Excerpt from A RARE FIND by Joanna Lowell,  Chapter Two The path wasn’t wide enough for three to walk abreast. Georgina insinuated herself right in the middle. Elfreda didn’t budge an inch, which meant Anne was bumped to the side and had to stumble over roots and through brambles.  “Ow,” said the girl, good-naturedly. “I found a flask.” Georgina held it up, a slim vessel of heavily tarnished silver, streaked with mud. “But it’s not yours. Unless one of your interesting activities is drunken swimming by the moonlight, but I think that’s too similar to one of mine. Also, there’s a monogram. H. J. R. I wonder if Harry has missed it.” She gave the flask a shake. “Full. But of whiskey or pond water is the question. Shall we investigate?” Elfreda couldn’t walk any faster. Her feet were sliding in her slimy boots. But the woodland had thinned, and just ahead, she could see Holywell Rock. She swerved from the path and plodded over to it, pressing her hands to its rough surface. “Not another step,” she warned, twisting around as Georgina and Anne came up to her. “You’re on my land now.” “This boulder marks the boundary of…

June 7th, I celebrate my birthday. Living fulltime in a motorhome means everything stored inside must earn its place if we are to cart it around.  My ice cream maker is a must because every year on my birthday I ask for homemade vanilla ice-cream, so it gets stowed beneath the motorhome until a special occasion when we pull it back out. Homemade ice-cream is one of the joys of summer, and if I had to choose one or the other, I would choose it over birthday cake. It goes well with chocolate cake. In 2021 when we took our big 109-day trip west, we stayed at a Yogi Bear RV Park near Sioux Falls, South Dakota. They had a pool with a splash pool for kids which was fun. I insisted on having ice-cream on my birthday, it’s all I asked for, so my husband made some and then we invited RV neighbors with small children to join us as the two of us didn’t need to eat the whole tub and why not share with some local children.  One of the things about full time RV living to adjust to is birthdays. You may not be near family…

1–What is the title of your latest release? HER FIRST MISTAKE 2–What’s the “elevator pitch” for your new book? The murder of Detective Noelle Marshall’s husband thirteen years ago was never solved. But now new leads shine a spotlight on Noelle’s role in his death. What has she kept hidden all these years? 3–How did you decide where your book was going to take place? My editor said she’d love to see a book that takes place in the past but has flash-forward scenes. I thought about that concept for a while and came up with an idea I thought would work. The first half of the book takes place 13 years in the past and is interspersed with brief present-day scenes which give the reader insight into what is occurring in the past. 4–Would you hang out with your protagonist in real life? Absolutely. Noelle Marshall is outgoing and has little fear of anything. 5–What are three words that describe your protagonist? Confident. Intelligent. Family oriented. 6–What’s something you learned while writing this book? Writing in a different format–the flash forward idea–sparked the author in me. I’ve written the same way for so long, I was growing stagnant. This…

Just the other day someone asked me how I come up with all my stories. The answer is they pop out of my head all the time, and I can’t stop them! I have ideas for so many different series I’ll probably never get to writing all of them. Ironically, the idea for the FBI Strike Force romantic suspense series began stewing around in my head in the late 90s, long before I was a published author. Here’s how it all began… Decades ago, my then-boyfriend and I were sitting on the beach in North Carolina with our beach reads, and I couldn’t finish the book I was reading. It’s very unusual for me to DNF a book, but this one just didn’t hold my interest. My boyfriend, Ned (aka Ned-the-Fed), said to me: Tee, you’re a good writer, and you have great story ideas. Why don’t you write your own book? So later that day, back on the beach but with margaritas this time, we started brainstorming on my very first book, a romantic suspense about an FBI agent. I wrote it, submitted it to literary agents and publishers all across our great nation, who politely rejected it. Years…

Charity Trickett stumbles through Hollywood in 1997, trying to break into Hollywood and stay out of trouble. Each chapter title is a pop culture reference from the 90s that represents the chapter. Welcome to the Jungle – Guns N’ Roses You’d be surprised how many links there are between Guns N’ Roses and Charity Trickett.The glam metal song, Welcome to the Jungle is the title of the fourth chapter in Charity Trickett is Not So Glamorous. The song is about how a city can eat you up and spit you out. When Charity arrives in LA, she drives along Sunset Blvd, passing the clubs that GNR played at, The Troubadour and The Viper Room. Billboards fill the sky, showing the world what to watch, wear, and buy. Charity feels that she has arrived at the epicenter of the world she wants desperately to be a part of, and her ambition fuels her with possibility. Little does Charity know that Hollywood will soon bring her to her “Sha-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-knees”. Impulsive – Wilson Phillips What kind of playlist is this? You can’t follow GNR with Wilson Phillps… In my defence there are five chapters of other pup culture references between testosterone amped metal…

