ABOUT THE BOOK
People die, but legends live on.
New York antiquities appraiser Annalisse Drury recently lost her best friend to murder. The killer's identity may be linked to her friend's expensive missing bracelet—a 500-year-old artifact that carries an ancient curse, one that unleashes evil upon any who dare wear the jewelry created for the Persian royal family.
Weeks later, Annalisse sees a matching necklace at a Manhattan gallery opening. She begs the owner to destroy the cursed piece, but her pleas fall on deaf ears—despite the unnatural death that occurs during the opening. With two victims linked to the jewelry, Annalisse is certain she must act.
Desperate, Annalisse enlists the gallery owner's son to help—even though she's afraid he'll break her heart. Wealthy and devastatingly handsome, with a string of bereft women in his wake, Greek playboy Alec Zavos dismisses Annalisse's concerns—until his parents are ripped from the Zavos family yacht during their ocean voyage near Crete.
Annalisse and Alec race across two oceans to save his mother, feared dead or kidnapped. When the killer changes tactics and goes after Alec behind Annalisse's back, can her plan to rescue Alec's mother save them all?
Hold on for a heart-thumping, thrilling adventure through exotic lands in this fast-moving romantic suspense mystery by Marlene M. Bell.
BOOK DETAILS:
Book title: Stolen Obsession
Author: Marlene M. Bell
Genre: Romantic Mystery
Series: Annalisse Series, book 1
Publisher: Ewephoric Publishing (March 20, 2018)
Print length: 284 pages
GUEST POST BY MARLENE M. BELL
It’s not just about the writing . . .
I have an unusual life. When asked, I tell people that we don’t have kids, we have sheep.
Our Horned Dorset sheep require hay feeding twice a day, morning and evening. Even though they have pasture to graze, we feed alfalfa hay and supplements to the sheep. The breed of sheep we raise will have lambs three times in two years—if we expose them to the stud ram in the spring. We did so this year and as a result, we had another set of lambs in September 2018. Our flock lambed in January and February, and this year many of the ewes will double back and lamb again before the end of 2018. Sheep carry their lambs for five months before they are born and raise them for eight weeks before they are weaned and we move them to another pasture to grow out. The flock requires shearing twice a year which takes a few days to complete the task. Currently, we raise about fifty head of sheep and lambs.
Our sheep must be moved to a new pasture every three weeks. Worms are a constant battle with the flock and moving the sheep lessens the need for over medication for worms. East Texas is moist and humid which makes the environment rich for pests of all kinds.
A typical day for me begins with feeding the sheep, watering them and taking care of the inside cats who think they should be fed before everyone else. When I get back inside the house, the coffee is started. Without the dark nectar, I can’t think clearly. Drinking a pot a day is a terrible habit, but helps with the writing process. I pull up a chair and grab my latest novel by Karen Rose or a local author from East Texas, and read for about an hour. Once I find a decent place to stop reading, I put myself in front of the PC and pull up the manuscript for my work in progress. At this time, my second book in the Annalisse Series is on my screen. That book is called Spent Identity. My cover designers are in process with the new cover, so I’m corresponding with them, during their day—hours ahead, usually the following morning in Australia. I make it a habit to write at least 6 days a week from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. if I’m not running errands or handling issues with the sheep or with a neighbor. East Texans are great neighbors.
I neglected to mention that I also run a sheep gift mail order company. Since 1985, my artwork and photography is featured on two hundred different gift items and magazine covers. TexasSheep.com. Each year, I produce a new catalog and mail to our 20,000 clients throughout the world. We’ve had armadillo visitors to the ranch lately, so I’m photographing these little guys at dusk. They will be added to the products in the catalog this year. My email correspondence on a usual day is about 600 email messages. In addition, social media requires some basic attention every day, but my author Facebook page is managed by my media guru, thank the good lord for Angie. I handle the Twitter account myself and try to post or retweet 3-5 times a day.
On my off hours, I’m taking care of rental properties and putting out fires as they come up on our ranch since my husband travels. It starts all over again the next day, and I wouldn’t have it any other way!
Watch the trailer
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Marlene Bell is an acclaimed artist and photographer as well as a writer. Her sheep and lamb landscapes grace the covers of many publications such as, Sheep!, The Shepherd, Ranch & Rural Living and Sheep Industry News, to name a few. Her mail order venture, Ewephoric, began in 1985 out of the need to find personalized stationery depicting sheep that truly looked like them. She wrote Among the Sheep, nonfiction in 2009, and the Annalisse Series launched in March 2018.
Marlene and her husband, Gregg reside on a wooded ranch in East Texas with their 50 head of spoiled Horned Dorset sheep, a lovable Maremma guard dog named, Tia, and 3 attention-loving cats who rule the household.
Connect with the author:
Website | Blog | Facebook | Twitter | Goodreads
Buy the Book:
Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Kobo | Smashwords | Google Play
