution, lack of medical care, and more—help our own troubles become smaller, less scary, less insurmountable. Reading the account of a Holocaust survivor or a quadriplegic athlete is sure to put things in perspective. Count small blessings. I…

Cowboy Wolf Trouble is the first installment of my new paranormal romance series, The Seven Range Shifters. The second installment in the series, Cowboy in Wolf’s Clothing, will be released on June 25, 2019. In this series, seven shifter clans call the Montana mountains home. Ruled by The Grey Wolf pack, they must come together to fight a new evil in their midst. I think the best way to describe the series concept to readers is to say the characters are cowboys by day, wolf shifters by night. As an author, it’s been both fun and challenging to combine the paranormal and western romance subgenres. Both cowboys and werewolves are beloved romance tropes, so balancing the two well can be tricky, but I’ve certainly enjoyed the challenge. One way I’ve always kept my inspiration for my characters on track is to visualize what they would look like in real life. It helps to make them even more real in my mind. Below you’ll find my dream cast for Cowboy Wolf Trouble. I’ve always hoped that one of my books optioned for film someday and if I could pick the cast for Cowboy Wolf Trouble, these actors and actresses would be…

‘Tis the season for family, friends, and fun traditions. If you’re like me, you’ve got some that have lasted since childhood and others that morph every year. This time of year can be frantic and sometimes overwhelming, but I always love it. For me, the season starts at the beginning of December with a newer tradition: high tea surrounded by Christmas lights. Each year, I do it twice: once with a group of friends I’ve (mostly) known since elementary school, then again with my fiancé. Then, the season kicks into high gear with a long-time favorite: holiday shopping for my family. Next up is a newer one: tree and ornament shopping with myfiancé. The way that tradition is going, I’m going to have to buy a bigger tree each year to hold all of the ornaments! Next up are a few traditions that you might expect for a suspense and romantic suspense writer. First is something I do with my critique partner: the annual watching of our favorite holiday movie: DIE HARD (yes, it’s a holiday movie!). Then is a newer tradition – since I sold my first novels in 2012, I’ve either had a book due in December or…

Instead of trying to find your perfect match in a dating app, we bring you the “Author Reader Match” where we introduce you to authors as a reader you may fall in love with. It’s our great pleasure to present Olivia Drake. Writes:  I write Regency England historical romance in the style of Lisa Kleypas, Mary Jo Putney, Kelly Bowen, Sophie Jordan, and Sarah MacLean.  THE DUKE I ONCE KNEW, a January release from St. Martin’s Press, is the first in a new series, “Unlikely Duchesses,” about deserving young ladies who are obliged by circumstance to seek employment in the house of a duke.  It stars Max Bryce, the Duke of Rothwell, a rake who vowed never to marry after being rejected by his first love, Abby Linton, the girl next door. Unbeknownst to him, Abby thinks he rejected her since he never replied to her letters.  When they meet again fifteen years later, Abby is governess to his sister, and his attraction to the spirited spinster poses a danger to his roguish lifestyle.  Abby, on the other hand, scorns a man of his wicked reputation – and so the sparks fly! Booklist calls THE DUKE I ONCE KNEW “a…

Although I had certainly heard of Fred Harvey and his famous Harvey Girls, it had never occurred to me how much these young women changed the frontier forever. With their pristine uniforms and fresh faces, along with the strict code of conduct Mr. Harvey demanded of them, they were a new version of femininity to cowboys and other males on the frontier. They are widely credited with introducing a new level of civility to what had once been the wild West. *** TRAILBLAZER by Anna Schmidt Cowboys & Harvey Girls #1 MEET THE HARVEY GIRLS: These real-life pioneering women were symbols of elegance in the wild frontier: taming rough manners, falling in love, and changing the face of the West forever. Grace Rogers is ready for the adventure of a lifetime. With her family’s farm falling on hard times, she accepts a position with the prestigious Fred Harvey Company and heads for Juniper, New Mexico. There she meets a handsome cowboy who quickly turns her head. Too bad the Harvey Girls are forbidden to marry… Nick Hopkins has a plan: buy a little land, marry, and raise a family in that order. But after meeting Grace, he can’t keep away….

Colton Garrett, the hero of Hot Target Cowboy, is used to being the responsible one among the three Garrett brothers. But when he meets Misty Dalton, he totally falls in love. He learns to loosen up and lead with his heart instead of his head. Misty, on the other hand, has been trying to hold her family together, though it has been steadily falling apart since her mother passed away. Her father is terminally ill, and her older brother seems to be hell-bent on throwing away their few resources. The one she is trying to protect is her 12-year old brother, Mark. Although she is, at first, reluctant to accept Colton’s help, she learns he is the one man who won’t let her down. She must learn to trust. Colton’s father, Big Jim Garrett, the fearsome patriarch of the Garrett clan, thinks Misty is after Colton for his money. He has to learn to trust his son’s ability to make his own decisions and fend for himself when it comes to matters of the heart. EXCERPT from HOT TARGET COWBOY Misty Dalton scanned the churning crowd for either one of her brothers. Joe was dead set on selling off the…