1–What is the title of your latest release? LOVE, COFFEE, AND REVOLUTION 2–What’s the “elevator pitch” for your new book? Dee Blum was supposed to follow the plan: law school, divorce lawyer, success. Instead, she’s leading eco-tours in Costa Rica and falling for two very different men. One is a passionate activist, the other is the charming scion of a wealthy family. But when she uncovers corruption behind the “ethical” coffee farms she’s promoting, Dee must decide how far she’ll go—for love, for justice, and for the life she really wants. 3–How did you decide where your book was going to take place? I lived in Costa Rica for a year when I was 20, and it was the most formative experience of my life. Learning to navigate the world in a different language and culture changes you forever. It helps you see things from multiple perspectives. Also, Costa Rica is a gorgeous country with a rich history and welcoming, generous people. 4–Would you hang out with your protagonist in real life? Definitely! Dee is fun, adventurous, supportive, and funny. She genuinely wants to do good, and be good. 5–What are three words that describe your protagonist? Naive, passionate, and…

1–What is the title of your latest release? WELCOME TO MURDER WEEK 2–What’s the “elevator pitch” for your new book? An American woman travels to the English countryside when she discovers tickets her estranged, late mother had purchased for a murder mystery simulation in a small British town. While there, she teams up with two other solo travelers to solve the fake mystery and also solve the real mystery of why her mother wanted to take her there. 3–How did you decide where your book was going to take place? The novel was inspired by a trip with my sister to the Peak District in England. By the time I came home, I knew I would set my next novel there. 4–Would you hang out with your protagonist in real life? Yes, but preferably as she is at the end of the book when she’s fallen in love for the first time and has come to terms with her past and started to enjoy life more! 5–What are three words that describe your protagonist? Cautious, unsentimental, wary (at first) 6–What’s something you learned while writing this book? I learned that Britain has 91,000 miles of footpaths, often crossing private land,…

1–What is the title of your latest release? MAKING FRIENDS CAN BE MURDER 2–What’s the “elevator pitch” for your new book? Sarah Jones moves from Vermont to Minneapolis for a fresh start and joins a group of women all with the same common name. They came together for a high school student’s project, but a couple of months in, another Sarah Jones is murdered in their city, and the group investigates. They’re aided by a handsome FBI recruit and a cloistered nun with a complex past. 3–How did you decide where your book was going to take place? I have only lived in the Twin Cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul, so all my books have taken place here. This one is the first that takes place in the real city of Minneapolis instead of one of my imagined suburbs. 4–Would you hang out with your protagonist in real life? 100%. The main Sarah – they go by their ages in the book, and this one is Thirty– is a great friend. 5–What are three words that describe your protagonist? Earnest, thoughtful, lonely 6–What’s something you learned while writing this book? I learned a lot about the FBI! I hope…

1–What is the title of your latest release? THE ENGLISH MASTERPIECE 2–What’s the “elevator pitch” for your new book? When a high-profile art forgery rocks London’s art scene in the spring of 1973, the Tate Gallery’s Lily Summers finds herself embroiled in a world of glamour and secrets, tensions and lies. 3–How did you decide where your book was going to take place? 1973 London provided a unique, and perfect, time and place. Life in 1973 held some of the same tensions we experience today in terms of global uncertainty, regional wars, and high inflation. That made it relatable, but it is also a period in time that we all look back to with fondness, famous for a very distinguishable fashion style and music scene. 4–Would you hang out with your protagonist in real life? I would like and respect her at the beginning of the story. She is a hard worker, talented and sincere. But we’d be better friends at the end— she learns a lot and is more relaxed and understands herself better. I suppose that kind of thing is true for all of us after we go through some form of crucible. 5–What are three words that…

It’s June and many people are heading out for vacations and road trips with kids out of school and summer coming soon! I have a new release this month about a woman who owns an inn on the banks of the Susquehanna River. She’s a bibliomancer (if you like paranormal lite then head on down to The Charmed Inn Mysteries starting with BY HOOK OR BY BOOK) and is hosting a writers’ weekend when she finds one of her guests dead on a ferry. Those writers are a little unstable so figuring out whodunnit is going to have her wading through lies and secrets and red herrings galore. So in that vein, we’re going to take a trip to some awesome B&B, hotel, and motel cozies that will make you laugh out loud. Grab them up to keep you company while you’re vacationing or just taking a break in the beautiful sun! First up, we have a super fun and awesome book that you should totally read! A VERY WOODSY MURDER by Ellen Byron kicks off her newest series, Golden Motel Mysteries. We get to meet sitcom writer Dee Stern when she moves to the village of Foundgold to run a…